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either as floats, relieving the balloon of their weight by resting upon the sea, or as additional ballast by catching and retaining water. Mr. G. also gives an account of a drag by which his progress may be retarded while in the air. He speaks with entire confidence of the feasibility of crossing the Atlantic from America to Europe, and we have no doubt that he will shortly accomplish his design. He asserts that a current of air sets invariably from the north of west, at an elevation exceeding ten thousand feet — that in several hundred experiments he has never once found the case otherwise.

A CHAPTER ON SCIENCE AND ART (PART IV)

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ON THE EXPANSION OF AIR IN ANIMAL BODIES AND ITS EFFECTS IN A PARTICULAR INSTANCE. — It is found that any animal when dead, being exposed to the air, is in a certain time wholly incorporated with it. This fact is proved in a very striking manner, by an extraordinary effect produced by those dead bodies, after they became filled with air, which were unfortunately drowned in the Royal George ship of war, at Spithead, on the 29th of August, 1782. This ship was heeled on her side for the purpose of some repair, when on a sudden a [[and]] violent gust of wind struck her, the water rushed into her lower port-holes, and sunk her almost instantaneously. She went down in 14 fathoms [[of]] water, and fell upon her side, as was evident from the topmasts which remained above water, in an inclined direction. A considerable time after the fatal accident, she suddenly righted, and her masts became perpendicular. No one could account for this extraordinary transaction, which was effected without any apparent cause; and it remained for some time a circumstance equally astonishing and inexplicable. The following solution, however, may not be unsatisfactory. By the muster-roll of this unfortunate ship, which floated out of her cabin, and was afterwards taken up, it appears that at least 495 souls must have perished between decks, being at their last dinner at the time she upset. As the bodies had no way to escape, they, of course, remained in that situation. Now, all bodies in a state of putrefaction, ferment, and this fermentation, generates large quantities of air; so that a putrefying carcase inflated by the generation of air, expands itself to a size far exceeding its original bulk, and becomes lighter than water in a very high degree, and will consequently be pressed upwards towards the surface with a power equal to the weight of a quantity of water adequate in bulk to the inflated carcase, and would rise immediately to the surface in a perpendicular line, if not obstructed in its passage. Thus it is obvious that the 495 carcases which lay between the decks until fermentation and putrefaction commenced, would rise as soon as the generated air rendered them specifically lighter than sea water; and as fermentation increased their bulk, they would, by their expansion, remove a quantity of water from between the decks, on the lowest side of the ship (to which by their gravity they would naturally incline when their breath first left them) equal to their increased bulk; and being then acted upon by the upward pressure of the water, would ascend against the under part of the decks, immediately over them, a power likewise equal to such weight of water as equals their increased bulk. The heaviest side of the ship, being thus first lightened by the displacing [[of]] so large a quantity of water, and exchanging it for air, and then acted upon by the pressure of the water upwards against the under side of the inflated carcasses, lifting hard against the decks, on or beneath the centre of the ship; and, farther, by the pressure of the water upwards against the under part of the hull, masts, yards, &c., together with the counterpoise of a large weight of water between decks, on the highest side, would cause her to be nearly in equilibrio, and, consequently, the first strong tide, as was the case, would swing her on her keel and right her. To show that 495 bloated carcases might have power sufficient to produce