If I had the money by me juft now, this letter does not direct me to whom I fhould pay it, nor in what manner, and I am at the distance of near 70 miles from London. I have been long in fufpence to whom 1 fhould dedicate my poem; whether to the Duke of Dorfet, or the Earl of Scarborough; but fince it has met with fo much approbation in manufcript, I am preparing a dedication for the King, and hope, by the Duke's means, and Mr. Molineux, the King's Secretary while he was Prince of Wales, to get it introduced to him. But I beg you not to mention this, till I fee whether I can bring it to bear. The first book was fent to Edinburgh this last week, by a friend of mine, who will tranfmit it to you by my orders. You will not fully understand an objection that Mr. Dennis makes in this letter, before you have feen the poem. Pray return it, for it will be of fervice to me, I BEG leave to take notice of a miftake that runs through your last letter, and that was occafioned by your not understanding a paffage of mine. The copy of verfes that I fent you, was indeed written by me; and I never intended to make a fecret of it; but Mr. Thomson's Winter is a very different poem, of confiderable length, and agreeing with mine in nothing but the name. It has met with a great deal of deferved applaufe, and was written by that dull fellow, whom Malcolm calls the jeft of our club. The injuftice I did him then, in joining with my companions to ridicule the first, imperfect, effays of an excellent genius, was a ftrong motive to make me active in endeavouring to affift and encourage him fince, and I believe I thall never repent it. He is now fettled in a very good place, and will be able to requite all the fervices his friends have done him in time. The fecond edition of his poem is now in the prefs, and fhall be sent you as foon as it is published. You will find before it three copies of recommendatory verfes: one written by Mr. Hill, the fecond by a very fine woman t at my requeft, and the third by myself, Since all this is fo, I will fay nothing of your fufpecting me of infincerity, a vice which I am very free from. I cannot yet tell whether my tragedy will be finished against next winter; however, I will have a poem, of about five hundred lines, ready for the pres at my return to town, I intend to fend you the manufcript ere then, for your corrections of its faults, and obfervations on its beauties. Dr. Frazer does me wrong by faying I made a noife about the faulty printing of my poem. I mentioned it very modeftly, and only begged of him not to diftribute any more copies of it. I have much more reafon to complain of the indifference with which he received a compliment, which will do honour to his memory, as long, perhaps, as his charity does good in the world. I am not afraid to fay this after the praife it has received from fome of the best judges of the age. One Gentleman was fo particularly pleafed with it, that he wrote it out in a fine hand, from a correct copy of mine; which I will fend you fome time hence, to be preserved, if your Society fhall think it deferving of that honour, in fome corner of your public library. I hope to have the pleasure of fending you Mr. Thomson's poem in a few days, which I am fure you will like; for it is filled with a great many moral reflec tions, as well as with a fine fpirit of poetry. I am, dear Sir, Your moft obliged humble fervant, DAVID MALLOCH It gives me fome pain, that your friends fhould infift on my tranflating the names of the perfons and clubs in your Latin poem. It is an impotlible attempt: they cannot appear with any tolerable grace in English verfe; the words are fo ill-founding and difagreeable to the car-Menzies, Prefton, Cree, Gillan, &c, The Poem here mentioned was called a "Winter's Day." It was afterwards printed in Savage's Poems, and fince in Dr. Johnfon's Edition of the Poets. Mr. Mallet rej.cted it from his own edition.-EDITOR. ↑ With the fignature of MIRA.-EDITOR. Your Your Latin, by lengthening them with a new fyllable, has an advantage; but I cannot fay Gilla-nus, &c. in English. [This letter concludes the series of Mallet's Correfpondence with Profeffor Kerr, from October 5, 1720, to July 31, 1727, in the poffeffion of Mr. Drummond. The remaining part of the Correfpondence was in the poffeffion of Profeffor Kerr's brother, who went to the Weft Indies, and is fuppofed to be loft. [Should it be ftill in being, we should be glad to be the means of giving it, or any other correfpondence of this Author, to the public.] On the MANUFACTURE of INDIGO at AMBORE. BY LIEUTENANT COLONEL CLAUDE MARTIN. [From the TRANSACTIONS of the ASIATIC SOCIETY, Vol. III. p. 475.] Prefent the Society with a fhort defcription of the procefs obferved in the culture and manufacture of indigo in this part of India, The Ambore diftrict is comprised within a range of furrounding hills of a moderate height: the river Pallar, declining from its apparent foutherly direction, enters this diftrict about three miles from the eastward, washes the Ambore Pettah, a fmall neat village, diftant three miles to the fouthward of the fort of that name, fituated in a beautiful valley; the fkirts of the hills covered with the Palmeira and Date trees, from the produce of which a confiderable quantity of coarfe Sugar is made. This tract is fertilized by numerous rills of water conducted from the river along the margin of the heights and throughout the intermediate extent; this element being conveyed in these artificial canals (three feet deep), affording a pure and cryftal current of excellent water for the fupply of the rice fields, tobacco, mango, and cocoa-nut, plantations; the highest fituated lands affording Indigo, apparently without any artificial water ing, and attaining maturity at this fea fon, notwithstanding the intenfenefs of the heat, the thermometer under cover of a tent rising to 100, and out of it to 120; the plant affording even in the dryeft fpots good foliage, although more luxuriant in moifter fituations. I am just returned from examining the manufacture of this article. First the plant is boiled in earthen pots of about eighteen inches diameter, difpofed on the ground in excavated ranges from twenty to thirty feet long, and one broad, according to the number ufed. When the boiling procefs has extracted all the colouring matter afcertainable by the colour exhibited, the extract is immediately poured into an adjoining fmall jar fixed in the ground for its re ception, and is thence laded in small pots into larger jars difpofed on adjoining higher ground, being first filtered through a cloth; the jar when three fourths full is agitated with a split bamboo extended into a circle, of a diameter from thirteen to twenty inches, the hoop twisted with a fort of coarse straw, with which the manufacturer proceeds to beat or agitate the extract, until a granulation of the fecula takes place, the operation continuing nearly for the fpace of three fourths of an hour; a precipitant compofed of red earth and water, in the quantity of four quart bottles, is poured into the jar, which after mixture is allowed to stand the whole night, and in the morning the fuperincumbent fluid is drawn off through three or four apertures practifed in the fide of the jar in a vertical direction, the lowest reaching to within five inches of the bottom, fufficient to retain the fecula which is carried to the houfes and dried in bags. This is the whole of the process recurred to in this part, which, I think, if adopted in Bengal, might in no fmall degree fuperfede the neceffity of raifing great and expenfive buildings; in a word, fave the expenditure of fo much money in dead stock, before they can make any Indigo in the European method; to which I have to add, "that Indigo thus obtained poffeffes a very fine quality. As I think thefe obfervations may be ufeful to the manufactures in Bengal, I could wish to fee them printed in the Tranfactions of the Afiatic Society. EXTRACT Ambore, ad April 1791. EXTRACT of a TREATISE on the MANUFACTURE of INDIGO at AMBORE. BY MR. DE COSSIGNY, [From the TRANSACTIONS of the ASIATIC SOCIETY, Vol. III. p. 477-] THIS experiment (the Indian procets) infallibly hows, that in digo may be produced by different methods, and how much it is to be regret ted that the European artifis fhould remain conftantly wedded to their method or routine, without having yet made the neceffary inquiries towards attaiping perfection. Many travellers on the coaft of Coromandel having been truck with the apparent impli, city of the means ufed by the Indians in proparing Indigo, from having feen their artists employed in the open air with only earthen jars, and from not having duly examined and weighed the extent of the detail of their procefs, apprehend that it is effected by cafer means than with the large vats of ma fonry and the machinery employed by Europeans: but they have been greatly mistaken, the whole appearing a delu. five conclufion from the following ob fervation, viz. that one man can, in the European method of manufacture, bring to iffue one vat containing fifty bundles of plant, which, according to their nature and quality, may afford from ten to thirty pounds of Indigo; whereas, by the Indian procefs, one employed during the fame time would probably only produce one pound of Indigo: the European method is therefore the moft fimple, as well as every art where machinery is ufed inftead of manual labour *.”* AN ACCOUNT OF THE ANCIENT BURYING-GROUND OF THE INNOCENTS, AT PARIS. SOME years ago the Burying ground of the Innocents at Paris, which had for centuries been the receptacle of a great part of the dead of that city, was removed by order of Government, and in its ftead was erected an elegant Square and Market place. The appearances which this immenfe mais of human bodies prefented on being opened into, were fo new, curious, and interesting, that we are of opinion the following account of them will gratify curiofity, It is partly a Tranflation, and partly an Analy is of a Memoir publifhed by the celebrated M. FOURCROY on that pccafion. PHILOSOPHY, he obferves, aided the efforts of Administration relative to the cemetery of the Innocents. It watched over the health of thofe employed in this Occupation. Defirous folely of fulfilling this object, their labours were unexpect elly aggrandized by the variety of new facts which prefented themselves to their pbfervation. Thefe facts, while they aftonished the obferver, and threw much light on the nature and component parts of animal bodies, required to be attended to and purfued with a degree of zeal and activity worthy of fuch difcoveries. Confidering the ilence of former obfervers, we could not be aware of the fingular refults of the decompofition of animal matter buried in immenfe maffes in the ground. Nor was it poffible to foretel the contents of a foil loaded for ages with bodies in every stage of putrefaction, although it was not difficult to forefee that it would differ from that of common church-yards, where every body has its own peculiar bed of earth, and where nature can easily and readily feparate their various elements. The calculations of Naturalifts with refpect to the entire diffo. lution of bodies, which, according to fome obfervations, did not extend beyond fix years, were not indeed applicable to the cemetery of a great city, where fac ceffive generations of inhabitants had been buried during three ages. Nothing, however, gave reaton to fuppofe that the decompofition of a dead body might be extended beyond the period of forty years; nor did any thing lead to fufpe&t that pe culiar variety which Nature teftifies between the deftruction of bodies buried in large quantities in fubterraneous cavities, and thofe infulated individually in furrounding earth. In short, it was im pofiible to know or to divine the state of a ftratum of earth many yards in thickness, conftantly exposed to putrid exhalations, Experience alone muft decide between the oppofite opinions of Colonel Martin and Mr. De Cuftigny. er rather faturated with animal effluvia; and what influence fuch a foil might have on fresh bodies laid in it. Such was the object of our enquiries, and the fource of the discoveries refulting from our labour. We found the bodies buried in this foil in three different ftates, answering to the time they had remained, the place which they occupied, and their pofition relative to each other. The most ancient prefented only fome fragments of bones lying irre gularly in the ground, where they must have been frequently removed by the dig ging neceffary in fo vaft a cemetery. It was principally with respect to the foft parts that we had occafion to obferve fome peculiarities which arrested our attention. In fome of the bodies, always thofe which were infulated, the muscles, the tendons, and the aponeurofes,were dry, hard, brittle, of a greyish colour, fimilar to what have been termed mummies, found in fome cavities where fimilar changes have taken place, as in the Catacombs at Rome, and the Cavern belonging to the Cordeliers at Thouloufe. alteration, known of old to the gravediggers. We found the coffins in perfect prefervation, fomewhat preffed against each other; the wood was quite found, only it had acquired fomewhat of a yellow caft. On railing the covers of fome of the coffins, we faw the bodies lying on the bottom, leaving a confiderable distance between their furface and the top, and fo flattened, that they appeared as if they had fuftained a confiderable preffure. The linen which covered them seemed as if adhering to the body, marking out the fhapes of the different regions; but when lifted up, nothing was to be feen but irregular shapelefs maffes, of a foft, ductile, whitish-grey fubftance. Thefe mafles every-where furrounded the bones. They poffeffed but little folidity, and yielded to a flight preffure. The appearance, the texture, and the foftness of this matter, immediately fuggested the idea of new cheese. The propriety of this comparison was augmented by the appearance of the marks left by the linen on its furface. When touched, this fubftance yielded to the finger, and when rubbed fometimes became quite foft. The third and most extraordinary state of these foft parts was found in the bodies which filled the common graves. This name was given to excavations of about thirty feet deep, and twenty in diameter, dug in the cemetery of the Innocents, in which were placed in tiers the bodies of the poor, inclofed in their coffins. The neceflity which they were under of aggregating together a great number, obliged the men employed in this bufuels to place the coffins fo near to each other, that thefe graves may be conseived as filled with a mafs of dead bodies, Separated from each other only by two boards, about half an inch thick. Each of thefe graves contained about fifteen hun dred bodies. When full, the last row was covered with about a foot of earth, and a new cavity was opened at fome distance. Each cavity was filled in about three years. The number of the dead, relative to the extent of the church-yard, regulated the re-opening of the fame ground at periods of various extent. The shortest interval after which an opening was made in the fame spot, was fifteen years, and the longest thirty. Experience had taught the grave-diggers that this period was not fufficient for the total de ttruction of the bodies, whilst it had made them acquainted with the change which we are now about to deferibe. The first opening which we caused to be made in a grave which had been filled and clofed up for fifteen years, evinced to us this The bodies thus changed had no very unpleasant finell. Had even the example of the grave-diggers, who were well acquainted with this matter (and had given it the name of fat, not ill-fuited to its appearance, and who found no repug、 nance to handle it), not encouraged us, the novelty and fingularity of its appearance would have removed every idea of difguft or fear. We employed then ali the time requifite to acquire an accurate knowledge of this conversion of bodies. From the grave-diggers we learned, that they very rarely find this fubftance in bodies interred feparately, and that it was only the bodies accumulated in common graves that were liable to this alteration. We observed, with the greatest attention, a variety of bodies which had undergone this change. We foon perceived that they were not all equally far advanced in this procefs; in feveral, portions of muscular flesh, diftinguished by its fibrous texture and reddish colour, were ftill visible, amid maffes of a white fatty matter. On examining, with attention, bodies wholly converted into a fatty matter, we per ceived that the maffes which covered the bones were every-where of the fame kind, confifting of a greyish fubftance, gene rally fott and ductile; fometimes hard; always eafily feparable into porous fragments, full of cavities, but without any traces of membranes, muicles, ten dors, dons, nerves, or blood-veffels. Hence, at first fight, thefe white maffes might be taken for cellular fubftance, the cellular ftructure of which they fo muck refembled. Some, indeed, were inclined to confider the cellular fubftance as the bafis of this matter. The propriety of this opinion will be feen hereafter. Confidering this whitish matter in different regions of the body, we were foon convinced that the texture of the fkin was fufceptible of this extraordinary change. We perceived alfo, that the ligamentous and tendinous parts, which connect and retain the bones in their proper fituation, no longer exifted, or at least had fo far loft their tenacity, that they no longer fup ported the bones, fo that in the joints there exifted only a juxta-pofition without articulation or adherence. The flightest effort, therefore, fufficed to separate them; a fact well known to the grave-diggers, who, when they wished to remove the bodies from graves that were to be emptied, folded, or rolled them up from head to foot, by this means feparating the extrc. mities of the bones which had once been joined. Another obfervation which we made on all the bodies changed into fatty matter, was, that the abdominal cavity was conftantly obliterated. The teguments and mufcles of that region changed into fat, like all the other foft parts of the body, were flattened fo as to rest upon the fpinal vertebræ, fo that no place is left for the vifcera, neither is there any appearance of them to be seen in the place formerly occupied by the abdominal cavity. This obfervation furprized us much; in vain in a great variety of bodies did we look for the fituation or the fubftance of the ftomach, the intestines, the liver, the spleen, the kidnies, or the womb in females, all thefe parts had disappeared, without leave ing a trace behind. Sometimes, indeed, we found irregular maffes of this fame fat of various lizes, from the bulk of a nut to two or three inches diameter, in the regions of the liver or the spleen. The cheft prefented fome fingular and curious appearances; the exterior part of this cavity was flattened and compreffed, like the rest of the body. The ribs, diflocated at their articulations with the vertebra, refted on the back bone; their arched part left only a fmall cavity on each fide, very different in extent and form from that of the thorax. We could find no traces of the pleura, the mediaftinum, the large veffels, the wind-pipe, the lungs, zor even the heart. These parts were entirely diffolved, the greatest part had even totally difappeared, leaving only fome morfels of a fatty matter. This matter, when it is the product of vifcera, natu rally containing much blood or fecreted fluids, differs from that covering the long bones, by being of a colour more inclined to brown or red. In the breaft we fometimes found an irregularly roundish mafs, which feemed to be formed of the fat and fibrous fubftance of the heart. This mafs being not conftantly met with, we conjectured to depend on the quantity of fat of the individual to whom it had belonged, for we fhall fee by and by that, cateris paribus, parts naturally fat were more prone to this change than others, as well as produced a larger quantity of fatty matter. In the bodies of women, the exterior part of the cheft often shewed us the glandular and fatty fubitance of the breasts, changed into a homogeneous matter of peculiar whitenefs. The head was, as we have already mentioned, covered with fatty matter. Nor was the face recognizable in the greater number of bodies; the various parts of the mouth were not to be diftinguished; the jaws, feparated from each other, were furrounded with various portions of fat, and lumps of the fame matter occupied the cavity of the mouth. The cartilages of the nose underwent a fimilar alteration. In place of eyes, the orbits contained only males of fat; and the ears were changed in a fimilar manner. The hairy fcalp, though changed like the other parts, ftill retained the hair: and here we may note, that of all the parts of the body, the hair feems the longest to refift any aiteration. The brain was constantly found in the skull, leffened in fize, and fomewhat blackened on the furface, but changed into the very fame fubftance as the other organs. In a variety of bodies which we carefully examined we never found this part wanting, but always in the ftate we have defcribed, which thews that it has no fall propenfity to change into fatty matter. We may here obferve, that the ftate in which we found this fubitance was by no means always alike. Its consistence varied. In bodies which had lais from three to five years, it is foft, very ductile, light, and contains much water. In thofe which had undergone this change for a longer period, fuch as were found in graves that had been filled thirty or forty years, this matter was more denie, dry, and brittle. |