B O O K . Regular field infantry and artillery - - 235,134
XI.... 1 Garrifon battalions, on an average, 500 each - - 49,000
Artillery ditto - - 5,500
Total #• - 369,099,
Irregular? not included.
Such was the ftate of the Ruffian army upon paper; hut the
real number of effe&ive men always falls far ihort of this nominal
lift. And. although,, confidering the number of diftant garrifons,.
the extent of the empire, and the difficulty of obtaining intelligence,
it is.impoffiblefora traveller to afcertain the exait ilate of '
the army, yet it is probable that the effective troops on the
peace ellabliihment fcarcely exceed 200,000; and it is remarkable,
that notwithftanding the fum total of 369,099, the Ruffians
can feldom bring into the field more than 100,000 effective
men.
G HA P .
C H A P . HI.
Congelation of Quickflver.— Dr. Guthrie’s Experiments to ajcertaht
the freezing point of mercury, and to prove that the purity or ini*
purity of the mercury by no means ajfelds its congelation.
A S the curious experiment of freezing quickfilver was firft c ^ p'
difcovered at Peterfburgh by Profeffor Braun, I was 1 - *
greatly defirous of being a witnefs to the repetition of the fame
procefs ; particularly as many doubts had been entertained by
feveral philofophers, concerning the real congelation of pure
quickfilver, and I had frequent opportunities of -feeing this
phænomenon during a feries of experiments made by Dr. Guthrie,
phyfician to the Imperial Corps de Cadets.
Having inferted a tube containing fome quickfilver in a mixture
o f fnow and fipirit of nitre, he took it out in about ten minutes,
and placed it in a fécond mixture, and in about five minutes
the quickfilver was perfectly congeled. The tube being
broken, the quickfilver appeared in a folid ma-fs like a ball of
filver, and being ftruck with a hammer was flattened into twice
its extenfion before it broke and liquefied.
But as the hammer was much warmer than the frozen quickfilver,
it immediately melted the parts which it touched; ïeèming
to have the fame effeit upon the mercury as a warm iron would
have upon wax. I deiired, therefore, Dr. Guthrie to place the
1 * 2 hammer