WILLIAM, an ingenious experimental philosopher, the son of a lawyer of Normandy, was born at Paris in the year 1663. From his childhood he laboured under the infirmity of extreme dulness, which led him to amuse himself, in the want of society, by studying geometry and mechanics. He learned designing and surveying, and was employed in many public works. He presented to the Academy of Sciences, in the year 1687, an hygrometer upon a new construction, which was highly approved. In 1696, he published in French, a treatise, entitled, "Observations on a new Hour-Glass, and Barometers, Thermometers, and Hygrometers." This work was dedicated to the Academy of Sciences, of which he became a member in the year 1699. Upon his admission, he read a paper on friction, in which a new theory upon that subject is proposed: the paper will be found in the memoirs of the academy. He discovered a method of conveying intelligence speedily to a great distance by means of signals, from one person to another, placed at as great a distance as they could be seen by means of telescopes: he may therefore be esteemed the inventor of the telegraph. This ingenious man, who was distinguished for his ingenuity in inventing, and his accuracy in executing experiments, died in the year 1705. His pieces, which are numerous, AMORÆANS, a sect or order of Gemaric doctors, or commentators on the Jerusalem Talmud. The American succeeded the Mischne doctors. They subsisted 250 years; and were succeeded by the Sebureans.