bandry of various kinds, has brought it to be one of the most productive farms in Norfolk.

The Rev. Mr. MUNNINGS, near Dereham, invented a method of preserving turnips, which he described in a late publication of merit. He drills successfully, and has various and useful imple

ments.

Mrs. COLLISON, of Dereham, has made considerable improvements at East Bilney; drills successfully, and has built a capital barn,

&c.

Mr. MONEYHILL keeps a farm of near 1300 acres, with a degree of neatness and attention which classes him among the first farmers of the county: the whole drilled. Fine South Down Sheep.'

At the conclusion of the chapter on Implements, Mr. Young mentions a Mr. Jex, a young blacksmith at Billingford, who at 16 years of age displayed most extraordinary mechanical talents; and who, by the account here given of him, will probably meet with encouragement and elevation, since in addition to genius he possesses an excellent moral character.

Copious details are exhibited of the parliamentary inclosures which have been made of late years in Norfolk, alphabetically arranged under the names of the places at which they have occurred, and with such additional notices as to the Reporter seemed worthy of remark.

A long chapter succeeds on Arable Land, the management of which is the grand object of Norfolk husbandry, and which Mr. Young promises minutely to discuss. Under the heads of

Tillage, Fallowing, Course of Crops, Turnips, Barley t Seeds (including Clover, Ray-grass, Burnet, Cocksfoot, and Chicory), Wheat, (the notes on which are arranged in twentyone divisions,) Rye, Oats, Pease, Beans, Buck-wheat, Tares, Cabbages, Cole-seed, Carrots, Mustard, Hemp and Flax, Sain foin, Lucerne, Mangle-Wurzel, and Potatoes, the Norfolk practice is largely displayed; and the chapter finishes with this report on the Norfolk arable system:

• For

As in Norfolk the turnip crop is made the basis of all others, Mr. Y. subdivides the section on Turnips in the following manner; 1. Course; 2. Soil; 3. Tillage; 4. Manuring; 5. Sort; 6. Seed; 7. Steeping; 8. Hoeing; 9. Distempers; 10. Drilling; 11. Consumption; 12. Preservation; 13. Saving seed; 14. Is the land tired of turnips? 15. Swedish Turnips; 16. Turnip Cabbages. This enumeration concludes with remarks on the importance of the culture, and with cautions against pushing it too far.

+ At the end of the section on Barley, we have a curious note respecting Malting, which we shall copy, because it may serve to re concile farmers to a shower or two in Harvest :

• Mr.

For the last four or five and thirty years that I have examined West Norfolk with the eye of a farmer, the change in the tillage system has not been great. At that period the course was, 1. Turnips; 2. Barley; 3. Grasses for two, or, in a few cases, three years; 4. White-corn; on the better soils wheat; on others, rye, &c. The only change that has occurred has been in the grasses: the variation, which I believe first took place from forty to fifty years ago, was shortening the duration, from three years to two: in both cases giving what may be called a bastard fallow the last year, by a half ploughing, soon after Midsummer. Above thirty years ago, I contended, both in print and in conversation, against it, but was held cheap for entertaining any doubts of the propriety of the practice. I have lived, however, to see this change also in a great measure take place amongst the best farmers, who now give only one ploughing for the winter corn, whether wheat or tares; or in the spring for pease. That it is an improvement, cannot be questioned. The argument for it, founded on the invention of the drill-roller, and on the introduction of the drill-plough, is good, but not singular, as the practice of dibbling is likewise far more adapted to a whole than to a broken furrow: and for broad-cast common sowing, if we are able to cover the seed by harrowing on stiff soils, ouce ploughed, assuredly the same practice might be better followed on sand. The other reason for the former system, speargrass getting a-head in a layer, is quite inadmissible: for I must agree entirely with Mr. Overman, that no werds, the seeds of which are not carried by the wind, will be found in a layer, if they were not left

there.

The variations which have taken place in the crop put in upon layers, are neither great, nor are they peculiar to Norfolk: the principal one is taking pease on the flag, and then the wheat, &c. an admirable system, which has long been practised by good farmers in Suffolk, and I believe, earlier still in Kent. Mr. Purdis's substitution of tares, holds on the same principle. Considering the very great value of white pea straw, well got as sheep food (no where better understood than in Kent), there is no husbandry better adapted to a sheep-farm, than this of pease or tares preceding the wheat crop.

A great and a very important change has, however, taken place in the application of crops to sheep intead of bullocks and cows. For

Mr. Gilpin, of Heacham, a considerable maltster, bought some beautiful barley that had not received a drop of rain, and trying a small parcel of it, found it malted badly: he tried a most uncommon experiment, and founded upon an idea very contrary to all common ones on the subject: he kiln-dried it by a gentle heat, watering it lightly with a watering pot twice or thrice, six hours intervening; dried it after which operation it malted well, every grain sprouting, and no malt could be finer. Hence, observes the very intelligent gentleman from whom I had this account, it is evident that good shower of rain in harvest, or a sweat in the stack, is beneficial to the maltster.'

merly

merly the farmers consumed much of their straw by cattle: now the best tread it all into dung.

This is

Sheep are the main grazing stock, and no more cattle kept than for treading, not eating straw, while feeding on oil-cake, &c. an important change, which has had considerable effect, and has depended not a little on the introduction of South Down sheep.

The grand object in the whole system, is the singular steadiness with which the farmers of West Norfolk have adhered to the wellgrounded antipathy to taking two crops of white-corn in succession: this is talked of elsewhere, but no where so steadily adhered to as in this district. It is this maxim which has preserved the effect of their marle, on thin-skinned wheat lands, in such a manner that the district continues highly productive, under an almost regularly increasing rent for more than 60 years, or three leases, each of 21; and by means of which great tracts have been marled a second, and even a third time, with much advantage.

This system has been that to which the title of Norfolk husbandry has been long, and is now peculiarly appropriated; and by no means the management of the very rich district of East Norfolk, where the soil is naturally among the finest in the kingdom, and consequently where the merit of the farmer must be of an inferior stamp: barley there very generally follows wheat; an incorrect husbandry, deserving no praise. The celebrity of the county in general was not heard of, till the vast improvements of heaths, wastes, sheep walks, and warrens, by enclosure, and mailing took place from the exertions of Mr. Allen, of Lyng House, Lord Townshend, and Mr. Morley, which were in the first thirty years of the preceding century. They were happily imitated by many others; an excellent system of management introduced, and such improvements wrought, that estates which were heretofore too i significant to be known, became objects of public attention in the capital. The fame of Norfolk gradually expanded, and the husbandry of the county celebrated, before East Norfolk was heard of beyond the conversation of Norwich and Yarmouth.

• Without a continuance of cautious management and persevering exertions, West orfolk would again become the residence of poverty and rabbits. Let the meadows be improved; irrigation practised wherever it is applicable; the remaining wastes cultivated, and this district will become a garden.'

We shall pass over the chapter on Grass, since Mr. Young, so far from finding matter worthy of record, observes that Meadows and Pastures are no where worse managed than in Norfolk.

Respecting Woods and Plantations, Mr. Young refers to Mr. Kent's Report, admitting that he has treated this subject in a satisfactory manner. A list, however, is added, of trees planted at Holkham from the year 1781 to 1801, amounting in all to 2,129,090.

In the chapter on Live Stock, the Secretary enumerates the advantages d.rived from the new breed of sheep, which he has

been

been instrumental in introducing: but we must refer to the Report itself for the details.

As Mr. Young is known to have an extensive acquaintance with every branch of rural economy, and to be endowed with an active spirit of research, we need not observe that he has collected in this volume many particulars which are interesting to the county of Norfolk, and which merit the attention of a Board established for the purpose of promoting internal Improvement. Tables are annexed, giving a comparison of times, made in consequence of a requisition to the Board of Agriculture from the Corn Committee of the House of Commons (1804) to procure returns from the several counties, of the expences on arable land in 1790 and in 1803. The object, it is observed, is incompletely ascertained: but, from the returns given in these tables, it appears that the average rise of expence in the cultivation of arable land, including all particulars, is about 45 per

cent.

ART. XIII. Elements of Materia Medica and Pharmacy. By J. Murray, Lecturer on Chemistry, and on Materia Medica and Pharmacy. 8vo. 2 Vols. 149. Boards. Edinburgh, Creech, &c.; London, Longman and Co. 1804.

T

HE changes which have taken place within a few years, in the theory and practice of medicine, and in chemistry, have produced corresponding alterations in the Materia Medica and in Pharmacy. It is therefore desirable that we should possess a work which may contain a correct view of the modern discoveries on these subjects, and may exhibit a just idea of the hypotheses at present most generally adopted. These advantages Mr. Murray claims for the publication before us; and from the proofs which he has already manifested of his talents, we felt disposed, before we entered on our examination, to augur that he was in every respect qualified for the task. We must now report the mode in which he has executed it.

Mr. M. arranges his materials under the three heads of Pharmarceutic Chemistry, Materia Medica, and Pharmacy, a division into which the subject seems naturally to distribute itself; and on which we have only to remark that perhaps he might with more propriety have altered the situation of the parts, and have placed them in the order of Materia Medica, Pharmaceutic Chenistry, and Pharmacy.

The utility of a thorough knowlege of chemistry, in its state of modern improvement, is too obvious to need illustration. Though the analysis of the substances used in medicine can seldom afford any insight into the nature of their operation on the

9

animal

animal frame, we are frequently enabled to ascertain on what particular part of the drug its salutary virtues depend, to separate this from the rest, to exhibit it in the most pure state, and in the form most favorable for its medical operation. These objects are principally applicable to the vegetable substances that are used in medicine. They generally consist of a combination of different principles, some of which are inert, or even noxious, but which, by the operation of the appropriate re-agents, may be completely separated from the active ingredients. In the mineral kingdom, the advantage which we derive from chemistry is still more direct: since the articles in this department, which are employed in medicine, are the immediate products of chemical operations, and can only be procured in a perfect state by an intimate acquaintance with the process, and an accurate knowlege of the scientific principles on which it is conducted.

Mr. Murray defines pharmaceutic chemistry to be that department of chemical science which investigates the composition and chemical relations of bodies with a view to their medicinal properties, and explains those operations by which they are fitted to act with more efficacy or safety as remedies against disease,' 'The definition appears to us sufficiently correct and restricted : but the author, in the detail on which he enters, does not confine himself strictly to the consideration of this part of the science, digressing into different branches of chemistry, which have little or no connection with pharmacy. We acknowlege, indeed, that it would not have been easy to state every circumtance that was necessary to a complete view of the subject, without at the same time incroaching somewhat on the neighbouring departments; and the error of redundancy, into which he has fallen, is certainly less objectionable than the fault of deficiency.

The account of pharmaceutic chemistry is divided into two sections, pharmaceutic operations,' and general chemical analysis of the articles of the materia medica.' The first section commences with a description of that peculiar quality in bodies, by which the particles of different kinds of matter have a tendency to combine together; to which the appropriate title of chemical attraction or affinity has been applied, It is exerted only between the minute particles of different kinds of matter, and between these only at insensible distances, The substances which it combines never separate spontaneously, nor are they capable of being separated by any mechanical means; and they form a compound possessing properties more or less different from those of its component parts.' The effect of what is styled elective attraction, and the consequent phænomena of decomposition, are explained in the usual manner; and on this prin