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means but we hope, that Jacquin will foon reveal this fecret to the wishes and curiofity of the cultivators of natural hiftory.'

All that we could hope to be able to infer from M. Jacquin's intelligence, which must have been long fince received, is, that there fubfift impudent quacks, and credulous dupes, in Egypt as well as in Europe. Thus, if a philofophical miffionary from the Grand Lama, or the Emperor of China, were to refide in London a week; he might, like M. Haffelquift, be enabled to inform his Sacerdotal or Imperial Highness, on his return, that he here too had met with a fet of fages who daily avowed pretenfions equal at leaft to thofe of the Egyptian forcerers; and who, like them, could not be prevailed upon to disclose the fe crets of their art.

DISSERTATION VII. On Infects, Oration: By Linnæus. DISSERTATION VIII. The Flora of Infects: By Jonas Guftavus Forffahl.

In the firft of these two memoirs, Linnæus, in a concife manner, exhibits fome of the more ftriking properties, habitudes, or manners, of particular infects.-In the next differtation, the principal defign of the Author is to indicate thofe particular plants, or fingle parts of plants, which conftitute the food of particular infects; with a view principally to promote and direct the researches of the naturalist, physician, gardener,

&c.

DISSERTATION IX. On Noxious Infects: By Michael

A. Baeckner.

In this effay the Author confiders and claffes infects according to the injuries they do to animals, and to man perfonally; as well as to our victuals, clothes, furniture, &c. to fruit trees, fhrubs, foreft trees, the kitchen garden, and the fields. Under the laft head, the Author takes notice of an obfervation made by Linnæus, who discovered that the Mufca bordei every year deftroyed at leaft one fifth part of the corn in the public granaries, or 100,000 tuns.' From the fhort enumeration of their ravages here given, and which, according to the Author, are too little attended to, they appear to be truly formidable.

DISSERTATION X. Miracula Infectorum: By Emanuel Avelin. This paper may be confidered as a fupplement to the three preceding it.

DISSERTATION XI. On the Silk Worm: By John Lyman. In this differtation the Author gives the natural history of this infect, and of its food, the mulberry; with a view to fhew, that the filk worm may be bred in Sweden: where, in confequence of the introduction of the red mulberry into that kingdom, by

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the celebrated Profeffor Kalm, fome filk has been produced by no means of an inferior quality.

DISSERTATION XII. Efay on Corals: By Henry Fougt.

This diflertation, extracted from the 1ft volume of the Amœnitates, was conf.quently publifhed many years ago, and at a time when the true nature of these heteroclite beings had not been fo fatisfactorily afcertained by Ellis, following the footsteps of Peyfonelle, and fufficu. He, as the Tranflator obferves, went more extenfively into the fubject; and the finished elegance of his drawings has, in fome degree, enabled his work to caft the memory of his two predeceflors (who had at leaft the honour of anticipating the outline of his difcoveries) into a kind of fhade.'

This differtation terminates the prefent volume. We fhall only exprefs our wishes that the Tranflator may proceed to complete his plan; the execution of which cannot fail of being acceptable to the numerous lovers of natural history in this country, who have not an opportunity, or are not qualified, to confult the original work.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

GERMANY and the NORTH.

ART. I.
;

B.y.

DE la Litterature Allemande ; &c. i. c. A Letter concerning

German Literature; the Defects with which it is chargeable, the Caufes from whence these Defects proceed, and the Means of correling them. 8vo. Berlin. 1780. This new production of a ROYAL AUTHOR, who takes up the pen when he has fheathed the fword, is fuperior, in point of ftile and expreffion, to almost all his preceding publications; but whether it is to be confidered as a fair reprefentation of the prefent ftate of literature in Germany, is another queflion. This question we make no fort of icruple of determining in the negative. Between twenty and thirty years ago the reprefentation would have been juft; but the face of literature has undergone fuch remarkable and advantageous alterations in most of its features fince that period, that the portrait before us is rather a caricature, than a refemblance of its original.

Neu Hiftorische Abhandlungen der Baierischen Academie der Wiffenfchaften, e. New Hiflorical Memoirs of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. ift Vol. Munich. 1779. This is the first volume of a new feries of memoirs, beginning with the epocha of the acceffion of Charles-Theodore, Elector PaJatine, to the duchy of Bavaria The academy was formed in the year 1759, by the Elector Maximilian III.; its memoirs have never been very interefting; but the volume before us

furpaffs

furpaffes most of the preceding in aridity and nothingness. The hiftorical, diplomatical, ecclefiaftical, blafonical points which are difcuffed in it, cannot be interefting beyond the circle to which they relate, if we except the firft Memoir concerning the Dukes of Bavaria, who preceded the time of Charlemagne, which contains the principal exploits of thefe princes, and is connected with the ancient hiftory of the German empire.

III. Rheinische Beitrage zur Gelehrfamkeit, &c. i. e. Contributions to Literature and Science from the Borders of the Rhine. This is the only way we can tranflate without exciting a fmile, the title of the excellent and inftructive literary Journal, publifhed at Manheim by Meffrs. HAEFFLIN and MEDIKUS, and which contains a variety of interefting articles. In the volume before us there is an account of the collections of claffic authors, that are coming forth fucceffively from the rival preffes of Manheim and Deux-ponts, and which are remarkable for their correctness and typographical elegance. There are alfo in this volume feveral articles relative to philofophy, natural history, and the arts. Of thefe we fhall mention one, which does honour to a celebrated English aftronomer, and an eminent English artift; it is Mr. Mayer's account of the pendulum vibrating feconds, of which the Elector Palatine made a prefent to the obfervatory of Manheim, and which was made by Mr. Arnold, watch-maker in London, under the infpection of Mr. Mafkelyne. According to the teftimony of Mr. Mayer, electoral aftronomer, this pendulum is fo accurate, that, from the 16th of September to the 16th of December, it fcarcely underwent the alteration of more than a fecond. In the year 1753, the famous Mr. Short expreffed in the Philofophical Tranfactions, his furprize, that, from the 22d of February to the 6th of May, he had ob ferved, in his pendulum, only a minute of alteration in a variation of heat of 10 degrees during these 69 days. In the present cafe, during a longer interval, the variation of heat was 20 degrees, and, nevertheless, Mr. Mayer, and his affiftant Mr. Metzger, obferved lefs alteration in the pendulum. This inftrument is therefore by much fuperior to that of the observatory of Gottingen, which, according to the report of Mr. Kaestner, varied two minutes and a fecond, from the month of January, to the month of Auguft.-See another account of Mr. Mayer's letter, in our Review for July.

ITAL Y.

IV. Congetture Meteorologiche, &c. i. e. Meteorological Conjectures. By M. LAWRENCE PIGNOTTI, Profeffor of Natural Philofophy in the University of Pifa.-Dedicated to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, &c. an 8vo. of 192 Pages. Florence. 1781. One of the principal points difcuffed in this ingenious Work is that famous queftion, Why, in dusky and rainy weather, REV. Oct. 1781.

X

the

the fluid column of the barometer defcends, and the air, confe quently, has lefs weight than in dry and clear weather, in which the fame fluid column rifes above its ordinary height? Though M. PIGNOTTI acknowledges that the action of wind, that of heat, and the afcent of vapours and exhalations in the atmosphere may contribute to the variations of the barometer, in fome inftances, yet he afferts the infufficiency of thefe three caufes to account for the variation, fpecified in the queftion now mentioned: he enters into a long and elaborate refutation of the reasonings of the philosophers who have employed these causes to explain the phenomenon in queftion, and boldly affirms that its true caufe has been hitherto unknown.-But he has found it out-and according to him, the cause which, on the approach of rain, produces a change in the weight of the air, is the mixture of certain exhalations which then arife from the earth, with the atmosphere, which alter the quality of the air, render it noxious, and diminish its elafticity, its weight, and its volume, as appears from repeated experiments of Dr. Priestley. These exhalations arife, fays our Author, from a fubterraneous fermentation; and the reafon he gives for their aptitude to diminish the weight and elafticity of the air, is, that the phlogifton, when introduced into the air which we breathe, decompounds its principles, and feparates from it one of its conftituent parts, i. e. fixed air, whofe fpecific gravity is much greater than that of common air, which, itfelf, has lefs weight than inflammable air. We fhall only obferve, farther, that the work before us contains feveral obfervations and experiments relative to the evaporation of fluids, the action of air on water, and the caufes of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, that merit attention.

V. Saggio di Egloghe Militari, &c. i. e. Military Eclogues prefented to the Alexandrian Academy of Unmoveables. By the Abbé JULIO CORDARA. Alexandria. 8vo. 1780. We have never before heard of foldiers introduced into eclogues but to pillage and plunder, to frighten fhepherds and fhepherdeffes, to devour the hopes of the hufbandman, and to spread diforder and confufion in the happy fcenes of rural tranquillity. But in the military Arcadia of this Author, the fons of Mars, appear with honour, and their duties, obligations, and true glory are well defcribed.

VI. Anecdote Hiftorique de la Colonie Greque, &c. i. e. An Hiftorical Anecdote, relative to the Grecian Colony that fettled in Corfica in the Year 1676. By Mr. B. D. V. Cagliari. 8vo. 1780. This Anecdote is interefting, and fo well related, that fhould it even prove fabulous, it muft ftill be esteemed entertaining, as the Author is certainly an elegant and learned writer, and has enriched his publication with feveral well

placed

placed extracts from the Byzantine hiftory. The colony in queftion pretend, almoft all, to be the defcendants of Alexis Comnene, who mounted the imperial throne of Conftantinople in the year 1081; and whofe fon, Stephen, fled to Peloponnefus to avoid the vengeance of his mother, whofe adulterous lover he had affaffinated; from whence his pofterity fled to Corfica, from the victorious arms of Amurath IV. the Turkifh emperor, and fettled, with the confent of the Genoefe, at Ajaccio, where they are now under the jurifdiction of the Count de Marboeuf.

VI. CAJETANI CARI, J. U. D. Piftorienfis de Aëris Gravitate ejufque Elaterio, Specimen Phyficum, &c. i. e. A Philofophical Effay concerning the Weight of the Air, and its Elafticity, &c. There are feveral good obfervations in this work, concerning the air, and the variations of the barometer. The ex periments on the air are curious, well related, and feem to ftrike out fome fparks of new light. To thefe are fubjoined the defcription and analysis of a pneumatic inftrument, which is adapted either to condenfe, the air in a receiver, or to draw it from thence. This inftrument was invented by Dr. Defaguliers; fo that the merit of the execution alone belongs to pur Author.

VIII. FASTORUM Anni Romani a Verrio Flacco ordinatorum ni Romani a Verrio Flacco ordinatorum Reliquia ex Marmorearum Fabularum fragmentis Prænefte nuper effoffis collecte et illuftrata, &c. i. e. Remains of the Fafti of the Roman Year, as they were arranged by Verrius Flaccus, collected and illuftrated from the Fragments of Marble Tables lately dug up at Pranefte: To which are added all the Fragments of the Works of Verrius Flaccus, which are extant, and the Roman Fafti of every Month, taken from the Marble Kalendars, that have hitherto been discovered, collated together. By P. F. FOGGINI. Folio. Rome. 1780.It is known by the learned, that VERRIUS FLACCUS, who was charged by Auguftus with the education of his grandfons, compofed a series of the Roman fafti, which was engraved on tables of marble, and expofed to the view of the Public at Prænefte. To, recover thefe marbles Cardinal Stoppani, Bishop of Prænefte, at the request of Monsignor FOGGINI ordered feveral excavations to be made, by which the fragments of four tables only were difcovered in the year 1774, and of thefe M. Foggini has undertaken the explication in the work before us. Thefe fragments contain the fafti of January, March, April, and December, to which the learned Author has added extracts from the other books and collections of fafli that have escaped the ruins of time, in order to render the feries as complete as was poffible.

IX. Lettere del Signor Abbate Domenico Seftini, &c. i, e. Letters written from Sicily and Turkey, to feveral Friends in Tuf

X 2

cany.

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