III. The Doctrine of Toleration, applied to the prefext Times-Preached in the Wynd Church of Glasgow, 10th Dec. 1778. Being a public Faft, appointed by the Provincial Synod of Glafgow and Ayr. By William Porteous, one of the Minifters of Glafgow. 8vo. Printed at Glasgow.

In this fermon, from Luke ix. 55, 56, Mr. Porteous inquires in to the extent of toleration, according to the religion of Jefus, and observes, that every religion which now exifts, from the rifing to the fetting fun, is tolerated by the Chriftian religion, provided it teaches no opinions which are deftructive to the ftate, or dangerous to the particular members of it.-He proceeds to inquire, whether Popery ought to be tolerated in a Proteftant ftate :-Popery, he fays, may be confidered in three views,-as a falfe religion-as a faction in the ftate-and as a fyftem of immorality. He confines himself entirely to the third view of Popery, and endeavours to fhew that, confidered as a fyftem of immorality, it ought not to be tolerated.

IV. Popery a fpiritual Tyranny-Preached Nov. 5, 1712, by the late Rev. Mr. Matthew Henry. A new Edition. 12mo. 6 d. Buckland. 1779.

The editor of this fermon apprehends that there are Papifts in this kingdom, who, fenfible of the want of argument to fupport their fyftem of civil and religious tyranny, would fain perfuade us, that the principles of their religion are altered, and that the fpirit of Popery, which heretofore made fuch dreadful havock, is now totally evaporated:-It is eafy, fays he, to fee what has caufed their pretended change of fentiments, namely, a real change of circumstances; they have no power to propagate their religion in the manner their ancestors had; they must therefore try other methods: but let us never forget that," Nature chained, is not Nature changed." The moft refined fophiftry in the world cannot perfuade us, that the real principles of Popery are in the leaft altered.' On these and other confiderations, this difcourfe, preached fo many years ago, is republished. The name of its author, even at this distance of time, will recommend it to numbers. The fermon is well worthy of regard. It breathes that good spirit for which its author was eminent: and while it gives, in a small compafs, a view of the errors of the church of Rome, the preacher, in a very fenfible manner, urges it on Protestants to be conftantly on their guard left they indulge any thing of a bigotted, uncharitable difpofition toward those who may differ from themselves in matters of faith and opinion.

V. An old Disciple-Occafioned by the Death of the late Mr. John Mudge; who departed this Life, Jan. 6, 1779, in the 70th Year of his Age. By N. Hill. 8vo. 6d. Buckland.

This is a plain, fenfible exhortation to a pious life; but the title does not express where this fermon was delivered, whether in England, Scotland, or Ireland; nor does this publication either in the fermon or notes give us any perfonal account of the deceafed party, who he was, or where he lived: we only learn that his name was. John Mudge. We were the rather led to remark thefe deficiencies, as we imagined that this old Difciple might have been brother to the ingenious Mr. Mudge the watchmaker, and a furgeon at Ply

mouth.

mouth. Poffibly this may be a mistake; but it is ufual, in a funeral fermon, to identify the party commemorated.

VI. Preached at St. George's, Bloomsbury, March 28, for the Benefit of the Humane Society, inftituted for the Recovery of Perfons apparently dead by drowning. By Thomas Francklin, D. D. Chaplain to his Majesty, and Rector of Brafled, Kent. 4to. I S. Cadell, &c. 1779.

The benevolent and laudable endeavours of the Humane Society are here recommended to the public attention and affiftance in an elegant, pathetic, and fenfible difcourfe. The Preacher has been happy in the choice of his text, which is from 1 Sam. xx. 3. There is but a step between me and death. This fentiment, truly applicable to human life in general, is peculiarly fo to our Author's immediate fubject, which he profecutes with a pious and charitable zeal that does honour to himself, while it demands the beft attention of his Readers.

VII. At the Anniversary Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy, in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, May 14, 1778. By John Warren, D. D. Prebendary of Ely, and Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majelly. 4to. I s. Bathurst, &c.

To this fermon, as ufual, are annexed, the lifts of stewards for the feaft of the fons of the clergy, and of the preachers; together with the annual fums collected fince the inftitution of the charity in 1721. VIII. At the Vifitation held in the Cathedral Church of Lincoln, Aug. 24, 1778. By Roger Watkins, M. A. late Fellow of Baliol College, Oxon. 6d. Crowder, &c.

SERMONS preached on the late GENERAL FAST, Feb. 10, continued: See our laft Month's Review.

IX. Preached at Reading, Berks, by Edward Armftrong, M. A. 8vo. 6 d. Buckland.

A rational and judicious expofition of the nature and obligations of a General national Falt; with a proper application, &c. X. A Sermon on the late Fat, Feb. 10, 1779. Wherein the National Calamities are manifefted, and a Remedy prescribed. 8vo. 6d. Exeter printed; fold by Dilly in London.

Our national calamities are here derived, as in other Faft Sermons, from our national fins; and the remedy prefcribed' is the established remedy, as it ftands in the Church Difpenfatory, repentance and amendment.-Though this difcourfe is nothing out of the common road, in point of doctrine, the arguments are juttly enforced, and the language is animated.-Neither the name of the preacher, nor of the place where the fermon was delivered, are mentioned.

** A BRITON's Favour is received; and the hints fo obligingly

*

offered by the Writer will be duly attended to.

"*

ART. I. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS of the Royal Society of London. Vol. LXVIII. For the Year 1778. Part 1. 4to. 10s. 6d. sewed. Davis. 1779.

PAPERS relating to AIR.

Article

13. Experiments upon Air, and the Effects of different Kinds of Effluvia upon it; made at York. By W. White, M. D. F. S. A.

THE

THESE experiments, which contain several very remarkable particulars, highly interefting both to the philofopher and the phyfician, were undertaken with a view to ascertain how far the air which we breathe is affected, with respect to its falubrity, by the vapours or effluvia that arife from various fubftances to which it is expofed. In afcertaining the purity or falubrity of the different fpecimens of air which he examined, the Author appears to have depended folely on the indications furnifhed by nitrous air, or the quantity of diminution attending its admixture with the common air under examination.

The apparatus which he employed for this purpofe confifted of a barometer tube, graduated by inches and decimals, and of fuch a bore that an ounce vial of the air intended to be examined being thrown up into it, through a small glass funnel (after it had been filled with water, and inverted into a veffel of the fame fluid) occupied about 134 decimal parts of an inch, or 13 inches nearly. On adding half an ounce of nitrous air, the mixture is faid, at firft, to have generally occupied about 205 of the abovementioned decimal parts. At the end of half an hour, when the whole diminution may be fupposed to have taken place, he notes the space, or the number of decimal parts, then occupied by the two airs; and, fubftracting it from 205, confiders the remainder as the number indicating the ftate of purity in the particular air that he has examined.

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Thus,

VOL. LX.

Thus, for example, on mixing the air in his garden, with nitrous air, in the proportion above indicated; the space occu pied by the mixture, at the end of half an hour, was found i be only 145, which being deducted from 205, gives 62, tr the ftate of the common atmospherical air that day. CE the other hand, had he, instead of the air in his garden, Lie the fame quantity of perfectly noxious air, as there would have been no diminution, or, in other words, as the mixture wod still have stood at 205, 0 would exprefs the ftate or condition of that particular air. The extent of his scale is accordingly from o, which indicates the most noxious or mortal air, up to 60° or 61°; which was found to be the mean state of the atmosphere in upwards of 200 experiments: though he has, at two different times, found the latter to rife to 64°; and, ia three inftances only, to 63 (in the Article, erroneously printed 68). In the worst ftate, he observed it as low as 58-A account of fome of the Author's observations will probably be acceptable to our philofophical readers; to whofe and the Author's confideration we shall submit a few reflections that have occurred to us on this fubject.

Dr. White found a difference, that was perceptibly enough indicated by this apparatus, between the air in the city of York, and that of the country, at a small distance from the city walls. When the former was 59°, the latter was 62°.-The air too of his bed which, on entering it at night, was 62°, was, in numerous trials, found to be reduced the next morning to 58; though the bed-curtains were always open, except on one fide, and the room large and airy. This experiment leads to another which exhibits a more confiderable difference, proceeding from the fame cause. He breathed the fame air as long as he could without manifeft inconvenience; and it was thereby reduced from 62° to 40°.-Further, the air contained in an 8 ounce vial, in which a fmall piece of fresh veal was included 48 hours, was reduced from 64° to 10°: and yet the flesh was not putrid, but only smelled fomewhat faint and mufty.

The refults of the next fet of experiments will appear very extraordinary. They were made on the dead flowers and leaves of vegetables, each put into common air contained in an 8 ounce vial, immediately after they had been gathered out of his garden. Confidering 60 or 61° as indicating the ftate of the wholesome or refpirable air originally contained in the vial; it was reduced to 9°, when fome leaves of fage had remained in it 16 hours. In the vial in which flowers of ulmaria had been included, during the fame time, it was diminished to 2o; and in that containing fome ten-weeks flocks, the diminution was only 19.—In other words, the air was indicated to be almost perfectly nox

ious.

ious. Thefe vegetables, nevertheless, remained, as to fenfe, equally fweet as when they were put into the vial.

We concur with the Author (of whofe accuracy we entertain not the leaft doubt) in expreffing our furprize at the refults of these laft trials. In fome of the fmall variations above noticed, errors, perhaps equal to the differences observed, may have been produced by unknown or unheeded causes; fuch as, a variation in the quality or ftrength of the nitrous air, the temperature of the atmosphere, &c. but this obfervation cannot properly be applied to the facts in queftion. It is indeed amazing,' as the Author obferves, that vegetables, whilft fresh and free from the leaft degree of putrefcency, fhould have fuch a noxious tendency as to fpoil the air, and render it not only useless, but fatal to animal life, and that in fo fhort a time.'-On this head, however, we fhall propose a few obfer

vations.

When Dr. Priestley firft discovered the use of nitrous air, as a teft of the falubrity of common air, he may be thought to have made a full reparation for the lives of the many mice he had facrificed in his previous trials.-" Every person of feeling," he obferves on his firft notification of it, will rejoice with me in the discovery of nitrous air-which fuperfedes many experiments with the refpiration of animals; being a much more accurate teft of the purity of air *."-Before he had thus adopted it as a teft, he had experienced its truth and accuracy in numerous inftances; particularly in the cafes of fixed and inflammable air, and of all thofe fpecies of air that have been di minifhed by refpiration or other proceffes, which he had then examined. He had then just reafons to infer, that "on whatever account air is unfit for refpiration, this fame teft is equally applicable +."

Though there has not hitherto appeared any reason to suspect the truth of the indications prefented by this teft, we cannot help wishing that, on this extraordinary occafion, the Author had corroborated its teftimony by fome collateral proofs. He does not even inform us whether a candle was inftantly extinguifhed on being introduced into the air in which his flowers had been confined: though even that event would not have proved that the air was perfectly, or even to any great degree, noxious. The application of nitrous air as a teft of the fa→ lubrity of air is now become fo very extenfive, and the results

lead

* Experiments and Obfervations on different Kinds of Air, vol. i. pag.

pag. 7Dr. Priestley, long ago, obferved, that a candle would not

burn in air, in which a fresh cabbage-leaf had remained one night. [Obfervations, &c. vol. i. pag. 51.] We have found that a candle

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was