Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

vouring to undermine the facred foundations of religion and morality. We have frequently had occafion to mention productions of confiderable merit, which have defended the fanctuary of truth against thefe cruel fpoilers, whofe fect seems now verging towards oblivion, though they have deluded many. The prefent work deferves an eminent place among these productions. The folid reafoning, the extenfive erudition, and the fpirit of moderation which it every where difplays, render it peculiarly commendable.

ART. XXV.

Commentaires de Céfar, avec des Notes hiftoriques, critiques, et militaires. i. e. The Commentaries of Cæfar, enriched with hiftorical, critical, and military Annotations and Remarks, by Count TURPIN DE CRISSE, Lieutenant General of the King's Armies, and Member of several Academies. 4to. 3 Vols. Adorned with 43 Plates, a Medallion of Cæfar, and the Portrait of the Author. Paris.

WHO could be more proper to write annotations and re

marks on the Commentaries of Cafar, than the learned commentator on the Theory of Vegetius, and the Memoirs of Montecuculi, whofe extenfive erudition and lively genius, are accompanied with the experience of feventeen campaigns? Accordingly, in this valuable and fplendid work, he does not explain the text, but the expeditions of the Roman conqueror. He unfolds the motives of his conduct, contemplates him amid the obftacles he had to furmount, defcribes the characters of his friends and enemies, weighs the great interefts, and appreciates the objects, which animated at that time the first perfonages on the public fcene; and from thefe important fources he draws the maxims and leffons of military inftruction with a masterly hand.

Count TURPIN has publifhed the text of Cæfar as it ftands in the fplendid edition of Dr. Clarke, and he has employed the French tranflation of Wailly, which he has corrected where he found it neceffary. The plates that enrich the work will enable the reader to follow Cæfar in his expeditions, marches, encampments, and battles, with the greateft eafe; and the nations, cities, and rivers, mentioned by the Roman chief, are placed in alphabetical order at the end of it, with their ancient and modern names. Prefixed to these volumes we find a Preface, or Introductory Difcourfe, compofed with great fpirit and energy, in which, after describing the extraordinary genius, capacity, and talents of the conqueror of Gaul, Count Turpin maintains with eloquence the honour of the military profeffion, against what he calls the paradoxes of certain philofophers.

[merged small][ocr errors]

ART. XXVI.

Mémoires d'Agriculture, d'Oeconomie rurale et domestique, &c. i. e. Memoirs of Agriculture, &c. Publifhed by the Royal Society of Agriculture at Paris, for the Year 1785 (the Summer Quarter). 8vo. Paris. 1786.

TH

HOUGH the labours of this learned Society be more especially calculated for the meridian of France, they are executed on fuch an extenfive plan, as muft render them generally ufeful. The fpirit that animates the enlightened and opulent members of the Society, is generous and patriotic. They come to the fuccour of the poor peasant, whose wretched ftate of indigence and oppreffion deprives him of the means of acquiring the knowledge, and making the experiments, that are necessary to the improvement of his farm; and, at the fame time, their views extend to the advancement of the practical fcience of agriculture, in all its branches. The first thing we meet with in the volume before us, is a compendious hiftory of the Society; which is followed by an account of their Deliberations, from the 21st of April to the 11th of August 1785. Thefe turn on a variety of ufeful objects, among which we find the lift of Questions, &c. delivered to the Abbé Mongés, who is one of the circumnavigators on board the frigate commanded by M. de Peyroufe. In thefe queftions, they defire information with refpect to the methods and inftruments of agriculture employed by the nations that inhabit the coafts of the South Sea-to the black colour with which they dye their garments, the vegetables that form their tiffue, and thofe of which they make their beautiful mats. They defire alfo fets of the mulberry-paper tree, of whofe bark the greateft part of the paper in Japan and China is made; and the linfeed of New Zealand, with an account of the best manner of introducing into France the culture of that plant. They defire moreover, to facilitate the importation of other trees and plants that grow in New Holland and New Zealand, the ftrawberry trees of Chili, and fome of the ufeful animals of the South Sea iflands, fuch as the hogs of thofe countries, and a kind of dogs, that do not bark, and are excellent food.

Under this article of the Deliberations of the Society, we shall juft mention (because we think it may be useful) one of the obfervations of M. Thouin, member of this Society, of the Academy of Sciences, and chief gardener of the Royal Garden of Exotics. This obfervation relates to the plant rhubarb. Rhubarb,' fays he, is already cultivated with fuccefs in different parts of Great Britain, and in the environs of Paris; but it has been hitherto cultivated only on account of its medicinal root, though it might be employed with fuccefs to other purpofes. The Tartars make of the stalk of this plant a kind of marmalade, which is agreeable to the tafte, very falubrious, and

mildly laxative. This conferve, which is employed as a univerfal remedy for children, is prepared by ftripping the bark from the ftems, &c. and boiling the pulp with an equal quantity of fugar, or the beft honey. The leaves alfo of the rhubarb plant are employed by the fame people in their foups as they have an agreeable acidity, fimilar to different kinds of forrel; which, in the botanical fyftem, is in the fame clafs with rhubarb.'

The memoirs contained in this Volume are as follows: Mem. I. Concerning the chaulage, &c. (i. e. mixing with the corn a certain quantity of quick-lime and water), confidered as a prefervative against feveral difeafes to which corn is fubject. By M. Parmentier.-Mem. II. On the manner of gathering and preferving the leaves of trees, and giving them to cattle as food. By the Baron de Servieres.-Mem. III. On the causes of vinous fermentation, and the best method of improving the quality of wines. By the Marquis de Bullion.- Mem. IV. Concerning the manner of cultivating and employing maize as fodder. By M. Parmentier. Mem. V. Concerning the cultivation of turnips, the different methods of preferving them, and rendering them proper for the nourishment of cattle. By M. Brouffonet.-Mem. VI. On the method of preferving and managing the plums or prunes of Brignoles. By M. d'Ardoin, Correfpondent of the Society at Salernes in Provence. -Mem. VII. On the manner of augmenting the real value (in commerce) of blighted corn, and of obtaining from it, bread of a good quality. By M. Parmentier.-The eighth and concluding memoir contains Obfervations on various branches of rural economy in different diftricts within the Jurifdiction of Paris. By Meffrs. Thouin and Brouffonet.

Several things in these deliberations, memoirs, and obfervations, fhew that the French have profited by an acquaintance with the writings and labours of British cultivators; but there are alfo feveral things, which fhew that they are not incapable of returning the favour.

ART. XXVII.

Recherches fur la Nature et les Effets du Mephitifme, &c. i. e. An Inquiry into the Nature and Effects of the mephitic Vapour that arifes from Neceffary-houfes. By M. HALLE, Member of the Royal Society of Medicine. Published by Order of Government. Paris. 1785.

WE E fhould not have made any near approach to this stinking

fubject, were it not perfumed by the concomitant odour of public utility, and its tendency toward the advancement of natural fcience. He is but a fhabby philofopher who is led by the nose. But without farther reflections, let us come to the point. An oculift of Lyons, called Jannin, pretended to have discovered a

method

method of deftroying, by the use of vinegar, the mephiticism of privies, which have fometimes fuffocated the poor workmen employed in emptying them; but, on examining the matter experimentally, the united commiffioners of the Academies of Sciences and Medicine found, that the discovery of our oculift was merely vifion ary. M. HALLE', the Author of the Inquiry now before us, was one of these academical quack-catchers, and after having detected the infufficiency of the pretended anti-mephitic doctor, he availed himself of the experiments that were made upon this occafion, in order to throw fome new light upon the nature and effects of mephitic vapour.

His Recherches are divided into two parts. In the firft he gives us an historical account of anti-mephiticism, in which we learn, among other things, that the experiments of the oculift Fannin, performed before the commiffioners, coft one man his eye-fight, another his life, made feveral others fall into afphixies, more or less complete, and affected very difagreeably almoft all the commiffioners; fo that, obferves our Author, the mephiticism, instead of being deftroyed, was rather diffused by the use of vinegar, and all the neighbourhood was infected with the ftench.

The fecond part of this inquiry is elaborate and curious. M. Hallé confiders mephiticifm as a property which certain vapours have to act upon animals in such a manner as fuddenly to fufpend the exercise of their vital functions: he fhews that all aeriform fluids, which are unfit for refpiration, are really mephitic 3 that the effects of mephitic vapours always bear the characters of fpafm or ftupor, i. e. the marks of a nervous fyftem ftrongly affected, and are not merely confined to the effects of a fuppreffed refpiration. He then confiders the aeriform fluids that are difengaged from the larger temples, or fmaller fanes, where fecret offerings are made to the filthy goddefs Cloacina; which fluids, according to the experiments of M. Lavoifier, are calcareous and inflammable gafes. Some writers fuppose that there may be alfo hepatic and alkaline gafes in the accumulated maffes of these fubftances; but the alkaline gas abforbed by the water, is rarely, if ever, collected into a mafs, and indicates its exiftence only by a ftrong and penetrating fmell. The smells that are produced by the fecal fubftances are divided by our Author into five kinds, the excremental, alkaline, hepatic, putrid or nauseous, and a four effluvium fimilar to that which is emitted from the fubftances evacuated in certain diarrhæas. All these odours are here defcribed with the most inftructive and fœtid perfpicuity; and the various effects and fituations of thefe vapours in privies, clofe-ftools, and larger collections of the fubftances in queftion, are accurately enumerated, in confequence of repeated operations and experiments.

The afphixies caufed by lead, which our Author, in confequence of obfervations here related, confiders as effentially dif ferent from all thofe produced by gafes, are accurately defcribed, and divided into claffes, together with the methods hitherto employed as prefervatives against thefe calamities. The formation of currents of air, the proper ufe of fire and ventilators, but above all, the ufe of lime either in powder or in milk, which have been repeatedly tried by Meffrs. Parmentier, Cadet, and Laborie, have not been deftitute of fuccefs, though methods ftill more effectual are at prefent in contemplation. The city of Paris, and other populous French towns, feem to be more infefted with this excremental mephiticism than those of other countries, as would appear by the number of memoirs and pamphlets that are published on this fubject, and the frequent examples of unfortunate goldfinders, who perish in the exercise of their profeffion. It might be curious, though it would be difficult, to afcertain the phyfical or conftitutional caufes of this phenomenon. This difcuffion is too deep for us. From a work, to which the Author refers us*, we should be led to conclude that the French are too prone to throw all kinds of heterogeneous filth into the places destined to receive their secretions and fuperfluities; for in the work now mentioned, which is entitled, Obfervations on Neceffary-houses, the writers obferve, that a variety of these houfes are rendered mephitically dangerous in the highest degree, when accumulated fragments of dead bodies, or large quantities of vegetables, plaifter, or rubbish, are imprudently thrown into them. Above all, fay they, the water of foap-leys thrown into privies, hath terrible effects. Upon this occafion our Author recollects a remarkable fact mentioned by Boyle, Lancifi, and Diemerbroek, relative to the ftrong septical action of foap in the time of a plague. Diemerbroek relates, that, dur ing the terrible plague at Nimeguen, the foap employed in washing linen, always excited the infection of that peftilential disease in those who handled it; that when he himself approached the washing-tub, he was feized with peculiar impreffions of anxiety and difguft; and that in many houfes, which feemed exempt from the contagion, it manifested itself the moment they began to wash and foap their linen. These facts may be useful even to those who, by their cleanlinefs and prudence, seem to be the leaft in need of fuch admonitions.

* Obfervations fur les foffes d'aifance, par Meffieurs CADET, PARMENTIER, et LABORIE.

ART,

« AnteriorContinuar »