"On fome very important fubjects, all the publications, as well thofe which are printed with the Author's name, as those which are anonymous, are entered under the head to which they chiefly, if not immediately belong; for inftance, the articles of Bible, Jews, Subfcription, &c. in THEOLOGY; and America, Eaft Indies, Ireland, &c. in POLITICAL: but this arrangement has not been invariably obferved, as, in the fmaller claffes, it was unneceffary. "In regard to the original Controverfies, all the Anfwers, Replies, Rejoinders, &c. will be found under the name of the AuTHOR, OF TITLE of the leading book. The work of the Writer under whose name it ftands, is diftinguished by the Roman character the titles of the Anfwers, &c. are printed in Italics; and under the Anfwerer's name, his publication will also be found. The anonymous productions of this nature, are, in general, placed under the name of the original Author; or, if it may be fo termed, in the Controversy: for example, Lowth, Kennicott, Middleton, &c. in the Clafs of THEOLOGY; Gibbon, &c. in HISTORY; and Garrick, Chatterton, &c. in POETRY. "Tracts relating to particular or popular characters, are collected under the name of the perfon concerning whom they were written : as in the articles relative to Keppel, Pitt, Wilkes, &c. in the Clafs of POLITICAL publications. "In respect to the Prices of Books and Pamphlets, they are given as they ftand in the Reviews; and it must be observed, that they are fometimes the prices bound, or in boards, or fewed; which it was not poffible to diftinguish, in every inftance, with perfect accuracy. The names of the Bookfellers and Publishers will be found in the Reviews; to which the reader is conftantly directed, by the Firft Volume, or Catalogue part, as we may term it, of this Work. "For the accommodation of those who may wish to know what hath been written by or concerning any particular Author, during the period of the Reviews, an INDEX to ALL the Names is added to the TABLE OF CONTENTS, of which the First Volume confifts. "In the SECOND VOLUME is given an INDEX to the principal Extracts, Obfervations, and remarkable Paffages. As thefe materials could not be fo properly arranged in Claffes as those of the First Volume, they are wholly comprehended under one General Alphabet; and the particulars are literally copied from the original Fndexes, fubjoined to the different Volumes of the Review." To what Mr. A. hath observed, we need only to add one remark, viz. That even to readers who are not poffeffed of fets of the Review, these volumes will be of great ufe, as they may, with ftri&t truth, be affirmed to comprehend the most general, and most com. plete priced Catalogue that ever was offered to the Public. It may be further obferved, with refpect to those whofe fets of the Review are incomplete, that to fuch perfons the publication before us will be found peculiarly useful, as it will, in fome measure, fupply the want of thofe volumes of the Review in which their fets are deficient, and which, perhaps, are no where to be procured.' REV. March, 1786. APPENDIX TO THE MONTHLY REVIEW, VOLUME the SEVENTY-FIFTH. FOREIGN LITERATURE. ART. I. Nouveaux Mémoires de l'Academie Royale, &c. i. e. New Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres of Berlin, for the Year 1783. 4to. Berlin. 1785. T HISTORY OF THE ACADEMY. HE article of Aftronomy, which confifts of extracts from the correfpondence of M. Bernouilli, contains fragments of letters from feveral learned men. The first gives an account of an effay on the elements of the orbit of the new planet (Herfchel's), by the R. F. Fixlmillner, a Benedictin, and profeffor of aftronomy in the Abbey of Cremfmunster in Auftria, It is well known that M. Bode, in his hiftorical effay on the new planet, has concluded, from two obfervations, one by Flamstead, the other by Mayer, that the 34th ftar of Taurus, which he no longer found in the place where it was obferved by the former, in 1690, must be the planet obferved by Herfchel. It is alfo well known, that this conclufion has been called in question by fome of our aftronomers, who think they have recovered the fugitive ftar of Flamstead. M. Bernouilli is, nevertheless, of opinion, that the fuppofition of M. Bode has acquired a new degree of evidence by the refearches of F. Fixlmillner; and he perfifts in his notion that Flamstead and Mayer observed (the one in 1690, and the other in 1756) the planet in question, but took it for a fixed ftar *. He gives here a particular account of these researches. After all, Mr. Herschel's difcovery is still meritorious, as he has rectified an error with refpect to the nature of the ftar in question. The article of Meteorology contains extracts of three letters *For an account of Obfervations made on this planet by Tycho Brahe, who also thought it a fixed star, in the year 1589: See Month. Rev. vol. lxxiii. p. 519. APP. Rev. Vol. LXXV. I i received received by M. Bernouilli from Profeffor Van Swinden. Thefe letters relate to the marine-compaffes of the late M. Brander, (which the learned Profeffor confiders as extremely defective, though he acknowledges the eminent merit of that excellent artist), and to a masterly difcourfe on the aeroftatic balloons, compofed in the Dutch language by the ingenious M. Damen, fince promoted to the chair of natural philofophy and aftronomy in the University of Leyden. In the article of Medicine, the Privy Counsellor, Cothenius, first phyfician to the late King of Pruffia, gives an account of three publications for which that fcience is indebted to Dr. Samoilowitz, furgeon-major to the Senate of Mofcow. The firft is a Letter concerning the falutary effects of frictions with Ice in the cure of the plague and other putrid diforders. The fecond is a Memoir concerning the Inoculation of the Plague; together with a defcription of three antipeftilential fumigatory powders; and the third is an Account of the Plague that made fuch havoc in the Ruffian empire, efpecially in the capital of Mofcow, in 1771. EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY. Mem. I. Experiments made with a View to determine the Queftion, Whether there is a real Production of Air, when different Fluids, reduced to elastic Vapours, pass through Tubes made red hot? By M. ACHARD.. Mem. II. Experiments defigned to afcertain the Circumstances in which Air is produced, when Water, either in its fluid State, or in that of elastic Vapour, comes into Contact with Bodies of a different Nature, made red hot. By the Same. The refult of these experimental researches of M. ACHARD is not favourable to the new hypothefis concerning the compofition of water, first propofed by Mr. Cavendish, and which M. Lavoifier, and other eminent philofophers, have adopted and endeavoured to confirm by a variety of experiments. M. ACHARD publishes his objections under the modeft form of doubts. He thinks that the phenomena which have been employed to prove that water is a combination of dephlogifticated air and inflammable air, proves rather that air refults from the combination of water with the igneous principle. Therefore, according to him, the decompofition of air must produce water, and, confequently, the experiment on which the new theory of the compofition of water is founded, cannot be confidered as a proof that water is compofed of the two kinds of air, from whofe combuftion it is obtained; as the water obtained is not the production, but merely one of the conftituent parts of the mixed air which has undergone combuftion. Long and laborious are the researches and experiments which our academician has exhibited in thefe two memoirs to justify his doubts. Hear him! hear him! and learn, curious reader, how ambiguous experiments and experimental researches are likely to become, when applied to fuch fubtile entities as aeriform fubftances. Mem. Mem. III. & IV. Concerning the Alterations which Earths and metallic Calces undergo by their Fufion with vegetable Alkali. By the Same. Mem. V. An Inquiry into the Nature and Qualities of the red Quinquina, compared with that which has been hitherto employed in medical Practice. By M. CoTHENIUS. His This learned Academician begins his inquiry ab ovo, as the faying is, and gives us a hiftory of this falutary tree, which contains nothing new. account of the chemical procefs employed, under his infpection, to afcertain the refpective merit and virtues of the red bark newly discovered, and that which has been hitherto in ufe, is curious and inftructive. The comparifon is circumftantial, and comprehends every thing relative to the tafte, colour, odour, form, weight, and other qualities of the two fubftances, which both come from a tree of the fame kind. The one is the bark of an older tree; the other the bark of a younger. With respect to their comparative merit, our Academician thinks, that as the red contains a greater quantity of refin and martial earth than the other, its virtues must be fuperior, and proportionably more falutary to perfons of weak conftitutions and lax fibres. His experiments on half a pound of each kind proved to him, that the red bark contained, Of vegetable alkali 22 gr. the other 30 gr. Mem. VI. Experiments made with a defign to determine the two following questions: ift, How the air acts upon fluids, when, by its preffure on their furface, it augments the degree of heat which they acquire in ebullition: and whether a fimilar pressure, occafioned by the weight of another fluid, produces the fame effect, or if it is only produced by fome peculiar property of air, and of elaftic aeriform fluids? 2d, What is the proportion or ratio found between the times in which bodies of the fame nature, and heated in the fame degree, cool in different kinds of air equally warm, but having a degree of heat inferior to that of the bodies? On comparing the refults of thefe experiments, it appears, that there is a palpable difference between the promptitude or celerity with which bodies cool (and confequently in their aptitude to receive and tranfmit heat) in different kinds of air. În fixed air the refrigeration is performed with the greateft celerity: it is much more flow, and nearly equal in common, phlogifticated, and dephlogifticated airs, and it is produced the moft flowly of all in inflammable air. Our Academician thinks, that the proportion between the degrees in which different kinds of air poffefs the property of I i 2 contracting contracting and tranfmitting heat, has a remarkable analogy to that fubfifting between their fpecific gravities; and he fhews the application that may be made of the refults of his experiments to the animal œconomy and the vegetable kingdom. Mem. VII. Experiments made on rotten Wood which shines in the dark. By M. ACHARD. This property of rotten wood is well known ; but the nature and caufe of the light it emits, and the circumftances which make it appear and disappear, have not, according to our Academician, been hitherto ascertained, nor even carefully examined. We have here an account of thirtyone experiments made upon wood in a state of putrefaction; and of these we fhall briefly mention the refults. From feveral of thefe experiments it appeared, that all kinds of wood have the property, when rotten, of fhining, merely by their putrefaction, and their being impregnated with water; but that, in order to their being phofphoric, they must have arrived at that degree of putrefaction in which the ligneous fibres have almost wholly loft their cohesion, and the wood is become as porous as a spunge. From others, M. ACHARD concludes, that the fhining quality of rotten wood cannot proceed from the abforption of the folar rays, as in the Bolognian ftone, nor from a weak combuftion and infenfible inflammation, as in Kunkle's phosphorus, nor from the influence of electricity. His theory is farther confirmed by a variety of experiments, from which it appears, that all fpirituous liquors, oily fubftances, acid, alkaline, or neutral falts, nitre only excepted, deprive fhining rotten wood of its phofphoric properties; which circumftance proceeds from the tendency that all these fubftances have to fufpend putrefaction. It appeared from further experiments, that the light emitted from rotten wood is not fufceptible of decompofition by refraction, and that it cannot pafs through coloured diaphanous mediumswhich latter circumftance M. ACHARD confiders as fingular, and difficult to account for. Mem. VIII. On a new Kind of flexible Stone. By M. GERHARD. The Pietra Elaftica, or elaftic ftone in the Borghefe palace, mentioned by F. Jaquier, the Abbé Fortis, and M. Ferber, as an ancient marble, which enters into effervescence with aqua fortis, and is composed of transparent and cryftalline grains, is already well known by chemifts. The flexible and elaftic ftone, the subject of this memoir, is of a different kind; fimilar indeed to the other in fome of its properties, but poffeffing these properties in a higher degree, and others of a fingular kind, which are not difcernible in the pietra elaftica of M. Ferber. A piece of this ftone, held between one's fingers, may be eafily bent into every form and direction; and when the preffure ceafes, it recovers its natural direction and form with the greatest facility. If a piece, a few inches long, be |