by other means, which are found by experience full as capable of affording fuch gratification. It fets out with a language to the higheft degree artificial, a conftruction of measured words, fuch as never is, nor ever was ufed by man. Let this measure be what it will, whether hexameter, or any other metre ufed in Latin or Greek, or rhyme, or blank-verfe, varied with paufes and accents, in modern languages, they are all equally removed from nature, and equally a violation of common fpeech."

As the poets are allowed to elevate their ftyle, and afpire at fublimity, so painters have the privilege of aggrandizing their fubject, and of giving to nature fuch adventitious ornaments as are fuitable to the occafion, and not ridiculous in themselves. It is a too flavifh imitation, and the want of introducing bold and animated ftrokes, which forcibly addrefs the imagination, and excite, in the attentive beholder, ideas of grandeur and fublimity, that ought to be guarded againft. This ftrict attention to mere nature neceffarily controuls the hand of a painter; it reftrains him from exhibiting what is great, and addreffing the feelings, which is in reality the true object of the art; and that artift, who has been the most happy in producing this effect, bas always acquired a fuperior reputation, has been univerfally admired by the Public at large, and juftly praised by the dif cerning critic.

ART. XI. A concife Account of the Kingdom of Pegu; its Climate, Produce, Trade, Government, and Inhabitants. With an Enquiry into the Caufe of the Variety obfervable in the Fleeces of Sheep in different Climates, and a Defcription of the Caves of Elephanta, Ambola, and Canara. The whole being the Ref It of Obfervations made on a Voyage performed by Order of the Eaft India Company. By W. Hunter, A. M. Surgeon. 8vo. 55. Calcutta printed, and fold by Sewell in London.

HOSE fouthern parts of Afia, ufually diftinguished in

Europe by the general name of East Indies, are of fuch immenfe extent, and are, in general, fo little known to Europeans, that every attempt which tends to difcover the nature of any part of thofe regions will be favourably received by all lovers of knowledge. Mr. Hunter lays before the Public what informa-. tion he was able to collect concerning the kingdom of Pegu, during a short refidence in that country, in the year 1782; and it appears that he improved his time to the belt advantage. The ample title-page renders any further enumeration of the Contents unneceffary, and we have only to add, that the account is pain, concife, and bears every mark of authenticity.

The country, toward the coaft, is flat and fertile; annually covered with water, during the rainy feafon. The inhabitants, we are told, are numerous, brave, pofleffing great ftrength of body, and capable of fuftaining fatigue: yet the climate is as warm and fultry, as are moft other tropical regions. This is a

proof

proof of the futility of that general theory, so often repeated by one writer after another, of the over-ruling influence of warm climates, in relaxing and enfeebling the human frame.

Many articles of commerce are found in Pegu; the most valuable of which is Teak wood, for fhip-building; in which art the natives are very expert.

This fmall kingdom has been for fome time past subject to the more powerful kingdom of Ava, in its neighbourhood; the fovereigns of which country have hitherto been extremely cautious of permitting Europeans to obtain any fettlement among them.

In the Appendix, Mr. H. hazards a conjecture on the manner in which hair and wool (which he confiders as of the fame nature) are produced; with a view to account for the greater degree of coarfenefs in the wool grown in warm climates, when compared with the wool of the fame fheep in cold climates. His theory is, that hairs are an animal fecretion, rather than an organized production, of the fame nature with the fpider's draught and the filk-worm's thread; that the matter proper for forming thefe different fubftances, in iffuing from the body of the animal that produces them, paffes through certain fmall orifices formed by nature for that purpofe in the fkin, as wire, in the drawing, at the mill, paffes the holes in the wire-plate. If this be admitted, it muft follow, that whatever dilates the hole whence the hair iffues, muft neceffarily render the filament coarfer. And, fays he, as heat expands the bulb that forms the root of the hair, and dilates the hole through which the hair muft pafs, that hair must of course be thicker which is produced in warm than in cold cliIt muft alfo, he fays, be thinner; for thefe bulbs being very numerous, when fome of them are much dilated, they will comprefs the others, and thus prevent the fecretion, and confequently the growth of hair from them.'

We are afraid the Author will find fome difficulty in defending the above ingenious hypothefis, on philofophical principles; and though fome facts feem ftrongly to fupport it, others, we fufpect, will be found that do not at all accord with it. With refpect to wool of fheep, it has indeed been clearly proved, that the thickness of each separate filament (for we do not choose to call it hair) varies in different parts of its length, according to the heat or coldness of the feafon when it was produced, that part of the filament being thickeft which is produced during warm weather, and vice verfa*. This fact feems entirely to confirm Mr. Hunter's theory; but we have often remarked, that along with that very wool, in many cafes, is produced a kind of hair entirely diftinct from the wool, which is always fmalleft at

* VideObfervations on the Means of exciting a Spirit of national Induftry,' p. 108.

the

the point, though the wool which grows at the fame time is ufually the reverfe. The fame may be obferved of the briftly hairs which cover the fur of beavers, and many other animals: in fhort, there feems to be here a diftinction that has escaped the notice of our theorift, and to which he would do well to ad

vert.

There is yet another diftinction refpecting fubftances of this clafs that should be attended to. Some kinds of hair, or fur, are annual productions; and others, moft certainly, are perennial. The wool of fheep is of the first clafs, as is probably the fort hair of horses, and fome other domeftic animals, though the long hairs which conftitute the mane and tail are as evidently perennial, as thefe encrease in length from year to year, perhaps as long as the animal lives, accidents excepted. The hairs of this laft kind feem to be uniformly of one thickness, throughout their whole length, and do not appear to be affected by the variations of climate; though, in the human fpecies at leaft, the hairs of the head feem to grow thicker by age. On the other hand, the fhorter hairs of moft animals, as horfes, dogs, &c. are always fmaller towards the point than the root; which, as we have already obferved, is, in general, the reverfe with respect to the wool of fheep. We have thrown out these hints, merely to induce others to profecute this investigation.

The Caverns in Elephanta, defcribed in this effay, are arti feial works of a very fingular conftruction: for which we refer the curious Reader to the work itself. See alfo Mr. Hunter's Account of thefe enormous Excavations, in the 7th volume of the Archæologia; or our Review, vol. lxxiv. p. 269.

ART. XII. An Effay on Phlogifton and the Conftitution of Acids. By Richard Kirwan, Efq. F. R. S. and most of the Learned Societies in Europe. 8vo. 3s. 6d. Boards. Elmfley. 1787.

MONG natural bodies, fome are capable of being kindled,

or of producing flame, and confequently of augmenting and supporting, by means of the air, artificial or common fire; while others become hot, red, or luminous, but are incapable of fupporting or increafing the fire in which they are placed. Chemifts have diftinguished these two kinds of bodies by the names of combustible and incombustible, and have perceived that the inflammability of the former depended on a principle which was wanting in the latter. Beccher, a German metallurgift, of great fagacity, was, we believe, the firft who bestowed on this principle. the name of phlogiston, which he fuppofed to be a dry earth. The celebrated Stahl adopted and extended this doctrine, and formed a theory, which happily illuftrated moft of the chemical pheRomena, and produced a variety of curious and ufeful difcoveries.

This theory, which has been univerfally received throughout Eu rope for these last fifty years, was founded on the hypothefis that combustible bodies contained fome fubftance which the incom buftible do not; but chemifts were never able to exhibit this fubftance in a separate state, and by that means to prove their hypothefis a true one. M. Lavoifier reverfed this hypothefis, and proved by experiments, that the remains of combuftible bodies after burning, and of metals after calcination, contain a subftance which they did not contain before. Dr. Priestley, on the other hand, inferred from a variety of experiments, that inflammable air was the phlogifton of Beccher and Stahl; and confequently that it was no longer to be regarded as a mere hypothetical fubftance, fince he how exhibited it in a separate state. Mr. Cavendish's discovery concerning the compofition of water, furnished new explanations for the doctrine of phlogifton. If water be compounded, fay the antiphlogistians, of inflammable and pure air, then water will burn. A controverfy now arofe, for a general account of which we refer our Readers to the Monthly Review for April 1785, p. 241, and for May 1786, p. 321. The debate is at prefent confined to a few points; namely, whether the inflammable principle exifts, or is to be found in phlogifticated acids, vegetable acids, fixed air, fulphur, phosphorus, fugar, charcoal, and metals.

Mr. Kirwan. is aware that many ftrong prejudices favour the new opinion, which he calls the anti-phlogistic hypothefis, and its fupporters anti-phlogiftians, not by way of obloquy, but to prevent circumlocution. He feems to have laid afide all prejudices, and he endeavours, by diligent inquiries, to fhew the infufficiency of the new opinion for explaining the various chemical phenomena.

As he has, in this work, frequent occafion to calculate the weight of different kinds of air, he appropriates the first section to a defcription of the methods which he ufed to afcertain their refpective weights. For the weight of common air, which is his ftandard, the Author is indebted to the very accurate experiments of Sir George Shuckburgh, who found the length of a column of air equiponderant to a column of mercury's of an inch long. For the methods in which the Author found the weights of the other airs, we refer to the experiments, which cannot be abridged; but we fhall give his useful table of the abfolute weight of 100 cubic inches of different kinds of air at a mean height of the barometer and thermometer, and their proportions to common air. This table would have been more complete had Mr. Kirwan added another column, fhewing their proportion to water, the standard which other natural philofophers have commonly used; we fhall fupply it:

Mr. Kirwan next treats on the compofition of acids. He exam mines Lavoifier's doctrine of all acids being compounded of two principles, namely the peculiar acid bafts, and the oxygeneous principle; he gives that philofopher's table of the affinities of the oxygeneous principle, and makes fome juft objections to it. The acids, which Mr. Kirwan more particularly examines, are the vitriolic, nitrous, marine, aqua regia, faccharine, and phosphoric. The vitriolic acid confifts, according to the new theory (confidered abftractedly from the water which it always contains), of fulphur united with a large portion of oxygeneous principle; according to Mr. Kirwan, it confifts of a bafis, which, when faturated with phlogifton, conftitutes fulphur; when faturated with fixed air, it becomes fixed vitriolic acid; and when with both, volatile vitriolic acid. For this view of volatile acid, Mr. K. acknowledges himself indebted to M. Bertholet; and fays, it seems to be the only improvement made in its theory fince the days of Stahl. A number of experiments are brought to fupport this opinion, and refute that of the antiphlogiftians.

To give a minute detail of what Mr. Kirwan has advanced on the compofition of nitrous acid, would much exceed our bounds. He makes the conftituent principles of it to be, fixed, dephlogisticated, phlogisticated, and inflammable air, all in their concrete ftate. After the enumeration of several experiments to prove the prefence of phlogifton in this acid, Mr. Kirwan proceeds to examine the celebrated experiment of M. Lavoifier, which firft gave rife to the antiphlogiftic theory. It appeared in the Paris Memoirs for 1776, and was noticed in the Appendix to our 65th volume, p. 491. The Academician added 1104 grains of mercury to 945 of nitrous acid: the produce was 273.234 cubic inches of nitrous air, and, by diftilling the falt to drynefs with a frong heat, the whole of the mercury was revived, and 287.742 inches of dephlogifticated air apprared. Hence M. Lavoifier concluded, ift, Fhat the nitrous acid was wholly decompofed into two Species of air. 2diy, That, the mercury being revived without Rav. Sept. 1787.

Q