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this island, which stand in the fame degree of affinity to the mulberry and these are the nettle, the box-tree, the birch, and the alder.' This is a mistake: the box, the birch, and the alder are not of the fame natural order with mulberry.

Admitting it as a fact that no other vegetable can ever be fubfituted with advantage, as food for filk worms, Mr. Swayne fays, that, before any attempt to breed them upon an extensive plan can fucceed, it is abfolutely neceffary that the mulberry trees fhould become much more numerous than they are at prefent.' He adds feveral ufeful directions for the speedy propagation of these trees, and recommends to the Society to hold out proper encouragements for raifing them, either from feed, layers, or cuttings.

The next article contains farther experiments confirming the great difficulty of preparing the Giant Hemp. See Rev. vol. Ixxv,

p. 419.

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Under the title COLONIES and TRADE, are two letters from Mr. Mylne, relative to a red earth, lately received from Jamaica. We are informed that it is a kind of Puzzolana,' and that it has been (we fuppofe from actual experiments) found to anfwer extremely well as a fubftitute for Dutch Terras, or Puzzolana earth from Italy; they are all three,' fays our Author, ⚫ volcanic fubftances, and have the fame peculiar qualities.' As Naturalifts, we must differ with Mr. Mylne in attributing peculiar qualities to volcanic fubftances: the lava thrown out by different volcanos are extremely diffimilar, and perhaps have no other peculiar quality than that of having once been in a fluid ftate. With refpect to the Dutch Terras, Mr. Mylne adds, that it is a Tufa ftone;' he meant doubtlefs Tophus, which is by no means a volcanic fubftance, but a concretion, and is generally compounded of calcareous or argillaceous earth.. Whatever this red earth may be, if it is experimentally found to be a good fubftitute for the Italian Puzzolana, now used by our architects, another queftion remains to be folved, viz. Can it be afforded in England, at a cheaper rate than thofe fubftances for which it may be fubftituted? Mr. Mylne fays, On enquiry into the means of bringing it into this country, I find the expence of carriage to the water-fide there, and freight to this country, will prevent the use of it here. I wish it however to be made as public as poffible. It may be of use to the inhabitants of the WeftIndia lands, and fome other of our Colonies.'

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Of the Papers in Agriculture,' we shall give an account in a future Review.

The remainder of the volume contains an account of the rewards adjudged by the Society-Prefents received-Premiums offered-Lifts of the Officers, Members, &c, &c.

[To be continued.]

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ART,

ART. XI. Chemical Effays. By R. Watfon, D. D. F. R. S. Regius Profeffor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge *. Vol. V. izmo. 4s. fewed. Evans. 1787.

IN

IN our review of the fourth volume of thefe Effays, we lamented the lofs which chemistry had fuffered by the conflagration there recorded †; that lofs is, however, in fome small degree, recompenfed by the publication of this 5th volume, which contains feven Chemical Tracts, that have formerly appeared, in collections which are in few hands.

The first is on the Sulphur Wells at Harrogate, and was publifhed in the Philofophical Tranfactions of the Royal Society, vol. lxxvi.; for an account of which we refer our Readers to the Review for March laft, p. 187.

II. Experiments and Obfervations on various Phenomena attending the Solution of Salts; publifhed in vol. Ix. of the fame work, for an account of which, fee Monthly Review, vol. xlvi. p. 432. III. An Efay on the Subjects of Chemistry, and their general Divifion.

This very curious Effay was written about twenty years ago; a few copies of it were printed in 1771, not for general publication, but for private diftribution among friends. Though chemiftry is the principal fubject which the Author here treats, he takes an extenfive view of natural hiftory, and examines with uncommon judgment, the difcriminating characteristics of minerals, vegetables, and animals. His Lordship points out the difficulties which occur in most of the writings of Naturalifts refpecting the diftinguishing marks between animals and vegetables. He rejects, as infufficient, both figure and fpontaneous motion; and if perception be fubftituted in their ftead, it will be found to be a criterion that is in many refpects liable to exceptions. He produces many chemical, phyfical, and metaphyfical reafons, which feem to render the fuppofition not altogether indefenfible, that vegetables are endowed with the faculty of perception. We cannot lay before our Readers the whole of the Author's ingenious arguments to prove the perception of vegetables; and, being written with all the ftrictness of a mathematical demonftration, they admit not of abridgment: we can, therefore, only recommend, to inquifitive Naturalifts, to read the book,-from the perufal of which they will gain much real knowledge; they will perceive the defects and advantages of feveral fyftems; and, at the fame time, they will admire the great ingenuity of the writer.

That animals have perception, and are endowed with the powers of enjoyment, is not, we apprehend, difficult to prove;

* Now Bishop of Landaff. + See Review for Jan. 1787, p. 32.

but

but whether vegetables have or have not these faculties, is one of the many questions frequently occurring to the Naturalift, which it is pleasant to difcufs, but difficult to decide. The arguments in favour of the affirmative fide, which the Bishop here ufes, have, we must acknowledge, convinced us, that plants are not altogether deftitute of perception.

The question then recurs, What are the diftinguishing marks between the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms? We fhall anfwer in his Lordfhip's own words:

It appears probable, yet with reverence and confcious ignorance be it fpoken, that the One Eternal Incomprehenfible God hath eftablished an uninterrupted concatenation in all his works, which he hath fubmitted to our view. Different individuals hath he mingled together into the fame Species; different fpecies into the fame genus; different genera into the fame kingdom; and different kingdoms he hath diftinguished, perhaps, but by lines of divifion too minute for our obfervation. This ftrong analogy, by which men and minerals, and all intermediate existences, are bound together in a common chain, and thence, it would feem, naturally fubjected to a common fate, may appear humiliating to fuch as have been wont to enter tain high notions of the phyfical dignity of human nature; but it cannot offend nor difquiet thofe, who feel within themselves faculties effential to the conftitution of moral agency, and who from thence become capable at leaft of retribution, of punishment, or reward in another state.

In the number of our fenfes, and in the modifications of the intellectual faculties which fpring therefrom, we have a great refemblance to many animals which inhabit this planet as well as we. The genus to which man belongs includes a great many fubordinate Species; or, to fpeak in a manner more conformable to nature, and more confonant to the account we have of its origin, the human fpecies, from the diverfities of climate and of food, from changes introduced by difeafe, and continued, perhaps, by propagation, and from other caufes which are unknown to us, hath been branched out into a great many varieties: thefe, however, are as much dif tinguished in shape and intellect from one another as they are from animals which have fprung from a different flock. Anatomifts, whether they confider the brain as an inftrumental, or an efficient cause of intelligence, are agreed in acknowledging a great refemblance between the contents of the human cranium and thofe of quadrupeds; and Patius hath proved, contrary to the opinion embraced by Pliny, and commonly received, that we have not the medullary fubftance in a greater proportion than other animals. Nor are we characterized by a circumftance generally efleemed eflentially neceffary to the fupport of the human fatus, and exclufively appertaining to our fpecies: nations are mentioned to whom it doth not belong, and whatever degree of credit may be given to that narration, it is certain that a great many fpecies of animals have been discovered to which it doth. Notwithstanding this analogy, by which we are to be claffed with the rest of the animals around us, yet hath it pleafed Him, who called forth from nothing both us and them, and thankful we ought to be for the pre

ference,

ference, to place us at the top of the fcale, to make us, as it were, the first term of a feries, defcending indefinitely by imperceptible gradations, to particularize that clafs of animals to which we belong, by rendering it capable of forming a moral character. This capability, it is true, is various according to the opportunities of, and capacities for receiving inftruction in different species, and in different individuals of the fame fpecies: the Orang-outang of the woods of Java, the apron-bellied Caffre of the Cape, the woollyheaded Negro of Africa, the beardlefs favage of America, the dwarfifh inhabitant of the Frigid Zone, the moon-eyed Albino, and the enlightened European, are as different from one another in this circumstance as in outward form; yet wherever it exifts, even in the fmalleft degree, there arifeth a proportionable imputability of conduct, a kind of title to the natural or covenanted good, a reasonable fubjection to the natural or pofitive evil, which God hath annexed as fanctions to the laws which he hath thought fit to prefcribe for the regulation of the moral conduct of mankind.'

IV. Remarks on the Effects of the Cold in February 1771. Published in the Philofophical Tranfactions for that year; of which we have given a long account, in our Journal, vol. xlviii. p. 221.

V. Account of an Experiment made with a Thermometer, whofe Bulb was painted b'ack, and expofed to the direct Rays of the Sun. Published in the Tranfactions for 1773. See Review, vol. i. P. 481.

VI. Plan of a Courfe of Chemical Lectures. Printed at Cambridge, 1771. This is a fyllabus of the Chemical Lectures which the Profeffor read at Cambridge: the re-publishing it may, by fome people, be thought ufeleis; but we are of a contrary opinion, because it points out the best method of profecuting chemical ftudies. It must be read and confidered with reference to the time when it was written.

VII. Inftitutiones Metallurgica. Printed at Cambridge, in 1768. This tract, written in Latin, was intended as a textbook for that part of the Chemical Lectures which explained the properties of metallic fubftances. It confifts of propofitions, or aphorifms, the truth of which was to be demonftrated in the lectures, by experiments.

This is the only tract in Latin, on the fubject of chemistry, which the Author has published in thefe volumes. It is pure and elegant, due allowance being made for technical terms, and scientific language. The perufal of it makes us the more regret the fate of feveral other Latin treatifes, viz. De Aere communi, fixo, inflammabile, &c. de Igne; de Aqua; de Terra calcaria, vitrefcibile, &c. which his Lordship lays formed a conpected series of all that was then fcientifically known in chemistry,'

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ART.

ART. XII. Mary Queen of Scots vindicated. By John Whitakef B. D. Author of the Hillory of Manchefter; and Rector of Ruan Lanyhorne, Cornwall. 8vo. 3 Vols. 18s. Boards. Murray.

O portion of modern hiftory has been involved in greater obfcurity than that of Mary Queen of Scots; and to inveftigate the causes of this circumftance, might prove, perhaps, a curious fpeculation. That opinions fhould have differed concerning the characteristic peculiarities of this beautiful princess, during her life, is not indeed furprifing. The minds of men were at that time fo much inflamed by religious enthusiasm, that each party was difpofed to view the individuals of an oppofite fect as wretches, devoid of principle, and prone to every kind of depravity and wickednefs; while all who profeffed to believe in the fame tenets with themselves, were held up to the world, as poffeffing every virtue which can ennoble or dignify mankind. Mary, who poffeffed a natural firmnefs of mind, that was not inclined to waver long, undecided, on any occafion, was, in a particular manner, fteady in regard to her religious principles. Impreffed with the fulleft conviction of the rectitude of the Roman Catholic faith, in which the had been educated, and unconscious of any principle in her own breaft that should ever make her afhamed openly and candidly to avow her opinions, fhe, with a confcientious fincerity, difdained even to bend to the prevailing spirit of the times, in her own dominions; or to adopt, from political confiderations, any of thofe deceitful arts which were fo much in fashion with other princes, in that turbulent age. For thefe reafons, it was impoffible but the muft have been held in deteftation by the great body of the reformed, by whom her conduct was mifreprefented to the people; her lenity was attributed to infidious policy; and every virtue was diftorted, till it appeared, at a diftance, to be its oppofite vice. She was then exhibited by the Calvinifts as a monfter of iniquity: -while, by the Catholics, fhe was held up as the model of all perfection. This was what might naturally be expected to take place at the time; but that men fhould have continued almost as much divided about the real character of this princess for near two centuries, and long after thofe enthufiaftic fervours had fubfided, feems to be wonderful indeed!-Such a ftriking peculiarity could only have been occafioned by fome great and fingular combination of circumftances, which every thinking mind will, now, naturally wifh to fee fully unveiled.

To oblige the world with a diftin&t view of fome of the dark tranfactions of that period, is the aim of the interesting work before us; and juftice requires us to acknowledge, that if Mr. Whitaker has not been able to difplay every particular of these momentous tranfactions with the full clearness of legal and ju

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