Abbé de St Leger; Lambinet's Recherches, historiques, litteraires, et critiques sur l'Origine de l'Imprimerie; M. Serna Santander's Essai Historique, prefixed to his Dictionnaire Bibliographique; Lichtenberger's Initia Typographica and Ottley's Inquiry into the Origin and Early History of Engraving.

The establishment and progress of printing, in particular countries and places, is likewise an object of curiosity to the Bibliographer. The books which our author recommends on this subject are Ames's Typographical Antiquities, which contains memoirs of the early English printers, with a register of their publications from 1471 to 1600. It was first published in 1749, in one volume quarto; a second edition, enlarged by Mr Herbert to three volumes quarto, appeared in 1790; and a third, illustrated with superb embellishments, and containing some valuable additions by Mr Dibdin, is now in course of publication. For an account of the typographical histories of France, Germany, and Italy, we are referred to Peignot's Repertoire Bibliographique Univer

sel.

The next thing mentioned, as requisite to the Bibliographer, is a knowledge of the different classes and bodies of letters used by printers, and of the corresponding appellations assigned to the different bodies by printers of different countries. The books recommended on these points are Stower's Printer's Grammar, and Fournier's Manuel Typographique.

In treating of the forms of books, our author very briefly adverts to the method practised among the ancients, of rolling up their books on a cylinder of wood, to the ends of which nobs or balls were affixed, often richly ornamented. In the present article, the attention of the author is chiefly directed to the various forms in which books have appeared since the origin of printing; from an imperfect knowledge of which, essential errors have arisen with regard to particular editions. The circumstance from which these mistakes generally proceed is, that different sizes of paper are comprehended under the same name. A test is afforded by the water-lines in the sheets, as, in folio and octavo sizes, they are uniformly perpendicular, and horizontal in quartos and duo

VOL. I.

decimos. Some useful remarks are given with regard to the particulars which may give one edition of a book a preference to another.

Under the second head, a description is given of the books which, in the first rude efforts at printing, were impressed with solid wooden blocks. The editio princeps of the Bible, printed at Mentz between the years 145055, was the first book of any considerable magnitude, printed with moveable metallic types. On the subject of early printed books, the following works are recommended: Laire's Index librorum ab inventa typographia ad annum 1500, cum notis; Santander's Dictionnaire Bibliographique choisi du quinzieme siecle; Bibliotheca Spenceriana, a descriptive catalogue of the books published in the fifteenth century in the library of Earl Spencer, by Dibdin; Maittaire's Annules Ty pographici ab Artis inventa origine; Annales Typographici ab Artis inventa origine, ad annum 1500, post Maittaire, Denisii, aliorumque emendati, et Aucti; Opera S. W. Pauzer. We regret that our limits will not permit us to follow the learned author through the instructive details into which he enters on the remaining branches of his subject.

Upon the whole, we consider this as the most judicious and enlightened treatise that we have had the good fortune to meet with on the subject of Bibliography.

The article BILLS OF MORTALITY displays a perfect knowledge of the subject. The author, Mr Joshua Milne, Actuary to the Sun Life Assur ance Society, has already distinguished himself by his masterly Treatise on Annuities and Assurances, and his situation and habits of inquiry furnish the best security for the correctness of his views, and the accuracy of his information on the subject of the present article. The plan which he lays down, and which he follows out with great ability, is, " to give a brief history of the principal things that have been done in this way;-to notice some of the principal mortuary registers, and enumerations of the peo ple;-to point out some of the prin cipal defects in most of the published registers and enumerations;-and lastly, to submit some forms, according to which, if enumerations be made, and registers kept, they will be easily

H

convertible to useful purposes." The conclusion of the article, which contains these forms, we would recommend as particularly worthy the attention of all, who, either from interest or curiosity, are desirous of ob taining regular data for determining the law of human mortality.

Under the article BLASTING will be found a minute and accurate account of the method employed by quarriers and miners in blasting asunder rocks by the force of gunpowder. We are happy to observe, that the author, whose opportunities of observation are such as few individuals can boast, recommends the practice of wadding with sand as equally efficient with the common method, while it exposes the workmen to much less personal risk.

The articles BLEACHING, BREW4 ING, and BRICK-MAKING, are contributed by a gentleman, who, if he has been excelled by another chemist in the brilliancy and success of his experiments, is second to none in a profound knowledge of chemical science; while his extensive attainments would have raised him to eminence in any department of philosophy or literature. The departure of this gentleman from Edinburgh we have ever regretted as a serious loss to the lovers of science in this city; though we trust it has been of advantage to himself as, by extending his labours over a wider sphere, it has materially advanced the general interests of learning. Of his indefatigable exertions in the pursuit of truth, we have two very remarkable instances towards the commencement of the article BLEACHING. Mr. Parkes, in his essay on Bleaching, (Chemical Essays, Vol. IV.) affirms, that it is stated by Theophrastus, that lime was used by the ancients in bleaching; and that a ship, partly loaded with linen, and partly with water for bleaching it, was destroyed by the accidental access of water to the lime. "We endeavoured, with some pains," says Dr Thomson, " to verify this quotation; and for this purpose, turned over all the writings of Theophrastus with which we are acquainted, without being able to find any thing bearing the least allusion to it. We have doubts whether lime could be employed as a detergent of linen, without injuring the texture of the

cloth, and, on that account, it would have gratified us exceedingly to have found such a statement in so respectable and correct a writer as Theophrastus." It is well known that the first important improvement made in the process of bleaching in this country, was the substitution of water, acidulated with sulphuric acid, in place of the buttermilk previously employed. Some years after, in consequence of the experiments which had been made by Scheele on manganese, mixed with muriatic acid, a new modification of that acid was discovered, which possessed the property of destroying vegetable colours. To this substance, Scheele gave the name of dephlogisticated muriatic acid. Berthollet, who, in 1785, repeated the experiments of Scheele, discovered that this substance was a compound of muriatic acid and oxygen. He, therefore, gave it the name of oxygenated muriatic acid, which was afterwards shortened into oxymuriatic acid, the appellation by which it is still known among bleachers. Its property of destroying vegetable colours led Berthollet to suspect that this acid might be introduced with advantage into the art of bleaching, the process of which it would greatly shorten. In April 1785, he read a paper on this acid before the Academy of Sciences at Paris, in which he mentions, that he had tried the effect of the acid in bleaching cloth, and found that it answered completely. The following year, he exhibited the experiment be fore Mr Watt, who, on returning to England, commenced a practical examination on the subject, and was, accordingly, the person who first introduced the new method of bleaching into Great Britain. Yet Mr Parkes, in the essay before mentioned, states, that in the early part of the year 1787, Professor Copland of Aber- · deen accompanied the present Duke of Gordon to Geneva, and was shewn by M. de Saussure the dissolving property of oxymuriatic acid. Struck with the importance of the experiment, Mr Copland, on his return to Aberdeen, in July 1787, repeated it before some eminent bleachers in his neighbourhood. These gentlemen were Messrs Mylne, of the house of Gordon, Barron, and Company, Aberdeen. They immediately began the application of the process to the

bleaching of linen on a great scale; and Mr Parkes assures us, that they were the first persons. To be enabled to decide with certainty on these rival claims, Dr Thomson applied to Mr Watt himself. Fortunately, that gentleman had preserved copies of all his letters since 1782, taken by means of his copying machine. Dr Thomson being allowed to peruse all such as bore any reference to the subject in question, found two which set the matter at rest. The one, dat ted March 19, 1787, is to his fatherin-law, Mr Macgregor, and contains a particular detail of the new bleaching process, states its advantages, and says that he had sent to Mr Macgre gor a quantity of the whitening liquor. In the other, addressed to Berthollet, and dated May 9, 1787, he mentioned the proportion of acid and alkali which he employed, and the process which he followed in preparing the cloth. As the date of both these letters is some months prior to Mr Copland's return from the Continent, it is clear that Saussure has no claim to the original discovery, nor Mr Copland to the first introduction of the new process into Great Britain.

These two instances may serve to prove Dr Thomson's industry in collecting facts for the purpose of ascertaining the truth; indeed, it is impossible to conceive any thing more truly philosophical than the spirit with which all his investigations are conducted. We cannot now follow him through this and the other articles which bear his signature, but must content ourselves with giving a hasty sketch of the plan which he pursues in each. In the commencement of the article Bleaching, he states that his business is merely to supply the defects of the article in the Encyclopaedia. These are chiefly two; 1. A very incomplete historical detail of the improvements in bleaching, at least as far as this country is concerned. 2. The omission of any description of the present mode of bleaching, as practised by the most enlightened manufacturers of Great Britain. After a very clear account of the progress of the new method of bleaching in this country, Dr Thomson mentions the ingredients from which the oxymuriatic acid is obtained, and the proportions of these ingredients recommend

ed by different persons. The proportions which he himself recommends as the most economical and advantageous are, 2 parts sulphuric acid, 2 parts water, 1 part common salt, and 1 part black oxide of manganese. He next proceeds to describe the present methods employed in the bleaching of linen, the bleaching of cotton, and the bleaching of rags for the papermaker; for all of which we must refer our readers to the article itself, which will fully satisfy their curiosity.

The article BREWING we consider particularly valuable; it is indeed the only satisfactory account of that im portant account which has hitherto been published. The author divides it into five chapters. In the first he gives a short history of the art; in the second he gives an account of the different kinds of grain employed in brewing, and terminates the chapter by a table, exhibiting the most remarkable properties of a considerable number of specimens of British barley and big, as determined by his own observations; in the third he treats of the process of malting, and to this chapter likewise he subjoins two va-. luable tables, which exhibit, in ene view, the result of a considerable num-. her of trials which he made on malt.. ing different varieties of grain ; in the fourth chapter he treats of brewing,-. terminating this chapter too with a table, exhibiting the results obtained by brewing with malt made from a considerable number of different varieties of barley and big; in the fifth chapter he gives an account of the nature and properties of the different kinds of ale and beer manufactured by.. the brewer,-here, again, we are presented with a table, exhibiting the quantity of porter brewed by the thirteen principal houses in London during the last nine years, and thus giving an accurate conception of the extent to which the porter trade is car-. ried on in the metropolis. The explanation of plates subjoined to the whole contains a description of the vessels used in a London porter brewery.

In the article BRICK-MAKING, he begins, as usual, with a short history of the art; he then mentions the na ture and kinds of clay employed; next the preparation of the clay and formation of the brick; then the burning. Under the last head, he

informs us, that he saw, at some of the iron founderies in Sweden, furnaces constructed of the scoriæ cast into bricks, which answered fully better than common bricks. "It would be easy," says he, "to make any quantity of such bricks in some of the large iron founderies of Great Britain. We are persuaded that such br cks might be brought into use for a variety of purposes, with great advantage, and might even constitute a lucrative article of manufacture. Bricks made from the scoria of iron and copper founderies, would vie in beauty with marble and porphyry, and would possess a smoothness of surface, and a lustre, to which few marbles could reach." This hint, we trust, will not be neglected.

The articles BLOCKADE, BLOCKMACHINERY, BLOW-PIPE, BLOWINGMACHINES, and BORING, will be found to give very able and satisfactory accounts of their respective subjects. These, however, we cannot now stop to notice. We hasten to give some account of the article BoTANY, communicated by the learned president of the Linnean Society. It is difficult to say whether it is more valuable for the important information which it communicates, or pleasing from the graceful style in which that information is conveyed. In the fourth volume of the Encyclopædia, a general view had been given of the celebrated system of Linnæus, including the generic characters, as well as some of the specific differences of most plants then discovered, with their qualities and uses. The supplementary article exhibits a view of the subject more adapted to the progress and present state of the science. Within the last thirty years, botany has been so generally and so ardently cultivated, that it has been elevated from a dry systematic detail of classification and nomenclature, into a philosophical and practical study. How much the able author of this article has contributed to so important a change, is known to all who are in any degree conversant with the recent history of botany. Of the plan which he proposes to himself in the present short but masterly treatise, we dare not attempt an account in any other words than his own. "The different modes in which different nations or schools have cultivated this science,

the circumstances which have led some botanists to the investigation of certain subjects more than others, and the particular success of each, may prove amusing and instructive objects of contemplation. In this detail, the history of scientific botany will appear under a new aspect, as rather an account of what is doing, than what is accomplished. The more abstruse principles of classification will be canvassed, and the attention of the student may incidentally be recalled to such as have been neglected, or not sufficiently understood. The natural and artificial methods of classification having been, contrary to the wise intention of the great man who first distinguished them from each other, placed in opposition, and set at variance, it becomes necessary to investigate the pretensions of each. The natural method of Linnæus may thus be compared with his artificial one; and, as the competitors of the latter have long ceased to be more than objects of mere curiosity, we shall have occasion to shew how much the rivals of the former are indebted to both In the progress of this inquiry, the writer, who has lived and studied among the chief of these botanical polemics, during a great part of their progress, may occasionally find a clue for his guidance, which their own works would not supply. No one can more esteem their talents, their zeal, and the personal merits of the greater part, than the author of these pages; but no one is more independent of theoretical opinions, or less dazzled by their splendour, even when they do not, as is too often the case, prove adverse to the discovery of truth. Nor is he less anxious to avoid personal partiality. Incorruptam fidem professis, nec amore quisquam, et sine odio, dicendus est.”

In the very limited sketch to which, in notices of this kind, we must necessarily confine ourselves, we can impart to our reader but a faint idea of the delight with which we have accompanied our author, while, in pursuance of this plan, he has traced, with equal erudition and judgment, the causes which paved the way for the general reception of the Linnæan system, and the various improvements for which the science is indebted to the labours of subsequent cultivators ; and the adventiticus circumstances,

which render botany almost a different sort of study in different parts of the habitable globe. We were about to attempt an analysis of this admirable article, but soon discovered that it was quite impossible to do it any justice, without transcribing almost the whole. So valuable are the observations of this distinguished writer, that we cannot make a selection without perplexity, and without regret for omitting what seems equally entitled to be quoted; while his style is already so concise, though flowing, and his materials so compactly arranged, as nearly to defy all farther condensation. But whoever wishes to obtain a clear and comprehensive view of the recent history of Botany,-of the comparative merits of its improvers, and of the schools in which it has been cultivated,-will derive much satisfaction from the perusal of this treatise ;-in which, not the least interesting object is the author himself,-looking round in calm enlightened review on the wide field in which he himself has laboured with such ardour and success,-imparting with impartial and unerring hand to its numerous cultivators their due meed of praise, correcting their errors,-collecting in a judicious arrangement the results of their several exertions, and removing every obstruction to the perfection of this elegant science,

The article BREAKWATER, Written by Mr Barrow, one of the Secretaries of the Admiralty, contains an interesting account of the repeated attempts made by the French Government to render the port of Cherbourg a safe station for ships of the line by means of a Breakwater; that is, an insulated dike of stones so placed as to obstruct and break the waves of the sea, and thus to convert a dangerous anchorage into a safe and commodious harbour. The result of all these attempts, which have been carried on at an enormous expence, is, that at present small spots only of that dike are visible above the surface of the sea at low water of spring-tides, and nowhere do these spots exceed three feet in height; the intermediate spaces are from 3 to 15 feet below the surface; and, taking the average, the whole dike, from one end to the other, may be about four feet below the surface of low water at the spring-tides. It is sufficiently high, however, to

break the force of the waves, and to make the port of Cherbourg, in some. winds, a safe anchorage for about 40 sail of the line. One of the grandest of Bonaparte's magnificent projects, was to establish a large dock-yard at Cherbourg, not merely for repairing, but also for constructing ships of war of the largest class; to dig a basin capable of containing 50 or 60 sail of the line; to construct dry-docks and slips for building and repairing, and to make it a naval port of the first rank. The basin was completed in 1813, at the expence of L. 3,000,000 Sterling. A wet-dock of the same magnitude, communicating with it, was then commenced, and is now in progress. The Breakwater in Plymouth Sound is constructed on sounder principles than that of Cherbourg, with less machinery, and fewer people. Compared in extent and dimensions with that of Cherbourg, it is only in the ratio of about one to four. This great national undertaking was first projected in 1806, at the suggestion of Lord St Vincent, but was strangely neglected till Mr Yorke was called to preside at the Board of Admiralty. The first stone of this great work was laid on the 12th August 1812; and on the 31st March 1813, the Breakwater made its first appearance above the surface of the Sound, at low water of the spring-tide. The total expence of this grand undertaking was originally estimated at L. 1,171,100,-the total sum expended, up to the 12th August 1816, was L. 364,000; and as the work may be considered as more than half completed, it will be finished considerably within the original estimate. To those who know the importance of Plymouth harbour, as a station for watching the enemy's fleet at Brest, and at the same time its insecurity as an anchorage for ships of the line, from its exposed situation, and the heavy swell that almost constantly rolled in, especially when the wind blew fresh from the south-west to south-east, it must be gratifying to learn, that its good effects have already equalled the most sanguine expectations.

The article BRIDGE exhibits an admirable view of the scientific and practical principles on which the structure of bridges depends. It is divided into the two heads of physico-mathematical principles, subservient to the