ART. VII. JACOBI DICKSON, Fafciculus Secundus Plantarum Cryp togamicarum Britanniæ. 40. pp. 31, and 3 Plates. 45. Nicol.

*790.

THIS indefatigable author here prefents to the public a fecond

golden work. A fupplement to the labours of his great leader, Dillenius, is a work that requires a fingular share of induftry, acutenefs, and ability. How well Mr. Dickfon is qualified for this tafk, appears in every page.

The Cryptogamic clafs, from the minuteness of its objects, muft neceffarily abound with peculiar difficulties; and when will the complete knowlege of them be gained? The question ittelf is idle. This knowlege has been furprifingly forwarded by Mr. Dickfon, and it is not to be doubted that it will continue to advance under fuch able guidance. The first Fasciculus exhibited eighty-three fpecies; here are ninety-eight more. Such large additions to all that Mr. Hudfon and others have done, must be of great fervice; neither can it be fuppofed that there will be room for a great many more. In the mean time, Mr. Dickfon has our molt hearty wishes for encouragement to proceed. Indeed, the very able and neat manner in which he executes his work, will fecure to him every comfort of that fort; and it must be no fmall gratification to him, as well as incentive to. carry on his endeavours as far as poffible,, to be handed down to pofterity, as the fellow-labourer with Dillenius.

The fpecimens figured in this Fafciculus are, in general, well chofen.-For Fafcic. I. fce our 73d vol. p. 373.

ART VIII. A Collection of Dried Plants, named on the Authority of the Linnæan Herbarium, and other original Collections, by James Dickien, Fellow of the Linnean Society. Fafciculus II. Price 12 s. Printed for the Author. 1790.

THI

HIS Fafciculus is dedicated to Thomas Woodward, Efq; of Bungay, in Suffolk, a gentleman well known in the botanical world. It contains, Scirpus mucronatus, Agroftis ferotina, Campanula rhomboidalis, & Allionii-Aldrovanda veficulefa, Anthericum calyculatum--Juncus filiformis, & fpicatus, Daphne collina,-A-reftema Flos Jovis, Dryas octopetala, Orobanche ramofa, Trifolium Alpinum, After Alpinus, Arnica Montana, Carex Bellardi, fetida & tomentofa-Salix reticulata, Acroflichum Septentrionale, Lycopodium Alpinum-Bryum rigidum, & tortuofum, Lichen frigidus, & croccus.

Mr. Dickfon, in his advertitement prefixed, mentions that -feveral of his purchafers have defined him to confine his work

to

to fuch plants as are natives of Great Britain; and that he intends to do fo after the first three or four Fafciculi. He has, it feems, provided himself, at a large expence, with plants not found in this country, especially many of M. Allioni's Flora Pedemontana, not defcribed by any author. Thefe, he hopes, will not be unacceptable to any one-they certainly will not:-but we must add, that the advice of his purchasers was very good; and we hope he will attend to it as foon as poffible. We likewife would fuggeft a hint, that a very large portion of thefe natives fhould be of the curious Cryptogamia. For the 1ft part of this collection, fee Review, vol. lxxxi. p. 113.

ART. IX. Plantarum Icones hactenus inedita, plerumque ad Plantas in Herbario Linnæano confervatas delineate Auctore Jacobo Edvardo Smith, M. D. &c. &c. Fafciculus II. Folio. il. I s, Boards. White, &c. 1790.

IT is with pleasure that we announce to our readers the publication of this fecond Fafciculus: for it rarely happens that we meet with a work fo original and fo useful. We do not befitate to declare, that, if it is carried on with the fame fidelity and originality, and with the fame freedom from every fpecies of author-craft, which fo eminently mark thefe volumes, it will be allowed to be one of the molt fcientific publications that has ever been prepared. More original figures have been already given, than oftentimes are to be found in whole voluminous compilations of modern authors. We think

it our duty to fay thus much of Dr. Smith's indufry and ability.

The Doctor feems engaged in a difpute with Monf. Lamarck, a writer of fome note in the Encyclopedie.-We are forry when we fce men of eminence contending, as feems to be M. Lamarck's cafe, for punctilios and etiquette. Their office is to contend in the fearch and the proof of truth; and a contention of this fort fhould be founded in folid and liberal argument, and not in afperity. It is, however, to be alleged, that Dr. Smith, fitting as it were in the chair of the great Linné, is called on to affert his privilege with due authority. As the attack was made on him, he has a right to repel it with the best means in his power; and there are few readers who will not take part with the Doctor in the following expoftulation: Nequeo fatis mirari quamobrem ifte egregius vir adeo irafcatur mihi. Cur non ftudiis liceat alterutri fuis incumbere, quin alteri impedimento effe neceffe videatur? At quid plura? Neque hæc dixiffem, nifi ifte me temere PRIOR laceffiviffet.'

M 3

The

For the first Fafciculus, fee Review, vol. lxxxi. p. 112.

ART. X. The Secret Hiftory of the Court of Berlin; or, The Character of the prefent King of Pruffia, his Minifters, Miftreffes, Generals, Courtiers, Favourites, and the Royal Family of Pruffia. With numerous Anecdotes of the Potentates of Europe, efpecially of the late Frederic II. and an interefting Picture of the State of Politics, particularly in Pruffia, Ruffia, Germany, and Holland. In a Series of Letters, tranflated from the French. A pofthumous Work. To which is added, a Memorial prefented to the prefent King of Pruffia, on the Day of his Acceflion to the Throne, by Count Mirabeau. 8vo. 2 Vols. about 390 Pages in each. 12 s. Boards. Bladon. 1789.

IN

N our Appendix to the eightieth volume of the M. R. we gave fome account of the original of this very indecent publication; and obferved, that to his Secret Memoirs, the author had annexed an effay on the fect of the Illuminated, with which we promised to bring our readers acquainted when the English tranflation appeared: but in the prefent tranflation that effay is omitted; and inftead of it, we have the memorial prefented to the King of Pruffia on the day of his acceffion, by Count Mirabeau; a memorial filled with trite obfervations copied from Dr. Smith on the Wealth of Nations, displayed, or rather deformed, by the most oftentatious and unfeasonable eloquence. A foreigner, unprovided with any other credentials. than those of a travelling gentleman, prefuming to dictate lesfons to a great monarch on the day of his acceffion, concerning the government of his kingdom, and the choice of his fervants, is a phenomenon unexampled, perhaps, in the hiftory of the world but the tone of the memorial itfelf, and the parade with which the author brings forward the most common-place remarks, both enhance the fingularity, and furnish the solution, of this extraordinary phenomenon.

The

The obfcurity of the French original is fometimes removed, but more frequently heightened, in the tranflation. In p. 310. vol. ii. there is a very grofs blunder. He (the King of Pruffia) has deposited five hundred thousand crowns in the provincial treafury, and has fent the transfer to Mademoiselle Vofs. Thus, happen what may, fhe will always have an income of a thousand a year,' &c. The mistake arifes from the tranflator's confounding quatre vingt with vingt quatre. The original means, that Mademoiselle Vofs will have an income of eighty thousand crowns, above 3000 l. a year.

In feveral parts, the tranflation is fo literal, that we are fenfible of reading French, though the words be English. Frederic II. faid of the few grandees who were employed in his time, "In the name of God, my dear Moellendorf, rid me of these princes." The Duke (of Brunfwick) is equally diffatisfied with that fluctuation which occafions effays to be made on twenty fyftems at once; with the most of the perfons chofen; with domeftic diforder; with nocturnal rites; and with the anecdotes the augury of which from day to day becomes inaufpicuously characteristic,' &c. Vol. i. p. 273.

Notwithstanding these defects, the tranflation, in general, is faithful and fpirited; and the improprieties which deform it, are for the most part chargeable on the original, which abounds in cant and colloquial phrafes; which, as Swift obferves, are the moft ruinous corruptions in any language. This obfervation holds univerfally; the cant words of a courtier and of a cobler are equally inconfiftent with the established rules of good writing; and they ought to be carefully avoided by every author, who wishes that his work may pafs the feas, or defcend to pofterity.

ART. XI. Elements of Chemistry, in a new fyftematic Order; containing all the Discoveries. Illuftrated with thirteen Copper-plates. By M. Lavoifier, Member of the Academy of Sciences, &c. &c. Tranflated from the French by Robert Kerr, F. R. & A. SS. E. &c. 8vo. pp. 561. 7s. 6d. Boards. Printed at Edinburgh, and fold by Robinfons, London.

THE

*

HE tranflator of this work, though diffident of his own abilities, and limited in the execution to a space of time apparently very inadequate to fuch an undertaking †, has acquitted himself extremely well; and M. Lavoifier appears now to

See the ift volume of our New Series, p. 308.

·

+ The French copy (Mr. K. fays in the preface) did not reach his hands before the middle of September; and it was judged necessary, by the publisher, that the tranflation fhould be ready by the commencement of the univerfity feffion in the end of October."

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full

full as much advantage in our language as in his own. Some little exuberances of expreffion, or explanation, into which the author has now and then been betrayed by an affectation of formality, are by the tranflator very properly retrenched: thus, for afcertaining the quantities of bodies fubmitted to, or resulting from, chemical experiments, the best way is,

in the words of the author,

to bring them into equilibrium with other bodies that men have agreed to take for a standard of comparison. When, for example, we would mix together twelve pounds of lead and fix pounds of tin, we procure an iron lever, of fufficient ftrength, that it may not bend; we fufpend it by the middle, in fuch a manner that its two arms may be perfectly equal; we attach to one of its extremities a weight of twelve pounds; we attach lead to the other, adding more and more of it till an equili brium is produced, that is, till the lever remains perfectly horizonal. After having thus operated on the lead, we operate on the tin; and we proceed in the fame manner for all the other matters whofe quantity we want to determine. This operation is called weighing; the inftrument ufed is called a balance; it is principally compofed, as is well known, of a beam, two fcales, and a tongue.'

in the words of the

tranflator,

by means of an accurately conftructed beam and fcales, with properly regulated weights, which well-known operation is called weighing.' p. 295.

The tables, which M. Lavoifier has added in the Appendix, for facilitating chemical calculations, being in French weights and meafures, would have been unintelligible in this country, though, doubtlefs, very useful in his own: the tranflator has, therefore, not merely omitted them, but, certainly with no finall labour, has fupplied their places with others of the fame . kind, accommodated to the English ftandards. The thermometer of Reaumur, ufed by the author, is reduced, throughout the work, to that of Fahrenheit, the correfponding degree of the latter being always annexed in a parenthefis *.

On

Thole who have been accustomed to Reaumur's original thermometer will be inclined to fufpect some mistake in these reductions. The vital heat, which is 96 or 97 cf Fahrenheit's fcale, has been again and again determined by Reaumur to be 32 of his ; and fome time after the publication of his Art of Hatching, &c. we were favoured with two of his thermometers, made by the Abbé Nollet, and marked good by Reaumur's own hand; in both which 32 was found to correfpond precifely to Fahrenheit's 97; whereas, in the prefent work, 32 anfwers to 104. (p. 11.) and in the higher temperatures,