fordes from a flaughter-houfe, were the largeft. These had a very fingular appearance; they refembled fish in their shape and in their manner of fwimming; their colour was of a deep green but in the space of a few days they became round, and yet continued to move with equal velocity; then ceased to move, adhered together, and formed the green cruft before mentioned.

Notwithstanding the most minute attention, the author has not been able to collect any information concerning the generation of these animalcula, nor the manner of their increase, Some air bubbles feemed obvious in the centre of their bodies. The pofterior parts of fome of the infects had two projecting points, which were in continual motion. Fins, alfo, which were scarcely to be diftinguished in the common microscope, became very vifible in the folar. Much larger quantities of dephlogisticated air proceed from the green matter artificially formed, than from the other. During the putrefactive ftate, mephitic, and fometimes inflammable air, is generated; to this fucceeds the verdure, and the dephlogifticated air. To give fome idea of the quantity of air that is generated by the artificial manner, we fhall tranflate the following pallage:

May 26th, I placed in the fun fhine a globe containing 150 cubic inches, filled with water entirely green; whofe verdure, engendered by a mixture of cow's and pigeon's dung, seemed a mass of lively animalcula. Thefe were uniformly difperfed over the whole body of Auid. Scarcely was the globe placed in the funfhine, when myriads of finall air bubbles afcended to the inverted bottom of the veffel. June 5th, I found fifteen cubic inches of air, exquifitely pure. It was at the 374th degree. By this time, most of the infects, which were before of an oblong form, became round, and were attached, in the form of a green cruft, to the fides of the vefiel. Several were, however, ftill alive, and fwimming in the water. Taking out half of the water, and fupplying its place with other fresh water drawn from the pump, I replaced the globe in the fun-fhine. June 20th, I gained fourteen cubic inches of vital air, of the 337th degree. The green cruit was now become firmer; nor did find a fingle animalcule, either pointed or round, that was alive; nor were there yet any of the tranfparent fibres. The water was again changed as before, and the globe replaced. July 10th, I received 11 cubic inches of vital air, of the 320th degree. The cruft had acquired a greater firmnefs, felt gelatinous, and was manifeftly filled with the animalcula. On breaking this cruft, the mafs was freaked with white and tranfparent fibres. They were at this period motionless: but when examined a week or two afterward, their motion was very visible.'

The author obferves, that other fpecies of infects are fometimes intermixed with thofe that are green but only the latter are capable of producing dephlogifticated air; and, confe

3

quently,

quently, he confiders them of a peculiar fpecies, to which this green colour is natural, Numberlefs other animalcula, different in fhape and fize, are often mixed and confounded with thefe, without partaking of their verdure. He thinks it very probable, that they are always the effects of fome putrefactive fubftance contained in the water; and that it is from this cause that they are not produced fpontaneously in water which has been boiled: yet he acknowleges that they are generated in fixed air, notwithstanding it be an antiputrefcent,

M. INGENHOUSZ having, as he imagines, fufficiently eftablifhed the fact, that there are animals which generate dephlogifticated air, as well as vegetables, juftly remarks, that this truth reveals to us another inftance of the wife and ftupendous plans of the Creator, who has thus ordained, that in the midst of putrefaction, which has a natural tendency to contaminate the air, a race of beings fhould be brought into existence, deftined to counteract thefe pernicious effects, by diffufing the pureft air through the atmosphere.' He ingenuously acknowleges, that this very important difcovery is primarily to be afcribed to the Abbé Fontana, who fuggested the idea to him several years ago, that the verdure observable on the furface of ftagnant pools, was a mafs of animalcula that evaporate vital air.

Having thus given as circumftantial an account of the doctrine advanced, and the experiments on which it is founded, as our limits will permit, we must refer our philofophical readers to the treatise itself, for more minute particulars; and also for the arguments on which the naturalift founds his conjectures that the Conferva rivularis, and the Tremella noftoc, not only are to be ranged in the animal, instead of the vegetable kingdom, but that they are effentially the fame with the animalcula under confideration, and that there is a fpecies of metamorphofis taking place under certain circumftances, which he fpecifies; by which, beings, effentially the fame, affume appearances effentially different. He acknowleges that many difficulties cloud this hypothefis: but he thinks the arguments in its favour preponderate. It would carry us far beyond our limits to do juftice to this part of his fubject, by giving the requifite extracts.

We are somewhat furprized to fee that this intelligent and refpectable philofopher has fo ftrong a propenfity to revive the exploded doctrine of equivocal or fpontaneous generation, as is manifested in several parts of this treatife. Many are the difficulties attending every hypothefis that attempts to explain the generation of animalcula, which feem to pervade, and as it were furcharge, every part of nature: but what hypothefis can

be fo palpably abfurd, as that which maintains, that corruption, by which we understand the folution of animal and vegetable fubftances, or the refolution of thefe bodies into their refpective elements, fhould become the immediate parent of organization?

that myriads of animals, totally different in fpecies, fhould be created by a folution of continuity? What excefs of faith does it not require to believe, that plaftic power should be feated in putrefaction; and that this fhould fpontaneously rebuild fyftems most exquifitely organized, to fupply the place of those which it has deftroyed? Surely it were much easier to believe the existence of ova, fo formed that no force of boiling can deftroy them; or of germs inconceivably minute, making every part of nature their nidus, and waiting to be developed by putrefaction, and by various other circumstances. Thefe ideas correfpond with the infinite minutenefs of fome animalcula, oppofe not our ideas of vitality, and maintain an uniformity in the plan of nature, which ought not to be violated but on the moft pofitive evidence. We might further obferve, that the doctrine itfelf is founded in our ignorance. Its truth can never be demonstrated; and the arguments which have been adduced in proof of it, at different periods, have been fully confuted by fubfequent advances in natural hiftory. Further, the Doctor himfelf confefles, that the fame fpecies of putrefaction does not always produce the fame infects, which muft infallibly be the cafe, or putrefaction, with all its wifdom, muft be moft whimfically difpofed; and that they are generated in fixed air, notwithĺtanding it is an antifeptic:-conceffions which, in our opinion, undermine the bafis of his hypothefis.

A plate is fubjoined, containing twelve illuminated figures, reprefenting the green matter, and the tranfparent fibrillæ, in their different ftages.

This curious fubject having engaged fo much of our attention, we must leave our review of the other articles to a future occafion, [To be continued.]

MONTHLY

Cog.

CATALOGUE,

Art. 22.

A

For OCTOBER, 1790.

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.

The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay. 2d Edit. 4to. Pp. 258, with 55 Plates. Price 11. 11s. 6d. Boards. With coloured Plates, 21. 12s. 6d. and 3d Edit. 8vo. pp. 358, with 20 Plates, Price 10s. 6d. Boards. Stockdale.

Second and third edition of this Voyage, in the course of a few months, fufficiently prove the attention that has been paid to it by the public; and call on us to take notice of fome

alterations

alterations in respect of form, which it has received fince our first account *.

To the first edition, an advertisement was prefixed, apologizing for the unavoidable defects in arrangement, which had arifen from the gradual increase of matter, while the work was in the press. This fault has, in thefe fubfequent editions, been entirely removed; every thing now feems to ftand in its proper place; the relation of facts is not interrupted by the natural history, nor is the natural hiftory fcattered inconveniently among the facts. The narrative itfelf has, in fome inftances, received an improvement in point of order. Thos the returning voyage of Captain Marshall, in the Scarborough, as it concludes more than a month earlier than that of Lieut. Watts in the Lady Penrhyn, is now placed before it; and with more particular propriety, because one of the anchors, loft by the Charlotte in the former voyage, on the 8th of Auguft, at Tinian, was found there in the latter, on the 25th of September. pp. 232 and 255. The interefling anecdote of O'too, which, in the first edition, ftood by itself, in p. 292, now appears in its due fituation, with the facts which introduce it, at p. 243 of the 4to, and 336 of the 8vo.

The most material improvement is made in the arrangement of the natural history, the whole of which is now contained in the fifteenth chapter, inftead of requiring to be fought in various places, with fome degree of perplexity. The animals are inferted in the regular fucceffion of the Linnean claffes, orders, genera, and fpecies; and the new fpecies and varieties are expressly diftinguished; which, to the ftudents in that fcience, must be fatiffactory and convenient. Mr. Pennant's genera are alfo prefixed to the accounts of the quadrupeds; and thofe made by Mr. Latham, in his Synopfis, are used in the defcriptions of the birds. The account of the Kanguroo, in particular, is enlarged and improved.

The octavo edition appears to be printed verbatim from the quarto, omitting only the nautical tables of the appendix, and fome of the charts and plates.

We fhould be guilty of fome injuftice, were we not to remark, that the copics which have the plates of natural history coloured, are to us highly fatisfactory. This, indeed, is an advantage which cannot ever be enjoyed without a 'confiderable advance of price: but the ardent admirers of the works of nature, and all who are engaged in the ftudy of her productions, always confider that objection as entirely outweighed by the clearness of information thus obtained. The power of language in defcribing coloured objects, is very imperfect; and in birds, efpecially, the nice difcriminations of colour, and blending of tints, cannot poffibly be comprehended with accuracy, excepting when prefented actually to the eye, the only correct reporter of fuch notices to the mind. For this reafon, all the copies of fome works of natural hiftory, (as for inftance, Mr. Latham's Synopfis of Birds +,) are fold coloured; and could a

See Review for February 1790. p. 157.

For our accounts of Mr. Latham's publications, fee Review, vols, Ixv. lxvii. Ixxi. and lxxiv.

method

method be difcovered of painting in colours with more eafe than hitherto has been known, the publie would doubtlefs be glad to receive all fuch information in that more perfect form.

Whether this infant fettlement be deftined to fucceed, or to give way to the many obftacles which must neceffarily obstruct its progrefs, time only can determine: but at all events, our countrymen at prefent ftationed there cannot complain that their brethren at home, however remote, have fhewn any marks of indifference conAnon cerning their fituation and fortunes.

**In reviewing the first edition of this work, we expreffed a degree of fcepticifm with refpect to the originality of the materials frem which it was compiled: but we now underftand, on good authority, that the editor was favoured by government with copies of Governor Phillip's difpatches, and with the journals of the other commanding officers, viz. Lieutenants Shortland and Watts, and Captain Marshall of the Scarborough.

Art. 23.

SLAVE TRADE.

Unanferable Objections against the Abolition of the Slave Trade: with a Defence of the Proprietors of the British Sugar CoJonies, against certain malignant Charges contained in Letters published by a Sailor, and by Luffman, Newton, &c. Remarks on the Difpofitions and Characters of the African Slaves; and Means fuggefted for the Diftribution of their Labour; the Regulations of their Habitations, Food, Clothing, and religious Inftruction; the Accommodation of the Sick, and Cure of their Diseases; which may be most conducive to render them faithful, obedient, and happy. Published for the Benefit of the ftarving Tin-miners in Cornwall. By James M. Adair, formerly M. D. Member of the Royal Medical Society, and Fellow of the Royal College of Phyficians, Edinburgh; one of the Judges of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas in the Ifland of Antigua; and Physician to the Commander in Chief, and the Colonial Troops of the faid Ifland. 8vo. PP. 375. 5s. Boards. Bateman.

Of this very defultory performance, about one-third part is employed in refuting feveral affertions, which had been made by Capt. Edward Thompson, in the "Sailor's Letters," and by Mr. Luffman, in his account of Antigua. If the groffeft abuse of a man who is dead, joined with a defiance to fuch of his furviving friends, as may be rash enough to risk their lives in fupporting his character, be fufficient proof of the justice of a caufe, then there is plenty of justice on the fide of Dr. Adair. In respect, however, to the judgment of our readers, we forbear to dwell on thefe particulars, and willingly turn to a better fubject.

The most valuable part of this book, is the information which it contains refpecting the flave trade, and the condition of the negroes in the West India Iflands; on which fubjects, the author was examined before the privy council. He is decidedly of opinion, that the abolition of the flave trade muft, in every point of view, be ruinous to the colonies, and alfo to Great Britain; for, with every poffible regulation, the numbers of flaves cannot be kept up,