fordes from a flaughter-house, were the largest. These had a very fingular appearance; they refembled fifh in their fhape 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 ceafed to move, adhered together, and formed the green cruft before mentioned.

Notwithstanding the moft minute attention, the author has not been able to collect any information concerning the generation of thefe 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 fcarcely 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 state, 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 shall tranflate the following paffage:

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, feemed a mafs of lively animalcula. Thefe were uniformly difperfed over the whole body of fluid. Scarcely was the globe placed in the funfhine, when myriads of fmall 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, moft 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 veffel. Several were, however, ftill alive, and fwimming in the water. Taking cut 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 2oth, I gained fourteen cubic inches of vital air, of the 337th degree. The green cruft was now become firmer; nor did i 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 114 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 motionlefs: 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 caufe 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 eftablished the fact, that there are animals which generate dephlogisticated air, as well as vegetables, justly 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 ingenuoufly acknowleges, that this very important difcovery is primarily to be afcribed to the Abbé Fontana, who fuggefted the idea to him several years ago, that the verdure obfervable on the furface of ftagnant pools, was a mafs of animalcula that evaporate vital air.

Having thus given as rcumftantial an account of the doctrine advanced, and the experiments on which it is founded, as our limits will permit, we muft refer our philofophical readers to the treatise itself, for more minute particulars; and allo for the arguments on which the naturalift founds his conjectures that the Conferva rivularis, and the Tremella nostoc, 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 circumstances, which he specifies; 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 li mits to do juftice to this part of his fubject, by giving the requifite extracts.

We are somewhat surprized 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 manifefted in feveral 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 excess of faith
does it not require to believe, that plastic power should be
feated in putrefaction; and that this fhould fpontaneously rebuild
fyftems moft exquifitely organized, to fupply the place of thofe
which it has deftroyed? Surely it were much easier to believe
the existence of ova, fo formed that no force of boiling can de-
ftroy them; or of germs inconceivably minute, making every
part of nature their nidus, and waiting to be develloped by pu-
trefaction, and by various other circumftances. Thefe ideas cor-
refpond with the infinite minutenefs of fome animalcula, op-
pofe 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 itself is founded in our ignorance. Its truth can never
be demonftrated; 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 confeffes, 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 whim-
fically difpofed; and that they are generated in fixed air, not-
withĺtanding it is an antifeptic:-conceffions which, in our
opinion, undermine the baiis 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

CATALOGUE,

For OCTOBER, 1790.

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.

Art. 22. The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay. 2d Edit. 4to. Pp. 258, with 55 Plates.

A

Price 11. 11 s. 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 refpect of form, which it has received fince our first account *.

To the firft 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 hiftory, nor is the natural history scattered inconveniently among the facts. The narrative itfelf has, in fome inftances, received an improvement in point of order. Thus 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 interefting anecdote of O'too, which, in the first edition, flood 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 moft material improvement is made in the arrangement of the natural hiftory, 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 ufed 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 some of the charts and plates.

We should be guilty of fome injuftice, were we not to remark, that the copies 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 study 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, especially, the nice difcriminations of colour, and blending of tints, cannot pofiibly 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. lxxi. and lxxiv.

method

method be difcovered of painting in colours with more eafe than hitherto has been known, the public would doubtless 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 obftruct 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 concerning 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 from 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.

Unanswerable Objections against the Abolition of the Slave Trade: with a Defence of the Proprietors of the British Sugar Colonies, againit certain malignant Charges contained in Letters publifhed 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 Instruction; the Accommodation of the Sick, and Cure of their Difeafes; 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 Physicians, Edinburgh; one of the Judges of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas in the land 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 Thompfon, 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 rafh enough to risk their lives in fupporting his character, be fufficient proof of the justice of a caufe, then there is plenty of juftice on the fide of Dr. Adair. In respect, however, to the judg ment of our readers, we forbear to dwell on thefe particulars, and willingly turn to a better subject.

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 Inlands; 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,