compofe this work. About a year afterwards, he published his Hiftory of the most remarkable Earthquakes, but he was still devoted to metaphyfics, and united them to philofophy. His first steps in this line were in two Latin works, published in 1755 and 1756, on the Principles of Human Knowledge.' Some years afterwards, he gave a Demonftration of the fictitious Subtilty of the four Figures of a Syllogifm.; and after fome other works, published one entitled The only poffible Bafis on which the Demonstration of the Exiftence of a God can be founded. In 1762 he divided the prize propofed by the academy of Berlin with the Jew Mendelfohm, on the Evidence to be attained in Metaphyfical Sciences.'-This eflay did him great honour, and from this period M. Kant was confidered as a claffical author in fpeculative philofophy. His fuccefs contributed probably to his attaining the chair of ordinary profeflor of philofophy in 1770, when he was forty-fix years old. From that period, and indeed from 1762, he has not paffed a fingle year without adding to his reputation by fome new work. There is not an univerfity in Germany where fome profefior does not boast of being a difciple of, or a commentator on, Kant. Neither Mallebranche in France, nor Locke in England, ever enjoyed fo much reputation in their lives, for even the Jews follow his principles in explaining the most difficult paffages in the Talmud. It is indeed true, that those who profefs his philofophy do not understand it, but with great labour, fince it is fo intricate and deep. One of his works is entitled The Reveries of a spiritual Traveller explained by the Reveries of Metaphyfics.' He writes, however, occafionally for the world at large, and furnishes the articles to the Konigsberg Gazette and to the Berlin Journal, published by Giedike and Biefter.'

We muft mention, that those who read the abbe Denina's work, ought to be on their guard in one refpect. The titles of the works are univerfally in French, though many of these are in the German language, and fome in the Latin; but the original language is in no inftance pointed out, and readers not ac quainted with the German may, without this notice, be deceived, by ordering volumes which they will not understand,

Nicolai Jofephi Jacquin Colle&tanca ad Botanicam Chemicam, Hiftoriam Naturalem Spectantia. 3 Vols. Quart. maxim. Vindobonæ 1787-1789. Kraus.

F this fplendid work we delayed giving any account till we had feen the progreffive volumes appear with unimpaired fplendor, executed with the fame unwearied attention. The diftant fpot in which they are published prevents us from re

ceiving

ceiving them in proper time: the third volume has only reached this country very lately. But it is neceflary to give the hiftory of the publication.

In the year 1778 M. Jacquin published the first volume of Mifcellanea Auftriaca, in which he purpofed to collect different effays relating to botany, mineralogy, chemistry, zoology, and every other branch of natural hiftory, which might appear of importance to the progrefs of each of these sciences, written either by himself or friends, including the inaugural differtations published in the Auftrian dominions on the various parts of his very extenfive plan. The fecond volume appeared in 1781, and each was adorned with plates, chiefly coloured, executed with fingular beauty and accuracy. But the fize of thefe volumes, a fmall quarto, was not fufficient to admit of large plates, without folding, a circumftance which often injured their beauty; fo that, in the continuation of the work, it was enlarged, and the title changed to Collectanea: in other refpects, the object and the execution were little varied. M. Jacquin probably intended that the paper in the continuation should have been bettér, because, among the difadvantages of the former work, he mentions vilior charta:' unfortunately, however, in the copies which now lie before us, the paper on which the Colectanea is printed is by much the worst. Of the former publication, at this diftance, we cannot with propriety give any ac count; of this continuation, fometimes even quoted by the author himself, as the third, fourth, and fifth volumes of the Mifcellanea, we fhall give a curfory description, for the minute botanical and mineralogical details would be very uninteresting in an analyfis.

The firft differtation by J. X. Wulfen, is a continuation of a former effay on the fparry ore of lead from Carinthia. Fifty-feven fpecies were before defcribed, and thirty-four are now added.

The fecond effay is by M. Jacquin, on the valeriana celtica, the nardus celtica of Diofcorides and Bauhine. The defcription and the figure, which is a very beautiful coloured one, were fupplied by M. Wulfen. Such a plant as Clufius has exhibited, and Scopoli defcribed, with verticulated and subverticulated peduncles, M. Wulfen obferves that he has never feen; for the valerian feems to affect peduncles exactly oppofite.' He never faw it in the Alps of Carniola, nor the higheft mountains of Carcathia, and it generally occurred in those hills which confifted of a compound rock, where there was no lime-ftone. Of those who have given pictures of it, few, he thinks, have examined it in a perfect state. In the figure of Mathiolus, for inftance, the root appears dried and compreffed,

the

the stem is an ideal figure: the leaves and branches are well expreffed. Clufius has faithfully reprefented the habit of the plant, and his plate is copied by Gerard, inverted by Bauhine and Chabræus. Camerarius's plate is a good one, taken probably from Gefner, and repeated by Morifon. Lobelius drew it in an inverted position, and represented tis lateral peduncles with fingle flowers: Tabernæmontanus loaded it with three stalks. Plukenet's plate is not very accurate. The plant has been hitherto found exclufively on high mountains.

When chemically examined, its odour and taste came over in diftilled water; but the tafte was disagreeably bitter. Distilled by itself, befides the ufual products of water, fpiritus rector and einpyreumatic oil, an acid fluid was found in the retort. From four ounces of the root fix grains of fixed vegetable alkali, with two drachms twenty-five grains of calcareous earth, were procured: from the fame quantity fix drachms of spirituous extract were obtained. It is used for different purposes; carried to Egypt by the Syrian merchants to lay on the baths in Auftria collected to drive off infects, or as a fumigation; but the odour is very difagreeable, and occasions violent head-achs. The Greek merchants at the court of Vienna pay, it is faid, two or three millions of florins annually, for the exclusive privilege of fending this plant to Turkey. It is collected in large quantities from the Carynthian and Styrian Alps, and fent in boats down the Danube. As the smell is more powerful than that of the valerian, Haller thinks it will be more useful for those diseases in which valerian is ufually found serviceable. Geoffroy thinks it more advantageous as a dieuretic, tonic, and carminative than the fpica indica. Linnæus fuppofes it to be an antifpafmodic, diuretic, and anthelmintic. It undoubtedly deferves more attention than has been paid to it. Our author thinks that it cannot be the faliunca of Virgil (Eclog. v. 17.), because compared with the rofe-bufh. But he did not look at Virgil, for it is contrafted; and from the description of Pliny (lib. xxi. cap 7.) we think it probably the same.

Botanical obfervations, continued from the Mifcellan. Auftriac. vol. ii. follow, but these will admit of no abridgement, and even to copy the names would lead us too far. Ninetyeight fpecies are either defcribed or illustrated.

M. Scherer's obfervations and experiments, on the green mat ter on the furface of the Caroline and Teepliz waters, deferve particular attention. In each of these waters a gelatinous vefi rular vegetable fubitance is found, of a brilliant green colour, and a fingular texture: at times it is of a dirty green, brown, and even black. It was formerly called a vitriolic efflorescence; but Springfeld, in the Berlin Tranfactions (1752), firft difco

vered it to be a fungus, and called it tremella thermalis. The brown or black matter is merely filamentous, and called by Springfeld tremella filamentofa, while the thermalis confifts of filaments, hollow tubes containing air, which expands by the heat of the fun, veficular bodies, and minute green transparent granules. On a more particular examination, he found all the filaments moveable; though, when taken out of the water, they seemed to revive and move again, only after an interval of three or four days; but at the fame time he difcovered in the water various fpecies of infufory animals. After fifteen days, when the water was renewed, the filaments moved vigorously, but they had then loft the elegant green, and foon degenerated into a gelatinous putrid mafs, and all the filaments had loft their motion, except a few, which irritated by a very gentle stimulus by the flame of a candle, thowed figns of life. The great question therefore is whether the motion may not have been owing to the animalcula infuforia. It feems probable that it was fo; yet, at the fame time, the tremella was put into cold water, and, if it had any natural irritability, would probably lose it in this fituation. Subfequent experiments feem to throw fome light on the difficulty.

The fmalleft quantity of acids, alkalis, folution of vitriols, fugar, neutral falts, and fixed air in water, added to the mass, drove the filaments and their attending animals to the other fide. The minute portion of nitrous acid and the other fluids, excepting only the folution of fugar and fixed air, agitated the filaments with a kind of convulfive motion, and foon deprived the whole mafs of life. The mephitic water was the least noxious, the fixed vegetable alkali and nitrous acid the most injurious. In another experiment, the motion began the fecond day; the matter fhrunk on being touched, and renewed the parts that were cut away. In fhort, our author concludes this green matter to be of an animal nature, and feems to ftyle it a congeries of polypi. To this conclufion we can only offer one objec tion, that it is by no means certain, from the experiments before us, that the appearance of vitality is not communicated to the plant by the adventitious animals. This fubject ought to be farther elucidated. Our author defcribes the little animals discovered, without adverting to the distinction we have hinted. The air procured from this fubftance was dephlogisticated in fun-fhine, and lefs pure by night; fome proof of a vegetable nature, though, unlike vegetables, it did not injure the air ex pofed to it in the dark; and, from a chemical analysis, a flight fmell of volatile alkali was perceived, and not the minutest portion of fixed alkali. The oil was very black and empyreumatic.

Wulfen's continuation of the rarer plants of Carinthia fol

low; but his descriptions afford nothing that we can extract with propriety. Eighty plants are defcribed, and frequently engraved, with the ufual brilliancy and elegance which diftinguilh the plates of this volume. The laft article of the first volume is entitled Some Animadverfions on the Fafciculi of Auftrian Plants, publifhed by Hen. J. N. Crantz.' The author, M. Jacquin, endeavours to reconcile fome apparent contradictions, and corrects fome minute errors in that publication.

The fecond volume is chiefly botanical. The firft effay, by M. Haenke, contains Botanical Obfervations made in Bohemia, Auftria, Carynthia, the Tyrol, Styria, and Hungary.' In this untrodden path our author has difcovered much novelty, and fome plants of curiofity; but his obfervatious are purely botanical, and will be uninteresting to general readers.

M. Jacquin, in the next effay, describes' the phalana vitifana. It is an animal very deftructive to vines and the grapes. The eggs are laid when the buds begin to fhoot (in the year 1788, it was about the 12th of May), and the larvæ weave their web round the gemmæ: on the 5th of June, they were, as usual, metamorphosed to pupae; and, from the 7th to the 25th of July, the phalænæ came out, which are described and delineat ed. As there was a vacant space on the plate, M. Jacquin has added a fpecies of tenthredo, which he found on the prunus padus Lin.

In the third article M. Jacquin defcribes fome very rare plants, taken from dried fpecimens, chiefly from America and the Weft India iflands; and M. Wulfen adds his continuation of the rarer plants of Carynthia. Seventy fpecies, including many curious lichens, are defcribed in this effay. Some of thefe are, as usual, delineated.

Dr. Scherer, in the Animadverfiones Quædam circa Eudo metriam,' endeavours to defend the eudiometer as a teft of impure air. Dr. Achard has obferved, that air, procured by the detonation of equal parts of nitre and filings of iron, and fecured by closing the veffel immediately after the detonation, was diminished by nitrous air, but was ftill injurious to animals. To fupport the credit of the inftrument, our author made different experiments, but with no clear decided views, and with no remarkable fuccefs. He procured air in different ways which leffened nitrous air, fupported flame, and yet was fatal to animals: we know very well its nature; but, as in his opinion the injury from refpiring air is not owing to its phlogifton, it ought not to leffen the credit of the eudiometer. We need fcarcely ftay to refute ideas fo crude and fo inaccurate.

The next effay is by M. Jacquin, and entitled fideroxylum. This term Herman and Plukenet have applied to many trees in