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The affurance of their eye, the firmness of their ftep, every turn of their form, and every motion of their body, declare the courage of their fouls. They have a very noble look, which is heightened by trailing robes, which they all wear, down to the women of the third degree.

The nation has fomething like pride, which does not difplease me; it is the haughtiness of a man of an ancient family fallen to decay. But it has a defire of concealing itself, which pleases no one. The first proverb of the country is, He who knows not how to dif femble, knows not how to live; and they all know how to live. They love obfcurity in every thing, and though this idea may feem to you trifling, it is not fo: Rome is the worst lighted city in Europe; the fervants do not carry flambeaux, and the first princes of the country, in other refpects extremely luxurious, only carry a fmall dark lanthorn behind their coaches.

The Roman has naturally a profound genius and a strongly marked character; he is eafily moved, and when he is moved, he is violent to an extreme. If the dress of the country were military, as you walk the freets you would think yourself in ancient Rome; the faces that you meet fo much resemble the characters that hiftory has tranfmitted to us. This idea has often ftruck me among the men, and it is ftill more striking in the women. You will often say, "There " is a woman who might well be the mother of a Gracchus, and "there is another who might produce a Sylla!" The number of Meffalinas is fmall, that of Lucretias lefs, and of Sempronias you will find fome rather at Naples than at Rome.

The following is a mark of national diftin&ion between a Roman and a Neapolitan woman: a woman of Naples is lefs modeft than one of Rome, and more bashful; Neapolitan women have been often seen to blush, but it is not poffible to put a Roman woman out of countenance.'

Having already expatiated fo freely on the merits of this Author, in the foreign article above referred to, and the Appendix to our laft volume, we have left ourselves nothing to add on the prefent occafion.

ART. VIII. Philofophical Inquiries into the Laws of Animal Life. In Six Chapters. By Hugh Smith, M. D. of Hatton Street. With a View to fhew the Probability of AIR being the first Cause of Motion in Animal Life; to point out the mechanical Caufes that concur in producing the Circulation of the Blood; and to explain the Laws of Refpiration, &c. &c. 4to. Chap. I. and II. I s. each. Davis. 1780.

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S the numerous difcoveries of Dr. Priestley have induced us, for fome years paft, to pay a very particular attention to the fubject of AIR, the title-page of this performance, of which however two chapters only have yet been published, excited our curiofity in a high degree; as we there found Philofophical Inquiries' announced, fupported by experiments,' and. produced with a view to fhew the probability of air being the firft caufe of motion in animal life.'-We had long known, as

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well as our forefathers, in the earlieft ages, that air was a neceffary ingredient in the compound called life; and that men and animals, for fome reafon or other, never did, or could long, fubfift without it *. We accordingly expected to find that reafon here affigned; and that the Author, availing himself of the lights thrown on the philofophy of the air by modern inquirers, had experimentally difcovered fome new affections or properties of that fluid, and the particular manner in which it acts, in fupporting the life of animals.

Our curiofity was no lefs excited by the term, vital air, which, in the contents of the Author's firft chapter, is particularly announced as the first material caufe of motion in animal life.' Though, thanks to Dr. Priestley and Co., our acquaintance with the airs was pretty extenfive, we knew not what idea to form of this fuppofed new branch of the family: and we fully expected that our experimental inquirer would give us a fatisfactory definition, or a chemical analysis of this fluid; or at least, give us fome affurance that he had caught and exhibited it in an inverted jar; as other air-mongers have always thought themselves bound to do, whenever they have had occafion to introduce a new individual into the tribe of airs.

We have sometimes thought, that by this appellation, the Author intended to defign dephlogisticated air, discovered, and thus named, by Dr. Priestley;-but neither do we find in this performance, any criterion by which this vital air is to be diftinguished, nor any process described by which it is produced, or may be obtained: nor does the term dephlogiflicated air, (either used as a fynonym or otherwise) or the name of its inventor, or that of any one of the many excellent philofophers who have cultivated the aërial branch of philosophy, even once occur in the courfe of this performance. No fpecies of air is there mentioned, except atmospherical air, and this fame vital

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* That neither sparrows nor men can fubfift without air, is well known: but this old truth was never perhaps fo pompously declared to the world, as in the following quotation; which will ferve as a fpecimen of the ftyle that our experimental Inquirer has chofen to adopt throughout the greatest part of this treatife. The little fparrow on the houfe-top,' fays he, has a natural common right to the atmospheric air equally with the great lord that inhabits the ftately manfion place this fall bird under a receiver, and exhauft the atmospheric air, then vital air will foon lofe its fpring and power, the blood will ceafe to circulate, and death follows.-Exclude the external atmosphere, and thereby cut off the common tenure of life from man, and, like the diminutive fparrow, he too muft fall to the ground.' REV. July, 1780.

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air t; which, though the first cause of animal motion, is fometimes claffed by the Author, among the excrementitious fluids that are continually paffing off through the fkin. But that our readers may have their hare of the darkness in which we find ourfelves involved, with respect to this fluid, which appears to be common air, and yet feems greatly to differ from it; let them hear the Author fpeak for himself.

In the courfe of lectures, delivered the beginning of the year 1778, on the philofophy of phyfic, which may juftly be called the fludy of nature, this was laid down as the leading aphorifm: in all living animals, life, heat, and motion, are infeparable. To prove this point, I began with confidering air as matter, and by progreffive fteps advanced to the thirty-fourth and laft principle, which runs thus-VITAL AIR, heat, and motion, appear to be infeparable in animal life. It is therefore meant to be infifted on, that air is the first material cause of every motion proper to life.'

Vital air is accordingly exhibited as the first material caufe of the circulation of the blood, and of the other motions in living animals. Its proper ftandard was fixed,' fays our Inquirer, · by the Author of Nature, when he firft created man; and we hope to fhew that ftandard is regularly and uniformly maintained by means of the atmospheric air.'- We endeavoured

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to fhew, fays he afterwards, that the nerves themselves were primarily indebted to vital air for their power.'- By the propelling power of vital air, we prefume all glandular fecretions to be performed, for the purpose of nutrition; and the lymphatic circulations to be fupported by the fame power: and alfo, by means of the glands, we prefume the laws of generation to be maintained.'

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Amidst all this darkness and declamation, a ray of light feemed to dart in upon us, when we faw the Author formally preparing to give us what he calls a definition of his vital air. It is endowed,' fays he, with power fufficient to produce a circulating motion in the fluids contained in an animal body. On this bafis our definition is eftablifhed. "Air rarefied, in motion, detained in animal bodies by glandular fecretions, or circulating with the fluids in the vafcular fyftem, permit us to call VITAL AIR."

Any further quotations on this dark fubject, or even a tranfcript of all that the Author has faid with refpect to the nature

The only difference announced between these two airs, that can ftrike an experimental philofopher, is, that common or atmospheric air is here repeatedly faid to be fomewhat colder and heavier than vital air: but whether, and in what manner, our Inquirer ascertained their respective temperatures and weights, is not declared.

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elf this vital air, would not, in our opinion, furnish the reader with the leaft additional information on the nature of it, or on the manner in which it is manufactured in the bodies of living animals. We never more fully experienced the truth of what a poet has faid—that

"True, no meaning puzzles more than wit."

Whether our prefent puzzle proceeds from the want of difcernment in us, or the lack of meaning in the Author, we may fafely leave to the decision of his and our readers. To them, likewife, we must refer the expreffion fo frequently occurring throughout this performance, of atmospheric air being the means of fupporting the ftandard of vital air.'

We have framed to ourselves, however, fome kind of an idea; or rather fomething approaching towards one, with respect to the Author's notions of the manner in which he fuppofes that his vital air puts the animal fluids in motion. It is well known that, in many hydraulic machines, air rarefied by heat gives. motion to fluids contained in tubes. The Author inftances in the pump, ventilator, fire engine, and pulse-glass.' In like manner, it seems, the colder and heavier external air, entering through the lungs, paffes to the heart, and into the vafcular system; where, being rarefied by heat, it gives motion to the blood, in fome manner or other, not here described.

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Without condescending to bestow even an epithet on this reverie, we fhall only obferve, that our experimental Inquirer is peculiarly unfortunate in pitching on the inftrument called the pulfe-glafs, to illuftrate his doctrine, that the blood is kept in motion, in the animal tubes, by means of the propelling force of vital, or any other air. By the pulse-glass,' he says, 'it is clearly proved, that air, rarefied by heat, is capable of giving motion to fluids confined in tubes.'-On the contrary, fuch is the nature of that inftrument, and fo far is the fluid contained in it from owing its motion to air; that, in the very act of conftructing it, air is neceffarily excluded: nor will it exhibit the ufual phenomena, if the operator has not been adroit enough to feal it at the time when the air has been expelled from it, by the elastic vapour of the included liquor; which he has kept in a boiling ftate for fome time, for that very purpose. On turning to our forty-fecond volume [March, 1770, p. 207, &c.] the Author will find one of Dr. Franklin's conjectures, concerning the immediate caufe of the phenomena prefented by this inftrument, confirmed by us: and having failed in an attempt to account for the motions exhibited in fo fimple an inftrument, confifting only of a glafs tube with a little liquor included in it; he may begin to entertain fome modeft doubts of his powers to ascertain the caufe of motion in that complicated

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machine, the heart; and may be induced, in future, to prefent his notions on this fubject.

The Author's reafonings are faid, in the title-page, to be upported by experiments. We here meet with only one regular fet, produced with a view to ftrengthen his opinion, that air is the firft caufe of motion in animal life; and that it poffibly may fupply the place of antagonist muscles, in the heart, and other parts of the animal œconomy. Thefe notable experiments relate to the motion of the heart only.-Here follows all that the most inquifitive reader need to know concerning these experiments, in number seven.

The heart of an eel or tench, separated from the body, beats a certain number of ftrokes in a minute. Being put under a receiver, from which the air is afterwards exhaufted, its pulfations diminish in number and ftrength. On admitting the air, the motion of the heart returns, with equal vigor as at firft; and on exhaufting the receiver, its pulfations are again diminished, &c.

In like manner, were we difpofed to mif-fpend our time, in drawing fuch inferences from fuch premises, might we conclude that VITAL FIRE is the firft caufe of motion in animal life e; and ascertain the truth of our propofition, by fhewing that the pulfations of the heart of an eel or a tench are flackened, and grow weaker, on its being laid upon fnow, or plunged in a frigorific mixture; and become ftronger and quicker on its being afterwards dipped into warm water: the abfence of vital fire diminishing the moving power in the first cafe, and its presence reftoring it in the fecond. Inftead of appealing to a dead tench, in confirmation of our hypothefis, we might ftrengthen it with the living and refpectable teftimony of Dr. Solander, the motions of whose heart and vascular system had once been well nigh irrecoverably ftopped, by the gradual flight of his vital fire; while he was herborifing with Mr. Banks, on the frozen coafts of Terra del Fuego *.

We have already faid perhaps more than is neceffary of this performance: it may be deemed unfair, however, not to acknowledge, that we have not had the advantage of feeing a certain fyllabus to which the Author frequently refers. We ought likewife to add a declaration of his, where he fays,• We wish it, therefore, to be fully understood, it is not any experiment, fingly, nor any number of fuch experiments, however they may appear to ftrengthen our opinions, on which we mean to build our new doctrine concerning the circulation of the blood.-To comprehend the full force of our arguments,

* See Hawkefworth's Voyages.

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