as proofs of superior knowledge! He proceeds to tell us that the greatest cataract in the world is that of Terny, a little town on the road from Rome to Bologna! Thus our author had never heard of Niagara, of the Nile, &c. &c.

Ex pede Herculem. From this specimen our readers will judge of the editor's qualifications, and will be led directly to prefer the old cheap editions of La Croix to this farrago of inanity. The information of La Croix is generally solid and accurate and we have only to regret its brevity; while every page of the present edition is rendered suspicious by the editor's want of common knowledge. It was truly ridiculous to retain (vol. ii. p. 493) the fables of Buache concerning a great western sea in North America, after they had been exploded by the discoveries of Cook, Vancouver, and Hearne. But we need not further enlarge on a book so shamefully disgraceful to the progress of science, to the editor, and even to the booksellers, whose want of judgement has induced them to publish such a scandalous imposition.

ART. IX.-Geschichte der Kriegskunst, &c. Göttingen. History of the Art of War, from the first Use of Gunpowder to the End of the Eighteenth Century. By J. G. Hoyer. 2 Vols. 8vo.

THOUGH this appears as a separate publication, it is in reality the second section of the History of Mathematical Sciences, inserted in a valuable work, entitled, The History of the Arts and Sciences, from the Revival of Letters to the End of the 18th Century,' by a Literary Society.

M. Hoyer, to whom this part of the subject was intrusted, divides the history into seven periods. The first extends from the time of the earliest use of fire-arms to the end of the campaign of Charles VIII. in Italy; that is, from the beginning of the fourteenth to about the end of the fifteenth century. The second from this last æra to the commencement of the wars in the Low Countries, about the middle of the sixteenth century—a period which includes the wars of the French, Spaniards, and Germans, in Italy. The third period reaches from the middle of the sixteenth to the beginning of the seventeenth century, during the war in the Low Countries. The fourth includes the thirty-years' war, and extends to the middle of the seventeenth century. The fifth, the French wars in the Low Countries, reaching to the middle of the eighteenth century. The sixth, the three wars in Silesia; and the seventh, the war occasioned by the French revolution.

In each æra the author traces the state of the art in its different

branches, as infantry, cavalry, fortification, &c. The sixth and seventh periods are detailed with the greatest care and pre

cision.

war.

We may perhaps be allowed to remark, that the origin of topographical charts, assigned by the author, is too recent. He supposes them to have been first employed in the seven-years' It is certain that the chart of Saxony, Brandenburg, Silesia, and Bohemia, constructed by Petri, appeared at this period; but, previous to it, there were topographical charts of the frontier of Austria, of Hungary, of Swabia, of the two Rhines, and of Lorraine. M. Hoyer should have spoken only of the former publication, for the latter were preserved, as important secrets, with great care.

We may at this time mention also a slight error, which may be rectified in a future edition. It relates to the horse-artillery in Russia. This artillery was first formed in 1796, with the consent of Catharine, by general Melissino. It was first tried in the spring of 1796, with four companies, commanded by prince Radzevil, under the more immediate authority of captains Buckmeyer, Tutschkoff, and Bogdanoff. Though the attempt succeeded very well, yet the horse artillery was neglected; and in the Russian armies in Holland, Italy, and Switzerland, there were no light field-pieces of this kind. It was only in 1799 that the emperor Paul thought of re-establishing it.

ART. X.-Handbuch der theoretischen und practischen Chemie, &c. Iena.

A Manual of theoretical and practical Chemistry. By J. F. A. Gatling. 3 Vols. 8vo.

WE shall confine our remarks to the third volume, since we have already announced the publication of the two former, and they do not, on examination, furnish any observation of importance. The present volume is exclusively pharmaceutical; but the arrangement is rather practical than scientific. Without however transcribing long recipes for making essences, tinctures, electuaries, pills, powders, ointments, &c. the author explains the principles, according to which they should be made; and by these the value of the formulæ in different Dispensatories may be appreciated.

After describing, in the introduction, the utensils of pharmacy, the collection, and the form of medicines, the author divides his work into seven sections. In the first he treats of salts and their decompositions, including under the term salts the alkaline,

metallic, and earthy; adding, in this, as in every other section, a list of the best works on the subject. The second section treats of the vegetable and animal productions, with their changes and combinations, subjoining the pharmaceutical treatment. In the third section he speaks of the three kinds of fermentation; and, under the title of spirituous fermentation, he discourses upon æthers, artificial naphthas, &c. The fourth section comprises the products obtained by means of fire from different vegetable, animal, and mineral bodies, as the empyreumatic acids, the acid of amber, pot-ash, and the empyreumatic oils. The fifth section contains the metals, and their different degrees of oxidation. The sixth, sulphur, with its different forms and combinations, as the balsam of sulphur, liver of sulphur, sulphurated metals, &c.; and the seventh, water, and mineral waters, with their artificial preparation.

On the whole, this volume is rather an abstract of the chemical work, than strictly pharmaceutical. But, while chemistry is now cultivated with so much care, why is not its application to pharmacy more noticed, and the nature of the pharmaceutical operations more studiously developed? In no English work within our knowledge is the chemical nature of corrosive sublimate properly explained; and we should seek in vain in every Dispensatory within our reach-we believe, in every one hitherto published-for the chemical distinction between the sulphur auratum antimonii and the kermes mineral.

RETROSPECT

OF

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

FRANCE.

Tableau de l'Agriculture Toscane, &c. View of the Tuscan Agriculture. By J. L. Simonde of Geneva. 8vo. Geneva.— While agriculture is so fashionable and so interesting an amusement, the speculative farmer may perhaps choose to extend his views to the practice of other countries. The present work contains many novelties; and the various methods proposed have been repeated by the author. He explains the different husbandry employed on the plains, the hills, and the mountains; the modes of fertilising by watering, fallowing, the plantation of trees, manures, &c.; adding the Tuscan method of preserving wheat. M. Simonde treats also of the clearing of the hills, the plantations of olive-trees, of vines, orange-trees, &c. The same observations are applied to the mountains; and the management of chesnut-trees, with the state of the manufactures established in the defiles of the mountains, is explained at length. In each division a chapter is allotted to the culture of gardens, to the difference of climate, and of the condition of the peasants. The work concludes with a comparative table of the money, weights, and measures, of Tuscany.

Traité théorique et pratique sur la Culture de la Vigne, &c. Theoretical and practical Treatise on the Culture of the Vine, with the Art of making Wine, Brandy, Spirit of Wine, Vinegar, &c. By Citizens Chaptal, Rozier, Parmentier, and Dussieux. 2 Vols. 8vo. with 21 Plates. Paris. This is a most valuable and important work, and would merit a much more extensive consideration, were the subject of more general consequence, at least of more consequence to this kingdom. It is an excellent companion to M. Chaptal's Treatise on the Method of making Wine, and, indeed, includes the more valuable parts of that tract. The plates represent the different species of vine, the machines and instruments employed in making wine, brandy, &c. 2 P

APP. Vol. 34.

Traité de la Physique Végétale des Bois, &c. Physico-vegetal Treatise on Forests, and on the principal Operations relating to them, &c. By Cn. Goube, Warden of the Forests. 8vo. Paris.This work appears with the approbation of the ministers of the forests, and is a theoretical as well as a practical treatise on every thing relating to the subject proposed, which is, in general, detailed with great precision and judgement. The first part contains the results of the inquiries and observations made on the best methods of replanting the forests, and the improvement of the remaining plants, or those which may be produced. The second part contains details of the most advantageous methods of management before the sales, during the felling of the wood, or subsequent to this period.

Traité ou Manuel Vétérinaire des Plantes, &c. Veterinary Manual of Plants fit to be used as Food or Medicine for domestic Animals. 3 Vols. 8vo.-The manual before us is arranged in the alphabetic order of the names of the plants, with the addition of the Linnæan and common names. Those are next particularly mentioned which are adapted for horses, cows, goats, &c. or are employed in veterinary medicine; together with the principal insects which destroy plants. The first volume is concluded by an alphabetic table of the French names of plants, with corresponding numbers of the Latin appellations.

The second part, which is sold separately, comprehends observations on the plants found in natural or artificial meadows ; together with those employed in veterinary pharmacy. Some remarks are subjoined relative to the vegetables proper for the nourishment of birds, and those which serve as a bait for fish. A letter from MM. Contardi, Rocca, and Duchet, on bees, and a list of the plants adapted for them, concludes this part.

The third contains only two Latin dissertations of Linnæus, from the Amanitates Academicæ, entitled, Pan Succus, and Hospitia Insectorum Flora.

Traité des Moyens de désinfecter l'Air, &c. Treatise on the Means of purifying infected Air, of preventing Contagion, and stopping its Progress. By J. B. Guyton de Morveau. 8vo.Our author is said to have been engaged in these inquiries for twenty-five years; and when the epidemic raged in Genoa, in the year 1800, with so much violence as to carry off 400 in a day, he published an account of the use he had made of fumigations of the mineral acids to purify the air infected with the putrid effluvia; of the good opinion many learned societies entertained of this method; and of its particular success in destroying the miasmata of the hospital fever, which was the epidemic

of Genoa.

Since that period he has been employed in arranging the materials of this treatise, in weighing the objections made to his