thor's course of travelling, his defcriptions, and his reasoning, clear to the untravelled reader.

N.

ART. VI. A Lecture on Mufcular Motion, read at the Royal Society, the 13th and 20th of November 1788. By Gilbert Blane, M. D. F. R. S. 4to. PP. 57. 2s. 6d. Murray.

ΤΗ

HE lecture founded by Dr. Croone fomewhat refembles the bow of Ulyffes: it has afforded opportunities to several to try their strength, while the bow ftill remains unbent.

After remarking the extenfive influence of mufcular power in the animal œconomy, the prefent author goes on to confider the properties of a mufcle in its dead ftate. The most striking of thefe, he obferves, is its regular organization of parallel fibres. His ideas on this fubject feem, to us, rather fpecious. than convincing:

This regular fibrous ftructure of mufcles, may be compared to the cryftallifation of falts, and other regular forms which inanimate bodies affume, when paffing to a folid form from a state of folution or fufion. Every fpecies of matter has a mode of aggregation peculiar to itfelf, when its particles are at liberty to attract each other according to that tendency which has been called their polarity. Those who firft conceived this idea, feemed to have proceeded on the fuppofition of the ultimate particles of matter being folid bodies, infinitely hard, having their different fides endowed with different powers of attraction and repulfion, fo as to give various configurations to the parts of matter, when concreting into a folid form. There is another and later idea of polarity, founded on the hypothefis of the ultimate particles of matter being combinations of attracting and repelling points, which when brought much within the natural limits of thefe powers, produce unequal degrees of attraction and repulfion at equal diftances from their common centre, thereby defining what may be called the fhape of the particles, and conftituting polarity. In whatever manner we conceive this to take place, fome fuch circumftance feems univerfal, and perhaps neceffary to all the varieties of folid matter; and there is in fome inftances a difference in the appearance and other proper. ties of the fame fubftance, after paffing from a fluid to a folid form, according as its particles have been at liberty to follow more or lefs freely the tendency of their polarity in the act of concretion. This may be illuftrated by the freezing of water, and the cryftallifation of falts, which are more or less regular or confufed, according to the circumftances in which they have taken place. The fame may be exemplified in metals and other fubftances; for it is well known, that the properties of iron and glafs, in point of cohefion and elasticity, are very much affected by the quickness or flowness with which they pafs from a state of fufion to a state of fo

See Dr. Blagden's Experiments on the cooling of water below its freezing point, Phil. Tranf. vol. lxxviii. p. 145.'

lidity.

lidity. It is probably in fome circumftance of this kind that mulcies differ from other foft animal matter. We cannot trace by infpection the manner in which the fluid nutritious matter is applied in forming folid parts; but as mufcles are compofed of parts fo regularly figured and endowed with contractility, it seems probable that there is fome provifion made by Nature, whereby the particles follow the exact impulfe of their polarity, and conftitute a more exquifite ftructure than in other parts of the body.'

A mufcle is next confidered in its living ftate, and the nature of its contractile power or motion is inveftigated. The conclufion which is drawn from the author's reafoning on this head is, that it feems moft agreeable to the analogy of nature, to refer mufcular motion to an original law of animated matter, whereby its particles are endowed with an attractive power for which no caufe can be affigned, any more than for gravitation, cohefion, or chemical affinity.-This doctrine is attempted to be proved by experiments, fhewing the increased power of cohefion in mufcular fibres under contraction; as likewife the increafed hardness in a mufcle in that ftate, while its denfity and temperature remain the fame.

The Doctor next offers his theory of muscular contra&ion:

It was formerly mentioned,' he obferves, that the regular ftructure of folid bodies depended on the polarity and fhape of their integrant parts. Now all bodies, except fuch as are sphærical, must have a long and a fhort axis; and let us imagine the fibres of mufcles to be compofed of fphæroidal particles; we may then conceive relaxation to confift in their being difpofed with their long axis in the line of the fibres, and contraction to confist in their fhort axis being difpofed more or lefs in that direction. This will not only account for the decurtation, and uniform denfity, but for the lateral fwell, and alfo for the increased hardness and cohefion; for though the particles do not approach or recede, as in bodies fimply elaftic, yet their power of attraction will be increafed by their centres being brought nearer, and by being applied to each other by more oblate fuifaces. This hypothefis accords with what has been before proved, concerning the unchangeable denfity; for what is loft in one dimenfion, is gained in another; and the caufe for there being no increafe of temperature, depends probably on the fame circumftance by which the density is preferved unaltered.'

This account of mufcular motion, it is added, does not account for the operation of the ftimuli: it ftill remains a queftion, by what efficient power this contraction is excited; and

* By being applied I do not mean that they are actually in contact; for it is evident, from the effect of heat in expanding bodies, and of cold in condensing them, that there can be no fuch thing as contact of the ultimate particles of matter, even on the supposition that thefe confit of impenetrable bodies infinitely hard.'

403 it is a queftion which the author profeffes himself unable to explain. He is contented, therefore, with endeavouring to enumerate the various ftimuli. Thefe he divides into internal and external ;-under each of which heads we meet with many important obfervations, and curious difquifitions. The nature of instinct is inveftigated, and particular attention is paid to two of the moft curious and important inftincts, HABIT and IMITATION.' Some remarks are alfo added on that property in muscles, which preferves them in a ftate of conftant tenfion. The lecture clofes with an inquiry into the action of muscles, confidered merely as mechanical powers.

We have given a fhort view of the contents of Dr. Blane's lecture, which we recommend to the perufal of our readers. They will find the incidental remarks and reafonings valuable and interefting, though the main queftion continues involved in its ancient obfcurity. His theory of mufcular contraction. is, in our minds, totally unfatisfactory; and the mode of operation, by which the natural caufes excite contraction, is not inveftigated. On the first head, he has done little; on the fecond, he has attempted nothing.

**For our account of Dr. Fordyce's Lecture on this fubject, fee Review, vol. lxxix. p. 246.

0.

ART. VII. The Lounger's Common place Book; or Alphabetical Anecdotes. Being a Biographic, Literary, Political, and Satirical Vade Mecum, which he who runs may read. To be continued occafionally. 8vo. pp. 171. 63. Boards. Kerby. 1792.

WE

E have heard it currently obferved, that few people are handfome enough to appear in their nightcaps; a prudent author ought, perhaps, to be equally cautious of expofing his thoughts in the défhabille of his common-place book. Such a book may be characterized as a kind of flut's hole, where an author lays up all his fag-ends of reading, and fhreds of reflection, till he finds occafion to fort and patch them together for particular purposes :-but to have the whole contents poured forth at once, without the calls of time and occafion, is treating us as auctioneers do at the clofe of a fale of household goods; when, if we want a warming-pan, we are encumbered with its companions, a pair of bellows, a cheefe-toafter, and a cinder-fieve. Such a lot is the Lounger's Common-placebook, which the writer offers as a help for an idle or a forgetful man, who lolls his mornings on fofas, in Hyde- park, the coffee-houfe, the fruit-fhop, or St. James's Street:' to fuch men, indeed, a common-place book, even in its rudeft form, may not be unacceptable.

These

These anecdotes are chiefly biographical and characteristical, as well of the living as of the dead, who are all treated with equal freedom. The author often adds fome pertinent reflections: but his range is extenfive, and we are frequently drawn afide from one fubject to another very unexpectedly; though his remarks, with fome exceptions, are made with fenfe and acutenefs. To give an idea of the company here grouped together, we may fpecify Mefirs. Pitt, Fox, and Burke, Mallaniello, Cardinal de Retz, Mary Squires the gipfey, Wefley the Methodist, Dr. Dodd, Rhynwick Williams the monster, Lord Chesterfield, Stephen Duck, and Bruce the traveller; with fome obfcure names that the writer has chofen to celebrate! As our readers will doubtlefs with for a fpecimen of this Commonplace book, we shall extract two or three articles:

CHATEAUNEUF, Mr. keeper of the feals in the tumultuous minority of Lewis the Thirteenth.

But it is not for keeping feals, or keeping a king's conscience, that he is mentioned.

At the age of nine he was introduced to a French bishop, who faid he would give him an orange if he would tell him where God is. 66 My lord, I will give you two if you will tell me where he is not," replied the boy. He had hardly read the fublime fcepticifm of Lucretius:

"Jupiter eft quodcunque vides quocunque moveris."

REYNOLDS, Sir JOSHUA, prefident of the Royal Academy, almoft against his will, and a painter, as eminent for the masterly exercife of his pencil, as the candour and benevolence of his character. He has produced a train of fervile imitators, who, if they would be fatisfied in their efforts to attain his excellencies, would not excite cur contempt: but, when we find them copying with culpable induftry, and defpicable exactness, his obvious errors, it reminds us of the bafe flatterers of Alexander the Great, who, without one pretence to that monarch's hercifm in battle, and moderation in victory, felected an obliquity of one of his fhoulders, as the fervile object of their imitation. Thefe puny infects of the brush, thefe murderers of oil and canvafs, fhould recollect, that nothing but the Prefident's fuperiority of genius can excufe that varno mania, which has of late years fo unhappily poffeft him. Thefe drivellers fhould be reminded, that in their compofitions, an unwieldy mafs of paint cannot difguife impotence of invention, nor an ocean of glaring varnish make us forget a total want of effect.

I have heard long and loud complaints, that the pictures of Sir Joshua, like every other earthly bleffing, are tranfitory, and of fhort duration. May I be permitted, but with due fubmiffion, to fuggeft an opinion on the fubject. The knight is unwilling, that the unnatural made up things, the gewgaws of modern quality and fashion, that the fallow, unfocial fad nefs of the haughty nabob,

The character here given of Sir Joshua was written before the death of this eminent and excellent artilt.

that

that the unmeaning vifage of city dullness, with a long lift of fharpers, horfe jockies, gamblers, and buffoons, fhould be handed down to pofterity by his immortal pencil. As an artift, and a goodnatured man, he cannot, without offence, turn away any one from his door.

Blending, therefore, on his pallet, a due proportion of politenefs to others, with fome regard to his own pofthumous fame, to thefe miftaken creatures, who forget that oblivion and non-existence is their only heaven, he affords the fhort-lived fatisfaction of materials like themselves and their memories, temporary, glittering, and perishable. To-day in the drawing-room, and to morrow in the garret, or the dungeon of the broker.

But beauty, breathing on the canvafs, and worth, which we venerate or lament, fhall be handed down to after times.

The fpeeches of this artist to the Royal Academicians, contain much ingenious theory, and much ufeful practical advice; and the notes which he communicated to his friend Mason, for that gentleman's tranflation of Dufresnoy, evince much claffical erudition, and prove him to have been no fuperficial ftudier of the ancient fchools.

His ftruggle, (when among the pretenders to tafte in virtú,) between his judgement and his politeness, has been admirably hit off by Goldsmith, in the poem of Retaliation:

"When they judg'd without tafte, he was ftill hard of hearing, But when they talk'd of their Raphaels, Corregio, and stuff, He pull'd down his trumpet, and took out his fnuff.”.

RUSSEL, TOM, fellow of New College, Oxford, and author of a collection of fonnets, published since his death. Several of his juvenile compofitions have been omitted by the editor of thefe elegant trifles, which would have done poor Ruffel no difcredit. This young man, who, (to ufe his own words) brought cares on himfelf to drive ours away," gave early proofs of intellectual excellence, and poetic tendency: this latter difpofition could not escape the keen eye of Dr. Warton, who has been accufed of converting Winchefter fchool into a hot houfe of rhymers. His fchool exercifes procured him confiderable applaufe, and when he went to the univerfity, he was confidered as a youth of much hope.

The great advantage of forming ufeful and fplendid connections, is the hackneyed argument advanced in favour of a public fyftem of education. But the views are fo obvious, and the ridiculous failures of interested felfishness fo frequent, that a man who is obferved infidiously to felect for his acquaintance the rich and great alone, is inftantly defcribed as a dead shot at a yellow hammer ; from the circumftance of young noblemen having a golden tuft on their caps, with fome other ornaments, and immunities, at once injurious to, and incompatible with, impartiality and good difcipline.

Can we be furprifed if a young ambitious mind, like that of Ruffel, was deluded from the rugged paths of ftudy, by the fafcination of elegant fociety, and the golden dream of a wealthy patron. If in fome inftances, he courted too affiduously the company of particular circles, it ought to be obferved, that one fo able to communicate,