figured by Profper Alpinus, p. 47, and has a manifeft fimilarity to Privet, or, rather, Myrtle; though, in its clutter of flowers, it widely differs from both. The term Cyprefs was appropriated by our old Botanifts to the plant known by the names of Cupreffus, Cyparius, and Chamaecyparifjus; alfo Cyperus was called Cyprefs Grafs; all alluding to one common etymology:-in purfuance of which etymology, we fuppofe, the tranflator sendered Cyprus allo Cyprefs. Parkinfon, an authority among old English botanists, fpeaks of this plant as a Privet; of which, had the tranflator been aware, he would doubtleís have profited. The Cyprefs, properly fo called, was a funereal tree; from its branches being hung up fo frequently in Rome at the doors of the deccafed, it became one of the fift objects of the young city painters' attempts at reprefentations of nature, whence the remark of Horace:

"et fortaffe Cupreffum

Scis fimulare; quid hoc. fi fractis enatat exfpes
Navibus ære dato qui pingitur ?"

The Cyprus Plinii is the Lawfonia inermis of Linné. It would fave much trouble, if all writers, when speaking of plants, would ufe the Linnéan name. The antient name might be easily adduced by way of illuftration, but the characteristical name fhould be taken from the Linnéan Nomenclature.

Good.

**S. R. does not appear to diftinguish between religion and its neceffary appendages; between its nature, which is not of this world, and the worldly exteriors with which the profeffion of it muft at prefent be accompanied.-Hence his objections to the article which has excited his comments:-but our engagements are become too numerous to allow of our entering into private controverfies; fo that, on this, and on other difputed fubjects, after impartially delivering our opinion, we are obliged to fay, with Pilate, What we have written, we have written.” Mooy.

66

tt We are forry to acquaint Græculus Efuriens, that there is not now any probability that the intended fcheene, to which he refers, will ever be executed. It is the lot of morrals to meet with difappointments; and the circumftance, to which we here allude, is one of those inflances that fo often occur to remind us of the adage, Non omnia poffumus omnes.

ttt Other letters remain for confideration.

In the Rev. for June, p. 197. 1. 13. froin bottom, for looks'

.

read locks.

At the bottom of p. 360. (for July,) for

P. 150.

2

P. 130.' read

TO THE

EIGHTH VOLUME

OF THE

MONTHLY REVIEW

ENLARGED.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

ART. I. Hiftoire et Mémoires de la Société des Sciences Phyfiques de Laufanne: i. e. The History and Memoirs of the Philofophical Society of Laufanne. Vol. III. For the Years 1787 and 1788. 4to. pp. 484. Laufanne. 1790.

A$

8 the compilers of this volume have not introduced it by any prefatory addrefs, nor have given any farther account of the ftate of the fociety, than by informing us that, fince the publication of the laft volume, it has acquired four new members, we fhall imitate their concifenefs, and proceed to give a brief view of the memoirs; in which we fhall follow the claffical arrangement of the table of contents, in preference to the promiscuous manner in which they follow each other in the body of the work.

GENERAL PHYSICS.

On Fires, and the Means of extinguishing them. By the Abbé BERTHOLON.

This fubject is important and interefting: but the Abbé has rather collected the obfervations and experiments made by others, than conveyed any new and original information. He afcribes the inflammability of bodies to the inflammable gas which they contain; and which, on their decompofition by heat, is let loofe, and, coming into contact with the atmosphere, is ignited, and burfts out into flame. The principal part of the memoir is devoted to a detail of the means of preventing and extinguishing fires; and here the author's chief advice, which is, in the conftruction of buildings, to employ as little APP. REV. VOL. VIII.

LI

as

as poffible of thofe materials which yield inflammable air on their decompofition,' will be allowed to be perfectly just in theory, but will probably be little followed in practice; nor is the fecurity refulting from brick floors likely to compensate for their inelegant appearance. He informs us, however, that M. Ango, an architect of Paris, has contrived a method of conftructing a floor with iron bars, instead of timber joifts, which is even less expensive than the common mode. The wood used in building may be rendered uninflammable by being steeped in a faline folution; and, by being prepared with alum, even canvas and paper hangings may be made to burn without flame. Many other precautions are mentioned by the Abbé, which we fhall not detail, because they are univerfally known, and, we believe, pretty generally adopted.

After defcribing the inventions of Mr. Hartly and Lord Mahon, together with a preparation fimilar to that of Lord M. recommended by M. Frederic of Vienna, the Abbé gives an account of a fubftance, which he calls paper fione, invented by Dr. Fafe, phyfician to the Swedish Admiralty. Its compofition is hot known: but, from a chemical analyfis, it appears to confist of two parts of an earthy bafis, and one of animal oil, mixed up with two parts of fome vegetable substance. At Carlfcrone, a hut was built of dry wood covered with this paper, which is not more than two lines in thickness; it was then filled with combuftibles, which were fet on fire and confumed without burning the building: the paper, which had been pafted on the boards, was reduced to a cinder, and formed a kind of incruftation which preferved them from the effects of the flame. As this paper readily takes any colour, it may te rendered ornamental as well as useful.

In his directions for extinguishing fires, the Abbé obferves that water, in which a fmall quantity of potafh has been diffolved, is more efficacious than any other; he alfo recommends an engine, called the Hydraulic ventilator, invented by M. Caftelli, which is worked by vanes instead of pistons, and may be managed by one perfon. The advantages afcribed by our author to this machine are very confiderable: but we cannot fupprefs our aftonishment on being told that, with a cylinder of only three inches in diameter, it will throw up more water than the largest fire-engines: however, it certainly appears to be lefs expenfive and more portable than the common forcing pumps, and may be of ufe in extinguifhing a fire before it has made any great progrefs. The utility of garden mould with wet fand, in this refpect, is well known: but it can feldom be applied; and we doubt the efficacy of the kind of catapulta, which the auther recommends for throwing it to any distance.

The

The remainder of the memoir contains fome very just but obvious remarks on the neceffity of a regular difcipline among firemen; and it concludes with a particular defcription. of the engines, cifterns, and pipes, at the opera-houfe in Paris, the construction and arrangement of which the Abbé recommends to be adopted in every public theatre.

Account of a Species of Somnambulism occafioned by a Blow on the Head. By L. LEVADE, M. D.

This diforder appears to have been what Etmuller and fome other medical writers call an epilepfy of the second degree. The patient, a lad of about nineteen years of age, had received a violent blow on the temple from a brutal fellow, to whom he had been apprentice. During the paroxism, refentment of the ill treatment which he had received from his master was the prevailing impreffion on his mind, and regulated all his actions: but when the fit was over, he remembered nothing of what he had faid and done in it. Dr. LEVADE prefcribed frequent and copious bleeding, and he conceives that it was of great fervice; we think it fortunate that this abundant and repeated evacuation did not prevent the patient's recovery, which we rather attribute to the ufe of the bark, valerian, and flowers of zinc.

Report by Meffrs. LEVADE, REYNIER, and BERTHOUT VAN BERCHEM Jun', commissioned by the Society to inquire into a Cafe of Noctambulation.

This report was published in the year 1788, and an account, of it was given in the 80th volume of our Review, p. 637, to which we refer the reader.

Two Memoirs concerning the conparative Dilatation of Mercury and Spirits of Wine. By M. GAUSSEN.

The experiments made by Micheli, and thofe afterward performed by M. De Luc, for comparing the dilatation of fpirits of wine with that of mercury in the thermometer, are well known to philofophers. Thefe gentlemen difcovered, not only that the progreffive dilatation of fpirits, from the freezing point up to the temperature of boiling water, is very different from that of mercury, but also that it increases in ratio as the fluid rifes in the tube. If the interval between the above points be divided into eighty degrees, the expanfion of the spirit below forty degrees is found to be less than that of the mercury; from forty to forty-five degrees of the mercurial thermometer, the dilatation of the two fluids is nearly equal: but, in the higher degrees of temperature, the expanfion of the fpirit is much greater than that of the mercury.

M. GAUSSEN obferves that, in M. De Luc's tables, there are fome irregularities in the progreffion of the dilatation of the fpirit; thefe he has endeavoured to correct by comparing the feveral expansions of fpirits of different degrees of ftrength, and by taking the mean fults of thefe experiments. The progresfion, thus obtained, asees nearly with that which M. De Luc had deduced from calculation, and is as follows:

In his fecond memoir, M. GAUSSEN exhibits a comparative view of the tables of Micheli and De Luc, by reducing the former to the fcale adopted by the latter of these philofophers.

ZOOLOGY.

Obfervations relative to the Natural History of afps. By L. LEVADE, M.D.

Dr. LEVADE relates that, during the month of October 1, 88, he obferved fome wafps lying in wait for flies, and that they cut off the legs and wings of those which they caught, and carried the mutilated carcafes to their neft: he alfo fays that, toward the latter end of that month, a neft was difcovered containing a great number of wafps, which feemed to be in full vigour. From thefe facts, he concludes that the Abbé Le Pluche and M. Valmont de Bomare were mistaken in afferting, that these infects destroy their young on the approach of winter. ftance is here given which fhews that the wafp, notwithstanding its natural ferocity, is fufceptible of attachment to its benefactor. Having found a fmall neft, with three of its cells. clofed up, the Doctor carried it home and placed it under a glafs receiver; in a few days,two young wafps came forth, and, as he allowed them no food except fome treacle which he offered them on the tip of his finger, they foon grew fo tame and familiar with him, that, on his raifing the glafs, they would inftantly settle on his hand, and fuffer him to take hold of them and put them again under the receiver, without attempting either to escape, or to fting him.

BOTANY.

Memoir on the Origin and Formation of Mushrooms. By M. FRED. CASIMIR MEDICUS.

7

M. MEDI