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with most useful and satisfactory information. M. Huber, after many years of most patient attention, and minute investigation, has at length unequivocally determined that the anomaly of neuter bees no longer exists, and that those which have hitherto been so denominated, are genuine females, with undeveloped female organs, yet capable of development by a particular mode of treatment. His observations into the nature of the impregnation of the queen bee are peculiarly interesting which he sufficiently proves neither takes place by seminal aura issning from the bodies of the numerous drones or males, as was suspected by Swammerdam, nor even within the limits of the hive itself, but by an aerial excursion made by the queen-bee, on the second or third day of her age, in which she is accompanied by her whole seraglio of males, one of which she appears to select from the rest, and with which our author has unquestionably proved that she forms an actual colon. The subject of swarming is also treated with minute and interesting attention, and we are sorry we have nor space to detail M. Huber's very important observations. The cause of this useful instinct, which has been so eloquently and pathetically pleaded by the Poet of the Seasons, is here supported on a principle more intelligible, perhaps, and certainly more persuasive, to most country bee-masters, viz. their own interest.

In the botanica department of natural history, we have received no work from the French press worthy of particular enumeration. At Gottingen, M. Adolphus Schrader has published the first volume of his valuable Flora Germanica, enriched with six well-executed copper-plates; and a new edition is forthcoming of

The

Dr. Kust Springel's "Introduction to the Study of Cryptogamous Plants, in Letters." This volume deserves encouragement; it is written in a perspicuous familiar style, and brings down the subject to the discoveries of the present day. The first letter gives the general characteristics of this division of plants, classically, ordinally, and generically. different orders are then treated of in succession, and under every genus we have a reference to the best de lineations of its different species. We understand this book is just translated into our own tongue, as is also another very valuable German work, in the sanie department, entitled " A General Historical and Topographical Description of Mount Caucasus, with a Catalogue of Plants indigenous to the country." This translation is from the labours of Dr. Reineggs and Marshal Bieberstein, in 2 vols. 8vo. by Mr. C. Wilkinson. We shall notice it in our next volume.

In Sweden, M. Quensel's friends and successors have met with sufficient encouragement to prosecute his very excellent National Zoology, with coloured plates, published under the title of “Svensk Zoologi, eller Svenska Djurens Historia, med Illuminade Figurer." A number still continues to be published quarterly, six of which constitute a volume. The work has now reached its fourth volume, and we expect a part of the fifth in the course of the spring.

Traité Elémentaire de Minéralogie, &c." "An Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy, with its Application to the Arts, a work designed for instruction in the National Lyceumus, by Alexander Brogniart, Mineral Engineer, and Director of the Imperial Manufacture of Porcelain, at Sevres, 2 vols. Svo, with 16-plates, Paris." Almost every

country

country has of late years paid great attention to the subject of the present work; yet such is the intractable nature of the materials it comprises, and so destitute are they of those obvious characters which discriminate the animal and vegetable kingdoms, as to render it still capable of an improved arrangement. Hitherto we have had minerals distributed under the one or the other of the three following systems: that of their external character--that of their interior structure-that of their elementary composition. The first forms the most obvious mode of discriminating them, and were it susceptible of sufficient accuracy, it ought immediately to supersede every other. In the hands of M. Werner, this method has certainly been advanced to a very considerable state of precision; and since the publication of his tract on the External Characters of Minerals, in 1774, a new school has been founded, whose influence is rapidly extending over Europe. Yet this system is loaded with that common fault of the German philosophers, a most wearisome subdivision; its language is also, for the most part, harsh and unclassical; and it betrays, in a variety of instances, an undue inclination to bend the course of facts from a right line to the figure that will best support its principles. For the groundwork of the second system we are, in the first place, indebted to Linnéus ; the plan was improved by Bergman; still farther advanced by Romé Delisle, and brought to its present state of perfection by the very valuable labours, and indefatigable attention of Häuy. The third method would perhaps be the most satisfactory of the whole, if it had not a variety of pertinacious obstacles to its general adoption. It is, in the first place, extremely operose; it

involves, next, the destruction of a part or of the whole of the specimen. to be analysed, and hence must be often accompanied with a very heavy expence; and lastly, we are not yet acquainted with a sufficient number of tests, or instruments of convenient use, to be able to resort to it as a ground-work of universal application. It is the peculiar advantage of the work before us, that it endeavours to extract from these three systems, their most prominent features, and such as are best calculated to amalgamate. It is, on this account, unquestionably superior, in every essential point, to any treatise upon mineralogy we have hitherto seen, and is enriched with a vast mass of knowledge disposed in a luminous order, and condensed into a convenient brevity. The author has not confined himself to a bare description of minerals, but has given a large portion of variety and interest to his work, by noticing their application to the arts, by sketching their natural history, or by indicat ing the geological theories which have been proposed to explain their formation. The concise view of mining and metallurgy, subjoined to the treatise, as it includes the most recent improvements in those brauches, is peculiarly valuable; and we cannot but applaud the judgment and impartiality which the author has every where displayed. The following is the classification under which the subject is treated: I. Combination of oxygen, with substances that are not metallic. II. Saits that have not a metallic base. III. Stones. IV. Combustibles. V. Metals. These five classes are subdivided into orders, genera, and species. Salts constitute two orders, those with an alkaline, and those with an earthy base. Stones give rise to three orders, hard, unctuous,

and

and argilloid. Metals are distinguished, as usual, into brittle and ductile. The numerous subdivisions are exhibited in a convenient synoptic table, prefixed to the body of the treatise.

"L'Art de la Teinture du Coton en Rouge, &c."" The Art of Dyeing Cotton Red, by M. J. A. Chaptal, Member and Treasurer of the Senate, &c. 8vo. with four plates, Paris." There is no person to whom the perfection of modern manufactures is more indebted than to the indefatigable writer before us; who, with a singular and most fortunate union of talents for science and praetical labour, has for many years devoted a large portion of his time to the improvement of almost every art that has any connection with chemistry. The general principles of dying were first developed by Bergman; the theory was considerably advanced by Berthollet, to whom the work before us is dedicated; and, if not brought to the highest state of perfection of which it is capable, is at least very considerably perfected by M. Chaptal. We may peruse this book, therefore, with a twofold advantage, since it not only presents us with the ideas of an enlightened philosopher, but contains the result of an extensive application of them to actual practice; for M. Chaptal informs us, that he has for some time conducted a large dying manufactory, in which every individual process recommended in this volume has been sanctioned by ample experience. The first two chapters are introductory, and describe the situation proper for a dyeing establish ment, the arrangements necessary for its various processes, and the instruments requisite to be employed. The third chapter considers the materials had recourse to in dyeing cotton by madder, viz. the madder

itself, oliveoil, soda, alum, and galls. Chapter four contains minute details respecting the various manipulations of different parts of the process : and chapter five gives an equally distinct account of the means by which the cotton is made to assume the dye. The operation is divided into four stages-the preparation of the cotton-the application of the mordants-the application of the madder-and the brightening of the colour. The mordants employed are alum and galls, and the colour is brought out by nitrat of tin.

In our survey of the higher branches of physical philosophy, we shail commence with noticing a German work of some consequence, from the pen of M. Schroeter, entitled "Seleno-Topographische Fragmenter and Beomachtunger, &c." "Seleno-Topographical Fragments and Observations, with a view to an exact Description of the Moon, the changes to which she is liable, and the nature of her atmosphere; to which are subjoined Maps and Drawings. Gottingen, 410, with 32 engravings." M. Schroeter is by no means unknown to our own countrymen, nor is the tame he has acquired amongst us of a vulgar kind. He is a valuable Fellow of our Royal Society, and his paper on the planet Vesta, inserted of late in the Transactions of the Royal Society, cannot fail of being known to the scientific readers of this excellent journal. He has for many years, moreover, been particularly patrouised by his Britannic Majesty, by whom the most valuable of the astronomical instruments, lately at least, in the possession of the University at Gottingen, were presented gratuitously; and to whom, in proof of his grati tude, M. Schroeter has dedicated the work before us. For the rest, together with much accuracy of re

mark,

mark, it contains no small portion of fanciful description; we will not say the author has altogether become a lunatic, but he pretends to a much more political, geographical, and domestic knowledge of the moon, than many of our politicians, geographers, and economists do with their own mother earth.

"Exposition des Operations, &c." "Exposition of the Operations performed in Lapland for the determination of an Arc of the Meridian, in 1801, 1802, 1803, by Messrs. Osverbom, Svanberg, Holmquist, and Palender, the whole drawn up by Jons Svanberg, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, &c. and published by the Academy, 8vo. Stockholm." This is a very important work, and contains an accurate and scientific account of a mensuration made in Lapland, with as great attention to exactness, and on principles equally just with those that have been performed in England and in France. Of this production Delambre has spoken with the highest and most appropriate commendation; and to the compiler of it, and the most active agent in the operations it describes, the French National Institute has decreed the prize of the medal founded by Lalande.

"Memoire sur la Relation, &c." "Memoir on the Relation subsisting

between the respective Distances of any five points whatever taken in Space, to which is added, an Essay on the Theory of Transversals, by L. N. M. Carnot, &c." This volume discovers indefatigable study and minute calculation. To the transcendent a list it may afford amusement, but it does not admit of abridgment.

"Récherches Arithmetiques, &c." "Arithmetical Inquiries, by M. C. F. Gauss, of Brunswick, translated (into French) by A. C. M. P. Delisle, Professor of Mathematics, &c. 4to. Paris." This work is devoted to transcendental rather than elementary arithmetic, and in this view it is truly valuable, though neither happily arranged, nor always perspicuous. The author, however, proves himself, in every instance, an adroit and able mathematician; his researches are often original, and his inventions, if not useful, curious and interesting.

"Aperçu Général et Raisonné, &c." "General and Scientific View of the Fortifications of Places, com posed for Officers of the Line, by the Baron L. de Fages Vaumale." We cannot give much praise to this volume; its language is imprecise, and its general principles do not quadrate with those most approved by other engineers of the present day.

1809

Dd

CHAPTER

CHAPTER III.

MORAL AND POLITICAL.

Comprising the chief Productions of France, Spain, Germany, and America,

HE present state of the conti

ters of the emperors, kings, and other

THE stage of the den princes who have reigned in Lombar

robling cause that is still stimulating its south-western peninsula, be the termination of this struggle what it may, calls upon us to notice, in the Arst instance, M. Bourgoing's "Tableau de l'Espagne Moderne." "View of Modern Spain," in three volumes Svo." It is sufficient, however, for us merely to notice this work, as we have already given some account of its nature and extent, and the exclusive pretensions with which it is presented to us in a preceding chapter, that embraces the translation that has just been made of it into our own tongue. Four editions of this work have already appeared in France; and the volumes before us constitute a correct re-impression of the last and best printed in our own country, in consequence of the great popularity which the work has acquired on the continent. We have no doubt of its being as much in demand among ourselves, nor will the English version supersede its use: for though the latter must be sought after with avidity by those who are unacquainted with the French tongue, there can be no doubt that every one who can read it in the original, will prefer it under this shape.

"Tableau Historique, &c." "Historical, Statistic, and Moral View of Upper Italy, and the surrounding Alps to which is prefixed, a comparative view of the charac

dy, from Bellovesus and Cæsar to Na. poleon the First; by Charles Denina, Librarian to his Imperial and Royal Majesty, 8vo. Paris." This volume evinces considerable industry and acquaintance with his subject, on the part of the writer, though it is deformed by a very undue subserviency to the ambitious plans of the per sonage it is chiefly designed to cele brate, and by a general spirit of adu. lation to which no independent man could ever consent to stoop. In the opinion of M. Denina, the exploits of Bonaparte, exalt him equally above all the ancient and modem invaders of the country he describes; the Cæsars, Justinians, and Charles magnes of different ages, lose their lustre, and hide their diminished rays in the brighter corruscation of the great star that now rules the ascendant. The work itself is divided. into twenty sections, and comprises an account, 1st, of Piedmont, proper ly so called, forming, at present, the department of the Pe, and the twenty-seventh military division of the French empire; 2. of the provinces that constitute the depart ment of the Stura; 3. of the mari time Alps; 4. of the department of Tanuro; 5. of the provinces and districts which constitute the department of Marengo; 6. of the countries on the right bank of the Tesin, including many provinces of the ci davant Piedmont; 7. of the depart

ments

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