which I fhould blame in the historian. You cannot help recollecting with what addrefs and art fome hiftorians have availed themfelves of harangues, in order to defcribe, with equal force and grace, the fituation of the affairs of a republic. Salluft, for inftance, has taken efpecial care not to mention, as from himself, fuch particulars as he puts into the mouth of Adherbal. And why Because he felt that it would have been improper to have made ufe of the fame turns and the fame expreffions to paint the spirit of the Romans ftill governed by their ancient ideas, and yet already fold to avarice. In fhort (for it is time to close our converfation) harangues are neceffary when the hiftorian relates an action which ought to aftonih, and, perhaps, exalt beyond their ufual level thofe minds that are but of a common caft. As an inftance, let me refer you to Manlius, who juftifies the fentence of death which he pronounced against his fon for having vanquished in difobedience to his orders. Even the most abject mind muft reflect with admiration upon the conduct of a father who, endued with fuch an excels of patriotism and magnanimity, can facrifice to his country the life of an affectionately beloved fon. Whilft I liften to Manlius, I pity him; whilft I revere his refolution, the title and the name of father totally fubdue me. I should not have dared to initate Manlius; and yet, I fhould bluth if I could ceafe to praife him. Lut, if I can form a judgment from appearances and from feelings, I fhould have recoiled with diffatisfaction at any apology which Livy might endeavour to make in his own name for this remarkable procedure. I fhould have confidered him as an empty declaimer, vainly striving to adorn himself with a grandeur of the mind to which he was incapable of reaching. "When you write an hiftory, Theodofius! let me advife you to adapt the harangues of all the perfonages not only to their characters, but to the character of the age in which they lived. This rule, prefcribed to the poets by the masters of the art, fhould extend equally to historians. Who could bear, in Thucydides, that Alcibiades and Nicias fhould both talk in the fame ftyle? In Salluft, we perceive that Marius, Cæfar, and Cato exprefs themselves in a manner entirely different from each other. As to Livy, he seems actually to have made himself matter of the feveral and diftinct kinds of eloquence peculiar to each of thole great men, with whofe fpeeches, he has enriched his work; and, therefore muft we place him (with Cicero) at the head of that small number of writers of genius, whose ftyle perpetually maintains a juft affinity to the matter on which it is employed. In Livy, the fubject of either Philip or Antiochus would not exprefs himself like the citizen of a republic of Greece. The ancients carried this delicacy to the moft fcrupulous extremes. If Thucydides puts into the mouth of Bratidas a more long and ornamented discourse than could have been expected from a Lacedæmonian, he takes care to inform the reader that Brafidas furpalied in eloquence his fellowcitizens. The indirect harangues (which are, indeed, almoft the fole harangues recurred to by the hif torians of this modern age) are, in their nature, cold and languifhing. The ancients employ them very feldom; and, then, only either when the qeftion runs upon affairs of leis in ortance; or when it becomes requilite that the narrative fhould run on with more rapidity." PHILOSOPHICAL PAPERS. .. ACCOUNT of the ORGAN of HEARING in FISH. By JOHN HUNTER, Efq. F. R. S. [From the Seventy-fecond Volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions.] ATURAL history has ever been confidered as worthy the attention of the curious philofopher, and therefore has in all ages kept pace with the other branches of knowledge; and as both arts and fciences have, of late years, been cultivated to a degree, perhaps, be yond what was ever known before, we find alfo, that natural history has not been neglected: all Europe appears to be awake to it. In this ifland it has been pursued with more philofophic ardour, than what was ever known in any country. It has become the study of men of independent fortunes, who not only fpend their fortunes in the cultivation of this fcience, but have rifqued their health and lives in purfuit of it, searching unknown regions to improve mankind, fettling corref. pondences every where, fo as to bring in its materials into this country, in order to make it the school of natural history. It is no wonder, then, that a fpirit of inquiry is diffufed through almost all ranks of men; and that though many cannot purfue it themselves, yet they are eager to know what is already known, chufing at least to benefit by the industry of others. "Thefe reflections have induced me to trouble this learned fociety with a short account of the Organ of Hearing in Fish, it being still a fubs ject of great difpute, whether fifli hear or not. "Some time between the years 1750 and 1760, I obferved the or gan of hearing in fifh; and from that time to this, I only confidered it as a link in the chain of the vas rieties in this fenfe in different ani mals, in which there is a regular progreffion, viz. from the most perfect animals down to the most imper fect poffeffed of this organ. "As I do not intend to give, in this paper, a fuil account of this organ in any one fifh, or of the va rieties in different fish, but only of the organ in general; thofe who may chufe to purfue this part only of the animal economy may think it deficient in the defcriptive parts. If it was a difficult task to expose this organ in fil, I thould perhaps be led to be more full in my defcription of it, but there is nothing more eafy than the expofure of this organ in this animal in general. "As this paper is to be confined to this order of animals, I may be allowed just to obferve here, that the clafs called fepia has this organ alfo, but fomewhat differently constructed from what it is in the. fish. "The organs of hearing in this latter order of animals are placed on .Ha the the fides of the fkull, or the cavity which contains the brain; but the fkull itfelf makes no part of the organ, as it does in the quadruped and the bird. In fome fifh this organ is wholly furrounded by the parts compofing this cavity, which in many is cartilaginous, the fkeleton of these fish being like thofe of the ray kind; in others alfo, as in cod, falmon, &c. whofe fkeleton is bone, yet this part is cartilaginous. "In fome fish this organ is in part within the cavity of the skull, or that cavity which alfo contains the brain, as in the falmon, cod, &c. the cavity of the skull project ing laterally, and forming a cavity there. "The organ of hearing in fish appears to grow in fize with the animal, for its fize is nearly in the fame proportion with the fize of the animal, which is not the cafe with the quadruped, &c. the organs being in them nearly as large in the growing fœtus as in the adult. "It is much more fimple in fish than in all those orders of animals who may be reckoned fuperior, fuch as quadrupeds, birds, and amphibious animals, but there is a regu lar gradation from the first to fish. "It varies in different orders of fish; but in all it confifts of three curved tubes, all of which unite with one another: this union forms in fome only a canal, as in the cod, falmon, ling, &c.; and in others, a pretty large cavity, as in the ray kind. In the jack there is an oblong bag, or blind procefs, which is an addition to thofe canals, and which communicates with them at their union. In the cod, &c. this union of the three tubes ftands upon an oval cavity, and in the jack there are two of thofe cavities; thefe additional cavities in thefe fifh appear to answer the fame purpose with the cavity in the ray or cartilaginous fifh, which is the union of the three canals. "The whole is compofed of a kind of cartilaginous fubftance, very hard or firm in fome parts, and which in fome fish is crufted over with a thin bony lamella, fo as nor to allow them to collapfe; for as the skull does not form any part of those canals or cavities they must be compofed of fuch fubstance as is capable of keeping its form. "Each tube defcribes more than This resembles in a femi-circle. fome refpect what we find in most other animals, but differs in the parts being diftinct from the skull. "Two of the femi-circular canals are fimilar to one another, may be called a pair, and are placed per pendicularly; the third is not fo long; in fome it is placed horizontally, uniting as it were the other two at their ends or terminations. In the fkait it is fomething different, being only united to one of the perpendiculars. "The two perpendiculars unite at one part in one canal, by one arm of each uniting, while the other two arms or horns have no connec tion with each other, and the arms of the horizontal unite with the other two arms of the perpendicular near the entrance into the common canal or cavity. "Near the union of thefe canals into the common, they are fwelled out into round bags, becoming there much larger. "In the ray kind they all termi nate in one cavity, as has been obferved; and in the cod they terminate in one canal, which in thess fish is placed upon the additional cavity or cavities. In this cavity or cavities there is a bone or bones. In fome there are two bones; as the jack has two cavities, we find in one of those cavities two bones, and in the other only one; in the ray there is only a chalky fubftance. "At this union of the two perpendiculars in fome fith enters the external communication, or what may be called the external meatus. This is the cafe with all the ray kind, the external orifice of which is fmall, and placed on the upper flat furface of the head; but it is not every genus or fpecies of fish that has the external opening, "The nerves of the ear pafs outwards from the brain, and appear to terminate at once on the external furface of the fwelling of the femicirculartubes above defcribed. They do not appear to país through thofe tubes fo as to go on the infide, as is fuppofed to be the cafe in quadru peds; I fhould therefore very much fufpect, that, the lining of thofe tubes in the quadruped is not nerve, but a kind of internal periosteum. "As it is evident that fish poffefs the organ of hearing, it becomes unneceffary to make or relate any experiment made with live fish which only tends to prove this fact: but I will mention one experiment, to fhew that founds affect them much, and is one of their guards, as it is in other animals. In the year 1762, when I was in Portugal, I obferved in a nobleman's garden, near Lif bon, a fmall fifh-pond, full of dif ferent kinds of fish. Its bottom was level with the ground, and was made by forming a bank all round, There was a fhrubbery clofe to it. Whilft I was lying on the bank, obferving the fish fwimming about, I defired a gentleman, who was with me, to take a loaded gun,, and go behind the fhrubs and fire it. The reason for going behind the fhrubs was, that there might not be the leaft reflection of light. The inftant the report was made, the fish appeared to be all of one mind, for they vanished inftantaneously into the mud at the bottom, railing as it were a cloud of mud. In about five minutes after they began to appear, till the whole came forth again." REASONS for giving the Name of "GEORGIUM SIDUS" to the newly discovered PLANET. In a Letter from WILLIAM HERSCHEL, Efq. F. R. S. to Sir JOSEPH BANKS, Bart. P. R. S. [From the Seventy-third Volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions.] SIR, eminent aftronomers in Europe it appears, that the new ftar, which I had the honour of pointing out to them in March, 1781, is a primary planet of our folar fyftem. A body fo nearly related to us by its fimilar condition and fituation, in the unbounded expanfe of the ftarry heavens, must often be the fubject of the conversation, not only of aftro in general. Thi sconfideration then makes it neceffarý to give it a name, whereby it may be diftinguished from the rest of the planets and fixed stars "In the fabulous ages of ancient times the appellations of Mer cury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, were given to the planets, as being the names of their principal heroes and divinities. In the prefent more philofophical ara, it would hardly be allowable to have recourfe to the fame method, and call on Juno, Pallas, Apollo, or Minerva, for a name to our new heavenly body. The firfl confideration in any particular event, or remarkable incident, feems to be its chronology: if in any future age it fhould be afked, when this lait-found planet was difcovered? It would be a very fatis"In the factory answer to fay, reign of king George the Third." As a philofopher then, the name of Georgium Sidus prefents itfelf to me, as an appellation which will conveniently convey the information of the time and country where and when it was brought to view. But as a fubject of the best of kings, who is the liberal protector of every" art and science; as a native of the country from whence this illuftrious family was called to the British throne; as a member of that fociety, which flourishes by the diftinguifhed liberality of its royal ACCOUNT of feveral LUNAR IRIS. By MARMADUKE TUNSTALL, Efq. F. R. S. In two Letters to Sir JOSEPH BANKS, Bart, P. R. S. Dear Sir, As [From the fame Work.] S I am ever happy to feize on any opportunity to exprefs my regard to yourself, and my attention to the Royal Society, I cannot omit this occafion of acquainting you of rather an unufual phenomenon feen here on Friday night laft, the 27th of February, between feven and eight, efpecially as it might probably be visible only at a fmall distance. It was an Iris Lu naris, or Lunar Rainbow, in toler ably diftinct colours, fimilar to a fo lar one, but more faint the orange colour feemed to predominate. I was unfortunately not a fpectator myfelf; but can fufficiently rely on the authority, as a clergyman in my houfe, and fomne fervants, on whom I can depend, obferved it for near a quarter of an hour. It hap pened |