converted into a white and solid mass, which will be found to be REGENERATED PURE POTASS. "3. Place a small piece of potasium within a dry wine glass, and in order to acquire an idea of its specific gravity pour a little alcohol, ether, or naphtha upon it; when, quitting the bottom of the glass, it will immediately rise to the surface of the liquid, it being, notwithstanding its metallic appearance, the LIGHTEST FLUID BODY KNOWN. "4. If a little potasium be dropped into a jar of oxy-muriatic acid gas, it BURNS SPONTANEOUSLY, AND emits a bright red light. In this experiment a white SALT IS FORMED, being A TRUE MURIATE OF POTASH. "5. If a globule of potasium be thrown upon water, it decomposes it with great violence: an instantaneous EXPLOSION IS PRODUCED with brilliant flame, AND a solution of PURE POTASH IS THE RESULT. "6. If a similar globule be placed upon ice, it will spontaneously BURN with a bright flame, AND PERFORATE A DEEP HOLE IN THE ICE, which will contain a solution of potash. 7. Take a piece of moistened turmeric paper, and drop a globule of potasium upon it. At the moment that it comes into contact with the water, IT BURNS and MOVES rapidly UPON THE PAPER, as if IN SEARCH OF MOISTURE, leaving behind it a deep reddish brown trace. "8. When a globule of sodium is thrown into hot water, the, decomposition of the water is so violent that small particles of the metal are thrown out of the water, and actually BURN WITH SCINTILLATIONS and flame, IN PASSING THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE.". P. 592. Mr. Parkes, since the publication of this Catechism,' has been employed in making a series of experiments on sugar, the result of which has been laid before a committee of the House of Commons, and the report printed. It has also appeared in Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine, and does credit to the talents and industry of the author. An abstract of it will be an acceptable addition to the fourth edition of this work, which we understand he is now preparing. We think he can still improve the Vocabulary;' and as we have had experience of his disposition to profit by our sugges➡ tions, we would recommend him to add such words as oxydation, &c.; and as no reason can be given why we should write oxyenize-, ment with y and oxidizement with an i, unless it be to stupidly. imitate the French, we should prefer an adherence to the etymon of the word.. An expostulatory Letter to Dr. Moseley, on his Review of the Report of the London College of Physicians on Vaccination. By M. T. C. M.B. F.L. S. 8vo. pp. 51. 2s. 6d. Murray. 1808. IT is in vain to expostulate with a man who evidently discovers himself actuated by motives, and not reasons. Dr. Moseley, no doubt, well knows the value of notoriety; and we think his opponents would have acted far wiser, and disappointed him much more, had they treated his indecent remarks with silent contempt. This is a very able and argumentative letter; but the man who could outrage society by the introduction of such a term as lues bovilla, cannot deserve the attention of such a respectable writer, who throughout evinces himself a gentleman and accomplished scholar. Upon the whole, the character of the enemies of vaccination is worthy of their cause. One of them has lately been exhibited in a court of justice for a crime which shall be nameless: another was alternately a mountebank and a smuggler in the East, then a deserter, next an Aberdeen doctor, afterwards a newspaper-reporter, and now a medical lecturer, &c. &c.!!! A Letter to the Commissioners of military Inquiry, in Reply to some Animadversions of Dr. E. Nathaniel Bancroft on their Fifth Report. By James McGregor, M. D. F. R. S. E. Deputy Inspector of Army Hospitals, &c. Svo. pp. 57. 2s. Marray. 1808. NOT having seen Dr. Bancroft's Letter, we cannot decide on this controversy, which has so warmly engaged the army medical gentlemen. We perceive, however, from the several quotations here introduced from it, that Dr. M. Gregor had fallen into some inaccuracies, but not such as to effect his character for veracity and medical skill. There appears also to be much useless logomachy about the greater mortality in general or in regimental hospitals, when Dr. McGregor candidly admits, "that in general the majority of the more dangerous cases being taken to the general hospitals, a greater mortality was naturally to be expected in them, than in regimental hospitals." After this, we are surprised that the author should insinuate that all "general hospitals receive patients who have not been under the charge of a regimental surgeon." If military patients "have not been under the charge of a regimental surgeon," they must at least have been inspected by him, and ordered to the general hospital; for no military officer would take upon himself to order his sick men to a general hospital, while he had a surgeon to attend them, or direct their treatment. Dr. McGregor's "Abstract of the monthly Returns of Sick and Deaths in the Army in Great Britain, from May 1807 to April 1808," both inclusive, therefore proves nothing to his purpose, although it is a valuable document. By this it appears, that in the regimental hospitals the deaths were to the sick, as one in thirty-one; in the general hospital, as one in twenty and a half. Out of 110,000 men, the regi mental hospitals had 61,585 sick, and 1987 deaths: in the general hospital (Isle of Wight), 2647 sick, and 129 deaths. Thus we see, that nearly two out of three are sick, although not above one in fifty die every year. It is much to be wished that such abstracts were regularly published in the periodical publications every year, as such an enormous list of sick is highly disgraceful to the discipline of our troops and the medical officers of the army. In March, 1808, we find very nigh one twelfth of the whole British army was sick! Dr. McGregor expresses the hope, that "frauds and peculations" in the medical department of the army will be exposed and stopped by the labours of the commissioners, in which we most sincerely concur. We are, indeed, well convinced, that numerous and serious abuses existed, and we fear still exist, in that department; and if this "deputy inspector of hospitals" succeeds in remedying such evils, he will confer a memorable service on his country, and be rewarded by the gratitude of posterity. We could have wished, however, that he had allowed himself, in this Letter, to have been much more copious in facts, and as much more sparing of recriminatory charges of " falsehood" and "mis-statements' against Dr. Bancroft. In matters of opinion, such as the advantages or disadvantages of general or regimental hospitals, there is no occasion for crimination or recrimination: he who avoids this, may make "the worse the better cause. POETRY.. The Times, an Ode at the Commencement of the Year 1809. By Joseph Blacket. 12mo. pp. 16. 1s. Goddard. THIS is a spirited Ode, by a young man, we understand, in a very humble station of life, and with no other education, as we learn from himself, than what he has derived from his own voluntary application. From the perusal of the Ode itself, we should never have discovered that the author had laboured under such disadvantages. It is free from every defect which might naturally be expected in the production of a self-tutored mind; and possesses many beauties which are not to be found in many of the effusions of a highly-educated Muse. We shall extract one of the stanzas, that the reader may judge for himself of the merit of the Ode. "Not so Iberia's warlike sons, Who dare a tyrant's arms defy, Each manly breast at danger spurns, Yes, Freedom's banners, now unfurl'd, While Britain's arm is stretch'd to save And check Ambition's mad career, And fill'd the air with groans-the earth with many a tear." This is a fair specimen, and by no means the best that might be extracted. Both the poetry and the principle are entitled to praise; and we heartily wish success to this modest volunteer in the service of the Muses. To the Ode is prefixed an appropriate dedication to Mr. Pratt, accompanied by some well-deserved compliments to that gentleman, for his able poem on the present crisis, originally in. serted in the pages of this Review. An Address to Time, with other Poems. By John Jackson, of Harrop Wood, near Macclesfield, Cheshire. To this Second Edition is added an Appendix, containing various Letters of the Author to his Friends. 8vo. pp. 84. 2s. 6d. Wilson, Macclesfield. Longman and Co. London. 1808. ALTHOUGH we are no friends to precocity of genius, which rarely attains maturity, yet we have no hesitation in bestowing the "meed of approbation" on the volume before us. It is published, we are told, as a means of procuring, for a virtuous and deserving young man, that pecuniary assistance which may enable him, iù some measure, to co-operate with the wishes and liberality of his patrons and friends, in acquiring the very important advantage of a classical education." The publication, indeed, is one of the neatest, and certainly the cheapest, which we have seen in modern times a strong proof of the modesty and good sense of the author and his friends. The poet is now in his nineteenth year; and most of his verses and letters are equal to those of many modern authors. The Poet's Dream we greatly prefer to the "Address to Time." In the former we noticed only one improper expression-“nest,” in the fourteenth stanza, used for bed, in order to rhyme with rest. Such a low word is beneath the plaintive elegance of the piece. As a specimen, we select the "Stanzas addressed to the deserted House of a Friend," Mr. Nightingale, the reformed methodist. 46 دو "Oh! let me, lone mansion, with thee sympathise; Mr. Jackson's prose letters are neat and lively effusions, indicative of a virtuous mind. EDUCATION. 1 The Adventures of Ulysses. By Charles Lamb. 24.mo. pp. 204. Printed for the Juvenile Library, Snow-hill. 1808. 4s. THIS work, we are told, is designed as a supplement to the Adventures of Telemachus. But Mr. Charles Lamb is no: a Fénélon; and these Aoventures possess no portion of the merit which belongs to the in tab'e production of the archbishop of Cambray. They are full of incidents, unnatural and impossible; and although "the fictions contained in it will," in the author's opinion, "be found to comprehend some of the most admired inventions of Grecian mythology," we are not aware of the advantage to be derived by children from such fictions. As to a moral lesson, if the book contain any such, it has certainly escaped our observation. The language is grossly incorrect, and even the rules of orthography are not always strictly observed. We are told that Penelope, during the absence of her husband, "kept much in private, spinning, and doing her excellent housewiveries among her maids," &c. But such a production is almost too low for criticism. An Introduction to Arithmetic, in which the four principal Rules are illustrated by a Variety of Questions, geographical, biographical, and miscellaneous. By Richard Chambers. 18mo. pp. 72. 1s. 6d. bound. Bone and Hone. 1809. MR. CHAMBERS, we understand from his Preface, is the master of an academy in Cecil-court, St. Martin's lane; and his object, in this short Introduction to Arithmetic, was "to blend the dulce with the utile," which he has happily attained. We have, indeed, never seen a greater variety of curious and useful information contained in such a narrow compass, and reduced to the form of arithmetical questions. The diversity of facts and subjects, which the author has associated in prose and verse, cannot fail to stimulate curiosity, expand the minds of youth, and inculcate habits of observation and reflexion. We shall take the first question that occurs, as a specimen of a work which we think deserves our recommendation. "Christopher Columbus, a Genoese, the discoverer of America, died in 1506, at Valladolid, and was buried at Seville in Spain. The oranges commonly (though vulgarly) called civil oranges, came originally from Seville. If 326 Seville oranges cost 11. Os. 44d. what is the price of one?.. Answer, ad." POLITICS. A Letter to William Roscoe, Esquire, containing Strictures on his late Publication, entitled, Considerations on the Causes, Objects, and Consequences of the present War." 8vo. pp. 120. 2s. 6d. Kaye, Liverpool. Longman and Co. London. 1808. THIS is one of the best-written and most argumentative pamphlets which we have seen for a long time. Facts are here opposed to assertions; argument to declamation; and proofs to presumptions. Mr. Roscoe's ignorance, perversions, misrepresentations, and prejudices, are exposed in a manner which, if such political partisans were susceptible of shame, could not fail to raise a blush on his cheek. To those, if any such there be, who have been imposed upon by the confidence of Mr. Roscoe's language, and to all who No. 127. Vol. 32. Jạn. 1809. G |