I present to you, (says he,) for your opinion, a cosmopolitan,

wish. Potentates and private founders have formed institutions for the instruction of the deaf and dumb. Establishments for the cure of the epileptic would be much more useful. 1. Their use, I ap. prehend, would extend to a greater number of individuals. In Bekker's national-zeitung, the number of epileptic patients in Germany is estimated at 10,000; and there is reason for fearing that, if feebleness of constitution and mental and bodily exertions should go on regularly increasing together through the 19th century, the number will become much larger. 2. Cured epileptics are returned to the state and to their families in a much more serviceable condition, than deaf and dumb people, however well taught. 3. If, in the treatment of the latter, the gain of psychological and physiological observations is to be taken into account, how much more abundant would be the harvest from institutions for epileptics, when put under the direction of a physician meditating on their symptoms, and under the inspection of attendants capable of keeping a regular journal. The finest part of the human machine, and its relation to the power of thought, may receive illustration; particularly of the kind which is desireable in the practice of medicine. 4. If my work should evince the great probability that most cases of epilepsy are curable; that the principal obstacles lie in the conduct of uninstructed patients; and that the mere visits and prescriptions of the physician can seldom avail; it will follow that such an establishment would be of the most signal utility. - Six well chosen patients would afford a good beginning for the instruction of surgeons and other attendants-but I will not lose myself in the detail of the institution, till I am summoned by some humane founder."

If, by any regulations, well qualified and attentive superintendants could be secured, we should think that such an estab. lishment ought not long to remain among the number of pious wishes:-but how little light has yet fallen from madhouses on the bodily and mental functions of man !

ART. XXII. Annales de Chimie; i.e. Chemical Annals. Vols. XIX. and XX. 8vo. Paris. 1797. Imported by De Boffe, London.

WE resume the consideration of a periodical work which justly ranks among the highest of its kind. The Annales de Chimie were interrupted for three years, during the most distracted period of the French revolution, under the tyranny of the sanguinary Robespierre; the two volumes before us fill up the interval between their discontinuance in 1793, and their resumption three years ago. During this time, the authors were deeply engaged in the improvement or invention of processes subservient to military operations; and all Europe is acquainted with the general success of their efforts. These AFP. REY. VOL. XXVII. volumes

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volumes inform us, in some measure, of the line in which they were directed: but some particulars of the most interesting kind, as is very natural, are still kept secret. Among these latter, we may reckon some great improvements in the fabric ation of salt petre: for that such improvements were actually made, we know, partly from the great supply of this necessary article which the enemy obtained, independently of importation, and partly from the express testimony of travellers.

Art. I. in the 19th volume relates to the operations of war. It is the Extract of Instructions for Workmen in Iron concerning the Fabrication of Steel, by VANDERMONDE, MONGE, and BERTHOLLET; and it contains a practical application of the facts which have been discovered in modern times, respecting the chemical properties of different modifications of iron. It appears probable that this paper effectually assisted the French artisans, in the manufacture of a commodity for which they were formerly dependent on England and Germany.

Art. II. Notice of a Work by VANDERMONDE on the Fabrication of bright Arms. Towards the beginning of the general war, only one manufactory in France could supply good swordblades; and this was at Klingenthal, in the department of the Lower Rhine. Afterward, a great variety were instituted, and (it would appear) have been continued with perfect sucTheir establishment contains the most curious set of facts in the history of the arts.

cess.

HI. Extract of a Report on different Means of obtaining Mineral Alkali from Sea-Salt. By LELIEVRE, PELLETIER, D'ARCET, and ALEXANDER GIROND. The substance of this article will hardly gratify the curiosity which its title is likely to excite. Various means were essayed, but to no purpose in an economical view. The description of these complicated methods may inform chemical projectors in what direction it is useless to proceed: but we do not know that they will be able to deduce any immediately useful hints from this long and laborious report.

IV. Memoir on the Means of multiplying the Fabrication of Pot-ash in France. By PERTUIS.

V. Extract from Instructions concerning the Combustion of Vegetables, the Fabrication of Pot-ash (salin), Pearl-ash, and the Manner of saturating nitrated Water or Salpetre-ley. By VAUQUELIN and

TRUSSON.

These papers also respect the necessities of war. They contain numerous experiments on the quantity of saline matter obtainable from different vegetables, presented in the tabular form.

VI. Instruc

VI. Instructions towards effecting the Refabrication (refonte) of

Paper printed and written upon: published by the Commission of Agriculture and the Arts. This paper shews the possible extent of resources among an intelligent people, pressed by urgent want. Many of the works imported from France, during the course of the revolution, demonstrate the low ebb to which the manufacture of paper was reduced. We have not understood that the ingenious project here described afforded much relief, at the time of the greatest deficiency of materials: but it is probable that an active and improved agriculture has amply supplied this deficiency: -for travellers of all descriptions (whether willing or unwilling witnesses) agree in attesting that the cultivation of the French soil is pursued with greatly increased ardour and skill.

VII. Report concerning the Fabrication of various Kinds of Soap; concerning their different Qualities, according to the Nature of the Oils employed in their Composition; and concerning the Means of every where preparing them with the different oily and alkaline Materials furnished by Nature in different Places. By D'ARCET, LELIEVRE, and PELLETIER.

The union of oils and fatty matters with alkalis has long been a great and extensive object of human labour. We consider the present account of processes, conducive to this end, not only as the best paper in the present collection, but as superior to any thing of the kind existing in any language. It

well deserves translation.

The remainder of this volume consists of extracts from Crell's chemical annals: but we find nothing which we have not already communicated to our readers, in our account of the same numbers of that work.

Volume xx. consists of pieces calculated for local and temporary purposes, but having, in some instances, a permanent

interest.

The first paper is a Report concerning the Trials made at Romilli to separate Copper from Bell-metal. By PELLETIER and D'ARCET.

II. Report to the Committee of Public Safety, on the new Methods of tanning Leather proposed by A. SEGUIN. This report seems to hold the same rank in the present which that on soap occupied in the former volume. The art itself must be considered as of more immediate necessity; and we entertain little doubt that, in consequence of the researches here described, the first great branch of the leather manufacture will undergo a salutary reformation. The change will not merely be confined to economy of labour and of time:-it will reach also to the improvement of leather.

III. Extract of a Memoir on the Salt Springs of the Departments of La Meurthe, Jura, Doubs, and Mont-Blanc. By NICOLAS. This extensive paper consists partly of description and partly of project. It enters also into large details concerning the implements requisite in the manufacture of common salt.

A number of pieces then follow, concerning the new republican weights and measures; these are fitter for a place in a general physical collection, like the Journal de Physique, than in a strictly chemical journal:-but it would seem, from their appearance here, and from some other circumstances, that the authors found a difficulty in completing the present two volumes.

Notice of the extraordinary Quantity of Saltpetre obtained in France during the second and third Years of the Republic, by C. A. PRIEUR.

The present is a document illustrative of the prodigious efforts made to furnish the French armies with weapons and ammunition. Every district was required to send two intelligent cannoneers to Paris. This convocation, amounting to nearly eleven hundred individuals, received regular instruction from Guyton, Fourcroy, Dufourny, Berthollet, Carny, Pluvinet, Monge, Hassenfratz, and Perrier, partly concerning the manufacture of cannon, partly concerning that of saltpetre. This 'body of pupils was afterward distributed among the different establishments, in proportion to their abilities.

To the above notice is subjoined an essay on the Formation of Saltpetre, and on the Establishment of artificial Nitre Beds, by J. A. CHAPTAL;-with Instructions concerning the Mode of refining Saltpetre newly adopted in the National Manufactories. These, with the other papers, will be of great value to European nations, when cut off from all foreign supply of nitre.

A favourable Report concerning the artificial Pencils of Conte, and Extracts from Crell, conclude the volume.

In our next Appendix, we hope to present a fuller report of the numbers of the Annales de Chimie up to the latest date; the work having assumed a more strictly philosophical and more generally interesting aspect.

ART. XXIII. Luise, &c. i. c. Louisa, a Pastoral (or rather Rural) Poem, in three Idyls. By J. H. Voss. 8vo. Königsberg. 1795

TH His is one of those foreign works which we had intended to notice much earlier, but which we were disappointed in our endeavours to procure. We mention it now, however, because it ranks among those original productions which impress their character on the literature of the era in which they appear.

M.Voss's Poem is not one of those which are remote from life and human nature, and of which a former age heard so much under the title of Pastoral Poetry: -nor is it conceived in the more natural and more agreeable manner of Gesner. It comes as much nearer to the actual state of manners than Gesner, as Gesner did than Ambrose Phillips. It is in fact a faithful picture of rural life in Germany.

The characters are a parish priest, his wife, their only daughter, and the suitor to whom that daughter is betrothed; together with some persons of inferior interest.

The first idyl is the Feast in the Wood. The above-mentioned parties make a short summer-afternoon's excursion, and regale themselves in the shade on the border of a lake: - the ride, the preparations, and even the boiling of the coffee, are described with the utmost minuteness; and the solemn is very happily blended with the familiar throughout. M. Voss caught the idea of his manner from Homer, whom he is thought by his countrymen to have very successfully translated into hexameter verse, which is also the measure of the poem before us.

The second idyl is the Visit:-the third, the Bridal Evening. None of the incidents rise above the level of simple life :but, particularly in the third idyl, they are managed with much greater address than in former pastoral narrations. In those, all was dull and dead. The present is full of motion and vivacity, as well in its portraitures as its fable.

To translate this elegant jeu d'esprit would be no easy undertaking; and if it were less difficult, it would scarcely be adviseable. A thousand little allusions make it entirely national :these are so many ties which bind the poem to its native language:-to loose them would require more thought and labour than to write an equal poem;-and to break them would disfigure the whole composition.

ART. XXIV. Von Gottes Sohn, der Welt Heiland, Sc. i.e. Of the Son of God, the Saviour of the World: according to the Gospel of John. Together with a Rule for harmonizing our Gospels from their Origin and Order. By J. G. HERDER. Small 8vo. pp. 416. Riga. 1797.

H ERDER may be characterised as the Plato of the Christian world. His blooming and ardent diction, and his graceful imagination, uniformly cling in devout ecstasy about those passages of the sacred writings, which are adapted to command

our