falt. From these premises our Author thinks he is juftly per mitted to draw this inference:

That, as the earth, within the given time of thirteen hundred years, has not had the power of petrifying fo fmall a fubftance as an ivory armilla, or of extracting the animal property. from it; the time which would have elapfed, to have rendered the tufk of an elephant calcareous, and to have converted it into the solid substance of an agate, could not bear any relative proportion to the tranfition of time, which human observation has thus prefixed: hence, by a progreffive fucceffion of truths, I may naturally conclude, that fome unknown lapfe of time muft have tranfpired for the production of this phenomenon, or that the earth must have been endued with a power of operating this effect, which fome revolution in nature has now entirely destroyed.'

This is the principal outline of the performance before us,. though it was not without difficulty that we were able to give our readers any idea of the Author's plan, for he writes in a very defultory and immethodical manner, and his ftyle in many inftances betrays hafte and inaccuracy. We hope, however, that in time his judgment will controul his ideas, and in. fome measurereftrain the flight of his imagination,' fince he feems, from the fpecimen before us, to be poffeffed of ingenuity and abilities that may be highly useful in the caufe of fcience, efpecially when joined with the ardent defire which he appears to have for ufeful discoveries..

In the Appendix Mr. D. offers fome obfervations on the bones found in the rock at Gibraltar, and others of a fimilar kind. Buffon's fyftem, and Whitehur's theory of the earth, are examined, and remarks are made upon them.

The plates in aquatinta accompanying this work, which we find to be the Author's own performance, are neatly executed, and are good reprefentations of the originals, particularly thofe of the coins, which we cannot help commending as engravings, although they are totally foreign to the main fubject of his book.

ART. IX. A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, illuftrated by Plates taken from the original Armour in the Tower of London, and other Arfenals, Mufeums, and Cabinets. By Francis Grose, Efq. F. S. A. 4to. 21. 2s. Hooper. 1786.

N our Review for July 1785 we gave our readers an account of the first number of this ingenious work, wherein we explained, as far as the preface could enable us, the intention and nature of the performance. The whole being now completed, we find it divided into two parts, one defcribing defenfive, and the other offenfive arms. Although Mr. Grofe confines himself

chiefly

chiefly to the armour worn in England, from the conqueft to the time of its difufe, yet he frequently entertains his readers with defcriptions and engravings of foreign ancient armour; especially when the confideration of the latter elucidates or explains any particulars relative to the former. The fources whence Capt. Grofe has drawn his information and examples, are the armour and weapons themselves; he has never mention3ed any part of armour without having the original before him both for the verbal defcription and drawing, fo that we meet with nothing of which fpecimens may not be feen either in public arfenals, private cabinets, fepulchral monuments, or ancient feals; and in order to fatisfy the curiofity of his readers, he has, in the explanation of the plates, always been attentive to refer to the originals whence the drawings were made; and in the hiftorical and defcriptive part he is no lefs careful to quote authorities for what he advances.

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Such is his general plan, and the accuracy with which he has executed it, is fimilar to that obfervable in his former publica

tions.

The feveral parts of armour are defcribed feparately, their ufes are pointed out, and the different forms in which they were - made at different periods of time, are fully explained. The - learned Reader will find many curious remarks relative to the etymology of the names of the moft material pieces of armour ; by which it evidently appears that our Author has not compiled the prefent performance in hafte, but that it has been the refult of extenfive reading, clofe ftudy, and a mature confideration of the fubject. The hiftorian will alfo receive much inftruction as well as entertainment from an attentive perufal of this treatife, especially in fuch matters as relate to fieges and martial operations. In a word, readers of every defcription will have the fatisfaction of meeting with fomething agreeable or useful.

The engravings which, being 49 quarto plates, befide an elegant frontispiece, conftitute a confiderable part of the book, are executed in that mafterly ftyle which has always characterized the Captain's former works: they are exact representations of the originals, which is a moft material recommendation of them; they would however have been much more agreeable to the eye had they been drawn without the ftands or props on which the armour is fupported. Though the ftands are neceffary in the arsenal, yet they fill the picture with an appearance of fomething foreign and extraneous: but it seems a peculiarity of this accurate artift, to let nothing efcape which prefents itself to his eye, when he is viewing a scene, or drawing an object.

*

9**

ART.

ART. X.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

ITALY.

Art. 1. NUOVO Methodo, &c. i. e. A new Method of treating certain Disorders under chirurgical Infpection. By M. FULGONI. 4to. With Plates. Rome. 1786.The first of four differtations contained in this work treats of aneurisms in the lower extremities, the fecond of the fracture of the collar bone, the third of the fracture of the knee-pan, and the fourth of the ufe of camphor in the cure of external wounds. To thefe differtations our Author has prefixed fome critical reflections on chirurgical practice, and hiftorical accounts of several eminent practitioners, whofe merit is celebrated with due applause. To these are added two remarkable observations; one, of an imperfect conformation, in which the parts of generation, and the urinary bladder, were wanting; the other, of two heterogeneous substances which found a paffage into the bladder, one by the mouth, the other by the urethra.

2. Delle Offa, &c. i. e. A Memoir concerning the Bones of Elephants, and other natural Curiofities, found in the Mountains of Verona. By the Abbé FORTIS. 8vo. Vicenza. 1786.We have received information concerning this work, but we have not yet seen it: when it comes to hand, we shall communicate the ingenious Abbé's explication of the matter. As the bones in queftion announce elephants, in great number, of all ages and all fizes, thefe fragments cannot be fuppofed to belong to the elephants which are said to have been brought into Italy by Hannibal and Pyrrhus.

3. Lettere fifiologiche, &c. i. e. Phyfiological Letters of Dr. ROSA, Prefident of the College of Phyficians at Modena. 4to. Macerata. 1786. Thefe letters do honour to the penetration and induftry of their learned Author, whofe difcoveries and obfervations have contributed not a little to explain several curious and important phenomena both in the animal and vegetable world.

4. Memarie, &c. i. e. Hiftorical Memoirs of the Eaft-Indies. By Father EUSTACHIO DELFINI, a Piedmontefe Carmelite. 8vo. Turin. 1786.-This Monk, who accompanied the French admiral Suffrein in his expedition to the Indies, gives us a topographical defcription of that extenfive region, together with an hiftorical account of the different forms and tenets of religion that diftinguith its inhabitants. Like all new comers on the hiftorical fcene, this Author corrects, on several occafions, the relations of preceding travellers and obfervers. Among other things, we find in this publication a life of the famous Hyder Ali, together with a relation of many fingular

events.

5. De Igne, &c. i. e. Philofophical Thefes concerning the Nature of Fire. Dedicated to Pius VI. By Count CHARLES RESTA, Patrician of Milan. 4to. Rome. 1786.—Those who are acquainted with the recent and multiplied experiments of the Doctors Priestley, Black, Crawford, Bergman, Scheele, Abbé Fontana, and other learned men, relative to the subject here announced, will meet with nothing very new in this performance. They will, however, find in it the heads of an elementary treatife upon Fire, judicioufly propofed, and elegantly arranged; and in this point of view the work before us has a confiderable degree of merit. In the noble Author's plan for the compofition of fuch a treatise, the thefes, or propofitions, announced in the title of his work, are diftributed into three claffes; the ift, containing all that relates to the nature of the igneous fluid in general;-the 2d, all the intimate combinations of this fluid, confidered as principle ;-the 3d, the freer union of fire with other bodies in a ftate of mixture only, and aggregation. Under the three heads of this divifion, the Author, without profeffing to give a complete treatife on the fubject, furnishes, nevertheless, by reasonings upon the facts which experiments have discovered, very good materials for fuch a treatise.

Under the first he proves that fire is not a modification of other bodies, but a fubftance fui generis, fimple, peculiar, elementary, and not compofed, as fome learned men have imagined, of phlogifton intimately combined with pure air. He confiders it, moreover, as the univerfal diffolvent, the caufe of all fluidity, and the principle, by whofe influence, air, water, and all other menftrua exercite activity. He looks upon it as the principle of feveral cryftallizations, as the caufe or the aeriform appearances, of which many fubftances are fufceptible, and the great agent from whose presence and quantity, the preservation or destruction, both of vegetative and fenfitive life, are equally derived.

After having unfolded the nature and general properties of the igneous fluid, M. RESTA, in the fecond Part of his work, confiders this fluid in its combinations; and here he goes over the fame ground that has been trod, before him, by the Priestleys, the Fontanas, the Sennebiers, and other eminent men. In the third Part, already announced, he follows and illuftrates the theory of Dr. Crawford.

6. Memorie Itoriche, &c. i. e. Hiftorical Memoirs concerning Cerignola. By M. THEODORE KIRIATTI, M.D.-The Author thews that Cerignola is the ancient Gerionum (which is no new difcovery), and that it was founded by the Aufonians; which may have been the cafe. His account of the flourishing ftate of Apulia, when Hannibal made himself mafter of that country, and of its prefent ftate with refpect to population, agriculture, commerce, induftry, towns, and public edifices, is more intereft

ing.

ing. His work is, terminated by an effay on the natural hiftory of this fertile region, and an enumeration of the experiments be made to ascertain the non-exiftence of the venom attributed to the Tarantula.

7. L'Iliade, &c. i. e. Italian trapflations of the Iliad of Homer. Vol. I. By the Abbé CESAROTTI. Padua. 1785.-We announce this tranflation, on account of the treasure of hiftorical and critical erudition with which it is accompanied. We have, here, indeed two tranflations; the one literal, in profe, which is to fupply the place of the original text;-the other poetical, and made with a certain freedom, into which our Author has endeavoured to transfufe the fpirit of the Grecian bard. The profe tranflation is accompanied with a multitude of mythological, hiftorical, critical, philofophical, and grammatical obfervations, which conftitute the most inftructive part of the work. Many volumes, ancient and modern, have been laid under contribution to furnish thefe obfervations, to which the Abbé has added a certain number of his own. Thefe are followed by whole differtations, borrowed from eminent critics and philologifts, and defigned to illuftrate a variety of fubjects relative to the Iliad. But this is not all: for, to render this work ufeful to the lovers of Grecian literature, M. CESAROTTI has placed at the end of the volume, the most confiderable various readings of the Greek fcholiafts,, which are in the library of St. Mark at Venice, and are to be published in the edition of Homer, promifed by the learned M. Villoifon.-There is alfo prefixed to the tranflation before us a Preliminary Difcourfe, containing an ample account of Homer's life and writings.

**Since writing the above, we have, by accident, met with the 3d edition of Abbé Cefarotti's Italian tranflation of the works of Offian; and we purpose to give an account of it in our Appendix-which will be published next month, as usual.

Art. 11. The Treaty of Navigation and Commerce between his Britannic Majefty and the moft Chriftian King. Signed at Verfailles Sept. 26, 1786. In French and English. 4to. 2s. 6d. Harrison.

ITH refpect to this article, the Public are all critics, to a man;

Wit would be, therefore, impertinence in us, were we to pretend

to give a review of it.

Art. 12. The two Treaties between Great Britain and France. The former in the Reign of Queen Anne, the latter in the Year 1786, compared, Article by Article, in oppofite Columns. Together