debarred from leaving any children after them.-I think there fhould be no barracks; and every foldier be obliged to marry the daughter or the maid of the houfe where he happened to be billetted. What a fingular propofal!

This is not very confiftent with what went immediately before. But let us hear our Author on another fubject.

We are not surprised that the Paris edition was burnt by the common hangman when we fee the following paffages:

In defcribing a picture of the crucifixion, he fays, Mary is weeping at his feet: and why weep, when he knows her fon died for form's fake, and can revive again when he likes?'

The convent Efcaleffes is a nunnery, which formerly ferved as a feraglio for the kings, princes, and grandees of Spain; and is ftill famous for the amorous intrigues of the fpoufes of God, who are faid to bring forth children that are none of his.'

Speaking of devotion, our traveller fays, Whatever enthufiafts the Spaniards may be, notwithstanding all their proceffions and benedictions, the inhabitants of Madrid have less devotion than is generally fuppofed. Here, as well as every where else, devotion is the refource of old age and difappointed ambition, who offer unto God the leavings of the devil.'

In thefe, and many other places, we obferve a peculiar ori ginality of thought. We fufpect, from the frequent flashes of wit, and boldness of expreffion to be met with in this perform ance, that it is the production of a ftudent in the fchool of Voltaire. The Author's vivacity, though a very light commodity, feems greatly to outweigh his judgment.

A.B.

ART. VI. A Narrative of the two Aerial Voyages of Dr. Jeffries with Monf. Blanchard; with meteorological Obfervations and Remarks. The first Voyage on the 30th of November 1784, from London into Kent: the fecond, on the 7th of January 1785, from England into France. By Dr. Jeffries. Prefented to the Royal Society April 14, 1785; and read before them January 1786. 4to. 75. 6d. (with the Print). Robfon.

A

N advertisement prefixed to thefe narratives informs us, that they were intended to have been laid before the Public immediately after the events took place; that the prefident of the Royal Society having honoured them with his attention, and judged them worthy of being read to that illuftrious body, the Author thought it his duty to fubmit them firft to their infpection; that the manufcript remained much longer than he expected in the hands of the Society, having but lately been returned; and that the engravings annexed could not be earlier completed.

Thefe engravings are, the Doctor pointing to his barometer, at the joyous moment of the balloon beginning to re-afcend from

its unexpected and alarming depreffion in paffing the channel: and the monument erected to the two aeronauts on the spot where they landed, in the foreft of Guines in France.

Dr. Jeffries informs us that he paid a hundred guineas to Mr. Blanchard, the proprietor and manager of the balloon, for his place in the first voyage, and was himself at the whole expence of the fecond, though he appears to have met with no very grateful returns for his generofity. His view was to gratify a laudable curiofity, and to ascertain some interefting points relative to the ftate of the atmosphere; and his plan of connecting himself with a practical aeronaut was certainly well judged, for it is natural to fuppofe that one perfon would be too much engaged in the care of the aerial vehicle itself to give fufficient attention to philofophical obfervations.

Of thefe voyages it will not be neceffary for us to give any abstract, as general accounts of them were published in the newspapers at the refpective times, and our limits will not admit of our entering into particulars. Unexpected impediments, and unfavourable circumftances, prevented the Doctor from making any great addition to our knowledge of the atmosphere; nor do his own abilities as a man of science appear to much advantage. The compass traversed freely, but was of no use for ascertaining the direction, on account of the continual rotation of the balloon, and its apparent quiefcent ftate: the Doctor expected that light bodies dropped from the balloon, fuch as would not fall too quick, but remain vifible for fome time during their defcent, would obviate this difficulty, and ferve for objects from which to eftimate the direction; not fufpecting, even after an unsuccessful trial in that way, that the progreffive impulfe, which the body received in the balloon, mult act upon it, as well as gravity, in its defcent, fo that its progreffive motion must keep pace with. that of the balloon itself, except for the different degrees of refiftance they might meet with from the medium through which they paffed.

The Doctor had provided himfelf in the firft voyage with the inftruments for meteorological obfervations, and does not feem to be inattentive to them. The electrometer, though frequently examined, he never found to be any way affected: the hygrometer (mifprinted hydrometer) shewed the air to grow dryer as he afcended, and moitter again in his defcent: the thermometer, which, at his departure from the Rhedarium near Croívenor Square, ftood 19 degrees above the freezing point, funk, at his greatest elevation, to 31 below freezing. On this fubject we would remark, once for all, that the thermometer may lead us into very erroneous conclufions refpecting the temperatures of the atmosphere at different heights: for, not to mention the ef fects of temporary currents of air coming from warmer or colder

regions,

regions, the thermometer requires fome time for receiving the full heat of the air to which it is expofed; and if the heat increases or decreases quickly, or if the inftrument is in conti nual motion through places of different temperatures, it cannot fhew the heat really fubfifting at any given moment of time, or at any one of the places through which it has pafled.

We shall only add, that though this writer makes no very confpicuous figure in the walks of literature or fcience, his narrative is fufficiently entertaining, and there cannot be a doubt of its fidelity. Ch.

ART. VII. Experiments and Obfervations on the Danger of Copper and Bell-metal in pharmaceutical and chemical Preparations. By William Blizard, Fellow of the Antiquary Society, Surgeon to the London Hospital, and Lecturer in Anatomy, &c. 8vo. 1s. Dilly. 1786.

TH

HOUGH the principal part of these experiments and obfervations was made public fome years ago, as an article in Dr. Duncan's Medical Commentaries, vol. vii. the importance of the object, and the continuance of the evil, fufficiently justify this republication (with a few additions), in a form better adapted for bringing them into general notice.

Fatal experience has taught the danger of veffels made of copper (or compound metals of which copper is the bafis), in the cafe of liquid preparations both culinary and pharmaceutical but it has not, we believe, been fufpected that mortars made of thofe metals, if properly kept clean, would communicate any noxious quality to the dry fubftances that are ufually pounded in them. The experiments of Mr. Blizard, however, have fhewn, that when fubftances even not of a very hard nature, as coral, crab's eyes, calcined hartfhorn, &c. are pulverifed in a bell-metal mortar, they actually abrade a portion of the metal, which may be difcovered in the powders fometimes by examination with the eye only, but more certainly by its giving a blue colour to volatile alcali, the best and readieft criterion of copper. To obviate any fufpicion of the mortar he employed being of any peculiar compofition, &c. he procured fome of the prepared powders from different fhops, and found a cupreous taint in them all; burnt hartfhorn, indeed, feems not only to abrade, but to corrode the metal; for it can hardly be brought in contact (he fays) with bell-metal without receiving a cupreous taint, especially if moist.' The cafe is doubtlefs the fame with many other medicinal preparations and compofitions; and we need not now be at a lofs to account for the nausea and sickness which they are often found to produce.

The Author next enquires what other kind of mortars will answer the purposes of apothecaries and chemifts? The reply is ready, IRON. The experience of feveral gentlemen has proved

that

that mortars of this metal anfwer perfectly well. It may be objected, that iron is apt to contract ruft. But let me obferve, that attention to the foulness of bell-metal and brafs is more neceffary than to that of iron, as neglect in the one cafe would be exceffively dangerous, in the other hardly more than an inelegant omiffion. But caft iron is really lefs fufceptible of the impreffions of the air than bell-metal. In all refpects it has the advantage of it, and is beyond comparison cheaper.'

He informs us that the committee of the London hofpital, from a reprefentation of the facts contained in thefe pages, have ordered their bell-metal mortars to be fold, and iron ones to be purchased for the ufe of their elaboratory and difpenfary; and we cannot doubt that the laudable example will be followed, as foon as the fame facts hall become generally known, by all those who have the direction of medicinal or culinary preparaWith acknowledged conviction of the noxious qualities of copper; with experiments laid before them, which they may eafily repeat themfelves, proving that powders ground in thofe mortars are actually tainted with the copper ;-having fo convenient a fubftitute as iron, which, if it fhould contract ruft from neglect, be abraded by hard bodies, or corroded by faline ones, will fill do little or no injury to health;-having also a material of another kind (which ought to be mentioned on this occafion, though the Author has not done it), of fuch hardness as to fuffer no abrasion, and which refifts every known fpecies of corrofives; we mean the mortars made by Mr. Wedgwood, which are now well known to the experimental chemifts;-fo circumftanced, they muft feel themfelves inexcufable if brafs or bell-metal should any longer be feen in their poffeffion. Ch.

ART. VIII. The Hiftory of Dover Castle. By the Rev. William Darell, Chaplain to Queen Elizabeth. Illuftrated with ten Views and a Plan of the Caftle. Folio. 16s. 6d. Boards, large Paper. 12s. 6d. fmall Paper. Hooper. 1786.

THE

HE ftudy of antiquities, or inquiries into the tranfactions of remote and early ages, are (when not employed in trifling investigations and needlefs refearches into the origin and derivation of names) at once particularly pleafing and profitable. Yet into what abfurdity and error are the etymologist and antiquary at all times apt to run! Pope Alexander the Seventh, as Cardinal De Retz informs us in his Memoirs, was engaged for a confiderable space of time in fearching whether Mufca, a fly,. came from Mofce, or Mofco from Mufca. Others have been nearly distracted in not being able to difcover what fongs the Syrens used to fing-of what ingredients the Spartan broth was composed, and whether Anacreon was fonder of women than of

wine.

wine.

Away with fuch ridiculous, fuch truly useless inquiries! the ineptia of a diftempered brain.

The hiftory of Dover Caftle muft be confidered by the lover of antiquities as a valuable publication. It contains an account of that venerable fortrefs, from its foundation by Julius Cæfar, until the reign of Queen Elizabeth; together with fome curious particulars relative to the alterations and improvements which have from time to time been made in it: a lift of its Governors and Commanders, and remarks on their character and conduct. How far the Author is to be credited, indeed, for many of the anecdotes related in the courfe of his hiftory, we know not; as they are chiefly given without authorities. It is probable, however, that the facts-particularly those which are recorded from the Conqueft till the beginning of the fixteenth centuryare for the most part to be depended on, as William Lord Cobham (the patron of Mr. Darell, and to whom the book is dedicated) had been appointed by Queen Elizabeth to the poft of Conftable of Dover Caftle; and who, it may reasonably be ima gined, affifted the Author in his work.

This writer, contrary to the opinion of the moft eminent antiquaries, fuppofes Dover to be the Rhutupium of the ancient Romans. He informs us, that it was originally denominated, by the Britons, Rupecefter, i. e. a camp or castle fituate upon a ock:-that it afterwards acquired a new name, viz. Dofris, Dobris, or Doris, in confequence of the filling or damming up of the harbour; which filling up of the harbour (fays Mr. D.), was effected by Arviragus, in order to fruftrate the defigns of the Romans. But Leland, and almoft all the writers who have fucceeded him, are agreed, that either Sandwich or Richborough, or Ratesborough, or, as Beda calls it, Reptaccaftre, is undoubtedly the Rhutupium of the ancients. Somner, indeed, believes, that both Sandwich and Richborough went under the general name of Rhutupium-that the former was the city, and the lat ter the fortress; and in this opinion he is supported by the ingenious Mr. Horfley, with this difference only, that Mr. Horfley rather chufes (on account of the two places) to ftyle them Rhutupia than Rhutupium, in which particular he has been followed by feveral learned and judicious men.

But that Dover is the Rhutupium of the Romans, or that it had at any time the appellation of Rupecefter, and that for no reafon than that we there find (to ufe the words of Mr. Darell) "Caftrum fupra rupem," we cannot readily believe. The caftle of Richborough, as well as that of Dover, is feated upon an hill; and Richborough has always been fpoken of by the earliest writers as the Roman fortress diftinguished by the aforefaid name. In a word, we are inclined to go along with Meffieurs Somner

and