صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني
[ocr errors]

Upon this refufal of the Bishops to answer the King's • writ, in open defiance of the laws, the fecular Judges began to confider, what method was proper to be taken to afcertain the fact of fpecial Baftardy, when brought in • question before the King's courts. And they foon perceived, that when special Bastardy was pleaded in bar of a de<fcent or the like, it was not properly a queftion of a spiritual nature; for the legality of the marriage (which, be•ing supposed a facrament, was under the Bishop's cognizance) was confeffed on both fides, and the dispute could only be concerning the priority or pofteriority of the birth, which was a matter whereof the Laity were as competent Judges as the Clergy. They therefore held that this quef<tion might well be determined in the King's courts by jury, ⚫ without reforting to the Ordinary: and fo it came to be ⚫ established law, that, though general Baftardy fhall be tried by the Bishop's certificate, yet special Bastardy shall be tri⚫ed by a Jury.'

[ocr errors]

Having traced the two Charters to their lafting settlement, the Author takes notice, that he has been obliged to differ very frequently not only from the monaftic Writers, but from later Hiftorians, who were endued with more learning and industry, and wrote from more authentic materials: whence he takes occafion to conclude, that fince men of great abilities have failed in point of accuracy, through the extenfiveness of the plan which they have purfued, the compiling and digesting a general and compleat Hiftory, is a burthen too heavy to be undertaken by any fingle man, however fupereminently qualified; but that if ever fuch a work is fuccefffully performed, it must be carried on by the joint endeavours of individuals, each of them attentive to detached parts of it, which may afterwards be woven together into one uniform whole.

The Charters and Inftruments contained in this edition are The articles of the Great Charter of Liberties under the feal of King John-The Great Charter, 15th of June 1215, 17th of John-The Convention between King John and the Barons-The Great Charter, 12th of November, 1216, 1 Henry III.-The Great Charter 1217-The Great Charter 11th of February 1224, 9 Henry III.--The Charter of Forefts, 11th of February 1224, 9 Henry III.—The Charter of Confirmation, 28th of January 1236, 21 Henry III.-The Sentence of Excommunication, 13th of May 1253, 37 Henry III.-The Charter of Confirmation, 14th

of

of March 1264, 49 Henry III. The Statute of Marleberge, 18th of November 1267, 52 Henry III.-The Confirmation of the Charters, 5th of November 1297, 25 Edward I-Articles concerning the Charters, 6th of March 1299, 28 Edward I.-And the Charter of Confirmation, 14th of February 1300, 29 Edward I.

The Vegetable Syftem. Or, A Series of Experiments, and Obfervations tending to Explain the internal Structure, and the Life of Plants; their Growth, and Propagation; the Nunber, Proportion, and Difpofition of their conflituent Parts; with the true Course of their Juices; the Formation of the Embryo, the Conftruction of the Seed, and the Increase from that State to Perfection. Including a new Anatomy of Plants. The whole from Nature only. By John Hill, M. D. Folio. Il. IIS. 6d. Baldwin.

HE indefatigable Author now before us, has long dif

T played his talents to the world as a Writer from Books,

of almoft every kind: but here he profeffes, and we believe with truth, to draw the chief materials of the present work from Nature only. The fubject is confeffedly a difficult one, and requires great affiduity, as well as a nice difcernment in the investigation of it and it must be owned, that our Author has been very happy in his refearches into a science, which, as he justly obferves, displays the glory of God more than all others, because we understand it better; and demands an equal preference in its utility to man; as it fupplies the means of Life and Health; and furnishes many effential articles, for the Arts and Commerce.'

The prefent volume (which does not comprehend the whole of our Author's defign) is divided into two books: the first, a very short one, of twenty-four pages only, gives the Hiftory of Botany, in a fuccinct, but fatisfactory manner, down from Theophraftus, the Father of it as a Science, till it received its prefent perfection, in the fyftematic view, from the celebrated Linnæus ;-a name too great for praife! and whose works will live as long as there is fcience in the world.

In the fecond book, which treats Of the Vegetable Structure; and the Life of Plants; our Author appears to great advantage, and fhews himself a thorough mafter of his fubject. Vegetables, the knowlege of which is Botany, hold a middle rank, he obferves, in the great Orders of the Creation.

For

For natural bodies are arranged into three claffes, eafily dif tinguished, and utterly distinct from one another, viz. ́ Minerals, Vegetables, and Animals. Of thefe, Vegetables are placed in the middle ftate: fuperior to the Minerals, in having organized bodies; inferior to the animal kinds, in wanting a nervous system. They are capable of growth, but below fenfation.

In fpeaking of the Constituent Matter of Vegetables, he fhews, that it is not really diftinct from that of Animals, (as hath been thought by fome) for all may be reduced, by Fermentation, to one and the fame fubftance, infomuch that the animal and vegetable nature will be entirely loft, and cach of the bodies reduced to a fubftance neither animal nor vegetable in its nature, but capable of feeding equally Animals or Plants. So true it is, that Matter, as Matter, has no concern in the qualities of bodies; but all depends on its arrangement: hence Water, which is taftelefs, feeds aromatic Mint; and the fame Earth gives nourishment to Bread and Poison.'

[ocr errors]

In treating of the Arrangement of Matter into a Vegetable Body, he remarks, that the first view we take of a Vegetable, gives us an idea of an almoft infinite number and variety of parts; different in form and structure, and in fo high a degree complex, that the appearance has difheartned many from profecuting the research. But perfeverance in the examination, will diveft the fubject of all its feeming intricacy; and the parts which appeared fo numerous, will be reduced to a very fmall account: for

[ocr errors]

A careful maceration, in foft water, will feparate the • real parts from one another, and fhew that many are but diftinct in appearance. By diffolving the parenchymatous • fubftance of entire Vegetables, we obtain the vascular parts, feparated from one another, and entire: and whenfoever we begin the account, we find them only feven. Thefe are, 1. an Outer Bark; 2. an Inner Rind; 3. a Blea; 4. a Fleshy Subftance; 5. a Pith. There is, indeed, between the Flesh and the Blea, 6. a Vascular Series; and 7. Cones of Veffels take their courfe within the Flesh: these are properly as diftinct parts as the five more obvious ones, and these are all.

[ocr errors]

Whatever part of the Plant we examine, we find these, be it a Fibre, the body of the Root, or the Stem. We never find more; and tracing thefe thus feparate from all • other parts of the Plant, we fee the other, or external porREV. Dec. 1759.

[ocr errors]

LI

• tions

tions, are only productions of them. All the imaginary complex ftructure of the Plant beyond this, vanishes in an inftant.-The Root, its defcending Fibre, and the afcending Stalk, we thus find are one, and not three fubftances: the fame feven parts compofe them; and they are continued from the one to the other, or formed by the process of growth. This reduces the entire Vegetable to one body; and what are fuppofed at its fummit to be many new and ftrange parts, are found to be no more than the natural extremities and terminations of the feven substances which form the entire body. Thefe external parts alfo are feven; 1. the Cup; 2. the outer Petals; 3. the inner Petals; 4. the Nectaria, either visibly distinct, or connected in one thick ring; 5. the Filaments; 6. the Receptacle of Seeds; and 7. the Seed-Veffels, or Seeds.

The feven exterior parts never fail to be found the terminations only of the feven conftituent fubftances of the Plant; when the maceration is well managed. The Cup • terminates the outer Bark, the inner Rind ends in the outer Petals, the Blea forms the inner Petals, the Vascular Series ends in the Nectaria, and the Flesh in the Filaments; the • Conic Clusters form the Receptacle, and the Pith furnishes the Seeds and their Capfules. This is the general Conftruction of a Vegetable Body; it will be illuftrated in the fucceeding chapters, by particular inftances, but here the entire view of the fubject was neceflary. We fee by it, that thefe fourteen parts, feemingly fo different, are reduced to seven and we fhall fee these are univerfal in Plants; tho' their courfe be lefs plain in fome, and their termina⚫tions leis distinct in others. As to colour, we shall find that accidental, the fame outer Rind is brown in the Root, green on the Stalk, and red in the Cup perhaps; while it is all found, by this maceration, to be one piece, one continued fubflance.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

<

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

<

Every piece cut from a Plant tranfverfely, therefore, contains all the parts of the Plant, ready to grow in length, into a Stalk upwards, and into a Root downwards; and to feparate, at a due height from the Root, into the feveral parts of a Flower.

Thus we fee the arrangement of the common particles of Matter into a vegetable Body; although it be a work highly perfect, and worthy of his hand who formed it, yet is not fo complex a thing as it appears and that this arrangement being once made in one individual, the Species is created for ever: for growth is the confequence of the

arrangement,

arrangement, when it has heat and moisture; and there is no generation among Plants.-This is the general fyftem of vegetable Bodies; and we may from this proceed reguC larly to the detail of their parts.'

He accordingly proceeds, in the fucceeding chapters, to a full and accurate examination and anatomy of the various conftituent parts of the Black Hellebore ;-a Plant the best adapted, it seems, to answer the neceffary experiments, whereby to compleat the intended difquifition. Having therefore cleaned the Root in a very nice manner, he begins with the examination of a Fibre, both as to its external and internal construction; he then proceeds, in like manner, to the Body of the Root; afterwards to the afcendant Shoots; he next enquires into the Conftruction of the entire Plant; then confiders the Course and Conftruction of the outer Bark, and inner Rind, of the Blea, and Vascular Series: he then proceeds to the Flesh of the Plant; the Courfe and Structure of the Pyramidal Clufters; and concludes this part of his enquiry with an examination into the nature of the Pith: a substance (he

fays) which has been thought very important, but which C a more critical enquiry robs, in a great measure, of that 'character.'

His anatomy of this, and other Plants, (the arrangement of the feveral parts of which, correfponds much with that of the Black Hellebore, as to agree in all effential articles) is illuftrated with a great number of elegant and very accurate representations of every part, internal as well as external, engraved upon copper, generally with great care and precifion; tho' we are forry to have obferved a few, and but a few, flips of the Engraver's hand; and even thofe are only in the References.-Thus, Plate II. fig. 14. the Engraver has put 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 6, 7, omitting the No. 5. - Plate III, fig. 20, is put for 29.-Plate VIII. fig. 107, wants the letters of reference a a, and b b, tho' they are mentioned in the book, at p. 65.-Thefe, it must be owned, a defects scarce worth notice; and would, accordingly, have been overlooked, but that we thought the correction of them, (eafily done with a pen) might be agrecable to the Purchasers of fo confiderable a work.

From our Author's ingenious obfervations upon the inner ftructure of the Subftances of Plans, (which cannot be fully comprehended without the Plates to which they refer) we learn what parts are effential to the Vegetable Syftem, and what only accidental; what abfolute, and what merely temporary. Thus may we diftinguifh the importance of the fe

[ocr errors]

veral

« السابقةمتابعة »