be regretted that works of fcience fhould fo often be ill tranflated: befides fome palpable errors of real importance in the prefent, we have fo many Gallicifms as to render the reading of it frequently irkfome, by interrupting the attention. Experience is almost always ufed inftead of experiment-united to for united with, &c. Trifling as thefe objections may feem, they ought not to be admitted in a work of any kind, particularly where the accuracy of science is concerned. ART. VII. The Philofophy of Chemistry; or, The Fundamental To this translation the following advertisement is prefixed; 1 • This Philofophy of Chemistry is a fort of Syllabus of the Chemical Lectures of the author. It exhibits a compendious and beautiful fyftematic view of the whole fcience of chemistry. There is no other chemical work of the fame character in the hands of the public. It deferves to be read, particularly by every perfon who afpires to the knowledge of general fcience. Had it been fomewhat more popular, and lefs technical in its compofition, it might have ferved to introduce chemistry to the acquaintance even of the unin ftructed, the indolent, and the gay. It was judged to be proper to prefix a translation of this compendium as an introduction to Fourcroy's Elements of Chemistry,' which I have newly translated; and I have likewife ventured to recommend to the booksellers to publish a very small feparate edition of my tranflation of a treatise so excellent and fo comprehenfive. " R. HERON. The tranflator fhould not have introduced, what is not in the original, the definitive article before the words fundamental truths.' M. Fourcroy does not pretend to display all the fundamental truths of modern chemistry. ART. 32 Rowley's Treatife on the Caufes and Cure of Swelled Legs. ART. VIII. A Treatise on the Caufes and Cure of Swelled Legs; on Dropfies; and on the Modes of retarding the Decay of the Conftitution in the Decline of Life; with the Defcription of a new-invented Inftrument for drawing off the Water in Female Dropfies, &c. By William Rowley, M. D. Member of the University of Oxford, the Royal College of Phyficians in London, and Phyfician to the St. Mary-le-Bone Infirmary, &c. &c. To which is added, a Tract on the abfolute Neceffity of encouraging the Study of Anatomy, &c. &c. pp. 132. 8vo. 3s. E. Newbery. London, 1796. IN the introduction the author of this performance afferts, that the greatest experience may not form a great physician; and he proves, that the experience of ages added little to the art; for, fays the author, by credulity and a blind obedience to fyftems and profeffors, ftudies may commence in error, under • the baneful influence of prejudice, and the artift may die in error, without difcovering many profeffional abfurdities.'The whole ftudy of medicine and philofophy confifted in knowing what Hippocrates, Ariftotle, and Galen, faid, or in furious contentions on what they meant; not whether what they faid was true, confiftent, or ufeful. Thus did ages pafs ་ away with little improvement and few difcoveries.'-Then follows an abundance of reflections, all tending to chace from the art of medicine all dubious hypothefes and prejudices, which he calls the frothy effufions of inexperience; at the fame time inculcating a love of truth. Practitioners in medicine,' fays the author, who merit the name of fkilful and experienced, ⚫ are those who, by long study and reiterated reflection, are able to examine medicine in all its parts with their own eyes, and ⚫ who exert their intellectual faculties to difcover and separate • truth from conjecture, facts from their femblance, true theory from falfe hypothefis; men who are too honourable to deceive, and too fenfible to be deceived,' &c.- To reft fatisfied, however, with medical error, is vicious; to explore and remove defects, laudable; to conceal through timidity beneficial discoveries, is pufillanimous and inhuman.'-Such is the style and spirited manner of the author. After this introduction, Dr. Rowley gives a general anatomy of the parts of the body which conftitute the feat of the difeafe of which he treats, viz. the cellular membrane, the connecting medium of the body; a plan which has been adopted by fome late authors of refpectability, and which we think highly ufeful. But we are forry to find an author, who is acquainted with the modern anatomy and phyfiology, speaking of 6 inhaling Pew's Obfervations on the Art of making Gold and Silver. 33 inhaling veins; of cellular tunics of the ftomach and of all the principal vifcera; of curing the dropfy by altering the gluten and red particles of the blood, &c.; and fhall be much difappointed if we meet with these names and doctrines in the schola medicina. The work itself contains the Doctor's methods of curing the various fpecies of dropfies, criticisms on the common methods, and an affertion, that if fwelled legs were attended to on their firft appearance, many dropfies might be prevented from becoming fatal. The whole is illuftrated by anatomical diffections; and the chapter on the female dropfy of the womb and ovarium, with the defcription of the new-invented inftrument, contains some new and original reflections worthy of the atten- tion of the faculty, and dropfical perfons in particular. The Doctor much more depends on the use of ftrengthening medicines in the cure of dropfies than on purges, or other evacuants; and he affirms, that this method has proved fuccessful in the St. Mary-le-bone Infirmary. The tract on retarding the decays of nature in the decline of life, may merit the attention of perfons advancing in life; but the thoughts on the utility of anatomy merit the thanks of the whole medical profeffion, as this pamphlet was levelled against the dead body bill, was fent to all the members of the legislature, and fucceeded. We must observe, if the author's fuggeftions were practicable, that it would prove an effectual means of preventing the robbing churchyards, and committing thofe violences to the defunct, which shock the feelings of humanity. ART. IX. Obfervations on the Art of making Gold and Silver; or, the probable Means of replenishing the nearly exhaufted Mines of Mexico, Peru, and Potofi. In a Letter to a Friend. By Richard Pew. To which are added, fome Obfervations on the Structure and Formation of Metals, &c. &c. pp. 18. 4to. Is. Wilkie. London, 1796. RE EAD and become rich, ye English, and let your golden fquares and filver streets rejoice. Rejoice, ye French, for your mandats will foon be redeemed, your treafury filled, and your enemies fubdued. Sing for joy, ye Spaniards, for your exhausted mines fhall be replenished, fo that your riches fhall continue to overflow. Rejoice, I fay, rejoice. And let the whole world, with grateful acknowledgments to Mr. Pew, say, Amen! ENG. REV. VOL, XXVIII. JULY 1796. ART. ART. X. Rofcoe's Life of Lorenzo de' Medici, &c. [ Concluded from our last Number. ] THOUGH, in the cultivation of the reasoning powers, the moderns claim the pre-eminence over the ancients, in exquifiteness of tafte, they muft yield the palm to their predeceffors. Amid the ruins of Greece, the fapient nurse of finer arts,' have been preferved fpecimens of architecture and sculpture, which, in defiance of the general lot of human things, claim, and have conceded to them, the attribute of perfection. While later poets have, with an unfparing hand, transplanted the beauteous flowers that bloom with fuch rich luxuriance in the paradife of Homer, the works of Phidias, of Glicon, and Praxiteles, have been ftudied by fucceeding artists with the fondeft attention of enthusiastic admiration. When the Romans had conquered Greece, they became the pupils of the vanquished. By this intercourse the rudeness of thefe military republicans was gradually polished. They learned to appreciate the value of literary performances and specimens of art. The hand of rapacity was guided by tafte, and the most finished sculptures were tranfported to the capital of the world. As Italy became the centre of opulence, it likewise became the refidence of the arts. Italy, therefore, would of courfe be the chief repofitory of those masterpieces which the barbarifm of the darker ages had fuffered to furvive the general ruin of every thing that was noble, and to moulder in filent oblivion. The recovery and study of these pieces had the fame effect in promoting the progrefs of the arts, as the refcuing of ancient manuscripts from deftruction had in reviving a taste for literature; for, as Mr. Rofcoe justly obferves, Thofe periods of time which have been moft favourable to the progrefs of letters and science have generally been distinguished by an equal proficiency in the arts. The productions of Roman fculpture, in its beft ages, bear nearly the fame proportion to thofe of the Greeks as the imitative labours of the Roman authors bear to the original works of their great prototypes. During the long ages of ignorance that fucceeded the fall of the western empire, letters and the fine arts underwent an equal degradation; and it would be as difficult to point out a literary work of thofe times which is entitled to approbation, as it would be to produce a ftatue or a picture. When thefe ftudies began to revive, a Guido da Sienna, a Cimabue, rivalled a Guittone d'Arezzo, or a Piero delle Vigne. The crude buds buds that had escaped the severity of fo long a winter, foon began to fwell, and Giotto, Buffalmacco, and Gaddi, were the contemporaries of Dante, of Bocaccio, and of Petrarca. In tracing the viciffitudes which the arts have experienced, we obferve with pleasure, that the fame perfons who fignalised themselves by their attention to preferve the writings of the ancient authors, were those to whom pofterity is indebted for the restoration of a better tafte in the arts. Petrarca himfelf is one of the first who difplayed a marked attention to the remains of antiquity. On his interview with the Emperor Charles IV. at Mantua, he prefented to that monarch a confiderable number of coins, which he had himself collected; at the fame time affuring him, that he would not have beftowed them on any other perfon; and, with a degree of freedom which does him honour, recommending to the Emperor, whilft he ftudied the history, to imitate the virtues of the perfons there reprefented. Lorenzo de' Medici, the brother of Cofmo, diftinguished himself not only by his affiduity in collecting the remains of ancient authors, but also by a decided predilection for works of taste, in the acquifition of which he emulated the celebrity of his brother. From the funeral oration pronounced by Poggio on the death of Niccolo Niccoli, to whom the caufe of literature is perhaps more indebted than to any individual who held merely a private station, we learn, that he was highly delighted with paintings and pieces of fculpture, of which he had collected a greater number, and of more exquifite workmanship, than any perfon of his time; and that vifitors thronged to fee them, not as to a private houfe, but as to a public exhibition. Nor was Poggio himself lefs attentive to the difcovery and acquifition of thefe precious remains. My chamber,' fays he, is furroundedwith bufts in marble, one of which is whole and elegant. The others are, indeed, mutilated, and some of them are even noseless; yet they are fuch as may please a good artist. With thefe, and fome other pieces which I poffefs, I intend to ornament my country 'feat.' The patronage which the family of Medici bestowed on the arts was liberal in the higheft degree. Cofmo fpared neither money nor pains in researches after the works of the mafters of antiquity. His exertions laid the foundation of that fuperb collection which is now known by the name of Museum Florentinum. Together with the poffeffions of his venerable grandfather, Lorenzo inherited his tafte for the arts. By the expenditure of confiderable fums he collected under his roof all the remains of antiquity that fell in his way, whether they tended to illuftrate the hiftory of letters or of arts. His acknowledged acquaintance with thefe productions induced the celebrated Fra Giocondo, of Verona, the most industrious antiquarian of his time, to infcribe to him his collection of ancient infcriptions, of which Politiano, who was a competent judge of the fubject, fpeaks with high approbation. C 2 ⚫ But |