thoughts do not flow fo readily in converfation, may, by an effay in writing, prove that he poffeffes both wit and humour; and ingenuity may produce its arguments at leisure on any subject not interdicted by

our rules.

Permit me to congratulate you once more on the diffufion of knowledge, which has enabled us to form a meeting of the liberal nature which our's promises to affume. To enter on the general be. nefits attending this diffufion, is not my intention; it might lead to difputed points which ought to be avoided. But fo far, perhaps, I may deliver my opinion, that the extenfion of knowledge beyond certain limits is forbidden by that state of fociety to which it owes its very existence; that where it is diffused to a certain degree, it carries alfo its correfpondent bleffings; and that no ill effects are to be feared, except in the part where its ftreams mingle with those of ignorance, when they may become the abundant fource both of private and political mifchief. Hence may originate fraud, chicanery, and that reftlefs turbulence of spirit, which murmurs at, and endeavours to fubvert the gentleft and beft conftituted authority.

Ingenuas didiciffe fideliter artes

Emollit mores, nec finit effe feros.

• This diftich conveys an undoubted truth. But a particular emphafis is to be laid on the word fideliter, which admits of various degrees.

With refpect to ourselves, though we may not perhaps think our original stock of learning, or the fubfequent cultivation of our minds, adequate to our prefent wifhes, we fhould be loath to confefs, however we may fail in the minutiæ, or in certain branches, that we had not that general acquaintance with polite literature, which produces the effect mentioned by the poet; and that we did not feel ourselves better men and better citizens.

At the inftitution of a fociety like ours, it may not be deemed improper to fay a few words on literary focieties in general.-When Bacon had declared war against opinion, and fet philofophy on its true bafis, that of inveftigating facts, and drawing conclufions from them, it was plain to fee that an affociation of intellects was to be formed; from a confcioufnefs that the multiplicity of facts required could not be the production of one, but of many. This drew the learned into a clofer union, and gave rife to literary republics, in which the fpirit of rivalry was fubjugated, envy depreffed, yet a full latitude afforded to virtuous emulation. The folitary tyranny and pride of learning was annihilated, and that ferocity of manners, which difgraced a Scioppius, a Luther, and even a Milton.--Hence is derived that modeft and amiable fcepticism, which fubmits every hypothefis to its proper teft, and banishes all appearances of dogmatic vanity. In every art and fcience proofs are required, not affertions, or conjectures. Even the inquiries of Locke were conducted, not by an affumption of principles, but by really examining every exifting operation of the human mind. Thus was the world emancipated

emancipated from a flavish dependence on authority, and a distant profpect of truth and certainty unfolded to our view.

Since the establishment of the Royal Society, many others have been instituted in various parts of Europe; with thefe you are doubtlefs well acquainted. They are, generally fpeaking, fubfervient to the interefts of philofophy and learning; to thofe arts, the cultivation of which diftinguishes polished nations, and which are useful to human life; or to thofe objects of taste which agreeably amuse and abstract the mind from low cares, and pleasures merely fenfual.Befides the more public and well-known academies, many private literary meetings have exifted, which have given birth to publications of various kinds.

Though ingenious difcuffions on philofophy or the arts will be liftened to with pleasure, it is the fenfe of this Society, that its members should prefer polite literature and criticism; and while it interdicts no fpecies of compofition in any language, no fubjects but merely profeffional ones, perfonal fatire, and thofe involving religious or political controverfy, withes them to turn their thoughts to profe rather than to verse.

• Yet, fuch are the charms of real poetry; fo many and various are the elegancies which may be conveyed in verfe, either in our own or the dead languages; that I fhould be very forry if any member withheld from the Society compofitions of that kind, which, if he pleases, he is at liberty to withdraw, and which, voluntarily communicated, will certainly be confidered as a mark of attention.

To fay the members fhould prefer polite literature and criticism, is a feeming inaccuracy; for the former, generally speaking, includes the latter. Yet, as criticism is employed in making obfervations on previous fubjects, it may appear to be rather an adjunct than a principal; a fcion fprung from the flock of learning and genius; their child, not their co-equal; and can only affimilate with its parents when poffeffing fo much of their fpirit and liberality as to cenfure with candour, and praife with impartiality.

Having the honour of being your firft Prefident, I was unwilling to enter on that office in filence, though well aware how much more ably fome of you might have treated the subject, and, instead of an imperfect sketch, delivered an elegant and finished compofition. You will, however, I truft, fuffer my good intentions to plead my excufe; for though my deficiencies, in other refpects, may be confpicuous, I fhall yield to none in zeal and good wishes for the Society, and, as far as lies in my power, fhall endeavour to contribute to its profperity and permanency.'

[To be continued. ]

ART.

ART. IX. Experiments and Obfervations relating to the Analyfis of Atmofpherical Air; alfo, farther Experiments relating to the Generation of Air from Water. Read before the American Philofophical Society, Feb. 5th and 19th, 1796; and printed in their Tranfactions. To which are added, Confiderations on the Doctrine of Phlogifton, and the Decompofition of Water. Addreffed to Meffrs. Bertholet, &c. By Jofeph Priestley, LL. D. F.R.S. &c. &c. pp. 59. 8vo. 2s. Johnson. London, 1796.

BY the experiments and obfervations now before us the author endeavours to defend the doctrine of phlogifton, in oppofition to Meffrs. Berthollet, De la Place, Monge, &c. the chief advocates for the antiphlogistic theory. As an introduction to his inquiries refpecting the analysis of atmospherical air, he obferves, page 3,

It is an effential part of the antiphlogistic theory, that, in all cafes of what I have called the phlogistication of air, there is fimply an abforption of the dephlogifticated air, or, as the advocates of that theory term it, the oxygen contained in it, leaving the phlogisticated part, which they call axote, as it originally exifted in the atmosphere. Alfo, according to the principles of this fyftem, azote is a simple subftance, at least not hitherto analyfed into any other. They therefore fuppofe that there is a determinate proportion between the quantities of oxygen and azote in every portion of atmospherical air; and that all that has hitherto been done has been to separate them from one another. This proportion they ftate to be twenty-feven parts of oxygen and feventy-three of azote in a hundred of atmospherical air.

But in every cafe of the diminution of atmospherical air in which this is the refult, there appears to me to be fomething emitted from the fubftance, which the antiphlogiftians fuppofe to act by fimple abforption; and therefore that it is more probable that there is fome fubftance, and the fame that has been called phlogiston, or the principle of inflammability (being common to all bodies capable of combuftion, and transferable from any one of them to any other) emitted; and that this phlogiston, uniting with part of the dephlogisticated air, forms with it part of the phlogifticated air which is found after the procefs; and in fome cafes there is more of this, and in others lefs. Alfo, in fome cafes, fixed air is the refult of the union of the fame conftituent principles.'

The author next defcribes a variety of experiments which are deferving of attention, but which the limits of our Review will not permit us to tranfcribe; and concludes this article by obferving, p. 17, that,

• Since the diminution of the air was effected by heating those fubftances, and they did not gain any weight in the procefs, the phlogistication

phlogistication of air is not the abforption of any part of it by the fubftance which produces that effect, as the antiphlogistic theory fuppofes.'

His fecond article contains fome farther experiments relating to the generation of air from water, which cannot well be abridged. They, however, will add little to the ftock of chemical knowledge already in poffeffion of the public.

In entering upon his confiderations on the doctrine of phlogifton, he fays, p. 37,

Not having feen fufficient reafon to change my opinion, and knowing that free difcuffion must always be favourable to the cause of truth, I wish to make one appeal more to the philofophical world on the fubject, though I have nothing materially new to advance. For I cannot help thinking that what I have obferved, in feveral of my publications, has not been duly attended to, or well understood. I fhall therefore endeavour to bring into one view what appears to me to be of the greatest weight, avoiding all extraneous and unimportant matter; and perhaps it may be the means of bringing out fomething more decifive in point of fact or of argument than has hitherto appeared.'

Dr. Priestley, having given a concife view of the phlogistic doctrine of Stahl, and of the antiphlogiftic of M. Lavoifier and other chemifts, goes on to relate fome experiments. In p. 42 he observes,

In all other cafes of the calcination of metals in air, which I have called the phlogistication of the air, it is not only evident that they gain fomething, which adds to their weight, but that they likewife part with fomething. The moft fimple of thefe proceffes is the expofing iron to the heat of a burning lens in confined air, in confequence of which the air is diminished, and the iron becomes a calx. But that there is fomething emitted from the iron in this process is evident from the strong smell which arises from it. If the process be continued, inflammable air will be produced, if there be any moisture at hand to form the bafis of it. From this it is at least probable, that, as the procefs went on in an uniform manner, the fame fubstance, viz. the bafis of inflammable air, was continually iffuing from it; and this is the fubftance, or principle, to which we give the name of phlogiften.'

When treating of the compofition and decompofition of water, the Doctor makes many pertinent remarks, which are much in favour of the phlogistic doctrine.

Upon the whole, we think that this little work is well worthy the attention of the chemical philofopher; although we readily ENG. REV. VOL. XXVIII. NOV. 1796.

I i

agree

agree with the learned and ingenious author that he has really advanced nothing materially new.' And we are forry to find that this region of chemical fcience yet remains encompaffed with clouds, which the phlogiftic furnace of this celebrated chemift and philofopher has not been able to difpel. As we have expreffed ourselves on a former occafion, fo are we now obliged to exclaim, defunt experimenta multa et reiterata.

ART. X. Medical Extracts on the Nature of Health, with Practical Obfervations; and the Laws of the Nervous and Fibrous Syftems. By a Friend to Improvement. pp. from 8 to 900. 3 vols. 8vo. Il. Is. Johnfon and Robinfons. London, 1796.

IN

N the Profpectus prefixed to the English Review for January 1794, when this Journal paffed into the hands of the present editor, an invitation was held out to all authors, who might poffefs good-fenfe and felf-command enough for obferving due brevity, to fend analyses of their own works to our Review, either in manufcript or in print, accompanying their works. Not a few of the readers of our Profpectus, confounding analysis with criticism, fpread abroad a report, that we wanted to make authors their own critics; although we expressly entered a caveat against fuch an error: and this falfe report had, at least, the falutary effect of exciting, in many worthy perfons, but particularly moft (not all) of our fellow-reviewers, a very hearty laugh. Yet we have the fatisfaction to have obferved, that, fince the publication of that Profpectus, many writers have followed our plan; among which number is the very refpectable editor of this elegant, valuable, and, to every one tolerably converfant with natural science and the general principles of knowledge, highly entertaining work. This practice of prefixing a copious table of contents, arranged in a fcientific form, or, in other words, an analysis of a work under the name of arguments, and other titles, was generally practifed in former times, but, at the time of our publishing that Profpectus, had fallen into general difufe. So general a revival of it, we were willing to conftrue into a compliment to our poor condemned Profpectus; although it be poffible that in this we were deceived, and, according to a very ufual error, had mistaken a collateral effect for a caufe. It is a very

very

There are fo many divifions, and these marked by different-series of numbers, that we did not bestow the pains of being very accurate on this point.

obvious