John Phyfiophilus's Specimen of the Natural Hiftory of the various Orders of Monks, after the Manner of the Linnæan Syftem. Tranflated from the Latin, printed at Augfburgh. With Plates. 8vo. 25. 6d. Johnfon.

THIS

HIS is an accurate translation of the former work. It is introduced by a long preface, in which the Specimen is attributed to the baron Born of Vienna, an eminent natural hiftorian. We imagine that a man who deserved that character, would not have put a genus, which is to fill an hiatus in the primates, among the brutes; nor would he have given a definition, which conveys no diftinction. But perhaps thefe obfervations may be thought hypercritical: we ought not to expect fcience in a fprightly fatire; or the accuracy of Linnæus, in the chastiser of the enormities of the monks. Though this may probably be allowed, yet, when fatire affumes the veil of science, it fhould not be that of its femblance only; befides that the real philofopher finds it more eafy to be exact, even in his triflings, than to be inconclufive or inaccurate.

The preface is rather a laboured Philippic against the manners of the monks, and the genius cf popery. It is warm and severe, without intolerance or acrimony; but from the enlightened ftate which Europe now enjoys, we hope it is at prefent unneceffary. Inftead of kindling into perfecution, it is rather to be feared that we may fink into a torpid infenfibility; or an indecifive fcepticism.

We fhall infert a specimen from the tranflation, as it will be more generally intelligible. But we ought to add, that in the original, the terms of natural history are preferved with care. There are few correfpondent ones in English; and perhaps the tranflator has not always availed himself of those which we poffefs. The Camaldulan Monk' is felected only from its conciseness.

• The Camaldulan monk has a long beard ftretching down to his breast: his head is shaved, briftly, and furrowed in a circular line: his tail is covered: He has fhoes on his feet, with wooden foles: his tunic is white, of patch-work, coarse, and flowing down to his feet: his hood is rounded, and flexible: his fleeves are of equal width throughout, and wide: his fcapulary is of the fame length as his tunic, and bound about with a coarfe white belt: his collar is clofe and fewn to his tunic : his cloak is white, wide, and embracing his whole body even to his feet. His waistcoat is woollen, and is worn instead of a fhirt, with a prickly hair-cloth fometimes, fcratching his back.

The gait of the Camaldulan monk is auftere, and his step flow.

They howl in a body, feven times in the day, and at midnight, with a found that is guttural, deep, and long-winded. At home he is filent. He is faid to employ himself in contemplation. He vegetates in indolence, and very rarely goes out.

K 3

• He

He lives upon fish, eggs, and vegetables. Upon faft days he fmears pulfe and corn with oil. He drives away thirst with wine.

When he goes out he puts off his wooden fandals, and puts on fhoes.

The lay brothers are bound about with a thong.

The female does not differ from the male, except in her having her head veiled.

This animal lives in mountains overgrown with wood.

The Camaldulan monks follow the rule of Benedict, according to the prescription of one Romualdus, who dreamed, that he faw monks dreffed in white tunics, afcend by a ladder into heaven, and admonished by this celeftial vifion, he changed the black covering of the Benedictines for a white one. This fpecies became extinct in the provinces of the Austrian monarchy in the year 1782.'

FOREIGN ARTICLES.

Traité fur le Venin de la Vipere & fur quelques Poifons vegetaux. On y a joint de Obfervations fur la Structure primitive du Corps Animal differentes Experiences fur la Productions des Nerfs, &c. Par M. Felix Fontana. 2 Vol. 4to. Florence.

WE

E have received confiderable pleasure and information from these very intelligent and accurate volumes; but we cannot convey any adequate idea of either, in a Review. If our account is more than ufually compreffed, it must be attributed to our wifh of giving the refult of as many facts as the limits will contain. It is enough to obferve, in general, that this volume is chiefly compofed of decifive and well conducted experiments; that the reflexions and arguments are clear, accurate, and judicious; and that the author has confiderably extended the bounds of phyfiology.

The poifon of the viper, which is the great object of the first volume, has been treated of by Redi and Mead. The prejudices of a country, or the fplendour of a name, cannot difguife deceptions; and it is no difgrace to either, to fuppofe that he has erred, fince error is fo eafy, and frequently fo unavoidable. Our author begins with a defcription of the ftructure of the teeth of the viper. He obferves, that the injury is chiefly done by the canine, though the loofe and tottering teeth feem alfo to fupply the poifon. It appears, in his opinion, chiefly to come through a canal within the tooth, though it certainly has been feen to flow down the outfide. It is the yellow liquor flowing from the teeth which is fo dangerous; and when the excretory duct of the bladder that fupplies it, is tied, or the canal of the tooth obstructed, by urging the animal first to bite a ftiff pafte, his wound is no longer dangerous.

The

The latter expedient, which is that of mountebanks, does not however conftantly fucceed. The poison, when inferted into a wound, is not deleterious to every animal. Leeches, fnails, fome kinds of ferpents, &c. are not affected with it. Tortoises die flowly, and with difficulty, after having been bitten; and its own fpecies are not hurt by the bite. Our author feems to think that this liquor ferves an important purpose in the economy of the animal, as for inftance, to affift its digeftion. It is feemingly abfurd, that any fluid fhould be fupplied merely to do injury; and even the fcorpion, and the water polypus, the most poisonous animal in the world to its prey, have no effect on infects of the fame fpecies.

M. Fontana next procured fome of the poison, and examined it with accuracy. It was neither acid, alkaline, or faline, when viewed through a microfcope. When tafted, for he dared to tatte it repeatedly, it was neither pungent or acrid; it seemed like oil, but left an impreffion on the tongue, of torpor, fomewhat refembling an aftringency. In water it finks to the bottom; and when they are mixed, the water is flightly white and turbid. It does not burn. When fresh, it feels vifcid, and excites no inflammation in the flesh of animals: when old, it fticks like pitch. In the head of the viper it preferves its virtues probably many years: when dried, it has been found active after fix months. Our author examines the several systems which have been imagined to account for the death of the viper; and finds them, with reafon, defective. His opinion fhortly is, that life confifts in irritability, and that putrefaction destroys it. The great change in animals, bitten by the viper, is a general paralyfis; confequently, the poifon is highly feptic. This opinion is alfo fufficiently confonant to his fyf tem of the poifon being originally intended to affift the digef tion of the animal. He fupports thefe views with much ingenuity; but if we had room for our own obfervations we could fhow, that M. Fontana has been in fight of truth without obtaining it; and that he has raised a concomitant effect only to the dignity of a caufe. His fentiments have however changed, for this firft part is only a republication of a former edition; fo that there is lefs reafon to infift on them; yet we think they are nearer the truth than his fubfequent opinion. The next purfuit of M. Fontana has a more immediate tendency to be useful, fince it was to difcover a remedy for the bite. The first fubftance tried was the volatile alkali fluor, recommended by Mr. Sage; or the fpirit of fal ammoniac of the fhops. When fparrows and fowls had been bitten, its application feemed ufelefs; and to fwallow it, injurious. To pigeons it was at leaft equally infignificant. Guinea pigs, in fimilar circumftances, received no certain benefit from the remedy; to rabbits it feemed injurious; to cats, an uncertain relief; to dogs, apparently ufelefs; and to frogs, externally trifling, and internally hurtful.

The repeated bites of the fame viper are nearly equally dangerous; but there is a period, different according to the ftrength and fury of the animal, at which its poifon feems to be exhaufted. If the bites are repeated in the fame spot, the general effects are not fo confiderable as when different parts are wounded; but the local effects are more fo. A flight rafure of the skin, without an actual wound, feems not to permit the poifon to affect either rabbits or Guinea pigs; at leaft in fuch cafes there is only a flight difeafe of the part, which is by no means mortal. If the fkin be pierced through its whole fubftance, the poifon produces its ufual effect; but if this be avoided, it is not mortal, when applied to the cellular fubftance. When the wound is in the muscles, it is not always fatal; but when the poifon is only applied to the muscular fibres, it is innocent. Our author purfues thefe experiments by trying the effects of the bite on different internal parts; but as the refults are different in different animals, and none of them applicable to the human fpecies, we fhall not enlarge on a fubject fo difagreeable. It may be however proper to add, that the tendons were not affected by the poifon; which is a ftrong proof of their not being fenfible or irritable in their healthy ftate.

The author then refumes the fubject of the first part, for this is the beginning of his new work, and gives a more par ticular defcription of the head and teeth, illuftrated with plates, partly taken from Mead and partly from nature. He gives a more full account of the experiments by which his opinion of the nature of the poifon was formed, and of the probable fources of fome of Dr. Mead's mistakes. The change in the colour of the tournefol, obferved by the doctor, M. Fontana finds is owing to a fmall quantity of blood mixed with the poifon; and the floating bodies, which the microfcope difcovered, feemed to be a fmall portion of the faliva. The poifon itfelf, accurately examined, feemed of a gummy nature; and, though an animal gum be a novelty in chemistry, yet the refemblance is too ftrong to fuffer us to hefitate on the fubject, It is indeed probable, that its chemical properties have very little effect in producing the deleterious confequences of the bite; but we must not reject, what proper experiments have demonftrated, because it is not fupported by analogies. Our author very juftly obferves, that we have hitherto confulted books, rather than nature; and have joined in repeating fancies, till we have imagined them to be real. He next examines the poifons of bees, drones, wafps, and hornets: in these he finds a really acid principle, but in too small quantities to account for the effects of their bites. They have a more cauftic tafte than the poifon of the viper; yet, on a chemical examination, they appear to be of the fame kind, or to refemble a gum. If we are ftill alarmed at the idea, it may perhaps leffen our averfion to it, to employ, inftead of gum and refin, the

terms

terms mucilage and oil. Though the poifon of vipers and bees be very active, we can ftill fuppofe, that for the fake of the animals for whofe ufe it is deftined, that in its effence it is ftill more fo; and that it is enveloped in a mucilage, to prevent it from being a poifon instead of a falutary fluid. We may frequently find a vifcid mucilage in animal fluids; for inftance, in the faliva and mucus; and probably in purulent matter, if it be indeed a fecretion. M. Fontana thinks the poifon of thefe little animals equally fatal with that of the viper, if inferted in fufficient quantity; for the poifon of the viper is fooner and more certainly fatal, in proportion to the fize of the animal wounded. The disagreeable fenfation which ants produce is, he thinks, from a real poifon, of an acid nature. He has found it to be a true acid, viz. that of the air fixed, concentred, deprived of its elasticity, and rendered liquid.' The next attempt is to afcertain the quantity of poifon which is fatal. About part of a grain killed a sparrow; and four times as much a pigeon. From his calculation, which must be neceffarily in fome degree erroneous, it will require twenty vipers to kill an ox; and five or fix to kill a man. It was of more confequence to determine the time required to produce the fatal effects, and the manner of the poifon's acting. He found that it had not the peculiar local effect, viz., lividity and putrefaction, when the limb was amputated at the moment of the bite; but that, to produce this change, it required from 15 to 20 feconds. This is a very important step, as it feems to fhow us, that the action is not on the fluids or the nervous power of the part, but only in confequence of a prior effect on the origin of the nerves. Yet we find, that if but a minute elapfed, amputation of the wounded limb would not fave the life of the animal. So quick is the operation of this fatal fluid, that after 25 feconds it was not fuccessful within that time, as we might have fufpected from the preceding experiments, the animal was preserved by the operation. There is however a circumftance which may be confidered as remarkable: if the pigeon was not faved by this expedient, its death was accelerated by it. Though in healthy birds, amputation brought on no fenfible diforder, yet it might co-operate with the poifon : or, as our author fufpects, nature, who guards the conftitution, might determine the poifon to the part at first bitten, and overwhelm it with the whole force of the venom, which would be otherwise spent on more important organs. Death feldom occurs, unless there is a local disease of the part, which is not the mechanical or chemical effect of the poifon, but probably a real effort of nature to overcome it.

When the venom was injected into the jugular vein, the death was fudden; but applied to the fciatic nerves, in different methods, no other effects followed, except those which were found to refult from mechanical wounds. Though the poifon, in fmall quantities, has no effect on the blood out of the body, yet, when injected, it blackens and coagulates the