Mr.

of the Sieur le Mair and his wife, who were fuffocated in 1774, by the vapour of a charcoal fire, burning in a room under that in which the unfortunate pair were in bed. Portal fent for, but too late to fave their lives, has thought proper at least to publish thofe means which from his obfervations appear to him, beft calculated to give present ease, and restore life to those who might meet with the fame miffortune.

The method he prefcribes is phlebotomy, expofing the bodies to a fresh air, the ufe of cold water, the infufflation of air into the lungs. He recommends fpecially by means of a pipe to blow in one noftril, while the other is ftopt, as the air then reaches the lungs more expeditiously.

If this fhould fail, Mr. Portal recommends the opening of the trachian artery. Prejudice alone can object to this operation, though it must be confeffed it requires the most fkilful furgeon: befides, it never fhould be attempted till afl other means have proved infufficient, as it is a kind of forlorn-hope. One however fhould not defpair of fuccefs, becaufe the first attempts prove fruitlefs: indefatigable perfeverance is recommended, as it has been proved that the figns of death have continued whole days together.

Chymiftry offers eight effays or memoirs on various fubjects, especially the calcination of metals; the volatile alcali, combined with vinegar, cream-of-tartar, arfenic, &c. The 6th of thofe effays, written by Meffrs. Cadet and Briffon, points out the error of those who have maintained as a fact, that by the action of electricity, metals in their calcinated state might be revivified. The contrary opinion is established and victoriously proved by thofe two learned chymifts.

In the 8th and laft memoir, Mr. Le Sage points out the method of diffolving the lapis calaminaris in water.

The most extenfive article in this volume is aftronomy which contains eighteen effays, wherein Meffrs. De la Lande, Meffier, Caffini, Jeaurat, Le Monier, Le Gentil, and the prefident de Saron have given fresh proofs of their acknow ledged abilities.

In the hiftorical part, feveral obfervations on anatomy and natural history are to be met with, as alfo the heads of effay's furnished by foreign correfpondents, and approved of by the academy.

The learned fecretary takes notice of the refolution come to by the academy in the year 1775, not to receive any further attempts at folving the problems of the duplication of

the

the cube, the trifection of the angle, and of the quadrature, of the circle.

Every adept in geometry is well aware that the two former cannot be folved by means only of the ftreight line and the circle; but that they are conftrued by the interfection of the right line with a curve of the third order, or by the interfection of the two conick fections: they therefore cannot lead to any new discovery.

As to the quadrature it is not proved impoffible, but the fruitless attempts made hitherto to find it out, feem to foretell that others will hardly be more fuccefsful. The academicians therefore have wifely done to fave themselves the trouble of anfwering a world of paralogifts who wrote about and about it, and to refer effays on this matter to the tribunal of the public.

Obfervations d'un fourd & muet, &c.-Obfervations on an elementary Courfe of Education for the Deaf and Dumb, by One who is Deaf and Dumb, Paris,

Perfons afflicted with that double calamity, have ever been able to make themselves understood by figns, in a manner truly astonishing to those who are not fubject to the fame infirmity, They commune with each other with ftill greater ease, and fome among them have been taught to read and write,

But the manner of converfing by figns, had hitherto been arbitrary and imperfect; the Abbe de L'Epée has been the firft to give it rules confonant with univerial graminar, and made it a copious and regular language,

Some learned men have maintained that in their origin, Spoken languages were not merely arbitrary, but that fuch founds as were chofen to fignify one particular abject, or even its modifications, had with the idea or perception, a ftrict connection fettled by nature itfelf, and that if in the origin they were arbitrary, it was only in making use of this or that other fign equally expreffive of the fame idea, This ingenious fyftem which, after fo many revolutions, it is become impoffible to fupport with any fatisfactory proof, is the very bafis on which the Abbé de L'Epée has built his new and very ingenious fcheme of educating, and, in fome manner reftoring the deaf and dumb to their fpeech and hearing.

The Abbe's method has been attacked in feveral pamphlets, and the work now before us is deftined to answer and refute one of thofe criticisms,

Were thefe obfervations to be confidered only as a philofophical difcuffion in favour of a very useful difcovery, it would entitle the writer to the efteem of every man of Jetters but feveral circumftances combine to render this publication very interefting to the humane reader.

The author, Mr. Defloges, born in 1747, in the diocefe of Tours, was, by the fmall pox,, totally deprived of the fenfe of hearing, in the feventh year of his age. He could then write and read, and has to this day been able to speak: though, owing to fucceffive alterations in the vocal organs, it is with great difficulty that he can be understood: at the age of twenty-two his parents brought him up to Paris, with a view to procure him a retreat in fome of thofe public receptacles where humanity, guided by religion, have fecured an afylum to the fuffering part of mankind.

Nevertheless our author prevailed with his relations to put him to a trade, and he was bound to a book-binder. This gave him an opportunity of perufing the beft French writers, and it is evident that he improved to the beft advantage the few leifure hours he could command: certain it is, that few of thofe who have moft partially been dealt with by nature, could in fo fhort a time have made fo rapid a progrefs.

At his firft coming to Paris Mr. Defloges understood no more how to converfe by figns, than what is taught us by nature itself; he got acquainted with a deaf and dumb man, who knew a little more than himfelf, and they foon formed a fociety compofed of their fellow fufferers, who learned to converfe together by regular figns. The kind of language devifed by Mr. Defloges and his friends, is more fimple than that invented by the Abbé de L'Epée: it hath but three tenfes in its verbs, as the language of fome nations, and very few particles: but it fufficiently expreffes each eaturaļ want. Mr. Defloges fhews in his Pamphlet how far it may be carried, but above all how natural it is, and independent of any arbitrary explanation; pointing out at the fame time the method to be followed in the compofition of the figns that are calculated to exprefs a word, that they may be clear and unequivocal even to thofe who might be ftrangers to this kind of language.

How can the deaf and dumb explain each other's meaning

in the dark? However difficult the question, we think the anfwer no lefs ingenious than fatisfactory; it is as follows; "Let A, who means to fay fomething to B, take him by the hands, and make B ufe fuch figns as A himself would employ to convey his own meaning, the consequence is obvious,"

We fhall not enter into any further detail, but we recommend the book itself to the perufal of our readers, as an ufeful work from which even the learned may gather new knowledge, and which may at least be confidered as a liter rary phenomenon,

De la Sanction, &,An Effay on the Sanction of Natural Order. Paris, 12mo, with this Epigraph:

Le plus grand Bonheur eft la Jouisance de l'Objet de for Amour. Tiré de fond du Cœur, Chap. 1.

Religion and morality have been long the fport of our modifh philofophers, who, loft themselves to all the principles of either, with the world to become as profligate as themfelves: fo that it is accounted ridiculous in this enlightened age, to be good, or endeavour to make others fo. Our author rifing fuperior to the prevailing prejudice, not only attempts to vindicate religion against its impious detrac Fors; but to prove its indiff nfibility in maintaining the natural order. We can not give a better idea of this excellent work, than by prefenting our readers with the author's own expofition, in the following words:

"In the tft part I prove: ift, that the irrefragable consciousness each of us has of his existence is no dream that, that which within us feels, must needs be intelligent and a created being: d. That confequently there must be a creator, and of course a God 3d. How far, by means of his reafon alone, man can rise to a knowledge of the Nature of God.

The 2d part proves, by a new method, the exiftence of a revealed religion, fince the beginning of the world, by demonfirating its indifpenfibility and recording the proofs of its exiftence, previous to the Chriftian, or even Jewish religion.

"The 3d contains an Expofition of the Natural Order or Grand-Knowledge, with an explanation of the precept of loving our neighbour.

"In the 4th is given the proof of revelation, deduced from the existence of the Chriftian religion."

Our author next obferves, that what he terms Grand-Knowledge,

confifts

confifts in examples-" the greatest number, fays he, cannot bu emulate thofe who are more eafy in their circumstances; villages. take example from towns, thefe from cities, the latter from the ca pital, this from court, and the court from the Sovereign, his fa mily, and whatever is acceptable to the Prince. Example, in fhort, is the true and compleat tutor of mankind.

"This is conformable to the first rule admitted by the Chinese Literati: The Emperor is the fon of the Empyreum, this is identified with the Creator; the Emperor muft needs do as his predecessors have done, and all the fubjects copy after their Emperor."

In order to afcertain the utility of the fanction of natural order, the writer employs the following Algebrical form, which to us appears unanfwerable:

"Be the fenfual appetite ftrengthened by the power of custom and bad example, equal to A=100: and let B=100 be the knowledge of order and good example; let the fanétion given by religion, the pains awaiting the guilty hereafter, and the rewards promifed to the juft be X. and B. enabled to receive the addition of X. has infallibly received the fame, it follows that B+X is of courfe more powerful than A and that if X-100, B+X=200.

But why fhould it be confidered as a fimple addition, B+X? Why fhould it not be BxX? in the latter cafe the produce will be 10,000, and, confequently the ftronger, as the fquare is greater than is root. In one word, as often as AB, it appears at least that B+X is greater than A: from whence it is evident that every pretended lover of order, who meantime fcoffs at religion, is a fool, whofe debauched principles oblige him to plunge daily deeper in the dark, and offociate others to his own ruin; or elfe we mutt pronounce him a traitor to fociety, a vile impofter, actuated by pride, covetoufhefs, falfe glory, a defire of being noticed and fpoken of, in fhort a madman, an Eroftrates."

Our author is not lefs clear and forcible in his arguments, when he treats of the rights and duties of man, confidered as the confequence of natural wants and order. "Such valuable works are hardly fufceptible of abridgement, it is their enfemble that can beft recommend them to the notice of a fenfible reader; we fhall therefore here close the account of a book which may be called every man's Vade-mecum.

Voyage, &c.-Travels through Dalmatia, by the Abbé Fortis, tranflated from the Italian, 2 vols. 8vo. with Cuts, Berne and Paris. 1779.

This curious and truly entertaining account of a country very little known to us, is divided into nine let

ters