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are surrounded with increasing comforts, and are happy, amounts to sixteen millions ?

This is the most complete account that we have seen of Paris since the war. We are informed that an English translation, from the original German, has been offered to some of the booksellers, but we know not whether it be forthcoming. The work, though very curious, is more instructive perhaps than amusing, and is drawn up with phlegmatic impartiality. Tay.

ART. V. Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, &c. i. e. The Natural
History of Fish, by LA CÉPÈDE. 4to. vol. I. Paris.

THIS first volume opens with a discourse on the nature of
fish, which is written with elegance, and tends to inspire
a taste for studying this much neglected province of natural
history. The subject has novelty even for the informed. The
animals among which we wander, from the lion to the fly,
easily and naturally attract our attentive observation: but the
opportunities are few, and the patience must be inexhaustible,
which are requisite to investigate the manners of Fish. Their
element is not our element; although it covers the much
greater half of our globe. One of the essential characters of
fish is the having gills instead of lungs; which vary from three.
to seven on each side of the head, and are in all fish the organs
of respiration. This process in animals with gills, as in ani-
mals with lungs, is found to consist in absorbing oxygen from
the surrounding fluid, and imparting it to the blood: so that,
even amid the waters, we behold realized that beautiful and
philosophic fiction of antient poetry, which described the
breath of life as a sort of secret flame more or less fugitive.

Of the senses of fish, M. LA CEPEDE observes that their smell is the most exquisite. This might be inferred, he says, from the very conformation of the organ: but the distance which they will traverse in pursuit of prey, attracted merely by its odorous emanations, is immense. They will fly from a very distant enemy by a fear similarly communicated. The seat of smell is the true eye of fish, which directs them in the thickest darkness, in the most troubled waters, in the most agitated waves, at the very bottom of the abyss of ocean, where daylight is for ever unknown.

The other senses are discussed; and the sight is described as next to the smell in perfection: then follow the hearing, the touch, and the taste; which last is stated to be the most imperfect of their senses.

Their re-production is next treated: then their swimming, which is wholly resoluble into two motions; the progressive, by means of their fins; and the perpendicular, by means of an

appropriate

appropriate bladder, which they fill with hydrogen gas, or empty, according as they wish to ascend or descend. The latter motion, therefore, is in all respects conducted like the voyages of aëronauts.

Very few fish are wholly frugivorous: some appear to content themselves with marine plants and seeds: but most of them prey on insects, spawn, and all such fish as can be attacked without danger. Old are far more voracious than young fish, which can subsist for months apparently on mere water.

When fish sleep, their swimming bladder dilates, and brings them towards the surface; where a faint light, striking on their never-closing eyes, awakens them. They naturally seek the dark hollow of overhanging banks, or of vegetable shoots, when they wish to sleep.

Fish are not sociable. The females often void their spawn, and leave it for the males to fecundate at leisure in their ab

sence. They eat their own species. They do not pursue prey in company. The migration of herrings, mackarel, and other fish of passage, is accomplished without a leader, and without apparent concert. To a certain degree they may be tamed. Carp in ponds have been taught to come at the sound of a bell, and take food.

To the introductory discourse succeeds a methodical table, which divides fish into cartilaginous and bony. The history of the first twelve kinds is given; and a continuation is announced.

This work is printed on the same plan as the Natural History of Buffon, to which it is intended as a sequel. The style of Buffon, laboriously easy, beautifully unaffected, appropriate, simple, yet impressive by the poetry of idea with which it abounds, is not attained by his respectable successor. Perhaps a severer investigation of authorities, an increased accumulation of facts, and an absence of theoretic ambition, may atone to science for inferiority of literary excellence.

Former works on natural history, from the pen of this author, heretofore well known as the Comte DE LA CÉPÈDE, have been noticed in our Review. See vols. 67, 72, 79, &c.

ART VI. Précis sur la Maladie et la Mort du Général HoсHE, &C.
i.e. An Account of the Difeafe and Death of General HоCHE.
By POUSSIELGUE, Surgeon. 8vo. Pamphlet. Paris.

OUR
UR readers are well acquainted with the rumours to which
the death of General Hoche gave birth; they have spred
throughout Europe, and seem to have prevailed as much in
France as elsewhere. The present pamphlet was doubtless
occasioned by these reports; and certainly the evidence

Tay.

which it contains enables us fully to pronounce concerning the cause and manner of the event.

General Hoche, we are told, had a robust constitution, was of a sanguine temperament, and had a very lively disposition. He was addicted to wine and women, but did not run into intemperance. In his youth, he frequently suffered from inflammatory disorders; and he had long been subject to rheumatic and spasmodic attacks in his chest. He had also for some time a constant cough, which he totally neglected; never, on this account, relaxing in the performance of his military functions.

After the armistice, he lived some time at Wetzlaer; and here it was that he first used medicines; when ptisans, with syrup of diacodium, and Kermes mineral, were prescribed. These were changed for gum ammoniac and other resolvents, as they are termed. Recourse was also had to bleeding and cupping. Dr. Thilenius, of Lauterbach, pronounced that the disease had originated in exposure to cold, and that it affected principally the bronchial glands. He expressed his apprehensions of consumption. This was the 15th Fructidor, (August,) 1797.

In the meanwhile, Hoche took the most lively interest in all occurrences; and hence his disorder seemed to be aggravated. He grew thin, pale, and had frequent shiverings. A journey to Frankfort fair, by way of amusement, was undertaken. Here he secretly consulted a medical person, and took his medicines afterward at Wetzlaer, without M. POUSSIELGUE'S knowlege. On the 30th of this month, that gentleman was suddenly called, and found his patient sitting at an open window, breathing very laboriously, with the cough suppressed, the pulse small, intermitting, and the abdomen inflamed, but not painful. Two grains of opium were administered, and the breathing and expectoration became easier: but the matter thrown up was bloody. The pulse amended, and the abatement of the symptoms continued during the next night and day. The General was cheerful, walked up and down the apartment, and sang. On the evening of the third day, however, all the symptoms returned with increased violence; and, in spite of various applications, the attack shortly terminated in death.

On opening the body, which was greatly emaciated, the abdomen was found swoln; the brain appeared natural, except too great fulness of the blood vessels; the stomach had a black spot at the pylorus, which passed inwards; the duodenum was reddish; and the liver was discoloured on its undersurface: the lower bowels were full of air, and contained some hardened fæces: the lungs had adhesions; they were

Qu. as to the propriety of thefe terms?

discoloured,

499

discoloured, and the right was quite disorganised; and the
wind-pipe and its branches were full of a matter resembling
coagulated blood.

After this detail, who can hesitate to refer the poisoning of
Hoche to the fables of which History is full?

Bed...s.

ART. VII. Paris pendant l'Année 1798. i. e. Paris during the Year
1798. By M. PELTIER. 8vo. No. CLV. to CLXII. 1s. 6d.
each. Deboffe, London.

IN noticing some former volumes of this periodical work,
(M. R. vol. xix. p.) we intimated a suspicion that it
had not a very popular circulation: our opinion was probably
well-founded; for it ceased altogether to be published at the
close of the year 1797*, and is now resumed on a cheaper
plan and at longer intervals. This is well-judged. Under the
present mysterious, silent, and coercive system of direction,
the internal proceedings of the government of France grow
every day less interesting; and, the political constitution hav-
ing absorbed those talents which were tending to eminence,
the literature seems also to decline in importance, and to be
rapidly falling into the hands of writers of secondary knowlege
and coarse taste. A more sparing selection of the debates, a
more abbreviated notice of the books, and a more scanty glean-
ing of intelligence, will consequently in future be sufficient to
satisfy the public curiosity.

Occasionally, we have made copious extracts from this well-
conducted journal: but, as other monthly compilers are now
in the regular habit of resorting to the same source, and often
for the same papers, (the Life of Buffon, for instance,) so that
its most curious contents are usually rendered into English with
expedition for the information of the public, we shall confine
ourselves to very summary notices.

No. CLVII. contains an account of the Dutch revolution of
the 22d January. The author shrewdly observes that France
would have acted more honestly towards the Hollanders, if she
had at once incorporated them, and divided their country into
departments but in this case there would have been no pre-
text for levying successive contributions, and the revolutionists
are in haste to enjoy themselves. Their axiom is that of Fi-
garo :
"Who knows whether the world will last four-and-
twenty hours longer?" Probably, when the popularity of the

* The numbers for that year did not come to our hands. The last account which we find in our work is in vol. xx. p. 569, and ends with the No. for August 1796.

new

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new constitution is wholly exhausted by its rapacity, this annexation will be decreed.

At p. 325 occurs a letter to the Duke of Norfolk from one Mandar. Impertinent and unofficial as it seems, it may have been intended to intimate that, with a patriotic English administration, the Directory would make peace for twenty-three millions sterling, to be paid to them under the name of indemnities for the Toulon fleet, and for the Dutch cessions of Ceylon and the Cape.

At p. 333 is inserted a translation of Dryden's Alexander's

Feast.

No. CLVIII. announces the death of the venerable Duc de Nivernois, the negotiator of the peace of 1763. He died at Saint-Ouen near Paris, at the age of 82, in June last. His poetical talents, and his friendship for Barthélemi, the author of Anacharsis, are well known. A few hours before his death, it was recommended to have a consultation of physicians: but he declined the proposal, by addressing the following note to his friend and physician Lacaille, who regularly attended him: "Ne consultons point d'avocats; Hippocrate ne viendrait pas.

Je n'en ai point d'autres en ma cure
Que l'amitié, que la nature,

Qui font bonne guerre au trepas.
Mais peut-être dame Nature

A déjà décide mon cas;

Moi du moins sans changer d'allure
Je veux mourir entre vos bras."

No. CLIX. comprehends the instructive report of Baillew!, concerning the conspiracy of the 18th Fructidor. It is impossible not to disapprove the banishments without trial, which were inflicted on this occasion by the victorious party but it is difficult to doubt that Pichegru, and some other sufferers, were really in concert with the foreign enemy to attempt a royal revolution. The critical proceeding which seems to have provoked this violent riddance was, in the words of Bailleul (p. 631), depriving the Directory of all pecuniary resources.

No. CLX. contains an eloquent though turgid account of Canova, an Italian sculptor of Bassano, whose disinterested spirit induced him to refuse 1500 sequins for a statue of Magdalena, which he intended as a present for his parish church. Cupid and Psyche, Hercules and Licas, and a basso relievo representing the hospitality of Alcinous to Ulysses, have immortalized his general skill in his art, and especially his powers of pathetic expression. The tomb of Rezzonico in St. Peter's

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