attacking its veffels, is an addition of M. Coffigni. He contrafts this conduct with that of La Pérouse, in one inftance : let him contraft it with La Pérouse's conduct in another. In these fame feas, while entertained in a Spanish harbour, he confeffedly took plans of its forts, and arranged a mode of attacking them. We noticed the paragraph in our review of his

voyage.

On the paffage which defcribes the number of people who in China live on the water, M. Coffigni adds the following remarks: I have feen, at Canton, the town of boats on the river. They are arranged in files, and form streets. I have been told that thefe inhabitants of the water are forbidden to live on land-there they are born, and there they die. I know not whether they are enjoined by religious or political motives to adopt this habitation. A man of credit, acquainted with the Chinese language, who had lived five years at Canton, told me, that the number obliged to live in boats amounted to 300,000 fouls, including the ladies of pleasure, the whole number of which amounts to 40,000, and who are forbidden to refide on land. It is fingular, and truly unufual in Afiatic princes, that the Chinese monarch has no titles. His public edicts mention only his name and the year of his reign, or the date of the edict.

M. Coffigni defends, in fome measure, the exposure of children. More might be killed in fecret than now die, for those who are found are brought up by government or charitable perfons. We fhall add one other remark, as a specimen of his general manner, and the very indistinct ideas he poffeffes of medicine.

. CCXXXVIII. Among the number of things proper to frike the imagination of the Chinese, and convince them of the fuperiority of the Europeans in what concerns the sciences and arts, fir G. Staunton places the operation for recovering the fight by the depreflion or extraction of the cataract. Ĭ knew a perfon at Pondicherry who had been blind from his youth, I believe, in confequence of the fmall-pox. The eyelids were clofed. He very dextercufiy made an incifion, by which he took away the cataract, and restored fight to two very fine eyes.'-I do not believe that the Chinese furgeons would have been equally dexterous; but I can certify the truth of the anecdote mentioned, which was told by a perfon of credit, the fubject of the operation, and confirmed by his father and mother.'

We would only afk, if there be in this cafe, as related by our author, the flighteft fufpicion of the difeafe being a ca taract; or, if it were, of the lens being extracted?

In the observations on Van Braam's embaffy, our author opposes the idea of the Chinese being the most ancient nation on this globe he even denies that their union in civil fociety is of longer duration than that of the Hindoos. In both refpects his opinion is well fupported.-He confiders the Dutch embaffy as not having been received with fuch honours as the English, for which he often hints that the English paid more largely; and to this the fuperior refpect is attributed. We find nothing in the remarks deferving an extract, but shall add a few obfervations from the conclufion.

• The commerce of the English with China is become the moft confiderable of that carried on by any company in India; and it will probably increase, till Bengal can furnish the quantity of tea neceffary for the English confumption, fhould the tea-tree flourish there. The freights of China are lefs rich than those of Bengal, but more numerous. The tea, from habit, is become a neceffary beverage to the three kingdoms: and government fhould encourage the fashion, as it checks the tafte for ftrong liquors, and is much more wholefome.'

Though we should be able, which is very uncertain, to open the canal of communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean; though the navigation thould be always free, which is doubtful while the Arabs are in the neighbourhood; though it should not be again obftructed by the clouds of fand which the wind raises in thefe parts; I believe that the route to India, by the way of the Cape, for the conveyance of merchandise to Europe, will be thorter, lefs dangerous, and occafion lefs wafte.'

This pofition our author fupports with great judgement.

A fketch of the arts of the Indians and Chinefe follows, and contains many curious and interefting remarks. From its mifcellaneous nature we cannot abridge it, and our article is too long to admit of farther extracts. On the whole, the reader of this work will be, in turns, pleased and difgufted, inftructed and irritated, at the author's occafional weakness and partiality: yet he will not regret the time employed in the perufal; and fome parts will form an useful appendage to the narratives of fir G. Staunton and M. Van Braam.

Mémoires de l'Inftitut National, &c.

Memoirs of the National Inflitute, &c. (Continued from Vol. XXIX. New. Arr. p. 493.)

• XXVII. A DISSERTATION on the Genus Phallus. by M. Ventenat.'

Our author received a new fpecies of phallus from America;

and when endeavouring to establish its genus, and afcertain its rank among the other ipecies, he was induced to afford a cafeful examination to each. He hereby found that botanifts are by no means confiftent in this part of natural hiftory; that the more modern authors have neglected fome very interefting ob- fervations made by their predeceffors; and the explanation of the genus, as well as its fpecies, is, of courfe, incomplete.

I have endeavoured therefore,' he remarks, to restore the omiffions, to recal the fpecies which had been overlooked, and to establish their mutual relations: I have availed myfelf of this opportunity to add the new species, which well deferves attention.'

The hiftory of the changes which this family of mushrooms has experienced is curious; but muft not detain us: the generic character, as reformed by our author, we shall copy.

Pedicle either naked or armed with a volva; hat cellular, adhering wholly to the pedicle, or only by its top, often terminated by a close or perforated umbilicus; feeds extremely thin, very numerous, fituated in the cellules of the hat.'

The fpecies are divided into thofe with a naked pedicle and those with a volva: in the former the hat adheres through its whole extent to the pedicle; in the latter the hat is without an umbilicus, or the umbilicus is clofe. The new fpecies is ftyled indufiatus, ftipite tereti, cellulofo indufiato pileo brevi reticulato.'

This beautiful fpecies, (adds our author) which is fufficiently characterised to diftinguish it from every other individual of the clafs, is copioufly produced in Dutch Guiana, about 300 paces from the fea, and nearly as far from the left bank of the river of Surinam. It was communicated to me by the elder Vaillant, who discovered it in 1755 on fome raised ground which was never overflowed by the highest tides, and is formed of a very fine white fand, covered with a thin ftratum of earth. The prodigious quantity of individuals of this fpecies which grow at the fame time, the very different periods of their expanfion, the brilliancy and the varied fhades of their colours, prefent a profpect truly picturefque. As this mushroom is not attacked, according to Vaillant's obfervation, by any fpecies of infect, it does not probably exhale the difagreeable fmell of the phallus impudicus. As the ground is embellifhed by numerous individuals of different ages, it is probable that this fpecies is not perpetuated, like the mofillus impudicus, by a tubercle ufually found at its root.'

-The trivial name is derived from a fringed roll that feems to unite the hat to the pedicle, which expands, and forms a beautiful reticular covering for the fhaft.

• XXVIII. A New Determination of the Orbit of Mercury. By Jerome Lalande.'

The difficulty of determining the orbit of Mercury chiefly arifes from the difficulty of obferving this planet in confequence of its vicinity to the fun. Copernicus never faw it; and when our author obferved Mercury on the fun in 1753, he found the tables of Caffini and Halley differed by five hours. In the tables of De la Hire the error was ftill greater. Our author, in confequence of his obfervations, propofes to fubtract 10" from the fecular motion of Mercury, which then becomes 2 14° 4' 100; and to fubtract 17" from that of the aphelion, which becomes 1° 23' 28" His method we cannot easily abridge. It confifts in taking the paffages of Mercury over the fun by twos, that is, one towards the afcending, and another towards the defcending node, to afcertain the place of the aphelion in the last and prefent century. He had antecedently and repeatedly observed Mercury in his aphelion and perihelion, fo that he was better enabled to afcertain the reft. The equation of the orbit he found to be 23° 40′, and the motion. of the aphelion 56′′ annually.

• But I fhall foon have occafion (he adds) to prefent to the Inftitute an object more important, which has neither been impeded by troubles nor dangers, and which I could scarcely hope to complete when I undertook it: I mean the number and exact determination of the ftars down to the ninth magnitude. The number already known amounts to 37,000; and there will probably be 50,000 when the zones are completed fo far as the tropic of Capricorn. I have publifhed the refult with refpe& to the principal ftars in the "Connoiffance des Temps," fince the year 1794. In that of 1799 will be found 2000 remarkable ftars, hitherto unknown. The principal obligation for this immenfe labour is due to M. F. Lalande, my relation, and one of our best aftronomers. The firft obfervations are found in the Memoirs of the Academy for 1789 and 1790: the reft will appear in the Hiftoire Célefte, the printing of which will, I truft, foon begin.'

XXIX. Obfervations on a fimple Idiopathic Atrophy; that is, an Atrophy not preceded by any original or previous Difeafe, nor accompanied by any accident or any peculiar Symptom. By M. Hallé.'

In the inftance

The cafe is not unexampled; though rare. adduced, the conftitution advanced rapidly, and decayed equally prematurely. The menfes commenced at feven, and began to diminish at feventeen years of age. At twenty-one they had wholly ceafed. From this period the patient grew gradually thinner; her ftrength decayed infentibiy, without any evacu ation to which the debility might be attributed. She walked

about till within fifteen hours of her death, including the night, and at noon the following day died, complaining only of fleepinefs. No difeafe appeared on opening the body, and no affection of the mind had preceded, though her temper was fomewhat timid, and inclined to jealoufy.-In atrophy in general we have reafon to fuppofe either a deficiency of abforption or of the application of the aliment. Yet neither feems to have taken place here: what the ate was evidently, from the ftate of the alvine evacuation, digefted, and its alimentary parts abforbed; and, if abforbed, the excefs fhould have promoted fome evacuations from the fkin, urine, &c. From the appearances on diffection there was reafon to fufpect an obftruction in the lymphatics; but the concocted motions oppofe this idea, and the reft of the lymphatic fyftem was pervious, fince there was an abforption of the fat under the skin. The deficiency must have been in the application of the nourishment; for the veins were very full, though the arteries were empty.

• XXX. Obfervations on a Petrifaction found on Mont Torre Noir, in the Department of the Loire. By M. Dauben

ton.'

The obfervations of this veteran in mineralogy, on what has been fuppofed petrified wood, will in a great degree eluci date the important questions still undetermined respecting the anthracolite of this and other countries. The fofil of Mont Torre Noir was eight or ten feet long, laid parallel to the ftrata of grit, and fixed in a great degree in the rock. Its bark, it was faid, was replaced by a ftratum of bitumen, and the texture as well as the knots of the wood were supposed to be very diftinct.

So many mistakes had occurred in examining these foffils, that Daubenton long fought for a diftinguishing mark of petrified wood; and this criterion he published in a memoir on the pechftein in 1787. In what had ever been wood he could diftinguith, in a tranfverfe fection, the medullary prolongations: in this foffil none could be difcovered; and the knots, though like the eyes in the bark, were, on examination, very different, From the appearance of organisation, and the conviction that it was not a woody fubftance, our author next supposed it a madrepore, and, on farther examination, actually found many ftars of aftroites. An aftroite is compofed of tubes adhering to each other, which contain longitudinal laminæ of a hard calcareous nature: thefe lamina extend from one end to the other, and from the centre to the circumference of the tube, leaving, at the centre, and on each fide, fpaces in which the animal that has produced them refided. The extremities of the tubes ap pear on the outfide of the aftroite: the terminations of the famine which they contain are obvious, forming rays which fomewhat refemble thofe of a ftar, whence the name of aftroite.