We

connected with another, which can bear the blow itself uninjured; but it is not probably a frequent occurrence. were once shown an inftance of contra-fiffure, in a concave glafs, which accidentally fell on its fide. The part on which it fell was cracked, and, on the niceft infpection, no crack could be perceived in the middle; but it appeared again in the fame direction on the thicker part of the oppofite fide. This circumstance was applied to a bone of a varying thickness; and it deferves attention, though the analogy is not quite exact. Mr. Bell's directions for the operation are clear and accurate with the best practitioners, he mentions the parts in which the inftrument may be moft fafely applied; but, in emergencies, is not afraid to apply it to any part.

When bad fymptoms come on after the operation, or where the deficiency of fymptoms will not enable us to judge of the particular part injured, he gives in general proper directions for the management. In cafes of compreffion and inflammation, we agree with him; but the fymptoms of concuffion and compreffion are often fo much alike, that we wish the mode of practice was not very different. In what have feemed to be concuffions, we have bled largely with fuccefs: our author thinks the effect of the fhock to be that of debility; and, if the pulfe finks after a gentle bleeding, recommends ftimuli. In the progrefs of the difeafe, if the caufe be not foon removed, the pulfe neceffarily finks, and we may mistake this progreffive change for the effects of the remedy. Besides, even in compreffions, a flight bleeding feems to do harm, while a large one evidently relieves. In fact, we have seen fo much mischief from a neglect of bleeding, in affections of the brain, that we fee with regret, any impediment thrown in its way. The diftinction of Dr. Stack, p. 6, may probably be ufefully employed on this fubject; but free evacuations are certainly the fafeft plan. Mr. Bell talks too of gentle purging, without reminding the fudent that, in this torpid ftate, the moft active purgatives alone will produce any effect. As, in our author's view, mistakes may arife from confounding the effects of concuffion with those of extravafation, we fall tranfcribe bis marks of diftinction.

So far as my cbfervation goes, the most material difference which occurs between the symptoms produced by these two caufes, concuffion and compreflion of the brain, is met with in the pulfe and in the breathing. In a compressed state of the brain, the breathing is commonly deep and oppreffed, fimilar to what moft frequently takes place in apoplexy; whereas, in patients labouring under commotion or concuffion, the breathing is in general free and eafy, and the patient

lies as if he was in a found and natural fleep. The pulfe is commonly foft and equal, and not irregular and flow, as it is ufually found to be when the brain is compreffed. In cafes of compreffed brain too, although little or perhaps no relief may be obtained from blood-letting, yet no harm is obferved to occur from it; for in fuch circumftances it may be prescribed in moderate quantities, without reducing either the frequency or ftrength of the pulfe: whereas in real concuffion of the brain, the pulfe, as we have already remarked, will frequently fink, and become much more feeble on the difcharge of only eight or ten ounces of blood.'

In fiffures only, the operation is, he thinks, unneceffary; and, in fome other diseases of the brain, it is at beft ufelefs ; perhaps it would be injurious. The operation is defcribed with great clearness; and the whole, as ufual, is recapitu lated. His conclufion is remarkably candid, and does his judgement and his liberality the highest honour.

We have seldom feen the diseases of the eyes treated of with fo much fuccefs. The inflammation is oppofed by the moft active remedies; but, in a furgical view, the great object is couching. Mr. Bell prefers the depreffion of the lens to the extraction. To prevent its rifing after the operation, he die rects it to be carried by the needle towards one of the angles of the eye; and if it should arise in that fituation, it would not impede the paffage of the light through the pupil. The ar guments for the preference are ingenious; and that they are not quite fatisfactory, may arife from a little prejudice we feel for Daviel's method. Mr. Bell's propofed improvements will certainly infure greater fuccefs, even to that operation. It chiefly confifts in making the opening behind the lucid cornea, by which we avoid injuring the iris, and making a difagree, able cicatrix in the moft ufeful and confpicuous part. We have little doubt of the wound healing with ease.

IN

The Genera Vermium exemplified by various Specimens of the Ani mals contained in the Orders of the Inteftina & Mallufca Linnæi. Drawn from Nature by James Barbut. 410. 11. 7s. White. N our Fifty-fifth Voiume, page 421, we reviewed Mr. Barbut's Genera Infectorum ; and he then propofed to continue his defcriptions. The prefent work contains two orders of the vermes, viz. the intellina and mollufca: the remaining orders are the teftacea, the zoophyta, and the lithophyta. It is probable that the author will include the whole, under the title of Teftaceous Animals,' which he promises to defcribe

in

in the third and laft volume. We paid, in the account juft mentioned, a due tribute to the attention of Mr. Barbut, but reprehended the quaint affected language in which the obfervations were delivered. This ftyle ftill appears unchanged; perhaps it is, in his opinion, the brilliancy of wit,' which he diftinguishes in Linnæus, though the greateft admirers of the Swedish naturalist never fufpected that he poffeffed this qualification. Mr. Barbut ought certainly to have fubmitted his work to the care of a perfon more converfant in the English language than himself, and more accurate in his conceptions. The gordius does not, for inftance, pierce the clay to make a paffage for the water; but this is an effect refulting from the particular habits and conftitution of the animal. We know that, in this inftance, he tranflates literally from Linnæus; but a name is no fanction to error. There are many fimilar inftances. The French verfion is not always clear; but it is free from the difagreeable affectation that deforms the English. Dedaignant au refte, d'errer au milieu des douces. productions de fcience, fans faire connoitre d'ou il a exprimè les fucs, dont il a compofè fon miel.' This fentence has nothing reprehenfible: the metaphor is allowable, and well preferved; but in English, it appears abfurd and ridiculous. Scorning to roam among the fweets of science, without declaring the melifluous genera, from whence he extracted the delicious nectar.'

:

In the fcientific part, we have lefs to blame; but the author is always anxious to difcover the utility of the varions infects to man. We think our own confequence is often too much exaggerated; and, in this immenfe fcale of beings, though the first, we ought not to be the only objects of attention befides, various animals are fubfervient to us in a fecondary way, or by very diftant connections, which we are unable to discover. Our author would be much diftreffed to find out the ufe of a tenia or an afcaris lumbricoides, which occur only in the human intestines; but there is great reason to fuppofe them connected with health, fince they are common in the healthiest conftitutions; and the diseases which they feem to produce, arife chiefly from their number, or the quantity of flime with which they are involved. While our author was treating of the lumbricus, he ought also to have explained the belt which diftinguishes it from the afcaris. It is carefully preferved and properly reprefented in the plate.

In almoft the only general opinion which Mr. Barbut has ventured to deliver, we think he is mistaken: we fhall tranfcribe his own words.

< The

:

The animals generally arranged under the order Mollusca, may not be perhaps fo numerous as is commonly imagined, for this reafon many of them may be inhabitants of fhells, whose usual abode is in the depths of the ocean, and may have been forced from their hold in an hoftile manner, by animals more powerful than themselves; and having efcaped the enemy, have rifen to the furface, and by the hardening nature of the air, may have acquired a toughnefs to their fkin, and likewife ftrength fufficient to float or fwim, according to the feveral properties with which nature may have endowed them; in fhort, their external appearance frongly enforces my opinion, and most especially when we confider, that the animals of the Mollufca, bear fo ftrong a refemblance in form and generic character to thofe inhabiting fhells, and that they all are capable of contraction and expanfion.'

He must be a very fuperficial naturalift, who will at once conclude that animals are of the fame kind, because they refemble in form, or in a quality, which belongs to every spe cies endowed with life; for contraction and expansion are performed always in living animals by a mufcular power, and depends on the very general property of irritability. If his opinion were true, we fhould find alfo fome of the mollufca with fhells, beginning to form; fince the involucrum is always the production of the animal, and we cannot fuppofe it an ufelefs appendage. We find crabs (who annually, at leaft in fome periods of their lives, fhed their fhells) in all the intermediate ftates, from a gelatinous body to one defended by a folid covering. Mr. Barbut's idea of an animal driving another from the fhell, if not incorrectly worded, is erroneous. Shells are very generally inhabited by the fame fpecies, and are defended from external attack; fo that when we find an animal in a fhell not peculiar to it, we need not recur to the fuppofition of an hoftile invafion, fince forfaken fhells are very numerous. The attack must therefore be made by an animal of the fame kind, who must have been already difpoffeffed of his habitation by storms, or external violence.

We fhall extract, as an entertaining fpecimen of this work, an account of fome of the genera.

The Slug, which begins the order, confumes the roots and leaves of plants, trees, &c. but affords food to many birds, as ravens, rooks, &c. and the Amber Slug has been recommended in confumptive cafes. The Laplyfia, wrapped round as it were with a cloak, is protected by the qualities nature has endowed it with, both on account of its fœtid fmell, and the painful tingling which follows the touch, feeds on fea-weeds, and is greedily devoured by the porpoife. Thus it plainly appears, that whatever poifonous qualities fome ani

mals

mals may poffefs, with regard to mankind, they may neverthelefs be harmlefs, and even nourishing food to other crea tures; for a failor happened to take a Laplyfia in the Mediterranean, it gave him fuch inftantaneous and excruciating pain, as to caufe an inflammation, and the poor man lost his arm; and fo fenfible are the fishermen of the poisonous quality of the mucus, which oozes from its body, that they will not on any account touch it.'

We now take a step rather remote from animals of a more active nature, when we enter upon a review of the Ascidia; an animal, whofe functions are fo extraordinary, as to appear only a few degrees removed from marine plants, conftantly affixed to fome body; its motion is imperceptibly flow, fearce making one inch in fome hours, therefore never recedes far from its native fpot; its life is taken up in continually receiving in its body the fea-water, and fquirting it out again; the internal Aructure of the animal's mouth, is furnished with a number of minute papillæ, by which means it preferves from escape, in the act of ejecting the water, those animalcula, which conftitute its nourishment.

• The Actinia affixes itfelf by a kind of peduncle, to rocks, oyfters, &c. and difplays its florefcent head, in fuch manner, as more to resemble a flower, than an animal; the radii which adorn the head, as fo many tentacula, by which the animal affumes and conveys its prey to its mouth, which is the centre of the flower as it were; at times they affume fuch various forms, as to be mistaken for animals of a different genus.'

The Terebella, furnished as it were with an auger, pierces the rocks, and configned by nature to its dark dwelling, refts in fecurity, till the hungry crab, with its cheliferous claw (le crabe vorace avec fes pinces), drags him from his lurking place, and devours him.

The Triton, inferting its body in the holes of the rocks, which lie concealed under water, throws out its head and cheliferous tentacula, whereby it feizes the unwary prey, which happens to crawl or fwim within reach. But he has likewife many enemies to encounter, the crab, afterias, cuttle, &c.'

The plates are, as ufual, exact and beautiful; and the figures are encircled with different fpecies of coral, which form an elegant border. The colouring is too vivid; and this will always happen, when natural hiftory is degraded from the rank of an ufeful fcience to that of a pleafing picturebook. No colouring should ever be allowed which is not executed with care and correctnefs, under the eye of a mater, who is willing to facritice even elegance and beauty to a just reprefentation.