have received the poifon into its circulation, and will inevitably die.

The fingular and unexpected effects of the lunar cauftic, which when mixed with the poifon of the viper renders it innocent, led the Abbi Fontana to fufpect, that if the cauftic were united with the ticunas (the fubftance by which the American arrows are rendered fo fatal) it would correct the deadly quality of that moft virulent and speedy poifon. He was, however, mistaken; for animals, to the fresh wounds of which a compofition of equal parts of ticunas and lunar cauftic was applied, died in lefs than two minutes, as quickly as if they had been poisoned by the ticunas alone.

We come now to feveral experiments on the cherry-laurel, in which the deleterious qualities of its oil and fpirit, and the inefficacy of the cauftic in correcting them, are feparately fhewn.

But the most important part of this fupplement is what is faid on the effects of opium. The Abbé, perceiving little uniformity in the numerous authors who have written on the properties of this fubftance, was induced to undertake several experiments; the general refult of which fhews, that all animals with warm blood are killed by a folution of opium, either in fpirit or in water, applied in any manner to the body, in a fufficient quantity. Among the experiments on cold blooded animals, the following is fingular and remarkable:

I plunged half the body of a leech into fpirit of wine, and found in a little time that this part had loft all motion, whilft the other half continued in action. The experiment fucceeded in the fame way, whether the part of the leech towards the head was plunged or that towards the tail. The fame consequences enfued on plunging a leech into the folution of opium in spirit of wine, or into a folution of it in water.'

This we look upon as an extraordinary circumstance, viz. that one half of the animal fhould become dead, and that the other half fhould not have undergone any change, nor suffered any injury.

Then follow feveral experiments on turtles, frogs, &c. from which our Author concludes, that opium, fpirit of wine, and wine, do not act immediately on the nerves, but on the blood. Here he combats the notions of Dr. Robert Whytt; and is thoroughly confirmed in his opinion, that the blood alone is the medium through which opium produces its effects on the animal ceconomy. M. Fontana, who is perhaps too partial to experiments, may, we apprehend, have made his conclufions rather haftily. We hefitate in pronouncing that experiment convincing,

* Into the spirit of wine, we suppose.

in which our Author applied opium to the crural nerve of a frog; though a large branch of a nerve did not feem affected when the application was made, yet we cannot thence conclude, that the extremities of the nerves are infenfible to opium. It has ever been a received opinion (and we think a true one), that the nerves are clothed with their proper coat, viz. a prolongation of the meninges; and it does not appear that this coat was removed before the opium was applied, confequently the opium did not come into immediate contact with the medullary fubftance of the nerve, in which alone fenfation is feated; and on that account the conclufion feems to be unfatisfactory. Had the opium been applied immediately to the medullary fubftance of the nerve, it is poffible that a different effect would have been produced. We cannot, however, allow that the nervous fyftem is infenfible to opium, becaufe a nerve, to whofe external coat it was applied, did not feem affected. We might as juftly conclude the blood to be infenfible to the poifon of the viper, because that poifon applied to the outfide of a blood-veffel produces no vifible effect. Befide, we ought to be extremely cautious in drawing conclufions from experiments made on living animals; for while the animal is in extreme torture, as muft have been the cafe in these experiments, the effects of any application can never be thoroughly or fatisfactorily obtained; nor can we with certainty affirm that the fame effects would have been produced on an animal in its perfect and healthy ftate.

It remains that we should take some notice of the merit of the tranflation, which, on the whole, is well executed; fome peculiarities, as, authour,' errour,' len's' for lenfes, and others of a like kind, frequently occur; thefe however are not very material circumftances, while the fenfe of the Author, which in fcientific works is the most important object, is neither mutilated nor misreprefented. Rm.

ART. X.

Correfpondence familiere et amicale de Frederic Second, Roi de Pruffe, avec U. F. De Suhm, &c. i. e. Familiar and friendly Correfpondence between FREDERICK II. King of Pruffia and U. F. DE SUHм, Privy Counsellor to the Elector of Saxony, and Envoy Extraordinary to the Courts of Berlin and Petersburg. 12mo. 2 Vols. Amfterdam. 1787.

HERE is no circumftance in which the partiality of

cation of pofthumous letters. On the decease of a person who has acted a diftinguifhed part in the drama of life, every one who has been honoured even with a note in his hand-writing, is eager to communicate it to the prefs. The leaft inconve nience that attends this imprudence is, that expectation is raised APP. Rev. Vol. LXXVI.

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only to be disappointed, and a number of trifles are expofed to public view, which were intended only for the eye of a particular friend, and which, however important to the perfons to whom they were addreffed, are not very interefting to a reader who is not thus immediately concerned.

These reflections are, in fome degree, applicable to the letters before us, which were the effufions of private friendship, and certainly never defigned for the public infpection. The Editor's name does not appear; but there is a certificate figned by 7. A. Schluter, Counsellor of War, and Cenfor Royal at Berlin, attefting that he has compared the manufcript of this collection with the original letters, of which it is an exact copy.

This correfpondence commenced in March 1736, and continued till the death of M. Subm, in 1740, juft after the King's acceffion to the throne. Their friendship was formed during M. Suhm's refidence at Berlin, from the year 1720 to 1730, as Envoy from the Court of Drefden.

It is well known, that the late King's father, Frederick William I. was an enemy to fcience, and particularly to philofophy; he could not therefore but be difpleafed to fee the Prince Royal cultivate an intimacy with perfons eminent for their wit, learning, and extenfive knowledge. Among thefe was M. Suhm, who, it is probable, was the more eafily rendered odious to the King, as he was a zealous partizan of Wolf, to whom the monarch had conceived a violent averfion. It is certain that the King took offence at the friendship between the Prince and M. Subm;-a circumftance which occafioned their feparation, and gave rife to the correspondence here published.

The Prince's letters are written with eafe and elegance; they breathe a manly and affectionate friendship for his correfpondent, and contain fentiments which do honour to his heart as well as to his understanding. We were particularly pleafed with the folJowing remark on a dedication to him of a French tranflation of Wolf's Logic, by M. Deschamps, with which M. Suhm, whom he ftiles Diaphanes, had been quite in raptures.

I own to you, my dear Diaphanes, that I think M. Defchamps' dedication exceedingly infipid; it is not fo much offering incense, as flinging the cenfer at one's head. Thus to praife a perfon, with whom he acknowledges he is not acquainted, is to write a panegyric on a hero of romance; on an imaginary being, that exists no where but in the writer's brain. Had this epiftle been prefixed to a tragedy or an epic poem, an apology might have been made for the author, by alleging, that, inflamed with the ardours of poetry, he had been hurried away by a heated imagination, without having time to liften to reafon; but by prefixing fuch a dedication to a treatise on logic, the poor tranilator has fallen into an effential error, and fhewn that he does not understand the art of reafoning. When the tranflator fent it to me, I defired my thanks might be returned

for

for the excellent work he had dedicated to me; but at the fame time I informed him, that, fenfible to the good wishes expreffed in his Dedication, I fhould be ungrateful if I did not, for his own fake, wish that he had entirely altered the style of it.'

M. Subm's letters are much inferior to thofe of the Prince, and are fo full of adulation, we had almoft faid adoration, that we wonder they did not draw a ferious reprimand from his Highnefs, who indeed checks him frequently on this account. His affection was no doubt fincere and praife-worthy, but his expreffion of it is as ridiculous as the love ditty of a whining knight in romance, and is void of that fober dignity which should characterise the friendship of a man of sense. His tranfports and extafies are fo much in the fuperlative degree, and fo repeatedly expreffed, that we were quite cloyed and disgusted with them.

The fubjects to which these letters are confined are not the moft interesting and entertaining. They contain no political or hiftorical anecdotes, and are remarkably filent concerning the court of Berlin. This was prudent, confidering the Prince's difagreeable fituation at that time. His Royal Highness, who entertained rather an unreasonable prejudice against the German, and in favour of the French language, had engaged M. Suhm to tranflate Wolf's metaphyfics, and to fend him the tranflation, fheet by fheet, inclofed in his letters. An account of the progrefs of this work, and a few general encomiums on Wolf, are all the information contained in the firft thirty-fix letters; after which we find that M. Suhm was appointed by the Elector to fucceed the Count de Linar as Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of Petersburgh. The remainder of the correfpondence relates to certain fums of money which the Prince fecretly borrowed from the Empress Anne-Iwanowna of Ruffia, and from the Duke of Courland, formerly Count Biron, her favourite. Among these letters, there is one in which his Highnefs mentions his having been accufed, to the King, of irreligion, and adds, "You know that an accufation of this kind is the laft refuge of calumny; after this, nothing further can be faid. The King took fire; I kept myself clofe; my regiment did wonders; and their dexterity in handling their arms, a little flour fcattered on the foldiers heads, men above fix feet high, together with a great many recruits, were arguments more powerful than thofe of my accufers. Every thing is now quiet, and I hear nothing more about religion, my perfecutors, or my regiment.'

On the Prince's acceffion to the throne, one of his first cares was to perfuade M. Suhm to refign his connections with the Court of Drefden, and to fix at Berlin. The latter complied with this cordial invitation, but, on his journey, died at Warfaw; and his laft letter, dated from this city, is the dying man's

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pathetic recommendation of his fifter and his children to his royal friend. This letter is admirably written: it flows immediately from the heart; and it gives us an affecting view of the fentiments of the Chriftian, the philofopher, the father, and the friend, in these awful circumftances; and affords a striking inftance of the vanity of our moft probable fchemes of worldly happiness.

This correfpondence is followed by a few fhort letters from the King to the Countefs de Samas, who was at the head of the Queen's houfehold, written between the years 1760 and 1763. They are pleasant trifles. We have attempted to tranflate one of them, which fhews the King's mind to have been perfectly at ease amid the horrors of war, and fuperior to the influence of external circumstances.

Neftadt, November 11, 1760.

I am punctual in anfwering, and eager to oblige you. Perfons of the fame age agree wonderfully. I have given up fuppers thefe four years, as incompatible with the bufinefs I am forced to carry on; and, on marching days, my dinner is only a difh of chocolate. We have been running like madmen, quite elated with victory, to fee whether we could drive the Auftrians from Drefden; but they Jaughed at us from the tops of their mountains. I returned like a disappointed child, to hide my vexation in one of the most curfed villages of Saxony. We must now drive Meffieurs Les Cercles out of Freyberg and Chemnitz, in order to get fomething to eat, and a place to fleep in.

This is, I fwear, fuch a dog's life, as no one, except Don Quixotte, ever led but myself. All this buttle, all this confufion, which feems to be without end, has made me fuch an old fellow, that you will hardly know me again. The hair on the right fide of my head is grown quite grey; my teeth break, and fall out; my face is as full of wrinkles as the furbelow of a petticoat, and my back arched like a monk's of La Trappe. I give you notice of all this, that, if we should meet again in skin and bone, you may not be shocked at my figure. Nothing belonging to me remains unaltered, except my heart, which, as long as I breathe, will retain its fentiments of affection and tender friendship for my good Mama. Adieu.' M--e

Obfervations fur le Commerce de la Mer Noire, &c. i. e. Obfervations on the Commerce of the Black Sea, and the adjacent Countries. To which are added, Remarks on the Trade of Candia and Smyrna. 12mo. Amfterdam. 1787.

THE

HE commerce of the Euxine was formerly engroffed by the Turks, who would not fuffer the veffels of any European power to navigate this fea; but fince the year 1783, the Ruffians and Imperialifts have enjoyed this privilege, and the French and Dutch Ambaffadors at the Porte, have alfo en

deavoured