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REVIEWS. 



Art. I. Catalogue of Works on Natural History ^ lately published, 

 tvith some Notice of those considered the most interesting to British 

 Naturalists* 



Bylandt, Le Comte de: Resume Preliminaire de I'Ouvrage 

 sur la Theorie des Volcans. pp. 50. Naples, 1833. 



This " avant-propos " details a forthcoming work in 4 vols, 

 with plates, the result of more than thirty years' researches 

 into the causes and effects of volcanic phenomena. If the 

 work fulfil the expectation which this bill of fare induces, 

 the author need not despair of being rewarded with the title 

 of " laborious'^ But it cannot be supposed that, till we have 

 perused it, we should recommend the adoption of the views 

 which it contains, some of which we can hardly appreciate 

 from this preliminary abridgment. It shall be our business, 

 however, to dissect hastily and briefly these fifty pages of 

 prospectus : — 



The groundwork of M. de Bylandt's reasoning process 

 are the principles, that accurate observation is the basis of 

 truth in science, that every thing in nature has an ordained 

 end and object, that nothing happens by chance, that there 

 are an equilibrium and a harmony between all the divisions 

 of matter, and that there is neither increase nor decrease 

 in its composing particles, (p. 1 — 7-) These principles are 

 next applied to the doctrine of volcanoes, (p. 8.) To in- 

 vestigate these, he is led to consider the doctrine of the 

 elevation of mountains, (p. 11.) . This elevation our author 

 attributes to four causes^ sometimes isolated, sometimes united. 

 The eruption of the central fire {feu igne central) at " the 

 beginning ; " the sinking down of the mineral crust after its 

 stretching to the top of its elasticity ; the " eboulement " of a 

 part of the strata into profound depths, produced by the 

 pressure of waters, which explains the obliquity of contra- 

 dictory beds in the same mountain; and the lifting up of 

 the outer crust by interior pressure in the direction of certain 

 radii of the globe, when the diminution of the central fire 

 could only elevate those points which offered least resistance, 

 to which is attributed the vertical direction of certain rocks 

 and strata. 



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