1827.] [ 529 ] 



MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN. 



Elements of Physics, or Natural Philoso- 

 phy, General and Medical, explained inde- 

 pendently of Technical Mathematics, by N. 

 Arnott,'M.D.; 1827. This volume keeps 

 very faithfully the word of promise, and we 

 are delighted to be able to give it our sincere 

 and unqualified approbation. Itis welladapted 

 to spread the general truths of science beyond 

 Ihe very narrow boundaries within which 

 they now circulate ; and this can only be ac- 

 complished by simplifying and reducing them 

 to the language and comprehension of com- 

 mon life, by stripping them of technicalities, 

 and of the forms of calculation the very 

 sight of rows of figures being as appalling to 

 the ordinary reader, on subjects of science, as 

 on those of finance. The society recently 

 instituted for the diffusion of knowledge is 

 at this moment actively pursuing the same 

 object a little too elaborately too much 

 secundum artem we fear. Let them take 

 a leaf out of Dr. Arnott's book. 



The author throws a rapid and compre- 

 hen-ive glance over the realms and regions 

 of knowledge, and proposes a very intelli- 

 gible and satisfactory division of the whole 

 wito physics, chemistry, life, and mind, with 

 the subsidiary or supplementary science of 

 quantity. Then taking the first division, 

 and separating the subjects of physics into 

 the ponderable and the imponderable, he dis- 

 cusses, at length, and with a particularity 

 sufficiently minute for all the purposes of 

 general information, the PONDERABLE ones 

 distributing them under the heads of soma- 

 tology and dynamics, explaining under these 

 awful teims we wish they could be got rid 

 of altogether the constitution of masses, 

 and the motions going on among them ; 

 mechanics, the peculiarities of state and mo- 

 tion among solid bodies; hydrodynamics, 

 the peculiarities of state and mo! ion among 

 fluid bodies specifically, hydrostatics, water 

 at rest; pneumatics, air phenomena; hy- 

 draulics, water in motion ; acoustics, phe- 

 nomena of sound and bearing which mat- 

 ters together constitute the very full contents 

 of the present volume. The IMPONDERABLE 

 substances are destined to fill a second vo- 

 lume, consisting of caloric, or heat ; optics, 

 or light; electricity; magnetism followed 

 by a survey of the phenomena of the hea- 

 vens, or astronomy. Under each of these 

 heads are ranged the illustrations afforded by 

 animal economy, under the terms of animal 

 and medical physics subjects not usually so 

 classed, but susceptible of being so classed 

 with the strictest propriety and constituting 

 here indeed some of the most valuable, in- 

 structive, and, we may say, entertaining parts 

 of the volume. 



For us to attempt any minute analysis of 

 these multifarious subjects would be useless, 

 un-.l with our narrow limits quite impracti- 

 cable. It is sufficient for us, and all that we 

 can usefully do, to give our readers some 



M.M. New Series. VOL. III. No. 17. 



indications of the contents, assuring them, 

 as we justly may, that the work, important 

 as is the object, and one of considerable 

 pretension too on the part of the author, 

 fully realizes the expectations it holds out. 

 It is a clear and vigorous exhibition of the 

 general principles of science, in form and 

 language accessible to the common appre- 

 hension. The illustrations are peculiarly 

 distinct and appropriate, and, what in mat- 

 ters of this kind is most welcome, full and 

 familiar. We are sure that the book does 

 all (hat a book can do on these matters- 

 experimental lectures and demonstrations are 

 indispensable no discussions, however ac- 

 curate, no language, however obvious, will 

 supply the absence of them. With great 

 candour and truth, the author expresses the 

 same conviction, adding: 



No man has ever been remarkable for his know- 

 ledge of physics, chemistry, or physiology, who 

 has not had practical familiarity with the objects. 

 With reference to this familiarity, persons, who 

 take a philanthropic interest in the affairs of the 

 world, must observe with much pleasure the now 

 daily increasing facilities of acquiring useful know- 

 ledge, afforded by the scientific institutions that 

 are formed and forming through this kingdom, and 

 indeed through most civilized nations. 



We should like to give our readers a spe- 

 cimen of the writer's tone of illustration, but 

 scarcely know where to choose. The ani- 

 mal physics will perhaps be most interesting, 

 and we take the HEEL: 



The heel, by projecting so far backwards, is a 

 long lever for the strong muscles which form the 

 calf of the leg, and terminate in the tendo achillis, 

 to act by. These murcles, by drawing at the heel, 

 lift the body, in standing on the toes, in walking, 

 in dancing, &c. In the negro foot the heel is EO 

 long as to be ugly in European estimation ; and 

 its great length rendering the effort of smaller 

 muscles sufficient for the various purposes ; the 

 calf of the leg in the negro is smaller in proportion 

 than in other races of men. In a graceful human 

 step, the heel is always raised before the foot is 

 lifted from the ground, as if the foot were part of 

 a wheel rolling forward ; and the weight of the 

 body rests for the time on the fore part of the foot 

 and toes. The muscles forming the calf of the 

 leg lift the heel, as just described, by drawing at 

 the tendo achillis, and produce a bending of the 

 foot in a corresponding degree. But where strong 

 wooden shoes are used, or any shoe so stiff that 

 it will not yield and allow this bending of the foot, 

 the heel in walking is not raised at all until the 

 whole foot rises with it, so that the muscles of the 

 calf are scarcely used, and in consequence soon 

 dwindle in size, and almost disappear. Many of 

 the English farm-servants wear heavy stiff shoes, 

 and in London it surprises one to see the drivers 

 of country waggons, with fine robust persons in 

 the upper part, but with legs which are fleshless 

 spindles, producing a gait, most awkward and un- 

 manly. One regrets, that, for the sake of a 

 trifling saving, fair nature should be thus de- 

 3 Y 



