152 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



Bell's work, which must be in the hands of every European faunist. 

 The wood engravings are, above all praise, characteristic and highly- 

 finished ; we can scarcely particularize, but the Urchul, the Oont, 

 and the Fitchet, as well as the Wild Cat, Blood-hound, and Fox- 

 hound, are truly admirable. Poor Puss is not quite to our liking, 

 and Reynard does not come out of cover sufficiently : — his history, 

 we fear, in the eye of the sportsman, will seem sadly curtailed. 

 The vignettes — we mean the speaking ones — though beautiful, 

 want a little more force. The bridge and water, at page 1 18, is 

 a sweet scene, and the badger-baiting and mole-catcher are good, 

 but the dramatis personce of the former are all cocknies. The 

 horse drinking, at page 147 J the old fellow asleep in the sunshine 

 while his cat and dog seize on the relics of his dinner, page 206 ; 

 and the dog's-meat man, p. 246 ; are all to the purpose, and truly 

 adorn as well as illustrate. We can sincerely say that the British 

 quadrupeds never before were fortunate enough to meet with so 

 able an historian or scientific illustrator as Mr. Bell. We shall 

 look forward with increased anxiety to every forthcoming part of 

 this highly interesting work. 



Report of the Committee of the Birmingham Philosophical Institu- 

 tion, for 1836 ; with the Meteorological Journal, a statement of 

 the Steam Power employed in Birmingham from 1780 to 1835, 

 and Tables of the Mortality of the Borough from 1831 to 1835. 

 Birmingham : Belcher & Son. 



The pamphlet before us contains the rules of the society, the 

 names of the officers and members, and the other subjects specified 

 in the title-page. The report appears satisfactory, but we shall, at 

 present, confine our attention to the steam power and the mortality 

 of the borough. The following is a condensed account of the num- 

 ber and power of the engines now in use : — for grinding flour, 275 

 horse power; working metals, 1770 ditto; pumping water, 279 

 ditto ; glass grinding, 87 ditto ; working wood, 97 ditto ; paper 

 making and glazing, 44 ditto ; grinding clay, 37 ditto ; grinding 

 colours and chemicals, 61 ditto ; sundries, 50 ditto ; so that the 

 horse power of the number of steam engines (169) now at work in 

 Birmingham is 2700. We now give the mortality of the borough 

 from 1831-5 .-—Total number of deaths in 1831,4442; in 1832, 

 3622; in 1833, 4256; in 1834, 4209; in 1835, 3861; making 

 the total number of burials in the years 1831-5 (with the addition 

 of 28 Jews) 20,418. The tables in this Report are as numerous 

 as they are minute and ingenious ; but, in order to save room, as 

 well as to render the subject intelligible to the generality of readers, 

 we have only given the totals of the various calculations. On the 

 meteorological tables we will not at present comment, leaving the 

 pamphlet to the discussion of those who may feel a desire to possess 

 themselves of the Report itself. 



