1823.] 



literary and Critical Proemium. 



447 



discbarge of il8 contents, and a proper 

 cap, screw, or man-bole, for cleansing 

 tbe same. In the pipe or pipes, by 

 wbicb the filtered liquid flows (as above 



mentioned) into the receiver, is a stop- 

 cock or cocks, by whicli the communi- 

 cation between the filterer and receiver 

 may be closed at pleasure. 



NEW BOOKS PUBLISHED IN MAY : 



WITH AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICU, PROEMIUM. 



Authors or Publishers, desirous of seeing an early notice of their Works, are 

 requested to transmit copies hejfore the \Hth of the Month. 



'X'HE Gengraphical, Statistical, Agricul- 

 ■*■ iural, Cuminercial, and Political, Ac- 

 count of Culombia, is a well-arianged publi- 

 cation, and contains miicli of interest and 

 utility. The lepnhlic of Colombia includes 

 the countries formerly kno«n under the 

 names of Venezuela, New Grenada, and 

 Quito; and almost all that is known in 

 Europe with respect to these several pro- 

 vinces, and which lay scattered in various 

 works, is here collected under a single 

 head. The Preface is short, and modestly 

 written, candidly acknowledging the 

 sources from which the whole has been 

 compiled. "In constructing a work," 

 says the writer, " on this newly constituted 

 state, tlie niaieiials, on many particular 

 points, have been extremely scanty ; and 

 therefore, though the editor might boast 

 his original views in various parts of the 

 work, as in some of that which immedi- 

 ately follows, or his exclusive possession 

 of official documents, as in the historical 

 and political part, yet he is more anxious 

 to acknowledge his extensive obligations to 

 Humboldt, Depons, and others, even by 

 whose language he has prolited, unless 

 where its prolixity required abridgment, 

 or its inaccuracy correction; for, to him, 

 nothing seems less honourable than to de- 

 teriorate the language of a writer, in order 

 to conceal obligations to him." The first 

 volume is divided into four chapters: — i. 

 A general description of the country; its 

 extent, mountams, rivers, temperature, 

 seasons, <Si:c. 2. A particular description 

 of several provinces, governments, cities, 

 &c. with an official statement of the 

 population, amounting in Ihe whole of the 

 republic to 2,(JH,6()0 persons. An ac- 

 count of the different classes of the 

 population, their religion, customs, and 

 manners, is the subject of the third chap- 

 ter ; and the fourth is wholly devoted to an 

 account of the various tribes of Indians, 

 in which, as Ihe general reader well 

 knows, much curious matter lay open to 

 the compiler. The second vnlume coatMM 

 a ttatcinent of its produce ; mines, sugar, 

 coffee, &c. and of course gives us what is 

 known of the Natural History of its pro- 

 ducts, the manner of workiii<; and rearing, 

 and of their siibseqiieiil manufacture fur 

 the purposes of coininerci". The second 

 cliapter gives us some pariiculars of tlic 

 commerce, exports, and inipurls, duties, 



freights, &c. which, in such a modern 

 government, must be very temporary in- 

 formation. Then follow ihe History and 

 Political Slate, with a skeich of the 

 revolution, for which the e<litor acknow- 

 ledges himself indebted to Mr, Miranda, 

 the son of that brave general who fell in 

 the cause of South American freedom. A. 

 well-engraved map of Colombia (we can 

 say nothing of its accuracy,) accompanies 

 the work ; and the volumes are preceded, 

 the first by a portrait of Zea, and the 

 second by that of Bolivar. Thus far we 

 are pleased with the publication ; but here 

 our approbation mnst terminate. An In- 

 troduction of Igl, and Appendices of 

 eighty pages, appear all to have been ma- 

 nufactured in Change-alley, The whole 

 of the yet unsettled business concernine; 

 M. Zea and the Columbian loan is detailed 

 with tiresome minuteness; and give, to aa 

 otherwise respectable book, all the ap- 

 pearance of a S^ock Exchange puff, got 

 up for the benefit of jobbors and money- 

 lenders. 



A Treatise on Mental Derangement, by 

 Francis Willis, m.d. is a work of much 

 vanity and little value. His system is, 

 that mental derangement is wholly a bodily 

 disease, in consequence of some defi- 

 ciency of tone in the nerves ; and tonics, par- 

 ticularly port-wine and bark, are pre- 

 scribed even in the high state of dt-lirium. 

 Hippocrates, Galen, Aretaeus, and TiaJ- 

 lianus, are quoted in the original to shew 

 his knowledge of Greek ; and we have 

 accounts of his grandfather aud uncles in 

 evidence of his descent, and to inform us 

 of (he sources from which his great know- 

 ledge has been acquired. The volume 

 consists of 23 i pages, of which fifty are ex- 

 tracts from preceding writers, and twenty 

 are taken up with discussions with regard 

 to the mental derangement ot Shakspeare's 

 King Lear, Kdgar, Hamlet, Ophelia, &c. 

 Lady Macbeth, he assures us, was not 

 deranged I 



Dr. Speer's Thon^hts on the present 

 Character and Constitution of tke Medical 

 Pra/essiun, is an obtrusive stream of elo- 

 quence, with a few rational ideas thinly 

 floating over the surface, which nii-ht 

 have conimaiided general applause from the 

 benches of a forum. If we rightly under- 

 stand our author, he seems to ascribe the 

 decaying character of the profession, 



which 



