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Account of Books for 1794. 



Zoonomia ; or the Laivs of Organic 

 Life. Vol. I. By Erasmus Dar- 

 win, M. D. F. R. S. author of the 

 Botanic Garden. 4to. 179'*« 



WBRE it our purpose rather to 

 amuse cursory readers than 

 to give a connected and scienlihc 

 view of the whole of this perform- 

 ance, we should have found it an 

 easy task to fill our pages with 

 much curious matter relative to 

 natural, moral, and medical history, 

 interspersed through many of its 

 sections. All who have read the 

 miscellaneous notes of our author's 

 Botanic Garden, will be sufficiently 

 acquainted with his happy art of 

 enlivening philosophical reasonings 

 and speculations with entertainiug 

 and sprigluly narratives. The style 

 of writing, in many parts of this 

 work, is perfectly similar, and can- 

 not fail of giving pleasure to those 

 who have been delighted with the 

 perusal of the former. 



We conceive we shall hut per- 

 form our duty to the ingenious au- 

 thor and the public, by proceeding 

 immediately to an analytical view 

 of the whole performance, leaving 

 our readers afterwards to judge how 

 far its facts and reasonings in the 

 detail may be worthy of their at- 

 tention, 



Aflera short preface, inwhicji wc 



we are acquainted that the work 

 has la';n by the \vriter during twenty 

 years, he ccmmences with 



Sect. 1. Of Motion. The 

 motions of matter are arranged un- 

 der three classes: those belonging 

 to gravitation, to chymislry, and to 

 life. The latter, comprt bending 

 all animal nnd vegetable motions, 

 are the subject of this work. 



S. 2. Explanations and De- 

 FiNiTiONb. 'ibis section begins 

 with a general view of the animal 

 economy ; of which the most re- 

 markable opinion is, that the imme- 

 diate organs of sense probably con- 

 sist of moving fibrils, having a power 

 of contraction like that of muscles. 

 Sensijriu7n is used to signify not only- 

 all sentient parts, but the living 

 principle residing throughout the 

 body. By idea is meant those no- 

 tions of external things with which 

 the organs of sense bring us ac- 

 quainted, and it is defined to be a 

 contraction, or n^otion, or configu- 

 ration, of the fibres of those organs. 

 Sensual motion is used as synonymous 

 with it. Percept on includes both 

 the action of the organ, and our 

 attention to it. Sensation is u.scd to 

 express pleasure or pain in its active 

 state alune. Ideas of recollection are 

 those voluntaiily recalled — those of 

 suggestl'M come from habit. Associa' 

 tion is a society of things in some 



respect 



