Notices respecting New Books. — Hoyal Society. 375 



in this case of extraordinary difficulty and perfect novelty; nor 

 can experiment on a small scale furnish any analogy, as simi- 

 larity in the catenaries is impossible: — theory, 'therefore,combine(l 

 with a knowledge of the strength of materials, is the only source of 

 satisfactory conclusions. At some future period, when the dimen- 

 sions, &c.'are specifically determined, 1 may exemplify the pre- 

 ceding by the numerical calculations, by experiments, and addi- 

 tional observations, to excite attention, and stimulate superior abi- 

 'litiestogive a complete comprehensive view of tiiis important pro- 

 position in mechanical philosophy, with the easiest rules of com- 

 putation, and the most approved methods of construction : some 

 curious and useful deductions may be drawn from the preceding; 

 but I omit them, beseeching the reader in the words of the poet, 



si quid novisti rectius istis, 



Caiulidus impern ; si noi>, liis utcre nu cum." — Hou. 

 N. B. The preceding was written and printed previous to the 

 meeting of the Committee at Liverpool, when a Plan and Report 

 were given by Mr. Telford, of the most eligible mode of accom- 

 plishing this desirable object. And nearly a similai- one from 

 Captain Brown, which may receive some further notice. J. F. 



LXXXVIII. Notices respecting Nciv Books. 



D 



R. Wilson Phillip, of Wo;-cester, has in the press, ar.d will 

 _peedily publish. An Experimental Inquiry into the Laws of the 

 Vital Functions, with some Observations on the Nature and 

 Treatment of Internal Diseases ; in ])art republished, by permis- 

 Mon of the President of the Royal Society, from the Philosophical 

 Transactions, with the Report of the National Institute of France 

 on the Experiments of M. Le Gallois, and Observations on that 

 Report. 



LXXXIX. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



May 1. Si rE. Home communicated a paper containing some 

 remarks on the nature of generation and utero-gestation. After 

 stating that the process of Nature in this case had hitherto eluded 

 the observation of the most enlightened physiologists, he ob- 

 served that accident alone had enabled him to develop some 

 new, and, as he conceived, decisive facts on the subject. A female 

 servant having left her master's house a few hours on the / th of 

 A a 4 January, 



