Notices respecting Néw Books. 463 
The work is dedicated in very handsome terms to the vene- 
rable President of the Royal Society, as the “ acknowledged pa- 
tron of science, and of every invention or improvement calculated 
to advance the happiness and to promote the welfare of man- 
kind.” 
Dr. Thomas Forster has just published a small Tract on 
the periodical Affections of the Brain and Nervous System. In 
endeavouring to deduce the periods of diseases from periodical 
changes in the atmosphere, the author alludes to the follewing 
remarkable circumstance,—that the periods of many nervous 
diseases correspond with those well known changes of weather 
which so often happen near the new and full of the moon, as 
to have been ascribed, even by popular opinion, to her svecial 
influence on the weather. He notices also numerous periodical 
plants, which open and shut their flowers at particular hours of 
the day and night, in order to prove an atmospherical cause of 
the periods observed by plants as well as animals. 
The same author ‘will shortly publish Observations on the 
Periods at which the different Organs of the Brain become ac- 
tive, and those at which their Activity ceases. 
A considerable work has long been expected from Dr. Spurz- 
heim, on Education, founded on the knowledge of the Physiology 
of the Brain. a 
Mr. Bicheno of Newbury- has published a book On the Na- 
ture of Benevolence, in which are some curious’ and novel re- 
marks on the Poor Laws. 
The expected Account of the Mission from Cape Coast Castle 
to the Kingdom of Ashantee, in Africa, will, we understand, ap- 
pear in a few days. Jt has for its author Thomas Edward Bow- 
ditch, Esq. Conductor and Chief of the Embassy; and comprises 
the History , Laws, Superstitions, Customs, Ar chitecture, Trade, 
&c. of that part of Africa. ‘To which is added, a Translation 
from the Arabic, of an Account of Mr. Park’s Death, &c. with 
a Map, and several Plates of Architecture, Costumes, Proces- 
sions, &c. In one 4to volume. 
Observations on AcKERMANN’S Patent Moveable Axles for 
Four-wheeled Carriages, containing an engraved Elevation 
of a Carriage, with Plans and Sections conveying accurate 
Ideas of this superior Improvement. Crown Svo. pp. 54. 
The Axles, which are the subject of these observations, are 
the invention of Mr. Lankensperger, of Munich; but the patent 
for them, as is usual in the case of inventions by foreigners, has 
been taken out in the name of Mr, Ackermann, as agent for the 
contriver. - 
