T65 



BOSCOVICH'S THEORY. 



Boscovich's 

 theory of 

 Natural 

 Philoso- 

 phy- 



Electricity 

 and Mag 

 nctism. 



' The theory 

 reconcilea- 

 lil* wiih o- 

 ther sys- 

 tem J. 



In explaining the phenomena of electricity, he 

 adopts the theory of Franklin respecting a peculiar 

 fluid, which, by it transference and constipation, 

 produces the attractions, repulsions, sparks, &e. and 

 even lightning and thunder. 



As to the phenomena of magnetism, they may be 

 all reduced to the attractions of certain substances for 

 each other. Perhaps they also may be- owing to the 

 intervention of some peculiar effluvium ; but, in either 

 case, they are sufficiently reconcileable with the prin- 

 ciples of the theory. 



Finally, it may be observed, that although the first 

 elements of matter are said to be indivisible, inextend- 

 ed, endued with the Ml inertia;, and the mutual for- 

 ces expressible by the curve, so often alluded to ; 

 yet whether this law be intrinsic and essential to 



those elements ; whether it be something added t< 



them, as the substantial and accidental forms of the I,K ry of 



Peripatetics ; or whether it be the free law of the p{". 



Author of Nature, chosen at will for the direction of ,,| 1V .' 



theM motions, as may be more agreeable to the Car- ' 



tesian ; we do not here enquire, nor, in truth, can 



it be learned from the phenomena which opinion is 



the most correct. The theory may be employed in 



any of these modes of philosophising, and fitted to 



the peculiar turn of thinking in each. 



We intended to have concluded this article with a 

 few general observations on the theory of Boscovich; 

 but as we shall have occasion to resume the subject 

 under the head of Corpuscular Philosophy, these 

 observations may be introduced with equal propriety, 

 and with more effect, in that part of our work, (a.n.) 



Bosjes- 

 mans. 



BOS 



BOSJESMANS, or BosltiEs-MEX, the name of a 

 savage people who inhabit an extensive district in the 

 colony of the Cape of Good Hope. They are called 

 Bosjesmans, or men of the thicket, from their lurking 

 among the bushes, in order to shoot travellers with 

 their poisoned arrows. The Dutch colonists, who 

 often suffer from the rapacity of this people, treat 

 them with the severest retaliation. They fire at them 

 as if they were wild beasts ; and Mr Barrow heard 

 one of the colonists boast, that he had shot with 

 his own hands nearly 300 Bosjesmans. Those who 

 are taken alive, in any of their predatory excursions, 

 remain during life in a state of servitude. 



While the Bosjesmans are engaged in their plun- 

 dering expeditions, their haunts are in the kloofs or 

 chasms excavated by torrents of water, that wash 

 down the steep sides of the high stratified mountains. 

 A succession of caverns is thus formed, the highest 

 of which is chosen by the Bosjesmans, as the most 

 difficult to surprise. In one of their retreats, which 

 was visited by Mr Barrow, he observed drawings of 

 several animals, executed with great force and spirit, 

 upon the smooth sides of the caverns. The materi- 

 als which were used were charcoal, pipe clay, and 

 different kinds of ochres. A black substance, re- 

 sembling pitch, or rather Spanish liquorice, formed a 

 thick coating upon the upper surface of the cavern. 

 It had a bituminous smell, flamed weakly in the can- 

 dle, gave out a thin brownish fluid, and left a black 

 coally residuum about two-thirds of the original bulk. 

 It is said to be deadly poison, and to be used by the 

 Hottentots for poisoiiing their arrows. The Bosjes- 

 mans live together in small hordes or kraals, consist- 

 ing of a number of separate huts, each of which is 

 made of a small grass mat, bent into a semicircular 

 form, and fixed down between two sticks. These huts 

 are only about three feet high, and four feet wide, and 

 arc open before, and closed behind with a second mat. 

 The mould within the hut is excavated like an os- 

 trich's nest ; and a little grass 6trewed in this simple 

 hollow, serves for the bed in which the Bosjesmans 

 lie coiled round like some of the lower animals. In 



BOS 



one of the kraals which Mr Barrow saw, there were 

 25 huts, and about 150 inhabitants. 



Bigamy seems to prevail among the Bosjesmans. 

 The elderly men have two wives, one that is young, 

 and another that is past childbearing ; and no degree 

 of consanguinity prevents a marriage, unless in the 

 case of brothers and sisters, and parents and children. 



The men go completely naked, and the women 

 have only a small belt of springbok's skin, having the 

 fore part cut into loose threads, which, though perhaps 

 intended for a covering, did not answer the purpose. 

 The men had pieces of wood, or a porcupine's quill, 

 suspended to the cartilage of the nose ; and some of 

 the women had caps like helmets, made of ass skins, 

 and shells, beads, or bits of copper, hanging on their 

 necks from their curling tufts of hair. In person, 

 the Bosjesmans are extremely diminutive. The tal- 

 lest of the men was only 4- feet 9 inches high, while 

 the tallest woman measured only 4 feet 4- inches. 

 Though they have a general resemblance to the Hot- 

 tentots, yet they are greatly inferior to them in per- 

 sonal appearance, and seem to be the ugliest of all 

 the savage tribes. Their high cheek bones, flat nose, 

 prominent chin, concave visage, and sharp rolling 

 eyes, resemble those of the ape tribe ; and the upper 

 eyelid is so rounded into the lower on the nasal side 

 of the eye, that it does not form an angle. The 

 protuberance of their bellies, the projection and size 

 of their posteriors, and the great curvature of their 

 6pine, though characteristic, in some degree, of the 

 whole Hottentot race, belong, in a still greater de- 

 gree, to the Bosjesmans. " If the letter S," says 

 Mr Barrow, " be considered as one expression of the 

 line of beauty, to which degrees of approximation 

 are admissible, the Bosjesman women are entitled to 

 the first rank in point of form. A section of the body, 

 from the breast to the knee, forms really the shape 

 of the above letter. The projection of the posterior 

 part of the body in one subject, measured five inches 

 and a half from a line touching the spine. This pro- 

 tuberance consisted of fat, and when the women 

 walked, had the most ridiculous appearance imijgiii- 



mans. 



