VOL. XI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 283 



II. Obsen^ationes Medicae circa Morborum Acutorum Historiam et Cura- 

 tionem ; Auth. Thoma Sydenham, M. D. Lond. in 8vo. 



Sydenham's works are, or ought to be, in the library of every physician. 



III. De Consensu Vet. et Novae Philosophiae Libri IV, seu Promotae per Ex- 

 perimenta Philosophiae Pars Prima: Authore J. B. Du Hamel, P. S. L. et Regiae 

 Scientiarum Academiae k Secretis, in 12mo. 



In this second and considerably augmented edition the learned author per- 

 forms four things, in so many books. 



In the first, he gives an account of the principles of the Platonic philosophy, 

 and shows the difference between it and the Peripatetic ; delivering in the same 

 the natural theology of the Platonists, and discoursing, from their principles, of 

 the existence of God, and his providence and concourse ; then of the origin as 

 well as the spirit of the world. — In the second book he explains, first the prin- 

 ciples of Aristotle, treating at large of the nature and origin of forms. Next, 

 he treats of the Epicurean philosophy, as less difficult and more obvious ; dis- 

 coursing of atoms, their nature and figures of continuity, and the manner of 

 the cohesion of atoms, as also of vacuity, &c. — ^Thirdly, he explains the Car- 

 tesian principles ; where he has first a long discourse about the nature of a 

 physical body, endeavouring to evince, that the essence of it consists not in 

 three dimensions, and to show that the idea of these (than which Descartes 

 contends we can have no other of a body,) is the idea only of a mathematical, 

 not a physical body. Secondly, he treats largely of the nature and law of mo- 

 tion. Thirdly, of the elastic motion, with its causes, and the manner in which 

 it is communicated. — In the third book he treats amply of the four elements, 

 commonly so called, fire, air, water, and earth : where occur many consider- 

 able observations concerning fire and air. The Epicurean notion of fire is here 

 explained, as well as the Cartesian, and those particulars discussed, that seem dif- 

 ficult in the latter. There are also recited many phaenomena of flame, and the 

 latent fire in lime and other bodies ingeniously discoursed of: also, what is the 

 nature and use of the air, what the nature of the aether, with the many experi- 

 ments about the spring of the air, made in the Machina Boyliana, in England 

 and elsewhere, &c. — In. the fourth are explained the principles of chemistry, the 

 mixture and dissolution of bodies, fermentation, &c. This also is full of new 

 experiments and observations, made here, in France, and other countries. 



IV. Of Education, especially of Young Gentlemen, in two parts, the second 

 impression with Additions ; Printed at the Theatre, Oxon. 8vo. 



That learned knight Sir Henry Wotton, did long since, at the end of his 

 Elements of Architecture, promise, as devoted to the service of his country, a 

 philosophical survey of education^ which is indeed, says he, a second building 



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