GOO NATURAL 
hoofed, and has no cutting-teeth in the upper jaw ; and 
that it is djftinguilhed from other animals of the lame or¬ 
der, by its having feveral blunt wedge-like incifive fore¬ 
teeth in the lower jaw only, hollow reclined horns, and 
no tulks. This information would latisfy many, who 
call themfelves naturalifts; but it is far from\being all 
that is required : the philofophical inveltigator of Nature 
inquires into its habits ; as its food, its period of gefta- 
tion, its feafon of lambing, the weather and climate molt 
fuited to its health and vigour. He endeavours to learn 
what produces the difference in its fleece, whether climate, 
food, or fome peculiarity in the breed; and is anxious to 
afcertain what variety is molt difpofed to fatten, and what 
food effects this fpeedily ; Sec. Sec. 
The information of the fir ft kind is of confequence and 
even necefiary in many cafes; but that of the latter is 
molt ufefql. If a traveller difeover an animal poffefling 
any ufeful property, or producing any ufeful drug, if he 
have not thefirft kind of information, he gives fo confufed 
and inaccurate a defeription of it, that others, miltaking 
the animal, diferedit the author’s account, and the world 
lofes the benefit of his dilcovery. We have to lament this 
in pending many of the old books of travels. 
2. Botany, or the natural hiftory of the vegetable 
kingdom, in the ufual acceptation of the term, implies 
only the knowledge of the diftinctive characters of plants ; 
and he who knows the greateft number, and is molt accu¬ 
rate in determining the different fpecies, is accounted the 
belt botanift. This, however, conftitutes but a IVnall part 
•of the fcience ; there is another diftinfit department, 
which may properly be termed the phihfophy of botany, 
which is both more interefting and more uleful. This 
includes the knowledge of the ftruchvre or the anatomy 
of plants ; and the knowledge of the ufes or functions of 
their various parts ; as of the leaves, the bark, the pith, the 
roots, the juices, &c. which is called the phyfiology of plants. 
It includes, alfo, an acquaintance with the foil and climate 
adapted to different vegetables, their mode of propaga¬ 
tion, and the various ufes to which their feveral parts or 
productions may be applied. 
Botany, in the firft fenfe, which may be called praftical 
botany, is fubfervient, and abfolutely neceffary, to the ftudy 
of the philofophy of botany; for no one, who is acquainted 
with the clafliflcation of plants, can either convey to 
others his own information, or liimfelf receive the benefit 
of that of others, refpeCting either the ftruCture and eco¬ 
nomy, or the habits and the ufes, of l'uch plants as may 
have been inveftigated. If medical virtues are difeovered 
in any vegetable production, without the accuracy of 
the practical botanift, to afcertain and deferibe the parti¬ 
cular plant which affords it, the difeovery is often loft ; 
or perhaps, wdiat is worfe, the virtues are attributed to a 
different plant, and it is only by repeated failures, and 
in fome cafes after much mifehief, that the error is de¬ 
tected. It is evident that the fame may happen to the 
agriculturalift, the dyer, or any other artifan, who has 
difeovered in the vegetable kingdom the means of im¬ 
proving his art, but has not botanical knowledge fuffi- 
cient to give an accurate character of the plant to which 
he is indebted for his difeovery. 
3. In Mineralogy, or the natural hiftory of the mineral 
kingdom, almoft half the ftudents are of that clafs, who 
-content themfelves with collecting, and being able to ar¬ 
range fyftematically, the minerals they meet with. But, in 
this department of natural hiftory, as well as the other 
two which we have confidered, fomething more than ar¬ 
rangement is required. It is the man who can analyze 
and feparate the component parts of mineral productions; 
■who knows the art of a flaying, and who knows a priori 
the probable fite of a quarry, or a mine, and can tell the 
direction of a ftratum of coal, or of marble, that we may 
call a mineralogjl. The mineralogist has often enriched 
individual proprietors of land, and benefited his country, 
by the difeovery of mines; he is enabled to direCt the 
planners of canals by warning them of obftacles ; and his 
II I S T O R Y. 
knowledge has aided the phyfician in afeertaining the vir¬ 
tues of minerals, and of mineral waters. 
The natural hiftory of the mineral kingdom includes 
geology, or the data upon which are founded the different 
theories of the formation of the earth. It includes the 
knowledge of thole fads, upon which the art of mining 
and the art of feparating and purifying metals are founded ; 
and its objeCt is to teach likewife the properties of thofe 
metals, as well as of the earths, and other mineral produc¬ 
tions, when feparated and in their Ample ftate. 
It is to the naturalift that we are many times indebted 
for the introduction of foreign animals and foreign plants 
into our own country. Wheat, oats, barley, and other 
vegetables, which are now become necefiary to our exift- 
ence, were not originally of Britifh growth. The pota¬ 
to?, now fo general and fo ufeful, was firft introduced 
into this country by Gerard, a noted botanift, and v$as 
for fome time cultivated in his garden as a rarity. The 
fugar-cane, the bread-fruit tree, the farinaceous palms, 
the flax and hemp, have all been tranfported by natu¬ 
ralifts of the prefent day to regions where they never 
grew before. 
Befides the above, and many fimilar inftances of ad¬ 
vantage to be derived-from ftudying the different branches 
of natural hiftory, thefe two incalculable benefits necefla- 
rily arife to the ftudent liimfelf, from attending to the 
whole, or any part, of the fcience ; namely, a pow'er of ab- 
ftraCfing the mind, and reafoning methodically; and a 
habit of contemplating the Creator in his works. Skrim- 
Jkire's Effays. 
Of forming a Cabinet, or Mufeum, of Natural H'Jlory. 
One material objeCt in the ftudy of natural hiftory is 
the art of preferving fpecimens, fo as to form a cabinet, 
or mufeum. This art, called by the French Taxidermie, 
is exceedingly curious, and would well deferve a much 
fuller confideration than we can here allot to it. 
The art of preparing and mounting the fkins of ani¬ 
mals appears to be pretty old; but it made no great pro- 
grefs before the feventeenth century, when Reaumur 
made fome attempts to preferve the fpecimens from the 
attacks of infeCts. In the Journal de Phyfique for 1773, 
there is a memoir, addrefled to the Royal Society of Lon¬ 
don, by M. Kuckhan, on the methods of preparing birds, 
which is very curious, but is liable to many objections. 
In the fame volume is a memoir by Mauduit, principally 
refpeCting the means of preferving animal fpecimens from 
the attacks of infeCts. His prefervatives are of a poifon- 
ous nature ; and, of courfe, their ufe is dangerous, while 
they do not appear to have been attended with the ex¬ 
pected fuccefs. The arfenical lbap of Becoeur, much ce¬ 
lebrated about the fame time, is liable to fimilar objec¬ 
tions. The lateft, and probably the bell, work on this 
fubjeCt, is that publiflied a few years ago by M. Nicolas ; 
and from this the following obfervations are derived. 
The inftruments employed in the preparation of fpeci¬ 
mens are much the fame as thofe ufed by anatomifts in 
their ordinary difieCtions ; coniifting of fmall knives or 
fcalpels, forceps or pincers of various forms, probes, nee¬ 
dles, and pins or wires. The prefervatives, employed by 
M. Nicolas to proteCt the fpecimens from infeCts, are 
principally of two kinds: i. Sulphur, which he applies 
to the (kins by means of fumigation, thus impregnating 
them with fulphurous acid; 2. A liquor for macerating 
the (kins, another liquor for rubbing over the hair, and 
a pomatum for anointing the infide of the (kin. 
The firft liquor is prepared by fteeping a pound and a 
half of powdered oak-bark, and four ounces of powdered 
alum, in twenty Englifh pints of cold water, for two 
days, taking care to (hake the mixture from time to time, 
The liquor employed for preferving the fur is prepared by 
infufing an ounce of white loap Hired very fmall, two 
ounces of camphor broken into very fmall pieces, the 
fame of colocynth or bitter-apple grofsly powderfed, in two 
Englilh pints of fpirit of wine, for four or five days, 
lhaking 
