329 
veries of focieties ard naturalifts. The 
Englifh natural produétions will be dil- 
tinguifhed by an afterifk. Each depart- 
ment will be accompanied with an appro- 
priate intreduétion, defcriptive- plates, 
and explanation of the Linnéan terms. 
The firft volume, containing the mamma- 
lia, aves, amplibia and pifces, wiil be 
ready for publication fome time in the 
enfuing autumn.¢ The great price of 
Gmellin’s edition, and the total exclufion. 
of thofe not well acquainted with the La- 
tin languages, from confulting the works 
of the founder’ of his fyftem, will make 
this publication an acceptable prefent to 
the lovers of natural hiftory, and an ufe- 
ful addition to the {tock of Englith feien- 
tific literature. 
Mr. WILLIAM JONES, optician, of 
Hoiborn, has juft edited a new edition, 
being the fifth, of ‘* Effays on Eledricity,” 
by the late Mr. Groce ADAMS; to 
which he has added, feveral new and care- 
ful particulars, befides the correétions of 
many errors in the references to the figures 
of the plates. The work is in one ¥o- 
lume oftavo. 
Mr. Jones has alfo in the prefs, a new 
_ and general treatife on the  Ufe of the 
Globes,’ intended principally to accom- 
pany the new 48 and x2 inch Britifh 
globes, which have been conftructed by 
himfelf. 
Dr. Townson’s volume of ‘* Traés 
in Natural Hiftoity and Phyfology,” is now 
in the prefs, and will thortly be pub- 
lifhed. 
_ Dr. JENNER’s “* Treatife on the Cow 
Pox,’ has been tranflated into the French. 
CapTain STEDMAN’s “ Travels to 
Surinam and the Interier of Guiana,” have 
been lately tranflated imto French, and 
publifhed at Paris. 
A portion of the fifth volume of the 
“ Tranfactions of ihe Afiatic Society at 
Calcutta,” has been already received in 
this country. Notwithftanding the lofs 
they have fuftained by the death of Sir 
William Jones; thofe learned gentlemen 
continue their refearehes into every part 
‘ of the hiftory and literature of Hindoo- 
ftan, and of the reft of Afia,. with a aili- 
gence and a fuccefs, which feem to render 
their papers more generally interefting 
than thofe of any of the erudite and {ei- 
entific focieties of Enrope. 
The Reverend Benjamin HuTcHE- 
son, has lately made a feries of very 
elaborate and ingenious meteorological 
obfervations; from which he has been 
led to infer, that the Moon—whatever in- 
fluence fhe may, at tames, exercife upon 
Varveties Literary and P hilofophical. 
[May 
men’s brains—has none at all upon the 
changes in the weather. 
There has been recently communicated 
to the Royal Society of London, a feries. 
of very curious experiments by a medicak 
gentleman of this country; tending te 
thew, how far mercury, adminiftered as a 
medicine, acts by exciting the galvanic 
fuiceptibility of the animal nerves. 
During this winter fome remarkable 
experiments on the freezing of quickfilver 
have been made in London, by Mefirs.. 
Allen and Lawfon, chemifis. ‘The 
frigorific ingredients wfed were, eryftal- 
lifed muriat of lime and fnow, as recom- 
mended by Seguin. In the firft experi- 
ment, four ounces of mercury in a retort, - 
immerfed in 2 mixture ef fnow and mu- 
riat of lime, was perfectly fixed in fifteer- 
minutes, the degree of coid being 50 deg. 
In another, made on Feb. 7, the external 
temperature being 33 deg. the unprece- 
‘dented quantity of 56!b. avoirdupois of _ 
mercury, enclefed in a bladder, was 
completely fixed in the fame mixture im 
the fpace of an hour and forty minutes. 
The degree of cold at firft produced was 
62 dee.—Philofephical Mag. ei 
_Mr. MaLcoLm Laine’s “ Hiffory of 
Scotland, from the Union of the Crowns te 
the Union of the Kingdoms,” is now in the 
prefs. 
The learned Mr. JoSrE?H GRANT, 
will fhortly publihh * A View of the 
principles and Pra&iice of the Law of Scot- 
land, compared with the Priaciples of the 
Law of England.’ ‘Yhis work 1s very 
much wanted for the direétion of prac- 
tifing lawyers in both thefe countries. 
Such is the intercourfe of life and bufi- 
nefs, that the Scottifh lawyer is frequently, 
concerning cafes in the Englifh law, 
which his eontratted knowledge is infuf- 
ficient to give any uleful ‘advice about. 
And even Englith lawyers of the higheft 
eminence, know, for the greater part, juft 
as much concerning the practical detail of 
the law of Scotland, as concerning that of 
the laws of the Medes and Perfians, even 
though Scottifh appeals are, every year, 
brought, in fuch numbers, before the 
Houfe of Peers. Mr. Grant has enjeyed. 
fingular advantages, adapted to quality 
him for the able accomplifhment of his 
undertaking. It will certainly fupply an 
important defideratium in the, lawyer’s li- 
brary. 
Dr. Baron, of the Univerfity of St. 
Andrews, is underftecd to have been 
long engaged upon an important philofo- 
phical work on the principles of “ Rhe- 
terjc and Literary Compofitions,” which, it 
is 
