2798: ] 
were greatly ftruck with the facility and 
exactnefs with which he had rendered the 
ftrokes of wit and pleafantry of this dit- 
ficult author. 
The following lift of infects, which 
may be fubftituted for Cantharides, has 
been given by Pérés, ftudent in phyfic at 
the military hofpital of Val de Grace. 
The mylabris cichoret of Linneus which 1s 
found only in China, Japan, and Cala- 
bria; the Chinefe ufe it in place of 
cantharides; and it appears to have been 
defcribed by Diofcorides. The meloé 
profearabeus of Geoffrov, and almoft all 
the {pecies of the fame genus of Linnzvs. 
All the buprefies of Geoffroy. ‘Lhe cicin- 
deles of the fames The tenebrios of the 
fame. The floughs of moft caterpillars 
raife puftules, and therefore might per- 
form the office of veficatories. 
Among the inftances of intentional re- 
trogradation in the progrefs of light and 
knowledge, which makes a con{pictiots 
part of the prefent policy of feveral of the 
old governments in Europe, one, not the 
leait remarkable, is an edict publifhed by 
the king of Pruffia in May 1796, declar- 
ing that all natives of the Pruffian domi- 
nions, who afpire to places, muft have 
ftudied folely in the {chools and univerfities 
of the country; and that a refidence at any 
doreign literary feminary, even during 
three or fix months only, without fpecial 
permiffion of the fovereign, fhall exclude 
the perfon from any public function, 
Mr. Ga@scueN, bookéeller at Leipfic, 
has announced a {plendid edition of the 
© Greek TLeftament,”’? with the moft im- 
portant various readings, fuperintended 
by GRIESBACH, to appear about the 
clofe of 1798. 
Among the medicines introduced by 
the new chemiftry, is to be reckoned phof- 
phorus internally exhibited. Profefior 
ALPHONSUs LEROI, at Paris, has ufed 
it in a variety of cafes in which the pow- 
ers of nature were debilitated; and, as 
“he affirms, with aftonifhing fuccefs. He 
employs a kind of fine precipitate of this 
fubftance, obtained by agitation in water, 
which he mixes with oil, fugar, and yolk 
of ege, into a linétus, or exhibits in pills. 
As a wonderful inftance of the divifibility 
ot phofphorus, he relates, that on open- 
ing the body of a patient who had taken 
only a quarter of a grain of it in fome 
ee all the internal parts were found 
uminous, and even the hands of the ope- 
rator, though well wafhed and dried, long 
retained that quality. Poffibly this proof 
of its inextinguifhable combuftion, will 
be no inducement to cautious practitioners 
Fifty Literary and Philofophical Notices. 
289 
to give it admiflion into the bodies of their 
patients, 
From the critical catalogue of the ex- 
hibition of the French artifts at the mu- 
feum in Paris, it would appear that the 
arts are in a flourifhing ftate in that ca 
pital. It is not ealy, indeed, to form 
.an idea of the comparative merit of fuch 
performances from mere defcription; but 
on comparing their lift with that of our 
exhibition, with refpect to the fubjeéts, 
we cannot fail of being ftruck with the 
difference of national character. Inftead 
of the portraits, landicapes, and pieces 
of ftill-life, which fo much abound at 
Somerfet-hotife, their rooms difplay a va- 
riety of pieces from ancient mythology, 
and Grecian and Roman hiftory, calcu- 
lated to raife the imagination to that 
ideal beatity and fublimity which is con- 
fidered as the nobleit object of the imita- 
tive art. If the French f{chool fhould 
attain true ciatlic fimplicity of defign, 
with correétnefs. of execution, we may be 
affured that it will prove a much grander 
{chool than the Englifh. 
Great expectations are entertained from 
the Abbé DELILLE’s new poem, entitled 
°¢ 1 homme des Champs, cu les Georgiques 
Francoifes,’ and many editions of it are 
preparing to come out at once, from large 
ato. to18mo. Its plan is very different 
from that of any work hitherto written on 
a fimilar topic. It is divided into four 
cantos, all referring to rural pleafures, 
but each peculiar inits kind. The: frit 
reprefents the /age, who views all the di- 
verfity of rural {cenes with that refine- 
ment and elevation of fentiment, which 
enables him to derive happinefs from all. 
The fecond defcribes all the operations of 
the cu/tivator, taken in the moft extenfive 
fenfe of the- word. ©The third is’ con{e- 
crated to the zaturalw?-obferver, who ttu- 
dies the peculiar properties of all the 
productions of nature around him. The 
fourth teaches the poet of the plains to felect 
all thofe objects of beauty and fublimity 
which may enrich and dignify his verfe. 
M. Necxer has pubhithed a volume 
of Mifcellanies, extracted from the manu- 
{cripts of his deceafed wife, <* Mélanges ex- 
traits des Manufcrits de Madame Necker.’ 
It contains letters, and extracts from let- 
ters, to Schomberg, Thomas, Buffon, 
Marmontel, Sauffure, Gibbon, Lord 
Stormont, Diderot, Grimm, Galliani, 
Chabanon, St. Lambert, and others. ‘The 
fubjects of the eflays and remarks ave 
chiefly literary: and the whole forms a 
very interefting volume, which we under- 
ftand is to be followed by inore, 
Mok 
