nent degrees of perfection by their wars with their neighbours, the laws of Lycurgus, the inftitution of the public games, and above all, by the jealoufy and ambition which armed the states of Greece one against the other, and carried their tactics, by efforts of genius among contending heroes, to the very highest pitch of improvement. Our author is very ample in his account of the military genius of the Grecians. Their method of raifing armies, of paying their troops, of chufing their generals; their declarations of war, their discipline and tactics, are all exhibited with uncom-› mon perfpicuity and erudition; and it is furprising indeed to meet with fuch luminous details concerning the Grecian manœuvres, at fuch a distance from the period in which they were executed. The phalanx, more especially, with its different evolutions, and its movements in every direction, is treated of here, in a manner as entertaining as it is inftructive; and the chapter, relative to the arms of the ancients, is equally adapted to fatisfy the curiofity of the scholar, and the man of blood. The military genius and tactics of the Afiatic monarchs make no great figure in this work; but the warlike fpirit and science of the Carthaginians are largely described, and deserve attention. Carthage was certainly a great military power. She drew from Numidia a bold, impetuous, and indefatigable cavalry, from the Baleares iflands the most dextrous flingers in the world, from Spain an obftinate and invincible infantry, valiant troops from Gaul, and from Greece foldiers fit for every kind of war. Thus, without depopulating their country, the Carthaginians could raife, at a very fhort warning, a powerful army. Our author, nevertheless, points out many inconveniencies in their military conftitution, arifing from the want of affection and patriotifm in foreign mercenary troops, and the feeble connexion between the different and heterogeneous parts of the military body. He defcribes the ftupendous fortifications of Carthage, its triple wall flanked with parapets and vaulted towers, whose lower ftories contained ftables for three hundred elephants and four thoufand horfes, with granaries for their nourishment, and lodgings for twenty thoufand foot-foldiers and four thousand troopers. It was naturally to be expected that the Romans, fo eminent in ancient ftory, for their valour, their military genius, their unparalleled difcipline, and their rapid conquefts, fhould attract, in a particular manner, the attention of our learned and ingenious author; and, indeed, he treats this part of his subject with peculiar complacence. The reader, who follows him in his investigation of the causes that raised this people to fuch a pitch of grandeur, will meet with interefting details and new points of view, on a fubject so often treated, and which feems almoft almoft exhaufted. No people feemed to fet out upon plans of conqueft and dominion with greater disadvantages than the Romans did their small numbers appeared little adapted to cope with the enormous multitudes, that composed the Gallic armies: their middling ftature feemed to be very unequally matched with the almoft gigantic fize of the Germans: they were furpaffed, in numbers and bodily ftrength by the Spaniards; in artifice and opulence by the Africans; and they were not furnished, like the Grecians, with the resources that are derived from an acquaintance with the arts and fciences. Our author fhews how they triumphed over all thefe difadvantages, by their contentment with poverty, their, auftere education, their enthufiaftic love of liberty, their fuccessful attempts to reduce all their warlike operations to a regular fyftem, and the fevere precision and rigorous exactitude of their military discipline. The hiftorical account of the principal military expeditions of these warlike nations makes a very agreeable as well as inftructive part of the work before us. Twenty of the most famous battles of antiquity are here defcribed with a masterly pen; and the illuftrious exertions of valour and genius displayed by Epaminondas, Philopemen, Regulus, Afdrubal, Hamilcar, Xantippus, Hannibal, Emilius, Antigonus, the Scipios, Aratus, Ptolomy, Antiochus, Alexander, Cæfar, and other heroes of ancient renown, are exhibited in lively and accurate defcription's. It is here that M. de ST. CYR difplays his profound acquaintance with the art of war; and while he defcribes these. battles, paffes the Rhone and Alps with Hannibal, the Graniçus with Alexander, and the Tigris with Xenetes; he points out the faults committed by the commanders, fhews the means by which their victories were obtained, and developes all their operations, with all their effects. This work is enriched with copper-plates, which exhibit a view of every battle that is described, and render the precepts and obfervations of our author intelligible, even to those who are little acquainted with military science. M. de St. Cyr's account of the authors who have treated of the military art, as it was practifed by the ancients, is a part of his work that will obtain the applause not only of the officer, but also of the man of letters. ART. V. Commentationes Societatis Regia Scientiarum Gottingenfis, &c. i. e. Memoirs of the Royal Society of Gottingen, for the Year 1781. Vol. IV. Gottingen. 1782. Memoir I. * E PHYSICS. XPERIMENTS made upon Mummies. By JoHN For the III. vol. fee Review for Sept. 1783. investigation investigation has been employed by chemifts and natural philofophers to find out the method by which the Egyptians preserved dead bodies from putrefaction, during fo many ages; and a great variety of opinions has been entertained upon this fubject. What renders this inveftigation peculiarly difficult, is the difference obfervable in the properties of the fubftances that are found in different mummies, which fhews evidently that neither the fame, nor even fimilar materials have been employed in all for the purpofes of prefervation. The author of this elaborate memoir fets out with the chemical analysis of a mummy, of which the king of Denmark made a prefent to the univerfity of Gottingen; and after a procefs, carried on with the most indefatigable induftry, and here described with the utmost perfpicuity and precifion, he found, in this mummy, nothing refinous, unctuous, or inflammable, nor any thing that bore affinity to these properties. He therefore concludes, that in the compofition of it, the Egyptians made no use of the afphaltus, nor of any vegetable refinous fubftance, nor of any kind of prefervative composed of the two, as he could neither obtain oil nor acid, by diftillation, from this mummy, nor any thing that carried the leaft refemblance of rofin or bitumen. It appears to him probable, that after the bowels had been taken out, Palm-wine, or some other antifeptic liquor was injected into its cavities, to prevent putrefaction. It may be fo. On the other hand, our author difcovered, on his examination of other mummies, that very different materials had been employed in their compofition: in thefe he found refinous and bituminous fubftances, which he fubjected to analytic torture, and whofe various explofions, evaporations, and effervescences, he most learnedly and largely defcribes. The whole makes an excellent morfel for the chemifts, to whom we recommend it. · Mem. II. Concerning fome Plants, little known, &c. By Prof. JOHN ANDREW MURRAY. Thefe plants, (the figures of which are here moft elegantly and beautifully engraven,) are the Saxifrage (Saxifragia Ligulata-Sarmentofa-Stolonifera) the Figwort (Scrophularia Altaica), the Plantane (Plantago fquarrofa), the Palma Chrifti (Croton argenteum Linnai), and the Green Hyacinth. The deferiptions of thefe plants are much fuperior to any that have yet been given of them; and our author's obfervations on them will undoubtedly be well received by the botanical reader. ΜΑΝ. Mem. III. Concerning the bowls for Tobacco Pipes, which are made of the Scum or Froth of the Sea. By Profefior J. BECKThe fubftance, whether of an earthy or ftony nature, of which the tobacco-pipes in ufe in the Eaft, and in fome European countries, are made, is hitherto little known. The pipes of this fort have feveral qualities that render the ufe of them १ them commodious. They are light, portable, and not eafily broken; they are not fufceptible of a fudden or a violent heat; and the froth of the fea, of which they are commonly supposed to be made, abforbs with facility the oil that is extracted from the tobacco by the fire, and thus prevents its paffing through the tube, and offending the palate. Thefe qualities have rendered this fubftance a confiderable object of commerce; and it is employed in making pipes of different forms throughout the East, as alfo in Moldavia, Wallachia, Tranfylvania, Hungary, and Germany; where it is brought in little maffes, and wrought into the forms which the Europeans like beft. To acquire an ace curate knowledge of this fubftance, M. BECKMAN examined it by a variety of chemical experiments, and made fimilar expe riments on the fpume or froth of the fea, which is fuppofed to be one of its conftituent parts. But he did not acquire the knowledge which he hoped to obtain by thefe experiments: their results, however, which are here related, enabled him to refute the opinion of Bruckman (who affirms that the fea-fpume, of which the pipes in queftion are made, is formed by the fine duft of the bones of the cuttle fith, confolidated with glue), and the relations of certain travellers, who say that they are made of pumiceftones; as also the notion of Linnæus, who claffed this fubstance among argillaceous earths. Though he refutes these three opinions in the most fatisfactory manner, yet he could not reft fa-. fisfied with the imperfect knowledge he had of the matter. He wanted to know, where this fea fpume, or these bowls for pipes were originally found; and after many inquiries he obtained, by far, the best information on this fubject from the voyage of Spon and Wheler. These travellers mention their having seen a hill, at a fmall diftance from Thebes, on the way to Negropont, where they faw the fubftance in question dug out of a deep pit in lumps, which at first are of the foftness and colour of new cheese, but, when they are dry, grow very hard, and affume a fhining white hue. In the foft ftate of this fubftance, fays Wheler, they bring it to town, and carve it curiously into bowls of pipes, which, as foon as it is dry, groweth hard, as white as fnow, and shining.' The hill he supposes to be that which was anciently called Collis Ifmenius. Many of thefe bowls are carved and prepared at Lepanto; and therefore learned travellers, who have any taste for mineralogy, will do well to vifit the Ifmenian hill, and obferve its contents with more attention than hath been hitherto bestowed on them, Our author, however, thinks it impoffible that this hill can furnish the prodigious number of these bowls, which are annually produced in commerce. And, after taking great pains to obtain information concerning this circumftance from Turkey merchants and others, he learnt that the bowls for the pipes, ufed in Hungary and Germany, came from Natolia; which opinion is confirmed by a piece of fea-fpume, which the celebrated Niebuhr fent from that country to the university of Gottingen. Nay, our author is fully inclined to think, that this fame earth is to be found in North-America, more especially in the environs of Quebec; the Canadians employed it in making tobaccopipes from time immemorial, as tradition fays; and the French, who inhabit that region at prefent, are faid to have learnt this art from them. Nor have the enquiries of our curious academician ftopped here: he has got into the fecret how they are made; and he defcribes, circumftantially, the manner of preparing them. No fire is ufed; carving is the principal operation employed; and the bowls are often boiled with oil and wax, to render them more folid and fplendid. The best artist, indeed, cannot give to them all the fame degree of elegance, nor the fame high polifh; as the fubftance in queftion is not always equally homogeneous and folid, nor equally exempt from chinks and fiflures. Nay, many of the bowls are thrown away, as incapable of being wrought into pipes, at leaft by the German artists. But the bowls that fucceed indemnify the manufacturer abundantly for this lofs; as the pipes of this compofition are become an object of luxury; and it is not rare (we are told), to fee an hundred thalers, or dollars (25 pounds), paid .by a pipe-virtuofo for an elegant and well-polished bowl. Nuremberg, Lemgow, and Rulh, are the places where these bowls are manufactured, and exported into all the German provinces. The manufacture of Rulh is circumftantially described by our author. We fhall not follow him, however curious this account may be. Some of our readers may perhaps think already, that this whole article is not worth a pipe of tobacco; but others will deem the object interesting, both as it relates to orictology and commerce. Mem. IV. Anatomical Experiments and Obfervations concerning the pregnant Uterus, the Tubes, the Ovaries and Corpus luteum of certain Animals, compared with the fame Parts in the Human Species. By H. A. WRISBERG, Profeffor of Anatomy. It was often repeated (fays our author) as a maxim by the celebrated Haller, that the phyfiological fcience derived from human anatomy alone, was by no means complete, and that a true judgment could not be formed concerning the functions of many of the parts of a living body, without a competent knowledge ́of the ftructure of thefe parts in man, in various quadrupeds, birds, and fishes; nay, even in infects. He alleges feveral examples in proof of the fignal utility of this comparative anatomy; but no where is it of more remarkable use, than in illuftrating the obfcure doctrine of generation. Obfervation and experience have long proved the ancient divifion of the ani mal |