to their different kinds. It is by the position of their fins, that (in his four fellions) he ranges them into different claffes or families; and as they are all moft accurately delineated and engraved, it is eafy to conceive how highly this work must be valued by the lovers of natural history.

VIII. Ifocratis opera omnia, Græcè et Latinè, cum Verfione nova, triplici Indice, variantibus Lectionibus et Notis. 3 Vols. 8vo. & 4to. Paris. 1782.For this very elegant and accurate edition of Ifocrates, the Public is indebted to the learned labours of the Abbé AUGER, Member of the Royal Academy of Infcriptions. This ingenious man, in executing the defign long fince formed, of tranflating into French the Greek authors, who are confidered as the best models in point of eloquence, difcovered, as he tells us, various readings in the text of these authors, and also the means of correcting them. He therefore proposes to restore every where the true text, and Ifocrates is the first author on whom he has tried his critical talents, which are eminent, in general, though they sometimes prove fallible.-The French tranflation of this Greek author, by our learned Abbé, is remarkable both for its accuracy and elegance; and the uncommon beauty of the editions does honour to the French press, both in the octavo and quarto forms.

IX. Effai d'une Nouvelle Mechanique des Mouvemens progreffifs de l'homme et des animaux, i. e. An Effay, in which it is proposed to exhibit a new Mechanical Explication of the progreffive Motions of Men and Animals. By M, de BarTHEZ, First Phyfician to the Duke of Orleans, Chancellor of the Univerfity of Medicine at Montpellier, and Member of the Royal Academies of Paris and Berlin. 4to. 1781.-The mechanical and anatomical details contained in this laborious work, are too minute and numerous to admit of an analytical account of its contents; but they are highly curious and inftructive. The various pofitions and exertions of the parts of the body in man, and other animals, standing, running, walking, or leaping, are described here in the most accurate and circumstantial manner.

X. Voyage Pittorefque de la Grece-Travels through Greece, represented in a Series of Engravings. Numbers 10. and II. Paris. 1782.-The xth number contains eleven plates. The xcivth and xcvth reprefent the Author's route from Mylafa to Boudroun, the ancient Halicarnaffus, on which he bestows an ample portion of hiftorical erudition and critical remarks. The two following plates exhibit a Plan and a View of the harbour and city of Halicarnaffus, and the conjectures of M. de CHOISEUL, relative to the famous maufoleum, erected by Artemifia, Queen of that little territory, in honour of her confort. There is nothing remaining of this celebrated piece of architecture,

whose

whofe form and folidity would have preferved it from the wafting hand of time, but could not fecure it against the ftill more deftructive hands of the Muffulmans. Who knows whether the knights of St. John, who were only bent on military exploits, and concerned themfelves very little about the productions of the fine arts, did not employ the ruins of this monument to build and repair their caftle, which ftill fubfifts? Our Author thinks that this was probably the cafe. Thevenot observed feveral baffa relievos, and fome infcriptions in the interior of this caftle, which, together with the ftatues that are on the outfide, and make a part of its walls, feem to favour our Author's conjecture. From Pliny's account of this ftructure, M. de CHOISEUL has formed an elegant engraving, which we have in the xcviiith plate. The xcixth reprefents the ruins of a temple of Mars, which was built by Maufolus, as we learn from Vitruvius, in the middle of the city; and the two following exhibit,, in detail, the various remaining parts of that edifice. The ciid and ciiid plates reprefent the miferable and uninftructive ruins of the ancient Jajus; and the concluding plate of this 10th number exhibits an elegant view of a caravan,

The contents of the 11th number are much more interefting, The five first plates contain the plan, and details of the noble ruins of a temple, about a league from Kifelgick. This temple, according to Dr. Chandler *, belonged to the ancient town of Labranda. Our Traveller is of a different opinion, and thinks it belonged to the town of Euromus. However this may be, the ruins are elegant, and are learnedly defcribed by M. de CHOISEUL. A Turkish tournament, with which the Aga of Kifelgick entertained our Traveller, is admirably reprefented in the cxth plate. Bourguignon never drew a more animated picture. Ancient and modern charts of the environs of Miletus-The fountain of Byblis, and the plain of Meander-Thẹ famous temple of Apollo Didymus, one of the most magnificent productions of Grecian art, and of which noble tragments till remain-The ruins of Miletus, and the course of the Meander, and the veftiges of a temple of Minerva Polias at Priene, are the fubjects of the fucceeding plates of this number, which is terminated by the cxvith.

GERMANY and the NORTH.

XI Verfuche neber die Platina, i. e. Effay concerning Platina. 8vo. 32. Pages. Manheim. 178. This is a German translation of a very curious and important work in the clafs of natural hiftory, compofed in French by the Count de SICKINGEN, but not published. It is the refult of repeated, expenfive, and curious experiments, from which it appears,

*Travels into Afia Minor.

that

that Platina, difengaged from the iron that is mixed with it, is ductile, may be drawn into wire, or flattened into plates; that it may be formed into veffels which refift fire; and that if it could be procured in abundance, it would be of great ufe in chemistry, and might be employed in mathematical inftru

ments.

XII. I Chph Wolfs Reife nach Ceylon, &c. i. e.

Relation of Mr. Wolf's Voyage to Ceylon, with an Account of the Dutch government at Jeffanapatnam. 8vo. 254 Pages. Berlin. 1782.This voyage is inftructive, though there are many things in the Author's relation that have been often faid by others. The natural productions of this fpice ifland are well defcribed, particularly the cinnamon tree, which exhales its odour at a great distance, and whose feed is difperfed and diffeminated far and wide by the crows, on which account it is not permitted to kill them."

XIII. Icones Infe&arum, præfertim Roffia, Siberiæque peculiarium, quæ collegit, &c. i, e. ‘A Collection of Infects, principally of thofe which are peculiar to Ruffia and Siberia, engraven from the Drawings, and accompanied with the Defcriptions and Illuftrations of M. PALLAS, Profeffor of Natural History at Petersburgh. 4to. Erlang. 1782.'——The name of the laborious and learned Author announces fufficiently the merit of this curious and elegant work. The figures exhibit the natural colours of each infect. The defcriptions were compofed from an accurate obfervation of the animals delineated in this collection; which alfo contains feveral infects belonging to the climates of India and South America.

XIV. Confiderations fur les Montagnes Volcaniques, &c. i. e. • Confiderations on Volcanic Mountains, being the Subftance of a Memoir, read at a Meeting of the Electoral Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres at Manheim. By M. COLLINI, Secretary to his Electoral Highness, and Director of his Cabinet of Natural Hiftory at Manheim. Svo. Manheim and Paris, 1782.' This Work is divided into five chapters. The firft contains preliminary notions of mountains in general, which our Author divides into three claffes. The fecond exhibits fome phænomena obfervable in volcanic mountains, with regular ftrata. The Author examines the manner in which they have been explained, and refutes thofe who derive the origin of the bafaltes from a conflagration, taking his principal argument from the qantities of flints and fhells often found in that fubftance, and preferved without the leaft alteration. In the third chapter M. COLLINI enumerates the causes, which he thinks adapted to furnish an explication of thefe phænomena; and here he admits the efficacy of fubmarine fires in raising and melting great maffes, whofe fubftance receives a new im

preffion

preffion from the action of the waters of the ocean. The mountains, in which fire has been really kindled after their formation, are treated of in the fourth chapter, wherein our Author points out the circumstances and characters by which these are diftinguished from the preceding; for thefe he confiders as pofterior to the volcanos. The fifth and laft chapter is employed in the refutation of an anonymous writer, who pretends to have been an ocular witnefs of a volcano, which burned, as he alleges, about fifty years ago, near the borders of the Rhine, in the neighbourhood of Worms and Darmstadt. This is an admonition to keep a sharp look-out after travellers, who fometimes think they fee, when they only imagine.

XV. Nye Samling of det Kongelige Danske Videnskabers Selfkabs Skriften, &c. i. e. A new Collection of the Memoirs. of the Royal Society of Sciences in Denmark, Part. I. 4to. With feveral Plates. 1781.'-The twenty-feven memoirs: comprehended in this volume, discover the extensive sphere in which the Danish academicians exercife their talents; for the variety of fubjects here treated is very confiderable. Chymiftry, mathematics, hiftory natural and civil, optics, aftronomy, pyrotechny, &c. contribute their quotas to enrich this collec tion.

XVI. Samlinger til den Danske Hiftorie, &c. i. e. 'A Collection of Papers relative to the Hiftory of Denmark. By M. BARTHOLD CHRISTIAN SANDVIG. Vols. I. and II. Large 4to. Copenhagen. 1781.This Collection contains fragments, relations, and extracts, hitherto unpublifhed, relative to geography, antiquities, and the hiftory of Denmark, during the three laft centuries. Among the curious pieces contained in thefe volumes, we may reckon-A memoir concerning the origin of the order of the elephant-An account of the value of the northern monies-A ftate of the expences of the King of Denmark's household in the year 1547-A defcription of Bornholm-Extracts from several Danish chronicles relative to rare books, Danish antiquities, natural history, noble families, and the domeftic affairs of the Kings of Denmark-A journal of the actions of Chriftian V. during the years 1678 and 1679-and an account of the learned men born in Odenfée.-There is nothing in this collection concerning Norway; as a work of the fame kind, relative to that kingdom, will be published by our Author.

XVII. Mufeum Cuficum Borgianum, Velitris illuftravit, &c: i. e. An Explication of the Collection of Arabian Medals and Antiquities in the poffeffion of the Prelate BORGIA, Secretary to the Propaganda at Rome. By I. G. ADLER. 4to. 171 Pages. With 12 Plates. Butzow. 1782.'-The contents of this learned and valuable work are, an hundred and one an

cient Arabian Medals, fome ftruck in the east, some in the weft, in Sicily and Spain, together with gems, fignets (figilla), and other antiquities. M. ADLER's preliminary difcourfe is divided into three parts. The firft contains a catalogue, exhibiting a critical review of all the writings in which Arabian medals are found, either with or without an explication. The second prefents us with a hiftory of thefe, claffed according to the period and place in which they were ftruck. In the third, the learned and ingenious Author treats of the great importance and utility of Arabian medals, for the illuftration of history and geography, and the improvement of critical knowledge.

mar.

• An

XVII. FRANCISCI MENINSKI Lexicon, &c. i. e. Arabic, Perfian, Turkish Dictionary. By F. MENINSKI. Vol. I. In Folio. 600 Pages. Vienna. 1782.'- -This new edition of a work, more valuable than generally known, is improved by corrections, and enriched with confiderable additions, for which the Public is indebted to several members of the Imperial Academy of Oriental Languages, erected at Vienna. The whole work, befides the Dictionary, announced in the title, comprehends also an Onomasticon, and a GramThis first volume contains the Dictionary alone, accompanied with three plates, which exhibit the Arabic, Perfian, and Turkish alphabets, elegantly printed. We find, prefixed to it, a learned differtation on the Oriental languages, and the revolutions they have undergone, which is one of the valuable additions already mentioned. In this piece, which may be purchased separately, the Author points out the origin of languages in general, and the advantages deducible from the ftudy of the Oriental dialects. He also gives a history of the Arabian, Perfian, and Turkish dialects, and an account of the method in which they have been fucceffively ftudied in Europe. The differtation is terminated by a catalogue of all the books that have been published from the prefs of Ibrahim Effendi, at Conftantinople, from the year 1726 to his death.

XIX. M. T. Ciceronis Hiftoria Philofophiæ antiquæ, &c. i. e. "The History of the Philofophy of the Ancients, as it is found in the Writings of Cicero, digefted and illuftrated by Paffages from other Authors. By FRED. GEDIKE, Director of the Royal Gymnafium at Berlin, 8vo. Pages 364. 1782.'This judicious and ufeful compilation of the wisdom of the ancients, from its beft expofitor, the great philofopher of Rome, is one of the firft fruits of the zeal which his Pruffian Majefty has of late difcovered, for promoting the ftudy of Grecian and and Roman literature in his dominions. The work was com posed at the particular requeft of the illuftrious Baron ZEDLITZ, who is at the head of the literary and ecclefiaftical establishments, and who was defirous that the youth fhould acquire an

hiftorical