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The mountainous parts of these iflands are peopled with favages, who feem to be ancient inhabitants of the country, and the refemblance of whofe language with that of Malabar, renders it probable that they came originally from that part of India. Their manner of living is merely animal; and they have no fixed habitations. Virginity is regarded among them as infamous; and certain women were officially appointed to use the proper methods of removing this reproach. But the inhabitants of the plain are more civilized: they are initiated into the myfteries of the Spanish religion, and the monks whip the women, and the virgins, in prefence of their husbands and fathers, when they abfent themfelves from mafs. The ghostly fathers have frequent opportunities of exercifing this fingular, and not over decent mode of difcipline; for though these Indians go with pleasure, and even with a kind of zeal, to church on the great feftivals; yet they have no propenfity to hear the daily mass, and they must be whipped in to matins and vefpers. This whipping bufinefs is not practifed at Manilla; it only takes place in those provinces where the monks have a defpotic afcendant. The governor of the Phillippines, who refides in that city, is a check upon their authority; and this governor, though his place is held in fubordination to the viceroy of Mexico, is more abfolute than any other chief of the Spanish fettlements. His diftance from his fuperiors is a natural caufe of his abfolute dominion, during the eight years that he remains in power.

The number of convents at Manilla is highly detrimental to population, and the difcipline of the monks feems to have produced no good effect on the morals of the people, which are more corrupt and licentious in that city than in almost any other part of India. There is, indeed, fays our Author, a court of Inquifition at Manilla, but' corruption of morals is not exposed to the cenfure of that tribunal.

Before we leave these iflands, we must mention a remarkable difference obferved by M. LE GENTIL, between the Spanish women in that country, and the Indian females. The former are hand fome, and well-fhaped, in their early youth; but, as foon as they have paffed the age of feventeen, they undergo a fingular metamorphofis. Their bellies fwell to an enormous fize; their breafts hang down almost to their knees; their countenance changes, and their features grow large; in fhort, they become highly deformed. The latter, on the contrary, preferve, for a long time, the delicacy of their features, and the elegance of their shape.

The obfervations of our Author on the ifland of Madagascar are numerous and important. He defcribes amply its great fertility, the rich variety of its productions, its excellent paftures,

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and its advantageous fituation for commerce. He blames the French greatly for having abandoned their fettlement at Fort Dauphin in that ifland, whofe bay affords fuch an excellent ftation for fhipping, and whofe vallies, lakes, and rivers, furnish -fuch abundance of provifion both for the wants of life, and the demands of luxury, He fhews how a commercial fettlement might be formed there anew with facility, and points out clearly the manifold advantages with which it would be attended. This article is treated at great length.

The human fpecies at Mafdagascar has not exactly the fame aspect in all the parts of the island. Though all the islanders are more or less black, they differ confiderably in bodily conftitution; those on the western coaft have fhort and curled hair, and are strong and vigorous, Thofe who occupy the centre of the country have long and flat hair, features of a European caft, and their women are hand fome; but this race, though much more fagacious and dextrous than the Coeffers, are feeble in make, and incapable of bearing hard labour. Our Author mentions a colony of Arabs, which feveral centuries ago formed a fettlement in the province of Anoffi, and divided it into twenty-two diftricts, governed each by a defpotic Arabian chief, called Boandrian, or defcendant of Abraham; he obferves that in this part of the island, there is the leaft virtue, industry, and valour, because there, alone, there is no liberty.

It is very remarkable, that this judicious traveller and obferver, denies pofitively the existence of a race of pygmies, which, according to the circumftantial relation of the celebrated botanift, Commerfon, inhabit the mountains of Madagascar, and are called Quimos. This relation, which is contained in a letter written from Madagascar by M. Commerfon to M. de la Lande, is inferted in the fupplement to M. Bougainville's voyage. Our Author declares that, during a refidence of fix years, partly at Madagascar, and partly at the ifle of France, he never heard a word mentioned of thofe pretended pygmies. He affirms, that there is neither at Fort Dauphin, nor in the other parts of the island which he vifited, any tradition that mentions them, or a general perfuafion (as M. Commerfon alleges) of their existence.

Upon the whole, M. LE GENTIL gives a much more favourable account of the character of the inhabitants of this great island, than some preceding writers have done. He was even aftonished, he fays, to meet with fuch kind and hospitable treatment from them, confidering the barbarity and injustice with which the French behaved to thefe iflanders, until the intolerable weight of their oppreffive yoke excited their just refentment, and ended by the expulfion of their tyrants.

This volume concludes with a part of the correspondence between M. LE GENTIL and M. Nux, of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris. In these letters our Author gives extracts from his journals, relative to natural hiftory in general, and to the navigation of the Indian feas in particular. These are followed by additions to the obfervations on aftronomical refractions in the torrid zone, that were inferted in the ift volume; and this article is terminated by new remarks on the improbable phenomenon obferved by the Hollanders at Nova Zembla, in 1597. The aftronomical obfervations which our Author made in the Philippine Islands, and at Madagafcar, are placed at the end of his accounts of these countries; and his obfervations on the inclination of the magnetic needle conclude his last letter to M. Nux, which is the 7th in the correfpendence here publifhed.

II. Recherches Chymiques fur l'Etain, faites et publiées par Ordre du Gouvernement. i. e. Chymical Inquries concerning Tin, made and published by Order of Government. By M. BAYEN, First Apothecary to the King's Camps and Armies, and M. CHALARD, Prefident of the College of Pharmacy. 8vo. Paris. 1781. This is a work of the first merit, and it is adapted to difpel the painful apprehenfions of danger from the ufe of tin and pewter utenfils, which fome late publications have occafioned. The first question difcuffed by thefe very ingenious and accurate inveftigators, is,-May veffels of tin be used without danger in boufe-keeping? The difcovery of arfenic in the metal under confideration, made by Henckel, and afterwards confirmed by Margraff, alarmed government, and gave rife to the experiments and refearches contained in this work. Thefe experiments, which have been carried on with uncommon precision and accuracy, are not fufceptible of abridgment or analyfis; but their refult relative to the queftion above propofed, deferves to be related.

There exifts a pure tin, unmixed with any foreign or heterogeneous fubftance: but there is alfo a tin which is mixed with a very fmall quantity of arfenical matter. The danger that may attend the ufe of this metal must be confined to the latter; but how fmall this danger is, will appear from the following refults of the experiments of thefe learned chymifts. The tin, in which they found an arfenical fubftance, did not contain above one grain in the ounce, or often they only met with it, in the proportion of T137, but fometimes in that of 76; fo that taking thefe three terms in a mean proportion, the mafs of tin imported from England into France may be confidered as containing of arfenic, which quantity is not a little diminished by the mixture that is made of the tin of

India with that of England.But laying afide all fractions, and giving arfenical matter in tin the largest proportion, even that of, or a grain in the ounce, our Authors obferve, that this dangerous fubftance, whatever its quantity may be, is never united with tin under the form of a calx, but always under that of a femi-metal. From hence it follows, that an ounce of tin contains a grain, not of arfenic, but of its regulus, and that this grain of regulus is difperfed through all the parts of an ounce of tin in such a manner, that each of the 576 grains, of which the ounce is compofed, may be ideally fubdivided into 576 parts, which, all confidered feparately, contain regulus of arfenic in the proportion of 37% of their little mafs. It is well known, that the regulus of arfenic, though a dangerous fubftance, is however much lefs fo than arfenic itself.

After afcertaining thefe facts by the most accurate experiments, it remained to enquire, how far wrought tin, containing 3 of the regulus of arfenic, might be noxious in its effects on the animal economy? A feries of experiments was made upon different animals to determine this important queftion. Our indefatigable Authors melted tin with the regulus of arfenic in different proportions, and placed it in veffels, where they boiled meat for dogs; in one of thefe experiments the arfenical fubftance occupied in a pound of the mixture; or, in other words, was in the proportion of nine grains to the ounce, which is nine times greater than the proportion, in which it is found in English tin. The tin, thus mixed, was placed in a veffel where food was not only dreffed, but was left ftanding for fome time; nay more, 16 grains of the fine filings of this tin were mixed with the aliments; and nevertheless no pernicious confequence refulted from the use of them.-Our Authors go ftill farther; they maintain: and prove that arfenic, united with tin, is deprived of fome of its qualities, and particularly of that which renders it fo dangerous to the animal oeconomy.

But another queftion of equal importance is refolved here, viz. How far the metals and femi-metals, that are usually mixed with tin, to give it more folidity and confiflence, may contribute to render its ufe dangerous? The common practice is to mix with 97 pounds of tin, two pounds and a half of copper and one pound of bifmuth. Our Authors prove, by feveral experiments and arguments, the innocence of this mixture, and, among others, from this confideration, that the copper cannot change into, ver<digreafe as long as it is mixed with tin in the proportion of 3's

. or even.

:. Another important article in this excellent work is the detection of the pernicious fraud of the pewterers, who, to make up the lofs they fuffer by the almoft general ufe that is now made of earthen-ware, mix with the tin a confiderable quan

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tity of lead, the moft pernicious of all the metals that can be employed in the kitchen or at the table. A very interefting account of this matter is here given, and alfo of others, which we cannot enumerate; but which render this publication uncommonly worthy of attention.

III. Recherches fur les Vegetaux Nouriffans, &c. i. e. Inquiries concerning nutritive vegetables, which, in times of fcarcity, may fupply the place of ordinary food; together with new obfervations on the culture of potatoes. By M. PARMENTIER, whe poffeffes a number of literary titles and pharmaceutical employments. 8vo. 599 pages. Paris. 1781.-In the year 1772 M. PARMENTIER compofed a Prize Memoir concerning nutririve Vegetables, which was crowned by the Academy of Befançon. This judicious and ufeful Memoir was well received by the public, as all the oeconomical dietetic and pharmaceutic productions of this good citizen have been. Several things in it, however, ftood in need of farther development and illuftration; fome objections, alleged againft what he had faid, relative to the culture and ufe of potatoes, required answers; and new materials and views occurred to our Author, that seemed adapted to give a farther degree of perfection to his memoir. Thefe circumftances gave rise to the work before us, which is worthy of the extenfive knowledge, rare talents, and public fpirit of M. PARMENTIER, and is divided into XXXII. articles. In the eleven firft, he treats of nourishment in general, of its compofition, of nutritive matter, of seasoning, of light, folid, and coarfe food, of farinaceous fubftances, of the glutinous matter of wheat, and laftly, of flower, confidered as that part of farinaceous bodies which is effentially nutritive. The use of potatoes, their mixture with the meal or flour of different grains, the bread which may be made of them alone, as alfo the pulfe, leaven, pafte, fea-biscuit, gruels, falep and fago, that may be obtained from thefe vegetables, are the fubjects treated in the feven following ones. The remaining 14 articles contain an inftructive account of the farinaceous feeds and roots from whence ftarch may be extracted; of roots in general; of nutritive and mucilaginous roots; of the vegetable fubftances that may supply the place of the plants of the kitchen-garden; of the uncultivated vegetables, whofe roots contain fine flour, or may be used wholly or in part for food; of nutritive tablets and powders; of the advantages of vegetable above animal food; of the precautions that ought to be employed in times of fcarcity, and the means that may be used to prevent it. We have here alfo, ample anfwers to all the objections that have been made to our Author's obfervations on the culture and ufe of potatoes, and to the different preparations of this root, which he has propofed for public utility.

IV. Nouveau

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