M. Eric Guftavus Adlerberg has communicated fome obfervations on the uro galli. He brought up a young male, which uttered through the whole year the peculiar found (pfalzen) which the wild bird ufes only during the pairing feafon, and occafionally in autumn. The fame bird when he fcreams in this way, turns his eyes upward, and diftinguiflies only what is over his head. When other birds do the fame, they are commonly fuppofed to be infenfible to every object, because they do not fee the fowler in his approach. When females were brought to this bird, they laid eggs but refufed to fit on them, which is not uncommon, for wild birds can feldom be induced to perform this office while in captivity. The eggs were put under a hen, but when there was no appearance of young after thirty days, our author broke the eggs and found the young ones dead : the fhells were very thick, and the beaks of the chicken were probably unable to break them, which the mother's inflinct would have fuggefted to her the neceffity of doing. This advice our author gives thofe who may wish to rear young ones of this fpecies.

M. Arvid Faxe has made fome experiments on the Carlscroon waters. The city is built on rocks and iflands. When wells are dug, unless a rock intervenes, below the level of the fea, falt water is found which has percolated from it. The other wells are really refervoirs, into which the water running from higher ground is collected, but in no very pure flate, and in fum ner foetid. This fluid is ufed for the common people, fince the fupply of purer water is not more than fufficient for the opulent. To it are attributed the dyfenteries and putrid fevers by no means uncommon among the lower claffes, for when frequent or continued rain dilutes the impuri ies, the epidemics ceafe. There is a vaft concourfe of naval people who refort to Carlferoon in the fummer; and thefe, on their ferum, fpread the epidemic difeafes through Sweden, fo that a fupply of purer water is an object of very general national concern.

M. A. H. Flormin, profeffor in the university of Lunden (Londini Scania) defcribes the disease, with which, in July and August 1786, the oxen, horfes, and twine were affected. Tumors arote in the neck, belly, and thighs, which contained a yellowish vifcid lymph, and after death, was of a deep yellow mixed with fphacelated flesh. He applied fetons, and anointment containing powder of cantharides. With a few exceptions, a fimilar difeafe prevailed in the neighbourhood of Leipfic, defcribed by Glafer and Wagner, in 1780.

The altitude of the apex of the Norway Alps, called Orefkut, above the lake of Jemtland, M. Tornften found, by geome trical calculations, to be 2040 clls. If, as Mr. Ricard contends, 117 ells of Stockholm are equal to 100 of Amfterdam, and 584 of England, the Swedish ell must be just half an English ell, or 22 inches and a haif. The height then will amount to 3825 feet. Trees grow only at about 1100 ells above the lake, or in

our

our measure about 2000 feet. If, therefore, the altitude of the lake above the fea be computed, we shall find that in the latitude of 63° or 64°, the bounds of vegetation is at 1714 ells above the fea, about 3214 feet.

The eighth memoir confifts of a medical cafe of fome importance. A woman feven months pregnant, weeding in her garden felt a bite on her toe, fo flight that he thought it arofe from a nettle but as the pain increased, fhe turned back and faw a ferpent escaping. She went home, but in her way felt the progrefs of the poiton: le felt, or fancied the felt, the child restless, and at last convulfed very violen ly, without any of the pains preceding abortion. In three or four minutes, the child feemingly dead, felt like a weight in the womb. As there was no other remedy, he drank largely of new milk, her body at the fame time fwelling and growing black with the moft excruciating pain. To the wound was applied oil of tobacco, which the country people confider as a fpecific against the bites of snakes; but neither this nor deep fcarifications were of any fervice. The woman, greatly agitated, in the intervals of her delirium defired to be bled. After the operation had been twice performed, she mifcarried of a dead infant of the colour of lead and enormoufly fwelled. With the lochia, which were very copious and black, much of the poifon may be fuppofed to have been discharged, for without any other evacuation the tumour fubfided; fhe recovered her natural colour and her former health.

M. Claud. Bjerkander tells us, that, in the month of Auguft, on the folidago virga aurea, were found fome brown aphides, pedibus & antennis grifeis, antennis corporis longitudinem equantibus. When preffed, they afford a brown colour, whofe nature he recommends as an object of future enquiry. M. Seftfrom recommends fmoke of camphor for killing fleas.

The fourth trimestre is very fhort. The first memoir, by Afzelius, botanical lecturer at Upfal, contains fome obfervations relating to the knowlege of the Swedish plants.' He enumerates fome indigenous plants not inferted in the Flore Suecica, defines their characters more exactly, corrects fome errors, and points out fome ambiguities with much botanical parade. The polypodium criftatum he defcribes more accurately, and has illuftrated his defcription with a plate.

Swederus defcribes the twenty-five infects omitted in the former Number; and M. Bugge computes the powers of a moveable wheel, allowing for the weight of the wheel and the rope.

In the fourth memoir M. Swartz defcribes a new genus of plants which he calls the folandra, from Dr. Solander. In the laft edition of the Syftema Vegetabilium, this name is given to a plant long fince diftinguifhed by a very different name in France; but the name was affigned to the prefent genus by Linnæus and Alftroemer: it is reprefented on a medal ftruck in honour of Solander. The plant was gathered in Jamaica, and

belongs

belongs to the pentandria monogynia, in the fection of flores monopetali, interi angiofpermi. A branch is engraved of its natural fize. Plumier was the only perfon formerly acquainted with it, and he drew it under the name of ftramonium fcandens flore luteo; but his drawing was never published.

M. Hornstedt defcribes the acrocordus, a new genus of ferpent from the island of Java, an account of which we have already given its place in Linnæus is immed ately before the amphibæna.

The volume concludes with a defeription of the coracia garrula of Linnæus, (Angl. Roller) with an account of its manners and economy. The male is distinguished by the extreme feathers of his tail, each fide being at least two inches longer than the others, by their points being black; the circle round the eyes wider, by two or three verruce, which, at the time of treading fwell, fo that the root of the beak is almost covered by the feathers, which are pushed forwards by the fwelling. Two or three males fight for one female, but when the victory is decided the pair live conftantly together. Willughby (Ornithol. p. 89. Tab. 20) and Edwards (Nat, Hift, of Birds, p. 103.) have defcribed the male: Linnæus (Faun. Suecic. ed. 2. p. 32.) and Briffon (Ornithol. tom. i. p. 177.) have defcribed the female. Where Hellenius lives, they arrive with the fwallows from about the tenth to the twentieth of May, and have ufually retired before the middle of Auguft; fo that, there at least, they cannot plunder the new-fown fields which they have been, perhaps unjustly, charged with; as in North America the gracula quifcula is fufpected of eating the pes which have been fown, though it has been difcovered that they feed only on the larvae of infects, by whom the whole crop would be otherwife deftroyed.

Eai fur l'Hiftoire Naturelle de Chili, par M. l'Abbè Molina, tra duit de l'Italien & enrichi de Notés, par M. l'Abbé Gruvel, M. D. Paris. Née de la Rochelle. 8vo.

F

ROM the numerous works relating to different parts of South America, we have reafon to hope that we fhall in time receive fome fatisfactory accounts of this most beautiful part of the fouthern hemifphere. Chili, in particular, was fo little known, and, what we knew of it was fo doubtful, so equivocal, and fo contradictory, that from the first appearance of this work, we took some steps to procure it: we had not received the original, when chance threw in our way the tranflation, which appears fo well executed, that we have not hefi rated to give the earliest account of it. The abbé was born in the country, lived many years in it, and appears to be well acquainted with natural history; and the tranflator, to an accurate knowledge of the language, feems to join no little skill in the fame fcience.

Chili

Chili has been called the Garden of America, as Italy has obtained the name of the Garden of Europe. The climate of thefe two count is is nearly the fame, and they are equally difiant from the equator. Each country is long and narrow; each is divided by a chain of mountains, from whence the various rivers, which water it, arife. Our author laid the foundation of this work in his early youth, and has been for many years continually adding to it. He divides the fubject into four parts: in the firit he gives fome account of the feaions, the meteors, the volcanos, earthquakes, and every thing which relares to the climate in general: in the three other parts he explains the objects of the three kingdoms of nature, beginning from the mineral, and rifing by degrees to man, whom he confiders fo far as his form and conftitution are influenced by the country. The Patagonians, or pretended giants, he thinks are the mountaincers of Chili. The work is terminated by a methodi cal description of the new fpecies mentioned in it, arranged according to the fyftem of Linnæus, and by the Chilian names of the different fubjects. We fall felect from this work, in the order of the narrative, and in general in the words of the author, whatever may appear interesting or agreeable.

The abbé Molina defcribes the country as a foil naturally fertile, adapted to every useful production; the temperature mild, almot always equal, and the climate extraordinarily healthy. This, though perhaps a little exaggerated, we can eafily believe; for, on one fide, the breezes from the Pacific, and, on the other, the Andes covered with perpetual fnow, the highest mountains in the world, must naturally foften the fervour of the almost tropical fun of the northern parts. Before the arrival of the Spaniards contageous difeafes were unknown. They brought the mall-pox, which are ftill diftinguished by the name of the plague, and which occafionally occur in the northern provinces. Their neighbours, during the prevalence of the epidemic, make them perform a rigorous quarentine; and, in this way, preferve themfelves from it. When thole tribes of Indians fufpect any one to be infected with it, and the fufpicion arifes from their having had connection with the Spaniard, they burn him in his hut by means of lighted ar rows; a method violent indeed, but it has fucceeded in checking the progre's of the malady. A phyfician of the country, F. M. Ve dago, was the first who, in 1761, tried innoculation; and lince that period it has had great fucceis. Tertians and quartans are equally unknown; and the inhabitants of the neighbouring marihy provinces, who are attacked by them, come into this country, where in a very fhort time they re

Chili comprehends the whole of the western fide of America on the Pacific Ocean, from Cape Hern, to the twenty-fifth degree of fouth latitude, where it is bounded by Peru. It is narrow, fince on the caft is the province of La Piata,

cover their health. There are fome years when an ardent fever, accompanied by delirium, occurs among the country people, chiefly in fummer and autumn. This disease, which the Indians cure by the help of vegetables that experience has taught them, is called chavolonco, the d feafe of the head. The venereal difeaf has made very little progrefs in the Spanish pofiellions, and ftill lefs among the Indians: it is remarkable that there is no word in the language of Chili to charac terife this malady; and, from thefe confiderations, it is probable, that it has been known only fiece the arrival of the Spaniards. Indeed Columbus had vifited only the islands, when he was accused of brining home this dreadful fcourge, and the distance of Chili, added to the little communication which was afterwards found to prevail among the different nations of South America, will perhaps be thought to counterballance in fome degree the teftimony of our author.

The rickets, which within these two hundred years have made fo great ravages in Europe, had not reached Chili; and the number of the lame and the deformed is confeq ently very fmall. Many other difeafes of warm countries, as the difeafe of Siam (elephantiafis?), the morbus niger, the lepra, &c. are unknown here. M. Condamine's obfervation, that cats and dogs do not become mad in South America, is well founded, and fupported by our author's teftimony. Ch li, indeed, is unac quainted with any of thofe dangerous and venemous animals, which the luxuriant foil of warm countries frequently nourifles.

The water of the rivers is at its greatest height from September to February. In fome of thefe, ebbs and flows may be obferved, which are attributed to the expofed fituation of their fources, and the influence of the fun on them. Thefe rivers never overflow, and inundations are uncommon in Chili; for the beds are large and feldom deep, though often too deep to be traverfed without danger on horfeback. The opinion that fnowwater produces the goitres is now, we believe, univerfally given up; but, as we have remarked that the Andes are covered with fnow, the rivers are very generally compofed of melted fnow; yet the difeafe is unknown. The water, our author tells us, is excellent.

Authors, who have written on the fertility of Chili, do not agree refpecting the productions of the earth. Some pretend that the gather fixty or eighty parts for one part fown; others affert, that it is tyled a bad harvet if they do not gather an hundred for one; others raife the crop fo far as an hundred and thirty. I am fir, adds the abbé, from criticising those ref pect ble authors, many of whom have been eye-witneffes of the facts; especially as we fometimes obferve prodigious increases, which ought not, however, to ferve for a standard. I remember to have feen fome lands that have produced from an hundred and twenty to an hundred and fixty for one; but the com..

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