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to the fleet, and a stipend from the citizens for giving lectures in botany. The biographer obferves, that the establishment of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, of which Linnæus was appointed the first prefident, ferved not a little to favour the advancement of his fame, by the opportunity which it afforded of displaying his abilities. In 1741, upon the refignation of Roberg, he was conftituted joint profeffor of phyfic, and phyfician to the king, with Rofen, who had been appointed the preceding year.

Dr. Pulteney afterwards gives an account of the Iter Oelandicum & Gotlandicum, Iter Scanicum, Flora Suecica, Fauna Suecica, Materia Medica, and Philofophia Botanica; the hiftory and nature of which works he briefly explains.

In 1755, Linnæus was honoured with a gold medal by the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm, for a paper on the fubject of promoting agriculture, and all branches of rural oeconomy; and in 1760, he obtained a premium from the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Petersburg, for a paper relative to the doctrine of the fexes of plants.

The author of the General View, afterwards gives a large analyfis of the Syftema Natura, and of the Genera Morborum ; with a short account of the papers written by Linnæus, in the Acta Upfalienfia. The laft of this great man's treatises was the Mantifa Altera, publifhed in 1771.

We are told that Linnæus, upon the whole, enjoyed a good conftitution; but that he was fometimes feverely afflicted with a hemicrania, and was not exempted from the gout. About the clofe of 1776, he was feized with an apoplexy, which left him paralytic; and at the beginning of the year, 1777, he fuffered another stroke,' which very much impaired his mental powers. But the difeafe fuppofed to have been the more immediate caufe of his death, was an ulceration of the urinary bladder; of which, after a tedious indifpofition, he died on the 11th of January, 1778, in the 71ft year of his age.

In the commemoration fpeech, delivered by Dr. Back, phyfician to the king of Sweden, Linnæus's ftature is defcribed as being "diminutive; his head large; his look ardent, piercing, and apt to daunt the beholder. His ear not fenfible to music; his temper quick; his memory good, though in the latter period of his life liable to fail him fometimes; his knowlege of languages confined, yet no interefting difcovery efcaped him. In fummer he ufed to fleep from ten to three o'clock, in winter from nine to fix, and inftantly to ceafe from his labours when he found himfelf not well difpofed for them. He was an agreeable companions, of quick fenfibility, but easily ap peafed."

VOL. LII. Sept. 1781.

The

The remaining part of the volume contains an account of the Amanitates Academica; with obfervations, tending to shew the utility of botanical knowledge in relation to agriculture, and the feeding of cattle accompanied with a translation of Linnæus's Pan Suecus, accommodated to the English plants, with references to authors, and to figures of the plants.

In this volume, Dr. Pulteney has given fuch a detail of the various works of the celebrated naturalist, as must not only render them more generally known, but afford the fatisfaction of tracing the progress of that illuftrious philofopher through his different refearches and improvements, in the sciences which he cultivated. Judicious obfervations are likewise frequently interfperfed in the work; and the whole, we doubt not, will prove both acceptable and useful to those who take delight in the pleasant pursuits of natural hiftory..

A Tour through Monmouthshire and Wales. By Henry Penruddocke Wyndham. The Second Edition. 4to. Il. in boards. Wilkie.

FROM a very fmall fize, this Tour is now enlarged to a

quarto volume; not by means of dull and frivolous narrative, as is too frequently the cafe in the recital of travels, but by defcriptions of what are curious, and remarks of what are interefting to a reader defirous of information.

The author gives the following account of coracles, a fingular fort of boats ufed in fome parts of Caermarthenshire.

They are generally 5 feet long, and 4 broad; their bottom is a little rounded, and their fhape ncarly oval. These boats are ribbed with light laths or fplit twigs, in the manner of basket work, and are covered with a raw hide, or strong canvas, pitched in fuch a mode as to prevent their leaking. A feat croffes just above the centre, towards the broader end. They feldom weigh more than between 20 and 30 pounds. The men paddle them with one hand, while they fifh with the other; and when their work is completed, they throw the coracles over their fhoulders, and, without difficulty, return with them home.'

We are told that the neighbourhood of Haverfordwest claims the merit of having practifed inoculation of the small-pox before it was even known to the other counties of Britain; for while the London phyficians, on the recommendation of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, were cautiously trying the experiment on fome condemned criminals, the more hardy native of Pembrokeshire dared to inoculate himself, without the affistance of either phyfician or preparation. In order to procure the distemer, they either rubbed the variolous matter, taken from ripe puftules, on feveral parts of the skin; or pricked the skin with

needles,

needles, previously infected. They called this buying the smallpox, as it was the custom to purchase the matter from each other. We shall present our readers with the fubfequent account of the Welch horfes.

The little horses, which we employed in this expedition, were exceedingly hardy, and poffeffed a strength much fuperior to their appearances. They would conftantly travel with heavy burdens forty miles a day, even without the affiftance or refreshment of a fingle feed of corn. A horse, that did not appear equal to more than eight or nine ftone, fometimes carried all our baggage in a fort of panniers, with our poftman riding between them; and though his flesh lay like furrows between his ribs, and his back was as fharp as a wedge, yet he purfued his ftages, with the weight of at least thirty ftone, without stop or fatigue. These horfes are no fooner difengaged from their faddles, than they are turned into a common pafture for the night; no confideration being had, either to the weather, or to their journey, or to their heat, which might have arifen from it.

• Every inn in the country is provided with a paddock for this purpose; and left any accident fhould happen to the mares in this common field, where horfes, as well as geldings, are promifcuously admitted: the people have a cuftom to modrwy y caffeg, that is, to ring the mares, which they perform with a small leather thong, and which, preventing all mifchievous intercourse, intimates a fimilar prohibition to that of the padlock among the jealous Spaniards.'

The condition of the inhabitants about Conway is reprefented as extremely deplorable.

• Their habitations, fays the traveller, are low, mud-built hovels, raised over the natural earth, which is as deficient in point of level within, as without. Notwithstanding the feverity of the climate, the windows are frequently deftitute of a single piece of glazing. If the inhabitants wish to enjoy the light, they must at the fame time fuffer the cold: they wear neither. fhoes nor ftockings, and chiefly fubfift upon the coarfe diet of rank cheese, oat bread, and milk. Such penury anticipates old age, and I have seen persons of forty, from their decrepid and wrinkled features, appear, as if they had paffed their grand climacteric. A melancholy dejection is fpread over their countenances, which are ftrangers to the files of chearfulness and pleasure.

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If we carry our obfervations to the mountains, we shall find, among thofe dreary waftes, a poverty fill more extreme than below; in many of those parishes a grain of wheat has never been feen ; even the cheap luxury of garden greens is unknown; and according to the ftrong expreffion of a lowland Welshman, there are -hundreds of families, who have never tafted a leek. They continue in the fame unimproved ftate, as in the time of Giraldus, who thus defcribes them; "They neither live in towns, in streets, nor in camps. It is not their custom to erect grand palaces, nor large and fuperfluous buildings of ftore and mortar. They are otherwife content with roofs of thatch, fufficient from year to year, and`

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which will anfwer all their purpofes, with as little labour as expence. They are ignorant of the luxuries of either orchards or gardens."

Notwithstanding this apparent mifery, we cannot pronounce thefe mountaineers miferable; if content be happiness, they are certainly happy they are all equally poor, and while poverty is not particular, it cannot be confidered as a misfortune. They are robuft, healthy, and live to a great age, and as they are ignorant of thofe many refinements, which civilized luxury has taught us to confider as neceffaries of life, they have therefore no want of them, there is

"No craving void left aching in their breast.”

For this reafon, we fee mirth and chearfulness, united with po werty, in the most humble cot upon the highlands, when a smaller degree of poverty has spread a difcontented gloom, over the whole face of the lowlands. All happiness is by comparifon; fo thefe lower people are comparatively miferable for they are tantalized with appetites which they cannot gratify, while they behold with envy, many pleasures enjoyed by others, which partial nature has forbidden them even to hope for.

But how happens it, that they fhould not attempt to relieve their wants by afking charity? for, I believe this is the only country in Europe, in which the traveller can efcape the folicitations of fuch abject wretches. If there was any neglect in the execution of the poor laws, beggary must be the confequence: or, if it was common, (as, however incredible it may appear, I was well informed) for thefe miferable beings to hoard up from the fcanty profits of their daily labour, and ftarve themfelves to indulge their avarice; we fhould think, they would then naturally apply to charity in order to gratify that paffion. We must have recourfe to the first principle of this country to refolve the queftion; it has been obferved, that this barbarous mode of life has continued for a long fucceffion of generations, and, probably, the prefent may find fome comfort in the reflection, of living as well as their ancestors; and perhaps, it is as difficult to make a nation, fo bigotted to opinion as the Welth is, change the fmallest article in their manners, (however beneficial it might be to them,) as it would be to force them to abolish their drefs, or their language.'

This volume is ornamented with a number of plates well engraved.

Remarks on the Influence of Climate, &c. on the Difpofition and Temper, &c. of Mankind. [Concluded from p. 107.]

IN

N the eleventh chapter, the author confiders the effects of a warm climate upon manners and behaviour. He remarks, that warm climates have been long ago observed to be earlier, and more completely civilized, than cold ones; but he is of opinion that this politenefs has always confifted in the obfervance of certain fixed and ftated ceremonials, adapted to

the

the fituation and character of the people. A circumftance no lefs obfervable, refpecting the manners of the people of hot climates, is their immutability. Montefquieu, who has attempted to account for this principle, affigns, as one reason for it, the high degree of fenfibility which a hot climate na turally infpires, and which is almoft conftantly joined to an indolence of mind, connected with that of the body. An other reason is derived from the nature of the government, which in fuch countries is generally defpotic. But perhaps the most powerful caufe of this immutability, as the author obferves, is the confinement of the women. Whatever caufe we admit, it is highly probable, that the uniformity of manners contributes not a little to preserve the mode of government unchanged.

The next chapter treats of the influence of a cold climate on the manners. The author obferves, that the manners of the northern nations, compared with those of warm climates, appear rough and auftere. Their addrefs is ufually blunt and unpolished; and they have few ceremonials to regulate their behaviour. This character refults from the temper of the people, who are endowed with little fenfibility, are of a bold and refolute spirit, and accustomed to ftrong bodily exertions. It is alfo obferved, that the manners of cold climates are much lefs permanent and uniform than thofe of the oppofite tempe

rature.

In the fucceeding chapter, the author takes a view of the effect of temperate climates upon the manners. For what the author advances on this fubject, we fhall have recourfe to the work.

Politenefs and elegance of behaviour have always attained to the greatest perfection in temperate climates: this has been owing in fome meafure to the greater perfection of arts in general. But I apprehend, that the difpofition of the people to activity, joined with a degree of fenfibility; and a government with fome hare of liberty, and which confequently admits of a free communication of fentiment, are the principal reafons.

The last of thefe, as far as relates to a free intercourse of company and converfation between the fexes, is perhaps the most active caufe of any, and subsists only in moderate climates; the female fex, in cold ones, being difregarded, and in hot ones, being in a state of confinement. While in Afia the fair fex are confidered only as a poffeffion, in Europe they are objects of tendernefs, eftcem, and rational attachment. This infpires a habit of attentive and respectful behaviour; their beauty excites admiration and love; and even their very weakness adds force to their influence, under the idea of delicacy. Generofity prevents' oppreffion, where there can be no refiftance; and roufes valour and gallantry in their defence. Whatever they fay is heard with peculiar attention; and even their foibles are conftrued into per

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