was covered all over with a thick coat of fhort thick fiff hairs, like that of a horfe, but rather stronger in the pile and fhorter. The colour was a fine brown, the hair lay clofe to the skin, and was very smooth and gloffy, like the coat of a well-dreffed horfe in fine order. They affured me that it had never had any other covering on it but what I faw, and that all its companions were of the fame fort.'

From the certain existence, then, of one clafs of animals, fome breeds of which produce wool, and other breeds produce nothing but short hair, in no refpects refembling wool, Dr. A. infers, that in other claffes of animals, a fimilar diverfity may take place; `and in corroboration of his inference, he enumerates varieties of dogs, goats, hogs, and cattle, which are faid to produce fome fpecies of wool. P. 19. The mufk ox, of Hudfon's Bay. This animal is much better known to me than the former, as I had the defcription from a gentleman in Edinburgh who lived many years in Hudfon's-Bay, and who has feen thoufands of them, dead and alive. The whole body of this creature, which is as large as a middle fized ox with us, is covered over with a very clofe fleece of long, foft, flexible hair, of a fine quality, which might be employed in manufactures for many of the fame purposes as wool; beneath that hair, and towards its roots, lies another coat of exceeding fine wool, which could be applied in fabricks of the finest quality. It has been fpun and worked into gloves and stockings, which are faid to be foft as filk. The buffaloe wool inclofed, I fhewed to the gentleman, who faid it was nothing like fo fine as that of the musk ox.'

Dr. A. concludes, on the whole, that fince the inhabitants of Europe have derived great advantages from felecting the avool bearing breeds of sheep, and rearing them in place of the smooth-baired fort, they might derive, perhaps equal advantages, did they difcover wool-bearing varieties of other domedic animals which commonly produce hair, and rear the former in preference to the latter*.

Mr. Pryce's communication on the Orchefton meadow-grafs is ingenious and philofophical; the very extraordinary fertility of this celebrated meadow has often excited fpeculation. Mr. P., diffatished with the caufes to which it had hitherto been ascribed, procured a fpade and mattock, and with the affistance of an intelligent labourer who was well acquainted with the spot, dug into the most fertile part of the meadow, the leaft fertile part, and into that where the fertility was moderate. On ftriking into the first, at the depth of three or four inches was found a bed of loofe fints, unmixed with foil, and into which no roots penetrated. Where the product was moderate, the bed of flints was found at about a foot below the furface; where it was leaft luxuriant, no flints were found at all. It is to be obferved, that this meadow is most productive when covered with water great part

* Dr. A., we believe, has published a tranflation of Dr. Pallas's Treatife on Sheep.

of the winter; and it appears to be moft productive where the flints lie nearest the furface. The long grafs, which is nourished by a fuccellion of roots, fcarcely penetrates an inch below the furface *.

P. 44. Thefe circumstances, which differ from common cafes, feem to point to fome powerful agent in vegetation, collected by the water, the progrefs of which is ftopped by the flints, and not fuffered to penetrate deep into the ground.

It is well known, that rain water, efpecially that of thunder fhowers, or water expofed to the influence of the atmosphere, where the elementary fire or electrical matter abounds, is much more fertilizing than that which is drawn from a well. It is alfo known, that water attracts, and is a great conductor of electrical matter; and I conceive that flints, like glafs, are non-conductors, or bodies which will in great measure flop its progrefs.

It will not then be difficult to understand that the electrical matter, conveyed in the water, inttead of penetrating deep into the ground, is obftructed by the flints †, and collected about the roots of the graffes, where it enters, and becomes a molt active and powerful agent in vegetation.'

Whether Mr. P.'s hypothefis be fatisfactory or not, it is at leaft ingenious.

Mr. South's plan of a cheap and efficacious ventilator for preferving corn on fhip board,' is ingenious and ufeful, but with out the afliftance of a plate, any defcription would be unintelli gible.

Art. 10 contains a detail of feveral experiments, with obfervations of the effects of gypfum or platter of Paris, as a manure for fainfoin, cow-grafs, dutch clover, &c.' Thefe experiments were made by a gentleman of Kent in the years 1-92, 1793, and 1794, upon light loams and poor calcareous foils, particularly chalk ones; the refult of thefe experiments was extremely flat-tering.

The next article on waftes and enclofures,' is introduced by the following paragraph: P. 99. As the fubject of inclo fures, under the powers of a general inclofure bill, has engaged of late, and very defervedly, much publick and private attention, it is prefumed the following extracts from COUNTY SURVEYS, refpecting waste lands in thofe counties, will be acceptable to many of our readers; efpecially as they are accompanied by feasonable reflections on the important advantages of

*Camden, in his Britannia, fpeaks [concerning this meadow] of its producing grafs twenty-four feet long, which he calls "gramen caninum fupinum longifimum nondum defcriptum.”

The learned and celebrated Dr. Ingenhouz, of Vienna, has informed the writer that he has made experiments on flints, which prove them to be non-conductors, or bodies which stop the progress of electrical matter. He thinks that the intelligence conveyed in this paper is very important; and concurs with the writer in accounting for the fertility of the meadow,'

inclosure,"

inclofure.' Next follow one hundred and forty pages of extracts ! This is book-making with a vengeance.

To Mr. Davis was adjudged the premium which the fociety offered for the beft effay on the most practicable mode of giving an equitable compenfation for tithes. We lament, that it is not in our power to ftate at large the reafons on which the mode is founded, which Mr. D., in this ingenious effay, has advifed; we are prohibited by the limits of our Review. We may be allowed, however, to give the outlines of the plan. After fome flight hiftorical information on the fubject of tithes, and fome pertinent observations on the various modes of payment which at prefent prevail, Mr. D., who has long and actively been employed in fettling commutations for tithes under enclosure acts of parliament, offers his reafons for the opinion, that the price of wheat alone is an improper ratio by which to fix the value of all tithes. • It is not only evident,' fays he, that the price of wheat does not govern the price of all the other tithcable articles, but it is evident that the price of wheat fluctuates lefs than any other neceffary of life, if taken on an average for any twenty years together;' but the value of every commutation for tithes ought to fluctuate with the rife and fall of every commodity, as far as the cafe will admit, which is fubject to tithes : barley and oats, as well as wheat, form the principal produce of arable land which is fubject to tithes, the commutation for which, therefore, fhould be regulated by the value of all thofe forts of grain. With refpect to grafs land, Mr. D. offers ftrong reafons for his opinion that butter is that fingle commodity, of a conftant, invariable quality, of daily, regular, indifpenfible confumption in quantity; on the price of which, more than on the price of cheefe, wool, calves, lambs, hay or any thing elfe, the price of every other production of grafs lands depends.

P. 255. If therefore butter be, as I confider it to be, the only fingle commodity, by which the tithes of all the produc tions of grafs lands can be regulated, in fettling a commuta tion for the tithes of fuch lands; I propofe, that the clerk of every market in Great Britain should be directed to make a weekly return of the price of milk-butter in fuch market, in the fame manner as the returns of the prices of corn are made. And that in every commutation for tithes, the commiffioners be directed to enquire, firit, the feveral proportions of tithes arifing in each parith, from wheat, barley, and oats, and other productions of arable land; and alfo the proportion arifing from the different productions of grafs land; and then should state what were the returns in the London Gazette, on the average of the year pieceding, of the prices of wheat, barley, and oats, and also of the price of milk-butter, in that county.

That the juftices of the peace for each county fhould, yearly, at their Epiphany feffions, publish an account of the average prices of wheat, barley, and oats, and also of milk-butter, taken from the London Gazette for the year preceding, for that county, And that the difference in the prices between the year then laft paft, and the year in which the commutation was made, should be the ratio by

9

which

which the tithes to be received from every landholder should be regulated for the year, ending at the ensuing Eafter; in like manner as commutations are now fettled and regulated daily under inclosure acts, by a ratio deduced from the price of awheat alone."

Mr. Locke's hiftorical account of the marsh-lands of the county of Somerset' contains fome curious and interesting information; from the whole of his ftatement, it appears, that marih-lands doubled their value every century for the first four hundred years after the conqueft; and from the reformation to the fcotch rebellion in 1745 they were doubled every fifty years; but from that time to the prefent they became more than doubled in every twenty-five years.' This furely is a vety flattering retrospect to the landlords, and will operate as a strong encouragement to ju dicious cultivation.

Art. 15. An accurate Mode of buying and felling Wheat by weight. This article is communicated by Mr. Woods, who has illuftrated his mode by a table, fhowing the value of a load of wheat of any given weight, from 2cwt. to 2cwt. 24lb. the fack, calculated from 81. per. load progreffively to 241. per load. It is to be regretted, that fome fuch mode as that which Mr. W. has fuggefted, has not long ago been adopted in the fale and purchase of wheat.

A few minor communications fucceed, till we arrive at Dr. Anderfon's letter to fir John Sinclair, relative to the premium of 1000l., which was voted by parliament.to Mr. Elkington for his improved method of draining. It is pretty generally agreed now, that Dr. Anderfon has the merit of original invention on this fubject; his letter to fir John Sinclair is written in a very gentlemanlike manner; it ftates his own claim firmly, without detracting from the merit of Mr. Elkington, or onerating him with the charge of piracy.

Mr. Wagstaffe's preparation of feed-corn' is truly valuable; in common with many other farmers, whofe crops were fubject to that disease which is known by the names of fmut, foot-brand, &c., he tried the various noftrums for it's deftruction, which different quack agriculturalifts had recommended: at laft, from the recommendation of an intelligent farmer, Roger Treffry, of Devonshire, the following procefs was fuccefsfully adopted for it's prevention.

P. 314. The means are fimple, and no other than immerfing the feed in pure water, and repeatedly fcouring it therein, juft before it is fown or dibbled on the foil; whether well, spring, or river water, be used, it is indifferent, but repeated stirring and change of water is effential to remove the poffible particles of infection that may have imperceptibly adhered to the feed: thus purified, the fubfequent crop will be perfect in itself, and its feed (I am perfuaded) fucceffively fo likewife, if there are no adjacent fields. from whence this contamination may be wafted. Before I give you a series of experiments which have confirmed to me the complete cure of the disease in queftion, permit me to obferve, that many years fince, believing that this corrupt fubftance of fmut occafioned its perpetuation, I took fome grains of wheat from a stock that had been known not to be affected with smut; these grains I blackened

with its duft, and the fucceeding fummer confirmed my opinion, as near half the produce was fmut-balls.'-From a variety of judicious experiments it appears, that the fimple cleanfing of feed-corn, is an invariable preventative of the fmut.

In Article xxviii is given a very accurate and interesting account of the new gaol at Dorchefter; three neatly-executed plates accompanying it, of plans and elevations of it's different parts.

We have purposely omitted to enumerate the many papers which thefe volumes contain on the cultivation of potatoes, on the cure of the curl, &c.; not that they are deftitute of information, for almoft any of them, perhaps, may be confulted with advantage; but the fubject has beon fo repeatedly treated off in our review of former volumes of this, and of the Adelphi Society, that we did not conceive any adequate advantage could arife from extending this article, already long, with any difquifitions on the subject.

Refpecting the object and perfevering affiduity of the Bath Society, we have frequently fpoken in terms of high approbation; and the volumes, which we have just been reviewing, amply authorize a repetition of that praife. When publication is in view, we muft take the liberty, however, of intimating the neceffity, even of faftidious felection, from that mafs of papers which no doubt are communicated to the fociety. The practical farmer is bewildered in the choice of books; he is frightened at the vaft load of publications which are offered for his perufal. The Bath Society will of course be cautious not to increase his perplexity, and will prefer thofe communications, which are diftinguished by concife and fimple information, to their more laboured and elaborate difquifitions.

L. L.

MEDICINE.

ART. X. A Second Differtation on Fever, containing the Hiftory and Method of Treatment of a regular Tertian Intermittent. By G. Fordyce, M.D. F.R.S. &c. 8vo. 156 p. Pr. 38. Johnson. 1798.

DR. FORDYCE here proceeds, on the plan which has been already noticed, to defcribe thofe appearances that are neceffary for conftituting a regular tertian fever, and to point out the manner of treating them. The hiftory of fymptoms is minute and particular, and flows, that the doctor has marked their progress with much precision and nicenefs of attention.

Although the doctor may be frequently right in the following pofition, we are afraid the exceptions will be more than he seems willing to admit.

P. 15. It has been often obferved, that regular tertians clear the conft tution of all other difeafes, and certainly on a good foundation. If a perfon, for instance, from twenty-five to forty years of age, fhould be afflicted with rheumatifm, which is become habitual, and a regular tertian fhould take place, after it has gone through its courfe the rheumatifm no longer recurs on

See Analyt. Rev. Vol, xx, p. 379.

the