time to the present, it has most deservedly had its advocates. Very strong proofs have been adduced of its utility, nor is it natural to imagine so easy and effective an operation would have been omitted, had not more virtue been attributed to it than it really possesses, and wherein it failed; the absolute prevention of madness was said to be the consequence, whereas the fact was and is, that taking out the worm, has nothing to do with annihilating the disorder, although it will most certainly hinder the dog seized with it, from doing any hurt to man or beast. A late author asserts he had three dogs that were wormed, bit by mad dogs at three several periods, yet notwithstanding they all died mad, they did not bite nor do any mischief; that being determined to make a full experiment, he shut one of the mad dogs up in a kennel, and put to him a dog he did not value, the mad dog often run at the other to bite him, but his tongue. was so swelled that he could not make his teeth meet; the dog was kept in the kennel until the mad one died, and was purposely pre served for two years afterwards, to note the effect, but he never ailed any thing, although no remedies were applied to check any infection that might have been received from the contact of the mad dog. The compiler has had various opportunities of proving the usefulness of worming, and inserts three of the most striking instances, under the hope of inducing its general practice. A terrior bitch went mad that was kept in the kennel with 40 couple of hounds, not a single hound was bitten, nor was she seen to offer to bite. The bitch being of a peculiar sort, every attention was paid to her, and the gradations of the disease (which were extremely rapid) minutely noted. The hydrophobia was fast approaching before she was separated from the hounds, and she died the second day after; at first warm milk was placed before her, which she attempted to lap, but the throat refused its functions; from this period she never tried to eat or drink, seldom rose up, or even moved, the tongue swelled very much, and long before her death the jaws were distended by it. A spaniel was observed to be seized by a strange dog, and was bit in the lip; the servant who ran up to part them, narrowly escaped, as the dog twice flew at him; a few minutes after the dog had quitted the yard, the people who had pursued, gave notice of the dog's madness, who had made terrible havoc in the course of ten miles from whence he had set off. The spaniel was a great favourite, had medicine applied, and every precaution taken; upon the 14th day he appeared to loath his food, and his eyes looked unusually heavy; the day following he endeavoured to lap milk, but could swallow none; from that time the tongue began to swell, he moved himself very seldom, and on the third day he died ; for many hours previous to his death, the tongue was so enlarged, that the fangs or canine teeeh could not meet each other by upwards of an inch. The hounds were some years after parted with, and were sold in lots: a madness broke out in the kennel of the gentleman who purchased many of them; and although several of these hounds were bitten and went mad, only one of them ever attempted to bite, and that was a hound from the Duke of Portland's, who in the operation of worming, worming, had the worm broke by his struggling, and he was so troublesome, that one half of it was suffered to remain; the others all died with symptoms similar to the terrier and the spaniel, viz. a violent swelling of the tongue, and a stupor rendering them nearly motionless, and both which symptoms seemed to increase with the disease.' Vol. I. p. 159. Whatever we may think of the style of the above paragraphs, we consider the facts which they contain as of great importance. We pretend not to determine what is the nature of the operation of worming: but if repeated experience shall ascertain its constant or even frequent effect to be the security of the human species from that direful malady, the cure of which medicine has so often attempted in vain, the operation ought certainly to be performed at an early age on every dog. According to Mr. Daniel, the worming of whelps should be previous to their being sent out to quarters: this operation is to be performed with a lancet, to slit the thin skin which immediately covers the worm; a small awl is then to be introduced under the centre of the worm to raise it up, the further end of the worm will with very little force make its appearance, and with a cloth taking hold of that end, the other will be drawn out easily. Care must be taken that the whole of the worm comes away without breaking, and it rarely breaks unless cut into by the lancet, or wounded by the awl.' p. 202. 2dly. As a practical sportsman, Mr. Daniel is quite at home; and though many years have passed since we partook of the pleasures of the chase, we have no doubt that the ample code of instructions which he has drawn up may be implicitly followed. These instructions respect fox-hunting, stag-hunting, hare-hunting, coursing, and the pursuit of rabbits, martins, badgers, and otters, in the first volume; sea-fishing, angling for all the various fresh-water and river-fish, with the construction of flies, nets, and other fishing tackle, and the management of fish-ponds, in the second; and shooting the various species of game, with the breeding and training of spaniels and pointers, and the choice and management of fowling pieces, in the third. We could have wished that the author had entirely omitted the diversion of badger-hunting, and we do not clearly perceive what sea-fishing has to do in a work of rural sports; but in general this part of the work is well executed, and abounds with interesting anecdotes. Among others, he has given an account of a sow that was trained and employed as a pointer, which we quoted in our last volume, p. 261. from Mr. Bingley's "Natural History of Quadrupeds." Lastly. Mr.Daniel's digest of the game and other sporting laws, Compiled chiefly from Blackstone's Commentaries, Burn's Justice, 0 3 and and (if we mistake not) from the Sporting Magazine, (in the early numbers of which we remember to have seen a very similar digest,) appears to be complete, though faulty in point of arrangement. We had expected to find the author a strenuous advocate for the game-laws, but were pleased at seeing some very judicious and impartial observations on this unpopular branch of our statutes. With a quotation from this part, we shall close our specimens of Mr. Daniel's labours: No admirer of a manly, liberal, well-regulated system of public freedom, will be forward to assert, that the laws for the preservation of game do not require to be very thoroughly revised. They certainly depart more widely from the line of genuine political justice, and expose the humble unqualified classes of the community more to the hazard of punishment, and the oppression of power, than any rational advocate of moral equality can consistently approve. They are greatly imperfect, in as much as their penalties are infinitely too severe. That the punishment of death should in any case be inflicted on an act which in itself violates no rule of religion, justice, or morality, is a reflection from which the mind revolts with pain and horror. Where is the wrong to individuals that demands such an atonement? Where is the injury to society which requires such an example? That the act of destroying game is not malum in se, is evident; for if it were the Legislature could not licence it. Not only the want of true wisdom, but the want of common justice in these statutes, requires the most earnest and attentive consideration in those who administer in the government of the state. Every amendment, however minute, in the defective part of its legislative system, is an immense acquisition of strength to our constitution. It takes a weapon from the armoury of its enemies, and knits still more closely the union of its friends. Unwise laws are the worst foes of a state. It is the public statutes that should perpetuate and keep alive the great principles of practical freedom.' Vol. I. p. 295. In a production of this kind, a great variety of style must in course appear: but we are sorry to say that the style of Mr. Daniel, as far as we can judge from what are given as his original observations, is considerably below mediocrity. It abounds with inelegancies, provincialisms, and even grammatical errors; faults which we should not have expected in a writer of his profession. On the whole, however, the work is certainly calculated to form an acceptable companion for the sportsman and the country-gentleman; and it is rendered highly interesting also to general readers, by the numerous and well executed engravings with which it is embellished. ART. 2 Vols. 8vo. ART. XV. Outlines of Mineralogy. By J. Kidd, M. D. Professor of Chemistry in the University of Oxford. 18s. Boards. Boards. Longman and Co. 18.9. I N that class of subjects in natural philosophy which consists almost entirely of description and arrangement, Mineralogy may be regarded as one of the most important, both from its extensive connection with other sciences, and from its immediate application to purposes of utility. Although this department of science has at length fully participated in the improvements which have been experienced in the different branches of natural knowlege, it has happened to be one of the most tardy in its progress, and has also been that in which our countrymen have been notoriously deficient. We might, however, suppose that the Professor of Chemistry in the University of Oxford would redeem the character of his contemporaries; because, feeling the responsibility of his situation, he would refrain from publishing, were he not fully confident of his own powers. Even if we did not expect from his work any discoveries, we might at least take it for granted that he is intimately acquainted with the labours of others; and that, if he did not give us any thing that was new, his volumes would have the subordinate, although not unimportant merit, of a clear exposition of facts, or a lucid arrangement of the information that has been already acquired by others. Bearing in our minds this kind of excellence, we proceed to inquire into the claim on our approbation which these Outlines possess. Dr. Kidd commences by an Introduction, in which he gives a general view of the composition of the globe, of the causes which have operated in reducing its component parts to their present form, of the hypotheses which have been framed to account for these changes, and of the leading works which have been written on this subject. Considering it in the light of an introduction to an elementary treatise, this part deserves some commendation; because, though it does not possess any very prominent merit, it is written in a perspicuous and easy style, and is on the whole tolerably correct: yet we cannot avoid mentioning, as a reprehensible omission, that no notice. is taken of the mineralogical labours of Werner; a man who, both by those who approve and those who oppose his peculiar theory, is admitted to hold the first rank as an improver of his science. It is indeed in a great measure to his genius that this branch of natural philosophy may be said to owe its distinct existence, by making the study of the external characters the principal, whereas before it was only considered as a secondary 04 secondary object of attention. This circumstance marks the limit between chemistry and mineralogy; and we have every reason to suppose that, as the one becomes perfected, we shall see the necessity of considering the other as only subservient to it. On this account, we think that both Werner and Jameson, his zealous and intelligent disciple, would have done still better if they had carried their system to the full extent, and entirely omitted the genera depending on chemical composition. On the proper arrangement of what Werner has called families, the classification of minerals must be built; and the introduction of any other principle can only tend to embarrass and to interfere with the correct principle. That chemical composition ought not to form the basis of mineralogical arrangement is clear from this circumstance, that the naturalist has occasion perpetually to examine and decide on the nature of a mineral which he has it not in his power to analyze. In support of the same opinion, it may be urged that frequently the prevailing earth is not the one which seems to give the characteristic properties to a substance; and sometimes a mineral contains very nearly the same quantity of two or more earths, so that varieties of a mineral, which bear the closest relation to each other, might be separated in consequence of some very minute difference in their analysis, and placed in quite different parts of the system. If the chemical composition were followed with any degree of strictness, as the basis of arrangement, some of the present genera could scarcely be permitted to remain, and the greatest confusion would take place among the classification of the families. Many of the siliceous minerals must be separated from those with which they are most intimately connected, and ranked among the argillaceous substances +; while, on the contrary, many of the minerals included in the argillaceous genus contain a large quantity of silex . The magnesian genus must be very nearly obliterated, since very few minerals contain a larger proportion of this than of any other kind of earth; and of these few some are at present placed in other genera §. From these considerations, we cannot but highly approve the method which has been adopted by Dr. Thomson, who has employed families, to the entire exclusion of genera; a method which we fully expect to see universally adopted. The Italian Vesuvian would be a siliceous and the Siberian a calcareous mineral, according to Klaproth's analysis. The sapphire, the corundum, the chrysoberyll, &c. &c. Viewing |