tention, we were in general pleafed, as in the preceding volume, with the articles in BOTANY, LAW, and SURGERY. Sometimes, indeed, we obferved too partial a fondnefs for foreign science, and a seeming neglect of the science of our own country; but we have not in these volumes obferved the importation of any impiety from the continent; though the compilers repofe greater confidence, than we are inclined to do, in the philofophers of France. Such is their veneration for the fcience of that country, that their tran lations from the Encyclopedie Methodique, are fometimes fo literal, as to be neither fenfe nor English; of which the first remarkable inftance that we obferved, is in the article

AMATEUR, in Mufic; where we are told, that "concerts entirely compofed of gentlemen and lady performers, are not uncommon; but perfons at all difficult, are much diffatisfied, if the principal parts, at leaft, are not guided by able profeffors." Difficult perfons, for thofe whofe tafte is nice, is an expreffion more current in French, than in English and why fhould fuch perfons be diffatisfied; fince we are affured, in the fentence immediately preceding, "that there are few private concerts, in which more talents are not difplayed by amateurs of both fexes, than the most celebrated profeffors poffeffed in France, twenty years ago ?" The statement evidently belongs to France, not to England; where neither fuch concerts are common, nor confequently fuch objections ufual.

AMBIDEXTER, in Law, we are told, denotes a perfon who takes money "from both of the contending parties, to aid them in their caufe. In this fenfe, the word may be applied to a judge, juror, a folicitor, or the like. The penalty on a juror, in fuch a cafe, is to forfeit decies tantum, ten times as much as he receives." The writer of this article, furely did not mean to perfuade foreigners, that judges and jurors may in England take a bribe from one of the parties, to aid him in a caufe, to be decided by them; and that they are culpable in the eye of the law only when they take bribes from both parties; but it is certain, that the words of the article admit of no other meaning! We mifs here the lawyer, with whom we have been fo often pleafed.

AMERICA is an article very ill drawn up. A number of hypothefes are piled one upon another, to account for its comparative coldnefs; for the inferiority of its animal and vegetable productions; and for the manner in which it was peopled; but they fucceed one another without order; and,

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BRIT. CRIT, VOL. XXVII. jan. 1806.

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though we found fome good things borrowed from Robertfon, and the Abbé Clavigero, we rofe from a perufal of the whole, with no fatisfaction. We are furprised that the writer, whoever he may be, fhould have paffed over unnoticed, the claims which have lately been preferred, for the difcovering of America, by MARTIN BEHEM, of Nuremberg, eight years before the firft voyage of Columbus. These have been ftated at fome length, and with much plaufibility, both in Nicholfon's Journal, and in the Encyclopædia Britannica*; and they ought not wholly to have efcaped the notice of the Editor, or his coadjutor. He fhould have confuted them, if he believed them groundless; or contributed, if he believed them juft, to make them more generally known. It is perhaps needlefs to inform our readers, that, in giving an account of thofe difputes between the mother-country and the British colonies, which produced the American revolution, our Cyclopædifts reprefent the British government as uniformly in the wrong, and the colonifts as conftantly in the right!

AMPUTATION, in furgery, is a good article; but it fur nishes a very striking proof of the truth of our objections to the arrangement here employed. Although this occupies fomething more than fifteen quarto pages, the reader is directly referred to nine other articles, and indirectly to many more, fcattered at a diftance from each other, through the dictionary, and yet neceffary to be read, before this, treatife on amputation can be thoroughly underflood! It is, indeed, hardly conceivable, upon what principle the articles. are fometimes divided and fubdivided. Thus, though we have four confecutive botanical articles, each under the title

AMYGDALUS, yet from the laft of thefe, called AMYGDALUS in gardening, we are referred to no fewer than thirteen other articles, of which feveral have no closer connexion with Amygdalus, than with any other fruit tree, which is commonly propagated by grafting. Of thefe references, though one is to BUDDING, another to INOCULATION, and a third to STOCK, there is not one to GRAFTING.

Supplement, Vol. I, under the name BEHEM (Martin). In Pinkerton's geography, the globe of Martin Behaim, (fo he writes it) is mentioned, as not containing any part of the dif coveries of Colon, or Columbus. But no notice is taken of the documents advanced by Nicholfon, &c. That globe (wherever extant) might have been conftructed prior to Behem's perfonal dif coveries.

The

The biographical articles in this work are not often of much value; but we fhould have been pleased with the life of

AMYRAUT, Mofes, had it not been difgraced by a palpable contradiction. In one part of the narrative, it is faid, that "the fentiments which AMYRAUT inculcated, very nearly coincided with thofe of the Pelagians and Arminians;" and in another, that he publifhed, "a defence of Calvin, in relation to the doctrine of abfolute reprobation!" This is not the place to fhow, that the fentiments of the Arminians, are effentially different from those of the Pelagians; but the biographer ought to have known, that the fentiments of neither, can be reconciled with the Cal. viniftic doctrine of reprobation!

ANALOGY, in philofophy, is a very extraordinary article. After informing us, that the word is Greek, and how it is rendered by the Latins; the compiler favours us with the fcholaftic definition of the term, which is hardly intelligible in itself, and which he contrives completely to obfcure, by fcholaftic illuftrations. Then follow fome excellent reflec tions on analogy, and analogical reasonings, by Dr. Reid; but the doctor is mentioned in fuch a way, as to lead the reader to fuppofe, that not above one fentence is taken from his Effays on the intellectual powers of man; and, as if to prevent detection, the article concludes with-" See Butler's Analogy of Religion, by the bishop of Gloucefter, 8vo. 1788; preface page 34, &c; and introduction page 13, &c." To this reference, no folid objection can be urged; for cer tainly much may be learned, respecting analogy, from the excellent work of Butler; but the compiler fhould honeftly have acknowledged, that every thing in the article, which is of any value, is taken from the writings of Dr. Reid. The article ANALOGY, in the Encyclopædia Britannica, is drawn from the fame fource, in nearly the fame words, and without any acknowledgment also; but it is not difgraced by the fcholaftic jargon, with which the subject is here introduced.

ANATOMY, is a fcience of fuch vaft importance, that too much attention to it can hardly be paid. The plan, however, of this Cyclopædia, admits not of a fyftematical compendium; and accordingly, of human anatomy, we have nothing more than a brief history, with references to Ofteology: Syndefmology; Myology; Angeiology; Adeonology; Splanchnology and Neurology, for more particular inforination. By this we may fuppofe is meant, that he who thall have read those feven articles with due attention, and in the

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order in which they are here enumerated, will have acquired as thorough an acquaintance with the ftructure of the human body, as any man of letters, not profeffionally a phyfician or furgeon, can be fuppofed to have occafion for. Unfortunately, however, there is no fuch article in the order of the alphabet, as Adenology; fo that the gentleman anatomift, who trufts to this work, muft remain in total ignorance "of the glands, in which various liquors are feparated or prepared from the blood." ANGEIOLOGY, does indeed occur, but it confifts of nothing more than the etymology of the word, with references to ARTERIES, VEINS, and ABSORBING VESSELS. The articles ABSORBING VESSELS and ARTERIES, are very good ones, as we doubt not VEINS will likewife be; but if the other articles osTEOLOGY, SYNDESMOLOGY, &c. be divided and fubdivided in this manner, what a troublefome and labori ous task will his be, who fhall ftudy ANATOMY in this work! The hiftory of the fcience, which is here given, is neceffarily fhort, but fufficiently perfpicuous; and the ftudent will probably have recourse to fome of the systems which are there enumerated, rather than ramble from reference to reference, through a number of quarto volumes.

ANATOMY comparative, is fhort and fuperficial; but, as ufual, we have references, though not exactly fuch perhaps as we fhould have expected. They are to CLASSIFI CATION OF ANIMALS and FUNCTIONS.

ANATOMY of vegetables, which immediately follows, refers us to bark, wood, pith, veffels, root, trunk, ftem, branches, buds, leaves, flower, feed, fruit, and PHYSIOLOGY, vegetable.

ANATOMY, picturefque, is an article which feems to be much out of place. It would make a good lecture on painting or fculpture; but it has a very unfcientific appearance, as ftanding under the general head of ANATOMY; whilft fuch an arrangement renders repetitions abfolutely unavoidable. We have here, in fomething more than eight pages, a general defcription of the bones and muscles; but these must be again defcribed more minutely, under the terms OSTEOLOGY and MYOLOGY!

ANATOMY, veterinary, is a complete, though short fyftem, and therefore of more value than the article human ANATOMY. This has furely a very incongruous appearance; especially, as the author of the article admits, that "human anatomy, in point of intereft and importance to mankind, evidently holds the first place; that of brutes, particularly

fuch

fuch as are domefticated, and employed for various important purposes in fociety, in respect to their anatomy, holds the fecond place!" The claufe which we have printed in italics, fhould certainly have been omitted, as it makes the author fay," the anatomy of brutes, in respect of their anatomy, &c." The article, however, is an excellent one, containing more important information, refpecting the anatomy of the horse, than will readily be found elsewhere, within fo narrow a compafs.

ANIMAL matter, in chemistry, is à very defective article, though the author might have made it a valuable one, had he availed himself of Dr. Thomson's Syftem of Chemistry but half as much as, in the article ANIMAL, he has availed himfelf of the Encyclopædia Britannica, to which Dr. Thomfon fo largely contributed. But, in this work, nothing relating to chemistry feems to be confidered as valuable, if it come not directly either from Dr. Priestley or from the French school.

ANTIMONY is a long article, and contains much infor mation; but it is a confufed aflemblage of natural hiftory and chemistry, the confequence of the plan of the work.

In a book which contains fo many defcriptions of infignificant villages, of which the hiftory, at no period of their exiftence, excites the fmalleft intereft, we were furprised at finding no defcription of the famous grotto of

ANTIPAROS! The island is indeed defcribed, and the grotto is mentioned, together with one or two authors who have given a fuller account of it; but he who knows nothing of it, but what is to be learned from this article must be doubtful whether the grotto of Antiparos be any thing more than a quarry, from which marble has been dug from time inmemorial!

Under the title ANTIQUITY, we have a fceptical difquifition on the antiquity of the world, and on the comparative credit due to the Hebrew, the Chaldean, the Egyptian, the Chinese, the Greek and Roman annals. The writer of the article feems to give the preference to the Chinese annals over all the others mentioned; and, of course, to confider the Mofaic account of the origin of the world as mythological. This is not indeed exprefsly faid, for it could not have been faid with decency; but the writer tells us that "the different fyftems of the chronology of the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Jews, the Hebrew text, and the Septuagint verfion of Scaliger, of Pezron, and of Sir Ifaac Newton, &c. to fay nothing of the Chinese annals, leave the point infinitely embarraffed!"

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