It is a small species, the clufters large, the colour black, or a deep purple. The flocks, as ufual, are planted in rows, and the leaf is bigger than in the common vine.-Those intended to be preserved as currants, are spread, when gathered, in beds on the ground: [no wonder that we find this fruit always fo dirty] when dried by the fun and air, they are transported to the city on horses and mules; and poured down a hole into magazines, in which they cake together. When the price is fixed, and the duties are paid, the fruit is dug out with iron crows, and ftamped into caiks by men with legs and feet bare. In the fhips it fweats, and, as we experienced, often fills the veffel with a stench fcarcely tolerable. The English, who have two or three merchants refident there, are the principal confumers. The Dutch partake, and fupply the other northern nations. The islanders believe it is purchafed to be used in dying, and, in general, are ignorant of the many dishes in which currants are an ingredient. Our cook made a pudding, which was equally a fubject of wonder and applause in the family where we lived.'

The tar-trings of Zante are a natural curiofity worthy of notice; and, accordingly, they are here described; but we must refer to the book.-Here our Travellers meeting with an opportunity of embarking for England, the narrative clofes :as will this Article with a remark or two, on a few particular paffages.

P. 3. Our Author mentions the rugged tract called Arvifia, ' once famous for its nectar.' This nectar is a rich wine, made from the Muscadine grape. From Arvifia, the Italians have their word Malvifta, the French Malvoisi; which the English have contracted into Malmfey,-and ufe it for wine made from the Mufcadine grape.

Ibid. The Captain, who was killed in the previous figns of foul weather, prepared his bark by taking down the triangular main fal, and hoifting a latin or fquare one, as more manageable.' The latten fail, as our failors call it, is not the fquare, but the triangular fail, taken down by the Captain, to prepare for the ftorm. This lateen fail is much used all over the Mediterranean. Chaloupes, galeaffes, chebecs, feluccas, &c. are equipped with it. The name is derived from the Latin antenna, whence the Italians have l'antenne,-un vascello coll' antenne: the yard of a square fail, if we are not mistaken, they call la verga; the French call it la vergue.

P. 13. We were amused by a very striking phænomenon. The fun was fetting; and the moon, then rifen in the eastern or oppofite portion of the hemifphere, was feen adorned as it were with the beams of that glorious luminary, which appeared robably from the reflexion or refraction of the atmosphere,

not

not as usual, but inverted, the fharp end pointing to the hori zon, and the ray widening upwards.'

Here we are at fome lofs, not understanding what is meant by the sharp end of the folar beam, nor why the Author could expect to find the sharp end pointing upward.

P. 19. The capital port [of Athens] was that called Piræus, The entrance of this is narrow, and formed by two rocky points; one belonging to the promontory of Eetion; the other, to that of Alcimus. Within were three ftations for fhipping; Kantharus, so named from a hero; Aphrodifium, from a temple of Venus; and Zea, the refort of veffels laden with grain. By it was a demos, or borough town, of the fame name before the time of Themiftocles, who recommended the exchanging its triple barbour for the fingle one of Phalerum, both as more capacious, and as better fituated for navigators.'

The fingle harbour of Phalerum was exchanged, by the advice of Themiftocles, for the triple harbour of Piræus; but Dr. Chandler feems to fay the contrary.

P. 31. The two feas by the ifthmus were burnished by the flames of Corinth.'

Dr. C, is not always happy in his images, when he adopts the poetic ftyle, We have no idea of burnishing water; Would it not have been as well to have faid illuminated?

P. 65. Defcribing the Odéum of Pericles, which was burnt by Ariftion and Sylla, and reftored by King Ariobarzanes the Second, Dr. C. fays, this was the edifice' (meaning that raised by the Cappadocian monarch) in being when Paufanias pubhed his Attica. Afterward, as he informs us, it was rebuilt by Atticus Herodes, in memory of his wife Regilla.'

Paufanias does not say that it was rebuilt by Herodes Atticus. In his description of Attica, he mentions the Odéum, evidently that of Pericles; and in his Achaics, having described the Odéum of Patras, he fays it is the moft excellent of any in 4. Greece, except that at Athens; that, indeed, for magnitude “ and ornament furpaffes every other. It was erected by Herodes, “an Athenian, in memory of his deceased wife. In my defcrip ❝tion of Attica I have omitted this Odéum, because I had finished "my account of Athens before Herodes had begun the building.”

P. 75. Dr. C. has tranflated a corrupt and, perhaps, mutilated paffage in Paufanias as follows: "The image of Jupiter (Olympius) is worth feeing, not for its fimilitude to other ftatues in fize, for those of the Romans and Rhodians are not coloffal," &c. Now every school-boy is acquainted with the height of the Coloffus at Rhodes, (70 cubits) that one hundred leffer Coloffufes adorned the fame city, and that there were several coloffal ftatues in Rome; among others, the Apollo, 30 cubits high, brought by Lucullus from Apollonia in Pontus.

P. 76. Our Author has this improper expreffion,—' It was an angular column, &c. A column is a round, not an angular body. He might have faid, A column which stood on the fouthern angle of the eaft front,' for fo it must have been by his map, all the other angles being demolished.

There are many other inaccuracies in the language of this work, which we fhall not enumerate. We obferve that the Doctor has taken fome pains to fettle the topography of Athens, but when he affigns names to the ancient icmains of that celebrated city, or tells us where the remarkable places of the Attic territory were fituated, he too generally fuppreffes, or neglects to produce, his authorities; fo that we are most commonly at a lofs to determine whether he forms his opinion on fufficient evi dence, or whether he only fuggefis unfatisfactory conjecture. For inftance, he places the theatre and the odéum in fuch a manner, that those who come out of his theatre muft find the odéum on their right hand, and not on their left, as Vitruvius has placed it; though in his Afiatic travels he fays it was a precept of that author, that the odium be on the left hand coming from the theatre; and though in our remarks on that paffage, we had observed, that it was no precept, but a fact relating to the odéum at Athens, which Vitruvius has tranfmitted to us.

The building which Mr. Stuart fuppofes to be the remains of the ftoa or portico called Poikile, is, in Dr. Chandler's opinion the Prytaneum; fuch uncertainty is there in the difquifitions of antiquaries! To fatisfy ourselves, in fome degree, on this fubject, though we are not very anxious about it [the contradiction raised our curiofity] we were at the pains to look into Paufanias, and to turn over old Mcurfius, and there we find that the temple of Pandrofus was near the propylea, and theprytaneum near the temple. We must therefore conclude the prytaneum likewife was near the entrance of the acropolis; and we perceive from Dr. Chandler's map, that he has by no means hit on a probable fituation for the building in queftion: it is at much too great a diftance from the acropolis, and therefore cannot poffibly be entitled to the name he bestows on it.

We have neither leifure nor room for more difquifition on thefe dry fubjects; but, from the fpecimens given, we cannot be fuppofed to have been more entertained with our Author's difplay of his knowledge and skill as an antiquary, than we have been with his claffical rambles and adventures.

Author of the Antiquities of Athens.

* ἱερὸν ὑπερ τεῖν ἐςησαιο αύτη (Αγραυλο) περι τα Προπύλαια της ακροπολεως, Vip. cited by Meurfius Ath. Attica, p. 48. Paufanias Khunii, p. 41.

† Πλησίον δὲ Πρυτανεῖν ἐσιν.

ART. X. Fays Phyfical and Chemical. By M. Lavoifier, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, &c. Vol. I. Tranflated from the French, with Notes, and an Appendix, by Thomas Henry, F. R S. 8vo. 7 5. Johnson. 1776.

HE original of this valuable performance was published Tat at Paris in 1774. It is the production of a gentleman of diftinguished rank, and an Intendant of the Finances, in France; who has cultivated the philofophical fciences with equal abili tics an: perfeverance.

In the prefent volume, which he gives us reafon to hope will be followed by feveral others, the Author limits his inquiries to thofe claftic fluids which are feparated from various bodies, during fermentation, effervefcence, combuftion, and other proceffes. In the first of the two capital divifions of his work, he affumes only the character of a fimple hiftorian ; giving a regular and concife account of the various discoveries which have been made in this important branch of philofophical chemistry, from the days of Paracelfus and Van Helmont, to thofe of Boyle, Hales, Black, &c. to the present time. In the fecond part, he relates the original experiments, which he has himself made, with a view to enlarge our knowledge of the true nature and qualities of the elaftic or aerial fluids which are the fubjects of his prelent inquiries.

We should pafs over the hiftorical part of this work, did it not contain a particular account of a fingular theory relative to the modern doctrine of fixed air, which has lately been maintained by fome German philofophers. As we fuppofe that this hypothefis is very little known in this country, we fhall prefent our philofophical Readers with a fhort sketch of it; though

In these we are told that the Author intends to treat of the following fubjects:-On the existence of the elaftic fluid in a great number of bodies, in which it has not been hitherto fufpected :-On the total decompofition of the three mineral acids:-On the ebullition of fluids in the vacuum of an air-pump :-On a method of determining the quantity of faline matter contained in mineral waters, from the knowledge of their specific gravity :-On the application of the rfe, either of pure fpirit of wine, or of the fame mixed with water, in certain proportions, to the analyfis of the very complicated mino ral waters :-On the caufe of the cold which is obferved in the evaporation of fluids :-On different points of optics:-On the height of the principal mountains in the environs of Paris;-together with a numerous train of obfervations on the barometer, made in different provinces of France; including a sketch of the inner parts of the earth in these provinces to a pretty confiderable depth; the order which is obferved in the frata; the conftant level at which certain fubftances and fhells are found; aed the remarkable inclination which fome frata always have in the fame direction.

we cannot imagine that any of them will be inclined to favour or adopt it.

A few years after Dr. Black had by his excellent experiments on magnesia * thrown new and confiderable light on the nature of fixed air and calcareous earths, Dr. Macbride illuftrated and greatly extended the fyftem of that ingenious Profeffor, in his Experimental Essays. While the theory deduced from the experiments and reafonings of thefe two philofophers was peaceably established in England; a formidable opponent to it arofe in Germany, in the person of Mr. Meyer. This gentleman published an elaborate treatife, written in the German language, entitled, Effays in Chemistry, on Quick-lime, the elaftic and electric Matter, Fire, and the univerfal primitive acid? This effay contains, experiments from which its author drew confequences directly fubverfive of the principles deduced by Hales, Black, and the English philofophers; and tending to overturn the whole theory of fixed air from its very foundations. According to the theory of our countrymen, when magnefia, limeftone, or any calcareous earth has been exposed a sufficient length of time to a ftrong fire, it acquires caufticity, and lofes a great part of its weight. This lofs, they affirm, is occafioned by the expulfion of a confiderable quantity of an elastic fluid, or vapour, ufually denominated fixed air; and in consequence of which it is deprived of its former property of effervefcing with acids. M. Meyer, on the other hand, maintains that the limeftone, thus treated, lofes only a confiderable portion of water, and is neutralifed in the fire by a certain caustic acid, which it meets with there, and attracts; and that, in confequence of its union or combination with this new substance, it lofes its property of effervefcing with other acids. To this acid he gives the title of acidum pingue, and supposes it to be a subftance nearly approaching to that of fire and of light.

When a certain portion of mild alcali is added to lime water, or a folution of calcareous earth in a cauftic ftate, the English philofophers affirm that the fixed air in the alcali, having a fuperior attraction to the calcined calcareous earth, leaves the falt to unite with the faid earth; which is now reftored to its priftine ftate of limeftone: while the alcali, thus deferted by the fixed air, becomes cauftic in its turn.—Mr. Meyer, on the contrary, accounts for the phenomena, by afferting that the acidum pingue contained in the folution of quicklime, having a stronger affinity to the alcaline falt than to the earth, leaves the latter, which is confequently restored to its former mild ftate, and unites with the alcali, which is now

In the fecond volume of the Edinburgh Phyfical and Literary EsJays, Article 8,

rendered