199. Tranfactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1789.

THIS

HIS is the third volume of a work, the first volume of which we review ed in our vol. LVIII. p. 528, and the fecond in vol. LIX. p. 1017. The Academy feems now ftrong enough to treat the publick with a volume each year, eked out by articles in various depart ments of literature. Since the publi. Ication of the laft volume, we have to regret the lofs of three valuable mem bers by death: Dr. Ufsher, Mr. Archdale, and Charles O'Connor, Esq. The work is well printed, and the plates well

executed.

The head of Science is divided into the following articles:

I. Experiments on the Alkaline Subftances used in Bleaching, and on the Colouring-matter of Linen-yarn. By Richard Kirwan, Efq. F. R. S. and M. R. I. A.-The object of this paper is to fhew, that, by analyfing the refpective fubftances imported from a broad, fuch as Barilla, Dantzic pearlafh, &c. and comparing them with the alkali manufactured from inland weeds by Mr. Clarke, of Ireland, he found the latter more powerful, or to be ren dered fo, than any imported; whence it clearly follows, that the linen manufactory ftands in no need of foreign falts or alhes for the procefles of bleaching.

II. A Letter from the fame to the Earl of Charlemont, Prefident; retracting his error refpecting the goodness of the English coal-pits, as connected with their depth. Mr. K. had afferted, that in England beds of coal of less than two feet and an half thick are judged "not worth working." Mr. Mills, an eminent miner in Cheshire, corrects this mistake, and fhews that in the col Jierics near Macclesfield they work much thinner feams, and at a confiderable depth.

III. The Origin and Theory of the Gothic Arch, by the Rev. Dr. M. Young-deriving it from a corruption of the Grecian. After enquiring in"to the theory of this arch, and en"deavouring to afcertain its relative trength, as compared with circular and elliptic arches, when in a flate of perfect equilibrium, and allo to deter"mine the aberration from a true ba❝lauce, which is generated by the ho* In our review of yol. II. of thefe Tranfactions, vol. LIX. p. 1917, col. 2, 1. 22, for cra mines read coal mines.

CENT. MAG. December, 1791.

"rizontal termination of the folid build"ing erected on it, we fhall be enabled. "to form fome conjecture whether the "theory of the arch itfelf may not be "justly enumerated among the caufes "to which we owe its introduction into "architecture." From certain geome. trical demonftrations, here applied, "it "follows, that an elliptic arch, whose "tranfverfe arch is perpendicular to "the horizon, is to be preferred to the "Gothic arch, for ftrength, both be"caufe its strength exceeds that of a "Gothic arch of equal span and alti“tude, when both are in a state of

equilibrium, and also because a given "altitude of building raised upon it, "and terminated by an horizontal line, "produces a lefs aberration from a per"fect balance of the parts. It follows, "alfo, that the Gothic arch, when car"ried up to a fufficient height, is to be "preferred to a femicircular one, for "the fame reasons."

IV. An Account of a Difeafe which, till lately, proved fatal to a great Number of Infants in the Lying-in Hospital of Dublin; with Obfervations on its Caufes and Prevention. By Jofeph Clarke, M. D. Master of the said Hofpital.-At the clofe of the year 1782, of 17,650 infants in this hofpital, 2954 had died within the first fortnight; i. e. nearly every fixth child, or about 17 in the hundred, of convulfions, or the nine-day fits. In an old hofpital, which preceded the prefent, in a lefs airy part of Dublin, had died only from fix or feven in the hundred; and in that of London, in five or fix years, only four in the hundred. The caufe is here afcribed to foul air, or an impure atmofphere; neglect of keeping the chil dren clean and dry, and irregularity of the mothers' manner of living, particularly the abufe of fpirituous liquors. From the evidence adduced are drawn the following inferences:

1. That one effect of an impure atmofphere on the human body is to produce fpafms and convulfions.

2. That all young creatures, and ef pecially infants, within nine days after birth fuffer moft feverely by fuch a noxious cause; and,

3. That in the construction of lyingin hofpitals, and perhaps of all public buildings intended for the reception of children, lofty cielings, large windows, and moderately-fized rooms, fhould be elpecialty attended to.

4. That,

A

1122

4. That, in the arrangements of fuch edifices, no apartment fhould be completely filled with beds, if it can be completely avoided.

5. That, in their management, attention is especially neceffary to cleanlinefs, as well as to the conftant and uniform admiffion of atmospheric air, by night as well as by day. And,

Laftly, That, by purfuing fuch meafures with care, difeafes may be prevented, which it has hitherto been found difficult and fometimes impoflible

to cure.

V. Defcription of a Steam-engine. By John Cooke, Efq.

VI. The Ufe and Defcription of a new-invented Inftrument for Navigation. By the fame.

VII. Obfervations on the Difappearance and Re-appearance of Saturn's Ring, 1789; with fome Remarks on his Diurnal Rotation. By the Rev. Dr. Ufsher. The firft difappearance of the ring, in May, 1789, could not, from the ftate of the weather, be obferved at all. Aug. 21, the ring was invisible, but its fhadow faintly vifible on the body. Aug. 30, it became visible on the East fide, and continued fo till O&t. 5. No deduction can be made from these obfervations, this year having been remarkably unfavourable to aftronomical obfervations in general in Ireland. It is, however, worthy of remark, that Saturn, now divefted of his ring, appears exceedingly oblate, much more fo than could have been fuppofed from common obfervation while his ring was visible.

VIII. Account of Two Parrhelia, Feb. 25, 1790. By the fame.

IX. Effay afcertaining the Population of Ireland. By Gervaile Parker Bofhe, Efq.-States the whole number of inha bitants at above 4,040,000. Sir W. Petty, 1672, made them but 1,100,000; fo that, under a variety of disadvantages, Ireland, in 116 years, has more than trebled her population. He fpeaks in high terms of the induftry of the pea fantry, and frugality of thofe who have grown rich in a country where tillage has taken root.

X. Letter from Mr. Pouget, of Mont peller, to Mr. Kirwan, on the coudeniation produced by the alloy of alkali with water.

.

Pole Literature.

I. Thoughts on the Hory of Alphabet-writing. By Dr. Michael Kearney.-The Ductor fuppoles that Jyllabic denoration fucceeded to verbal, as lan

[Dec.

guage was cultivated, and writing im proved. To the syllabic alphabet fueceeded one entirely compofed of confonants, or the refolution of words into fyllables by that of fyllables into their component elements. Hence the Hebrew and fome Oriental alphabets have no vowels. In all the Western alpha. bets both confonants and vowels have letters appropriated to them, because the art of writing was not imported from Afia into Europe till the want of vowel-marks had been found to be inconvenient.

II. Brief Strictures on certain Obfervations of Lord Monboddo, respecting the Greek Tenfes. By Arthur Browne, LL.D.

III. Evil Effects of Polytheism on the Morals of the Heathens. By a young Gentleman, an Under-graduate of the University of Dublin.

Antiquities.

Account of a fingular Cuftom at Me. telin; with fome Conjectures on the antiquity of its origin. By Lord Charlemont.-The eldest daughter here inherits, and the fons, like daughters every where elfe, are portioned off with fmall dowers, or turned out to feek their own fortune. The women in general, in this ifland, according to the vulgar phrafe, wear the breeches. The tradition of the land deduces it from the Amazons, who formerly inhabited it; but this does not appear fupported by any antient hiftory. The Lycians, according to Herodotus (1. 82) and Plutarch (De Virt. Mulier. 11. 248), affumed the names of their mothers, and not of their fathers; and Nicholas Damafcenus adds, in excerpt, they leave their eftates to their daughter, and not to their fon. Diodorus Siculus (I. v. 396) informs us, that the Pelalgi who firit fettled in Lefbos came from Lycia. Allowing this fettlement of Lebos to have happened 1553 years before Chrift, the custom has maintained itself 3344 years.

Obfervations on the Decoration of the Theatre of Saguntum, given by Emanuel Marti, Dean of Alicant. By the Right Honourable William Conyngham, Treafurer. After giving at length a tranflation of this decoration, from the Dean's letters, published in the beginning of this century, and copied by Montfaucon, Ponz, &c. Mr. C. fhews that he feems to have fallen into the common error of thate who adopt a fyftem. Being perfuaded this theatre was

Roman

Roman work, he adapted all his obfervations to the rules laid down by Vitruvius. Mr. C. controverts this decoration, and inclines, from the plans of theatres in Sicily, to give it a much earlier date, and of Grecian ftructure. He has accompanied his paper with plans and fections, drawn by Chaigneau. At the end are copies of all the infcriprions, in antient Spanish characters, which he was able to collect, including one on this theatre, which Don Bayer fuppofed Rabbinical Hebrew, and not older than the thirteenth century. Another is fup. pofed, by the Conde Lamares, to be only the veins of the marble, and ftrokes of the pick, that have been taken for charaders, N° 17. has the appearance of a petrified feal. N° 18. is cut on a bone. In a fubfequent paper Mr. C. compares the theatre at Athens with that of Saguntum, and thinks the general difpofitions being the fame, and inconfiftent with the rules laid down by Vi. truvius for the conftruction and arrangement of the Greek theatre, it feems to be an argument in favour of thofe travellers who fuppofe this to be the theatre built by Herodes Atticus, and not the antient theatre of Bacchus.

Letter from Mr. William Beauford to the Rev. George Graydon, Sec.; illuftrating the Geography of Ireland, as laid down by Ptolemy, in a comparative view and map of it at the period of that Geographer and the antient Inhabitants.

A Memoir respecting the Antiquity of the church of Killoffy, in the county of Kildare; with fome Conjectures on the Origin of the antient Irish churches. By Mr. William Beauford. This church has a round tower, founded on a fquare base, nearly half of the prefent height, each fide terminating in a pediment, or triangle, of equal altititude, from one of which proceeded the ftone roof of the old church. Mr. B. afcribes this hape of towers in Ireland to the period when the Irifh adopted tone building, in the middle of the 9th century, to that of the 11th, the round tower of Kenith church, Cork, being built in 1015, and from this period iuch towers became common; and Mr. B. alligns this to the rebuilding of the church atter its deftruction by the Danes, A. D. 984, and deems it the only one in that kingdom. He fuppofes the Irish borrowed their Gothic from the Spaniards, the Moffarabic of the

Academy founded at Cordova about 759, by the Saracenic Prince, AbdenIrahman.

200. An Afwer to Dr. Priestley's Letters to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke; in a Letter to the Author, by a Layman of the Etablished Church.

A calm, judicious, and minute reply, detecting the inconclufive reafoning, and condemning the comparative view, by the Doctor, of the Diffenters and the Etablishment, in the article of merit.

201. Letters to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, on Politicks. By Edward Tatham, D. D.

TOO much attention cannot be paid to refifting the modern outrageous plans of reformation, which it is not the fashion of the prefent day to condu& by degrees, whether it be applied to government or the flave-trade. Dr. T, with equal warmth and propriety of ftyle, delivers bis opinion. His Letter to the Revolu tion Society may be remembered in the daily prints.

202. The great and important Discovery of the Eighteenth Century, and the Means of jetting right the National Affairs, by a great Addi tion of numerous and inestimable useful Den figns and public Improvements, by which the Nation is fill capable of being infinitely be nefited. To which are added, Aidrees to the feveral different Claffes of Society, pointing out the Menfure tubich they ought to purfus as their relpetive Duties in redreing public Af fairs. By George Edwards, Ejq. M.D. Author of "The Aggrandizement of Great Britain," of "The National Perfection of Finance," and of "The Royal Regeneration of Great Britain."

AFTER what we have already faid of this author's writings in vol. LX. p. $45, our readers will perhaps think the title of the prefent fully fufficient.

Taxation,

1124

Taxation, and Parish Rates. By James Lucas, Surgeon.

MR. L. points out many important errors in the conduct of the feveral fubjects here treated of. As to the firft, the late Mr. Bigland in 1764 fuggefted the neceffity of a reform. As to the others, we very much fear few official perfons, whofe duty it is to be more at tentive and exact, will find it their intereft to carry Mr. L's plans into execution.

205. Reflections on the Slave-Trade; with
Remarks on the Policy of its Abolition. In a
Letter to a
Clergyman in the County of Suf-

folk. By G. C. P.

THE great queftion of abolition, which has agitated the minds of our countrymen for the two laft years, having been brought to an issue in the last fetlion of the British Parliament, and in France by a much earlier refolution of the National Affembly, we cannot clofe the difcuffion of it better than in the words of our brethren the Monthly Reviewers, whofe understanding regulates their feelings in a juft degree; and who, without triumphing over the fallacies they point out, do not hesitate to detect them in the jufteft and fulleft manner. In vain do the feelings of the tender fex urge them to vent their refentment against thofe fenators who voted against the abolition, in the keen feverity of Mrs. Barbauld's and other poetical pens. In vain do the patriots call upon our wives and daughters, our fifters and aunts, ou miltreffes and Abigails, to affociate † against the use of fugar till Negroes ceafe to be employed in manufacturing it, or till there be a fufficient colony formed of the outcafts and mifcreants of our own nation to take it up. Much do we fear that neither Dr. Edwards, nor any other Doctor, can fo fa regenerate the world, or the smallest civilized part of it, as to carry thele refolutions into any permanent effect; and how feebly fuch aflociations operate we all know from the

"Epiftle to William Wilbe force, Efq. on the Rejection of the Bill for abouthing "the Slave Trade. By Anna-Letitia Bar"bauld."-" An Addrefs to every Briton on "the Slave-Trade, being an effectual Plan "to abolith this Difgrace to our Country" (reviewed in p. 944).-"Elegy occafioned by the Rejection of Mr. Wilberforce's "Motion" (reviewed in p. 358).

+ See "An Addrefs to the People of "Great Britain on the Confumption of West Indian Produce."

[Dec.

affociation of the Americans not to drink any tea till they could drink it unftampt: they fubftituted the leaf of every green herb and tree in their united provinces, till they could drink them no longer, and then fmuggled-in foreign tea from British markets in the veffels of other nations of Europe. Such are patriotic affociations!!! Much, alas! do we fear that there will be found too many backfliders amongst the Friends, strictly fo called, who, with all their abhorrence of the flave-trade, would purchase West Indian fugar, and fell it for Eaft Indian, and at an advanced price. Philofophic and truly patriotic minds, and, indeed, men of the commoneft understandings, would fee that fuch a measure as the abolition of the flave-trade demands the coolest and most mature deliberation, and cannot poffibly be carried into execution haftily. Reforms in the conduct of it are for the intereft both of trade and humanity. Refolutions, fuch as the abolishers clamour for, would only involve half the Weft Indies in infurrection and bloodthed. Instead of doing evil that good may come of it, we fhould do good and produce evil. Most earnestly fhould we pray that no Abbé Gregoire may carry his fentiments into execution in this country; fentiments which have made one of the mott flourithing colonies of his own country a fcene of devaftation fufficient to teach every unprejudiced mind what we have to expect from the favages of Africa. But fuch is the inconfiftency of the human mind, that there are perfons, of good underftanding, who, while juftihed by experience in thinking the Dif fenters are not to be admitted to places of power and truft, would admit these favages to the rights and powers of civilized nations.

"The flave-trade (fay the Monthly Reviewers for October laft) is now an old fubject: but thefe Reflections are the dictates of a worthy heart, which eftimates all other hearts according to a confcioufness of its own integrity. The author connders the trade in flaves as a moral evil, a religious evil, and a political one: it is certainly all three; and we are forry to add, that it is one of thofe evils which the mafs of mankind never were, and in all probability never will be, fufficiently enlightened to eradicate. We think our author often mistaken in arguing from right to fact: thus he declares, I can'not conceive that it ever was the intention of the Creator of the world to place his creatures in a state where their very existence maft depend folely upon mutual vio'lence,