there is a free communication established between the lungs and the cylinder, to the exclusion of external air: when, on the other hand, the cock is turned the quadrant of a circle, the communication with the lungs is cut off, and there is a free channel opened between the cylinder and the external atmospheric air."

You will now observe, should the operator through hurry or forgetfulness not return the cock from the quadrant of a circle to be parallel with its pipe, the unfortunate being on whom Mr. Murray's plan of resuscitation has been attempted, will be in a most pitiable situation; because his lungs will be in a partial vacuum, and cannot receive any supply of air from the atmosphere. The operator in addition to this is liable to two very considerable errors, the consequence of this cock, which will be evident to all who may investigate the plan, therefore I have no occasion to mention them. Mr. Murray says: "I have given my reasons for rejecting the cumbrous and troublesome modification obtruded. These reasons remain inviolate."

Gentlemen, I beg you to refer to his reasons, Phil. Mag. vol. lix. p. 374. You will there find that some one (for Mr. Murray does not tell who) immediately rejected some apparatus of his invention from its complete uselessness:-annexed to this, he states it was also abandoned on two other conditions. I should have thought that a machine that was rejected from its complete uselessness, did not require two other conditions for it to be abandoned by such a man as Mr. Murray. But as he had there stated that his useless invention was somewhat similar to mine, -to settle this point, I asked him in my previous communication to you, if his was not dissimilar to mine in some essential part? This, Gentlemen, was one of the questions I proposed to him, which remain unanswered. You will therefore perceive, that this paragraph of his refers to an invention of his, which some one has condemned, and by his publishing the same has sanctioned as completely useless. This reference must have been nonsensical on his part; because it could only tend to remind us of an invention of his that cannot be any credit to him.

Mr. Murray states: "The Reply is a mere tissue of questions; fourteen marks of interrogation are interspersed! A very convenient mode of reply, it must needs be confessed. For instance, I am asked how the individual becomes reanimated? This is introduced as a species of climax to a most disingenuous (I shall not term it wilful or malignant) perversion of my language.

Gentlemen, What a tissue of questions mine must have been,

that

that Mr. Murray should have garbled one, noticed all, BUT ANSWERED NONE OF THEM!!

Mr. Murray says I asked him how the individual becomes reanimated. Here he has garbled my question, even whilst he was complaining of my perverting his language. To convince you who is guilty of the wilful or malignant perversion of language, I will transcribe from period to period that which I did state, which I shall place on one side, whilst that, which Mr. Murray said I did state, I will place on the other side.

My question to Mr. Murray, Phil. Mag. vol. lx. p. 64, was, "If it be as Mr. Murray has stated, that the air undergoes no change whatever, how is it the individual becomes reanimated? He says it is absurd to give a continued supply of fresh air to an individual, until the natural respiration returns."

Mr. Murray's quotation of it with quotation marks, Phil. Mag. vol. lx. p. 186: "Mr. Murray has stated that the air undergoes no change whatever."

Gentlemen, Mr. Murray's statement of his own words is also garbled, for which see Phil. Mag. vol. lix. page 374, and vol. Ix. page 186; yet he has placed to them the marks of quotation, and had them printed in italics. I will give you one more specimen of Mr. Murray's carelessness. In Phil. Mag. vol. lix. at the top of page 374, he has actually stated I signed my name Mr. John Moore, Jun. for he has placed quotation marks to Mr.

He may say, that in Phil. Mag. vol. lx. p. 172, he has given an excuse for his mis-statements. It is, "(for in truth I very seldom read over what I have written, certainly never take or retain a copy of my communications.)" If a man publishes without reading what he has written, the meaning thereof may not only be that which he did not intend, but also that which he cannot find an argument to support.

If Mr. Murray had read two or three times some of his communications which refer to me, I think they would have been divested of several words which they now retain, and been otherwise much improved.

Gentlemen,

I remain respectfully, &c.

Lawrence-Hill, Bristol, 26th Oct. 1822.

JOHN MOORE, Jun.

LXVIII. To

LXXVIII. Inquiry respecting Floods in Dorsetshire. To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal. GENTLEMEN, -I SHALL be much obliged to any of your readers, who will give me such information as they are able to do, respecting a great flood in Dorsetshire many years ago.

The information, perhaps, may be obtained from the Sherborne Mercury: which I believe (but do not know that it did) existed at the time in question. If so, perhaps some one would oblige me by looking at the old newspapers in the British Museum for the intelligence desired.

I also wish to know the dates of any floods in Dorsetshire, in the winters of 1750-1, 1751-2, and 1752-3.

4th November, 1822.

AN INQUIRER.

LXXIX. Notices respecting New Books.

A View of the Structure, Functions and Disorders of the Stomach, and Alimentary Organs of the Human Body; with Physiological Observations and Remarks upon the Qualities and Effects of Food and Fermented Liquors. By Thomas Hare, F.L.S. &c. Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Longman and Co. 1821. pp. 300. 8vo.

THE physiological history of man forms an especial feature

of this work, and renders it more extensively interesting than the title-page would lead us to expect, notwithstanding the whole subject is of universal concern. Our limits allow us

only to notice, in a brief and cursory way, certain parts of its original physiology, and which is well illustrated by plates from the author's drawings. The contractile and convulsive actions of the stomach and intestines lead to a curious explanation of the structure of muscular fibre and its adaptation to the exercise of its mechanical functions; while illustrations of the ultimate fibre, not only by its own character and properties, but by comparison with those of vegetable and mineral matter, seem sufficiently to establish its tubulated structure, contrary to such opinions as have been adopted of its density, and of its being infinitely divisible. The progress of the work affords opportunities for various chemical considerations, and particularly the influence of alimentary objects on chronic diseases. The manner in which fermented liquors act on the brain and nervous system, so as to produce those aberrations of perception which accompany drunkenness, is among the most interesting of these: and after his views of scrofula, of atmospheric Vol. 60. No. 295. Nov. 1822. influence.

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influence, and local station, Mr. Hare concludes his work with the natural history, physiology and diseases of what he properly terms "those primary instruments of the alimentary process the teeth, his researches on which subjects lead him to believe,

"I. That enamel is constituted by a longitudinal arrangement of prisms; and that each prism is made up of an aggregation of molecules, each distinct figure of which is a rhomb.

"II. That longitudinal cracks of the enamel are directed by the corresponding arrangement of its prisms; and that they may be rendered undulating, as they often appear by the rhomboidal figure of those molecules, which in the aggregate compose the prism.

"III. That the arrangement of the rhomboidal molecules directs the diagonal fracture of the enamel.

"IV. That the aggregation of rhomboidal molecules mechanically facilitates the disintegration of the enamel by compression from the lateral surfaces of adjoining teeth, thereby giving extraneous matters an opportunity of acting at large upon the whole substance of the tooth compressed.

"V. That the aggregation of the molecules is favourable in particular to the insidious agency of acrid and decomposing fluids, which are modified as to their chemical influence by the state of the stomach, by various matters of aliment as soon as they come within the lips, and by various nostrums which are used for cleaning the teeth, and, according to the language of quackery, strengthening the gums.'

It will be seen, from the foregoing glance at a few of the subjects of this volume, that it contains much, not only to engage the attention of the philosophical as well as the medical student, but to interest and instruct the general reader.

A Celestial Atlas, comprising a Systematic Display of the Heavens, in a Series of Thirty Maps. Illustrated by Scientific Descriptions of their Contents: and accompanied by Catalogues of the Stars. With Astronomical Exercises. By Alexander Jamieson, A.M.

We congratulate the astronomical student, and the lovers of one of the most delightful of sciences, on the valuable help they will receive from Mr. Jamieson's Celestial Atlas, which is not only calculated to facilitate the study of astronomy, but to give a new charm to the contemplation of the starry heavens, by pointing out how it can be rendered most agreeable and instructive.

The idea of a Celestial Atlas was first suggested by our immortal countryman Flamstead, whose great Atlas was the ba

sis of M. de la Caille's Atlas Celestis; for the latter merely reduced the English astronomer's maps, and rectified the stars for the period when he undertook the reduction. What M. de Caille did with Flamstead's Atlas, M. Bode did with the Atlas Cœlestis, in his Vorstellung der Gestirne; which has been the only Atlas that for some time obtained the estimation of astronomers on the continent of Europe, or indeed in this country. But while Mr. Jamieson has availed himself of the labours of his predecessors, he has not been a servile copyist: on the contrary, his work differs as much from those we have mentioned as it is well possible for books to differ, written in illustration of the same subject.

The Celestial Atlas may be divided into three distinct parts. The first, which is introductory, is allotted to some brief definitions, and the manner of using the maps, so as to render them of as general utility and of as easy application as the celestial globe. By means of these maps, a complete knowledge may be gained of the rising, culminating, and setting of the stars, the situation of the planets, the place of the moon, and all the positions into which the grand machine of the universe is successively put throughout the year.

The second and descriptive portion of the work, treats of the boundaries and contents of the several constellations, and the signs of the zodiac. The student who makes himself master of this part of the work will become as familiarly acquainted with the names and situations of the stars, as with the localities of places on a geographical map.

The third distinct part of the work consists of a series of well-constructed Exercises for acquiring a knowledge of the successive appearances of the constellations and signs, in the evening, at midnight, or in the morning, throughout the year. These Exercises are written in a popular language, without any regard to the learned phraseology of astronomers. Indeed, throughout the whole work, Mr. Jamieson's great object appears to have been to render the subject familiar to any ordinary capacity, disdaining all ostentatious display of learning, and anxious only to be understood.

We have only to add, that the engravings are worthy of the subject: they are in the best style of Neele, and are beautifully coloured.

Part II. of the Philosophical Transactions for 1822 has just been published: The following are its Contents: Experiments and Observations on the Development of magnetical Properties in Steel and Iron by Percussion. By Wm. Scoresby, Jun. Esq.-On the Alloys of Steel. By J. Štodart,

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