At the flow rate, in which the author proceeds, this fubject will take up many more memoirs; for in the present, he defcribes only the external mufcles of the right ventricle, and referves thofe of the left for his next differtation.

Chemical Analysis of the Water of the Neva at Petersburgh. By J.G. GEORGI.

Strangers, on their arrival in Petersburgh, are generally attacked with a diarrhoea, which has been afcribed to the water of the Neva: but this water appears, from the experiments here related, to be remarkably pure and good; and M. GEORGI thinks that this indifpofition may be owing to an extractum vegetabile paludofum, mixed with an animal gluten; with which the water is fometimes, though very flightly, impreg nated, and which perhaps may affect the health of those, who are not accustomed to it.

Defcription of feveral uncommon Marine Animals. By M.

P. S. PALLAS.

In this memoir, fifteen fea animals are described and illuf trated with plates: among these are five new species of the nereis or fcolopendra marina: the remainder are the ferpula spirillum; the afterias origaitis; the limax tetraquetra; the lepas cariofa; the pholas teredula; the chiton amiculatus; the helix coriacea; the afcidia fquamata, aurantium, and globularis.

Obfervations communicated to the Academy. By M. P.CAMPER. Profeffor CAMPER's principal defign, in this memoir, was to acknowlege that, in confequence of attentively comparing foffil bones with the fkeletons of animals, he was at length convinced that feveral fpecies must have been utterly deftroyed by the revolutions, which have taken place in the furface of our globe. This opinion, which he had once rejected, is here illuftrated by obfervations on fome foffil fkulls of the bison and buffalo, defcribed by M. Pallas, to whom the memoir is addreffed. Concerning the foffil ftag's or elk's horns and skulls, difcovered in Ireland, he obferves that they must have belonged to a species now extinct; and, with respect to that gigantic animal, which the Ruffians call the mamont, the fkulls of which are faid to have been found in North America, and the grinders in various countries of Europe, he exprefies his opinion that these parts belong to two different fpecies, both which are extinct.

ASTRONOMY.

Under this clafs, we find two memoirs by M. STEPH. RUMOUSKI; in which, by comparing the obfervations of the laft tranfit of Mercury, made by different aftronomers, he endeavours to afcertain the exact moment of conjunction, and the latitude of the planet: but he lays the greateft ftrefs on an obfer

vation made at Bagdad, which, according to the Connoiffance des Temps, is 2 hours 48′ 18′′ eaft longitude from Paris; because, on account of the greater height of the fun, the ingrefs of the planet could there be moft accurately diftinguifhed: from the time which Mercury took in paffing over the limb of the fun, he estimates its femidiameter to be 4" 77.: the true time of conjunction, reduced to the meridian of Paris, he calculates to have been 17 hours 22′ 4′′, and makes the correction of M. De la Lande's tables to be +3 16" 7 for the latitude, and +235 for the longitude, of Mercury.

The remaining articles confift of aftronomical and meteorological obfervations and tables, for which we must refer to the volume itself.

ART. II.

Sow.

Reize na Guinea en de Carabifche Eilanden, i. e. A Voyage to Guinea, and to the Caribbee lands. By P. E. ISERT, M. D. Phyfician General to the Danish Settlement in Africa. Tranflated from the German. 8vo. PP. 420. Dordt. 1790.

WE

E have been difappointed in our endeavours to procure the original of this work; which appears, from the tranflation before us, to be worthy of notice. It contains much inftructive and entertaining information, and confirms our opinion that none are in general better qualified for travels of this kind, than phyficians; becaufe their profeffional education and habits are more friendly to the ftudies of natural history and philofophy, than thofe of any other class of men.

Dr. ISERT relates his travels in a feries of twelve letters, which bear every internal mark of having been written, while the impreffion of what he faw was recent on his mind.. In the firft of thefe, he gives an account of his voyage from Copenhagen, and of his arrival, toward the clofe of the year 1783, at Fort Chriftiansburg, fituated on the banks of the river Volta, which the Danes purchased from the Portuguese, in 1660. He found his countrymen engaged in a war with the Augnaers, a nation, or rather tribe, dwelling on the oppofite fide of the river; and he was ordered to repair to the camp, which lay at a place called Ada. In obedience to this command, he performed a journey of above thirty leagues, in a hammock, fastened to a pole, and carried on the fhoulders of men in this work, the negroes are fo expert, that eight of them will carry a man along a level road ten German, or about fixty English miles, in twelve hours. The camp confifted of an irregular affemblage of negroe huts, made of long grafs and of palm leaves, which each tribe conftructed in its peculiar fashion, and

on

on a fpot separated from the reft. Here Dr. ISERT, like the ancient poets, takes occafion to describe the dress and manners of the feveral nations that had joined the ftandard of the Danes, who had taken arms in order to protect the inhabitants of Ada, among whom they had formed a fettlement.

66 Qui bello exciti reges, quæ quemque fecuté,

Complerint campos acies."

Concerning these particulars, we fhall only mention that the negroes, who live near the coaft, have entirely laid afide the ufe of the bow and arrows, and are all armed with muskets, with which they are furnished by the Europeans. The events of the war are related in the third and fourth letters; from which we learn that, after feveral battles fought, on both fides with great bravery, the Danes and their allies obliged their enemies to agree to conditions of peace.

The fifth letter is filled with mifcellaneous information con cerning the appearance of the country, the negroe villages, and the produce of the foil. The Danes, when they concluded the above war, ftipulated that they fhould be allowed to build a fort at Quitta, a negroe town, fituated between a branch of the Volta and the fea; this place is reprefented as very advantageous, on account of the wealth of the inhabitants in cattle, which afford a plentiful fupply of fresh provifions, and from the abundance of game, of fish, and of excellent water. The manner, in which the laft is procured, is fomething fingular: a pit, eight or ten feet deep, is dug in the fand on the shore, about a hundred and fifty paces from the fea: this foon becomes filled with water, which oozes into it, and is perfectly clear and fresh; fuch a pit, however, cannot be used above two or three days; for after this, the water, collected in it, will be brackish. This procefs appears the more extraordinary, as the fea-water on the coaft is very falt; and the author could not difcover any thing like abforbent earth on the fhore, which might be fuppofed to imbibe the faline particles.

In the fixth letter, we have a variety of interefting particulars relative to the trade on the coaft, and to the manner in which it is carried on. The feventh gives an account of a voyage to Whidah, which, we are told, is a moft beautiful and fertile country, bleffed with frequent fhowers, and enjoying a perpetual spring. The English and French forts have large gardens, laid out in walks of orange trees, and abounding with a variety of fruits: with thefe, the latter fupply their fhips on their departure from the coaft to the West Indies; and this refreshment contributes not a little to preferve the health of their crews and cargoes. The fuperftition of the Whidah negroes, and the worship which they pay to a kind of fnake, are here described

2

defcribed at large: but all this is fo well known from the accounts of former writers, that we shall not detain the reader with any particulars concerning it.

In the eighth letter, Dr. ISERT defcribes the manners of the negroes in the vicinity of Chriftianfburg. Among other particulars, he mentions their remarkable attachment to their children, and relates an affecting initance of it, to which he was witness. One of them, being involved in debts which he was unable to pay, acknowleged to his creditor that he had nothing left to fatisfy his demand, except his own perfon,, of which he might difpofe as he thought fit: the latter took the poor fellow at his word, and fold him to the Danes. During his confinement at the fort, where he was fhut up with other flaves, till a fhip fhould fail for the West Indies, his fon formed the affectionate and noble refolution of delivering him from flavery. The parental tenderness of the old man, who chofe rather to forfeit his own liberty and endure the hardships of perpetual flavery than to fell his child, which, by the laws of his country, he might have done, prompted the latter to this heroic exertion of filial duty he came to the fort, accompanied by fome of his relations, and infifted on being accepted inftead of his father: this was granted, and the fcene, which took place on their meeting, was fuch as must have melted any heart, excepting that of a dealer in flaves: it was the conteft of the nobleft and moft benevolent affections: the father, with grief and reluctance, accepted the freedom which was forced on him, and the generous youth furrendered his limbs to the chain, with apparent pleasure. The benevolent author of the work before us, deeply affected with this interefting fcene, reprefented it to the Dan sh governor, who generously advanced the money to pay the debt; on which the young man was releafed, and happiness was reftored to this worthy family.

The ninth letter relates to the history of the various fettlements on the coaft, the manners and cuftoms of the Europeans there, and the difeafes to which they are liable. We are here told that, among the Danes, it is cuttomary to contract a kind of temporary marriage with the women of the country. When an European arrives, his first care is generally to provide himfelf with a fable helpmate; and, when he has found one to his liking, he must apply to the council for leave to cohabit with her this is always granted, on condition that he pays into a fund, called the Mulatto bank, a fum equal to his falary for half a month, and engages to depofit an equal fum in this fund, on his leaving the country. The wages of this concubine are fixed at one dollar per month, if a negroe, and two dollars, if a mulatto woman; for these she has a legal claim on her keeper; APP. REV. VOL. IV. M m and,

and, if he should refufe to pay it, the council would fequefter his income for this purpose: but he may discharge her whenever he pleases. The children, resulting from these connections, are all baptized and inftructed in the Chriftian religion: the boys, when ten years of age, are enlifted in the King of Denmark's fervice, and, as foldiers, receive a pay of eight dollars per month the girls, and all those whofe parents cannot take care of them, are maintained by the mulatto bank, till other provifion can be made for them. We cannot help highly praifing the wisdom of these regulations, as they are the means of preventing thofe evils which would refult, either from prohibiting all commerce with the sex, or from leaving it, and its confequences, entirely to the wanton caprice of irregular paffions.

Dr. ISERT does not think the climate fo unhealthy as it is generally reprefented; and he fays, that the Europeans fuffer more from their own imprudence, and want of attention to a proper diet, than from the infalubrity of the country.

The tenth letter is one of the most interefting. It contains an account of a vifit which the author paid to the chief of the Aquapims, a Negroe nation, inhabiting the mountains about thirty miles from the fea. By this prince, whose name was Attiambo, he was received in a very friendly manner; and he found the reports, with which he had been terrified concerning the perfidy of the inland people, totally falle. On the contrary, he fays; he obferved that their character and difpofition improved, in proportion as they were farther removed from the coaft, and had lefs connection with the Europeans. The houses of thefe Negroes were compofed of ftakes, lined with clay: they are only one story high, but are divided into feveral apartments, which are kept very neat and clean. The country is beautifully diverfified, and full of wood; fome of the trees are of an amazing bulk; he found one, the trunk of which was forty five feet in circumference: but as it bore neither flowers nor fruit, and he could not procure any of its leaves, he could not afcertain its fpecies, Palm-trees, which fupply the inhabitants with oil and wine, are found here in great abundance. The mountains confift chiefly of granite and gneiss; though quartz and fchift are alfo found in them: but the author did not difcover any calcareous rock. The foil is a rich clay of various colours, intermixed with black mould; and it is fo fertile, that agriculture does not employ above three or four weeks in a year. The air is much cooler than on the coaft, and appears to be very falubrious. The chief vegetable food of the inhabitants is the fruit of the Pifango tree, or Mufa Paradifiaca, and yams, which are here much better than in the