and of the fea that washes their coafts. The firft, which comprehends a general view of the natural ftate ancient and modern of these countries, was published in the first volume of the Academy. The fecond treats of the foil and climate of the country, the genius and manners of its inhabitants; the third of the methods of improving its population and fertility; the fourth contains an ample difcuffion of every thing relative to the force and motion of the waters in its rivers, canals, and fluices, from whence our Author deduces the means of preventing inundations, and modifying at pleasure the courfe of the waters, by which alone the defects of the foil and climate can be remedied. These three intermediate Memoirs are as yet unpublished.

To this fifth Memoir are fubjoined an hydrographical Chart of the North-fea. A Table of Comparison between the tides on the coaft of Flanders, and divers fixed Points in the adjacent Country, and a Table of the times of High water in different places of the Northweft feas of Europe, for all the days of the Moon.

Memoir. Concerning the Effects and Phenomena produced by pouring different forts of Oil both on calm and agitated Water. By the Abbé MANN. The first part of this Memoir contains an historical account of the knowledge that has hitherto been communicated to the Public on this fubject, from Pliny down to our times. This account is comprised in a few pages. The fecond and third parts contain an enumeration of the experiments that have been made to afcertain the effects and the phenomena produced by oils in ftill or ftagnant waters, as alfo on the rivers and in the fea, together with phyfical explications of these effects. The confequences deduced from thefe experiments, and the benefit that may be expected from throwing oil on the waves of the fea, are pointed out in the fourth and last part. The refult of these experiments is, that the different effects produced upon water at reft or in motion by different oils, whether animal, vegetable or mineral, do not arife from their different fpecific gravities, nor their qualities as fweet, bitter, &c. but almost entirely from their different degrees of uncluofity. Our Academician attributes the general efficacy of all oil in calming water, to a very different caufe from that adopted by Monfieur ACHARD, of whofe Memoir on this fubject mention is made in this Appendix, in our account of the Berlin Memoirs. He fupposes that the oil, as far as it expands itfelf upon the waves, intercepts, by its unctuolity, the affinity between the wind and the water, and thus makes the former lofe its hold upon the latter. In this cafe the wind, inftead of raifing the water, and fwelling the wave, glides over its furface, and thus compreffes and flattens it.

OBSERVATIONS on the Natural History of the Ant, in which the mistakes of certain celebrated Authors are occafionally pointed out.

By

By Mr. NEEDHAM. We remember to have heard of a great adept in natural hiftory, who became a deift, by reading fuperficially Solomon's account of the ANT*, and the erroneous manner in which this account is represented by the commentators, who have added, out of their own fancy, that the ant provides her meat for the winter feafon by her prudent labours in the fummer and harvest. Had Solomon faid fo, and drawn from a commonly received opinion, an occafion to recommend forefight and induftry, we cannot fee how this fhould affect the credit of scripture. But Solomon fays no fuch thing: he only mentions (obferves Mr. NEEDHAM) the provifion which thefe admirable infects accumulate for their young, for themselves against days of ftorm and rain, and for the fick and lame of the community he makes no mention of the winter, in which, it is now well known, that thefe infects lie benumbed in a state of fleep, and ute no food at all. Mr. NEEDHAM, after having juftified Solomon at the expence of the commentators, addreffes fome words of philofophical admonition to certain pretended fages, who forming hafty obfervations of the phenomena of Nature, draw rafh conclufions with refpect to the wifdom of its arrangements, in order to render more than ambiguous the wifdom and goodness of its Author. He draws, with nicety and precision, the line of diftinction between the principle of life and vital motion, which produces, by the fiat of the Creator, the operations and ceconomy of the lower claffes of animals, and the principles of intelligence, perception and fenfation, with which this principle is combined in the higher orders. After granting to M. Buffon, that fuperficial obfervers have been induced by falfe appearances, to attribute to the ant a provident regard to a future period which is beyond its faculties, he denies that the operations of these animals acumulate a grofs habitation, and a multitude of provifions without any end. He fhews, on the contrary, by a curious detail of facts, that all thefe operations have the wifeft and moft beneficent ends, whether the ant is confcious of them or not, and that they tend to the prefervation and fupport of the little republic, by gathering daily provifions for its members, and contributing to the warmth and nourishment of the brood during the fummer and autumnal feafons. It is thus, that with the firit and judgment of a true philofopher, Mr. NEEDHAM afferts the fyftem of final caufes, which are the only pure fources of confolation to man, against the uncomfortable reveries of thole fublime geniufes, who take fuch a frenetic pleasure in making Nature play at Blindman's Buff

Meinoir. Concerning the pernicious Effects of Mufcles. By Monfieur de RONDEAU. This Memoir is little more than a Supplement to the obfervations made on this fpecies of fhell-fish

* PROV. vi. 6, 7, 8.

by

by Dr. Beunie, of which we made particular mention in our account of the first volume of this valuable collection. Dr. Rondeau is a still more keen monitor against muscle eating than Dr. Beunie: he confiders them as dangerous in every season, as well as during the fummer months; and contends, that neither roafting, boiling, nor ftewing, are fufficient to remove their noxious qualities; of which he gives feveral examples in this Memoir. However, to relieve epicures from the confternation into which this alarming decifion muft throw them, he compromises matters by propofing a prefervative against the noxious effects of this delicate food, much more efficacious than the onion, which is ufually boiled with the mufcles for this purpose. This prefervative confifts in vegetable acids and pepper. When your muscles are well wafhed, pafs them through vinegar, and boil them in an earthen pot, with a glafs of vinegar and fome whole grains of pepper. If you chufe to boil them in their fhells, pour into the fhells fome vinegar or verjuice, and a little pepper.We fhall do fo, Doctor.

NEW RESEARCHES. Concerning the nature and economy of Bees, with practical Inftructions adapted to improve this important branch of Husbandry. By Mr. NEEDHAM. This elaborate Memoir administers an important admonition to those who believe too haftily in pretended experiments. Mr. NEEDHAM pulls down and builds, and he does both with a vigorous and mafterly hand. Our Readers will recollect the amazing novelties, founded on experiments, that Mr. SCIRACH* paftor of Little Bautzen in the Upper Lufatia, introduced into the theory of the generation of the Queen-bee, and of the fex of the working bees. According to this theory (which fet a gazing the difciples of Swammerdam, Maraldi and Reaumur) all the honey or working bees, inftead of being neutral in point of fex, are females in difguife, and would have become Queen bees, had they been, when in their worm-ftate, lodged, fed and educated for that purpose. This hypothefis, though buttreffed by experiments, is beat to pieces in the Memoir now before us. The first attack is made by nine observations of Mr. Reim member of the ceconomical fociety of Lauter in the palatinate, which shake the edifice to its very foundations, and our Author's obfervations and counter-experiments complete its deftruction. Mr. NEEDHAM enters ftill farther into the fecrets of the hive, and by a variety of new and important experiments and obfervations, which are here enumerated in ample detail, he unfolds the myfteries of the generation and economy of thefe curious infects. The refult of his researches is as follows: The queen-bee is the only female of the hive,-the drones or males are of two kinds, of which there are always great numbers, as it fometimes happens

• See Rev. Vol. xlviii. p. 62; and Vol. lix. p. 460.

alfo

alfo that there are two forts of queens.The males never copulate with the female, but only render her eggs prolific by the emiffion of a feminal liquor into the cell where the eggs are depofited their number is in proportion to that of the eggs of the female, amounting to feveral thoufands during the feafon of laying there remains a certain number of the smaller kind of drones, faved from the maffacre of the larger fort, which the working bees put to death towards the end of autumn-there are three diftinct kinds of eggs, which produce three diftinct kinds of bees, the female, the males, and the neutrals, without any deviation.Thefe eggs are depofited at random by the female in common cells, and are placed afterwards in their respective ones, generally fpeaking, by the working bees. There are eggs, however, of all forts, which remain in cells, that are not peculiar to them, and from thefe the fmaller kinds of queens and drones derive their birth, by which arrangement the two kinds of drones are preferved, and a new queen bee may be obtained, by placing one of thefe eggs in the royal cell, when the old queen is feparated from the fwarm by any accident.

In order to derive every poffible advantage from the obfervations and experiments contained in this Memoir (as far as they are adapted to multiply the fwarms in our northern climates, where they fuffer fo often by the inclemency of the feafons) Mr. NEEDHAM lays down several useful directions. Thefe directions regard the construction of hives, the manner of placing them, and a number of circumstances relative to the management of these precious infects.The important discoveries of M. Debraw are likewife confidered in this Memoir.

A CHEMICAL ESSAY on Lands, or Soils; defigned to establish fundamental Principles, relative to the cultivation of Heaths. By M. J. B. DE BEUNIE. This Memoir, which contains 117. pages, was read at three different fittings of the Academy. It confifts of fourteen chapters. The two first treat of the neceffity of agriculture, and the confiituent principles of vegetables; the third of the four common elements, as inftruments of vegetation; and the fourth and fifth contain a chemical examination of the foils in the environs of Antwerp: the fixth chapter is employed in inquiries concerning the caufe of fertility, in which the Author confiders clay, rendered active, as the bafis of vegetation, and the fertility of a foil as depending upon the quantity of this fubftance which it contains. In the feventh our Author enumerates all the known methods of improving land, and relates a variety of experiments relative to this object. The three following chapters treat of vegetation, farms, and inclofures. The manner of fertilizing heaths, of improving low and marthy grounds which have a turffy bottom, of forming plantAPP. REV. Vol. lxiv.

M m

ations,

ations, and of employing manure, are the fubjects treated in the four laft chapters.

Memoir. On the origin of accidental Foffils in the Belgic Provinces, to which is prefixed a Difcourfe concerning the Theory of the Earth. By M. DE LAUNAY. In the preliminary difcourfe the learned Academician cenfures thofe fyftem-makers, who, not confidering the various revolutions which this globe has undergone, nor attending to the times and caufes relative to particular phenomena, chufe fome favourite principle or fact, and explain all the phenomena by it alone. The univerfal deluge, the Tertiary mountains formed by the fediment of the waters of the ocean the rivers, rains and running waters-the earthquakes and volcanos, all these have their peculiar effects, according to our Author, and furnish diftinct lights to explain the particular phenomena of Nature, that come under our observation. As, however, an immenfe multitude of phenomena may be yet discovered, we must go on inquiring, and neither be hafty in forming a theory, nor prefumptuous enough to imagine that we may find a perfect one, by combining the materials hitherto discovered.

In explaining the origin of several accidental foffils, and accounting for the discovery of elephant's bones, and several animal and vegetable productions of foreign climates in the interior of our part of the globe, our Academician has recourfe to the DELUGE, and we think he may be eafily brought to terms of accommodation with M. DE Luc on this fubject. He differs, however, from that ingenious naturalift with respect to the variations in the bed and level of the ocean fince that awful period and as M. DE LUC's work is pofterior to the compofition of M. DE LAUNAY'S Memoir, we make no doubt but our Academician will weigh its contents with attention and candour. Whatever may happen, the Memoir before us is replete with curious details, and materials relative to foffils in general, and thofe of the Low Countries in particular; and it fhews our Author to be a learned, intelligent, and careful obferver.

HISTORICAL MEMOIRS.

Points of view relative to several branches of Belgic Hiftory. By the ABBE NELIS. The effects which were produced upon agriculture and civilization in the Belgic provinces by the Roman fettlements in the fouthern parts of that country, the fufpenfion of the progrefs of agriculture by the incurfions of the barbarians, the advantages it derived from the conquefts of the Franks, the divifion of lands, and the establishment of feudal tenures, abbeys, and monafteries; the damages it received from the incurfions of the Normans in the ninth century, and its restoration two centuries after this period, are the fubjects treated in the first part of this Memoir.- The fecond contains an account