firft, and begins the second, &c. There are degrees conjoint, and degrees disjoint. "The firft are found between every line and space adjoining. The laft are thofe which, instead of following each other immediately, leave an interval between, more or less great." The inconfiftency and contradiction here fhown, by firft de fining the term degree, in the fenfe of conjoint only, and then extending its fignification to make it ferve for fkip or leap, as disjoint, is unworthy of a scientific and profeffional undertaking like the prefent ;, and, indeed, fince the word degree, taken in thefe fenfes, becomes perfectly the fame as interval, it may be confidered as wholly useless in the new French system. Section 11. Of Intervals. We arrive here at a little more accuracy; and, in the next, Section 111. Of Natural Intervals of every Species. We gain a tolerable infight into the different kinds of intervals, and the major with the minor 2nds and 3rds, 6ths and 7ths, are explained; the 4th and 5ths, although not liable to the fame diflinctions, may become fuperfluous or diminished. P. 16. In reckoning intervals (including the 8ve, and excluding the unifon or prime) they are divided into feven concords and fix difcords. Diffonant Intervals. Major 2nd} Diffonances in harmony, but not in melody. Superfluous 4th, afcending Diminished 5th, defcending Diffonance. Minor 7th, defcending All this claffification is correct, and some of the hints useful. A fmall impropriety occurs in refpect of the second not being diffonant in melody; but as this depends on the definition of the term diffonant, we fhall not be unneceffarily severe upon it. Thus Thus far only are we at prefent able to examine this production of the French Confervatory; in our concluding remarks, we apprehend fimilar cenfure will be required; but we will not prejudge what we have as yet only curforily perused. (To be concluded in our next.) ART. IV. A general Syftem of Nature, through the Three grand Kingdoms of Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals; Jyftematically divided into their feveral Claffes, Orders, Genera, Species,, and Varieties, with their Habitations, Manners, Economy, Structure, and Peculiarities. Tranf lated from Gmelin's laft Edition of the celebrated Syftema Natura, by Sir Charles Linné, amended and enlarged by the Improvements and Difcoveries of later Naturalifts and Societies, with appropriate Copper-Plates. By William Turton, M. D. Author of the Medical Gloffary. Vol. I. to IV. (Animals), 8vo. 3170 pp. with Three Plates. 21. 10s. Lackington, &c. 1802-1804. THE neceffity of fyftematic arrangement in investigating any confiderable number of individuals, has been always felt; and many authors have, for a long time, been occupied in this very useful defign. Among thefe indefatigable writers, none has attained a higher rank than the juftly celebrated Linnæus, whose inestimable work is now exhibited to our countrymen in an English form. The Syftema Natura of Linnæus paffed through twelve editions, under the care of the author himfelf; and, from a rough sketch of a few folio pages (for the first edition was nothing more) it grew to the magnitude of five octavo volumes. The twelfth edition was published in 1766; fince which time, numerous additions having, by the industry of his followers, been made to the genera and fpecies there enumerated, Profeffor Gmelin thought proper to give a new edition, with thefe additions. Had this been executed with a due degree of care, the scientific world would have been under great obligations to him; but the cafe was far otherwife, for Gmelin feems, throughout his whole edition, to have been more anxious to *The first volume which begins the botanical part, is also publish ed, and the whole is to be completed in seven volumes. augment augment the fize of the work, than to improve upon the original. Hence, it has happened, that notwithflanding feveral new ge nera and fpecies are added to thofe mentioned in the twelfth edition of Linnæus, yet every well-informed naturalist prefers that edition, with all its imperfections, to the enlarged one of Gmelin. The removal of the Amphibia Nantes to the clafs of fishes, and the new arrangement of the mineral kingdom may, indeed, be confidered as improvements; these, however, are more than counterbalanced, by the multiplication and inperfect difcrimination of the new fpecies, the unneceffary alteration which he has made in the vegetable kingdom, and by his having incorporated the fubtleties of the Fabrician entomology with the plain and fimple fyftem of Linnæus. Befides thefe faults in Gmelin's edition, many others are well known to exift in it. It was, in fact, a mere commercial fpeculation, and was executed without any regard to accuracy. Additions were collected from every quarter, and inferted without examination, and without any care to blend their characters and differences into thofe of the genera and fpecies which had already a place in the fyftem. It is evident, therefore, that Dr. Turton has manifefted no fmall want of judgment, in choofing fo wretched an edition of the Syftema Naturæ for the ground-work of his translation. He profeffes, in his Preface (the flimfy contexture and style of which are fufficiently difgufting) to amend and enlarge the edition of Gmelin, by the improvements and discoveries of later naturalifts, particularly noticing Dr. Latham in the ornithological department, Fabricius in entomology, and Wildenow in respect to the fpecies of plants. To these sources of information, no objection can be made; yet it is easy to obferve, in many places, the rude and unfkilful manner in which the materials, taken from them, are incorporated with the voluminous and inaccurate compilation of the German Profeffor. To make room for the above alterations, Dr. Turton has, in the three fi ft volumes, generally omitted the fynonymes and references to the figures. In the fourth volume, however, which comprizes the class of worms, the references to the figures are` preferved. We allow, indeed, that (on account of the difficulty of defcribing the fpecies of this clafs) they are here particulary neceffary, and cannot well be omitted; yet furely it would have been far more fyftematica!, to have retained them uniformly in all the claffes. Independent of the bad choice of the lateft, but most incorrect edition, instead of the best, and the unfkilful mode in which the newly difcovered genera and fpecies are added, we Have to regret the manner in which the translation itself has been executed. Dr. Turton seems to have been by no means aware of the refponfibility which muft of neceffity attach to the tranflator of Linnæus's Syftema Naturæ. Such a work, if well executed, would be of claffical authority in natural hiftory; and, therefore, it required more than ordinary attention in respect to the propriety and neatness (perhaps it would not be too much to add elegance) of the language. The general nature of the work, which embraces feveral different branches of natural hiftory, renders the task of translating it a difficult one; few individuals being perfectly acquainted with the most proper terms already ufed by the Englih writers on each feparate branch; yet this knowledge was furely effential to a due execution of the tranflation. Of this difficulty, Dr. Turton, however, feems to have been totally infenfible; and yet we cannot, after attentively perufing thefe four volumes, flatter him fo far as to fay, that this infenfibility did, in any measure, arise from a well-founded confidence in his own powers, for we have seldom perused a worse tranflation. The English tranflators of Linnæus, not only in botany, but also in the other branches of natural history, are justly charged with a most wanton and unjuftifiable abuse of language; and the prefent tranflator treads clofely in their footfteps. Injudicioufly copying the concife diction of the Latin language, he has, like his predeceffors, endeavoured to tranflate each Linnæan term by a fingle word, fimilar in its form to the original, not withstanding cuftom has, in many cafes, occafioned fuch English word to affume a fignification widely different from its Latin original. But, in thofe cafes where the idea to be prefented would have required feveral words to express it, he has not fcrupled to adopt the Latin word, with the mere change of its termination. This highly reprehenfible manner of tranflating, which is almoft peculiar to works on natural hiftory, and which would be deferyedly laughed at, if cuftom had not, in fome measure, reconciled it to our ears, is fo injurious to the purity and elegance of our language, that we think it our duty, at all times, to express our unequivocal cenfure of a conduct which can originate only in indolence or in ignorance. That fuch a mode of tranflation is not neceffary, we are certain, from the example of the French and Germans; and furely the saving of a few words, is dearly purchafed at the expence of introducing an immenfe number of barbarous primitives, and of admitting derivatives, in direct oppofition to every analogy of the fpeech of our ancestors. The The prefent four volumes contain, as we have already said, only the animal kingdom, divided, as by Linnæus himself, into fix claffes, here called, 1. Mammalia; 11. Birds; III. Amphibia; IV. Fishes; v. Infects; and, vi. Worms. Of thefe claffes, the four first, on account of the few fpecies they contain, are comprised in the firft volume; the fifth class (Infects) occupies the fecond and third volume; and the fixth (Worms) is contained in the fourth volume. The whole fyftem will, as we are informed, take up seven volumes; in the last of which is to be given, not only a general explanatory dictionary, of fuch terms as are peculiarly appropriate to the science, but also a biographical account of the original author, with his portrait. Throughout the whole, Dr. Turton has marked the British fpecies with an afterifk; but, as to the emendations which, from the title, we were led to expect, they are fo few, and so trifling, as to be almoft intirely invifible; on the other hand, many even of the most glaring faults of Gmelin are left intirely uncorrected, and several errors are added by the tranflator. In the Mammalia, Dr. Turton has retained the union of the genus Noctilio with Vefpertilio; on account, it is probable, of the fimilar habit of thofe animals, although they are so distinct in respect to the teeth; on which latter character, the divifion of this clafs into orders, and even into genera, is chiefly founded; we are not certain of the propriety of this procedure. In Mammalia Bruta, there is added to the genera which were enumerated in the edition of Gmelin, not only Sukotyro, but alfo that fingular genus Platypus, better known by Blumenbach's more expreffive name of Ornithorhynchus. As a fpecimen of this part of the tranflation, we fhall extract the defcription of the cat, being a well-known animal. *Catus. "MAMMALIA. FERE. Felis. Tail annulate. 1. Tail annulate with brown; body with blackish ftripes, dorfal ones longitudinal, lateral ones fpiral. 3 2. Lefs; hair fhorter, thicker. 3. Hair longer, filvery, filky, longeft on the neck. Wild Cat. Domeftic Cat. Angora Cat. Tortoife-fbell Cat. Blue Cat. 4. Variegated with black, white, and orange. 5. Hair blue-grey. yellow. Chinese Cat. 8. Reddish-yellow; head long, fnout fharp; legs fhort, claws weak; ears round, flat. 9. Tail twisted. Yellow Cat. Madagascar Cat. |