We are happy from a note to this page to find that the author is engaged in experiments on the acrid principle of vegetables. The acrid principle of the arum entirely disappears on exposing the root to the air, or by drying. The fæcula, thus obtained, loses its acrimony on being thoroughly dried, and forms a very white, delicate and nutritive substance.' It may hence become a very valuable article in the diet of the sick. Coptis Trifolia-Gold thread. The dark sphagnous swamps, which in the northern parts of our continent are covered with a perpetual shade of firs, cedars and pines, are the favourite haunts of this elegant little evergeen. The coldest situations seem to favour its growth, and it flourishes alike in the morasses of Canada and of Siberia. On our highest mountain tops it plants itself in little bogs and watery clefts of rocks, and perfects its fructification in the short summer allowed it in those situations. I have gathered it upon the summit of the Ascutney in Vermont, and on the Alpine regions of the White mountains. It is here that in company with the Diapensia and Azaleas of Lapland, the blue Menziesia, the fragrant Alpine Holcus, and other plants of high northern latitudes, it forms the link of botanical connexion between the two continents. When in situations like this, we seem transported to the frigid zone, and to be present at the point where the hemispheres approach each other, as if to interchange their productions. pp. 60, 61. 6 Of the plant, which interests us so much in its description by the author, and of which a beautiful and accurate plate is given, we are first presented with the sensible and chemical properties. The root of this plant is a pure intense bitter, scarcely modified by any other taste. In distillation it communicates no decided sensible quality to water. The constituent with which it most abounds is a bitter extractive matter, soluble both in water and alcohol. p. 63. For the remainder of the analysis, and for its medicinal uses, the result of the author's own observations, together with its pharmaceutical preparations, we refer our readers to the work itself. Arbutus Uva Ursi-Bear Berry. We pass over this plant without a particular notice. The same mode of investigation, however, it should be remarked, has been pursued by the author with this plant, which governed him in his treatises on the articles already noticed, and we regret we cannot give it more particular attention. Vol. VI. No. 3. 47 The seventh plate, exhibits a portrait of the Sanguinaria Canadensis, commonly called Blood Root. This plate appears to us to be an accurate likeness of the object it is designed to represent. In the shape and number of its petals it agrees with nature. Its fine white flowers, in the language of the author, proceed from the bosom of a young, convoluted leaf. The colour of the root is after nature, and the manner in which the new plants are given off is very distinctly exhibited. The flower and leaf are shown contained in their appropriate sheath. Following the botanical description of this fine plant, is a chemical analysis of its root by the author. We can only give the results. The experiments made on this substance, gave evidence of the following constituent principles, viz. 1. A peculiar resin. 2. A bitter principle. 5. A fibrous or woody portion.' The medical (we have before given our preference to medicinal) properties of the Sanguinaria are those of an acrid narcotick. When taken in a large dose it irritates the fauces, leaving an impression in the throat for a considerable time after it is swallowed. It occasions heartburn, nausea, faintness and frequently vertigo and diminished vision. At length, it vomits, but in this operation it is less certain than other emetics in common use. The above effects are produced by a dose of from eight to twenty grains of the fresh powdered root.' The authorities for the medecinal uses of this plant are Professor Nathan Smith, before mentioned, Professor Ives of New Haven, (in a letter to the author,) and the late Dr. James Macbride of Charleston, also contained in a letter to the author. The eighth plate, is the Geranium Maculatum. For the author's analyses which are principally directed to the examination of its astringent qualities, and the results of his experience with the plant in diseases, we are obliged to refer to the work. Plate Ix. Triosteum Perfoliatum-Fever Root. The plate to this article agrees with nature, with the description in the book, and with the authorities referred to. The shape and size of the leaf, its claborate finish, the colour of the flowers, and 6 berries or fruit, strike us as being peculiarly correct. The fruit,' observes Dr. Bigelow, is an oval berry of a deep orange colour, hairy, somewhat three sided, crowned with the calyx, containing three cells and three hard, bony furrowed seeds, from which the name of the genus is taken.’ (p. 92.) To this description the following note is added ;Pursh observes that the flowers and berries are purple. In all the specimens I have examined, which have not been few in number, the fruit was of a bright orange colour. If Pursh has seen a plant with purple berries, it is probably a different species from the true plant of Linnæus and Dillenius, which had fructus lutescentes.' The late Professor Barton and Dr. John Randall are referred to as authorities for the medicinal uses and effects of the Triosteum. Dr. Randall's interesting dissertation, read before the Linnæan Society of New England, contains the details of about thirty cases in which he used this article. The inferences are generally stated, together with an abstract of his experiments, made with a view to discover in which of its constituents its active powers reside. Dr. Bigelow's own experience, though not very extensive with this article, has been sufficient to satisfy him, that it possesses valuable medicinal virtues. The tenth and last plate in this volume is the Rhus Vernix -Poison Sumach, or Dogwood. The objects of the author in introducing this article into his work, appear to be to point out its poisonous properties, the means of remedying them, and the economical uses of which its juice is susceptible. These objects are certainly very interesting, and they are pursued in a manner to render them highly useful. The author submitted the juice of the Rhus Vernix to chemical examination, and his experiments are carefully detailed. In closing our analysis of Professor Bigelow's work, we deem it our duty to remark that the intentions of the author, as detailed in the quotation from his preface, are never lost sight of in the prosecution of his labours. We have accompanied him, and with pleasure, through details of chemical experiments, and of medical investigations. His botanical descriptions have not fatigued, for they have satisfied us. We have scen the author in every page of his book, and have not been less gratified, when he has spoken in his own person, than when he has used the language of another. He has per mitted us to enter his laboratory, and to be witnesses of his manipulations; and among the best recommendations of the articles treated in his work, are the free declarations of his own experience. We have no hesitation in saying explicitly, that the work just analysed has advanced the sciences to which it has been devoted, and that we look forward with earnestness for the remaining volumes. We have not attempted a comparison of these works which we have been reviewing, either as it relates to their plates, or their other contents. Neither do we mean to institute such a comparison now. Our views have been distinctly stated, and we trust adhered to. By the liberality of quotation, these works are their own reviewers. We have furnished the materials of independent criticism,-we yield them to our readers, for we have not left ourselves room to employ them. ART. XIII. Letters from the South, written during an excursion in the summer of 1816. By the author of John Bull and Brother Jonathan, &c. &c. New York, J. Eastburn & Co. 1817. 2 vols. THESE letters comprise occasional sketches' of Virginia, and other things. The plan is to make an excursion into Virginia and defray the expenses by writing a book about whatever the regular built traveller,' as he styles himself, happens to see or think of, during his tour; which plan be executes with great fidelity, insomuch that his readers would not have been dissatisfied, had he even omitted some parts of what he has accomplished. He announces himself in the title page as the author of John Bull and Brother Jonathan, two works of some celebrity in their time; and intimates in his motto that he has a jocular way with himself, and maintains throughout the journey, the air and pretention of being a very clever, queer fellow. He finds great cause of merriment in the theories about the original peopling of this continent, and seems to have shaken his sides much over geological systems. He has undoubtedly read Tooke's Pantheon, and more or less of Lempriere's Classical Dictionary, for he speaks familiarly of daddy Neptune'-makes an elegant allusion to Phaëton, whom he calls a tandem gentleman of ancient times'-introduces the sisters of the said Phaëton, who were stiff, upright, slender tabbies, he'll be bound, and were changed into poplars 6 for enticing Diana at a tea party, and, what is a still better thing, mentions Dan Homer' as having kept a grammar school at Smyrna ; all which we take to be right humorous and laughable. There are also divers ingenious puns and sprightly sallies scattered through these letters; for instance, the spots on the sun frightened some women into the spotted fever,' and the Dutchman of Wier's Cave makes the most of a long story, being doubtless the best he had to his back,' and much more of the same sort, all done in the same waggish, inimitable manner. Meantime higher matters are not forgotten; the causes that can and cannot produce a division of the United States are discussed,-literature is reviewed under the three divisions of poetry, prose, and criticism-the representative system is analysed-a single combat between a dog and a pig is described, from which the latter comes off superiour, and takes the enemy's artillery,' videlicet, a hollow bone' and wholesome animadversions are made upon short sleeves and petticoats, bankers and paper money, the mathematicks and the abominable practice of waltzing. The writer sets his face redoubtably against all imitation, and in his resolute determination to be original, he sometimes goes near to illustrate one of his own remarks, that every avenue to rational originality is so completely choaked up by preceding writers, that there is now no way of being original, except by being absurd.' p. 47. vol. 1. It is a lamentable thing for those authors who are under the necessity of supplying the publick with originality, that their predecessors have exhausted the stock, and we think it would be no more than reasonable in the publick to excuse them from making books, especially as it seems that every thing has been already said and often repeated. When the publick shall have the justice to grant this indulgence, it will probably cease to hear the complaints of authors who are now subjected to the hard requisition of being original at the expense of making themselves rediculous. It seems that the author of John Bull &c. is a Northerner, who floundered' into Virginia with a pack of prejudices as large as a peddlar's,' and expected the first ceremony on his entering the state would be to gouge him and strangle him with mint julap whether he would or no; but to his great surprise he found himself permitted to look at the country and the people with both his eyes, and take as little of mint julap as he pleased. On the whole he found the Virginians, though a |