We

Percival for the existence of each diftin&t power. argues meet with nothing to tempt us to enlarge on the fubject, or any thing of fufficient interest for an extract.

XXV. On the voluntary Power which the Mind is able to exercise over bodily Senfation. By Thomas Barnes, D. D.We are always pleafed with Dr. Barnes, even when we are led to differ from him. Perhaps, after all, the difpute may be about words; but we fufpect that he is inaccurate, in thinking that the apparent torpor, the temporary infenfibility of the body, while the mind is ftrongly agitated, are owing to the power of the mind over bodily fenfation. Senfation,

strictly speaking, is in the mind; for pain cannot exist in a lacerated or wounded part, fince it depends on the nervous continuity between it and the immaterial principle. It is, therefore, an effect in the mind, in confequence of a change in the body; but, if the mind be not fufceptible of this effect, no pain can follow. When Dr. Barnes adds to his definition, independently of the will,' he feems to have produced the difficulty in which he is entangled. In a perfect animal body, the perception is a neceffary unavoidable confequence of the impreffion; fo that the volition, which is a power of the mind, is improperly introduced, and it is the only circumftance which leads us to think any activity in the mind itself is neceffary to fenfation. This has certainly occafioned our author to afk, if the mind has a direct and immediate power of diminishing sensation by mere volition? We can anfwer, decifively, that it has not; and the author's inftances only prove that, as we have faid, when the mind is not, from its nature, fenfible of the perception, the effect does not follow.' The old foldier, in the operation, felt with the fame feverity as another; but his refolution prevented him from complaining; women, who have very great paflive fortitude, often behave, in fimilar fituations, with equal heroifm. We muft, however, conclude, on the whole, that this article by no means difgraces its author.

XXVI. A Narrative of the Sufferings of a Collier, who was confined more than Seven Days, without Suftenance, and expofed to the Choak-damp in a Coal-Pit not far from Manchefter with Obfervations on the Effects of Famine; on the Means of alleviating them; and on the Action of foul Air on the Human Body. By Thomas Percival, M. D.-The fituation of this poor man was very affecting; but we have nothing very interefting to relate in confequence of it. He died a few hours after he was taken out of the pit, and could not relate any of his fenfations during the time he was in it. He thought

that

that he had been confined two days only, but that they were very long ones. The following relation is curious.

I have been informed, by a young phyfician from Geneva, that, when he was a ftudent at Montpelier, he fafted three nights and four days, with no other refreshment than a pint of water daily. His hunger was keen, but never painful, during the first and fecond days of his abftinence; and the two following days he perceived only a faintnefs, when he attempted either bodily or mental exertion: a sense of coldness was dif fufed over his whole frame, but more particularly affected the extremities. His mind was in a very unusual state of pufillanimity; and he experienced a great tendency to tears, whenever he recollected the circumftance which had been the occa fion of his fafting. During the whole period, the alvine excretions were fuppreffed, but not thofe by the kidney and at the close of it, his skin became tinged with a fhade of yellow. The first food he took was veal broth, which had fomething of an intoxicating effect, producing a glow of warmth, and railing his fpirits, fo as to render him afhamed of his defpondency.'

Dr. Percival then adduces fome obfervations relating to the effects of famine, and the most probable means of leffening the danger of it, by carrying very nutritive fubftances in fmall bulk to fea; or to diminish its effects, for fome time, even without food. He concludes with remarks on mephytis, which he thinks chiefly acts on the nervous system; and, as with all poisons of that kind, its danger will be leffened, if slowly and gradually applied. There is much reafon to think, that the first effect is really on the nervous fyftem; but it must be also a powerful poifon, by preventing the falutary discharge of phlogifton from the lungs, though this is a fecondary effect, and not fenfible till after fome time.

XXVII. Result of fome Obfervations made by Benjamin Rufh, M. D. Profeffor of Chemistry in the University of Philadelphia, during his Attendance as Phyfician-General of the Military Hofpitals of the United States in the late War.Many of thefe Obfervations are common: we shall select two, which are of the lefs ufual kind.

In all thofe cafes where the contagion was received, cold feldom failed to render it active. Whenever an hofpital was removed in winter, one half of the patients generally fickened in the way, or foon after their arrival at the place to which they were fent.

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The army, when it lay in tents, was always more fickly than when it lay in the open air; it was always more healthy when kept in motion than when it lay in an encampment.' XXVIII. Containing Extracts from the Minutes of the Society, relative to the Delivery of the Gold and Silver Medals

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to Edward Huffey Delaval, Esq. F. R. S. and Mr. Thomas Henry, Junior: with

XXIX. The Prefident's Addrefs to the Chair upon that Occafion.-Thefe minutes we need not enlarge on. The gold medal was properly delivered to Mr. Delaval; the filver one to Mr. Henry. But we muft obferve, that the prefident's addrefs is dignified and proper.-Since we have now examined those parts of the volume which we have thought to be most worthy of attention, we shall only add, that, as we have commended an inftitution fo useful and falutary, both in its design and its confequences, we have a wish to render it more completely refpectable. Let us then earneftly recommend to their committees, a little more care in the felection of papers; to be less influenced by connexions and friendship; to look on themfelves no lefs the guardians of their brethren's fame, than of the fplendor and stability of the Society. It is not by the mafs that the difcerning eye will eftimate its fame; for every imperfect reprefentation, every mistaken fact, will detract from the merit of what is really interefting and valuable. With this advice we shall take our leave, expreffing an earnest wish, that we may again meet in better and more profperous circumftances.

A Treatise on the Maritime Laws of Rhodes. By Alexander C. Schomberg, M. A. 8vo. 25. Rivington.

THIS Treatife was, at first, intended as one of the illuftrations of the Chronological View of the Roman Law; but, as the materials were too copious, and the work exceeded the limits defigned for it, the author has now published it as a feparate tract. Mr. Schomberg, as ufual, difplays his learning and his knowledge of the civil law. He enquires into the origin of this famous maritime code, purfues its different fates, and examines its operation in various fituations, till he finds its scattered fragments in the Pandects. He traces the new phoenix, from its afhes, in the Amalfitan Table; the Confolato del Mare; the Laws of Oleron, enacted by our first Richard, on his return from the Holy Land; the Wifbuy Code; and the compilation of the two laft, by the authority. of the Hanfe towns. In the courfe of his enquiry, many collateral circumftances of curiofity and afe are examined; what relates to the Roman trade and marine; the different fituations of Rhodes, in which the code was first compofed; one of the fragments of the Rhodian laws, more certainly a part of the ancient fyftem, viz. that which refpects the ejection' of goods VOL. LXI. June, 1786.

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to lighten the fhip; the connexion of thefe laws with the modern practice; the different claims to the fovereignty of the feas; and the jurifdiction, as well as the conftitution of the court of admiralty.

The origin of the Rhodian laws is confeffedly uncertain. The Rhodians were certainly not the earlieft navigators. Their great fplendor, in this view, was nearly about the age of Homer; but, at least five hundred years previous to that period, the Cretans were celebrated for their skill in navigation; near three hundred years after them, we hear of the Lydians; and almost two hundred years after that time, the Thracians were celebrated as mariners.

But though the Rhodians cannot claim the honour of being the earlieft navigators, they have an undoubted right to a much nobler praife, that of being the first legiflators of the fea : for there is nothing upon record which can lead us to fuppofe any of thofe maritime powers which preceded them had ever appeared in that character. There is, therefore, great truth as well as fpirit in the affertion of an ancient jurist-" That to erect as it were a throne for juftice, on the ocean, and to teach her to regulate the tranfactions of man on that unstable element, with the fame firmness and precifion as on land, was a grand and an original idea of the Rhodians." It is impoffible to fix, with any certainty, the precife time when these celebrated fealaws were first compiled. Harmenopolus of Theffalonica, a juridical writer of the twelfth century, gives them the preeminence over all others as well in antiquity as authority, but does not tell us at what period they first appeared. The moft general opinion feems to be that they were probably compiled about nine centuries before the Christan æra, or foon after that time, when, as we have already feen, Rhodes first acquired the fuperiority on the feas, and maintained it for the space of twenty-four years. There are fome indeed who have called in quefion their great antiquity, attributing them to that age when the city of Rhodes was founded; which, according to Strabo, was in the days of the adminiftration of Pericles at Athens, confequently five centuries later than is ufually conceived. But the geographer, in the very chapter which contains this information, feems to have been aware that a conjecture of this fort might arife, and therefore warns his readers not to date the naval fkill of the Rhodians from this event; for, fays he, they were very famous as a fea-faring people, even before the inftitution of the Olympiads. After all, as there is no exprefs authority for the date of these laws, this part of their history must reft folely upon conjecture; nor can we boaft of much accurate information on a point of greater moment, the time of their reception at Rome, and the degree of influence they held there; though here indeed our authorities are fomewhat more clear and fatisfactory.'

The

The first public introduction of these laws into Rome is placed in the reign of Tiberius Claudius, in the confulship of Q. Aterius Antoninus, and D. Junius Silanus, A. D. 55; though different parts of the code were certainly known, and obferved in Rome, before that period. Their influence feems to have been for a long time merely conditional, and to have depended on a renewal of the imperial fanction, till they were incorporated in the Pandects, and fcattered in the different parts of that immenfe compilation, involved in the doubts, and obfcured by the commentaries of different jurifts: as a separate body of law they exift no longer.

It is a little remarkable, among the various interpretations, and we may add, the very trifling remarks of fome commentators on the following paffage, that our author has not enlarged on the noble one, which the pointing juftifies, and the great character of the emperor renders probably just.

It is a refcript of Antoninus Pius, in anfwer to a petition of Eudæmon, a merchant of Nicomedia, to that emperor, wherein he states, that being fhipwrecked among the Cyclades, his property was feized upon by the officers of revenue. He addreffes the emperor by the title of fovereign, xugos, and he is anfwered in the true fpirit of a Roman, who confidered the world as one country, of which Rome was the princial city. Εγω μεν το κοσμο κυριος ὁ δὲ νόμος της θαλάσσης. Τῳ νόμῳ των Ροδίων κρινεσθω τῷ ναυτικῳ. "I am fovereign of the world, it is true, nevertheless controverfies at fea mufl be determined by the maritime laws of Rhodes, except (as he adds) in cafes where they contradict our own laws."

An obvious interpretation certainly is, I am lord of the world, but the fea is under the jurisdiction of the laws. Let the cause be determined by the naval code of Rhodes.' The antithefis is pointed and beautiful. The fubfequent part, fo far from leffening the credit of the Rhodian laws at Rome, ftrongly confirms it; nor can the emperor, who establishes the authority of a code, and decides by it, be supposed to give up the dominion of the fea. Petit fuggefts aveμos, inftead of vous; but if this reading were the true one, Antonine fhould have referred to Eolus for the decifion : it destroys the whole force and meaning of the paffage.

We shall select the most interesting part of our author's obfervations on the fovereignty of the fea: we mean the most interesting to ourselves.

For what regards our own country in this difpute, it may be proved, by many ancient records, and by a series of undeniable evidence, brought down through various ages, that the kings of England did very early claim to be, and were acknow

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