the different forms and inflections of words are exhibited, so far as seemed proper in a lexicon. Great care has also been paid (so far as the limits of a lexicon will permit) to the interpretation of difficult passages; in order that the work may, in some measure, supply the place of a more extended commentary. Each article, so far as is practicable, contains a reference to every passage in which the word is found; thus rendering this lexicon a complete concordance in more than nine-tenths of the words. And, finally, the most sedulous care has been bestowed to verify all the references, especially those to the New Testament.

Such is the plan of Dr. Robinson's truly valuable work, to the execution of which he has unweariedly and repeatedly devoted many of the best years of his life. His lexicon cannot too soon be acquired by all students, who wish thoroughly and critically to understand the New Testament. Indeed, if they will combine the use of this lexicon with the constant use of their grammar, and will give a close attention to the context and the logical connexion, they can scarcely fail, with the divine blessing, to become "wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." In this way (Dr. Robinson truly remarks) whatever they acquire will be their own, and will remain with them; and they will then know what further aid to seek in commentaries. The true end of a commentary is, not to supersede the student's own investigations, but to aid him to fill out and complete them.

An Introduction to Conchology; or, Elements of the Natural History of the Molluscous Animals. By GEORGE JOHNSTON, M.D., LL.D., F.R.C., Ed. London: Van Voorst. 1850.

WE have often had occasion to notice, and always in terms of high praise, the contributions to scientific literature of which Mr. Van Voorst has been the medium. There is a solidity and consequent value about all that he publishes that at once challenge attention; and the liberal style of illustration which he adopts redounds greatly to the honour of his spirit and enterprise. Under the modest title of an "Introduction" Dr. Johnston presents a closely-printed octavo volume of six hundred pages. If it be but the porch or gate of the science, how vast must be the temple! The book has the charin, common to the publications of Mr. Van Voorst, of great perspicuity of arrangement, while the style is lucid and exhibits a singular freedom from the mystification of technicalities, the stumblingblocks of tyros. The illustrative woodcuts are very numerous and delicately executed-it is altogether a very delightful and attractive volume.

Dr.

Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, Heat, Light Crystalization, and Chemical Attraction, in their Relations to the Vital Force. By KARL, BARON VON REICHENBACH. Translated by W. GREGORY, M.D. Taylor and Walton. 1850. WE think these researches of Reichenbach not only very curious but highly important, as opening a new road of enquiry into some of the most obscure branches of physics, where magnetism, electricity, and nervous irritability seem to meet and combine; and so promising to enlarge the bounds of science by clearing our view somewhat farther into that mysterious gulph which separates, and will for ever separate, the natural from the supernatural-the material from the spiritual creation. Gregory complains of the comparative neglect shown by the men of science in England towards these researches which have been for many years going on; and he published an abridged notice of the earliest of these experiments about three years ago, to which we directed the attention of our readers at the time. The work before us is a fuller account of the same experiments, with very large additions of the experiments which have been prosecuted on a more extensive scale, and with the same results, down to the present time-Dr. Gregory, who is Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, having repeated many of them and attesting the reality of the phenomena, and the uniformity of the effects produced, in his own instances.

We do not think it of any great importance to erquire how far Dr. Gregory's complaint of neglect is well founded; for sure we are that science will make the most steady progress when each man confines himself as an experimentalist to that walk which may be regarded as his own-for which he has been prepared by a long course of training-has often invented the instruments and acquired perfect familiarity with their use. We would leave Reichenbach's experiments in his own hands, believing that they could not be in better hands; and whatever truths he may elicit will assuredly work their own way and find their proper place in due time.

These researches belong to the same mysterious power which Faraday is now endeavouring to explore by means of the galvanic or electric and magnetic instrument; which Dr. Elliotson and others are endeavouring to explore by the mesmeric instrument as developed in the human constitution; and which Reichenbach is endeavouring to show is not limited to either the one or the other of these modes of operation, but pervades all bodies in forms or under modifications which agree with their respective organizations that crystals manifest it in one form and that con

stantly and continuously; magnets under another form, and the human body under another, partaking of both; and that, consequently, these agents and the human frame act and re-act upon each other.

It is not to be wondered at that Faraday, upon whom the mantle of Davy has fallen, should endeavour to sustain the reputation of the institution to which he belongs by a prosecution of similar researches, and with the same instruments, which have given eclat to the name of Davy: this is enough for any one man; and we think that Reichenbach's experiments, which combine many of the facts of animal magnetism, metallic tractors, and things which have been regarded as mere quackerybut which are found to result from latent powers difficult of detection, but which are permanently resident in almost all substances and act sensibly on the human frame-is an enquiry which is sufficient to occupy all the attention of any one man, however able he may be.

We expect that in due time it will be found that these three lines of enquiry are not so wide asunder as they might at first have appeared; and that the power which is resident in man, and may be cooked by nervous action and the exertion of the human will, is analogous to the power of the galvanic battery and the magnet, which act upon inanimate substances; and is also a power pervading all nature, and to be detected in the light of the sun, and moon, and stars, though latent and imperceptible under ordinary circumstances-that is, too subtle to be felt by any but those of highly nervous sensibility.

It was made an objection to Reichenbach's first experiments that nearly all his facts rested on the testimony of nervous patients that is, of persons who were under medical treatment for nervous disorders; which diseases produce excitement and work on the imagination, rendering them little trustworthy in matters of fact. The present volume goes far towards removing this objection, for the majority of those who are the subjects of the recent experiments are in perfect health and belong to various ranks of society, and must be acknowledged as being in all respects unexceptionable witnesses. The work now appears "with a train of nearly sixty sensitive persons as witnesses, male and female, mothers and maidens, children and aged persons, low and high, poor and rich, feeble and vigorous, diseased and healthy.......The most essential addition, however, to the previous observations obtained by this extension of my researches will probably be found in this, that perfectly healthy strong persons take their place in the list of sensitives; that persons who never were ill, and have spent their lives in con

tinual hard bodily labour, perceive the peculiar sensations and the luminous phenomena which I have described in these researches exactly in the same way as females living in the seclusion of the sick room; that neither youth, nor age, nor sex, nor position in society, make any difference in this respect; and that sensitiveness,' as the term is here employed, is not so much a morbid state as rather a peculiarity belonging to many individuals, which only appears more or less strongly marked in different circumstances, and sometimes in a degree hardly perceptible."

It is right that we should state that some of those females from whom Reichenbach had ascertained his early data were subjected to the examination of a committee of medical men who declared them to be impostors. If Reichenbach's account of the mode in which the examination was conducted be a fair account, and we see no reason to doubt it, the examination was disgraceful only to the committee; for they bandaged the eyes, put the patients into a mesmeric sleep, produced magnets and crystals in a light room, asked them what they saw, and reviled them as impostors because they saw nothing. We do not enter into the dispute-Dr. Gregory is quite able to defer d Baron Reichenbach. Nor can we undertake to describe the very remarkable phenomena which are recorded in this volume, It must suffice to say, with Dr. Gregory, that "the author has shown that these most obscure, natural phenomena, like all others, admit of being studied as a part of physical science, and that they will well repay the investigator."

The Doctor's Little Daughter. By ELIZA METEYARD (Silverpen) Illustrated by Harvey. London: Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Co. 1850.

THIS is a very delightful book, especially calculated for the amusement and instruction of our young friends. The features it presents, whether at home or abroad, of the fireside, or the field and forest, are touched with a delicate and graceful hand. The language, though highly poetical, is of that simple character which finds its way at once to the youthful understanding and heart and charms while it instructs; and there is a fine principle of unselfishness and Christian charity maintained and illustrated throughout. It is evidently the production of a right-thinking and accomplished mind. Its value is greatly enhanced by the exquisitely-designed and delicately-engraved wood-cuts with which the leaves are liberally interspersed. They are from the pencil of Mr. Harvey.

Satu Ajiau' Saci Matthew Aburitsia. Saci John Bajia. London. 1850. 12mo.

THIS translation of the Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint John, into the language of the Arawak Indians, has been executed by the Rev. W. H. Brett, a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, on the Pomeroon river in Guiana; where his constant intercourse with these people, and his labours among them, afforded him peculiar facilities for acquiring an accurate knowledge of their language, and reducing it to a consistent and uniform system of orthography. The Foreign Translation Committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (to whose labours auxiliary to missionary efforts we hope in no long time to direct the attention of our readers), have adopted and published Mr. Brett's work, on the recommendation of the Demerara Committee of that Society, and with the sanction of the Bishop of Guiana, who bears ample testimony to the value of Mr. Brett's services and talents, as a missionary to the Indians.

We select the Lord's Prayer, Matt. vi. 9-13, as a specimen of this language, which (we think) will be interesting to our readers:

"9..

kitwan bia.

W'acinaci, a'omun kondi bui, Saren bu' iri

10. B'uisauka andiate. B'ansisia onyili bia ororo ajengo aiomun jin.

11. B'isikate wamun tanahu kasakabo bia wa melia.

12. B'odokodate wa maiaundisia waurca, waii adokodon amaiaundicino u jin.

13. Masikia ba wakaia ikisidahu olokomuni u, tumoroa b'oborata wakaia orea u: Isauka, tata okona, kalimetri, b'amunin odoma, maiibonwatu bia kiduain.'

This translation of the Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint John has been carried through the press by Mr. Brett himself: and with the view of rendering the book as attractive as possible to the semi-barbarous people for whose benefit and instruction it is designed, and who (Mr. Brett states) derive great pleasure and learn much from pictures, the Foreign Translation Committee of the Christian Knowledge Society, at his earnest request, have illustrated the book with woodcuts, judiciously selected from prints which have already received the Society's sanction by being introduced into their Family Bible.

The "Arawacas,' or Arawak Indians, were known to our illustrious countryman, Sir Walter Raleigh, in his first expedition to Guiana in 1595. Since that time nothing appears to have transpired respecting this tribe, until they were sought out