FOREIGN CATALOGUE.

FRANCE.

ART. 51. Des Prifons de Philadelphie; par un Européen (La Rochefoucauld-Liancour). Paris.

The criminal legislation of Penfylvania was heretofore cruel; the management of the prifons harth and fevere. Within the laft feven years a reform has been produced in both, and the fuccefs has furpaffed the hopes of thofe who had conceived this laudable project. The legiflation, become more mild, pronounces the pain of death againft murder only, with malice and premeditation. The prifons of Philadelphia, formerly the receptacles of idleness, and the fchool of vice, are become houfes of industry, of repentance, and general improvement. How has this change been effected? This is what is explained in the account before us, compofed by the author, during the prevalence of profcriptions in his own country, on the fpor.

The new mode of government adopted in the prifons of Philadelphia, is founded on this moral axiom, that punishment ought to have for its object the reform of the offender, and to fupply him with the means: and on this other of a political kind, that the detention of a convict being to be regarded as a reparation made to fociety, the latter ought not to be burthened with the expence of it.

Hence, 1, every thing concurs in thefe places of confinement to make the prisoners forget their former habits, and to lead them to reflect on themselves; 2, injuftice, arbitrary and bad treatment, are pro fcribed in this houfe, for they fhock the mind, instead of difpofing it to repentance; 3, the prifoners are employed in productive labour, to enable them to fupport the charges of the prifon; that they may not remain idle; and to prepare for them fome refource against the time when their captivity is to cease.

Thofe who are convicted of crimes, which before were punished with death, are, at prefent, only fubject to a detention of greater or lefs length, but always with the clause of folitary confinement; others to fimple detention only. The duration of the folitary confinement is fixed by the law; it cannot exceed one half, nor be lefs than one twelfth part, of the time of detention; this is to be regulated by the judges.

The convict condemned to folitary confinement, is in a fort of cell of eight feet by fix, and of nine in height; into which light is admitted by a window, and which is warmed by a ftove in the paffage. Every precaution is taken to keep up the falubrity of the cells; they are white-wafhed twice a year; they are each provided with a waterclofet; the prifoner lies on a matrafs, furnished with a coverlid. Here he has no communication with any one; even the turn-key he fees

once

once a day only, when he brings him a fort of coarfe pudding, made of the flour of maize and of molaffes, which forms his whole nourishment. The inspectors of the prifon, after the example of the founders of religions, confider the dietetic regimen of the prifoner, as conducing very much, in addition to the opportunity which he has in this feclufion for reflection and remorfe, to his reformation.

When the time of the folitary confinement is expired, the convicts. are placed among the other prifoners, who are all employed in bufinefs fuited to their ftrength and their capacity. Some are weavers, fhoemakers, carpenters, taylors; others are occupied in cutting marble, in polifhing it, in carding wool, beating hemp, &c. by which they will earn from 25 fous to a dollar (5 livres) a day. A manufacture of nails employs a great number of hands, and is very profitable to the houfe. The women are occupied in fpinning, fewing, dreffing hemp, bleaching. From the produce of thefe different employments the prifoners are maintained; the reft is referved for the time of their quitting the prifon.

The chambers in which the prifoners Aeep, contain from ten to twelve beds each, provided with a matrafs, fheets, and coverlids. Each perfon has his own. At break of day they leave them, nor do they return to them till night; they are then fhut up in them without light.

In the morning before they go to work, the convicts are obliged to wash their hands and face. In the fummer they are bathed twice a month, in a bafon formed in the middle of the court. They change their linen, and are shaved twice a week. All continued converfation is forbidden among them; as it is also to speak of the causes of their detention, or to reproach one another on that account, At table the fame filence is obferved. Their breakfast and fupper confiit of a pudding made of flour of maize and molaffes. For their dinner they have half a pound of meat, vegetables, and half a pound of bread. Their drink is water. If any one tranfgrefs the rules of the house, he has a first admonition; if he perfifts, he is ordered to folitary confinement. The fame conduct is obferved with respect to the idle who will not work.

When they quit the prifon, the convicts receive the overplus of the produce of their labour; there are inftances of perfons who, after a detention of fix months, have left the prifon with 50 gourdes, or dollars, of real gain.

Such is, fays the author, the admirable effect of this new regimen, that 280 prifoners confined at this time in the prifons of Philadelphia, are guarded by five men only, without arms, and without dogs; and that of 100 convicts who leave this prison, two have not returned to it. The author examines whether these regulations of the prisons can be introduced into France.

"Les obftacles à vaincre," fays he, "pour réuffir dans cette entreprife, feront énormes. Mais ils étoient grands en Amérique, ils étoient crus tels; tous les préjugés étoient contraires à cette innovation, et le courage perfévérant de quelques zélés citoyens en a triomphé. Il ne faut que trouver des hommes qui fe dévouent fans relâche à cet important effai; et il s'en trouvera en France. Si cet é'at préfentoit, avant la révolution, plus de corruption peut-être que beaucoup d'autres ; fi,

puis la révolution, il a montré plus d'atrocités et d'horreurs qu'à peine on en pouvoit imaginer, il a toujours exifté, il exifte et il existera toujours, au milieu de cette corruption et de ces crimes, des hommes d'une vertu pure, entreprenante, courageufe, prêts à tout faire pour le bien de l'humanité!..... et qui n'attendent, pour se montrer avec utilité, qu'on fage gouvernement qui leur en donneroit, ou qui leur en laifferoit les moyens." Efpr. d. Journ.

ART. 52. Leçons d'Anatomie comparée, de G. Cuvier, membre de l'Infitut national, &c. recueillies et publiées fous fes yeux, par C. Dumeril, chef des travaux anatomiques de l'école de médecine de Paris. Tame ler, contenant les organes du mouvement, et Tome II, contenant les organes des fenfations. 2 large volumes in 8vo. of near 700 pp. each. Pr. 10 fr. at Paris.

The author treats fucceffively of the bones, and of the muscles, which compofe each part of the body, of the brain, of the nerves, and of the organs of the fenfes, confidered in man, and in all the other claffes of animals. Thus, in the Lecture which has the eye for its object, he treats feparately of the membranes, humours, nerves, the mufcles, the eye-lids, the glands, &c. He defcribes the stracture of each of thefe parts in general, and the modifications which it receives in the different claffes; deducing from them the general uses of the part; and the particular ufes in thofe feveral claffes. Every lecture is preceded by phyfiological views on the part which conftitutes its object; as the whole work is by general confiderations on the animal economy and its laws.

The ft volume is terminated by fynoptic tables of the different claffes of animals, arranged after a method peculiar to the author.

Ibid

ART. 53. Zoographie dés diverses regions tant de l'ancien, que du nouveau continent, offrant avec la notice géographique de chaque contrée, l'hiftoire naturelle abrégée des mammifères et des oifeaux qui en font originaires ou qui s'y font naturalifés, claffes d'après le fyfteme de Linné, et défignés tout à la fois par les dénominations de cet auteur et par celle conformes à la méthode de Lacepède, qui a été fuivie dans l'arrangement des galeries du muféum national d'hiftoire naturelle de Paris; ouvrage accompagné d'un atlas dont les cartes renferment les noms et les figures des animaux placés dans les régions mêmes qu'ils habitent; par L. F. Jouffret, membre des plufieurs fociétés feavantes. First and fecond liv raifon, large 4to. containing, befides the text, fix zoographical charts. Price of the two livrailons 15 fr. black, and 20 fr. coloured, Paris.

This elegant work, ornamented with charts which may be regarded as the first that France poffeffes in this department of fcience, muft undoubtedly be confidered as a valuable acquifition by all amateurs of Natural History. Affifted with the advice and information of the two celebrated zoologifts, Lacepède and Cuvier, the author has endeavoured to render more perfect the work of Zimmerman on geographi

cal

cal zoology. The figures of the animals are defigned by Desève, engraved by Pierron, and the text is from the prefs of Crapelet. Ibid.

ART. 54. Introduction à l'étude de la botanique, ouvrage orné de dix planches coloriées, contenant un difcours fur l'accord des fciences naturelles; un traité complet et comparé des organes des plantes et des fonctions de ces organes à toutes les époques de leur vie, dans lequel les termes d'usages en botanique font appliqués et expliqués; une expofition particulière des organes des plantes connues fous le nom de Cryptogames; les principes de l'art de décrire d'après Linné; des détails fur l'habitation des plantes, leurs vertus, leurs ufages, leur culture et la manière de les arranger et de les conferver en herbier; l'expofition des méthodes générales de Tournefort, Linné, Juffieu, et des méthodes particulières des fougères de Smith, des mouffes d'Hedwig et de Bridel, des champignons de Bulliard, c. arvic des tables qui donnent à cet ouvrage la commodité d'un Dictionnaire, par J. C. Philibert, 3 vol. in 8vo. Paris.

The title of this work fufficiently points out its contents, but it might certainly have appeared with a less moderate defignation than that of an Introduction to the Study of Botany. It may be regarded as a complete fource of this fcience, fince it prefents, in a circumftantial and fatisfactory way, all that is neceffary to make us acquainted with the organic parts of plants and their functions; the places where they grow, their virtues, their ufes; the fyftems of the beft mafters, defigned to form a methodical arrangement of them; Latin and French, and French and Latin tables, both of the terms and of the plants, of which an explanation is given in the three volumes. At the end of the laft are ten plates, well engraved, and carefully coloured, referring to each of the claffes which compofe the methods of Tournefort, Lin néus, and Juffieu. Ibid.

ART. 55. Voyages dans les deux Siciles, et dans quelques parties des Apennins, par Spallanzani, profefeur d'hiftoire naturelle dans l'univerfité de Pavie: traduits de l'Italien par G. Totcan, bibliothecaire du museum national d'hiftoire-naturelle de Paris, avec des notes du C. Faujas-deSaint-Fond. 6 vols. in 8vo. with cuts. Pr. 22 fr. 50 cent. Paris.

We mention this translation of a work, the character of which, in the original language, is already fufficiently eftablished, on account of the improvements and additions which it has here received, both by the obfervations and corrections of the celebrated naturalift, M. Faujasde-Saint-Fond, and likewife by the valuable historical and geographical notes of the tranflator, on the environs of Naples, as well as on Sicily and Mount Etna.

Ibid.

ART. 56. Notice fur la vie littéraire de Spallanzani, par J. Lourdes, docteur en médicine de l'univerfité de Montpellier. Paris.

To write the life of Spallanzani, that is to fay, the hiftory of the great difcoveries of one of the most able and ingenious examiners of

nature

nature, is to place before the eyes of the public a sketch of the wonders which have occupied this naturalift for a long feries of years. If it be an advantage to fee fo many interefting objects compreffed within a fmall space, they have unquestionably an additional value and degree of utility, when they are retraced by a man who has lived many years with Spallanzani, who has diligently attended to the progrefs of his inveftigations, and whofe knowledge of natural hiftory, and of the animal economy, enabled him to judge of, and fometimes to combat the conclufions which he drew from them. Such is the idea which will be formed of M. Lourdes, by those who read this life, and the notes with which it is accompanied, Ibid.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The book, after which "A Conftant Reader" enquires, has, by fome accident, not yet come before us; it will not be forgotten.

We thank another friend for a review of a medical book, but it is an invariable rule with us never to infert an anonymous communication.

We have forwarded Mr. Perkins's Letter to the correfpondent whom it more immediately concerns.

We are much obliged by Mr. Butler's kind and friendly Letter, and will, without delay, enquire after the books he .mentions.

We with Mr. Jones fuccefs in the work he meditates, and cannot perhaps propofe to him better models, than Mr. Nichols and Mr. Shaw, whofe valuable labours on Leicestershire and Staffordshire have been noticed at fome length in the Britifh Critic.

We have not feen the new edition of Allan Ramfay's Poems, when we do, we fhall not be inattentive to the hint from "Fleet-Street."

We perfectly agree with B. B. in the matters he fuggefts. In the early periods of our undertaking, there were reafons for obferving a different conduct; but latterly he may have feen many proofs that we think with him, and more will constantly arife.

LITERARY