In the ninth chapter, our author treats of the office and qualifications of the minifters of the gofpel, and the proper conduct of the people towards them. In entering upon this fubject, he points out the reasons why the chriftian miniftry, which is, in itself, adapted to promote the greatest and most sublime purpose that rational beings can have in their view, has been treated, especially in these modern times, with fo much contempt and fcorn. He obferves, that the whole tribe of the gay and voluptuous, the vain and luxurious, the giddy and unthinking, would not have made fo formidable a party, against the credit and influence of the minifters of Chrift, if too many, who have affum'd that character, had not furnish'd weapons against their own cause, and increas'd the ftrength of the enemy by their imprudent and irregular conduct; their infatiate thirst after riches; their fierce contentions for preheminence and greatnefs; their unlimited pride, and defire of dominion over the faith of their fellow chriftians; their indolence, and felf-gratification; their expreffing a much warmer, and more intense zeal for their own peculiar emoluments and powers, for the external conftitution of churches, and for human rites and ceremonies, than for the plain effential truths and precepts of the gospel; their animofities among themselves; their oppreffions of fcrupulous confciences; their fupplanting, and rigidly cenfuring one another for involuntary errors, about points of very remote and inconfiderable use; their confining chriftianity, and the communion of faints to those of their own fentiments and spirit; and their endeavouring to raise, establish, or extend their popularity, by infusing unjust prejudices against the characters and labours of others. As all the branches of duty which belong to chriftian minifters in general, may be reduced under one part, or other, of the following exhortation of St. Peter, viz. the elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder. -Feed the flock of God, which is among you; taking the over fight thereof not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being enfamples to the flock; the doctor gives a minute description of the nature and defign of the minifterial office, with refpect to all the feveral branches, into which St. Peter has divided it, following the order prescribed in the exhortation. After this he proceeds to fhew, that it is incumbent upon the people to behave in a respectful manner towards their N 3 minifters minifters, and treat them at all times with due efm and honour; to allow them a proper fupport; to attend on the miniftration of the word, as well as on the other public fervices of religion; to allow their minifters to declare every thing, which they think to be an important truth, cr duty of the gofpel, how much foever it may differ from received and eftablished fentiments and forms; to put the moit candid conftructions on their publick difcourfes, and on every part of their behaviour; and to engage them as little as poffible in private quarrels and difputes, either as principals, evidences, or judges; left they prejudice them in the efleem of one or other of the contending parties, and thereby leffen their influence upon the whole. (To be concluded in our next.) ART. XXII. An Effey on the vital and other involuntary motions of Animals. By Robert Whytt, M D. Fellow of the Royal College of Phyficians, and Profeffor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, &c. 8vo, 5s. Wilfon. WE are furnished with a proof, in this learned and moft ingenious performance, of the confiderable fuccefs that may attend an inveftigation of the abftrufest phyfiological fubjects, from a happy combination of genius and indulry in the inveftigator: when his rational powers are fufficiently ftrong and mafculine, to emancipate themfelves from all hypothetical pre-occupation, and difpofe him to illuftrate the fecret operations of nature, rather from the manifeft light of fact and experiment, than from any vague and dazzling irradiations of his own fancy. The former method, our author obferves, in his fhort preface, To have been the reafon of the ftability of the theories of Newton, and fome few of the more happy philofophers, where the fimplicity and uniformity of the facts ferve as caufes for explaining innumerable effects; while, as he very juftly remarks, in the hypothetical method of philofophizing, caufes are usually affigned, whofe exiftence cannot be proved, and ae befides frequently more intricate and complex than the very effects they were intended to explain.' The introduction, after dividing animal motion into fpontaneous, involuntary, and mixed, which last, tho' subject to the power of the will, is not ordinarily directed by it (as in the cafe of fome of the sphincter mufcles) afferts, That tho we may be unacquainted with the intimate ftructure of the nerves, nerves, or of that fubftance within them, by whofe intervention the mind feems enabled to act upon the muscles, yet we have no room to doubt of certain motions being effected by the immediate energy of the mind; experience continually convincing us it is owing to the will, tho' certain conditions in the body are requifite to its exertion. But how the alternate contractions and relaxations of involuntary motion are effected, while the mufcles of spontaneous motion are contracted only in confequence of volition, being a phyfical difficulty long debated, and yet undetermined, the difcuffion and determination of it is the profeffed purpose of this Effay, which took its rife from the author's early diffatisfaction with the received theories of refpiration and the motion of the heart.' In endeavouring then to account for all vital and involuntary motion, he feems to have fet out with a very judicious attention to that grand fimplicity and uniformity of nature, which, by a few general laws applied to particular bodies, produces a variety of operations; as he very reasonably supposes an animal body a fyftem regulated much in the fame manner. And in fact, an attentive, unprejudiced and adequate reader must discover, thro' the author's whole method and train of thinking on this fubject, that his happy outfet has been fo regulated and purfued throughout the progrefs of the work, as to diffipate much of that perplexity, with which fome writers had even increased the natural abstruseness of the subject : fo that we may justly apply to him, as a phyfical writer, the diftinguishing characteristic, which Horace gives of a good poetical genius. Non fumum ex fulgere, fed ex fumo dare lucem Cogitat, ut fpeciofa dehinc miracula fumat. Our medical and phyfiological readers, who have not perufed the treatife at length, we dare fay, will readily admit our giving a clear and general idea of it, in an orderly compendious abftract. 6 Dr. Whytt then, in his fection of principles neceffary to be premised, firft affirms, That a certain influence proceeding from the brain, lodged in the nerves, and thence conveyed into the mufcles, is either the immediate caufe of their contraction; or, at leaft, neceflary to it.' After a fufficient proof of this phyfical truth he defires, That if, in compliance with cuftom, he fhall at any time give this influence the name of animal or vital fpirits, it may be underftood to be without any view of afcertaining its peculiar nature and manner of acting.' Upon this occafion we may N 4 refer refer our readers back to our late account and abftract of Dr. Flemyng on the nature of the nervous fluid, where he has made an ingenious and laudable attempt towards demonftrating the principles and crafts of it. This Dr. Whytt declines, as unneceflary to his purpose, and premises. While the nervous power is immediately neceffary to muscular motion, the arterial blood seems to act only in a fecondary or more remote manner.' After demonftrating this from the different effects of ligatures on the nerves and arteries, made by Langrish and Swencke, he concludes, That, while the life and nourishment of the muscles is effected by the motion of their arterial blood, their own motion and sensation proceeds from the nerves alone.' 3. • That the muscles of live animals are conftantly endeavouring to fhorten, or contract themselves. Hence fuch as have antagonists are always in a ftate of tenfion, and the folitary muscles, as fphincters, and thofe, whofe antagonists are deftroyed or weakened, are always contracted, except when this natural contraction is overcome by fome fuperior power.' 4. This natural contraction of the mufcles is owing, partly to their veffels being diftended with fluids, which feparate and ftretch their smallest fibres; and, in a great meafure, to the influence of the nerves, which is perpetually, tho' gently, acting upon them: to which laft the conftant conftriction of the fphincters, and the tenfion of the antagonifted muscles, is chiefly to be afcribed.' This he demonftrates from the confequence of a paralytic fphincter, and the conftant contraction of thofe mufcles, whose antagonists are deprived of the nervous power. 5. The natural contraction of the muscles, from the equable action of the nervous influence, is very gentle, and not attended with any remarkable hardness or tenfion of them.' 6. That when the nervous influence is determined more potently into the mufcles, their contractions are stronger, and may be termed violent: and that either the will, or a fimulus, may effect fuch extraordinary determination.' 7. The feventh principle is little more than an affirmation of the former, as it afcribes the voluntary contraction of a mufcle to the power of the will over the nervous fluid. 6 8. A fimulus of any kind applied to the bare muscles of living animals contracts them.' After proving this from many plain facts, he deduces, 9. That the degree of contraction is in proportion to thet of irritation; but adds, 10. That an irritated mufcle does not remain contract ed during the continued application of the stimulus, but is alternately contacted and relaxed.' After fufficiently illuftrating this principle from facts, he obferves however, • That the orbicular muscle of the uvea, and a few others, are exceptions to it.' The reafons for which he gives us p. 261, in the following words. The orbicular muscle of the wea, and the muscles of the malleus and stapes, remain equally contracted, while the fame degree of light and found is applied to the eye and ear, because their contraction does not hinder thefe caufes from acting uniformly and equably upon the retina and auditory nerve; but no fooner is more or lefs light applied to the eye, or a ftronger or weaker found to the ear, than these muscles are more contracted, or somewhat relaxed.' We recur to the section of principles, which obferves, II. "That the alternate motions of irritated muscles continue some time after the removal of the ftimulus, but become more flow and languid.' 12. Their motions from ftimulation are wholly involuntary.' 13. The power of ftimuli, in contracting the muscles of living animals, is greater than any effort of the will.' The doctor illuftrates this by the following cafe. • A man aged 25, who, from a palfy of twelve years continuance, had loft all power of motion in his left arm, after trying other remedies in vain, at laft had recourfe to electricity; by every fhock of which the muscles of this arm were made to contract; and the member itself, which was very much withered, after having been electrified for fome weeks, became fenfibly plumper.' The 14th principle is little more than a re-capitulation of, or re-trospection to, fome of the former, which had diftinctly mentioned the different kinds of muscular contraction; as, the natural, which is very gentle, and chiefly refulting from the equable influence of the nerves; the voluntary, which is stronger, and may be rendered more intense or remifs, and of more or lefs duration at pleafure; and the involuntary, which is ftrong, fuddenly attended with a relaxation, and owing to the force of a ftimulus. The 15th propofes the sphincters, and the muscles, deftitute of antagonists, as examples of the first. The 16th represents the muscles which have antagonists, and are kept in equilibrio till the will interpofes, as inftances of the fecond. The 17th obferves the contraction of the heart is not only involuntary, as the |