the judge, the pontiff of the family, before whom these facred rights are all refpefted. Breakfast ended, he tranfacts the bufinefs of his trade, or his office; and as to difputes they are few, among a people where the voice of the hydra chicanery is never heard; where the name of attorney is unknown; where the whole code of laws confits in a few clear and precife commands delivered in the Koran, and where each man is his own pleader. When vifitors come, the mafter receives them without many compliments, but with an endearing manner; his equals are feated, befide hin, with their legs croffed; which pofture is not fatiguing to the body, unembarraffed by drefs. His inferiors kneel, and fit upon their heels. People of diftinction are placed on a raised fofa, whence they overlook the company. Thus Eneas, in the palace of Dido, hat the place of honour, while feated on a raised bed*, he related the burning of Troy to the queen. When every perfon is.placed, the lives bring pipes and conce, and fet the perfume brafier in the middle of the chamber, the air of which is impregnated with its odours; and afterwards prefent fweetmeats and Sherbet. When the vifit is almoft ended, a flave bearing a filver plate, on which precious effences are burning, goes round to the company; each in turn perfumes the beard, and afterward fprinkles rofewater on the head and hands. This is the laft ceremony; and the guests are then permitted to retire. Thus you fee, Sir, the ancient cultom of perfuming the head and beard, as fung by the royal prophet, is not loft. Anacreon I, the father of the festive ode, and the poet of the graces, inceffantly repeats, "I delight to fprinkle my body with precious perfumes, and crown my head with roles." About noon the table is prepared, and the viands brought, in a large tray of tinned copper; and though not great variety, there is great plenty. In the centre is a mountain of rice cooked with poultry, and highly feafoned with fpice and faffron. Round this are hafhed meats, pigeons, fluffed cucumbers, delicious melons, and fruits. The roat meats are cut fmall, laid over with the fat of the animal, feafoned with falt, fpitted, and done on the coals, it is tender and fucculent. The guests feat themfelves on a carpet, round the table; a flave brings water in one hand nd a bafon in the other, to wash. This is an indifpenfable ceremony, where each perion puts his hand into the difh, and where the ufe of forks is unknown; it is repeated when the meal is ended. After dinner they retire to the Harem, where they flumber fome hours among their wives and children. Such is the ordinary life of the Egyptians. Our fhews, plays, and pleasures, are to them unknown; a monotony which, to a European, would be death, is delight to an Egyptian. Their days are pafled in repeating the fame thing, in following the fame cuftoms, without a with or a thought beyond. Having neither firong paffions, nor ardent hopes, their minds know not laffitude: this is a torment * Inde toro pater Encas fic orfus ab alto. Eneid, 1. ii. ‡ Ode xv. referved referved for those who, unable to moderate the violence of their defires, or fatisfy their unbounded wants, are weary every where, and exift only where they are not.' The language of the tranflator is in general good: fome few paffages occur which might have been better expreffed; we shall point out the only obfcure one that we have obferved, in order that it may be corrected in a future edition of this inftructive and entertaining work; it is in vol. i. p. 457. Thefe, Sir, are the monuments beft preferved among the ruins of Antinoe, the founder of which did not infcriptions and hiftorians declare, the arches of the gates, capitals of the columns, and want of hieroglyphics would fhew they were not Egyptian works.' • Multitudinous boats,' p 459, occurs for numerous boats; we do not recollect to have met with multitudinous more than twice; it is an obfolete word; and the two paffages of Shakefpeare in which it occurs, do not in our opinion authorise its ufe in the modern epiftolary ftyle. Thefe, however, are but flight blemishes, in a work which abounds with a great variety of real information for the learned and the curious, and with matter of entertainment for readers of every description. ART. VII. Scelta delle Opere dell' Abate Pietro Metaftafio, &c. i. e. Sele& Works of the Abbé Peter Metaftafio, with a fuccin&t Account of his Life. By Francis Saftres. 12mo. 2 Vols. 75. Sewed. Payne, &c. 1787. TH HE works of Metaftafio are, on account of their peculiar merit, in the higheft eftimation. Mr. Saftres has here published fome of the more admired pieces of the Italian poet, with a view of furnishing thofe, to whom a complete fet of Metaftafio's works is inacceffible, with an opportunity of acquainting themfelves with the excellencies of this great writer. The first volume contains La Clemenza di Tito, Zenobia, Adriano in Siria, and Ipermeftra, and five fonnets. In the fecond volume we have Artaferfe, Demetrio, Ciro riconosciuto, Olimpiade, with two fmall pieces, Le Cineft and Le Grazia vendicate; and it concludes, like the former, with a number of fonnets. From the Life of the Author, prefixed by the ingenious Editor, it appears that PIETRO TRAPPASSO (for fuch was his original name) was born at Rome, Jan. 28, 1698, of obfcure parents; whole humble fituation, however, was no obftacle to their giving their fon a knowledge of the Italian and Latin languages: in which he made a rapid progrefs. The young Trapallo foon gave fufficient proofs that he was born a poet; for, at eight years old, he was frequently obferved to fing elegant extemporary verfes. As the celebrated Abbé Vincenzo Gravina was was one evening walking in the street, he found the boy diverting himself, as ufual, with his favourite exercise of finging. Gravina obferving the talents of the youth (of which he was a competent judge), and the generous difdain with which he refufed a piece of money offered as a small reward for his abilities, was determined to adopt him. The father, labouring under poverty, and anxious to see a son, who was endowed with great natural quickness, well educated, readily affented to the Abbé's propofal. Gravina wished to change the name of Trappaffo for another, which might be fignificant of the manner whereby the boy had obtained his elevated fituation: the Greek word METAσTaσIS (a change) occurred to him; he confequently called young Trapafo by the name of METASTASIO, and ever after confidered him as his own fon. Such was the fuccessful and rapid progrefs which Metaftafio made under the tuition of his new father and mafter, that, at the age of fourteen, he compofed his Guiftino, a tragedy; which may juftly be called, confidering the age of its author, a noble effort of genius. Gravina died in 1718, and left to Metaftafio, whom he ftiles in his will" egregium alumnum meum," 15000 Roman crowns. This circumftance occafioned a great revolution in the life of the poet. Believing himself now fufficiently rich, he abandoned the profeffion of the law, to which he had been brought up, and devoted his whole time to poetry, and the diffipation of his fortune. After various juvenile indifcretions, growing fenfible of his impending ruin, he left Rome, and his extravagant affociates, and went to Naples, where he applied with great diligence to the practice of the law, in order to procure a fubfiftence. While he was at Naples, the viceroy of that kingdom was making preparation for celebrating a feftival on the birthday of the Emprefs Elizabeth, wife of Charles VI. Metaftafio was, on this occafion, appointed to compofe a theatrical piece, which was performed on that night, and gained him much applaufe: this was his Gli Orti Efperidi. He now again abandoned the law, and devoted himself for ever to Apollo and the Mufes. After fucceeding in many other dramatic performances, he returned to Rome, in company with a noted finger, of the name of Marianna Bulgarini, who had fignalized herself in performing fome parts of Metaftafio's operas. He now became an admired dramatic writer, and the then miferable ftate of the Italian opera ferved as a foil for the fuperior excellence of Metaftafio. In 1729, being elected Poet to his Imperial Majefty, he fettled his principal affairs at Rome, and leaving Bulgarini to manage the reft, he arrived at Vienna in the year following; where, during the remainder of his life, he enjoyed his annual ftipend of 3000 florins. Having given an account of this great lyric poet's manner of life, &c. in our Review, vol. xlviii. p. 457, we fhall only add that he died of a fever, April 12, 1782. The Editor of thefe volumes informs us, that Metaftafio has Jeft the Counsellor Martinetz his executor, with a fortune of 150,000 florins. This Gentleman, who was the intimate friend of Metaftafio, intends, we are here told, publishing a collection of that poet's familiar letters, with a complete biographical account of this celebrated Genius. ART. VIII. Frederici Augufti Walter, Med. Do&t. Annotationes Academica. 4to. Berlin. HE ingenious and laborious gentleman to whom we are indebted for this publication, hath given ample fpecimens of his skill in anatomy and phyfiology. The prefent performance confits of two treatifes, one on uterine polypi, the other on the liver and gall-bladder. Dr. Walter applies himself, in the first treatife, to examine what is a polypus, and how it is produced; and concludes, after defcribing their different kinds, with fome brief remarks on the danger of extirpating them. He fuppofes a polypus to be produced by the fecretion of a coagulable liquor, from the extremities of the vellels of the internal furface of the uterus. The liquor thus fecreted, becoming more infpiffated every day, is at length converted into a cellular membrane, which, adhering closely to the extremities of the veffels, draws them out in length, so that they become large trunks fupplying the polypus with blood and nourishment. In a fimilar manner alfo the Author accounts for thofe calcareous coneretions which are found in the cellular fubitance of the uterus. He proceeds to confider all polypi, 1. Ratione adha fionis, 2. Ratione confiftentia, and leftly, Ratione extirpationis. He blames Levret, and others, who divide polypi into flefhy, tendinous, mucous, &c. fince he cannot admit that any polypus can poffibly be either fleshy or tendinous. He enumerates five fpecies, according to their adhefion, and defcribes each with precifion. In this part of his work, the Author dif plays great fill in phyfiology. Dr. Waller's remarks on the extirpation of polypi, though fhort, are judicious, and fhew him to be a cautious, yet refolute practitioner. The fecond treatife, which explains the ftructure of the liver and gall-bladder, together with the circulation through that important vifcus, is an elaborate piece of phyfiology. The Author begins with defcribing the liver of the foetus, as obferved on the twenty-fecond day after conception, and traces the progrefs of its increase increafe, and the changes it undergoes from that early period to its perfect ftate in the adult. This is a valuable natural hiftory of the formation of the abdominal contents. Few anatomifts have had greater opportunities of infpecting the abdomen of foetufes than Dr. W. His father's very large mufeum, in which is contained a vaft collection of feetufes, of all ages, was always open to him; and the anatomical theatre at Berlin, as our Author informs us, is annually fupplied with at leaft two hundred bodies. Of thefe opportunities Dr. W. has induftrioufly availed himself. Certain opinions of former anatomifts are contradicted; and we fhall briefly mention fome of them. Dr. Walter fays (when defcribing the liver of a foetus twenty-two days old), Lobum finiftrum hepatis ejufdem cum dextro effe proportionis, cujus in adulto, atque nullo modo dextro lobo aqualem ut nonnulli viri illuftres affirmarunt.' Again, Proceffum vermiformem minime figuram habere conicam † aut ampliorem ‡ effe illo adulti.' The gall bladder is accurately defcribed, and an elegant engraving is given of it, fhewing its three coats, and the valves in the duct. The experiments made in order to elucidate the circulation through the liver, and explain the formation of the bile, are numerous; many of them are curious, and all of them well adapted to illuftrate the opinions of the ingenious Author. The conclufions drawn from the appearance and ftructure of the parts, and from the experiments, are briefly as follow: The office of the hepatic artery is twofold, viz. to nourish the cellular fubftance and membranes of the veffels of the liver, and to fecrete and depofit in the vena portarum a certain liquor neceffary for the formation of the bile.-The vena portarum is the only veffel which fecretes the bile.-The reforbtion of the chyle, and thence the nutriment of the whole human body, is performed by means of the vena portarum as well as by the lymphatics. If the lymphatics, and the inteftinal and mefenteric glands fhould be indurated or obftructed, the reforbtion of the chyle, and the nutriment of the body, may be performed by the vena portarum alone, and life may be prolonged, notwithstanding fuch obftructions. A cafe is given where this actually happened. The ufe of the hepatic branches of the vena cava, elpecially of its anaftomofis with the vena portarum, is, in conjunction with the excretory ducts, to carry back, and mix with the general mafs of blood, fuch blood as is unfit for the formation of bile, and fuch chyle as may have been reforbed by the vena portarum. The office of the lymphatics of the liver are to abforb any liquor depofited in the cellular fubftance, and alfo fuch See Haller. Phyfiolog. tom. viii. p. 221. P. 116. 8 Ibid. tom. vii. nutritious |