ng_, p. 226.

OBS. 3.--The pronoun _it_, as it carries in itself no such idea as that of
personality, or sex, or life, is chiefly used with reference to things
inanimate; yet the word is, in a certain way, applicable to animals, or
even to persons; though it does not, in itself, present them as such. Thus
we say, "_It_ is _I_;"--"_It_ was _they_;"--"_It_ was _you_;"--"_It_ was
your _agent_;"--"_It_ is your _bull_ that has killed one of my oxen." In
examples of this kind, the word _it_ is simply demonstrative; meaning, _the
thing or subject spoken of_. That subject, whatever it be in itself, may be
introduced again after the verb, in any person, number, or gender, that
suits it. But, as the verb agrees with the pronoun _it_, the word which
follows, can in no sense be made, as Dr. Priestley will have it to be, the
_antecedent_ to that pronoun. Besides, it is contrary to the nature of what
is primarily demonstrative, to represent a preceding word of any kind. The
Doctor absurdly says, "Not only things, but persons, may be the
_antecedent_ to this pronoun; as, _Who is it_? _Is it not Thomas_? i. e.
_Who is the person_? _Is not he Thomas?_"--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 85. In
these examples, the terms are transposed by interrogation; but that
circumstance, though it may have helped to deceive this author and his
copiers, affects not my assertion.

OBS. 4.--The pronoun _who_ is usually applied only to persons. Its
application to brutes or to things is improper, unless we mean to personify
them. But _whose_, the possessive case of this relative, is sometimes used
to supply the place of the possessive case, otherwise wanting, to the
relative _which_. Examples: "The mutes are those consonants _whose_ sounds
cannot be protracted."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 9. "Philosophy, _whose_ end
is, to instruct us in the knowledge of nature."--_Ib._, p. 54; _Campbell's
Rhet._, 421. "Those adverbs are compared _whose_ primitives are
obsolete."--_Adam's Latin Gram._, p. 150. "After a sentence _whose_ sense
is complete in itself, a period is used."--_Nutting's Gram._, p. 124. "We
remember best those things _whose_ parts are methodically disposed, and
mutually connected."--_Beattie's Moral Science_, i, 59. "Is there any other
doctrine _whose_ followers are punished?"--ADDISON: _Murray's Gram._, p.
54; _Lowth's_, p. 25.

"The question, _whose_ solution I require,
Is, what the sex of women most desire."--DRYDEN: _Lowth_, p. 25.

OBS. 5.--Buchana