"With haggard beard, and bleeding eyes, The conqueror of Afric lies *. Where now his glory's crested helm ? Where now his marshall'd legions thronging bright, Begging in age his scanty bread! Me, to scorn and ruin left? "So may despair thy last lone hours attend!— When from fortune's summit hurl'd, And find in all the world NO FRIEND!" This volume is embellished with neat engravings. Art. 27. Elegy to the Memory of Francis late Duke of Bedford. By H. Steers, Gent. 4to. 6d. Printed at Driffield. We do not perceive the necessity which Mr. S. states to have impelled his Muse to leave its humble scene and artless lay,' in order to engage in the sublime employment of embalming in gorgeous verse the memory of the late Duke of Bedford: but, if the Fates have urged him to the attempt, we can only say that it is unfortunate that they did not at the same time equip him with adequate powers. We transcribe one stanza, as an evidence of his poetic abilities: Nor unlamented shall such goodness fall, All wail his loss, it is the loss of all; For other's use he stor❜d his gen'rous mind, Second Art. 28. The Conflagration, and Soliloquy. A Poem. 1802. About two or three years ago, we perused two small publications in prose, by this writer; whom we commended for his good sense. Had we seen only his verses, we could not have expressed ourselves so much in favour of his literary abilities.-Indeed, we cannot honestly encourage him to persist in the culture of this branch of study. As Mr. W. seems, as far as we may conclude from his writings, to be a respectable character, we hope that his feelings will not be too sensibly impressed by our non-admiration of his poetry; and that he will bear in mind the common quotation of Non omnia possumus omnes. age.' Alluding to the supposed miserable state of Belisarius in his old MATHEMATICS. Art. 29. Reflections on the Theory of the Infinitesimal Calculus (the Method of Fluxions.) By C. Carnot, Ex director of the French Republic, Minister of War, &c. Translated from the French, and illustrated with Notes, by William Dickson, LL.D. Svo. 28. Richardsons. 1801. The original of this work possessed so much merit, in our opinion, that we made it the subject of an ample discussion *. One or two points, indeed, appeared to us objectionable: but its general character is that of perspicuity; and previously to the attempt of Dr. Dickson, we should have thought it difficult to misunderstand the meaning of the author. Nothing, however, is impossible to a commentator; especially to such an one as the present, who, with a success beyond calculation, has explained away the meaning of his author, and has involved in deep gloom and obscurity, by the power of his illustrations, that which before was sufficiently evident. The preface and notes of Dr. D. are not composed with very con spicuous modesty: He trusts he understands something of Newton's fuxionary theory; he decidedly prefers the fluxional notation,' &c. He has not condescended, however, to bring proof of his assertions, and we must doubt whether he could make them good: but, reduced to an alternative, we would rather grant that he understands what he has not than what he has expressed. It would be a misapplication of time to note all the defective reasonings and errors which strike our apprehension in this pamphlet: but we must remark that it is rather curious that Dr. D. has ventured to make a petty attack on Leibnitz for his mode of explanation, and afterward adopts that mode in its most faulty parts. He explains the delicate theory of the infinitesimal calculus, by saying that dx-dy, dx", &c. may be safely neglected relatively to x, dx, &c. for the same reason that .00000 &c. may be neglected relatively to 1. Surely the commentator was determined to shew the world how com pletely he could misunderstand the meaning of his author, and offend against reason. "Criticis haud paucis mos est. (says Lord Bacon,) ubi incidunt in quidpiam quod non intelligunt, vitium statim in exemplari supponere." So Dr.Dickson, in an unlucky moment, supposed an expression of Carnot to be erroneous, and in a long note has attempted to correct it, but has thus in reality vitiated the text. Our mathematical readers will be astonished when they learn that Dr. D. and his friend Mons, Buée were led to expose themselves, the one in a note and the other in a letter, purely from ignorance that two expressions, such as, a1 btc-d Dr. D., however, needs not want such consolation as example and precedent afford him. He is one of a numerous host of commentators who have mistaken the meaning of their authors; and, as to the multitude of books by which truth has been obscured, the present pamphlet must bear a very small proportion to that enormous mass. See M. R. Vol. xxxiv. N. S. p. 463, Appendix. Art. Art. 30. Animadversions on Dr. Dickson's Translation of Reflections on the Theory of Infinitesimal Calculus, &c. By Henry Clarke, Lecturer in Natural and Experimental Philosophy, &c. 8vo. 6d. Hurst. Mr. Clarke has sufficiently, and more than sufficiently, pointed out the mistakes in algebraical calculation, into which Dr. D. and his friend the French Clergyman at Bath have fallen. We could have forgiven Dr. D. this error, had he not perverted the meaning of Carnot; and had he not, in laying down the principles of the differential Calculus, violated the rules of good metaphysics and sound logic. As a literary combatant, Mr. Clarke may be described as possessing nerve, zeal, and some judgment. He is also shrewd and severe: but, to use Dryden's expression, there is "too much horse play in his raillery.” MEDICAL, &c. Art. 31. Gottfried Christian Reich, M. D. &c. on Fever, and its Treatment in general. Published, by Command of the King of Prussia, by the Higher College of Medicine and Health of Berlin. Translated from the German by Charles Henry Parry, ordinary Member of the Physical Society of Göttingen. To which are added, a Preface by the Translator, and an Appendix, by Caleb Hillier Parry, M.D. F.R. S. &c. 8vo. 3s. 6d. sewed. Cadell jun. and Davies. 1801. From the short account of Dr. Reich, prefixed to this pamphlet, we learn that he is a professor at Erlang, a Prussian University in Franconia. In 1799, he announced to the world that he dad discovered remedies which would remove all danger, in small pox and general fevers, in the course of a few hours. The Doctor was immediately pressed, by numerous correspondents, to disclose his medi. cines, but he refused to impart the secret, without a valuable consideration. He was invited at length to Berlin, where his method was tried, before a committee of physicians, on some fever-patients in the Hospital of La Charité: but his success was not striking: From December 26, 1799, to Jan. 24, 1800, Reich treated in this Hospital twenty-eight patients; of whom twenty-three recovered; three, refusing to take the medicines, remained uncured, and two others died. Of the two who died, one was a beggar, on the fifth day, of a relapse of a Nervous Fever; and the other, a consumptive patient, with a sudden Ulceration of the Lungs.' The report of the committee, however, was sufficiently favourable to procure the Doctor a considerable pension from the monarch and, in this pamphlet, we are presented with the precious secret. The beginning of the work is most unpromising. After a parade of a new chemical pathology, the author plunges us into the old theory of fermentation, which he assigns as the morbid state consti tuting fever: but, on proceeding a little farther, we are told that the generic character, or essence of fever, consists in a diminution of oxygen. As a short specimen of the extraordinary style of this performance, and of the author's mode of reasoning, we shall quote his own account of the proximate cause of fever: The The Proximate Cause of all Fevers lies, therefore, in a Defective Reception, or the Anti-natural application, of Oxygen; or in the Excessive Accumulation and Developement of Azot, Hydrogen, Carbon, Sulphur, Phosphorus, or any of the other ingredients of the human body, which are considered as Simple; or in the various possible Anti-natural Combinations, Binary, Ternary, Quaternary, Quinquenary, &c. of these substances, either with each other, or with those which modify them, and which are conveyed to us from without under the names of Caloric, Matter of Light, Magnetic and Electric Matter, &c.' Oxygen, therefore, we are informed, must be the only sure remedy against fever: but oxygen is not yet accessible as an officinal article: the author, then, employs it in the form of acid;-and now we arrive at the Arcanum Magnum, which is nothing more than the copious use of some of the mineral acids; a practice which, we appre hend, was perfectly familiar to the physicians of this country long before the year 1799. It will occur to every experienced medical reader, that Dr. Reich's view of the practice requisite, even in sin ple fever, is extremely narrow. The mineral acids can only be useful as tonics, and certainly possess no febrifuge power that amounts to chemical action. We speak from considerable experience of their effect in fever. Dr. Reich's practice would certainly have appeared to more advantage, if it had been announced with less pretension, and if he had defined more accurately the stages of fever in which it is admissible. In the commencement of Synochus, his plan would of ten prove highly detrimental to the patients. We cannot dismiss this pamphlet without noticing the great barbarisms of its style. Much, no doubt, must be charged to the peculiarities of the original: but we fear that the translator is not always exempt from blame. The manner reminds us strongly of Dr. Walter Charleton's Ternary of Paradoxes. The concluding remarks, by Dr. Parry, of Bath, are sensible and judicious; though he seems a little prejudiced in favour of this new-found old invention *. He has, however, given a case of epilepsy which deserves attention, since the patient derived more relief from the internal use of the muriatic acid than from any other remedy. Art. 32. An Account of a new Mode of Operation for the Removal of the Opacity in the Eye, called Cataract. By Sir James Earle, F. R.S. Surgeon Extraordinary to the King, &c. Svo. 3. Johnson. 1801. After having stated several objections to the common methods of operating, either in couching or extracting, Sir James Earle proposes his own plan for the extraction of the cataract. A general idea of it may be collected from the following account of the instrument invented by Sir James, and of the mode of using it: It consists of a small spear-pointed lancet, of a proper breadth, which introduces a pair of fine forceps into the globe of the eye, and, when sufficiently inserted, the sharp or spear point, by means of a spring, is withdrawn, leaving the forceps behind; with these the * Hudibras. cataract cataract may be gently seized, made to quit its connexions, and be brought away through the opening; and thus is completed the whole of the operation. To use this instrument properly, it is necessary to observe that it should be passed in through the coats of the eye, just behind the iris: when it has passed, and the forceps are sufficiently introduced, the lancet is to be made to retire, and the forceps are to be carried on till the blades appear behind the pupil, when they are to be retracted a little, then gently opened, and the cataract to be seized with as smallcompression as may be without suffering it to escape; the forceps are then, together with the cataract, to be brought out of the eye.' This operation has been performed with success in three cases, of which we have a particular account in the pamphlet. We have not yet seen it executed, but it bids fair to be an improvement of great consequence, in a very delicate and often unsuccessful operation. Art. 33. The Medical Assistant; or Jamaica Practice of Physic? Designed chiefly for the Use of Families and Plantations. By Thomas Dancer, M. D. 4to. 11. 18. Boards. Printed at Jamaica, and sold in London by Murray and Co. This work is intended rather for a domestic system of practice, than for the use of the faculty; and the author seems to have formed his compilation with care, and to have consulted the best modern authorities. We perused, wich some curiosity, Dr. Dancer's history of Yellow Fever, but we do not meet with any new information in it. He recommends, for the cure, purgatives and mercurial friction; and he seems to pursue Dr. Chisholm's method of treatment, with little variation.-Several remedies peculiar to Jamaica are directed, in different complaints. but they are simply indicated, without any explanation of their qualities that can be useful to strangers; at least, on this side of the Atlantic. The forms of medicines are given in English, and may thus prove useful in the hands of sensible parents and masters: but we should apprchend that the descriptions of symptoms, and of the indications of cure, are not written in a style sufficiently popular to produce the benefits intended by the author; while they are too slight to merit particular attention from medical readers. The composition of a work of this nature is, indeed, extremely difficult; and we have some doubt whether persons, who are precluded from access to the assistance of respectable professional men, are not safer without any of these supplementary guides: which, though written with the best intentions, are very liable to be abused. Art. 34 First Lines of Physiology. By Albert Von Haller. Translated from the Third Latin Edition. 8vo. pp. 500. 105. 6d. Boards. Murray and Co. 1801. The editor professes to have corrected the translation of Haller's First Lines in many passages, and to have amended the language.In these respects, he has done an important service to students; and, from the references which we have made, we believe his pretensions to be well-founded. Respecting a book so well-known as the origi. al, it is unnecessary to make any observation. Art. |