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burried; convulsions frequently take place; palsy supervenes, either partially or generally, and death most commonly, in one convulsive struggle, closes the painful scene." P 73.

Even in this very melancholy condition, however, the case must not be abandoned as hopeless; for dissection has proved, that death may take place under circumstances similar to what we have here described; and yet effusion shall not have supervened. The knowledge of this part, therefore, affords a rational source of encouragement when all other hope would fail us; and demands the most strenuous employment of such means as may hold out a prospect of relief. Dr. Yeats thinks that even when effusion shall have taken place, his experience justifies the conclusion that the situation of the sufferer is not absolutely hopeless; and he seems inclined to the opinion, that even under these circumstances, "when death speedily ensues, "it is owing to this morbid excitement destroying the energy "of the brain, not meaning to deny the evil effects of effusion." The repeated application of leeches to the temples, and of blisters to the head, which are to be kept in a discharging state, are the local remedies, on which Dr. Y. places most reliance for the relief of vascular excitement. Dr. Smyth expresses a good deal of confidence in the good effects of a caustic applied to the bregma, but the slowness of its action, and the small extent of surface which it covers, would appear to us to make this mode of procuring a discharge, and of keeping up counter irritation, much less efficient than blistering. With these means Dr. Y. recommends that the liberal employment of mercury, both internal and external, should be combined, since the effects of this mineral, when introduced into the system, in controlling the morbid excitement of the capillary arteries, as well as in stimulating the absorbents, are among the unquestionably ascertained facts in medicine. Dr. Yeats has not much confidence in the usefulness of diuretics at this period of the disease, unless the vascular excitement be first subdued. Dr. Smyth, however, expresses considerable confidence in a combination of fresh squill with mercury, as a means of promoting the absorption of the fluid effused into the ventricles. The dose which he recommends is ten grains of crude mercury, (triturated till it is extinguished with manna or aromatic confection), and five grains of fresh squill, every six or eight hours and in such proportions, it cannot be an inefficient remedy when the stomach will retain it.

Dr. Cheyne ventured upon the exhibition of opium in the latter stage of hydrocephalus with hesitation, but experience

seems to have given him a favorable opinion not only of its safety, but of its utility, after the requisite depletion has been performed. If it should be found to have no other effect than diminishing the sufferings which accompany the last stage of the disease, it would, even then, be invaluable, provided it did not diminish the chance of recovery. He thinks it will prove "a powerful instrument in forwarding the operation of the "other remedies." Should this opinion of this judicious physician be confirmed, it will become indeed a valuable auxiliary resource to the medical practitioner. The practice is not ab solutely new; and so favorable a report of its powers, from so competent an observer, will recommend it strongly to the cautious adoption of the more enlightened and reflecting part of the profession. It remains for Clinical observation to confirm or refute this favorable testimony. Dr. C. thinks the aspersion of the head and neck with cold water one of the most speedy means of quieting the convulsions which commonly occur towards the close of the fatal stage of the disease. It has greatly the advantage over the warm-bath, in being less operose. He speaks favorably too of the effect of a large injection thrown into the rectum, in producing a state of quiet, and repose, for some hours, when the circumstances of the patient are otherwise most unpromising.

In bringing our remarks on this interesting subject to a close, we cannot forbear expressing our grateful sense of these valuable contributions to our knowledge of this fatal and distressing. malady. We are far from thinking that the subject has even now received all the elucidation of which it is capable; on the contrary, we are persuaded that the pathology of the disease is in many respects still so obscure, if not imperfect, that it may amply reward the labor of additional investigation. The Essays of Dr. Cheyne and Dr. Yeats have thrown a strong light upon it as a secondary affection, and their views of its practical treatment in this respect are of most unquestionable importance; but of Hydrocephalus, as a primary affection of the brain, our knowledge is not advanced at all, and its pathology is still very unsatisfactory. Dr. Smyth's remarks on this subject are entitled to great attention, as the suggestions of a vigorous reflecting mind; we think, however, that there are almost insuperable objections to his leading principle, that its origin is connected with a dropsical diathesis. In fact, the very rare occurrence of effusion into other cavities, with effusion into the ventricles of the brain, is an almost conclusive evidence against this partieular view of the subject. But we must close these remarks,

and shall do so with quoting one of the Doctor's finely illustrative observations- In the advancement of science, indi"viduals, perhaps, like ages, make only a certain progress; "they draw the outline only of the picture, leaving posterity "to complete the shades and put in the colours."

ART. IX-Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review, on the subject of an article in No. 50. of that Journal, on "the Remains of John Tweddell." By the EARL of ELGIN, pp. 63. London, Murray, 1816.

THE art of printing seems perfect to a miracle. The publication of this interesting letter was announced for a certain day; but before a reasonable hour of that day-long before we could manage to walk from St. Paul's to Albemarle street, the whole of the first edition had disappeared, and another had been brought from Edinburgh and spread out in comely order on Mr. Murray's counter. This, however, has nothing to do with the merit of the production, both the matter and the manner of which are creditable to its accomplished author.

Mr. Robert Tweddell, assisted by those parole declarations of Professor Carlyle, which the delicacy of the Edinburgh Reviewers would not allow them to transcribe, had done his best to provoke Lord Elgin to combat. But his Lordship, unacquainted with all antecedent injurious insinuations, would have submitted, had the Reviewers, to whose accusations he has replied, chosen to keep the peace. This they have not thought proper to do; and the charges preferred against his Lordship by the fraternal editor of the remains, are methodized and placed in the strongest point of view in which it is possible to put them, by the zeal and industry of those gentlemen.

The article in the Edinburgh Review is a statement of the complainant's case, drawn up by counsel learned in the law, with great care, skill, and, as far as omitting nothing that can by any possibility give colour to the accusation can go, with great ac

curacy.

The book from which this statement is drawn, shows, on the first inspection, the spirit in which the charges are preferred. And the Letter addressed by Lord Elgin to the Reviewers, is his replication to their statement of the case, which, at the commencement of his letter, he avows to be the only one he had seen. All the parties being thus in court, we shall give as clear

a view of the simple facts, as we can collect from the various statements and admissions before us.

As the book called Tweddell's Remains of Greece, in the midst of whose venerable ruins Mr. Tweddell had taken up his temporary abode, and under the classical roof of one of the temples of which he now rests in peace, has long since been noticed in our Journal, it is necessary only to remind the reader that the last three years and a half of his active life were spent in investigating every thing which he judged most worthy of observation in several of the countries of Europe and Asia. But Switzerland and the classical regions of Greece seem to have occupied the greatest share of his attention. And there can be no doubt but that he left behind him many valuable remarks, and a large collection of illustrative drawings and inscriptions, either copied by himself, or by artists whom he engaged to assist him in his researches. Whether, in number or in value, these remarks and illustrations have been overrated, their unfortunate loss, (as the Edinburgh Reviewers will have it, their unaccountable disappearance,) probably never will permit the public to decide. But, before we offer a single observation upon this subject, we must refer our readers to the article to which Lord Elgin's letter is a reply, in which there is a sort of catalogue raisonnéc of those literary reliques. It is very far from being liable to the imputation of underrating their merits. We have gone through the correspondence of Mr. Tweddell, and the voluminous documents which his brother has appended to it, with great patience; but we must say, that the result of our investigation of the number and value of his literary remains, induces us to think that the learned reviewer has set too low an estimation upon his own services, when he states, that "it would be easy to multiply evidence upon these points" meaning evidence beyond what his well-known industry and acknowledged ingenuity have adduced for the public information. In fact, we are inclined to believe that that evidence has been sufficiently multiplied already; for, after the most attentive examination which we could bestow upon the inventory of Mr. Vice-Consul Macri, we can only make out five journals and three note-books, instead of five journals and four note-books, as the Edinburgh Review has it,-We have not the remotest wish to depreciate the memorial of Mr. John Tweddell's labors. But the public should not be exposed to the danger of being misled by such vague descriptions as those of the number of his journals-descriptions unaccompanied with any reference to their size, or the quantity of pages which were filled up; or

with one proof of the existence of "seven portfolios, and paper packets of drawings," In fact, there was but one portfolio, which it is fair to presume formed the most valuable of the finished views which Tweddell possessed. He always spoke in terms of strong approbation of the taste of the professional men who assisted him. But we may be allowed to observe, en passant, without being suspected of a wish to impeach his veracity, that the ardent, the enthusiastic devotion, we might properly enough say the voraciousness of appetite with which he pursued the objects of his research, must have imparted to most of his descriptions and of the observations he had treasured up, a tone of colouring which, unless we had those acquisitions and observations to compare with the accounts he has given of them, we might fairly suspect of being more brilliant than just. This at least is the impression left on our minds.

In his letter to the Reviewers, (p. 29.) Lord Elgin readily admits that "the manuscripts, at least the tour in Switzerland, and the Greek inscriptions, were valuable." And indeed the collections thus particularized, are admitted on all sides to have been so. But with respect to the journals and notes on Greece, Dr. Hunt, then chaplain to the embassy, in two letters addressed to the editor of Mr. Tweddell's Remains, speaks of them "as "some memorandum books, containing desultory remarks, ap"parently not transcribed, but written on the spot during his "tour on the Troad," &c. "generally, he believed, almost en"tirely, in the French language," so as to form by no means "a detailed journal of Mr. Tweddell's travels in Greece, the "Archipelago, or Asia Minor." "I recollect a hint, that he "only intended to note down a few of the impressions made on "his mind at different places of his tour, to aid his future recol"lections of interesting scenery, and for his own private satis "faction, as he did not intend to make a book on Greece."

To this declaration the Editor has subjoined a note which we transcribe at length,

"The sentiment here imputed to Mr. Tweddell, is most certainly at direct variance with all that is known of his views and intentions, and is contradicted in fact by express assertions in his correspondence, both published and unpublished. It may suffice for present illustration to quote the following passage from Letter lix. Should I ever give any thing to the public upon this country, it is important that this city, especially Athens, should he examined with the most rigorous detail; and that every object of interest should be illustrated by engravings from drawings made upon the spot.'"

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