to join in appointing a Trustee or Trustees (by Deed duly registered) to redeem their respective Land-Taxes; and enabling such Trustees to purchase the Whole of such respective LandTaxes in one Contract. Settled by Charles N. Hunt, Conveyancer of Lincoln's Inn. A Sheet. IS. Clarke. 1798. In addition to the information conveyed by this title-page, we have only to observe that the deed is accurately drawn, and calculated to answer with safety the purposes of that section of the act to which it applies. Art. 28. Thoughts on the Law of Forfeiture, and Parliamentary At tainder for High Treason, as applying to the Bill now depending in the Irish Parliament. 8vo. pp. 80. 28. Printed at Dublin, and sold in London by Wright. 1798. The author of this pamphlet is an advocate for the forfeiture of property, in cases of high treason, even where the offenders have not been attainted in their life-time: but he is no friend to the corrup tion of the blood of attainted persons.-We discover strong marks of good sense, moderation, and knowlege in his remarks; and those who may differ from him will be obliged to allow that his arguments are ingenious and forcible.. To the writer's opinion that the feudal law was introduced into this country by William the Conqueror, we cannot give our assent. We believe, and we are supported in that belief by the respectable authorities of Coke and Selden, (though we allow that Spelman is against us,) that the existence of feuds was prior to the Norman Conquest. The progress of the system was probably accelerated by that event: but, the situation of the Anglo-Saxons being similar to that of the other barbarous nations who overran the Roman Empire, it was natural to expect that their forms and principles of government should bear a great resemblance. The feudal law originated in the Saxon period, and arrived at maturity in the reign of William. MEDICAL. Art. 29. A View of the Science of Life; on the Principles established in the Elements of Medicine, of the late celebrated John Brown, M. D. with an Attempt to correct some important Errors of that Work; and Cases in Illustration, chiefly selected from the Records of their Practice, at the General Hospital at Calcutta. By William Yates and Charles Maclean. 8vo. 5s. Boards. Printed at Philadelphia; imported by Debrett, London. If ever irony could be permitted on subjects which so directly concern life as reports of medical cases, we should have supposed that some wicked wag, determined to ridicule John Brown, and all Brunonians, had here undertaken to write an extravagant burlesque of their principles and practice; and that the names of William Yates and Charles Maclean were only stalking horses, under the presentation of which he shoots his wit. When we are told that pneumonia, acute rheumatism, and other diseases of this class,' are diseases of indirect debility, we can hardly suppose the authors to be serious; and we cannot help adopting their style, so far as to say that this is at least very indirect sense, to avoid a grosser term :-but, when we find that these Ii2 positions S.R. S.R. positions lead the writers to decry the use of blood-letting, in cases of active inflammation, contempt gives place to more poignant feelings. Their recital of the case of one unfortunate victim, who fell into their hands, is sufficient to chill the blood of any thinking medical man. It was a case which the authors acknowlege, from the preceding symptoms, and from the dissection after death, to have been an instance of the most violent peripneumony.' Yet they not only justify their omission of bleeding the ill-fated patient, but they declaim against that remedy, in all stages of inflammatory complaints! Men who practise in this manner need not regret the want of variety of poisons, in the Materia Medica *. We may apply, with a slight alteration, the words of Horace, in an apostrophe to the oracle of these tremendous stimulators: Non egent Mauri jaculis neque arcu, Nec venenatis gravida sagittis, The powers of opium might have been sufficient for such unsparing hands. We find two hundred drops of laudanum ordered every hour, in one case (p. 56); and after this had been continued during ten hours, a draught with four hundred drops was given. A few days afterward, draughts with five hundred drops each were 'given every hour; and glysters, with five hundred drops cach, were occasionally thrown up (p. 58). We should be wanting in our duty, to the younger part of our readers in particular, if we did not reprobate, in the strongest man ner, the mischievous practice inculcated in this publication and we would recommend it to the serious attention of those who have it in their power, to prevent the repetition of such wild experiments, in any hospital. Art. 30. Medical Strictures; being a concise and effectual Method of treating the following Diseases, &c. &c. &c. By Richard Clarke, M. D. Author of Plans for increasing the Naval Force of Great Britain. 8vo. 18. Richardson, &c. An advertisement of the author's packets of medicine, which are prescribed with great brevity, as follow: "The medicines contamed in the packet No. 14, is strongly recommended to the consumptive.' The medicines contained in the packet No. 9, possess the pro perty of removing menstrual obstructions in plethoric, or full-blooded and gross habits, and those contained in No. 10, of answering the same purpose in thin, cachectic, and relaxed ones.' Whatever may be the contents or the price of the Doctor's packets, we know, from sorrowful experience, that his pamphlet, price one shilling, contains nothing worth one farthing t. *The powers of arsenic and other substances called poisons, are by no means well ascertained. But we have implements enough, if we knew how to use them.' View, p. 145 (note). Dr. Clarke makes a much more respectable figure as an author, in our Review for July 1795, p. 342; where our readers will find an account of his "Plans," &c. See title. Fer.. Do り Art, Art. 31. A Compendious Medical Dictionary, containing an Explana- 5s. 6d. A work of this nature, exhibiting a concise view of the present state of medical science, might be an acceptable present to those who are about to enter on the study of medicine: but the present performance is too brief to afford much satisfaction to the student; for it consists of little more than the mere nomenclature. This, however, appears to be all that the author intended, and he has accomplished his purpose with sufficient clearness and precision. The terms are accented, which is a considerable advantage to the learner. Art. 32. The Arguments in favour of Inflammatory Diathesis in Hydrophobia considered. By Richard Pearson, M. D. Birmingham. 8vo. 18. 6d. Seely. 1798. In this pamphlet, Dr. R. Pearson undertakes to prove that hydrophobia is not an inflammatory disease, and that bleeding has never been successfully employed in it. He proposes to treat the patients with wine and aromatics, and to mix some of the mineral acids, or vinegar, with the wine. The tract is well written, and does credit to the author. Art. 33. A Treatise on Scrophulous Diseases, shewing the good Effects of Factitious Airs, illustrated with Cases and Observations." By Charles Brown. 8vo. pp. 168. 3s. 6d. Boards. Glendinning, Hatton Garden. 1798. Mr. Charles Brown manifests great indignation against all men who do not recommend the use of the gases in diseases; and he enumerates a variety of formidable complaints which he professes to have cured, or to have seen cured, by this method. We are glad to find, however, that he does not entirely lay aside some of our old acquaintance; for several of his cures have been performed by change of air, plenty of exercise, with chalybeates,-and vital air;' and the action of the gas had been assisted, in several instances, by tonic remedies which, a few years ago, were supposed to remove diseases by their own power. This gentleman is however resolved on discoveries; and he has met with such extraordinary success in his investigations, that we cannot, in common justice, withhold them from our readers. We would allow the wisest and most experienced of our medical friends to ruminate for a month, on the nature of strumous swellings, before we should expect them to divine Mr. Brown's solution of them. What think you, gentlemen? They are, according to him, nothing more than lumps of soap:-but he must tell his own story: It will be generally found that persons who have these monstrous enlargements of the thyroid glands drink much cold water, and may not this chill these glands, and bring on this disease? It is found to consist chiefly of fat; and the alkali which enters strongly into the vascular frame uniting with this fat forms soap. The absorbents being roused into action by the vital air, which is known to produce leanness, take up this saponaceous matter, and thus the disease is removed, citò, tutò, et jucundè.' Bravo! this goes off as well as Foote's lecture on the jaundice, in the Devil on two Sticks: "Those two yellow drops 1i3 there Fer...r. Do 1 there were drawn from a patient afflicted with the jaundice-Those Let us however seriously advise Mr. B. to recollect, when he next Art. 34. Phthisiologia, a Poem, miscellaneously descriptive and didactical; in Four Parts. To which are prefixed certain Prelimi nary and Physio-medical Observations, and Admonitions. 8vo. pp. 105. 3s. 6d. Boards. Boosey. 1798. We are here presented with the work of a votary of Apollo, whose labours, as Vellum says in the play, are two-fold; he pays his respects to. The God of Verse and Physic too;— and as he appears to be more conversant with the healing than the versifying power of his patron, we hope that he will direct his attention, in future, to become an accurate practitioner, rather than a middling poet. We offer this advice in pure friendship to the author, who writes with a very laudable modesty; and who seems to possess talents for observation, which only require the aid of experience, to mature them for a more acceptable introduction to the Public. It is particularly necessary for those, who attempt to please in didactic poetry, especially when they undertake medical subjects,—to recollect Horace's rule; Non satis est pulchra esse poëmata, dulcia sunto. What poetical gratification can be derived from attending to the progress of the cough, hectic fever, and diarrhoea, of a consumptive patient? It is really time to put a stop to the inclination for describing disagreeable subjects. Boileau valued himself on imitating the sound of a plate rolling on the floor, and the cries of a couple of cats. Possibly, some future genius may pride himself on the resemblance of his verses to the coughing and expectoration of his patients, or to the wheezing of an asthmatic fit. We desire that we may not be understood to give an unfavourable opinion of this author's medical talents. We only wish to impress on him the superior importance of professional skill to the empty praise of tolerable poetry. It is sufficiently difficult to deliver medical precepts, in prose, with any pretensions to correctness and ele .gance; gance; and to succeed in verse requires a genius which ought to be Art. 35. The Influence of Metallic Tractors on the Human Body, in ( 8vo. By this copious title-page, the reader will be instructed nearly as well as by the pamphlet itself, in the claims asserted by this notable practitioner. The tract contains attestations of 'cures said to have been performed by Dr. Perkins's rods, from many medical men in different parts of America, which would provoke a smile on the sagest visage among the disciples of Apollo on this side of the Atlantic. In one case, (p. 43,) a patient, who had received a great contusion, was cured by the tractors in two minutes :-but he had been bled thrice before their application. At p. 54, however, we meet with a strong proof of the confidence placed in this remedy by several transatlantic philosophers. Dr. Willard, it seems, applied a red-hot piece of iron to a wart on his finger, and burnt himself very severely, in order that he might be relieved by the tractors; which are said to have given him ease in two successive experiments. The author adds, many have submitted to similar measures, in order to experience the effects. I once formed one of five, who burned ourselves so that blisters were raised, to make the experiment; we all obtained relief in a few minutes.' This zeal for knowlege is truly edifying; especially as the trac tors are generously presented to the public at only five guineas a pair; and it is clear that one pair would suffice to cure all the burns and scalds of a large parish. Why are not such luculent experiments repeated here? If Mr. P., or any admirer of the discovery, would submit to have a red-hot poker run into some part of his body not necessary to life, (into that part where honour's lodged, according to Butler, for example,) in any public coffee-house within the bills of mortality, and would afterward heal the wound in presence of the company, in ten minutes, or in half as many hours, by means of the tractors, the most stony-hearted infidel could not resist such a demonstration. Why trifle with internal inflammations, when such an outward and visible sign might be afforded? Mr. Perkins has taken some pains, in the first part of his pamphlet, to shew that the operation of his rods is not derived from animal magnetism. In our opinion, this is an unnecessary piece of trouble in England, where there is a constant succession of similar pretensions. The virgula divinatoria, and the baguette of the juggler, are the genuine prototypes of this mystery. We were, indeed, rejoiced on Dr. Perkins's account, to find that the Connecticut Society had only I i4 Fer...r. |