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and afterwards gives an historical sketch of the opinions and prac tices of the antients with refpect to the art, and of the fucceffive improvements that have been made in it from their times to the prefent: terminating his oration by fome judicious reflections on the qualifications and deportment of an accoucheur. In his appendix the Author gives an account of an improvement which he has made in the forceps; confifting in the addition of a third blade to that inftrument, his defcription of which is illuftrated by a plate annexed to this performance.

Art. 21.

An Abridgment of Baron Van Swieten's Commentaries upon the Aphorifms of the celebrated Dr. Herman Boerhaave, &c. By Colin Hoffack, M. D. of Colchefter. Vols. I. and II. 8vo. 10 s. 6d. fewed. Horsfield. 1773.

This abridgment, which is intended to be comprised in five volumes, appears to be executed with fufficient care and judgment, and may be of use to those who do not choose to purchase the commentaries at large. In the fecond volume the work is brought down to the 874th Aphorifm, or to the end of the fection on the bastard peripneumony. Art. 22. A Defcription of the four Situations of a Gouty Perfon: evincing the Danger of trufting the Gouty Matter to the Care of Nature. By P. de Vivignis, M. D. 8vo. I S. Wilkie. 1774.

Were Jedediah Buxton, of retentive memory, now alive, he would eftimate, with a single glance of his eye, over the meagre form and unconscionable type and margin of this fhilling pamphlet, that it might contain about as much matter as a fingle page of a London Chronicle; and his estimate would not be very diftant from the truth. After perufing it throughout, and in the interval between two dishes of tea, we found that it contained 36 pages, 16 lines in a page, and about five words, on an average, in a line.-Thefe are furely Aurea Verba;-and yet all that we can collect from them is, that the gout fhould not be left to the care of nature, but that the phyfician fhould have the handling and management of it:—but in what manner this unruly distemper is to be managed by him, this deponent fayeth not.

Art. 23. An eafy Way to prolong Life, by a little Attention to our Manner of Living, &c. &c. The Second Part. By a Medical Gentleman, Author of the firft Part. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Bell. 1774. We are scarce at leifure, at prefent, to divert ourselves with this ridiculous and fenfelefs production, the Author of which congratulates himself on the rapid fale of the firft part of it, and affures us that this fecond contains obfervations not lefs important. The courteous reader, for example, is here inftructed whether he ought to fleep with his mouth shut or open, and on what fide he fhould lie; and is directed, after a few preliminary operations at his uprifing, to stretch himself out,' and then to proceed to cleanfe his nofe, by blowing it;'-not forgetting, laftly, that the head be combed, that the pores may be opened to expel fuch vapours as were not confumed by fleep, &c.'

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Converfant as we are with the prefs, we cannot conceive who the perfons are that ultimately defray the charges of paper and print for

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fach milerable ware as this.-Giving eighteen-pence for fuch trafh is furely-faving the reader's prefence,-buying bumfodder at a very unconscionable rate. To the Reviewer indeed, who is obliged to buy, pro bono publico, it is one of his highest luxuries to employ it in that capacity.

Art. 24. An Account of the Teflicles, their common Coverings and Coats; and the Difeafes to which they are liable, &c. By Jofeph Warner, F. R. S. and Senior Surgeon to Guy's Hofpital. 8vo. 2s. Davis. 1774.

After premifing a fhort anatomical defcription of the Scrotum, the teftes, and their coats, the Author treats of the difeafes to which thefe parts are fubject; fuch as inflammation, abscess, dropsy, schirrus, &c. He principally dwells however on the Hydrocele of the Tunica Vaginalis, and on the palliative, and radical, methods of relieving, or curing, that disease. With respect to the first or palliative method, in defcribing the beft manner of performing the very fimple operation of evacuating the extravafated lymph, the Author, from a predilection, we fuppofe, for that mode of operating to which he has been accuftomed, directs the ufing the impofthume lancet, in preference to the trocar. He judges it to be the moft cafy and expeditious;' and apprehends, though furely without fufficient grounds to countenance the apprehenfion, that the tunica vaginalis muft fuffer from the canula of the trocar being left in the wound, during the short time that it remains there while the lymph is flowing through it.

Of the four more important methods of proceeding, or operating, in order to produce a radical cure, the Author feems to confider that which effects this purpose by means of a fimple incifion, as the best; obferving that he does not remember ever to have seen any fatal effects arifing from it. For the method of procuring a lasting cure by the application of the cauftic, he wholly refers the reader to Mr. Elfe's pamphlet. He next defcribes the manner in which a permanent cure may be obtained, by a fimple puncture of the Tunica Vaginalis, and the fubfequent and repeated introduction of a fpunge tent: terminating his obfervations on this fubject by a short and fuperficial account of the radical method of operating, by the feton; at the end of which, the reader, who has hitherto met with nothing either new or Ariking, is in our opinion, very properly referred to Mr. Pott's ingenious work on the fubject. The pamphlet concludes with fome trite obfervations on the schirrus and cancer of the teftis.

Art. 25. An Efay on the most effectual Means of preserving the Health of Seamen in the Royal Navy And a Differtation on Fevers and Infection. Together with Obfervations on the Fail Distemper, &c. By James Lind, M. D. Phyfician to his Majefty's Royal Hospital at Haflar, &c. A new Edition much enlarged and improved. Яvo. 5 s. Wilfon. 1774•

The excellent effay and the differtation mentioned in the above title have both been formerly published, and are here reprinted together, with the addition of fome new matter; fome alteration be

See M. Review, vol. xliii. Auguft, 1770, page 138.

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ing made in the arrangement of the materials, and the whole, for the convenience of the reader, divided into chapters and fections. The first of them appeared in the year 1757, and was republished in 1762, by the authority of the lords of the admiralty. Its merit is too well known to require our adding any thing further concerning this third edition of it, than that, befide the alterations which the Author has now thought neceffary to make in it, he has added a new chapter, on the means of obtaining fresh and potable water at fea, by a fimple and eafy procefs. On this occafion, he afferts his claim to priority in the difcovery of sweetening fea-water by diftillation, without the addition of any ingredients; and undertakes to shew that the alterations made by Mr. Irving, in a process delivered in by him to the lords of the admiralty, for that purpose, and for which he received in 1772 a reward from parliament of 5000l. was no real improvement ;-that the principles on which it is founded, though plaufible, are fallacious; and that the produce, in following his method, is evidently lefs than may be obtained by the method of diftillation formerly propofed by the Author.

The Differtation on Fevers and Infection originally appeared under the title of Two Papers on Fever and Infection,' which were read before the philofophical and medical fociety at Edinburgh in 1761. It is here reprinted with large and valuable additions; relating particularly to the jail diftemper, and the means of preventing or ftopping that terrible contagion. The new lights thrown on this inte refting fubject by fo excellent an obferver, who has had fuch extenfive opportunities of remarking the various fources and the progress of this particular kind of infection, render these observations peculiarly valuable.

Art. 26. The Seaman's Medical Inftructor, in a Course of Lectures, on Accidents and Difeafes incident to Seamen, in the varicus Climates of the World, calculated for Ships that carry no Surgeon. The whole delivered in a plain Language, and founded on a long and successful Experience. By N. D. Falck, M. D. 8vo. 4 s. 6d. Dilly. 1774We fufficiently announce the intention of the Author in compil ing this treatife, by giving the reader the foregoing copious titlepage at large. In the first of the fix lectures into which he has divided the work, he undertakes to inftruct the seaman in the anatomy and phyfiology of the human body. He then treats of the medicines, or other means, requifite to the reftoring health; and of the external injuries and diseases to which the body is liable. In the two laft lectures the Author proceeds to the treatment of fevers and other internal diseases.

The zeal which the Author profeffes for the inftruction and wellbeing of his marine pupils flames out in many parts of this compilation; in the execution of which however we cannot honeftly, or with any regard to our own character, give him credit for any thing more than a good intention. A formal critique cannot be expected from us-but why-we shall just afk-would the Author occupy any part of the fcanty space to which he was confined, in the fhort lecture devoted to anatomy and phyfiology, with an unneceffary and prurient defcription of the action or functions of the male organs, ia what he is pleafed abfurdly to term, the facred at of generation?'

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Or why, in the fame chapter, does he treat fo very unfcientifically, or indeed at all, of vifion; and betray his total ignorance of the first elements of optics, by affuring his pupil that the general received. opinion, that objects are reverfed in the reprefentation on the retina of the eye, is a mistake;' and that he hopes hereafter to fet the world right on the fubject of this notable difcovery, in which however he may fee, in our 48th volume, that he has been anticipated by another vifionary? Or to mention only one matter relative to the practical part.-Why fhould he exclude fo excellent, fafe, and even neceffary a medicine as the bark from his marine medicine cheft; not allowing the poor feaman a few ounces to relieve him even in an ague; and giving him, for that purpose, only a quantity of rufty iron' fteeped in vinegar, which he affures him is medicine, fuperior both in virtue, and by far more fafe in the application -The bark is a rank poifon,' he pretends, in injudicious hands.-What!-ranker than laudanum and calomel, with which he trufts his pupil? On the contrary, no one medicine in the whole materia medica, of equal power to do good, is fo little qualified to do mifchief. We fhall only further add, with respect to this work, that from the nature of it, it neceffarily contains many matters, the knowledge of which muft undoubtedly be of ufe to a feaman, deprived of all other affiftance ;-and this is nearly the utmost praise we can bestow upon it.

MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 27. The Life of Dr. Oliver Goldsmith, written from Perfonal Knowledge, &c. 8vo. I s. 6d. Swan. 1774.

Dr. Goldsmith's life affords but fcanty materials for the biographer, but his writings have amply made up the deficiency to his prefent hiftorian; who, from his adroitnefs at making extracts muft certainly have been, or is, a reviewer.

Whether the Dr's biographer, and warm panegyrift, who profeffes to write from períonal knowledge, is right or wrong in his account of our poet's adventures, in his travels abroad, we know not; but we are authorised to fay that he is very much mistaken in his affertion, that Dr. G. was once employed to superintend the Monthly Review. The Dr. had his merit, as a man of letters; but alas! those who knew him muft fmile at the idea of fach a fuperintendent of a concern which most obviously required fome degree of prudence, as well as a competent acquaintance with the world. It is, however, true that he had, for awhile, a feat at our board; and that, fo far as his knowledge of books extended, he was not an unuseful affiftant.

Art. 28. The Peruvian Letters, tranflated from the French. With an Additional Volume. By R. Roberts, Tranflator of Selea Tales from Marmontel, Author of Sermons by a Lady, and Tranflator of the Hiftory of France, from the Abbé Millot. 12mo. 2 Vols. 65. Cadell. 1774.

To this new tranflation of the well known Peruvian Letters, Mifs Roberts has added a continuation of the ftory comprehended in the original; for which the affigns the follow reafons:

I found, fays fhe, an elegant fimplicity in the manner in which the ftory was told, in the language in which it was originally written, Rev. Aug. 1774.

M

that

that I much admired, and could not help thinking the Peruvian character pleasingly delineated. I was not, indeed, altogether satisfied with the conclufion, being defirous the Indian princefs fhould become a convert to chriftianity, through conviction; and that fo generous a friend as Deterville might be as happy as his virtues deserved. This thought determined me to add a fecond volume.'

Mifs R.'s tranflation is, in moft refpects, greatly fuperior to the old one; but we think the ftyle is fomewhat enfeebled by her almost perpetual fubftitution of you, for thou, in the Peruvian lady's pathetic addreffes to her lover: how poor is you are the fun of my daysyou enlighten them-you prolong them-and they are yours'-compared with thou art the fun of my days-thou enlighteneft them-thou prolongeft them-and they are thine:" old tranflation.

The defign of converting the Indian princefs to the Chriftian religion, through conviction, was commendable in Mifs Roberts; and we were curious to fee the arguments adduced on this occafion; but we fought for them in vain: we are only told that the illuftrious convert was referred to the New Teftament; that the read; and became a devout Chriflian.

For the rest, there is very confiderable merit in the Peruvian Letters; and we thall not, in any probability, ever have a better tranflation of them, than the prefent. We have obferved fome inaccuracies, but they are fuch as will, in course, be corrected in a fecond edition.

Art. 29. Indices tres Vocum fere omnium quæ occurrunt. 1. M Dionyfii Lengini Commentario de Sublimitate, et in ejufdem Fragmentis. 2. In Eunapii Libello De Vitis Philofophorum et Sophiftarum. 3. In Hieroclis Commentario in Pythagora Aurea Carmina. Concinnavit Robertus Robinfon. 8vo. 3 s. 6d, bound. Typ. Clar. Payne.

1773.

Three indexes, to Longinus on the Sublime, Eunapius on the Lives of the Philofophers, and Hierocles on the Aurea Carmina. All these things are exceedingly useful, as every fcholar knows by experience.

Art. 30. Mifcellaneous and Fugitive Pieces. Vol. III. 8vo. 3s. 6 d. fewed. Davies. 1774.

In our review for February, we gave an account of the two former volumes of this collection. The prefent fupplement comes recommended to us under the names of Johnfon, Thornton, Cradock, Goldfmith, &c. But we obferve two or three pieces, in the group, of which we can only fay, as Pope faid of the hairs and ftraws in the amber, that they are neither "rich nor rare," and that

"We wonder how the devil they got there."

The volume, however, contains fome very valuable tracts; the Critique on Blackwell's Court of Auguftus is in every refpect, worthy the Author of the Rambler; as is the Review of the Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. The lives of Bolingbroke and Parnel are the productions of Goldsmith's pen.-The poem entitled Faction Displayed, which is here given to William Shippen, Efq; is a curious fpecimen of jacobitical fatire and virulence; and Mr. Uher's Introdution to the Theory of the Human Mind is undoubtedly worthy of prefervation in a repofitory of this fort.

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