ART. IX. Medical Memoirs of the General Difpenfary in London, for part of the Years 1773 and 1774. By John Coakley Lettfom, M. D. F. R. and A. S. S. and Phyfician to the General Difpenfary. 8vo. 5 s. Bound. Dilly. 1774.

TH

HE General Difpenfary is a most useful inftitution, defigned not only for the relief of the poor at the Difpenfary, but likewife at their own houses. It is kept in AlderfgateStreet, and is open for the reception of letters and patients every day at eleven o'clock, Sundays excepted. All who are recommended have the benefit of advice and medicines at the difpenfary; but no patients are to be vifited at their own habitations, except thofe who refide within the city and liberties of London. Dr. Lettfom is one of the phyficians appointed to attend the difpenfary, and he has favoured the Public with the result of his obfervations during the last and part of the prefent year, under the title of Memoirs of the General Difpenfary, as above. The first Section of thefe Memoirs contains Obfervations on Fevers, with Symptoms of Putrefcency.

It has been found by modern experience, that the most effectual remedies in fevers of the putrid clafs, are, the free accefs of fresh air, the liberal ufe of the bark without waiting for remiffions, and wine or other cordial and antiseptic liquors for common drink. This method has been fuccefsfully purfued by Dr. Lettfom in the course of his practice, and is illuftrated by a variety of cafes.

Sect. II. Speculations on Opium, with Cafes and Reflections.

Dr. Cullen, in his-lectures on the Materia Medica, has introduced fome diftinctions concerning the ftimulant and sedative effects of opium. Thefe ideas have been adopted by our Author, and he has endeavoured to point out, in what cafes its ftimulant, and in what its fedative powers are indicated. Further than this, the reader will meet with little either phyfiological or practical information.

Sect. III. Obfervations on a Species of Leprofy.

The Lepra Ichtiofis of Sauvages is the fpecies here intended; fo called from its refembling the scales of a fish. Our Author gives us three hiftories of this difeafe, in which the cure was effected by a decoction of the inner bark of the elm tree, after other very powerful remedies had been tried without fuccefs. This decoction has long been used in St. Thomas's, and fome other of the London hofpitals, in a variety of leprous and other cutaneous affections. The formula ufed by Dr. Lettfom, is the Decoctum Ulmi Pharmacop. Nofocom. Divi Thoma.

Sect. IV. A Defence of Inoculation. The most striking objection which has ever appeared against inoculation, is that of Dr. Raft of Lions. The objection is

briefly

briefly this: From a furvey of the London bills of mortality for 42 years before inóculation commenced, and likewife for 42 years after this practice became general, it appears, that feventeen more burials in a thousand have been occafioned by the finall pox, fince inoculation hath been generally adopted, than before." And confequently, that inoculation does more injury to the community by propagating the infection to many who might otherwife have efcaped, than by conducting a few individuals more eafily and fafely through the disease.

Dr. Lettfom endeavours to break the force of this objection, by fuggefting, that the meafles, and fevers in general, have gradually increased in fatality in nearly the fame proportion with the fmall-pox. And he further remarks, that the fpreading the infection, is rather to be attributed to the improved method of treating the accidental fmall-pox, than to inoculation.

Sect. V. Method of treating the confluent Small-Pox. The fubject of this fection is of a very ferious nature. Dr. Lettfom apprehends he has difcovered, that mercury is an antidote to the variolous virus, and that it powerfully promotes fuppuration in the confluent fmall-pox. It is certain that Boerhaave had a favourable opinion of mercury as a corrector of this particular virus*. And Malouin relates the cafe of a female who was under a course of mercury for venereal complaints, and had a mercurial plaifter applied to the facrum: fhe was at this time feized with the fmall-pox; her whole body was full, except the part to which the plaifter had been applied, and here there was not a fingle puftule t. On the other hand, Gatti, Watson, and many others have not found that thofe who were prepared with mercurials had the difeafe at all more favourably, that thofe who were prepared without, And it appears likewife, that when the fmall-pox were epidemic at Edinburgh in the year 1733, the difcafe was fatal notwithstanding the free ufe of mercurials --And if we take Dr. Lettfom's cafes into the queftion, we shall find them by no means conclufive in favour of mercury, either as a fuppurative or an antidote.

Se&t. VI. Remarks on the Hooping cough, Kink-cough, or Pertulis.

Dr. Burton of York, published his treatife on the non-naturals in the year 1738, and at the end of this treatife he has added an effay on the chin-cough. The following was his method of cure in this difeafe. I ordered, fays he, a fcruple of cantharides, and as much camphor, which when well mixed, I ordered to be mixed with three drachms of the extract of bark; of which mixture I gave the children eight or ten grains

Aphor. 1392.

+ Chem. Med. S. II. p. 133.

Medical Ellays, Vol. III. p. 30.

every third or fourth hour, according to the circumstances of the cafes, in a spoonful of fome fimple water or julep, in which I had diffolved a little balfam copaivi; the childrens drink was emulfio communis, or the like. By following this method, I performed the cures very foon, fome in five or fix days."

Mr. Sutcliff of Settle in Yorkshire, has for twenty years fucceffully administered Dr. Burton's medicine, with fome little variation. He gives tin&ture of bark, tincture of cantharides, and elix. paregor. This compofition was exhibited in fmall quantities three or four times a day; and the dofe gradually increafed till a fight ftrangury was produced; the dofe was then diminished, or taken at more diftant intervals." The hooping, fays Mr. Sutcliff, generally ceafes in three or four days, from the first exhibition of the medicine: fometimes the paroxyfm recurs only once after the first dofe; but an expectora ting cough frequently continues for a week or two afterwards." This is doubtless a valuable discovery; and we are happy to find, that the experience of Dr. Burton and Mr. Sutcliff has been confirmed by a variety of cafes which have fallen under the care of Dr. Lettfom.

The three laft fections contain fome detached cafes and reflections; tables of difeafes and deaths for one year, and the formula of the general difpenfary. But for the particulars of thefe, we muft refer our readers to Dr. Lettfom's Memoirs.

ART. X. The Country Juftice; a Poem. By one of his Majefty's Juftices of the Peace for the County of Somerfet. Part I. 4to. 1 s. 6d. Becket. 1774.

TH

HE character of a country juftice, like that of alderman, or bookfeller, hath ftood as a butt, for wits and witlings to fhoot at, with the fhafts of ridicule. But the times are changed. We have aldermen who poffefs as much wit as other folk; we have booksellers who can read; and we have confervators of the peace who can not only read but write : witness the pleafing piece of poetry now before us, published in honour of that order of magiftracy of which the Author declares himself to be a member; and addreffed to the celebrated Dr. Burn, one of the commiffion for the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland, " by a truly affectionate Brother."

Our Somersetshire Bard opens with a retrofpective view of the forlorn ftate of liberty and civil fecurity, in this country, before the inftitution of juftices of the peace, in the reign of Edward III. This moft falutary and excellent appointment: and its purposes,' are thus celebrated :

The focial laws from infult to protect,
To cherish peace, to cultivate refpect;,

The

The rich from wanton cruelty restrain,
To smooth the bed of penury and pain;
The hapless vagrant to his reft restore,
The maze of fraud, the haunts of theft explore;
The thoughtless maiden, when fubdu'd by art,
To aid, and bring her rover to her heart;
Wild riot's voice with dignity to quell,
Forbid unpeaceful paffions to rebel,
Wreft from revenge the meditated harm,
For this fair JUSTICE raised her sacred arm ;*
For this the rural magiftrate, of yore,

Thy honours, Edward, to his manfion bore."

In defcribing ancient Juftice's Hall, the Author indulges a vein of pleasantry, at the expence of the poor rich Londoners, whofe tafly villas, at the ftones-end of the feveral out-lets from our modern Babylon, have often attracted the notice of the fons of humour:

Oft, where old AIR in confcious glory fails,

On filver waves that flow through smiling vales.
In Harewood's groves, where long my youth was laid,
Unfeen beneath their ancient world of shade,
With many a group of antique columns crown'd,
In Gothic guife fuch manfion have I found.

• Nor lightly deem, ye apes of modern race,
Ye Cits that fore bedizen Nature's face,
Of the more manly ftructures here ye view;
They rofe for greatness that ye never knew!
Ye reptile Cits, that oft have mov'd my spleen
With VENUS, and the GRACES on your green!
Let PLUTUS, growling o'er his ill-got wealth,
Let MERCURY, the thriving god of ftealth,
The fhopman, JANUS, with his double looks,
Rife on your mounts, and perch upon your books!
But, fpare my Venus, fpare each Sifter Grace,
Ye Cits, that fore bedizen Nature's face!'

Nor do the royal architects escape our Author's reprehenfon: 'whofe antic taste,

Would lay the realms of Sense and Nature waste.'

But we dwell with peculiar pleasure on the farther defcription of the ancient hall:

Th' enormous antlers here recal the day
That faw the forest-monarch fori'd away;
Who, many a flood, and many a mountain paft,
Nor finding thofe, nor deeming these the last,

O'er floods, o'er mountains yet prepar'd to fly,

Long ere the death-drop fill'd his failing eye!

Here, fam'd for cunning, and in crimes grown old,

Hangs his grey brufh, the felon of the fold.

Oft,

Oft, as the rent feaft fwells the midnight cheer,
The maudlin farmer kens him o'er his beer,
And tells his old, traditionary tale,

Though known to ev'ry tenant of the vale.

Here, where, of old, the feftal ox has fed,
Mark'd with his weight, the mighty horns are fpread;
Some ox, O MARSHALL, for a board like thine,
Where the vaft mafter with the vaft firloin
Vied in round magnitude-Refpect I bear
To Thee, though oft the ruin of the chair.

These, and fuch antique tokens, that record
The manly fpirit, and the bounteous board,
Me more delight than all the gew gaw train,
The whims and zigzags of a modern brain,
More than all Afia's marmosets to view

Grin, frisk, and water in the walks of Kew.'

The moral character of a country juftice, fuch as that of every magiftrate ought to be, is admirably drawn, in the following lines:

Through these fair vallies, ftranger, haft thou stray'd,

By any chance, to vifit HAREWOOD's fhade,

And feen with honeft, antiquated air,

In the plain hall the magiftratial chair?

There HERBERT fate-The love of human kind,
Pure light of truth, and temperance of mind,
In the free eye the featur'd foul display'd

HONOUR's ftrong beam, and MERCY's melting shade;
JUSTICE, that, in the rigid paths of law,

Would still some drops from PITY's fountain draw,
Bend o'er her urn with many a gen'rous fear,
Ere his firm feal fhould force one orphan's tear;
Fair EQUITY, and REASON fcorning art,
And all the fober virtues of the heart,-

These fat with HERBERT, these shall beft avail,
Where ftatutes order; or where statutes fail.'

The general motives for lenity in the exercife of the juftice's office, are next laid down, and enforced with that energy and pathos which cannot fail of doing honour to the heart of the Writer, as well as to his mufe. His apology for vagrants, too, is replete with benevolence, and comes farther recommended to us, by the additional charms of a flowing and elegant verfification. We must not be too free of our extracts from a performance whose chief defect is its brevity; but we cannot resist the temptation to pillage the ingenious Author of his declaration against that pernicious fpecies of vagrants known by the name of Gypfeys:

• The Gypfey-race my pity rarely move; Yet their ftrong thirst of Liberty I love.

Not