the steam from which causes it to swell much, it is then mixed with the potatoes, and the pigs eat it with avidity.

In many of the eastern, southern, and north-east parts of Cornwall, they scarcely know there is such a grain in the county: this circumstance points out the utility of a more general diffusion of agricultural knowledge, which the County-Reports are well calcu laced to promote. This grain has been chiefly grown in black, moory, moist soils; the tillage, culture, and harvest, the same as for

outs.'

Short, indeed, is the chapter on Grass Land; since, as we have remarked before, grazing is not a leading feature of the husbandry of this county: but we find also, from the account here given, that the little grass which is grown is in a great measure spoiled by the bad mode of hay-making. The Cornish farmer wants the lesson which Mr. W. gives him.

Nothing under the heads of Gardens and Orchards, Woods, Plantations, and Wastes, needs detain us; and very little in the chapter allotted to the specification of Improvements. The articles of manure are more numerous in Cornwall than in the inland counties; since, in addition to the common muck of the farmers, proverbially termed "the mother of the meal-chest,” this province avails itself of fish, sea-sand, and ore-weed. In the vicinity of fishing-towns, farmers have an opportunity of buying the bruised, and small pilchards, which being unfit for market are rejected, and called "caff" four cart-loads, of twelve bushels, are the proper quantity for an acre. This caff is buried under heaps of earth, to preserve it from dogs and hogs, or is spread thinly over the surface, and immediately ploughed in. The refuse of the pilchards in the process of curing them is also bought by the farmers as a manure. - We must not quit the chapter on Improvements without adverting to the warm recommendation of Weeding, in the concluding section. The reporter considers a farm weed-free to be equivalent to a farm tithe-free; and his opinion is no doubt very well founded, that the loss sustained by weeds is in some cases equal to the

rent.

We find that the beautiful Devonshire breed of cattle prevails throughout Cornwall, though only occasionally the genuine North Devon is to be found. As in the neighbouring county, the mode of making clothed or clouted cream here prevails: the process, which is stated by the reporter, consists of scalding the milk in a brass-pan, and taking off the cream when it has acquired a thick consistence on the surface. By the cream being thus clouted, the operation of butter-making is considerably shortened:

The

The cream being collected from the pans, is put into wooden bowls, which should first be rinsed with scalding, then with cold water; it is now briskly stirred round one way, with a nicely-cleaned hand, which must also have been washed in hot, then in cold water; for these alternate warm and cold ablutions of bowl and hand are not only for the sake of cleanliness, but to prevent the butter from sticking to either.

The cream, being thus agitated, quickly assumes the consistence of butter, the milky part now readily separates, and, being poured off, the butter is washed and pressed in several cold waters; a little salt is added to season it, and then it is well beaten on a wooden trencher, untill all the milky and watery parts are entirely separated, when it is formed into prints of sixteen or eighteen ounces, for the markets.

It is worth remarking, that this process of scalding milk is in some degree a remedy for that disagreeable taste which is occasioned by cows feeding on turnips or cabbages.'

We must not enlarge on the chapter on Live Stock: but concerning the sheep of Cornwall we shall transcribe Mr. W.'s general observation:

Taking a general view of the subject, it may with truth be as-: serted, that Cornwall can now boast of as fine flocks of sheep as any: county, either as to form, weight of fleece, hardiness of constitution, aptitude to fatten quickly at an early age, or flavour of mutton. With respect to their wool, it is a pretty general opinion, that the, climate and soil of Cornwall is particularly favourable to the produc tion of the finest fleeces,'

It is stated, in the short section on Rural Economy, that the agricultural labourers of Cornwall consist of four classes, farmservants, parish-apprentices, day-labourers, and bargain-takers; that their most common food is barley-bread, with tea and salted fish; and that the principal articles of fuel are turf, furze, and Welsh coal.

From the chapter on Political Economy, we need not make any extract; and as to that which treats on Obstacles to Im-, provements, we have only to remark that the reporter, so far. from coinciding with those who place Mining in this class, is inclined to regard the profits from the mines, and the trade which they create and maintain, as very beneficial to the agricultural improvement of the county. Mr. W. recommends a general inclosure-bill as a great desideratum for advancing the productiveness of the kingdom: but he is aware of the obsta cles which will, in a certain place, defeat the purposes of the friends of this measure.

The remarks and observations of Mr. Worgan, which occur. in this report, justify the commendations bestowed on him by those agricultural gentlemen who revised his labours.

0 3

Το

To the volume are added, a county-map, of the usual small size, and plates representing Implements, Buildings, and Live Stock.

ART. IX. Practical Observations on Disorders of the Stomach, with Remarks on the Use of the Bile in promoting Digestion. 2d Edit. By George Rees, M.D. Senior Physician to the London Dispensary, &c. 8vo. 78. Boards. Lackington and Co. 1811.

IT is acknowleged by the author of this work, in his preface, that the unavoidable interruptions of his professional duties have prevented him from making it as perfect as he wished it to be, and that very little is to be learned from other writers on the same subject. Now that sagacity, which we have acquired from long experience in the art of criticism, has led us to regard these remarks as unfavourable prognostics. In the first place, we know that the best books are generally written by those who are, the most subject to professional interruptions; and we also know that the stomach and its diseases have always formed a prime object of attention both with the physician and the physiologist. Dr. Rees likewise takes care, in sundry places, to insinuate, in rather direct terms, that his practice is very extensive; and he would also wish it to be understood, that he is very indifferent as to the remarks of the critics on his performance. These again are bad symptoms; the first betrays a consciousness that a certain share of puffing is essential to his success, and the second seems to arise from an instinctive dread of that critical examination which he pretends to despise. We shall, however, on this as on every other occasion, endeavour to discard all prejudice from the mind, and to dispense that measure of praise or blame to which the author may be found justly intitled.

The observations properly commence by a description of the stomach and its functions. The anatomical account may pass without notice: but we are detained in the second part with an attempt at hypothesis, which most persons will consider as novel, and some may regard as ingenious, but which we think is unfounded:

The stomach has hitherto been generally regarded as a receptacle for food, and an organ secreting a certain fluid which promotes digestion; but, besides this, it performs another very important function, somewhat analogous to the heart; for as the heart transmits blood, and throws it forward through the arteries to every part of the system, so there is great reason to believe the stomach diffuses in like manner a degree of nervous energy to every part of the body, particularly to the muscles and surface of the skin.'

The

The only proofs that we can find adduced, in aid of this extraordinary opinion, are that vomiting is sometimes brought on by cold applied to the surface, and that the stomach is gene, rally affected previously to the eruption of small-pox. When we compare this slender basis of facts with the weighty superstructure which it is intended to support, we shall not deem it incumbent on us to enter into a very minute examination of it: but we cannot avoid favouring our readers with Dr. Rees's observations on what is generally called taking cold, which he says is a very objectionable expression, for that to take cold is in fact to take nothing at all.' He attributes the effects to the suppression of some excrementitious matter which is injurious to the system, and farther informs us that probably the living principle is drawn off by the greater affinity of surrounding bodies.'

Although we have now given what might be regarded as a sufficient dose of theory, yet we cannot deny our readers the edification which they will doubtless derive from Dr. Rees's notions respecting digestion. After having observed that some writers have ascribed this function to fermentation, others to trituration, and others to solution, he ventures to leave the beaten track, and to define the term thus: Digestion is that process, by which the vitality of the food is separated from the substance with which it is combined.' As in this country it is not generally the custom to eat food until it is deprived of life, we were somewhat startled at this definition: but on advancing a few pages farther, our apprehensions were in some de gree calmed by the following explanation; let us return to the doctrine of vitality, and if we suffer ourselves to consider it as a substance sui generis entering into the combination of different bodies similar to the matter of heat, we give freedom to our minds, and afford at once an opportunity of enquiring into the laws by which this principle is regulated.' The discovery that life is a peculiar substance, or a specific kind of matter, is an extremely important and valuable acquisition; since it is not improbable that some method will be invented, of disuniting it from the other particles with which it is combined, and exhibiting it in a separate state; and moreover, the search after the universal medicine, which was probably composed chiefly of the extract of life, may not now be regarded as so hopeless and unmeaning a pursuit as in modern times we have been generally disposed to consider it.

After these examples of Dr. Rees's talent at hypothesis, we proceed to the practical part of his work, to which the other is to be considered as merely introductory. Since, however, the observations are not delivered in a very methodical manner, so

04

in

-

in our review of them we shall be under the necessity of adopting the same desultory style, and must be satisfied with' Taying before our readers those insulated facts or opinions which appear the most interesting. Putrid food, we are informed, disagrees with the stomach, not from any peculiar acrimony, or from any sedative, or narcotic principle, but from its power of robbing the stomach of its vitality;' and in the same way we are to account for the action of all poisonous substances. Thus, adds the author, with a becoming selfsatisfaction, the mighty mystery with regard to most poisonous substances may be unravelled, and the more it is examined, the more will the evidence of facts be found in favour of it.'

We must not pass over Dr. Rees's opinion of the agency of the bile in digestion; which it is the moré necessary to notice," because he fairly and candidly tells his readers, in order to put them on their guard, that he shall prove his ideas to be true to the satisfaction of all, whose understandings are not blockaded by prejudice.' He thinks that, in health, bile is always present in the stomach; that it is the stimulus to hunger, and is the principal cause of digestion; that what are called bilious diseases arise from the defect, not the excess, of bile; that whiteness of the tongue depends on bile not being in sufficient quantity in the stomach; and that the act of vomiting, which, in bilious cases, has been supposed to clear the stomach of bile, operates by bringing into it the proper portion of bile which was previously deficient. The proofs of this doctrine are chiefly rested on an observation of Boerhaave, who asserts that, in gluttons and in ravenous animals, the biliary ducts have been found to open immediately into the stomach; on a case mentioned by Vesalius, who discovered a similar formation in "a most voracious robber," (who no doubt devoured his victims, after he had robbed them ;) and on a remark of Galen, that people who are subject to have the bile ascend into the stomach are always extremely voracious. Such facts must no doubt throw down all the blockades of prejudice; and every one will be ready to exclaim with the author, can any argument be more apposite, can any experiment be more satisfactory than this? With such facts in our possession, am I not warranted in asserting, that bile in the stomach is a very powerful stimulus to hunger?'

Flatulence is supposed not to proceed from the extrication of air from any substance taken into the stomach, but to be secreted from the stomach itself;' and Dr. Rees afterward hints at some connection at present very unintelligble' between respiration and digestion. Flatulence is also either the cause or the effect of amenorrhea, a complaint which the author zealously con

tends