With Love's most fervent eloquence reveal O then (while flutt'ring in thofe realms of blifs) And fly with confolation to my breast." P. 51. The Ode to Ridicule (which is too long to extract) though it is fomewhat irregular in it's ftructure, has confiderable merit. The writer of that Ode might have become an eminent poet. We will not extract any part of the fatiric correfpondence (throughout which, in wit and repartee, the lady has in general the advantage) for we would not gratify the vanity of an unfeeling female wit. An affecting account is given of the death of this unfortunate young man; which if the lady, here called Eliza, be living, may be read by her, though not, we hope, with pleasure, yet with fome profit. TRAVELS. ART. 20. An Excurfion from Sidmouth to Chester, in the Summer of 1803. In a Series of Letters to a Lady, including Sketches of the principal Towns and Villages in the Counties of Devon, Somerset, Gloucefter, Monmouth, Hereford, Salop, Derby, Stafford, War wick, and Worcester. Interfperfed with biographical Anecdotes and incidental Kemarks, particularly intended for the Information and Amusement of the Rifing Generation. By the Kes. Edmund Butcher. 12mo. 2 vols. Price 8s. Symonds. 1805. We have been much amused, and often much interested in the perufal of thefe little volumes, and should not hesitate to give them our unqualified approbation, were not the Biographical Anecdotes principally confined to individuals of certain modes of religious belief. The anecdote at p. 389, vol. ii, told of Bishop Hough, is related of Bishop Berkeley, and indeed of others. The publication has, nevertheless, great merit, and will be defirable to all who fhall be inclined to vifit any, or all of the places which are here defcribed. A fmall, but neat view of Sid. mouth is prefixed to the first volume, and the work is more ver remarkably cheap. MEDICINE. ART. 21. Obfervations on the fimple Dyfentery, and its Combina. tions, containing a Review of the most celebrated Authors who bave written on this Subject, and also an Investigation into the Source Source of Contagion, in that and fome other Disorders. By Wil liam Harty, M.B. 8vo. 333 PP. Price 75. 6d. Callow. This author perceiving, he fays, much incongruity in the accounts given by medical writers of the nature of dyfentery, with the view of giving confiftency to thefe accounts, and of correcting fome falfe notions that prevail concerning the difeafe, has been at the pains of examining the principal works treating on the fubject, and here prefents the refult of his inveftigation. The opinion he feems moft difpofed to controvert is that of those who hold dy. fentery to be a febrile and contagious difeafe, or, as Cullen defines it, Pyrexia contagiofa." He on the contrary believes, he fays, (Preface, p. 6) that he can eftablish the following pofitions. "Firft, that the genuine and fimple dyfentery, is unattended by idiopathic fever, and is never of itself infectious. Secondly, That every other form of the difeafe, when endemic, is a combination of the fimple dyfentery with intermittent, remittent, or typhus fever, and "Thirdly, That the combination with typhus fever alone is contagious." The author, it must be obferved, does not offer thefe pofitions as the refult of obfervation and experience, few opportunities of treating this difcafe having occurred to him, but as deductions from the various works he had examined. Certain enough it is, that dyfentery has been delineated differently, by different writers, according to the fpecies of it, with which they happened to be most converfant, or, as the prefent author chooses to state, according as they had been accuftomed to meet it, in its fimple state, or combined with other complaints. Thus Akenfide, who more frequently faw it as fporadic, affecting here and there individuals, defcribes it as generally unattended with fever, and not infectious; Cleghorn as epidemic, and joined with remittent, or intermittent fever, in which form it appeared at Minorca, where his obfervations were made; and Pringle, who moft frequently faw it in camps, or hofpitals, conjoined with typhus, which being infectious, the dyfentery, partaking of the nature of the fever with which it was affociated, became contagious likewife. But it will be remembered, that Pringle is treating of the difeafes of the army, and defcribes dyfent.ry as commonly there found; it does not however thence follow, that he had never feen it in its fimple ftate, or that in that state, he believed it to be infectious. Mr. Harty has taken, it will be perceived, great pains in invef tigating the fubject, as we have quotations from the works of more than thirty writers. The perufal of thefe works muft, without doubt, have proved highly ufeful to the author, in enabling him to form clear and diftinct notions of the method of treating the difcafe, in its fimple or combined ftate, but we car not help thinking that he might have conveyed the information he purpofed giving his brethren in a more concife and compendious form; particularly he might have fpared the greater part of the paffages from the books he has confulted on the occafion, the works being in general well known, and in the hands of every practitioner. At the conclufion of the volume the author attempts to fhow, that catarrh, angina, puerperal fever, and fome other difeafes when infectious, become fo, in the fame manner as dyfentery does, from their union with typhus fever: this fubject, he intimates, he shall refume in fome future publication. ART. 22. Obfervations upon the Compofition and Uses of the Water at the new Sulphur Baths at Dinfdale, near Darlington, in the County of Durham. By John Peacock. 8vo. 79 pp. PP. Price 2s. 6d. Mawman. 1805. The fpring, the account and defcription of which is given in thefe pages, was difcovered accidentally, in the year 1789, by fome men employed by Mr. Lambton in fearching for coals. Having bored about feventy feet, principally through red rock, and whinftone, a ftream of water, of a ftrong fulphureous fmell, burst out. The water continues flowing with great rapidity, running, the author fays, though the aperture is only the fize of the borer, about twelve gallons in a minute. The fulphureous vapour emitted is ftronger than that from the old well at Harrow. gate, but the tafte of the water is faid to be pleasanter. The walls of the bath erected near its fource, and the channel through which the water runs, are covered with fulphur, and large quantities adhere to the bottom and fides of the bath. Sticks, which have lain a few days in the water, become fo impregnated with fulphur, as on drying them to be capable of being ufed as matches. No infects or reptiles come near the channel. The water is of a fomewhat higher temperature than the neighbouring fprings. It is never known to freeze, and the fnow that falls on the edges of the channel is foon melted. The water, when firft taken from the fountain, is beautifully clear and tranfparent, but in a few minutes it becomes turbid, and continues fo for two or three days, until it has depofited its fulphur, when it again becomes bright and tranfparent. The water is faid to be eminently useful in old rheumatic cafes, and in diforders of the skin. In gouty, hypochondriacal, and dyfpeptic cafes, in fhort, in all cafes for which mineral waters are ufually directed. The author particularly recommends it for herpetic eruptions. This clafs of complaints he thinks to be always dependent on fome vifceral difeafe, particu larly confumption, and therefore recommends practitioners carefully to avoid repelling them, by preparations of lead, or mercury. He has frequently, he fays, feen cough, with fever, and wafting occafioned by the drying up, and healing of herpetic eruptions, eruptions, and the confumptive fymptoms again quitting the pa tient, on the re-appearance of the eruption. "In the treatment of all cutaneous affections," he says, p. 43, "ftrict inquiry fhould be made whether the disease fucceeds hectic heats and cough, pain in the ftomach, flatulency, indigeftion. low fpirits, palpitation of the heart, &c." In fuch cafes, attempts must be made to restore the health of the bowel, that is the feat of the diforder, before any attempt is made to remove the affection of the skin. This reciprocation of the affections of the fkin and vifcera, has been frequently noticed. Hilary, in his account of the difcafes in the Weft Indies, obferves, that perfons much affected with the prickly heat, escape the yellow fever. Proceed. ing in his account, the author finds the fame water highly useful in all febrile affections, particularly in hectic fever, reducing the pulfe, he fays, p. 48, twenty or thirty ftrokes in a minute, be fore it has been taken a week, and the heat of the body, from 104 to 96. It is alfo a powerful anthelmintic, but its near re-femblance to the Harrowgate water, which it of course excels, makes it unneceffary that we should purfue this difquifition further; only obferving, it will be fortunate for the invalids, whom the author's ingenious account fhall invite to Dinsdale, if the waters fhall be found to poffefs half the virtues for which they are here celebrated. ART. 23. A Manual of Anatomy, and Phyfiology, reduced, as much as poffible, to a tabular Form, for the Purpose of facilitating to Students the Acquifition of thefe Sciences. By Thomas Luxmoore, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, &c. 12mo. 402 PP. Price 8s. 6d. Highley. 1805. In a fhort advertisement, the author fays, "He trufts he has fupplied ftudents with a small yet accurate manual of anatomy and phyfiology, the want of which has been fo long complained of." There can be no doubt of the utility of compendiumns of anatomy, fuch as this before us, and though there fhould not happen to be fuch a fcarcity of them as the author feems to intimate, there could be no harm in increafing their number, provided the new works be made to contain improvements not found in those before published. Comparing the Manual before us with Dr. Hooper's Vade Me. cum, printed in the fame form, and which has in a few years paffed through five editions, we are fuprised to find the new work fall. ing very fhort, as we think, of the value of its predeceffor. The general defcriptions of the parts, the fubjects of anatomy, as of the bones, ligaments mufcles, glands, &c. are more full and complete in the Vade Mecum than in the Manual. Dr. Hooper has also given numerous obfervations on the diseases incident to the parts defcribed, on the alterations in their appearances, occafioned by difeafe, on their difference in the foetal and adult state, on the modc mode of making preparations to exhibit the structure of the body, and has further enriched his volume by inferting a short history of anatomy, and the life, with an elegant engraved head of Vefalius, one of the early restorers of the art. None of thefe articles are found in the Manual, neither has the editor given any reason for omitting them, and yet we find the price of the Manual is 8s. 6d. that of the Vade Mecum only 7s. As far as we have been able to examine, the editor of the Manual is correct in giving the names, pofitions, and offices of the feveral bones, veffels, mufcles, &c. of which the body is compofed, but he is not happy in defcribing the parts. "The vagina," he fays, "is a canal, of much greater dimenfions than the urethra," which conveys but a very incongruous idea of the vagina; and defcribing the inner furface of the uterus, he fays, " each of the angles of the fundus is perforated by a canal, fo narrow as fcarcely to admit a briftle;" but he does not say, that these canals are the fallopian tubes. Of the brain, he fays, "It is well known that it is the feat of the foul, the organ of judgment, and of volition." We do not however pretend to be of the number of thofe who are fo well acquainted with the feat of the foul. We could increase the lift of exception able parts, but what we have done may be fufficient to induce the editor to revife the work, and make it more perfect for a future edition. ART. 24. Remarks on the ineffective State of the Practice of Phyfic in Great Britain, with Propofals for its future Regulation and Improvement. By Edward Harrison, M. D. F. R. A. S. E. of the Medical Society of London. &c. 8vo. Price 25. R. Bickerstaff, corner of Effex Street, Strand. In this little treatife, the author has drawn an alarming, though we believe a true picture of the degraded state of phyfic in England. We earnestly hope, for the fake of mankind in general, that his obfervations will obtain their due notice from the faculty and the public. The author has clearly fhown, that a large majority of medical men are very incompetently educated, and that the fhops of Apothecaries and Druggifts are often fupplied with fuch bafe articles, that little dependence can be placed in them. We would not be understood to infinuate, that the kingdom does not contain many very able and honorable practitioners, but that a great proportion do not poffefs thofe attainments, which are indifpenfible to enable them to fill their ftations with credit to themselves, and benefit to the community. It appears, that many Doctors now in practice, have procured their Diplomas from univerúties which they never faw, and that others have affumed the title altogether. A great majority of Surgeons, Apothecaries, and Men Midwives are poffeffed of fuch inferior qualifications that they may be confidered altogether unfit for the ordinary duties of the profeffion. Thefe are denominated the |