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Auftria, and if formerly the wars about fucceffions, wars for the Proteftant intereft, &c. were defenfible-the present is a parallel occafion. Very true, if-but if we have on former occafions wafted our blood and treasure in settling this imaginanary balance, and after long wars, have found ourselves by fome unforfeen occurrence, as in the war for the Spanish fucceffion, juft where we fet out, ought it not to teach us to confine ourselves to the plain path of making war only to repel actual injury. Speculations which involve in them the rife and fall of empires, are too big for the powers of man. If there is to arife in Europe another univerfal monarchy, it will depend upon circumstances and a state of things which our feeble political manœuvres can neither bring on nor retard. The wind bloweth where it lifteth, and the tide of fuccefs heaves fometimes on this fhore and sometimes on that, from caufes fo nice and variable as to baffle all calculation. Let every nation then be content to refift only specific acts of aggreffion, either towards herself, or, if her generofity leads her to do it, towards others: all elfe is fpeculation; and the invariable experience of history will tell us that one fpeculation is nearly as good as another. The author indeed does not puth his reafoning fo far as to advise us to go to war to reduce the power of Auftria and Ruffia, but the interference he hints at manifeftly leads to it. How for inftance fhould we relifh the being told that the king must divide his fucceffions, give Havover (uppofe) to one branch, and our Eaft India poffeffions to another, left we fhould grow too powerful. Certainly however the author's arguments are fufficiently valid againft ftrengthening and cooperating with powers fo formidable and fo flagitious.

In the Preface, the Calm Obferver difcufles fome of thofe general queftions of internal government which have been agitated in the writings of Burke and Paine, and he fhows himfelf to have adopted temperate and guarded fentiments of liberty.

We beg leave, before we conclude, to notice to the author a paffage in which through inadvertence he seems to have confounded Atheists and Deifts, between whom the difference is, literally speaking, immenfe. It is as follows:

The first of thefe impreffions is owing to the fuppofed, atheifm of the French nation; which might be combated by a peremptory denial of the fact from perfonal knowledge; though I must admit, that many individuals doubt, and not a few deny, the existence of a God. But I have often afked, (as I find the respectable Mr. Wyvik has done,) why it is if this fpecies of argument is valid, that we fend an embaffy to China; the governors of which country, according to Mr. Hume, are the only regular body of deifts in the univerfe; being the difciples of Confucius, and having no priesta or religious establishment whatever!'

We now take our leave of this masterly writer, by no means, however, joining in the with he expreffes of the leave being a final one. We are willing to indulge him in concealing himfelf from, but we cannot allow him to defert, the public.

Medical Commentaries for the Year 1793. Exhibiting a concife View of the latest and most important Discoveries in Medicine and Medical Philofophy, collected and published by Andrew Duncan, M. D. F. R. and A. SS. Ed. 8vo. 6s. Boards. Robinfons. 1794.

WE E meet Dr. Duncan, in his annual orbit, under fome difadvantages. The caufes we have often alluded to, which have occafioned fome little irregularity in our progreffive accounts of Medical and Philofophical Works, have enabled him to precede us in fome subjects. But, as our difficulties are in a great degree removed, we truft that we shall foon, as indeed the nature of our work requires, again anticipate the flower progrefs of an annual publication. This volume is, in many refpects, valuable: its contents are in general well chofen; and, though the Effays do not rife above their ufual mediocrity, yet the interefting nature of a few renders this part of the volume lefs tedious than we have ufually found it.

Among the works examined, we find Dr. Valli's Experi ments on Animal Electricity, Dr. Fowler's Experiments on the fame fubject, Dr. Beddoes' Obfervations on the Nature and Cure of Calculus, &c. Mr. Home's Obfervations on Ulcers, from the Transactions of a Society for the Improvement of Medical and Chirurgical Knowledge; Dr. Webster's Facts, tending to how the Connection of the Stomach with Life, Difeafe, and Recovery; Mr. Bell's Treatife on the Gonor rhoea and Lues; Dr. Trotter's Obfervations on the Scurvy; Dr. Wade's Paper on the Prevention and Treatment of the Dif orders of Seamen and Soldiers, in Bengal; Mr. Earle's Treatife on the Hydrocele, and Dr. Currie's Account of the remarkable Effects of a Shipwreck on Mariners, from the Philofophical Tranfactions, we have already noticed. Dr. Fowler's and Mr. Bell's works alone have not yet occurred; and Dr. Valli's, from the extent of our examination, is not yet concluded.

The firft Effay which claims our attention, is entitled Tractatus de Roborantium in Rheumatismo Arthritico Neceffitate, by Dr. Buchhave, from the Copenhagen Transactions, It is far from unexceptionable, either in the arguments or the practice. The defign is to recommend the united efficacy of Evacuants and tonics, a practice fufficiently rational, but the

idea is not pursued with propriety; for the only medicines, recommended, are the gum urbanum and the guaiacum-Perhaps the general view, purfued to a greater extent, and with a better choice of the medicines employed, might be highly falutary.

'Dr. Callifen's Obfervatio de Diarrhoea cum Obftructione Alvi haud infrequenti connubio, from the fame collection, is not very important. Every practitioner knows, that fcybala often remain in the bowels, and elude a violent and continued diarrhoea: the cafe recorded differs only in the quantity of fæces collected, which refembled to the touch, externally, an intestinal concretion. The ball was brought down by the powers of nature, and broken by the forceps introduced, when it had reached the anus.

Dr. Buchhave's Experiments on the Ufe of the Atropa Beladona in Chincough, in Rabies Canina, Melancholy Mania, and Epilepfy, are more valuable. In rabies canina it is faid to have fucceeded: in pertuffis, it was given to infants, within the first year, in the dose of half a grain; to patients between one and two years he gave a full grain, to thofe of eight years old two grains, and to thofe beyond their twentieth year four grains. It produced the usual symptoms of narcotic vegetables, but was fuccefsful. After ufing it, the disease seldom continued more than fourteen days. Emetics were interpofed every three or four days.

From the Copenhagen Tranfactions we alfo find an attempt to eftablish the ufe of opium in fyphilis, by M. Schonheyder; but the various, accurate trials, by many of the most able practitioners, have decided against it. There can, however, be no impropriety in having numerous facts collected on each

fide.

M. Seguin's New Obfervations on Refpiration and Animal Heat deferve attention; yet, perhaps, his effay contains little that is new. Dr. Priestley, Lavoifier, and Crawford, have anticipated his moft material remarks, and he has only united the scattered limbs. We fhall felect the theory:

In the lungs, oxygen gas is decompofed, in confequence of the affinity of the carbonated hydrogen of the blood for oxygen, being greater than that of oxygen for caloric, and of carbonated hydrogen for blood. In proportion as the oxygen unites with the hydrogen and carbon, water and carbonic acid are formed: the caloric combines itself with the venous blood, which, in lofing its carbonated hydrogen, becomes arterial, and has its capacity for containing caloric immediately augmented. But the blood, now arterial, in circulating through the body, gradually abforbs carbonated hydrogen, repaffes to the venous ftate, and lets loose a portion of its caloric, in proportion as its capacity for containing it is diminished. The al

moft

moft uniform temperature in all parts of the body is then owing to the fucceffive changes of arterial blood to venous throughout the body, and of venous to arterial in the lungs. It is alfo a confequence of this fact, that the greater temperature of fome parts of the body is to be afcribed to the arterial blood absorbing more carbonated hydrogen, or its becoming venous more rapidly.

M. Seguin terminates his memoir with fome important confequences, drawn from thefe obfervations.

ft, The cold fit at the beginning of fevers coincides with the diminution in the number of pulfations and infpirations.

ad, The increased heat, which fucceeds the cold fit, is owing to the accelerated circulation and refpiration.

6

34, The burning heat of putrid fevers depends upon the putref cent ftate of the fyftem, which increafes the proportion of carbonated hydrogen in the blood, and detaches its caloric.

4th, The heat of inflamed parts is owing to the fame cause, united to accelerated circulation..

In the prefent memoir, M. Seguin prefents the beginning only of a moft important inquiry refpecting the philofophy of the animal body; for he has treated only of one of the phænomena of refpiration. We are here informed, that in conjunction with M. Lavoifier, he is engaged in experiments on digeftion, tending to fhow the influence which infpiration has in the combination of chyle with blood; which will contribute not a little to the advancement of medical science.'

We remember pointing out, in a former volume of our journal, and illuftrating the opinion by various facts, that all uniform heats are probably owing to heat appearing in confequence of decompofition. The heat of mineral waters, the fubject that fuggefted the remark, is moft probably from this

fource.

M. Margueron's chemical Examination of the Serofity produced by Blifters, is from the fourteenth volume of the Annals of Chemistry, a work which, in the prefent political state of Europe, it may be fome time before we can overtake.-We have not been fo happy as to meet with one of the few copies of the later volumes which have reached this country.-We thall confequentiy obferve, in this place, that ferum has more glaten than feriofity, and feriofity more than the fynovia of the joints. The proportion of water and of falts increases in the fame order: the falts are the fame in each, and the quantity fall.

Dr. Schreger's Differtation on the Nature and medical Powers of the Bark of the Fraxinus Excciñor is not of great importance. It is a tonic and aftringent; but Dr. Schreger adds nothing to what we formerly knew of its effects. The principal novelty contts in the pharmaceutical treatment. Its

active ingredient diffolves in water: the gummy refin is in the largest proportion; and its useful parts are not volatile.

Thefe are the different works of which an account is given: they are evidently too few, and convey no adequate view of the medical literature of the year. It could be wished that this part of the Commentaries was extended farther, and the more trifling obfervations of the next part omitted.-But we defpair of a reform fo much more troublefome and inconve

nient.

The first Effay, among the Medical Obfervations, is by Dr. John Crawford, on the Virtues of the native Camphor; but he is furely mistaken in fuppofing the different kinds of camphor, and its different properties, hitherto unknown.

The Epidemic Fever of Grenada, defcribed by Mr. Chif holm in the next Article, was evidently an hepatitis, and the treatment with mercury and opium very fuccefsful. The account is genuine and important. The light yellow urine, like Madeira, which tinges linen of the fame colour, is the best diagnostic of an affection of the liver. Turbid urine, like unfined porter, fhows that there is nothing peculiar in the fever. Mr. Drummond's Obfervations refpecting the Guinea Worm, only fhow that the irritation of the worm, if the head is not fecured when it first points, may produce trouble fome itching, with cutaneous affections. We fufpect, however, from the occurrence of bumps in the fkin, that there was some other caufe of the pruritus: thefe are fymptoms very peculiar to the bites of animalcules.

Mr. Leny's account of the boy who loft a confiderable portion of the brain, without the lofs of any mental or corporeal faculty, is in no refpect fingular or new.

Dr. Gordon's Account of an alarming Cafe of Flooding, which happened in the ninth month of pregnancy, is not very fingular, as the placenta was not attached to the orifice of the uterus. Mr. Rigby's plan of waiting for the dilatation of the os tincæ, and fupporting the patient carefully, feems to have been more frequently fuccessful,

A cafe of extra uterine conception, affuming the appear ance of a retroverted uterus, by the fame author, is indeed fingular. But the os uteri, though elevated towards the brim of the pelvis, was in a natural fate. The foetus defcended between the uterus and rectum, penetrated the rectum, and the bones were discharged by the anus. Nature effectually, in this way, relieved the patient.

A curious cafe of expectoration of bile, alfo by Dr. Gordon, follows. After an hepatitis, in which probably fome adhefion took place, a jaundice came on, and the bile formed a paffage through the diaphragm, into the bronchi. Near an

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