Medical Jurifprudence; or, a Code of Ethics and Inftitutes adapted to the Profeffions of Phyfic and Surgery. Svo. Not Sold. For this excellent work we are indebted to a most respectable veteran in medicine, and we truft we do not improperly betray the confidence repofed in us when we mention the name of Dr. Percival. We mention the name and we notice the work merely to express our wifhes for its completion. What was defigned for a beloved fon may be finished for younger medical students, the author's adopted family. The firft fection is on profeffional conduct relative to hofpitals or other medical charities;' the fecond, on profeffional conduct in private or general practice;' the third, on the conduct of phyficians towards apothecaries.' Thefe fections form a very valuable fupplement to Dr. Gregorie's Lectures on the Duties and Qualifications of a Phyfician, and deferve unqualified commendation. The fourth fection treats of the knowledge of law requifite for physicians and furgeons;' and in a fifth it was proposed to treat of the powers, privileges, honours, and emoluments of the faculty; in a fixth, of the moral, religious, and political character of phyficians; and to fubjoin to the whole notes and illuftrations. The unhappy event we have alluded to, has, for a time at least, prevented the author from proceeding beyond the fourtn fection: we truft the work will be foon refumed. A Difcourfe addreffed to the Gentlemen of the Faculty, the Officers, the Clergy, and the Trustees of the Infirmary at Liverpool, on their refpective Hofpital Duties, preached in May, 1791, before the Governors of the Inftitution for the Benefit of the Charity, by the Rev. T. B. Percival, LL. B.' is fubjoined as a very suitable and proper appendix. From this pamphlet we might have tranfcribed many useful and interefting paffages; but what the author chofe to confine to a circle of friends, it was improper in us to give to the world. On the Neceffity for contra&ing Cavities between the Venous Trunks and the Ventricles of the Heart; on the Ufe of Venous Sinufes in the Head; on the wonderful Provifion made for the Transition from the Fatal to the Breathing State; on Palpitation; on Death; and on Life: with Reflections on the Treatment of Animals. By John Walker. Suo. Darton and Harvey. We find it impoffible to give any account of the contents of this frange little pamphlet. We fcarcely fee any thing new in it; and if there be one idea which has the flightest claim to novelty, it is buried in the incomprehenfible jargon of the whole. The theses at the end were intended as preparatory to taking a degree of doctor of inedicine at Leyden, and the English work as the basis of a thefis; but, from the title-page, the plan feems never to have been carried into execution. It is well known that the publication of opinions under the title of Thefes is not fufficient to obtain the title of doctor in any Dutch university. Some new Experiments, with Obfervations upon Heat, clearly fhewing the erroneous Principles of the French Theory. Also, a Letter to Henry Cavendish, Efq. containing fome pointed Animadverfions; with Strictures upon fome late Chemical Papers in the Philofophical Tranfactions, and other Remarks. By Robert Harrington, M. D. 8vo. 3. Cadell and Davies. In the infancy of Dr. Harrington's labours and fuppofed improvements we declined any examination of them, for this reason, that we understood but a small part of his work, and what we did understand was clearly erroneous. At prefent we comprehend his meaning more completely; for Gutta cafat lapidem, non vi, fed fæpe cadendo. We are not, however, more disposed to engage in the difcuffion; for, though his obfervations be occafionally acute, his ideas in general are fo ftrangely perverted, that we must firit render his system intelligible before we could examine it: we must make the man of ftraw before we could attack it; and we fear that we might not conftruct it to his taste. We fhall therefore leave his labours to be appreciated in the approaching century, remarking only that there feems to be an incipient coalition between him and Dr. Priestley. The latter, having oppofed phlogifton, appears more gracious in the eyes of our author: and, in one or two places, there seems to be an effort towards a compliment. Of all coalitions, this is the most extraordinary: this is indeed the age of wonders! EDUCATION. Of Education founded upon Principles. Part the Firft. Time; previous to the Age of Puberty. By Thomas Northmore, Efq. 12mo. 25. Reynolds. 1800. The principles on which this system of education is founded are to give the child a found mind in a found body. That the body may be found, he is to be nourished by his mother's milk, is not to fuffer in his limbs by unnatural fwaddling clothes or tight ligatures, and when he can use his limbs is to do every thing poffible for himfelf. This laft is, fays the author, the great principle of early education; and it is certainly a very desirable attainment: but it is remarkable that the writer, who reprobates in many refpects our great schools, has not reflected on their advantage in this respect. Where is this principle put in practice fo well? When the boy has left his paternal roof, whatever may be his rank, whatever may have been his indulgence at home, all ceafe at Eton, Winchester, Harrow, Westminster, and indeed in almost all our larger feminaries. The boy must aft for himfelf; and fome perhaps on the continent may be inclined to think that we carry this principle too far. Few fituations indeed give the opportunities which this plan proposes→→ that the boy is to have his wheelbarrow when his father's land is underdrained, is to fow feeds and dig trenches with him; but it cer tainly might be deemed of fome advantage if our boys could be instructed a little more than they are in manual arts and ufeful labours. On going to bed and rifing early most people in this country agree; and in our schools the practice is uniform. If we are defirous of giving a boy a firm and collected spirit, public schools have in this point the fuperiority over private education; and to encourage the deteftation of falsehood they are perhaps peculiarly adapted. Hence we do not fee much propofed in one part of this work that is not in general practice in our country. Women for the most part fuckle their children: thefe laft are loosely clothed; they run about freely, and are accustomed to the air: they have fufficient experience to fhift for themselves in public schools. learning to read, it is propofed that the boy fhould teach himself to fpell by fpelling two or three words that he has read; and thus he will daily improve in the art, and rejoice in the improvement. This ought to be done, and is, we fuppofe, done by all teachers, for they lose a great opportunity if they do not, at the close of every leffon in reading, defire the children to spell fome words contained in it. To learn a foreign language, the boy is to be carried into the country where it is fpoken; and this is, we doubt not, the best method: but, as few boys can have this advantage, we must be content with the inferior modes of receiving inftruction. Tranflation and re-tranflation are recommended: this we remember was the plan at our grammar school, and is in general adopted in others; and we muft here join our wishes to thofe of the author, that the tirefome mode of teaching Latin and Greek, by labouring through the rules of grammar, may be difufed, and that the mafters of great schools would condefcend to afk of thofe perfons who have learned a confiderable number of ancient and modern languages, what progress they should have made if they had learned by heart in each the rules of its grammar. On school correction it is in vain to argue against the generally received notions, equally injurous to delicacy and to the fpirit of honour which fhould be fo carefully cultivated in early life. Those who teach the arts of dancing and of fencing do not flog: why should the doctor in divinity and the christian divine be armed with fo much terror? Literary difcuffion and moral converfation are other helps recommended for the child's education; but men in active life have not leisure to put this in practice before each child, and perhaps the converfation of children at fchool will be more inftructive to them than that of men four times their age. On the whole, though we approve many things recommended in this scheme, and esteem the pains bestowed on the fubject highly praifeworthy, we do not think the author has fufficiently difcriminated between the advantages and difadvantages attending a private and a public education: he has not adequately confidered the feasibility of fome of his maxims. By his plan, each parent would be fufficiently occupied by a single child; and, with all the appeare ance of attention to nature, there is more danger that the child would enter into life a made-up artificial boy, than if he had been, as is very much the cafe in England, left to his own nature and the correction of it by himself in a public school. L'Art de parler et d'écrire correctement la Langue Françoise, oa Par The fecond Edition of Lévizac's Art of Speaking and writing French with Accuracy, or philofophical and literary Grammar of that Language. 8vo. 6s. fewed. Dulau. 1800. When this grammar first appeared *, we recommended it as a work of great merit, though capable of improvement. It has fince been enlarged and altered in a manner which reflects credit on the writer. Traité des Sons de la Langue Françoise, &c. A Treatife, by M. Lévizac, on the Sounds of the French Language, followed by Remarks on Orthography and Punctuation. 25. Dulau. 1800. 8vo. This is a proper companion to the grammar of the fame author. A Guide to the Study of the Hiftory of England. In a Series of Questions upon Goldfmith's Abridgement. By M. Florian. 12mo. IS. Newbery. These interrogatories, put to young persons who have read the epitome of Goldsmith's Hiftory of England, will not only teach them to treasure up in their minds the chief incidents and most memorable tranfactions, but will enable them in fome degree to argue or reafon upon the different particulars. The queftions terminate with the year 1799. A brief Account of the Life and Writings of Terence. For the Ufe of Schools. 8vo. White. The writer of this manual obferves in his preface, that schoolboys, by being acquainted with the hiftory of the authors whom they ftudy, will feel themfelves more interested in the perufal of their works. For the benefit of the youthful student who is enter ing on Terence's comedies, he has collected the fcanty particulars which are now known of the life of this friend of Scipio and Lælius. To his biographical sketch he has prefixed fome obfervations on the nature of comedy, for which he acknowledges his obligations to Dr. Blair; and he has extracted from Colman's preface and notes a few remarks on each of the plays of Terence which have furvived the hand of Time. * See our XXIIId Vol. New Arr. p. 346. POETRY. Sans Culotides: By Cincinnatus Rigfhaw, Professor of Theophilanthropy; Member of the Correfponding and Revolutionary Societies; Brother of the Rofy Crofs; Knight Philofopher of the Order of Illuminati; and Citizen of the French and Hibernian Republics. 4to. 5s. fered. Chapple. 1800. This publication, as its title imports, contains a violent attack. upon the phalanx of incorrigible jacobins-that redoubtable body which has fo long haunted the visions of minifterial declaimers of all ranks, from the polished orator of St. Stephen's to the rude hiftorian of the village alehoufe. It is dedicated to the people's most excellent majefty, contains two profe effays on political alchemy, imitations of the third, fixth, eighth, and tenth eclogues, and the firft, and part of the fourth books of the Georgics of Virgil. The dedication and the effays are written in a ftyle of grave continued irony. Much ftrength and peculiarity of talent is requi fite to maintain an equable degree of fpirit in this fpecies of writing through a space of twenty pages in quarto-and thefe qualifications Mr. Cincinnatus Rigfhaw does not appear to us to poffefs. Accordingly his periods foon become languid, his wit evaporates, and nothing remains in the poetic alembic but a large caput mortuum of dullness. In his imitations of Virgil he has been much more fuccefsful. He has traveftied the original with a confiderable portion of humour. By the magic of his wand, Melibous and Damotas become Sheridan and Tooke-the precepts of husbandry are tranfmuted into leffons of fedition; and Arifteus, complaining to his mother of the lofs of his bees, is metamorphofed into Charles Fox bewailing to Mrs. Windfor the lofs of his political credit. Mr. Rigfhaw's verfification is here melodious and manly, and proves that he poffeffes powers which would fecure him no fmall fhare of applaufe, were they employed in the compofition of legitimate fatire. We are forry to obferve fuch respectable talents prostituted to the odious task of heaping abufe upon the remnant of oppofition. Abufe, indeed, fo completely fullies every page and every paragraph of this work, that we could not extract a single paffage but is poifoned by its virulence, and are compelled therefore to taciturnity and regret. It may nevertheless be perufed with no fmall pleafure by ftaunch believers in the profligacy of every one who differs in opinion from his majesty's prefent minifters. We beg leave to asfure them that its author inflicts on Meff. Fox, Sheridan, Smith, &c. &c. an unrestrained portion of poetic flagellation; and that if a work of parallel merit were published on the other fide of the quef tion, it would have no fmall chance of attracting the attention of the attorney-general. We cannot but think Mr. Rigfhaw unfortunate in having felected as a subject of ridicule the humane exertions of fir Francis Burdett Jones to procure an inquiry into the ftate of Cold-Bath-Fields' pri |