ness, flexibility, and inalterability by contact with the mucus of the urethra, the urine, or any of the animal fluids. The testimonies which he brings are highly creditable and decisive. The sole object of this little treatise being to recommend their use, and advertise their sale, no further notice of its contents is requisite, except to speak in strong disar probation of the way in which he passes a sweeping condemnation on the use of caustic in general. Surely he might have been satisfied with the honourable testimony he has obtained to his invention, without adopting the common empirical art of undervaluing an important practice, to enhance the value of his specific. ART. XXXI. The New Edinburgh Dispensatory. By ANDREW DUNCAN, Jun. M. D. Second Edition, much enlarged and improved. IN our former volume we noticed, with high approbation, this very valuable system of pharmacy; and the public has acknowledged its value by the rapid sale of the first edition. The author announces the following improvements in the present. "The principal alterations and additions which have been made, consist in the characters which salts derive from their bases in the Epitome of Chemistry; the account of the general properties of common and mineral waters, charcoal, and a few other articles, in the Materia Medica, with a short notice of every article contained in the Pharmacopoeia-Borussica, Formulario Pharmaceutico of the hospital of Genoa, Marabelli's Appa ART. XXXII. Elements of Materia ratus medicaminum, Van Mons's Pharmacopoeia, and that of La Grange, which had not been previously mentioned; a list of the Genera of Medical Plants, according to the natural system of Jussieu, as improved by Ventenat, while the natural orders of Murray are retained, in the Materia Medica; and a posological and prosodial Table, which cannot fail to be acceptable; besides the introduction. of every pharmaceutical improvement which has come to the author's knowledge during the interval which has elapsed between the publication of the two editions." For the satisfaction of the recent purchasers of the first edition, we may assure them, that the additions are of very inferior importance. Medica and Pharmacy. Lecturer on Chemistry, and on Materia Medica and Pharmacy. THE first volume of this work is an outline, considerably in detail, of the au b. Permanent. thor's system of Materia Medica, intend- B. Local Stimulants. ed as a very ample syllabus of his lectures, and sufficiently enlarged to be useful and acceptable to the general reader. It begins with a short outline of what the author terms pharmaceutic chemistry. It is rather a very slight sketch of general chemistry, part of which has nothing to do with pharmacy; and the rest is composed of materials easily got from any modern system. C. Chemical Remedies. By J. MURRAY, 2 vols. 8vo. STonics. Astringents. Emetics. Cathartics. Emmenagogues. Diuretics. The author has taken more pains with D. Mechanical Remedies. Anthelmintics. the classification of the Materia Medica which follows. His theory is entirely Brunonian; but, as a practical writer cannot shut his eyes to the extreme difficulty of applying this system to the real distinctions which are exhibited in the operations of similar medicines, the author has bestowed a good deal of pains in stretching, adapting, and accommodating his system to his experience. The following is his classification: "TABLE OF CLASSIFICATION. A. General Stimulants. a. Diffusible. Narcotics. Demulcents. As this arrangement does contain the distinct classes of narcotics, tonics, antispasmodics, diuretics, &c. and, (what is of equal consequence), as their respective operations are given very fairly and impartially, the ultimate end of classification is obtained. The following is a specimen of the description of the individual articles : "CONIUM MACULATUM. Cicuta. Hemlock Pentand. Digyn. Umbellatæ. Folia, Se- riable in their strength. The dried leaves are men. Indigenous. "The stalk of hemlock is large and spotted; the leaves are of a dark-green colour, have a faint disagreeable smell, and a nauscous herbaceous taste. The seeds are inferior in strength. "Hemlock is a very powerful narcotic. In a very moderate dose it is apt to occasion sickness and vertigo; in a larger quantity it induces anxiety, dilatation of the pupils, delirium, stupor, and convulsions. "The free internal use of this plant was introduced by Störck. He recommended it particularly in scirrhus, and in cancerous sores, in which it received a very extensive trial. While its inefficacy towards effecting a radical cure is established, its utility as a palliative is admitted. It has likewise been found serviceable in scrofulous and venereal ulcerations, glandular tumors, chronic rheumatism, and several other diseases. The less liable to injury from keeping than the inspissated juice. The drying should be performed quickly before a fire, and the powder should be kept in phials closely stopped and secluded from the light. The proof of the drying having been properly performed, is the powder retaining the odour of the leaves, and the deepness and freshness of their ca lour. Ed." Offic. Prep.-Suce: spiss: Conii Macul. The second volume is a translation of the new edition of the Edinburgh Phar macopoeia, with the insertion, in their respective places, of those prescriptions of the London and some foreign colleges, where any material difference occurs, or that have no corresponding place in the Edinburgh edition. A very short notice of the medical use of the gases, of electricity, and galvanism, is added in a supplement, which is tollowed by a still slighter outline of the method of composing medical prescrip dose is two or three grains of the powdered leaves, one or two grains of the inspissated juice. It requires to be increased, in general, to a very considerable extent: at the same time, this must be done with caution, as both the dried leaves and inspissated juice are vaART. XXXIII. Pharmacopeia Medici Practici Universalis, sistens Medicamenta preparata composita, cum eorum Usu & Dosibus. Auctore F. SWEDIAUR, M. D. PP. 500. THE title of this work sufficiently explains its contents. We shall only add, that it will be found a very useful manual of pharmacy, containing a considerable number of prescriptions, on the whole very well selected, and well tions. calculated to assist the prescriber. The arrangement is that of the form of medicines, like the standard pharmacopeias, and the tables and indexes are full, and apparently accurate. ART. XXXIV. An Inquiry into the Rot in Sheep, and other Animals; in which a Courttion is pointed out between it, and some obscure and important Disorders in the human Constitution. By EDWARD HARRISON, M. D. F. R. A. S Ed. Member of the Royal Mel and Royal Phys. Soc. Ed. of the Med. Soc. London, &c. pp. 56. THE author of this treatise is a phy. sician of respectability at Horncastle, in Lincolnshire, and must, therefore, both from his situation and the peculiar turn of his studies, be well qualified to afford us information on the subject. The importance of the inquiry will not be doubted; and if it be admitted, according to Dr. Harrison's opinion, that the rot in sheep bears a strong analogy to some of the diseases which affect the human frame, we shall have an ad. ditional motive for its investigation. The term "rot" seems to have arisen from the effect which the disease has upon the liver; the texture of the part becomes less firm, and when boiled, it separates into small pieces. The disease is produced in those situations only where the ground is occasionally covered with stagnant water. "Grounds that are always dry, or always under water, and sach as are wet enough to preserve a continual run and circulation, were never known to suffer from the rot." Hence it follows, that an imperfect drainage of a district has made the rot more frequent than before, by causing land to be sometimes dry and sometimes flooded, which before was always covered with water. This fact respecting the origin of the rot, naturally suggests an analogy be tween this disease and the intermittent fever; and it appears that they are both prevalent in precisely the same situations. The conclusion which almost irresist ibly follows is, that they are both produced by the same cause, viz. marsh miasmata. Some singular exceptions are noticed to the general fact: marshes exposed to the tide do not, it is said, produce the rot; some of the bogs in Ireland, and peat mosses in general, are considered as exempted from its attacks. It is difficult to give any satisfactory reason for these anomalies: and it is certainly desirable that the facts themselves should be carefully ascertained. With respect to peat mosses, we have heard it asserted, that agues are not found to prevail in the neighbourhood of those large tracts of this description, which abound in Lancashire. A variety of causes have been assigned for the origin of the rot, which are enumerated by the author. "The disorder has been imputed, 1st, to a vitiated dew. "2ndly, To a crust, which adheres to the grass after wet weather, or the over-flowing of running water. "Sdly, To the luxuriant and quick growth of plants in hot, moist, seasons. 4thly, To grazing upon certain herbs. 5thly, To fasciole hepaticæ, or their ova, being introduced into the stomachs of animals, by feeding on swampy and low grounds in moist weather. Othly, It has been called the sheep pox, by professor Vibourg, of the veterinary college at Copenhagen.* 7thly, It is ascribed by Daubenton to poor diet, and drinking too much water. "8thly, It seems to be occasioned by poisonous effluvia, which, under certain circumstances, are emitted from marshy soils." Some remarks are offered upon each of them in succession. The existence of animals called flukes in the livers of diseased sheep, has been frequently noticed, and the opinion at present most prevalent respecting the cause of the rot is, that the ova of these animals being taken into the stomach, penetrate to the liver, and by their action en that part produce the disease. It is, however, asserted upon good authority, that sheep, even in the last stages of the disease, do not always, upon examination, exhibit any traces of these animalcules; and, upon the whole, Dr. Harrison concludes, "that flukes are never the cause of this complaint, although they are commonly to be found in its advanced stages." It has been stated, that cow-pox will preserve sheep from the rot; and it has been hence conjectured that this latter disease was of an analogous nature. Our author however imagines, that the disease which is kept off by the cow-pox is the claveau des moutons, an eruptive and febrile affection not known in this island, and altogether different from the genuine rot. Some curious, and apparently unequivocal instances are adduced, where the disease has been contracted in a very short space of time; in one case there is every reason to conclude, that the disease was produced in a flock of sheep, by their feeding for one hour only in a marshy lane. The author concludes this part by remarking, that he thinks himself justified in attributing the. rot in sheep, and other animals, to paludal effluvia. The prevention of the disease is ob viously to be sought for in an effective draining of the land. There are, however, situations in which this cannot be accomplished; in these cases we must endeavour to mitigate the evil. It has been remarked, that the rot is less liable to be produced, where the herbage is so considerable as to screen the surface of the ground from the action of the sun. Sheep are found to be most liable to the disease immediately after losing their fleeces. The disease is produced almost exclusively in particular seasons of the year, when there is a combination of heat and moisture. Facts of a similar description are recorded about the ague, and seem to confirm the analogy between these diseases. The work concludes with an account of the symptoms of the disease, and the appearances of the viscera after death. *This is not properly the cause of the rot. CHAPTER XVII. MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. THE mathematical world has been enriched this year by another volume of the Scriptores Logarithmici, by Baron Maseres, whose ardour does not diminish as his years increase; and every one must wish him long to retain the high preeminence which he has reached, and which he deserves so well to occupy, both by his own labours, and the encouragement he is ever ready to afford to others. In the death of professor Robison it has sustained a great loss, which every person will lament who reads his Elements of Natural Philosophy, a work which proves him to be one of the few who study the Newtonian philosophy at the fountain head. Mr. Newton, late of Jesus college, Cambridge, has in a short work aimed, and with great success, to correct the errors that have crept into this philosophy, particularly at Cambridge, and proves that its principles rest on the surest foundation of sound mathematical reasoning. Mr. Brinkley has enriched the Irish, and Mr. Woedehouse the English, Philosophical Transactions, with their researches on very deep subjects, and displayed great talents in developing very abstruse points in mathematical reasoning. To these we may add the name of professor Playfair, whose Euclid will engage attention; and we must not deny to the French the merit due to them for their encouragement of science, as their annual work, the Connoissance des Tems, continues to be the repository of science and scientific information. ART. I. The Complete Navigator; or an Easy and Familiar Guide to the Theory and Practice of Navigation, with all the requisite Tables: illustrated with Engravings. By A. MACKAY, LL. D. &c. THIS is a work of considerable me rit, though there is an inconsistency in the title. To be at the same time a complete book for navigation, an easy and familiar guide, and to contain all the requisite tables; to do all this in the compass of an octavo volume; is an impossibility. For, in the first place, the tables requisite for a complete navigator, in a part only of his science, require very nearly as large a volume as this before us: we mean the tables of logarithms of numbers, from one to 1,000,000, and of sines, tangents, &c. The nautical almanac and the tables accompanying, are farther requisites to the complete navigator; and others we might, if necessary, point out, if the above were not suffici ent for our position, that the author could not in his volume present to the complete navigator all the requisite ta bles. As the volume could not contain what the title-page declares, and yet there is a great number of tables, it ne cessarily follows that in aiming at too much, the tables must be imperfect. We have therefore tables of logarithms to only five decimal places, and from one to 100,000, and of sines, tangents, &c, to only five decimal places. Navigation is a very extensive science, and persons will be deceived if they imagine that it can be attained in an easy and familiar way. The shortest and easiest road to it is, in our opinion, the study of the six first books of Euclid, and the tracts of plain and spherical trigonometry at the end of Simson's Euclid to this must be added as much algebra as will enable the student to solve a simple and quadratic equation, to understand the nature of arithmetical and geometrical proportions, and thence the doctrine of logarithms and the calculation of sines, tangents, &c. The easier methods that are pointed out, as in the work before us, give the learner a little insight into geometry and trigonometry; but the principles not being sufficiently impressed on the mind, the future practitioner is continually at a loss in any operation which is a little out of the way, or to recollect his rules if he happens to have lost his guide. The work begins with the principles of the sphere, and questions on longitude and latitude; these are followed by an account of the log, the compass, the method of sounding, the tides, Gunter's scale; and at the seventh chapter we have the principles of geometry, in which, of course, we have the definitions of angles and triangles, though they have been spoken of before, and the reader must be supposed to understand what they are before he comes to the definition of them. The geometrical part is contained in about a dozen pages, consequently is very meagre; trigonometry occupies about a dozen more pages: and thus we have in the fifty-eight first pages the grounds of the science. The second book explains the nature of different modes of calculating, as by plane, traverse, parallel, middle latitude, Mercator's, oblique, and current sailing. The construction of charts is then given; the plane and Mercator's instruments are described, as Hadley's quadrant, the octant, the sextant, the compass. A journal of a voyage is given, with necessary instructions how to make one. The above articles are contained in four books: the fifth book is employed upon miscellaneous articles, as mensuration of heights and distances of objects; the method of surveying coasts and harbours; observations on the wind, and directions for predicting the weather. The sixth book contains the tables, with their explanation, in 216 pages, the former five books occupying 263 pages. But From the acknowledged talents of the author, it cannot be doubted that this work must convey much useful knowledge, and many of our commanders of ships will find their leisure time well employed in studying the various problems, and performing the operations by the tables accompanying the work. how far it can be generally useful, the author may know by an easy experiment; and that is, by taking a person who is not a novice in navigation, and has been two or three voyages, and by hearing him read a few pages in the beginning of the work. We apprehend that he will hesitate in several places, and thus point out to the writer the necessity of adapting his language more to the vulgar standard of capacity, and not using any term of science which he has not previously defined. ART. II. Connoissance des Tems, ou des Mouvemens celestes pour l'An XIV, de l'Ere de la Republique Française; or French Astronomical Almanac. THIS volume contains the usual matter, and arranged in the same order as in the preceding almanacs. Upon the admirable plan adopted by the French, and which will make Paris the depot of astronomical science, the additions contain what has been produced of importance relative to astronomy in other countries; observations on the newly discovered planets; a twelfth catalogue of new stars, and that also of Maskelyne; tables of aberrations of 140 stars; various observations by eminent astronomers; the history of astronomy for the year 1802; and an index for all the volumes from the year 1760. From the history we collect, that the king of Naples has added sixty pounds a year to Mr. Piazzi's salary, for the discovery of the new planet, and honouring it with the royal name. So small a reward assuredly justifies astronomers in refusing to accede to the new title, and in immortalising the discoverer rather than the monarch. ihe national institute had in 1798 proposed a prize for new lunar tables, which were produced by Mr. Burg of Vienna; but Mr. Bou |