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with my fuccefs in the cafe of Mifs S. at the time I was proposed to be confulted by Lady Holland's friends; and you have feen the lady (Miss S.) in perfect health fince the cure has been effected.' Dr. Rowley seems to be fufficiently inaccurate, as a writer, to have made the mistake in the last sentence involuntarily: but we are afraid it is a ftudied period, and that it contains bona fide, a falfehood. It is true that Dr. Hunter faw the patient (Mifs S.) after her cure; but it was not before Lady Holland's death: it was only a few days before this publication; and we now understand that the lady was fhewn to Dr. Hunter, that Dr. Rowley might have it to say, he had feen ber, and had reafon to think she was well; and by confounding the tenfes of his verbs make the reader think it was before, when it was fome time after Lady Holland's death. If this fhall be found to be altogether the cafe, fuch procedure will certainly be deemed illiberal, unmanly, and ungentlemanlike; and the candid reader will refent it accordingly.

For what Dr. Rowley fays in regard to Lady Holland's cafe, and to the manner in which her disorder was treated by the learned phy ficians before named, we muft refer to his pamphlet. Art. 22. The Commentaries upon the Aphorifms of Dr. Herman Boerhaave, the late learned Profeffor of Phyfic in the University of Leyden, concerning the Knowledge and Cure of the feveral Difeafes incident to Human Bodies. By Gerard Van Swieten, M. D. Tranflated into English. Vols. XV.-XVIII. 8vo. 11. 4 s. bound. Horsfield. 1773.

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Thefe four volumes complete the English translation of Baron Van Swieten's most valuable work. They comprehend his fifth (and laft) volume in quarto. See Appendix to Review, vol. xlvii. p. 552. They contain the commentaries on the Small-Pox, Epidemic Diseases, the Stone, the Venereal Disease, the Rickets, the Rheumatism, and Boerhaave's Materia Medica; or prefcriptions adapted to his Aphorifms concerning the knowledge and cure of diseases; intended as a Supplement to Van Swieten's Commentaries: amended and revised from his own copy.'-There is alfo, in the 18th volume, a copious General Index to the whole fet; befide an Index of Diseases, an Index of the Indications and Forms, and an Alphabetical Lift of the numerous Authors cited in the course of this work.

Art. 23. Obfervations on Antimony, read before the Medical Society of London, and published at their Requeft. By John Millar, M. D. 8vo. 25. Johnfon. 1774.

In this pamphlet Dr. Millar takes abundant pains to difabuse the public, with refpect to their belief of the perfect innocence and Superlative efficacy of Antimony; which he reprefents as one of the most dangerous delufions of the prefent age. To support and aggravate the charge against this mineral, he accumulates teftimonies, ancient and modern, to prove that its ores contain arsenic, and fometimes lead; to which may be added copper, filver, and other heterogeneous, and not very falutary fubftances. But as nobody fwallows the ore of this mineral, he proceeds to fhew that even the

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Antimony

Antimony of the shops may fometimes poffibly excite tumults in the ftomach, in confequence of the menftrua it may meet with there.

But granting,' fays the Author, that there is no arsenic in Antimony, it cannot be affirmed that it does not contain poison, since by unfolding its texture by the force of fire, it is rendered highly virulent; and by the addition of various fubftances, in the stomach, it becomes violently emetic.'

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A common reader would imagine, that the Author was going to communicate to the world fome hitherto unknown proofs of the exiftence of a poison in this mineral, which is brought to light, or into activity by the force of fire.' Nothing more however is meant by this tremendous term, poifon, to which the reader foon becomes familiarifed by the frequent ufe of it throughout this effay, than that the Regulus, or the metallic, and only active part of this mineral, is, by the force of fire,' difengaged from its other conflituent principle, the fulphur, and is poffefied of a violent emetic quality, even when exhibited in a small dose.-But furely there is no occafion for all the Author's parade of quotation, and exuberance of poof, to inform us that pure Antimony, a fubftance fo mild and innoxious in its crude ftate, contains a principle which, when let loose, requires fome dif cretion in the management and use of it; nor are they by any means fufficient to convince us, that on account of the activity of this principle, we should dread and avoid it as a poison. For reafons nearly fimilar, opium, mercury, and other powerful drugs might be reject ed from practice; for they two are poisons in the hands of the igno rant and indiscreet.

After the close of his long hiftorical account of the opinions and practices of others relating to this drug, the Author gives us the refult of his own experience of it; and after aftonishing us with three inftances of extraordinary cures performed by it, he astonishes us no lefs by immediately adding that he has fince ufed it in many thousand cafes, but never, even in flighter diseases, with the fame fuccefs;→→ that it generally failed, where milder medicines have proved effec⚫ tual, and in fome inftances has been prejudicial.'-We must leave the reader to form his own opinion, from this refult of Dr, Millar's experience.

Though we must condemn the Author's exaggerated reprefenta tions of the dangers attending the ufe of a medicine, which, not withstanding its anomalies or inequalities, is daily used with fafety and advantage by thofe who are qualified to difpenfe it; yet we mult acknowledge that a temperate inquiry into its febrifuge or other powers, (which poffibly may have been too highly rated) and the recommending a proper degree of caution in the exhibition of it, ar peculiarly feasonable at this time: when certain fecret and fathionable preparations of this mineral are liberally difpenfed, and

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That mineral fulphur has a power of correcting poison,' the Author fays, is clearly proved by experiment;' for arfenic, he adds, the greatest poifon,' is rendered almoft harmless by being combined with this fubitance, which, in confequence of the Author's lax phraseology, is here erroneously reprefented as an universal antidote,

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fwallowed, with all the credulity and confidence that accompany ignorance. In the last fection of this performance, Dr. James's celebrated fever powder falls particularly under the animadverfion of the Author; who first exposes the mystical and devotional cant employed by the inventor, in his Differtation on Fevers,' and then offers various objections to the facts there alleged, and the arguments deduced from them, to prove the fuperlative efficacy of this febrifuge: declaring, after fumming up the evidence, and drawing the proper conclufions from it, that both facts and arguments " concur to demonftrate its general and indiscriminate application to be highly dangerous to mankind.'

Art. 24. Animadverfions on a late Treatife on the Kink-Cough. To which is annexed an Essay on that Disorder. 8vo. IS. 6d. Baldwin, 1774.

In a former Review we recited Dr. Butter's principal conclufions with respect to the nature, feat, and occafional caufe of the kinkcough; and tranfcribed his corrollaries in form, containing the refult of his experience of the great, and indeed, in his opinion, pecific' virtues of hemlock in this disease, which it is faid by him to cure "fafely, certainly, and pleafantly."

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In the prefent pamphlet, the animadverter, with fome appearance of reason, though not in the moft civil manner, difputes or denies the efficacy of his fuppofed specific in the kink-cough; and even goes fo far as to infinuate that Dr. Butter does not himself believe what he has faid, in favour of this medicine, to be true.'-De Haen has, in like manner, given the lie direct to Storck, with regard to the miraculous virtues of hemlock, and to the cures fo very circumstantially related, and afcribed by the latter to this medicine: declaring, in his Epiftola de Cicuta, that "many, or most of thofe very patients Dr. Storck afferts to have been perfectly cured, died while they were taking this medicine; and that on a candid inquiry it was proved, that there was in reality only one perfon that could be faid to have been cured by the hemlock;" adding that "though 500 pounds weight of Dr. Storck's extract of cicuta had been fent to different places abroad, yet there has not been received one authentic account of a real cure of a true cancer having been ever yet effected by it, in any inftance where it was used."

We fhall only further observe with respect to this pamphlet that after freely, and indeed very feverely, criticifing Dr. Butter's theory of this disease, and his practice in the treatment of it; and after reviewing many of the cafes published by the Doctor, the Author fubjoins a fhort effay on the nature and cure of this diftemper, which contains fome useful obfervations.

Art. 25. A rational Account of the Causes of Chronic Difeafes: By John Morland, M. D. The fecond edition. 1s. Hooper. Notwithstanding our alertnefs in picking up every, even the obfcureft, ftraggler that iffues from the prefs, the first edition of this pamphlet escaped our notice, nor has the writer of it even now enabled us to afcertain the date of its prefent republication. We are equally in the dark with respect to the learned Author's principal

• Monthly Review January, 1774, page 45.

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view in writing it; unless it be to recommend to the public the occafional use' of a certain universal purgative' invented by him: which when properly dofed, and properly adminiftered, (for on this no depends the fuccefs of every appropriate remedy) has been found, in a long and extenfive experience, to produce very falutary effects, even in perfons of the moft oppofite natural habits and conftitutions.'

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It is compofed, we are told, of near a dozen of the most powerful known deobftruents, befides two mineral preparations of the Author's own discovery, which two alone, united anagris, have been found to perform, in fact, what that indefatigable phyfician, the late Dr. Huxham, peculiarly afcribes to his favourite tincture, &c.'

With regard to the ingredients or preparation of this compound the Author obferves the most profound filence. If this be not

quackery, it looks at leaft very like it; though empiricism, we own, feldom difplays itself in fo refpectable, and even dignified a garb, as in the prefent performance; in which the many fuperb encomia on the virtues of the Univerfal Purgative, as well as the general obfervations on the caufes of chronic diseases, are, almost in every page, ornamented with splendid trimmings of genuine Hippocratic Greek. -The Author likewise most pathetically laments the prefent alarming growth of licentious quackery ;' in which lamentation we most heartily concur with him, and return groan for groan. B. Art. 26. An Inquiry into the Moving Powers employed in the Circulation of the Blood, in a Lecture delivered at Newcastle, &c. By Andrew Wilfon, M. D. Fellow of the Royal College of Phyficians at Edinburgh. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Dilly, 1774.

In a former volume of our work, we took occafion to explain pretty largely the hypothefis and reafonings of a certain philofopher who undertook to prove that the fun, which had hitherto been confidered as the fountain or fource of all the heat we enjoy here on earth, contributed a very small share towards it. In the effay now before us, the Author undertakes in like manner to diveft the heart of the function attributed to it, of being the principal moving power in the animal fystem.

We cannot, without entering into the depths of phyfiology, give a fatisfactory account of the many arguments employed by the Author of this ingenious inquiry, to fhew that the circulation of the blood in animals is not effected by a mechanical force impreffed on that fluid, in confequence of the alternate contractions and dilatations of the heart, to which it has hitherto been almost universally afcribed. Out of the many arguments adduced by the Author, to prove that the motion of the blood does not folely, or even principally, depend on the impulfe given to it by that organ, we fhall felect, and briefly fpecify, that which is perhaps the most striking, and which is contained in his fecond propofition.

He there undertakes to demonftrate that the blood, in paffing through the heart, and on being fubjected to its impreffions, does not acquire any quantity of motion that it was not poffeffed of before.

M. de Mairan, in the Mem. de l'Acad, de Sciences de Paris, 1765. See appendix to our ft vol.age 503.

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That organ cannot by its contractions tranfmit more blood into the arteries, than what is brought to it by the veins. It cannot, for inftance, send more blood into the aorta, than it receives by the vena cava; it cannot, in fhort, deliver it faster than it receives it. But this implies that the returning blood, on its arrival at the heart, had already as great a quantity of motion, as it has afterwards, when it is fent from thence. The heart therefore appears, if we may be permitted the allufion, to be a fuperfluous piece of furniture in the animal machine, if we were to fuppofe it to be placed there only to give a motion to the blood, which it has already.

This, if we miftake not, is the fubftance of the Author's argument contained in his fecond propofition. His doctrine is further fupported in fix other propofitions; in which he endeavours to fhew that the arterial motion of the fluids can be accomplished independent of the contractions of the heart; the mechanical force of which is abfolutely infufficient to propel the blood to the extent of the arterial circulations and fecretions:-that befides other powerful agents, which act mechanically, in giving motion to the blood, and tranfmitting it to parts to which the powers of the heart cannot reach; there are other influences, reducible to no mechanical standard, without which all the intricate mechanism in our frame, juft and unerring as it is, would not be fufficient to fupport one revolution, nay, nor one moment's progreffion of our fluids :—and that, finally, both the primary and final intention of the agency of the heart, must be fomething very different from, and lefs obvious than, the supporting of the progreffive motion of the blood.'

Those who take pleasure in phyfiological inquiries, will receive entertainment and information from this little pamphlet, in which there is much ingenuity, not without fome fhare of feeming pa

radox.

Art. 27. The Practice of the British and French Hofpitals, &c. By the Author of the Practice of the London Hospitals. 12mo. 3 s. 6 d. Griffin. 1773.

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It will be fufficient with regard to this compilation to obferve, that it contains the prefcriptions of the Edinburgh infirmary, thofe of the military and naval hofpitals, of the Hotel Dieu, La Charité, and the royal hofpital of invalids at Paris, together with Boerhaave's Materia Medica.

PHILOSOPHICAL.

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Art. 28. A Difcourfe on the different Kinds of Air, delivered at. the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society: By Sir John Pringle, Bart. Prefident. 4to. 1s. 6d. Nourse. 1774.

The copious account that we have given of Dr. Priestley's improved and enlarged edition of his obfervations on air, originally prefented to the Royal Society, renders it unneceffary for us to fay any thing further concerning the prefent performance, than that it contains a familiar and well written account of fome of that Author's principal experiments; preceded by an hiftorical detail of the progrefs that had already been made in this branch of knowledge by others: the whole well adapted to convey a general idea of the nature and importance of Dr. Priestley's difcoveries.

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