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extensive open wound which has suppurated, and the edges of the wound become pale and dry, there is probably an accession of fever, which must be looked to, while warm fomentations ought to be applied to the wounded parts.

"When the edges of a large wound fall loose, and a thin sanious discharge comes from it, a more generous diet must be given with bark and wine; at this time stimulating dressings are applied, and over them a warm poultice, with occasional warm spirituous fomentation."

We are next presented with some very useful remarks on the secret influence of a diseased state of the system upon the wound This, as the author remarks, we shall not be able to detect, without looking around to the prevailing disease of the camp or the season; or to cure, without applying those remedies to the wounded patient which are found effectual in the more marked examples of disease.

Upon the subject of gun-shot fracture of the bones, there are some striking observations, in the course of which the distinguishing peculiarities of gun-shot fracture are pointed out and illustrated. The author observes, that, if the bone be broken by a ball striking it and gliding off, the wound is not so bad as when the ball perforates the bone. In the one case the fracture may do well with common treatment; in the other the marrow of the bone is injured, the centre of the bone destroyed, and the disease called Necrosis is engendered. This is a formidable disease which exhausts the patient with frequent returns of swelling, suppuration and fever, even for many years. During this time a new bone is forming which surrounds the old one, enclosing it as in a case. The old bone is decaying, but its discharge is slow and accomplished only in the course of

years.

The remedy which our author proposes is, to make a decided incision down to the fracture at the time the wound is received; to pick away the small pieces of bone from the bottom of the wound and to keep the incision open, so that there may be no lodgement of matter in the marrow of the bone.

After shewing that gun-shot wounds of the fleshy parts though distinguishable by some peculiarities are not dangerous, › our author proceeds to explain that the injurious consequences are proportioned to the resistance which the ball meets with. It is the fractured bone, he observes, which gives occasion to the extensive suppurations in the fleshy substance of the limb. And proceeding to take this subject as illustrative of the necessity of an incision at the shoulder, he proceeds thus :

"In plate VII., I have given a sketch of a man wounded in the shoulder; and in plate IV. fig. 1. and 2. I have represented

represented the shattered head of the humerus, which I dissected out after amputation. I have already described the appearance and the feel of the shoulder when that head of the bone is fractured by a musket ball in this manner. We have now to no

tice the effects: high inflanimation, enormous swelling of the arm and shoulder, deep and extensive suppuration, large sinuses, dead bones discharging, and the patient dying hectic. Such are the consequences; and these considerations presented to the surgeon's mind, he at once condemns the arm to be amputated at the shoulder joint, when he feels the bones crushed, and like a bag of sand under the deltoid muscle.

"Such is the rule of practice in both army and navy, and I have seen the surgeons of both departments united in consultation, and in operation upon such subjects. Yet I am confident, this is not the right rule of practice: for, let us observe, that a balk through the deltoides is nothing. I have seen a man wounded by a ball passing betwixt the acromion scapulæ and the head of the humerus, where there was no necessity of doing any thing but giving him a bed to lie on. It is the fractured bone which creates. the great inflammation, the suppuration, and sinuses. Now suppose, that instead of performing that very serious operation, the amputation at the shoulder joint, a decided and long incision be made through the deltoid muscle, the loose bones picked away, and the broken extremities of the humerus taken off with a small saw, what will the situation of the patient be? The operation is easy, not severe to the patient, and the cause of high inflammation and protracted suffering is removed. The arm is undoubtedly shortened, but it remains a useful member. When I see so many fine fellows mutilated by this too favourite operation at the shoulder joint, I feel that I cannot express myself too decidedly on this subject. This comes of want of principles. The surgeon sees the terrible effects of gun shot wounds, without contrasting sufficiently the case of a wound of a fleshy part with a wound of the bone, without therefore seeing that it is the bone that occations all the mischief, without therefore thinking of removing the bone, and reducing the wound to a state comparatively simple."

Our author proceeds next to consider wounds of the joints— and afterwards to make some remarks on the necessity of amputation, and on the time at which the operation ought to be performed in order best to ensure success.

We have thus mentioned in a cursory manner some of the principal subjects of this dissertation, without troubling ourselves to follow out regularly the analysis of the work, or being able to find a plan for minute criticism, or enquiry when every question might admit of so much discussion. On the whole we do not scruple to say of this dissertation, in the way of generar character, that the questions discussed are fairly placed before the reader, and the difficulties forcibly represented; that lessons

and

and useful hints in practice are delivered clearly, and enforced by reasoning from principles and by examples appropriate and interesting; and that the neglect of the rules of military surgery and the evils of such neglect are pointed out with candour, but with force, and in a manner that cannot fail to be of the greatest service. The book extends only to 65 pages, but the reader will find that it is full of matter very interesting to the military surgeon and to the public. We must, however, repeat our wish that Mr. Bell will in a second edition extend its magnitude far beyond its present limits, and present to us a more perfect manual of military surgery; as there is no one who from a laborious investigation of causes, and a practical experience of effects, added to much ingenuity and skill, is possessed of more ample resources for the performance of such a task.

ART. IV. Opere di Scultura, e di Plastrea de Antonio Canova descritte da Isabella Albrozzi. Nata Testochi Firenze.

IT was one of the disadvantages and mortifications which the continental system of Napoleon inflicted upon us, that our artists, and those amongst us, who admired the fine arts, were, in a great measure, precluded from that study of departed, and that fellowship with living excellence, which are so important to the progress of national taste. When we state this to have been a disadvantage, we do not mean to say that it was not mutually felt by the nations of Europe, nor do we intend to speak slightingly of the absolute merits of English artists; but while we admit in the fullest manner their industry, information, and talent, it would be mere bigotry to imagine, that with much to communicate, they have not also much to learn, and much to unlearn; or that they have attained to so peculiar a degree of excellence, that they alone stand in no need of that, from which all other national schools acknowledge to have derived the most beneficial results. The close of the war, and the great convulsions which fore-ran that close, have operated in a two-fold way in the removal of this disadvantage; first, as might have been expected, by giving space to the activity of our own countrymen, and opening the field for their excursions; secondly, by exciting the indolence of foreigners, or removing their inability, and bringing many of them to our own shores.

While we are writing this, the public journals announce the probable arrival of Antonio Canova in this capital, and as from

the

the circumstances above mentioned, he is by far too little known, for his very great merit, we are persuaded, that we shall do our readers a pleasure by giving them a short account of some of his principal works. The little volume which we have chosen for our guide, is the performance of a lady of some literary distinction in the society of Venice, a modern Greek, we believe by birth, but certainly by extraction. It was our good fortune during a visit paid to that most interesting city, to be admitted to her evening parties, where much of the learning and talent of the North of Italy frequently assembled; and as Canova had presented her with an exquisite bust of Helen on account of the publication of this book, it is fair to infer, that he considered the descriptions it contains, as creditable and authentic. In its execution, as a matter of literary criticism, it is certainly not quite free from those errors of taste, which might be expected from an Italian lady, writing on such a subject. We have limited our phrase to the lady, and the subject, but we might have extended it nearly to the whole range of modern Italian literature; we forbear to enter at present on this fruitful ground, as we shall probably on some future occasion devote an entire article to its consideration. If we set aside the errors to which we have alluded, there is much to admire in the little volume before us; it is uniformly chaste and animated, free from all affectation of learning or science, and devoted, in the pure spirit of admiration and affection, to a faithful description of the objects, as they struck the eyes and the mind of the fair dilettante. We trust, that our readers will not think us too forgetful of the "solemn gravity" of our situation, in thus embracing an opportunity of acknowledging civilities kindly, and perseveringly bestowed upon strangers but slightly recommended and less entitled to attention.

In the general remarks which we shall shortly offer on Canova's style, and peculiar excellencies, it is right, though perhaps hardly necessary to premise, that we profess no scientific knowledge on the subject. We are merely delivering the opinion of plain men on a question of taste rather than of skill, and we shall disappoint those who look for any account of the terms or rules of the art, or who desire to be acquainted rather with the difficulty of the execution than the grandeur of the conception, or the beauty of the effect.

Yet without entering into any systematic remarks on Sculpture, for which indeed we are not prepared, we will venture to throw out one or two loose hints which occur to us, as material to be considered, whether the question is a comparison of ancient and modern artists, or whether we are endeavoring to estimate the merit of Canova, or any particular artist with reference to that of his rivals. Sculpture then, it appears to us, admits of a rude division

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division into two classes, that which displays figures, if we may so say, self-subsistent, and independent; and that which repre sents objects dependent, as it were, on a given surface, and raised from it in alto-mezzo, or basso-relievo; of these three degrees, the first being that in which the whole circumference of the object stands out from the surface, as is often seen on the ancient cippi and vases; the second, that in which half the circumference is lost, and half appears raised; the third, that in which more than half the circumference is lost in the given surface, and, of course, less than half raised above it.

The nature of the material on which the Sculptor operates, renders this division very marked, and characteristic. It is evident that in the former class, the art labours under much greater difficulties than in the latter; the figures being unsupported, and in general larger in size, must be single, or few in number, and it will almost universally be found necessary to exclude the circumstances and accidents exterior, and yet very important to the story represented. But in the latter, the art approximates more nearly to painting, and adınits nearly of all the variety, distance, and complexity of a picture. As an instance in point, let us suppose Canova to have executed his Hercules and Lichas in relief. This is perhaps one of his noblest works: the groupe consists of the two persons; Hercules, with great, yet not excessive agony in his countenance, for it seems an invariable rule, derived from the masters of antiquity, to preserve under any cir. cumstances a decorous measure, To génov, in the passions of dignified personages,) and with an indescribable promise of power given by his whole frame, bends his body gently as one in the act of throwing; with his right hand he holds one foot of the boy, and with his left fiercely grasps him by the cincture; his eyes regardless of his victim are intently fixed on some ob ject before and beneath him, and may be imagined to mark the spot to which he intends throwing him. The boy is not the least wonderful part of this sublime groupe; the very senseless agony of fear is not merely in his face, but in every part of his body; the stiffness seems just to have crept over his limbs, his hair is clotted, and there is a kind of bloodless rigour generally spread over him; in short, it is hardly possible to imagine a more thrilling exhibition of unbounded yet suffering power on the one hand, or of unresisting, amazed, weakness on the other. If this story had been to be represented in relief, it is clear that we should have lost something, and gained something; we should have gained in the circumstances, and lost in the essentials. The scene, a wild bare rock, precipitous to the sea would have been added; the altar of sacrifice, with probably many minor accidents, which would have occurred to the mind

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