ted by Mr. John Douglas in his lectures on anatomy, gives us to understand, that by means of a pipe contrived for the purpose, he has injected into it a mixture of mel rofarum and warm water, fo as to cure deafnefs in feveral inftances. The operation was firft propofed by Monf. Guyot, but fuppofed impracticable until explained by Mr. Douglas, and performed by Mr. Wathen, who has illuftrated his essay with a print of the inftrument introduced.

The thirty-fixth article is a Latin effay concerning the action of quick-lime upon volatile alcaline falt, by Dr. John AlbertSchloffer, a native of Utrecht. This gentleman, from comparing the experiments which have been made by Hoffman, Boerhaave, Pott, Duhamel, Macquer, Malouin, Alston, and Whytt, concludes, that quick-lime is a true fimple, alcaline earth, brought to the utmost purity by the force of fire; that the falts extracted from quick-lime, do not properly belong to its original compofition, but deduce their origin from various acids, attracted from the atmosphere, and united with the true alcaline earth; and that therefore the purest and ftrongest lime-water is merely a full faturated solution of this 'alcaline earth.'-He obferves, that Duhamel was the first perfon who endeavoured to investigate the fingular power of quicklime upon volatile alcaline falt, by which the spirit which Boerhaave attributed to the fire, is generated. He difcovered, by experiments, that volatile alcaline falts, as often as they are prepared from fal ammoniacus, by the help of fixed alcaline falt, or pure chalk, lay hold of a certain part of the fixed alcaline falt, or pure chalk, which they carry up along with them; while, on the contrary, as often as quick-lime prepared from the same chalk is used, there neither is any thing calcarious joined to the volatile alcaline falt, nor any fublimation of the fiery fpirit, unless there be a mixture of water.-The fame ingenious chymift, from other experiments, concludes, that the quick-lime, while it is joined to the concrete alcaline volatile falt, feparates the oily particles from the others that conftitute the falt, and unites them to itself, and that hence the igneous fpirit derives its origin and property. Then Dr. Schloffer proceeds to defcribe a ferics of judicious experiments, which feem to afcertain the nature of this igncous fpirit. Since, therefore (fays 7

• be)

he) quick-lime is that true alcaline earth, which, by a certain union with other elements, produces the fixed alcaline falt, why should not I conclude, that the igneous spirit is ' produced from the real volatile alcaline falt of the quick-lime; for, fome particles of the acid and phlogifton, are more • ftrongly attracted by this alcaline fixed earth, than by the earthy particles of the volatile alcaline falt.'-At the end of the effay, the doctor propofes the following queftions: Is • not the lithontriptic virtue of quick-lime to be folely ascribed to that power by which it deftroys volatile alcaline falts? Is not the surprising property of the acid in the falt with which the urine is impregnated, to be accounted for on the ⚫ fame principles I used above for explaining the virtue of quicklime? Why therefore do not we prescribe this acid, which is bland and foluble, to perfons afflicted with the stone, either in fmall dofes by the mouth, or diffolved in water, to be in'jected into the bladder ?'

The next article contains a remarkable cafe of a boy who recovered and did will, after fifty feven inches of his inteftines had been cut off, in confequence of a mortification occafioned by a bruife.

This curious hiftory is followed by an account of fome experiments on the fenfibility and irritability of the feveral parts of animals, in a letter from Richard Brocklesby, M. D. F. R. S. to the reverend Thomas Birch, D. D. Secr. R. S.-A perfon ambitious of diftinguishing himself in the world of science, without the talents requifite for that purpofe, is very apt to aftound the public by hammering upon the discoveries of other people, though his labour denotes neither invention nor improvement. Haller's doctrine of irritability was fo well eftablifhed, that it required no further confirmation; or if any ftudent doubted the truth of his experiments, he might have fatisfied himself in private, without difgufting the public with a recapitulation of barbarous executions, which were productive of no new phænomena. Where then was the importance of

the

Mr. Schlaffer, at the end of his thefis, published at Leyden in the year 1753, demonftrated from experiments, that this acid unites with a certain true volatile alcaline falt, and by this means is regenerated into a neutral falt, exactly fimilar to that which at first exifted in the urine.

the inquiry?-One would imagine that Dr. Brocklesby had directed and fuperintended thofe barbarities, on purpose to have an opportunity of promulgating his own averfion to cruelty, in the preamble of his letter: yet he makes but a forry excufe for the tortures he inflicted, by giving us to understand, that 'the pain and mifery by him caused, even to the victims of this fubject, were to be regarded much less than what hap'pens every day in Smithfield to twenty oxen and sheep, by 'cutting off their tails, and other parts of the fkin, and driving them miles afterwards.' This apology puts us in mind of the defence of a ruffian, who being taxed with biting off another man's ear, yes, (faid he) but I did not flit his nofe into the bargain, as Dick Slafh did by Tom Taylor. There is fomething very curious in this expedient of sheltering one's reputation for humanity, under the shade of a butcher's slaughterhoufe.

This learned phyfician, after having cut, flea'd, mangled, and corroded the great tendons of a young lamb and an old sheep, vellicated the pericranium, trepanned the skull, poured corrofives on the membranes of the brain, divided the muscles, plucked out the heart, pickled and falted the cellular membrane, liver, pancreas, spleen, and urinary bladder, poured folutions of opium on the irritated parts of mufcular fibres, and torn out the intestines of a live animal, fays, he is induced to coincide with most of the conclufions drawn by Dr. Haller, Caftel, and Zimmerman, that no part is fenfible but the nerves only, and that fome parts are irritable without fenfibility accompanying them in any great degree; whilft others are al'together without fenfe, at the fame time that they are inca 'pable of being irritated at all.'

The doctor having thus declared his coincidence with those foreign luminaries, concludes his letter with recommending fallad oil in the rheumatifin, to be used in gentle and continued frictions on the pained parts, which he supposes to be in a state of crifpation, like a beef-stake on a grid-iron.

The 39th article is an account of worms in animal bodies, by Frank Nicholls, M. D. &c. &c.

This renowned anatomift affures us, that the cod and the bley, as well as fheep and bullocks, are apt to be troubled VOL. II,

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with

with worms, fome of which he sends to the secretary of the fociety, to be lodged in the repofitory, if it be judged requifite. As a cure for these disorders, he proposes fumigation with mercurials, or fœtids, as tobacco.-This is the firft time we ever heard that aromatic plant termed a foetid; and we wish the epithet may not give offence to some fmoaking philofophers, who, thus provoked, may be apt to fay, the whole article is not worth a pinch of snuff.

The infects of the polype kind, described in the next article by Dr. Brady, are extremely curious, and matters of great import to those microscopical obfervers, who pry into the minu'tiæ of nature.

In the forty-first article we find some new aftronomical obfervations touching a ftar's occultation by the moon, made in Afia by a French physician, who has likewise afcertained the latitudes of Aleppo, mount Caffius, Seleucia in Syria, Antioch, Diarbekir, and Bagdad. He fays, that those sparkles, fuppofed in Europe to be no more than fcintillations, are real ftars: that nitre is produced by a combination of the universal acid, with the natrum of the ancients: that affafoetida is drawn from a ferulaceous plant of the thapfia kind, common in Media; and that he had found the small nardus indica, a graminous plant, fome of which species bear fpicaceous flowers, both male and female, and others only female flowers.

Dr. Malcolm Fleming, physician at Brigg in Lincolnshire, is author of the following obfervations, proving, that the foetus is in part nourished by the liquor amnii: he examined the meconium of a calf that was brought forth dead, and found the fcybala, into which the meconium was formed, ftuck full of tough, thick, white hairs, which he fuppofes were loosened by maceration from the calf's fkin, and fwallowed with the liquor amnii. He met with the fame appearance in the first dung of feveral calves that were produced alive: he saw no fuch hairs in the meconium of feveral embryos of calves, which had no hair upon their skins; nor could he find a single hair in the ftomach or inteftines of puppies, nor in the meconium of a colt, which he carefully examined; because in thefe the hairs were firmly rooted on their skins; whereas, in a ripe calf new brought forth, many are found quite loofened at

their roots and only adhering to the skin by the moisture on it. The Doctor's deduction is very natural; for we cannot conceive how those hairs fhould be mixed with the meconium in the intestines, unless the animal fwallows them with the liquor amnii, in which it floats. In the mean time, we are willing to believe Dr. Malcolm Fleming's folemn proteftation, that he had not seen Aldes and Swammerdam when he made this discovery, of which, therefore, he ought to reap the ho

nour.

[To be continued.]

ART. III. A FOURTH LETTER to the people of England. On the conduct of the Mrs in alliances, flects, and armies, fince the first differences on the Ohio, to the taking of Minorca by the French. 8vo. Pr. 25. M. Collier.

BEFORE we proceed to inveftigate the merits of this re

markable performance, we beg leave to premise, that far from being advocates for the miniftry, we fhould be glad of an opportunity to detect and expofe all fuch errors and defigns of the administration, as may tend to the prejudice of our country. We believe fome fatal errors have been committed, and hope the parliament will fet on foot a candid inquiry, which will ascertain the misconduct or delinquency of those who have done amifs, that the public may obtain fome reparation for the damage and difgrace which it has undergone. Towards this defirable end, we will endeavour, în our animadverfions on the piece before us, to feparate truth from fiction, concern from calumny, argument from fophiftication, and to diftinguish between the genial flare of true patriotism and the deftructive brand of impudent fedition.

Were we to carp at immaterial faults, we fhould affirm that the very price of this performance is an imposition on the public; but, perhaps the author, like a quack in medicine, pretends to convey twice the efficacy, in the same volume, of any other compofition.

That he is an empiric in language as well as in politics, will appear from fome fpecimens of his expreffion, in which he feems to have imitated the eloquence of his predeceffor

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