lation-any thing that rarefies the blood in the vessels, or increafes its quantity in the head, will occafion an extraordinary preffure on the brain, and this will produce all the symptoms. of the incubus. The ftomach being overloaded with its contents, whether liquids or folids, or both, will undoubtedly prefs with an uncommon weight upon the great blood-veffels, especially when the patient lies upon his back; and this preffure will as undoubtedly diforder the whole circulation. If the free paffage of the blood through the aorta, is impeded, the inferior parts of the body will be deprived, for the time, of their due quantity of blood, and the veffels of the head and lungs will be overcharged in the fame proportion. The nightmare indeed happens in cafes of inanition as well as répletion, especially when there are flatulences in the primæ viæ, but this may be owing to a rarefaction of air in the stomach and bowels, which will occafion the fame preffure on the bloodveffels, as proceeds from their being overloaded with more folid contents.

Chap vii. treats of the cure of nervous, hypochondriac, and hyfteric diforders; the general intentions of which cure, he reduces to these two, 1. To leffen or remove thofe predisposing caufes in the body, which render it peculiarly liable to nervous ailments; and zdly. to remove or correct the occafional caufes, which, especially in fuch as are predifpofed, produce the numerous train of nervous, hypochondriac, or hysteric fymptoms defcribed in this work. The remedies which ftrengthen the body, are, bitters, to which he adds the bark in the following form;

R. Cort. Peruvian pulv. Ziv. Rad. gentian. Cort. aurantior. aa. Ziß. Infunde in jpir. vin. gall. lib. iv. in balneo arenæ per dies vi. et cola.

Of this tincture he gives one spoonful in four or five spoonfuls of water, every morning about an hour and a half before breakfaft, and betwixt feven and eight in the evening. When acids do not difagree with the ftomach and bowels, he adds twenty or thirty drops of the elixir of vitriol, to each dofe of the tincture, He finds by experience, this junction of the bark and bitters more efficacious than either taken alone. After a just encomium on the bark, reprefenting its efficacy in a catarrhous cough, a tertian intermittent, attended with cough and spitting, a hoarfenefs after the meafles, the chincough, and indolent glandular fwellings, he proceeds to confider the other remedies under the articles of fteel, the cold-bath, with the choice of air and aliment, wine, exercife, friction and amufement. Then he expatiates on the ufe of opium, camphire, caftor,

6

caftor, mufk, and afa fœtida. Speaking of fteel, he fays, those whofe ftomachs cannot bear the limatura martis, may fafely take fome drops of the tinctura martis Mynfichtii; and he does not fail to recommend the chalybeate waters of Bath and Pyrmont. He joins the general voice in praise of the cold bath. He prefcribes a cool dry air to brace the body, and a flannel waiftcoat next the skin in winter. With respect to food, he inhibits fat meats, high fances, full meals, and heavy fuppers. He allows a glass of claret and a bit of bread upon an empty ftomach once or twice a day, which he counts an excellent ftrengthener, and a good fuccedaneum to the bark, even in children who have a difpofition to the scrophula and rickets. He condemns tea. He extols riding on horseback, and fea voyages; advifes friction with a fleth brush or flannel, and chearful diverfions to amufe the imagination. At the head of the palliatives, he places opium as of great ufe in fixed fpafms, alternate convulfions of the muscles, pains un attended with inflammation, weaknefs, laffitude, and yawning, occafioned by too great a flux of the menfes, flatulent cholics, and the true fpafmodic asthma. He mentions the ufual cautions in the ufe of this medicine, and its bad effects in fome particular cafes: but, we will venture to recommend it, from long experience, in, nervous maladies unattended with, inflammation, as one of the moft fafe and efficacious medicines of the whole materia medica. He obferves that the femicupium, pediluvium, and hot fomentations, are frequently ferviceable as palliatives, while opium would be improper.—He remarks that camphire is very volatile and penetrating, promotes perfpiration, acts as an antifpafmodic, and fometimes procures fleep in fevers attended with delirium: he has found it of fervice in quieting patients afflicted with the mania and melancholy. He fpeaks doubtfully of caftor and mufk; and indeed, we can aver, from a long courfe of experience, that neither camphire, caftor, musk, nor myrrh, fo far as we could obferve, ever anfwered the encomiums which have been beftowed upon them by medical writers in general. Afa fœtida, he obferves, has good effects in flatulent diforders, fpafms of the alimentary canal, and in asthmatic fits, that are either owing to wind, or increafed by it. It likewife gives relief in fits of lowness, efpecially when joined with the volatile falts. Finally, he tells us, that a table spoonful of lemon-juice has proved a certain cure for a palpitation of the heart, even after the antihyfteric medicines had been tried in vain. He concludes this fection with two curious cafes of cures effected by opium.

In treating of the fecond intention of cure, which was to correct or remove the occafional causes, he begins with those. medicines that remove fome morbid matter in the blood, When there is an arthritis vaga, he relies on diet, exercife, tincture of the bark, and bitters. He recommends a strong decoction of the bitters in common water; and fays he knew a gentleman who had been troubled fifteen years with a pain in his ftomach, cured by chewing two drachms of the roots of gentian, daily. Of the milk diet and lime-water, he says little from his own experience. Neither does he seem to confide much in foap, or a ftrong infufion of tanfy; medicines, which have been ftrongly recommended in arthritic cafes. Scorbutical tetters, or the lepra græcorum, he cures with mild mercurials and the purging mineral waters. When the symptoms proceed from a diminution of some habitual evacuation, that evacuation is to be promoted by the proper remedies. On the other hand, when they are occafioned by inanition, from exceffive evacuations, or hæmorrhages of any kind, these muft be reftrained by aftringents, and the emptied veffels filled by means of light and nourishing food. The aftringents he recommends, are the tinctura rofarum, terra japonica, alom, opium, and elixir of vitriol. With alom whey, he cured an obftinate profluvium menfium, & fluor albus,

He

comes next to confider the method for leffening or removing particular caufes of nervous symptoms; fuch as wind in the ftomach and bowels, tough phlegm in the flomach and inteftines, worms, noxious aliments, indolent obftructions in fome of the abdominal vifcera, and violent affections of the mind. For tough phlegm, he prescribes frequent vomits of ipecacuana, rhubarb, bitters, and lime-water; which laft he has found to be a great diffolver of phlegm, from repeated experiments. For worms of all kinds, he advises Spanish soap. Indolent obftructions, when fuperficial, are removed by friction and fomentation; but the internal deobftruent medicines which he recommends, are the tartarus folubilis, fal polychreftus, mercury, and foap. Here follow two or three cafes by way of

illuftration.

been

Of late (fays he, page 434) the extract of the cicuta has much extolled as a deobftruent; but although I have tried it, as well as the powder of hemlock, in several hard fwellings, fome of which were external and others fituated within the abdomen, I have only feen it do fervice in two

cafes,

one of which was a large fcirrhous swelling in the left

breaft, and the other a hardened gland in the neck. The lat ter was removed by the extract of the cicuta in eight months; and the former, by the continued ufe, either of this medicine,

or of the powder of hemlock, has not only been kept from increafing for these four years past, but is now reduced to onethird of the bulk it once had.'

In chap. viii. he treats of the cure of fome of the most remarkable, nervous, hypochondriac, or hyfteric symptoms, viz. convulfive motions or fixed fpafms of the mufcles, hysteric faintings with convulfions, a violent pain with cramps in the ftomach, an indigeftion and vomiting, with pains in the ftomach, a cholic of the hyfteric or flatulent kind, flatulence in the ftomach and bowels, a nervous or fpafmodic afthma, a palpitation of the heart, an immoderate difcharge of pale urine, periodical head-achs, and low fpirits. In convulfive motions, in all the fpecies of the tetanus, and even in the hydrophobia, he prefcribes opiates in large dofes, to leffen the fenfibility of the brain and nervous fyftem. There are other medicines which act by a ftimulus on the nerves of the ftomach and inteftines, and thofe are, camphire, caftor, mufk, afa fœtida, fpiritus æthereus, fpirit of hartshorn, &c. A third fet of remedies relax, and affect with an agreeable fenfation, the mufcular fibres and nerves, rendering them thereby less liable to fuffer from irritation; such as, the warm bath, femicupium, pediluvium, emollient clyfters, and warm fomentations. In convulfive motions, or fpafms, fuch remedies are often useful, as by painfully affecting the nerves of fome part. of the body that is found, in a great measure leffen or deftroy the fenfe of that irritation which was the caufe of those fymptoms; of this kind are blifters, acrid cataplafms, dry cupping, friction, and the cold bath. Fear, furprize, attention, or other ftrong affections of the mind, will frequently put a stop to convulfive motions and fpafins, and fometimes fucceed after other remedies have failed: witness the following cafe.

A girl aged eight, in the beginning of September 1759, was feized with an alternate motion of the maffeter and temporal mufcles, for which no caufe could be affigned. This motion. exactly imitated the pulfation of the heart. Only those muscles

were contracted and relaxed above 140 times in a minute, while the heart did not make above 90 ftrokes. Their contractions were all of equal strength, and the intervals between them were alfo equal. When the patient preffed the teeth of the lower jaw ftrongly against those of the upper one, by a voluntary contraction of the maffeter and temporal mufcles, their convulfive motions were much lefs remarkable; and when she pulled down the lower jaw as much as fhe could, and, by the continued action of its mufcles, kept it in this fituation, the maffeter and temporal muscles were no ways convulfed. Before I faw this pa

tient, she had been bliftered upon the course of the affected muscles, which leffened their convulfive motions, while the bliftered parts continued to run, but no longer. I ordered plafters of the emplaftrum antihystericum with fome opium to be applied where the blifters had formerly been. These were kept on no longer than two days, during which time, the convulfions were weaker and lefs frequent, not being repeated above 50 or 60 times in a minute; however, in a day or two after the removal of these plasters, the convulfive contractions became as strong and as frequent as ever. Brimftone, in powder, was rubbed on the temples and cheeks without any vifible effect. Sufpecting that this convulfive diforder might, perhaps, proceed from worms, I prescribed a bolus of rhubarb with calomel, which the girl obftinately refufing to take, her father went to fetch a horsewhip to beat her. The fear of this affected her so strongly, that, without the bolus, the convulfions of the maffeter and temporal muscles inftantly ceafed; and have never returned fince, except once on occafion of a fright, when they continued near an hour, and then went off without any remedy.'

Convulfive motions, fpafms, or cramps, are also often prevented, or cured by compreffion. Our author is very full and fatisfactory in the articles of hyfteric faintings, with convulfions, as well as on the nervous or spafmodic asthma, and all the other symptoms above recited ; and all of them are elucidated by curious cafes. But, as we have not room to make longer quotations, we must content ourselves with recommending this treatife to the attention of the reader, as one of those few performiances that will do credit to the age in which they are written.

V. Digeft of the Law concerning Libels: Containing all the ReSolutions in the Books on the Subject, and many Manufcript Cafes. The whole illuftrated with occafional Obfervations. By a Gentleman of the Inner-Temple. 4to. Pr. 6s.

Owen.

There is not a more certain mark of an ill-defigning or impotent administration, than attempts to reftrain the liberty of Speaking or writing, 2 Macaul. Hift. Engl. 61.

B

his defign

Y the motto which this author has taken, and some quotations he has made from the fame book, one would imagine was to fhew, that it is the birth-right of a British to speak and to write with freedom and impunity: but, by the authorities and opinions he has adduced, it appears that, the courts of judicature in England have arrogated to

fubje&t

in all ages,

themselves the power of interpreting the meaning of an author,

`many