[66] 11. An Inquiry into the Nature, Caufe, and Cure of the Group. By Francis Home, M. D. His Majefiy's Physician, and Fellow of the Royal College of Phyficians in Edinburgh. 8vo. Pr. 15. Nicol. T HE name of this disease, if we mistake not, comes from the Scotch word croupy, or roupy, which fignifies boarfe; for in common colds it is ufual, in that country, for the patient to fay, he has got the roup, or croup, when the disorder is attended with hoarfenefs. Dr. Home treats it as a diftin& disease incident to children living in a low marfhy fituation near the fea. Its diagnoftics are, a quick pulfe, difficult breathing, and a fhrill ftridulous voice yet, from the cafes he has given, we fhould think all thefe are no other than symptoms of a common cold, degenerated into a Catarrhus Suffocativus, in confequence of a cachexy, redundancy of phlegm, neglect, or improper treatment-The perfpiration being fuddenly checked, the matter thus obftru&ted will be thrown on parts that are naturally weak and relaxed. If thefe happen to be the fauces and larynx, we apprehend all the symptoms will neceffarily enfue; the glottis, being contracted by the tumefaction, will emit a ftridulous found, the branches of the bronchiæ being stuffed by the overcharged glands, or contracted by a fpafmodic conftriction from the irritation of the nerves, a difficulty of breathing will be the confequence, and this must be attended with a quick pulfe.-If the vis vita, naturally weak, fhould be lowered by bleeding or purging, the patient will either be fuffocated by an extraordinary discharge of mucus, or the final veffels lofing their contractile force, by which the circulation is fuftained, a mortification will enfue.-The mucus fo difcharged from the glands that line the infide of the larynx, all round, will, by the heat of the parts, thicken into a kind of membranous cylinder, fuch as was found in the bodies of thofe children who died of the croup, and the more liquid parts of the lymph, or serum, falling down into the branches of the afpera arteria, will acquire the colour and confiftence of pus. If thefe obfervations deferve any regard, a phyfician, we think, ought to be very cautious of prefcribing bleeding, even when the disease is fomewhat inflammatory; and we are afraid the fleams of warm water ferve only to increase the relaxation, and invite a greater flux of mucus to the parts affected. On the other hand, we imagine blifters must have a favourable effect, firft, by ftimulating the languid circulation, and, fecondly, by by driving off the fuperfluous ferum. But thefe hints we drop with all due deference to Dr. Home's fuperior fagacity and experience. 12. Confiderations on the Ufe and Abuse of Phyfic: With Obfervations on the dangerous Effects of the too frequent Use of Bleeding, Purging, and other Evacuations. Containing many general Rules for preferving Health, and Directions for the prudent Choice of a Phyfician. Tranflated from the Spanish of the celebrated Father Feyjoo, Mafer-general of the Benedictine Order, and Abbot of St. Vincent's College in Oviedo. 8vo. Pr. 1S. Richardfon and Urquhart. His The book called Il Teatro Critico fopra los Errores communes, written by father Feyjoo, is a work that contains many ingenious differtations, and has contributed more than any other caufe to contract the reign and dominion of ignorance and fuperstition in Spain: but this effay on the Uncertainty of Medicine we can by no means allow the first place amongst his lu cubrations. Thefe are the effufions of a sceptic rather than of a philofopher; and notwithstanding the extenfive reading of the author, one plainly perceives he is arguing and declaiming against an art which he does not thoroughly understand. remarks are thofe of a man who has but a fuperficial tincture of the science, and may ferve as the foundation of jokes upon the faculty; but they can never bring phyfic into difcredit with those who are intimately acquainted with the art. He has quoted Etmuller, Sydenham, Baglivi, and fome other medical writers, to prove, that phyfic is in fome cafes uncertain, (which no body can deny). Then he labours to prove, that bleeding and purging are generally, if not at all times, unneceffary, and very often pernicious; and that nature herself is the beft and only cure of all the diseases to which fhe is subject. This doctrine, however, he seems to renounce in the fequel. He owns that cathartics may be of service in diforders of the prima via, though he feems to think it almoft impoffible to diftinguish when they are or are not so feated. He confeffes that mercury will cure the pox, and that the Peruvian bark may sometimes be given to advantage. On the whole, there are fome inconfiftencies in this declamation, which will not, as we imagine, do much prejudice to the profeffors of the healing art. As to the tranflator, notwithstanding his facetious dedication to the most Learned, moft Skilful, most Sincere, and moft Approved Phyfician in all his Majefty's Dominions, we think he is but indifferently qualified for the task he has undertaken. If he does not acquire more robufticity in the knowledge of the English language, F 2 the the critics will find him guilty of homicidious procedure towards the king's English. 13. Practical Obfervations concerning the Cure of the Venereal Difeafe by Mercurials. To which is added, a Letter to Peter Collinfon, Efq. F. R. S. Containing an Account of an Ear of Dog's Grafs, that was fwallowed by a Child, and afterwards difcharged on its Back. By Jonathan Wathen, Surgeon. 8vo. Pr. 1s. 6d. Rivington. Mr. Wathen's defign in this pamphlet is to fhew, that Keyfer's pills for the venereal diftemper, and baron Van Swieten's folu tion of corrofive fublimate, and precipitate per fe, and every nofrum whatfoever, are ineffectual in many ftages of the lues, and never further to be depended upon, than as preparations of mercury or quick filver, which he affirms to be the only specific for all and fingular the fymptoms of this diforder. He afferts. that quickfilver does not operate by any particular virtue by which it attracts the particles of the virus, but by diffolving the whole mafs of humours, and opening a proper channel, thro' which thofe humours, thus diffolved, are difcharged, together with the virus that impregnates them; that the perfection of the cure will be in proportion to the quantity of the quickfilver which enters the blood; and that even a copious ptyalifm, if raifed by a fmall quantity of mercury, will not remove many fymptoms of the venereal diftemper. We fubfcribe to many of this gentleman's opinions, though we cannot believe with him, that no fimple venereal gonorrhea was ever cured without the affiftance of mercury.-Indeed we have feen fome, and heard of many, that have yielded to bleeding, antiphlogistics, cooling phyfic, and abftinence; but this we know, that a falivation alone will not cure a gonorrhoea, nor even divest it of the venereal virus; inafmuch as we have known this remaining difcharge communicate infection, after every other symptom of the lues venerea had been removed by a regular ptyalifm. This pamphlet concludes with a curious cafe of a child, who, having fwallowed an ear of the grafs called hordcum fpurium, was almoft ftrangled with coughing and reaching, then underwent a fever, with lofs of appetite, had a flinking breath, and coughed up matter. In about a fortnight thefe fymptoms difappeared, and a tumor became perceptible on her back; this being brought to fuppuration, and opened, was found to contain the ear of grafs, with its bearded extremity lying downwards. 14. The 14. The Practice of Inoculation impartially confidered; its fignal Advantages fully proved; and the popular Objections against it confuted; in a Letter to Sir Edward Wilmot, Bart. By John Andrew, M. D. To which are added, The Sentiments of Dr. Huxham, and feveral other very eminent Phyficians, relative to the faid Practice, as communicated to the Author. 8vo, Pr. 15. Wilfon and Fell. Dr. Andrew, in this performance, fays very little, if any thing, in favour of inoculation, but what had been repeated feveral times by other writers; nor is there any thing extraordinary in his method of preparing his fubjects, except that of giving them a mercurial purge to deftroy any worms that may occupy the ftomach and inteftines: but we can affure Dr. Andrew there are practitioners in England, who have inoculated fome thoufands without any preparation at all; and their practice in this particular has been attended with fuch fuccefs, as, one would think, muft difperfe the thickeft clouds of prejudice and infatuation in those who ftill declare against this method of communicating the difemper. Among other great names quoted by Dr. Andrew we meet with Dr. Hill and Dr. Kirkpatrick; the firft celebrated as our great English Botanist, the other as le plus fameux Inoculateur dans toute l'Europe.-Arcades ambo. 15. Du Port de Signis Morborum Libri Quatuor. Quibus accedunt Notae Au&toris; aliorum Eruditorum Medicorum ; et fparfim Editoris Radulphi Schomberg, M. D. Societ. Antiquar. Lond. Soc. 410. Pr. 23. Millar. Dr. Schomberg, of Bath, who is the editor of this performance, gives us to understand in his dedication of it to the bishop of Derry, that it was firft printed at Paris in the year 1584, fince which period it has not undergone another impreffion till now, and of confequence was but little known in this kingdom. It is illuftrated with annotations and analogous quotations from the clafficks, which laft are the work of the editor. The figns, or fymptoms, of the difeafes here defcribed feem to be accurate enough; but there is fomething more required in a poem, even in one that is didactic. Lucretius abounds with beautiful descriptions; Fracaftorius mingles the charms of poetry with the precepts of medicine; and, in our own language, the Art of preferving Health, by Dr. Armstrong, is replete with fublime ideas, pathetic touches, and the moft inchanting imagery. Du Port is fo feverely didactic in the piece before us, that he hardly ever hazards the least fally of imagination, and is, in our opinion, even more profaic than Horace in his epiftle aa' PiJones, or Du Frefnoy in his Art of Painting. But the reader fhalljudge for himfelf, from the Promium, or invocation, where one would expect to meet with poetry, if there is any in the performance. Signa, quibus genitos humano in corpore morbos Des animum: fiquidem, fine Te, Deus Alme, receffus Exiftis, tentare nefas, & noffe prophanum. Signa perfecta fanitatis. Quifquis in arcanum defcendit Apollinis antrum On the whole, this work may be useful to young practitioners, to fix in their minds the fymptoms of various diseases, by means of the metrum, or measure, which is known to be a great help to the memory. 16. The Commiary. A Comedy in Three Acts. As it is performed at the Theatre in the Hay-market. By Samuel Foote, Esq. 8vo. Pr. Is. 6d. Vaillant. Mr. Zachariah Fungus is fuppofed to be a low, illiterate mechanic, who, by fome ftrange accident, rifing to the place of a commiffary in the service abroad, has acquired a vast fortune, and being feized with the ridiculous vanity of becoming likewife a fine gentleman, begins, at the age of fifty, to learn the polite arts of eloquence, dancing, fencing, mufic, and rid ing |