which, in the prefent age, feems to compenfate for the want of every merit. There is, however, a due fhare of improbability in the story, and of extravagance in fome of the principal characters. But, though it partakes in thefe qualities with its more fuccefstul rivals, the author has not contrived to make his dialogue fo pert and unmeaning, or his incidents fo grotefque and farcical as theirs. To ufe an expreffion of Dr. Johnfon," he has fewer artifices of difguft than his brethren." Though we could not produce many inftances of wit (properly fo called) there is often a neatnefs in the language, and vivacity in the dialogue, which renders the perufal of this Comedy by no means unpleafing to us: and, confidering the alledged youth and inexperience of the author, affords the pro:nife of much fuperior dramatic performances to most of those which have lately difgraced the stage. This opinion, we prefume, is not fingular, as the play appears already to have reached a third edition. The Prelude, we think, may have indifpofed the audience to the play, and should have been omitted in the publication. ART. 20. The Lady of the Rock, a Melo-drame, in Two A&s: as it is performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. By Thomas Holcroft. Second Edition. 8vo. 31 pp. Is. 6d. Longman and Co. 1805. From the Hon. Mrs. Murray's Guide to the Western Islands of Scotland, the subject of this little drama is derived; but the author has fubftituted the paffion of jealousy, for that which in the original is attributed to the hufband. Melo-drame is an affected name, borrowed from the French. We fhould fuppofe it to mean a drama accompa nied throughout with mufic: in the prefent cafe, we do not fee how it differs from opera, except that there is a tragical incident in it. The fcenery and the mufic must have been the principal attractions in the theatre, for in the writing there is not much. A hufband is deceived into jealoufy; he confents to expofe his wife on a barren rock; fhe is there in a form, but is unexpectedly relieved by an honeft fishermau. A mock funeral is ordered, and her clan affemble to revenge her death; but the appears, and all is explained. The traitor who made the husband jealous dies by poifon. Such is the outline. The offenfive abuse of the word Saviour, of which we have several times complained, is here peculiarly ftriking. The Lady calls the fisherman her noble faviour," and her Lord tells the fame man, "thou art indeed my faviour!" Who would fay this who knew of another Saviour? and, while there is fuch a word as preferver, why fhould the fault be committed or tolerated? The licenser might forbid this, and other abuses. ART. 21. Of Age To Morrow: a Mufical Entertainment, in Two Acts; as performed by their Majeflies' Servants at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (now fift published, and printed exactly conformable to the Performance). 8vo. 41 pp. 1s. 6d. Barker. 1805. If we mistake not, this little mufical piece was performed two fea fons ago. It is a mere trifle; fuch as, with the help of good mufic, might pafs during a feafon or two; but how the publication of fuch a drama, two or three years afterwards, can answer to any bookfeller we are unable to difcern. The fum of eighteen pence may, in our opinion, opinion, be laid out better than in the purchase, and half an hour much more usefully expended than in the perufal of it. NOVELS. ART. 22. Alfred and Galba; or, the Hiftory of Two Brothers, fuppofed 12mo. 174 PP. 26. The prefent really inftructive and entertaining publication, is upon the fame plan as the former of Mr. Campbell's productions, "Worlds Difplayed," and "Picture of Human Life;" with this exception, that they are compofed of various lives and events, while this contains but one continued history. Our readers will not perufe the following extract without being fully convinced that the author is perfectly adequate to the task he has fo laudably undertaken, that of diverting the minds of young persons to the attainment of ufeful knowledge and information, "A talte for reading, where it is not a natural gift, is feldom produced by mere exhortations, nor even by the most forcible reprefentations of advantages derived from it. Yet, even under fuch unfavourable circumstances, if fome entertaining narrative be put into the hands of youth, calculated to engage their attention without vitiating their tafte, perhaps, after reading it, they will afk for another volume. To direct and gratify this new appetite, will require much attention and caution, efpecially while fo many pernicious plays and novels continue in circulation; in many of which the moft deftructive principles are diffeminated, and the bafeft crimnes foftened, or applauded. "I have particularly attempted to lead the attention of the young reader to the wonders of creation which continually furround him, (though too frequently unobferved) that he may view them as difplaying the boundlets wifdom, power, and goodness, of the great Creator. Wherever he travels, this library of God furnishes an inexhaustible fource of pleasure, always at hand. Even the smalleft volume in the divine collection is worthy of refearch; a blade of grafs, or a particle of fand, merits the minuteft investigation; and the power of God is no lefs admirably displayed in the formation of the mite that crawls upon the cheese, than in that of the nonfter that roams among the forests." This pleafing little volume is addreffed, with a very neat dedication, to the Rev. John Newton, for whom the author profeffes the most fincere esteem and affection. ART. 23. The Adventures of Cooroo, a Native of the Pellew Islands. By C. D. L. Lambert. 8vo. 58. Scatcherd. 1805. The real ftory of Lee Boo, the amiable but unfortunate prince of Pellew, has fuggefted this imaginary one of Cooroo. The story evinces fome contrivance and imagination, but will not excite any particular intereft. Why will people wafte time and talents that might be fo much more beneficially employed for themselves and the public? For what benefit will the labour of these two hundred and feventy-five pages produce to the author, or what good will refult from the perufal of them to the public? MEDICINE. MEDICINE. ART. 24. A Letter to William Wilberforce, Efq. M. P. &c. &c. &c. By James Carmichael Smyth, M. D. Containing Remarks on a Pamphlet, entitled "An Account of the Difcovery of the Power of Mineral Acid Vapours to Destroy Contagion", by John Johnstone, M.D. Svo. 34 PP. IS. Callow. 1805. It appears by this letter, for the pamphlet to which it is an answer efcaped our notice, that in 1802, when Dr. Smyth's petition to parliament for remuneration for his difcovery of the power of the nitric acid gas, in deftroying the contagion of fever, was before the committee of the Houfe of Commons, Dr. John Johnstone addressed a letter to the committee, ftating that "his father had acquired eminence by the discovery of a certain method of destroying infection, which could be ufed with perfect convenience, in the apartments of the fick." P. 8. That the committee on examining the publication of the father, Dr. James Johnstone, printed in the year 1758, containing the account of the preparation, did not admit the claim. That Dr. John Johnftone, not fatisfied with the decifion of the committee, has publifhed a pamphlet, on the fubject, addreffed to the Houfe of Commons, as an appeal to the house, from the judgment of the committee. (See p. 28.) But it appears from the following quotation from the original publication by the father, inferted in Dr. Smyth's letter, (p. 6) that it was the marine, and not the nitric acid, which had been recommended by Dr. J. and that only incidentally. "If the externalair", he fays, "is immoderately cold and wet, the room must be kept warm and dry; and the fumes of amber, benzoin, myrrh, and camphire, may be diffufed in the room, if sprinkled on hot iron; vinegar may be fprinkled about cold, if the weather is warm; and, boiled with myrth and camphire, an antifeptic fteam will rife in the air, which the patient breathes, greatly to his advantage. Thefe fteams will preferve the air free from putrefaction, and will infinuate themfelves by the abforbent veffels of the lungs, into the blood veffels, and will greatly affift in impeding the progress of putrefaction in the fluids. Thefe are the moft commodious, if not the most useful methods of medicating the air the patient breathes; however, thofe who prefer the mineral acids, may order brimstone to be burnt, or may raise the marine acid very easily, by putting a certain quantity of common falt into a veffel, kept heated on a chaffing dish of coals; if to this a finall quantity of oil of vitriol is from time to time added, the air will be filled with a thick white acid team; but both the marine and fulphureous acids must be difengaged at a confiderable distance from the patient, otherwife their extreme pungency will be affenfive to the lungs." P. 51. Here is evidently the rudiments of the difcovery of the power of the vapour and marine acid in destroying infection, but the author thought it poffeffed that power only in common with the vapour from vinegar, and many other vegetable fubftances; and he even feems to give the preference to vapours raifed from vegetables, and probably ufed used them most frequently; and it does not appear that his fon had made any improvement on this fuggeftion of his father, or that he had found out the fuperior power of the mineral acid, as late as the year 1773, when he published his inaugural thefis, on the angina maligna; but fix years after, on publishing a tranflation of the thefis, after commending the utility of vegetable fumigations, he adds, "As it is impoffible too cautiously to guard against the effects of fo putrid a contagion, the acid air or fpirit of falt fhould be kept rifing continually in the room, by pouring oil of vitriol once or twice a day on fea falt, placed in a convenient veffel; this fpirit will rife, in the moderate degrees of heat, from fixty to feventy of Fahrenheit's ther-, mometer, fo as to be perceived in every part of the room by its penetrating acid smell. This method of correcting vitiated air, which is ufeful in this, and every other putrid disease, was long ago ordered by my father, and is now recommend d by Dr. Priestley." P. 18. It feems probable, therefore, that Dr. J. had now feen some obfervations on the fubject by Dr. Priestley, which brought to his recollection a former recommendation of the mineral acid by his father, but ftill it does not appear that the Johnstones had any great confidence in it, or that they preferred it to fumigations from vegetable substances. "In the year 1780, the three mineral acids were employed by Dr. Smyth in the prifon and hofpital at Winchefter; and his opinion," he fays, (p. 25)" of their fuperior efficacy for deftroying contagion, was communicated by letter to the board of Sick and Hurt, and mentioned by him publicly, on many occafions," but he had not then seen Dr. Johnfon's book, which he procured in confequence of feeing an anonymous paragraph in the Morning Chronicle in the year 1802. "If he had," he adds, “he could have derived no useful information from it." Yet the fuggeftion thrown out by Dr. Johnstone in 1758, on the utility of the marine acid, in correcting the air, and afterwards extended in the publication of the fon in 1779, might have been fufficient, if Dr. Smyth had feen them, to have excited his attention to the fubject, although they do not appear to have much influenced the fuggeftors. Before clofing this article, we cannot help expreffing our with that information had been given, whether the vapour of the mineral acids had been employed at Gibraltar, during the reign of the late deftructive infectious fever there. ART. 25. An Account of tro Cafes of Gout, which terminated in Death, in confequence of the external Use of Ice and Cold Water. By A. Edlin. 12mo. 24 PP. IS. Harris. Though two cafes of gout are mentioned, in which the patients are fuppofed to have fuffered from applying cold water to the pained parts, yet, properly fpeaking, one only is recited, the other being merely an occurrence fuppofed to have happened thirty years ago, but certainly not fufficiently vouched to juftify our drawing any inference in fupport, or in oppofition to the doctrine here reprobated. But even the cafe of Mr. Baker, which the writer appears to have attended to from the first attack of the complaint, is deficient in many effential points. We are not told the age, or general ftate of health of the patient, and only gather incidentally that this was the first fit of gout, if gout it was, that the patient had fuffered. It is alfo deficient, in not being guarded with those teftimonials which might, and ought to have accompanied it. We are not told that the cafe, when drawn up, was fhown to the relatives of the deceased, or to any intelligent neighbours, who might be fupposed to have visited him during his fhort illnefs; neither was the deceased attended by any phyfician, or other medical affiftant, excepting by Dr. Haworth, who faw him the day after the application of the cold water, when thofe fymptoms had come on which were fuppofed to have been occafioned by the cold applications, and which continued until the patient died. But though this event did not take place until the feventh day after Dr. Haworth's vifit, yet it does not appear that he was defired to vifit him a fecond time; neither had Mr. Edlin the precaution to take with him any other medical friend, a circumftance much to be regretted, as from this omiffion, and the avowed prejudice of the writer against the practice of ufing cold applications to parts afflicted with gout, we are prevented drawing inferences, which the cafe, properly attefted, might perhaps have admitted. Deficient, however, as the cafe is in these points, fome utility may be drawn from its publication; for however rightly we may doubt whether the symptoms are accurately delineated, or whether the treatment of the patient was the moft judicious that could have been followed, there can be no doubt that the outline is correct. Mr. Baker was affected, we are told, with pain, fwelling, and inflammation, in the ball of the great toe, of one, and afterwards of both his feet together. In this ftate, he determined on applying cloths dipped in cold, and afterwards in iced water, to his feet. This, continued for fome time, procured an abatement and alleviation of the pain, fwelling, and redness of the parts. Finding fome hours after a flight inflammatory pain, and redness in the knees; the knees were treated in the fame manner, and with the fame fuccefs. A few hours after, Mr. Edlin was fent for in great hafte. "He found the patient," he says, "lying on his back, with a difficult, hurried refpiration, his extremities cold, his pulfe quick, fluttering, and intermitting. He complained of a palpitation of the heart, and an icy coldness in the ftomach; he had vomited several times, and a cold sweat had broke out on the skin." When Dr. Haworth faw him, "his pulfe beat ninetyfix ftrokes in a minute, his tongue was dry and furred, and his refpiration hurried." Fever had now fupervened, of which he died feven days after. The fymptoms here described, have been usually confidered as indications of repelled gout, that is, of gout driven from the extremities to the ftomach, heart, and lungs. We are now told that gout cannot be repelled. Whether thofe fymptoms are to be attributed to gout or not, ftill, we prefume, it will hardly be denied, that they were occafioned by the application of iced water to the extremities. It therefore becomes a matter of the most serious confideration to phyficians, and patients, that a remedy capable of producing fuch difaftrous effects, fhould not be reforted to but with the grea eft care and attention. Mr. Edlin fays in his Preface, he bears no perfonal ill will to Dr. Kinglake, whofe practice he arraigns. His affertion would have merited more confideration, if he had avoided ufing ex preffions |