All the inhabitants of Maritime Austria consist of, 1. The ancient original nobility, of the nobility created since 1290, and of the nobility who purchased their titles since the war of Candia. 2. The Cittadinanza, or the inferior nobility, and the most respectable families of the citizens. 3. The clergy, at the head of whom is the patriarch, who is entirely independent of the Pope, and styles himself N. N. Miseratione Divina Patriarcha Venetiarum Dalmatiaque Primas; is titled Excellenza Reverendissima, and must always be a Venetian patrician. 4. The common citizens and tradesmen; which class, together with 5. The peasants, is the most numerous. 6. The different foreigners resident in the country, and of German Protestants, Greeks, Arminians, Jews, and Turks.'

The description of Venice occupies a disproportioned extent. Several masterpieces of the Venetian painters and statuaries no longer remain to be enumerated among the curiosities of the town for they have been sent to that lumber-room of plunder, which the Parisians exhibit as a glory:-but the immovable benefits of the architect remain, and still endear such names as Sansovino and Palladio to the recollection of the inhabitants.

In general, this work gives much information carefully collected, conveniently arranged, and sufficiently compressed. A small but neat map illustrates the geographical instruction. The translation is composed in good, but not elegant, English.

ART. XIII. Description and Treatment of Cutaneous Diseases. Order I. Papulous Eruptions on the Skin. By Robert Willan, M. D. F. A. S. With coloured Plates. 4to. pp. 110. 155. sewed. Johnson. 1798.

THE imperfection of verbal descriptions, in conveying the

distinctions of cutaneous eruptions, has long been felt and lamented by the faculty. Dr. Willan therefore is entitled to great commendation, for the zeal and industry which he has exerted in order to delineate the varieties of those diseases, and to impart to the eye what cannot be communicated by the choicest expressions. His plates are executed with elegance, while they give a correct idea of the morbid appearances; and they will be consulted with particular satisfaction, by those who have endeavoured in vain to acquire a knowlege of the discases of the skin from former publications.-We cannot be expected

expected to present a complete view of this work, the definitions in which consist of figures: but there is great store of curious and useful research in the text, by which we shall profit. Dr. Willan, among much other reading, has carefully investigated the writings of the Arabian physicians, who cultivated this branch of medicine with more accuracy than either the Greek or Latin physicians, and whose labours have long been neglected; and he has drawn from them many things worthy of remark.-The work is intended to consist of Seven. Orders, which are to be published separately. The present number contains the order of Papulous Eruptions; the remaining orders are, Scales, Rashes, Vesicles, Pustules, Tubercles, and Maculæ.

The Papule are divided by Dr. Willan into three species; Strophulus, Lichen, and Prurigo.

The Strophulus is a disease peculiar to infants, and known among nurses by the name of the Gum, in this country; he divides it into the Strophulus Intertinctus, or Red Gum; Strophulus Albidus, or White Gum; Strophulus Confertus, the Tooth Rash, or Rank Red Gum; Strophulus Volaticus; and Strophulus Candidus. These varieties are illustrated by the prints.

In the first, Dr. Willan observes, the child's skin somewhat resembles a piece of red printed linen; and hence this eruption was formerly denominated the RED GOWN, a term still retained in several counties of England, and which may be found in old dictionaries. Medical writers have changed the original word for one of a similar sound, but not more significant. He thinks that this eruption, and the aphthous ulcerations common in children, alternate with each other; those infants who have the papulous eruption on the skin being less liable to aphtha; and the skin being generally pale, and free from eruption, when aphthæ take place in any considerable degree. He observes, also, that it is dangerous to repel this disease from the surface, by the application of cold water, or cold air. With regard to the treatment, ablution with warm water, the warm bath in case of a repulsion of the eruption, and blistering, are the remedies recommended.

The Strophulus Confertus appears during dentition; and, depending on the irritation excited in the gums, it does not become a separate object of practice. Dr. Willan cautions practitioners against ordering the child to be weaned on the occurrence of this eruption, as it does not imply disease in the mother, or

nurse.

In the Strophulus Volaticus, an emetic, or some laxative medicine, is advised; to be followed by the use of the Peruvian bark

The Strophulus Candidus affects infants about a year old, and commonly succeeds some of the acute diseases to which they are liable. The author has observed it after recovery from a catarrhal fever, and after inflammations of the bowels or lungs.

The second division of Papule, the LICHEN, is defined to be An extensive eruption of papulæ, affecting adults, connected with internal disorder, usually terminating in scurf, recurrent, not contagious.' It is subdivided into the Lichen simplex, L. agrius, L. pilaris, L. lividus, and L. tropicus. For the history and particular distinctions of these disorders, we must refer our readers to the work itself.

The author informs us that he has seen disagreeable symptoms produced, in consequence of repelling eruptions of this nature by sulphureous or mercurial ointments, or astringent lotions.

In the Lichen agrius, Dr. Willan advises a few doses of calomel, as a purgative; and afterward, for some weeks, the vitriolic acid three times in a day, given in the infusion of roses, or in a decoction of Peruvian bark. As an external application, he mentions the unguentum rosatum of the old Pharmacopeia, or the rose pomatum sold by perfumers.

Under this head, we meet with an interesting account of the prickly heat of the West Indies, extracted from different

writers.

The third division, PRURIGO, is distinguished into three varieties; Prurigo mitis, P. formicans, and P. senilis. The first, according to the author, when neglected, often changes its form, and terminates in the itch. In its early stages, the cure consists in frequent bathing, or washing the skin with tepid water.

The Prurigo formicans is described as being generally a symptom of ill health: but it is sometimes produced by drinking a small quantity of some Spanish white wine.-After having tried many remedies ineffectually for the cure of this kind of eruption, Dr. Willan found that fixed alkali answered better than the rest. He gave the natron preparatum, sometimes alone, sometimes in conjunction with sulphur. The oleum Tartari per deliquium, with the addition of a little laudanum, was equally efficacious. Baths prepared with alkalized sulphur, and sea-bathing, have also been serviceable in this complaint.

On the subject of the Prurigo sentis, some remarks are introduced, deserving attention, on the production of insects in diseased states of the skin.

We meet also with some very useful observations respecting Prurigo considered as a local affection; which are furnished

partly

partly by Dr. Willan, and partly by Dr. John Sims, and which

we recommend to the notice of our medical readers.

We trust that this spirited attempt to supply the deficiències of verbal description will be properly encouraged. The laborious researches, and the accurate discrimination, displayed in the text, render the book a valuable aquisition to practitioners, independently of the merit of the prints; and we shall be happy' to see it completed as ably and correctly as it has been begun.

ART. XIV. An Account of the Plague which raged at Moscow, in 1771. By Charles de Mertens, M. D. Member of the Medical Colleges of Vienna and Strasburg, &c. Translated from the French, with Notes. 8vo. pp. 122. 2s. 6d. Rivingtons. 1799.

THE

HE subject of the plague, we are here informed, is at this time particularly interesting, because we are in constant danger of having it imported into this country from the Le-. vant and from America: The latter part of this sentence surprised us considerably; for, though the translator assures us, in a note on this passage, that almost all physicians now agree that the yellow fever is actually the plague, yet we cannot recollect one author of credit who has made the assertion. If, however, the hazard of importing the plague from Turkey be nearly as great as it is represented by Dr. Russel, Mr. Eton, and several late writers, there is sufficient inducement for physicians to study the best accounts of a formidable disease, which they may be required to discriminate. The present tract seems, from the translator's preface, to be rather a selection from Dr. Mertens's book than a version..

It appears that the epidemic here described was greatly increased in its extent and fatality, by the warm attachments and superstitious prejudices of the lower ranks of Russians. They even broke into the plague-hospital, to carry images, to pray by the bed sides of their sick relations, and to embrace the bodies of the dead. What a striking contrast to the cau tious timidity of the Americans, under a similar visitation !-In this riotous overflow of their feelings, the mob attacked Dr. de Mertens's house, and destroyed almost every thing in it.

In the month of September, twelve hundred persons died of the plague daily; though Dr. Mertens thinks that, in consequence of the alarm which had driven away great numbers of the inhabitants, not more than 150,000 had remained in the city.

At length, measures were taken, under the direction of Count Orlow, for suppressing the popular commotions. Hos

pitals (of wood) were erected for the accommodation of the sick, and a Council of Health was established? The disease diminished rapidly, after the setting in of a hard frost. The effect of cold, in checking the communication of infection, appears to be very considerable, from some facts mentioned in this part of the narrative. Dr. Pogaretsky told the author, that some of the persons who carried out the dead had put on sheep-skins, which had been worn by the impested after having exposed them to the open air for forty-eight hours, int the month of December, when the frost was very intense, and that none of them became infected.

The total amount of deaths, in this epidemic, was upwards of seventy thousand; of which the author supposes that 22,000 took place in September alone. Adding to these the number of clandestine interments, and the deaths in neighbouring villages and towns, he thinks that this plague swept off 100,000 persons. It is a fact worth noticing, that most of the people, who were infected by carrying out and burying the dead, fell ill about the fourth or fifth day of their employment. The contagion was communicated solely by contact of the sick, or of infected goods, and did not seem to depend at all on the state of the atmosphere. The physicians, who visited patients' in the town, were secured by avoiding actual contact with them; although there was frequently not more than the distance of one foot between them.

The higher class of people were, as usual, less liable to in fection than the poor.

The Foundling Hospital at Moscow, which contained 1000 children and 400 adults, was preserved from the contagion, while it raged in all the surrounding buildings; and though the disease attacked eight persons who had stolen out of the house during the night, yet it was prevented from spreading, by separating them immediately from the rest. This is a fact which deserves great attention; as it proves that the progress of the plague may be impeded as effectually, and by the same means, as that of the common typhus.

In enumerating the symptoms of the plague, the author produces nothing which has not been noticed by former writers. In addition to the common symptoms of fever, he mentions itching or pain in those parts of the body in which buboes and carbuncles are about to appear. The accession of glandular swellings, or of eruptions, seems indeed to be the pathognomonic symptom of the discase; for the mixed appear

From this word, which is repeatedly used, we suppose the translator to be a foreigner; it ought to be infected.

ance