principles; and confidering the acid as the ingredient to which the air owes its purity, or wholefomenefs, and phlogifton as the cause of its noxious property; he further fuppofes, that if a body fhould be found, which will attract the acid more powerfully than the phlogifton does; a decompofition of the air will follow: and the phlogifton being thus let loose will produce all the deleterious effects of phlogifticated or noxious air. He proceeds to fuppofe that humidity, or water, in consequence of the attraction which it has to acids, is always robbing the air of more or less of its acid: thereby letting loose a proportional quantity of the phlogiston, or noxious principle, from its combination with the other conftituent parts of air.-With refpect to this hypothefis, we fhall only obferve, that those who are moft converfant in the late difcoveries relating to air will most readily perceive its imperfections; which are too numerous and obvious to require the being pointed out by us. ART. IX. ØYEIOAOTIA: Or the Do&rine of Nature, comprehended in the Origin and Progreffion of Human Life; the Vital and Animal Functions ; Difeafes of Body and Mind; and Remedies Prophylactic and Therapeutic. By Thomas Frewen, M. D. of Lewes in Suffex. 8vo. 6s. Bew. 1780. WHY HY, and when, this book was written, and why it is now published, are queftions which we fuppofe will naturally present themselves to the Reader, before he has proceeded through the first two or three sheets of it but he will not find any fatisfaction on these heads, fhould he even, like us, peruse it to the end. We expected to meet with fome information on these points; at leaft refpecting the Author's or Editor's motives for publishing this, work, from two introductory addreffes prefixed to it, but were difappointed. To the first of thefe, which might in plain English have properly been called a Preface, the Author has prefixed the pompous Latin title of Epiftola Authoris ad Amicos fuos in Re Medicâ honorandos; though it is written in plain English, and does not bear any marks of being more applicable to his learned medical friends in particular, than to the world at large; except indeed at the close of it, where he reminds us of them, and again addreffes them in Latin; and, after a few quotations in that language, takes his leave with a-Qui fum, viri dilectiffimi, SERVULUS VESTER HUMILLIMUS. To the fecond, which we will venture to call an Introduction, and which only contains a few obfervations on the medical characters and conduct of Hippocrates, Sydenham, and Boerhaave, the Author has prefixed the Greek title of ΠΡΟΛΕΓΟΜΕΝΑ. ! Proceeding to the work itself, we first find much old-fashioned Phyfiology under articles intitled, Progress of Human Nature 7 confidered confidered from its firft Principles; Animal Nature fhewn by Experiments; Solids and Fluids of Animals how compounded; Digeftion and Chylification; Sanguification; Nutrition; Secretion; the Blood, and its Circulation; Saliva; the Bile and Pancreatic Juice; Fermentation and Putrefaction; and Paffions of the Mind.'. Under thefe different heads-ftrange as it may appear-not the faintest trace is to be perceived of any modern observation or discovery, relative to any one of the articles. The remaining and principal part of the work confifts of obfervations on various diforders; which are in general fuch, both with respect to the manner and the matter of them, as might be fupposed to have been entered down in his common-place book, by a medical ftudent, fifty years ago, for his private ufe; and without much regard to method, or the arrangement of his ideas. If we except the short mention of two or three modern names, we should suppose this work to have been written at least so far back as the time of Boerhaave; whofe name and doctrines most frequently occur in it. Under the articles, fmall-pox, fevers, and fome others, we did expect that fome notice would have been taken, though only in a note, of modern improvements; but nothing of this kind appears and the Author's materia medica, and his formulæ, are juft as antiquated as every other part of the performance. To justify as well as exemplify these obfervations, we shall give a fhort extract from that part of the work in which the Author treats of fevers. The elderly medical Reader, we are perfuaded, will fancy himself transported back half a century at leaft; and will readily recognize the medical language held in the days of his youth. He will scarce believe that he is perufing a production of the year 1780. The remedies which we are to give, to affift the fecretion, and preparation of the morbid matter, are the moistening things in general; fuch as a fufficient quantity of warm and weak fluids: : as the common barley-water, and teas made of fage, mint, baum, &c. and the milder alexipharmic roots: with these, alfo, are to be given the gentle refolvents, fuch as are able to break the thick and tough confiftence of the humours of this kind are the temperate alexipharmic roots, efpecially, as they are also endowed with a diuretic virtue; fuch are the roots of Enula campana, Anagallis, Petafites, &c. Scordium is alfo, by fome, greatly recommended in this intention. These may be conveniently given in decoctions, or infufions, with powders, composed of the abfterfive and digestive falts, fuch as Tartarum Vitriolatum, &c. mixed with fuch things as have a power of obtunding, and incraffating, the acrid, and thin fulphureous faline humours: fuch are the abforbent powders of oifter-fhells, crab's claws, &c. Thefe fhould be firft fated with lemon-juice; and then, then, mixed with a little nitre, and the before mentioned falts, they make an excellent medicine. These may be given every three, four, or, fix hours, as the urgency of fymptoms requires; and a draught of the above mentioned decoction given after them. Emulfions of fweet almonds, and the cooling feeds, are alfo very proper between whiles.' To give one regular example of the Author's formula;-here follows a prescription given under the head, Angina; which bears all the marks of antiquity on the face of it: Potus optimus eft fequens: R. Rad. Apii. Lapath. acut. Acetofa, Graminis, ãã Zj Fol. Acetosœ. Agrimon. Becabungæ ãã M. ij. Semin. quatuor. frigid. major. ãā 3j Coq. in Aq. com. colat. pint. iij. Adde Nitriij. Rob. Sambuc. 3iij. M. De quo Æger fingul. boris capiat uncias tres vel quatuor.' ART. X. The Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. UCH of our Readers as have perufed the first volume of this History with that attention which it deferves, must have waited, with a pleafing impatience, for the publication of the volumes now before us. Their expectations, we will venture to fay, with perfect confidence, will not be difappointed. It is difficult, indeed, to determine, which is most deserving of praise, the Author's diligence in collecting his materials, his judgment in selecting them, or his accuracy in digesting them in their proper order. Though the materials for this part of his work are much better than those for the preceding part, yet he is often obliged to collect fcattered and imperfect hints from a great variety of fources, fome of which are not of the purest kind; notwithstanding this, the narrative he forms from them is of fo clear, diftinct, and fatisfactory a nature, as to do great honour to his difcernment and penetration. Much of the ground before him is indeed very tender ground; accordingly, he treads it with due circumfpection, and with measured steps; amidst the perplexity which is often produced by difcordant authorities, he fhews that temperate reserve and prudent caution which the delicacy of the subject requires, and yet feldom leaves his readers at a loss to discover his real fentiments. In a word, when we confider the choice and the arrangement of his materials, the perfpicuity and elegance of his narration, the extent of his erudition, and his political fagacity, we cannot but think him juftly entitled to a diftinguished rank among the most eminent Hiftorians of ancient or modern times. In regard to his ftyle, it appears to us to flow more eafily in the 2d and 3d volumes of his work than it did in the first, and to 1 to be more uniformly elegant. An attentive Reader, however, will fometimes have occafion to obferve, that Mr. Gibbon's familiar acquaintance with the French language has led him, through inadvertence, we imagine, to ufe certain words in a different sense from that in which they are ever used by approved writers. This is particularly obfervable in the word--actual, which occurs feveral times in the fenfe of the French word— actuel, when it fignifies-prefent.Thus, p. 12. chap. 17. vol. 2d In the actual ftate of the city,' &c. in French, l'etat actuel in fupport of the actual government, p. 24. ch. 17. and in several other places. In the fame chapter, likewise, our Author makes ufe of the word-faculties, in a fenfe in which it is very feldom, if ever, used; fo heavy an expence surpassed the faculties of the magiftrates them felves.' Here too, we apprehend, he has been betrayed into this ufe of the word faculties by his acquaintance with the French language-Chacun a été taxé felon fes facultés. But, perhaps, we ought to make an apology to our Readers, and to our Author, for mentioning fuch trifles; he must be a faftidious critic, indeed, who can look upon fuch mistakes (if, after all, they are mistakes) as of any confequence, especially in a work of fuch fuperior excellence, which in our next Review we shall confider more particularly. [To be continued.] MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For MARCH, 1781. POLITICAL. Art. 10. Letters from Cicero to Catiline the Second. With Corrections and Explanatory Notes. 8vo. 2 s. Bew. 1781. BY Y Catiline the Second is meant the Honourable C. F-x. But who is CICERO? who is he that attempts to fhoot with the bow of Ulyffes ? Thefe Letters, by whomfoever written* [and it is not difficult to guefs], were originally published in the news-papers ;-with the view of expofing the leaders of OPPOSITION to the icorn and indig The paragraph-politicians, in the daily prints, do not fcruple to afcribe thefe Letters to that notable, active, and induftrious parti zan, Mr. G―lly, the American Convert: whofe zeal, like that of converts in general, and of St. Paul in particular, gives him a right to cry out with that Apoftle, "I have laboured more abundantly than they all!"-Whether he can truly add, as St. Paul did "yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me,”-is a circumftance of which we prefume not to judge, nation of the Public.-Thus do the writers on both fides continually employ their pens in abufing the adverfe party; but how unavailing and how ridiculous the employment:-the blackening of chimncy-Sweepers! Art. 12. A Letter to Cicero, Lucius Catiline, or the American Deputy; with Two Letters in Defence of the prefent, and more general, ASSOCIATION OF PROTESTANTS IN ENGLAND, being neceffary to defend the Principles of their Religion, and effential to eftablish its Univerfality. 8vo. is. Stockdale, &c. 1781. A zealous friend to the religious and civil liberties of this country, —but a very indifferent writer,-warmly vindicates and recommends Affociations, especially the Proteftant, as the most probable means of effecting, among us, the moit laudable purposes of society.' In Letter IV. † he falls, with much afperity, on Mr. Galloway, whom he fingles out, as the detected Author of Letters from Cicero to Catiline: and whom he fcruples not to ftigmatife as a traitor, who has quitted one injured country-to injure another.'-He, however, compliments Mr. G. on the fcore of his literary abilities: a compliment which, we apprehend, the American traitor will be in no hurry to return to the Man of Rofs . · Art. 13. A Series of Letters addreffed to the greatest Politician in England: Containing a Defcription of feveral Public Characters; a Defence of Sir George Saville, and of Lord Chatham's Political Sentiments, and his Upright, Spirited, and Conftitutional Syftem, contrafting it with that firft formed by Lord Bute, and fince completed by Lord North. 8vo. 2 s. 6 d. Almon. 1780. From thirty rambling letters, fome of them addreffed to various political perfonages, and fome without addrefs, all that can be dif covered is, that the Writer has laboured under a load of confufed ideas, without being able to arrange them according to any method, or to apply them to any regular purpofe. If the Reader poffeffes that fhare of patience which the discharge of our duty impofes on us, by the time he has perufcd a hundred and fixteen pages, he will And the malady of the Writer in fome degree communicated to him, fo that he will not readily be able to tell what he has been reading, and must have time to forget his toil, before he can recover his compofure. The Writer, however, may find himself eafier, now that he has difburdened his head; and if the Printer and Stationer, who have contributed to his relief, are no fufferers by their good offices, the poor Reviewer alone is left to complain. 事 Art. 14. A View of the English Conftitution. By the late Baron de Montefquieu. Being a Tranflation of the Sixth Chapter of the Eleventh Book of his celebrated Treatife intitled L'Efprit des Loix. 8vo. I s. White. We apprehend there are few ftudents in politics who have not read the above-mentioned performance of the Baron Montefquieu, either in the original, or through the medium of a tranflation; but, as there' Which, according to our copy, fhould have been numbered III. Rev. March 1781. |