explain why the fœtus is fo feldom infected, he modeftly propofes a general remark, deduced from his own experience. Young infants, he thinks, are remarkably unsusceptible of the variolous and rubeolous contagions: the younger, the weaker, the infant is, the lefs of life it poffeffes, the lefs fufceptibility it has also for thefe complaints.' Mr. Turnbull relates an inftance of communication of the small-pox to the fœtus.

An inftance of a fatal pulmonary consumption, without any evident hectic fever, by Ant. Fothergill, M. D. The cafe here reported may eafily be explained, according to the opinion of thofe who teach that the exclufion of air from ulcerating furfaces frequently prevents hectic fever, and v. v. The patient had no night sweats, no rigors, no purulent expectoration. On diffection, it appeared that the right lobe of the lungs was totally destroyed, and the cavity compleatly full of very fœtid purulent matter.'

Hiftory of a cafe of croup terminating fatally, with a diffsection and incidental remarks, by Henry Field, apothecary.

Auguft 23. A girl, three years old, ftout and healthy, had a confiderable degree of fever, wheezing and difficult refpiration, founding at times fomewhat ftridulous, the fauces red and inflamed, and covered each with a mucous membrane-like appearance; a cough frequent and founding peculiarly shrill.' Topical bleeding, with fix leeches, and infufion of senna and antimonial wine, befides two blifters, were first prescribed; and the fymptoms in general were thought to be somewhat mitigated. Cantharides externally, with naufeating emetic and opening medicines, were freely ufed till the 28th; fome flight Auctuations were obferved, but the patient expired early on the 29th. Diffection fhewed flight inflammation through the whole internal furface of the trachea, extending into the bronchia the epiglottis and glottis were compleatly covered with a thick, white, opake, membranous cruft, adhering firmly to thofe parts fo as to be feparated with difficuly by a probe, and extending about an inch downwards in the trachea.'

Such were the progrefs and the event, and fuch the appearances after death. On thefe data, Mr. F. proceeds to comment; we shall touch on a few of the principal points; and, if we fpeak freely, we truft to the importance of the occafion for our juftification. The effential character of this disease is said to

confift in a morbid ftate of the larynx and trachea, difpofing them to fecrete a mucus of a peculiar nature, and which in a very fhort time concretes into a membranous fubftance.' Mr. Hunter has abundantly demonftrated that a certain degree of inflammation occafions the fecretion of coagulating lymph: but neither in croup nor in any form of pneumonia, does fuch fecretion

fecretion always take place; yet, though the action of the vesfels does not attain that violence, it may still be in great and dangerous excefs. On this, therefore, the eye of the practitioner ought to be fixed; and in this fhould the effence of the disease, if fuch forms of speech avail any thing, be made to confift. Mr. F. (p. 152-3) has fome minute obfervations on the ftridulous found which is ufually confidered as characteristic of this disease.' There is only one method of contemplating this circumstance, which can lead to any thing ufeful. This is not to lay ftrefs on exact fimilitude of tone, but to reprefent a latitude of found as neceffary; for it will evidently be more or lefs fhrill, as the wind-pipe is more or lefs braced by inflam-. mation. Those who understand how to allow for the variation of nature in fuch minutia will, we are perfuaded, feel none of that embarraffment to which Mr. F. alludes, when he fays (p. 155) that our prefent experience is certainly inadequate' to an early difcrimination of this disease.

The farther we advance in this paper, the more do we feel inclined to oppose opinion to opinion. The following paffage, which respects the most important measure in the whole treatment, seems to us scarcely less pregnant with evil than Pandora's box:

As the inflammation does not appear of a very active kind, general evacuation by blood-letting does not feem admiffible in this disease; topical evacuation by leeches, nevertheless, fhould be purfued with great vigour, at leaft in the early stages of it, being that which has the most certain tendency to relieve the fymptoms without inducing much general debility, which circumftance it is particularly neceffary to guard againft.'

In evidence of the activity of the inflammation, we appeal to parts of fimilar ftructure, when they are ftimulated to the fecretion of coagulating lymph. We might also reft fomething on the analogy of acute difeafes in children. We affert that the debility induced by general blood-letting is nothing, in comparison with that induced by the continuance of inflammation; and that the former will never be dangerous within any moderate period after the attack.

Dr. Home (fays Mr. Field) objects to the early application of blifters to the affected parts;' (p. 159,) and we confess that we were not able to avoid fhuddering at the boldness and pertinaeity with which the ftimulus of cantharides was applied in the cafe described, confidering that the inflammatory action of the exhalants was not previously removed by free emiffion of blood. It would have been better, in our judgment, to have used the fimple folution of tartarized antimony than the medicines prefcribed. This is readily taken by children; and, befides its

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ufual primary operation, it often renders cathartics needless. The treatment in the inftance before us was directed by the late ingenious Dr. Auftin.

In our animadverfions on this paper, we have been the more prolix on account of the great frequency and fatality of the croup in London. For ourselves, we are perfuaded that parents will continue to mourn over the tombs of their offspring, unless the lancet be freely employed in this dangerous disease.

Dr. Senter's fingular cafe of ifchuria has already, as it well deferved, been particularly noticed by us in our account of the American Medical Tranfactions. (See Rev. Appendix to vol. xvi. N. S.)

Some account of Angustura bark, by J. C. Lettfom, M. D. We have here a favourable report of the virtues of the Ang. bark in certain ftates of low fever, particularly where the bowels are affected. Some other applications of this medicine are annexed. Dr. L. thinks that the medicinal properties of the Ang. bark depend not fo much upon its bitter quality as upon its tonic antifeptic febrifuge powers.'

Abridgment of Mr. Robert White's paper on schirro-contracted rectum. The author advifes early attention to this disease; he mentions fome fymptoms which may serve to characterize it in its incipient ftate, and recommends the use of mercury, when the diforder is afcertained.

A cafe of petechia, unaccompanied with fever, with obfervations on the fame, by T. Garrett, M. D. Harrogate. This patient had alfo hæmorrhages from the nofe, and fpongy bleeding gums, with great weakness. He recovered under the use of tonics, bitters, and acids. We fhould much wish to know what the beft remedies in fea-scurvy, as juice of lemons, would effect in fuch a cafe.

Cafe of angina pectoris, with remarks, by Samuel Black, M. D. Newry, Ireland. This is a very valuable paper. It feems to afcertain the proximate caufe of one divifion of thofe extraordinary feizures, which go under the name of angina pectoris. In the patient whofe cafe gave occafion to this communication, the heart was found unufually tender and lacerable. In none of the valves could any vifible degeneracy be detected, but the two coronary arteries exhibited the moft complete offification I ever faw. From their origin through two inches of their length they had become a compleat bone." There was no accumulation of fat, no effufion; and, doubtless, the incapability of the arteries, of fo important a vifcus as the heart, to perform their office, may be confidered as an adequate cause of difeafe and death.

Curfory

1

Curfory remarks on the appearance of angina fcarlatina in the Spring of 1793, by J. C. Lettfom, M. D. How far this paper tends to throw new light on a moft formidable difeafe, we fhall leave to the purchafers of the volume to determine.

Hints refpecting the prifon of Newgate, by J.C. Lettfom, M.D. To readers acquainted with the measures propofed of late years for infuring the falubrity of gaols and fhips, thefe benevolent hints towards meliorating mifery' will afford little inftruction. The paper is illuftrated by a more compleat ground plan of Newgate than has ever been published. When I vifited the female convicts,' fays the writer, I was fhocked on viewing their wretched condition; fome of them had fcarcely raiment fufficient to render them decent, although the keeper, Mr. Kirby, had expended nearly 201. out of his own pocket to afflift them.'

Hiftory of the treatment of hæmorrhages, by Jon. Binns, M. D. Liverpool. Dr. Binns has ufed cold glyfters with fuc cefs in discharges of blood by ftool. He relates at length a cafe of diarrhoea at the clofe of typhus, in which this practice anfwered. The glyfters confifted of decoction of termentil with gum-arabic and a little vitriolic acid. Under this article is a cafe of amaurofis of fix months' ftanding, fuccessfully treated by a cold infufion of one grain of Cayenne pepper in an ounce of water. This application deferves trial. With the writer of this article it has failed in one very fair cafe.

Some account of the dyfopia, by M. Guthrie, M. D. Peterf burgh. This is a fingular complaint, known in Ruffia by a name fignifying the hen blindness. The patient lofes his fight at funfet, and does not recover it till fun-rife. He is blind during the lightest nights of fummer. The difeafe is common among the peasants during the hay-harveft, when they generally work all night, to avoid the fultry heat of day, and when they fleep lefs than usual. There is no pain nor any external appearance. This temporary amaurofis goes off fpontaneously, but they use what Dr. G. believes to be a decoction of the blue-bottle (centaurea cyanus). The caufe is evidently exhauftion of the irritability of the retina, by excess of light.

On the internal use of filver in the epilepsy, by James Sims, M. D. Dr. S. fays that he has fucceísfully given from the 8th to the 20th part of a grain of the nitrat of filver in epilepsy. Two favourable cafes are related.

The Appendix contains a number of obfervations, among which a cafe of fpafm from Mr. J. Malden, furgeon, has principally drawn our attention: it was, however, as much a cafe of convulfion as of fpafm. E. G. a delicate young woman, would fometimes cough an hour or more inceffantly, then hiccough,

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then complain of violent pain of the abdomen, then the sphincter of the bladder would be contracted, and afterward the jaw. At the time of the inceffant cough, a few drops of blood drawn from the arm-five or only three drops, and on all occafions half an ounce-would produce immediate relief:-but bleeding would only relieve the convulfion (which the author mifcalls fpafm) of the muscles of refpiration. A complete cure is said to have been effected by fevere falivation.

IN

ART. VI. A New General Hiftory of Scotland, from the earliest Times to the Era of the Abolition of the Hereditary Jurifdictions of Subjects in Scotland in the Year 1748. By Robert Heron. Vol. I. 2 Parts. 8vo. pp. 449. 7s. fewed. Vernor. 1794N the year 1793, Mr. H. published propofals for a general hiftory of Scotland in twelve books, to be comprized in 3 vols. 8vo. price one guinea. The first volume is now fubmitted to the public, divided into two books with notes, the former comprehending the hiftory of the Romans, Caledonians, Britons, Picts, Scots, Anglofaxons, and Danes, in Scotland, until the acceffion of Malcolm Canmore, Anno Domini 1057; and the latter comprehending the period of Scottish hiftory from the acceffion of Malcolm to the death of Alexander III. A. D. 1281.

In treating this obfcure and unpromifing fubject, Mr. H. ingenuously confeffes that we have no diftinctions of language, no oppofition of customs, manners, or character, no claffific diverfities in the productions of the arts, to enable us to diftinguish accurately from one another, the feveral races of people by which North Britain might be (read was) anciently inhabited.' He obferves, therefore, modeftly and truly,

In the difcuffion of doubtful facts, in the Notes, I believe, I may have expreffed lefs violence of paffion, than has been difplayed by feveral of those who have lately examined these fame fubjects. Some writers know not to difpute, without fcolding and calumniating their adverfaries, in all the bitterness of rage: and there are readers, I doubt not, wife enough to find thefe the beft, nay the only proper means for establishing the juftnefs of any opinion. But, I, for my part, have never found, that I could diftinguish truth with clearer vifion, or feize it with a furer grafp, when I may have had the miffortune to be out of humour. And, I am perfectly fatisfied, that a man may not be of the fame mind as I, about many matters; yet, have neither cloven feet, nor affes' ears.'

Though this writer difplays lefs ill nature, he does not fhew lefs induftry, than his competitors, in this obfcure walk of literature: but it is to be regretted that, like them, he does not feem very perfectly acquainted with all the elegancies and

proprieties