not enter into it more affectation than fingularity; and that fortune, which placed his reign in the moft brilliant epocha, perhaps, of all the revolutions of the human mind. Behold the monarch whom we ftill call LOUIS LE GRAND!',

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It reflects no fmall honour on the moderation and magnanimity of the Count de Mirabeau, that, in defcribing the economy of ftate prifons in France, and particularly the dungeon of Vincennes, in which he himself had been a victim to the rigours of arbitrary imprisonment, he is totally filent on his own fufferings. The interefts of hu manity, more than perfonal refentment, appear to be the motives of his conduct; and, with a delicacy which increases our esteem and admiration, he gives only a general, but indeed a pathetic account of the horrible cruelties exercifed in those manfions of mifery and defpair. Had the tranflator favoured the public with fome memoirs of this unfortunate nobleman, they must have proved acceptable to many readers. The work contains an animated appeal to the paffions, as well as the understanding, of his countrymen, on the injuftice of arbitrary imprisonment; and had it been written under a prince of lefs mildness of disposition than the present fovereign, and before the nation was reconciled to the most important violations of public freedom, it might have excited a spirit of general revolt, and shaken the pillars of monarchy.

ART. V. An Account of the Effects of Swinging, employed as a Remedy in the Pulmonary Confumption and Hectic Fever. With an Introductory Letter to Sir Jofeph Banks, Bart. Prefident of the Royal Society. By James Carmichael Smyth, M. D. F.R.S. Phyfician Extraordinary to his Majesty. 8vo. Is. 6d. ftitched. Johnfon. London, 1787.

SAILING has been for many ages recommended in the

cure of confumptions. But, from the combination of circumstances which accompany it, various conjectures have been formed with refpect to the true caufe of the beneficial effects afcribed to this celebrated remedy. Some phyficians, as Dr. Smith obferves, have imputed them to the falubrity of the fea air, and to the change of air; others fuppofe a virtue to be communicated from the tar and rofin of the hip; the peculiarity of the exercise likewife has not escaped attention; whilft many have imagined that the fole advan tage of failing arofe from the fickness and vomiting, which the motion of a ship at fea ufually occafions.

Dr.

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Dr. Smyth examines these different opinions briefly, and in a fatisfactory manner. He particularly mentions thofe of Dr. Gilchrift and Dr. Ruffel, both of whom were great advocates for the falubrity of fea-air; and the latter alio for that of fea-water. To the authority of these writers Dr. Smyth opposes firft his own experience, declaring that, after having refided nine fummers on the fea-coaft, he is perfuaded, from obfervation, that the fea-air is conftantly prejudicial to the hectic and confumptive, and even to those who have any tendency to thefe complaints. In confirmation of this remark, he produces the evidence of Dr. Knox, who has practifed for many years at Scarborough; and of Sir Lucas Pepys, who has obferved fimilar effects of the feaair at Brighthelmstone; with the additional testimony of a foreign phyfician, Dr. Ciciri, of Milan, who has informed our author that the prefent practice of the Italian physicians (a practice which he fuppofes to be founded on experience) is, to remove confumptive patients from the fea-coaft to the interior parts of the country. The island of Madeira, it is likewife obferved, notwithstanding its temperate latitude, and the great equality of its climate, is very unfavourable to perfons whofe lungs are materially injured,

The teftimony adduced by our author on this fubject is doubtless refpectable, but perhaps not entirely decifive. It is well known that, in maritime fituations, the air which is breathed by the inhabitants is not always that of the fea. The nature of the air, in fuch places, depends upon the course of the winds. At Scarborough, the atmosphere can hardly be confidered as fea-air, unlefs when the wind blows from an easterly point; and, in that cafe, there feems to be fufficient caule for the exacerbation of phthifical complaints, without supposing any noxious influence in the feaair. Margate, where Dr. Smyth himself appears to have collected his experience, is much in the fame predicament. And with regard to Brighthelmftone, the scene of Sir Lucas Pepys's obfervations, the air from the fea is brought only by a foutherly wind, which, from the vapours that ufually attend it, cannot be confidered as falubrious. The local fituations mentioned afford fuch doubtful or ambiguous inferences, that we wish our author had confirmed his opinion refpecting the falubrity of fea-air to confumptive patients by fimilar obfervations made at other places on the coaft, par ticularly the western. Until fuch confirmation be obtained, we queftion whether the hypothefis is fupported by fuch a degree of evidence as is fufficient to invalidate the combined

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authority both of ancient and modern writers, in favour of a different opinion; though we entirely agree with our author," that the opinions, both of ancients and moderns, "on this fubject, have been rather the offspring of theory "or fashion than the refult of any fixed principle, or accurate procefs of reafoning."

It feems highly probable, as our author fufpects, that the effect of failing has been confounded with that of fea-air; and fo far as this affertion can be evinced from a single inftance, the following cafe is extremely appofite to the purpose.

A young lady was fent to Margate, with fymptoms of a pulmonary phthyfis, which foon made fo rapid a progrefs as to leave no doubt of the nature of the diftemper. I advifed her parents, by whom I was confulted, to quit the place, and to go with their daughter to fome inland and warmer fituation; but, finding that my advice could not be immediately complied with, I requested, that, while fhe remained at Margate, fhe fhould, when the weather was favourable, fail for fome hours every morning. The immediate benefit the received by doing fo, was truly furprifing; for frequently after fhe had paffed a very refflefs night, and when weak and low from the colliquative morning fweating, the boat had fcarcely got out of the harbour before her ftrength and fpirits revived; her cough, at other times conftant and troublesome, entirely left her, and the remained free from it whilft fhe continued on board; but no fooner was fhe on fhore, than this, as well as the other fymptoms, again returned. The failing never caused fickness or vomiting; whether the pulse was affected by it or not, I cannot take upon me to fay; for, not fufpecting at the time that this could poffibly happen, I did not think of examining it.'

The author, fatisfied that the advantage derived from failing ought not to be ascribed to any falubrity of the feaair, proceeds to examine the operation of the other caufes affigned; and we think that he very clearly refutes the whole of thefe allegations, at the fame time that he esta blishes a new, but obvious diftinction between motion and exercife. The former of thefe, as totally independent of any mufcular exertion, is only implied in failing and fwinging, to which the author adds aëroftation. His obfervations on the peculiar effects of motion, contrafted with exercise, are worthy of attention; and therefore we shall lay them before our readers.

By motion, when contrafted with exercife, we mean motion not neceffarily accompanied with any agitation, or fuccuffion of the body, and which is totally independent of any muscular exertion. The two most obvious examples of this are failing and fwinging, to which, poffibly, a third may be added, viz. aëroftation; this being likewise a method of conveying an animal with great velocity through the atmo

sphere,

fphere, without the smallest exertion of its own powers, or even confcioufnefs of motion; but, as the expence and hazard attending fuch experiments preclude them from being applicable to the purposes of medicine, or of common life, they must always remain more a matter of curiofity than of ufe. I fhall therefore confine myself, in the following obfervations, to failing and fwinging, two kinds of motion with whofe effects we are better acquainted, and between which a very strict analogy will be found. Moft perfons unaccustomed to failing are at firft affected with giddinefs, ficknefs, and vomiting, fymptoms evidently the direct and immediate confequence of the unusual motion, and which, generally fpeaking, are fevere in proportion to the delicacy and irritability of the individual. But if motion can thus occafion fuch extraordinary effects on the human frame, is it not reasonable to fuppofe that it may likewife be the caufe of others, which, being lefs remarkable, have been lefs attended to? I have already given one example in fupport of this opinion, where the motion of failing had an immediate effect in removing, or at leaft in fufpending, the action of coughing. But the effect of motion is not confined to the lungs; the heart alfo feels its influence, as is evident from the frequency of the pulfe being fometimes leffened by it. Dr. Gilchrift, without fufpecting the cause, has recorded a remarkable inftance of this, which was communicated to him by a phyfician, who travelled with a young nobleman ill of a pulmonary confumption. It was remarked that the pulfe of the patient, after he had been a few days at fea, during a fhort voyage from Marseilles to Malta, was reduced in frequency from 90 or 100 to 80. But to convince even the most sceptical that the irritation which excites coughing may be removed, and the pulfe leffened in frequency, by motion alone, it must furely be thought fufficient evidence if I fhew that these effects are produced not only by failing, but alfo by fwinging, the motion of which is extremely fimilar to that of failing, though resembling it in no other particular.'

The intimation contained in this extract, relative to the beneficial effects of fwinging, is afterwards confirmed by fourteen cafes of confumptive or hectic patients, admitted at the Middlefex-Hofpital during the fummer of the year 1785. It appears, in general, that the motion of swinging reduces the frequency of the pulfe, leffens febrile heat, fufpends or prevents coughing, and promotes expectoration. From the analogy, therefore, between the motion and the fedative effects of swinging and failing, Dr. Smyth infers complete explanation of the benefit arifing from fea voyages in the cure of pulmonary complaints and hectic fever; and he concludes with the following comparison of their relative advantages,

It is evident, at firft fight, that failing has the fuperiority over fwinging in this particular, that the motion is continued night and day, both when we fleep and when we wake; and that, befides this permanency of motion, a change of climate may be obtained; and thus

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the patient, whilst he is pursuing one mode of relief, may obtain another, perhaps no lefs neceffary to him. On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that fwinging has fome advantages over failing. It is a remedy within the reach of every one, rich or poor. The man, who, like the oak, is tied down to the foil which gave him birth, may as easily obtain it as he who can change his fituation at pleasure, and become a citizen' of any country. Neither is fwinging attended with the risk or inconvenience of fea voyages; no difficulty in procuring proper nourishment for the fick, no violent vomiting to combat; nor is the patient exposed to the noxious effects of fea-air, nor to the winter's cold, he can fwing in his bed-chamber if neceffary, although the open air is, on many accounts, to be preferred. This mode of relief alfo may be employed at any period of the difeafe, or in any degree of weakness."

From the cafes related by Dr. Smyth, it appears that the motion of fwinging had an immediate and uniform effect in abating the cough; but there is reason to question whether it was the cause of recovery in all the patients. The reco very mentioned in the third cafe is particularly liable to fuch a doubt. We hope, however, that the subject will be farther profecuted, and fome determinate rules afcertained with refpect to the most beneficial application, in point of time, of this fpecies of remedy,

ART, VI. Letters to the Jews; inviting them to an amicable Difcuffion of the Evidences of Christianity. By Jofeph Priestley, LL.D. F.R.S. Ac. Imp. Petrop. R. Paris. Holm. Taurin. Aurel. Med. Paris. Harlem. Cantab. Americ. et Philad. So- › cius. 8vo. 1s. ftitched. Birmingham printed. Johnfon, London. 1786.

THERE are latent principles that govern the opinions as

well as the actions of men, which, though lifcovered by their neighbours, are frequently unknown to themfelves. The diffenters from the Church of England, partly from principle, and perhaps more from antipathy, difcover an inclination to deviate as far as poffible from the established religion of their country. The ornaments, the revenues, the importance, and the dignity of the church, are the fplendida peccata. that damn it in the eyes of many diffenters: their liberality and philofophy, notwithstanding many illuftrious exceptions, are not fo refined or rational as they are apt to imagine; and, in many inftances, refemble the pretended pa

triotism