it has been advised to gargle the mouth previously with oif; but our author, very properly, thinks that cupping, as attended with no hazard to the operator, fhould be fubftituted in its room. He then advifes, upon the authority of former writers, the cutting out a piece round the part wounded; making the incifion pretty deep, to prevent any accident from leaving any of the animal's faliva behind. The me thod of cauterizing the part afterwards with a hot iron is another of the falutary expedients.

We fhall lay before our readers this author's account of the remedies which have been of late years the most cele brated for the bite of a mad dog; and first, of the Ormskirk medicine.

F

In the year 1777 Dr. Heysham, then a candidate for a degree, who wrote his inaugural differtation on rabies canina, instituted five experiments in order to find out its component parts. Thefe were made with the addition of water, the nitrous and vitriolic acids. They were repeated by Dr. Black, profeffor of chymistry, with the fame refult; and confequently there can remain little room for fufpicion of their accuracy. From thefe it appeared that the bafis of the medicine was chalk; and, relying on its powers, a theory was hazarded relative to the nature of the poifon of the rabid animal, which it is not our bufinefs here to examine.

In a word, from the analysis of this eminent profeffor, and his ingenious pupil, the whole compofition appears to be as follows, viz. half an ounce of powdered chalk; ten grains of alum; three drachms of Armenian bole; one drachm of the powder of elecampane root; and fix drops of oil of anife. Such is the medicine on which the public have placed fuch high hopes and implicit confidence!

I need not tell my medical readers, if any of them should think thefe pages worth a perufal, that chalk is a mere abforbent; that alum is an aftringent; that Armenian bole likewife poffeffes a degree, though a fmall one, of aftringency; and that the root of elecampane is confidered as fuch an inactive, infignificant fubftance, that our reformed pharmacopoeias have long ago rejected it from the number of the articles of the materia medica; and, as to the addition of a few drops of oil of anife, they can be of no other ufe than to warm the medicine a little, and give it a more grateful flavour.

Next, in order of celebrity, comes the Tonquin medicine; a noftrum not less noted fome time ago, and even now exhibited, than this one. What then fhall we fay of it?-very little more than of the former. We owe it to the well-meant, though mistaken, endeavours of Sir George Cobb, who, near forty years ago, brought it from Tonquin, whence it derives its name, as of ineftimable value, and as conftantly infallible among the Chinese; but experience, in many inftances, fhews the contrary with us, and proves its inefficacy.

Let us now examine its compofition; and we fhall find it to be only twenty-four grains of native, and as many of factitious, cinnabar; with fixteen grains of mufk, powdered, and mixed together. Few

com

comments farther, we apprehend, are neceffary on the fubject. The bare mention of the articles feems enough. We may, however, take notice of what feveral eminent chymifts have done before us, that native and factitious cinnabar are one and the fame thing; and we may alfo add, with fome of thefe, that all the cinnabars are inert, and pofsess no active powers whatever.

Native cinnabar is the ore of mercury, being a compound of ful phur with this metallic fubftance. And is there a person of the leaft chymical knowledge, or experience in its exhibition, and obferv. ·ation of its effects, that does not know this, and that fulphur has the peculiar property of rendering mercury inert?

The other ingredient, viz. mufk, is an antifpafmodic. So far it may feem ufeful in a disease, fuch as the hydrophobia, where fo violent spasms take place in the throat; but it has not sufficient power to oppofe and remove the malady. Yet we muft own that it appears a better medicine than the Ormskirk, fince it has at least a finall part of one active ingredient in it.

• With refpect to Dr. Mead's famous powder, I fhall only mention that it was a compofition of afh-coloured ground liverwort (lichen cinereus terreftris) and black pepper; the former the ingredient which he depended on, and to which the virtues of the powder were attributed. Materia medica writers tell us this lichen is a warm diuretic, but, from the tafte, little or no warmth can be discovered in it; and it is a general rule, which, we believe, will be found to hold good in the vegetable kingdom, that, where little or no fenfible qualities are discoverable, little or no virtues for the removal of diseases shall be found to exist.

In the Tranfactions of the Royal Society, No. 237, we find a Mr. Dampier communicating to the members fome remarkable effects that had been attributed to a vegetable fubftance, which was called Jew's-ear, in the disease we are now confidering. In the year 1721 a powder, compofed and named as above, was inferted into the London Pharmacopoeia, at the defire of an eminent phyfician, who put great confidence in its virtues.

In 1745 a new edition of a treatise relative to the mechanical account of poifons was laid before the public. Here the fame medicine and method of cure is recommended, viz. V. Section, and the cold bath, which was to be ufed every morning fafting for one month, in addition to the powder; and on the pompous authority of its fuccefs in thirty years practice: but an addition of nearly forty years more proves, beyond a doubt, its infignificancy. It is only to be obferved farther, that this did not escape the penetration of Boerhaave, who ranks this among thofe infignificant trifles that muft deceive whoever place their truft in them. To collect and relate the cafes wherein this has failed, is needlefs; they are many; and the public have at length configned it to merited neglect.'

To these he subjoins the cold bath and mercury, but with no better opinion of their effects than of the remedies abovementioned. The warm bath, with antifpafmodics internally, and applied likewife externally to the throat, are ENG. REV. Vol. IX. April 1787.

U

what

Y

what have been found to prove moft fuccefsful in affuaging the fymptoms of the hydrophobia. The opinion, which had long prevailed, of the utility of worming dogs, is treated by the author at confiderable length, and has already been fufficiently refuted. He concludes with the hiftory of some cafes of the hydrophobia, recited by different writers.

As a popular treatife on the bite of a mad dog, this work may prove interefting and ufeful to the general clafs of readers; but it can afford little new information to the faculty. Dr. Hamilton, however, we are fatisfied, is a faithful and judicious compiler.

MONTHLY

CATALOGUE.

[For APRIL 1787. ]

MISCELLANEOUS.

ART. 11. Eays on various Subjects, critical and moral; containing Remarks on Butler's Analogy, Grammatical Strictures, a Review of Locke's Philofophy, Letters on Wit and Humour. In which various Obfervations are made on the most celebrated modern Writers on the Subjects of Logic, Morals, and Metaphyfics, By William Belchier, Efq. Small 8vo. 2 vols. 5s. boards. Jamefon. London, 1787.

opinions in philofophy, and to have read with great attention the most eminent English writers on that subject. The work is in the form of a commentary rather than of effays, confiting almoft entirely of defultory obfervations, often frivolous, but generally evincing acute difcernment, and juftnefs of thought. Mr. Belchier afpires to the character of a grammarian as well as a philofophical commentator; and, in the former of these capacities, fome of his remarks are well founded; but his ftyle is disfigured with peculiar idioms, not reconcileable either with propriety or elegance. We obferve that the arrangement of the work is different from that announced in the title-page; but, as the subjects are diftinct from each other, the inverfion is productive of no inconvenience to the reader.

ART. 12. The Carse of Stirling; an Elegy. 4to. is. 6d. Creech, Edinburgh. 1785.

The view from Stirling-Cattle, which commands the windings of the Forth, through a rich cultivated plain, has been long and univerfally admired by every lover of nature. The carfe, or vale, of Stirling extends from east to weft, in a perfect level of between thirty

and

and forty miles in length, and about five in breadth. A prodigious chain of lofty mountains *, which, in fome parts, prefent a most fublime and picturefque appearance, bound the profpect to the north and north-west. That to the north-east is bounded by another chain of mountains, which fkirt the carfe of Stirling, and fhelter it from the most deftructive winds. An irregular range of fwelling hills terminates the view from the weft to the fouth-eaft, where the profpect is unbounded, and loft about Edinburgh, the caftle and hills of which, though diftant thirty-five miles, are fometimes diftinguished from Stirling. In the middle of this beautiful bottom, highly cultivated, and interspersed with villas, hamlets, woods, and ruins, the Forth winds his ferpentine course, and folaces the eye with one of the most varied and moft delightful profpects in nature.

The author of this poem, which is partly defcriptive and partly elegiac, is a native of the fcene which he defcribes. The following paffage gives no unfavourable idea of his talents for description and verfification.

• Or let me court Dunmiet's † airy height,
Where distant murmurs load the balmy gale;
Where bursts the landscape lengthening on the fight,
And Ceres, bounteous, gladdens all the vale..

'Tis here, fweet Forth! I've trac'd thy margins green,
While grazing herds adorn'd thy winding pride;
Here, mus'd, enrapt on ev'ry cultur'd scene,
With Contemplation fmiling by my fide.
Here have I liften'd to the rural glee.
That round thy meads in laughter wont to fly,
As various paftimes grac'd the hawthorn tree,
When Labour, paufing, flood delighted by.
Here too, when Evening, blufhing fweetly mild,
With mellow pencil chequers hill and farm,
Oft down the flope, o'erspread with flow'rets wild,
I caught each fottening found and fober charm.
The lowing kine, that wait the wifh'd-for hour,
Fondly reíponfive to the milkmaid's call:
The folemn grandeur of yon ancient tower ‡,
Where coos the stockdove round its mouldering wall;

The cottage fmoke that tops th' encircling wood;
The thrush melodious on fome neighbouring spray;
The failing veffel winding down the flood;
The clam'rous joy of childhood's sports and play;

*The Grampian hills.

t. One of the Ochil hills, that bound the Carfe of Stirling to the north east.

The remains of the abbey of Cambufkenneth, founded by David I. of Scotland, in the year 11472

The

The fhepherd piping home his bleating care,
That pour their tender plaints around the dale;
While many a pastoral, many a mournful air,
Chants the fresh damfel at her milking pail.'

There are many incorrect and inelegant phrafes in this poem, whick might be pardoned in the early effufions of a juvenile author, if they were compenfated by beauties of a higher clafs. But, a few verses excepted, a mournful mediocrity reigns throughout. The defcriptions are too general and vague; the fentiments are cold, and often affected; the verfification is often deficient in harmony, and fometimes in grammar; and the flanza of Gray's Elegy, which our author employs, is by no means fitted for fo long a work.

ART. 13. The Trial between William Fawkener, Efq. (Clerk of the Privy-Council) Plaintiff, and the Hon. John Townsend (Son of Lord Viscount Townsend) Defendant; for Criminal Converfation with the Plaintiff's Wife, (late Mifs Poyntz); before the Hon. Francis Buller, Efq. one of the Judges of his Majefly's Court of King's Bench, in Weft. minfer-Hall, on Wednesday the 12th of July, 1786; with fome inte refting Particulars relative to the Duel between the Plaintiff and the Defendant. 4to. Is. 6d. Smith. London, 1786.

A phenomenon that we have never feen before, and perhaps shall never fee again: a trial for crim. con. in which there does not appear one lewd idea, one double entendre, or even a fingle expreffion of indelicacy. What a difappointment to the young debauchee, and the old lecher, whose appetites are ever keen for trials of this nature !

A verdict was given for the plaintiff of five hundred pounds. We cannot help remarking the oppofition of Judge Buller's conduct, in the prefent inftance, to that of Lord Mansfield in the cafe of Lord Grofvenor and the Duke of Cumberland. The latter recommended to the jury to leave the rank and fortune of the duke out of the queftion, and to give damages as in a common cafe; the former confidered the jury as bound to take into their eftimate the poverty of the defendant, and to give their damages accordingly.

ART. 14. Amufements in High Life; or, Conjugal Infidelities in 1786. In a Series of confidential Letters between Ladies who have diftinguished themfelves by the Multiplicity and Singularity of their Amours. 12mo. 25. Lifter. London, 1786.

Caroline and Eliza, two demireps, ftrive to outvie each other in in. delicacy, indecency, and luft. Their conjugal infidelities have as much connection with the last century as with the year 1786; and have nothing in them that can afford entertainment to the most depraved mind. If the bagnio library of Mr. Lifter afford nothing higher feafoned, and more fuited to the tafte of his customers, than fuch infipid trash, their impure minds will fhortly be in a famished ftate, and this moft bonourable fource of revenue be perfectly dried up to him.

ART.