ART. XII. A practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Stomach, and of Digestion; including the History and Treatment of those Affections of the Liver and Digestive Organs, which occur in Persons who return from the East or West Indies; with Observations on various Medicines, and particularly on the improper Use of Emetics. By A.D. Stone, M D. 8vo. pp. 300. 6s. Boards. Cadell and Davies. 18c6.

HE author of this work has divided it into three parts,

treating of physiology and anatomy, history of diseases of the stomach, and treatment of diseases. In the section on the anatomy of the stomach, we have some observations on the number of coats which this organ possesses; which, he thinks, ought to be r. duced to one only, viz. the vill us, the peritoneal being no more than the common covering of all the abdominal viscera, and the muscular fibres not existing in a sufficiently compact state to intitle them to the appellation of a coat. Dr. Stone also contends that the villous, or, as he considers it, the proper coat of the st mach is not composed of cellular mem. brane, b cause it does not possess any elasticity, a property which he deems essential to this substance. The controversy is entirely verbal, depending on the definition which is assigned to cellular membrane: but we must acknowlege that it appears to us more natural to class all the membranous parts under the same title, as they exactly agree in their chemical nature, and are essentially different from any other parts of the body.

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Dr. Stone's physiological remarks are devoted to the consideration of the process of digestion, and the nature of the bile: but on this subject his ideas appear to us ill-defined and obHe seems to imagine that the first step in the process of digestion consists in the action of an acid, with which the aliment meets in the stomach, and that the process is completed by the suda which exists in the bile. In illustration of this hypothesis, some experiments on milk are related; which we regard as both uninteresting in the detail, and of little value as affording any foundation for physiological reasoning. We confess that we have seldom seen a more trifling or abortive attempt at experimental investigation.

An account of the different diseases to which the stomach is liable occupies the second part of the work. The first complaint mentioned is acidity, which the author supposes to be produced by the alkaline matter in the bile not existing in sufficient quantity to neutralize the acid that is formed in the stomach. We have a minute account of the morbid symptoms produced by repletion, a disorder that frequently prevails among persons of a studious turn; and likewise among that set of artists who are obliged, from the nature of their employment, to bear on

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the chest or stomach, as is particularly the case with shoemakers. A disease much resembling apoplexy, and which is generally considered as such, is occasionally produced by repletion: but Dr. S. imagines that it is essentially different from this complaint, and that the brain is only symptomatically affected. A di gnosis, it is said, may be formed from the appearance of the eyes: if the pupils contract.equally, and especially if there be no appearance of palsy on either side of the body, we may conclude that the stomach alone requires attention. This is an important practical observation.

Under the head of poisons, the author offers some remarks on digitalis, a medicine agai: st which he appears to entertain the most decided prejudice. Although he admits that it increases the flow of urine, and carries off dropsical swellings, yet he adds:

It unquestionably appears from reasoning that a medicine, of which the direct effect is to lessen the muscular action of the arterial system, is contra-indicated in dropsy; and for myself, I can truly affirm that, by the exhibition of other medicines, particularly by the various preparations of squill, by oxymel Colchici, and by the combination of these with Mercury, i have exceeded my most sanguine expectations, and have sten dropsical patients restored to health, which in several instances has been permanent, even where danger was imminent. It has also occurred to my observation, that few of those, who have taken digitalis freely, have survived a twelvemonth."

We feel ourselves under the necessity of informing the author that no medical reasoning, however plausible, deserves the least attention, which is contrary to experience; and that such vague and sweeping remarks, as those quoted above, pass for nothing in the mind of the accurate inquirer after truth.

We do not observe any thing particularly valuable in the chapter on the state of the stomach after a residence in hot climates, or that which is produced by hard drinking. The disease called pyrosis seems to be confounded with cardialgia by Dr. Stone, when he says that it is particularly troublesome to pregnant woman; and his opinion, that in this case it chiefly depends on the torpor induced on the abdominal viscera by the increased bulk of the uterus, is a very unsatisfactory explanation..

The chapter on hypochondriasis contains some good remarks on this most distressing malady, the symptoms of which are so various as almost to baffle any attempt at description. Dr. Stone observes that those which are the most constant and remarkable are the continued acidity of stomach, with affection of the head, and constipation.' At the same time, he says that melancholia may in a great measure depend upon original affec

tion of the viscera concerned in digestion, that it may exist with none or little affection of these viscera, and sometimes that it may produce such affection.'

The treatment of the diseases of the stomach is separated from the account of the symptoms, and forms the third part of the work; an arrangement which, we think, is on every account objectionable. Dr. Stone commences by a section on emetics; a species of remedy which he is of opinion has been at all times employed much too frequently and indiscrimi nately. In this general sentiment we are disposed to coincide; and it derives a considerable degree of probability from the circumstance that the administration of emetics has certainly become less frequent in proportion to the improvement in medical science. We suspect, however, that the author exceedingly magnifies the evils arising from the use of emetics; and we attribute the circumstance of their being less frequently employed, in modern practice, to their being deemed useless rather than mischievous. Any mechanical injury to the structure or organization of the stomach, an effect which Dr. Stone appears to consider as not unfrequently produced by emetics, we cannot but regard as a very rare occurrence. An equally singular antipathy is manifested in the chapter on the treatment of the stomach and abdominal viscera after residence in hot climates; in which he descants, at some length, on the dangerous properties of castor oil. He derives his objection to the use of this remedy from the circumstance that its purgative quality resides, not in the oil itself, but in an acrid substance contained in the nut; which, according to the method employed in the extraction of the oil, may exist in it in a greater or less proportion. The fact mentioned by Dr. S. is admitted: but, in reply, we may allege a most extensive range of experience in favor of the remedy, perhaps as extensive as that of any other article in the materia medica; from which we learn that these fancied evils do not exist.

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In the treatment of those complaints of the stomach which are consequent on a residence in hot climates, the author seems to consider the exhibition of mercury as, in all cases, indispensible; probably from an idea that the liver is always more or less affected; and he judges it to be equally proper, both when there is an excessive secretion of bile, and when there is a deficiency of this fluid. Purgatives are evidently indicated, but they require considerable caution in their administration, and must be frequently varied, according to the effect which they produce on the system, and to any peculiarity in the constitu tion; the cure is to be completed by tonics and bitters. Dr. Stone also thinks that mercury is always proper in that disease

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of the digestive organs which is produced by hard drinking. From the comparatively small size of the hepatic artery, he supposes that the liver must partake less in the general affection of the system when under the influence of mercury, than most other parts of the body; and hence he infers that the medicine should be liberally applied. We do not altogether see the force of this reasoning, and we apprehend that experience is frequently unfavorable to Dr. Stone's speculations. We believe that the liver is not uniformly schirrous in this complaint; and that, where it is in an indurated state, other affections are sometimes combined with it, which render the employment of mercury a hazardous, if not fatal expedient.

On the whole, although we are willing to allow that Dr. Stone's publication is not devoid of merit, we are obliged to report that its defects counterbalance its excellences. The principal object that ought to be held in view, in a work treating of the diseases of the stomach and neighbouring viscera, is the establishment of accurate diagnoses between affections, which, although considerably similar in their symptoms, sometimes depend on different causes, and even require opposite modes of treatment. For this nicety of discrimination, however, we look in vain in the work before us; and, in its stead, we find crude pathological speculations, unsupported by any fair deduction from the laws of the animal economy, and inconsiderate censures passed on particular medicines and modes of practice, derived from some hasty and unfounded hypotheses.

ART. XIII. A Speech on the Character of the Right Hon. William Pill, delivered in Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge, Dec. 17, 1806; being Comemoration Day. By William Edward Pretyman Tomline. Second Edition. 4to. pp. 23. 2s. 6d. Cadell and Davies. 1806.

A T Rome, it is said, there is a fixed period within which the Beatitude is never conferred. The obvious design of this rule is to prevent the Sacred College from falling into . the disgrace of mistaking a pretender for a real saint, and of confounding ingenious tricks with genuine miracles. We had understood that Academic panegyric was subject to a similar regulation, in the distinguished establishment in which the eulogium before us was pronounced. How it happened, in the present instance, to be disregarded, is to us wholly unknown but if this usage might in any case yield to circumstances, it may be contended that no occasion could occur in which a departure from it would be more proper; since it does

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not admit of a question that Cambridge is under eminent obligations to the personage here celebrated; or that her sons shared largely in the patronage of which he was long the sole dispenser. He liberally rewarded those who were so fortunate as to secure his favour: but they were personal and political services which he considered, and of the ample returns which he made for slight exertions in this department, the elevation of the reverend Head, to whom this Discourse is dedicated, furnishes a memorable instance.

If, however, the favours heaped by Mr. Pitt on the University indicated little of disinterestedness, it must equally perhaps be admitted that the devotion which she paid in return origi nated from motives in no degree more exalted. To the patriotism and talents which rendered his unpreferred youth distinguishing, she scornfully refused her eligits: but when the Prime Minister became her suitor, her coyness disappeared, she readily surrendered herself to his wishes, and at his request allowed his friend to share in her favours. This connection was the dictate of prudence rather than the result of affection; but the weoer, though juvenile, was discreet; and though there were little of real love on either side, the appearances and demonstrations of it were kept up unabated to the last. It was not until her widowhood, that the sensibility of alma mater was displayed in all its fervour: but in her weeds the ace cents of her sorrow, and the transports of her grief, attracted notice from every corner of the empire. A tribute was decreed to her late favourite which far surpassed all that she had ever done in honor of the most pious of her founders, or the most illustrious of her scientific and lettered sons a sum large enough to endow a lucrative professorship was raised; and she called on a foreign region to furnish an artist, whose genius was alone deemed adequate to commemotate the long and bappy union between the illustrious parties.

To the detailed notice which we propose to take of this speech, we are induced by a persuasion that it has undergone a careful and minute revi al from a learned and accomplished prelate; who, we rest assured, neither permitted any trait to remain in this sketch of which he disapproved, nor emitted to supply any which he deemed necessary to complete the design who was intimately connected with the original of the portrait; and to whom the youthful artist is most closely bound by the nearest hereditary ties.-While, however, academic rumour and our own clear convictions restrain us from assigning all the credit of this laboured production to Mr.

* Dr. Mansell, Master of Trinity College.