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His royal breast was taught to prove
The whole thermometer of love.
And now 'twas ogling, trembling, fighing,
The voice in fpeechlefs murmurs dying;
Lock'd hands unto each other growing;
The anguish of the bofom fhowing
By looks that fpeak, and eyes that burn,
Impatient of a fond return:

In short, in each occafion feizing
To practice ev'ry art of pleafing
Which love ingenious could invent,
A day, a live-long day was fpent.
The bus'nefs which their fubjects mince
At once is fwallow'd by a prince,
Who falls in love o'r head and ears
No fooner than the fair appears,
Made of combuftibles to catch
At fight of beauty, like a match."

An Inquiry how to prevent the Small Pox. By John Haygarth, M. B. F. R. S. 8vo. 8vo. 35. Johnson.

THIS

'HIS Inquiry is conducted with great judgment, and the rules of prevention are dictated by an intimate acquaintance with the fubject. In fome refpects it has confirmed our opinion where we once doubted; and, in others, we are not afhamed to own, that it has corrected our mistakes. Yet there is one view of the queftion, which we wish ftill to fuggeft, for farther examination. In many inftances, the fmall pox appear without spreading, and are styled sporadic, though the difeafe has not for fome years been epidemic. We cannot reafonably fuppofe that, at these times, mothers are more frict, or children mere cautious: it must depend either on the air not being capable of conveying the infection, or the body not being fufceptible of it. The former reafon is fatisfactorily obviated, by the very careful observations of our author, fince he has fhewn that, except when the wind blows directly from the patient to the perfon liable to the infection, the contagion ceafes at a very little distance. Yet this propofition must be in fome degree limited by the ftate of the body; and, in an epidemic fmall pox, the contagion must be supposed generally diffused, though in fuch a state as to be often harmless, unless other occafional caufes concur. In other fevers, any cause of debility, any obftruction of perspiration, a common cold, or a furfeit, will bring on a fever of the peculiar type which diftinguishes the conftitution. In these cafes then, the miafma must be generally prefent; and we think that we have feen

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the fmall-pox occur in the fame manner. But we will allow the extreme difficulty and uncertainty of fuch obfervations ; at the fame time it must be evident, from the very rapid progrefs of the difeafe, that fomewhat, decidedly in the conftitution itself, muft contribute to render the poifon efficacious, in the most diluted state. We mention this view of the subject with great diffidence; fince by the diligence of the infpectors at Chester, its progrefs has been very generally traced by actual infection; but this or fome other reason is ftill wanting to explain the different rapidity with which the disease frequently spreads.

We shall extract a few of the propofitions which are remarkable for their utility, or which we think clearly and fatisfactorily demonftrated;

Sect. 5. The period between infection and the commencement of the variolous fever is generally from the 6th to the 14th day inclufive, after inoculation: and this period is not much longer in the natural fmall-pox.'

This propofition is juft, and well fupported. It explains too the reafon why infection, received at the fame time with inoculation, does little injury; but it is most precisely true, when the matter inferted is in a fluid ftate,

• Sect. 6. Perfons liable to the fmall-pox, and infected by breathing the air, impregnated with yariolous miafms: either (I) very near a patient in the diftemper, from about the time that the eruption has appeared, 'till the laft fcab is dropt off the body, or (II) very near the variolous poifon, in a recent ftate, or (III) that has been clofe fhut up, ever fince it was

recent.'

Sect. 7. Clothes, furniture, food, &c. expofed to the variolous miasms, never, or very rarely, become infectious.” Though the laft pofition is well fupported, yet, as the danger is often fo great, it fhould not occafion neglect.

Sect. 8. The air is rendered infectious, but to a little diftance from the variolous poifon.'

We must fubjoin a curious fact from the commentary.

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Thefe obfervations may be deemed too general to determine, with fufficient exactness, to what diftance from the poifon the air is rendered peftilential. But, as the following fact will afcertain, with fome precifion, in certain circumstances, the limit where the variolous poifon begins and ceafes to be infectious, in the open air, I fhall endeavour minutely to defcribe every particular that could be fuppofed to influence this effect. A gentleman's family, of whom eight were children, all liable to the small-pox, became inhabitants of Chester, in November 1777, having always till then lived in the country,

On

On the 8th of that month, in the afternoon, the weather being showery, cloudy, but not windy, and of a moderate temperature for the feafon, the eldeft, an intelligent young lady (miss. Archer, fince married to Roger Comberbach, Efq.) from whom I had this information, and three of her brothers, went out, for the first time after their arrival, to view the town. Afcending the walls at the northgate, they turned weftward, and foon met a child of about a year old, in the fmall-pox. The puftules were pretty numerous on the face; fome appeared fresh and full of matter, others were fcabbed A nurfe had the child on her left arm, paffed on the north fide, between them and the city wall, fo that its face was toward the young lady and brothers. The clothes of neither nurfe nor child feemed dirty. The breadth of the path is a yard and a quarter, between the wall of a building on the fouth fide two yards and a half high, and the city wall, on the north fide, whofe top is one yard and a quarter higher than the path, and fix yards above the ground. The young lady's face was nearly on a level with the child's; her brothers were rather lower. She is certain that the paffed within half a yard of the child, and doubts whether he was not within half that distance of it. Her brothers, the believes, were all as near it. The narrowness of the path between the two walls renders this opinion very probable. They all walked exactly, or nearly, in the fame line with the child, both before and after paffing it. Both parties walked uniformly forward in oppofite directions, at a moderate rate, except one of the brothers, who expreffed a curiofity to look at the fmall-pox patient, ftopped a little moment when oppofite to it, and about a minute when fome yards paft each other. The young lady is certain that he did not touch, but thinks that he approached nearer the child than herself or any of the reft. This brother was the only one of the party who was infected. He was feized with the eruptive fever on the 15th of November, that is, on the tenth day after the interview; yet all the other three were fufceptible of the distemper, being infected by him. They were attacked on the 1ft, 2d, and 3d of December; that is, on the 24th, 25th, and 26th day after meeting the child; a longer period than has ever been fuppofed to precede the fever. Another brother was feized November 25th, and another fifter, December 2d, who had not been on the walls. Though the three who met the fmall-pox patient, paffed fo near it, yet it is highly probable that none of them, and to a much greater degree, feveral thoufands to one, that all were not exposed to the infection. Few medical conclufions can be drawn with fuch a degree of probability.'

We need not copy the methods which were taken to prevent the contagion, or the tranfactions of the Society. Those who wish to follow their example will undoubtedly refer to the work itfelf. We can only add our entire approbation of the

plan,

plan, and a wish to fee it more generally adopted, and more liberally fupported.

In the Appendix is a curious letter from Dr. Benjamin Waterhoufe, of Rhode-Ifland, defcribing the means by which they have prevented the fmall-pox from ever becoming epidemic in the island.-Though the object is meritorious, the method is certainly objectionable: it has had, however, fo much fuccefs, as to deferve attention in its more important outlines.

Tranfactions of the Society, inftituted at London, for Encourage ment of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. Vol. III. 8vo. 4s. in Boards.

THE

Cadell.

HE progrefs of the Society's labours is an additional proof of the strength of their judgment, and the propri ety of their views. The premiums are directed to important objects, and the feveral defigns are purfued with steadiness and perfeverance.

The first fubject, as ufual, is that of agriculture; and we, with pleasure, perceive the progrefs of plantations; but we wifh that the ufeful oak was more often chofen to enrich the forest with its foliage, and the nation in future with its timber: its extenfive employment requires immense supplies. We have a fhort account of dibbling or dropping wheat; a mode of fowing practifed in Norfolk. But, as a premium has been offered, in order to obtain a more exact account of its utility, when compared with broad-caft and drilling, we shall not enlarge on it. The Howard or clustered potatoe is the next object; but the experiments are probably not fo favourable as we may expect to find them in better foils; yet they are sufficiently fo, to induce us to continue the cultivation. On this fubject we are promifed fome farther fatisfaction.

In the clafs of polite arts are inferted very particular defcriptions of the pictures, painted by Mr. Barry, for the great room of the Society. Thefe are now very generally known.

In the year 1760, premiums were offered for cloth made from the ftalks of hops; but no proper claims have been made, As this defect was fupposed to be owing to the want of fome farther information, a fhort account is now published of what has been already done in this way. For the fame reason we fhall transcribe it. The obfervations chiefly to be attended to in this experiment are,

First, That the faid fpecimens (viz. thofe left with the regifter of the Society) are fufficient to evince that hop-binds will afford a material for making cloth.

Se

• Secondly, That the fpecies of cloth intended to be made from the material produced, would very well anfwer the purpofe of fine facking, and coarse bagging for hops.

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Thirdly, that the fole caufe of my not producing a ftronger material, and a fufficient quantity to have entitled me to the premium proposed, was, that the material was too long immerfed under water, and its texture was thereby deftroyed.

Fourthly, That fuch binds as I took occafionally from the large quantity I had put to foak, at the end of about fix weeks. or two months, afforded filaments fufficiently fine and strong, for any purpose,

6

Fifthly, That the time neceffary to reduce the inner fubftance of the hop-binds to a fitness for use, by maceration, will abfolutely decay the outer coat, as appears from those which have continued under water above a year.'

In mechanics, the floating-light, for the prefervation of failors falling overboard in the night, at fea; the gun-harpoon (formerly mentioned, of whofe utility we have additional evidence); a new and very convenient crane, by Mr. Braithwait; a new invented secret escutcheon, and fome imThese we canprovements on common locks, are defcribed. not examine without the affiftance of the plates; but they appear generally useful. We shall tranfcribe, however, an account of the properties of the escutcheon.

The marquis of Worcester, in his Century of Inventions, N° 72, after having fpoken of three kinds of locks invented by him, fays an efcutcheon to be placed before any of these locks with thefe properties.

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"The owner, though a woman, may, with her delicate hand, vary the ways of coming to open the lock, ten millions of times beyond the knowledge of the smith that made it, or of me who invented it."

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Many attempts have been made to form a machine equal in its properties to the description here given, and from thence it is probable, arofe the kind of padlock which have been long made in this country in great numbers, which having feveral letters on different rings, can only be opened when a certain fet of those letters are arranged in one order, but this was in no degree equal to the end propofed, for befides the workman who made it being at all times informed of the pofition the letters must be in, and confequently enabled to open it; the letters and rings admitting of no variation of place, at the will of the owner, referving at the fame time a power of opening the locks, whenever the proper arrangement became

known,

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