a dry rigid boot. A fimilar fluid, but in fmaller quantities, was collected in both thefe experiments. He then breathed into a bottle for the space of an hour, and collected from this experiment one hundred and twenty-four grains of a fimilar tranfparent infipid fluid, or at the rate of fix ounces, one dram, and thirty-fix grains in twenty-four hours; which, joined to feven pounds fix ounces, fuppofed to pass by the fkin, makes the quantity of perfpirable matter amount to eight pounds, one dram, and an half, in the twenty-four hours.

Neither the fluid collected from the fkin, nor by refpiration, made any alteration in the appearance of lime water, with which they were mixed. But lime water being put into a veffel, in which his naked foot had been confined for the space of an hour, became inftantly turbid. The fame effect was produced by breathing through lime water in a curved glass tube. Hence the author concludes, that fixed air, or rather, a matter capable of converting atmospheric into fixed air, paffes from the fkin and lungs. This matter, he thinks, may be phlogifton. I have a ftrong fufpicion, (he fays, p. 87) that it is phlogifton which converts the infpired atmospheric air partly into fixed air." But his ideas on the subject do not feem very clear, as in another place he intimates that " fixed air and phlogiston are at the bottom the fame." P. 81. The author has given an ingenious experiment to fhow, that "the ftimulus of the atmospheric air on the lungs has a very confiderable effect, in continuing, and frequently reproducing, the heart's motion." This has been lately publifhed in the Philofophical Tranfactions, and was noticed in our Review for January laft. A neat engraving is added to fhow the appearance of the pores, viewed through a microscope, and the feveral lamelle of the skin.

ART. 42. A fhort Account of the Origin, Symptoms, and most approved Method of treating the putrid bilions Fever, vulgarly called the black Vomit, which appeared in the City of Havanna, with the utmoft Vis lence, in the Months of June and July, and Part of August, 1794, as practifed by Mr. John Holliday, an English Surgeon, Refident in that City. 8vo. 23 pp. Is. Brander, Falmouth; Johníon, London.

1795.

The account of the fever is introduced by an advertisement from Mr. William Hunter, who obtained, he fays, the prefcriptions, and undoubted vouchers of the facts, at the Havannah, which are alfo further confirmed by a letter from David Orobio Furtado, who ftates, that the remedies had been ufed with fimilar fuccefs at Vera Cruz. The fever was brought, the author fays, to the ifland by a fhip from Philadelphia, and was the fame that, about the fame period, had made fuch dreadful ravages in that city. As the fymptoms, in the firft ftage, appeared to be highly inflammatory, he bled largely all the patients who first fell under his care, but, failing of fuccefs by this method, and even convinced at length that the fatality of the difcafe was, by this evacuation, increaled, and that emetics were equally mischievous, he abandoned the method he at firft followed, and had recourfe to purging. By thefe means he foon obtained a perfect remiffion of the fever. He next gave demulcents to allay the irritation occafioned by the cathartics; and then bark and fnake root, to complete the cure, and re

cruit the ftrength of the patients. But we will give the author's procefs more in detail. At whatever period of the disease he was called, he fays, he began by giving an ounce of Glauber's falt, with two ounces of inanna, diffolved in a pint of decoction of tamarinds. Two or three fuch potions as thefe were fometimes required to be given in the twenty-four hours. If they failed in procuring ftools, he affifted their operation by injecting fea water with oil of olives, as a glyfter. If this procefs was adopted at the commencement of the disease, it never failed producing the moft falutary effects in two or three days. When it was begun later, the fuccefs was le's certain. Having by thefe means obtained a remiffion of the fever, he gave the following:-White decoction, with cinchona and tamarinds (in what proportions he does not fay) a pound; nitre a drachm, crabs eyes two fcruples, fyrup of vio lets an ounce, mixed. This was given, divided into three portions, in the day, and was continued until the pulfe became foft, easy, and regular, which ufually happened in two or three days, when a strong decoction of bark and fnake-root was fubftituted in its place. This was perfifted in until the health of the patient was entirely re-establifhed. After ufing this procefs, the author fays, he scarce loft a fingle patient. More than two thoufand perfons, we fhould have obferved, had fallen a facrifice to the fever in the Havanna, within two months from its firft appearance in that place, and before, we fuppofe, the author had difcovered his fuccefsful mode of treating it. We cannot conclude our account of this pamphlet, without obferving that, fince the fubfiding of the malignant fever which had fpread fuch defolation, and occafioned fuch alarm in the Weft-Indies, and on the continent of America, three different methods have been recommended for the treatment of it, all of them, in the opinion of the refpective inventors, infallible, as no perfons died who fell under the care of thefe gentlemen, after they had discovered the true mode of treating the difcafe. But as the mortality had been very great, and the fever had raged a confiderable time, before thefe fortunate difco. veries were made, it is not unlikely that part, at leaft, of the fuccefs they afterwards experienced, might be attributed to fome alteration that had taken place in the fever, which had probably spent its virulence, and was become milder, before it was fubjected to thefe new trials. For it feems to us hardly probable, that a difeafe fo ferocious, and fo fpeedily fatal as this was, on its first attack, fhould prove fo uniformly and conftantly obedient to medicine, as it is defcribed to have been. We have, however, thought it our duty to lay the feveral methods before the public, with the eulogiums bestowed upon them, and fhall be very happy indeed if, upon a future irruption of the fever, any one of them fhall be found competent to the task of fubduing fo favage and destructive an enemy.

ART. 43. Medical Extracts. On the Nature of Health, with practical Obfervations on the Laws of the nervous and fibrous Syftems. By a Friend to Improvement. Vol. III. 8vo. 6s. Johnfon. 1795. This volume begins at p. 361, and ends at p. 556, confequently it contains one hundred and ninety-five pages, befides the table of contents, which is as ufual ample. The narrative of the voyage of Captain I i APRIL, 1796.

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. VII.

Bligh,

Bligh, which is given entire, occupies feventy-five pages. This is introduced to show the effect of long abftinence from food. We fhall lay before our readers the reafons the author affigns for inferting the whole of this narrative, rather than confining himself to fuch parts as relate to his fubject, and for making the table of contents fo voluminous.—“ OF HUNGER. There are three claffes of readers. The first clafs are thofe who wish to find in a work the union of the agreeable with the ufeful. For this clafs of readers the prefent work is attempted to be formed. The fecond clafs are thofe who feek only for what is profitable. This clafs may felect, from the table of contents, fuch information only as they with. The third, and more numerous clafs of readers, are thofe who devour, in a few hours, a whole work, and digeft no part of it; who read merely for the fake of faying they are not ignorant of the contents of any popular work. This clafs of readers will find their account anfwered by reading the abridged view of this book in the table of contents, which, to tell the truth, was not defigned for them, but to refresh the memory of the first clafs of readers. As the narrative of the voyage of Captain Bligh to the South Seas, for the purpose of conveying the bread-tree to the WeftIndies, and his fufferings and prefervation, are very interefting, and appertain to the fubject of this fection, it is prefumed that a detail of them will not be found unacceptable to that clafs of readers for whom this work is compiled. They are therefore recorded at greater length than the two latter claffes will approve of; but to thefe our apology is prefented in our analytical table of contents." Thefe reafons would have been admiffible, if the narrative had been published a century or two ago, or if it had been fearce and difficult to procure; but as neither of thefe circumftances are the fact, as it defcribes a recent tranfaction, has been only very lately published, and from the intereft the public took in the misfortunes of the Captain and his fellow fufferers, has been very generally read and circulated, we cannot think it juftifiable to fwell a pamphlet of one hundred and twenty pages to a book, for which the purchafers pay fix fhillings, by the infertion of a narrative which, being already known, can be no object of curiofity. The remaining pages are filled with extracts from different writers, principally of the prefent time, on the effects of light and darkness, heat and cold, fleep and watching, &c. upon animals, many of them ingenious and curious, but all of them well known to medical ftudents, who fhould rather, we think, be directed to the volumes from which they are taken, than encouraged in indolence by compilations of this kind.

ART. 44. Practical Obfervations on the Treatment of Strictures in the Urethra. By Everard Home, Efq. F. R. S. Surgeon to St. George's Hofpital. 8vo. 179 pp. 58. Nicol. 1795.

The author of this publication, the brother-in-law and pupil of the late J. Hunter, in recommending the application of the lunar cauftic to fome kinds of ftrictures, clearly and candidly attributes to that able practitioner the whole merit of inventing this mode of relief. The object of the book is evidently to remove unreasonable prejudices against

this practice, by a detail of cafes in which it proved fuccefsful, to explain its principles, the beft mode of applying the cauftic, and to diftinguith the cafes in which it is advifeable or not advifeable to employ it. It is divided into three chapters, the first of which treats of the nature of strictures, with fome mention of those which occur fometimes in the cefophagus: the fecond confiders the treatment of strictures; and the third the particular effects of the cauftic. It is an extraordinary fact. that the caustic, which might naturally be expected to produce a violent irritation, particularly on parts fo exquisitely deli cate as the membrane which lines the urethra, is found by no means to have that effect; and, in many cases, by removing the principal aufe of irritation, does actually remove it. In explaining this phænomenon, the obfervations of Mr. H. appear to us particularly judicious and valuable. "It is a general fact," he fays, " that wherever a flough is produced, there is lefs inflammation both in degree and extent, than from any other injury of the fame, or even a lefs degree of violence. This is well known to all military furgeons, who are daily feeing illuftrations of it; a bruife from a fpent ball fhall bring on a violent inflammation over the whole limb; but if the fame ball had paffed with velocity, and gone directly through the limb, it would have acted like a cauftic upon the furface to which it was applied; and deftroyed the parts to a certain depth, producing no more inflammation than is neceffary to feparate a flough. This inflammation would have been flower in coming on, and almost wholly confined to the neighbourhood of the ball's paffage. Is it then, we may afk, extraordinary that an analogous effect should take place in the membrane of the urethra, or is there more difficulty in accounting for it? The cauftic deadens the furface it injures, and takes from it the power of conveying irritation: the furrounding parts therefore have only that degree of irritation induced upon them, which is neceffary for the removal of the flough, which is very fuperficial, and extremely small." P. 99.

It should be mentioned, to the praise of Mr. H., that he appears by no means bigotted to the mode of practice he recommends, fo as to ap ply it indifcriminately; but very cautiously diftinguishes the circumftances in which it may be proper or otherwife, nor is inclined to refort to it, till the fimpler methods turn out ineffectual. His cafes are numerous, and fatisfactory. In his introduction, Mr. Home takes occafion to explain a part of the late Mr. Hunter's character, which has been generally mifunderstood. It has been fuppofed that he was addicted to theorizing, and fanciful fpeculations, which was far from being the cafe. His mind was exclufively fitted for the investigation of practi cal and experimental truth; he had even an averfion to all hypothetical reafoning; and in difquifitions of every kind, the only part that inte refted him was the authenticated facts which they contained. This is a truth which fhould be generally known, left the important difcoveries of that able man fhould be supposed to have less folidity than actually belongs to them.

MISCELLANIES.

ART. 45. Hiftorical Anecdotes of Heraldry and Chivalry, tending to Shew the Origin of many English and Foreign Coats of Arms, Circumfances, and Customs. 40. 316 pp. 18s. Robfon. 1795.

Chivalry, firft the protection, then the ornament, and, of late years, the laughing-stock of Europe, rifes again into fome fort of eftimation, in an age which feems nearly to have exhaufted the fources of refinement. It tempers the flippancy of modern farces, and happily varies the love fick whine of modern romances. It has even found its way into political difquifitions, and has been handled as a moral fubject, with a degree of ferioufnefs, which has excited applaufe from fome, and ridicule from others, perhaps equally illfounded.

In the work before us, a lady has undertaken to treat it somewhat historically; her book is properly entitled " anecdotes." It confifts of detached notices from most of the French as well as English authors, who have written on chivalry and heraldry, fometimes incorrectly stated, interfperfed with obfervations not always fo appofite as the curious reader might with, nor fufficiently amusing to intereft the careless lounger. The obvious propriety, or rather neceflity of placing thefe fcraps in a chronological order, feems to have been entirely overlooked. In that part of the work, for instance, which details anecdotes of duels, we find the following fucceffion, or rather confufion, of dates, beginning at page 198, A. D. 940, 867, 1631, 1571, 1396, 1371, 1315, 1547, 959, &c. The promife made in the title," to thew the origin of many English and Foreign coats of arms," is not performed to the extent which we were led to expect, and the little which is done to that purpose might have been done much better. Indeed, the information relative to heraldry, in the common acceptation of the term, is too flender, and too trivial, to demand any feparate remarks.

Having thus difcharged that painful part of our office, which obliges us to point out faults, we have much pleafure in obferving that few material anecdotes of chivalry are omitted; and, in recognizing the amiable motive which has induced a lady to celebrate, with a becoming and grateful enthufiafm, the gallantry of those heroic knights who fo frequently bled in the fervice of the fair.

ART. 46. Examination of the Plans propofed for the East India Company's Shipping; the great Importance of adopting a proper Syftem explained; and a Plan fuggefted for making the Ships employed in the Commerce with Afia, beneficial both to the State and to the Eaft India Company. By the Honourable John Cochrane. Drawn up in March, 1786, and now firft publifhed, with the Preface. 40 pp. 2s. 6d. Stockdale. 1795.

While the exigencies of the times accumulate taxes upon taxes, it is matter of real confolation and even exultation to this country,

that