y 01 ns et V ns :he the reign of Charles II. their manners underwent tions. A tafte for literature and gallantry fucceeded t and impiety; but they ftill continued to preferve ferocity which is productive of ftrong reafoning in another brutality. Perhaps we ourfelves are dece matter by our refined politenefs, which, accord English renders us unnatural. In general, fays M. they perform a good action boldly, and they dare f reafon in oppofition to cuftom; but their good fen! with whims and extravagance. Their refolutions ar fudden. It is common in England for a girl to vo will marry the first man fhe meets; and accordingl married. Wine hath fometimes, among this people, ductive of great cruelty. Some of them have made murder the first perfon they meet after leaving the ta they have kept their word. Their prime nobility oft play at bowls with the lowest among the people.-So nation confider the English stage, which affords that much delight, as a proof of their barbarity. Their trage true, tho' interefting and replete with beauties, are ne dramatic monfters, half butchery and half farce. Grote racter, and extravagant pleafantry conftitute the chief par comedies: in one of thefe, the Devil enters fneezing, a body fays to the Devil, God bless you. They are not, b all of this ftamp: they have even fome in a very goo but there are hardly any which give us an advantaged of the English nation; though it is from the theatre stranger forms his opinion of the manners of a people English comic poets do not endeavour to paint their c men fuch as they are; for they are faid to poffefs as mu manity as reafon. A man in difgrace at court is, in L congratulated with as much folicitude as in other place abandoned. The thing for which the English are moft c is their deeming fuicide an act of bravery. They ought collect that even the Athenians, their model, were not f to deftroy themselves till after they had given their reafons The English on the contrary frequently kill themfelves o flighteft occafion; even fometimes merely to mortify an A husband diffatisfied with the behaviour of his wife, w his death would be a confiderable lofer, threatned, if fh not mend her manners, to be revenged of her by hanging felf. The English are now-a-days feldom cruel except to t felves, or in their public fpectacles, rarely in their robb Their highway men generally content themfelves with ta your money, and being witty upon the occafion. One of t people having stopped an English nobleman upon the r refted his piftol on the door of the coach, and faid, This pi my lord, is worth a hundred guineas: I would advife your l ip to buy it. His lordfhip understood the meaning of thefe words, gave him the money and took the pistol, which he imediately prefented at the highwayman; who told him, with a mile, that he must have taken him to be a great fool, if he hought the piece was charged. I fhall finish this chapter with the recital of a very extraordinary affair, which could never have entered any head but hat of an Englishwoman: fhe was fo piqued at being told, hat women had as great a propenfity to love, as men, that the inftantly made a vow of perpetual virginity, and accordingly died a virgin at the age of fourfcore; fhe left in her will, a number of legacies to virgins. She endeavoured, to prove that the proportion in the pleasures of love between the two fexes, was as forty to eighty-three. This drole calculation reminds me, that as the Italians conftantly introduced buffoonery, the Germans wine, the Spaniards devotion, the French gallantry, fo the English upon all occafions, introduce calculation." This chapter we fuppofe, will be quite fufficient to give our readers an idea of this author's knowledge, abilities and candour. If the French form their opinion of us from fuch fcribblers, 'tis no wonder that we should appear to them in a very extraordinary light. L'Art Du Poete et De L'Orateur, &c. The Arts of Poetry and Oratory, being a new Syftem of Rhetoric for the Ufe of Schools; to which is prefixed an Effay on Education. 12mo. Lyons, Periffe, 1766. O labours can be more unprofitable than fuch as are cmployed in laying down fyftems for the acquifition of thofe arts, which muft principally be taught by nature and received from her bounty. A fyftem of rhetoric is the abfurdest thing in the world. The rules of which any fuch fyftem is compofed are nothing more than ftrictures on the various diftinguished paffages in the best Poets and Orators, whofe examples alone, added to the powers of native genius, and not the frigid comments of fyftem framing pedants, can form the mind to excellence: For the ftrictures of fuch writers are very frequently falfe, and, instead of inftructing, miflead the native taste of genius. Such would be the tendency of the dull and formal work before us, where we have divifions and fubdivifions, laboured demonftrations of felf-evident propofitions, and, diftinctions without a difference innumerable. For a fpecimen of the Author's tafte, we fhall quote his abfervation on that famous verfe of Lucan, Victrix caufa Diis placuit, fed via Catoni. "To give us, fays the Author a magnificent idea of the rectitude and probity of this Roman, the Poet prefumes to put him. on on a level with the gods, as he could not determine which of the two opponents had the right of the caufe, whether Cæfar, who had the fuffrage of fuperior beings, or Pompey, whofe interest was espoused by Cato. -Quis juftiùs induat arma Scire nefas; magno fe judice quifque tuetur. Victrix caufa Diis placuit, fed victa Catoni. "The extravagance of this comparison must be obvious to every one; fince, whatever might be the equity and the virtue of a man, were they to be compared to the juftice of the gods? What Horace and Boileau fay concerning authors of the fame stamp may very well be applied to Lucan: Aut dum vitat humum nubes & inania captat. La plupart emportés d'une fougue infenfée. S'ils penfoient ce qu'un autre a pu penser comme eux." Nothing but an abfolute want of taste and an entire inattertion to the opinions of different ages and claffes of men could have produced fuch a criticism.—In the present system of theology, to allow any heroe fuch a comparifon, would, indeed, be extravagant; but when, in the pagan theology, it is remembered that the conduct of the gods was confidered in a familiar and frequently difrefpectable light, Cato, notwithstanding the magnificence of the poet's contraft, which is very fublime and beautiful, hardly received the honours due to him. Antonii de Haen pars decima Rationis Medendi in Nofocomio Practico Vindobonenfi. 8vo. Lugd. Bat. apud P. van der Eyk. Ant. de Haen's Practice of Medicine in the Hofpital at Vienna: part the tenth, &c. TH HE preceding parts of this useful work are fo univerfally known in the medical world, and their merit fo generally. acknowledged, that it were unneceflary to fay any thing concerning the Author's fituation, abilities, or the plan of this performance. It will be fufficient therefore, in the prefent article, to give our Readers a sketch of the contents of this number, which makes the fecond of the third volume. It confifts of fix chapters, which we fhall review in their proper order. The first chapter, which is the feventh of the volume, treats particularly de colica pietonum. Our Author having formefiy confidered the nature and cure of this disease, first in a separate differtation, and afterwards in chap. 24, vol. i. of this work, refumes the fubject in the prefent number, confining his obfervations more particularly to the morbid phenomena upon diffec tion. tion. The first cafe is that of a painter who in the course of his employment had used confiderable quantities of ceruffa and cobalt. About seven years before he was admitted into the hofpital, he had fuffered feveral fevere paroxyfms in the space of one year, but fince that time had enjoyed good health. In March 1764, he was again severely attacked, and two of his fingers became paralytic. Soon after this he had another fevere fit, but was greatly relieved by a physician who ordered him a grain or two of aloes night and morning, and also twice a day two ounces of fresh butter. Being brought to the hofpital, where continuing to eat his quantity of fresh butter, and being frequently electrified, he became fo well as to refume his occupation; but the day after his return home he was again attacked, and was again received into the hofpital, where, an amaurofis and ifchuria fupervening, he foon expired. During the whole time of his continuance in the hospital the heat of his body remained about 96 of Fahrenheit's thermometer, which is that of a perfon in health. After his death it was ftill the fame for the first 20 minutes. In 25 minutes it funk to 95; in 30, to 94; and in 35, to 93. The body being opened, the liver was found raifed entirely above the lowest rib, except a small portion of the leffer lobe. Hence our Author rationally obferves, how impoffible it would have been, in this fubject, in case of a difeafe of that vifcus, to have formed any judgment from an external application of the hand. The ileum and rectum were found in fome parts violently contracted, and in others greatly dilated. The first of these intestines was likewife much inflamed, and here and there even gangrenous; and near the part where it enters the coecum it was found, together with its mefentery, adhering to the peritoneum of the fpine. In order to give the Reader a proper idea of thefe difeafed inteftines, the Author has fubjoined a plate in which they are delineated. The ftomach was fo enlarged as to contain fix pints, and its external coat violently inflamed. Cafe II. is likewife that of a painter, who during the last twelve years of his life had been employed chiefly in grinding white lead. About two years before his admiffion into the hospital he was first attacked, though not violently, with the ufual fymptoms of the colica Pictonum. A year after, he had a fecond fit, fucceeded by a third which produced an almoft general paralyfis. In this condition he entered the hofpital on the 20th of November, 1764, where he was frequently electrified, and his paralytic limbs and fpina dorfi rubbed twice a day with flannel impregnated with the fume of maftich, olibanum, and juniper berries. His internal medicines were, R. Sap. venet. gum. amm. mafs. pil. rufi, terræ fol. tart. ai dr. j. thereb. q. f. m. f. pil. gr. iv. two of which he took every three hours, firft with water, next with an infufion of fouthernwood, and laftly with an APP. Vol. xxxiv. Li ounce ounce of the following mixture. R. Spir. C. C. fuccinati dr. ij. ol. fill. fuccini, mentha, lavendule, cum facchari albi dr. iij. in elasfaccharum reda&t aa. gtt. iij. fyrup. enule camp. unc. j. Spir. menthe unc. fs. aque fill. rorism. Ib. j. Blifters were frequently applied to the back of his neck, and twice a week he drank unc. v. aq. lax. Vienn. On the 12th of January he began to take the following medicated wine. R. Limat. martis non rubig. unc. j. cort. magell. & cinnam. ai dr. ij. corticis Peruv. unc. j. pulvis groffus ftatio 24 horarum digeratur calide cum b.iij. vini auftriaci albi in phiala alta chemica. Of this wine he took at firft unc. fs. and afterward unc. j. every three hours. On the 28th of March he was difmiffed cured, and as long as he abftained from grinding white lead, continued well. But returning to his former employment, he was again attacked; on the 10th of July was again admitted into the hospital, and on the 16th died violently convulfed. The morbid appearances. after death were principally thefe: the colon, as in the firft fubject, violently contracted in fome parts and diftended in others; the gall-bladder as large as a hen's egg, and full of orange-coloured bile; the pancreas hard in many places, and cartilaginous in the middle; the pleura much inflamed. Cafe III. is that of a chemist and apothecary who had been for fome time afflicted with the colica Pittonum. His pains at length became very violent, and his belly drawn up in a most extraordinary manner. Doctor de Haen being confulted, advifed camphorated and paregoric emulfions, friction, anodyne fomentations to his back, and oily clyfters; in confequence of which the patient became perfectly well, nevertheless expired fuddenly. Upon laying open the abdomen, there was found a confiderable quantity of extravafated blood, which, upon farther infpection, was found to have proceeded from an hiatus in the vena cava immediately below the diaphragm. This rupture of the vena cava the Doctor attributes to the extraordinary protrufion upwards of the liver, occafioned chiefly by the great diftention of the colon near its origin; but in its progrefs. it was found, as in the former fubjects, alternately contracted and dilated in a very extraordinary manner. The IV. cafe is that of the widow of the painter whose hiftory we have feen in cafe II. Having affifted her husband in his profeffion, fhe became afflicted with the fame diforder. She was brought to the hofpital labouring under all the most terrible fymptoms of this difeafe, together with the jaundice to a great degree. By means of laxatives and opiates alternately exhibited, together with emollient clyfters, and a ftomach plaifter of labdanum with opium and camphor, hér vomiting ceafed and a paffage was procured. She then took feveral doses of Bark, and afterwards the following pills. R. Sap. venet. gum. |