anus wrote*, there were great difputes whether the disease was known to Hippocrates; and that all parties agree that, if known to him, it was not known under the name of hydrophobia.

But waving all researches concerning the antiquity of the treatife, let us fee how far it is likely to affift us in our future treatment of the disease.

After obferving that hydrophobia arifes fometimes from the bite of a mad dog, and at others independently of any fuch caufe; and after enumerating the fymptoms, the author proceeds to the cure. He here directs liquids to be given in large quantities, particularly during the paroxyfms.

In this practice he is not fingular: but it is a practice which ought to be exploded. It is truly remarked by Dr. Sims, that the fpafms are the cause of the patient's death: furely, then, he fhould abftain from that which conftantly produces them! We imagine, indeed, that no one who knew the effects of liquids on patients labouring under this complaint, would venture, by offering them, to produce fuch terrible agitations and diftrefs. It is neceffary that the practitioner fhould be aware of the exiftence of that dread of water which attends the difeafe; and this being known, all further experiments are cruel and dangerous. It might perhaps not be extravagant to fay, that of the cafes on record, there is fcarcely one in which the patient's death has not been accelerated by this practice.

But, it may be urged, the thirft is fo intolerable as abfolutely to require fome mode of alleviating it. Certainly it is fo: and the most useful part of the paper under our confideration is that which hints at fome fuch method. The author advifes honey to be boiled to the confiftence of wax; and hollow balls being made of this, they are to be filled with water; fo that the patient may break them in his mouth without producing the irritation caused by liquids.

We fear this would not be attended with fuccefs: the water coming in contact with the mouth, would produce the fame effects that follow the dipping of the hand into it; and would (probably) be inftantaneously discharged. The mode which we would recommend is, to give the patient fome fubftance which will eafily liquefy by being laid upon the tongue. Lemon juice boiled with fugar, and formed into drops, would be proper for this purpose. Ice-cream might perhaps bear too much of the liquid appearance, and even be unpleasant from its coldness.

Celfus's recommendation of the cold bath, in the use of which Dr. Sims imagines we fail from not attending to his directions, is founded on a wrong and dangerous indication. Celfus does not depend on the ftrengthening powers of cold water, but advises

Several centuries after Hippocrates.

it as a fure mode of obliging his patient to drink. His words are thefe: "Unicum tamen remedium eft, nec opinantem in pifcinam non ante ei provifam projicere. Et fi natandi fcientiam non habet, modo merfum bibere pati, modo atollere: fi habet, interdum deprimere, ut invitus quoque aqua fatietur: fic enim fimul et fitis et aqua metus tollitur."-CELS. lib. 5. 2. 12.

Such was the reasoning of Celfus. In this cafe, as in many others, we have adopted the practice without confidering the arguments on which it was founded: and have continued it with fo little fuccefs, that no inferences drawn from its tonic effects appear, in our opinion, fufficient to authorise its further use.

There is only one other particular in the treatife which requires our attention. This, which in Dr. Sims's opinion is of great importance, is the ufe of oil. Celfus has also advised immerfion in warm oil, in order to quiet the fpafms produced by the cold bath.

Depending, therefore, on these authorities, the Doctor tells us that he has determined, fhould he meet with a cafe of hydrophobia, to have the patient rubbed all over repeatedly with oil, and likewife to make him drink it very copiously.

We confefs that, with respect to this remedy, we have not equal faith with the Doctor: and to the modes of adminiftering it we have ftrong objections. To plunge a patient in oil after Celfus's plan, would produce the ill effects caused by other liquids; fo likewife would the drinking of it very copiously. We much fear the fame confequences would attend the rubbing it over the body. Should it be found otherwife, there can be no objection to its ufe; though, perhaps, the Doctor may call us uncharitable, when we give it as our opinion, that the good effects which might arife, would proceed more from the frictions than from any qualities of the oil.

We cannot affent to Dr. Sims, when he fays, I have long thought our method of treating the hydrophobia wrong: beyond doubt it is completely unfuccefs ful: because we have, in the course of our monthly labours, given feveral inftances where the disease has been completely cured. See Rev. vol. ix. p. 268. xxi. 379, seven cases; xlvii. 256, two cafes; lxvii. 559, three cafes.

We have now noticed the moft material parts of this treatise; and have dwelt on it longer than it deserved, under the hope, and we truft not an ill-founded one, of relieving from unneceffary diftrefs and torture, a moft miferable, though, happily, a very fmall clafs of our fellow-creatures.

With regard to the literary merits of this treatife, the Greek is in many parts above our comprehenfion, and the Latin no lefs fo; giving no bad fpecimen of a verbal tranflation, which leaves its original in all its primitive darkness. As this treatife, as well Ii 2

as

as the differtation on Æfculapius, in the former volume, is doubtless intended to convey an idea of the learning of the fociety, it might not have been taken amifs if they had favoured their readers with a few critical illuftrations or conjectures on its obfcure paffages. We wonder, as the bantling is evidently a favourite, that it fhould be thrown on the world in fo naked a state. If it had been inconvenient to have dreffed it very elegantly, they might at least have made it fit to appear before company. But probably they were in great hafte to refute Prior's cenfure, and prove that, if there were "no great Greeks in Warwick Lane," Bolt Court could, however, fhew some of the very firft magnitude. The fecond article confifts of Obfervations on the Schirrhocontracted Rectum. By John Sherwen of Enfield, furgeon and C. M. S.

A minute and accurate account of this generally fatal disease; illuftrated by a case, and the appearances on diffection. The author gives a candid and excellent caution againft the use of remedies, exhibited with a view to ftop the purging in this complaint. Practitioners too indifcriminately undertake the toppage of diarrhoeas, without confidering the causes by which they are produced.-Mr. S. recommends the ufe of bougies made of horn. These are to be boiled until they become pliable, and then to be flowly paffed up the gut, but with fufficient force and refolution. Mr. S. has never tried this method; neither does he feem to be aware that fimilar contractions occur, we think, more frequently in the fmaller inteftines than in the rectum.

Art. 3. contains the Hiftory of two Cafes of Hydatides Renales. By J. C. Lettiom, M. D. &c.

Thefe hydatides, which were very numerous, and fome of confiderable fize, were at different times difcharged through the urethra, with a quantity of pus and urine. The patients did well. Lumber region and lumber pain-we fuppofe to be miftakes of the prefs.

Art. 4. Some Remarks on the Prevalence of the Atrophia Lact̃antium. By Joshua Walker, M. D. C. M.S.

This disease, which the author tells us is lately of frequent occurrence in the town and neighbourhood of Leeds, is fuppofed to arife from the more plentiful introduction of tea among the induftrious poor. It is cured by change of diet, and the use of myrrh and fal martis, as recommended by Dr. Griffiths; with decoction of bark, &c. as the patient advances in recovery.

Art. 5. Experiments on the folvent Powers of Camphor, and other mifcellaneous Communications. By Thomas Percival, M.D. Having directed a compofition of camphor and balsam of Tolu in pills, Dr. Percival was informed, by the apothecary, that he could

2

could not form the mafs into pills, but that it liquefied like treacle. The Doctor repeated the experiment, and found that the two fubftances, by fimply rubbing them together, fuddenly combined, and that liquefaction took place. He found also that camphor and myrrh united and liquefied in the fame manner, and that, thus united, they both became foluble in water.

The fecond communication is on a mineral water near Moffat, called the Heartfill Spa. It is an aluminous and chalybeat fpring; and the Doctor recommends it as an excellent ftyptic, tonic, and fedative. An analysis of it would be acceptable, as none has been made fince that given by Dr. Horfeburgh in the Medical Effays, Vol. I. See Rev. vol. xi. p. 186.

The next is in the form of a quere: Are the Tuffis convulfina, and the Cynanche trachealis of the fame Genus? The Doctor thinks they are.

The fourth confirms the opinion, which many medical men efteem a vulgar error, that all looks Yellow to the jaundiced Eye.

The laft is the curious cafe of a gentleman who had uneasy fenfations, and pain in his eyes, whenever he viewed fquare ob jects. The Doctor is unacquainted with the termination of this fingular malady.

Art. 6. Remarks on the Afcaris Lumbricoides. By J. Church,

M.A.

This worm, fo common an inhabitant of the human body, was generally believed to be oviparous. Mr. Church, however, plainly fhews it to be oviparous. How does it get into the bowels? for by Mr. Church's account, those which he faw, as they came from their parent, were above an inch long.' We cannot poffibly admit his conjecture, that it may creep into the body by the mouth.'

Art. 7. Cafe of a Patient who difcharged the Pupe of Mufca Cibaria. By W.White, M.D. with Obfervations by Mr. Church.

We shall pafs over the particulars of the fymptoms, and the means employed for removing them. After a long course of different kinds of medicines, the patient difcharged an immenfe number of worms;' they were all brifk, and two or three of them, hut up in a pill box, were depofited in a desk ; after fome weeks they were examined, when the Doctor found them metamorphofed from a worm ftate into infects of the fly kind. Mr. Church makes fome remarks on the cafe; he afcertains the fly to be musca cibaria, whose larva is found in old culinary fubftances, especially rotten cheese; and it seems probable that the patient had fwallowed a neft of them in fome food. From the symptoms, it appears that fome of these animals had penetrated the liver. The fuppofition is confirmed by quotations from the London Medical Obfervations, fee Rev. vol. xvi.

Ii3

P. 549.

P. 549. There appears, however, little fimilarity between the

cafes.

Art. 8. On the Efficacy of the Application of cold Water to the Extremities in a Cafe of obftinate Conftipation of the Bowels; with Remarks thereon. By W. Falconer, M. D. F. R. S. and C. M. S.

The fubject of the prefent cafe was a lady, who, after trying, for above four days, various remedies to procure ftools, was at length relieved by dafhing cold water over her feet and hands. The difcharge was fo profufe as to endanger her life; and has occafioned Dr. Falconer to give a neceffary caution against the exhibition of a large quantity of ftrong purgatives in fimilar cafes.

Art. 9. On the Efficacy of the Gummi Rubrum aftringens Gambienfe (or as fome term it, Gummi Kino), &c. By Anthony Fothergill, M.D.

An account of this gum has been given by the late Dr. John Fothergill, in the firft vol. of the London Medical Obfervations, fee Rev. vol. xvi. p. 557.; and the present paper is the result of fome experiments made at his request. Twelve cafes of agues are related, in which its exhibition was attended with fuccefs. In three later ones, we are told, it failed.-Wishing, as we do moft earnestly, to fee'the fcience of medicine fimplified in all its branches, we own ourselves unfavourable to the introduction of doubtful remedies into the already crowded lift of our materia medica. That the prefent article is ufelefs, we do not mean to affirm we wifh, however, to afcertain its effects in difeafes lefs under the influence of the imagination.

The 10th and 11th articles contain two cases of tetanus fuccefsfully treated, in the mode recommended by Dr. Rush; with calomel, bark, and wine. In the firft cafe, the cold bath was used.

Art. 12. A Cafe of the Uterus lacerated by the Force of Labour Pains. By Jofeph Hooper, Surgon, and F. M. S.

The patient had before been delivered of three children ftillborn, from the difficulty of her labours; being very corpulent, her pelvis narrow, and the children large.

The 13th Article is a Cafe of Vomiting in Pregnancy, fuccefffully treated: by W. Vaughan, M.D. and C. M. S.

The patient, a delicate lady, in the feventh month of her pregnancy, was much emaciated by her complaint. She was relieved by abftaining from food, while clyfters of new milk and Jaudanum were injected, and her legs and feet bathed in a decoction of bark in milk. On the fourth day, fhe could eat cold beef, and drink fmall beer.

Art.