But when thou'rt abfent nought can please, Of village-nymphs beneath the fhade. Come then, bleft Nymph! my cottage cheer, And Temperance at the board prefide.' There is a terfenefs and elegance, with a purity of ftyle and sentiment, in these verses, which we seldom meet with in any modern compofition. has It is the opinion of our author, as delivered in a profe effay on the Nature of an Epigram, which stands by itself in the middle of this poetical garden, that provided one principal thought be uniformly pursued to a point through the whole, a poem of any reasonable length may be confidered as an epigram.' In confequence of this determination, Mr. Ggiven us feveral long epigrams, of twenty or thirty lines each; amongst which his complimentary verfes to Mrs. Montagu, and Lady Mr, have great merit. Of what our author calls his Humorous Poems, the Fire-fide, and the Hobbyhorfe for the Gout, are much the beft. With regard to fome of these, there is, we cannot help observing, an impropriety in the epithet. The Card to Hymen, though pretty and poeti We are a little in doubt, whether a modern poet, though the ancients always took the liberty of extolling themselves, fhould venture to call his own works humorous. Even if they are really fo, (and as Mr. G's certainly are) is it not a little like saying, I'll tell you a good thing which I said the other day; an excellent rePartee of mine, &c. cal, cal, cannot be called humorous; the verfes on the Ufe and Abufe of Cards are rather ferious; and the fable of the Shepherd and Kid much too melancholy to fall under that denomination. The imitations from the Greek and Latin poets fhew the claffical taste and erudition of the writer, at the famė time that his happy allufions to modern manners and circumftances give them the air of originals. His Parody of Horace's Integer Vitæ, &c. is excellent; and the Delicate Lover is much fuperior to the epigram of Martial from which it is taken. This collection is, upon the whole, as agreeable a farrago as we have met with for fome time paft. We hope the elegant and ingenious author will have health and leisure to give us (the fooner the better) another volume, from which we shall promise ourselves no little entertainment. Obfervations on the Cure of the Gonorrhea. By Samuel Foart Simmons, M. D. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Murray. TH HE treatment of a difeafe that has been certainly known in Europe for almost three hundred years, and which has fo much employed the attention of medical enquirers, should, we might fuppofe, have long fince been established on the cleareft teftimony of experience. Even at this period, however, it continues to be the fubject of controversy; and hardly two writers are entirely agreed respecting some of the most effential circumftances in the cure of the complaint. In this pamphlet we meet with many useful obfervations on the general treatment of the gonorrhoea, befides remarks on particular fymptoms that accompany or follow the difeafe, when it is in a violent degree, or has been injudiciously treated. These are, the hernia humoralis, chordee, phymofis, paraphymofis, chancres, ftrictures of the urethra, and gleets. As a specimen, we shall lay before our readers the following remarks on injections. The topical remedies that are ufed confift chiefly of different forts of injections, the ingredients of which are extremely various, but their modes of operation may in general be referred to their mucilaginous and fedative, or to their detergent, ftimulating, and aftringent qualities. In the hands of skilful practitioners, great advantages may doubtless be derived from the use of these remedies; but, on the other hand, the improper and unfeafonable administration of them may prove a fource of irreparable mischief to the patient. We know that mucilaginous and oily injections will tend to allay the local inflammation; and that a fedative injection, such as a folution of opium, will leffen the irritability of the parts, and and of course produce a fimilar effect: the utility of fuch appli - cations is therefore fufficiently obvious. A detergent injection, or one that will act upon the mucus of the urethra, increase the difcharge of it, wash it away, and with it the venereal virus that is blended with it, can only be ufed as a prophylactic before the fymptoms of infection have made their appearance. A folution of cauftic properly diluted, will answer this purpofe, and I have frequently recommended it. But great circumfpection is neceffary in the ufe of this kind of injection. If it be too weak, it can be of no efficacy; and if it be too ftrong, it may prove dangerous to the patient. I once faw a fuppreffion of urine brought on by the improper use of an injection of this kind. When the fymptoms of inflammation have once made their appearance, the ftimulus of fuch an injection must be extremely hazardous, Excoriation of the urethra has, I fear, but too often been produced by remedies of this fort in the hands of adventurous and unfkilful practitioners. • While the inflammation of the urethra continues, every thing that ftimulates it must be hurtful. If the injection excites a painful fenfation in the urethra, as is but too often the cafe, it will be liable to produce fwelled tefticles, difficulty in making water, excoriation, and other effects of increafed inflammation: if, by its aftringency, the running is checked before the virus that excited the difcharge is properly fubdued, the patient will be expofed to all the dangers of a confirmed lues, and, perhaps, to a variety of local complaints, fuch as obftructions in the ure thra, and abfceffes in perinæo, which are well known to be fometimes owing to applications of this fort improperly ma naged. When the inflammation has fubfided, gently ftimulating and aftringent injections may be ufed with fafety, and with confiderable advantage; for as the inflammation is at firft excited by the ftimulus of the venereal virus, fo when the former begins to leffen, we may be affured that the activity of the latter has abated in proportion; and, in general, when the inflammatory fymptoms are entirely removed, it will be found that the mucus is no longer of an infectious nature, but is merely the effect of an increafed fecretion, and of relaxation. Mild aftringents will therefore ferve to brace and ftrengthen the veffels fecreting mucus, and in this way will leffen the discharge, and greatly promote the cure. It is certain that in the greater number of cafes, a gonorrhoea, which if treated by internal remedies alone would continue five or fix weeks, or longer, may, when judiciously treated with injections, be cured in a fortnight, and very often in lefs time. The great aim, therefore, of the practitioner ought to be at first to make use of fuch injections only as will tend to lubricate the furface of the urethra, and to counteract and deftroy the ftimulus of the virus; as the inflammation abates he may add fome gently aftringent preparation to a mucilaginous and fedative injection, taking care that its aftringency be fuited VOL. L. 08. 1780. X to the ftate of the disease, and to the irritability of the patient, Amongst a great variety of fubftances mercury in different forms is one of thofe that is the most frequently employed in injections. All these mercurial injections have more or less of aftringency, and it is folely to this property that we are to afcribe their effects; for the idea of their correcting the venereal virus was originally introduced and has been continued upon mistaken principles. Calomel, mixed with the mucus difcharged in a gonorrhoea, has no more power in destroying the infectious properties of that mucus than ceruffe or any other preparation would have. A diJuted folution of fublimate injected into the urethra will, like a folution of verdigris, or blue vitriol, or any other typtic, conftringe the mouths of the lacuna; but this is all that it will do, for it will never leffen the infectious nature of the virus. The fame thing may be observed of crude mercury extinguished by means of mucilage, or of mercurial unction blended with the yolk of an egg, and which, when thrown up into the urethra, will act nearly in the fame manner as balfam of copaiva, or any other ftimulating injection For the truth is, that mercury has no power over the venereal virus, until it has been introduced into the body, and undergone certain changes, with which we are, and probably fhall for ever remain, unacquainted. The local application of mercury can, therefore, have no other effects than what it derives from its ftimulating and aftringent properties; for the mercury not being abforbed in the urethra, of course cannot be carried into the fyftem, and even if it could, the quantity that would be introduced in this way would be too minute to be of any efficacy. I wish to have it understood, however, that I do not mean to explode the ufe of mercurial preparations in injections, but only the principles on which they have hitherto been afed; for I have frequently found the stimulus of calomel of confiderable efficacy; and in women, when the vagina only was affeated, I have often, after washing the parts well, fucceeded in the cure by rubbing them repeatedly with mercurial ointment.” We cannot conclude without observing, that this little trac contains many interefting and judicious remarks, apparently the refult of great experience; and we are fully perfuaded that the faculty in general will join us, when we exprefs a defire that Dr. Simmons would extend his obfervations, in the fame practical manner, to the lues venerea. FOREIGN ARTICLES. Les Eclipfes, Poëme en fix Chants, dédié à sa Majefté par M. l'Abbé Bofcowich; traduit en François par M. l'Abbé de Barruel. 1. Vol. in Quarto. (Paris.) MR. Bofcowich's excellent didactic poem, the Eclipfes, was ori ginally published in London, and addressed to the Royal Society; the next year it was reprinted at Venice; but this third edition edition is greatly improved by a variety of additions and corrections; accompanied with an accurate and elegant French translation and notes; and dedicated to the king of France, by whom the author is now placed and patronized, as director of the optics of the marine. The author compliments his moft Chriftian Majefty in an élegant poem on his interference in the American troubles; and on his gracious condefcenfion to less powerful states, fuch as the res public of Ragufa, our author's native country: Nec vero ingentes Populos tua provida tantum Cumque adeo exiguis tantus nova fœdera jungis, Fœdera, quæ tibi me magis ufque addicere pergunt.' &c. The first Canto contains a general Difplay of the Sphere and of Heavenly Revolutions; a Defcription of the Zodiac; the Idea of the Mundane System ; and an equally faithful and elegant explication of Kepler's fyftem, and of the difcoveries of Sir Ifaac Newton : for inftance: Quofque De Curfus menfes metitur, in illis The Second Canto treats of the Caufes of the Solar Eclipfes: We cannot help contemplating with equal furprize and pleasure the fkill and fuccefs with which Mr. B. furiounts every difficulty of the fubject, and finds means to illuftrate and adorn the most abtrufe aftronomical and physical truths and discoveries with poetical embellishments: Huygens's Telescopes, for instance, and the Method of fabricating the Glaffes, appear to be very unpromising fubjects for poetry; yet, • Mecum aderunt; namque hos jam nunc fervantur in ufus Rarum Opus Hugenida magni; cui Diva terenti Theffala qua placidus Tempe fecat, atque beatos X 2 |