thorax, on ascites, and on hydrocephalus. These are followed by a general recapitulation of all the facts that have been related, with the inferences, practical and pathological, that may be deduced from them. The condition of the urine forms a principal object of attention; and many important circumstances are detailed, respecting the morbid changes which it experiences in the various modifications of the disease, and which would seem to point immediately to some improvement in practice. Dr. B. particularly adverts to the coagulable or serous property of the urine:

In a majority of dropsical cases, the urine is coagulable by heat, but to a very various extent. Sometimes it becomes opaque and milky at 160 or less, and soon breaks into small coagula, or even forms further into a mass nearly solid. In other instances it undergoes no alteration till it almost arrives at the boiling heat, becomes then lightly opaque but not milky, and gives a precipitate both small in quantity and loose in its texture. More rarely, although the change is inconsiderable before it boils, the least evaporation converts it into a tremulous mass.

The exact state of dilution, in which the serum is present, is not very easy to be determined. Undiluted serum coagulates in a mass, into the composition of which it is evident that much water enters; whilst the coagulated part of this secretion is more separated from its water, more opaque, and resembling lymph or curd; and I have not been able by any artificial dilution of serum to produce exactly the same appearances of coagulation. In one case, and that not apparently the most severe, I obtained, from four ounces, forty grains of a firm white coagulum, which lost by moderate desiccation one-fourth part of its weight, and was in the proportion of two ounces to the quantity of urine discharged daily. In another there remained on the strainer seventy-five grains from four ounces, in the proportion of ten drachms daily, which was softer, and was reduced by moderate desiccation to nearly one half of its weight, In its least degree, it barely tinges the boiling fluid.'

The author's general observations on the different species of dropsy are especially worthy of our attention. They are arranged according to the part of the body which is affected; viz. anasarca, including cachexy, hydrothorax, ascites, hydrocephalus, with lastly a section on diabetes serosus, or an excessive discharge of serous urine. Respecting this last disease, it is stated that

In some cases, the quantity of urine is so much increased, as to give suspicion of a diabetes. The swellings are in a great measure prevented by this excessive discharge; but no other benefit is derived from it. On the contrary, the system is evidently more embarrassed by the loss of serum, than it would have been even by its accumulation. There is a burning thirst, with fever, dry skin, and rapid emaciation of the whole body. The nerves in particular are greatly affected the despondency being extreme, and the fretfulness of mind often unconquerable by any effort of reason.

More urine is evacuated in the night than in the day; and the urinary organs themselves sometimes suffer from a feebleness and irritation, similar to what have been observed in the diabetes mellitus.'

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Dr. Blackall thinks that this species of diabetes is even more common than that in which the urine is saccharine: but that the amount of fluid discharged is less considerable. To the serous diabetes he is disposed to refer the complaint described by the antients, particularly by Aretæus: but he also supposes that, in some cases, the serous may have been combined with the saccharine diabetes; and, from sugar having been found in the urine, that the disease may have been assigned solely to the latter species. This view of the subject, in which it is attempted to trace a connection between diabetes and dropsy, is interesting; and we are disposed to believe that it is, to a certain degree, correct: yet we can only regard Dr. Blackallas having thrown out an opinion, which remains to be hereafter developed with more minuteness.

The remote and the proximate causes of dropsy form the subject of a chapter. The predisposition is often hereditary, and arises from feebleness of constitution: but it may also be brought on by a variety of causes which induce this state. An important circumstance, and one to which sufficient attention has not been paid, is that this debility is connected in many cases with an inflammatory diathesis; which, from the very commencement, modifies the symptoms, and ought to have a considerable influence on the treatment. The noticing of this condition constitutes one of the novelties of the present work; and it is conceived to bear a relation to the coagulable state of the urine. The proofs of this inflammatory tendency are deduced partly from the appearances on dissection, when, after fatal cases of dropsy, we often meet with symptoms that seem to have originated in inflammation, and partly from the remote causes of the disease; among which the author particularly insists on the effects of a mercurial course, on the operation of certain remedies compared with their effects, on inflammatory habits, and also on the appearance of the blood in many dropsical affections. The manifestation of the dropsical fluid itself, on the consideration of which the Doctor enters at some length, is likewise adduced in proof of this opinion. After having given an account of the characters of the fluid which is transpired into the cavities of the body in a healthy state, (principally taken from Baillie, Hunter, and Hewson,) he concludes that the effused fluid of dropsy is thicker, and contains more animal impregnation; and that it is therefore probably produced by an increased action of the vessels from which it is poured out.

Chapter

Chapter xv. relates to the cure of dropsy; in which all the most approved remedies are enumerated separately, the respective merits of each are discussed, and an attempt is made to indicate the appropriate uses of each. Bleeding is a remedy which the author's view of the nature of dropsy induces him to apply when the phlogistic diathesis is supposed to exist. On this point, he observes that

The most powerful antiphlogistic agent is venæ-section, a remedy which no one would wish to employ in any disease without necessity, and particularly revolting to the general opinion in cede. matous swellings. I have, however, directed it in several such instances, and never had reason to regret its use. The state of the blood and the relief that followed have usually confirmed the propriety of the operation. It is most obviously called for by the accession of pneumonia; I believe, likewise, that the disease occasionally falls on the abdomen in such a manner, as equally to require it; and that it is likely to be of particular service after mercurial courses, where the urine is greatly increased in quantity, and in the inflammatory anasarca. It is, indeed, sometimes the only evacuation which can be directed for cachectic patients, their stomach rejecting both laxatives and diuretics; whilst the ease with which they undergo this operation, as well as the relief they experience from it, is truly surprizing. A correct guide to it may be found in the firmness, copiousness, and early appearance of coagulum in the urine; its limits, in the improvement of that discharge, the state of the blood, and the relief of the other symptoms.

Imperfectly, however, as this subject has hitherto been considered, it will be prudent at first to prescribe it with caution as to quantity, and under those circumstances in which the nature of the cause and of the signs cannot mislead us. Certainly it is not to be viewed with that extreme suspicion which is sometimes entertained against all weakening remedies in chronic ailments, and there are periods of the disorder in which no other operation can preserve life.'

These observations seem to be very judicious; and we must remark that Dr. Blackall recommends his mode of practice with a laudable caution, which is too often overlooked by those who bring forwards any new or unusual doctrine.

Purgatives are next discussed. Their eligibility in certain cases is admitted; where the habit is indolent and free from gout, and the dropsy extensive, without fever or local determination, they are, generally speaking, safe, and productive of a considerable effect.'-On the contrary, in the cachexy, in which the stomach and intestines are very weak, they do such injury as to be wholly inadmissible; and agreeably to that excellent aphorism of Baglivi, in morbis pectoris ad vias urine ducendum, I have not seen them render any service in the hydrothorax.' The important class of diuretics receives in course a particular share of attention. Squill is found to be most useful where, with an oppression

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oppression of the chest, the urine is scanty, high-coloured, full of sediment, and without serum:' but, when the urine is highly serous, when a tendency to inflammation is manifested, and when the digestive organs are affected, it is not admissible. Avery ample account is given of the digitalis, which is regarded as one of the most valuable articles of the materia medica; since, by the publication of Dr. Withering, we have acquired a proper idea of its dose, and of the mode of its administration. It appears to be especially suited to those cases of dropsy which are attended with a coagu lable state of the urine, and those in which an inflammatory state of the blood is suspected. When the viscera are diseased, it is less useful; and when the stomach is affected, it may even be injurious. The state of the urine is supposed to afford a good indication of the value of this remedy. If, (says Dr. B.) besides partially coagulating by heat, it is rather scanty, and moderately coloured, foul when made, and containing some red blood, or becoming turbid when cold, and depositing a branny or lateritious sediment, I expect much from the employment of digitalis. If, . on the contrary, the urinary secretion, however loaded with serum, is pale and crude, much more if copious, the service derived from it will be very partial, and the dose must be small; and it will be well if it does no injury.' The author enters into a long detail respecting the best form of administering the remedy, its dose, the time during which it should be continued, and every circumstance connected with it.

Appended to the remarks on dropsy, is a section on angina pectoris; from which, if our limits permitted, we could make many interesting extracts. We must, however, close this article, by recommending a careful perusal of Dr. Blackall's work to all those who are interested in the improvement of their profession, and who are desirous of gaining information on a subject which is not only of great importance, but which is involved in considerable obscurity.

ART. VIII. The Rights of Literature; or an Inquiry into the Policy and Justice of the Claims of certain Public Libraries on all the Publishers and Authors of the United Kingdom, for eleven Copies, on the best Paper, of every new Publication. By John Britton, F.S.A. 8vo. 38. Longman and Co. 1814.

s the subject of this pamphlet has been much agitated of late, we can scarcely hope to place before our readers any new arguments or information respecting it: but the present tract, besides meriting the attention due to every discussion of a point so much connected with literature, claims our regard as the production of a writer who enters the lists in a different character from that of most of his predecessors,

The opponents of the University-claims have usually set forth the interest of authors as affected by those claims; thinking, probably, that such a plea would find readier admission with the public, than if they had urged the chief injury as resulting to booksellers; and the rival advocates have taken occasion to invalidate this argument, by remarking that, among those who have appealed to the community in opposition to the law of which they complain, few or none appear to be professed authors, or to come forwards under a personal feeling of the alleged injustice to that class. Mr. Britton, however, observing the inference that has been attempted to be drawn from the silence of authors, declares himself in the outset to be actuated solely by the feelings of an author, in condemning the pretensions of the Universities to a certain number of copies of every published work. In fact, the argument itself, though plausible, will appear on a little consideration to justify no conclusion against the reality of that injury which literature may suffer in the persons of authors. The superior activity evinced by the booksellers, on this question, (for, we apprehend, it needs not be disguised that most of the productions which have appeared on that side proceed from their exertions,) may be explained without resorting to the inference that their rights are principally or solely concerned; by considering, first, that the booksellers, forming a distinct " trade," whose joint interests are the habitual object of their common concern, more easily and readily take the alarm, and unite in opposition to any attack on their property, than a set of men like authors who form no distinct fraternity; and, secondly, that, although the interest of the whole class of authors may be more deeply involved than that of booksellers, yet the interest of one publisher, who engages in a great number of copy-rights, will be much greater, and affords therefore a greater stimulus to his exertions, than that of any one author. Even allowing it to be true that the silence, hitherto observed by authors on this topic, may be an evidence that they are less alive to their own concerns than booksellers and publishers, this is rather a reason for than against the protection of them by the legislature.

Mr. Britton commences with an eulogium on the advantages of literature, such as might be expected from one of her votaries. The argumentative part of his tract is employed in shewing, first, that, by the legal interpretation of the statute called the registering act, the claim of the Universities, &c. to eleven copies is confined to such works as are entered at Stationers' Hall:- 2dly, in discussing the general impolicy and injustice of extending this claim to all publications whatever.