day. It gives me more pleasure, perhaps more pride, to tell the world, I never received the leaft emolument, than if I had privately drawn an ample fortune. If a man works for nothing, it is a proof he likes the work; if he likes it, no wonder he becomes a proficient: no mufician ever played a good fiddle who did not love mufic. A powerful relish in the mind for any undertaking, will in fome meafure fupply the defect of capacity. I have longed for Friday, as the fchool boy for Christmas; nay, the practice of years has not worn off the keen edge of de fire. I may be faid to have spent a life upon the bench, which, though without profit, carried its own reward; for I have confidered the fuitors as my children, and when any of this vaft family looked up to me for peace and juftice, I have diftributed both with pleasure."

After fo diligent an attendance, con amore, it may with reafon be prefumed that Mr. Hutton is perfectly acquainted with the nature, powers, limits, and jurifdiction of the court in which he has prefided; and that the refult of his experience is to be found in the Volume now before us. The work.comtains a number of cafes, in the determination of which the fagacity, moderation, and impartiality, of the author are very confpicuous. It has been obferved, that an arbitrary monarchy would have many advantages over a limited one, could we be affured of being always governed by wife and good kings. In like manner, we fhould feel lefs repugnance to the arbitrary refolutions of Courts of Requeft, could we be certain that the commiffioners poffeffed the fame qualities which are to be found in our Birmingham Magiftrate. Having feen frequent inftances of ignorance, folly, and partiality, in thofe who prefide in fome of these courts, we do not look on thefe jurifdictions with fo much complacency as our Author does; but we can, nevertheless, recommend his book to the perufal of his brother-commiffioners, as a valuable collection of reports, and general maxims, by which they may, with credit to themselves, direct their conduct in fimilar cafes.

ART. VII. A Treatise on Medical and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and the Materia Medica: to which is added, an English Tranflation of the new Edition of the Pharmacopoeia of the Royal College of Phyfi cians of London, 1788. By Donald Monro, M. D. Phyfician to the Army, Fellow of the Royal College of Phyficians, &c. 3 vols. 8vo. 18s., Boards. Cadell.

THI

HIS treatife was originally part of a courfe of Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Phyfic, given by Dr. Monro, in the years 1758, 1759, and 1760. The lectures were then interREV, Dec. 1788.

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rupted

rupted by the Author's being appointed physician to the army ferving at that time in Germany. In 1785, on the revifion and altering of the Pharmacopoeia, Dr. Monro had recourse to the notes of his lectures, formerly read on the subject; and which had remained untouched during 25 years. These notes, however, were found to be very defective, on account of the late numerous difcoveries in chemistry; he therefore undertook the laborious tafk of altering what was erroneous, and adding to his manufcript whatever new matter he met with, that appeared either curious in itself, or that might prove useful in affifting the committee appointed for the revifal of the Pharmacopoeia. The notes being thus improved and increafed, he afterward refolved to lay them before the public, together with a tranflation of the new Pharmacopoeia.

Although we cannot greatly recommend this work to the adept Chemift, or the fcientific Phyfician, as fufficient to afford them. much gratification, yet it contains a variety of matter that may be useful to the generality of young practitioners. The articles are not ill arranged; the catalogue of the Materia Medica is ample; and the properties of the different fubftances which compose it, are related in a manner which fhews Dr. Monro to be well acquainted with the modern writers on the fubject. What is new, confifts partly of his own obfervations, but chiefly of facts which, with laudable industry, he has collected from others; fo that on the whole, to thofe who are neither profound in Chemiftry nor converfant with modern books on pharmacy, we recommend the prefent work; as we are convinced that it will inftruct them in moft of the principal (prefent) do&rines and difcoveries in pharmacy; although, at the fame time, a few errors and inaccuracies may occur in the chemical parts: one of which is obfervable in Vol. I. p. 186, where, for want of more intimate acquaintance with chemical fcience, the Author has collected fome erroneous experiments; among which is one quoted from Boerhaave, that concludes heat to be produced during the folution of Glauber's falt in water.

To compenfate for this miftake, Dr. Monro, p. 211, quotes Hoffman's authority for the good effects of the nitrous ammoniac, joined with the anodyne liquor, in inflammations: we confirm that evidence by our own late experience.

Speaking of the Rochelle falt, p. 227, the Author fays, it is compofed of the vegetable acid and the foffil alkali.' He ought to have defcribed it as it really is, a triple compound falt, confifting of vegetable alkali, foffil alkali, and the tartareous acid. He obferves, that it is common in France to mix this falt with mineral waters, with a view to augment their purgative qualities; but for this purpofe, none feems fo well calculated as the foda phospho

Fala,

rata *, on account of its peculiar mildness and agreeable fla

your.

It is faid, p. 230. that spiritus mindereri may be obtained, in a folid form, by. mixing soluble tartar with vitriolic ammoniac, and fubjecting the mixture to fublimation: the fublimed falt in this procefs will be tartarifated ammoniac; a very different falt from the fpt. mindereri or acetated ammoniac.

This chemical inaccuracy is counterbalanced by an excellent medico-practical remark, p. 238, where fal fedativus is recommended as peculiarly efficacious in deliria from fever and inflammation, on the authority of Gaubius, a name of the firft order in phyfic. The dofe is from half a fcruple to half a drachm, or two fcruples. It procures fleep and quiets the nerves without heating, and is therefore of great use in inflammations, where opium would aggravate the symptoms. We cannot acquiefce fo well in Dr. Monro's opinion, when he recommends blue vitriol as a certain cure for intermittents that have not yielded to the Jefuit's bark: It is a most dangerous medicine, especially in the hands of incautious and bold practitioners.

We meet with nothing worthy notice (except a material typographical error in p. 269, where, 1. 20, vitriolic acid' occurs for muriatic acid) till we arrive at page 334, where the Author defcribes the mercurius corrofivus albus fortior, a moft active mercurial preparation. The process is taken from Alfton's Materia Medica, p. 95. and it is a metallic cryftalized falt, compounded of muriatic acid and mercury. It is made by precipitating quickfilver from its folution in the nitrous acid by the volatile alkali, and rediffolving this precipitate in the marine acid; this laft folution is properly faturated, and evaporated, to obtain cryftals. This is probably the fame falt, which, if our memory does not betray us, we have been told that Dr. Cullen ufed formerly to mention in his chemical lectures. It is more active, perhaps because more foluble, than the corrofive fublimate, ' of a grain being a fufficient dofe. So fmall a quantity of mercury as this dofe contains, fuggefts the idea, that this preparation is used in those Jecret medicines, which have of late been offered to the public under the titles of decoctions, fyrups, &c. as remedies for venereal and cutaneous diforders. The people who fell them pofitively affirm that no mercury enters their compofition; it is likewife

*The foda phofphorata is a neutral falt, confifting of foffil alkali and the phosphoric acid, lately invented by Dr. Pearfon, of Leicesterfquare. It has already been fuccefsfully introduced into practice, and, on account of its fuperiority over all other purging falts, will, in all probability, fuperfede the ufe of Glauber's, Rochelle, or Epfom falts. It is faithfully prepared by Mr. Willis, an ingenious chemift in town, according to Dr. Pearfon's inftructions.

certain that thefe noftrums, fubjected to the common experiments for difcovering the prefence of mercury, do not appear to contain any. But Dr. Monro fays, that M. Buquet, and other chemifts, found, on trial, that when a very fmall quantity of the active preparations of mercury was intimately mixed with a large quantity of liquor, thickened by means of vegetable mucilages and extracts joined with faccharine fubftances, especially honey, they fo covered the mercury, that it could be known neither by the tafte, nor any of the tefts ufually employed for difcovering it. This preparation of mercury does not, as the Author juftly obferves, feem fo well calculated as the milder preparations, for radically curing the venereal difeafe; yet we beg leave to add that the acrid compound here defcribed, is a valuable remedy in fome of the most inveterate cutaneous disorders.

We must point out an inaccuracy in p. 343, where we find, in the prefcription for making Calomel according to Scheele's method, the quickfilver and nitrous acid ordered in equal proportion, without mentioning the specific gravity of the acid, which in this preparation is abfolutely neceflary.

Speaking of James's powder, and the manner in which it was adminiftered by Dr. James himfelf, Dr. Monro, in page 368, communicates the following important information,-we fay important, because it is fo different from the generally received opinion.

Many have believed it [James's powder] to be a certain remedy for fevers; and that Dr. James had cured most of the patients whom he attended, and who recovered, by the use of this powder; but the bark, and not the antimonial powder, was the remedy which Dr. James almost always trufted to for the cure of fevers: he gave his powders only to clear the ftomach and bowels; and after he had effected that, he poured in the bark as freely as the patient could fwallow it. The Doctor believed all fevers to be more or lefs of the intermitting kind, and that, if there was a poffibility of curing a fever, the bark was the remedy to effectuate the cure; for if the fever did not yield to that, he was fure that it would yield to no other remedy whatever, as he has more than once declared to me when I have attended patients in fevers along with him.'

To point out errors is the moft difagreeable part, though not the leaft ufeful, of our office, yet we cannot país over page 426, without remarking that the combination of the calcined hartfhorn with the vitriolic acid, is equally infoluble as the felenite formed with that acid and oyster shells or chalk, though Dr. Monro pronounces it to be a mild neutral falt which is foluble in water;' and the felenite formed with chalk or oyster-fhells is faid to be infoluble by the juices of the ftomach and inteftines,’

In the lift of fubftances that impregnate mineral waters, p. 15, Vol. II. Dr. Monro has ómitted the hepatic air difcovered by Bergman, and the elastic fluid found in the Buxton water by Dr. Pearson, and in the Bath water by Dr. Priestley, which is perhaps phlogisticated air; we fay perhaps, because we are not certain what the peculiar gas of thefe water really is.

To give an analyfis of every article in the ample catalogue of Dr. Monro's Materia Medica, would extend our account too far; we shall therefore proceed to the tranflation of the new Pharmacopoeia. And we trust that our readers will excufe us, if, in the examination of this part, we offer fome farther ftrictures on the pharmacopoeia itself.

Though Dr. Monro has not given a literal verfion of the preface, nor though he has not altered the fenfe, yet we are apprehenfive that moft readers of tafte will perceive, that he has not always preferved the elegance of the original.

In the Materia Medica, we perceive 65 articles expunged from the lift, none of which will occafion much regret for their omiffion of the 46 new articles, feveral are trifling medicines, if they have any efficacy at all, and not more efficacious than many of those that are expunged. What, for inftance, are the virtues of ovum gallinaceum? Many of the articles are not employed: thus vitis is not a drug in ufe, but its products are valuable medicines. Yet this method of arrangement, viz. claffing medicines together under the fubftance from which they are produced, is not univerfally adopted; this therefore affords a charge of inconfiftency. The bolus gallicus has no virtues but from the clay which it contains; therefore pure clay fhould have been inferted in its place; or to be confiftent, boie fhould have been placed under the head Argilla. We find chalk in one place, red coral in another, crabs claws in a third, oyfter-shells in a fourth; yet it is well known to chemists that they are all of them the fame fubftance, and one would have anfwered the purpose of all the reft; or if more had been thought neceffary, they should have been referred to the general title, calcareous earth; and lime, which is alfo feparated from them, fhould have been ranged under the fame head with the name of deaërated calcareous earth. The name axungia is changed for adeps, as in the Swedish Pharmacopoeia, but with great impropriety; for adeps is the fat of any part of an animal, whereas axungia fignifies the fat of the omentum, which is the peculiar kind of fat intended to be meant, i. e. hog's lard, not hog's-fat.

Arfenic, Belladonna, Dulcamara, Dolichos, Rhododendron, Hyofcyamus, and perhaps fome other fubftances, are on good authority affirmed to be efficacious medicines; they are however omitted. In a word, the felection of the Materia Medica is both

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redundant