training of children, are fully sufficient to engross their attention, and to call forth all their ingenuity and active powers. The loquaxity of women is too often considered, by poets, historians, and by unthinking men,, as a reproach upon the sex. Men of this description know not what they say. When they blame women for speaking much, they blame Nature for one of her wisest institutions. Women speak much. They ought to speak much. Nature compels them to speak much; and, when they do so, they are complying religiously with one of her most sacred and useful laws. It may be said, that some men talk as much as women. Granted. But beings of this kind, I deny to be men. Nature seems to have originally meant them to be women; but, by some cross-accident, as happens in the production of monsters, the external male form has been superinduced upon a female stock.' We have some doubt whether our fair readers will be proud of their advocate, or even admit his positions. The eighth chapter contains remarks on the comparative pleasures and sufferings of animals but it does not appear to us that either this or the ninth and last chapter, which treats of poisonous animals, requires our particular notice. The work is thus concluded: I have now finished my original plan; with what success I know not. I shall only say, what every intelligent reader will easily perceive, that my labours have been great. Before I began the work, had I known the numerous authors which it was necessary to peruse and consult, I should probably have shrunk back, and given up the attempt as impracticable, especially for a man so early engaged in the business of life, and the cares resulting from a family of no less than thirteen children, nine of whom are still in life. In the first and second volumes, I have endeavoured to unfold the general as well as distinctive properties of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Occasionally, I have done more: I have sometimes given pretty full characters both of the figure, dispositions, and manners of animals. In these descriptive discursions, MAN has not been neglected. Being the principal animal in this planet, he, of course, deserved particular attention, and it has not been with-held. The varieties of the human species, in every region of the globe, have been collected and described from the most authentic resources both antient and modern. Even in the most uncultivated, and, to us, deplorable situation of the human race, evident traces of goodness, of genius, and of heroism, are to be found. These amiable quali ties, it must be confessed, are too often sullied by cruelty, irascible passions, and every species of vice. But these qualities are universal, in whatever situation men, whether in a civilized or barbarous state, are placed. The strangest and most unaccountable part of the history of mankind is that of their eating one another; and yet, from the numerous evidences I have produced, it is impossible not to give credit to the shocking fact. The reality of human sacrifices is equally certain as the existence of cannibals. The diversity of dispositions, the versatility of genius, the great differences of taste and of pursuits, Ee 3 are are strong characters of Man, and distinguish him eminently from all the other inhabitants of this earth.' This volume certainly contains many curious and instructive facts, but they are blended with a vast alloy of superfluous, frivolous, and fanciful speculations. A work better suited to the purposes of instruction might therefore have been composed, from similar materials, on a smaller scale; yet whether such an one would have diverted the generality of readers, equally with the present, may be very much questioned, ART. XV. An Inquiry into the Nature and Cause of that Swelling, in one or both of the lower Extremities, which sometimes happens to Lying-in Women. Part II. By Charles White, Esq. F.R.S. Manchester. 8vo. pp. 150. 3s 6d. sewed. Mawman. 1801. THE Hatch. HE former part of this Inquiry was noticed in our 70th vol. P. 375, with the attention which appeared due to it; and we allowed the author credit for exciting the faculty to the consideration of a disease then little known, though we hinted our doubts respecting his theory of the remote cause. The present publication is chiefly occupied by a defence of his opinion against the various objections of different writers, and by additional proofs and arguments in confirmation of it. He has particularly endeavoured to shew that a lymphatic vessel may be ruptured in the pelvis, by the pressure of the child's head during labour, in consequence of the sharpness of the brim of the pelvis in some subjects; and he has produced instances, in which the ridge of the brim has been observed to be as sharp as the edge of a razor, or a table-knife. We apprehend, however, that the casual occurrence of such anomalous structure cannot be assumed as the basis of a general theory; especially since it is by no means decided that this disease is peculiar to the puerperal state, and since its phænomena may be readily explained without supposing the of a lymphatica conjecture with which Mr. White seems to have unnecessarily embarrassed himself. The theory of dropsy was long obscured by a similar error: but pathologists are now unanimous in admitting that effusions of lymph may take place independently of the rupture of any vessel. pture We shall present our readers with Mr. White's recapitulation of his theory, in his own words: When the brim of the pelvis forms a prominent line on the body of the os pubis, and is as sharp as an ivory paper-folder, or as some knives, and jagged like a saw, and the gravid uterus, by the violence of the labour pains, forces the lymphatics against this sharp edge, it must cut or lacerate those lymphatic vessels, which wrap round it, aud and dip down into the pelvis, and they will discharge their contents. In some cases the extravasated lymph will be immediately absorbed by the lymphatics in the neighbourhood. In others it will accumu late, coagulate, and give pain, some days prior to the swelling of the limb, by separating the peritoneum from its connections with the adjacent parts, and at last will be absorbed. But in some few cases, it may not be absorbed, but produce an abscess. In a space of time, generally betwixt twenty-four hours and six weeks, the orifices in the ruptured lymphatics will close, and they will be gorged with lymph, which will be impeded in them, but it will continue to flow in those which have not been ruptured, particularly in the deepseated lymphatics which accompany the iliac artery, and by anastomosing with those which have been ruptured, will prevent any material injury for the present, and in time will entirely supply their place. By the obstruction of the lymph, the groin, labium pudendi, and upper part of the thigh, swell; the tumour gradually extends towards the leg and foot, and grows very painful, white, tense, elastic, hard, glossy, and uniform. The pain is occasioned by the great and sudden distension of the lymphatic vessels, the whiteness by the parts being filled with lymph, and compressing the blood vessels so much, that neither arteries, nor veins, appear externally. The tenseness, elasticity, hardness, and glossiness, depend on the great distension of the lymphatic vessels, which do not easily give way; the uniformity of the swelling on the distension of the cutaneous lymphatics, which are innumerable. By this great distension, and consequent compression, the exhalents are prevented from secreting so much lymph, and consequently there is not so great a supply.' Thus the author's doctrine, strictly speaking, is that the distention of the lymphatic vessels arises from obstruction to the passage of lymph through some of the large trunks, and not from rupture: but he seems to have resorted to the least probable means of accounting for this obstruction. It is impossible that a lymphatic could be opened, by the action of a cutting edge, in the manner supposed by Mr. White, without great injury being done to the uterus: but it is easy to conceive that obstruction in the trunks may be caused by the thickening of their coats from inflammation; and that inflammation may sometimes be produced by the pressure of the child's head, when it is detained an unusual time at the brim of the pelvis. This modification of Mr. W.'s opinion appears to solve every difficulty. We have, perhaps, dwelt rather longer on this subject than its importance might seem to require: but, besides that the discussion is curious, we wished to explain the grounds on which we expressed, several years ago, our diffidence respecting the justness of the author's hypothesis. Fer. MONTHLY CATALOG U E, For APRIL, 1802. MILITARY. Art. 16. Duties of an Officer in the Field; and principally of Light NOTWITHSTANDING the number of publications on this subject, Art. 17. Military Observations. By Captain Aylmer Haly, of the Captain Haly very candidly acknowleges that, during the last year, he corrected many of the sentiments which he entertained in the preceding; and we have no doubt that, in 1802, he will see the fallacy of several of those which he published in 1801. Among these, we reckon the idea of infantry, taken up behind hussars, continuing their fire as they retreat; and the drawing up of the tirailleurs in the form of a crescent. If Capt. H. will try the experiment, he will be immediately convinced of the impracticability of the first operation, particularly at a gallop, as expressed in plate 4. The objections to the crescent are very obvious: it would be extremely difficult to preserve that position in advancing; and, even when stationary, the fire becoming oblique, the range is considerably increased, and the chance of execution proportionably lessened. Captain Haly appears, however, to be a young officer of abilities; and he pays a modest deference to the opinions of those who may be supposed to possess superior judgment, while he very properly exerts his right of thinking for himself. His ideas of fixed objects for rallying points are perfectly just; and he shews the weakness of a battalion of only two ranks, and at the same time the inutility of a third as now armed: but we question whether the disposition, which he proposes, be preferable to those which are already in use. Like all modern military writers, Capt. H. is a strong advocate for light troops, the advantages of which he enforces by reciting a conversation with General Humbert, after that officer was taken prisoner in Ireland; he says that the French commander assured him that, Suth at at the memorable battle of Castle Bar, he had considered the day as lost, when, to his great surprise, he saw our army in confusion, and giv ing way to the tirailleurs, whom he had ordered to cover his retreat. The author concludes with a description of an ingenious invention; kind of net with chausse-traps for obstructing fords, and for defence against cavalry. NOVELS. Art. 18. Percival; or Nature Vindicated. By R. C. Dallas, Esq. 12mo. 4 Vols. 18s. Boards. Longman. 1801. If ever it be pardonable for the rigor of the critic to yield to the feelings of the moralist, it must be in such a case as the present; when his attention is called to a publication, the tendency of which is to support the purest laws of society, and to defend one of its most valuable institutions. Occasional improprieties of style a few deviations from the strict rules of composition, a casual want of poetical truth in the conception of character, or a deficiency of art. In the management of the fable, appear light faules, when weighed against the importance of the end designed. The interest of the narrative is also sufficient to hurry most readers past its faults, unseen, and to carry them smoothly over its inequalities. Art. 19. Dorothea; or, a Ray of the New Light. 10s. 6d. sewed. Robinsons. 12mo. 3 Vols. An Anti-Godwinian production, exhibiting a story so constructed as to place sometimes in a ridiculous but mostly in an odious point of view, certain strange principles originally laid down by Mr. Godwin in his Political Justice;" and to induce mankind to regard with suspicion and hatred the disciples of what is pompously and sarcastically called the New Philosophy. Novels having been employed as the vehicles of these opinions, it will be deemed fair to have recourse to the same means for their refutation. On both sides, the fable of the Lion and the Statue will be applicable; for it is easy, when invention is invoked, to imagine characters and incidents that shall honour or expose almost any system. Here it is attempted to delineate the folly of making a regard for the general good the leading motive of individual action; of cherishing wild notions of the advantages of unsophisticated nature; and of diffusing Mr. Godwin's ideas respecting property, promises, and gratitude, among the vulgar; a task which the author has executed with some ingenuity, though not with absolute correctness. Dorothea, the heroine, daughter of a rich merchant, is an amiable young woman, whose mind has been early inflamed with the enthusiastic idea of living for the general good; she is conducted through a variety of adventures; becomes acquainted with and the dupe of a philosopher, who professes the same disinterested sentiment, but who proves to be a mean, unfeeling, selfish villain; marries Sir Charles Euston, and, from the impracticability of her opinions, for a time causes her own and her husband's misery: at last, however, she sees her folly, the new light becomes extinguished, and Sir Charles and Lady Euston pass the remainder of their days in the duties and pleasures of domestic life. RELIGIOUS. Sutha OW. Moy. |