6 author was guided: if he defigned his work to keep' the most important effects of the most important articles in the Materia Medica in the memory' of the practitioner, he has been too redundant; and this charge will even apply to his own limitation of the articles received into practice.' The arnica, the anchufa, the bezoar, the buxus fempervirens, the curfuta, the skink, imperatoria, hypociftidis fuccus, the quaffia, rad. Indic. Lopez, with a great variety of others, cannot be faid to form any part of the practitioner's flock, because they are very feldom to be procured. If he wished to include thofe which have been ever mentioned, the defects are too numerous to be noticed. The arfenic, aparine, ol. jecoris afelli, avenæ farina, the betonici rad. borage, barbery, the ol, caijeput, capillus Veneris, and many others, for we have omitted the trifling and the fuperftitious ones, are in vain fought for in this work, which contains remedies lefs ufed and lefs efficacious. Almoft If we look to the execution, in thofe articles which Dr. Aikin has noticed, we fhall find it equally exceptionable. He has indeed inferted the Linnæan names, and the fenfible properties. These are highly useful; but on the principal fubject, the medical virtues, he is very deficient. every remedy is a tonic or a ftimulant; but the manner, or the degree in which it is fo, is not mentioned; and the practitioner, who wishes to be reminded of the virtues of the feveral remedies, will not, from the author's Manual, be enabled to diftinguish between bark, cafcarilla, fpear-mint, yarrow, myrrh, the hypericum, the juice of the hypocyftis, the camel's hay, and many others. This undiftinguishing mode of enumerating virtues is more likely to mislead than to inform. If we wish to cure an intermittent, we may, without other information, use the fpear-mint, or myrrh, inftead of the bark; if we are applied to for a dropfy, the Manual will refer us to the parfley, as well as to the fquill. This leads us to a very important omiffion, viz. the difeafes in which each remedy is to be employed. Under the third head, of Medical Virtues, the general and primary operations of the fubject alone, for the most part, have been noticed, and not their application to the cure of particular diforders, which it is the bufinefs of medical fcience to deduce from the former. In fome inftances, indeed, Specific medicinal properties, not to be inferred from the general ones, are found, or are fuppofed, to exift; and thefe are enumerated. This method would be undoubtedly juft, if the practice of phyfic was railed entirely above empiricifin; but many me thods thods of cure ftill remain, which depend on unknown properties of medicines, or at least fuch as are not eafily defcribed: we need not adduce inftances of this kind. We have told Dr. Aikin very freely his faults, becaufe reputation like his may mislead the unexperienced: we may be allowed to add, that reputation like his fhould not be trifled with, and frittered away by unconfidered publications. It may be alleged, that it is not eafy to be more particular in fo fmall a compafs; but, if he does not chufe, with Vogel, to make three claffes, the ufitata,' the minus ufitata,' and inufitata,' he might, at leaft, have added, like Linnæus, heroica,' exoleta,' dubia,' 'fuperflua,' frequens,' &c. or with Teffari, notes of interrogation, &c. At prefent we fee many doors open to error, with little chance of advantage. 6 We fhall not enlarge on the fenfible properties or the virtues here affigned. The latter are few; and, though we are by no means fond of the conduct of thofe who load every medicine with virtues, yet fometimes there feems a defect. The ammoniacum is certainly an expectorant, independently of its ftimulant properties; the columba leffens feverish heats, and the cafcarilla deferves to be more pointedly diftinguished from the Peruvian bark than by calling the latter an antifeptic. We ought, in juftice, to add, that the account of the different officinals is very particular, and commonly exact. This is a very valuable part of the manual. We fhall felect one article as a fpecimen. We opened by accident at the bark: the practitioner will judge how far he will be reminded of its properties and ufe by this little work. Peruvianus Cortex, P. L. & E. Peruvian bark: that of the Cinchona officinalis, Linn. a tree growing in Peru. Senf. Prop. Smell, peculiar, not agreeable. Tafte, ftrongly bitter and aftringent. Med. Virt. Tonic, antifeptic. M. Exhib. Powder, electuary, infufion, decoction. -- fimplex, P. L. in proof fpirit. • Tinctura Corticis Peruviani volatilis, P. L. in fpirit of fal ammoniac. • Tinctura Corticis Peruviani Huxhami: bark, orange-peel, Virginian fnake-root, faffron, and cochineal, in Brandy. Extractum Corticis Peruviani molle et durum, P. L. the decoction evaporated to different confiftences. • Extractum Corticis Peruviani, P. E. the fpirituous tincture, and watery decoction of the refiduum, both evaporated, and the products mixed.' Travels Travels in the Two Sicilies, by Henry Swinburne, Efq. (Cons cluded, from Page 174.) MR. Swinburne informs us, that the whole space, compre hended within the walls of the ancient city, abounds with traces of antiquity, foundations, brick arches, and little channels for the conveyance of water; but in no part are any ruins which can be prefumed to have belonged to the places of public entertainment. This he justly thinks the more extraordinary, as the Agrigentines were a fenfual people, fond of fhews and dramatic performances, and the Romans never dwelt in any place long without introducing their favourite games. Theatres and amphitheatres, our author obferves, feem better calculated than most buildings to refift the outrages of time; and it is furprising that not even the vestiges of their form fhould remain on the ground. On quitting Girgenti, the travellers had to encounter the worst roads in Sicily. The clay was fo tenacious, and the folid bottom lay fo deep, that the horses and mules were scarce able to draw their legs out of the mud. The hills on each fide abound with fulphur, which is dug out by means of grooves driven into the heart of them. The mineral is brought up in small green lumps, and laid in large troughs, lined with plaifter. When the fire has heated them to a proper degree, the brimftone exudes through holes in the bottom into wooden bowls placed under them. After labouring nine miles in thofe intolerable roads, they came to a fandy foil, fine orange gardens, and rocky defiles, that brought them to Palma, a fmall town fituated in a moft agreeable valley not far from the fea. Mr. Swinburne informs us, that in his whole tour, he never met with a spot that poffeffed fo many points of rural elegance as this vale of Palma. From Palma the road ftretched fome miles through a pleafant plain, part of which is planted with vines, the reft fown with corn, and inclofed with rows of almond-trees. The traveller then paffed over a high ledge of rocks, whence he had a view of the fpacious plain, fuppofed to be the Campi Geloi, feen by Æneas, as he coafted along this island. At the town of Alicata, we are informned that the populace carry their refpect for the facerdotal character to a great height; for as the traveller walked through the ftreets, the old women and children caft themselves on their knees before the clergyman who accompanied him; touching his garments with their finger, and then kiffing their hand with great veneration. Here are fome curious Greek infcriptions relative to the ancient city of Gela. The moft remarkable is a prephifma, or decree of the fenate, fenate, for crowning Heraclides director of the public academy. At Terranova the traveller quitted the fouthern coaft, and directed his course north-east; but the low roads being impracticable on account of late rains, he was obliged to pafs over the high country, which is almoft an entire fandy forest of cork-trees. The profpects on every fide were grand; and he now, for the firft time, difcovered Etna, towering above all the intermediate mountains, white with fnow, and difcharging from its fummit a conftant but feeble ftream of smoke. We must not omit to present our readers with the author's interesting account of Calatagerone. Calatagerone, a royal city, containing about feventeen thousand inhabitants, living by agriculture, and the making of potter's ware, is twenty miles from the fea, and fituated on the fummit of a very high insulated hill, embofomed in thick groves of cypreffes; the road to it, though paved, is very steep, difficult, and dangerous for any thing but a mule or an afs. I was conducted to the college of the late Jefuits; and as the houfe was completely ftripped of furniture, full of dirt and cobwebs, I apprehended my night's lodgings would be but in-. different. The fervant belonging to the gentleman who has the management of this forfeited eftate, and to witom I had brought a letter requesting a lodging in the college, perceiving the difficulties we lay under in making our fettlement, ran home, and returned in a short time, with a polite invitation to his master's house. There was no refusing such an offer, though I was far from expecting any thing beyond a comfortable apartment, and homely fare, in a family fettled among the inland mountains of Sicily; but, to my great furprize, I found the house of the baron of Rofabia, large and convenient, fitted up in a modern tafte, with furniture that would be deemed elegant in any capital city in Europe. Every thing fuited this outward fhew; attendance, table, plate, and equipage. The baron and his lady having both travelled, and feen a great deal of the world, had returned to fettle in their native city, where they affured me I might find many families equally improved by an acquaintance with the manners of foreign countries, or, at least a frequentation of the best company in their own metropolis. Nothing could be more eafy and polite than their addrefs and conversation, and my aftonishment was hourly increafing during my whole ftay. After I had refreshed myself with a fhort but excellent meal, they took me out in a very handfome coach. It was a fingular circumftance to meet a string of carriages full of well-dreffed ladies and gentlemen on the fummit of a mountain, which no vehicle can ascend, unless it be previously taken to pieces, and placed upon the backs of mules. We seemed to be feated among the clouds. As the vast expanfe of the hills and vales grew dim with the evening vapours, our parading refembled the amufements of the heathen gods, in fome poems and pictures, driving about Olympus, and looking down at the mortals below. The hour of airing being expired, which confifted of fix turns of about half a mile each, a numerous assembly was formed at the baron's houfe; the manners of the company were extremely polished, and the French language familiar to the greatest part of it. When the card-tables were removed, a handfome fupper, dreffed by a French cook, was ferved up, with excellent foreign and Sicilian wines; the conversation took a lively turn, and was well fupported till midnight, when we all retired to reft. Calatagerone has feveral houses that live in the fame elegant flyle, and its inhabitants have the reputation of being the politeft people in the ifland. The climate in this elevated region is extremely different from that of the tepid fhores I had lately frequented; the night air was sharp and frofty, and a cloth coat very neceffary. Every person in the affembly carried a small filver vafe full of hot embers hanging at the wrift.' Leaving Calatagerone, Mr. Swinburne traverfed a plain of arable land, furrounded by bare hills, in tillage. The ancient city of Mineo crowns a mountain on the right; opposite to which the view opening difcovers a prodigious extent of flat country, that runs up to the foot of Etna. He now diftinguifhed this gigantic mountain from its fnowy fummit down. to the corn-fields in the plain. The middle region is dark with lavas and forefts; below them the vineyards form a zone of a reddish brown colour. At this point the traveller entered volcanic ground; the hillocks on each fide of the road are mere heaps of lava, in various degrees of hardness and colour. The lands are tilled with a fpecies of plough that seems to have been invented in the earliest attempts at cultivation, and still found of fufficient powers for this triturated prolific foil. It confifts of one handle and a wooden coulter, and is drawn by mules, horfes, or oxen. Lentini, once a city of note, is now a poor ill-built folitary town. The hills that inclofe it on the east are hollowed into many large cavities, where falt-petre is produced in great quantities; people are conftantly employed in fcraping it of the walls, and carrying it to a boiler. The fituation of Lentini is very unwholefome during fummer and autumn, on account of its vicinity to the lake of Biveri, and a great space of country covered with fens and ponds, which in all ages have infected its atmosphere. The traveller thence defcended to the beach, near an ancient monument called L'Agulia, or Needle, fuppofed to have been erected by Marcellus, in commemoration of his conquest of |