son, consider it as allusive to the offerings made by the Magi, or Kings, to the Infant Jesus. In our Universities, where the custom of drawing for King and Queen was formerly common, the classical origin would appear to have been favoured, as the lots were decided by beans found in the divided cake.

"The old Calendars stated, that on the vigil of this day, Kings were created or elected by beans;' and denominated the day itself the Festival of Kings,' which is still retained in Spain. At present the honours of King andQueen, and others of a festive nature, introduced to heighten the jollity, are determined by the drawing of folded slips of paper, on which are inscribed these ephemeral distinctions, though the practice of drawing beans is yet preserved in some few districts, To which of these. conjectures the origin of this practice is properly attributable, must be left undecided though it is not improbable, that the Heathen custom was the first observed, and that of the Christians engrafted upon it, as has been a frequent usage. England was not, however, singular in the observance of the day; nearly the whole of Europe have had the like custom, differing only in some particular points, arising from national, political, or religious propensities or prejudices." In the first month occur,

"St. Lucian, Jan. 8;" "Plough Monday, Jan. 13;" "St. Hilary, Jan. 13;" "St. Prisca, Jan. 18;" "St. Fabian, Jan. 20;" "St. Agnes, Jan. 21;""St. Vincent, Jan. 22;" "TERMS, Jan. 23," (a very curious article); "Conversion of St. Paul, Jan. 25;" "Septuagesima Sunday, Jan. 26;" "King Charles the First, the Martyr, Jan. 30."

"The various circumstances," says Mr. Brady, "connected with the tragical death of the Monarch, styled in our book of Common Prayer, 'King Charles the Martyr,' are amply detailed by our several Historians; and the magnanimity and pious resignation displayed by that unfortunate, yet accomplished Prince, from the moment he was in the power of his enemies, to the termination of his earthly career on the scaffold, are universally admired even by those otherwise most hostile to his reputation. It would therefore be superfluous to enter in detail upon those circumstances; though it may prove interesting to adduce some facts, which are not generally known, nor readily to be collected.

"That the death of the King was not originally designed, would seem to be generally admitted, while some of those causes which at least accelerated, if they

did not actually determine, his fate, have been but partially attended to: hypocritical in the extreme, as the conduct of Cromwell proved him to be, it is not for a moment to be imagined, that his ideas at first extended to that vast height to which his ambition at length attained; much less can it be considered that in the outset of his public life he contemplated the murder of the King."

In like manner our ingenious and entertaining Author proceeds through the whole year; but we shall make only one more extract.

"Shrove Tuesday, Feb. 11, 1812. The term Shrove is the preter tense of the Saxon verb to shrive, i. e. to confess; hence the Tuesday, governing the title of this Sunday, having been the most solemn period of confession, was also called Confession Tuesday, or Shrove Tide, confession time; Tide or Tid being the Saxon word for time, which is yet applied in this country to particular periods, such as Whitsun-tide, &c."

"After the people had made the confession, required at this season by the discipline of the antient Church, they were permitted to indulge in festive amusements, although not allowed to partake of any repasts beyond the usual substitutes for flesh; and hence arose the custom, yet generally preserved, of eating Pancakes and Fritters at Shrovetide, which has given this day the vulgar appellation of Pancake Tuesday; while it is to be remembered, that the Monday preceding was, by the vulgar, called Collop Monday, a name it even yet retains in some places, from the primitive custom of regaling with eggs on collops or slices of bread, which the less scrupulous and more luxurious moderns have extended to collops of meat. On these days of authorized indulgence, the most wanton recreations were tolerated, provided a due regard was paid to the abstinence commanded by the Church; and from this origin sprang the Popish Carnival, and all its attendant profligacy, appropriately derived from Carni Vale, i. e. farewell to flesh, in allusion to the Lenten season which was to commence on the succeeding morning. From the loose pastimes of the age in which the Carnival originated, are also to be traced the nearly-exploded diversions of Cock-fighting and Cockthrowing, as well as the discontinued custom of Whipping tops, Roasting of Herrings, Jack of Lent, &c. &c. which three last-named sports were evidently meant as types of the rigour of Church discipline. The cock-fightings and cock

throwings

throwings in England, which, much to the credit of the present generation, have been of late sinking into disuse, were formerly general throughout the Kingdom; and their progressive decline is to be attributed, in some measure, to the vigilance of our magistrates, who have refused licences to those publicans who promoted assemblages of persons for such cruel diversions; and still more, it is to be hoped, to the increased morality of the people. For many years our publie diaries, and monthly publications, took infinite pains to impress upon the minds of the populace a just abhorrence of such barbarities."

By way of "strengthening his argument," Mr. Brady refers to the awful death of Mr. Ardesoif, recorded in our vol. LIX. p. 374; to which we shall add a short extract from the "Historical Register, 1718," p. 8.

"Feb. 25, 1717-18, being Shrove Tuesday, a son of Mr. Claxton, an Upholsterer,by the Fleet Ditch-side, standing to see a Cock thrown at, was killed by a Cats-stick, that happened to hit under the Ear."

A new Edition, with Corrections by the Author, we understand, may speedily be expected. And there is no doubt but Mr. Brady, who is still in the prime of life, will have frequent opportunities of making occasional improvements in the Work through many successive impressions.

2. Tirocinium Medicum; or, a Dissertation on the Duties of Youth apprenticed to the Medical Profession. By Wm. Chamberlaine, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Fellow of the Medical Society of London, &c. &c. 12mo. Pp. 253.

THE ingenious Author of this little Treatise has evinced a consummate knowledge of the duties appertaining to that class of persons on whom so much depends, in regard to the health and welfare of every description of his Majesty's subjects, front the highest to the lowest. His observations and precepts, which appear to be grounded upon a long and diligent practice of the Healing Art, in the several capacities of Surgeon, Pharmacopolist, and Accoucheur, are most worthy the attentive perusal of every youth intended for the Medical pro'fession, and of every Parent and Guardian who may have such an object in view. With the former indeed it

GENT. MAG. January, 1813.

ought to be an inseparable companion; and we are persuaded that much good would arise to the practice of Medicine, and the publick at large, by a proper attention to the rules laid down in this excellent and amusing little Vade Mecum.

The following extract from the Author's Preface informs the Reader to what description of persons his work is addressed:

"To your dashing young men of for tune, who think they have learned enough already; to those who (if there are Masters that will permit it) come down stairs in a morning, and lounge about the shop and surgery in a clean flannel gown, silk stockings, and red slippers, until breakfast-time; or, to those who, without having any business to take them from behind the counter, are never seen to wear a pair of shoes, but pound their mortar and roll their pills, in a pair of jockey boots, with tops turned down to the ancles, in the hottest summer weather; to such as these, who take much more pains to learn the best composition for cleaning boot-tops, and spend more of their valuable time in taking spots out of the leather, than in studying the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia, or learning to dress a blister :-To such I dọ not address myself.

"No; the directions given in the suc ceeding pages are addressed to the young pupil, favoured by nature with a good disposition, docile, tractable, and willing to make himself useful; whose parents, unable to pay a very heavy fee, have bound him to an Apothecary, whose bu siness, not yet fully established, will not allow him to keep an assistant; nor, perhaps, for the first two or three years of his getting into business, even an errand-boy-who, for that very reason, must sweep the shop, keep it clean; and, after he has made up the Medicines, carry them out to the patients; who must, in addition to these employments, find time to post his Books and write out his Bills-aye, and at the beginning of the ensuing year, deliver them too." "I have" (adds the Author) "had Apprentices, who have gone through all this, and who are now full Surgeons in the Army and Navy; and who evince their respect and gratitude to me on every opportunity."

The following appropriate Queries are put as matter of consideration to the youth, previous to his engagement with a master:

"Can

"Can you bear the thoughts of being obliged to get up out of your warm bed, in a cold winter's night, or rather morning, to make up Medicines which your employer, just arrived from attending a labour, through cold, frost, and snow, prescribes for a lady just put to bed, or a patient taken suddenly and dangerously ill? Or, supposing that your Master is not yet in sufficient business to keep a boy to take out the medicines--can you make up your mind to think it no hardship to take them to the patient after you have made them up?

"Are you too fine a gentleman to think of contaminating your fingers by administering a clyster to a poor man, or a rich man, or a child dangerously ill, when no nurse can be found that knows any thing of the matter? This is a part of your profession that it is as necessary for you to know how to perform, as it is to bleed, or dress a wound. Or are your olfactory nerves so delicate, that you cannot avoid turning sick when dressing an old neglected ulcer; or when, in removing dressings, your nose is assailed with the effluvia from a carious bone? If you cannot bear these things, put Surgery out of your head, and go and be apprentice to a Man Milliner or Per

fumer."

After a variety of entertaining particulars, we find some strong remarks ou the absolute necessity of a proper knowledge of the Latin language to the Tyro, with its several abbreviations as used by Physicians; and some judicious hints are given on this head to the Examiners of the Corporation of Surgeons and the Apothecaries' Company. We have likewise a relation of several most serious accidents under the head of "Mistakes in making up Medicines," arising from a deficiency of this knowledge, and the too frequent carelessness of Shopmen and Apprentices; on which subject the Author offers the following appropriate observations:

"The life of the father of a numerous family, of a beloved wife, of an only child, the fate of a whole family, often depends on an Apothecary's apprentice or journeyman! How often have most lamentable mistakes occasioned death! Let us suppose a gentleman desirous of having the best advice for his wife; to have brought her up to town from a distance of two or three hundred miles, at a very heavy and perhaps most inconvenient expence he consults the most eminent Physician, who receives his guinea a-day; perhaps, has three or four Physicians, each receiving his two guineas

a-day for consultation; or, let us suppose a patient unable to go the journey, and an eminent Physician is sent for, who has his guinea a-mile exclusive of his fee, besides other expences; in either case the prescription is sent to the Apothecary-there may be some one article that the prescriber may place a greater dependance on, for restoring the patient, than all the rest. The Apothecary (we are supposing a possible case) may not have this one article; and the shopman or apprentice, ignorant of its importance, substitutes something similar in colour or consistence, as a succedaneum; or, perhaps in a mistake gives Tinctur. Opii for Tinct. Opii Camphorat. or in a hurry mistakes a drachm for an ounce, or writes in the direction, a table spoonful instead of a tea spoonful, or any other mistake of a similar nature. What must be the consequence? In many cases Death!! And in that event what to the Apothecary? Certain loss of business, by being exposed every where, and possibly prosecution."

The following cases are related as real events that have happened through the ignorance and inattention of persons employed in the compounding and labelling of Medicines:

cheur for the usual medicines for a lady "A prescription was sent by an Accou after her delivery: the child was dead. In addition there was also a prescription for some sort of embrocation for her breasts; the affected parts to be rubbed with the same PRO RENATA (occasionally). The compounder knew very well that 'pro' was 'for,' but not being quite satisfied about re, goes to his Dictionary, and there finds res a thing; then turns to nata, and finds natus, a, um, 'BORN.' Now then he has it right: For the little thing born;' but deeming little thing as too familiar, he, wishing to shew all due respect to his Master's patient, wrote on the label, The little infant newly born to be well rubbed with this embrocation'!"

"Many accidents" (observes the Author) "have happened from the loss of labels tied round the necks of phials. Minéral acids destroy the ink, and cor rode the paper; sometimes not even the pains to tie the labels round the neck are taken, but they are through laziness stuck into the mouths of phials, and only held there by the, cork.— A fatal mistake once happened in my neighbour. hood, by the changing, through the care, lessness and inattention of a drunken nurse, the labels of two phials, thus improperly thrust in and held by the corks only. A two-ounce phial of a Saturnine lotion was sent at the same time, and to the same place, with a two-ounce draught

of

of some White Emulsion. The nurse thought proper to take the corks out of both; probably for the purpose of tasting them. Be that as it may, she stuck in the labels at a venture; unluckily she stuck them in wrong; the patient drank the preparation of lead, and died before morning!

"A Gentlewoman of Chad's-row was delivered of a fine child: she was attended by a Midwife, who ordered her some embrocation for a painful affection of the arm, with some laudanum in it, from a chemist's; and some syrup and oil for the child. The nurse took one of the labels to light a candle; and as the first label was burnt out before the candle caught the flame, she took the other label, and burnt that out also. -Thus left without a direction, she rubbed the lady's arm with the child's syrup and of, and gave the infant a tea-spoonful of the volatile Liniment and Laudanum ! ! Need I say that the poor infant died in excruciating agonies?"

The rules propounded by the worthy Author of this Treatise, are calculated to render such ludicrous and fatal mistakes as the above altogether impossible. His pages moreover contain many useful hints on the arrangement of the Apothecary's Shop, with forms of Books for the facility and convenience of business, and such wholesome admonitions addressed to the young Student on the subjects of correctness, cleanliness, and other essentials, that we most cordially recommend the work as deserving of a place on the desk or counter of every Surgeon and Apothecary, Chemist and Druggist, in the United Empire.

9. Sketches of the present Manners, Customs, and Scenery of Scotland; with incidental Remarks on the Scottish Character. By Elizabeth Isabella Spence, Author of Summer Excursions,' &c. &c. 2 vols. 12mo. Longman and Co. THE time is not long which has clapsed since we introduced this Lady's Summer Excursions to our Readers as a pleasing companion for a leisure hour; and we are much mistaken if the two little Volumes now before us do not recompense those who read them by her rapid sketches of men and things in that portion of Great Britain chosen for her illustration.

In her Preface, we have such explanations as the fair Authoress deemed necessary for her present publication; which we shall repeat, in order

that her intentions may be fully known. In the first place, she admits there are numerous descriptive accounts of Scotland; but she is conscious that much still remain to be described. "Many beautiful, romantic, sublime, and picturesque scenes have never yet been honoured with the delighted gaze of the Southern traveller; and some interesting traits of national character, and the diverse effects of local manners, will long be discovered by the curious observer, who has learned to survey the manners and morals of man." That she should venture to increase the stock of infornation, she attributes to the very favourable reception of the work we have just mentioned.

There is a certain degree of independence of mind necessary in the composition of a good author; by which we mean, that a man ought not to suppress those feelings which arise from viewing some glaring deviation from morality or honesty, through a slavish fear of exciting the displeasure of the party concerned; though we are apprehensive that writers sometimes indulge in a freedom of reprehension, proceeding from a jealous disposition in themselves, which they mistake for the indepependence we allude to. Mrs. Spence observes, that men," possibly through courtesy," ascribe to the ladies who have favoured the world with their remarks on national manners and character, a brilliancy and justness of description peculiar to the sex. Encouraged by this decision, she has frankly and candidly expressed her opinions and feelings as they occurred on the spot. That some of those might give offence, she seems aware; but, as she asserts they are all founded in truth, she claims no peculiar merit in being their herald; and if they wound the feelings of any one, she may regret the circumstance, though she doth not consider herself responsible for the effect. We would in this case be understood to imply our belief, that the opinions of this lady are of the description which we should call justifiably independent.

She continues by saying, that the English considered Scotland within a century past as only partially civilized; but though it has not received its due respect from others, it has done itself ample justice in the production of

cele

celebrated men in every department of science, unexampled in number, proportioned to its limited population. "It is not, indeed, necessary to trans

fer, like certain superstitious religionists, our respect for great men to the inanimate objects which surrounded them; but it may not be unworthy of philosophical enquiry to investigate how far local manners, rugged mountains, and peculiar scenery,may have contributed to the formation and final developement of those powers which have afterwards affected distant nations, and been the glory and delight of their own."

This lady correctly observes, the culture of the human mind has become one of the most important studies of man; the only secure basis for that study is facts; hence it follows, that "observations on the popular manners and principles of different countries can never be too much diversified, never be superfluous or useless, provided the observer is not previ ously vitiated in taste or principle." Considering things in this light, the Authoress thinks her own simple and unaffected observations, contained in the Letters before us, may have their advantages, and be placed amongst those works, whence may be derived a practical knowledge of men and man

ners.

As the Letters afforded her no opportunity of inserting some general remarks she wished to make, they are introduced in the Preface to the following purport; and first, she claims, " perhaps, a higher degree of impartiality than falls to the lot of most Tourists through Scotland." No one can dispute, she adds, that national and local prejudices exist, and, "perhaps, considering the frailty of human nature, it is not advisable to seek their total abolition in the present stage of civilization." Supposing that the yet surviving spirit of Clanship was the origin of "The Minstrel sy of the Scottish Border," and that the other poems of the same author were produced by the same cause; Mrs. Spence considers, that it ought not to be hastily "denounced as one of the direst curses of civil society." We shall accompany the lady still further on this subject, and it will be for the publick to decide how far impartiality is maintained: friends, she asserts, are much more likely to speak the truth of friends, than enemies are of enemies. "The representations of the

former are generally beneficial to society, while those of the latter are as uniformly injurious." The ratio of local attachments, and prejudices against other places, is the same; and the lady admits that prepossessions sometimes betray great weakness; and she cites as instances, "those of certain effeminate cockneys," who at one time visited Scotland, and saw what is not uncommon in many other countries, the robust peasantry performing journeys bare-footed, and thence "did not hesitate to depreciate the talents and moral character of the people, and to hold up, as they thought, the whole nation to derision and contempt." She thinks this weakness is now nearly extinct, as, in general, mutual intercourse and extended observation have shewn the folly of pronouncing the diversity or peculiarity of local manners and customs the decisive marks of national or personal inferiority.

"It would indeed perplex the affected champions of City luxuries to determine in what the bare-foot peasants of Scotland are inferior in either mental or physical powers, in talents, sobriety, honesty, or mechanical skill, to the nailshod peasants of England: on the contrary, it would be easy to shew their superior agility and indefatigability in almost every branch of industry.”

Citizens are equally prone to prejudices as peasants; and the people of different countries are prepossessed against each other: "it follows, therefore, that impartiality is likely to be the lot of those, whom concurring circumstances have fortunately removed beyond the sphere of such contracting bias." From this position Mrs. Spence deduces what she terms the negative merit of impartiality, as she owes to Scotland the accident of her birthplace, and to England her education; thus she concludes the two primary causes of local prejudices are balanced in her particular case.

Scotland, this lady advances, has many claims to our attention: "the high moral character of its inhabitants is universally allowed;" and which she is inclined to attribute to their ge neral study of metaphysical writings, and a practice of abstract reasoning, which has diffused very correct ideas of practical justice throughout the country. Few of the most respectable mechanicks and tradesmen are unac

quainted