the attempts of infidelity and irreligion to erect an empire. Such is the plan of the extenfive and interefting work, of which the first and preliminary volume is now before us.

XI. In this age of Dictionaries, one of the most extensively ufeful to young ftudents, which we have met with, is the Dictionaire geographique, biflorique, et myth:logique, portatif, Sc. i. e. A portable Dictionary, geographical, historical, and mythologial, which contains a Defcription of the Empires, Kingdoms, and Countries, that were known to the Ancients, with their various Denominations, and the Revolutions that have happened within their Limits; as alfo the Situation of their Cities, with their Names, both ancient and modern, likewife thofe of Seas, Gulphs, Ifles, Harbours, Rivers, Lakes, Mountains, and Capes.-Finally, a Summary of the Lives of the most illuftrious Men of Antiquity, with an Account of the fabulous Gods and Heroes of Paganism, to affift the young Student in reading with Advantage the Greek and Latin Authors. By Mr. FURGAULT, Profeffor in the Univerfity of Paris. 8vo.

XII. Geographie Universelle à l'Ufage des Colleges, &c. i. e. Universal Geography for the Ufe of Schools and other Seminaries of Education. By Mr. ROBERT, Ancient Profeffor of Philofophy at Chalons Sur-Saonne. This fecond edition of an excellent elementary book is ftill fuperior to the first.

XIII. La Fortification Perpendiculaire, &c. i. e. Perpendicular Fortification, or an Effay concerning different Methods of fortifying the Right Line, the Triangle, the Square, and all Polygons, whatever the Dimenfions of their Sides may be, by giving a perpendicular Direction to their Defence; in which alfo Methods are propofed for improving the Strength of Places already fortified, and Plans of Redoubts, Forts and Intren.hments, conftructed on new Principles the whole enriched and illufirated by Cuts executed by the ableft Engravers. By the Marquis of MONTALEMBERT, Marfhal of the King's Camps and Armies, Lieutenant general of the Provinces of Saintonge, &c. Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and of the Imperial Academy of .Petersburg. Volume I. 4to. 1776.-The defign of this work is to render fortified towns impregnable; and it is acknowledged by the first-rate connoiffeurs to be a mafter-piece of its kind. The author complains of the modern method of employing bastions, which are not, even fince the invention of cannon, fo good a defence as the old-fashioned perpendicular walls, flanked with towers. He fhews that the towns in France, that are fortified with baitions, put the government to a prodigious and unneceflary expence,refift feebly,-are liable to be furprifed,-that it is eafy to filence their batteries, that they are taken as foon as this happens, nay often, while their fire continues in its greateft vigour. The learned and ingenious author prescribes remedies for all thefe inconveniencies in the towns already REV. Dec. 1776. fortified,

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fortified, and fhews how they may be prevented in the fortifi'cations that are to be raised in the time to come, by his perpendicular works.

XIV. Efprit des Ufages et des Coûtumes des differens Peuples, &c. i. e. Quinteffence (for we know not how to tranflate it otherwife) of the Customs and Manners of different Nations, or Obfervations drawn from various Travellers and Hiftorians. 3 Vols. By Mr. de MUENIEN. 1776. This collection is by no means the work of a vulgar compiler; it is well chosen, entertaining, and instructive.

XV. Effais Politiques fur l'Autorité et les Riches que Clergé, c. i. e. Political Effays on the Authority and Opulence that have been acquired by the fecular and regular Clergy fince their firft Establishment. By M. GOEZMAN. 12mo. 1776. In thele effays the ingenious author examines the bond of union which connects monaftic establishments with the political fyftem of the coun tries where they take place, compares the advantages that have refulted from their fuppreffion in fome nations, and from their continuance in others, and inquires into the best methods of making them indemnify the ftate on the one hand, for what it lofes by them on the other.

XVI. M. Moutard, bookfeller, has actually in the prefs, and intends to publish immediately, the two first volumes of a large work propofed to fubfcribers, and of which four volumes are to be published annually until the whole (which is to be comprifed in 30 volumes in 12mo with maps) fhall be finished, This work is entitled Le Cofmographe, ou Defcription hiftorique, politique, phyfique, &c. i. e. The Cosmographer, or an bistorical, political, philofophical, and literary Defcription of the known World. The two volumes, which are in the prefs, contain the Preface, an Abridgment of Aftronomy_confidered in its relation to geography, the Theory of the Earth, a general Description of the terreftrial Globe with its principal Divifions, and fuch hiftorical, political, physical and literary Obfervations or Facts as belong to this general View of the Earth. The kingdom of France, with which the authors of this undertaking (for it is the work of a fociety) intend to begin their particular detail, will be the fubject of the two fubfequent volumes, which are to appear in July 1777.

XVII. Lettre de M. de Voltaire à l'Academie Francoife, i, i. e. A Letter from M. de Voltaire to the French Academy, read publicly in that Affembly on the Festival of St. Louis, the 23d of August 1776. Here the poet of Ferney naufeoufly bepraises himfelf through fome fulfome pages, and then gathers and scrapes together all the low paffages which Shakespeare, either tainted by, or complying with, the tafte and manners of his age, let drop from his pen.

MONTHLY

MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For DECEMBER, 1776.

MEDICAL.

Art. 13. The New Method of curing Difeafes by inspecting the Urine, explained: As practifed by the German Doctor. bvo. 19. Bew. 1776.

Tlaughs at his ignorance, and recites the experiments which HE Author inveighs against Meyersbach for his imposture,

have been made upon his skill. He has collected a number of stories about the Doctor's blunders: fuch as that of his difcovering [by infpection of the liquid] a woman to be " with child," when, unluckily, it turned out that she was seventy years old;-that of, bis pronouncing the water of a confumptive girl to have been made by "fome old man," afflicted with the gravel-and that of his declaring a" young gentleman" to be in a violent fever, when it happened that the patient was an old cow, who had, very innocently, helped fome wags to play the doctor this ugly trick."

It cannot, however, be affirmed that nobody, befide the Doctor bimfelf, is benefited by his fingular mode of practice, fince the pamphleteers alfo feem to be making money of it.

Art. 14. The Impoftor Detected; or the Phyfician the greater Cheat: Being a candid Inquiry concerning the Practice of Dr. Meyerfbach;-containing a faithful Account of many remarkable Cures performed by him, which had been deemed incurable — Being a full Refutation of the fophiftical Arguments and invidious Reflections of Dr. Lettfom, and others. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Wilkie. Abuses Dr. Lettfom, extols Dr. Meyerbach, and recites a parcel of unparalleled cures performed by the latter on which miraculous cafes this writer (unknown) comments, and argues, and proves, and reproves,-in order to convince the world that the German Doctor muft, neceffarily, poffefs greater fkill, or difpenfe better medicines, than the faculty, who could not work fuch wonders, can boast. But, notwithstanding the affected triumphs of this champion without a name, his utmost efforts feem too feeble to parry the powerful thrufts of the refolute and vigorous Lettfom t; who appears determined to refcue the public from the fatal effects of a most dangerous delufion, and a most impudent impofture.

Art. 15. An Efay on Gleets, &c. By J. P. Marat, M. D. 4to.. 1 S. Nicoll.

Whatever may be, the abilities or fuccefs of this Author, as a practitioner, we cannot entertain any favourable idea of him as a theorist, when we find him speaking of the matter discharged in a

Other, fimilar, experiments, are related; but we have given enough. Some cafes are alfo recited, in which the Doctor's methods of treatment are faid to have proved fatal.

† See our account of the Doctor's pamphlet again ft Meyerfbach, Rev. October, p. 314.

Vid Dr. Lettfom's frequent attacks upon the Urine Doctor, in a fucceffion of letters, &c. printed in the Daily Gazetteer,

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gleet,

gleet, as proceeding in fome cafes, from a rarefaction of the fluids, caufed by the expanfion of the internal air; as happens in fpring and autumn, two feafons where the atmosphere, being lefs elattic, does not oppofe fo great a refiftance to the action of the internal air.

In the practical part of the work, the Author difplays his fuccefs in the cure of feveral gleets unfuccefsfully treated by M. Daran himfelf; and gives an account of the principles on which his method of cure is founded, with the avowed liberal view of promoting the good of fociety;'-not forgetting, however, in a kind of dedication to the worshipful company of furgeons in London, to give the Reader a hint where he may be spoke with.

Art. 16. The Phyfical Friend; pointing out the Symptoms of every Diftemper incident to Man; with thofe in every Stage of the Difeafe, and what they foretel, Sc. Sc. &c. By J. A. M. D. and F. R.S. 12mo. 2 S. 6d. Baldwin. 1776.

This phyfical friend is one of the tamest and most harmless of the olafs of medical writers and compilers, which fo abounds in this writing and compiling age of ours. Whether his friendly profeffions, which fill a crowded title page, be fincere or not; he can, at leaft, do you no mischief. He is

• Arvake to buz, but not alive to fting :'

for there is not a single recipe recommended, or even hinted at in his whole performance. Many a perfon,' fays this confiderate compiler, having loft his life, owing to an ignorance of his diforder,-İ thought I could not do mankind a greater service, than by laying before the Reader the fymptoms of each particular difeafe; which will enable him to call in advice before it be too late.' Accordingly, under the different titles of difeafes, the diagnoses, as your medical people call them, are given, together with the good and bad figns; principally and avowedly compiled from Allen's old compilation; and each paragraph is figned in form by Hippocrates, C. Aurelianus, Etmullerus, &c. and other reverend names in us: the whole calculated to inform the Reader what name to give his disorder-which must be a great comfort to a fick man-and whether he is bad enough to fend for the doctor, or may fafely keep his money in his pocket-which is another great comfort. Should he prefer the latter alternative, we would then recommend him to the friendly gentleman in the next article.

Art, 17. The Modern Family Physician, or the Art of Healing made easy; being a plain Defcription of Difeafes, &c. with the Methods of Cure, &c. 8vo. 3s. bound. Newbery. 1775

The preceding compiler is fententious, pithy, and aphoriftical; this is a long-winded gentleman, a compiler too, who profes through thirty fix chapters of dull and tedious advice, copied and minced from the writings of Sydenham, Mead, Sloane, Buchan, and others. --Surely the public will at length be furfeited with thefe medical hafhes, ferved up thus repeatedly, by fuch a fet of woeful cooks! Art. 18. Eight anatomical Tables of the human Body; containing the principal Parts of the Skeletons and Mufcles reprefented in the Jarge Tables of Albinus; to which are added concife Explanations. By John Innes, Edinburgh printed. 4to. 6s. 6d. in Boards. Sold by Becket in London.

Thefe

Thefe tables are defigned by Mr. Innes to accompany a fhort defcription of the human mufcles lately published by him. They are copies on a fmall fcale, of fome of the elegant and accurate plates of Albinus; and may be ferviceable to fuch anatomical ftudents as have not accefs to the originals; which is all, confidering the minutencfs of the figures, and the mediocrity of their execution, that we can say in their favour.

MATHEMATICS.

Art. 19. A Syflem of Military Mathematics. By Lewis Lochée, Master of the Military Academy, Little Chelfea. Svo. 2 Vols. 12 s. fewed. Cadell. 1776.

The following account is given by the author himself of this work. The first volume contains arithmetic and algebra; and the fecond thofe parts of geometry that comprehend the menfuration of diftar ces acccfible and inacceffible, of plain furfaces, and of prisms, cylinders, cones, fpheres, and other folid bodies. The ufe of both fciences I have endeavoured to illuftrate by a constant application of them to the various duties and employments of military fervice; and the order in which the feveral parts are ranged, though it may differ from that which is adopted by others, is by repeated experience found to be moft rational in itself, and most inftructive to the ftudent.'

It will be fufficient to obferve, that this fyftem is drawn up with judgment; that it is well calculated to anfwer the particular purpose for which the author defigns it; and that it may be perused with pleasure and advantage by others, who are not educated for a military profeffion. These two volumes form part of a courfe of military mathematics, which the author proposes to pursue, if he meets with fuitable encouragement.

AMERICAN CONTROVERSY. Art. 20. A Letter to the Rev. Jofiah Tucker, D. D. Dean of Gloucester, in Answer to his " Humble Addrefs and Earneft Ap peal, &c." With a Poffcript, in which the prefent War with America is fhewn to be the Effect, not of the Caufes affigned by him and others, but of a fixed Plan of Adminiftration, founded in SYSTEM: The landed oppofed to the commercial Intereft of the State, being as the Means in order to the End. By Samuel Eftwick, L.L. D. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Almon.

The Dean has here met with a very lively, fenfible, and able anta gonift. Mr. Eftwick is an acute reafoner, and an entertaining writer. His letter abounds not only with pertinent and juft, but with pleasant, remarks on the Humble Addrefs, and on its reverend author; and, on the whole, he appears to be well informed with refpect to every branch of the important argument which he has undertaken to maintain, in oppofition to fo great a proficient in political and commercial knowledge as the Dean of Gloucester.-The grand question regarding actual and virtual reprefentation in parlia ment is particularly difcuffed, in order to fhew the justice of what

* See Review for September laft, p. 243.

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has