Art. 15. The Hiftory of Ancient Greece; from the earliest Times, till it became a Roman Province. 12mo. 4s. Edinburgh, printed for Kincaid and Co. and fold by Knox, in London. 1768. The hiflory of ancient Greece abounds with fuch a variety of great and memorable events, and is, in every view, fo curious and inftructive, that almost every clafs of readers must be defirous of having a general acquaintance with it. Those who have neither leifure nor ability to confult the Greek writers themselves, will find their account in perufing the work now before us, which, notwithstanding fome inaccuracies of ftyle, contains a clearer and more distinct view of the hiftory of the ancient Greeks than we remember to have feen within the compafs of 568 pages, of which this judicious epitome confifts; exclufive of the preface and index. MEDICA L. Art. 16. A Treatise on the Effects and various Preparations of Lead, particularly of the Extract of Saturn, for different chirurgical Disorders. Tranflated from the French of Mr. Goulard, Surgeon-Major to the Royal and Military Hofpital at Montpellier. Svo. 3s. Elmfly. 1769. Mr. Goulard's Extract of Saturn is a folution of lead in vinegar; and is the basis of a variety of remedies, to which he gives the following names; viz. a vegeto-mineral water, a cerate, cataplafm, pomatum, nutritum, and plaifter. Our Author's idea of the operation of his faturnine remedies is exhibited in the following paragraph: From what has been faid, it follows, that there is not to be found, among all the chirurgical prefcriptions, a medicine more adapted than the extract of Saturn for fubduing external inflammations; that it is endued with the fingular property of penetrating the obftructed blood and lymphatic veffels, and of difperfing the infpiffated matter therein, without too much relaxing or irritating the coats of the infiamed parts; it preferves a medium between these two actions, and thereby infenfibly produces, without any bad confequences, the most furprifing effects. This remedy feems to reunite, at once, three qualities very effential for an antiphlogistic medicine; a cooling virtue, which the moft ardent inflammatory heat cannot refift; an anodyne one, which quiets the most violent pains obferved in inflammation; an attenuating, refolving quality, which the prejudiced part of mankind have unfairly confounded with repulfion in fhort, all the parts of our body, without diftinction, fatty, glandulous, mufcalar, tendinous, aponeurotic, membranous, ligamentinous, weak or ftrong in their texture, endowed with a greater or lefs degree of fenfibility, bear with equal fuccefs the action of our metallic remedy.' The virtues of the extract of Saturn according to Mr. Goulard, are very powerful and very extenfive.-in infiammations, whether phlegmon or erifipelas; contufions, burns, gun-hot wounds; fuppurations, abfcefies, ulcers, and fiftulas; cancers, whether occult or ulcerated; fprains, ftiffness of the joints, relaxation of the ligaments; gouty and rheumatic pains; tetters, itch, ruptures, and piles.-In X 4 the the above difeafes, the preparations of lead are only applied externally; and every particular chapter, is illuftrated by a variety of cafes. We have no doubt of the ufefulness of our Author's remedies, when directed with judgment and caution; fome of his hiftories, however, are fo very extraordinary as to border upon the wonderful. -What can we think, when Mr. Goulard attributes the reduction of a dislocated femur to the efficacy of his vegeto-mineral water! Madam de la Gomercini, a Genoefe lady, had been troubled from her childhood with a relaxation of the capfular ligaments of her left thigh. The diforder had been encreafing for fifteen years past; and fo much fo, that the motion of the part was infenfibly leffened. The weakness was fo great, that he was unable to fupport herself; as fhe likewife was either to walk, fit down, or get up, without af fiftance. Though the diforder had originally been of a long ftanding, it was only for the fix or feven latt years that it had made any confiderable progrefs. When I had the honour of attending her, in company with two Genoefe phyficians, I found her pains exceffive, and the whole thigh confiderably emaciated. For many years paft, this lady had confulted the most eminent of the faculty, in different parts of the world, had made trials of various baths, and of many other remedies, without finding advantage from any. Having carefully examined the part, I found, that the head of the femur was difplaced, and lodged upon the mufcles of the buttock, which made that limb fhorter than the other, by about four fingers breadth. I concluded, after having examined the grievance, that by a relaxation of the ligaments of the part, the muscle of the buttock had contracted, and drawn, the head of the femur from its cavity upwards; and that this, by preffing on the pofterior sciatique nerve, gave rife to the pains my patient felt. My opinion was, that the muft inevitably remain a cripple, and that the limb would at last wither away; and, in fine, that the only method remaining to give her eafe, would be to replace the head of the femur in its acetabulum: to effect which, I took the following method: I ordered two jugs to be filled with the vegeto-mineral water warm: one affiftant held the upper part of the limb, another the lower part, who gently moved it backwards and forwards: in the mean time, a third poured from the jug the vegeto-mineral water upon the part, whilft a fourth was employed in rubbing it. It was not long before the lady found the good effects of this operation. The head of the bone was foon brought upon a level with its cavity, and in less than fifteen days re-entered it. My patient was then able to fupport herself, and walk. I took care to apply one of my Saturnine plaifters to the grievance, and a bandage upon that. This lady perfevered in the ufe of my remedies for above two years, after the bone had been replaced. Tho' I have not feen her for a confiderable time, I am well affured, that her cure has been compleat; feldom a year paffes, without my hearing of her; and I am informed that she finds not the leaft bad effects from her old complaint.' We apprehend Mr. Goulard has faid too much in recommendation of his remedies; and that he is not fufficiently aware of the noxious effects effects of lead upon the nervous fyftem, even when ufed only externally. Can it be fafe, to wash over the whole body of a patient, who has the itch, with a folution of lead? or, in rheumatic cafes, to direct a warm bath, medicated with the extract of Saturn ? Art. 17. An-Explanation of the Terms of Art in the feveral Branches of Medicine, accented as they are to be pronounced. 8vo. 1 s. Newbery. Concife, and tolerably well executed; and appears to be a kind of explanatory appendix to fome larger work *. It begins with page 497, which would hardly have been the cafe, had it originally appeared as a feparate and complete work. Art. 18. Thoughts on Brightelmfton. Concerning Sea-bathing, and drinking Sea-water. With Jome Directions for their Ufe In a Letter to a Friend. By John Awfiter, M. D. 4to. 13. Wilkie. Thefe curfory thoughts make but a very trifling appendix to what Dr. Ruffel has already published on the fame fubject. We wish the following obfervations had been matters of sound experience, and not of mere opinion: Bathing in the fea conftantly has this effect; every fore, imperfectly healed, it will open afresh; and when this happens, Dr. Ruffel obferves that the part affected being often bathed with fea-water, and rubbed with a flimy fea-plant called the Quercus Marina, has a better effect than general bathing: the reafon is obvious, the part being frequently wetted with the water, and falt flime of the plant, was kept moiit; by this means the active principle of the water (the falt) had time to infinuate itfelf; for fea-fält has thefe particular properties, it not only corrects the corrofive and malign humours, that attend obftinate and old ulcers, but poffeffes at the fame time, a drying quality which contributes to heal them. I can give a familiar inftance of this, which, for the benefit of fociety, ought not to be concealed. dog: Sea-falt, properly applied, is a prefent cure for the bite of a mad Take fea-falt, or common kitchen-falt, diffolve it in fresh warm human urine, load the urine with as much falt as it can diffolve, with this liquor cleanse the wound and limb, of whatever faliva may ftick to it, fill the wound with falt, wet a double rag in the prepared liquor, and bind it on the part; as it dries, wet it with fresh liquor; in fix hours open and wash the wound with the prepared liquor, fill it with fresh falt, apply the wetted rag, and proceed as before, in twelve hours the virus of the bite will be fubdued: after this, keep the wound clean by wafhing it night and morning with a cloth dipt in the prepared falt liquor, till it is healed; let the party take as much fea-water, for three mornings fucceffively, as will purge, and after each purging, at bed-time, an opiate of Mithridate diffolved in pennyroyal water. The ufe of the fea-water is to empty the body, and the ufe of the opiate to calm the fpirits, which are generally, much agitated, and depreffed on thefe occafions. Let the patient bit be kept quiet, let him not live low, but moderately indulge himself with wine. This regimen need only be purfued till the wound is healed, 314 healed, but if the wound is large, or when there are more than one, the party may take a draught of fea-water daily, for a fhort time. The ratio of the cure confifts in the action of the falt upon the malign virus of the wound, before it can make any progress to infect the circulation. The falt, by being diffolved in urine, becomes more active, and is particularly affimulated to penetrate into any part of the body to which it is applied. The fuccefs of the application depends much on the immediate time; the omiffion of it for twentyfour hours, might render this remedy precarious, and, perhaps, of no effect. As the poifon at firft is local, this application to the part affected, immediately deftroys all danger. The purging, therefore, with fea water, the opiate at night, and the regimen prefcribed, are only cautionary aids, co-operating with the topical application. Obfervation ft, If falt, diffolved in urine, can deftroy the bite of a mad dog, may it not, applied in the fame manner, destroy the virus of other animal poifons? adly, May it not, on the fame principle, weaken or deftroy the power of vegetable poifons, when local? 3dly, If it is found to deftroy the force of animal and vegetable poifons, feperately, will it not act on those poifons when combined? Thus may it not abate the danger of a wound given by a poisoned weapon, as the compofition with which thefe inftruments are poifoned, is thought to be a mixture of the vegetable and animal. From monkshood, and the poifonous fluids of animals, of the ferpent, &c. Musk and cinnabar, which make the Chinese medicine, and opium likewife, as recommended by Dr. Nugent, have been adminiftered with fuccefs: but the proper application of the mercurial ointment, either before or after the morbid fymptoms have made their appearance, has been found the most efficacious; this practice was intro-duced by Default, about thirty years ago. In a matter of fo much importance, the attention should be directed to facts, not thoughts. TRADE. Art. 19. Obfcurities and Defcas of the Mercantile Law confidered, in an Every bill of Exchange, fays our Author, confifts of a demand and an acknowledgment; and involves three perfons; The drawer, who gives the bill its existence; The purchafer or holder, to whom the drawer fells or paffes the fame; or the holder's affign or correfpondent, to whom the bill is remitted and refigned by indorsement: And the accepter, to whom the holder or his affign presents the bill for acceptance, and who discharges the fame by payment.' We have here the neceffary form of indorfing a bill, in the following terms: Pay for me to J. J. or order, value received. 315 The reafon for this form is of more confequence than may be at first apprehended; for, fays the Author, many people, [perfons] inftead of the fpecified form of indorfement, write their names only on the back of the bill, which is called a blank indorsement; but which, though it ftands good in law, is very infufficient and dangerous. For in cafe the bill fhould be loft, the finder, though not the true owner, can go and receive the value of it from the accepter, if due; or if not, pafs the fame to any perfon: because a blank indorfement fignifies no more than if the bill was made payable to the bearer; and the accepter muft pay the bill to the holder without hefitation, if he would not fuffer in point of credit.' With respect to bills after fight, he obferves, that an ordinance is wanting to determine how long a bill payable after fight may circulate before the fame be accepted: which I think cannot well be longer than ten days, if the fight is twenty days, and fo in proportion. For as it is at prefent, no merchant, with all his care and judgment, can proceed in fafety. I dare fay, many would be glad to fee this circumftance taken into due confideration.' This he illuftrates by a case, which fully juftifies fuch a regulation. A bill drawn after date, he says, is feldom rightly understood, or juftly managed; which is owing to the obfcurity of the mercantile law in that point. A bill after date is moftly treated as a bill after fight but as the former is of a nature very unlike the latter, it requires a different practice. A bill drawn payable so many days after fight requires to be accepted; fince its time for running off cannot commence till the fame is really accepted; and because the day of expiration cannot be determined but from the date of the acceptance. For if fuch a bill fhould never be accepted, it would never become due wherefore the acceptance is here unavoidably neceffary. And as the acceptance of fuch a bill determines what time it will become due, and is not intended to release the drawer from his guaranty the fame; he still remains the principal bondfman, and is obliged by law to see the bill paid, or to repay the fame upon demand, as already obferved. for But this is not the case with a bill payable after date; which, if the drawer is folvent, requires no acceptance at all. The day of expiration is immoveably fixed by the drawer in the very first words of the bill, and without any farther appointment becomes due of course: fo that if the holder procures acceptance, he can in reality have no other motives for fo doing than his diffidence of the drawer's folvency and having greater confidence of the accepter's abilities, he demands of him to accept the bill, that is to fay, to become his bendfman. For, this acceptance is not to determine what day the bill is to become due; but that he (the accepter) is to pay the fame when due. Thus of courfe he entirely acquits the drawer, and acknowledges himself the holder's real and only debtor. It is the holder's defire to avoid any farther dealing with the drawer: and what can appear more plain, than that the holder, having once taken the accepter for his bondfman, has entirely releafed the drawer from all guaranty for the faid bill?'-This likewife is worthy attention. As to the days of grace, which are tacitly allowed, and expected, he admits that fuch refpite may be demanded, but remarks, that it is not |