have early recourfe to bark and other tonic medicines, to avert the impending mortification, or to prevent the disease from degenerating into a putrid ftate, to which it was thought to be remarkably prone. Perhaps, if we may here be allowed a fhort digreffion, no term in medicine has been productive of more mischief, than the word putrid, or putrid tendency. Whenever fever has fo far prevailed, as to deftroy the energy of the conftitution, and to induce feebleness and languor, the pulfe becoming weak and exceedingly quick, the fever is faid to have put on a putrid difpofition, although these symptoms are frequently only proofs of the rapid approach of mortification in fome of the vifcera. The fame circumstances being obferved in the bodies of those who died of the late peftilential fever at Philadelphia and Grenada, led Drs. Rufh and Chifholm to treat that disease on the antiphlogistic plan; and, although by different methods, to bend all their efforts to fubdue the inflammation, before the parts became gangrenous. Their fuccefs was equal, as they both of them declare, that after they had completely adopted their respective methods, fcarce a patient died, to whom they were called early. The practice of Dr. Rufh, as we shall fee by and by, was exactly fimilar to that followed by Dr. Gordon, in the cure of the puerperal fever, except in the quantity of blood taken away. which fcarce exceeded a third part of what is here directed. But to return to the fubject before us. Dr. Gordon having, from the appearances we have mentioned, discovered the real fource of the disease, determined to oppose it by fuch regimen and medicines as are known to be most powerful in high degrees of inflammation. With this view he began with drawing twelve or fourteen ounces of blood; he then fomented the abdomen, gave a cathartic, and afterwards endeavoured to bring on a diaphorefis. The bleed ing, ufually, he says, mitigated the symptoms; but the fever returning with freth violence, foon hurried the patient into a ftate, that rendered all medical aid ufelefs. Foiled in his first attempts, and lofing almoft all the women he treated by this method, he determined to take away, in the first instance, fuch a quantity of blood as fhould at once ftop the inflammation. He, therefore, directed from twenty to twenty-four ounces of blood to be taken away, as foon as he was called to the patient, and, within a few hours afterwards, a purge, with three grains of calomel and two fcruples of jalap. The purge was repeated every day, for four or five days, fo as to keep a conftant drain from the inteftines, by which means the extravafation of pus into the cavity of the abdomen was prevented, or its abforption promoted, if it had been already effufed, effufed. The fuccefs of this practice was fo great, that when he was called within the first twelve hours from the attack of the fever, he could always anfwer for the event. "If called to a cafe," he fays, " within twelve hours after the attack, I infifted on bleeding the patient, and promifed for its fuc cefs; but, if at a later period, viz. from twelve to twenty-four hours after the attack, in that cafe, like Sydenham with the fame remedy in the fmall-pox, I thought it incumbent on me to propofe it as the only effectual remedy; but I neither infifted on it, nor promifed for jts fuccefs," The author gives the following as the refult of his practice. Of feventy-feven patients that fell under his care, during the time the disease was epidemic in Aberdeen, viz. from December, 1789, to March, 1792, forty nine recovered, and twenty-eight died. But of the twenty-eight patients who died, fome died before the author had acquired a juft and perfect notion of the difeafe; to others he was called too late, when the disease was fo far advanced that no medicine could avail. He had a fair opportunity of trying his medicine on fifty patients only; and of these five, or one in ten, died. fuccefs, much exceeding what could be expected in a difcafe fo malignant and fatal, and only exceeded by that of M. Doulcet, a late phyfician, at the Hotel Dieu at Paris; who, when the fame disease raged among the lying-in women in that hofpital, ftopped its progrefs by the exhibition of vo mits. M. Doulcet was led to give this medicine from obferving a woman recover, beyond expectation, when all around her were dying, from a vomiting and purging, which feized her fpontaneously. He directed a vomit with Ipecacuanha to be given to the next woman he was called to, on the first appearance of the difeafe, and to be repeated the next and every fubfequent day, until the fever fubfided, The wo man recovered, which gave him fuch confidence in the medicine, that he ordered the matron of the hofpital to give the fame drug immediately on any woman being attacked with shivering or head-ach, or on their feeling pain and tenderness of the abdomen, the fymptoms by which the fever first manifefted itself. Of two hundred women who were treated in this manner, five only, we are told, died. The Memoir, giving an account of this practice, was published by the faculty of phyfic at Paris, in the year 1781. It will readily occur to the reader, that either of thefe gentleman, M. Doul cet or Dr. Gordon, may have been deceived in the number of women that were actually cured of the puerperal fever by their refpective medicines. For, as they direct them to be given immediately 4 immediately on the first attack of the fever, a fimple fever, with tenderness of the abdomen, which would have disappeared in a day or two, under the mildest treatment, might be, and probably was, fometimes mistaken, for the puerperal fever. This may the rather be fufpected, as Dr. Gordon fays, one cause of the fatality of the fever at Aberdeen, was the attendants miftaking it for the weed, or fimple fever, which fre quently occurs in the lying-in ftate. While the disease was epidemic, it was right to apply the fpecific remedy, in the firft inftance, particularly if the patient was an inmate in an hofpital, or lying-in houfe. But, in private families, and when the disease is not epidemic, the phyfician would paufe before he had recourfe to fo Herculean a remedy, as the taking away twenty-four ounces of blood, and following that evacuation with a large dofe of calomel and jalap; which, notwithstanding the opinion of the ingenious author to the contrary, we think, in fome delicate conftitutions, might prove fatal. The author has given a fuccinct and correct defcription of the difeafe, which is followed by the recital of a number of cafes, to illuftrate his doctrine. By thefe it appears, that where bleeding was omitted, or administered fparingly, or where fudorific or tonic medicines were given early, the pa tients invariably died. On the contrary, when they were bled largely, that is, to twenty or twenty-four ounces, and were fubfequently purged, they conftantly recovered, All the patients," he fays, who were early and largely bled, and plentifully purged, recovered; while, thofe who were bled more fparingly, and in whom we could not excite a diarrhea, died.” Bleeding and purging," he goes on to fay," are the two great hinges, upon which the cure of the puerperal fever turns. Sweating is both uncertain, and difficult to be excited; blifters feem rather to do hurt than good, by the irritation they occafion; warm fomentations, which are fo commonly ufed by practitioners, are of no great service; and when applied too hot, they evidently increase the pain, and quicken the velocity of the pulfe. In fhort, the only proper method of curing the puerperal fever, is by large bleeding early in the difeafe, and plentiful purging, with the interpofition of opiates." We cannot fubfcribe implicitly to all thefe dogmas, as we are certain we have found poultices with linfeed-meal, blitters, and emollient clyfters, not feldom eminently ufeful, and have been convinced that the cure of patients has been facilitated by them. The author is of opinion that the difeafe, when epidemic, is infectious, and communicable by the apparel, bed clothes, &c. or by perfons vifiting patients afflicted with it; and that it does not depend upon any peculiar temperature or conftitution of the air. He is fo certain of this fact fact, he fays, that he could always predict its appearance or abfence, on being informed where the women were delivered, and by whom they were attended. He laments that he had carried the infection to several women, who would, probably, otherwife have efcaped. But he confules himself with recollecting that this was done before he had discovered its infectious nature; and, by reflecting that he shall be the means of faving the lives of thousands, by disclosing a certain method of fubduing it. The public are certainly indebted to the author for this communication, and, although we can scarce hope that, at a future period, and in different places, where this disease may become epidemic, and fatal, the fame method of treating it will prove as fuccefsful as it did in his hands; yet we have no doubt that this work will be productive of great practical utility. The ftriking resemblance, in many points, between this difcafe and the late peftilential fever of Philadelphia and Grenada, to which we have before directed the attention of our readers, may lead to a more fimple and successful mode of treating fevers in general, which may be found to be much more fimilar in their natures, than has hitherto been imagined. * ART. VI. Poetical Tranflations from the Ancients, by Gilbert Wakefield, B. A. 8vo. 124 pp. 35. Payne. 1795. MR. R. WAKEFIELD's pen is indefatigable. Directed by his fkilful hand, it wanders from the fields of theology to thofe of politics, from politics to criticifm, from criticism to poetry. We have now before is his first poetical attempt, and though he difclaims all pretenfions to genius for original poetry, he may reasonably advance fome claim to merit as a tranflator. It would perhaps have been equally creditable to his modefty, if the following paragraph had been written by fome other pen than his own, "His late occupation, in the revifal of Pope's Homer, has led him to a more particular obfervation of the imperfection of rhyme even in our correcteft poets; and he thinks himself able to affert, without any violation of truth, that he here prefents (and especially in the tranflation of Juvenal, very lately executed, with what celerity he is afraid to mention) the moft unexceptionable fpecimens of poetry, with refpect to the purity of its rhymes, in the English language, to the best of his knowledge and obfervation." P. iv. Nor Nor is this claim fupported by fuch rhymes as Jove and move, Heav'n and giv'n, which are usual indeed, but have not the correctness to which Mr. W. feems to aspire. The tranflations confift of the tenth Satire of Juvenal, fome Odes of Horace, the tenth Eclogue of Virgil, fome lines from the second Æneid, a few from Lucretius, one fpecimen from Meleager, two from Leonidas of Tarentum, and two Pfalms. We infert the tranflation from Meleager because we think it, in the main, well done, and likely to be lefs familiar than the rest, to the generality of our readers. "DESCRIPTION OF THE SPRING. BY MELEAGER. No more the sky with frowns of Winter lours; If fair-trefs'd plants rejoice, and Earth be gay; P. 117. It does not seem to have been very neceffary to retranslate the tenth Satire of Juvenal, while Dryden's verfion, and Johnfon's imitation, are in all hands. Nor can we fay that Mr. W. has improved on these models, as a specimen will easily fhow. DRYDEN. Look round the habitable world, how few How |