Day appointed to be obferved as the Day of the Martyrdom of King Charles I. By Spencer Lord Bibop of Peterborough. 4to. 20 pp. 15. Rivingtons. A more truly wife and useful fermon we have not often feen. The bishop takes the well known text, Rom. xiii. 1. "Let every Soul be fubject to the higher Powers," &c.; but inftead of falling into the fnare with thofe whom the occafion has fometimes betrayed into an intemperate zeal, he begins by carefully and duly limiting the apoftolic doctrine to its due object, the "fupport of just authority, and the enforcement of a proper fubordination and obedience:" rejecting clearly and decifively all notion of a “blind, implicit, or unlimited fubjection." After ftating the true doctrine very ably, and allowing, what juftice muft allow, that there were faults on the royal as well as on the popular fide, in our great rebellion, his lordship proceeds to that which, though unfortunately it could not operate by forefight, ought in retrofpect to afford perpetual warning to thofe who are induced by fpeci ous profpects to difturb the order of governments, "Could the miftaken abettors," he says, "of that rebellion, which ended in the guilty tranfaction of this day, have forefeen from the beginning the whole fcope and confequence of their proceedings, could they, when they firft efpied the little cloud, as it were, arifing from the fea like a man's hand, could they have forefeen, at that time, what winds and ftorms were thenceforth gathering,-could they have embraced at one view, the confufion of a long war, the defolation of a flourishing kingdom, and the fhock experienced by the facred Temple of Religion;-could they have been then convinced that the measures which they fatally purfued would naturally terminate in the total lofs of their civil rights, that the entire frame of the government would be of courfe dreadfully fhattered, and at length deftroyed; that the wife and wholefome conftitution of Parliaments would be utterly overthrown ;could they have foreknown that their too violent refiftance against their lawful Prince would have rendered them flaves to an unlawful Defpot -that the weapons entrusted to a band of mercenary men, would be finally pointed against themselves-furely fuch a train of evils, fuch a dreadful scene of miferies and of punishments, would have had its due effect in preventing the commencement of that conflagration which rages fo fuddenly fuperior to all controul!" ART. 26. A Sermon preached at the anniverfury Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy, in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, on Thursday, May 22, 1794. By the Rev. William Langford, D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majefty, Canon of Windfor, &c. &c. To which are added, Lifts of the Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry, who have been Stewards for the Feafs of the Sons of the Clergy, together with the Names of all the Preachers, and the Sums collected at the anniversary Meetings fince the year 1721. 4to. xx pages, and Appendix 25. 15. Rivingtons. Dr. Langford, taking an hiftorical view of the priesthood under the Jewish and Chriftian difpenfations, obferves this circumstance to be coinmon to both, that the priest had no inheritance in the revenues he derived derived from his fervices. Hence he argues the propriety of the cha rity for which he preached: taking care however to repel the objec tion which might be urged by the Roman Catholic, that celibacy, not fubfcription, is the proper preventative of the diftrefs of clerical families. The difcourfe is plain and fenfible, and concludes with fome commemoration of Queen Anne, and other benefactors to the charity. The text is Deut, xii. 19. ART. 27. Addrefs to the People of Great Britain, on the Impiety and Irreligion of the French. 8vo. 47 pp. 1s. Owen, 1794. A plain and true detail of the dreadful outrages committed againft religion and decency, during the reign of that open impiety, which the feelings of the people foon after forced their reprefentatives, apparently at leaft, to retract. We hope it will yet appear that the body of the people in that unfortunate country have fome attachment to chriftianity, though it is but too certain that thofe who form their prefent government are totally without it. The remonftrances to our own countrymen, in this pamphlet, are ftrong and appofite. ART. 28. A Sermon preached in St. John's Church, Leeds, on the General Faft Day, February 25, 1795. By Thomas Dunham Whitaker, L. L. B. 4to. 16 pp. 15, Deighton, London; Binns, Leeds; 1795 This writer, comparing the French nation to the Affyrian, against whom Ifaiah prophecies, in the text of his difcourfe, If. x. 24, 25, 26, confiders, 1. First, The reafons for confidering that nation in their prefent circumftances, as a commiffioned fcourge of God. 2. The probability that they will not be permitted finally to prevail against us; and 3. Laftly, The mode of conduct which may, by the bleffing of God, avert the judgements with which we are threatened. This difcourfe, like that we formerly noticed of this author*, is forcible, judicious, and well written, MEDICINE. ART. 29. A Treatife on the Nature and Cure of the Cynanche Trachea lis, commonly called the Croup. By Difney Alexander, Member of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh. 8vo. 79. pp. 25. Johnfon, 1794. This disease, upon which early writers are filent, was first particularly noticed by Boerhave. Since his time it has been frequently defcribed; but the first accurate account of it was given by Doctor Home, in his Enquiry into the Nature, Caufe, and Cure of the Croup. Mr. Alexander, having had frequent opportunities of feeing it at Halifax, in the years 1792 and 1793, has collected fuch observations as he thought most likely to establish a juft notion of its nature and method of cure. It has been generally held to be a fpafmodic disease, This author confiders it as a fpecies of catarrh, and arifing from an inflammation of the membrane that lines the trachea. Its cure there fore is to be effected, he fays, by bleeding, particularly with leeches applied to the throat, veficatories, and a general antiphlogistic treatment. In confirmation of this doctrine, he relates feveral cafes that fell under his own care, or that of his friends, in which the patients were cured by this method. We fhall felect one, as a specimen of his practice, "Cafe V. January 21, a child, fix months of age, was attacked, without any preceding complaint, with the fymptoms of the croup. He was exceeding feverish, and breathed very fhort and loud. He coughed up a good deal of phlegm; his pulfe was feeble, and so quick as not to be counted. I immediately put three leeches upon his throat, applied a blifter to the part, and ordered a powder with ca→ lomel and fugar, with fome infufion of fenna and manna. 22d. Breathing much relieved, and fever abated, the countenance very pale; the leeches had done their office very well, and the other remedies had anfwered their intention. Powders of calomel and nitre were given for a day or two, in very fmall dofes, and often repeated; and the patient was perfectly free from all complaint by the end of the month, In about three months afterwards, on being more than ufually expofed to a cold damp air, the disorder returned, and was cured by the fame means. * We have before given an account of the appearance of the trachea, in a child who died of the disease, from Mr. Henry Field's obfervations on this fubject; whofe ideas of the disease correspond with those of our author. ART. 30. Formulæ Medicamentorum Selectæ. By the Author of Maniacal Obfervations. 12mo. 58 pp. 1s. 6d. Murray, 1795. We have attentively looked over these formule which are fufficiently numerous, but not too redundant. They are in general concise, neat, and elegant; we obferve no incongruous or improper mixtures. They are diftributed in claffes, according to their properties, or power of affecting the conftitution, which are arranged alphabetically, beginning with adftringentia, and ending with fyphilitica. On the whole, we recommend this compendium to the medical practitioner. ART. 31. Effays and Obfervations Phyfiological and Medical, on the Submerfion of Animals, and on the Refin of the Acoroides Refinifera, or Yellow Refin from Botany Bay, to which are added felett Hiftories of Difeafes, with Remarks. By Charles Kite. 8vo. 432 PP. 55. Dilly, 1795 The effays on the fubmerfion of animals, and on the yellow refin from Botany Bay, have appeared already in the Memoirs of the * Memoirs of the Medical Society, Art. 12.-See British Critic. Vol. V. p. 581. London London Medical Society, which we reviewed in our last number, Some of the hiftories of diseases alfo, the author obferves, have been published before ;* but he has given no mark by which thefe may be diftinguished, we fhall therefore only notice two cafes, which we do not remember to have feen before. " "Cafe of a violently frifured Hernia. Everest, about thirty-five years old, had had a scrotal hernia feveral years, but as it ufually returned into the abdomen on lying in bed, and as it was feldom materially inconvenient to him, he had never applied a trufs, or paid any particular attention to it. One day, however, foon after dinner, he was attacked with a very fevere pain in the part. Inflammation and tenfion came on, and a medical gentleman was fent for. The fymptoms had increased fo rapidly, and the man was already in fo alarming a ftate, that he called in another not long after I was fent for, and I faw him about fix hours from the first attack. There were greater tenfion and inflammation over the whole fcrotum than I had ever feen in any cafe before. It was fo much enlarged, that the penis was entirely hid, and fo exqui fitely painful that he could fcarcely bear it to be touched. Before I faw him he had been blooded, had taken feveral strong purges. Warm fomentations had been applied, and the tobacco glyfter had been injected. I immediately gave him an opiate, and placing him almoft upon his head, made an attempt to reduce it, but without fuccefs. Satisfied that no remedy fhort of the operation would fucceed, except a liberal ufe of cold water, we determined, although with little hope of fuccefs, to try the effect of it; with this view, fheets were thoroughly wetted with water, artificially cooled by the neutral falts, and dafhed over the fcrotum, abdomen and thighs. And these ablutions were repeated every two minutes for three parts of an hour, without any other effect than that of abating the intenfity of the pain. As this was what might be called a very fair trial, I began to defpair. It occurred to me, however, that in the most obftinate cafe of obftructed bowels I had ever witneffed, the patient did not experience relief until he was weakened and lowered to fuch a degree that prudence prevented its farther continuance. I refolved therefore, in the prefent inftance, to purfue the plan to the fame extent as in that cafe. Five or fix pails full of water, fresh drawn, were ordered into the apartment; the patient was laid on his back over a tub, large enough to receive the water; one or two garden watering pots were filled with water, and the contents of one of them poured over the fcrotum: as foon as it was emptied, another was used in the fame manner, and this procefs was repeated until the patient was so much chilled, and the powers of life fo much reduced, that it was thought proper to defift: at this time the tenfion of the fcrotum was taken off, the parts became corrugated, and with the most trifling affistance the hernia was reduced." * See Art. X. XIX. and XXII. of Medical Memoirs, in the British Critic for June, p. 581, &c. This mode of treatment was carried to a much greater extent, in the following cafe," of a violent conftipation of the bowels," As cold water was not only applied in a much more liberal manner externally, but was given in large quantities by the mouth and by clyfters, and with fuch fuccefs, that the patient was completely relieved from the complaint; but in three weeks after he fell into dropfy, which in a fhort time put an end to his existence. As the dropfy was probably occasioned by the injury the vifcera received from the deluge of cold water with which they had been drenched, we cannot join the author in reco.nmending the refrigerating procefs to be carried to fo extreme a degree. We are the lefs inclined, as we remember an inftance of a lady becoming dropfical immediately after the operation of a vomit, during which the perfifted in drinking draughts of cold water, acidulated with vinegar. In the fpace of twenty-four hours from the operation, the abdomen became tumid, and, in lefs than a week, there appeared to be more than a gallon of fluid collected. This continued increafing for about ten days longer, when she died. The lady was of a delicate conftitution, and the accident happened a few days after parturition, NATURAL HISTORY. ART. 32. Mr. White's character both as a writer and naturalift is already well eftablished by his interefting publication of the Natural History of Selborne. We lament in common with all lovers of literature the immature lofs of fo valuable a man. The prefent volume, felected by the judgment, and publifhed by the affection, of his furviving relatives, though neither profound in its researches, nor extraordinarily acute in the remarks which it contains, will do no difhonour to his memory. It will on the contrary, be exceedingly ufeful to all young ftudents of natural hiftory, and to all curious and attentive obfervers of what paffes in the animal and vegetable worlds. It contains, firft, a naturalift's calendar; that is, it gives a periodical account of the appearance of birds, and the flowering of the vegetable tribes. It further contains obfervations on birds, quadrupeds, infects and vegetables, and concludes with a fummary of the weather. The following fpecimen may induce the reader to avail himself, at an easy rate, of what will facilitate his progress in natural history. WAGTAILS, Whilft cows are feeding in moift low paftures, broods of wagtails, white and grey, run round them, close up to their nofes, and under their very bellies, availing themselves of the flies that fettle on their legs, and probably finding worms and larvæ that are roufed by the trampling of their feet. Nature is fuch an œconomist, that the most incongruous animals can avail themselves of each other! interest makes Strange friendships, WAYNECK |