Archagetes, a perfect Greek word, apxylns, is diffolved into Archa-Ga-Theus, the illuftrious god of the ark (p. 105). Prometheus and Epimetheus have moft evident and well-known Greek derivations, the one meaning forefight, the other afterthought; but this will not do for the modern fchool: the one is Phra-Ma-Theus, the great folar deity; and the other, Ippa Ma-Theus, the great deity of the ark. It is impoffible to go regularly through; but we will paufe at fuch names as are most known, or moft fingularly diftorted by the new etymology. You have heard, reader, of Phaeton and his mother Clymene. Well, the one is Ph'-Aith-On, the burning flar orb; the other Cula-Men, the hollow Noetic ark (p. 173). Hercules is Arech-El, the God of the ark (175) " Calypfo I take", fays Mr. F. "to be Cal-Hippafa, the hollow Hippa or ark" (249). Deucalion is Du-Cal-Jonah, the God of the arkite Dove (255). Achilles is Ac-El-Es, the burning God of the Crean (322). At this point, we are introduced to the allegorical dreams of John Tzetzes, to make the heroes of the Iliad alfo into Cabiri.

Agamemnon, as we are plainly told by Tzetzes, was no real perfon, but the very fame deity as the Ercean, or arkite Jupiter; that fapiter, before whofe altar Danaè, the mother of Perf us, was brought by Acrifius. In a fimilar manner, Athenagoras obferves, that Helen, Hector, Jupiter-Agamemnon, and Erechtheus, were all adored as gods along with the marine deity Nep ane. What may ferve to confirm the propriety of thefe remarks, Peleus and his brethren are defcribed as being contemporaries of the Diofcori or Cabiri." P. 324.

Refpecting the War of Troy, Mr. F. does not go fo far as his mafter Mr. Bryant, but the difference is trifling.

"Perhaps it may be too bold, with Mr. Bryant, abfolutely to deny the existence of any fiege of Troy; but I cannot but be perfuaded, that the poem of Homer at least is a mere mythos, which very probably however is ingrafted upon the hiftory of fome predatory war between the Greeks and the Ilienfes. After all that has been written upon the fubject, we can never build with any confidence upon a feries of facts, which are faid to have happened, as all allow, in the fabulous or uncertain age. The truth, in this, like most other controverfies, feems to lie fomewhere in the middle: hence, while we admit the probability of fome Trojan war having really happened, credulity itfelf can fcarcely believe, that the Iliad contains any thing like a true account of it." Ib.

After thus overthrowing Troy once more, we hall pass to vol. ii. and there we find that Amazon is Am-Azon, the blazing Sun. Cadinus is Cadm-On, the Oriental Sun; and his wife

In what refpect is this preferable to Swift's A-kill-cafe?

Harmonia,

Harmonia, the fame as Armenia, Ar-Mon-Aia, the mountainous country of the arkite Crefcent (p. 24, &c.). Dardanus Polyarches is Dar-da-Nus Bol- Arca, the illuftrious Noah the Lord of the Ark (25). Mercury is M'Erech-Ur, the great fire-deity of the ark (27); and then on a fudden we are tranfported to the Northern and Hindoo mythologies, both of which are explained in a fimilar manner. A few more fpecimens fhall fuffice. Hippomenes is Hippo-Menes, the arkite Menes or Noah; and his confort Atalanta is At-Al-An-Ta (Euge!) the divine ship of the Sun (33). Hypermnestra is Hip-O-Menes-Tora, the hippotaurform Ark of the folar Menes (441; and Melampus, M'El-Am-Bus, the divine helioarkite Bull (45). By the aid of Captain Wilford, the whole flory of Medca and Jafon is referred to the Hindoo fuperflitions; but fill with reference to the ark (p. 90, &c.). The Argonaut Periclymenus is, we are told, Pherah-Cula-Menu, the helio-arkite Noah; Neftor, Nuh- Es-Tor, the TauricoNoetic Sun; the Homeric adjuncts to his name Gerenius. Hippota, Mr. F. takes to be G'Areni-Hippo-Dus, the illuftrious arkite deity of the Hippa (190). Patience can go no further, and farely that of our readers must be fufficiently tired by this time as well as our own.

The inconceivably extravagant fuppofition, that all Mythologies, and all proper names of early heroes and Deities of all nations, or almoft all, are to be reduced to the four interchanged objects of Noah, the Sun, the Ark, and the Moon, is to our feelings fo perfectly inadmiffil le, that we cannot fufficiently wonder at the perfeverance of a man who can found a whole book upon fucha notion. The grofs improbability, not to fay impoffibility, of its application, in many of the inftances we have adduced, must have ftruck every reader. That all antiquity fhould have been fo mad after Noah and the Ark, as to fee nothing elfe in all their myfteries, and all their mythologies, is not to be believed, though we had ten times the authority for it that can poffibly be derived from thefe arbitrary, forced, and most fanailical etymologies. We cannot but regret that much learning, and much real ingenuity, have been wafted in the formation and fupport of this flrange fyftem. If it thould ever make a fingie convert, it can be only upon the principle, that nothing ever was advanced fo extravagant as not to perfuade fome perfon or other.

We have been tardy in producing our report of this extraordinary publication. The truth is, we long ago obtained fufficient knowledge of it to deltroy all appetite for the undertaking. We have often had grievous trials from etymologifs, and have others flill to undergo. One writer with his naturally

fignificant

fignificant elements, another his radicals, a third mere fimilarities of found, fuch as muft arife from the very nature of language, all confpire to make an endlefs confufion, in which truth, and the teftimonies of truth, are totally overwhelmed. For this work, on its firft appearance, we had fortified ourfelves, with Gutberleth De Myfteriis Deorum Cabirorum", and other learned works of that clafs. But all in vain. We were to encounter nothing but arbitrary diffections of Greek words, to bring them to Hebrew or Oriental radicals, and to fupport a fyftem which reduces all the principal perfonages of antiquity to Noah, the Sun, the Ark, and the Moon. If this can be believed, any thing may.

ART. XII. Obfervations on the Cataract and Gutta Serena. By James Ware, Surgeon, F. R. S. The Second Edition, with many Additions. 8vo. 477 pp. 8s. 6d.

man.

THIS

1804.

Maw

HIS volume contains the accumulated knowledge of the two De Wenzels, with every improvement which the diligent refearches of Mr. Ware have added, for perfecting this interelling part of furgery*. To give fight to the blind, is to confer a benefit beyond the ufual powers of art. But as great experience, quicknefs in decifion, and uncommon dexterity, are required for an operator of the eyes; this branch of furgery ought to be confined to thofe who have peculiar talents for it. He who with unfkilful hands rafhly attempts to remove a cataract, will probably inflict upon his unfortunate patient an irremediable blindnefs.

Whether extracting, or depreffing the cataract, is attended with moft fuccefs, remains a queftion ftill at iffue. Mr Hey, of Leeds, in his late work, agrees with Pott, Bell, and most furgeons, in giving the preference to depreffion; whereas, Mr. Ware, with the De Wenzels, Wathen, and the most eminent oculifts, contend for extraction. From which perhaps we may infer, that thofe who have the greatest dexterity extraft; and those who have lefs, deprefs. The one doing what is belt, and the other what they can.

Mr. Ware, however, in the cafe of young children, whofe refolution and fleadinefs is not to be depended upon, thinks the depreffing needle the fafer inftrument. In fuch cafes, he

The first edition of this work was noticed in our fifth vol. p. 531.

3.

likewife

likewife employs a fpeculum. In this manner, he lately depreffed a cataract in a boy only feven years old, who was fuppofed to have been born blind. It excited a good deal of cùiofity to hear his firft obfervations on the vifible world and it was expected that he fhould form the fame falle judgments which were made by Chefeldon's patient in fimilar circumflances. But, on the contrary, this boy knew at once, colours, forms, and diftances; a certain proof that he had not been always totally blind.

Extracting a cataract is fo delicate an operation, and its fuccefs depends upon attending to fo many minute particulars, that Mr. Ware, no withstanding his experience, has written down for his own ufe, four and twenty memoranda, which he always reads on the morning of an operation. Thefe are intended to bring to his recollection the examination of the inftruments, inftructions to the afliftant, the placing the patient properly, and all the various incidents that may occur during the operation or after it, together with the remedy for each. A most Jaudable inftance of profeffional care and circumfpection. The merit of having noticed that cataracts fometimes admit of a fpontaneous cure, is due to Mr. Ware. He has feen three inftances in which the cataract difappeared in confequence of accidental inflammation. This natural cure he has attempted allo to imitate; and the remedy he employs is æther. He fays,

"I have had occafion to attend a confiderable number of cafes, in which an opacity in the chryftalline humour was produced by violence done to the eye; and in most of the'e the opacity was diffipated, and the fight reitored, during the external application of the æther."

The manner of ufing this remedy is afterwards particu larized.

"Sometimes I have diluted the æther with a third or fourth part of a weak folution of Hydrargyrus Muriatus; but in general I have ufed the æther alone, which has been applied, by means of a camel's hair pencil, to the eye itfelf. The application of this remedy occafions a very pungent pain in the eye, with confiderable rednefs in the tunica conjunctiva; but thefe go off in a few minutes, and leave the eye as eafy, and the conjunctiva as pale, as they were before the æther was used." P. 403.

On gutta ferena he makes many excellent remarks. A few cafes are given in which electricity fucceeded, and others in which vifion was reflored by a powerful crrhine. The dofe he recommends is,

"One grain of the Turbith mineral mixed with twenty grains of powder of liquorice, of fnuff, or fugar; and one fourth part of this

powder

powder to be fnuffed up the noe once or twice in the courfe of the day; and in thofe cafes where the nofe has been particularly dry, I have rendered the powder more effectual, by directing the patient to inhale the fleam of warm water through the nofe previous to the ufe of the fnuff."

Neither thefe, nor any other remedies, can be fuccefsful in all cafes of gutta ferena; as diffection has shown, that tumours, cyfts, carious bones, and other organic affections, are fometimes the cause.

There is one caufe, however, of a lefs untractable nature, which Mr. Ware conjectures fometimes occafions this disease; namely,

"A dilation of the anterior portion of the circulus arteriofus, which I think highly probable has been the caufe of the gutta ferena in not a few of the inflances of which no particular account has been given; and efpecially in thofe cafes where the blindness has been accompanied with an inability of moving the upper eye lid."

In confirmation of this opinion, he found, that by local bleedings and general evacuations, he was able to cure fome young plethoric patients afflicted with gutta ferena.

This work, in our opinion, contains much ufeful information for furgeons, and fhould be confidered as the manual of oculifts.

ART. XIII. A complete Analysis of the German Language: or a philological and grammatical View of its Construction, Analogies, and various Properties. By Dr. Render. 8vo. 352 PP. 12s. Symonds. 1804.

THE ftudy of the German language has of late become

much more general and extenfive, its merits have been more minutely inveftigated, and its value more fully afcertained. The ftudent has, however, long felt the want of an able guide to direct his courfe, and affift him in the attainment of his wifhes; not but many German grammars have already been offered to the public; but the greater part hitherto publifhed have either been too concife or too widely diffufe for the object which they have undertaken*. A general analyfis of the language was ftill wanting; and to Dr. Render the

* We reviewed Dr. Render's German Grammar, in our fifteenth volume, p. 332.

praise