ceive in his discovery of geometric truth, which will ever excel the momentary glare of pompous shews, the pursuit of inconstant fashion, or the routine of foolish pleasures; fleeting and unreal joys are the rewards of the latter, but immortal glory and renown the boon of the former !!!

As we proceed we shall meet with other passages equally sublime. In theorem 1st, book the second, the corollary to the proposition is a part of it; and the 9th theorem is demonstrated by means of the 12th. In book the third, the 18th theorem is imperfectly demonstrated, the demonstration applying only to the case of the acute angle; the 21st and 22d con tain, each, two, and the 25th, three, distinct propositions; the 15th of the promiscuous questions at the end of this book, demands the demonstration of a property which is not generally true; and in the 12th theorem of this book, the demonstration fails entirely. The proposition is this: Any two circles which touch each other, either internally or externally, will have their centres and point of contact in one straight line.' They who have been accustomed to travel the 'round-about • Alexandrian road,' divide this proposition into its two obvious cases, and demonstrate each by a reductio ad absurdum.' Not so Mr. Reynard. He goes through the matter very ingeniously, by taking the theorem for granted, in the course of his demonstration, and not being aware of it! This is the book of which the Author says, (page 80,) that he who reads it through with steady meditation, imbibes, at the same time, such a viri'fying principle in his mind, as will raise in him the purest zeal, and the boldest ardour for higher speculations.'

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We have no doubt it will, and are very much tempted to proceed with our Author into these higher speculations' in the latter half of this work. But, on the whole, especially as what we have selected is a very fair sample of what follows, we think it better to relieve the dryness of these abstruse subjects, by a quotation or two from the rhetorical parts of this geometrical treatise.

Speaking of the circle, our eloquent Author breaks out into the following rapturous exclamation.

Behold! what sublimity arises in this superior form. A form which seems to be chosen by the supreme architect of the world, in the structure of the heavens and the earth;-it is the very basis and preservation of nature, in giving strength and durability to her constructions and omniscient operations; the heavenly concave above us; the wide horizon about us; the planets revolving round the sun, and their attendants again round them, making their harmonious periods convey to our minds inexpressible delight. The appearance of the sun's daily path, strikes our senses with the most lively joy and remembrance of his constancy and goodness, and of his support to the

nourishment of nature and existence of living creatures; and in all God's creation it is the most beautiful of all forms; wherever it is seen to adorn, it never ceases to engage, and raise in our minds the most exquisite pleasure: therefore, for unity, simplicity, utility, and beauty, it excels all other plane figures: it is the favourite of heaven, and deserves to be divine!'

Once more:

O divine circle!

The variety of reasoning in the following book, (Book V.) as lines intersecting lines, the similarity of triangles and rectilineal figures, and their relative comparisons, when inscribed in the circle, will all sufficiently show the excellence of reasoning by proportion, the easy mode of demonstration, and the happy results arising from it; how analogies are coupled together, and a variety of conclusions consolidated into one permanent clear idea. The young geometrician will now elevate himself in the subject, a wide horizon will be presented to his view; and he will, by close and scrutable observation, be qualified to examine the most complicated diagrams, and trace the most remote relations to the very focus of the understanding.

The preceding passages approach so nearly to perfection, in their way, that we can only think of one possible means of improving them. About twenty years ago, a poet, whose name, unfortunately, we do not recollect, began a metrical sketch of the life of Oliver Cromwell with this line,

• Tenebrious gloom obscur'd the dismal night;'

meaning, if we rightly interpret it,

'Dark darkness darken'd the dark dark;'—

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Now it has struck us, that the tone of expression of this poetical genius, is so much like that of our Geometria Legitima' genius, that if he could be found and employed in transmuting this treatise into English verse, the public would thereby be more benefited than they are likely to be if it remain in prose, however elegant, as it now stands. The minds of the British public are dull, and not easily excited to a love of the abstruse subjects into which Mr. Reynard has so profoundly dipped. We are removed only one degree from those unhappy times to which he adverts, when the mathematicians were banished the realm 'by a royal decree, under an accusation of their possessing the E powers of witchcraft;' is there not cause, therefore, really to tremble for him, and other men so highly gifted with this dangerous kind of knowledge, while we adopt his thrilling exclamation,

O persecuted science! O injured reason! it seems that blind superstition, or the impious policy of priestcraft, has been a greater enemy to you than even ignorant and destructive barbarism; the former not only confirmed prejudices against you by national yet unjust decrees, but terrified aspiring minds, and loaded genius with per petual fetters, less to be endured than iron,' Valuable invention

turned pale at the sight of armed bigotry, darkness was indeed spread over the earth; and’

so on. For the rest turn to the work itself, or, as we should more conscientiously recommend, wait till the rhyming translation makes its appearance.

Art. VI. 1. Observations on Pulmonary Consumption. By Henry Herbert Southey, M.D. 8vo. pp. 174. price 7s. Longman and Co. 1814. 2. Letters Addressed to his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, on Consumption containing Remarks on the Efficacy of Equable and Artificial Temperature in the Treatment of that Disease. By Thomas Sutton, M.D. &c. &c. 8vo. pp. 59, price 2s. 6d Underwood, 1814.

MEDICINE, it will be allowed by most persons, is already

divided into a sufficient number of departments. The three separate heads of physic, surgery, and pharmacy, seem to preclude the necessity of any subordinate divisions, or more minute ramifications of the healing art. It, nevertheless, now and then happens, either from early bias, accidental impression, or some other causes, that a particular branch of one of these departments is selected by the medical artist, not for exclusive, but for prominent regard. Thus, for example, during the preparatory course of studies for the formation of a surgeon, the exquisite structure and interesting physiology of the eye shall attract, in a more than ordinary degree, the attention of the student; his reading, his researches, his dissections, and his experiments, will, in consequence, tend to a more minute and close investigation of that favourite subject; and he will come out from his studies a well instructed surgeon in general, but an oculist in respect to the feeling of particular preference. So will it sometimes happen in the pursuit and practice of medicine. The diseases of one part of the frame shall appear to deserves, in some instances, especial observation, and more than ordinary research; and when we recollect that consumption of the lungs is the giant malady of this country, that it stands first and foremost in the long list of formidable British diseases, it is not to be wondered at, that British physicians should often come out with dissertations on this most melancholy of subjects.

Within the last ten years, indeed, we have had nearly as many treatises on pulmonary consumption, all of them written by regular and respectable practitioners. To persons who are at all familiar with modern writings on medicine, the names of Beddoes, Bourne, Reid, Saunders, Buxton, Woolcombe, Duncan, will immediately occur; and to these we have now to add that which stands at the head of this article,-a name which, if it be right to make any comparison, we may be

permitted to say, deserves to rank by no means last on the list of comparative merit. In our critical analysis of Dr. Southey's work, however, we shall have fault to find as well as praise to bestow; and we hope to do both with the same feelings of candid impartiality.

In the remarks, connected with this and other works on the subject of consumption, which we are about to present to the reader, it is our intention to steer as clear as possible of technical phraseology: not that we profess ourselves by any means unqualified advocates for the principle of popular and unprofessional medicine, (for we are, indeed, of opinion, that, with some good, much mischief may spring from this source,) but from a feeling that the more than common importance of this subject, may induce anxious inquiry beyond the pale of the profession

Without presuming far on the influence of our journal, it may very fairly be supposed, that the present article will find some readers, who are looking out, in every quarter, for information relative to a subject upon which seem to hang almost all their earthly hopes and fears; and such persons will not be prevailed upon to shut their eyes against the mysteries of medicine. Information, either good or bad, they will certainly get at; and it is in the power of all so to do, while the vernacular language is used as the vehicle of professional instruction.

The question then is, not whether it is expedient totally to prevent profane research, but which is the best mode to turn the tendency of inquisitive minds to a good account, and secure inquiring individuals against the tricks and snares of quackery. Here we may be allowed to avail ourselves of authoritative opinions from another quarter; authoritative, inasmuch as they are the sentiments of one of the most amiable and most able of medical professors. It were better, perhaps, (says the late Dr. Currie,) that medicine, like other branches of natural know'ledge, were brought from its hiding place, and exhibited in the simplicity of science and nakedness of truth.'

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Dr. Southey divides his work into four sections. First, He treats of the symptoms.' Secondly, He speaks of the appearances on dissection.' Thirdly, Of the 'predisposing and exciting causes.' And, lastly, He considers

the treatment of the complaint.' We shall first accom pany the Author through these several topics; and then conclude the article by offering a few reflections of our own, principally in reference to the production and prevention of pulmonary disorders.

Systematical writers (says Dr. S.) have enumerated several species of pulmonary consumption, and undoubtedly there exist many varieties; perhaps no two cases will be found precisely similar; but

for practical purposes it appears sufficient to distinguish carefully between the consumption of the lungs, which occurs in persons of the strumous temperament, and that which, from accidental causes, or as a consequence of other diseases, may attack constitutions of a very different description. Strumous phthisis, as the most common and most destructive in this island, demands the first and greatest share of attention. The individuals most likely to be attacked by this form of the disease are distinguished by a combination of many of the following marks, sometimes by all of them: fair, thin, smooth skin, through which the blood vessels may be seen, blooming cheeks, light soft hair, light eyes, with dilated pupils, thick nose and upper lip, white teeth, head rather large, narrow chest, flaccid muscles, and long weak fingers, of which the last joint is large. To these external appearances in children precocity of intellect is often joined. Dark hair, dark eyes, and dark skin, are sometimes combined with the other signs of scrophula; but the skin is always thin and transparent, the pupils large, and the muscular fibre lax.' pp. 4-5.

We fully agree with the Author on the great importance of ascertaining, by external signs, the strumous, or, as it will be more generally understood, scrophulous tendency in the habit, in reference to the diseases in question; and we have seldom seen exhibited, at once to our view, so concentrated and faithful a delineation of these signs. We consider, however, that part of the statement erroneous, and calculated to mislead, which makes thinness and transparency of the skin an absolutely necessary mark of the scrophulous constitution. Much internal scrophula, at least, if we may be allowed the expression, we think we have seen fully marked in individuals of a swarthy complexion, and where the skin is any thing but transparent. Were we inclined to dispute on words, we might, indeed, object altogether to the term dark skin; but we wish to confine ourselves entirely to facts generally understood. Now it shall sometimes be found in the child of parents who are differently constituted both as to complexion and habit, that such child shall be a mixture of the two. It shall have the internal peculiarities of the one parent, with the external marks of the other, although that external appearance shall in general stand as an index of a very different inward state of things from what it does in the present instance. It would seem proper, therefore, to point out fineness of skin, as a very usual accompaniment of a scrophulous constitution; but very improper to insist, as our Author has done, on the absolute indispensableness of its presence.

There is one mark of a scrophulous taint, which we do not perceive that the Author has noticed, though it is almost always found either in a greater or less degree. We mean a very peculiar pearly appearance in the white of the eye, not very easy, indeed, to describe; but which, at the same time, is very evident to those who are much accustomed to these observations; and