into the cause of it. "Il s'agiffoit de favoir," he fays, "d'où procedoit la mort d'une prodigieufe quantité des fem"mes nouvellement accouchées en cet hopital." The phyfician attributed it to putrid miafmata, arifing from the ward immediately under the lying-in women, which contained a great number of wounded perfons. And La Mottet, gives an account of a fimilar epidemic that raged in the fame hofpital in the year 1678. "Mais ce qui vient de fe paffer," he adds, "dans notre Province de Normandie, dans le commence"ment de l'année 1713, à l' endroit des femmes, qui fe portant bien, après être heureusement accouchées, étoient neanmoins "après trois, quatre, et même jufqu'à fept à huit jours, atta"quées d'une legere fievre, qui augmentoit en peu de tems, à ་་ laquelle, fe joignoient le cours de ventre, la fuppreffion des vi"danges, avec le ventre dur, tendu et douloureux, et enfin le "delire; à quoi le regime et les remedes étoient d'un fi foible "fecours, que prefque toutes en mouroient; fans que cette "maladie attaquât d'autres femmes, s'étant fixée, pour ainfi "dire, fur celles qui étoient nouvellement accouchées." This account contains fo exact an outline of the disease as it appeared in our hofpitals in London, that we have been induced to give it in the words of the author. Fortunately for humanity, this disease is rarely feen in private families, owing, perhaps, to the care that is now taken to keep the lying-in room clean and airy, to permitting the women to get early out of bed, to regulating their diet, &c. and when it does occur, it is generally checked in the beginning by administering emetics, and fuch other evacuants as the prefent improved practice of phyfic fuggefts. When it makes its appearance in an hofpital, we believe the only method to prevent its ravages to be, putting a stop to the admiffion of patients, and fcraping, cleaning, and painting the wards, to get rid of the infection. On the method of treating the complaint our author advances nothing new. Upon the whole, we confider the work before us as an hafty production, and we have been folicitous to point out fome of its errors, as it feemed principally intended for students and young practitioners, who were leaft likely to detect them, and who ought, in our opinion, to be directed to examine what different authors have left upon a subject of so much importance, before they form a definitive opinion concerning it. *P. 268. + Traité des Accouchmens, p. 582. BRITISH BRITISH CATALOGUE. POETRY. ART. 22. Select Poems, by John Edmund Harwood. 3s. Egertons. HIS we understand to be the first publication of a very ingenious young man. The poems are in general harmonious and elegant. The author's principal forte feems to be in humorous pieces, in which ftyle the fpecimen that concludes this volume is remarkably happy. The following Serenade exhibits Mr. Harwood's talents in another point of view: "If locked in foft and fweet repose, The balm which heaven affigns to woe, Thy foul ideal pleafure knows, And gentle paflions calmly glow: Still, ftill entranc'd in flumber lie, But if contending paffions tear Torment thee with fictitious moan, And wake, dear maid to love and me." ART. 23. The Gallic Lion; or, Modern Pandemonium: A Political Fable. Dedicated, by Permiffion, to the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, M. P. Is. Egerton, Hookham, Carpenter, &c. &c. The author roars against the French Regicides and the National Convention; but it cannot be faid, that, like Shakspeare's lion, he roars" like any nightingale." ART. 24. Stonehenge; a Poem. Infcribed to Edward Ferningham, Efq. 2s. 6d. Robfon. The mufe of Salisbury Plain depofits her offspring "filice in nudâ :” and in the poem before us there is fcarcely vigour enough to fupport animation in the bleakness of that climate.. Stonehenge is a theme which appears to fhrink equally from the touch of the poet who would ornament her, and from the footstep of the antiquary who would search into her foundations. Enquiry upon that fubject has been uniformly baffled; conjecture has been long exhaufted, and invention frequently fatigued, in exploring, afferting, and framing causes, which have hitherto been produced without conviction, and are now heard with Out attention. ART. ART. 25. Ad Anglos Ode gratulatoria. A. S. H. 15. Nicol. This Alcaic Ode is dedicated to the Prince of Wales, and appears, From its contents, to have been written by fome French gentleman not destitute of learning or tafte. To meet his congratulations with coldness, would be ungrateful, to repel them with the harfhnefs of criticism, cruel. This Ode, if not diftinguished by terfeness of expreffion, is replete with fentiments of respect and gratitude to the English nation, equally honourable to the perfon who addreffes, and to thofe who receive them. The following Stanzas will give no unfavourable fpecimen of the author's manner: "Te fulminantem, quæ plaga, quod mare Regina latè, fol ubi pervium Naves amicis undique portubus DRAMATIC. ART. 26. Falfe Colours: a Comedy in Five Acts; as performed at the King's Theatre, in the Haymarket, by his Majefty's Company from the Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane. By Edward Morris, Fellow of Peterboufe, Cambridge. 8vo. Is. 6d. Cadell. A Lord addicted to the doctrines of Lavater; a Baronet full of valetudinary, and other apprehenfions; whofe lady, very ill fuited to him, is addicted to fashion, to private theatricals, to various branches of authorship, and all the affectation of genius; a plotting Captain and his accomplice, Mifs Harriet, engaged to each other, but both defirous to intrigue themselves into a more profitable connexion; an adventurer in the line of caricature; a young lady of fpirit, elegance, and fentiment: thefe characters, and fome of a fubordinate kind, worked up with a degree of force, and reprefented by the best performers in the Haymarket, could not fail to amufe, and to attract the public. The difficulties in the plot are produced by a voluntary change of names between the artful Captain, and a young Baronet of merit, and the contrivances ufed to conceal from this young man and the principal Lady the mutual ftate of their affections. The plotters, after feveral very narrow efcapes, are at length difcovered, and are punished by being united to each other; and by fimilar means the lovers are, of course, rewarded. That the plot excites much intereft, or displays much art in its conftruction or conduct, cannot be faid; yet there are novelties of fituation, as well as of character, that could not not fail to please an audience. The compelling the difcordant couple to fet forth their nuptial happiness, is particularly laughable. Mr. G. Colman's Epilogue is worthy of him: it is novel and lively, well adapted for recitation, and not much less so for perusal. MISCELLANEOUS. ART. 27. A Selection from the Harleian Mifcellany, of Tracts which principally regard the English Hiftory, of which many are referred to by Hume. 4to. 11. 1s. Kearfley. It is fufficiently known, that the Harleian Mifcellany, from which this is a felection, confifted of a curious collection of useful and entertaining tracts from manufcripts, occafional writings, and fearce pamphlets, which were found in the library of the celebrated Earl of Oxford. These volumes were become remarkably fcarce and dear, and the editor of the publication before us has certainly a claim to the thanks of the curious, for the service which he has rendered them. It would have been a judicious thing in the publisher of the original volumes, if he had fyftematically arranged the various articles of which they were compofed, under the different branches of history, antiquities, literature, &c. &c. We are well assured, that it would yet anfwer the purpose of any one, who, according to the plan which is obferved in this volume, would undertake to republish the whole of the Harleian Miscellany in an adequate number of octavó volumes. We acknowledge our furprife, that this has not yet been done, but we ftill hope to fee, and fhall certainly, as far as our influence may reach, countenance its accomplishment. ART. 28. A Gazetteer of France, containing every City, Town, and Village in that extenfive Country, fhewing the Distances of the Cities and great Towns from Paris and at the Ends of the Towns and Villages noting the Poft-Offices through which Letters, &c. are conveyed to each. With a defcriptive Account of every Country; Boundaries; Extent, and Natural Produce: Including the chief Harbours, Bays, Rivers, Canals, Forefts, Mines, Hills, Vales, and Medicinal Springs. The Whole including above Forty Thousand Places. Illuftrated with a Map, divided into Departments. 3 vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. Robinsons. A Gazetteer of this kind ought, if poffible, to be compiled for every country in the world, certainly for every one in Europe; each would be separately defirable to different purchafers, and the whole would form, with a general index of names, a moft ample body of geographical intelligence. The ancient divifions of provinces are here obferved, which, as the compiler fays, " ftill exist, and probably always will." But an alphabetical lift of departments is prefixed, and the map fur ther illuftrates that divifion: which, it is infinuated, has never been arranged with full precifion. The work is neatly printed, and feems to be well executed; but it is impoffible to give an accurate examination to the whole of a book involving fo many fubjects of enquiry. ART. ART. 29. Humorous Hints to Ladies of Fashion who wish to appear pregnant. 2s. Symonds. Vulgar, ftupid, and indecent. One lady writing to another on the fubject of the fashionable pad, begins and ends her letter Mon cher ami. -Need we fay more? ART. 30. The Exhibition; or, There is None greater than I; no not One. By Timothy Tarbarrel. 8vo. Is. 35 PP. Faulder. We had the dream of an Englishman not long ago; this is the dream of a painter, and contains a furious combat of artists for the best places in the Exhibition. "Where thall I place your per"formance, Sir? let the council afk of every one-In the best place "to be fure, will be every man's anfwer." The tract is fpirited, humorous, and well written; and is happily illuftrated by the frontispiece, in which is an alphabet, where a coloffal irradiated I. occupies the foreground, and, by its magnitude, throws the reft of the letters into shade and perspective diminution. "There, Sir, he faid, is the Alphabet as every man frames it " for himself." A very good hint to artifts, and to many others befides artists. ART. 31. The Regal Rambler; or, Eccentrical Adventures of the Devil in London: With the Manœuvres of his Ministers towards the Clofe of the Eighteenth Century. Tranflated from the Syriac MS. of Rabbi Solomon, recently found in the Foundation of the Hebrew Synagogue. 8vo. 103 pp. 2s. 6d. Symonds. "But Lucifer was not to be cheated by this cabbaging fon of a "cucumber; for he ordered him to take measure of all the rest of "his agents. The fellow performed the job, and Lucifer paid him "ready-money of the coinage of Mammon, which he may keep, to pafs-when he arrives among his cross-legged brethren in the in"fernal ward prepared for extortioners." P. 14. Such is the style of this work; and we can affure the reader, that the plan and conduct of it are at leaft equal to the ftyle. As to its drift, we know little more of it in the Englifh, than if it had remained in the suppofed Syriac MS. ART. 32. A trip to Holyhead in a Mail Coach, with a Churchman and a Diffenter, in the Year 1793. 8vo. 137 PP. 25. Law and Debrett. A fenfible, and not ill-written pamphlet; the work, apparently, of fome well-difpofed and pious diffenter, whofe peaceable and candid mind appears to judge of other tempers by its own. It confits of fix dialogues, fuppofed to be conveyed in as many letters, from a perfon who was an auditor of them in a mail-coach. The point afferted throughout, which we heartily hope is warranted by the truth, is, that the great body of the diffenters are well affected to the king and conftitution; that they are quiet and humble men, not defirous |