rally looks for in fuch productions: the attainment of perfection in this kind of writing was in referve for Mr. Fielding in a future work.

Soon after the publication of Jofeph Andrews, the last comedy, which came from this writer's pen, was exhibited on the ftage, intitled the Wedding Day: and, as we have already obferved, it was attended with an indifferent share of fuccefs. The law from this time had its hot and cold fits with him; he purfued it by ftarts, and after frequent intermiffions, which are ever fatal in this profeffion, in which whoever is situated, is, for a long time, in the condition of the boatman defcribed in the Georgics, working his way against the ftream; and if he should by chance remit from his labour, he is rapidly carried back, and lofes from the progrefs he had made.

-fi bracchia fortè remifit,

Atque illum in præceps prono rapit alveus amni.

Thefe occafional relaxations of industry Mr. Fielding felt, and he also felt the inconveniencies of them; which was the more fevere upon him, as voluntary and wilful neglect could not be charged upon him. The repeated fhocks of illness difabled him from being as affiduous an attendant at the bar, as his own inclination and patience of the most laborious application, would otherwife have made him. Besides the demands for expence, which his valetudinarian habit of body conftantly made upon him, he had likewife a family to maintain; from business he derived little or no fupplies, and his profpects therefore grew every day more gloomy and melancholy. To thefe difcouraging circumftances, if we add the infirmity of his wife, whom he loved tenderly, and the agonies he felt on her account, the moafure of his afflictions will be well nigh full. To fee her daily languishing and wearing away before his eyes, was too much for a man of his strong fenfations; the fortitude of mind, with which he met all the other calamities of life, deferted him on this moft trying occafion; and her death, which happened about this time, brought on fuch a vehemence of grief, that his friends began to think him in danger of lofing his reafon. When the first emotions of his forrow were abated, philofophy administered her aid; his refolution returned, and he began again to ftruggle with his fortune. He engaged in two periodical papers fucceffively, with a laudable and fpirited defign of rendering fervice to his country. The first of these was called the True Patriot, which was fet on foot during the late rebellion, and was conducive to the excitement of loyalty, and a

love

love for the conftitution in the breasts of his countrymen. A project of the fame kind had been executed in the year 1715, when the nation laboured under the fame difficulties, by the celebrated Mr. Addifon, who afterwards rofe to be fecretary of ftate. The Freeholder by that elegant writer contains no doubt many feafonable animadverfions, and a delicate vein of wit and raillery but it may be pronounced with fafety, that in the True Patriot there was difplayed a folid knowledge of the British laws, and government, together with occafional fallies of humour, which would have made no inconfiderable figure in the political compofitions of an Addifen, or a Swift. The Jacobite Journal was calculated to difcredit the shattered remains of an unfuccessful party, and by a well-applied raillery and ridicule to bring the fentiments of the difaffected into contempt, and thereby efface them not only from the converfation, but the minds of men. How excellently he fucceeded in this defign, may be felt by the reader, if he will be at the small trouble of turning over the leaves, which close the fecond volume of this edition.

"Our author by this time attained the age of forty-three; and being inceffantly pursued by reiterated attacks of the gout, he was wholly rendered incapable of pursuing the business of a barrifter any longer. He was obliged therefore to accept an office, which feldom fails of being hateful to the populace, and of courfe liable to many injurious imputations, namely, an acting magiftrate in the commiffion of the peace for Middlejex. That he was not inattentive to the calls of his duty, and that, on the contrary, he laboured to be an useful citizen, is evident from the many tracts he publifhed, relating to several of the penal laws, and to the vices and mal-practices which thofe laws were intended to restrain."

Amidst these fevere exercises of his understanding, and all the laborious duties of his office, his invention could not lie ftill, but he found leifure to amufe himfelf, and afterwards the world, with the Hiftory of Tom Jones.-But for our author's account of this work, we must refer to the next Number of our Review.

An Effay on the medical Conftitution of Great-Britain. To which are added Obfervations on the Weather, and the Difeafes which appeared in the Period included between the firft of January 1758, and the Summer Selftice in 1760. Together with a Narrative

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Narrative of the Throat Distemper and the miliary Fever, which were epidemical in the Dutchy of Cleveland in 1760. Likewife, Obfervations on the Effects of fome Anthelmintics, particularly of the Great Baftard Black Hellebore, or Bear's Foot. Octavo, 5s. bound. Millar.

T

HE author of this effay, as appears by his infcription of it to Dr. Pringle, is Charles Biffet, a Surgeon; of whose treatise upon the fcurvy we gave an account, Review, vol. XIV. p. 14. He informs us, in the preface to this effay, that "the principal defign of it is to exhibit the effects produced in the human body by the viciffitudes of the seasons, and the different temperatures, and most remarkable changes of the weather throughout the year in Great-Britain, with a view to investigate the external caufes and the genufes of all the diseases incident to the inhabitants of this ifland, whofe difpofing and exciting caufes depend wholly, or in a great meafure, on the air." This opinion is as old as Hippocrates, who applied it to the air of Greece, and indeed univerfally to the state of this circumambient and inhaled fluid.

Our author treats diftinctly of the British air in general: of the periods included betwixt the fummer folftice and the firft of Auguft; betwixt the first of Auguft and the autumnal equinox; betwixt the autumnal equinox and the winter fol ftice; betwixt the winter folftice and the vernal equinox; and betwixt the vernal equinox and the fummer folftice: of the conftitution of the air in the year 1758, and of that of the fubfequent spring, in the dutchy of Cleveland, Yorkshire. The heads of his two other chapters are briefly comprised in the title-page, as above. As this dutchy is the refidence of our author, the whole of his meteorological obfervations must have been taken from the ftate and variety of the atmosphere in the different seasons there, which may be fuppofed, without any confiderable error perhaps, to be fimilar to the general ftate of it throughout England, at least, during these identical Periods.

Great attention and affiduity were neceffary to form and to continue, very accurately, these periodical accounts, and no little obfervation was required to annex their general morbid confequences, with the medical reflections and conduct refulting from them; in all which refpects Mr. Biffet appears to be duly qualified. Neverthelefs, his being wholly poffeffed, as it were, by the fubject, and all the minutia infeparable from it, will make him fometimes, we apprehend, appear too fub

til,

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til, even to his medical readers. For, as the fundamental notion of this treatise inculcates the state of the air to be the caufe of all epidemical difeafes, it may be a matter of fome perplexity, to obferve this general caufe acting fo very differently on the blood of individuals, under the fame disease, at the very fame period. We are told, for inftance, p. 165,— "That the blood under these flow fevers [of March and April 1758] was, in a few inftances, more or lefs fizy; in others it was dense and black, or somewhat putrid, or of a lax and broken confiftence." Now as these are the most material, and indeed almost all the morbid diverfities that can happen to the blood, it feems difficult to account for the fame air and disease producing fuch a different, and even opposite state of it, in their common fubjects, who may be fuppofed about the fame age too, as no difference of age is specified. In fact, there feems to be too little afcribed here to the great diverfity of perfonal conftitutions, from an unrelaxing attention to the state of the air; fince perfons in these extreme and - even oppofite dyfcrafies of the blood, whatever might have primarily caused or conduced to them, muft, with great probability, be fick in any atmosphere, and at any feafon. We are alfo told, in the fame page, "That in the fecond class of fevers, occurring in the fame fpring, their prevalent symptoms were nervous, or catarrhal, or inflammatory," without being informed which clafs of thefe fymptoms prevailed most generally. This is certainly not diftinct and precife enough; moft epidemic difeafes, in the fame time and place, having fome principal or diftinguishing fymptom, as in our late colds, as they were called, a pain in the head, and that chiefly over the eyes, was the principal complaint of a great majority. Befides, that the fymptoms of many difeafes are either nervous, catarrhal, or inflammatory. Indeed, when we come to our author's practice in thefe fevers, he diftinguishes, "that a moderate bleeding or two, according to the indications, had a good effect in both of them, provided the party was naturally strong and healthy," adding, "this evacuation was fometimes neceffary, when it was not indicated by the pulfe." But when he proceeds to the other proper remedies and regimen, in both these fevers, he directs but one in general for them both, in all their various fymptoms," it being the temperate and opening one, with the allowance of, fome wine, which, he fays, was of fignal fervice." Now, though we profefs no doubt of our author's conducting himfelf very properly in the different circumftances of his patients, throughout the different stages and symptoms of thofe difeafes,

8

difeafes; yet, as his treatise is of a didactic nature, he ought to have been more exact in a few of its therapeutic, or practical, parts, with a view to the benefit of younger practitioners and their patients. The fmall pox, for instance, very foon afcertains itself in whatever fubject or feafon it occurs; but he would be thought a strange physician, who should direct the fame regimen and remedies in its different degrees, ftages, and fymptoms.

We would not be fuppofed, however, from thefe quotations and remarks, to intend any general detraction from the confiderable merit and excellent purpofe of this performance, which abounds with juft medical reflections and very pertinent obfervations. The following paffage, towards the conclufion, contains a good practical direction, as well as a proof of the author's candour and honefty. It may alfo ferve as a fpecimen of his generally agreeable manner of writing; confidering the unavoidable drynefs and repetitions of a journal of the weather, and its attendant diseases.

"I fhall here obferve, by the by, that fpirit of fal ammoniac is the most efficacious medicine, next to the Peruvian bark, of any yet known, againft vernal intermittents. Tho' many cafes occur that will yield to no other medicine but the bark, yet I have met with a pretty many that were only fuppreffed from time to time by the bark, but were compleatly cured by the alcaline fpirit. Thofe patients who are cured by the spirit very rarely relapfe; but 'tis well known that intermittents, unless they be of a mild nature, are very apt to recur after being fuppreffed by the bark. The alcaline fpirit will often carry off vernal intermittents without premifing any evacuation; it is, however, in general more fuccessful if a purge is previoufly given; and if the patient is plethoric, or if the difeafe is attended by fymptoms of inflammation, or perfonates a remittent, bleeding will alfo be proper previous to the exhibition of the fpirit. In fome cafes of a flow nature, with dense or fomewhat fizy blood, the alcaline fpirit is the most efficacious medicine; yet, in the firft ftate of some tertians, under an acute continued, or remitting form, it is improper. I ufually direct fifteen or twenty drops of it to be taken in a tea-cup full of cold fpring-water, and to be repeated five or fix times in each intermiffion. The fuccefs of this medicine may, indeed, be owing, in fome measure, to the cold water, which alone, being drunk on an empty stomach, will carry off many vernal intermittents. And as the fpirit of fal ammoniac generally requires two, or three, or more days VOL. XXVI K k

to