The work now alluded to contains the history of health in the channel fleet for five years. The spirit of investigation that it discovers, has few precedents in medical writings: various translations of it have been published; and professor Hufeland has favoured the German copy or edition with a preface in no usual style of compliment. But the real value of this essay on the diseases of seamen, is to be estimated from the beneficial effects it has exhibited in the navy of this country. The prevention of disease is the chief object aimed at here; and though precepts of health are not always detailed in a regular and systematic manner, nor delivered in language every where correct, yet they are given in such a way that cannot fail to convince; and with so feeling a concern for the subject, that the work has been as earnestly read by the naval officer as by the surgeon. The Doctor has added many new and valuable facts to our stock of knowledge on the subject of contagion, and he has, without doubt, successfully combated the opinions of Dr. C. Smyth on the best means of eradicating it. A third and last volume of the Medicina Nautica. has just been anounced in the Medical and Physical Journal.

In proof of the high estimation in which the writings. of this ingenious physician are held, we may instance the many important attentions and improvements in the naval medical department which have been effected by his recommendation,* and on the conclusion

* Such as the new arrangements of officers, &c. in royal hospitals; abolition of the fine for cure of lues venerea in ships, &c.

The

of

peace, the surgeons of the royal navy presented him with an elegant and valuable piece of plate, as a testimony of the high sense they entertained of the services he has rendered their corps.

Dr. Trotter has lately settled at Newcastle-uponTyne. In full possession of medical fame, we might have expected him to have chosen a more lucrative field for his practice; as the present First Lord of the Admiralty is not likely to suffer his talents to be lost to the public service of the country.

Besides his medical works, Dr. Trotter has written several poetical pieces, which have ben printed in different literary journals. A poem, entitled Suspiria Oceani, a monody on the death of Earl Howe, K. G. was published soon after the decease of that good man and gallant officer. We shall present our readers with the following specimens of his poetical abilities.

THE SWALLOW.

1

Written in May 1793, on a Swallow entering the Ward-room of H. M. S. VENGEANCE, the Ship being many leagues from Land, on her Passage to the West Indies.

Welcome hither, airy traveller,

Here to rest thy wearied wing,
Tho' from clime to clime a reveller,
Constant to returning Spring.

The first public compliment paid to Dr. Jenner came from his hands; a gold medal, from the medical officers of the navy, with the Horatian motto, " Alba nautis, stella refuesit." In 1801, not fewer than zoo gin-shops were shut up in Plymouth-dock, from 'complaints made by him to Government on the prejudicial effects these nuisances produced on the health of the scamen.

If

THE FURZE BLOSSOM.

Written at Portsmouth, February 1796, on a young Lady promising the Author a Bouquet, which proved to be a Sprig of Furze in Blossom

While FLORA benumb'd in a mantle of frost,

And her tresses besprinkled with snow,
Impatient awaited the blooms she had lost,
And shew'd but a crocus or two:

Her handmaid, MYRTILLA, to pass a round joke,
As she jeer'd with a stupid dull swain,
Declar'd she could raise, by a magical stroke,
A bouquet to enliven his strain.

No sooner she spoke, than a stranger appear'd,
With simplicity mark'd on its bloom,

Like the rose-tree, it pointed a thorn for its guard,
And breath'd forth the lily's perfume.

Behold then, she cried, as she brandish'd the stem,
It will teach you a lesson so new :

From her eyes, inspiration awaken'd his theme,
And this was the moral he drew.

"Tho' bleak was the season, and rude was the spot,
"That foster'd those petals so gay;

"While the shrubs of the garden were dead and forgot,

They gave their wild sweets to the day.

"As they parted, the tree that had nourish'd their growth,
،، The desart and woodland among,

"MYRTILLA pronounc'd them the emblems of truth,
"And her Bard thus records it in song.

"Ye fair, whom the beauties of Nature can warm,

"Who court the recess of the vale,

"Yet there shall discernment unfold every charm,

"When folly and fashion shall fail.

"Then learn from the flowret, now blest in its doom,

"Tho' lately transferr'd from the waste,

"And the snow-drop, tho' often neglected to bloom,

"May be pluck'd by the fingers of Taste,”

REV.

REV. RICHARD POLWHELE.

THIS gentleman, who has distinguished himself in very opposite walks of literature, and in many has acquired deserved reputation, is the son of Thomas Polwhele, Esq. of Polwhele, in Cornwall. His grandfather was high-sheriff of that county in the reign of George the First, and his family is of high antiquity there.* The paternal mansion is agreeably seated not far from the banks of the romantic Tamer; but we are informed that the estate was considerably diminished before it came into the hands of its present possessor. It is certain that the family suffered much from their loyalty in the turbulent reign of Charles the First. One of these was Dr. Degory Polwhele, fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, who was created M. D. by that university in 1660. In the Chancellor's letters for that purpose we find the following account of him;

* William of Worcester (who made a tour into Cornwall in the year 1478) mentions the castle of Polwhele, as then in ruins. It appears from Browne Willis, that in the parliament of Westminster, 4th and 5th of Philip and Mary, 1557, John Polwhele, of Polwhele, Esq. represented the county, together with John Arundel de Langheron. In the long parliament John Polwhele was a member for Tregony, in Cornwall, Sir Richard Vyvyan, Knight, his colleague. One of the Cornish topographers observes, that this place gives name to a place of eminence that flourished here before the Conquest. At this time, Drue de Polwhele was Chamberlain to William the Conqueror's Queen, as appears by a grant from her to the said Drue, which runs thus: "Drogoni de Pol"wheel camerario meo.' The Polwheles were allied to the noble families of Edgecumbe, Godolphin, and Mohun.-Extract from Polwhele's History of Devon, vol. ii. p. 168.

"That