we should without fcruple announce it as written in confequence of them, had not the Author informed us, in a prefatory advertisement, that, however fingular it may appear, the piece was actually write ten, and delivered to the Manager, long before any of the late difturbances.' This may, in general, be true; but we cannot help fufpecting, that fome particular paffages were afterwards thrown in by the Author or Manager. There is no great dramatic force in the fable, perfons, or dialogue. The character of Ambufcade is fomewhat novel and whimfical. The fongs are tolerable. Art. 31. A Widow and no Widow. A Dramatic Piece of Three Acts. At it was performed at the Theatre Royal in the Hay. market, in the Year 1779. Written by Paul Jodrell, M. A. 8vo. I s. 6d. Conant. 1790. The widow's fuitors, as well as fome other perfonages of this little drama, are well known to the Public. The Caledonian Traveller to Abyffinia, the patriotic Doctor of Divinity, the Conftitutional Bookfeller, and the penurious Peg Pennyworth, will tempt the Reader to fubjoin other names to them, besides thofe of the actors that ftand opposed to those characters among the Dramatis Perfona. The artist is rather a coarse painter, but commonly hits off a striking likeness. NOVEL S. Art. 32. Alwyn, or, the Gentleman Comedian. In Two Volumes. 12mo. 6s. Fielding and Walker. 1780. A vulgar narrative of uninteresting incidents in the peregrinations of a ftrolling player. Art. 33. The Indian Adventurer: or, the Hiftory of Mr. Vanneck; a Novel, founded on Facts. 12mo. 3 s. bound. Lane. 1780. Still more infipid and vulgar than the preceding article, and withal infufferably coarfe and indelicate. MEDICA L. Art. 34. An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Surgery. By William Deafe, Surgeon to the United Hofpitals of St. Nicholas and St. Catherine, at Dublin. Vol. I. 8vo. 3s. Murray. 1780. Mr. Deafe begins his work with giving a flight historical view of the progrefs of furgery, from the moft remote to the prefent time. He then, in his 1ft fection, presents a general view of the human body and animal economy, as connected with the practice of furgery. In the 2d, he proceeds to a general account of the proximate cause, fymptoms, distinctions, and treatment of external inflammations. Sect. 3d treats on Suppuration. Sect. 4th, on Gangrene. Sect. 5th, on Ulcers; and Sect. 6th, on Wounds in general. After all these Sections, which are short and concise, follow a number of Notes and Illuftrations, confilting of cafes, and practical remarks elucidating and confirming the doctrines laid down in the former part of the work. This method feems to us, on the whole, judicious and profitable; fince, in teaching the elements of any science, there is nothing fo ferviceable as appofite examples. We have already had Review for April, 1778. occafion occafion to fpeak favourably of Mr. Deafe's profeffional knowledge and the prefent publication affords additional proof of his ability We cannot compliment him on the propriety and correctnefs of his language. Art. 35. The Gout and Rheumatism cured or alleviated; proved by well-authenticated Cafes of the most painful Fits being removed in a few Days. With Reflections on the Caufes of the Gout, and the Danger of altering the Diet in Chronic Complaints. By William Rowley, M. D. 8vo. 2 S. Richardfon. 1779. Our old acquaintance, Dr. Rowley, who ufed to claim great merit with the Public for generously allowing the whole faculty to participate in his wonderful discoveries, has at laft condefcended to be the harbinger of as arrant a noftrum as any advertifed in the daily papers. It is an elixir, of Perfian or Arabian origin (forfooth) with which a bath and cataplafm is prepared for gouty limbs. Its virtues are trumpeted forth both in French and English, and fupported by cafes, with names to them. Doubt now who can! As for Dr. Rowley's thoughts and reflections, they are rational enough, but would fcarcely have been worth printing, but for the purpofe of ekeing out an advertisement into a pamphlet. By. Art. 36. An Account of the Methods purfued in the Treatment of The Public is obliged to this gentleman for his affiduous and unwearied endeavours to difcover a cure for the dreadful diforders here treated of; at the fame time, we have the mortification to find that the advance he has made in this object is very inadequate to the defired effect. The principal remedies tried by Mr. Juftamond were, first, a German recipe, which chiefly confifted in a martial tincture with fal ammoniac, ufed as a wash round the ulcer, with the view of foftening the indurated parts-fecondly, a bemlock bath-and thirdly, a preparation of arfenic, ufed as a cauftic to the furface of the ulcer. In this laft mineral, Mr. Juftamond thinks, is to be found the only true specific against the cancerous virus; but unfortunately, its ufe was attended with fo much pain, and with fuch noxious effects on the nervous fyftem, that he was feldom able to continue its application long enough to produce any important advantage. As an internal medicine, the Writer found the martial flowers in large dofes particularly ferviceable in mending the habit; and he had occafion to obferve its peculiar efficacy in that common and troublefome diforder of the female fex, the fluor albus. On the whole, however, he candidly acknowledges that he never fucceeded in healing any ulcerated cancer, befides the firft defcribed, by thefe methods except in the inftance of one other cancer, which proceeded from another disease, and was treated in a different manner. Mr Juftamond appears much attached to the opinion that cancers are produced from infects, or the germina of them taken up from the air by the lymphatic veifels; a theory which has prevailed in Germany and Italy. How far this notion correfponds with the various phanomena of the difeafe, we fhall leave our Readers to judge for themselves. The The Writer concludes with fome obfervations refpecting the methods of treating coagulations of milk in the breafts; in which he adduces fome inflances to fhew that ftimulant and difcutient applications, as particularly a folution of fal ammoniac with the addition of fpirits, fucceed better in these cafes than emollient poultices. As facts fairly and accurately related are always ufeful, though they may not have turned out as we fhould have wished or expected, we doubt not but fome inftruction may be derived from the present publication, which is written with candour and intelligence. RELIGIOUS and CONTROVERSIAL. Art. 37. A Reply to Mr. Gibbon's Vindication of fome Paffages in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters of the Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Wherein the Charges brought against him in the EXAMINATION are confirmed, and further Inflances given of his Mifreprefentation, Inaccuracy, and Plagiarism. By Henry Edwards Davis, B. A. of Baliol College, Oxford: Octavo. 3 s. fewed. Dodley. * Mr. Davis introduces his Reply with acquainting his readers, that he contends not for perfonai victory, but for the eftablishment of a juft caufe; with acknowledging that he has been mistaken in fome points, and too bold in fome of his affertions; and with mentioning fome things that may be urged in extenuation of his offence. But while he freely confeffes fome errors that he has fallen into, in his Examination of Mr. Gibbon's References, he still contends for the fubftantial grounds of the general charge; he ftill infilts, that many inaccuracies remain unnoticed, many misrepresentations unaccounted for by Mr. Gibbon; enough, he is confident, were he even to give up without a difpute, all that his adverfary has called in queftion, to convince the world, that he has totally fet afide the Hiftorian's boatted claim to the merits of accuracy and originality. Mr. Gibbon complains loudly, that Mr. Davis has repeatedly applied to him, fome of the harshest epithets in the English languagethat he has profecuted a religious crufade-with implacable spirit, and with acrimony of file. In answer to this Mr. Davis fays, that fome perfons may, perhaps, think, that warmth of expreffion is in this cafe the juft and proper language of the heart, and gives energy to fentiments which flow from the powerful conviction of truth. If fo, they will not be difpofed, he tells us, to pafs a very severe cenfure upon the indignation which a young Writer felt, when encountering an Author, whom he had but too good reafon to confider as an underminer of that religion, on which mankind may build better hopes, and which affords more valuable objects of them, than Mr. Gibbon's unfubftantial bubble of FAME. After making fome general remarks on Mr. Gibbon's Vindication, Mr. Davis proceeds to make his defence; and endeavours to confirm his former charges. He tells us, that there are twenty-nine inftances of mifreprefentation charged upon Mr. Gibbon in his Examination, to which no reply is made in the Vindication; that he has been convicted of only eight trifling miftakes out of fixty-eight inftances; fo that there are till remaining fixty fubftantial proofs of mifreprefenta See Review, Vol. LIX. p. 199. when properly divements are not caufed are snown to every ng as they are vulgarly Tamena dane well calculated to drag forth Ne conten: with this felf-applaufe, as we cannot help confidering ith other Solin abates his Reviewer, in a fyftematic form; thrope tou: letters, and in terms the most indecorous;-fach as modere friendship could fcarce extort from the molt feeling breast, in behalf of the deareft injured friend. In a coarie and valger drain of 1 of exultation over the fuppofed ignorance of the Reviewer, he principally dwells on two inftances. The philofophical attainments of the Joi difant Mr. William Chambers may be judged of from these two fpecimens, which we fhall condefcend to tranfcribe. To expose the ignorance of the Reviewer, he firft tells us, that the vapour or elaftic fteam arifing from the boiling fluid in the pulse-glass cannot expel all the air contained in the inftrument; becaufe, faith he, the atmospheric air is conftantly preffing in.'-Dr. H. S. ought to know, that a drop or two of water, or even a globule of mercury, will, by a boiling heat, be converted into an elaftic vapour, not only capable of expelling all the air out of a veffel, but of raifing even a greater preffure than that of the atmosphere; provided every part of the veffel has acquired fuch a heat as will fuffer the vapour to retain its elastic form: and that if any air be left in the pulfe-glass, the fenfibility of the inftrument will be impaired in proportion. ་ In the fecond inftance, the Reviewer is asked, with the most rifible folemnity, what Mr. W. C. calls one ferious question.' It is a curious one at least. How could the operator conjure all the air out of the pulfe-glafs without breaking the inflrument? The weight and preffure of the external atmosphere, under fuch circumftances, would certainly crush the glass to atoms. Blush, Critic, and never more talk of philofophy !'-Dr. H. S. or Mr. W. C. may, poffibly, if ever they attended a lecture on the air pump, have feen a flat pane of glass broke under thefe circumftances: but we could not have fuppofed, that any person who had publicly lectured on philofophy, or even the humble writer on philofophical fubjects in a newspaper, could have been fo grofsly ignorant, as not to know that the arched form of even a thin glafs bulb would protect it from even a greater preffure than that of the atmosphere. The extreme familiarity with which the Reviewer has been treated by the learned apologist of Dr. Hugh Smith-whoever he may beintitles him, he conceives, to look up to Dr. H. Smith himself on this occafion; and particularly to advife him to leave off, for the future, this unbefeeming practice of advertising himself as a philofo pher; and of abufing those whofe aim it was to inftruct him. A philofophical difcovery of importance cannot poffibly ftand in need of the foftering hand of a Gazetteer to fuftain it; much lefs can it require a ftrain of abufe, that difgraces even a modern newfpaper, to fupport it; against the cenfure of a- deceitful, envious, vain, or heceffitous, ignorant, malicious, fcurrilous, malignant, knavish, BLOCKHEAD of a Reviewer.'-For-fuch is the ftyle, nay the very words, (only occasionally changing Mr. W. C.'s fubftantives into adjectives} which this foul-mouthed Apologist of Dr. H. S. has thought proper to adopt, in return for the exemplary urbanity of the Reviewer to wards his friend. Since the preceding obfervations were written, Dr. H. Smith's Syllabus has been perufed by the Reviewer, who had but juft before been reminded of the decifive fentence of condemnation paffed upon it, by an affociate, in the Monthly Review for July 1778, page. 68. Mr. Chambers has committed a most unfortunate blunder, in exciting the Reviewer's attention towards that forgotten production; and particularly in arraigning him of unpardonable effrontery, for having dared |