to take fuch an excurfion, in continuation. Of the female ftream, Mr. I. fpeaks in very high terms. Though in extent and confequence the river Medway* is inferior to the Thames, yet it has its peculiar beauties, and, in some respects, in point of romantic fcenery, juftly claims a pre-eminence. Its reaches are fhort and fudden; and the beautiful meandering of its course affords that perpetual diverfity of objects which cannot fail to attract and yield gratification to the admirers of rural scenery.' This remark is juft; and many of the views which embellish the work, (though, on account of their fize, they give but a small portion of the landscape,) confirm it. The views are not all taken immediately on the banks of the river, but Mr. I. never leaves it unless for an object worthy of his pencil.

The defcriptive and hiftoric accounts of the fubjects of the feveral drawings evince that Mr. I. is defirous of inftructing as well as of amufing; and the mifcellaneous remarks and reflections, which fuggeft themfelves in the progrefs of his tour, are pertinent, and enliven his narrative. It is not to be fuppofed that he is always correct, but it is clear that he endeavours to be fo; and notwithstanding that, in fuch concise relations, many things are neceffarily omitted, he will entertain and probably fatisfy the general reader. If we were furprized at any omiffion, it would be at his not mentioning the law of gavel-kind, which is in a manner peculiar to Kent. He indeed does not quit his fubject without doing juftice to the high character fuftained by the men of Kent; though he complains, in an inftance or two, of his having experienced some incivility during this excurfion.

After the obfervations which we made on our author's Thames, we fhall now only farther characterize this volume as a publication of fimilar merit; fupporting our commendation of Mr. I., as an intelligent and pleafing writer, by adding part of his account of Penshurst, celebrated as having been the refidence of the accomplished Sir Philip Sydney, and the birthplace of that renowned patriot Algernon Sydney:

PENSHURST Place was, in the time of Edward I., in the poffeflion of Sir Stephen de Penefhurfte, who was made Conftable of Dover Cattle, and Warden of the Cinque Ports, by Henry II.; after which it was conveyed to John de Pulteney; who, in the reign of Edward II., had licence to embattle his manfion-house of Pen

It was called Vaga by the ancient Romans; from the Saxons it received the additional fyllable of Med, fignifying Mid or Middle, to denote its courfe through the centre of the kingdom of Kent; and hence its compound appellation Med-vaga, or Medwage, which is now modernized into Medway.'

fhurft;

hurft; and in the reign of Edward III. he was fo highly favoured as to receive from that Prince the honour of Knighthood.

In the fame reign he was four times elected to the high office of Lord Mayor of the city of London. From this family it came by marriage to Sir John Devereux; who, in the fucceeding reign of Richard II., had also a licence to embattle and fortify this manfion.

After paffing through feveral hands it was at length forfeited to the crown, in the fourth year of Edward VI., by the attainder of Sir Ralph Vane. The eftate was then given by that young Prince, in 1553, to Sir William Sydney, who enjoyed it but a few months: from him it devolved to his infant fon Sir Henry, who, from his childhood, was bred at court, and was the playmate and bed-fellow of Prince Edward. The young monarch afterwards made him Gentleman of the Privy Chamber; and is faid to have taken fo much delight in his company, as to have rarely permitted his abfence. The young prince expired in his arms at Greenwich foon after; at which period Sir Henry retired to Penfhurft, there to indulge his grief; and by thus withdrawing himself efcaped the fury of the times, and moft probably the fatal confequences that attended his father-in-law, the Duke of Northumberland, in the fucceeding reign of the bigotted Mary. This fact is adverted to in the infcription over the gate-way at the grand entrance.

This ancient manfion has been formerly a place of confiderable ftrength, as appears from its immenfe walls and high embattled. towers. The principal entrance to the great quadrangle, which is of hewn ftone, is nearly in its original Gothic ftate of defign, and impreffes the mind very forcibly with the gloomy and referved pomp of our brave ancestors. The hall is fpacious and lofty, and the fragments of ancient armour, here exhibited, ftrongly recall to memory

"The ancient errant Knights,

"Who won their ladies hearts in fights,
"And cut whole Giants into fritters,

"To put them into amorous twitters."

We fee here the Knights of Chivalry in ancient times making impreffion upon their ladies hearts in battle, and hacking and hewing their way into their affections: and if fuch ftrange things as these could avail in love, can we wonder that the modern champion of this fublime profeffion should endeavour to mix arms with eloquence; and, for the purpose of impreffing his audience, fhould be found flourishing his dagger in aid of the flights of his oratory?

The apartments of this famous manfion have been much modernized within a few years by the late owner, William Perry, Efq. who became poffeffed of this eftate by marriage with the Honourable Elizabeth Sydney, niece to the late Earl of Leicefter.'

Some wooden cuts, as in the former work, are introduced in the letter prefs; one of which represents that rude monument of antiquity called Kit's Coity-house.

To a zeal for the arts Mr. I. unites its natural accompaniment, the love of liberty; which circumftance, in our efti

mation, ftamps an additional value on bis elegant labours. Moo-y,

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ART.

ART. XVI. An Inquiry into the Nature and Properties of Opium wherein its component Principles, Mode of Operation, and Üfe or Abufe in particular Difeafes, are experimentally investigated; and the Opinions of former Authors on thefe Points impartially examined. By Samuel Crumpe, M.D. 8vo. pp. 304. 55. Boards. Robinfons. 1793.

WE E have here a treatife on the most important article in the materia medica, which we think in fome refpects worthy of commendation. It is in part a compilement; as any reader may fatisfy himself by referring to the 2d vol of Murray's Apparatus Medicaminum, Gottingen 1779. Other perfons, as well as the prefent author, had obtained opium (1. c. p. 220) from the capfules of European poppies. The only original obfervation in chap. 1. on the Natural Hiftory of Opium, is, that the dark colour of this drug, as it commonly appears, is owing to the iron inftruments ufed for the incifion of the capfules fince, when they are wounded with glafs, the opium proves of a clearer reddish brown than is ufual.

Chap. 2, treats of the Effects of Opium on living Systems;" and it contains fome diftinct experiments, which feem to confirm the doctrines of the Brunonian fchool; or rather to corroborate what Boerhaave and Haller, ftill more distinctly, have obferved concerning the ftimulating power of opium. In thefe experiments, in the account of which a tabular view is given of the variation of the pulfe every five minutes after taking opium, the vafcular fyftem appears to have its action increafed; and the effect on the other functions is fimilar. Concerning thofe writers, (or rather that writer, for he quotes only Bard,) who have obferved that the pulfe is retarded and enfeebled by opium, Dr. Crumpe fays that they did not examine it foon enough.. Murray (p. 237,) makes precifely the fame remark.

The third chapter treats of the analysis of opium. The principal refult of the author's experiments on this fubject is that the virtue of opium refides in the refin; this refin is of two kinds,-one volatile in the heat of boiling water; which degree of heat feems to destroy its activity. The author has rendered this chapter tedious by quoting at length the idle experiment of Baumè, who digefted opium in water for three months, in order to feparate the anodyne from the ftimulant particles.

Chap. 4. is entitled a concife View of the various Opinions refpecting the Mode of Operation by Opium. Dr. C. thinks that Galen was the first who exhibited opium. On confulting the hiftorians. of medicine in general, or of this drug in particular, we find it in ufe not long after Hippocrates; and it is not very prebable that a fyftematic author, like Galen, fhould have intro

duced

duced fo powerful an article into medical practice. The opinions of authors are referred to three claffes: The

First, Containing the opinions of thofe who afcribe its effects to changes induced by it in the blood. The

Second, Of thofe who deduce them from its action on the living principle as a fedative, or fedative and ftimulant conjoined. And the Third, Comprehending the fentiments of fuch as attribute to it the properties of a ftimulant alone.'

In the 5th chapter, the firft of thefe opinions is difcuffed; and the author takes occafion to combat the opinion of Mr. Hunter concerning the vitality of the blood. He writes fenfibly: but the controverfy feems to us likely to continue undecided and unprofitable as heretofore, till the parties agree concerning the ideas to be comprehended under the term life. In this chapter, a fact occurs of which, though it fhould be capable of a mechanical explanation, it imports all experimenters on living animals to be apprized. Dr. Crumpe fays, the larger the animal of any given fpecies, the longer does the heart, feparated from the body, continue to vibrate. In an experiment here recited, the heart of a large frog beat for 20 minutes, that of a fmall one only for 10.-Another well-devised experiment, related in this chapter, alfo deferves notice. In two of three equal frogs, the parts were fo divided that the lower extremities adhered to the trunk by the principal nerves only; the bloodveffels were taken up and tied; watery folution of opium was then introduced under the fkin of the extremities in one of these, and in the third undiffeted frog; both died in little more than an hour; the other diffected frog was left to itself, and furvived feven hours.-This experiment anfwered on repetition, and ferves to fhew that the operation of opium is not on the Auids.

In the 6th chapter, the author eafily expofes the futility of that opinion according to which opium acts as a fedative; and he takes unneceffary pains to difprove the existence of a nervous Auid. He argues with fhrewdnefs against Dr. Cullen, who, after fluctuating long, finally adopted a very whimfical hypothefis concerning opium; of which he imputed the ftimulant effects to exertions made by the vis medicatrix naturæ, in order to oppofe the fedative or narcotic effects of opium. To fhew how much the theory and practice of the late Edinburgh Pro. feffor are at variance on this head, the following intance is produced:

The phænomena of regular gout, he fuppofes, arife from an atony taking place in certain conftitutions, which the vis medicatrix naturæ is roufed to remove, and which the effects by exciting an inflammatory affection in fome of the extremities; but when the atony has taken place, if nature be fo weak that the re-action does not fucceed, the atony continues in the ftomach and neighbouring parts, and produces

F 3

duces the atonic gout, or, as it is commonly termed, gout in the ftomach. In this very complaint, however, we find, from a paffage in his Materia Medica, he has given opium to the amount of ten grains twice a day with fuccefs; a practice furely indefenfible, if his theory of its action were founded in truth; for, if nature could not be roused into re-action by the cause already oppreffing her, and producing the disease, with what propriety could a medicine be exhibited to affift her, whofe exciting powers only arife from a fimilar indirect modé of operation ?'

The explanation of the effects of opium given in the fubfequent pages is fo purely Brunonian, that we may juftly wonder at those pretenfions to novelty of opinion which occur in the preface and introduction to this book. Toward the end of the chapter are feveral well-contrived experiments, to fhew the analogy between volatile alkali, alcohol, electricity, and opium, in their effects on the heart and blood-veffels of frogs. This analogy is abundantly striking.

The fubject of chap. 7. is, the pharmaceutical Treatment of Opium, and its Uf or Abufe in particular Difeafes. Dr. Crumpe confiders the method of purifying opium in the New London Pharmacopoeia as highly objectionable, because the heat necessary to drive off the great quantity of spirit will diffipate the most active parts, and even render the ftrength of the extract variable. If opium must be purified, (which Dr. Crumpe believes to be needlefs,) he thinks it thould be diffolved in an equal weight of proof fpirit, ftrained, and then dried by a water-bath.

From what has been faid, the intelligent medical reader will eafily divine the directions laid down in the fubfequent part of this chapter, refpecting the use of opium in diseases. Except in fome cafes of gout, in which the author avows his uncertainty, he coincides very nearly in opinion with Dr. Brown in the principal particulars.

It is fcarcely neceffary to add that the prefent publication seems to us to afford one of thofe very common inftances, in which a young writer imprudently enlarges his book beyond his ftock of materials. We agree with one of Dr. C.'s friends, whofe opinion is quoted in the preface, that his reasonings are acute and his experiments well-contrived. Could he have been perfuaded to comprefs his obfervations into the compafs of 50 or 60 pages, it would have been better for himself and his readers.. Not to enlarge on a topic when there is nothing new to Jay, appears to be a rule equally obvious and proper-but it is very rarely obferved when a phyfician, fresh from the fchools, refolves to become a member of the republic of letters: we imagine that we cannot better confult the interest of that republic, than by enforcing that rule whenever we find it materially violated.

ART.

Bed....