length of time which we know, by experience, is neceffary to diffipate the virus, I never can fee the propriety of running headlong, and flying at once to Theriac, Mithridate, and Philonium.

I do not, however, deny but the great Sydenham may have met with cafes which required fuch hot medicines as he ordered with fo great fuccefs; because the power of the alexipharmac must be proportioned to the resistance; and it is evident that the peftilental fever must have been both frequent and very virulent in London during the two years of the plague, and while the people were crowded together for fome years after the fire; but the following decoction, affifted by the cordial and warm fippings formerly recommended in the angina maligna, has in general anfwered my purpose, and has been fufficient, not only to bring on the sweat, but also to keep it up for forty-eight hours; after which I have always found it expedient to order a purge; but at the same time to continue the diaphoretic regimen for three days longer; or till the malignant fymptoms were subdued:

R Rad. Serpent. Virgin. vj

Angelic. zij.

Coque in Aquæ fontanæ lib. i. fs. ad lib. i. Sub finem Coetionis adde

Cort. Cinamom. fs.

Colaturæ adde

Spir. Minder. 3ij.
Sacchar. 3ij.

f. Mistura, cujus capiat Cochlearia duo majora omni bihorio.

For fome years paft, I have used the faline draughts with confec. cardiac. and contrayerva root with much the fame effect; only when the naufea has been confiderable, and the ftomach would not retain the medicine, I have ordered the powders in a bolus to be washed down with a faline draught in the act of fermentation.

It is eafy to know when the fweat is falutary by the quick relief it procures; the malignant fymptoms abate, the patient finds himself ftronger, eafier, and more happy every hour: the ftomach rejects nothing that is taken down, and the pulfe foon becomes more large, foft, and even flow, notwithstanding the heat of the bed, drink, and medicines; nay, the skin, although hot during the fweat, does not burn and bite the hand as in fome putrid fevers. And this method will fucceed in the beginning of a fimple peftilential fever in a clean found conftitution: that is, the peftilential miafmata, when not complicated with plethora, turgid matter, or common fever, may and ought to be diffipated by fweat; the fooner this fweat can be procured with propriety, the better it will be for the patient,'

The

The fubjects treated in this Effay are, the peftilential fever fingle-complicated with inflammation-with putridity" with aphthe-with a dyfentery.

Dr. Grant obferves, that this difeafe might with greater" propriety be called a nervous malignant fever; but were he lefs attached to nominal distinctions, he would have admitted it to the title of the jail fever, camp fever, or putrid fever, by one or other of which it is usually diftinguished. He acknowledges that he has never feen the difeafe accompanied with buboe's and carbuncles, from the existence of which, Sydenham bestowed upon it the epithet of peftilential, as nearly refembling the plague: why then fhould our author infift on a peculiarity, which is marked by no pathognomonic fymp tom different from those of the jail fever? The bad effects of unneceffary diftinctions are not confined to the incumbering of science with a multiplicity of useless terms: they even tend to the abolition of medical knowledge, under the fallacious appearance of refinement, Upon this principle, it might be in the power of any writer to fubvert the moft valuable obfervations that ever were made, by describing under a different name the disease to which they are applicable. Of this we have an inftance in the Effay before us, where, notwithstanding the real identity of the peftilential and jail fever, not the leaft notice is taken of the accurate obfervations of fir John Pringle, and others who have written on the difeafe. We do not mention this circumftance with any view of depreciating the authority of Dr. Grant, of whofe judgment and practical. knowledge we have a very high opinion; but only to exemplify the confequence of verbal and groundless diftinctions.

VI. A Treatife of a Cataract, its Nature, Species, Caufes and Symptoms, &c. By George Chandler. 8vo. 25. 5d. Cadell.

THE

HE practice in diforders of the eyes has been for some years fo much engroffed by profeffed oculifts, that we are glad to find the regulars of the faculty have not renounced the cultivation of fuch an useful and material department. If we confider the great importance of the ineftimable bleffing of fight, perhaps the diseases of no other part of the human frame deserve so much attention, as those which affect the or gans allotted to visual fenfation. Mr. Chandler, therefore, is justly entitled to the warmest approbation, for endeavouring to improve and extend the knowledge of this fubject.

4

The author begins with the defcription of a cataract,, which he delivers in the following words.

VOL. XXXIX. March, 1775.

P

• A ca

202

Chandler's Treatise of a Cataract.

A cataract is defined to be an abolition of fight, attended with a confpicuous opacity behind the pupil, which lofeing its natural black colour, becomes opake, and contracts colours foreign to it, fuch as white, grey, yellow, blue or ferrugineous. In this cafe the chryftalline lens, or its coverings, viz. either the arachnoid coat in which it is enclosed; or the vitreous, with which the bed of the vitreous humour, in which the lens is feated, is invested, which naturally ought to be tranfparent, being rendered opake, reflects all the rays of light, but tranfmits fcarcely any; therefore no image of objects can be painted on the retina, and the fight thereof must be fuppreffed by means of this obftacle, although the retina and the other organs of fight are in the best state poffible.

The eye begins to be dim from a nafcent and recent cataFact, so as that the patient seems to perceive, as it were, a little cloud before it; this appears, from time to time, fometimes fafter, at others more flowly, to grow thicker, and, at length opposes itself fo manifeftly to the interior powers of fight, as to be outwardly difcernable to every one who looks at it. As the disease advances, the fight becomes more and more dull, and at length is wholly lost.'

After giving an account of the different fpecies of cataracts, as mentioned by authors, he proceeds to confider the causes of the difeafe, which are of various kinds. He obferves that it may arife from any thick and glutinous humour infpiffated and ftagnating in the eryftalline; or to its minuteft veffels being obftructed, and rendered impervious, whence the crystalline lofes its transparency. Or it may be the confequence of a deficiency of that juice, which is naturally deposited between the lens and its covering, and from which it receives nourishment. When fuch a defect happens, the cryftalline becomes contracted and opake. The disorder, he remarks, may likewife proceed from defluxions, inflammations, and external accidents.

He next treats of those cataracts which more readily admit of relief; and defcribes them as follows.

• That fort of cataract in which the chryftalline lens only is affected, may now and then (if attended to upon its first appearance) be averted by a courfe of diet and proper medi cines; and moreover may be remedied by the hand, when it is already come to maturity. The colour itfelf of the catarac, when formed, gives hopes of fuccessful cure by the operation, when of a whitish blue, or greyish colour, or even if a very little turning to yellow: alfo if the eye be neither too hard nor too foft; and if there be fome fenfe of light left to it, though no perception of colours; fo that in the dark, the

pupil is fomewhat dilated, and in the light contracted. Moreover, if the pupil does not cohere with the cataract. Alfo if it be ripe, when it fhall be found to have acquired fome degree, not too much, of hardness; and when the pupil having entirely loft its natural black nefs, is equally every where clouded over, but however yet moveable, when ftroaked with the fingers, and the patient retains fome degree of perception of light and darkness, by means of a few rays which enter the eye between the iris and cataract.'

In a variety of subsequent sections, he gives an account of doubtful, dangerous, or irremediable cataracts; and of the me thods of couching or depreffing, and that of extracting the cataract; with judicious remarks on both these modes of practice, and a full enumeration of the cautions which ought to precede the operation. He likewife defcribes the inftrument to be used; mentions the accidents which may happen; and informs the practitioner of what is to be done after the operation; the method of performing which is illuftrated by a plate of the inftruments and eyes.

Mr. Chandler acquaints us in the preface, that he has collected materials for a treatise on other diseases of the eyes, which he will hereafter communicate to the public, if the prefent tract should meet with approbation. It affords us pleafure to receive this intelligence, and we entertain not the leaft doubt of the public favour proving fuch as will induce him to the prosecution of the work.

VII. The Morality of Shakespeare's Drama illuftrated. By Mrs. Griffith. 8vo. 65. Cadell.

EVERY

VERY new enquiry into the dramatic works of Shakespeare renders the tranfcendency of his talents more confpicuous. While he poffeffed fuch an aftonishing power of imagination in conceiving and defcribing characters, as no other poet, either in ancient or modern times, ever difplayed, he abounded also in fentiments and precepts, of the greatest utility in the conduct of human life. With equal eafe his unlimited genius pervaded philofophy and nature; and he informs the head, at the fame time that he agitates the heart with irrefiftible emotions. The ingenious lady who is the author of the prefent work, informs us, that Shakespeare is not only her poet, but her philofopher alfo ; and we muft acknowledge, that he has here extracted fuch a treasure of morality from his writings, as is much better entitled to the appellation of golden verses, than the ethic injunctions of Pythagoras.

In thefe remarks and obfervations, fays fhe, I have not restricted myself to morals purely ethic, but have extended my observations and reflections to whatever has reference to the general œconomy of life and manners, refpecting prudence, pofity, decency, and decorum; or relative to the tender affections and fond endearments of human nature; more especially regarding those moral duties which are the truest fource of mortal blifs-domeftic ties, offices, and obligations.

This code of morality has an advantage over any other of the kind, on account of its not being conducted systematically. In all books that treat upon thefe fubjects, the precepts are difpofed methodically, under feparate heads or chapters; as Ambition, Bravery, Conftancy, Devotion, and fo on to the end of the alphabet; which mode, though useful on account of references, or as a common-place book, cannot be near fo entertaining, and confequently fo well able to answer the utile dulci, as a work of this fort, where the documents rife out of the action immediately before our eyes, and are constantly varying with the quick shifting of scenes, perfon, and subjects; where love fometimes follows war, jealoufy fucceeds friendship, parfimony liberality; and fo proceeding throughout the intire quicquid agunt bomines of human life.'

After favouring her readers with judicious remarks, of a general nature, on the Play of the Tempeft, and developing the moral which refults from it, Mrs. Griffith proceeds to de, lineate the particular maxims and fentiments. As a fpecimen of the work, we shall extract the obfervations on the firft a&t.

< Miranda, fpeaking of the fhipwreck, thus expreffes her fympathetic feelings for the wretched,

O! I have fuffered

With those that I faw fuffer: a brave vessel,

(Who had, no doubt,

fome noble creatures in her)

Poor fouls, they perifh'd!

Dafh'd all to pieces. O! the cry did knock

Against my very heart.

Had I been any God of power, I would

Have funk the fea within the earth, or ere
It should the good fhip fo have fwallowed, and

The freighted fouls within her.

There is fomething in the fond expreffion of good ship, in the last line but one, which ftrikes we with an idea of a peculiar tenderness in her compaffion for the unhappy fufferers.

• Prof