er of Could be have profited from [by] repeated experiences. Hume's Hiftory, vol. VIII. p. 259.

• From feems to be fuperfluous after forbear. He could not forbear from appointing the pope to be one of the god-fathers. Ib. vol. VIII. p. 282.

The prepofition among always implies a number of things; and therefore cannot be used in conjunction with the word every, which is in the fingular number. Which is found among every Species of liberty. Hume's Effays, p. 92. The opinion of the advance of riches in the island seems to gain ground among every body. Hume's Political Effays, p. 71.

There feems to be fome impropriety in the use of the prepofition under in the following fentence. That range of bills known under the general name of Mount Jura. Account of Ge

neva.

The prepofition through is fometimes fupplied by a very particular conftruction of the adjective long; thus all night long, and all day long, are equivalent to, through all the night, through all the day.

• Sometimes a is put for in. But the Baffa detains us till be receives orders from Adrianople, which may probably be a month a coming. Lady Montague's Letters, vol. I. p. 147. i. e. in coming.'

This work is a valuable addition to that of the accurate and judicious Dr. Lowth; and, we hope, will contribute to the refinement of the English language.

IV. Obfervations on the Dropfy in the Brain, by Robert Whytt, M. D. late Phyfician to his Majefty, Prefident of the Royal College of Phyficians, Profeffor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, and F. R. S. To which are added his other Treatifes never hitherto published by themselves. 8vo. Pr. 2s. 6d. Becket.

T

HIS volume is the pofthumous publication of a late celebrated author, whofe untimely fate is ftill deplored as a lofs to medical learning, which he cultivated with fignal abilities. A genius for experiment, attentive obfervation, rational induction, and extraordinary industry, are confpicuous. in all his writings, and qualified him for promoting the advancement both of the theory and practice. of phyfic. With what fuperior luftre he fhone forth in either department, his univerfal reputation in the medical world can testify; and his ingenious researches will be applauded by posterity while the love of science and experiment endures.

As

As most of the treatifes in this volume have been published in former collections, we shall give an account only of that which is original, entitled, Obfervations on the Dropy in the Brain: and this being a disorder which has been very imperfectly treated of by physicians, we prefume it will not be improper to present our readers with the fentiments of this learned author concerning it.

In the beginning of the treatise he informs us, that the moft frequent and fatal fpecies of the internal hydrocephalus is found in the ventricles of the brain, immediately below the corpus callofum, and is that with which medical writers feem to have been leaft acquainted; and after producing the various accounts delivered by them on this fubject, he remarks, that none of them have favoured us with the figns by which we may diftinguish a dropfy of the ventricles of the brain from other diseases affecting that organ; the reason whereof he thinks may be, that those patients who were carried off by this disease have been generally fupposed to die of a fever ending in a coma; and in fuch cases the head is feldom opened.' The symptoms of this disorder are fo accurately described, that we shall infert intire the account of the two first stages.

FIRST STAGE.

• Children who have water in the ventricles of the brain begin to have many of the following symptoms, four, five, or fix weeks, and in fome cafes much longer, before their death.

At first they lofe their appetite and fpirits; they look pale, and fall away in flesh; they have always a quick pulse, and fome degree of fever. In some cases I have seen a bydrocephalus attended with a confiderable degree of fever, which had frequent remiffions, but without any order or regularity: In other cafes the paroxyfms came on pretty regularly in the evening, and then the disease was taken for a flow, irregular, nervous fever, or for one occafioned by worms. At this time, in children of five years and upwards, I have found the pulle at a hundred and ten, in others at a hundred and twenty, and in a few cafes at a hundred and thirty, or even at a hundred and forty ftrokes in a minute; but rarely ever so full as to indicate bleeding.

In others the quickness of the pulfe and heat of the skin were not fo confiderable; but I do not remember to have seen any patient who had not fome degree of fever in this, which I call the first stage of the disease.

While the feverifhness continues or increases, they lofe their appetite more and more; their tongue is often white, fometimes it is remarkably clean, and towards the end of the

disease

disease acquires an apthous redness. They are thirsty, and frequently vomit once or twice in a day, or once in two days. They complain of a pain in the crown of their head, or in the forehead above their eyes. They are commonly coitive, tho' fometimes they have returns of a looseness. When bound, they are not easily moved by a purge; fometimes they are troubled with gripes. Their fpirits being low, they incline moftly to lie in bed, although they are often more disposed to watching than to fleep. They cannot eafily bear the light, and complain when a candle is brought before their eyes. They are obferved to pick their nose, and in their fleep to grind with their teeth, as in the cafe of worms.

These are the symptoms of the first stage, during which it is very hard to diftinguish this dropfy of the brain from a flow irregular fever occafioned by worms, by fome other disorder in the bowels, or by fome other caufe. In the second stage, the fymptoms enable us, with fome certainty, to discover the nature of the ailment. But before I proceed to enumerate them, I shall just obferve, that I never had but two patients who had not the vomiting during either the first or second stage. One of these was a girl of eight years of age, who, though the had an averfion to food, yet never threw it up but once, and that was on the third day before her death; nor did she ever complain of a headach till twelve or fourteen days before she died; whereas this laft fymptom, for the most part, begins three or four weeks, and in fome cases several months, before the end of the difeafe: fhe alfo could bear the light better than any I have feen. The other, who had no vomiting, was a boy of eleven years; he had little headach, although he lay much in bed, and did not like to be moved. But in general, the vomiting once or twice a day, or once in two or three days, the headach, and the averfion to light, are the symptoms which in the first stage of this kind of hydrocephalus characterise it moft.

SECOND STAGE.

I date the beginning of the fecond stage from the time the pulfe, from being quick but regular, becomes flow and irregular. This fometimes happens about three weeks, often a fortnight or lefs, before the death of the patient.

In this stage the pulfe is commonly not only much flower than it was before, but often more fo than in health. In a girl of thirteen, the pulfe, which for a fortnight beat above a hundred times in a minute, about nine days before fhe died, fell to eighty-four, next day to feventy, and the day after to fixty, becoming always the more irregular the flower it was.

In a youth of fixteen, the pulfe, which for feveral weeks had been feverish, on the fifteenth day before his death, beat only fixty-eight in a minute; two days after, it fell under fixty, and once to fifty.

A boy of nine years of age, fifteen days before he died, had a pulse from feventy to feventy-five in a minute, and irregular. In another of four years, the pulfe fell to eighty-eight on the ninth day before his end. In a girl of feven years old, on the fifteenth or fixteenth day before her death, the pulse beat a hundred and fifty times in a minute; next day, it be came flower than natural, and irregular; for five or fix days after this, it was from eighty to eighty-fix in a minute.

In two other children, who were lefs feverish in this stage, the pulfe from a hundred fell below eighty. I have never seen a patient with water in the ventricles of the brain, whofe pulfe did not come down to its natural ftate, or very near it, except one. This was a girl of about seven, whose pulse, after being for several weeks about a hundred and thirty in the forenoon, and a hundred and forty in the evening, a fortnight before her death, fell two or three ftrokes under a hundred ; yet neither her heat nor thirft, nor other complaints abated, although her pulfe had fallen above thirty in a minute.

In this diftemper it is obfervable, that when the pulfe is nearly as flow, or flower than natural, it is always irregular or unequal, both as to the ftrength and the interval of the strokes. When it grows quicker, the irregularity leffens; and when it becomes very quick, it is then moft equal and regular. Farther, it deferves notice, that, although in the fecond stage the pulfe becomes much flower than it was before, the heat of the skin continues much the fame, and fometimes feems rather to increase.

I have infifted the longer on the state of the pulse in this period, as from thence we can learn the fureft diagnostic.

• During the second stage, most of the fymptoms mentioned in the first continue. The fick are then unable to fit up, though generally fleep little, till towards the end of this period, when they begin to grow drowfy. They moan heavily, yet cannot tell what ails them. Their eyes are often turned towards their nofe, or they fquint outwards, and sometimes they complain of feeing objects double. Some, towards the end of this ftage, grow delirious, and cry out in a wild manner, as if they were much frightened about this time also, or later, they frequently void either real worms, or fome fubftance like worms in a diffolved state; yet this discharge gives no relief to the patient, and only helps to deceive the lefs experienced practitioner with regard to the nature of the disease.

The urine in this, as well as in the other stages, varies, it has often a large fediment, fometimes none at all; but most commonly it depofits one of a light confiftence and a white colour. In feveral I have obferved the urine have a large furfuraceous fediment, till within a few days of their death, when it had no separation.

The breath has now, but especially in the laft ftage, fuch a fickish and offenfive fmell, as I do not remember to have obferved in any other diftemper. During the fecond as well as the first stage, the patients are often, for fome days, or parts of days, much easier than at other times.'

As the fymptoms of the third or last stage seize the patient only a few days before death, when the disorder is incurable, it is fufficient to observe of the commencement of that period, that it may be known when the pulfe (which for fome time was nearly as flow or flower than in a healthful state) rifes again to a feverish quickness.

It is the more neceffary that we should give the diagnostic figns of this fpecies of dropfy, as our author obferves that the ancients were intirely ignorant of the disease, and the few moderns who treat of it seem to have described it more from theory than observation.

I have already obferved, that in the firft ftage it is hard to discover this internal hydrocephalus. But when we meet with a patient under fifteen or fixteen years of age, feized with a flow fever of no certain type, and irregular in its acceffions and remiffions; when in that fever the patients vomit once a day, or once in two or three days; when they fhun the light, and complain of a pain in the crown of their head, or over their eyes, after the fever has continued for fome time, or of a pain thereabouts, that in fome days does not abate like the headach in ordinary fevers: when thefe complaints neither yield much to repeated vomits, gentle purges, nor blifters, I fay there is reason to suspect water in the ventricles of the brain. But as worms, and other diforders of the stomach and inteftines, are fometimes attended with most of thefe, as well as other symptoms that accompany the internal bydrocephalus in its first stage, we are often at a lofs to find out this disease, till it arrives at its fecond period, when the pulfe begins to grow nearly as flow, or even flower than natural, but irregular; for this change of the pulse, added to the symptoms of the firft ftage, is, as I have obferved, almost an infallible fign of water in the brain, if at the fame time the patient is not relieved, and if the feverish heat does not abate with the quicknefs of the pulse.

• When