Outwarbled thousand larks in air,
With blending of the lute.

• That first, in trembling prelude fleet,
Seem'd in the clouds to make retreat,
Until the voice arose,'

Which, swifter far, with mazy flight,
Swell'd to the summit of delight,
Then sunk with sighing close.

And still the burden of the song
Was, "Merry Spring ne'er lasteth long,
Blythe Summer speeds away!
Of present bliss, O, take thy fill,
For he shall never, when he will,
That will not when he may."

We shall make one more extract, and take it from the tale of False Lord Carleil and the fair Lady Alice;' in which a gay perjured Baron having murdered his Mistress, who meets him at midnight according to appointment, for the purpose of upbraiding him with his broken vows, the ghost of the unfortunate damsel appears to her mother, and reveals to her the dreadful circumstances of her death in the following lines:

"Oh, mild is death to them that sigh,

Oh, pleasant now my resting-place!
Heard'st thou not shrieks at twilight grey,
Faint rising from the lonely dell?
The birds fled trembling all away,
But thy beloved songstress fell.
Pierc'd by the cruel lover's steel
I lie beneath a weight of clay :
Yet none can guess what murd❜rers feel,
Though mountains on their bosoms lay.

The grass is dyed of crimson hue,

And black drops spot the mossy stone;

But morning sun and evening dew
Shall smile and weep till all be gone.
Nor summer-beams that brightest glow,
Nor dews that fall like April rain,
Can sunshine on his bosom throw,
Or cleanse his blacken'd soul again.
When in Torthorald's lofty hall

He revels 'mid the barons brave,
His mind shall stray, in spite of all,
To glens where lonely fir-trees wave.
Whene'er he views a blooming maid,

In youth and beauty's wonders drest,
To him her cheek shall seem to fade,
And life-blood tinge her swelling breast.

Tho

Tho' to his page he shout amain,

Fill, fill the bowl till streaming o'er'—
His quiv'ring lip rejects the stain

Of aught resembling human gore.
For conscience to the murd'rer speaks
In all around, the wrath divine;
In ladies' softly-blushing checks;

In golden goblets crown'd with wine;
In music's tones, whose mighty power
Can almost stay the fleeting breath,
And cheer affliction's saddest hour-

To him the sighs and shrieks of death.
The rack and wheel, with horrid rows
Of spikes, that wound each aching bone,
Are beds of sweetness and repose

To Michael's stately couch of down.
Then let not vengeance urge thee on
To bring the felon deed to sight;
He shall in fearful anguish groan-
And now a long, a sad good-night.
Oh, mild is death to them that sigh!
Oh, sweet the slumber of the grave!".
She said, and swiftly flitted by,

Like shadows o'er the heaving wave.'

A few historical notes accompany the tales, as necessary ilkustrations of the story.

ART. VIII Researches, Anatomical and Practical, concerning Fever, as connected with Inflammation. By Thomas Beddoes, M.D. 8vo. pp. 256. 6s. 6d. boards Longman and Co.

THIS work may be considered as an answer to the treatise of

Dr. Clutterbuck, which we noticed in our Number for October last. We there offered it as our opinion that the hypothesis which was brought forwards, respecting the connection between typhus and an inflammatory state of the brain, was not established; and we are gratified to observe the same sentiment maintained by Dr. Beddoes. Before he enters on a refutation of this suggestion, he shews that the idea on which it is founded is not novel, by dwelling at considerable length on a publication by Dr. Ploucquet of Tubingen, the object of which is precisely similar to that of Dr. Clutterbuck; as he proves by quoting a number of parallel passages from each author, which display a very remarkable degree of coincidence: but he does not insinuate that our countryman has surreptitiously borrowed from his predecessor.

That an inflamed state of the brain has been discovered in those who have died from typhus is not to be denied: but it is . Rev. Aug. 1808. maintained

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maintained that this is not universally the case; that inflammation of other parts is, at least,' as frequent an occurrence, perhaps more so; and that an inflamed brain has been detected in cases in which the symptoms of typhus had not previously manifested themselves. We here meet with much interesting information respecting the appearances that have been observed on ⚫ dissection in some of the continental epidemics. It may be in part owing to the greater violence of the disease in those countries, and partly perhaps to their practitioners being more in the habit of investigating the morbid appearances after death, that of late years so much more has been done in the examination of fever-patients in France and Germany, than in this island. English physicians are likewise so generally agreed in the opinion, that fever is a disease on which no light can be thrown by dissection, that they seldom think of having recourse to that process. They may perhaps have formed this judgment rather too hastily, and yet we apprehend that all the investigations which have been hitherto made countenance the idea. We think also that it is strongly confirmed by this volume, which will by no means tend to increase our eagerness for extending these researches. The general inference from the facts is, that topical inflammation is often present in fever, but that it is as frequently discovered in the abdominal viscera as in the brain, and that the stomach is more uniformly affected than any other part of the body. From a review of the whole evidence, Dr. Beddoes draws this conclusion:

To these specimens of our whole mass of information, derived from such investigation of dead bodies as has usually taken place during epidemic fevers, no objection, I apprehend, can be made, unless that the selection is too favourable to the hypothesis of Drs. Ploucquet and Clutterbuck. They, in concurrence with all that remain, appear to me to suggest the following gross inference, which alone I shall this moment content myself with drawing: that in idiopathic fever, the stomach and contiguous parts have been found more constantly and more deeply affected with inflammation than the brain and its membrane.'

The author then proceeds to argue against Dr. Clutterbuck on more general grounds. He shews that, in diseases which. decidedly originate from a nervous affection, such as tetanus and hydrophobia, dissection has discovered nearly the same appearance as after typhus; that sometimes the brain has been found to have suffered from congestion and effusion; and that at other times it has been free from disease. The symptoms of inflammation have been observed to change from one organ to another, so as to point out the existence of a general tendency to inflammatory action in the system, but not to indicate its

necessary

necessary occurrence in any particular part; and the seat of inflammation is regulated by local pre-disposition, and of consequence is incidental.' The suddenness with which the inflammatory action is sometimes transferred from one part to other parts, even such as are at a considerable distance, and in other instances its progressive advance along contiguous viscera, are circumstances very unfavourable to the doctrine, that the inflammation of any particular organ is a necessary step to the formation of the febrile state: while the nature of the affection, which the nervous system experiences in typhus, is irreconcileable with the hypothesis. The sudden supervention of delirium, and its equally sudden disappearance, seem incompatible with the supposition that it proceeds from any change of structure in the brain. We have also sufficient evidence from dissection to prove that a disease of the nervous matter, and those symptoms which are generally supposed to indicate it, (such as convulsions, delirium, and stupor,) bear no correspondence to each other. This consideration must materially affect Dr. Clutterbuck's theory, because one of his strongest grounds is deduced from the universality of the connection between typhus fever, and those symptoms which are supposed to indicate a morbid condition of the brain.

Dr. Beddoes devotes nearly one half of his volume to the consideration of the present state of opinion in this country. respecting the practice in fever. The most remarkable change which it has undergone, in the last half century, is the almost total disuse of bleeding, and the exclusive administration of such remedies as are calculated to prevent or remove debility:

Our standard writers held out the terrors of putridity. The tract of Dr. Fothergill on the putrid sore throat had a vast influence in determining the public mind in favour of the stimulating treatment; and the doctors of the Scotch school, whether professors or private teachers, whether friendly or hostile to one another, whether they founded spasm upon debility, or freed their doctrine from spasm as a vile encumbrance, co-operated most strenuously in compleating the work, which had so far been prepared for their hands. Putting debility in the place of putrescence, they rendered it almost the universal watchword of medicine, and annihilated for a time great part of the benefits of experience.'

This train of reflection leads the author to dwell more at large on the French and American practice, in which evacuations are carried to so great an extent; and if we are to place any confidence in relations that appear to be the best authenticated, it must be confessed that, in the violent epidemics, their practice has been at least as successful as that of those who pursued the opposite system: "Gibraltar, Gibraltar is pitted against

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against Philadelphia." The subject is attended with much diffculty: but we apprehend that there can be little doubt that both the modes of practice are right in particular cases, and that they are both injurious when mis-applied. The term typhus is too generally used in a vague and indeterminate sense; and even when most restricted, it is intended to signify a disease of the whole system, which must vary infinitely according to the constitution and habits of the individual, and the incidents of season and climate. The practitioners of different countries are led to adopt that plan which suits the generality of cases that fall under their inspection; and prescribing more for the name of the disease than for its symptoms, they conclude that an application which has been useful or injurious in one fever must have the same effect in every other. Dr. Beddoes himself has not kept free from this fault. We agree with him in reprobating the unqualified exhibition of bark and wine but certainly his conclusion that, in all fevers, whether foreign or domestic, whether yellow or of a different hue, we have a right to assume inflammatory disposition in the abdominal viscera,' is equally rash; and his proposal of the earliest application of leeches to that region, which should be laid on by relays of dozens,' we are confident, would on many occasions prove improper.

With respect to the general merits of this volume, we think that the author has been successful in proving that Dr. Clutterbuck's hypothesis is not to be maintained, and that an inflammatory state of the brain is only an accidental adjunct to typhus. Besides the matter which bears directly on the ques tion, we meet with a considerable portion that is miscellaneous and irrelevant: but, even where the author is "out of order," he is generally amusing; and though we cannot in every instance subscribe to his opinion, we are always disposed to give him a hearing. We shall conclude by quoting his charac teristic and spirited remarks on the late Dr. Darwin:

'Could the cases in which others failed, and Darwin invented adequate resources, be collected, I have reason to believe that they would nake as valuable a volume as any one which we possess. In his attempt to lay down the fundamental laws of organic life, he has failed with all others. But how many observations of the most rare and estimable species, at once just and subtle, is he perpetually throwing out! How rich is his work in practical matter, and with what unostentatious conciseness is it delivered! He has single paragraphs, sufficient to found the fortune of a more than ordinary man's reputation, and his own would have risen much earlier, and have continued to be more respected, had he developed separate ideas in separate treatises, and styled these practical. His application of digitalis to con sumption, and his suggestion of the circular swing, might easily have

been