prized, on being affured by me, that they raised my pulfe from eighty to a hundred and nine vibrations in a minute, when taken in a full quantity. But experience has now convinced me, that many medicines, ufually denominated heating, are administered with advantage, in fome ftages of pulmonary confumption. And as the Buxton water might be fingularly useful in cafes that originate from intemperance, in which the ftomach and liver are affected, in conjunction with the lungs, and the patient would fink into a ftate of languifhment and defpondency by the fudden and total difufe of what is cordial, I have propofed the following queries to a judicious practitioner of the place: "Have you feen the Buxton water used, in the hectical period of phthifis pulmonalis ? —What have been its effects?-Have you tried it in the more fpurious pulmonary confumption, arifing from ebriety ?-What have been its effects under fuch circumstances?" The answer, which I have received, is, in fubftance, as fo!lows. In all the cafes, which have fallen under my obfervation of genuine phthifis, and in all the stages of that disorder, the Buxton waters have appeared to me to be injurious. On the contrary I have feen the belt effects produced by them, in various cafes, where the ftomach has been impaired by ebriety; where the liver has been affected; and a bad cough has attended, together with a copious and even purulent expectoration. Such cafes I have, again and again, feen wonderfully relieved by the ufe of our waters. In treating on a fubject so interefting to the profeffion, and which has often engaged my ferious and very anxious attention, I have gone into a much longer detail than was my defign, when I fat down to write to you. I fhall therefore halten to relieve you and myfelf, from the prolixity of this letter, by offering my best wishes for the fuccefs of your undertaking, and by expreffing my hope that a due medium may be happily pointed out between the extremes of the cooling and of the beating regimen.' The tenth effay in the fecond volume contains hints towards the investigation of the nature, cause, and cure of the Rabies Canina.' Thefe are addreffed to Dr. Haygarth, in confequence of his propofal for obviating the effects of the bite of a mad dog, by washing away the poifon by a stream of water poured on the wound from a confiderable height. Dr. Percival thinks that we err in fuppofing the fymptoms, following the application of canine virus, to arife from its abforption. He imagines the caufe of the difeafe to be fimilar to that of tetanus, originating from the local irritation of a nerve under peculiar circumftances. This is to us an unpleasant view of the matter, as it leaves no methods of foreseeing the approach of this complaint, nor any hopes of preventing its attack. Abforption may be hindered: but how is the local irritation of a nerve to be avoided, after it is actually wounded? We think, however, that Dr. Percival's fuppofition cannot be fupported. The constant diftance of time from the bite to the appearance of hydrophobia; the regular occurrence of the fame fymptoms, however different the fituation or function of the bitten part may be; the accefs of those symptoms equally after large of fmall wounds; whether lacerated or fimply divided; whether difcharging to the time of the disease, or immediately healed without any perceptible degree of inflammation: these are circumftances which prove the cause of the difeafe to be different from that of tetanus.-Nor is it any argument in favour of the doctor's hypothefis, to urge, that the fymptoms of hydrophobia and tetanus are alike nervous or fpafmodic. We are not to be informed that convulfive or fpafmodic fymptoms, fimilar to those following the bite of a mad dog, exift from other causes: they do fo but they do not constitute the fame disease :--the one is curable, or rather is often cured: the other, we suspect, never has been cured, It is in vain, then, to tell us of cures of hydrophobia arifing from mental impreffions, &c. ;—and to call in Morgagni as an auxiliary. Had the Doctor wanted affiftance on this occafion, he might have cited an authority rendered venerable by its antiquity. In the time of Calius Aurelianus, it was doubted whether hydrophobia was a disease of the mind or of the body: Calius thought that both were diseased, and that the ftomach and inteftines were the principal fuffering parts. Arguments have been frequently urged in favour of the practice of the ancients in hydrophobia; and hence we are induced to fearch among them for remedies, in confequence of their accounts of cures in this disease :-but if we examine with accuracy, we shall generally fee reafon to fuppofe that they miftook fome other difeafe for hydrophobia; and, confequently, that their judgment requires cenfure, rather than that their practice demands praife. Of this kind is the account, given (by Diofcorides) of Themifon, the founder of the Methodic fect; who became mad by attending on one of his hydrophobic friends, and who was afterward, with great pains, cured; and Cælius gives even a more old-womanifh hiftory of the bufinefs; for he adds, that afterward, as often as Themifon attempted to write on the fubject, he conftantly relapfed. It is no wonder that fuch an hydrophobia admitted of cure! To proceed to the method of treating this disease: Dr. Percival advises to begin with a large dofe of opium, for a reafon which is rather curious; in order,' fays he, to obtain a truce.' He then thinks the Foxglove might be tried: why? we fee nothing to indicate its ufe: a forcible impreffion,' it is faid, must be raised on the nervous fyftem:' but not furely an impreffion of any kind whatfoever. Debilitating medicines we cannot recommend; on the contrary, we much more approve of the tonic plan, according to Dr. Rufh's idea. 10 Having Having controverted fome of the learned author's opinions refpecting hydrophobia, it is with pleasure that we extract the following valuable remarks, which, we are happy to affure him, agree perfectly with our own experience : There is a fpecies of chronic dyfury, to which perfons of an arthritic or fcorbutic habit, and who have paffed the meridian of life, are peculiarly incident. It is often mistaken for the stone, and aggravated by the ufe of lithontriptics. Indeed, it has many fymptoms in common with that diforder; fuch as frequent and argent calls to make water; pain at each extremity of the urethra; a mucous discharge; tenefmus; and fometimes a fuppreffion of urine. But the patients, who labour under it, feel no uneafy weight in the peritoneum, and always void their water with much lefs difficulty, in an erect, than in an horizontal posture. The complaint, alfo, may be further diftinguished from the tone by having fhorter intervals of cafe; by more frequently injuring the retentive power of the bladder, and by occafioning no fudden interruption to the ftream of urine, in the absence of pain. It feems to arife from an acrid defluction on the internal coat of the bladder, which is thereby rendered fo exquifitely fenfible, that the ftimulus of the urine becomes almoft intolerable; and very frequent efforts are excited to expel it. Thefe efforts, however, fhould be reftrained, because they tend to increase the pain and irritation of the bladder, and to prevent the complete difcharge of its contents; for that organ cannot effectually contract itself without a due degree of previous diffenfion. I have tried various remedies in this diforder, but have found none fo fuccessful as mercury, which feldom fails to afford relief, and generally produces a cure, if administered with perfeverance, and in fufficient quantity. According to the urgency of the cafe, one, two, or three fcruples of the unguentum cæruleum fortius should be rubbed into the thighs every night, till a flight ptyalifm enfues: the fymptoms for the most part abate, before the fpitting comes on, and after it has continued a while, they difappear entirely. • I was first induced to adopt this mode of treatment, from my experience of the falutary operation of the remedy, recommended by Dr. Gilchrift, in a diforder of the bladder, which bears fome analogy to that which I have described; but having found that the mercurial pill is apt to disturb the bowels, and confequently that it is lefs certain of admiffion into the fyftem, I have, in my later practice, preferred the ufe of the unguentum caeruleum. In flighter cafes, indeed, I fometimes give half a grain of calomel, with two grains of James's fever powder, twice every day; and this fmall dofe of mercury, if duly continued, may fuffice to effect a cure, without producing any falivation, or even foreness of the mouth. In a lace instance, an habitual head-ach, with which a difficulty and pain in making water were complicated, gave way to this remedy. Phyfical and Literary Effays, vol. III.' • From From the falutary operation of mercury in the dyfury, it may be fufpected, perhaps, that the difeafe originated from the lues venerea. I formerly entertained this idea myself; but further experience has convinced me, that it has no foundation in more than half the cafes which occur; and confequently, in explaining the action of the remedy prescribed, we must not have recourfe to the fecret powers of a specific or an antidote.' We cannot conclude this article without expreffing our conviction of the benefits, which medicine and philofophy in general have received from the attention and judgment of Dr. Percival. ART. VI. A Differtation on the Querulousness of Statesmen. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Longman, &c. 1792. PP. 116. E VERY one who is converfant with political difcuffions, either in print or in parliament, muft have been frequently struck with the confident warnings of immediate impending ruin, folemnly and continually given to us, to difcredit the national measures of the times. The writer before us, evidently in friendship with our present administration, exhibits a diverting series of these awful predictions, from a publication called Britannia Languens, that appeared one hundred and ten years ago, down to Dr. Price, and Mr. Richard Champion, of the prefent day. He furnishes the following key to this querulousness: It is not unworthy of being remarked, that all the ftatesmen, and authors, whofe lamentations and prophecies, respecting the finances, have now been noticed, were either out of place, or connected with perfons who had been deprived of their places, at the times they uttered them. They seem to have bequeathed the pfeudo-prophetick art to Meffrs. Fox, Sheridan, and Co. and thefe gentlemen will, doubtlefs, give up the practice of it—the very moment in which appointments under government fhall be offered to them.' Of the wisdom and tendency of fuch conduct, we are told, On marking the junctures at which my countrymen have uttered their complaints, and their gloomy predictions; on recollecting how often the former have been unjuft, and the latter falfe; and, on confidering the motives from which both the former and the latter have ufually fprung; I am convinced, that they have proved hardly any thing in thofe giving birth to them but folly; and that they have yielded little elfe to the publick than injuries. They muft, upon the whole, have been marks of folly:-because it is a reproach to any man, to have given rife to a groundless opinion of his country's fortune being adverfe; and, because, at all times in which mankind are not divinely inspired, it is out of their power to determine upon what will happen, after the operations of immediate known caufes have ceafed.-The affairs of every peo ple ple are continually fluctuating. The fpirit of enterprize, of any particular people, is never long the fame; and this fingle circumstance often renders it impoffible to tell what will be the aspect of things at any given period. But, if the given period be a remote one; and if the calculator take into his account, not only the various changes incident to his own country; but also the influence which other countries have upon those by which they are furrounded; he will foon be led to apprehend, that the chances of errour to which he is expofed are innumerable. They must have been injurious: -because they have infufed distrust of our government, into nations difpofed to be friendly to our island; because they have nourished faction among our ftatesmen, and promoted difaffection among our citizens; in fine, becaufe they have fubtracted unneceffarily from the tranquillity, and the happiness of the great body of the British people. Fruftrantur falfis gaudia lachrymulis. Thofe perfons are, perhaps, wife, who treat the lamentations, and the prophecies of politicians, as if they were tragedies; which, while they have little of reality in them, ferve to benefit both the writers, and the actors; and to amufe, as well as to deprefs, the auditors. From all that has been advanced, I draw the following conclafion. Neither the king, nor the people, ought to be, in the fmallest measure, difquieted, in confequence of the complaints, and the predictions, which they may occafionally hear, from fome vain author, or fome afpiring ftateiman. As to thofe perfons, by whom both the king, and the people, are so faithfully, and fo effectually ferved, they ought to lay their account, that they thall frequently "have their best fuccess afcrib'd to Fortune, And Fortune's failures all afcrib'd to them." • And, in the midft of that clamour, which may fometimes arise out of the very means employed in conducting their countrymen to real and durable greatnefs, it will be of ufe to them to remember, that Columbus's crew murmured, and mutinied, when bound on the discovery of a world.' Far otherwife is the difplay here exhibited as the antidote to fuch political poifon : • The wonder of a well-informed man will not be excited, by hearing one affert, even with the most unquestionable marks of truth, that the good fortune of this country is, at prefent, fuch, that her commerce is greater than that of any country in the world. For, he must know, that her commerce has many times exceeded that of any other country. But, it may excite his wonder, in no fmall degree, to be affured, that one may truly affert, that her commerce, at this day, exceeds the commerce of any other countryin a much higher proportion than it did at any past period. By her inhabitants having, fince the return of peace, caufed merchandize to flow, in quick and ample ftreams, along its wonted channels; by their having ventured to overleap, or to throw down thofe barriers, which illiberal prejudices, and a moft pernicious policy, had raifed; |