This was a cafe of hæmorrhage from the bowels: ten drops of oil of turpentine, with yolk of egg and cinnamon water, given about every fix hours, foon ftopped the discharge, and were equally effectual after a relapse.

Obfervations on the pathology and mode of treatment of calculi in general, but more particularly of inteftinal calculi, with a defcription and chemical analysis of the inteftinal calculi of borfes. By Mr. W. Gaitfkell, Surgeon at Rotherhithe.

This long title is followed by a paper of correfpondent dimenfions. It is divided into two fections, of which the former is employed in a very fenfible defence of the late Dr. Auftin's Theory of the Formation of Calculus, and contains fome observations on the treatment of the colica calculofa. The recommendation of infufion of the beards of leeks, as a remedy in calculus, ftruck us as most interesting in this part. The lithic acid of Scheele is by no means a neceffary conftituent part, according to Mr. G., of calculous concretions.

From the experiments here recited with acids, alkalies, and heat, Mr. G. infers that intestinal calculi confift of dry animal oil, animal gelatinous matter, volatile alkali, argillaceous earth, and magnefia, varioufly combined and proportioned. The experiments are made rather in the grofs method of the old chemifts than in the prefent fcrupulous pneumatic way. Mr. G. is an adherent of phlogiftion. We quote the following as, in our opinion, the most important piece of information which this paper contains :

As the nitrous acid, according to Bergman and Scheele, is capa ble of decompofing urinary calculi, and feparating an acid, fui generis, called the acid of calculus, in form of rofe-coloured cryitals, foluble in water, and capable of staining animal fubftances red; and as thefe celebrated chemifts have attributed the formation of calculus to the presence of this acid in union with animal earth, I have beflowed peculiar attention, in my analyfis of inteftinal calculus, to look for the acid they defcribe. To difcover this, fome nitrous acid was faturated with inteftinal calculus, and though the folution was tranfparent, and of a pale yellow, yet, upon application to the fkin, no red coloured spots were formed, which should have been effected, had the lithic acid been prefent: befides, the fkin was irritated confiderably, fpotted yellow inftead of red, and incapable of ablution by water; while the rofe-coloured fpots defcribed by Scheele, were foluble in water, and no way irritating to the skin.

Another portion of nitrated folution of inteftinal calculus was evaporated to drynefs, which, if the lithic acid were prefent, fhould have left a rofe-coloured falt; but, in place of this, yellow-coloured cryftals were formed, one half of which was nitrated magnefia, the remainder an infipid white concrete, neither calcareous, aluminous, nor magnefian. The anonymous author, already quoted, in his new

Theory

Theory of the Gout and of the Stone, relates, that the lithic acid is contained in the healthiest urine, and is feparable from the fame, in a cryftalline form, by means of any other acid. To examine this precipitate, I collected ten grains, by adding a few drops of marine acid to eight ounces of recent urine, and frequently repeating the experiment. But after being collected, washed, and dried, inftead of poffeffing the properties of an acid, it was in foluble in water, infipid to the taste, and changed the blue infufion of read cabbageleaf, green; and inftead of forming rofe-coloured crystals after folution and evaporation in nitrous acid, a yellowish white powder was left, which appeared to be animal earth. It prefented phenomena very fimilar to the coagulable lymph of the blood; for it changed vitriolic acid black, and diffolved; admitted of dilution with water to a certain extent, beyond which the acid was abftracted, and most of the earth precipitated. The precipitate of urine was found foluble in the three mineral acids concentrated, and decompofable by dilution with water; and coagulated lymph, fimilarly treated, was found equally foluble in the concentrated acids, and equally decompofable by water.'

Account of the good effects of opium in a cafe of retention of urine. By Mr. A. Mather, Surgeon at York.

The figns of ftricture in the urethra were evident; and the cafe is fatisfactory.

A cafe of varicofe aneurism. By Mr. H. Park, Surgeon, Liverpool.

This cafe is related as a caution to inexperienced furgeons to be well affured that the veins will really dilate fufficiently to take off the whole of the blood, poured out by the wounded artery, before they give fuch a prognoftic as may lull the pa tient into a delufive and dangerous fecurity.

The good effects of opium administered in clyfters, in cafes of menorrhagia. By Mr. Peter Copland, Surgeon at Swayfield, Lincolnshire.

Left the title of this paper should mislead young practitioners by inducing them to adminifter opium indifcriminately in menorrhagia, we think it neceffary to quote the words of Dr. Whytt, which these cafes are adduced to confirm. "When a profluvium menfium or a flooding after abortion is attended with, or preceded by, an acute pain, not inflammatory, in the lower part of the belly, and returns with greater violence as often as the pain returns or increafes, opium will prove a more effectual remedy than any of the aftringents."

Account of the good effects of a mercurial fnuff, in a cafe of gutta. ferena. By Mr. R. B. Blagden, Surgeon at Petworth, Suflex. A cafe in confirmation of the practice recommended by Mr. Ware in the Memoirs of the London Medical Society. A cafe

A cafe of pulmonary hemorrhage, with remarks. By Mr. W. Davidíon, London.

Mr. D. here again infifts on the propriety of the practice which we noticed in our account of the third volume of this work.

A cafe of pfoas abfcefs, fuccessfully treated. By Mr. W. Smith, Surgeon, Bideford.

The full analyfis which we lately gave of Mr. Abernethy's ingenious effay on the lumbar abfcefs, (Rev. vol. xii. p. 48.) must be fresh in the memory of our medical readers. The prefent, which was a very alarming cafe, adds confirmation to his principles, though it was treated independently of them. Mr. S. attributes his fuccefs, 1. to his care in preventing the admiffion of air into the cavity: he operated by puncture. 2. To the free ufe of opium, fo far as was neceffary to allay pain, and to the fuperficial manner of dreffing. 3. To the tonic medicines and nourishing diet, which were proportioned to the wafte by fuppuration. 4. To careful ventilation.

Cafe of phlegmonic inflammation, with reflections on certain effects of heat and cold. By T. Beddoes, M. D.

Dr. B. firft relates a cafe in which phlegmonic inflammations came on very foon after the alternate immersion of the patient's arms in cold and very warm water. From this circumftance he takes occafion to appreciate the effects produced by the fucceffion of these powers. He also endeavours to account for the fore eyes, fo common in Egypt and fome other hot countries; and he bestows fome remarks on those cafes, in which part of the body is oppofed to one of thefe powers, and the remainder to the other; as, for inftance, where a itream of cold air flows on a perfon fitting in a warm room,

Obfervations on the good effects of cauftics in cafes of white fwellings of the joints. By Mr. B. Crowther, Surgeon to Bridewell and Bethlem Hofpitals.

Analogy led Mr. Pott to make fome trial of cauftics in white fwellings, but the practice was not very fuccefsful, because, as Mr. Crowther believes, he made his application at too great a distance from the feat of the disease. Mr. C. therefore applies large cauftics to the external and internal condyle of the thigh bone, when the knee-joint is the part affected. The three cafes here related are not offered as fufficient vouchers to eftablish the practice, but in order to induce furgeons to make trial of it. We fhall quote the laft cafe, in order to give the reader an idea of the effect:

Elizabeth Platt, of Hoxton, about feven years of age, a little before Christmas 1791, was observed by her mother to walk lame,

which was attributed to chilblains; but, on undreffing her, her mother discovered that one knee was larger than the other. On the 6th of April following I vifited the patient, and found her labouring under fymptoms of hectic fever. Her knee joint was then much contracted, incapable of flexion or extenfion, and much enlarged, particularly the inner condyle of the thigh bone. As her pain was not violent, except when the limb was moved, recourfe was immediately had to the cauftic, which has effected a re-establishment of her health, a diminution in a great degree of the enlargement of the joint, with a perfect recovery of its motion, and a confiderable relaxation of the tendons of the flexor mufcles, the remaining contraction of which feems the only impediment to the full exertion of the limb; as the can bend the joint with ease, and can extend the leg as far as the contraction of the tendons will admit of.'

This volume alfo contains three papers taken from other publications, but of these our readers have already received notice: we have like wife omitted one or two papers of inferior importance.

Bed.

ART. V. A Differtation on the Eleufinian and Bacchic Myleries. 8vo. pp. 184. 35. 6d. fewed.

TH

'HIS book, very incorrectly though elegantly printed, and, as the title page would have us believe, at Amfterdam, is another of thofe ftrange productions with which the tranflator of the Orphic hymns occafionally aftonifhes the public. If he ferioufly entertains the wifh of reviving Platonifm in its moft myftical form, at the expence and to the exclufion of chriftianity, it were furely more adapted to his end to undertake a fyftematic defence of the miracles of Plotinus, to teach the plaufible theories of dæmonology, and, like another Swedenborg, boldly to declare himself the habitual companion of fuperior beings. The age is not wanting in credulity: as the fuccefs of Lord Monboddo's Metaphyfics and Sibley's Aftrology has demonftrated. It is indeed an obfervation, which muft by this time have been repeated in every European metropolis, that fuperftition and irreligion are gaining ground with equal strides, and that the growing diftafte for established opinions is accompanied by no general tendency toward any other specific notions, but by a difpofition to feparate into varieties of fectarifm hitherto unexampled.

Concerning the Eleufinian and other myfteries, much has already been written; more perhaps than this free-mafonry of elder days deferved. Whether thefe rights were brought from Hindoftan or Egypt,-whether they were originally emblematic, or a mere mais of religious mummery, whether they were frequented for purpofes of inftruction or of pleature,-it

will furely not be contended that a revival of them, now that the allegorical meaning of every ceremony which remains on record is wholly loft, could be useful in amending either our moral or intellectual character. Yet to what else do thefe pages tend? Neither is a complete acquaintance with the fubject difplayed the refutation, which Bifhop Warburton's doctrine has received from the hand (probably) of Lowth, should have been noticed and anfwered, if the author chose to persevere in efpoufing a myftical interpretation of the 6th book of the Æneid. Thus:

But that the tradition of the principles from which the foul defcended formed a part of the facred myfteries is evident from Virgil; and that this was accompanied with a vifion of thefe principles or gods, is no lefs certain, from the teftimony of Plato, Apuleius, and Proclus. The firft part of this affertion is evinced by the following beautiful lines:

Principio cœlum, ac terras, campofque liquentes,
Lucentemque globum lunæ, Titaniaque aftra

Spiritus intus alit, totamque infufa per artus

Mens agitat molem, et magno fe corpore mifcet.
Inde hominum pecudumque genus, vitæque volantum,
Et quæ marmoreo fert monftra fub æquore pontus.
Igneus eft ollis vigor, et cœleftis origo

Seminibus: quantum non noxia corpora tardant,
Terrenique hebetant artus, moribundaque membra.

Hinc metuunt cupiuntque: dolent, gaudentque: neque auras
Refpiciunt, claufæ tenebris et carcere cœco.

:

For the fources of the foul's exiflence are alfo the principles from which it fell and thefe, as we may learn from the Timæus of Plato, are Jupiter, or the Demiurgus, the mundane foul, and the junior or mundane gods.-Now, of thefe, the mundane intellect, which, according to the ancient theology, is Bacchus, is principally celebrated. by the poet, and this because the foul is particularly diftributed into generation Dionyfiacally, as is evident from the preceding extracts from Olympiodorus; and is still more abundantly confirmed by the following curious paffage from the fame author, in his comment on the Phædo of Plato. "The foul," fays he, "defcends Corically, or after the manner of Proferpine, into generation, but is diftributed into generation Dionyfiacally; and he is bound in body Prometheically and Titanically: the frees herfelf therefore from its bonds by exercifing the ftrength of Hercules; but he is collected into one through the afliftance of Apollo and the faviour Minerva, by philofophizing in a manner truly cathartic."

A writer who expreffes himself in this troubled ftyle is not enough the pupil of the Graces to inherit any portion of that influence which the fine imagination of Plato must for ever retain over cultivated minds. Theofophifm never held a very clofe alliance with reafon, nor ever ventured to truft to plain argument for its propagation. Our myftagogue then must