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fymptoms threatened fuffocation, and bleeding with-held its accustomed aid; an emetic opened the gullet, and unloaded the lungs, fo that deglutition became eafy, and respiration

free.

But it is neceffary to add, that a vomit only fufficiently strong to evacuate the contents of the ftomach, is by no means adequate to thefe effects. The vomit must be powerful, and in ordinary cafes repeated once in forty-eight hours. The patients never fail to exprefs the relief they find after the operation, and the phyfician foon difcovers it in the countenance and in the pulse. As to the formule of emetics the practitioner may vary it as he pleafes; but I generally combine the tartar emetic with the ipecacuanha, that the purgative property of the one may be obviated by the naufeating quality of the other, at the fame time that I wish to fecure a certain violence of action upon the fyftem.

PURGING. I confider the action of purgatives as altogether repugnant to the curative indications in this difeafe. If the poifon is received into the fyftem in the manner I fufpect; the operation of a purge, inflead of difcharging it, can only promote its diffufion along the alimentary canal-but waving that confideration, let us enquire what benefit can be expected from purgatives. Their most obvious operation is the emptying of the guts, and thereby leffening the tenfion of the abdominal mufcles. But we have shown that the anxiety, the debility, the faintness, are in a great measure owing to the want of fullness in the larger bloodveflels; and a want of preffure upon them will produce the fame effects. Hence the neceffity of bandage when we haftily remove the water in an afcites-through the whole courfe of the disease, the belly is in general very regular in its difcharges; but if a purging fpontaneously fupervenes, the patients fink fo amazingly faft, that it is not within the reach of art to fupport them. Under thefe circumftances I have known a perfon fo little indifpofed as to dine below ftairs one day, and yet upon a a purg ́ing fupervening, to die before the next day noon. Sauvage after a vomit advifes purges; but he adds that the patients very

often died.'

The treatife concludes with fix cafes, which are diftinctly related, and afford ftrong proof of the author's judicious attention to the progrefs of this difeafe, become peculiarly interefting, not only from its daily advancement over the circumambient counties, but from the dangerous dilorders by which it is frequently fucceeded.

The

The Practice of Navigation, on a New Plan: by means of a Quadrant of Difference of Latitude aud Departure; and an easy and true Method of bringing Departure into Difference of Longitude, and vice verfa, without the Ufe of a Variety of Nautical Tables, or any Knowledge in Trigonometry: the whole calculated to inftruct the most common Capacity in this ufeful Branch of Knowledge. By James Rymer, S. R. N. 4to. 5. boards. Evans.

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MR.

R. James Rymer, S. R. N. (i. e. Schoolmaster in the Royal Navy, we fuppofe) gives the following whimfical account of his work in the preface.

If this little treatife has any merit, the world will foon difcover it. If it has none, it might be uncharitable to treat it with contempt.

I dedicate its utility to the young and ignorant; and folicit indulgence from men of fcience and genius. If I pretended 'to raise its value by depreciating books which contain systems of mathematical navigation, I should hold myself guilty of irreverence and difrefpect to the memory of many great and worthy names.

• Indeed I should do wrong to recommend, much more to extol it, any further than it proved of utility to myfelf, when the Scheme first occurred to me. At that time, I had not the fmalleft fyftematical knowledge in navigation; and often wondered at my own ignorance, when I reflected upon the length of time I had been at fea. I had often heard them talk of difference of latitude and departure, allowance for lee-way, variation of the compafs, heave of the fea, the action of tides and currents, without in the leaft comprehending what was meant. All of a fudden, one day, at fea, I was determined, by fome means or other, to learn how to work a day's work, and keep a reckoning. I got a Daily Affiftant, a Mariner's Compass, a Robertfon's Elements, &c. and applied myself diligently for about two hours-when my head began to ach, and my ideas became confufed: I put away the books-yaun'd —scratch'd my temples-went to bed - rav'd-, and, the prefent work is the refult of the dreams of that night. Whoever doubts what I affert, does me an injury: but, as I allow of an univerfal toleration of belief and fentiment in all trivial matters, I can readily forgive it.'*

From this uncommon kind of a preface, we were far from being prejudiced in favour of this little tract; and on a perufal, had no reafon to quit our first fufpicions of it. This new plan of Mr. James Rymer, S. R. N. confifts in a method of folving the cafes of plain-failing by means of lines drawn on the faces of a quadrant, and in a method of turning de

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eparture into difference of longitude, with a view to the fotion of the cafes in Mercator's failing. Each leg or radius of e quadrant is divided into 90 equal parts, and from several of the points of divifion in each radius, lines are drawn paraleel to the other radius on the face of the quadrant; these lin s ferve to measure the difference of latitude and departure by tracing them to the numbers on the two radii. Between the fame points of divifion, feveral concentric quadrantal arcs are drawn; and, by tracing these to the edge or radius, is to be found the distance of any point on the face of the quadrant from the center, which reprefents the distance failed in any cafe. The outer arch of the quadrant is alfo divided in go equal parts for degrees, and into 8 equal parts for rhumbs, to the principal of which radii are drawn from the center of the quadrant; and thefe lines reprefent the track of the ship on any course. By means of all these lines then, it is evident that the cases in plain-failing may be folved by bare inspection, to a tolerable degree of nearness.

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His method of changing departure into difference of longi. tude, is this: he finds the middle latitude, and, by a table, how many miles to a degree of longitude in that latitude; alfo, according to this proportion, how many degrees of longitude answer to the miles in the departure. This method of eftimating the longitude, is too erroneous to be depended on in practice, and therefore can be of little or no ufe. As to the method by the quadrant, for plain-failing, it is not more expeditious, nor nearly fo accurate, as a traverse-table; and therefore it can be of little ufe in practice. We would not, however, omit to remark, that the infpection of this quadrant may be useful to give beginners, in an easy and familiar manner, a clear notion of the nature and cafes of plainfailing.

A Vindication of Jome Paffages in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters of the Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By the Author. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Cadell.

MR.

R. Gibbon, in the latter part of the first volume of his Roman Hiftory, treating of the progrefs of Chriftianity, very properly obferves, that its triumph over the eftablished religions of the earth was owing to the convincing evidence of the doctrine itself, and to the ruling providence of its great Author. But immediately afterwards ne affigns five secondary caufes for this aftonishing event, derived from the paffions of the human heart, and the general circumftances of mankind. By this concellion fome of the friends of Chriftianity conceived,

that

that he had invalidated the evidence of its divine origin, and ' placed it on the footing of thofe impoftures, which have made their way in the world by human means. Others affirmed, that in his account of Chriftianity he had mifreprefented feveral ancient writers, and had been guilty of many inaccuracies in his quotations. These charges have been brought against him in a variety of Answers, Apologies, and Examinations. Under thefe circumftances Mr. Gibbon paid a proper attention to the manoeuvres of the adverfary. I fent, he says, for these publications; for I have never affected, indeed I have never understood the ftoical apathy, the proud contempt of criticism, which fome authors have publicly profeffed... Befides the ftrong and natural impulfe of curiofity, I was prompted by the more laudable defire of applying to my own, and the public, benefit, the well-grounded cenfures of a learned adverfary, and of correcting those faults, which the indulgence of vanity and friendship had fuffered to escape without obfervation.'

One of his moft violent antagonists on this occafion was Mr. Davis, the author of a tract, entitled An Examination of the 15th and 16th Chapters of the Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This writer accufed Mr. Gibbon of. perverting the ancients, and tranfcribing the moderns. These were ferious imputations, affecting his credit as an historian, and his reputation as a fcholar. In this publication he has therefore undertaken to vindicate his honour. The first article of impeachment, with the anfwer to it, is as follows:

"The remarkable mode of quotation which Mr. Gibbon adopts muft immediately ftrike every one who turns to his notes. He fometimes only mentions the author, perhaps the book; and often leaves the reader the toil of finding out, or rather gueffing at the paffage. The policy, however, is not without its defign and ufe. By endeavouring to deprive us of the means of comparing him with the authorities he cites, be flattered himself, no doubt, that he might fafely have recourfe to mifreprefention." Such is the flyle of Mr. Davis; who, in an another place, mentions this mode of quotation" as a good artifice to escape detection ;" and applauds, with an agreeable irony, his own labours in turning over a few pages of the Theodofian Code.

I fhall not defcend to animadvert on the rude and illiberal ftrain of this paffage, and I will frankly own that my indignation is loft in astonishment. The fifteenth and fixteenth chapters of my history are illuftrated by three hundred and eighty-three notes; and the nakednefs of a few Notes, which are not accompanied by any quotation, is amply compenfated by a much greater number, which contain two, three, or perhaps four diftinct references; fo that upon the whole my ftock of quotations

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which fupport and justify my facts cannot amount to less than eight hundred or a thousand. As I had often felt the inconvenience of the loose and general method of quoting which is fo falfely imputed to me, I have carefully diftinguished the books, the chapters, the fections, the pages of the authors to whom I referred, with a degree of accuracy and attention, which might claim fome gratitude, as it has feldom been fo regularly practifed by any hiftorical writers. And here I must confefs fome obligation to Mr. Davis, who, by ftaking my credit and his own on a circumstance fo obvious and palpable, has given me fo early an opportunity of fubmitting the merits of our caufe, or at leaft of our characters, to the judgment of the public. Hereafter, when I am fummoned to defend myself against the imputation of mifquoting the text, cr mifreprefenting the fenfe of a Greek or Latin author, it will not be in my power to communicate the knowledge of the languages, or the poffeffion of the books, to thofe readers who may be deftitute either of one or of the other, and the part which they are obliged to take between affertions equally ftrong and peremptory, may fometimes be attended with doubt and hesitation. But in the prefent inftance, every reader who will give himfelf the trouble of confulting the first volume of my Hiftory, is a competent judge of the question. I exhort, I folicit him to run his eye down the columns of notes, and to count how many of the quotations are minute and particular, how few are vague and general. When he has fatis fied himself by this eafy computation, there is a word which may naturally fuggeft itfelf; an epithet, which I fhould be forry either to deserve or ufe; the boldnefs of Mr. Davis's affertion, and the confidence of my appeal will tempt, nay, perhaps, will force him to apply that epithet to one or the other of the adverfe parties.

I have confeffed that a critical eye may difcover fome loofe and general references; but as they bear a very inconfiderable proportion to the whole mafs, they cannot fupport, or even excufe a falfe and ungenerous accufation, which must reflect difhonour either on the fubject or on the author of it. If the examples in which I have occafionally deviated from my ordinary practice were specified and examined, I am perfuaded that they might always be fairly attributed to fome one of the following reasons. I. In fome rare inftances, which I have never attempted to conceal, I have been obliged to adopt quotations which were expreffed with lefs accuracy than I could have wifhed. 2. I may have accidentally recollected the fenfe of a paffage which I had formerly read, without being able to find the place, or even tranfcribe from memory the precife words. 3. The whole tract (as in a remarkable infiance of the fecond Apology of Juftin Martyr) was fo fhort, that a more particular defcription was not required. 4. The form of the compofition fupplied the want of a local reference; the preceding mention of the year fixed the paffage of the annalist, and the reader was

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