given to patients with fafety and efficacy in the cure of many difcafes. The ufe of this inestimable drug hath been much extended by modern practitioners; and we are obliged to Mr. Pott, particularly, for having ufed it in a difeafe for which it had not been before adminiftered; and where the effects of very large dofes are aftonishingly great. We cannot however think, that the general idea of adminiftering opium in cafes fuppofed to be owing to morbid irritability, is entirely a new one, although that of the particular use of it, in the cafes mentioned by Mr. Grant, may be admitted to be fo.

There feem indeed to be two inftances in which mercury fails of curing the venereal difeafe: the one, when it is not fufficiently brought into action, and when it is neceffary to rouze it by the adminiftration of fome cordial medicine.In this cafe no medicine can be fo proper as opium; for it certainly is the most powerful cordial in nature. This is exemplified by its well-known effects upon the Turks, and by its powerful antifceptic qualities fo evident in the cafes of mortification in which Mr. Pott has recommended it. The effects of opium in large dofes, feem indeed to be exactly fimilar to thofe of intoxication.-We remember a gentleman. of a very grave character, being fo much exhilarated by the free ufe of opium, which a painful disorder he laboured under towards the clofe of his life, obliged him to have recourfe to, that he fometimes was thrown entirely out of his ordinary grave deportment; fo much as to play the buffoon before his family.

In fome of Mr. Grant's cafes, we prefume, that the opium has acted in this manner; in which opinion we are the more confirmed by obferving, that in fome of his patients, a fali vation was raised, after the opium had been continued for a few days. This falivation we cannot attribute to the opium itfelf, but to the cordial effects of it in rouzing into action the mercury, previoufly remaining dormant in the fyiNor is this uncommon. A very remarkable inftance of it has fallen under our obfervation. It was of a falivation excited by the ftimulus of an operation, fix months after the patient had discontinued the ufe of mercury.

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The other cafe alluded to, in which mercury fails of curing the venereal disease, is, when the fyftem is too much loaded with it. This circumftance is particularly exemplified in the cafe of venereal ulcers or chancres, which, after having been nearly or perhaps entirely healed by the adminiftration of mercury, fhall fuddenly break out a-fresh, w th a degree of forenefs which is intolerable to the patient, and which far furpaffes the first foreness of the complaint.-It

is very well known, that the continuation of mercury in this cafe, always exafperates the difeafe, and that we can only obtain a cure by fufpending totally the ufe of it. The decoction of farfaparilla, properly prepared, is of great ufe in this ftage of the difeafe; and in this cafe too, Mr. Grant's administration of opium may be used with great propriety, from its well known fedative powers: we are therefore much obliged to him for adding one powerful remedy in fuch cales, to thofe before in ufe.

Nor is this idea of opium acting in the double capacity of a cordial and a fedative, the leaft inconfiftent. The fame thing is obferved of the effects of intoxication, which, carried to a great height, always induce not only a great tendency to fleep, but also often bring on a moft profound temporary lethargy, fuch as patients experience from large dofes of opium.

But this is not the place to enter into a difcuffion of this curious point, which would lead us much farther than the bounds of a review would allow. We have just suggested a hint of the matter, which may serve as a kind of illuftration of Mr. Grant's practice, and thew that there are many things with refpect to the effects of opium, which remain still to be observed and inveftigated.

0.

ART. XIII. Fragmenta Chirurgica & Medica. Auctore, Gul. Fordyce, M. D. Eq. Aur. 8vo. 3s. fut. Spilfbury. Chirurgical and Medical Fragments. By Sir William Fordyce, M. D.

THI HIS work, written in Latin, is dedicated to Sir John Elliot, Bart. The learned author, in an addrefs to the reader, apologizes for publishing the obfervations he has made, through a long feries of practice in this manner. His increase of bufinefs, and the infirm ftate of his health, have induced him rather to impart things as they have occurred to him, than to defer this communication till he could arrange the whole under the form of a regular work.

The performance itself confifts of various cafes in phyfic and furgery, with general obfervations on certain diseases and certain remedies.-We fhall notice the principal things in this performance, and felect one or two of the moft ftriking cafes, which we shall translate, as a fpecimen, for the benefit of our medical readers.

The two firft cafes are accounts of abfceffes in the liver; the former cured by incifion; the latter fatal, from the mater penetrating the diaphragm, getting from thence into the lungs, and thus causing a phthifis pulmonalis.

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The author then confiders various complaints happening about the anus. Against the intolerable itching accompa nied with heat, which frequently occurs, and is a moft obftinate complaint, for which many remedies are often tried in vain, he recommends tin internally administered.

In rhagades from the venereal difeafe, he thinks farfaparilla fufficient, after the proper ufe of mercury. Though generally fuccefsful, we have known fome obftinate cafes. of this fort refift this method; and they have yielded only to particular preparations of mercury. Among these the mercurius emeticus flavus has appeared to us the most effectual.

In old cachectic fiftulas, which cannot be brought to heal, even after the operation has been properly performed, he recommends Ward's pafte.

For a prolapfus of the anus, arifing from relaxation of the muscles, he ufes, as a very effectual remedy, the external application of water, in which a red hot poker has been quenched.

We come now to a fingular cafe of a stone in the gall bladder, part of which was discharged by the anus; the other part, in attempting to pass the valve of the colon, a few days after, excited a fudden pain, which ruptured the inteftine, and occafioned inftant death.

In that fpecies of eryfipelatofe inflammation called the fhingles, the author very judiciously fhews the inefficacy of bleeding and the antiphlogiftic regimen; and treats it as a putrid difcafe, against which a drachm of the powder of bark, taken four or five times a day, in red Port wine, or old hock, is a most effectual remedy.

In colicky complaints, to which the writer himself has been much fubject, he recommends from repeated experi ence upon himself, a medicine known by the name of the ftomach pills, as the most certain and powerful of any he ha ever tried.

In dyfenteries, after trying in vain emetics, rhubarb, and fmall dofes of ypecacoanha, as ufually prefcribed; the writer found more certain and fpeedy relief by giving from ten to fifteen grains of ypecacoanha twice a day, in a spoonfull of French brandy.

In intermittents, which do not yield to a continued use of the bark, our author has adminiftered the pulvis comitis Warwicenfis, or pulvis cornąchinus, either alone, or with the underwritten draught, about an hour before the fit, with repeated fuccefs.

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Aq. card. benedict, 3ij. theriac. fimpl. zij, fal, abfynth. 3fs, fpirit. fal. ammon. Ofs. fyrup. papav. errat, 3iij. m. fiat auftus.

In the fluor albus, Sir William recommends the following injection.- Calomel. zi. aq. calc. 3ij. aq. font. Ziv. gum arab. 3i. m.

In madness much advantage is faid to be derived from large dofes of diaretic falt.

In page 58, we have an inftance of dimnefs of fight cured by fmoaking tobacco.

In the meafles the Doctor is of opinion, that while the eruption is going forward, expofure to the open air, far from being useful, as in the fmall pox, is frequently fatal.

He thinks that rhubarb alone, if we have recourse to it in time, is fufficient to cure almost all hectic fevers in children, whether the belly be diftended or not.

Sir William diftinguithes feveral kinds of rheumatism.— The inflammatory he cures by repeated bleeding, with a free ufe of diluting liquors, and a very rigid antiphlogiftic regimen, perfevered in for three weeks.

In the bilious rheumatifm, the neutral falts, joined with rhubarb, he finds the beft remedy,

In the fpafmodic rheumatifin, he recommends opiates, with valerian, and the ufe of blifters; and obferves that, there is a fourth kind of rheumatifm, to be cured only by iffues.

Our author commends the internal use of faline fubftances fo highly, as to think them the principal medicines to be depended upon, in the cure of almoft every difeafe, whether acute or chronic; and even fays, that no man deferves the name of a phyfician, who does not know how to adminifter them properly. He ftrengthens this opinion by the authority of Hoffman. Among thefe fubftances, the neutral falts hold the firft rank.

After this we find feveral obfervations upon bleeding, upon fleep, upon the fmall-pox, upon the ufe of blifters, and upon unctuous applications.

The three laft cafes are of a chirurgical nature. The two first being inftances of wounds in the abdomen, fuccefsfully treated, we fhall translate.

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'George Oylett, a foldier of the third regiment of foot guards, in the year 1748, when the confederate army was encamped at Nefleroi, in Brabant, was wounded in the belly, with a broad fword. In half an hour after I found him fupporting a large por 'tion of his inteftines in his hat, to prevent the rest from falling out. They were very much diftended, and the omentum was full of dirt. I was obliged to cut it off, before I could return the in'testines into the cavity, although the wound was very large. The

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man having indulged himself in eating and drinking, very freely a little before the accident, a moft beautiful appearance of the lacteal veffels difperfed through the mefentery, prefented itfelf. All the parts being replaced, and the blood ftill flowing freely from the arteries of the omentum, I performed the interrupted future, with a very long needle, which was not done without difficulty, on account of the fpontaneous retraction of the peritoneum, and the thickness of the abdominal mufcles. Fomentations being ufed and the patient being every day wrapped in the skins of sheep, re• cently killed, was reflored to health.'

A ferjeant of the fame regiment, received in a duel, a wound in the region of the ftomach; upon which a copious difcharge of blood came on, both upwards and downwards. The principal furgeons of the army who faw him, were of opinion, that the wound had penetrated through the liver into the ftomach. Notwithstanding all their fatal prognoftics, the man was reftored to health with the affittance of a very ftrict antiphlogistic regimen.

"It has been a long received opinion, that wounds of the ftomach were incurable; that they are not entirely fo, this cafe is an instance."

The laft cafe furnishes a proof of the fuccefs of the trepan, applied fix months after the injury received.

From the sketch we have given of this performance, it may be obferved, that its merit confifts in being entirely practical. To thofe who wish to be entertained with very elegant claffical Latin, we recommend the perufal of the original.

O.

ART. XIV. Sermons on various Subjects. By the late Rev. Thomas Francklin, D. D. In two Vols. 8vo. 14s. Cadell. London. 1785.

THESE fermons are the production of the fame pen to

which the public have been indebted for the elegant tranflations of Sophocles and Lucian, and for feveral other approved publications. Though they were probably not intended by him for the prefs, and confequently fent into the world in a ftate lefs finished than the author would have permitted, they will yet be found to do no difcredit to his reputation.

The fubjects he has chofen are all of a practical nature, ard treated in fuch a manner as is calculated not only to convince, but to perfuade. The great fault of our discourses ingeneral is, that they speak to the understanding rather than the heart. The author of thefe fermons has chofen a happy melium-between the dry coldnefs of metaphyfical demonftrtion, and the declamatory tinfel of Gallic eloquence.

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