REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 1. Memoirs of the Life of Thomas Beddoes, M. D. With an Analytical Account of his Writings. By John Edmonds Stock, M. D. Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, London; Member of the Medical and Natural History Societies of Edinburgh; of the Medical and Chemical Societies of Philadelphia, and Physician in Bristol. 4to. pp. 416; and 71 of Appendix. Mur ray. THE Publick are much indebted to Dr. Stock for "a correct view of the life, character, and opinions of the eminent Physician who is the subject of its" exhibiting "proofs of a versatility of talent, an extent of knowledge, and an originality and compass of thought, of which, perhaps, some of his most intimate friends were but imperfectly aware." Reserving our account of the Memoirs of Dr. Beddoes for the subsequent article in this Review, we shall here only give a few detached articles from his "Common-place Book. "CURRIE. Who has so strongly recommended himself to professional readers by the general excellence of his matter, and to unprofessional, by the eharm of his classical style." "DIGESTION. If such a quantity of food be taken as the stomach can manage, digestion will be more perfect from repose, and repose more refreshing from digestion. But if it be unequal to the task imposed upon it, then heat is excited, which the weight of the bed-clothes increases, and sleep still more. This worse in fever. By this is to be solved the constant difficulty proposed to medical men about supper-eating; which should always be answered in the affirmative, in this sense, that as much food should be in the stomach, as can be fully digested before morning." . "HUNTER, JOHN. Fancied what he could not find words for, very profound. But he was mistaken. Whenever he found himself at a loss for words, he was labouring with the delivery of nonsense. When one heard of John Hunter as the first surgeon in London, one felt a pleasure like that which arises from the distribution of poetical justice." "KNIGHT, Mr. R. P. Is always candid and intelligent, and he appears to me to have done so much more honour to the investigating powers of man than any other person of our times, as almost GEST. MAG, July, 1812. ། to form a class by himself. He is most to be compared to John Hunter; but his views are clearer, his doctrines purer from the alloy of hypothesis, and he goes deeper into his subject." "QUACKERY. The extension of it remains to be proved. There may be an increase of advertised medicines; but when I consider the immense number of herbs mentioned in our old herbals, and recollect how busy were our old women, I see that they very much exceed the lieve, that medicine, in proportion to the quack medicines, and I venture to bepopulation of the country, is less frequently administered by unprofessional hands than at any former period." "RABIES CANINA. To try hot-bath 104. and affusion of cold water, and that six times a day-boiling water on the neck also removing a part of the cranium, and keeping the brain compressed." In "SLEEP. A subject requiring much study, or rather, much accumulation of facts. There is the utmost poverty of facts in all that has been written on it; probably gross errors, as appearances in the sleep of the sick, may be supposed to arise from disease, and yet have existed in health when the sleep was not watched. Observation can be made much better by unprofessional people. sleep the passing ideas are lost, so the connected muscular movements must be lost too. As in sleeping over a book, and it drops down, or before it drops and as it is dropping, the purpose is recalled, and I save it. In sleep, if the ideas return, the connected movements return too: so people might be practised to do any thing in sleep-may be made to talk or walk." "STERNE. His writings put people in good humour with the follies of one another, To bring a passage from Hall and Burton is nothing. A traveller in Upper Egypt meeting with a streamlet that is received into the Nile after he had flowed in majesty for a thousand miles, might as well come home and boast that he had discovered the sacred head of the river." "WASHING. Among the hardships inci dent to poor married women with a family, one is particularly severe. This is frequent dabbling in water to wash. Nothing can support the constitution of many against the trial. I have kept an account of the health of several for months; I could do them service in the short interval; but so sure as came the wash, so sure came all the complaints back back again. In consequence of this employment, and this only, a slight cold shall undermine the constitution, keep them sickly for years, and at last destroy them. Can no good genius invent a machine by which opulent neighbours, attentive to their hard-fated fellow-creatures, may be able to relieve some of them from this destructive drudgery." "WOMEN. On any alarming seizure, I have seen all in a large lodging-house turn out till the suffering person was completely surrounded. This eagerness is unquestionably, in part, to be referred to motives highly praise-worthy. But they seldom stop at simple sympathy, or even at such assistance as is requested at their hands. They take the lead, ask questions, and decide as if they were so many graduates from the most renowned medical university in the civilized world." . The General Biographical Dictionary: containing an Historical and Critical Ascount of the Lives and Writings of the most eminent Persons in every Nation; particularly the British and Irish; from the earliest Accounts to the present Time. A new Edition, revised and enlarged by Alexander Chalmers, FS. A. Vols. I. II. III. and IV. pp. 2100. All the Booksellers in Great Britain and Ireland. THE uniformity of manner, which is evident even on a slight inspection of these useful Volumes, cannot fail of proving a powerful recommendation of the work. Independent of a considerable number of additional lives, many of those in the former Editions have been new written, deficiencies supplied, and redundancies cleared away. The talents and industry of the Editor have long been known to the Publick, and duly appreciated; and the names of the Booksellers under whose auspices it is undertaken, are a sufficient pledge for the ultimate performance of their engagements. Agreeably to the hint thrown out in the preceding article, we shall here give an entire Life from the “Biographical Dictionary," which may serve as a Specimen of the one work, and a faithful Epitome of the other. "BEDDOES (THOMAS), M. D. a gentleman of Welch extraction, was born at Shifnal in Shropshire, April 15, 1760, where he received the first rudiments of his education, but was soon removed to the school of Brewood in Staffordshire. He very early displayed a thirst for knowledge, and, as is frequently the case, ap of pears to have been determined rather by accident than design to that pursuit in which he was afterwards most distinguished. From Brewood he was removed to the grammar-school at Bridgenorth, which he quitted at the age of thirteen. His manners and habits at school were particular; but study, and the desire of knowledge, were predominant. Heseemed early to give way to deep thought and reflection; and this, added to a natural shyness of disposition, gave him an air reserve, which distinguished him from his young associates. In May 1778, he was placed under the tuition of the Rev. Sam. Dickenson, rector of Blym-hill in Staffordshire, who supplied his biogra pher with some particulars of his character highly creditable to him. In 1776 he was entered of Pembroke college, Oxford, where he applied himself with remarkable industry and diligence to the study of modern languages, chemistry, mineralogy, and botany. In 1781, he visited the metropolis, and studied anatomy; and in the course of these studies he undertook to translate the works of Spallanzani, which appeared in 1784. It is also thought that he supplied the notes to Dr. Cullen's edition of Bergman's Physical and Chemical Essays. In 1783, he took the degree of M. A. and. the following year went to Edinburgh, where he distinguished himself, not only as a member, but for some time as president of the royal medical and natural history societies. In 1786 he returned to Oxford, and took his doctor's degree; and the same year he visited the conti nent, on his return from which he was appointed to the chemical lectureship at Oxford, in which situation he distinguished himself much, and was generally attended by a numerous auditory. - Mineralogy at this time appears to have occupied much of his attention: his theory of the earth being, according to his biographer, conformable to that of Hutton; but at this time he was rather hasty in his conclusions, and would frequently acknowledge that he had been misled in the judgment he had formed of certain fossils, especially in regard to the operations of fire. Of this a singular instance has been given. A gentlesummit of one of the mountains surman had brought to Oxford from the rounding Coniston lake in Lancashire, some specimens which had evidently undergone the operation of fire, but which happened to abound near a hol low on the top of the mountain, which some Italian gentlemen had not long be fore pronounced to be the crater of an extinct volcano. Upon shewing them to Dr. Beddoes, he was so persuaded of the The fact, that he even summoned a particular assembly of the members of the University by an extraordinary notice, Before whom he delivered a long lecture on the specimens supplied, as indicative of the natural operations of fire in those Parts of England. A very short time after, be declared that they were evidently nothing better than mere slags from some old furnace, and that he had since discovered a criterion by which he could distinguish between the productions of natural and artificial fire; but this discovery, and the consequent change of his sentiments, he could not be prevailed on to announce as publicly as he had defivered his former opinions. At this time nothing seemed to inteYest him more than the account of the two Giants Causeways, or groupes of prismatic basaltine columns, in the Venetian states, in Italy, in the LXVth volume of the Philosophical Transactions, communicated by Mr. Strange, long his majesty's resident at Venice. Dr. Beddoes's retirement from Oxford, about 1792, was accelerated by his intemperance in politicks, occasioned by the remarkable cireumstances of the times. In the following year he removed to Bristol, where he began that career of medical and phy siological researches, experiments, and lectures, which made him so generally conspicuous, and which appear to have continued with the most striking zeal and perseverance to the last moment of his short life, varied according to circumstancès, but never wholly abandoned. In 1798, his Pneumatic Institution was opened, which very much excited the attentionof the publick,although its practical effects were not correspondent to the high expectations entertained. Va rious publications came from his pen in rapid succession, until 1808, when he was seized with a disorder which proved fatal, Dec. 24, of that year. This, which was a dropsy of the chest, he had mistaken for a hepatic disorder. His character, as given by his learned and affec tionate biographer, is highly favourable, but it presents two subjects of regret, the one that he should have thought it necessary to waste so much time on the fleeting politicks of the day; the other, that in his many schemes and experimental researches, he was precipitate and unsteady. He was undoubtedly capable of great things, but too hurried, too sanguine, too unconscious of the Mpse of time, and too little aware of the want of opportunity for any one man to accomplish any very numerous ends, either of invention or reformation. The learned world had reason to l lament his early death, because age might have corrected those blemishes or eccentrici ties of his character, which prevented his doing justice, even to his own designs, and his own powers. Had he been less impetrous, less sanguine, and more capable of fixing and concentrating his views, he might have accomplished much more good, and left the world much more benefited by his extraordinary labours and indefatigable diligence.- Of this labour and diligence, the reader may form a correct notion by the following list of his publications. 1. Translation of Spallanzani's dissertations on Natural History, 1784, reprinted 1790. 2. 'Notes to a translation of Bergman's Physical and Chemical Essays,' 1784. 3. Translation of Bergman's Essay on Elective Attractions,' 1785. 4.Translation of Scheele's Chemical Essays,' edited and corrected by him, 1786. 5. Chemical Experiments and Opinions extracted from a work published in the last century, 1790. 6. Three papers in the Philosophical Transactions for 1791 and 1792, on The affinity between Basaltes and Granite the conversion of cast into malleable iron-and second part to ditto. 7. Memorial addressed to the curators of the Bodleian Library,' na date. 8. A letter to a Lady on the subject of early Instruction, particularly that of the Poor,' 1792, printed but not published, 9. Alexander's Expedition to the Indian Ocean,' not published. 10. Observations on the Nature of demonstrative Evidence, with reflections on Language,' 1792. 11. ' Observations on the Nature and Cure of Calculus; Seascurvy, Catarrh, and Fever,' 1792. 12. History of Isaac Jenkins,' a moral fic tion, 1793. 13. Letters from Dr. Withering, Dr. Ewart, Dr. Thornton, &c.' 1794, 14A Guide for Self-preservation and parental Affection,' 1794. 15, A Proposal for the Improvement of Medicine,' 1794. 16. Considerations on the medicinal Use, and on the production of Factitious Airs:' Parts I. and II. 1794, Part III. 1795, and Parts IV. and V. 1796. 17. Brown's Elements of Medicine, with a Preface and Notes," 1795. 18. Trans lation from the Spanish, of Gimbernat's new Method of operating on Femoral Hernia, 1795. 19. Outline of a Plan for determining the medicinal powers of Factitious Airs, 1795. 20. A word in defence of the Bill of Rights against Gagging-bills, 1795. 21. Where would be the harm of a Speedy Peace?' 1795. 22. An Essay on the public merits of Mr. Pitt, 1796. 23. A Letter to Mr. Pitt on the Scarcity, 1796, 24. Alternatives compared, or, What shall the Rich da to be safe?' 25.Suggestions towards setting on foot the projected Establishment for Pneu matic Medicine,' 1797. 26. Reports relating to Nitrous Acid,' 1797. 27. ́A Lecture introductory to a popular course of Anatomy,' 1797. 28.A suggestion towards an essential improvement in the Bristol Infirmary,' 1798. 29. Contributions to Medical and Physical knowledge from the West of England,' 1799. 30. Popular Essay on Consumption, 1799. 31. Notice of some observations made at the Pneumatic Institution,' 1799. 32. A second and third Report on Nitrous Acid,' 1799, 1800. 33. Es say on the Medical and Domestic management of the Consumptive; on Digitalis, and on Scrophula,' 1801. 34. Hygeia; or Essays, moral and medical, on the Causes affecting the personal state of the middling and affluent Classes,' 1801-2. 35. Rules of the institution for the sick and drooping Poor.' An edition on larger paper was entitled 'Instruction for people of all capacities respecting their own Health and that of their children,' 1803. 36. The manual of Health, or the Invalid conducted safely through the Seasons,' 1806. 37. On Fever as connected with Inflammation,' 1807. 38. A Letter to Sir Joseph Banks, on the prevailing discontents, abuse, and imperfections in Medicine,' 1808. 39. Good advice for the Husbandman in Harvest, and for all those who labour hard in hot births; as also for others who will take it in warm weather,' 1808. Besides these, Dr. Beddoes was a considerable contributor to several of the Medical and Literary journals." 3. The Case of the Heathen compared with that of those who enjoy the Blessings of the Gospel: in a Charge to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of St. Alban's. By Joseph Holden Pott, A. M. Prebendary of Lincoln, and Archdeason of St. Alban's. Published at the Request of the Clergy present, and dedicated to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; 4to. pp. 36. Rivingtons. THE substance of this appropriate Charge arises out of that artful, disingenuous comparison, which aims at establishing a triumph for the Heathen, not merely over base and insincere professors of the truth, but over the fair pattern of the truth itself." It is true," says the learned Archdea con," that the Jews who were tutored in the laws and statutes of the Lord for many an age, were frequently surpassed in all good dispositions, and in many real acts of piety and virtue, by men who wanted their advantages. It is true, likewise, and it serves as matter of re proach to those who enjoy far better privileges than the Jews did, that in many great and essential parts of duty, they who have the laws of Christ for their rule, are frequently outdone by the ignorant and unconverted, and even by those who are deemed most barbarous among the nations of the earth.-The Christian household has not escaped the burden of this scandal. Many of its members have vied with the heathen in the worst excesses, and bave also fallen short of them in some measures of good conduct which are common and familiar to this day in unenlightened countries. Thus many may rebuke us from the remotest corners of the globe, and may rise up in evidence against the children of a spiritual household. The unconverted savage may turn with horror and contempt from those who profess the laws of righteousness, and who challenge to themselves so many notices of heavenly things, whilst at the same time they stand openly convicted of a thousand misdeeds, which the light of conscience easily condemns, and which the common voice of reason in the meanest of the human race will not fail to reject with indignation and disgust. If it be true that Christians have carried fraud or cruelty, ambition, avarice or injustice, as far as the Apostles and first witnesses of Christ once carried the glad sound of the Gospel, and the salutary lessons of repentance; if the Christian name has been betrayed to seorn and hatred among distant nations where the darkness of idolatry prevails; let the authors of such scandal be left to answer the reproach. Our care for the honour of the Christian law will not engage us to frame apologies for such offences, or induce us to put false colours upon such spots; though a just concern for the principles of truth and honour will always incline us to be fearful of indulging hasty, indiscriminate, and overcharged relations of this nature. Let us not however hesitate to turn the full severity of censure, upon corrup tions which are despicable even in the judgment of the ignorant and rude. Yet whilst we rebuke the crimes and inconsistencies which may be found among professed believers, let us not be so heedless as to suffer artful adversaries to employ this topick of reproach against the.. dispensations of revealed truth. No cause can be properly responsible for the blemishes which mark the lives of insincere adherents." He then proceeds to examine more distinctly the comparison itself, upon which the cavils of insidious adversaries have been built. "They who are more conversant in Oriental manners, will enable us to bring East Easuttogether to testify that munion of the Church was unknown in the of blind opinions are fixed and uniform, and that the growth of mispersuasion never varies." "Light and darkness hold the conflict, with every possible variety of beams and shadows. In our own land certain it is that alternate tides of popular opinion have prevailed. This is not the growth of fickleness alone; it is the natural and eertain consequence which follows from a standing witness for the truth, and from the perpetual contest it must have with every gust of contradiction. Such excesses may swell for awhile, like surge and foam upon the sea-shore: the waves may perhaps grow strong, and rush over every limit, but the solid beach remains, the billows roll back when their force is spent, and the firm ground is then recovered." The wild and desultory Arab, the mild Brahmin, the natives of the Western Continent, are all in their turn depicted by Mr. Pott; and "From such examples, sought out of diverse quarters of the globe, designing men may cull the best parts, in order to disparage the spiritual pattern, and affront the perfect law of Christ; but the dark shades and the gross deformities cannot be concealed." Turning now to "the Christian rule," there is little difficulty in demonstrating "where the balance will incline, and on which side the triumph of integrity and virtue will arise;" and, in recommending "the meaus be employed, in order to the end proposed," the Archdeacon says, "These means, I conceive, should be such as are most consonant to the pattern and provision set forth by the great Author of our common faith. Of course it would be most desirable to endeavour to accomplish the good work by ministerial hands. "As a previous step, we have much Beason to applaud the pains which have been used for translating and circulating the sacred Scriptures in those distant lands: but if, in this instance, and to serve the present need, the sacred volume is made to go before the ministerial aids, I trust that the pastoral help will be provided. The lively pattern of a Church maintained in honour, and flourishing in each station where the British government is fixed, would not fail to operate with a sure attraction. Without this demonstration, how shall the members df a joint communion testify their comon faith and common duty by public exercises, and with suitable expressions? Christianity separate from the Com early ages, and has never been acknow- any "The mild progress of Commerce, though it be subject, as we well know, to its excesses, and calls in to its service, sometimes perhaps too eagerly, and with too much of the stride of conquest, the protecting hand of military power, is yet, upon the whole, most favourable to the extension of religious knowledge. A worthy and excellent divine of our Church, whose name, had he given it, together with his treatise, I should be glad to repeat with every token of esteem, and with the highest veneration for his virtues and his talents, has displayed the alliance between Christianity and Commerce in a very interesting point of view. But it requires the greatest possible care to preserve and to cement that connexion, or the steps of Commerce may rush on in one direction, and the zeal and exertions of the Christian Minister be left to make their own way under every possible impediment. The consequence of this would be irregular and almost solitary efforts. The Merchant would have his station and his factory, and the Missionary might take his staff and his sandals, and might also, after some successful earnest of his labours, be reduced to the misery of leaving a destitute charge, for want of co-adjutors or successors.-Let it then be our cordial wish, and in due place and season our diligent endeavour, to call attention to the spiritual wants of many of our counnatives also in those distant lands which trymen far severed from us, and of the are now subject to the mild rule and equal sceptre of the British government. Let us so strive at all times to communicate the best things which we have to those that are at hand, and to those who, however far removed from us, may be induced to take such tenders as the best pledge of lasting amity which we can render in return for any temporal advantages of which our intercourse with them may be productive." 4. Lectures on the Elements of Algebra, by the Rev. B. Bridge, B. D. Fellow of St. Peter's College, Cambridge; and Professor of Mathematicks in the East India College. 8vo. pp. 266. Cadell and Davies THE work before us contains a plain and practical course of Lectures upon the elements of Algebra, entirely detached from the higher and more "Considerations on the alliance be tween Christianity and Commerce, applied to the present state of this Country." abstruse |