They propose the preparation of a gelatina pomorum, by expreffing the juice of apples, adding to it a fourth part of its weight of white fugar, and then evaporating to the confiftence of a jelly.

They obtain an oleum animale by diftillation from calcined hartfhorn, to which is added half the weight of the oil of hartfhorn. They prepare. hydragogue pills from compounding gum ammoniac, fquills, aloes, gamboge, and elatarium.

They introduce two preparations of the fixed foffil alkali, under the titles of foda depurata, and foda tartarizata. They introduce a fpiritus formicarum, obtained by the diftillation of ants with fpirit of wine and water. For purifying the terra Japonica, they recommend, that it fhould first be diffolved in water, and that then, this folution, after ftraining, fhould be evaporated to dryness. To this they give the title of fuccus Japonicus depuratus; and, unquestionably, the name of terra Japonica, which is still retained in the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia, is with great impropriety applied to a vegetable extract.

Befides thefe, we might take notice of many other articles, which are either peculiar to the Pharmacopoeia, and are, at the fame time, valuable

formulae, or which may justly be confidered as improvements on fimilar prescriptions contained. in those of other colleges. But we fhall conclude our remarks on this work, with obferving, that it terminates with a very useful table, shew- . ing the proportion of opium, mercury, emetics, and purgatives, which enter into different compounds.

V.

An account of the Tenia, or Long Tape Worm, and of the Method of Treating it, as practifed at Morat in Switzerland. 8vo, London.

UR readers will recollect, that we closed

the fhort account we gave of the French edition of this work, in our third volume, by promifing them a farther analysis of it in fome future number. Different occurrences, however, have prevented us from fulfilling our engagement, on this head, fo early as we could have wifhed. But we are not forry for the delay, as we are now able to anounce it to them in an English drefs. The public is indebted for this edition to Doctor Samuel Foart Simmons, whọ has enriched it with a preface and notes.

Doctor

Doctor Simmons fets out with observing, that, of the different worms which are occafionally met with in the human body, the tenia is by far the most dangerous, not only on account of the symptoms it excites, but of the difficulty with which it is expelled. It is indeed true, that ' phyficians, in all ages, have complained of this formidable enemy, as yielding, with certainty, to no known remedy.' He obferves, that the curiofity of the public has long been excited with refpect to the Morat method of treatment; that a Swiss phyfician of the name of Herrenschwand, more than twenty years ago, acquired no little celebrity by distributing a compofition, of which he ftiled himself the inventor, and which was probably of the fame nature as Madam Nouffer; and that feveral very eminent men, as Tronchin, Hovius, Bonnet, Cramer, and others, have written concerning the effects of this remedy.

Doctor Simmons then proceeds to point out the different methods that have been used in these cafes, all of which, he obferves, have been too often ineffectual. He next delivers fome obfervations on the ftructure of the Tenia lata, and Tenia cucurbitina. It is remarkable, he fays, that the latter of thefe has been confounded with

E 4

the

Greeks, and recommended from time to time by phyficians of the first distinction, it had fallen, together with many others, into oblivion, and even contempt, because it had not always been given with equal fuccefs. This difference in the refult seems to have arifen, on the one hand, from the specific itself, and the manner of administering it not having been described with fufficient care; and, on the other, from phyficians having deviated too much from the practice of the fathers of medicine, without confidering fo much as they ought to have done, that changes the most favourable in appearance, will often render remedies of no ufe, although former experience may have proved them to be poffeffed of confiderable efficacy.

In an appendix to this work, we find two particular receipts, which were often used by Madam Nouffer in worm-complaints. Into one of thefe, there enters a confiderable proportion of ceruffe or white lead. To this formula Doctor Simmons has thought it right to add a note. • The observations of the learned and ingenious Sir George Baker, Bart. and Doctor • Percival,' fays he, do not permit me to give the prefent formula to the English reader,

• with

without cautioning him, at the fame time, against the use of it. Ceruffe, when taken in'to the ftomach, will be liable to produce the 'most deleterious effects; and the dose of it here prescribed is by no means a small one, the Paris dram being of feventy-two grains.' For many other obfervations, we beg leave to refer our readers to the work itself, which contains eighty pages, feventeen of which are of preface. It is likewife enriched with three very accurate engravings representing the tenia lata, the tenia cucurbitina, and the male fern.

VI.

Thoughts on General Gravitation, and views thence arifing as to the State of the Universe. 4to,

London.

IN

a preface to this fhort treatise we are in

formed, that the thoughts it contains took their rife in a philofophical converfation, about the beginning of the prefent year. They are therefore prefented to the public as the work of

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