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ART. XII. Political Essays on popular Subjects; containing Dissertations on First Principles, Liberty, Democracy, and the Party Denominations of Whig and Tory. 8vo. 3s. Chapple.

1801.

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HERE have been periods in which it was the fashion to regard Liberty with an ardent and uncontrouled enthusiasm; and there are others in which it is equally the fashion to approach her with suspicion and timidity. There have been writers, also, so enamoured of her, that she inspired them, when discussing her charms, even to poetic flights; and there are others who see, or think that they see, more evils than benefits, in her train; and who, under the pretext of securing her from being abused, inculcate doctrines which are destructive of her very essence. Men of this latter stamp deem themselves justified by the atrocities of the French Revolution; and much genius and dexterity of argument are employed to diminish our love of Freedom, and to persuade us that it has been built on visionary principles. According to the author of the Essays before us, the doctrines maintained by Lord Somers at the Revolution, and by all the popular writers of the last age, are erroneous and mischievous. Liberty, in his hypothesis, does not emanate from the will of the people, it looks up to Government as its author:' whence it follows that, if a Government does not will a people to be free, they have no right to be free;—and, as he farther asserts that restraint is the first and most essential quality of Government, the right of which it is absurd to suppose to be dependant on the will of the people,' there is not much reason for expecting that, under these circumstances, any great portion of so intoxicating and dangerous an enjoyment as Freedom will be indulged to them, with his consent.

It is amusing to observe with what a string of political axioms this writer prepares us for his conclusions: viz. Government must be incompatible with the possesion of abstract liberty. Absolute freedom is self destructive.'-' Freedom and restraint are not always inconsistent with each other.' Freedom is one of the essential qualities of Government.' -Since Government has acquired unusual strength, and exerts it in wholesome restraints, tyranny has dwindled into a shadow.' Hence it should seem, also, that true liberty can only be received as a boon from our governors. Why, then, alas! did not our ancestors obtain it from the liberty-bestowing hand of James II.? How important is it for us to acquire correct notions of the genuine source of liberty; which even here is allowed, when properly understood, to be a very good thing! It gives (says the author) zest to life,

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life, vigour to occupation, scope to genius, and eminence to merit.'

The absurdity of democracy is thus logically proved:-' If the generality of mankind require to be governed, it is obvious from that very necessity, that they are not qualified to be governors; or if they are qualified to be governors, they do not require to be governed.' As logic, however, is a sword with two edges, and will cut both ways, let us see how the argument will stand when reversed. "If those who are qualified for governors do not require to be governed, all who evince a capacity for government ought to be exempted from its restraints." If this, however, be not allowed, and it be maintained that the wise as well as the ignorant stand in need of control, how can it follow, as a necessary consequence, that those who require to be governed are not qualified to be governors?

Numerous syllogisms are here constructed, to prove what no one is inclined to dispute, viz. the impracticability of pure democracy;-while lame and reluctant concessions are made in favour of liberty.

It is, indeed, graciously conceded that the happiness of a people ought to be the sole object of established authority," and that a popular assembly (as in the British Constitution) may be admitted as an occasional restraint: but then we are reminded that the true doctrine is, that power originates from the throne,' and that the popular assembly is useful and lawful only as it acts in a subordinate sphere.'-The author adds, it is therefore that the friends of order and peace, look with horror and indignation on all attempts to add a novel influence to the democratical part of our constitution'; for democracy is more to be dreaded than the overweening power of an aristocracy, or even the unlimited dominion of a king.' Particular reasons for this superior danger are assigned; the first of which is that democracy is intimately and immediately connected with the spirit of infidelity.' What would the democratic states of Switzerland and America say to this position?

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A comparison is also instituted between absolute monarchy and democracy in which the former is placed in the best and the latter in the worst point of view; (p. 89, &c.) and in which the one is represented as a copy of the government of heaven, the other as directly opposite to the system of divine administration, and as a successful rebellion against necessary authority. This is not comparing extremes;' which the author professes to be his intention.

The essay on Whigs and Tories contains an ingenious and animated vindication of the tenets of the latter, (not, how

ever, it is added, in their greatest latitude,') and a condemna tien of those of the former. The Whig Club is thus described: 'A Club of British Senators, occasionally blended, it is to be feared, with all the licentious spirits of the age, still exists in the heart of the metropolis, under this appellation; and frequent libations are poured out, by its enthusiastic members, before the idol of liberty.' P. 104.

The whole of this work may be considered as an artful panegyric on absolute Monarchy; in which, under the semblance of balancing different opinions, one scale is always made to preponderate. While it is mercifully allowed that Government ought ever to consult the happiness of the people, and that for this purpose it exists,' we are reminded that this happiness is not to be considered as synonimous with liberty; for, though liberty in a limited degree is one of the means of happiness, general restraint is necessary to the enjoyment of ' freedom;'-and the result of the whole is that nations may expect to be happy if they will regard every good as a donation of government: but that disorder and misery must ensue from their claiming the right, and exercising the function, of taking care of themselves.

ART. XIII. Medical Inquiries and Observations: containing an Account of the Yellow Fever, as it appeared in Philadelphia in 1-97, and Observations on the Nature and Cure of the Gout and Hydrophobia. By Benjamin Rush, M. D. Professor of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania. Vol. V. 8vo. Pp. 236. Printed at Philadelphia, and imported by Mawman, London. Price 5s. Boards.

WE

E have read this volume with that attention which is due to the author's character, and to the importance of the subjects on which he has treated: but, while we confess our obligations to him for the facts here collected, we must use the freedom of dissenting from some of his opinions. The controversy respecting the yellow fever has been maintained with a degree of virulence, which every friend of science and humanity must deplore; and though we find nothing of this unbecoming spirit in Dr. Rush's publication, we apprehend that he has been piqued into a defence of some very questionable points, by the opposition which his doctrines had encountered. When personal considerations are intermixed with general dicussions, the interests of Science must unavoidably suffer; and the most candid men become unconsciously biassed in their views, when their reputation and fortune are staked on the success of an experiment, or the popularity of an hypothesis. We thereREV. SEPT. 1801.

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fore make great allowances for the solicitude of Dr. Rush, to prove that the contagious fever of Philadelphia arose from heaps of putrid coffee, or of potatoes, prunes, almonds, &c. but we cannot, consistently with our duty, suffer opinions so destitute of solidity, and so mischievous in the consequences deducible from them, to pass our tribunal unnoticed and unnoposed.

Dr. Rush first endeavours to establish the unity of fever, and to shew the impropriety of nosological distinctions, by a recital of the various forms under which this epidemic appeared.

Most of the cases of bilious fever which came under my notice, were attended with quotidian, tertian or quartan intermissions. In a few of my patients there was an universal rash.

Dr. Woodhouse informed me, that he had seen several instances in which the yellow fever had been taken from some soldiers who had laboured under the dysentery. These facts shew the unity of fever, and the impracticability of a nosological arrangement of diseases.'

These facts certainly do not warrant so extensive a conclusion. The remissions of a disease may be rendered irregular, or may be postponed, by the large evacuations which the author employed: -the eruption is an accident which attends all forms of fevers, in certain seasons, without altering their essence; and Dr. W.'s assertion is too loosely stated, to be received without allowance in a matter of so much importance. We are no advocates for implicit faith in nosological arrangement; it has hitherto been arbitrary and artificial; and the utility of the best nosological works has been chiefly felt by students, as books of reference. We may hope, however, that a natural arrangement of diseases may yet be accomplished; and when that great object shall be attained, there will be no occasion for disputing concerning its benefits.

After having described the cases of the first persons attacked by the yellow fever, in 1797, Dr. Rush adds;

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Attempts were made to trace it to importation, but a little investigation soon proved that it was derived from the foul air of a ship which had just arrived from Marseilles, and which discharged her cargo at Pine-street wharf, near the stores occupied by Mr. Lewis and Mr. Hall. Many other persons about the same time were affected with the fever from the same cause, in Water and Penn streets. About the middle of the month, a ship from Hamburgh communicated the disease, by means of her foul air, to the village of Kensington. It prevailed moreover in many instances in the suburbs, and in Kensington from putrid exhalations from gutters and marshy grounds, at a distance from the Delaware, and from the foul ships which have been mentioned. Froofs of the truth of each of these assertions shall be given in their proper place.'

In all disputes, much depends on a proper comprehension of the terms. In this passage, Dr. Rush denies that the disease

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was imported; yet he ascribes its origin to the foul air of a foreign ship, just arrived. What is this but importation of disease? It is of little consequence to distinguish between the communication of fever, from a patient actually labouring under the disease, and from contagion preserved in some fomes on board a vessel.

We meet with little new information relative to the symptoms of the disease; except that we are told, respecting the' black vomiting, that Dr. Stewart ventured to taste the black. matter which was discharged from the stomach just before' death in two instances. In both cases it blistered his tongue." Dr. Rush divides the forms of this fever into eleven:

1. In a few cases the contagion or miasmata produced death in four and twenty hours with convulsions, coma, or apoplexy.

2. There were OPEN cases in which the pulse was full and tense as in a pleurisy or rheumatism, from the beginning to the end of the fever. They were generally attended with a good deal of pain.

3. There were depressed or LOCKED cases, in which there were a sense of great debility, but little or no pain, a depressed and slow pulse, a cool skin, cold hands and feet, and obstructed excretions.

4. There were DIVIDED or MIXED eases in which the pulse was active until the 4th day, after which it became depressed. All the other symptoms of the locked state of the fever accompanied this depressed state of the pulse.

5. There were cases in which the pulse imparted a perception like that of a soft and SHATTERED quill. I have before mentioned that this state of the pulse occurred in Dr. Jones and Dr. Dobell. I felt it but once and on the day of his attack in the latter gentleman, and expressed my opinion of his extreme danger to my son upon my return from visiting him. I did not meet with a case which terminated favourably, where I perceived this SHATTERED pulse. A disposition to sweat occurred in this state of the fever.

6. There were what Dr. Caldwell happily called WALKING cases. The patients were here flushed or pale, had a full or tense pulse, but complained of no pain, had a good appetite, and walked about their rooms or houses as if they were but little indisposed until a day or two, and in some instances, until a few hours before they died. The impression of the remote cause of the fever in these cases was beyond sensation, for upon removing a part of it by bleeding or purging, the patients complained of pain, and the excitement of the muscles passed so completely into the blood-vessels and alimentary canal, as to convert the fever into a common and more natural form. These cases were always dangerous, and when neglected, generally terminated in death. Mr. Brown's fever came on in this insidious shape. It was cured by the loss of upwards of an 100 ounces of blood, and a plentiful salivation.

7. There was the INTERMITTING form in this fever. This, like the last, often deceived the patient by leading him to suppose his disease was of a common or trifling nature. It prevented Mr. Richard

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