lowed by others, who have not only given teftimony of the efficacy of the mifletoe, in different convulfive affections, but also in thofe complaints denominated nervous, in which it was fuppofed to act in the character of a tonic. But all that has been written in favour of this remedy, which is certainly well deferving of notice, has not prevented it from falling into general neglect; and the colleges of London and Edinburgh have, perhaps not without reafon, expunged it from their catalogues of the Materia Medica." "The mifletoe of the oak," he adds, " has, from the times of the ancient Druids, been always preferred to that produced from other trees; but it is now well known that the viscous quernus differs in no refpect from others." We will conclude this article with a paffage or two from Colbach's Differtation on the fubject, published 1719, which Dr. F. be forry to fee. may not "I have known," he fays, p. 24, "fo many inftances, both in young and old, in rich and poor of both fexes, fome of whom had been many years afflicted with epilepfies, and other convul five diforders, that have been either cured, or received benefit from this divine remedy, that I think myfelf bound in confcience to divulge the ufe of it to the world; fince it is capable of doing greater things than ever I knew any one remedy, and I think it incapable of doing any hurt. "Whilft the virtues of mifletoe were confined to that of the oak only, it was of little ufe to the world, as not being to be procured. I have been five and thirty years a diligent fearcher after it, but never could yet fee one fprig; and have never met with above two who had. I therefore furnished myself with a large quantity of that of the lime; the trees in one of the parks in Hampton Court affording great plenty. I ordered it to be gathered at the latter end of December: the leaves, berries, and very tender twigs, I got dryed over a baker's oven, where there was a con ftant gentle heat, and then had it made into a very fine powder, to be put into a glass covered with bladder, or leathers, and kept in a very dry place. If it be not kept clofe and dry, it will contract a dampnefs, grow mouldy, and be good for nothing. The larger ftalks muft alfo be carefully dried, and preferved for decoctions and infufions." As the prefent author has not given directions in what manner the miletoe is to be prepared and preferved, the above may be useful to any perfons who may be difpofed to try the remedy, which we would by no means difcourage, though we do not expect that it will be found fo efficacious as he seems to promife. ART. 19. A Differtation on Ifchias; or, the Difeafe of the HipUse of the By William Falconer, Falconer, M. D. F. R.S. Phyfician to the Bath General Hofpital. 8vo. 55 PP. 2s. 6d. Cadell and Davies. 1805. A defcription of that dangerous diftemper, commonly named a hip-cafe, is given in this fhort treatife; and the hot fprings of Bath are extolled as a fuccefsful remedy for that disease. It appears that the hot bath is chiefly effiacious in the early ftages of the complaint; for when fuppuration has taken place, they are injurious. The regifter of the Bath hofpital is reforted to, to prove the utility of the waters; by which it is shown, that more than one patient in four afflicted with ifchias, are completely cured; that two fifths of thofe not cured are greatly benefited; and above a third of the remaining cafes are in fome degree benefited. On the whole, above nine tenths of the patients with this disease received advantage from the Bath waters. From thefe facts an important conclufion may be drawn, not however mentioned by Dr. Falconer, who is a Bath phyfician. As the internal ufe of the waters was found prejudicial; bathing, and pumping with the hot water, were the only means employed. Now no medical man can fufpect, when the waters are used externally, that the component parts of thefe mineral fprings can at all contribute to their medicinal properties. Their whole virtue must depend on the heat; which fhould prompt us to prefcribe far oftener than we do, a course of warm bathing in this and fimilar diforders. A journey to Bath is in the power of few, but hot water is to be procured every where. Whether pumping on the part is preferable to bathing, does not appear to be ascertained. It feems however probable that it fhould be more efficacious. An apparatus for pumping might therefore be useful in hot baths. Dr. Falconer no where hints at the connection of chias with fcrofula, which we are perfuaded is a frequent occurrence; and he avoids mentioning the powers of the warm fea baths, which we fufpect to be at leaft equal to the natural fprings at Bath, Which are fuperior could only be afcertained by extenfive experience. The author certainly deferves praise both for the facts he narrates, and the observations to which they give occafion. ART. 20. An Appendix to a Practical Essay on Distortion of the Legs and Feet of Children, &c. containing Sixty-two Cafes that have been fuccefsfully treated in Patients between the Ages of two Weeks and twenty-five Years, &c. &c. By T. Sheldrake, Trufs-Maker to the Weftminster Hofpital. 8vo. 148 pp. 8s. Printed for the Author. 1806. None are ignorant how much the mechanical arts contribute to elegance and luxury; this treatise is an agreeable proof, that they are fometimes alfo fubfervient to humanity. All medical men men know that infants are occafionally born with one or both their feet in fome degree diftorted. This malconformation is probably occafioned by fome accident to the foetus, forcing the unoffified limbs into an unnatural pofition. Such infants, by the fevere laws of Lycurgus, were condemned to perish. In other nations they are permitted to live, though they ufually pafs through life in an uncomfortable manner from the imperfection of their limbs. Various contrivances have been invented to correct these defects, but the ingenuity and fuccefs of Mr. Sheldrake surpass all others. He has added to his mechanical skill a competent know. ledge of the anatomy of the bones and muscles, and thus is enabled to apply fprings and bandages adapted to retain a distorted. limb in a proper pofition; while Nature by her plastic power gradually corrects the defect. To prove how much has been done, Mr. Sheldrake takes cafts in plafter of Paris of the deformed limb; and after it is improved by the treatment, other cafts are made. He has had accurate drawings made from fuch cafts, by which it appears that a very great deformity is fometimes entirely removed; and this is accomplished not only in infancy, but in fome inftances in grown up perfons. It is fuperfluous to add, that there are degrees and kinds of distortion which are irremediable; but we have been surprised and pleased to find how much can be effected. ART. 21. Obfervations and Experiments on the Humulus Lupulus of Linnæus, with an Account of its Ufe in Gout, and other Difeafes, with Cafes. By A. Freake. 12mo. 67 pp. London. The hop has been long celebrated in herbals and difpenfatories, as an aromatic bitter, endued with detergent, lithontriptic, and flightly narcotic powers. The odour of hops, hung in a bed, Dr. Lewis fays, has been faid to induce fleep after opium has failed. Chambers mentions their being used as a pillow for the fame purpose. Their principal confumption however is in malt liquors, which they preferve from undergoing the acetous and putrefactive ferminations, render lefs glutinous, and difpofe to pafs off more freely by urine. They appear, Chambers fays in his Cyclopædia, to have been brought into this country from the Netherlands, in the year 1524, and throve fo well here, that in 1603, the beginning of the reign of James the First, they were produced in great abundance; at this time, we know they produce a confiderable revenue to government. The extract, Dr. Motherby fays, obtained from the fpirituous tincture, is an elegant bitter. I know Dr. Cullen fays, from good authority, that the decoction of the hop, drank warm in bed, is used as a fudorific, to banish the remains of the venereal difeafe. Relying on these authorities, the present author was induced to make a va riety of preparations from this plant, and to adminifter it in powder, tincture, extract, infufion, decoction, and conferve, and adds, " he is now enabled from experience to fay, it is eminently beneficial as an alterative and tonic, that it is a good diuretic, that it acts gently as an aperient, and that it poffelles confiderable powers as a fedative, having in fome cafes afforded relief from pain, when opium and other medicines had failed, or could not be continued with fafety." Mr. F. then proceeds to defcribe the proceffes for making the feveral preparations we have mentioned, and laftly, to relate the cafes, eight in number, of perfons with gout, or gouty affections, all of whom, it appears, received more or lefs benefit from taking the medicine. Whether, however, there actually refides more virtue or power in the infu. fion, tincture, extract, or powder of the hop, than in the fame preparations of chamomile flowers, gentian, columba, and many other bitters, all of which have their admirers, and have been as highly, and we fuppofe as defervedly commended, we cannot fay; but as the hop is equally fafe, there feems no reason why it may not be occafionally employed with them, MILITARY. ART. 22. Obfervations on the Character and prefent State of the Military Force of Great Britain. 8vo. 116 pp. 3s. 6d, Hatchard. 1806. When a legislative measure, effecting any important change, is in the contemplation of Minifters, it is not unufual to enforce its neceffity and explain its tendency in a previous publication. Thus the pamphlet before us is apparently the precurfor of the new military regulations depending in Parliament. It details at length, and urges with confiderable force, the principal objec tions which have been made to the Militia and Volunteer fyftems, objecting to the latter the want of an effective military controul, and to the Militia the oppreffive mode of ballot by which it is levied, the inexperience of its officers, and the difadyantage under which troops muft fight who never have seen actual fervice. Thefe objections are plaufible in theory, and undoubtedly deferve attention. Yet the Militia has for more than half a century been a popular establishment, and there are inftances of valour dif played, and conquefts atchieved, by raw and inexperienced troops even in a regular campaign. Witnefs the heroic bravery manifefted in Germany, during the feven years war, by a newly-raifed regiment of light dragoons (the 15th), many of whom were taylors lately taken from the fhop-board. But the inftances are ftill more numerous when even peafants, armed in the defence of their country, have annoyed, and finally discomfited veteran troops. We deem it indifputable that the irregular forces of Americag America, though often defeated, would not have been compleatly fubdued by the British armies, had they never obtained the aid of France. Nor were the ill-difciplined revolutionary troops of France found unequal to the protection of their country against the fkill and difcipline of their Auftrian and Pruffian adverfaries. We are confident that, in case of invafion, the Volunteers would perform many important fervices. Regular troops, when they can be procured in fufficient numbers, are undoubtedly to be preferred but the means of obtaining a standing army fufficient both for home defence and foreign fervice, in the prefent ftate of Britain, form a problem which has not yet been solved by the ableft politicians. On this point there are many important, though perhaps, fome impracticable suggestions in a * work which we have lately noticed; and the fame author has purfued the fabject in a fubfequent tract. Upon the whole, though we deem it a vifionary plan intirely to afimilate the condition of a foldier with that of a citizen, we think his condition might be fo much improved as to render recruiting a far eafier tafk; and among other measures, we incline (though not without hefitation) to the fyftem of temporary and periodical fervice. But on questions of this kind it peculiarly becomes critics to be diffident. We cheerfully leave it to thofe by whom the important fubject has been under difcuffion, and whofe deliberate wifdom, though not infallible, is feldom deceived. POLITICS. ART. 23. Meafures as well as Men; or the prefent and future Interefts of Great Britain; with a Plan for rendering us a Martial as well as a Commercial People, and providing a Military Force adequate to the Exigencies of the Empire and the Security of the United Kingdom. 8vo. 217 PP. 3s. 6d. Johnfon. 1806. During the perufal of this copious and rhapfodical pamphlet, we recollected to have met with a fimilar work + a few years ago; in which the author (otherwife apparently a well-meaning man) very roundly afferted, and indeed feemed to have perfuaded himself, not only that the war with France was, on the part of Bri. tain and her allies, perfectly unjust, but that it was our intereft, as well as duty, to form an immediate alliance with her, to abet all her encroachments on other states, to fanction all her ufurpations, and (yet more) to participate in the fpoil; affifting her in the repoffeffion of Egypt, in plundering the Turkish empire, and * Macdiarmid, on the National Defence. See Brit. Crit. for June, 1806, p. 637. + See Brit. Crit. Vol. 1v. p. 325. deprefing |