"Can you tell me who thofe are whom Homer denominates Jove-begotten? Are they fuch as labouring in the earth with the fpade, and the harrow, are skilled in ploughing and planting, are dexterous in gathering in the crops, and elegantly arranging the vine?" Vol. I. p. 131.

Elegantly arranging the vine,' is the expreffion of Heinfius, not Maximus. The words of the former are, vitem eleganter ordinare poffunt, of the latter, v opal homóvous, fond of labouring in a vineyard.' From which of the two Mr. T. drew his ideas, let any man determine.

We shall content ourselves with giving one fingle inflance more in which Mr. T.'s old friend, Heinfius, has by his version milled him. It will be found in P. 114. Vol. I.

"For it is requifite that each of thefe should be fo far beautiful as it is pleasant.”

Heinfius fays, "Hæc enim omnia effe debent eatenus pulchra quatenus jucunda."

Maximus writes Εκαςον γὰρ τουθων τοσούτω δεῖ εἶναι καλὸν, ὅσου περ καὶ ἡδύ. i. e. "Each of thefe is as far from being beautiful, as it is from being pleafant." We could fupport what we have advanced by many more examples, but we fhould exhauft alike the patience of our readers and of ourselves. We fhall clofe our remarks, therefore, by obferving that Mr. T. illuftrates the arguments of his author by references to a variety of writers. But, unfortunately, this fhow of learning will impofe only on the ignorant; every reference which he has made being ftolen, without acknowledgment, from the notes of Davies and Markland.

ART. VIII. Salutary Cautions refpecting the Gout, in which the Doctrines maintained in a recent Publication by Dr. Kinglake, are expofed and refuted. By John Hunt, Author of Hiftorical Surgery. 8vo. pp. 94. Price 2s. 6d. Philips. 1805.

HAD

AD the medicines, or methods, which have been recommended as lately difcovered, for the cure of almost every difeafe afflicting mankind, proved as efficacious, as the inventors have painted them, little had remained to be done for the perfection of the art of phyfic, and our fucceffors would have proceeded to the cure of fcrofula, cancer, confumption, and other the most untractable and fatal. difcafes, with the fame facility, and. with greater confidence,

than

than we now undertake the cure of a whitlow. This, how! ever, is fo far from being the cafe, that we have reason to believe, that in proportion as the number of fpecific medicines has increafed, the difeafes they were fuppofed to care, have become more fatal and deftructive. To account for this, it will be confidered, that though there are many complaints; for which no medicines competent to their cure are known, yet experience has taught various means by which pain, and other the moft diftrefling fvmptoms, may be lulled, and quieted, the progrefs of the difeafes checked, and the fatal termination of them, for a time, and often for a confiderable time, delayed. But the confidence with which new medicines are ufually promulgated, too often leads the deluded patients to leave off the palliating courfe, under which they might have fubfifted for fome years, perhaps, with no defpicable portion of eafe and comfort, to obtain a complete cure by fome boafted fpecific; but, inftead of being cured, they have too often the mortification of finding their difeafes exafperated, and the fatal termination of them confiderably accelerated.

Until within a very few years, the faculty of discovering hew medicines, or of finding uncommon powers in those before known, feemed the almost exclufive privilege of our foreign brethren. The English phyfician and furgeon, were flower in deciding; and required much more evidence of the exiftence of any extraordinary power in a medicine, before they adopted it, than fatisfied our lefs fcrupulous neighbours. From this character we feem rapidly departing, and a rage for difcovery feems almoft as epidemic among the younger part of the profeffion here, as on the Continent.

It is rather fingular, that the numerous pretended improvements in the treatment of difeafes, lately proposed, are nearly all of them made by gentlemen in the early part of life, and before they can be fuppofed to have had fuch a portion of practice, as could enable them rightly to appre ciate the value, either of the methods they recommend, or of thofe they reject. This does not, however, ordinarily, prevent their projects from becoming popular. What is wanting in evidence is ufually fupplied by zeal, and the confi dence with which the inventors boaft of the fuccefs of their practice, readily procures them profelytes. But, as in proportion to the number of trials made, the inefficiency of the medicines comes to be more clearly expofed, the tranfient popularity they had obtained vanishes, almost as rapidly as it arofe. This has not, however, hitherto, prevented the ap pearance of new candidates.

"Another

"Another and another ftill fucceeds,

And the laftis as welcome as the former."

Very lately, we know, Dr. John Brown undertook to urnish an entire new fyftem of phyfic, in favour of which, all that had hitherto been taught, or known, were to be laid afide and abandoned. No books were wanted, except the elements, publifhed by the profeffor; and even these might be difpenfed with, or read only for form, as the whole art of medicine was couched in the compafs of a fingle line.

"All difeafes are fthenic, or afthenic," and the whole mystery of the practice confifted in raifing or depreffing the powers of the conftitution; in bleeding and purging, on the one hand, or in liberally fupplying the patients with wine, brandy, and opium, on the other. That the profeffor was a complete convert to his doctrine, he gave the most incontrovertible proof, for being of an afthenic conftitution, he found it neceffary to have frequent, and almoft perpetual recourfe to the ftimulant effects of alcohol and opium; but one evening, being obliged, we prefume, to take a larger dofe than he had been accuftomed to, it fo completely overpowered his vital energy, that he fell into a profound lethargy, from which he could by no art be roufed.

It is curious, and will of courfe excite the admiration of our readers to learn, that all the wonderful knowledge of dif eafes, poffcffed by this great philofopher, was acquired by intuition; as he was fcarcely ever known to have vifited a fick room, or to have feen any difeafe, excepting that under which he laboured, and which obliged him to have fuch frequent recourfe to the ftimulus of brandy. Yet this did not prevent his having followers, nor his doctrine from fpreading to the furtheft parts of Europe, perhaps of the world. His favourers, however, like the inventors of new: medicines, were in general perfons not deeply immersed in practice, and who had therefore abundant leifure for speculation. The fate of his fyftem, as might be expected from its origin, has been to be abandoned and forgotten, almost as rapidly as it was adopted. We have been led into this train of reflection, on pretended difcoveries in medicine, from reading the juft obfervations in this Tract on Dr. Kinglake's Diflertation on the Gout. Mr. Hunt feems to think that Dr. Kinglake borrows the idea of his theory of gout, from the Elements of Dr. Brown.

"It is to this very celebrated work, he fays, p. 81. that we muft look for the first principles of Dr. Kinglake's fyftem. But thefe learned Doctors," he adds, "did not agree fo well in practice,

a's

as in theoretical fpeculation. Dr. Kinglake propofing to cure gout by the external affufion of cold water, Dr. Brown by the internal use of brandy."

They agreed, therefore, only in attempting to affimilate difeafes very different in their natures; and in propofing to cure fuch different diseases, by one, and the fame remedy. In examining Dr. Kinglake's differtation, Mr. Hunt has made fome pertinent obfervations on the language, on the theory, and on the cafes intended as fupports to the theory. That the language of the faid differtation is frequently turgid, and verbose, numerous inftances might be given; but the following may be thought fufficient. Speaking of the beneficial effects of blifters, he fays, p. 54.

Topical irritation often operates falutarily derivant from the system, when vifceral excitement oppreffes, and endangers a vital function. This benefit may be fuitably rendered by vefication, puftulation, and rubefacience."

That is, inflammation of the vifcera may frequently be relieved by remedies that will irritate and inflame the kin. On the fuperiority of inftinct over reason, Dr. Kinglake fays, Diff. p. 34.

"The errors of reason debase humanity below the brute creation, by excluding the light of inftinct, which is the direct efficiency of phyfical or innate power, and an unerring guide to rectitude. The difpofition which inftinct infpires is irresistibly ope rative, and infallibly commenfurate with its object; but wayward, and vifionary reafon, acknowledging no controul from facts, no direction from the laws of nature, is the fport of fiction, and the parent of fallacy."

No portion, we may prefume, of this wayward and visionary reafon, will be found in the fabrication of the Dr.'s theory of the gout. That he was led to it by the irrefiftible impulfe of inftinet, we are not however told.

"The nature of gout," Dr. K. fays, Diff. p. 131, "is purely inflammatory, and poffeffes no peculiar or fpccific properties, to diftinguish it from common inflammation, but what are referable to the structure, or organization of the affected parts, which are," he fays, "exclufively, the ligaments and tendons. The feveral appellations of gout, rheumatifm, fprain," to which he adds, p. 16, lumbago, fciatica, white fwelling, are only nominally different; they, in fact, defcribe identity of affection."

Gout, therefore, cannot affect the brain, ftomach, or bowels, as has been hitherto erroncoufly imagined; but thofe parts may fuffer, it feems, by fympathy.

"The

"The ftomach may, indeed, fympathize," Dr. K. fays, p. 62, "with inflamed ligaments and tendons, in every degree of violence, from tranfient pain to pofitive inflammation; but this Tympathy will not have transferred either ligament or tendon to the itomach," which every one will grant the Doctor, though not the confequences he draws from it, viz. that "thofe parts cannot therefore be affected with gout."

A theory fo defective, and fo completely at variance with obfervation and fact, fcarcely deferves a ferious anfwer. Was it ever known that inflammation in tendinous and ligamentous parts, occafioned by blows or fprains, would move fuddenly from one joint to another, as gout does, leaving the part, originally the feat of the injury, perfectly free from pain? or after being cured, that it returned periodically, at certain feasons of the year, preceded by diforders of the ftomach, or other nervous affections? What poffible refemblance can be found between white fwelling and gout, the one never, the other almoft conftantly terminating in fuppuration? As these diseases, according to Dr. Kinglake, are all of the fame nature, the cure of them is to be effected, he says, folely by the application of cold water. The time and manner of ufing the water are to be regulated by the greatness and continuance of the difeafe, freth water being directed to be fupplied, until the inflammation, which Dr. K. likens to a conflagration, be entirely extinguished.

"It should not be forgotten," he fays, Diff. p. 84. "that the object to be effected, is literally the extinction of fire; and that, therefore, it would not be lefs unwife to deft before its accomplishment, than it would be to check only or repress the con flagration of a building, inftead of completely amulling it."

And we are informed that no other aid is wanted.

"The reduction of the diftempered heat," the author fays, p. 145, "which occafions gouty inflammation, is fo readily and completely in the power of cold water, as to preclude the neceffity of medical affiftance. The avoidance," he adds, "of all dietetic, medicinal, and mental excitement, would likewife greatly cooperate in the intention of cure."

On examining the cafes adduced by Dr. K. in proof of the efficacy of cold water in curing gout, Mr. Hunt finds them deficient in various points. The number of patients who had fubmitted to the propofed mode of treatment, under the immediate care of the Doctor, appears to have been only five; a number by much too fmall to draw any pofi

E

BRIT, CRIT. VOL. XXVIII. JULY, 1806.

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