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ART. 12.

"The purple heath and golden broom
O'er moory mountain catch the gale;
O'er lawns the Lily fheds perfume,
The Violet in the vale.

"But this bold floweret climbs the hill,
Hides in the foreft, haunts the glen,
Plays on the margin of the rill,
Peeps round the fox's den.

"Within the garden's cultured round,
It fhares the fweet Carnation's bed;
And blooms on confecrated ground
In honour of the dead.

"The lambkin crops its crimson gem,
The wild bee murmurs on its breast;
The blue fly bends its penfile ftem,
Light o'er the fky lark's neft.

'Tis Flora's page :-in every place,

In every feafon, fresh and fair,
It opens with perennial grace,

And bloffoms every where.

"On waste and woodland, rock and plain,

Its humble buds unheaded rife;

The Rofe Has but a fummer-reign,

The Daify never dies.

Home, a Poem: iamo. 59. Longman. 1806.

This is a delightful Poem, and well deferves our most diftin. guished commendation. In the reftricted meaning of the word Home, the writer, in fpirited and harmonious verfes, reprefents all the various images which the imagination can connect with the fubject. The pains, the pleafures, the hopes, the fears, the actual prefence, at, abfence from, return to, and finally Home, in every afpect in which it can be confidered. Some beautiful Epifodes are alfo introduced, with all of which the genuine lover of poetry will be well pleafed. It is only neceffary to infert the following apoftrophe to juftify all that has been faid.

loved;

"But that fair form,-her view delight reftores,
My heart defcries her, and my foul adores;
'Tis the in every evil faithful proved,
'Tis fhe than health, life, liberty, more
And thou fweet child whom many a tie endears,
Source of a thoufand hopes, a thousand fears,
Where art thou? Why not to my bofom prest!
Oh come in smiles, and give my foul its reft.

F

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

See

See lightly darting o'er the green she flies,
Health on her cheeks and pleasure in her eyes;
Breaks through the thicket, o'er the low fence fprings,
And round me fhouting with delight the clings.
Adieu the pangs of abfence, hence alarms,
I hold my heart's best treasures in my arms.
Sicknefs or pain, do they our home invade,
As erft their fire polluted Eden's shade ;
No mercenary ftranger loiters near,

Bribed to cold kindness, taught to drop the tear,
That never held communion with the heart,
The hand of Love performs each tender part.

The pillow fmooths, the draught, the cordial brings,
And fteals from anguifh unawares its ftings.

The figh fcarce formed, her watchful glance deferies,
Th' unipoken wifh is open to her eyes.

And all the virtues that in happier hours.

We praifed, but coldly praifed, half hid their powers;
Now with the charms, and port of angels move,
And boundless admiration join to love,

Such good from evil springs, &c. &c.

Still happier fpecimens might have been found, though parts of this are exquifite. Some light inaccuracies might be pointed out; for inftance, it excites furprife that fo pure and pleafing a writer fhould ufe haráffed accented on the laft fyllable, and made to rhime to past. We know of no good poetical authority for reforb, but thefe are of fmall importance. We have not lately met with fo agreeable and fo interefting a poem.

DRAMATIC.

ART. 13. A Hist to Husbands: A Comedy. In Five Ads. Now performing at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. By Richard Cumberland, Efq. Third edition. 99 pp. 2s. 6d. Lack

ington. 1805:

Of the various dramatic works of Mr. Cumberland, fome have been fo eminently fuccefsful, that in eftimating the merit of his fubfequent performances, inftead of comparing them with thofe of contemporary writers (in general), we have been too apt to take for our criterion the beft of his own. Undoubtedly the comedy before us will not bear fo fevere a teft; but, if it does not greatly add to Mr. Curaberland's dramatic fame, it certainly ought not to detract from it. The venerable author has very properly refted his claim on the intrinfic merits of his comedy, and difdained thofe meretricious arts, by which fo many of his contemporaries obtain a tranfient applaufe. The approbation it received was therefore genuine, and appears to have been earned

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by the good fenfe and juft morality which pervade this piece, and the intereft which fome of the characters inspire. The fable might indeed have been conftructed more artificially, and wrought to a higher degree of intereft. The principal character is a capricious peer, who has become tired of his virtuous and amiable wife, and even goes the length of fending her back to her father. He at laft becomes fenfible of his error, and a reconciliation takes place. This outline is filled up by an attempt of the husband to intrigue with the wife of a friend, and a defign by that friend on the virtue of the heroine. Both offenders, however, are difappointed and become penitent. It is remarkable, that Mr. Cumberland, having written fo many comedies in profe, has in this inftance (and we believe in very few others) produced one in blank verfe. When the characters are not quite modern, the graver fcenes have, we think, a good effect in fuch verfe; but the humour of the lower characters (of which indeed there are not many in the comedy before us) muft, furely, lofe fome. thing by the constraint of metre; and, in our judgment, even the higher perfonages, if, as in this cafe, they pafs for our contemporaries, may better adopt the familiar rythm of converfation. It is needlefs to fay of Mr. Cumberland, that his blank verfe is eafy and yet energetic, and his language pure and ele gant.

MEDICINE.

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ART. 14. An Anfwer to Dr. Mofely, containing a Defence of Vaccination, by John Ring, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Svo. 291 p. Price 6s. Murray, 1805.

Whether the Cow pox will ultimately prove a fafe and permanent preventative against the infection of the fmall pox, that is, that the perfon inoculated will be fecured to the end of their lives, muft now be left to the decifion of time. Those who deny that it poffeffes that power, can only fpeak from conjecture; and though they who contend for the existence of fuch a power, have a few cafes to produce of perfons, who, for 20 or more years, after taking the cow pox, remained unfufceptible of the small pox, yet the number of fuch cafes is too fmall to build upon them a folid fyftem, and certainly too small to convince perfons who are engaged in fupporting the contrary opinion. The fame objection was made to inoculating the fmall pox, when that practice was first introduced. It was foon found, that perfons who had been inoculated with the matter of the fmall pox, were as com. pletely fecured against being infected, by affociating with others full of the disease, as those who had received the complaint in the ordinary, or, as it was called, in the natural way; but they were warned, that this guarantee would only laft for a time;

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that

that at the end of a few years, the efficacy of it would be worn out, and they would be again liable to the difeafe, Time has shown the futility of this prediction, and both reafon and ana logy ferve to fhow, that the power the cow pox manifefts of fecuring the conftitution from the fmall pox will be equally permanent; but though this is highly probable, yet it does not at prefent amount to certainty.

Another charge brought against the cow pox is, that it either puts in act the feeds of difeafes that were dormant in the conftitution, or that it actually produces new and frightful diseases of the eruptive kind. That children, after being inoculated with the matter of the fmall pox, or of the cow pox, are frequently troubled with eruptions on the fkin, is certainly true; that they are more fubject to fuch eruptions than thofe that have not been inoculated, or than they would have been if they had not been inoculated, though it is confidently afferted, yet it must be extremely difficult to prove; few perfons having a fufficiently extenfive practice to enable them to make fo many comparative trials, as would be neceffary for the purpose.

Dr. Woodville, the late phyfician to the Small-pox Hofpital, who certainly had no reafon to befriend the new practice, did not find, that children who had been vaccinated were more fubject to eruptions than thofe who had been inoculated with the matter of the fmall-pox. His authority, one would think, fhould be conclufive, for no man in this country enjoyed equal opportunities of comparing the two difeafes, and of learning the effects they produced on the conftitution. Had the patients vaccinated by him, or at the hofpital, been found to be more frequently troubled with eruptions than those inoculated with variolous matter; but particularly, had any new and exceedingly foul and loathfome difeafe broke out upon them, as is pretended by Drs. Rowley, Squirrel, and Mofeley, he was bound by every tie of interest and of duty to declare it. That no fuch circumftance occurred to him, in the courfe of his extenfive practice, we have the most convincing proof, as he continued to practise vaccination, and to recommend inoculating the cow pox, in preference to the fmall pox, to the laft day of his life.

Against this teftimony, and the concurrent teftimony of nearly all the moft refpectable practitioners of medicine in the kingdom, Dr. Mofely, without experience, listening only to his prejudices, or to the vague reports of ignorant or interefted perfons, has ven. tured to condemn the practice of vaccination, and has defended his opinion by the production of a number of cafes, in which it is I contended by him, the cow-pox had failed in fecuring the parties from the fmall pox, or had given rife to various foul and even fatal difeafes, in the parties who had been fabjected to vaccination. With the view of anfwering thefe charges, Mr. Ring has been at the pains of inquiring into, and examining the cafes adduced

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adduced by Dr. Mofely, and has detected numerous errors and mifreprefentations, which fhow, at least, that Dr. M. had not been very exact in requiring evidence of the facts he relates. Mr. Ring has added to this the teftimonies given by the phyficians and furgeons, who were examined before the committee of the Houfe of Commons, prior to their voting the reward to Dr. Jenner; alfo the voluntary teftimonies of thofe gentlemen, with that of many others, which have been publifhed in newspapers, medical journals, &c. reports from feveral of our admirals of the fuccefs attending the practice in the navy; reports from the Jennerian and other focieties. Particularly he has given the plan of the fociety for the extermination of the fmall pox in France, by means of vaccination. From this we will give a fhort extract, which will show in what eftimation the cow pox is held in that country.

"During the four years, they fay, that this Committee have purfued, with no lefs zeal than impartiality, the progr.fs of vaceination, not a fingle fact has occurred that could shake the public confidence. It has been proved, that all which has been written to the contrary, has been the refult of ignorance or of falfehood." That fociety, we should add, is liberally and actively fupported by the government; and under their aufpices the practice of vaccination is diffeminated through the whole kingdom. A great deal more of collateral evidence is here produced by Mr. Ring, in favour of vaccination, and in refutation of the charges brought against the practice; but for this, we fhall refer our readers to the work, which is calculated, we think, to give as full fatisfaction on the subject, as the nature of it will permit.

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ART. 15. Obfervations on the Utility and Administration of Purgative Medicines in feveral Difenfes. By James Hamilton, M. D. 8vo. p. 320. 6s. Murray. 1805.

The author having recommended the exhibition of purgative medicines in the courfe of this work, in cafes in which they have generally been thought to be improper, or even mischievous, and having given them more liberally than coinmon practice admits, thinks it neceffary to apprize the reader, that the obfervations are the refult of a very extenfive practice, in two public inftitutions; where journals of the cafes, and of the regimen, and medicines employed, and often the rationale of the practice, are kept by the fecretaries; no doubt, therefore, can be entertained of their authenticity. To ftrengthen further, the evidence in favour of his doctrine, which he is aware, may be objected to, as not according with the ufual practice and opinions, he has given, in an Appendix, a variety of cafes, felected from his privare prac. tice alfo, in which the practice of adminiftering purges was fol- . lowed in the fame manner as at the hofpital.

The diseases in which purgative medicines have been given by Dr. Hamilton, and which, from experience, he thinks they are

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