fweet affection to your parents; happy in their love and protection, free from pain and guilt, and the thought of to-morrow, you give yourself to joy, and think it is good to be here. The death of a parent is often the first fad ftroke. The bright scene vanishes. Pleafure is fhut out. Your firft forrow is a facred feafon; facred to affectionate remembrance, to devout refignation, to the faith of immortality. Sober thoughts revolve on the part you have to act. In returning to the world, you feel yourself a ftranger, and caft your cares on God, and think of heaven as your Father's house. Youth feldom paffes without the death of a young friend. Death is brought near; for we grew up together. Many pleafing hopes are laid in duit. From the grave of a friend even the path of virtue appears dark and lonely. The happieft union on earth must be diffolved, and the love of life diffolves with it. Parents often furvive their children, and refuse to be comforted because they are not. A beautiful view of Providence opens. That which constitutes our greatest felicity on earth, makes us moft willing to depart. The friends of our youth have failed. Such friendships are not formed any more. Affection is gradually transferred to the world of spirits. We are ftrangers who have fojourned long in a foreign land, and have the near profpect of returning home. The hour of departure rifes on the foul; for we are going to a land peopled with our fathers, and our kindred, and the friends of our youth. The heart fwells at times with the fadly pleafing remembrance of the dead. Awake and fing, ye that fleep in duft, your dew is as the dew of herbs.' At. times we overpais by faith the bounds of mortality, and penetrate within the veil. Our fpirits mingle with theirs.' From this fpecimen, to which the strain of the fubfequent fermons corresponds, the reader will fee that he is not to expect, in these difcourfes, that fashionable fing-fong divinity which ftrews the path to Paradife with the unhallowed and forbidden flowers of guilty pleafure; none of those Light quirks of mufic, broken and uneven, Religion infers the moft ferious confideration; and any attempts to accommodate its facred laws, to the taste of a corrupted and frivolous age, difhonour its author and degrade its tendency. There is a difference between a temple and a theatre; between the giddy nocturnal illumination that expires in darkness and difguft, and the chafte beam of morning that brightens to the perfect day, The last fermon is written by a friend of the author, the Rev. Mr. Somerville, of Jedburgh. The fubject is taken from I Cor. xv, and 29, a text which has puzzled commentators in every age. Mr. Somerville's explication of it is ingenious, and the improvement of the fermon very eloquent, ART. VI. ART. VI. Medical Cautions, for the Confideration of Invalids, more efpecially who refort to Bath. By James Makittrick Adair, M. D. Member of the Royal Medical Society, and Fellow of the College of Phyficians, Edinburgh. Published for the Benefit of the General Hofpital at Bath. 8vo. 3s. 6d. Dodley. DR. R. Adair is a physician at Bath, and appears to be a sensible, difpaffionate man. By his own account he is now on the verge of life; and having acquired a comfortable independence, by a practice of forty years, he thought he could not make a more grateful return than by a treatife of this kind, by way of compenfation for the many professional errors he must neceffarily have committed. The subjects here difcuffed are fashionable disorders; for example, hyps, nerves and bile; the dangerous effects of overcrowded rooms, regimen, diet, refidence, or place of habitation, cloathing, exercife, reft, regulation of the paffions, with an inquiry into the nature of mineral waters and fea-bathing; alfo obfervations on quackery and lady doctors; and an appendix, containing a table of the relative digeftibility of foods, with explanatory remarks. In his effay on fashionable diforders and noctious air, he has endeavoured to counteract the impreffion of ftrong prejudice and rooted habit, by fimple facts and plain reafoning; and with pleafantry, according to Horace, has taken fome pains to Jaugh the world out of them. "On declaring," he fays, " to one of his brethren, a man "of humour, at Bath, that he was determined to write a bitter "philippic against routs, as detrimental to the health of the company, from the noxious air in over-crowded rooms, he "archly replied, let them alone, Doctor; how else could twenty"fix phyficians fubfift in this place?" His obfervations on regimen, he tells us, are the result of long experience: under this head, the fubjects he treats on are diet, quality of our foods, drinks, diet of invalids, fruits, ftrong drinks, and diet accommodated to the cure of diseases. On the article of diet, we have the following remarks. "Gluttony is fo fordid and fo ungentlemanly a vice, that "it would be a grofs affront to fuppofe any man above the "degree of a porter to be capable of it: and yet I suspect that "there are few perfons in tolerable health, who do not more "or lefs exceed at dinner. One reafon of this is, the fashion"able irregularity of our meals; the interval between breakfast "and dinner being fo great, that we are induced by a keen ap"petite to swallow the firft part of the meal without its being mafticated and blended with the faliva in the mouth; a cir"cumftance "cumftance which adds greatly to the labour of the ftomach "in the work of digeftion." "Another circumstance, which induces us to exceed in "quantity, is variety of dishes; and, as people of fortune are "frequently epicures in fome degree, they can rarely refift the "temptation of tafting moft of the dishes at table to avoid "this temptation, it were better, if we were contented with one difh of meat, plainly dreffed, and threw our fevers and gouts to the poor. It has been a queftion much agitated, whether fupper is or "is not a wholefome meal; but its being fo depends upon "circumstances. The laborious ploughman indulges, with "impunity, in a plentiful fupper; but perfons of fortune, unless they ufe more exercife then they generally do, experience "inconvenience from a heavy fupper. This inconvenience "does not proceed from fupper being lefs wholesome than "dinner, but because none but the laborious can bear two "full meals of animal food in one day." Under the article of drinks, he fays it has been doubted whether rum or brandy is moft wholefome, but in his opinion the diftinction and difpute is futile; and with respect to tea and coffee, as he feems to differ from other writers, we think it neceffary to lay before our readers what he advances on the fubject. "I am from long and attentive experience inclined to be"lieve," fays he, that the opulent are leaft injured by the "ufe of either, whilft tea is much more injurous to the poor. "The reafon feems to be, that, as the chief part of the food "of the laborious and indigent is vegetable, which affords a "much fmaller proportion of nourishment than animal food, and is much leis permanent and invigorating, especially to "the ftomach; fo tea has, from its nature, a peculiar power, "by its action on the nerves of the ftomach, to enfeeble not "only that organ, but the whole body: hence we find that "tremor and other nervous symptoms are often brought on by "an intemperate ufe of tea and coffee: this effect may be in "fome degree obviated, if not entirely prevented, by adding a "confiderable portion of fugar and cream, which, being more "oily, is preferable to milk. This obfervation relates only to "perfons in vigorous health, and not to fedentary people, who "in fome meafure may be ranked with invalids but, on the "contrary, thofe perfons who indulge in a plentiful use of ani"mal food and ftrong drink, are fo far from being incommoded "either by coffee or tea, that they often qualify and are quali"fied by thefe beverages; infomuch as they partly counteract the ftimulating effects of the foods and drinks; that if these or any other articles of food difagree, they fhould be given "up." Were Were we to give our readers one tenth part of the useful and pertinent obfervation's to be met with in this volume, we fhould have room for little elfe. He, by no means, would have invalids, a fedentary people, drink much tea or coffee, without a confiderable quantity of cream and bread and butter. He differs with Dr. Cadogan as to the preference to be given to half-raw meals, and the total prohibition of falted meat and pickles, having known that a fmall proportion of ham, tongue, &c. has reftored even the appetite of invalids, who could not digeft the infipid foods in the fmalleft quantities. Under the head of regimen, he proceeds to speak of the gout, which, he is of opinion, when inveterate, has never yielded to any of the advertifed noftrums, but to a change of diet; and he produces fome inftances to corroborate this affertion, where old gouty habits have been perfectly eradicated by abftemious living, and refraining from animal food. He enters but flightly into the nature and effects of mineral waters or fea-bathing, only gives it as his opinion, and brings inftances to prove it, that no one should drink fuch waters, or bathe in the fea, but under the directions of the phyficians of the place. At Bath he advifes this particularly, (and he appears to be a great friend to the place) from many bad effects that have arifen from not doing it. In his Effay on Quackery, he is very fevere; fays, he has for many years taken much pains to detect the ignorance and knavery of our celebrated noftrum-mongers, and to discover the nature and compofition of their remedies. He affures us that Ward was a footman; Rock and Walker were porters; Graham, a mountebank; Meyerfbeck, a rough-rider to a riding house in London; Turlington, a broken master of a ship; Dr. Freeman, a journeyman blacksmith; and others were weavers and coblers. And, as to their medicines, he fays, "All those "of Ward, except his pafte, which is an abfurd compofition, had long been in regular practice before he adopted them." "Turlington's balfam is the Traumatic balfam of the fhops; "Norton's drops are a difguifed folution of the fublimate "mercury; Daffy's elixir is tincture of fena; Anderfon's pills are aloes, with oil of anifeed; Specdiman's pills, extract of chamomile, aloes, and one or two other trifling ingredients; "Stoughton's drops, the ftomatic tincture of the fhops; Godfrey's "Cordial, an infufion of fafafras, fyrop, and opium; Beaum "de Vie confifts of aloes, rhubarb, and falt of tartar, with a large proportion of liquorice juice, to difguife the other in"gredients; and Poudre unique is a combination of mercury and antimony. In fhort, there is none of thefe noftrums, "(a few trifling tinctures of vegetables, thofe of Hill particuવડ larly, excepted) but what are compofitions of mercury, "antimony, or opium." "James's "James's powder was known, and adminiftered in this country, 120 years ago, but fell into difufe, and was again "revived as Cornachine's powder about the year 1746. Baron "Schwanberg, a needy adventurer, communicated the pre"fcription to James, then as needy and obfcure as himself, on "conditions of partnership, which James tried to evade, and was profecuted for the fame." In a word, he defines a quack to be a "pretender to knowledge of which he is not poffeffed; and a vender of noftrums, the powers of which he "does not understand. In fhort, a fwindler and a knave in "the worft fenfe of the word." After fpeaking thus feverely of empirics, he proceeds to point out the learning, abilities, and qualifications neceffary to confitute a phyfician; and next proceeds to cenfure the lady doctors or lady bountifuls of the age, which he does with fome humour and truth; fhews how dangerous it is for them, in many cafes, to meddle with things beyond their knowledge to judge of; and earnestly recommends to their confideration whether, in venturing to perform the duties and offices of the physician, "they are not in danger of incurring a breach of the fixth com"mandment." Upon the whole, however Dr. Adair may differ from others of his profeffion, and though fome of his doctrine, like that of Dr. Cadogan's, may be fanciful and more grounded in imagination than true principle, we think the reader will profit by the perufal, and will find himself agreeably enter tained. ART. VII. Journal and Certificates on the fourth Voyage of Mr. Blanchard, who afcended from the Royal Military Academy, at Chelsea, the 16th of October, 1784, and continued his Voyage to Rumfey, in Hampshire. 4to. 2s. 6d. Elmsley. THE public is too well acquainted with this voyage of Mr. Blanchard, to need any further account of it. He here relates every circumftance of his afcent and descent, at different times, during the courfe of his progrefs; the fingular fenfations he felt at certain elevations; the magnificent profpects he was an eye witness of; the acclamations with which he was honoured from the feveral towns he paffed over, and the welcome reception he met with from the people on his alighting. As it will afford matter of fpeculation to the philofophic reader, we will gratify him with Mr. Blanchard's account of the inutility of the mariner's compafs, at his greatest elevation from the earth, which he fuppofes to have been about 4000 feet perpendicular. • Elevated, |