fic Treatise, when anonymous (vol. LXXX. p. 153), is not lessened by the respectable professional name under which it is now published.

"These Remarks first appeared," Mr. Wadd observes," with a confession that they had never been prepared for the public eye. For that reason they were published without a name.-In this imperfect state they passed through two impressions; and as no pains were taken to conceal the Author, he soon became generally known. It was therefore his wish to render the work more systema. tic; but professional duties, and publications, have prevented his attempting more than to arrange such facts as have occurred in his practice or reading. They bave gradually accumulated; and judging of the importance of the subject, by the reception with which such a trifle has been honoured, he is induced to submit them again to the corpulent good-humoured part of the community, in their present shape."

Though Mr. Wadd has occasionally treated the subject with much pleasantry, it is nowhere mixed with levity.

"The English nation," he tells us, "bas at all times been as famous for beef, as her sons have been celebrated for bravery. That they understood good living, even in the earliest ages, we may learn from Cæsar, who, speaking of the diet of the Britons, says, 'Lacte et carne vivunt. Nor have the cibi crassi ac fæculentæ turbidæque potiones' of our ancestors, been a subject of less admiration with all succeeding historians, down to the days of the good Sir Lionel Ducket, who, anno 1573, restrained the 'great housekeeping in the City, that had caused such great consumption of venison, as to give offence to the Queen and Court.' It has been conjectured by some, that for one fat person in France or Spain, there are a hundred in England. I shall leave others to determine the fairness of such a calculation.....It is not a little singular, that a disease which had been thought characteristic of the inhabitants of this island, should have been so little attended to. Dr. Thomas Short's discourse on Corpulency, published in 1727, with a small pamphlet by Dr. Flemyng, and some occasional remarks in a few systematic works, will, I believe, be found to comprise all that has been said in this country, on what Dr. Fothergill termed most singular disease.'"

a

After noticing the principal articles that have been resorted to in the

treatment of this disease, we are informed, that "the person who depends solely on the benefit to be derived from the use of any of them will find himself grievously disappointed.

"How can a magic box of pills,

Syrup, or vegetable juice,
Eradicate at once those ills

Which years of luxury produce?” "Abstinence from animal food was considered a moral duty, by the learned Ritson, ten years ago; and we have very lately had an erudite exhortation, to ' return to Nature,' and vegetable diet, by a gentleman whose whole family live according to the following bill of fare. 'Our breakfast,' he observes, 'is composed of dried fruits, whether raisins, figs, or plums, with toasted bread, or biscuits, and weak tea, always made of of milk in it. The children, who do not distilled water, with a moderate portion seem to like the flavour of tea, use milk and water instead of it. When butter is added to the toast, it is in very small quantity. The dinner consists of potatoes, with some other vegetables, according as they happen to be in season; macaroni, a tart, or pudding, with as few eggs as possible: to this is sometimes added a dessert. Onions, especially those from Portugal, may be stewed with a little walnut pickle, and some other vegetable ingredients, for which no cook will be at a loss, so as to constitute an excellent sauce for all other vegetables. As to drinking, we are scarcely inclined, on this cooling regimen, to drink at all; but when it so happens, we take distilled water, having a still expressly for this purpose in our back kitchen.'-The article of drink requires the utmost attention. Corpulent persons generally indulge to excess; if this be allowed, every endeavour to reduce them will be vain.-Newmarket af fords abundant proofs, how much may be done by exercise. Jockies sometimes reduce themselves a stone and a half in weight in a week."

"The Author of the Pursuits of Literature remarks, that Philosophy is a very pleasant thing, and has various uses; one (by no means. the least important) is, that it makes us laugh, a wellknown recipe for making us fat. The Royal Society of London, after neglecting this laughter-making property of Philosophy for some years, seems, in one instance, inclined to revive it.-Lest it should be suspected that I have mis

*Transactions, vol. CIII. p. 146.

represented

"He (George III.) seemed to have a tendency to become corpulent, if he had not suppressed it by systematic and unremitting temperance. On this subject I shall relate a fact, which was communicated to me by a friend, Sir John Macpherson, who received it from the great Earl of Mansfield, to whom the King himself mentioned it; forcibly demonstrating that strength of mind, renunciation of all excess, and dominion over his appetite, which have characterized George III. at every period of his life. Conversing with William Duke of Cumberland, his uncle, not long before that Prince's death in 1764, His Majesty observed, that it was with concern he remarked the Duke's augmenting corpulency. I lament it not less, Sir,' replied he; but it is constitutional; and I am much mistaken if your Majesty will not become as large as myself, before you attain to my age.' 'It arises from your not using sufficient exercise,' answered the King. ' I use, nevertheless,' said the Duke, constant and severe exercise of every kind.-But there is another effort requisite, in or der to repress this tendeney, which is much more difficult to practise, and without which, no exercise, however violent, will suffice. I mean, great renunciation and temperance. Nothing else can prevent your Majesty from growing to my size.' The King made no reply; but the Duke's words sunk deep, and produced a lasting impression on his mind. From that day he formed the resolution, as he assured Lord Mansfield, of checking his constitutional inclination to corpulency, by unremitting restraint upon his appetite :-a deter

mination which he carried into complete effect, in defiance of every temptation."

Many of the cases of "Preternatural Obesity," which form the Ap pendix, are curious and entertaining, particularly those furnished from the atrical history. The last of these Cases is of a very serious nature, a fatal ac cumulation of fat about the heart. The subject was Dr. Higgins of the Navy; but for this we have no room.

"Here," says the ingenious Author, "I shall close this motley collection,

formed from much and varied reading, medical correspondence, and personal

observation. The statement of many of the cases is given in the language of the parties. In some, no more is said than is sufficient to identify the fact. In others, where the public journals or private authority warranted it, the bistory is more explicit."

From the specimens given in a recent professional publication, we should have been glad to have seen a few of Mr. Wadd's very admirable Etchings in the present Treatise.

44. Three Familiar Lectures on Craniological Physiognomy, delivered before the City Philosophical Society. By a Member. Embellished with Engravings. 8vo. pp. 114. Wilson. THESE serio-comic Lectures are thus introduced :

"In an age like the present, distinguished at once for learning, licentiousness, and wit, some apology may justly be expected for presenting to the publick a literary production which lays claim to neither of those recommendatory qualities. In this volume will be found no description of the manners, customs, and habits, of the Antediluvians; no eulo giums on the strength and ingenuity of the men, or the beauty and artless simplicity of the women; nor any attempt to furnish a satisfactory solution of the extraordinary length of their lives, or their beards. Here are no inuendos against religion-no sarcasms against the clergy-no demands for political re formation and the reader will in vain look for a single passage that may remind him of Scarron, Voltaire, Piron, Chesterfield, Sterne, or Porson. Conscious as he is of these capital defects in his book (which are much easier acknowledged than remedied), the author most sincerely laments his utter inabi lity to furnish the proper and expected apology for them; but will endeavour to console himself by the consideration

that

that such qualities were by no means necessary to the present undertaking. Craniology, in the hands of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim, is such an intelligible subject, that a plain man may readily comprehend and state it; and, as its doctrines lead to fatalism and materialism, no uncommon portion of logic or eloquence is required to refute them. The design of these lectures is to give a correct outline of this new system of physiognomy; to explain, in a familiar imanner, its leading principles; and to illustrate them in a way somewhat more amusing than the discoverers (i.e. the inventors) have themselves attempted, or, perhaps, will feel inclined to approve in any other person; to expose its absurdities with innocent raillery, and to invalidate its positions with popular arguments. Should any of the remarks be considered too severely satirical, let it be remembered what a solid recompense the satirized individuals have received from the princely liberality (alias thoughtless extravagance) of our munificent countrymen, renowned throughout the world for their generous patronage of foreign singers, foreign dancers, foreign puppets, charlatans, and doctors; and that no man can be considered ill-treated in a nation, who obtains, in exchange for gratuitous assertions, inconclusive arguments, and incredible relations, a sufficient quantity of the precious metals' to retire into his own country, and there openly laugh at the unsuspecting credulity of the people whom his impudence and cunning have enabled him to dupe."

In the First Lecture we are told with great truth

"It is a well-known fact, that hypoerites in religion, and empirics in medicine and science, are perpetually appealing to the Scriptures, to justify their crimes, or to countenance their quackeries; as if those sacred writings were given to serve as a cloak for licentiousness, and to instruct us in the principles of philosophy and the arts of life, instead of being intended to teach us the most pure and refined morality, to assure us of the reality of a future state, and to direct us in what manner we should conduct ourselves, so as to ensure the greatest possible portion of happiness in this life, and complete felicity beyond the grave. If a man wishes to advocate the old Ptolemaic system of the universe from sinister motives, or from a spirit of opposition; instead of offering a mathematical demonstration of its truth, he refers to the Mosaic account of the creation of the world; and, with professions of reverence for the sacredness

of revealed truth, endeavours to render it subservient to the propagation of what, if he is a man of common understanding, and has paid the slightest attention to the subject, he must know to be a falsehood. Another, desirous to establish a particular theory of the principle of animal vitality, informs us from the same authority, that the blood is the life thereof,' thus impiously compelling the legislator of Israel to sanction the falsehoods of mere nostrum venders. By these, and a thousand similar artifices, the weak and the ignorant are imposed upon, the Bible is rendered accessary to the dissemination of error, and Moses and the prophets are made respon sible for the pernicious absurdities of Drs. Sibly and Solomon."

The Lecturer thus archly concludes:

"Drs. Gall and Spurzheim assert, what few persons will be inclined to dispute, that the skull is formed upon the brain, and that it takes its peculiar (internal) shape and size from the shape and size of that organ: so far, so good; these are the premises; now for the conclusion; consequently, its external surface must be the exact counterpart of the surface of the brain; and for every concavity in the inner plate of the skull, there must be, and there is, a corresponding convexity on the outer plate of it. These learned doctors are, however, much more quick-sighted than Nature; and the fact, which to them is so extremely obvious, bas, unfortunately, been by her quite overlooked. That there are a variety of indentations, or concavities, within the skull, and those formed by the convolutious of the brain, will be most readily granted, because, on inspection, they plainly appear; but that there are any corresponding protuberances on the outside of the cranium, will be as promptly denied, because, on inspection, no such protuberances can be seen. It was well known to anatomists, long before the inventors of this theory were born, that the inner plate of the skull bears an exact impres sion of the surface of the brain; and that the various convolutions of that organ mark it with the most evident. indentations; it was, moreover, equally well known (what even Gall and Spurzbeim cannot possibly be ignorant of), that those indentations, instead of causing prominences on the outer plate of the skull, serve no other purpose than to vary the thickness of those parts of the bone immediately above them; so as to render the skull, in some instances, where the convolutions are large and the concavities deep, semi

trans

:

transparent and nothing is more common than to find a skull with numerous deep and varying sinuosities on the inside, while the outside is as smooth and as free from any kind of elevation as a billiard ball. Although these important facts may not be considered sufficient to show that this new theory has no foundation in truth, yet they most clearly prove (what will perhaps be thought equally fatal to it) the utter impossibility of ever reducing it to any practical utility; for, unless the mind is composed of numerous faculties, and those faculties do reside each in a distinct cerebral organ; unless those organs do make indentations in the skull, which are constantly accompanied by corresponding protuberances on the outside of it; it becomes perfectly clear, that, though we shave a man's head ever so close, and examine it with ever so much care and exactness, we shall learn no more of his propensities, sentiments, and faculties, than by measuring and examining his fingers and toes. Upon the whole, then, we may conclude, that if the inventors of this new system of physiognomy propose it as an ingenious and entertaining theory, which gentlemen may have engraved on their snuff. boxes, and ladies painted on their fans for their amusement, it may, without any serious scruple, be accepted of them; and, considered in such a light, I have no doubt but that many of the gentlemen belonging to this Society would cheerfully undertake to add thirtythree additional faculties to the present valuable collection of Dr. Spurzheim, and to distinguish them by as many names, as whimsically characteristical as those which the learned doctor has coined. But if Dr. Spurzheim seriously believes that this system is true,-and supposes that he is able to make one sensible disinterested person believe the same; if he imagines that a revolution must take place in the science of human nature in consequence of his discoveries; that the treatment of the sick and the insane is to be regulated according to his rules; and that children may be edu

45. Village Counsel to the Poor. Edited by the Author of Family Sermons. 12mo, pp. 66. Rivingtons.

"THE following sheets were found among some old MSS., once belonging to an aged exemplary Christian; he might have been termed the father of his parish, and, like Sir Roger de Coverley, was anxious not only for their temporal but eternal welfare. It ap peared to have been his custom to give, every Sunday morning, a short paper of advice to one or other of his poor neighbours, as he thought admonition was required. He termed it 'VILLAGE COUNSEL,' and had frequently the satis faction to see it wisely applied and gratefully received. The first paper was entitled, Religion; and the Editor, by endeavouring to arrange the subjects in some degree of order, trusts they will be understood by every capacity."

Thus humbly and anonymously, without dedication or eulogy or pa tron, are thrown before the publick (in a cheap form) eleven admirable little tracts; tracts, we hesitate not to assert, which would confer a wreath of amaranth on the brow of the proudest Nobleman in our land, and which ought to be given away among their tenantry with both hands by all the landholders of this mighty Empire. It is no quack medicine; no nostrum, fabricated from dangerous and discordant drugs: it is a plain, wholesome, and truly generous cor dial, with care and skill compounded ἐκ τῶν ψυχῆς ἰατρείων, τῶν ἁγιῶν εὐαγ γέλιων.

The subjects of the eleven tractsare: 1. Religion. 2. The Sabbath Day. 3. The Sacrament. 4. The vice of Drun kenness. 5. Honesty. 6. Truth. 7. Swearing. 8. Charity. 9. Pride. 10. Vanity. 11. General Instructions.

Such are the ingredients, wonderfully well-timed, of this CHRISTIAN physician's chalice: its general use among the labouring classes Now, under the blessing of Providence, would prove a sovereign antidote and certain remedy against those innumerable vile and baleful Reformphilters and Atheist potions, "drug

the health of Britain's Constitution, both civil and ecclesiastical, is insi diously assailed by headstrong, sciolist mountebanks, and desperate empirics: to each of whom, whilst boast ful of their forged diplomas, gladly would we whisper, 'Targi Jeudire, degaπεύσον σεαυτόν. W. B. Chelsea.