what Fourcroy fays on the fubject in his Chemistry. But it will furprize our readers, as it did us, when we inform them, that the quotation is made from one of the first editions of that book, and that, therefore, it contains fcarcely any of the later experiments on the subject. Thus we have examined the chemical analyfis of fugar, without finding a fingle new fact or new obfervation. We come now to the dietelic and medical properties of fugar, as our author expreffes himfelf. He begins by obferving, that "every earthly production is nutritious in proportion to the faccharine principle it contains. Nothing nourishes that is entirely free from this faccharine principle.” P. 140. This affertion is not true, provided by faccharine principle our author means fugar; for many of the most nourishing species of food do not contain a particle of fugar. Not to mention animal food, which our author perhaps tacitly excludes, there is very little fugar in wheat flour, or in any of the farinaceous fubftances of which bread is formed. Yet no body ever fuppofed that bread was not nourishing. There is very little fugar in potatoes, and many other of the most valuable bulbous roots. Yet we find perfons living upon them for a long time without difcovering that they contain no nourishment. The next obfervation of our author is, that milk is nutritious on the fame account; and that milk is most nutritious which most abounds with faccharine sweetness." The first of thefe affertions is evidently a mistake; unless we admit that the curd and the cream of milk are entirely deftitute of nutritive matter; for neither of these contain fugar. The fecond affertion is not proved; and we fufpect that it will not be an eafy matter to prove it. The proportion of fugar in different milks, as we know from the analyfis of Parmentier and Deyeux, differs very little. The fweet taste of fome milks is not owing fo much to the quantity of fugar they contain as to the want of curdy matter. Our author next affirms, that milk may be made to agree with all ftomachs by mixing fugar with it; and he mentions one fact in fupport of his affertion. This is a curious observation, and, if it were to hold, would be a very valuable one. But we doubt whether it will be found fo generally true as our author fuppofes. His next obfervation is, that fugar does not injure the teeth. This we believe to be well founded. As to the next obfervation that fugar does not produce worms in children, but on the contrary deftroys them, we do not hesitate to confider the first part of it as true; but the fecond, which he infers from the effect that eating a great deal of fugar has upon the negro children, is not fo certain. The next observation is, that fugar reftores waited habits, and even cures confumption; of this latt effect the author gives an inftance from his own knowledge. This opinion has been fupported by different phyficians. We do not fay that it is entirely without foundation, but we are afraid that, upon trial, it will be found that fugar, as well as every thing else with which we are at prefent acquainted, will be of little avail in curing that common and fatal disease, Sugar "Sugar has a great folvent power; and helps the folution of fat, oily, and incongruous foods and mixtures." P. 148. Of this obfervation it would be improper for us to fay any thing, as we have not the smallest notion of the meaning of the author. But it may be a very wife obfervation notwithstanding. These are the most important remarks which occur in the third part, the rest are either obfervations with which every body is acquainted or affertions unfupported by evidence. We now know how far the treatise before us is poffeffed of the two first requifites. As for the third requifite, namely, arrangement, no enquiry is neceffary: the book is completely deftitute of it. The author feems to have kept a common place-book and to have written down under the titles, fugar-cane, fugar, uses, and properties of fugar, every obfervation which occured to him in the course of his reading; and to have published this common place-book with scarcely any alteration or amendment. He has even fometimes mistaken the proper head under which his observations ought to have been introduced. For instance, when treating of the use of sugar he stops fhort to gives us a long differtation concerning the meaning of the Hebrew words. .שכר and קנה With refpect to the fourth requifite, a collection of facts, the author has been more fuccessful. The two firft parts contain a greater number of facts relative to the history of sugar than we have seen collected together any where else, and, therefore, may be useful to those who are engaged in fimilar refearches. The book indeed, properly fpeaking, confifts of a ftring of quotations from different authors. So fond is Dr. Mofely of difplaying the extent of his reading, that he introduces a profufion of quotations, of which fome are of no value, whilft others are mere repetitions of former quotations. He digreffes too fo frequently from his fubject that the extraneous matter forms, by far, the greatest portion of his book. Of thefe digref fions we shall content ourselves with quoting a fingle inftance. In page 152, our author mentions that fugar never produces bad effects as is the cafe fometimes with honey. In fome cafes "honey produces as deleterious effects as fome of the vegetable fungi,* fome kinds of fifhes, mufcles, and poisonous plants." No fooner is the word mufcle mentioned than our author leaves his fubject in order to defcant upon the cause of the bad effects of mufcles. After this he returns to his fubject again, and repeats what he had faid about the poisonous effects of honey, and adds, that fome perfons have an antipathy to honey. The word antipathy was too good to let it pafs. Accordingly our author lays hold of it immediately, and gives us a difcuffion about antipathy in general, and antipathy in children, and the cause of death in children. In this manner is the whole book conducted; and fometimes we even find three or four digreffions growing out of one gigantic digreffion.. As for the fifth requifite, entertainment, the book is by no means deficient in it. At least we read it with pleasure, and were a good * Query are there any animal fungi ufed as food? deal deal amufed by it. This partly proceeds from the nature of the facts which it contains, and partly from the ftyle, which, though neither accurate nor elegant, is very lively. The author has fometimes attempted wit or rather farcafm, and he has fucceeded in being petulant. Our readers will now fee how far the fifth requifites, abovementioned, are contained in this treatise. They may, therefore, pass what sentence upon it they think proper. For our part we are determined to give no opinion; as we are not ambitious of meriting the epithets which the author has bestowed fo liberally upon his other critics. At the end of the treatise on sugar there are feven fmall differtations, written precifely in the fame manner, and poffeffed of the fame excellencies and defects with the treatise on fugar, of which we have juft given fo full an account. Little, therefore, need be faid upon these differtations. The first is on the Cow-pox. Our author confiders the plan for fubftituting it for the fmall-pox as abfurd, and dreads fome new unheard of beftial difeafe, from the project. The. fecond is on yaws, which our author confiders as of beftial origin. But from what beaft it originated, or whether he confiders the negroes as beafts, he has not informed us. His third differtation is on the obi a particular kind of charm employed by the negroes to cure difeafes, &c. Here he introduces an account of three fingered Jack and his obi. As the story is very well told, we would have given it here had we not already gone too far beyond our limits. The author, both in this differtation and in different parts of his treatife on fugar, indulges himself in putting feveral paffages of the Old Teftament in a ridiculous point of view. The whole of his ridicule proceeds, as indeed is generally the cafe, from his not understanding the paffages on which he chufes to employ his wit. But we shall not enter upon this fubject, as he appears to be as little acquainted with thefe matters as with the facts and doctrines of modern chemistry. His fourth differtation is on the plague which he confiders as not contagious. The fifth differtation is on hospitals, the fixth on bronchocele, and the feventh on prifons. In this we have a very ftriking account of the Venetian prifon, which our author vifited in 1787. The exquifite refinement of cruelty, which was there practifed, is fcarcely to be conceived by us who live in Britain. ART. X. Medical Cafes and Remarks. Part I. On the good Effects of Salivation in Jaundice arifing from Calculi. Part II. On the free ufe of Hæmorrhagy. By Thomas Gibbons, M. D. 8vo. Pr. 108. 3s. Murray. 1799. DR. Gibbons ftates, in his preface, that he formerly inferted, In the annals of medicine, an account of " twelve cafes of biliary obftructions from calculi, fuccessfully treated by falivation; fince that time, he has been favoured with fome communications on the fubject from his medical correfpondents, which further confirm the ufefulness usefulness of the practice, and which he has here related for, the confideration of medical men." Although calomel, foap, aloes, rhubarb, &c. have long been exhibited in obftructions of the liver, we believe it has not been usual, to pursue the mercury to the extent this writer has done, in cafes of biliary calculi; and as fuch affections often prove unyielding to the ordinary means, Dr. G.'s practice, which he has published from very commendable motives, is likely to receive attention from practical men, thofe, who are not unwilling to profit by the observations, and experience of others. The author is inclined to suppose that mercury acts as a folvent; but whether this be the cafe, or that it produces its good effects by relaxing the ducts, fo as to facilitate the paffage of the obstructing matter, it would appear, that the difeafe is more effectually carried off by mercury, thus exhibited, than it has been, by a more moderate use of it, aided by other means. The second part treats of the use of nitre in Hæmorrhage, in much fuller dofes, than have generally been administered, and the cafes here related, bear teftimony to its fafety and efficacy. This is a remedy that has been long used to check arterial action, but in a more limited way than by Dr. G. who has directed a drachm, every four hours, with decided benefit, and without disordering the ftomach. Dr. G.'s remarks on flannel waistcoats relate rather to the abuse of the thing than to the use. We are ready to agree with him, that to wear one a month, without washing might prove, in the courfe of time, injurious to health, but what perfon, with any pres tenfions to cleanlinefs, could be fo negligent? A difcerning practitioner will eafily determine when flannel may be useful to defend a delicate or fickly frame against cold or a variable season, to keep up the warmth and powers of the system, and when it may be in danger of debilitating and confequently becoming hurtful. ART. XI. The Efficacy of Perkins's Patent Metallic Tractors, in Topical Difeafes, on the Human Body and Animals; exemplified by 250 Cafes, from the firft Literary Characters in Europe and America. To which is prefixed, a preliminary Difcourfe, in which, the fallacious Attempts of Dr. Haygarth, to detract from the Merits of the Tractors, are detected, and fully confuted. By Benjamin Douglas Perkins, A.M. 12mo. PP. 136. 15. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-Yard; Cadell and Davies, Strand; Wright, Piccadilly, &c. 1800. THE utility of Metallic Tractors could only be fairly appreciated by experiment; with a view to establish their credit by fuch a teft, Mr. P. has collected, in this volume, a variety of cafes in favour of their fuppofed efficacy.-The firft part confifts of a tranflation of a Danish work on Perkinism, in which an account is given of the ufe of the Tractors in many cafes, where they proved unfuccessful, and the failure is imputed to " a want of the neceflary inftructions for ufing them."-The fecond part includes a hundred and fifty cafes that have occurred in England, and the author obferves" the applications. here. were made by perfons better acquainted with the Tractors, and confequently were attended with greater fucreefs.In the third part are introduced feveral experiments on brutes, as horfes, &c. upon which species it is, according to Mr, NO. XXIV, VOL. VI. Perkins Perkins, fully afcertained, the Tractors are as efficacious as on the human body. Some obfervations are added, under the head "Conclufion," which the author conceives would be useful and interefting to thofe in poffeffion of the Tractors; and to affift the reader in difcovering, in what particular difeafes they have been ufed, and what their effects, an index is given at the end of the volume, with a reference to the cafes which have been related. He intimates, alfo, an intention of establishing an "inftitution for relieving the poor," to be opened at the approach of cold weather, to afford a remedy to them under their fufferings from rheumatism and other acute diseases, and thereby to render this discovery more ufeful. Such are the outlines. On perufing this volume, it might reafonably be fuppofed that we are in poffeffion of a remedy at once eafy in its application and generally efficacious, in abating or removing certain diseases of a painful and inflammatory nature; but the fufpicions, which we have long entertained, of fome delufion in the practice, which carries with it the air of magic, and is well defigned to work upon the imagination, have recently been confirmed; and it will appear, refpecting the Tractors, what has been found on many other occafions, how much fancy has influenced opinion, and how haftily conclufions have been drawn, without fufficient inveftigation. After what has paffed at the Bath and Bristol infirmaries, at the fuggeftion of Dr. Haygarth, to determine the merit of this boafted remedy, we can no longer fuffer ourselves to be misled by any fpecious reprefentations; for it is now proved, by fome ingenious experiments, that by impreffing the mind of patients with expectations of relief, and difplaying a degree of myftery and folemnity in the proceeding, Tractors, refembling Mr. Perkins's, made of wood, or kind of metal, will accomplish precisely the fame effects. After this refult, it were unneceffary to offer any further remarks, except to exprefs our regret, that, in the present impatience for novelty, and in the prevailing enthusiasm of research, on fubjects fo important as all medical purfuits, enquiries fhould not be more deliberately conducted, and experience more calmly resorted to.—On the credit to be given to Metallic Tractors, the public must now decide for then felves. any ART. XII. Tracts and Obfervations in Natural History and Phyfiology. With Seven Plates. By Robert Townfon. L.L.D. Svo. PP. 232. White. 1799. "THE* two firft Tracts in this volume (fays the author) were published in Germany, a few years ago, in Latin; the third was written about the fame time, but not published. It is these three papers that have principally induced me to give this volume to the public, for I found, when I wished to lay before * Read the first two." them |