success to the project of the pike exercise that has attended the formation of rifle-corps, as both have obtained the ingenuous approbation of some of the best officers in the British service. Surely the eagerness manifested by our troops in every action with the enemy to use the bayonet, should teach commanders the importance of this instrument, and the propriety of forming corps of pikemen. Whenever the French come MAN TO MAN, their own weakness and the superior strength of the English are soon placed beyond the possibility of misrepresentation. It ought also to be remembered, that such is the superiority of the French exercise, they can fire* five times for twice by the English; hence their advantage and our disadvantage in firing. Can it then be surprising, that in the battle of Corunna an English regiment called out "No ball!" in order that they might charge with the bayonet? Are our English commanders so dead to the lessons of experience, as not to profit by the occurrence of such facts? Will they persevere in a system which gives the enemy five chances to their two?

Before concluding our remarks on this important tract, we must express our hope that the late campaign will have taught our generals the necessity of having soldiers who can march as well as twirl a musket. The first thing attempted by French officers with their conscripts, is to teach them to march in columns so many hours together over a certain distance. The whole ground traversed every day generally amounts to about fifteen leagues, or forty English niles: this training is usually continued for a month before a musket is ever placed in their hands. Had the British troops, before their tour through Spain, been inured to marching forty miles a day, for ten or twelve successive

* It should here be remarked, that the French never ram down their ball, but only knock the but of their muskets on the ground. The stocks of French muskets are not so crooked as those of the English, and instead of polished brass they are generally mounted with a piece of steel. The French system, nevertheless, has two very great defects; the first is, that their muskets are very short, although adapted to the bodily strength of their men; the second, that their balls are all cast too small for the calibre of their guns. These facts sufficiently explain why so few of their shots take effect. But there is another motive for their firing rapidly; it tends to diminish timidity and diffuse enthusiasm throughout their ranks. The astonishing quickness of their fire also intimidates their enemies, who think it much more dangerous than it really is.. - Rev.

days, the result of the campaign would have been very different. No man is capable of being a soldier who cannot march such a length, and carry his musket. Our generals seem never to have thought of the necessity of bearing long marches without fatigue, although it is the first requisite of a soldier.

Clutterbuck's Inquiry into the Seat and Nature of Fever. [Concluded from P. 137 of this Volume.]

DR. CLUTTERBUCK treats next of sudorifies in the cure of fever.

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Sweating for the cure of fevers has been excited by very various means. Every kind of stimulant, external and internal; heat, both dry and moist; diluents, relaxants as they are called, volatiles, spices, the essential oils; balsams and resins; opiates simply or variously combined; have all at different times been employed for the purpose, and all of them with unquestionable success. Some of these have been supposed to possess specific properties in the cure of fever, and have been especially complimented with the epithet febrifuge; such are the antimonial preparations, which have scarcely ever been omitted in the treatment of fever. But there appears to be little foundation for this."

P. 311.

Of all these sudorifics, as they are called, our author gives the preference to heat.

"The most simple mode of exciting sweat" (says he), "and the most free from the objections stated, appears to be by the application of external heat to the skin, by bathing, or other ways. With proper management, it is probable that sweating might be thus produced, without materially increasing the action of the general sanguiferous system. Thus, among rude nations, fevers are commonly treated successfully by the vapour bath.”~ P. 315.

But why should Dr. Clutterbuck be afraid of "increasing the action of the general sanguiferous system?" Has he forgot that "whatever is capable of producing any considerable impression on the system, or of changing its mode of acting, may become a remedy for its disorders?" Surely it is in this way that sudorifics produce their salutary effects, and not by the flowing of the sweat, which is merely a consequence of their operation. Let our author speak to this...

But when more correct notions of the animal economy began to be entertained-when it was perceived that the humoral patho

logy, and the doctrine of concoction and expulsion of morbific matters, had no foundation in physiology, and were at variance with the known laws of animal life, the theory of the operation of sudorifies was of course abandoned; and, along with it, the practice itself, though sanctioned by the experience of ages, fell into dis repute." P. 314.

In order to produce sweat, then, we must "increase the action of the geheral sanguiferous system," and that "ma terially." And it is this very excitation that produces the desired effect-it enables the system, as it were, to throw off its morbid actions. What then should forbid its application, or direct its limitations? "Vigour of the system," according to our author.

"The cure of fever, by sweating, has a perfect analogy in other inflammations, which are found to yield in a large proportion to a similar mode of treatment. In many topical inflammations, after bleeding has been had recourse to, and in many, also, that do not admit of this evacuation, sweating is a common and an effectual remedy. The restrictions proper to be observed with regard to it, are precisely the same both in fever and inflammation; for when either of them is attended with much general vascular action, as pointed out by a full, hard, and strong pulse, sudorific remedies can scarcely be employed with safety; at least till the vigour of the system has been in some degree reduced by previous blood-letting, abstinence, or other means. But where the action of the heart and arteries is irritated, rather than increased, in point of force; where the pulse is contracted, quick, and weak, and the general habit of the patient feeble; neither in fever, nor in topical inflammation of other parts, is blood-letting properly indicated. In such cases, sweating, with an appropriate regimen, forms our principal means of cure. We have here, therefore, another point of resemblance between fever and inflammation, affording an additional argument of their common nature." P. 312.

About inflammation in fever we do not at present dispute; but we cannot admit the "vigour of the system.' What cause of fever is there that can possibly produce vigour? And where is the fever, strictly so termed, in which "the action of the heart and arteries is not irritated rather than increased in point of force," and in which "the pulse is not contracted quick and weak, and the general habit of the patient feeble?" If enfeebling powers operate upon the body, why enfeeble it still further, either by "blood-letting, abstinence, or other means," before you apply those of an opposite tendency? Sudorifics may or may not be proper in the treatment of fever, but we cannot admit that they are contra-indicated on the score of vigour; for it is this, comparatively speaking, that favours

their efficacy in catarrh, rheumatism, &c. while the peculiar and more powerful debility of fever renders their operation here in most cases abortive.

In the next place, Dr. Clutterbuck considers the effects of epispastics in the cure of fever.

"This class of remedies has been long in frequent use in the... treatment of fever, in all its stages and varieties. The views, however, with which they have been employed are widely different, and sometimes contradictory. At one time, they have been used as evacuants simply, for diminishing the quantity of the circulating mass; at another,. for the purpose of drawing off morbid humours, the alleged cause of the disease. While the mechanical doctrines prevailed, blisters were applied as a means of resolving and attenuating the supposed spissitude of the fluids, and thus removing obstruction. By some they have been considered as general stimulants, serving to keep up the strength of the system under the debilitating influence of fever. Of late, however, they have been employed rather as palliatives, for the relief of particular symptoms, than as having any material influence on the regular course of the disease." P. 320.

Dr. Clutterbuck rejects all these hypotheses, and substitutes that of counter-irritation.

"When we consider" (says he) "the great and acknowledged efficacy of blisters in the treatment of inflammation, wherever 'seated, we shall be at no loss to understand their good effects in the case of fever, without recurring to any of the hypotheses above alluded to. It is on the principle of counter-irritation alone, I apprehend, that their action can, in any case, be explained, agreeable to the law formerly laid down on this subject (chap. i. § 24). Upon this ground, by relieving the primary morbid action going on in the brain, they often lessen or remove delirium, abate head-ach, diminish stupor, and indirectly procure sleep; and by these effects moderate the most distressing symptoms of the disease. That blisters are really productive of these advantages in the treatment of fever, we have the testimony of the best writers in proof." P. 321.

We have next relaxants and antispasmodics in the cure of fever.

Dr. Clutterbuck objects to the former of these terms, as having its origin from a vague hypothesis.

"Under the former denomination" (says he) "have been included a variety of drugs and applications, which probably operate in very different ways. The term itself is, indeed, objectionable, as being derived from an hypothesis respecting the nature of fever that has no foundation in probability. There is no reason to believe constriction to make any essential part of the character of fever; and if relaxants, as they are called, have been found useful towards the cure, their good effects must be explained in another manner.

Among relaxants have been chiefly ranked antimonial preparations; certain emetic medicines in nauseating doses, as antimony and ipecacuanha; neutral salts, as nitre, the common saline draught, Mindererus's spirit, &c.; the warm bath; and fomentations to the extremities. It is difficult to estimate the value of these different applications as remedies for fever, a disease that has so strong a tendency to terminate spontaneously in health. There is little doubt, however, that their merits have been over-rated. The good effects of many of them seem to be derived from the evacuations which they frequently produce, by sweat, stool, or urine."

P. 327.

We perfectly agree with Dr. Clutterbuck, "that their merits have been over-rated." But if "it is difficult to estimate the value of these different applications as remedies for fever," because it is "a disease that has so strong a tendency to terminate spontaneously in health," it is surely as difficult, generally speaking, to estimate the value of every other application, and for the same reason. Patients have recovered from fever under all sorts of treatment and under the same treatment patients have diedpretty much in the following manner:

"We neither know the nature of the affection, nor even its seat; and the uncertainty we are in with regard to the effects of our applications, obliges us, in our anxiety to do something, to make the patient undergo the routine of medical practice: he is in turn vomited, purged, sweated, and stimulated, in a thousand different ways, under the idea of strengthening; and, lastly, blistered from head to foot, without any precise object in view; one means being resorted to after another, for little other reason, it would seem, than because the former had failed. The patient, to be sure, in a number of instances, recovers; but he probably owes his recovery less to art, than to the powers of resistance of the constitution, the vis conservatrix natura, which is often not only an overmatch for the disease, but for the doctor also.' P. 226.

Among the tribe of relaxants so termed is warm bathing. In favour of its utility in the treatment of fever, Dr. Clutterbuck quotes from both ancient and modern authors; and on the local application of heat offers the following theoretical suggestion:

"It is highly probable that, in many states of fever, warm fomentations to the head itself would be advantageous; upon the same grounds that they are found to relieve inflammation in the other cavities of the body—I speak here from theory only: no observations, that I know of, have been yet made on the subject." P. 330.

Dr. Clutterbuck next considers the use of simple stimu lants in the cure of fever.