come Dr. Mead's liverwort and pepper! -the Ormskirk medicine-the infallible remedy found hanging up in a church, but which would better serve to grace the walls of another kind of temple, as it did two centuries ago the pages of an old family receipt book. However well intended, there is great rashness and cruelty in such practice, since it is obvious how easily the minds of persons under the horrible apprehension of rabies, may be worked upon and induced to try the first remedy offered, particularly if not of difficult application; lulling them into a treacherous and fatal dependence upon mere gossips' tales, when they ought to be stimulated to exertions of 'the utmost activity and rigour, under the hands of the most able and deter mined of the medical and surgical faculties. By looking over the histories of ·rabid cases, for a series of years, a duty which every man should impose upon himself, previously to the risk and responsibility of offering advice, most ample cause will be discovered for the conviction that, the disease in question is of a nature too powerful and malignant to submit to the feeble and gradual operation of such harmless articles as rue, garlic, Venice treacle, and pewter scrapings, whether boiled over a slow or a quick fire! Such remedies indeed, as well as sea-bathing, made cures, in the customary acceptation, until they had established a name, and then be came forthwith and for ever notoriously inefficacious and useless. Their failure, in all varieties of form and prescription, stands recorded in hundreds of melan choly cases. There is a weighty difficulty in appreciating the real efficacy of remedial articles, in this grand opprobrium of all medicine, the solution of which does not belong to common ob. servers. The patients supposed to have heen cured, may not have been infected; and, if really infected, the cure may have borne no relation whatever to the medi. cines administered. I am perfectly aware of the objection that may be made to reasoning like this; but, without being unprepared, shall not stay to answer it. Whoever desires to have the most conprehensive view of this subject, should have recourse to Mr. Gillman's Dissertation lately published, of which there is a very extensive and satisfactory AnaJysis in the Medical Journal. Measures of prevention in this case, would be thought of the utmost importance, were it the nature of mankind to take warn ing, too much indeed like taking physię. It ought to be a standing maxim in every family, to destroy all useless dogs and cats, instead of barbarously turning them out of doors; to attend to the first morbid symptoms in the dog, and instantly to confine or destroy a dog that has been bitten. Those who require to have their caution aroused and quickened, I refer to a case related by Bartlet, the vetcrinary writer, too horrid for repetition. There is a curious article on rabies canina, in a new French work intituled, the Archives of Discoveries and Inventions, on which I should be glad of information. It is there stated, from a German Medical Journal, on the authority of Dr. Wendelstadt, that a certain Englishman, having been bitten by a mad dog, had cured himself with a lotion, composed of the oxygenated muriatic acid, and that, with the intent fully to ascertain its efficacy, he caused himself to be again twice bitten by a mad dog, and was cured each time by the same remedy. This experiment, if true, would surely be superior, in hardihood, to the famous one of inoculation for the plague. The gout is a disease which nobody, an allowable phrase in case of a small minority, desires to have cured. It is deemed as necessary for some certain purposes, in the body natural, as a na tional debt is for others, in the body politic; and is cherished by its enviable possessors, as conveniently providing a periodical outlet for the peccant and importunate humours of a disease of the first necessity, that of luxury. The de sideratum is a medicine which, by opening the emunctories and outlets of tha body, in order to accelerate the operations of the present gouty paroxysms, may enable the patient, as speedily as pos sible, again to put himself into a situas tion to lay in a stock of food for succeed. ing ones, and so on, to the end of the chapter, that is, of the powers of endu. rance in the constitution. This plan is adopted for the most obvious reasons, both by the patient and physician, in preference to that of a radical cure; otherwise gout might be radically cured, with the same ease or the same difficulty required in the cure of other inflamma tory and chronic diseases. The present writer can no longer entertain any doubt of that which he has repeatedly witnessed, He possesses a sort of hereditary right to give an opinion in the case. His maternal grandfather died a martyr to the go His mother, with a strong constitutional teudency tendency to the disease, successfully resisted its approaches, by the prophylac tic virtues of temperance, to the age of nearly ninety years. Her niece lately fell a sacritice to it, after seven years of sufferings so continued and severe, that, if particularly described, might prove a warning even to gooty patient. At the age of about twenty-five, the gout gave me several monitory twinges, in the great the of my left foot. The hint was not lost upon me, and I determined not to have the gout. I saw very clearly, or rather had felt very sensibly, the obnox ions part of my habits of living, and in stantly made the necessary change of regimen. My success was complete. Nor have I, throughout all the years which have since passed, experienced any gouty symptoms, notwithstanding I have eaten and drank that which has come in my way, as appetite has directed; have sometimes lived freely, and never bur thened myself with any strict, ascetic, rules of diet. D'Husson's famous nostrum came abroad decked out with all the glorious attributes of quackery. Does not at tack the solids, but only superfluous li quids. Cures epilepsy, mania, morbus pediculosus, rheumatism; is specific in epidemics, epizootics, &c.'!! But it came from France, and in a lucky no ment, when the weather-cock of system in the cure of gout was vacillating, and preparing for a change, and when the newly revived ancient method of the use of cold water had lost the little reputa tion it had suddenly acquired. The Eau Medicinale was thence countenanced by certain of our fashionable physicians, and subsequently experimented by the faculty at large. It proved to be fearfully effi. cacious as a deobstruent, with posterior sedative and anodyne effects; and, as good may arise from uncertain and suspicious sources, or even out of evil itself, so out of compliment to the notable efficiency of this quack medicine, both our physicians and patients have consented to part with their old apprehension of debilitants in gout, and their dread of throwing the disease upon the stomach. Thus an old panic got out of fashion, and the ean medicinale got in, where it will remain the usual season, and then retire to the place appointed for worn-out nostrums, in the good company of all those which have so retired, since the days of the universal use of crude mercury. A very satisfactory analysis of this now waning gout-medicine, has proved it to be compounded of the most potent and most noxious ingredients, and it has had a decisive effect upon several pa tients, relieving them, sur le champ, from ali farther anxiety, as to the preservation and due regulation of their favorite dis ease. As a specific for gout, it may be presumed, like large periodical exhibi tions of mercury in other cases, gradually to sap and undermine the constitu tion, in concert with the disease which it periodically serves to expel: and now, that the groundless fear of evacuants in gout has in a great measure subsided, there can be little doubt that medical judgment and experience will be enabled to select from their regular stores, forms of superior mildness and safety, yet of equal efficacy, with that of the Eau Medicinale d'Husson. STRAMONIUM. "Every day's experience shews that the simple genuine hert is almost an infallible cure for asthma, yet many are to be found, whom a su perstitious dread of its poisonous effects would deter from making trial of its healing qualities." Powers of medicine, an infallible cure for asthma! Our native stramonium does not possess those dangerous narcotic qualities, generally attributed to the Indian datura, or stramonium ferox. Whether the use to which this plant has been lately applied, be a new discovery or not, I have yet no information. The sly interest of quackery, and the unsuspecting enthusiasin of cullibility, being now, to a certain degree, satisfied and cooled, the value of stramonium as a remedy will soon find its proper level of appreciation. Its effects. in promoting respiration, and giving present ease in tightness and spasmodic affections of the breast, seem generally acknowledged. I have also found it beneficial in globus hystericus, those spasms of the stomach occasioned by intempe. rance in drinking, and in catarrhal chills and coldness in the bronchia. The ap prehensions respecting the probable dan gerous effects of our indigenous stramos nium, arose doubtless from the general character of the Indian datura, a very convenient ground for a quack composition; and, in all probability, the smok ing stramonium had no other concern in the death of a certain gentleman, than the smoking of any other tobacco would have had, in his state of extreine nervous debility. A question may hereafter arise, whether or not stramonium really pos sesses any specific quality, or whether the smoking tobacco or any other con venient venient herb, may not have equally be- be nearly equivalent to none at all. I neficial effects. Of the affirmative side would ask, is it reasonable for one person of the question, is a patient whom I have to commit a crime, because ninety-nine this day consulted, and who professes to others do the same? It is well known experience no difference in the effects of from history, that our ancestors, the pri stramonium, tobacco, and of another mitive Britons, were accustomed to go foreign herb, lately made the subject of naked, and that clothing was a refineexperiment. Without any sort of need ment of nere civilized times; surely then as a remedy, I have smoked stramonium the modern system of exposure is a defor a long time as a luxury, being unable reliction of true refinement, and degrades to endure the fumes of tobacco, and I us by an imitation of barbarous ages. fancy the moderate use of the former Taken morally, it is of serious conseexhilarating and even beneficial to the quence; for, when modesty, the barrier of sight; but which I counsel the reader to virtue, is removed, there is great danger receive as a fancy. On the subject of that the whole fabric may ultimately give sight, I have seldom been more surprised, way. I would not wish to be thought than at the following circumstance. A harsh and unnecessarily severe towards regular physician, a few years since, who the fair sex; but, in truth, such exposure described himself, in the Medical Jour- is a powerful stimulus to licentiousness. nal, as threescore years of age, strongly It excites the passions, and encourages recommended a decoction of the herb the libertine to take those liberties, which eye.bright, as a wonderful and sudden a more modest attire would utterly forrestorative of decayed sight. Approaching that age, and with considerable and increasing debility of the visual faculty, I made trial of that ancient specific of the receipt-books, merely on the strength of the above recommendation. I took enough of it to prove extremely debili tating to the stomack; and it appeared to me equally probable, that perseverance would have produced a similar effect upon the sight. To any gentleman at this time in search of the new discovery of an old nostrum, I would beg leave to recommend the herb verouin, with which my Countryman Morley, about fifty years since, absolutely threatened to eradicate scrophula from the constitutions of the good people of these realms, and, beyond all doubt, was in earnest. I I put in this as my plea of audi alteram partem, Mr. Editor, which I know you are too candid to refuse. Somers-Town. JOHN LAWRENCE. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, I SIR, BEG leave to call your attention to a subject, which, however lightly it may be esteemed by the generality of manKind, I cannot help considering as a very important one, in a moral point of view. I allude to the indelicacy which manifests itself in the dress of the females of the present day The system of diminishing the dress has increased to such a degree, that all appearances of feminine modesty seem to be totally laid aside. I am well aware that fashion is pleaded as an excuse; but this is so futile, as to 1 bid. A chaste matron, of former times, would blush for her degenerate daughters of the nineteenth century, and Addison shrink from the task of censure. Several ladies have actually been compelled to retire from public assemblies, on account of the exceeding indecency of their dress, which even in these times was not suffered to be passed unnoticed. I do not wish that my fair country-women should run into the opposite extreme, but only preserve that decency of appearance, which would entitle them to the admira tion of the reasonable part of the community. The present fashionable mode of dressing can only excite disgust in the mind of any person who gives the subject a moment's consideration. This fashion, I believe, although most disgraceful to be said, originated in the higher circles. Peeresses, who from their exalted rank ought to be the patterns to the British females in general, and pre-eminent in virtue, these, I say, are the first to set a bad example, and introduce a relaxation of morals. I am concerned that such degeneracy should subsist in so enlightened a period, and I reflect with horror on the consequences that may ultimately ensue. Let the ladies consider that something is due to the next generation, who, if the present fashion still gain ground, are in a fair way to be early initiated into immorality, by the examples of their mothers. Let them consider that, by imitating women of loose murals, they are lowering the female character, and sapping the very foundations of virtue. There is another thing which may pose sibly have more weight than all the arguments guments I have hitherto adduced, namely, that a woman meets with more admiration from men of sense, when she is decently attired, and assumes a modest behaviour, than when she degrades herself by the contrary. In fact, modesty is the greatest addition a female can possibly have to her personal charms. The well known lines, "In modest dames we see their face alone, None shew the rest but women of the town-' may perhaps be thought too severe; but they certainly form an excellent precept to those who so sedulously hunt after admiration and flattery. I should like to know, Mr. Editor, how this disgusting fashion originated, and with whom, as I cannot think that it could be introduced by any woman in whom the principles of virtue were firmly fixed. I shall conclude this long letter with an extract from the sixth Number of the Spectator, which I think very appropriate to the present times. "When modesty ceases to be the chief ornament of one sex, and integrity of the other, society is upon a wrong basis, and we shall be ever after without rules to guide our judginent in what is really be coming and ornamental." PHILO-MODESTJA. London, August 5, 1812. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. I SIR, HAVE lately read a French work, not yet known to English readers, on the connection of the Passions with Diseases. It is entitled, "Memoir on the Influence of the Passions on the Production of Maladies;" by M. Guitard, M.D. of Paris and Bourdeaux; and a brief account of its contents may be in teresting to many of your readers. Of the great number of causes (remarks the author) which influence the nature of man, and produce sensible effects on the constitution, and cousequently on the health; doubtless, none can prove more powerful than those af fections and passions which agitate his mind. Continually divided between hope and fear, pleasure and grief unceasingly modify each other. Accordingly, (we are told) this Being, eminently nervous, is constantly exposed to the danger of beholding the harmony of his functions deranged, while numberless maladies proceed from those agents, which Nature MONTHLY MAG. No, 232, seems to have destined solely for his happiness. The physician, who is the friend of his fellow-creatures, ought therefore to divide his meditations between the study of the physical, and that of the moral, man; or, what is still better, he ought to join these two studies together; because, if a great number of our maladies originated in any of our affec tions, a disastrous complication will be the result, more especially in respect to the man who lives in society. The author of this work, after having thus developed his theory, gives an ac Count of the ravages which the passions He first treats the subject in a general of the mind produce on the human body. differ according to our age, sex, temmanner, and shews how our passions Doctor Guitard then divides the affec perament, and the manner of our life. tions of the mind into two sections; the first is consecrated to the passions, which most usually commence by augmenting the action of our organs; and these he calls, exciting passions: such, for instance, as joy, love, jealousy, and anger. He classes among the second, those af, fections of the mind, which, soon after their birth, enfeeble the various functions of the body; and he calls these, debilitants: such, for instance, as sadness, chagrin, fear, fright, and terror, hatred, envy, shame, and the passion of study. The phenomena which each of these passions produces on the organization of man, always precede the indications exhibited by the viscera, which appear in a more especial manner to receive the impression of certain affections. The author closes every chapter by enumerating his own observations on those maladies which the passions develope in our organs, either in respect to their violent action, or their long continuity. The perusal of this memoir will doubtless prove interesting; for, in it, the physician will find the union of the most important facts on the affections of the mind, as connected with the human organization; the artist will here find, what may be termed, the "physiognomy of the passions;" the man of the world will here discover, that those very passions which prove frequently a source of happiness, are also the cause of a variety of maladies, extremely difficult in their cure, when he abandons himself to inordinate desires. It is but fair and candid, at the same time, to remark, that the whole of the Ff theory A theory is founded on the writings of the celebrated Dr. John Brown, many of whose technical terms are here adopted. PHILO-VERITATIS. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, TH HE annual publication called the Ladies' Diary, or Woman's Almanack, has every year, for upwards of a century, contained a certain number of Mathematical Problems, to be answered in the Diary of the following year. The publication of these has answered several valuable purposes, in particular it has awakened the attention of many to the study of the mathematical sciences, who would not otherwise have thought of them. The questions have served to exercise the ingenuity and call forth the exertions of young mathematicians, some of whom have in time arrived at great eminence as cultivators of mathematical learning; and, lastly, the work has served as a repository for the preservation of many curious mathematical disquisitions, which, but for this mode of publication, would never have been known to the world. tions to convey instruction, in a much A collection of all the mathematical questions, as well as other parts of the Diary, from its beginning to the year 1772, was published about that period by its present ingenious and learned editor, Dr. C. Hutton, late of the Royal Academy, Woolwich. That work, however, being now out of print, and the stock of questions now considerably increased, I have issued proposals for publishing, by subscription, all the mathematical questions, and their answers, from the commencement of the Diary to the present time. Besides the valuable notes given in Dr. Hutton's edition, I intend to give others, and in particular I mean to give, as far as I can, brief notices of any circumstances I may be able to learn respecting such authors of the answers to the questions as are dead, and even of such as are alive, when it can be done with propriety. But, as many of the authors have now been dead for a number of years, and have not been known beyond the parti cular circle of their friends, I am aware that this part of the work can only be rendered tolerably complete by the assistance of such friends to the undertak. ing as may be capable of giving the in formation here specified. I venture, therefore, through the me dium of the Monthly Magazine, to solicit communications respecting the authors of the mathematical parts of the Diary; to be addressed to me at the Royal Military College, Great Marlow, Bucks. T. LEYBOURNE, Editor of the Mathematical Repository. The beneficial influence which the Ladies' Diary has exerted upon the state of mathematical science in this country, has been long felt and acknowledged, and has been particularly noticed by the writer of the very valuable analysis of the MécaniqueCeleste, given in the Edinburgh Review. Speaking of the comparative state of mathematical knowledge in England, and on the continent, he says,-"A certain degree of mathematical science, and indeed no inconsiderable degree, is perhaps more widely diffused in EngJand than in any other country in the world. The Ladies' Diary, with several other periodical and popular publications of the same kind, are the best proofs of To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. this assertion. In these, many curious problems, not of the highest order indeed, but still having a considerable degree of difficulty, and far beyond the mere elements of science, are often to be tnet with: and the great number of ingenious men, who take a share in proposing and answering these questions, whom one has never heard of any where else, is not a little surprising. Nothing of the game kind, we believe, is to be found in any other country. The geometrical part has always been conducted in a superior style; the problems proposed have tended to awaken curiosity, and the solu I SIR, FEEL it incumbent on me once more to solicit the attention of your numerous readers for a few moments, upon the subject of Mr. Loeschmann, and what he calls his improved patent pianoforte. In your Magazine for the month of June last, you did me the favor to insert a letter of mine consisting of above four columns, in which I endeavored clearly to demonstrate the fallacy and falsehood of Mr. Loeschmann's assertions, by the tnost undeniable proofs, that without my instructions and assistance his instrument |