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for by degrees animal food becomes more
digestible than vegetable. But still the
"poison is thrilling through the veins."
"A second cause, (says Dr. Lamb)
which is common to all climates, and
which will be found to be still more
powerful, is the use of watery liquids, as
a substitute for the fruits and vegetable
juices, with which man would, I believe,
in a state of primaval simplicity, at once
satisfy the appetite of hunger, and pre-
vent thirst. The poison thus introduced
into his body, directly deranges the sen-
sorium, alters his feelings, and gives a
new and unnatural direction to all his
propensities. It produces a great change
on the powers of digestion; and with this,
it effects a corresponding change in the
desires and aversions. Vegetable matter,
which, to the stomach of a healthy child,
is the most delightful, the most nutritive
and strengthening aliment, gradually
seems to lose its power; it ceases to im-
part either strength or pleasure. In a
state of manhood, to many it is an object
of disgust, to almost all, of indifference.
It excites flatulence, and often gives pain
and uneasiness; and the power of digest
ing it becomes more and more destroyed.
To render it tolerable, it must be heated
and macerated: by these means it is
made more soluble, and digestible with
greater speed. But by these same
means its sweet and nutritious juices
are either decomposed or extracted; and
weighty reasons may, I think, be given,
to shew that, in this condition, it neither
imparts the strength nor the nourishment
that it would do, when used, as it is by
the animals, without any preparation.
How astonishing is this revolution! How
inconceivable, that the only species of
food, which, previous to the invention
of arts, it was in the power of a human
being to obtain;-that the only species
of food, on which the primeval race sub-
sisted, during the silent lapse of ages;-
that the species of food, which we know
affords a healthy nourishment at this pre-
sent day to many races of men,-how
inconceivable is it, that in all civilized
and crowded communities it is not mere-
ly disregarded, but seems to become
truly indigestible, and on many to assume
the force and activity of a true poison!

"Now, that this is truly the effect and consequence of using water in its ordinary condition, is not an imaginary hypothesis, but a serious truth, the result of careful and repeated experience. It will be found experimentally true, that by

using distilled water, the power of dis gesting vegetable matter will be restored and improved; that the stomach will gradually be enabled to digest it, even raw, and without any condiment, or other preparation; that with the power of diges tion, the inclination to vegetable food will be renewed; that it will be easy, under such a system, entirely to subdue the desire and craving for animal food; that, finally, what was at first looked upon with antipathy and disgust, will, by habit, be rendered most easy and most de lightful."

Happily then there is a means of resto. ration. We would not be thought, in these remarks, to treat our author with disrespect, on the contrary we feel the highest sentiments of respect for him. Nor is there any thing absolutely repug naut to experience, in supposing, that men are pursuing a plan, which, though apparently agreeable to themselves, is leading them to certain destruction. But it is impossible not to be struck with the novelty of the doctrine; nor can we fail to remark how very few men are afflicted with cancer, considering how many are swallowing this habitual poison; or that, in countries where animal food is rarely tasted, and in communities who never use it, life neither appears greatly prolonged, or peculiarly exempted from disease.

The subject of Contagion is, perhaps, the most important of all others in medicine; it assails us every where, and for the most part without assuming a tangible shape. In vain do we promise ourselves security, by even monastic seclusion, when disease may be conveyed by whatever forms our dress, our domestic furni ture, if not our diet, at least the effluvia from those by whom it is conveyed to us. Nor are we certain that the mischief will be confined to ourselves; not only the same means may affect all round us, but we ourselves may become sources of contagion to others. As there is no fixing any bounds to contagions, so there is no means of ascertaining the degree of mortality which may attend them. Under some constitutions of the air with which we are totally unacquainted, a contagion shall be almost universal, yet few may be destroyed by it; at other tiines, we scarcely hear of the disease but by the deaths it occasions.

In the midst of all this, we remain in the most profound ignorance, not only concerning the degree of contagion in

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some well known diseases, but actually whether they are contagious at all. Dr. CHISHOLM, who has always maintained the contagious property of yellow fever, has published a letter to Dr. Haygath, of Bath," exhibiting further evidence of the infectious nature of the pestilential (usually termed the yellow) fever in Granada, during the years 1794-5, and 6, and in the United States of America, from 1798 to 1805; in order to correct the pernicious doctrine promulgated by Dr. Edward Miller, and other American physicians, relative to this pestilence." It is not a little remarkable, that whilst the Americans are becoming more and more convinced, that the yellow fever is indigenous among themselves at certain sea sons of the year, the learned author should so pertinaciously accuse them of ignorance. It is true Dr. Chisholm has resided for many years in the West Indies, and has also visited America. This may therefore entitle him to form his own opinion; but we cannot help thinking that it would better become him to pay some deference to the observations of others, who are so much interested in the question, who once were of the same opinion with himself, but whose judg. ment may be matured by the perpetual occurrence of facts, and corrected by mutual opposition. To us in England, the question is less important, in as much as no one pretends to assert, that the disease has ever been climatized among us. We must therefore leave the question to those who have the largest opportunities, and who from necessity must improve them. But though the variable climate of England may protect us from this epide mic, yet such is not the lot of the south ern parts of Europe, the summer heat in which is sometimes permanent above 80°. Gibraltar and Cadiz bave experienced all the horrors of this dreadful calamity; and the question is still at issue, whether the disease was imported or indigenous. It has been discovered, as appears by a letter from Dr. Robinson, of Bristol, that the general opinion at Gibraltar was in favour of the contagious property of this fever, in opposition to Dr. Nooth, the principal army physician of that place. Some families, we are told, who secluded themselves, escaped the danger to which those who exposed themselves fell a sacrifice. In Dr. Haygarth's letter too, appears by the account of Dr. Fellowes, that one Sancho arrived from Cadiz at Gibraltar, where he kept a grocer's shop in the heart

of the town; that he fell ill of the fever after his arrival, and that in that part of the town the malady first appeared. All this is highly probable. Whether the disease appeared first on Sancho, or some of his neighbours, it is not easy to determine; but the heart of a popu lous town is the usual seat of the com mencement of every epidemic. Those who secluded themselves, of course alsented themselves from every crowded part. But in all these cases, as we shaft presently see, it is not enough to ascer tain the probability of contagion; we must mark carefully the period at which the diseased state of the town commences and declines. If the commencement is during that temperature which is found necessary for the existence, if not for the production, of such fevers, and if the cessation has occurred as soon as that temperature ceases, we shall then at least admit, that such fevers are only conta gious under certain seasons and temperatures, which will be one point gained in distinguishing them from the more common contagions, to which we are ac customed in England.

We have been led to these last reflec tions by the perusal of Dr. ADAMS's "Enquiry into the Laws of Epidemics," a work of much greater importance to the English reader. In this we have a comprehensive view of those diseases which, from their universality, are pretty generally deemed contagious, Our author distinguishes these into such as are only produced by some changes in the atmosphere, as the influenza; such as arise from a peculiarity of soil, which is only injurious at certain seasons, as the ague; such as may be excited by the accumulation of the sick, or the want of ventilation in close chambers, as the jail, or hospital fever; and such as can only be excited (as far as the evidence of our senses informs us) by their own specific matter, or effluvia from it: of these small-pox, measles, and scarlet fever, are the most remarkable. These last, be considers only as contagious. This distinction he urges is of the greatest import ance, because the means by which we may extinguish the infections, that is hospital, and some other levers, will be found insufficient to protect us from the contagions. This rule he extends to all the other epidemics. The plague, it is well known, has never raged in Lon don during the winter season. The ague is only known in marshes, dur ing spring and autumn. Yellow fever has

its necessary temperature, and hospital fever, he shows us, can only spread in situations similar to those which gave it birth. But the true contagions may be communicated at all seasons, in all cliinates, in all situations. It is even asserted, that the very purity of the air which protects us from the other epide mics, will serve to render the effects of contagions more certain; that is, that small-pox, measles, and scarlet fever, will spread with more certainty, in proportion as the inhabitants of the place are accustomed to breathe a purer air. It must be admitted, that, though London is never free from these diseases, yet that -they do not constantly spread with that rapidity, which is generally remarked when they are introduced into villages.

On these accounts, Dr. Adams takes much pains to call the attention of the public and individual families, to the consideration of those means, by which they are to protect the community, themselves, and families, from the different epide mics. A chapter is devoted to each dis ease; in which, after ascertaining the manner in which it is conveyed, the means of prevention are readily deduced. Such a work was much wanted, not only to teach matrons to conduct their intercourse with others, so as to protect their offspring, but to facilitate our connections with each other, by distinguish. ing between false alarmns and real dangers. We are therefore pleased to find the whole written in that popular style, which must not only be intelligible to, but interest, every reader.

that no such change arrests the ravages of small-pox, which only cease when none remain, who have not passed through it; and which, in the succeeding generation, may be revived by furniture, cloaths, and even burying-grounds: that therefore, though those who are satisfied of the security of vaccination, do right to recommend it to others by their example, which will be more powerful than any advice; yet that we are not to expect the extermination of small-pox, by probibiting inoculation: that the public mind has, for the most part, judged properly enough on these subjects; inoculation having been almost universally practised in large towns; but in villages, not without some popular or implied re-straint, excepting when the disease has been accidentally introduced, and spread beyond human controul, before any means have been used to prevent it.

On the means of avoiding what has of late been popularly called Typhous fever, Dr. Adams is particularly full, and also on the extermination of the disease altogether. This leads him into some very interesting enquiries, concerning the habits of the poor, the melioration of whose condition, he shows, has contributed greatly to lessen that disease, which may therefore be gradually exterminated, in proportion as society is progressively improved.

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The subject of contagion leads us to controversy, of which we never think without pain. Our readers must have been disgusted, as well as ourselves, with the various brochures which hare issued One object of the author, seems to from the press, on a discovery which rebe to set the public to rights, on the quired the most impartial, and patient popular subject of exterminating the investigation; but which has at last deSinall-pox. If the premises we have generated into personality, and almost already offered, are correct, it will follow scurrility. It is with some satisfaction, that those writers, who assume the pos--however, that we announce a perforsibility of exterminating small-pox, be- mance on vaccination, of a different decause the leprosy is now but little known scription. Mr. PEART'S "Account of among us, and because the plague has not an Eruptive Disease," is written with visited us for nearly a century and a much candour, though it contains little half, have fallen into an error from not information. distinguishing the different manner in In an art so important to the comfort which such diseases are spread. With and preservation of the human race, we out expressing any doubts concerning are glad to see an increase of those misthe security derived from cow-pox, or cellaneous productions, which contribute rather without entering into the question, so much to furnish the practitioner with the author urges, that the only security to-useful hints for conducting and improbe depended upon from small-pox, is to ving his own practice. Since our last destroy in the rising generation the sus has appeared, "The Annual Medical ceptibility to the disease: that the Register," by a SOCIETY OF PHYSICIANS. plague ceases by a change of temperature, From the title we formed great expecafter which, neither the sick, nor their tations. The medical occurrences of a cloaths, nor furniture, are contagious; but" whole yeary digested and regularly com MONTHLY MAG. No. 187, 4 Q

piled

piled in a volume, seemed to promise a most desirable source of reference to futurity, if not to the present generation. But such a source should be as free as possible from all impurities. We wish we could say so much of the present. We shall only transcribe a single paragraph, because it is the most intimately connected with the professed object of the book, and yet, perhaps, the most faulty.

"On the whole, then, the causes of the happy decrease of some of the most fatal and epidemic diseases, and the diminution of the fatality of others, as well as the increase of a few disorders, most of them of infinitely less importance to the community, may be in a great mea sure ascribed to the evident changes in the physical, and moral condition of the metropolis, during the last two centuries; more particularly to the changes which it has undergone, from a state of perpetual filth, and nastiness, to the open, airy, well-paved, and comparatively cleanly condition, in which it now is; and to the alterations in our domestic economy, in regard to situation, ventilation, and cleanliness. The first of these changes has contributed to free us from the endemic and epidemic diseases of camps, &c. intermittent and remittent fevers, dysentery, and the plague; and the latter have concurred to banish the contagious diseases of hospitals, jails, and other crowded and close situations, viz. malignant typhous fevers; as well as to lessen the ravages of other contagious diseases, which were formerly most de structively epidemic and fatal, such as the scarlet-fever, measles, &c."*

This society of physicians must have read Dr. WILLAN very superficially, if they conceive he confines "the fatal ravages of Scarlatina," to "those successive ages," which his "discriminating eye has traced." Those who read with only common attention, the work referred to by these gentlemen, will perceive that, with Dr. WILLAN, Scarlatina is considered as not less general in these days, than formerly. If, like other diseases, it has appeared formidable, at particular seasons, it is certain that nothing is to be

The fatal ravages which the scarletfever occasioned throughout Europe, for several successive ages, under a variety of appellations, have been traced with an acute and discriminating eye, by Dr. WILLAN. See his Treatise on "Cutaneous Diseases," Part III. p. 289-334.

discovered in the writings of the accurate Sydenham, in any respect, comparable to what we have witnessed in our owB days. When these gentlemen have more leisure, we wish them to compare SyDENHAM's "Histories of Epidemics," with Dr. WILLAN's "Account of the Diseases of London."

If these gentlemen, had been so early in their publication, as not to have had access to the annual bills of mortality, we could hardly have excused their not taking the trouble to cast up the weekly bills; even if the urgency of the public, or their publisher, had not allowed time for that dull species of labour, we cannot well conceive, how a "Society of Physicians," in any part of Great Britain, or its dependencies, could be ignorant of the ravages of the measles, during the past year. By the annual bills, it is ascertained that, in London, the deaths by measles for the last year were equal, if they did not excced, any three successive years, during the period when Loo don was annually visited, with those epidemics, from which she is relieved by the improved manner of life of the inhabitants.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE.

In illustration of Classical Literature little has been lately published of esseutial interest.

The passages selected in Mr. PITMAN'S "Excepta ex variis Romanis Poetis," have heen chosen, both with taste and judg ment; and the work may be fairly recommended as likely to be of use in schools.

THEOLOGY, MORAL, AND ECCLESIASTICAL

AFFAIRS.

In our last Retrospect, we noticed the first part of Mr. WESTON'S "Sunday Lessons for Morning and Evening Ser vice:" the concluding portion, contain ing the Second Lessons, has since appeared, illustrated, like the former, with a perpetual commentary, notes, and index. The nature of the work has been already touched on. The notes are very short and compact; and the index is of such passages only as have been explained, or are newly translated.

Another work of pious intention will be found in Mr. HAWKINS's "Commen tary on the first, second, and third Epis tles of St. John;" in which the author, " without calling any man on earth mus ter, expresses his leading principles in reference to theological sentiments, s imbibed from the unadulterated Word of God."

Nor

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A more important series of sermons has not often appeared, than that by Mr. PENROSE, preached in the year 1808, before the University of Oxford, at the Bampton Lecture; entitled, "An Attempt to prove the Truth of Christianity, from the Wisdom displayed in its Original Establishment, and from the History of false and corrupted Systems of Religion." The well-known Bampton Lectures, of 1784, contain a view of the contrast be tween Christianity and Mahometanism. These are intended to be supplemental; referring more particularly to the doctrines of the Jesuits. Having treated, in the fourth of the nine sermons which compose the volume, of the first corruptions of Christianity, and the excesses of the Romish idolatry, Mr. Penrose, in the fifth, treats of the rise and progress of the regular clergy; proceeding to the foundation of the order of the Jesuits, and enlarging more particularly on their profligate casuistry and ambition, as well as on the rapid progress of their power. In the sixth and seventh lectures, he treats of the conduct of the Jesuit missionaries, and of their idolatrous compliances. Including also a sketch of the History of the St. Thomé Christians on the coast of Malabar. The eighth lecture is more immediately devoted to the Jesuits of Paraguay. And the ninth contains the recapitulation. In this lecLure, the decline of the Papal and Jesuitical power is compared with the continued security and progress of Christianity. An appendix, of rather more than a hundred and four pages, contains a body of illustrations and authorities.

Nor must we here forget a most valunble and important tract, which has been lately published by the BISHOP OF DURHAM, entitled " The Grounds on which the Church of England separated from the Church of Rome re-considered, in a View of the Romish Doctrine of the Euchavist; with an Explanation of the Antepenultimate Answer in the Church Cate

chism." It is separated into the follow ing sections:-1. Reasons against the literal sense of the words, This is my Body-This is my Blood.-2. Reasons against the miracle implied by the literal sense.-3. Of the Adoration of the Host.-4. Of the Denial of the Cup to the Laity.-5. An Explanation of the Antepenultimate Answer in the Church Catechism.

In this class also, we shall include Dr. BOOKER's "Address to the Legislature of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, &c." on subjects of importance to the Church and State. The leading points of which are, 1. The great want of accommodation-room for those who attend the generality of our parish churches.-2. The unaccountable facility with which impro per persons are, under the existing laws, enabled to become teachers of religion.

POETRY.

"The Mother, a Poem, in five Books," by Mrs. WEST, lays claim to a large portion of the praise which we have to bestow on the metrical compositions of the last half year. The subjects of the different books are, Infancy, Religious Instruction, Education, Separation from Children, and Maternal Sorrows. Though unequal in a few instances, it has parts and passages, the unusual merit of which will always make it rank anong our best didactics.

"Ly Tang, un Imperial Poem, in Chinese," by KIEN LUNG, with a Translation and Notes, by Mr. STEPHEN WESTON, will be found an interesting pamphlet. The preface contains a few particulars of the literary Emperor's life, a copy of whose Chinese dictionary, it appears, was brought to London, a short time back, from St. Petersburgh, illustrated, not only by perpetual comments in the Tartar language, but with a volume of Bussian notes." I must now (observes the translator) say a word of the Poem, which I present to the public, and how I came by it. I found it on a China cup, with the figures which accompany it; and feeling a wish to know what it meant, principally indeed on account of the author's name, I set about a translation of the characters, and concluded with guessing at the sense they intended to convey; and, having satisfied myself, leave my readers to give, with a better knowledge of the genius of the language, an improved version."

The three first sentences of the "Reflections of Ly Tang" will be a sufficient specimen of the Poem itself.

“ LY TANG,

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