In an Appendix, Dr. R. has given copies of the letters, fonnets, and contracts, which he has pronounced to be fpurious; and alfo copies of feveral genuine compofitions of Mary, confifting chiefly of letters to various perfons. Those which were written in French are given in a literal English translation. In course, the poetical pieces will appear bald and infipid.

Our general idea of this Hiftory is that it cafts lefs new light on the characters and events of which it treats, than the preface led us to expect; and that, in point of correctness and elegance of language, it by no means equals the productions of fome other late hiftorians :-but it may nevertheless deserve attention as a pleafing fummary of an interefting portion of biographical history, and as furnishing numerous materials towards forming a decifive judgment on the fubject of the work.-The notes and references form a valuable part of the publication.

ART. VIII. A Differtation on Simple Fever, or on Fever confifting of one Paroxyfm only. By George Fordyce, M. D. F. R. S. &c. 8vo. pp. 238. 3s. 6d. fewed. Johnfon. 1794.

THERE is a figure of fpeech which rhetoricians have termed

the falfe fublime: there is another which they might with no lefs propriety term the false profound. Of this latter figure the first fentence of the present tract affords one of the most perfect examples that we remember to have feen. Fever,' fays Dr. Fordyce, is a disease, the existence of which no man would have the leaft fufpicion of, fuppofing him acquainted with the Structure of the body, the properties of the folids and fluids, the various operations which go on in it in health, the manner in which they take place, the powers which produce them, the connection of the body and the mind, as well as these are known at this day to phifiologifts, anatomifts, or those who have ftudied medicine itself, or any of the branches of knowledge conducive, or which have been thought conducive to it." Might not a differtation on the itch open with the fame affertion? and how many disorders are there in the nofological catalogues, to which this propofition, guarded as it is with claufes, will not equally apply? Nor is this the only occafion in which the author has contrived to be grave without profundity, and verbose without precifion. We refpe&t Dr. Fordyce as a man who has fhewn himfelf capable of thinking to good purpose: but, if we may avow the plain truth, we do not feel ourselves materially improved in knowlege by the thoughts which he has here delivered to the public. The importance, however, of the fubject, and the author's reputation, feem to require that we should give our readers a full infight into the contents of this work. We fhall therefore attend on him step

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ftep by step, through etymology, defcription, and reasoning; for reafon he does, though he appears to be himself restrained by a kind of myfterious reverence, and to be defirous of deterring others from exploring too narrowly the fecrets of the goddess, Febris.

In Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Perfian,' fays Dr. Fordyce, • fever has obtained its name from the idea of heat.' So it has in English; the very fame combination of letters fignifying fire in a kindred language. So much for the name; now for the doctrine.- Heat is not a pathognomonick fign of fever; nor cold followed by heat, p. 8-12; nor frequency of pulse, which may happen without fever; and, what is more, infrequency is fometimes obfervable in the worst cases of fever, p. 13-18. At p. 19, a title occurs which ferves for all the reft of the book-Definition of Fever. A new one, however, ought to have been introduced at p. 103; for a new subject, the Caufes of Fever, is there taken up.

Dr. F. enumerates the cafes which he does not mean to comprehend under the term, Fever. Thefe are pretty nearly the fame with thofe now commonly characterized by the term, Symptomatic Fever. P. 26, he enters on the description of fever, repeating nearly the words which we have already quoted from the beginning of the differtation. To facilitate his defcription, he fuppofes a cafe, in which all the appearances which ever take place as effential to the disease are prefent and in an equal degree.' He confines himself to fevers terminating in 8 to 12 hours; of fuch he has feen several inftances, accompanied with all the effential appearances.' P. 32, the attack is frequently fudden: a man in health finds himself greatly difeafed in lefs than a minute; the attack takes place oftener between 8 A. M. and 8 P. M. than in the remaining 12 hours: the fun paffing the meridian has no particular influence. P. 34, the firft appearances are, ufually, uneafinefs and reftleffnefs,-depreffion of ftrength, improperly called debility; fometimes at the onset, but more frequently afterward, fuch feelings as if the patient were furrounded by a colder medium thán ufual.-P. 43-50, a diminution of the faculty of receiving impreffions in the mind,' P. 51, pain in the fmall of the back-diminution of fecretion. P. 52, tongue covered with a very peculiar cruft. P. 55, fenfation as if fome light body were moving over the hairs that rife from the fkindingy colour of the skin. P. 58, numbness of the skin, so that it may be burned and pricked without pain. P. 59-63, diminished brightness of the white part of the eye -diminished irritability of the iris. P. 64. The whole fecretory veffels throughout the body fecrete a fmaller quantity of fluids, except vomiting

vomiting produces an increase of bile, pancreatic juice, &c. These evacuations (the author thinks) should rather be attributed to the fecond than the first stage of the fever, as it never happens that a fimple fever, or a paroxyfm of an intermittent, is fatal, if vomiting takes place.' P. 66, 67, apparent contraction of all the vessels of the body. P. 68, increased frequency of the pulfe, which fometimes does not happen till the fever has continued half an hour. P. 72, pulfe smaller and obftructed; a quality which he thinks he understands, but cannot explain. P. 80, pain of the head, most commonly over the eyes, and feeming to the patient external. P. 82, pain all over the bones. Delirium. P. 84, anxiety about the præcordia. P. 86 P.86 -93, lofs of appetite, averfion from food, naufea, vomiting, thirit arifing probably from a particular affection of the stomach. P. 93, we find a fummary of the fymptoms of fever in the following words.:

Fever in its appearances as have been enumerated, fhows in its attack; depreffion of the powers of the mind; of the fenfibility of the organs of fenfation; of the exertion, and difpofition to be ftimulated in the body; contraction in the veffels throughout the fyftem. which being either confined to, or greater in the fmaller veffels, occafions a larger quantity of blood to be accumulated in the larger veffels near the heart; together with fome peculiar affection of the ftomach. These external appearances in this disease, seem so very independent upon one another, excepting the quantity of blood ac cumulated in the larger veffels in confequence of the greater contraction of the small ones, that they can only be confidered as fome alteration of the fyftem which has not hitherto been investigated, therefore, every thing that has been faid relating to the effence of this difeafe has only been conjecture following wild conjecture, to which the author does not mean to add.'

This definition, which is carelessly repeated at p. 102, is fucceeded by fome reflections on the different fenfes of the word fpafm. In allufion, probably, to a well-known hypothefis, the author drops this reflection:

Converting the Latin word contraction into the Greek word fpafm, will not make the depreffion of the powers of the mind; of the fenfation; of the exertion of powers of the body; or of the diminution of the fufceptibility of being affected by external applications in the body, fo as to excite motion, or produce reft dependent upon the contraction; nor will it make the peculiar affection of the ftomach dependent on it.'

P. 103, the Doctor ftops to inquire whether he fhall proceed immediately to defcribe the fubfequent ftages of the disease, which (though they depend on the attack,) are no part of its effence; or, whether he fhall investigate the causes which produce it? He determines on the fecond mode of proceeding, and premises fome questionable and fome trite reflections on

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cause and effect, p. 106. An apology for the latter is expreffed in the following ftrong terms: He (for the third person is ufed throughout the treatife,) is writing for practitioners of medicine, not one in a thousand of whom ever thought of paying the least attention to the operations of the human mind!'

In his investigation of caufes, Dr. F. here paffes by what are called the proximate, and attends only to the remote: the first of which is infection. Some obfervations on this head will be thought curious:

If a number of sheep be confined in a small space without fufficient circulation of air, an infectious matter is generated, which produces fever in them. Fevers also arifing in these animals occafion the formation of infectious matter. Of this the author had an opportunity of being well acquainted during the American war, when live fheep were attempted to be tranfported from England to America, and it was neceffary to confine a number of them together in one fhip. Although they were felected from flocks in perfect health, where they throve at fea perfectly when taken in fmall numbers to ferve for fresh provifions for the officers, yet in many of the fhips where numbers were confined, an infectious fever arofe, even before they quitted the harbour. Whether it be that sheep are more subject to produce infectious matter when many of them are confined together, or that it more frequently happens that many of them are oftener confined together in a fmall fpace, without fufficient ventilation, than quadrupeds of other fpecies; infectious matter is much more commonly generated in them than in any other quadrupeds that are known.

Live hogs were alfo attempted to be exported in the fame manner, and infection was produced among them, although not fo frequently. It would appear that the infection which produces fever either arifing from fever itself, or from numbers confined in a fmall fpace, in one fpecies of animal, is not capable of producing fever in another fpecies; for it happened, that when one fide of a fhip contained fheep, the other hogs, if a fever broke out among the sheep, the hogs were not affected; and that when fever broke out among the hogs, the sheep in many cafes were not at all infected, neither were the crews at all affected, being as healthy as the crews of other fhips making the fame voyage, loaded with different commodities.'

In reading the remarks on variolous matter, (p. 118–121,) we were furprized that Dr. F. fhould never have conceived the idea of diluting this matter with water. The fame reflection fuggefted itself to us on the perufal of his paper on the smallpox. (See Tranf. of a Med. Society.) We imagine that it would more eafily and certainly contribute to the introduction. of a small quantity of variolous matter than any other method; and confequently, if our author be right in the opinion propofed in that paper, it would be a moft beneficial improvement in inoculation. For this fuggeftion we have the farther fupport of experience in fome hundreds of cafes; and we could enumerate feveral

feveral places in which inoculation in the ordinary mode has of late, without any culpable negligence, proved uncommonly fatal.

In treating, p. 179–139, of fudden expofure to cold as a caufe of fever, it is ftated that, if a perfon remains in perfect health 24 hours after fuch expofure, no difeafe has been the confequence.

P. 139-149, of moiffure. Whether moisture excites fever by producing cold, the author does not venture to decide: but that moifture, and, more especially, the moisture of a marthy country, is a cause of fever, he entertains no doubt.

P. 149, of food. Food of difficult digeftion occafions relapfes, but fcarcely ever original fever. P. 151, certain paffions probably excite fever. P. 153, other causes yet unknown produce fever.-P. 157-9, there is no ground from experience to believe that any particular ftate of the fluids is followed by fever more than any other ftate. P. 160-70, neither bile, nor other fecreted fluids, nor heat, are caufes of fever. P.170-80, abstract of the doctrines delivered by the author in the paper mentioned above. P. 181, profecution of the defcription of fever.

The first attack of the difeafe may be fatal, in the first, or any fubfequent paroxyfm.

• When the first attack of fever has been fatal it has been claffed among fudden deaths, and all of thefe have been called very erroneously apoplexy or fyncopy. When fubfequent paroxyfms of the difeafe have been fatal, the expectation of the disease at a certain time has shown it to be fever. The appearances, however, are the fame, both when the patient dies in the first or fubfequent paroxyfms, viz. fymptoms of depreffion of ftrength, contraction of the fmall veffels, and affection of the ftomach.

When the attack is fatal it sometimes kills in five minutes, fometimes it requires half an hour, feldom longer than that time. While the patient is yet fenfible, violent head-ach with great sense of chillinefs takes place, the extremities become very cold, and perfectly infenfible; there is great proftration of itrength, fo that the patient is incapable of fupporting himfelf in an erect pofture; he becomes pale, his skin of a dirty brown, and he is foon infenfible to external objects; the eyes are half open, the cornea fomewhat contracted. If the patient goes off very foon, the pulfe is diminished, and at last loft, without any frequency taking place, but if it be longer before he dies, the pulfe becomes exceffively fmall and frequent, all the appearances of life gradually fubfide, and the patient is carried off. Of this, the author has feen inftances, fometimes at the first attack, oftener in the returns of the disease, although but very few; he believes them to be much more frequent in warm climates, where the moisture of the country occafions intermittents, than in colder regions.

Since, when the attack of fever cuts off the patient in eight or ten minutes, the pulfe does not become frequent, it would feem that this frequency was not a fymptom neceffary to conflitute fever; for

if