In p. 47. 1. 6. Dr. E. would retain μnxaréμevov, which is thrown out by Erneftus, Ruhnkenius, and the vir quidam doctus apud Simpfonem. If this vir doctus was Dr. E. he had changed his mind on this fubject; if it was not, we are forry to find the Doctor adopt or repeat his opinions fo often without acknowledgment.

Ρ. 50. 1. 5. ἐρώτα γουν καὶ ἀποκρινούμαι. Dr. Edwards and others would expunge these words. Zeunius cannot account for their being interpolated, and confiders them, very judiciously, as the fhrewd reply of Ariftodemus.

[To be concluded in our next.]

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

P.

[The following Article has been communicated by one of our most refpectable correfponding Affociates, who (refiding abroad) had not seen the account given of M. Savary's late publication, in our last Appendix.-This farther, though brief, view of the subject will, no doubt, be well received by our Readers, as it contains fome curious obfervations, which they will accept, in ADDITION to thofe that are comprehended in the former Article,]

ART. XVII. Lettres fur l'Egypte, &c. i. e. Letters concerning Egypt; in which a Parallel is drawn between the ancient and modern Manners of its Inhabitants; its prefent Situation, Commerce, Agriculture, and Government are defcribed; and a Relation is given of the Attack of Damietta by St. Lewis. Compiled from Joinville, and the Arabian Authors; and accompanied with Maps. By M. SAVARY. Vols. II. and III. Svo. Paris. 1786.

WE

gave, at the time of its appearance, an account of the first volume of thefe Letters, with the expreffions of efteem that were due to the erudition and capacity of their Author. In the volumes now before us, he fets out from Cairo, arrives at those borders of the Nile, where the tribes of the wandering Arabs have pitched their tents, and defcribes, with spirit and precifion, the manners of this people, which are already fufficiently known. When he came to Memphis, fo famous in ancient ftory, he found nothing but ruins, the Arabs having removed to Cairo the columns and remarkable remains of that city, which they have placed, without tafte or order, in their mofques and other edifices. The plain of Mummies also disappointed his curiofity; for the bodies depofited there, which were embalmed with fuch care and formerly preferved with fuch repect, are, at prefent, torn from their fepulchral monuments and fold to ftrangers. With respect to the Pyramids, he confiders them as royal tombs, not erected through vain oftentation, but from a principle of religion; for the Egyptians, fays he, believed

See Rev. Nov. 1785.

that

that as long as their bodies were preferved from corruption, their fouls would continue in them; and, after a period of three thoufand years, would re-animate them. It was this doctrine, continues he, that gave rife to thefe vaft buildings with narrow floping paffages, which the architects employed all their invention to render inacceffible. This account is not new; it is mentioned by Greaves, and other writers. We are, however, rather inclined, in a matter fo dark and ambiguous, to adopt the opinion of the learned Bryant, who confiders the Pyramids as defigned for high altars and temples, conftructed in honour of the Deity.

In defcribing the ancient monuments of the province of Arfinoé, now Favium, he exhibits a comparative view of the ancient and modern topography of that country. He then proceeds to the famous Labyrinth, afcertains its fituation by the teftimonies of the ancients, and gives, from Herodotus, a magnificent defcription of that ftupendous edifice, compofed of twelve feparate palaces under one immente roof, which contained three thousand apartments. The veftiges of this aftonishing edifice ftill fubfift in the ruins of Balad Caroun; and they rather confirm than invalidate, according to our Author, the accounts, which the ancient hiftorians give of its magnificence. What he fays of the prefent ftate of the lake Moeris is a farther confirmation of the credibility of the ancient writers in their wonderful accounts of the former grandeur of the Egyptians, of their ftupendous undertakings and the marvellous labour with which they were executed; for if, as he tells us, that lake has ftill a circumference of fifty leagues after the waftes and revolutions which have, for above 2000 years paft, changed the face of that country, we do not fee why Pliny and the general voice of antiquity should be dib lieved when they declare unanimously, that its circumference was 80 leagues in former times. The ruins of Thebes are alfo, in their prefent ftate, adapted to vindicate the hiftorians of old from the charge of exaggeration, as they bear furprising marks of its former magnificence, even while they convey to the mind dejecting impreffions of the waftes of time. Our Author is circumftantial in his account of the majestic remains of one of its four principal temples, whofe gates, porticos, marble walls that feem indeftructible, enormous fphinxes, coloffal ftatues, fome 33 feet high, ftill continue to aftonifh the traveller. The space occupied by the ruins of Thebes is fo extenfive, that three days are required to walk round them. Upper Egypt, in which, at this day, there is scarcely any thing that merits the name of a town, exhibits many fplendid remains of wealthy cities, of temples, in whofe roofs and cielings gold and azure are ftill ob fervable; and in an extent of above two hundred leagues the banks of the Nile are covered with mountainous heaps of ruins.

Several

Several interesting objects employ the learned researches of M. SAVARY in the third and laft volume, fuch as the temperature of the climate in Egypt, the various manners of its different inhabitants, their marriages, manners, domestic œconomy and rural labours, the revolutions of their commerce from the remoteft antiquity to the prefent time. But the ancient worship of this people, and their deities, are the principal objects of his acute and laborious investigation in this volume. He feems to have collected and ftudied carefully all that has been faid by preceding writers on the Egyptian theology. He difcuffes their various fentiments with learning and judgment, and corrobo rates, by new arguments and confiderations, the opinions of thofe, who have proved that the pretended deities of this people were no more than the names of the different attributes of one and the fame Supreme God, or emblems defigned to exprefs the meteors that are common in that country, the phenomena that return with certain revolutions of the heavenly bodies, the inBuence of the fun and the winds, and the bounties which Nature fheds with a liberal hand on that fertile region. His defcrip tions of the fertility of Egypt, and the temperature of its happy climate, are lively and brilliant, but fometimes rather too pompous and poetical for the epiftolary ftyle: they, however, come in happily enough to relieve the mind of the reader with an agree able diverfity of objects, after it has been following the Author in the paths of ferious literary investigation.

The Reader will obferve, that in this article we mean not to follow the Author regularly in the courfe of his narration, des fcriptions, and reflections. We only touch upon fome of the principal objects of his refearches, as fpecimens of the contents. of a work, comprehending a multitude of facts and obfervations, which we could not even fimply enumerate without fwelling this account of it to an improper length. We fhall only obferve, that with respect to the climate and manner of living in Egypt, of which our Author's account is perhaps one of the most curious parts of this publication, he differs confiderably from feveral modern writers of note. It has been faid by M. Pauw, and others, that the plague comes originally from Egypt, and is propagated from thence into all the provinces of the Turkish empire. Our Author oppofes this opinion by facts, which he thinks fully afcertained by the experience of all the Europeans, who have refided in Egypt. He goes ftill farther: he maintains, that it is from Smyrna and Conftantinople that the plague is carried to Egypt, where it breaks out in the fea-port towns, after the arrival of the Turkish veffels, and from thence is propagated gradually to the capital *.

* See this point more particularly difcuffed in the former account of M. Savary's two volumes in our laft Appendix, p. 524.

We

We fhall not dwell longer on this entertaining work, because we have feen an English translation of it advertited; when it will again come under our confideration.

MONTHLY

Me

CATALOGUE

For SEPTEMBER, 1786.

MEDICA L.

Art. 18. Obfervations in Midwifery, particularly on the different Methods of afifling Women in tedious and difficult Labours: to which are added, Obfervations on the principal Disorders incident to Women and Children. By William Deafe, Surgeon to the United Hofpitals of St. Nicholas and St. Catharine. Dublin printed; and fold by Ryan, in Oxford Street, London.

8vo. 35.

E are forry that this performance did not fooner fall into our

Whands: it is replete with judicious remarks and plain practi

cal directions. A material objection may be made to the inftrument Mr. Deafe recommends in preference to Smellie's. The faults he finds with Smellie's are well founded; yet, by altering their con ftruction, many inconveniences, attending their use, may be removed.

The most valuable part of this work is, the great collection of cafes, which the Author has inferted at the end of his observations; thofe concerning the appearances on diffection, during pregnancy, are valuable, as well on account of their number and variety, as the accuracy and faithfulness with which they feem to be related. R-m Art. 19. A Treatise on the Venereal Difeafe By John Hunter. 4to. 11. is. London, fold at No. 13, Castle Street, Leicester Square. 1786.

Notwithstanding the numerous publications on this fubject, the nature of the difeafe is far from being completely inveftigated; and, from the variety of forms, in which it appears, no malady is more likely to bewilder the practitioner. A rational method of cure, namely, one that is established on true principles, and confirmed by experience, must be a very defirable object to the phyfician, and a material benefit to the afflicted.

Various have been the motives of Authors for publishing their thoughts on fo terrible, and (we are truly forry to add) too common a malady lucrative views have occafioned many treatifes, nor has the wish of the Author to become known produced fewer. But if we give credit to Mr. H. and we fee no reafon why we should not, very different confiderations gave birth to the prefent performance. He was in hopes that feveral new obfervations contained in his treatise would be deemed worthy of the public attention, and he was defirous to have an opportunity of afferting his right to fome opinions that have made their way into the world under other names.'

Our Author evidently intended to comprehend, in the work be fore us, every variety and known fhape of this multiform disease; but, as might be expected from fo extenfive a plan, we meet with

feveral

feveral things treated only in a fuperficial manner, and fome few are totally paffed over in filence.

In the introduction, Mr. H. delivers fome opinions relative to the animal economy, which he fays are peculiar to himself, and which, being frequently referred to in this work, he thought neceffary to be premifed. Here we meet with fuch of Mr. H.'s general pathological doctrines as afford the principles on which he explains the fymptoms, and treatment of the difeafe, and the action of the remedies ufed in curing it. We do not apprehend that Mr. Hunter has, by thefe doctrines, advanced general pathology; on the contrary, it is much to be feared, that the alterations he has made will impede its progrefs: for, without an addition of new facts, he has unjuftifiably employed terms, which were clearly and well underflood, to fignify things in a new fenfe; and he has referred to caufes, facts that are not produced by them. For inftance; Mr. H. refers to Sympathy, not only thofe affections which happen in particular parts of the body, in confequence of a difeafed ftate of fome diftant and unconnected part, (as a head-ach in confequence of a foul ftomach) but also affections produced by immediate connection with, or mechanically in confequence of, any other partial affection or difeafe. According to Mr. Hunter's doctrine, the hectic fymptoms from an abfcefs, and the extenfion or spreading of an eryfipelas beyond its original bounds, are the confequences of fympathy. In the former cafe, hectic is clearly expreffed by the words fymptomatic of the local affection; and in the latter there is no new affection, but an increase of the original difease. In this part of the work we also find a few deductions that perhaps may offend strict reafoners; but not being of much practical ufe, they are of lefs importance.

The nature and effects of the poifon are amply confidered, and in a manner which, new and original as it is, highly merits the approbation of the medical reader. Several facts are here explained, which have hitherto been inexplicable.

The method of cure is treated on a very extensive scale, as indeed we might reasonably expect, from the enlarged views and genius of the Author; and, though the well-informed medical practitioner may not be able to difcover any thing new, or materially different from the ufual mode of treatment, yet he must acknowledge, that it contains what is more neceffary to be faid on the subject, and a very excellent rationale of the action of remedies.

Our Author has recited feveral experiments, made in order to afcertain the progrefs and effects of the poifon, which are entirely new, and throw much light on a subject that has been but very imperfectly treated by former writers. We have a recital of a case, where the disease was inoculated, in which Mr. H. very minutely defcribes every symptom, notes the times in which they appeared, and the effects of feveral remedies particularly adapted and intended to palliate or perfectly cure each of them. Here the reader will find ample fcope for curiofity, and much inftruction. The time employed in the experiment, from the first insertion of the disease to the complete cure, was above three years.

Mr. H. has been very attentive to difeafes which nearly resemble this dreadful malady, and has made many remarks that tend greatly

to