the météor of à Spark are the most fhowy and infignificant. But now to the different orders of gentlemen which fill the femicircle of fathion!

There is the polite gentleman, the fine gentleman, the pretty gentleman, the good gentleman, the kind gentleman, the brave gentleman, the gentleman who pays every body, the gentleman who pays nobody, the gentleman who gives a guinea, and the gentleman who gives fixpence.

Now, as thefe motley fons of fociety höld different fituations, and are all peculiar characters, I fhall, on fome future occafion, perhaps, endeavour to paint their pictures in the ftrongeft colours of light and fhade that I am able; and I hope fo ftrongly, as not to confefs their change in the life of the performer, like thofe elegant compofitions which fhew the hand of a great mafter, but (unlike other fhades) glide like ghofts before the animated forms they are intended to reprefent.

But as it may in fome refpects be neceffary, before I take any further liberties with other gentlemen, to fay a few words of myself; as painters generally fit to the mirrour, in their firft attempts to paint, that they may imprefs their vifitors with an idea of their capability of drawing others, by the likeness already made of themfelves: in fuch manner I fhall endeavour to prejudice my readers in favour of my future defigns and drawings, by the fubfequent delineation of my felf.

You must know then (moft gentle editor) that I am a poor gentleman, born of honeft, but indigent parents, untutored, "unanointed, unanealed;" and fent forth into the world" with all my imperfections on my head." I had ever two unfortunate prejudices in favour of arms and poetry to write to a miftrefs and to fight for a miftrefs, I early thought the fi and greatest atchievements in human life: nor was I, Sir, contented in drawing the goofequil and the rapier at home; but I, with the exploring fpirit of a Banks, fought harams, feraghs, and areoys of other fhores; by which I reduced my purfe and incicafed my fears, tam

Veneri, quam Marti. The firft line of my conduct was formed by the life of Alexander; I liked his prowess and his love; and my character was established by Voltaire's Hiftory of the Mad Swede. I combed my hair with my fingers, lived in my boots, defpifed the luxury of clean linen, and defied the prodigal fon in his dirt. To fight, to rove, to write, to love, were the paffions of my mind, and the favourite verbs of my grammar. I admired no man that had not rhimed to the eye-brow of his miftrefs, and drawn his fword in defence of her charms. Such a career did I run from north to fouth, and put a girdle round the pregnant earth: in fuch a voyage, various were my mishaps; and on fome future occafion I may give them, as a chronicle of my amorous feats: at prefent, let it fuffice, that I am worn out in pursuit of beauty, having been the target of Cupid, which he has filled as full of darts as the man in the almanack. I have piles of pole, billet doux, and fonnets: I could bar myfelf with the verfes of lovers, with the dignity of a Grecian chief on a funeral pile; and perhaps from fuch a pure collection of rare and various ashes, another Phoenix might arife, of equal magnificence, prowefs, excellence, and love. But my funeral I mean to defer a little, and use the remaining part of my time in penning the characters of thofe gentlemen I have made myfelf acquainted with. I flatter myself that fuch a correfpondent will not be difa greeable to any lady or gentleman, particularly, Sir, to you, who promife to be by your work, what I fincerely have wifhed to find, a true, orthodox man of breeding, fcience, and knowledge. As I have no pretenficns to fuch a clufter of virtues, I fhall content myfelf by making this declaration, that love is my God, crimson is my colour, beauty is my paffion, macaronie is my dict, mufic my paftime, verfes my de light, and my motto amor vincit! Thus, Sir, I have explained myfelf as much as inclination tickles me at prefent to develope my renown.

I am, Sir, your's, &c.

BUZ.

LITERARY

public, I am inclined to give a new edition of this work, not only, as I hope, more correct in many parts, but alfo more complete and comprehenfive in its general extent.

The firft additions which we meet with in this laft edition are in the preface, which formerly filled hardly two pages, but which now, though printed with a type confiderably smaller than that of the text, occupies as many as forty-eight pages.

The Doctor here ftates, more fully than he had done before, his reafons for publifhing his work. He informs his reader, that in his clinical lectures upon the patients under his care in the Royal Infirmary, before he was eftablifhed a profeffor of the practice of phyfic in the university of Edinburgh, he had delivered fome doctrines which were noticed as new and peculiar to himfelf, and which were accordingly feverely criticifed by the adherents to the Boerhaavian fyftem. He found, however, that thefe perfons by whom his opinions were oppofed either had not been correctly informed of them, or did not feem fully to understand them; and, therefore, fays the author, as foon as I was employed to teach a more complete fyftem of the practice of phyfic, I judged it neceffary to publith a text-book, not only for the benefit of my hearers, but that I might have an opportunity of obtaining the opinion of the public more at large, and thereby be enabled either to vindicate my doctrines, or be taught to correct them. Thefe were my motives for attempting the volumes I formerly published; and now, from many years experience of their utility to my hearers, as well as from the favourable

As he confiders his fyftem to be in many refpects new, he has thought proper to explain upon what grounds. and from what confiderations he has made it fuch as it is; and is thereby led to offer fome remarks upon the principal fyftems of medicine which have of late prevailed in Europe, and to take notice of the prefent ftate of phyfic in fo far as it is influenced by thefe. Such remarks, he hopes, will be of fome ufe to thofe who attempt to improve their knowledge by the reading of books.

In doing this he obferves, that at almoft all times the practice has been and ftill is, with every perfon, founded more or lefs upon certain principles established by reafoning: and that, therefore, in attempting to offer a view of the prefent ftate of phyfic, he muft give an account of thofe fyftems of the principles of the fcience which have prevailed, or do ftill prevail in Europe.

The fyftems of Galen and Paracelfus are the firft which are noticed. The chief obfervation upon thefe is, that they endeavoured to explain the phenomena of health or fick nefs by the fuppofition of an alteration in the ftate of the fluids of the body.

He then paffes to about the middle of the feventeenth century, when the circulation of the blood car to be generally known and admitted; and when this, together with the difcovery of the receptacle of the chyle, and of the thoracic duct, finally exploded the Galenic fyem. The knowledge of the circulation neceffarily led, he obferves," to the confideration, as well as to a clearer view of the organic fyftem in animal bodies; which again led to the

application

application of the mechanical philofophy towards explaining the phenomena of the animal economy. Mechanical reafoning, he fays, muft ftill, in feveral refpects, continue to be applied: but it would be eafy to fhow, he adds, that it neither could, nor ever can be, applied to any great extent in explaining the animal economy.

After having obferved that the ftate of the fluids, or what he terms the humoral pathology, both as the cause of difeafe, and as the foundation for explaining the operation of medicines, continued to make a great part of every fyftem till the end of the last century, and that it has continued to have a great fhare in the fyftems down to the prefent time; he proceeds to take notice of the three new and confiderably different fyftems of phyfic which appeared about the beginning of the prefent century, in the writings of Stahl, of Hofman, and of Boerhaave.

The chief and leading principle of Stahl's fyftem is, that the rational foul of man governs the whole economy of his body. Many of my readers, fays the Doctor, may think it was hardly neceffary for me to take notice of a fyftem founded upon fo fanciful an hypothefis; as many eminent perfons, however, fuch as Perrault in France, Nichols and Mead in England, Potterfield and Simfon in Scotland, and Gaubius in Holland, have very much countenanced the fame opinion, he thinks it is certainly entitled to fome regard. He does not, however, enter into a full refutation of it, that having been done by Hoffman before.

The Stahlians, fays the author, trufting much to the conftant attention and wifdom of nature, have propofed the Art of curing by expectation; they have, therefore, for the most part, propofed only very inert and frivolous remedies; they have zealously oppofed the ufe of fome of the moft efficacious, fuch as opium and the Peruvian bark; and are extremely referved in the ufe of general remedies, such as bleeding, vomiting, &c.

Although, obferves the Doctor, the general doctrine of Nature curing difcafes may fometimes avoid the mif

chiefs of bold and rash practitioners; yet it certainly produces that caution and timidity which have ever opposed the introduction of new and efficacious remedies. Hence the condemnation of antimony by the medical faculty of Paris; hence the referve in Boerhaave, with refpect to the ufe of the Peruvian bark; and hence alfo the fparing exhibition of it by Van Swieten in intermitting fevers.

However, the vis medicatrix naturæ muft unavoidably, he fays, be received as a fact; though he at the fame time declares, that wherever it is admitted it throws an obfcurity upon our system; and that it is only where the impotence of the art is very manifest and confiderable that it ought to be admitted of in practice.

After all, fays he, I ought not to difmifs the confideration of the Stahlian fyftem, without remarking, that as the followers of it were very intent upon obferving the method of nature, fo they were very attentive in obferving the phenomena of diseases, and have given in their writings many facts not to be found elsewhere.

Hoffman's fyftem is next confidered. For his doctrine a foundation had been laid, he fays, by Willis, in his Patho logia Cerebri et Nervorum, and Baglivi had propofed a fyftem of the fame kind in his Specimen de fibra motrici & morbofa. The fyftem of Hoffman attempts to explain the phenomena of the animal economy in health and disease, by confidering the state and affections of the primary moving powers in that economy. Hoffman's fyftem, however, it is obferved, was imperfect and incorrect; and hence has had lefs influence on the writings and practice of phyficians than might have been expected.

Leaving Hoffman, he takes notice, in the next place, of the fyftem of the celebrated Boerhaave; of whofe fyftem he fays, that whoever will compare it with that of any former writer, muft acknowledge that he was very justly elteemed, and that he gave a system which was at that time defervedly valued.

When I first applied myself, fays Dr.
Cullen,

would be unneceffary to offer our readers any extract from it here.

When he comes to treat of the difeafes of the order exanthemata, in this fecond volume, he makes ufe of an arrangement different from that which he has followed in all the preceding editions. For this alteration in the order of treatment no reasons are given by the author. Thus, in the former editions the exanthemata, or eruptive fevers, were treated of in the following order: ft erysipelas, 2 the plague, 3 the fmall-pox, 4 the chicken-pox, 5 the measles, 6 the fcarlet fever, 7 the miliary fever, 8 the remaining exanthemata. In this last edition, however, they are fucceffively confidered in this order: 1ft the fmall-pox, 2 the chicken-pox, 3 the meafles, 4 the fcarlet fever, 5 the plague, 6 eryfipelas, 7 the miliary fever, 8 the remaining exanthemata.

The new difeafes in the third volume are, hematemefis, a vomiting of blood, and hematuria, or the voiding blood from the urinary paffage. Hitherto the doctor thought it improper to treat of thefe feparately, confidering them only as fymptomatic affections; now, however, he has changed his opinion, and has appropriated a place to them in this new edition," becaufe, though they are generally fymptomatic, it is fible they may be fometimes primary and idifpathic affections; and becaufe they have been treated of as primary difeafes, in almoft every fyftem of the practice of phyfic." Such a circumilance as that laft mentioned would not, we fhould have thought, have had any weight with Dr. Cullen, who, in general, is (as, indeed, in all cafes a man of his abilities ought to be) guided by his own judgement, and not by that of others.

The obfervations upon thefe two difeafes are not very many; nor do the curative directions which are laid down differ confiderably from thofe which are to be found in other authors.

When he comes to speak of tetanus, he takes notice of a remedy of which he had not fpoken before. "In the former edition of this work (fays the doctor) among the remedies of tetanus

I did not mention the ufe of cold bathing; becaufe, though I had heard of this, I was not informed of fuch frequent employment of it as might confirm my opinion of its general effiacy; nor was I fufficiently informed of the ordinary and proper adminiftration of it. But now, from the information of many judicious practitioners, who have frequently employed it, I can fay, that it is a remedy which in numerous trials has been found to be of great fervice in this difeafe; and that, while the ufe of the ambiguous remedy of warm bath ing is entirely laid afide, the ufe of cold bathing is over the whole of the Weft-Indies commonly employed. The adminiftration of it is fometimes by bathing the perfon in the fea, or more frequently by throwing cold water from a bafon ог bucket upon the patient's body, and over the whole of it: when this is done, the body is care fully wiped dry, wrapped in blankets, and laid in bed, and at the fame time a large dofe of an opiate is given. By thefe means, a confiderable remiffion of the symptoms is obtained, but this remiffion, at firft, does not commonly remain long, but returning again in a few hours, the repetition both of the bathing and the opiate becomes ne ceffary. By thefe repetitions, however, longer intervals of cafe are obtained, and at length the difeafe is entirely cured; and this even happens fometimes very quickly.”

The new difeafes contained in the fourth, laft, and additional volume are, the difeafes of the nofological order, vefanic, and difcafes of the clafs cachexia. Under the order vefania, mania, or madness and melancholy, and other forms of infanity, are treated of.

Delirium or madness is defined by Dr. Cullen to be-in a perfon awake, a falfe judgement arifing from percep tions of imagination, or from falle recollection, and commonly producing difproportionate emotions.

In enquiring into the nature and caufe of madness, the doctor delivers it as his opinion, that the state of the intellectual functions at all times depends upon the ftatc and condition "of a fubtile very moveable fluid, included

or