who was condemned by the pretor to be strangled, delayed the purting his orders into execution, and even admitted her daughter to come and fee her; taking care, however, that the latter brought her no food or apparent nourishment. But, finding, to his great aftonishment, that the old woman ftill furvived, his curiofity tempted him to fee what paffed between them; when he faw, with much greater aftonishment, the daughter nourishing her mother with her own milk: a circumftance which, being related to the triumvir and pretor, the old woman's pardon was granted her, in confideration of this remarkable inftance of natural affection in her daughter*.' The painters, however, must not be cenfured, fays our Abbé for having falfified history, in delineating a man instead of a woman; because it is very poffible they only copied the Greek painters, who had before tranfmitted to pofterity a fact of a similar kind. One Cimon, an Athenian, being far advanced in years, and condemned to be ftarved, to death in prifon; his daughter, who was permitted only to fee him through the grate of his dungeon, made use of the fame expedient to fhew her affection and preferve her father's life +. There is reafon, therefore, to think the original picture founded on the Greek story rather than on the Roman.

After giving a description of the tombs of Sannazarius and Virgil, our Abbé obferves, that the name of the latter is ftill held in great veneration even by the populace; fome of whom look upon him to have been a faint, and others a great magician. They pretend that he opened the way from Naples to Puzzoli, by virtue of his magical incantations; and that he conftructed, by the fame means, the brazen horfe, which formerly ftood in the fquare of St. Januarius; and to which they tell us he communicated the virtue of curing the diseases of all fuch horses as fhould walk round it, or pafs under its fhadow. I was some time before I could difcover any reasonable conjectures for the grounds of these traditions; except what may be deduced from the Georgics; where the poet displays a degree of skill in agriculture, the management of cattle, and other husbandry-affairs:

Quo non penetrat aut quid non excogitat pietas.

Quid tam in audi

tum quam matrem natæ uberibus alitam. Putaret aliquis hoc contra rerum naturam fa&tum, nifi diligere parentes prima naturæ lex effet. Val. Max. L. v. c. iv.

+ Hærent ac ftupent hominum oculi, cum hujus falli pi&tam imaginem videret, cafufque antiqui conditionem, præfentis fpe&aculi admiratione renowant. ld. ibid.

As a proof of the ignorance and fuperftition prevailing among the common people of this country, this writer obferves, that it has been thought neceffary, in order to prevent the demolition of the two fine Figures of Apollo and Minerva laced on each fide this tomb, to write pa : on their pedestals David and Judith.

but

but turning over the life of Virgil, prefixed to a translation of the Ænead into Italian verfe by Hannibal Caro, I found it there related that Virgil studied phyfic and the mathematics at Naples; and that, on his arrival at Rome, he had cured a number of fick horfes in the ftables of Auguftus: with feveral additional ftories relative to his wonderful skill in curing horses and other animals. It is certainly an imperfect idea, of what is here intimated, that gave rife to the above-mentioned notions about the fecret virtue inftilled by Virgil into the brazen horfe.

In regard to the nature of the feveral governments, subsisting in different parts of Italy, our Author is by no means fo accurate and particular, as might be expected from a writer who so freely cenfures others for the like defects.

As to the articles of physics and natural history, he is also less fortunate in his obfervations and conjectures, than he appears on other topics. But we have already extended this article to a fufficient length.

K.

Synopfis univerfæ praxeos-medica, in binas partes divifa, quarum prior contractum omnium morborum, tum internorum, tum externorum confpectum exhibet; altera vero rem medicamentariam, perpetuis commentariis illuftratam, fiftit: Auctore Jofepho Lieutaud, primario firpis regiae medico, imperante dile&iffimo Ludovico XV. 2. Vol. 4to. Amftelodami, de Tournes.

A Synopfis of the Practice of Phyfic in general, in two parts; the first containing a fuccinct View of all Diseases, both internal and external; the fecond, a materia medica, with comments, &c.

A

S various as have been the opinions of mankind in every other inftance, fo likewife have the medical writers in all ages differed widely from each other in their fentiments, as to the most eligible method of arranging difeafes. Nothing can be more unquestionable, than that Syftem, in every science, contributes infinitely towards impreffing diftinct ideas on the mind; and that fyftem is certainly the best, whofe feveral parts are most obviously diftinguished.

The mode of arrangement which is leaft fyftematical, is that of Mangetus in his Polialthæa, Dr. James in his Medical Dictionary, &c. namely the alphabetical. This method is undoubtedly very exceptionable, because it prefuppofes in the ftudent a knowledge of the names of difeafes, which, upon

4.

obferving

obferving a certain concourfe of fymptoms, is perhaps the only thing of which he wants to be informed.

Aretæus, Coelius Aurelianus and others, divided difeafes according to their time of duration, viz. into acute and chronic. This method alfo is by no means fatisfactory; for nature has fixed no pofitive limits between one and the other; nor does it afford us any marks of diftinction in the firft ftage of difeafes, the difference confifting only in the time of duration : now majus et minus non mutet fpeciem.

Monfieur Sauvages, in his Nofologia Methodica, from the example of modern botanifts, has divided diseases into classes, orders, genera and fpecies, characterizing each, not from their. causes, but from their most obvious fymptoms. This we think the moft eligible method, though the author, from the great difficulty of the undertaking, may not have been able to bring it to that degree of perfection which might be wifhed.

The author before us has thought fit to adapt the anatomical method of Sennertus, and Jonftonus in his Idea univerfalis medicina. His firft and grand divifion is into internal difeafes, external difcafes, and difcafes of women and children. The firft he fubdivides into general difeafes, and those whofe feat. is uncertain; internal difeafes of the head; internal difeafes of the breaft; internal difeafes of the abdomen. The fecond, into general difeafes; external difeafes of the head; difeafes of the trunk and limbs ; diseases of the skin. The third into diseases of virgins and married women; difeafes of children.

The objections to this mode of divifion are urged by Monfieur Sauvages, in the Prolegomena to his Nofologia, with equal energy and perfpicuity to him therefore we refer our readers, and haften to confider the merit of our author, exclufive of his plan.

The book opens with an account of fevers in general, as neceffarily preceeding that of each particular fpecies. Our tranflation of the following paragraph, from this first section, will be fufficient to give an idea of Monfieur Lieutaud's opinion of this matter. Having declared his diflike to theory and conjecture, I shall now, (fays he,) proceed candidly and without circumlocution, to deliver what thirty years experience hath enabled me to collect upon this fubject. And to begin with the most familiar, I muft declare, that after affiduously attending the fick both day and night, I never obferved more than four fpecies of effential continued fevers; viz. I. Simple continued, or that which remains uniformly the fame, without exacerbation, which definition however is not to be received in too limited a fenfe: its duration rarely exceeds fourteen days, unlefs difturbed by improper treatment. II. Putrid continued, which is diftinguifhed by remarkable exacerbations

and

and violent symptoms, and which feems to proceed from a mofbid affection of the blood and juices, tending towards putrefaction: hence it is, that this fpecies feldom terminates but in confequence of fome notable evacuation, by which the blood and juices are freed from the offending caufe, which spontaneous or critical evacuation is its peculiar characteristic. III. The ardent, diftinguished by intense thirst and internal heat. IV. Malignant, whofe violent fymptoms feem to arife from the brain and nerves being injured, by which circumftance alone it is fufficiently diftinguished. This laft fpecies is of longest continuance, generally epidemic, contagious or pestilential.'

If experience had fufficiently evinced the poffibility of curing all fevers by one specific medicine, these diftinctions might jaftly be deemed ufelefs; but fince thofe who have been most converfant with thefe diforders are convinced that, in this fingle genus of continued fevers, the different fpecies require very different treatment; to distinguish them properly from each other, is certainly of great importance. For this reafon we fhall take the liberty to enquire into the propriety of our author's fyftem.

His firft fpecies, namely, fimple continued, is the fynochus imputris of Galen, the fynochus fimplex of Riverius, the continens non putrida of Lommius, the febris inflammatoria of the mo derns. The fecond fpecies, namely, putrid continued is the fy→ nochus of Sauvages, the febris continua putrida of Boerhaave. According to our author, the peculiar characteristic of this fever, is its termination by fome critical evacuation, which every tyro in the medical art knows to be by no means peculiar to any one fpecies of continued fever. As to his third fpecies, which he chufes to call ardent, it appears, from his particular defcription of this malady, to be in fact the bilious or remitting fever of other writers. (See Dr. Pringle's diseases of the army, p. 175.) With regard to his fourth fpecies, namely, malignant, we greatly difapprove his making the fuppofed proximate caufe of the difeafe, its diftinguifhing characteriftic; nothing being more unfyftematical, or fallacious, than to diftinguith difeafes any otherwife than by their obvious fymptoms. By this fpecies of fever, the author means that which Dr. Pringle hath fo accurately defcribed under the title of the jail or hofpital fever, and which may not improperly be confidered as a fpecies of the plague. It is the typhus carcerum of Sauvages. Our author, in his chapter upon this fpecies, enumerates its symptoms minutely, in which, in general, he differs little from other authors: but in regard to its duration, he fays, I affert that the malignant fever never terminates before the twenty-firft day; and that in general it is con

tinued to the fortieth or fixtieth, or farther.' Nevertheless Dr. Pringle affures us, that he has known it end, either in death or recovery, in feven days, but that in the hofpitals it generally continued from fourteen to twenty.

In treating of the cure of this diforder, our author agrees in general with the method prefcribed by Dr. Pringle, except in a timid use of the bark, concerning which he ftill retains the prejudices of the laft age, notwithstanding its acknowledged power as an antifeptic; a quality which recommends it very particularly in the cure of a difeafe, in which there is an univerfal tendency to putrefaction.

Upon the whole, the firft volume of this work is not without merit, as it contains a general defcription of most diseafes; but its chief value confifts in the account of morbid appearances on diffection, which are frequently interspersed throughout the work. This volume is however little more than a tranflation into latin of the author's Precis de la medecine pratique, published fome years ago.

The fecond volume we fuppofe to be original: it contains the author's fyftem of the Materia Medica. He divides the whole into two books, one of which comprehends fuch medicines as are used internally, and the other, external medicines. The first book is divided into two fections; one treating of thofe medicines which feem to act on the whole animal oeconomy, and the other, of thofe whofe powers feem confined to fome particular part. These fections are again fubdivided into claffes, in which the feveral fubftances are diftributed according to their fuppofed effects on the human body, thus diluentia, refrigerantia, temperantia, &c. and in each clafs they are finally divivided into emporetica, officinalia, and magiftralia. The author moreover fubjoins to each clafs, a fhort commentary on the several fimple fubftances, and officinal preparations therein contained.

If we were difpofed to be fevere upon this celebrated French phyfician, this fecond part of his work would afford us ample feld for criticifm. He very frequently afcribes to medicines, virtues founded only on ancient opinions, which later experience hath fufficiently exploded; and as to his chemical knowledge, it appears extremely borné. In his comment on the neutral falt called arcanum duplicatum, it seems, fays he, to be composed of the nitrous alkali, and vitriolic acid, being prepared of calcined nitre and green vitriol. If he had been at all acquainted with chemistry, he would not have talked of a nitrous alkali; he would have known that there is nothing peculiar in the alkali obtained from nitre; that it is merely a fixed alkali, in no respect different from that which is produced by calcination from

vegetables