self. He is of opinion that we might import wool with advantage. from Buckourria, Podolia, and the Ukraine; and that we might in return supply those countries with cloth, at much less expence than that at which they now procure it from the Prsusians and Saxons.

Prussia, it is here contended, is much more dependent on England and Russia than on France: three fourths of the Prussian exports being made to Great Britain, two thirds of which are partly Russian and partly Austrian produce. It is contended that the present system of the court of Berlin is diametrically opposite to that which was followed and recommended by the Great Frederic. The French inferest is said to be unpopular in Prussia; and Hanover, it is added, will be no equivalent to this state for the loss of her trade. It is confidently asserted that the linen manufactures of Silesia must suffer most seriously from the war, while those of Ireland must profit by the event.

The author is an enemy to our continental expeditions; and he thinks that there is some foundation for the complaints heretofore made against our diplomacy: but he observes that the gentleman now at the head of the British diplomacy is generally allowed, by the most judicious men abroad, to be peculiarly endowed with all those sequisites so necessary for carrying on negociations with foreign powers; namely, a thorough knowledge of their courts and countries. Their prepossessions in his favour, united with his talents and the dignity of his office, will, I trust, induce him to make our ministers abroad a respectable and respected corps.'-This little tract proves its author to be a man of information, and a lover of his coun

try.

Art. 32. John Bull's Soliloquies on the late Impeachment. 8vo. pp. 51. 29. Hatchard. 18c6.

If it be of the essence of wit to bring together dissimilar ideas, the present writer is not without pretensions to the distinction; since the crsatile pliant object of his contemplation, who has found himself at his ease in different political parties, is here assimilated to the austere and rigid Cato.-The student of the belles lettres, who would discri minate between real wit and genuine humour, and their counterparts, may find it worth his while to consult the present tract; in which he will meet with a considerable assortment of specimens of the latter. The weapons of ridicule are of delicate management; and if they be wielded aukwardly, the laugh turns against the person who is attempting to handle them. Such appears to us to be the case of the politico-comic writer before us. He professes to be fully in the secrets of honest John, and proclaims that the patient animal no longer bears any ill will to the renowned Harry, but that his indignation has taken a turn, and is directed towards Harry's enemies for setting him against an honest and faithful friend. We flatter ourselves, too, that we know a bit of John's mind; and if we do not deny that worthy John is not highly pleased with the adversaries of the Cato of this political wit, we suspect that the tiff is on grounds the very reverse of those which are here stated.

MEDICAL

MEDICAL, &c.

Art. 33. An Inquiry into the nature and action of Cancer ; with a view to the establishment of a regular mode of curing that disease by natural separation. By Samuel Young, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. 12mo. 48. 6d. Boards R. Phillips. The virulence of the disease which forms the subject of this publi cation, and the little effect which medical men have been able to produce on it by the most vigorous exertions of their art, seemed for some time to have repressed all attempts at extending our knowlege. of its nature, or at introducing any improved mode for its treatment. Public attention has, however, been lately called to this subject, by an association of some of the most eminent surgeons in the metropolis, formed for the express purpose of investigating the phænomena of this disease, and instituting an inquiry into the comparative merits of the different plans proposed for its relief. It is, we apprehend, to be attributed, in some measure at least, to this cause, that an unusual number of treatises on cancer have issued from the press during the last year; of which the most valuable, that of Mr. Home*, has already passed under our review; and the one now before us, although in every respect greatly inferior, is not altogether undeserving of attention.

The first point which Mr. Young undertakes to investigate is, whether cancer arises from a specific virus, and possesses constitutional action Until lately, the affirmative side of the question was generally adopted: but the contrary opinion is here strenuously maintained. That cancer does not generate a specific virus, capable of producing the disease when applied to a sound body, he argues from the impossibility of fixing any specific character for the disease itself; and he naturally concludes that hence it can have no specific action, and cannot produce a specific virus.

Some idiopathic symptom (he says) would appear always necessary to a specific disease; now there is not one, peculiar to the action alone, to be found in all the cancerous tribe. The puckered, serrated edge, the loose fungated over lappings, the deep excavations attendant on cancer, are all individually to be found in every species of sore that differs from the simple purulent ulcer. Nor indeed are all these appearances together, in the same sore, sufficient to constitute the cancerous character; because such appearances have existed precisely the same (so precisely indeed as to have passed for cancers) where a known specific taint of the constitution has been evinced, and where cancer has never finally resulted'

In support of this opinion, two cases are adduced; which, says, Mr. Y. possessed every symptom of cancer, but which, from the action of medicine on them, and from their subsequent progress, clearly appear to have been venereal. This seems to us a vague mode of reasoning. After so much has been written on the subject, so many observations detailed, and so many cases described, we scarcely expected to be told that cancer is still an undefined disease; and that it possesses no specific character nor idiopathic symptom. Mr. Young examines.

Rev. for March last.

individually

individually the most noted instances in which the disease has been supposed to have been generated by the local application of cancerous matter; and we agree with him in thinking that they are loose and inconclusive. On this point, we are disposed to adopt the opinion of Mr. Home, that cancer cannot be produced in a part, until some alteration has previously taken place in its structure. With respect to the constitutional nature of the disease, we do not consider Mr. Young's arguments as altogether satisfactory. That a cancer has occasionally been brought on by an external injury, which he conceives to be a proof of its local nature, seems to us to favour the contrary opinion. If out of a thousand bruises that are inflicted, one only becomes converted into cancer, we are almost irresistibly led to conclude that the singular termination of this solitary case must have depended on some peculiarity in the habit of the individual, which has produced effects so different from those that usually occur.

Mr. Y. next proceeds to give us what he calls a theory of cancer. As far as we are able to understand this theory, (which is not very clearly laid down,) he supposes that from some causes, probably of a mechanical nature, obstruction is produced in a glandular part; the part then enlarges, and of course presses on its integuments; and the internal pressure continues more and more to irritate the external coverings, until at last they give way, and produce the disease in its complete form, which is now kept up by the combined influence of the newly acquired action and this diseased structure. It is expressly stated that external violence may lay the foundation of the disease in a part previously sound, and when there was no constitutional predisposition.

Regarding cancer as local, and as not possessing any specific virus which can contaminate the neighbouring parts, the author proposes his plan of cure; which is to excite in the diseased mass an increased action that may exhaust its vitality, and thus enable it to be thrown off like any other extraneous dead substance.-As it is obvious that this method of treatment is founded on principles which are extremely hypothetical, and by no means decidedly proved, we naturally inquire whether Mr. Young has really found this practice to be successful; and this, we are sorry to observe, does not appear to have been the case. He seems to regard it as sufficient for his purpose to point out the reasons which have hitherto prevented caustics, and particularly arsenic, from being successfully employed by the regular practitioner; for he positively states that cancers have been cured by empyrical remedies, which seemed to derive their efficacy from this substance.

Our readers will probably agree with us that neither the reasoning nor the facts contained in this treatise are conclusive; yet it may not be without its use in turning the attention towards those powerful remedies, which, by judicious management, may possibly be employed to some useful purpose in the cure of this formidable complaint. Art. 34. Commentaries on the treatment of Schirrhi and Cancers; from the earliest period to the present, for the purpose of pointing out and establishing a specific for those diseases on rational and scien

tific principles. By William Thomas, Member of the Royal College of Physicians. 8vo. 3s. Murray.

In the preceding article, we have noticed a treatise on cancer by Mr. Young, the principal object of which was to recommend the use of arsenic in this complaint; and Mr. Thomas, whose pamphlet appeared so nearly at the same time with that of Mr. Young that it may be regarded as equally original, endeavours to enforce the same opinion. He complains of the little attention that has of late been paid to the cure of this disease, and apprehends that our knowlege concerning it has even been for some time retrograde. In support of this position, he enters on a short examination of the opinions which were entertained respecting cancer by the older writers; and though he will scarcely, we imagine, convince the reader that they were possessed of any information which is now lost, he clearly shews that they had studied the disease with peculiar assiduity, and taken much pains to investigate its diagnostic symptoms. They wisely directed the prin cipal part of their curative means to its incipient state of scirrhus; since, when the disease was advanced to the latter stages, it was confessed. ly incurable, and their only hope of farther relief was placed on the removal of the affected part.-In this operation, the older practitioners generally preferred the cautery; influenced, as it seems, by their view of the hemorrhage which attended excision, and which the rude state of operative surgery did not enable them to repress. The modern improvement of the art has, in this particular, produced the most decided advantage, by rendering the use of the knife both more safe and much less formidable. Mr. Thomas admits this to be the case; yet he still thinks that in particular instances the cautery might be advantageously employed; and he observes that our attention has been too much withdrawn from it, in consequence of the great dexterity of some of the moderns, who have brought the operation of excision to its present state of perfection.

The older surgeons, as we remarked above, entertained no hope of ever curing the disease after it was once fully formed: but in certain instances they appear to have had a very favourable opinion of the benefit which might be derived from the employment of arsenic. This substance appears indeed, at all times. to have been kept in view by those who were anxious to find a specific for the discase; and there is reason for supposing that it forms the active basis of the empyrical powders which have at different times been extolled for their efficacy in its cure. Mr. Thomas decidedly adopts the idea of its being a specific for cancer; and he endeavours to explain its mode of action, on the principle of its causing a sloughing or putrefaction of the parts on which it is laid, as far below the surface as the absorbents are capable of conveying it; differing in this respect from the common caustics, which can only act on the part with which they are in contact. The present pamphlet does not enable us to determine whether this hypothesis can bear the test of experience; the author having referred the practical part of his treatise to a future publication. Art. 35. A Description of the Mercurial Lepra, by Doctor Moriarty. 12mo. pp. 64. 2s. 6d. sewed. Gilbert and Hodges, Dublin.

Art.

Art. 36. An Essay on a peculiar Eruptive Disease arising from the Exa bibition of Mercury; illustrated with cases taken at the Westmorland Lock Hospital, Dublin. By George Alley. 8vo. pp. 80. 3s. 6d. Printed at Dublin, and sold in London by Cadell and Davies.

་

As these pamphlets relate to the same subject, we shall speak of them under one article. It is singular that the disease, which forms the subject of them, should have remained so long without being distinctly noticed; and it is likewise somewhat remarkable that at length three treatises should have been written nearly at the same time; for since the publications of Mr. Alley and Dr. Moriarty, a valuable essay on this disease has appeared from the pen of Dr. Spens, forming the first article in the Edinburgh Medical Journal. This mercurial lepra, however, though so long unnoticed, seems not to be a very rare occurrence; five cases fell under the inspection of Dr. Spens in the Edinburgh Infirmary, in less than two years; Dr. Moriarty speaks of having seen many instances of it; and Mr. Alley describes it as one of those melancholy consequences which so frequently succeed the exhibition of mercury.' Of the two tracts under review, that of Mr. Alley is in many respects intitled to precedence; as the title imports, he considers the disease to arise from some peculiar effect of mercury on the constitution; and he divides it into two species, the mild and the malignant, which appear to differ only in the degree of their virulence. The disease commences with febrile symptoms; the surface is affected with heat and a prickling sensation; and to these succeed the eruption. It begins on the inside of the thighs, but spreads quickly over the whole body. It does not appear to hold any regular course, and it terminates at different periods, in proportion to its extent and violence. A disquamation of the cuticle and a copi ous discharge of serum take place; and the disease gradually subsides. -It is not evident, from the description of these authors, whether the fever is to be considered as primary or symptomatic, but we apprehend the former to be the case. The sufferings of the patient appear to be the most considerable in the latter part of the disease, when the cuticle has peeled off, and the new surface retains an excessive degree of sensibility, ard is so tender as to inflame and ulcerate from the least external irritation. The chief danger seems to depend on the duration of this stage; if it be much protracted, the fever assumes the typhoid type, and the strength of the patient is irremediably exhausted.

The principal means of cure consist in abstaining from the use of mercury, and removing the patient to a pure atmosphere. The other remedies employed were antimonials and acids; and in the decline of the complaint, or when the debility was great, bark and wine were given with advantage. The application of absorbent powders, mild unguents, and tepid washes, were useful in alleviating the uneasiness arising from the state of the skin in the different stages.

On the whole, we consider this subject as well deserving the attention of the medical practitioner The work of Mr. Alley, though far from being perfect, contains some useful information, which may

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