صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

true, nutritious, coagulable part of our fluids. In one place we are told that pus is formed from the lymphatic part of the blood; in another from the fecreted mucus; and in a third, from the ferum, by an evaporation of the watry parts and the fubfiding and infpiffation of what remains :-in fhort, pus is this or that, any thing or nothing, as best fuits our Author's ready knack at drawing a conclufion. We should be glad to know from what pus is formed, when in a large abfcefs the whole folids and fluids of the part are diffolved down into one homogeneous mafs of matter.

Corol. 5. contains our Author's account of the different stages of this difcafe.-Cor. 6. his ratio fymptomatum.Cor. 7. his prognoftics.Cor. 8. fome general rules with regard to practice.

Dr. Home in his conclufion is a little upon the PARADE: We have now, fays he, brought our inquiry to a conclufion. The facts, we hope, will appear curicus, exact, and fufficiently numerous for our purpofe; the method fuch as is used in mathematics and natural philofophy, for difcovering unknown truths; and the conclufions new, furprising, and naturally arifing from the facts. If we have not brought this inquiry to that degree of perfection, in every point, that we could have wifhed, we have the fatisfac. tion, at least, to think, that, fo far as we go, our discoveries are certain, as they are built on the foundation of nature. Shunning, with all imaginable care, fruitless and deceitful speculations, however entertaining, we have conftantly kept our facts and experiments in view, as the only road to the improvement of medicine, and the good of mankind.'

The first paragraph of this little piece is almoft as extraordi nary as the laft. The fcience of medicine has been, gradually, advancing for thefe two thousand years by paft; and is now brought to a degree of improvement; perhaps to as great a de gree, every circumftance confidered, as the difficulty of the art, the limitation of the human faculties, and the continual attempts to further refinement, too o ten conducted merely by fancy, will admit of.'We hope and truft, however, that Dr. Home will prove a falfe prophet; that from a judicious attention to fact and experiment, many difcoveries will yet be made in the phyfiology; that from a more accurate history of difeafes, their characters will be more ftrongly marked; and that medicines may be prescribed with a greater degree of certainty, from their virtues being more exactly afcertained.We are the more surprised at this piece of foreknowlege in our NORTHERN SEER, as the metropolis in which he refides, contains one of the beft colleges of medicine in Europe:-a college, in which this mixed science is cultivated with the greatest fuccefs; in which a mumerous fet of pupils have the best opportunities for profecuting

6

their

their studies;--and from which, ftill many improvements may reasonably be expected.

D.

Remarks on the Difeafe commonly called a Fiftula in Ano. By Percival Pott, F. R. S. and Senior Principal Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hofpital, London. 8vo. 2s. 6d. sewed.

Hawes and Co.

HERE was a time, when our good neighbours the French

in the art of furgery. Whatever might be the cafe in the last age, it is evident, on comparing the prefent practice in Paris with that of London, that we are now infinitely before them in point of fimplicity of operation, and confequently in rational furgery. To this truth, the treatise now before us bears special teftimony.

Mr. Pott's firft intention is to inform thofe of less experience, that a real fiftula in ano is a much more uncommon disease than is generally supposed; and that what is frequently mistaken for fuch, is a mere abscess, or collection of matter, without fiftula or callofity. He proceeds, in his fecond fection, to confider the disease under its various appearances with regard to afpect, fituation, and symptoms: but as these are generally known, we shall pafs on to Sect. 3d, in which our Author delivers his method of treating the patient before the maturation of the tumour. Here we find him, in two inftances, advifing, from experience, a method of proceeding very different from the usual practice on fimilar occafions. Speaking of that species of tumour in which the fkin wears the yellowish tint of the eryfipelas, This kind of inflammation, fays the Author, generally makes its attack with naufea, vomiting, flight rigor, heat, thirft, and restlessnefs. The quickness of pulfe, and heat of skin are indications for fome degree of evacuation, and indeed fometimes render it requifite; but it is a very prevailing opinion with many practitioners, that thefe evacuations fhould be freely made, and frequently repeated: in fhort, that the cure of this kind of inflammation is fafely to be effected by them; which is fo far from being true, that the practice has proved fatal to many.' This obfervation, from a gentleman of Mr. Pott's experience, deferves particular attention; efpecially as it applies equally to eryfipelatous inflammations in every other part of the body.

The other inftance in which, in the firft ftage of the disease, the Author, moft judicioufly, fteps out of the beaten path, appears in his method of relieving the patient in a total fuppreffion

of

ut

of urine; a fymptom frequently attendant on the formation of an abfcefs near the rectum and bladder. They who have not often seen this cafe, generally have immediate recourse to the catheter; and for this they plead the authority of precept: the practice is fo effentially wrong, and I have feen fuch rible confequences from it, that I cannot help entering my p.. teft against it: the neck of the bladder, from its vicinity to the parts where the inflammation is feated, and from its being involved in the fame common membrane, does certainly participate, in fome degree, of the faid inflammation. This will in fome meafure account for the complaint; but whoever confiders the extreme irritable state of the parts compofing that part of the urethra, (if I may be allowed fo to call it) and will at the fame time reflect on the amazing and well-known effects of irritation, will be convinced that the principal part of this complaint arifes from that cause; and that the difeafe is, ftrictly speaking, fpafmodic."

The true, fafe, and rational method of relieving this complaint, is, by evacuation and anodine relaxation: viz. venefection, gentle cathartics, femicupium, bladders of hot water applied to the pubes and perineum, glyfters compofed of warm water, oil and opium.' There may have been cafes, fubjoins our Author, which have refifted and baffled this method of treatment, but I have never met with them.'

Suppofe the matter already formed fo as to require being let out, he advises the use of the knife or lancet in preference to the cauftic, the latter being neceffarily attended with loss of subftance; and, inftead of cramming the wound with a large quantity of efcharotic dreffings, to introduce fuch only, as, by their fmall quantity and emollient quality, will permit and encourage a gradual fuppuration. If, upon opening the abfcefs, it fhould appear, either from the rectum being perforated or denuded, that there is a necefity of laying the two cavities into one, he advises the operation to be immediately performed in the following

manner:

The curved probe-pointed knife with a narrow blade (of which there is a plate given) I have always found to be the moft useful and handy inftrument of any this introduced into the finus, while the furgeon's fore-finger is in the intestine, will enable him to divide all that can ever require divifion; and that with lefs pain to the patient, with more facility to the operator, as well as with more certainty and expedition than any other inrument whatever. If there be no opening in the inteftine, the fmalleft degree of force will thruft the point of the knife through, and thereby make one; if there be one already, the fame point will find and país through it: in either cafe, it will be received hy the finger in ano, will thereby be prevented from deviating, and being brought out by the faid finger, muft neceffarily divide REV. Dec. 1765.

Ff

all

[ocr errors]

all that is between the edge of the knife and the verge of the anus.' The operation being performed, a foft doffil of fine lint must be introduced between the lips of the wound, and the reft of the fore dreft with the fame.

Whoever compares this fimple operation with thofe in fimilar cafes of former times in this kingdom, and even of the prefent age in other countries, will immediately be convinced of the value of this treatife. The latter part of the work is chiefly employed in demonftrating the abfurdity of the ufual method of treating this diforder, particularly in France, in which the Author reafons candidly, judiciously, and, we think, convincingly to unprejudiced readers. B-t

[ocr errors]

An Effay on British Isinglafs: Wherein its Nature and Properties are compared with the foreign Sorts; with the beft Methods of converting them into Fining, Glue, and Starch, for the Ufe of the Brewer, Vintner, Paper-ftainer, &c. comprehending a fuccinct Analyfis of Ifinglafs, and Rationale of its Action in clarifying Liquors. Interfperfed with Hints for the further improving of Malt ing, Brewing, Fermenting, and for preventing the Wooden Apparatus in the Brewery from Speedy Decay. By H. Jackfon. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Newbery.

HE home-manufacture of an article which is imported at an exorbitant price, and forms a difadvantageous balance in the way of commerce, is a fubject of great importance; and the inventor of a method by which we may be supplied with such article from our own labour and our own materials, is entitled to the countenance and patronage of the legiflature. The preparation of Ifinglafs hath been long kept a fecret by the Ruffians. - Neuman, indeed, and others, have given a description of the fifh from which this particular fpecies of glue is extracted, and a fort of hearfay account of the procefs by which it is made: the Ruffians, however, were the firft inventors of this art, have continued to be the fole manufacturers, and from them all Europe has been fupplied.

In Mr. Jackfon's effay we meet with the following interefting particulars—that the art of making Ifinglafs in England from British materials, after a moft rigid fcrutiny into its merits, has been adjudged a new and ufeful invention; that several tons weight of this manufacture have been confumed and inconteftibly proved in a court of judicature, to anfwer the purposes of the foreign; and that all forts of Ifinglafs may be manufactured at home, as foon as we receive a due fupply of materials from our

American

American provinces, the rivers of which are well known to abound with an inexhauftible plenty and variety of fish, that will yield fine Ifinglafs fufficient for the confumption of all Europe, provided a juft encouragement be given to our fisheries.That our Author's intent in the prefent publication was to fet the fubject of British Ifinglafs in its true light, and to communicate a method whereby the moft perfect fining for the purpofe of clarifying malt liquors may be made from the same, equal in efficacy to that made from any fort of foreign Ifinglafs whatever; that the coarfer forts, if perfectly dry and found, are not inferior to the beft ftaple-ifinglafs, for the ufes of the brewer; they require only a longer time, and a proper management, to be formed into fining: that from fome very accurate experiments, made by a gentleman of undoubted honour and veracity, it appears, that fining made with British Ifinglafs performs its office more speedily, and falls clofer to the bottom, than the foreign; that the fine, pellucid forts, are confumed in making mockpearls, and in ftiffening linens, filks, gauzes, &c. the use of gums and starch being jufly laid afide, on account of their difpofing the fabrics to rot, crack, and mildew; that the inferior forts have been reduced two hundred per cent. fince the commencement of the British manufacture; that for this article there is an annual remittance of forty thoufand pounds fterling; that the yearly confumption in the brewery is calculated at twentyfive tons; that one in four has been faved by the home manufacture; and that by an adequate fupply of materials from our own colonies, this importation may be entirely fuperfeded.

If the above particulars are justly reprefented, we hope Mr. Jackfon will reap the fruits of his application and invention. We think, however, it would have been more to his reputation, if, in one part, he had not appeared a little in the character of a noftrum-monger. The virtues of Ifinglafs for the purpose of fining are much injured, if, by being expofed to heat, its diffolution is urged beyond a certain point: and this difpofition to liquify is more remarkable in British than foreign lfinglafs.

The whites of eggs, fays Mr. Jackson, well whifked up, and commixed with British fining, greatly prevents its fluidity, and acts very powerfully in the bufinefs of fining; but as that addition is generally too coftly for this purpofc, we hope to be able to difcover fome cheap fubítitute to anfwer the fame intentions. As this must be the refult of experience, we fhall be filent in this point, at prefent, except that it may not be improper to hint, that there is a certain faline matter eafily procurable, which, if commixed to the proportion of a dram to a barrel of fining, greatly improves its clarifying principles, the rationale of which thall be mentioned hereafter.Poffibly our Author may have been provoked to this piece of fecrecy by the prejudice and inviFf 2

dious

« السابقةمتابعة »