To exalt one at the expence of the other is to depreciate invention, and lavish all praise on improvement. Who can read with patience the following, amongst many fimilar remarks?

Ariftotle locked up the temple of knowledge and threw away the key, which, in the abfurd and fuperftitious veneration of his authority, was loft for many ages. It was found, at last, by a native of our own country, whofe name as a philofopher and particularly as a logician, does more honour to England than his did to Stagyra; who threw open the prifon in which science had been held captive, and once more fet her free; and, who with a bold and virtuous facrilege, tore the laurel from the brow of that dark and deified philofopher, which he had fo long and fo injurioully

worn.'

But we fhall conclude this ungrateful fubject, and the review of the firft volume, with obferving that Bacon is the philofopher deified by Dr. T. which is not surprifing, when it is confidered that from his works the most effential part of the prefent performance is derived. The obfervations relative to the defirable change of fcholaftic difcipline at Oxford, are juft; but they affect not the excellence of the Ariftotelian fyftem, which might be employed to good effect, whatever were the objects of nitruc(To be continued.)

tion.

Medical Communications. Vol. II. 8vo. 75. Boards. Johnfon. 1790.

IF

we should blame the Society for their delay of this fecond volume, fome complaint may be retorted on ourfelves, in not noticing it on its first appearance. Both have been faulty in this refpect, and, while we confefs our own errors, (au apology will be usclefs) we truft they will in effect confefs theirs, by repairing the fault, and more actively exerting their powers in pushing forward another volume with greater rapidity.

I. Cafe of a Recovery after a Ball had paffed through the Lungs. By Mr. Edward Rigby, Surgeon at Norwich.-This is another inftance, in fupport of the opinion, that wounds of the lungs will heal readily, where there is no conftitutional taint. The recovery, in a great meafure, depended on Mr. Rigby's judicious conduct in clofing the external wounds, properly bleeding his patient, and giving cooling and anodyne raedecines. The pistol was fo near, that the ball feems to have carried the cloaths before it, and lodged the cloth under the fkin of the breaft, for it went first through the back.

II. A Cafe of retroverted Uterus, in which the Paracentefis Vefice was fuccefsfully performed. By Richard Browne CRIT, REV. N. AR. (IV.) Jan. 1792. D Chefton,

Chefton, M.D. F. R. S. Phyfician to the Gloucester Infir mary. The paracentefis veficæ was performed just above the pubes. As the catheter should, for obvious realons, be fhort, a long canula, or a flexible catheter, fhould be in readiness to be introduced. This cafe, which we do not enlarge on, only because it cannot be read with propriety or advantage but in the author's own language, deferves much attention. It contains many valuable practical remarks.

III. Account of a Cafe in which the Tendon of the Biceps Mufcle was punctured in bleeding. By Mr. Thomas Colby, Surgeon at Torrington in Devonshire.-The tendon was evidently punctured, and occafioned symptoms of irritation, with the first appearances of a locked-jaw. Opium was igven plentifully, and an eryfipelas came on, which was cured by the bark. The cafe is related rather indiftinctly. The symptoms of the 13th may have been those only of incipient eryfipelas; and if they were not, we cannot easily determine whether the fymptoms cf irritation were relieved by opium or bark, or whether the erysipelas may not have been owing to the opium. IV. Cafe of a Child born with Symptoms of Erysipelas followed by Gangrene. By the late Robert Bromfield, M. D. F. R. S. Phylician to the British Lying-in Hospital.

V. An Account of the Species of Erysipelas defcribed in the preceding Paper, as it has appeared in Infants at the British Lying-in Hofpital. By Maxwell Garthfhore, M. D. F. R. S. and S. A. Fellow of the Royal College of Phyficians in Edinburgh, and Physician to the British Lying-in Hofpital.-The disease is almost peculiar to lying-in hofpitals, and not very frequent in thefe: it has been attributed to the free ufe of fpirituous liquors in the mother, with fome degree of probability. The remedy is obvious, viz. the bark, with warm fpirituous embrocations. It is only furprifing how it could ever have been overlooked. Dr. Garthfhore seems to wonder that Dr. Cullen could ever confider any kind of eryfipelas as phlegmonic; but the profeffor feems fcarcely ever to have feen it in any other forn; and we do not recollect above one inftance of the difcafe that required bark: we have feen many benefited by bleeding. An uncommon cafe offperitonitis in a young child is mentioned: the exudation is described as purulent, fimilar to what had been obferved in a puerperal fever;' but in that difeafe the exudation is gluten or albumen. If it is in fome instances pus, these are by no means the greatest number.

VI. Cafe of an unusually large Abfcefs, feated between the Peritoneum and Abdominal Muscles, from which the Matter appeared to be difcharged, fometimes by the external Opening, and at another Time by Expectoration. By Mr. Charles Kite, Surgeon at Gravefend, in Kent.-From the proper examination

mination not having been made after death, we are in doubt refpecting the extent of the abfcefs. There is, however; great reafon to believe that the expectoration was owing to a metaftafis, in confequence of a confumptive habit. The abfcefs extended fo far downward as to prevent a prolapfus uteri from being eafily reduced.

VII. A Cafe of total Extirpation of the external Parts of Generation. By William Scott, M. D. Phyfician at Stamfordham, in Northumberland.-The operation was performed by the patient himself, a man feventy-five years old, in a tit of melancholy. The hemorrhage was flight and tranfitory. We have formerly remarked that, except when the veffels are enlarged by difeafe, it is never dangerous; and, at that period of life, it must have been lefs fo.

VIII. Obfervations on the Ufe of Opium in the Venereal Difeafe. By Mr. John Pearfon, Surgeon to the Lock Hof pital, and to the Public Difpenfary.-Mr. Pearfon found, that by no means one half of the cafes yielded to opium, and it may be ftill doubted, if in thofe, where the difcafe appeared to yield, the cure was permanent. He adds too, what is ftrictly true, that the inconveniences from this medicine were greater than from mercury. Opium, however, we have reafon to think, in its largest dofes, leffens the inconveniences of mercury, and adds to its powers.

IX. An Account of the favourable Termination of a Wound of the Stomach. By Mr. William Scott, Surgeon of the Navy. The immediate confequences of the wound were debility in its highest degree, conftant hiccough and vomiting of blood. It was cured pretty eafily, and the patient nourished by glyfters only for fome days. It appears highly probable, as our author hints, that an antiperistaltic motion took place in the intestines, as the glyfters, though unusually large, were generally retained.

X. A Cafe of Suppreffion of Urine, in which the Puncture of the Bladder in the Regio Pubis was performed with Suc cefs. By Mr. James Lucas, Surgeon of the General Infirmary at Leeds. In this inftance, there was an abfcefs alfo in the perineo, through which the urine for fome time came. Wè know not why the attempt to puncture the bladder was not made through the bottom of the abfcefs, unlefs it was, that the wound of the bladder would more readily heal above the pubis. But the probability of the urine alfo finding its way through the abfcefs, as actually happened, was very great.

XI. The Hiftory of a Difeafe in the Head of the Tibia, with an Account of fome remarkable Appearances which prefented themselves on the Diffection of the Limb. By Mr. John Pearfon, Surgeon of the Lock Hofpital, and of the Pub

lic Difpenfary. The cafe is very inftructive. The difeafe was at the head of the tibia, and it was a large abfcefs, which had corroded the anterior and pofterior part of the bone, fo that the pulfation of the large veffels was felt through the tumour, and led to the fufpicion of an aneurism. Inftances of pulfation, communicated to tumours, are not uncommon, and the chance of error fhould be carefully guarded againft.

XII. A Cafe of Hernia Femoralis, with practical Obfervations. By Mr. Henry Watson, F. R. S. Senior Surgeon of the Westminster Hofpital.-In this cafe, the fphacelated part of the intestine floughed off, and it united, in the usual way, to the peritoneum. When the spacelus is more complete, our author recommends feparating the mortified part, having first tied the myfentery, and uniting the edges of the found part by fome stitches, fupported by a folid cylinder of ifinglafs, previously introduced into the canal. The idea is a bold one; but it has fucceeded in an experiment on a dog. Ifinglafs is prefered, because it will be eafily diffolved by the fluids; but we would recommend a fmall perforation, which, without detracting from its refiftance, would facilitate folution and fuffer the thinner fluids to pafs. It may, after it is caft, be eafily bored with a fine awl: but, perhaps, furgeons may be terrified with the apparent boldness of the attempt, and, till actually tried by the author, as he has promised in the first proper inftance, will fcarcely think it admiffible.

XIII. A remarkable Cafe of Abftinence. By Robert Willan, M. D.-The duration of the abftinence was fixty-one days: the drink was water, from half a pint to a pint each day, with a little juice of orange: two oranges lafted a week. When food had been given gradually, the patient feemed to recover, but five days after the recovery had gone on, he was feized with mania, from which he was relieved, to fink into a fullen ftate; and he died, feemingly from weakness, about feven days afterwards. In the progrefs of his abftinence he had one tool, the fecond day, and no other till the fortieth. He flept very little, and ufed no exercife. As he wrote much, it appeared that his ideas were foon obfcured, and his mind, not long afterwards, confufed. Perhaps the whole was a cafe of mania, repreffed only, but not cured, by abftinence.

XIV. Cafe of a Dropfy of the Ovarium; with Remarks on the Paracentesis of the Abdomen, By Mr. Edward Ford, Surgeon of the Westminster General Difpenfary.-In this inftance, the most remarkable circumftance is the fudden filling, which, at laft, amounted to three pints, three ounces, daily. But, in this refpect, as well as in the quantity of water evacuated by tapping, we have feen accounts of patients who have exceeded Mrs. Ann Mafon in the rapidity of accumula

tion, as well as the quantity of accumulated fluids. During eighteen days, the inhalation amounted to at least 137 pints. The general remarks are judicious and practical. The inconveniences of the operation are properly pointed out, and among these our author mentions the wounding of fome branch of the epigaftric artery. A little bloody matter following the water is a circumftance, in general, of no importance; and, when a hardness is felt round the former wound, it is not always (perhaps fcarcely ever) an indication of cohefion. One inftance is mentioned, where a tumefied fpleen was wounded by the

trocar.

XV. Obfervations on the Effects of Camphor, applied externally, in fome Cafes of Retention of Urine. By Mr. John Latham, F. R. S. Surgeon at Dartford.-Camphor, it is well known, is a powerful corrector of irritability or inflammation in the urinary organs; but it was not fo well known that its effects were the fame, when introduced into the blood by the abforbents. In these instances, however, it was useful when rubbed in at fome distance from the organs affected.

XVI. Cafe of an Injury of the internal Table of the Scull, fuccessfully treated. By Mr. Charles Brandon Trye, Surgeon of the Gloucester Infirmary.-The cafe is fingular. From a blow the internal part of the table of the fcull was injured without any apparent injury of the external, and a part of the former was abforbed the life of both feems to have been destroyed to a certain extent. The symptoms were pain, irritation, chronic inflammation, a thickening of the pericranium, &c. cannot approve of the language of the remarks, where fo much knowledge and defign are attributed to nature: the effects in all these circumstances are neceffary confequences of the prior change.

XVII. Cafe of a Rupture of the Corpora Cavernofa Penis. By Mr. Charles Brandon Trye, Surgeon of the Gloucester Infirmary. The rupture was occafioned by a blow, when the cells were fully diftended: the fymptoms were not fingular, and no inconvenience feems to have followed.

XVIII. Account of a mortified Hand, which was taken off at the Joint of the Wrift. By Mr. John Latham, F. R. S. Surgeon at Dartford in Kent.-This cafe is in no respect extraordinary.

XIX. Óf the different Kinds or Species of Inflammation, and of the Caufes to which thofe Differences may be ascribed. By James Carmichael Smyth, M. D. Fellow of the College of Phyficians, and of the Royal Society; and Physician extraordinary to his Majefty.-Dr. Smyth divides inflammations according to their caufes, the functions of the parts inflamed, their natural texture, or a texture induced by difeafe. The

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caufe