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ferment is intimately mixed with the whole mafs; now the whole mafs of blood may rationally be fuppofed to be affected, without being entirely affimilated or diftempered.

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Malignant fevers, fays the Doctor, do alfo depend on a peccant humour, which must be concocted, in order to give the difeafe a profperous iffue.' This is a good fort of a medical fentence, which, however, conveys no diftin&t, idea. To be perfectly understood, it would be neceffary, to inform us, what he precifely means by the terms malignant fever, peccant humour, and concoction. In the fame chapter our author takes occafion to contradict those who are of opinion that the medical virtue of the bark confifts in its antiseptic power; becaufe, fays he, we are poffeffed of many things that are more antifeptic than the bark, but that are wholly ineffectual in obftinate agues and gangrenes.' He is of opinion, that its falutary effects are to be afcribed to its cordial and corroborating quality. As to its cordial quality, it may be answered, almost in his own words, that we are poffeffed of many more powerful cordials; and as to its corroborative quality, it is fufficient to obferve, that many robust people are afflicted with the ague, who ftand in no need of corroborants, and who, nevertheless, are cured by the bark.

Some medicines, fays the Doctor, have, doubtless, fpecific powers of correcting the peculiar acrimonies peculiar to the peccant humours in fome different diseases. The farfaparilla is deftructive of the contagious matter in the venereal disease.' If it were not impolite to contradict a positive assertion, we should fay, that the farfaparilla is poffeffed of no fuch virtue.

Veficatories, fays the author, are exceeding ferviceable in flow nervous fevers, not by raifing the pulfe, by means of their ftimulus, as is commonly fuppofed, but by attracting the peccant humour from the noble parts.' If this were true, how happens it that, in those fevers, as foon as they cease to ftimulate, they ceafe to be beneficial, and that continuing the dif charge, without fresh ftimulus, answers no purpofe?

Still fond of differing from vulgar opinions, It is, I think, fays he, generally fuppofed, that highly animalized juices are moft fufceptible of putrefaction; yet, I prefume, there is a moral certainty of the contrary. The bile fhould feem to be an highly animalized juice, fince it is conducive towards the affimilation of the chyle; yet it advances more flowly to putrefaction than red blood.' This fentence thould be thus reverfed the bile advances more flowly to putrefaction than red blood, because it is lefs animalized, as he is pleased to call it. His next argument is, that veal, which is fed with milk, becomes tainted much fooner than beef, which is fed with grafs.

This inftance is rather unfortunate for the doctor, as it is a strong ärgument against him; for milk, though acefcent, is undoubtedly more animalized than grafs, therefore veal becomes fooner tainted than beef. But he might have affigned even a better reason than this.

From these few examples it will appear, that our author is apt to draw conclufions from false principles; that he is fond of deftroying old theories, without being poffeffed of fufficient materials to erect new ones. Nevertheless, we do not by any means condemn his book as an useless performance. On the contrary, it contains many practical obfervations, which, at least, deserve confideration; and, upon the whole, we applaud his difinclination to adopt received opinions, merely on the credit of former writers, as nothing contributes more to retard the progress of fcience, than implicit faith in the doctrines of emi

nent men.

IV. Anglo-Norman Antiquities Confidered, in a Tour through Part of Normandy, by Doctor Ducarel. Illuftrated with twentySeven Copper-plates. Large Folio. Pr. 1. 11s. 6d. Vaillant. F every antiquary would purfue his ftudies to the fame purpofe, and upon the like rational principles which this author has followed, that species of knowledge would be no longer confidered as lefs refpectable than the cobwebs which cover it, but efteemed as a liberal and useful acquifition. We cannot, however, forbear thinking that this performance must be mortifying to a true-born Englishman. Every journey, every movement of the doctor must remind him that England was a country conquered by Frenchmen; that they employed the fruits of their conqueft in decorating their own paltry duchy; that their monuments of fuperftition were erected by the fpoils of this nation; and that to this day the title of the king of England is confidered in that province, only as fecond to that of duke of Normandy.

In the dedication to a right reverend prelate, mention is made of his lordship's having obferved, about the year 1742, a difference between the mode of architecture used by the Normans in their buildings, and that practifed by the contempo rary Saxons in England. Some difficulties having been started on this head, our author, in the year 1752, went into Normandy on purpofe to view and examine fuch buildings of duke William (for fo the conqueror of England is called) as were remaining in Caen, and other places in that neighbourhood. The publication before us contains the refult of the author's

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inquiries, which confirm the rules his lordship had drawn up. According to Dr. Ducarel, the ancient Normans, though a warlike, were by no means a barbarous, people. They prized the sweets of society, and were fond of cultivating the polite arts, especially architecture and defign, many convincing evidences of which are exhibited in this work.

In the beforementioned dedication, we find some very curious remarks upon the origin of broad feals. The Doctor is of opinion, that the use of the broader great feals, and the affixing impreffions of them in wax, by pendant labels, to charters and other public inftruments, for their better confirmation, and the afcertaining of their authenticity, was known to be practifed by the Normans very early; and from them it is probable, that this cuftom paffed into England. He then defcribes the broad feals of Edward the Confeffor, which are of undoubted authenticity; one of them, in the poffeffion of private gentlemen, appendant to a Saxon deed, is here engraved. It does not appear that Harold, who fucceeded Edward the Confeffor, ever ufed a broad feal. To fupply that defect, says our author, the only representation of that prince, now known to be extant, is here engraven in Plate I. We are beholden, for its first publication, to the induftry of father Montfaucon, who copied it from a beautiful illuminated drawing in a manufcript prayer-book, written in England in the eleventh century, and preferved in the library of the late monfieur Colbert. Harold is therein reprefented as fitting on his throne upon a cufhion he refts his feet on a footftool, and holds a banner in his right hand; and in his left, a fceptre furmounted by a dove on each fide the throne is a ftand, or tripod, on which lies a book open; and near to each tripod, is the figure of a faint, with his right hand elevated, as pronouncing the benediction *.'

The

* Without interrupting the progrefs of our review, we shall mention a fact recorded by Bowmaker, the continuator of Fordun, who lived at the time when the discovery was made, viz. in 1386, when the Scots were invading Cumberland under Robert Stuart earl of Fife, fecond fon to Robert II. of Scotland. He tells us, that among other fpoils which were brought to the general, was a very old charter, fealed with a large feal of wax, with the following words: "I kyng Adelftan giffs here to Paulan Oddan and Roddan, als gud and als fair, as evyr thai myne war, and thar to wytnes Mald my wiffe." The author adds, that when the earl of Fife, under the name of the duke of Albany, came to be governor of Scotland, he

ufed,

The work is ufhered in with fome geographical and genea logical accounts of the town and earls of Eu, who made fo confiderable a figure in the French hiftory, and may prove highly useful to the heralds and antiquaries of both nations. Every thing remarkable about the town is likewife defcribed, as are also the antiquities, rarities, buildings, and fituations of all the country through which the author paffed, till he came to Rouen, the capital of Upper Normandy. We are told that the public buildings of this city make a handsome appearance; but that the streets in general are narrow, and the houses ill built; that the inhabitants amount to upwards of fixty thoufand; and that by means of the Seine they carry on a very brisk trade with Paris, and the internal parts of the kingdom. Mention is likewife made of the fpot where the famous Joan of Arc was burnt for a witch, in 1431, and (fays the Doctor) it is worth observing, that the doctors of the Sorbonne, who were confulted by the duke of Bedford, then regent of France, pronounced unanimoufly for her execution.' Here we beg leave to differ from this learned writer, in thinking that the fact he fpeaks of is not worth obferving. The ignorance, violence, and superstition of those doctors are notorious to this day; neither do we find that the Pucelle was burnt for a witch, but for retracting her abjuration, by which fhe became a heretic relapsed.

The defcription of the cathedral of Rouen, which contains the remains of fome of our greatest English princes, who are here delineated from antient statues and pictures, fills us with very high ideas of the old Norman magnificence; and the author has tranfmitted to the public a great variety of monu mental learning, which must prove equally agreeable and inftructive to all lovers of antiquity.

ufed, while he was fitting in judgment, to praife the fuccinctnefs and fimplicity of this charter.

If this fact, as related by Bowmaker, is true, it fixes the date of great feals in England much higher than the time of Edward the Confeffor. Craig, the famous feudift and a great antiquary, thinks the feal and the charter to have been genuine. Ruddiman, in his preface to Anderfon's Selectus, fays, that he has no doubt of such a charter being found among the spoils, but that the great feal fufficiently proves it to have been forged. It is, however, certain, that princes upon the continent long before this time had made ufe of great feals. Our chief difficulty as to the authenticity arifes from the language of the charter.

The chapter of Rouen (fays he) which confifts of the arch bishop, a dean, fifty canons, and ten dignities or prebendaries, have, ever fince the reign of Henry II. king of England and duke of Normandy, enjoyed the extraordinary annual privilege of pardoning, on Afcenfion-day, any perfon confined within the jurifdiction of the city, for murder, together with his or her accomplices; and, if there happen to be no fuch prifoner, then any other malefactor, however atrocious the crime he is charged with may be, provided it is not high-treafor against his fovereign, and that he is a native of the place, The manner in which the chapter exert their privilege is this: During the three Rogation-days, two of the canons, attended by the register, and two chaplains dreffed in their furplices, vifit all the prifons within the city and fuburbs, and having taken down in writing the examinations and confeffions of the feveral malefactors, as to the crimes wherewith they respectively ftand charged, deliver the fame in to the chapter. On the morning of Afcenfion-day, the chapter having heard thefe feveral examinations and confeffions read, proceed to the election of the perfon who is to be pardoned, and, the choice being made, tranfmit his name in writing, by one of the chaplains, to the parliament, which for that purpose affemble on that day at the palace. The parliament, having received the billet from the chapter, walk in proceffion to the great chamber, whither the prifoner elect being brought before them in his fetters, and placed on a ftool, he is informed of the choice fallen upon him, and that thereby he is intitled to the Privilege of St. Romain. After this, the criminal is delivered over into the hands of the chaplain, who, accompanied by fifty mufketeers, conducts him to an apartment where the chains are taken off from his legs, and bound round his arms; and then he is led to a place called the Old Tower, where, in a small chapel dedicated to St. Romain, and built on the fcite of the ancient palace of the Norman dukes, he waits the arrival of the proceffion of St. Mary. As foon as thefe matters are notified to the chapter, the proceffion fets out from the cathedral; two of the canons, dreffed in their albes, bearing the shrine in which the reliques of St. Romain are fuppofed to be preferved. When the proceffion is arrived at the Old Tower, the fhrine is placed in the chapel, oppofite to the criminal, who is kneeling, bare-headed, with the chains on his arms; and then the archbishop, or in his abfence one of the canons, having made him repeat the confeffion, lays his hand upon his head, and fays the prayers commonly ufed at the time of giving abfolution. After this the criminal, ftill kneeling, lifts up the fhrine three times amidst the acclamations of the populace affembled to fee

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