242

REVIEW.-Dr. Jenner on Artificial Eruptions.

Here Dr. J. observes,

"This girl exhibited a curious illustration of my opinions respecting involuntary, and indeed voluntary muscular exertions. The right arm was frequently thrown into action during the day. If it was held so forcibly as to restrain involuntary motion, the jugular veins were observed to swell, and she fell to the ground if the arm was not set at liberty. Muscular exertion, which tends to equalize the circulation, may here be involuntarily called into violent action, for distributing a preternatural quantity of blood thrown upon the brain during the paroxysms, and which, if impeded, would be followed by consequences injurious to its structure. This remark admits of extensive illustrations, which would lead me too far from my present path of inquiry. I would just notice not only those involuntary and sudden motions which we designate by the term "fits," whether epileptic, hysteric, or whatever they may be, but also the voluntary motions, when the brain has become turgid from any adequate exciting cause, produced under various modifications of vehemence, from the thump on the cushion to the contortions of the orator,

as so frequently exemplified within the walls

of both Houses of Parliament. How well do I remember the strong and characteristic action of the late Messrs. Fox, Pitt, Grattan, and a host of public characters. You may say, my dear Charles, that this case is equivocal; and I am not averse to admit, that inflammatory action, excited in any manner in the line of the spine, might have produced the same salutary effect."

P. 13.

Mania. Case ix. p. 13. Hysteria, running into Mania. Case x. p. 14.

Mania. Case xi. p. 15. At the end of four days, the usual eruption appeared, and she immediately became much better, (p. 16); a relapse ensued, but upon renewal of the practice she got well. A third relapse followed, but through the neglect of the parents, in not applying the ointment, the hope of complete recovery was lost. Ibid.

Hypochondriasis. Case xii. p. 17. Pyrosis [of Cullen-water, wash the mouth running over with saliva, and diseased mucous membranes of the lungs.] The mucous membranes sym. pathized very conspicuously with the artificial pustules. Case xiii. p. 20.

Hysteria. Hypochondriasis. Decided convalescence. Cases xiv. xv. p.

20.

Haemoptoe. [Spitting blood.] Case xvi. p. 21.

Pulmonary affections with Hamop

[March,

toe. Chronic Bronchitis with Hæmoptoe," renewal of the eruptions gave immediate ease," p. 23. Case xvii.

Pyrosis, with jaundice. Within six weeks the patient resumed his laboriCase xviii. ous occupation as a sawyer. p. 23.

learned Doctor next enters upon the Here the Cases terminate; and the subject of former opinions concerning the properties of tartarized antimony. Dr. Bradley admits, that in every instance it appeared to be a remedy of great efficacy, but the aversion of the patients to the irritation of the pustules prevented a fair trial (p. 26). Dr. Robinson, in a paper on Chincough, allows it to have been most remarkably and undeviatingly useful, and observes, "I have used it with advantage, even in cases where the fever was attended with delirium at night." pp. 28, 29.

A blister may simply derange the surface of the cutis, but extend no further. Upon this principle Dr. J. reasons thus:

"By the Tartrite of Antimony we can not only create Vesicles, but we can do more-we have at our command an application, which will at the same time, both vesicate and produce diseased action on the skin itself, by deeply deranging its structure beneath the surface. This is probably one cause why the sympathetic affection excited by the use of cantharides, and those changes produced by tartar emetic, are very different." p. 29.

Dr. Jenner explains this in the following manner :

"If we enter into minute inquiry, do we not perceive, that different natural dispathies with the constitution, from causes, eases of the skin have their peculiar symwhich from analogy admit of imitation by the use of artificial irritants? First, have we not those diseases, which take away the cuticle, expose the raw surface of the cutis, and excite a new diseased action on the

abraded surface, which then discharges a fluid apparently 'consisting of little more than serum, next a semi purulent, and, lastly, a discharge nearly purulent? Secondly, diseases or derangements in the cutis itself, which call a train of sympathies into action of a still more extensive and important nature and, thirdly, the subcutaneous affections of the cellular membrane, which indeed do not admit, strictly speaking, of being directly classed with the pure diseases of the skin, though the skin becomes indirectly affected, as in biles or carbuncles?

1822.]

REVIEW.-Dr. Jenner on Artificial Eruptions.

buncles? Hence then, in all probability, arise their complexity and extensive effects on the constitution." p. 30.

Dr. Jenner then observes, that Nature herself suggests this remedy; by throwing out on the skin, in the form of eruptions, diseases, which might otherwise prove fatal. p. 31.

Upon this head he says,

"Whoever has observed the deranged state of health, where vesiculated eruptions have been called into action, by an effort of nature, must have seen how often they arrest the progress of the original disorder, and may we not from thence infer what appears to me to be a pretty general law of nature, that she often gets rid of diseased action affecting vital organs, by exciting eruptions in other parts not vital? I am aware that this doctrine is not entirely new or unobserved; but though the phenomena have been so often described, have we taken the hint in our treatment of diseases either

chronic or acute? The humoral pathologists maintained the metastasis of diseases; but, instead of arguing that eruptive affections were exchanges of diseased action, they considered them to be the drains by which certain humours existing in a depraved condition of the circulating fluids were carried off." p. 32.

проп

rium

Dr. J. then offers the following illustrations: (i) the loss of catarrh the appearance of eruptions on the lips; (i) Dr. Ferriar's remark, who (Medical Histories, vol. II. p. 69) observes, "Cutaneous eruptions often extinguish dangerous diseases, such as madness, melancholy, epilepsy, deli protracted after fever, dyspepsia, various pulmonary affections, which," he says, are all observed to be mitigated or removed on the appearance of cutaneous disorders." (p. 34.) But he adds, that mere efflorescences are void of effect. Why it so happens Dr. J. thus explains (p. 34, note), "Here there was no vesicular eruption, which in general seems the favourite scheme of Nature for limiting the duration of peculiar morbid actions." p. 34. Dr. F. admits in favour of the practice in general, that there is no safer Conversion than that to the skin (p. 35) and Dr. J's opinion is, that a new disease may be created, which suppresses another (p. 39.)

Huxham, on Fevers, allows, that there is a great consent between the Akin and the lungs, as is evident in a repelled itch, small pox, measles, &c. which immediately fall on the breast." pp. 220, 221.

243

Dr. Parry (Elem. of Pathology, chap. Relation of Diseases of Conversion) admits, that such eruptions give very important information as to the nature and cause of diseases (p. 38). Here Dr. Jenner observes, that "the particular interest of these quotations does not consist so much in their simple pathological consideration, as in the mutual resemblance of the effects of the natural and artificial process." p.38.

Dr. J. observes (pp. 40, 41) that in cases of confluent small pox, which universally envelopes the skin and must unavoidably prove fatal; the progress of the pustules may be suspended in limine by the skin being sponged (leaving a portion untouched) with that powerful coagulant Liq. Lythargyri somewhat diluted. This he illustrates by a strong case.

Dr. Cullen has made secondary fever, in confluent small pox, a mere continuation of primary fever, a remark founded upon simple similarity of action; but Dr. J. contends, that the first and second fevers are not such successions of each other, but matters of distinct origin and action, and that the second is a process, instituted by nature for the purpose of subduing the first. This he illustrates by analogy with ordinary occurrences of exanthemata and fevers.

Dr. J. next observes (p. 43) that wherever fever is of such a nature as to have at first a bad tendency, the eruption appears quickly, and he infers, that the fatality of the plague may often be owing to the tardy appearance of the eruptions, or their mere assumption of the form of small carbuncles, which do not give out a fluid.-Dr. J. then adduces the most pithy instances of the distresses of the constitution, when the eruptions disappear in measles, or natural or inoculated small pox; but he observes, that when the eruptions have not the proper vesicular character, the indications are the reverse of being favourable (p. 44). His illustration from the plague is important, as being strongly in aid of his theory, in which he is supported by the first authorities*.

When the plague is unattended by buboes, it runs the more rapidly, and is nied by such inflammations. The earlier more generally fatal than when accompa they appear, the milder usually is the dis

ease.

When they proceed kindly to suppuration, they always prove critical, and

ensure

244

REVIEW.-Dr. Jenner on Artificial Eruptions.

It is this, that the smallest appearance of a fluid upon the apices of the tumors are sufficient to give them a favourable operative character; and he then queries

"Whether the tendency of many diseases, arising from the action of animal poisons brought in contact with the human body, does not in general, from want of such aid from Nature, take a more fatal course?" P. 46.

Dr. J. further thinks, (p. 47) that the sympathy between the constitution and the skin is created through the medium of the brain and nervous system. Here we tread tender ground, though we see nothing advanced which is not plausible. Dr. J. is of opinion, that too much stress has been laid exclusively on the stomach, and that without recollection of the connexion between that organ and the brain; even the power of thinking, and the formation of ideas, have been unwarily ascribed to it. We beg not to be misunderstood. Dr. J. simply limits his opinions to the exclusion of any intellectual action in this grand viscus, without derogating from its manifest high rank in the animal œconomy.

Dr. J. then proceeds to the possible good operation of the process in Hydrophobia; but we regret to find, that as he has never seen a case of hydrophobia in the human subject, he can have nothing to offer which is not merely speculative. But his reasoning from analogy is ingenious. He considers Tetanus arising during the presence of an external wound, as one of the diseases which owes its origin, like Hydrophobia, to a morbid poison generated by secretion, and brought into contact with the skin (p. 51). He adduces in support of this remark an ingenious position of Dr. Colles, who maintains that the Trismus nascentium and traumatic Tetanus are the same; the former arising from the suppuration of the umbilical cord; and adds the case of a friend, who lost his life by the puncture of a thorn, "when the disease assumed a marked similitude to hydrophobia; and the sufferer expired after the same lapse of time in one instance as in the other." p. 52.

ensure the patient's recovery.——— Thomas's Practice of Physick, p. 204. Ed. 3. We could quote other authorities, but have taken that which of course condenses scattered information." Rev.

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Here we must take leave of this important and ingenious work; and most warmly recommend it to public attention; for assuredly in diseases of the dreadful description to which it bears relation, even partial, and far inferior success to that which it claims, would be a vast point gained, but that we have reason to hope the best is further evident from the following outlines of cases, with which we shall conclude.

"One is a case of hysteria, in a young lady of a peculiarly delicate constitution, and attended with symptoms of rare occurrence in this disease. The morbid sensibility of the spinal cord, from its extremity to the brain, was so evident, that merely walking across the room, if her steps were not cautiously attended to, gave an intolerable jarring sensation, from the lower portion of the spine to the brain itself. It was of three months standing, and she had been attended by gentlemen of highly distinguished eminence in their profession :but the ordinary remedies availed little. The other was a state of scrophulous ulceration and thickening of the pereosteum of the left fore-arm, which, in spite of those regradually advancing nearly for the space of medies deemed most efficacious, had been three years, and very little hopes were entertained of the limb being saved. Seeing the efficacy of the artificial pustule, in internal derangements of the vital organs, I recommended the patient to apply the ointment on the sound arm. After it had produced its usual effect a few days, the wounds assumed a new aspect, and the healing process went on with such wonderful rapidity, that at the expiration of little more than a month, one out of three wounds was healed, and the other two fast approaching towards ening of the periosteum." p. 66. it, with a sensible reduction of the thick

34.

Memoirs of James the Second, King of England, &c. &c. Collected from Various Authentic Sources. 2 vols. 8vo. vol. i. pp. 307. vol. ii. pp. 300. Baldwin and Co.

DR. KING, the Jacobite principal ed, that the misfortunes of the Stuarts of St. Mary Hall, Oxford, has observlution to make circumstances conform were owing to their determined resothat Providence was so tenacious of to their inclinations, from an opinion, the prosperity of Kings, that it would We all know the fable of the oak and always adapt events to their wishes. the willow; and it would be an insult to our readers to reason one moment upon an illusion so absurd as that acted upon by the unfortunate Princes in question. A fool often suffers as severely as a rogue; and the temporal

REVIEW.-Memoirs of James II.

246

REVIEW. Mr. G. Penn on the Iliad.

and their clothes being taken from them, they were naked, ruined, and compelled to become wanderers in the land of their birth, and urged on by distress to fearful acts of desperation." p. 49.

We, of course, omit the Magdalen College affair, the Ecclesiastical Commission, the trial of the Bishops, and other foolish things, as quite hack nied. We have said enough to show that the measures of James, as a Constitutional King, were intolerable; and to confirm the remark of our author (ii. 78) that men are more eager to propagate their religious opinions, than to attend to their practical uses.

These volumes are judiciously and tastefully compiled, and rendered as lively and pleasant reading as a good novel. In short, the work is highly instructive and interesting. It ought to be read by all Englishmen, as a sort of accompaniment to our Constitutional and Philosophical Bibles, for though the History of Fatuity can convey only melancholy reflectious, yet that of Etourderie and Wrongheadedness, seems often to be a deviation which leads to most advantageous consequences; like the excursion of an obstinate silly fellow in an unknown country, who makes a valuable discovery by blundering out of the road, or incurs a danger, against which otherwise no provision would have been made. Both these consequences, with regard to the Constitution, resulted from the bigotry of James.

35. An Examination of the Primary Argument of the Iliad. By Granville Penn, Esq. 8vo. pp. 366. Ogle and Co.

CERTAIN learned critics taking the primary argument of the Iliad to be the "Anger of Achilles," or the "Prayer of Thetis," find that the poem does not thus harmonize with the Aristotelian rules concerning the Epopea (notwithstanding the assertion of Aristotle himself to the contrary); for, if the subject were the "Anger of Achilles," there is an excess in the poem of nearly seven books, if "the Prayer of Thetis," "of two." (Penn, pp. 1, 2, 22.) From hence, with the speed of the fast-going clock, which an honest Hibernian said, gained a quarter of an hour in five minutes, they have proceeded to infer that the last books were not written by Homer,

[March,

that there was no such person, that the Iliad is a consarcination of parts by various authors, and other hypotheses, discussed and exploded by Mr. Penn, in his eleventh chapter.

Blair pretends that the Iliad has no higher subject than the quarrel of two Chiefs about a female slave. (See p. 33.)

Mr. Penn says (p. 27), "We may venture to pronounce that Achilles's anger alone, unsubjected to a more exalted argument, would never have given rise to the Iliad." Upon this principle, some continental writers suggest that the Iliad was written to divided into numerous small states, impress upon the Greeks who were the necessity of union and harmony among themselves. For this purpose Homer lays before them the evils which ensued to their ancestors, from the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, and the advantages which followed their reconciliation. This opinion Mr. Twining (if he alludes to it in the following sentence," Homer wrote his Iliad on purpose to teach mankind the mischief of discord among the Greeks") says is manifestly absurd. (Aristot. p. 561, cited in Penn, p. 211.)

Mr. Granville Penn, with a most elegant exhibition of ingenuity and learning, contends that

"Whether we seek the primary argument in the narrative, or in the proem, we find it to be the same in each, viz. the sure and

irresistible power of the divine will over the most resolute and determined will of man, demonstrated in the case of Achilles." (Page 200.)

ourselves. The shoe was made before Upon this point we shall not commit the last. The Homeric poems furnished Aristotle with the rules for the Epic, and Homer is not to be tried by ex post facto laws. The Bards in all ages have celebrated Heroes and heroic acts upon laureat principles alone, without any moral or other view or feeling than gratitude and patriotism; and, according to antient habits in relation to this subject, Homer might have no other meaning than what he has given in his proem, for otherwise he would perhaps have distinctly specified it. In the heroic ages, when battles chiefly consisted of duels between individuals, the invincible prowess of one man

*Why so? it is a very natural inference : perhaps a correct one.