• our mother-country. A grand profpect of maturity, which opens a large sphere to exercise the laudable ambition of patriotism in our mother-country, and in the generous Spirits of this ifland; enlarging our views beyond all little private contentions and animofities. A French Author had the courage to whisper in the ears of "the ambitious Monarch Lewis XIV. that to favour marriages, 'to grant affiftance to a father burthened with a numerous family, to watch over the education of youth, particularly orphans and foundlings; to establish wholesome laws; to help ' and promote industry, commerce, and trade; to adminifter impartial justice; to relieve unfortunate merit; to countenance religion and virtue; to reclaim barren lands, and to make them profitable; is to ftrengthen a state more than can be by conquefts, and to conquer new countries, without making any one perfon miferable; preferable to the glittering glory of feizing the like quantities of lands by deftructive wars, or any other giddy pursuit of power, grandeur, or applause. The object (fayeth that Author) which the legislature ought always to have in view, is to render men as happy as their mi⚫ferable condition will admit. Truely noble and godlike fentiments! Well would it be for mankind, were all Princes, 'Minifters, Rulers, and Law-givers, directed by such principles, instead of the contrary policy, which feems to influence too many. It may be added, that the prefent fituation and circumftances of this ifland, afford opportunities of ftrengthening ⚫ our little state by all the means here mentioned, not only with❝out making any perfon miferable, but by beftowing a real happinefs; in relieving many from indigence and poverty, and others from the oppreffion of tyrannic power; adopting them the subjects of a mild and free government, and bestow⚫ing on them a comfortable means of fubfiftence for themselves and their pofterity. This work is already begun with a generous ardour, in appropriating a large fund for the encouragement of ftrangers to come and fettle among us; nor can it ⚫ be imagined, that the industrious poor inhabitants now here, will want for fuitable encouragement to continue among us; they have a nearer title to the tenderness and care of our legiflature, and will never be excluded from that encouragement < held out fo liberally to ftrangers." L Medical, Chirurgical, and Anatomical Cafes and Experiments, communicated by Dr. Haller, and other eminent Physicians, to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm. Tranflated from the Swedish Original. Illuftrated with Copper-plates. 8vo. 5s. Linde, &c. Otwithstanding the names of the celebrated Haller and Linnæus are, among others, prefixed to a few of the papers. in this Collection, we conceive the greater part of them are better calculated for the Meridian of that kingdom in whofe language they were originally wrote, than for ours into which they are tranflated. For as we may juftly pretend to an earlier and more extensive acquaintance with Medicine, Surgery, and Phyfics, in general, than the Swedes, it follows, that many of the Cafes which are new to them, will be paralleled by fimilar ones, long fince occurring among ourselves, and recorded either in our Philofophical Transactions, or other English books. Nevertheless, as fimilar or repeated Cafes, when not very common, do not difguft all Readers; as there are fome pieces which may be of general ufe in this volume; and as there is a great appearance of truth, probity, and good intention diffused through the whole Collection, we fhall abftract a few fpecimens from the moft useful and fingular pieces. But we would previously obferve to the Editors and Proprietors of fuch Tranflations, the great expedience of their getting them revifed before publication, by fome better master of our Idiom than the present Tranflator from the Swedish feems to be: many errors in that refpect occurring in thefe pieces, fome few of which are attended with an obfcurity of the fenfe. It were indeed to be wished, that every Tranflator of Medical Papers had a Medical Education, and fo of the reft; but this, which may fometimes happen, is not always to be expected. N a The Cafe of an offeous Excrefcence near the eye, related by Dr. Sporing, is very extraordinary. It happened to a robust Peafant, in his thirty-fifth year, being preceded with violent pains in his head, accompanied with an inexpreffibie heat and shooting, chiefly over his eye-brows. At the end of a month there fuddenly appeared, betwixt the nofe and the right eye, a hard node of the bignefs of a fmall bean, with an aqueous liquor copioufly iffuing from that eye. It appears, by a plate of it, to have been of an oblong and irregular figure, with confiderable afperities, above an inch in breadth, and between two and three long. It remained from November 1724, to March 1738, when it dropped off of itfelf; the pain immediately ceafed; and the ball of the eye, which was forced out by it to the oppofite corner, corner, gradually returned into its focket. This Excrefcence, which the Tranflator terms an Excretion, was given by Profeffor Sporing to the Academy, where it is treasured up. In the Paper containing Linnæus's enquiry into the reason of the great frequency of Epilepfies in Schonen and Wernsharad in Smoland, we find he afcribes it to their curing children's Scaldheads, to which most of them are fubject, by ablutions of cold water; which he supposes, not improbably, may repel the humour to the brain: and from which he earnestly diffuades his countrywomen, If Mr. Strandberg's method of fhortening the continuance of the Whooping Cough, which, he says, ufually lafted eleven or twelve weeks, by curing it in two, or at moft in three, fhall be verified by further experience, his Memoir on fo obftinate and dreadful a diforder, muft prove a very acceptable,prefent to mankind. This, he tells us, he effected, by premising the Arcanum Tartari, in order to attenuate the Vifcofity; but he has omitted the process of this Arcanum, which, if it is not another name for fome known preparation of Tartar, may be found perhaps in fome foreign Difpenfatories, as the Arcanum Corallinum and the Duplicatum, are in fome of ours. After this he vomited with Oxymel of Squills; purged with Senna, Manna, Caffia, Rhubarb, and Solubile Tartar, and then chiefly depended on a Decoction of the Bark to compleat the cure. He complains, as an impediment to the cure of this terrifying diforder, that the Nurfes in his country are fometimes fo felfish, as to embezzle the remedies, and not adminifter what was prefcribed. This whimfical felony is undoubtedly irregular, notwithstanding it has been ftrongly affirmed, that the omiffion of phyfic has fometimes been attended with extraordinary cures. The number of Cafes, as enumerated in the Contents prefixed to this Collection, are thirty one: but fome of these contain more than one, and others feveral cafes. The Experiments, as fome of them are improperly called, being rather Cafes and Obfervations, are fourteen. The Plates, which are numbered to five, are engraved in three, and contain about a dozen figures. The Cafe, Number 1, of a young man cured of a Gutta Serena, and Lameness in his right arm and hand, by the use of Emetics, is extraordinary; and was prefented to the Society by Dr. Ribe, Phyfician to his Swedish Majefty.-It may be queried, whether thefe Emetics here, did not operate somewhat like Electricity. The Difquifition on the Tetter-Worm in Sweden, by Nils Rofen, Cafe 12, is very particular and curious. It is an internal worm, and appears narrow and ferrated, by the en 5 graved graved figure of it: the fymptoms of it were often mistaken in women for hysterical ones. The nineteenth Cafe, being that of a man cured of a Dropsy after four tappings, tranfmitted by Mr. Daflow, is extraordinary, and feems to have been chiefly effected by the strength, and fagacity, as it were, of Nature. The twenty-fourth Cafe, by Dr. Wahlbom, gives an inftance of a worm's being discharged by a woman, which, in three weeks after, became a perfect fly, of the larger kind. The twenty-fifth, by Mr. Rosen, gives a detail of a horrid variety of infects, as beetles, fpiders, &c. difcharged by ftool from a woman of distinction. The abftract of Profeffor Stromer's Treatife on Electricity, contains little worth mentioning here, as a majority of the few Patients it mentions, were rather relieved than cured. But the abstract from Dr. Lindhalt's Journal of Disorders, either abated or happily cured by Electricity, at Stockholm, in November and December 1752, is fo remarkable and recent, that we shall conclude our account of this Collection with it. 1. A Gentleman was for fome time fo troubled with a ringing in his left ear, that, without speaking louder than usual, he could not hear. Being electrified, he heard in two or three minutes. 2. A perfon aged fifty-feven, became fo deaf in confequence of a wound over the eyebrow, that, to make him hear, it was neceffary to pronounce the words at his ear with great force; and thus he continued thirty years. The laft ten he had also a loud tingling in them, and an almost inceffant pain in his teeth. Upon being electrified, he grew fo well, that the pain left him, and he hears diftinctly.-It is not mentioned here, whether the Patient heard words afterwards at a common pitch of the voice. -The third Cafe is a perfect recovery from deafness of fix years ftanding, by Electricity. The fourth and fifth are confiderable amendments. It is added to the laft, that in pains of the joints or mufcles, the Patients find a great deal of relief from Electrification; the pain beginning immediately to abate, and being at laft entirely removed. The fixth Cafe is that of a Stonecutter, whofe knees and legs were contracted, and his fingers bent and knotty, from the gout, and who was enabled by Electricity in a few days to go to work. The feventh Cafe, is the cure of a violent pain in the fhin, which difabled the Patient from moving; to which he was perfectly reftored, and freed from the pain, in a few days, by Electricity. The eighth, is the recovery of a knee bent and immoveable for fix years, fo that the Patient could fcarcely extend his leg. His knee recovered its ufe on the third Electrification, and he could put his foot to the ground without any difficulty. The ninth seems a compleat compleat cure of a Lameness of feven years ftanding, after electrifying thirteen days. The tenth, is the cure of a Lameness · after the Small-pox. The eleventh, an amendment only of a lame arm after diflocation. The twelfth, and last Cafe, is that of a lad eleven years old, who, from the age of two, had a Lameness in his right arm and hand, fo that he could not eafily bring his fingers together, or make ufe of his hand. Having been only three times electrified, he can readily take up a pin from the ground, and has ever fince continued to mend and grow ftronger. To conclude, we are to confider this account as given within the fpace of a very few months, or weeks, after these Patients had been first electrified. K An Effay on the Difeafes of the Head and Neck. To which is add- TH HIS Phylician and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Sciences tells us, in a very crude puerile Preface, That as he has the fatisfaction of not being guilty of any wilful error, [in this performance, we fuppofe] he may reasonably conclude, he fhall not be cenfured by the generous part of mankind, and men of learning.' Now, if an inclination not to err, (which may be fuppofed a very general inclination) were to be a fufficient apology for errors, this muft preclude all men of learning from cenfuring the moft trifling pretenfions to fcience, and leave ignorant and erroneous Writers to be discovered only by Readers of their own capacity and attainments: from whence our Author may obferve, what a reasonable conclufion he has made. The end of his Preface is much in the fame fpirit; as he there defires those who criticize on, and ridicule other men's • works, although ever fo well writ, to fufpend their indignation, till they fhall vouchfafe to oblige the world with a more perfect work on the fame fubject.' This condition would perfuade or oblige us to write a better book on the Diseases of the Head and Neck, and a better Differtation on the Gout and Rheumatifin, than Dr. Stevens has done, before we find the leaft fault with his Effay. At the fame time it is quite clear to us, that this Gentleman neither defires us to excel him on these subjects, nor would admit us to have done it, tho' we should. But as we cannot confider this extraordinary Poftulatum as really inferring any effectual difqualification in us to judge of his prefent work, any more than our not having REV. Aug. 1758. L becn |