cafes are almost entirely omitted; but this partly arifes from Dr. Hill's affecting a new theory of nervous diseases, and partly from his limiting this treatife to tremors, numbneffes, faintnefs, lowness of fpirits, and the like complaints.

Whatever the gentlemen in pharmacy may think of the tendency of this pamphlet, it is certain, that, with regard to phyficians the Doctor has made a falvo, faying, page 52, If violent fymptoms should at any time come on, let him fend for a phyfician: a nervous perfon is not exempt from other difeafes: nor is this treatise written to fet afide the fervice of the faculty, which would be an attempt equally weak and wicked.' Very wicked, to be fure, Sir! fince fuch a difpenfation with phyfical attendance might, fome time in the course of this century, deprive even the nervous Doctor Chriftian Uvedale John Hill of the emolument of a vifit, when the endeavours of his anile pupils, the herb-women, with their valerian and mother of thyme tea, and their misletoe, had been exhaufted and ineffectual. He obferves, the faculty will be furprized at what they read here of this mother of thyme, which is not used in their practice, though he has feen two defperate cafes cured folely by it.'

This may be conftrued as a gentle intimation of his brethren's ignorance, if we confider the Doctor's authority for writing this pamphlet, and the air of important practice which thus introduces it.

I have been defired by fome persons whom I have had the honour ⚫ to attend in nervous cafes, to publish a plain and practical account of thofe disorders,' &c. Now this, and many other equally well attefted inftances of the Doctor's extraordinary practice and knowlege, make it furprizing to us, that he has leifure to write; and yet, when we reflect on the dimenfions of his writings, we are not lefs furprized at his having leifure to attend to any thing eile.

Though our Author has embraced the doctrine of a nervous fluid, for which he deigns to refer to Haller and others; yet he feems to lay great ftrefs on his own diftinguishing the oppofite diforders, which he fuppofes to refult from the nervous fluids being too tough, thick and heavy, or too thin, acrid and exceffive in quantity and this diftinction, which he calls effential to the cure in his title-page, he obferves his brethren have not fufficiently attended to; plainly infinuating it as a defect at leaft in them. Now the very obvious reafon for this may have been, that the moft judicious phyficians find it difficult to conceive toughnefs, thicknefs, or heavinefs fubfifling in any fluid, which can be conveyed through the medullary fubftance of the brain, whofe fuppofed tubulofity is indifcoverable by the most exquifite application of optics; the fluid itfelf admitting of no palpable demonftration, being inferred only from confequences and effects, and perhaps abfolutely evading the inanimate body in the fame inftant with life. For furely the tough and the acrid fluids, with which Dr. Hill imagines, p. 2, he has feen the brain loaded or penetrated on diffections,' could never be the animal fpirits themselves, which he fuppofes them, or confounds them with; but were very probably the lymph, which has fometimes been found extravafated in the ventricles. At the fame time fuch phyficians can conceive, that a tough, thick, and heavy blood may not afford a proper and falutary

quantity

quantity of this untraceable fluid; and that a hot and active blood may even furnish too great a quantity of fpirits, or fpirits of an improper quality, which happens fometimes by inebriation, and in fome acute dileafes. And thus, without affirming any thing improper or improbable of the animal fpirits, they have imagined them of a fomewhat diverfe crafts and quantity in different bodies, whence various and even oppofite effects may refult, both in their healthy and morbid ftate.

But if this part of the treatife, relating to the tough Spirits, thould prove too tough for the comprehenfion of the multitude, to whom our experienced manufacturer has, upon the whole, not ill adapted his work, they must certainly find him much too tranfcendent, if not a little out of his own brain and nerves, in his chapter-Of the employment of the mind-wherein he prefcribes compofing in mufic and in poetry for certain heavy diforders of the nerves. For though indeed he fuppofes his patients in fuch a cafe to be perfons of fome genius; yet, as he says, page 31, that genius often lurks in men whose gloomy habit will difclofe no fpark of it;' and, p. 34. that fre quently a genius which might excel in poetry, languishes in dull obfcurity, for want of knowing its own powers, for want of inftigation and applaufe,'---it may happen that a young practitioner might be led by fuch principles to prefcribe mufical or poetical compofition to fome gloomy patient with thick heavy fpirits (fuppofe any Jew, or Chriftian, worth a plum or two) who had never manifefted any genius, or even difpofition for either; but in whom he might therefore fufpect it to lurk, from their gloomy habit. He might alfo think it judicious to applaud fuch another patient for poems he never compofed, in order to inftigate him to a difcovery and exercife of his powers; efpecially as Dr. Hill, after repeating, p. 32, that genius. often lies unfeen in the human breast,' affirms, he has very lately feen an inftance which may justify his faying, that nervous difor⚫ders are fometimes owing to this fmothered principle of life and vigour.' We cannot apprehend the Doctor will ever ficken from fuch a retention;—and this instance would induce us to infer, that a total fuppreffion of poetry may be as pernicious as one of urine; and that many nervous fuffocative afthmas, in which fo little is brought up, are occafioned by not bringing forth: as fome fage phyficians have fuppofed the obftinate and unfeasonable retention of the ova, the caufe of deplorable complaints:-which caufe is literally, in Dr. Hill's own terms, afmothered principle of life and vigour. Yet as he was well aware, that poets oftner run mad than turn ftupid, which in fome degree is repugnant to his fuppofition of genius being liable to heavy nervous complaints, he fays, p. 34, that fuch genius, i. e. poetical, may exift with the very worst ftate of this diforder, I could inftance in a patient, whom I am not permitted to name; among whofe papers I have feen paffages exceeding all that I have read in poetry [whe⚫ther Homer, Shakespear, Virgil, or Milton] and who has, at this time, outlines of three great works, which himself will not compleat, and with which I know no one elfe worthy to meddle.' Now though this negative knowlege means very little, we conceive it muft be no fmall humility that makes the Doctor suppress this poetical patient's name, which he might have masked under a fpare one. It is

im

impoffible that fo exquifite and univerfal a connoiffeur as the modeft Infpector, could be fo indulgently miftaken in the poetry of any third perfon. But thefe cited paffages, which foar much above phyfics, muft of courfe tranfcend the groupe of his Readers, and were thrown out perhaps to take in those of a different order, according to the fisherman's trite proverb, or phrase.

Though we might have juftly difmiffed this trivial performance fooner, we cannot conclude the article without reflecting a little on the particular fituation of a Writer, who, with fome faculties and attainments, and an infatiable appetite for employment and applaufe, has worn out his real name by writing it much too often, and finds himself reduced to peep out on the Public continually under the shifting masquerade of many ideal ones. There is nevertheless fome art, however contemptible, in this; fince on a moderate approbation being conceded to any of thefe affumed names, as to a new and very pardonable candidate in the republic of letters, the concealed proprietor referves a power of popping out of his difguife, and fnaps up the morfel with an averment in the next edition---it was I myself, J. Hill. The trick, however, is now become fo ftale, from its repetition, that there are numbers at prefent in no wife deceived by it, who exclaim at once, on perufing the firit page, and fometimes the mere title page, of thefe medical catch pennies, Ecce iterum Crifpinus ! While others, who are moderately veríed in medical Authors, view him in the fame ridiculous light with Efop's jack-daw,

moveat cornicula rifum'

Furtivis nudata coloribus

The ingenious Prior has long fince humourously faid of Writers, and particularly of fuch flippant, eafy, voluminous ones as this Author Each fhould down with all he thinks-which paffage Dr. Hill feems to have extended into a liberty of writing down alfo all that others have thought; and putting it down as his own too, by forgetting their names, and cloathing it in his own diction, under various appellations. There happens, notwithstanding, fuch a manner, which, at least is his own, in all the writings of this Prince of Compilers, (who can make a fubject of any thing, or next to nothing) that the greatest diverfity of his matter rarely conceals him: for whether he writes of God and Nature, or a West-Indian, of a Valet, or of Barrennefs, all wear the impreffion of the fame windmill, which grinds away, at an inordinate rate, indeed, and voids new books and phlets out of old ones, almost as mechanically, and as quick, as the wooden men at St. Dunstan's deal out the hours to the multitude, who have long fince forbore to admire them.

K

pam

Art. 20. Oratio Anniverfaria Harveiana in Theatro Coll. Reg. Medic. Lond. Habita Die 18 Oct. 1757. Perorante J. Montroe, M. D. et Coll. ejufdem focii. 4to. Is. Ruffel.

Though we have not been accustomed to make more than a bare mention of these annual performances, we think it neceffary to apologize for the long omiffion of this, by affuring the learned Author, that it was not owing to the leaft difrefpect of him, but merely because the advertisement had efcaped us. L RE

RELIGIOUS and CONTROVERSIAL.

Art. 21. A ferious Addrefs to the Chriftian World. 12mo. 2d. or Is. 6d. per dozen. Buckland.

The defign of this little piece is, to recommend, to Chriftians of all denominations, the mutual exercife of love, and all that is comprehended under that most amiable word, BENEVOLENCE, as the moft likely means to make the chriftian caufe revive, and flourish in all its native glories. Though nothing bids fo fair as this, for bringing christianity into credit, and reprefenting it in its moft advantages light, yet there is nothing, the Author obferves, that is lefs attended to, and to the practice of which the generality of chriftians are less difpofed. What is the reafon that Orthodoxus will not vifit his neighbour Phileleutherus? It is because he does not happen to think with him in fome abftrufe and knotty point, and can't embrace the very fame creed, at least not all the articles of it. This difference occafions a mighty load of scandal; the pulpit is made ufe of to defame the man of different judgment; the fame pulpit muft not hold minifters of the fame town or neighbourhood; chriftians are afraid to meet under the fame roof, and think it almost a fin to be commonly civil to each other. The Author laments this, and fhews how inconfiftent it is with the genius and fpirit, as well as with the interests of christianity.

Upon reading the few pages which he has written upon this subject, with the fpirit and candour of a real chriftian, we did not imagine that it was poffible for him to give offence to any person who calls himself by the chriftian name. We were mistaken however. A fiery Calvinift fteps forth, and publishes Remarks upon the ferious Addrefs, under the guife of a chriftian indeed, but with the temper and difpofition of a fury. His remarks breathe fuch a spirit of malignity, rancour, and uncharitablenefs, that it is impoffible for a candid perfon to read them with any degree of fatisfaction. The new-fcheming gentlemen, as he calls them, who have made chriftianity to be little more than a piece of refined heathenifm, talk the moft, he says, about charity, extenfive love, and diffufive benevolence, though there is not a fet of men among chriftian proteftants, that have a lefs concern to practise it. Thefe phrafes, we are told, are to be regarded as little better than cant terms to difguife their errors, and to bring mankind to love them; the evident defign of thefe fine words being only to gild over the poifonous pill of their falfe doctrine, and thereby make it look as amiable as they can. The gentlemen, fays this intemperate Writer, who have embraced a fcheme of divinity that is fubverfive of the infinite dignity of Chrift, and the grace of the gofpel. will do well to take heed to themselves, that the great and ever bleffed God does not bar the gates of heaven against them, becaufe they proudly reject that fcheme of falvation, which he has propofed to condemned and polluted creatures of the human race in the everlafting gospel.

This modeft gentleman lays no claim to infallibility, but allows that he may be miltaken with refpect to the fende of many paffages of * Remarks on the ferious Addrefs, &c. 8vo. d. Field.

fcripture ;

fcripture; and yet he cannot but believe, he fays, that the doctrines of the Trinity, of Chrift's proper divinity, of his perfect obedience, and infinitely invaluable atonement, juftification by his righteousness without the works of the law, regeneration by the efficacious influences of the Holy Spirit, the immutability of God's love, the unchangeableness of the covenant of grace, and the certain perfeverance of the faints to eternal falvation, are all as plainly revealed in the facred fcriptures, as any duty that is enjoined us.

The belief of the Athanafian doctrine of the Trinity he looks upon as effential to the chriftian scheme, and believes that those who adhere to it, ought to keep out of their communion all fuch who deny and oppose it, whether they are minifters or private men: for unless they do, they cannot pay a fuitable regard to the honour and dignity of the divine Redeemer, nor keep their churches pure and free from idolatry; for furely, he fays, thofe perfons can be looked upon as no better than idolaters, who introduce the Son and Spirit as objects of divine worship, and yet believe them to be mere creatures.

The Author of the fericus Addrefs condescends to answer + this uncharitable Remarker, and treats him with becoming freedom and fpirit. The latter, however, takes the field a fecond ‡ time, and is more noify and virulent, if poflible, than before; but he is again encountered by the Author of the Addrefs, who figns his name [Stanton] to this pamphlet; wherein he gives the Remarker a little more found correction: which, if it does not entirely cure the fever of his mind, may at leaft, we hope, cool him a little, and keep him from henceforth disturbing the neighbourhood with his intolerable raving and clamour.

8vo. 6d. Buckland.

R

† A Letter to the Author of the Remarks, &c. An Anfwer to the Letter, &c. 8vo. gd. Field. A fecond letter to the Author of the Remarks, &c. 8vo. gd. Buckland,

Art. 22. A letter to Jonas Hanway, Efq; in which fome reasons

are affigned, why houses for the reception of penitent women, wha bave been diforderly in their lives, ought not to be called Magdalen-houfes. 8vo. 6d. Noon.

The denomination given to the charity lately fet on foot by Mr. Dingley, and feveral other worthy gentlemen of the city of London, has been often objected to, as improper, in feveral refpects.

Mary Magdalen's name, they obferve has been unjustly made use of, as it cafts a reflexion on her memory, which her life by no means deferved; becaufe fhe was a woman of an unblemished character, and not an harlot, as fome have erroneously supposed.

It hath also been objected, that the ufe here made of her name, hath a canting and fanatical found; as feeming to imply, that a reformation of manners is not to be expected, without the fuppofition of an extraordinary converfion, from the utmoft depths of profligacy, to the greateft heights of penitence and piety-which we are not ordinarily to look for, in thefe days, when miracles and divine influ

ences