ledges, from other writers, and ranged in the order in which the fubject is treated in the poem. This he thought might make the poem more intelligible to thofe readers who are not ufed to medical ftudies. But, we doubt whether their knowledge will be enhanced by the explanation here contained, neither can we promise them more amusement or pro fit, from reading the poem. The number of writers who have fucceeded in giving medical inftruction in verfe, is far from being confiderable, although the attempt has been frequently made. Fracaftorius, Quillet, and St. Marthe, with our countryman Armstrong, perhaps include all who have been eminent, and with them, this author has no pretenfion to be ranked. The following lines contain as favourable a fpecimen of the poem as any we have obferved. Admonishing phthifical perfons to retire early to their beds, he says, "Give fleep to night-and vivify the day, Is what creation's good examples fay, When shades defcend-and darkness on this world, One general fenfe all Nature would inspire, And for the light fresh action to create." But more commonly we find fuch unintelligible lines as the following. When the disease is confirmed, he says, "A fontful fource, which life cannot divest, Rules in the lungs, with grasp of might intenfe, In pantings frequent-cough's diftreffing length, ART. 19. Leonidas, a Poem. By Richard Glover. Adorned with Plates. The Sixth Edition. Two Volumes. 1798. 8vo. 15s. Wright. So long as the public continues to be defirous of thefe ornamented editions of favourite poems, no objection of any confequence can be urged against them. That they are expenfive, were it a real objection, would prevent the fale, and there the matter would foon end. The typography of thefe volumes is very elegantly executed by Benfley, the plates are defigned by Hamilton, Stothard, and Burney, and are as well engraved as fuch plates ufually are. A better tafte in defign is in ge neral neral much wanted in all our books ornamented with plates; but taste will perhaps be improved by repeated attemp's. The first plate in vol, i, from a drawing of Hamilton, is worth all the reft, in design and execution. A Life of Glover is prefixed, which is chiefly taken from that drawn up by Dr. Anderson, and printed in the British Poets, but very much shortened, and lefs critical. ART. 20. The Rape of the Lock, an Heroi-Comic Poem. By A. Pope. Adorned with Plates. 8vo. 10s. 6d. Wright. 1793. Among the various and elegant editions which have been published of this poem, the prefent, with respect to beauty of typography, mult have a fuperior place. Mr. Stothard, from whofe drawings fome of the plates are engraved, feems, however, entirely to have miftaken the character of the Sylphs, who might be Wedg'd whole ages in a bodkin's eye. The Sylphs he has delineated are fine and full-grown Cupids. The volume, neverthelefs, is eminently beautiful. A Mr. Du Roveray, of Great St. Helen's, is the editor of this and the preceding publication. ART. 21. Walter and William, an Hiftorical Ballad, tranflated from the original Poem of Richard Coeur de Lion. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Boofey. By an allowable fiction, this little excurfion of a gloomy fancy, is prefented as a tranflation. It is however an evident imitation of the terrific ftyle of Burger, and other modern Germans. It is fomewhat unfortunate, that the poet always uíes Palestine instead of Pálestine; in other respects the ballad is not badly verfified, nor ill calculated to produce the intended effect of horror; though it is managed with much lefs art than the famous Lenora. DRAMATIC. ART. 22. Poverty and Wealth, a Comedy, in Five Arts, tranflated from the Danish of P. A. Heiberg, A. C. By C. H. Wiljon. 8vo. 25. Weft. 1799. This dramatic specimen is the only one that has ever been tranflated from the Danish into English. It certainly is not without a portion of intereft; but the character of Dalton is hardly to be reconciled to common fenfe or nature. He tortures his friend with the most ingenious cruelty, in order to overwhelm him with good fortune in the catastrophe. ART. 23. Cambro Britons, an Hiftorical Play, in Three Aar, first performed at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, on Saturday, July 21, 1798; with a Preface, written by James Boaden, Efq. Author of Fontainville Foreft, Italian Monk, &c. &c. 8vo. 25. Robinfons. 1798. Mr. Boaden has produced many fuccefsful pieces for the Theatre; and this is one of them. The fuccef, however, of modern performances of this kind is very tranfient; and, notwithstanding the true English English fpirit which is confpicuous throughout, "Cambro Britons," we think it will pafs away, and, ere long, be forgotten. ART. 24. Botheration, or a Ten Years Blunder, a Farce, in Two Alk, as performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. By Walley Cham berlain Oulton. 8vo. IS. Cawthorne. 1798. This piece is reprefented as having been favourably received; but what we have intimated of the preceding, is true alfo of this: nay, is it not already forgotten? NOVELS. ART. 25. Octavia, by Anna Maria Porter. In Three Volumes. 12mo. ios. 6d. Longman. 1798. A novel, without any particular merit, or any particular fault, is what fo frequently occurs, that the Critic is perpetually perplexed how to vary the expreffion of his fentiment. Go thy ways, then Octavia, thou art gentle, harmlefs, and unaffuming. Thou art incapable of injuring the purity of any one's fentiments, and mayeft be fuffered to pafs along to thy place of reft, unawed and unoppreffed by the feverity of our frowns. ART. 26. Gil Blas corrigé ou Hiftoire de Gil Blas de Santillane. Par M. Le Sage. Dont on a retranché les Expreffions et Paffages contraires à la décence, à la Religion, et aux Maurs, et à laquelle on a ajouté un Recueil de traits brillans de plus télèbres Poètes Francois." Par J. N. Ofmond. 4 Vols. 12mo. 16s, Lackington, &c. 1798. The editor, after fpeaking of Gil Blas, as on many accounts the best book extant for the inftruction of scholars in French, profeffes to have removed from it all words and paffages in any respect objection. able; thereby fitting it completely for the ufe of young perfons of both fexes. To the praises of the novel we fubfcribe with the most cordial affent; and though we cannot recollect that it contains many, if any expreffions or paffages that are liable to objection, we cannot but commend any care that is taken to prevent all kinds of corruption from infinuating themselves into a courfe of education. The felections from the French Poets occupy 110 pages at the end of the fourth volume, and are made with fufficient judgment. MEDICINE. ART. 27. Reflections on the Propriety [Impropriety] of performing the Cæfarean Operation. To which are added, Obfervations on Cancer, and Experiments on the fuppofed Origin of the Cow-Pox. By W. Sim mons, Member of the Corporation of Surgeons in London, and Senior Surgeon to the Manchester Infirmary. 8vo. 97 PP. 2s. 6d. Ver nor and Hood. 1798. This author, after examining the cafes publifhed by Rouffet, and other writers on the continent, in which hy fterotomy has been al ledged ledged to have been fuccessfully performed, joins in opinion with Mauricean and Dionis, that the cafes are deficient in authenticity, or that in far the greater part of them, the fœtus was not contained in the uterus, confequently, that the uterus had not in thofe cafes been opened; and thence concludes, we have no juft grounds to believe they have been more fuccefsful in performing the operation on the continent, than in this country, where it has been uniformly fatal. From the improved state of midwifery, he adds, and from the fafety with which, we now know, fœtufes may be extracted by the natural paffages, even when exceedingly deformed and ftraitned, a cafe can fcarcely be conceived, in which it may be neceffary to have recourfe to hyfterotomy. But even admitting a cafe, in which the child cannot be brought through the pelvis, he does not think we are warranted in facrificing the life of a woman, which he thinks the neceffary confequence of the Cæfarean fection. A cafe has, however, been lately publifhed, (fee Medical Records, p. 154,) in which the operation has been fuccefsfully performed in this country by Mr. Barlow. The woman being now, at the end of three years, living and in good health. Obfervations on Cancer. It is difficult, the author fays, to diftinguifh an incipient cancer from fcrofulous and other glandulous fwellings; but, when it is clearly afcertained, he thinks extirpaticn with the knife, is to be preferred to the cauftic. In a cafe of an open cancer, he gave the folution of arfenic internally, in fmall dofes, with manifeft advantage; and recommends further trials to be made with that medicine. Experiments on the fuppofed Origin of the Cow-Pox. Mr. Simmons inoculated three children and three cows with the discharge from a horfe affected with the greafe, but it produced no other effects, either on the children or the cows, than would have been occafioned by a scratch with a clean lancet. He then inoculated the children with variolous matter, in the neighbourhood of the former incifions. They all took the small-pox, and paffed through the disease favourably. At the fame time, he fays, he-inoculated two cows in the teats with variolous matter; but it occafioned no inflammation or disease in the animals. He thence rationally concludes, there is no affinity between the variolous matter, and the difcharge from the greafy heels of a horse. The author observes, that in Che fhire, a great dairy country, and where men are employed in milking the cows, they have no knowledge of the cow-pox. ART. 28. Remarks on the Fiftula Lachrymalis, with the Defcription of an Operation, confiderably different from that commonly used; and Cafes ann xed in Proof of its Utility. To which are added, Objervations on Hamorrhoids, and Additional Remarks on Opthalmy. By James Ware, Surgeon. 8vo. 150 pp. 35. 6d. Dilly. 1798. The deserved reputation this author has acquired for his judicious treatment of diforders of the eyes, will procure thefe remarks a favourable reception, which, on perufal, they will be found to merit from their intrinfic value. The The author begins by giving a hiftory of the different modes of attempting to cure the fiftula lachrymalis, by Meffrs. Pott, Warner, Wathen, Bell, &c, all of which, by the confeffion of the authors frequently failed. After twelve years experience, during which time, he varied, he fays, his method of treating the complaint, in fucceffion, as new improvements were made or propofed, in the form of the canula, or in the mode of introducing it, but without attaining the defired end; "he at length adopted an operation, in the place of that of inferting a tube, in the nafal duct, which is in general," he says, "fo eafy to be performed, has fo fpeedily removed every trouble fome fymptom, and, in a great variety of inftances, has fo effectually accomplished a cure of the diforder, that he is induced to hope a defcrip tion of it may not be unacceptable to his brethren in the profession," P. 21. After an accurate defcription of the operation, which appears to be extremely judicious, but cannot be fo detailed as to be completely intelligible without the accompanying plates, the author relates the cafes of ten perfons, on whom it has been performed with great fuccefs. Some judicious obfervations on the hæmorrhoids, or piles, fucceed. The author, after a general account of the nature of the difeafe, and of the remedies ufually employed, obferves, that in abftinate cafes, which have refifted all applications to appease the pain, or ftop the hemorrhage, it has been ufual to recommend extirpating the whole bunch of the piles, either by cutting them off with the fcalpel, or by fixing a ligature around them. But as on examination it will be found, that the pain, or bleeding, are usually confined to one or two, and those the smallest of the tumours, the removal of them with a pair of curved fciffars will be fufficient, the others foon returning after this operation, without occafioning any further uneafinefs, The pain and hæmorrhage, he fays, confequent on this operation, are very infignificant. Several cafes follow, in which the author ufed the method here recommended with fuccefs. The additional remarks on opthalmia, with which the volume concludes, were firft published in the year 1792. The topical remedies principally recommended, are the Unguentum Hydrargyri Nitrati, and the Tinctura Thebaica, of the old London Pharmacopeia. The author is particular in recom mending the tinctura as directed to be made by the Pharmacopaia for the year 1745, the Tinctura Opii, fubftituted by the College, in their late edition of that book, being by no means efficacious in this complaint. ART. 29. A few Fats and Obfervations on the Yellow Fever of the Weft-Indies; by which it is fhewn, that there have exifted Town Species of Fever in the Weft-India Iflands for feveral Years, indifcriminately called the Yellow Fever, but which have proceeded from very different Caufes, with the Succefs attending the Method of Cure. By James Anderfon, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and late Surgeon to His Majefty's 60th Regiment of Foot. 8vo. 47 PP. 15. 6d. -Robinfons. 1798. The author of this little tract, who had refided several years in the Weft Indies, and had frequent opportunities of feeing and treating the |