the remaining eight years under that of Annals. In order, however, to make the work complete, he means to publish an index to the whole, in two parts; one, of the names of the contributors, and of the authors whofe works have been noticed; the other, of the fubjects. This will be very useful, and will add much to the value of the work, which has always met with a favourable reception, certainly well deferved; and the prefent volume will not detract from its merit. The present work will be fucceeded, we are told, by a new one, The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal. As that work will be conducted, the doctor adds, by younger perfons, who will have more leisure to attend to its execution, it may be expected to proceed regularly, and he promises his occafional affiftance, which will doubtless contribute to its perfection.

The volume is divided, as ufual, into three parts; the first part filling 298 pages, contains analyfes of books. The fecond, which is extended to p. 437, medical obfervations; and the third, medical news. From the fecond and third parts we fhall extract fuch articles as feem moft deferving notice.

I. Obfervations and Experiments on the Electricity of Animals, by George Kellie, M. D.

This is a translation of the author's inaugural thesis, which he read on taking his degree of Doctor in Medicine, in 1803; and as the experiments are intended as preliminary to further obfervations on the fubject, which he purposes publishing, any remarks upon them, for the prefent, would be ufelefs.

II. Hiftory of a fingular affection of the right leg, accompanied with fymptomatic Epilepfy, which was cured in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, by the use of Galvanifm. By Andrew Duncan, Sen. M. D.

The fubject, a girl about twelve years of age, was attacked with fits, occurring three or four times in the day, and continuing from half an hour, to two hours at a time. The muscles of the thorax and abdomen, and sometimes of the throat and tongue, were convulfed during the fit. The lower extremity on the right fide, was emaciated. Any attempt to move that limb, while the patient was awake, occafioned a recurrence of the fit; when afleep, the limb

which was then relaxed and pliable, might be moved without exciting any uneafinefs or disturbance. The patient had been ill four or five months, had experienced benefit from the use of bark, zinc, and other medicines, but only temporarily. She was admitted into the Infirmary May 3, 1803. She had only three fits the next day, lafting each of them about ten minutes. After a fruitless trial of a few medicines, the doctor determined on ufing galvanism, which was begun on the 9th of May, and continued to the 15th of June, interpofing from time to time fuch internal medicines as were indicated. On the 17th fhe was difcharged the hofpital as cured. The author is aware that no general inference can be drawn from this folitary cafe, but thinks the efficacy of galvanifm was fufficiently matured in this inftance to render it deferving of being published.

We cannot however help thinking, that the credit of the Profeffor may give to this experiment more weight than it deferves. At any rate, it could not have been wrong to have deferred the publication until the power of galvanism in fpafmodic cafes had been fubmitted to further trials; and as fuch cafes are by no means uncommon, it feems fingular, that at the end of two years, no further opportunity for experiment fhould have offered at the Infirmary.

III. Three cafes of Hydrocephalus Chronicus, with fame Remarks on that Difeafe. By Alexander Monro, Jun. M. D. F. R. S. Edinburgh.

We will give the dimenfions of the largeft of these heads, of which there is an engraving. The child is a boy, nine years of age. In this, as well as in all the cafes of which we have feen accounts, the disease feemed to begin before the birth of the child.

At its greatest circumference, the head measures 36 inches and an half. From the root of the nose to these middle ridge of the occipital, it is 25 inches. From ear to ear, across the top of the head, 24 inches. The fubjects of this difeafe do not often attain the age of this boy; but Van Swieten gives an account of a man, who was 30 years of age at the time when he faw him. His head was of an enormous fize, his limbs not larger than a boy's of the age of ten years. Subjoined are fome obfervations on the disease, which will not however admit of being abridged. No remedy has been difcovered for the complaint.

IV. Obfervations on a Cafe of Diabetes Mellitus, by Dr. Duncan, Sen. with the Hiftory of the morbid Appearances which were discovered on Diffection. By Dr. Monro, Jun.

The patient, a woman, the age not mentioned, had been afflicted with the disease several years. She had been several times in the hofpital, where fhe died, March 26, 1904, every kind of medicine and regimen, recommended in fuch cases. having been fruitlefsly employed. The Profeffor means. in the new publication before alluded to, to give a more particular account of this cafe, with further obfervations on the disease.

V. Letter from Dr. Robert Sproat, of Beliza, in the Bay of Honduras, dated 2d October 1802, to Captain Chichester Mac donell, refpecting the Managua (Cabbage-tree) Bark, of South America.

Confirming the efficacy of the cabbage-tree bark in curing or destroying worms in the bowels, which it does "as quickly," the writer fays, " as the most celebrated vermifuges, even calomel not excepted." An account is allo given of the bark of a tree, like the peach tree, which cures fevers with as much certainty as the Peruvian bark. Specimens of the bark, leaves, and fructification, have been fent to Sir Joseph Banks, and if the discoverer was to be encouraged, fome bales of the bark would be sent to Europe.

VI. Obfervations on the Influenza, as it appeared at Briftol in the Year 1803. By Dr. A. Carrick. Being Answers to certain Queries refpecting that Difeafe, tranfmitted to him by Dr. Richard Pearfon, Phyfician. London.

The following are some peculiarities observed by this writer.

The Influenza was not feen at Bristol, until two or three weeks after its appearance in London; at Edinburgh, its appearance was a month later than in London. Those persons who were confined to their houses, or who lived in parts of the city that were sheltered from cold, in general, efcaped the disease, while they who went abroad, or who lived in the higher parts, expofed to the north and eaft winds, were almost univerfally affected. This was particularly obfervable on Richmond Terrace. "On the east fide of the Terrace, not one family, and fcarcely an individual efcaped the complaint; while on the fouth fide, a great majority both of individuals,

and

and families, escaped entirely." Few perfons died of the complaint; in a great majority of cafes, it readily yielded to moderate perfpiration; in a few, bleeding was required, and in a very fmall number that operation was obliged to be repeated, and ufed as freely as is in true pneumonia. A meteorological table is added, giving an account of the state of the atmosphere during the months of February, March, and April.

VII. Obfervations on the Influenza, as it appeared in the Ile of Man, in the Spring of the Year 1803, by Dr. John Nelfon Scott, in a Letter to Dr. Duncan, Sen.

The writer thinks the Influenza was introduced into the Ifland by a young man from London. He had, he fays, the most inconteftable proofs, that the disease was infectious, and gives inftances of its being communicated, in which he could not, he intimates, be mistaken. But as he adds, that the effect was often obfervable in a few hours, on the perfons receiving the infection, it seems probable he was mistaken in that circumftance, and that the parties had contracted the difeafe from other fources. In general, the account given of the disease by this gentleman, and the method of cure re. commended, correfponds with the obfervations of Dr. Carrick, and with thofe given in the fubfequent paper, of the progrefs of the Influenza at Edinburgh, by Dr. Duncan, excepting that it was fatal in the latter place, where about eighty have fuppofed to have died of it. From the progress of the difeafe, which the editor thinks was fufficiently traced from Paris to London, from thence to Edinburgh, and from the manner in which it was communicated to the different parts of that city, as well as from what occurred in his own family," he has no more doubt," he says, "of the contagious nature of Influenza, than he has of that of measles, chincough, or typhus fever."

MEDICAL NEWS.

Mr. Braithwaite, Surgeon at Lancaster, has ufed the oxygenated muriatic acid, he fays, with fingular fuccefs in the cure of the fcarlet fever, accompanied with ulcers in the throat. One dram of the acid, mixed with eight ounces of diftilled water, is given to adults, in the fpace of twelve hours. For children, the quantity to be proportionably di. minifhed. It fuperfedes the neceffity of ufing gargles, as

well

well as of all other medicines, excepting fuch as may be neceffary to keep the body foluble. To deftroy infection, and prevent its being diffeminated, he fumigates the apartments of the fick with the oxygenated muriatic gas.

Mr. Charles Rankine, Surgeon at Douglas, gives an account of a woman who went into a coalpit, with a child The had at her breast, where she continued nineteen days, not being able to find her way out. During this time, fhe had no food, living entirely on water fhe found there. Her cries being at length heard by fome miners, they went into the mine, and led her and the child out. They are now living, and in perfect health. But as the writer depends folely on the narrative of the woman, and does not appear to have made the neceffary enquiries to authenticate her story, little credit can be given, we conceive, to the report.

An elegant and well written life of the late Dr. Thomas Percival follows, in which the editor pays a well deserved tribute to the merit of the deceased. A new work, about to be published by Sir John Sinclair, Bart. to be entitled, The Code of Health and Longevity. From the knowledge the baronet may be fuppofed to have obtained, in the course of his ftatistical enquiries, of the caufes of the fuperior healthfulnefs and longevity of the inhabitants of fome districts over others, much ufeful information may be expected from this publication. The volume concludes, as ufual, with lifts of graduates, and of new publications in the course of the two last years.

ART. VI. The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh, Knt. By Arthur Cayley, jun. Efq. 4to. 2 Vols. 11. 16s. Cadell and Davies. 1805.

OTWITHSTANDING the great and exalted character of Sir Walter Ralegh in learning, and in arms, for every quality which dignifies the hero, and adorns the man, the world has never been indulged with a detailed account of his life. When we confider the important era in which he lived, and the part he acted on the theatre of the "world, the circumfcribed sketches of Oldys and Birch muft be pronounced to be far from fatisfactory. It was once the intention of Gibbon to have difplayed his knowledge, and exercised his talents in this interefting fubject; but he was induced to relinquish it, as he himself informs us, for a

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