< arms in the warm Bath-water every night, and sweating them in warm flannel after it, (without either pumping it on them, or using the linament) and taking the Balf. Peruv. with a corroborating bitter, in the Bath-water; which he did, and recovered the perfect ufe of his hands, without any return of the pain in his bowels, or elsewhere, in two or three weeks time.'

In our Author's defcription, or treatment, of the Dyfentery, we find nothing particular, or uncommon, except the exhibition of Sal Nitre; a practice which he justifies by observing, that in this disease, in a warm climate, as the Patient is generally carried off, not by the excefs of the purging, but by the violence of the fever attending it, and an inflammation of the bowels, ending in a mortification,-it should be the Physician's greatest care to obviate these, by a proper ufe of Antiphlogistics, given with gentle cooling Reftringents, and fuitable Anodynes to abate the irritation of the bowels. In this cafe, (fays he) I have always found Nitre thus given, or mixed with a little Elect. e Scord. or Balf. Locatel to be the beft Antiphlogistic.'

What Dr. Hillary fays concerning the Rabies Canina, or Madnefs from the bite of mad animals, the most terrible difease to which human nature is liable, highly deserves notice; efpecially as the Doctor proposes a method of treating it which, he affures us, has hitherto been found to be always fuccessful. His method is, firft, To bleed, if the Patient be plethoric; then to give a gentle vomit; and, on going to bed, a bolus of Musk and Cinnabar, 'with fome warm diluting liquor, to promote fweating. Next morning he orders his Patient to be plunged in fea-water or a cold bath; to be rubbed dry, and to be put into bed, taking a Mufk bolus as before; drinking after it a pint of the infufion of Wild Va+ lerian, or Cort. Saffafra, with plenty of warm white-wine whey, to promote fweating: and this to be repeated three or four nights fucceffively.

The practice of giving Musk and Cinnabar in this malady, we firft learnt from the Chinese, who prefcribe them with Arrack, and repeat them every three hours, till the Patient falls into a profufe fweat, which, according to them, infallibly carries off the infection. To illuftrate the efficacy of the above method, our Author presents us with the following, among feveral other, obfervations.

A Gentlewoman's two fons, her houfe-keeper, and feven Negroes, were all bitten by a mad dog, in one morn

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ing; a month after which the house-keeper died hydrophobous. This alarmed the family, and they fent for me the next day; her eldeft fon, eighteen years old, was of a fanguine healthful conftitution; the younger had a weaker 'conftitution; they were both bitten in their legs, tho' not very deep; but their wounds were both healed up and cicatrifed two weeks before I faw them, and they were seemingly well. They did not tell me that the Negroes were alfo bitten, nor did I know it till afterwards.

The eldest fon being more plethoric, was bled; the < younger was not; they were both purged the next morning; then bathed in the fea, being near it, and took the Mufk and Cinnabar bolufes, as above, (the younger had a little less quantity of them both, he being but thirteen years old) and encouraged moderate fweating, &c. as directed. And five of the feven Negroes that were bitten by the fame dog, had the fame medicines given to them as I had prefcribed for the eldest fon, they being men, and were treated in the fame manner: and both her fons, and all these five Negroes, have continued to be very well, without having any symptom of this disease ever fince, which is now ten years ago. But the poor hired Negroes, neither had any medicines or any thing done for them, unless they bathed, and both died rabid, about two months after the housekeeper died.

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Here three of the ten perfons, who were all bitten by the fame mad dog, near the fame time, and had no affiftance nor medicines given to them, all died rabid and hydrophobous; and all the feven perfons who took the medicines, and were treated as above, all remain free from any fymptoms of this difeafe, and continue to enjoy health. This is an experiment which humanity would forbid any man to make; and if I had known the ftate of those two Negroes, I would have procured them medicines at my own expence, but was not acquainted with their being • bitten.'

Having finished his account of the foregoing acute Diseases, eur Author proceeds to confider fome chronic ailments peculiar to the warmer climates. Among these is first mentioned a disease hitherto not defcribed by any Writer, ancient or modern, and which Dr. Hillary, from its refemblance in fome refpects to the Aphtha in children, terms an Aphthoides Chronica, or an Impetigo of the Prima Via. The cure is effected by fuch medicines or diet as clear the firft paffages, correct the acrimony of the humours, promote perfpiration, and confirm

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and strengthen the tone of the ftomach and inteftines. His defcription of those loathsome diftempers, from which we, in Europe, are happily exempted, the Eliphantiafis, and the Lepra Arabum, is extremely accurate; and the methods laid down for preventing as well as curing, merit general notice, as well as the particular attention of those who are immediately concerned in the cure of the fick in our West-Indian iflands; where, as Dr. Hillary informs us, the infection has been communicated from the Negroes to the White People; and gains ground daily.. In China, a country famous for the wifdom of its regulations, Lepers are always confined to certain villages or diftricts; are maintained at the public expence ; and are prohibited, under the feverest penalties, from having any intercourse with the healthy.

The Doctor's method of treating the Yaws, differs very little from that propofed in the Medical Effays of Edinburgh, and feems rational and judicious.

It would exceed our limits to give an abstract of the Hiftory and Cure of each of thefe Diftempers; we therefore refer our Readers to the book itself; from which, we make no doubt, every man who has a tafte for medical knowlege, will receive entertainment; but those particularly who practise Phyfic in the warmer climates, will find their advantage in the acquifition of a treatife abounding with ufeful and practical knowlege.

An Enquiry into the prefent State of Polite Learning in Europe. 12mo. 2s. 6d. fewed. Dodfley.

T hath been fhrewdly obferved, by a facetious Author, that in his own private opinion, he thought it requifite for every Writer to know fomething himself before he fits down to communicate knowlege to others. He conceived alfo, very whimfically, that a Writer will, in all probability, fucceed better on a fubject he understands, than on one which he knows little or nothing about. Obvious as the truth of these opinions may appear to many, it does not feem to have occurred to the fprightly Author of the performance before us; he would otherwife, furely, have fet about fome other tafk: unlefs, indeed, by calling his work an Enquiry, he modeftly intended to infinuate his real ignorance of his fubject; and thought fuch intima

tion

tion a fufficient excufe. For, to fay the truth, the Reader who is defirous of actually knowing the prefent State of polite Learning in Europe, is left to make his own Enquiry, notwithstanding all the information given by our Author: his work confifting, in fact, of little elfe than the trite commonplace remarks and obfervations, that have been, for fome years paft, repeatedly ecchoed from Writer to Writer, throughout every country where Letters, or the Sciences, have been cultivated. Thefe, to do him juftice, however, he has thrown together in fome tolerable order, and cloathed them in a drefs, if not the most compleat and elegant, at least as good as they deferve. Juft, interefting, and manly fentiments should, doubtlefs, be conveyed in a correct, nervous, and spirited stile; while the hackneyed frippery of fuperficial Reafoners, is excufably enough fet off with the quaintnefs of antithefes, the prettiness of points, and the rotundity of studied periods. But if our Author intended to give us, by all this, a fpecimen of fine writing, we must take the liberty to affure him, he is moft egregiously mistaken; and that, notwithstanding we allow there are many pretty obfervations fcattered up and down, and fomething like ingenuity appears thro' the whole of his performance, yet the tritenefs of thofe observations, and the remarkable faultinefs of his expreffion in general, give it too much the air of plagiarism and selffufficiency.

According to this Writer, Learning is in its decline, both in England and France: he allows, however, it is ftill capable of retrieving much of its former fplendour. In other places, fays he, a decay has already taken place; here it is only beginning. To attempt the amendment of Italy or Germany, would be only like the application of remedies to a part mortified; but here, ftill there is life, and there is hope.

* From among a number of inftances of the nonfenfical, to be met with in our Author, we felect only the following fentence. Speaking of the Academy of Berlin, he fays. The members are not collected from among the ftudents of fome obfcure feminary, or 'the wits of a metropolis, but chofen from all the Literati in Europe, fupported by the bounty, and ornamented by the productions of their royal founder.' Who, or what, is thus fupported and ornamented? Europe, or its Literati: or the Members of the Academy only? The latter may be fupported, indeed, by the royal bounty; but how they are to be ornamented by any literary productions, even those of a King, we do not conceive; unless they print his performances on flips, and bedeck themfelves like ballad-fingers at a country Wake.

Again, after having reprefented the cafe of Spain, Denmark, and Sweden, he fays, Thus we fee in what a low ftate polite Learning is in the countries I have mentioned. Tho' the sketch I have drawn be general, yet it was, for the most part, taken upon the spot, nor are the affertions hazarded at random.'

Would not one be apt to think, that a Writer who talks thus confidently, fhould know fomething of the matter, from actual obfervation and experience? And yet nothing appears to us more true, than that our Author's principal information is taken from books, (and those erroneous ones too) and that he is totally ignorant of the real State of Learning, nay, even of the names of the learned Men now celebrated, in the countries he pretends to be fo familiarly acquainted with. For inftance, he tells us, that the Hif tory of polite Learning in Denmark, may be comprized in the life of one fingle man; that it rofe and fell with the late famous Baron Holberg.' It is yet almoft impoffible, we think, that any Pretender to Letters fhould be ignorant how much both Science and Literature have been indebted, in Denmark, to the prefent Sovereign of that kingdom. Is it ftill a fecret among the learned and polite, that a Mallet, and a Cramer, refide at Copenhagen? That the works of the former are in univerfal esteem; and that the Danish Spectator, of the latter, is in much higher reputation than ever was that of Holberg?

His cenfure of the Germans has been the ftanding reproach of almoft two centuries; and, tho' it might have paffed well enough when the Encomiafts of Lewis XIV. made it a matter of folemn difputation, whether or not a • German could be a Wit,' it conveys a very falfe reprefentation of the prefent State of Literature there. Had our Author ever been entertained by the fpirited and ingenious writings of a Gellert, or a Gleym, or the nervous, and fenfible performances of a Lichtwern, and, at the fame time, known that their works are univerfally read, admired, and imitated, he could not have stigmatized the present Literati of Germany, as Dunces.

His reflections on the learned Univerfity of Gottingen, and that which he cafts on its royal Founder, are, to the loweft degree, illiberal. The Elector of Hanover,' fays he, established it at an expence of no less than an hundred thousand pounds. The fourth part of which fum, had it ⚫ been given to reward genius in fome neighbouring coun

tries,