force of the original, retain its beauty; and this essay will always be of great utility to those who employ themselves on translation. All these pieces are valuable additions to literature."

A pillar of the new Gallican church, M. Coëstlosquet, Bishop of Limoges, bears the following testimony to the philosopher:

I did not know his person, but I have always heard that his manners were simple, and his conduct without reproach. With regard to his works, I read them frequently, and I find in them much of talent, a great portion of illumination, and sound morality. If he did not think so well as he wrote, it was his misfortune: no person has a right to interrogate his conscience."-In this honorable judgment of the French prelate, every liberal mind will join. Those who know D'ALEMBERT only from his posthumous letters will naturally entertain a strong prejudice against his works: but they may be assured that between his productions during his life, and those which were made public since his death, the greatest difference prevails; and that, while they are justly shocked by the latter, they will find that many of the former possess high and distinguished merit,

ART. V. De l'Influence de la Nuit, &c.; i. e. On the Influence of Night over Diseased Persons. A Collection of Memoirs which have obtained Prizes from the Medical Society at Brussels, in answer to the following Questions proposed by the Society; does the Night possess any Influence over Persons who are ill? Are there Diseases in which this Influence is more or less apparent? What is the Physical Cause of this Influence? Published by order of the Society. 8vo. PP. 400. Brussels. 1806. Imported by De Boffe. Price 8s.

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a preliminary discourse, delivered by M. Fournier, secretary to the society, we are informed that the prize originally proposed on this occasion was a gold medal, of the value of 200 francs, embellished with the portraits of Lomius, Palfinus, and Vesalius: but the society thought that it would be more flattering to the conqueror, to substitute for these the effigies of the great Napoleon, the model of heroes, the terror of his enemies, the restorer of empires, and the protector of the sciences and the arts.' The number of candidates was fourteen; and though the judges were unanimous in the decision of the prize, they perceived so much merit in five of the rejected papers, that they resolved to reward these by decreeing to them two secondary and three accessory prizes. The six memoirs are all printed in the volume before us, and we have perused them not without interest; for although we do not think that any one : AFP. REV. VOL. LII.

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of the writers has given a complete answer to the question, or has thrown much new light on the subject, yet they tend to exhibit the state of medical opinion in the empire of France, and afford a certain criterion of the relative progress of science in that country and in our own island. We deem it not unfair to regard the memoirs in this point of view, both from the very flattering terms in which the secretary speaks of their merits, and from the respectable list of names which is prefixed to the volume as composing the Medical Society of Brussels.

The essay to which the prize was adjudged was written by M. DE LA PRADE, physician to the civil and military hospital at Montbrison. After having remarked that the obvious circumstance in which the night differs from the day consists in the absence of light, the author begins to discuss the question, how far light can produce any effect on the animal body. This question he answers affirmatively; and he attributes to the action of light a variety of very important operations in the animal economy. He supposes that light promotes the cutaneous transpiration, and increases the discharge of carbon from the skin; that the diseases of debility, which are generated by confinement in dungeons, depend principally on the absence of light; that the depressing effect which cloudy weather produces on some constitutions is owing to the same cause; and that a part of the unhealthiness of marshy situations depends on the too great obliquity of the rays of light, which do not arrive at the body until after having undergone an infinity of refractions, in an atmosphere charged with vapor, and having been proportionably weakened. These ideas, it must be admitted, are very different from those which are generally adopted on the subject; and we do not find that the author attempts to establish them on any new experiments or observations; he is satisfied with the convenient support of analogy, and deems it sufficient to remind the society of the effect of light on the vegetable kingdom.

M. DE LA PRADE afterward notices the influence of darkness on the imagination and passions, which he conceives to be as remarkable as its operation on the body, and in like manner to depend on the deficiency of the stimulus of light. These ef fects, both mental and corporeal, are supposed to be immediately sedative, and to induce a state of direct debility. Hence it follows that they must be injurious in those diseases which consist in a defect of vital power, and, on the contrary, beneficial in such as are of an opposite nature. We do not observe any more regard to fact and experience in this part of the essay than in the commencement. The author appears to be easi→ ly led by remote analogies, while he passes over the most pal

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pable truths when they counteract his hypothetical doctrines. As an illustration of our opinion, we shall quote a paragraph from that part of the essay in which, examining the effects of light on particular diseases, he is led to inquire whether the privation of light has any influence on the formation of pus. We are induced,' he remarks, to believe that it has, when we observe the frequency of cutaneous suppurations and swellings on the surface of the body, among prisoners who have been' long shut up in dark dungeons: many military physicians have sold me that they made this observation during the late wars. Other causes, such as bad nourishment, the moisture of the dungeons, chagrin, and a sedentary life, no doubt concur with the darkness to produce this species of cachexy, this purulent diathesis, to make use of an expression consecrated by De Haen! We may venture to assert that such reasoning would not have obtained the prize from any medical societies in this country.

The memoir which received the second prize was written by M. AYMONE, a physician in Piedmont. Like the former, this author attributes a considerable part of the effects of night to the absence of light: but, in addition, he notices the dimi nished temperature of the air, the descent of vapors which had been raised during the day, and the deficiency of oxygen. This last circumstance he assumes as a matter of fact, although it is directly contrary to the most correct experiments that have been performed on the subject, which prove that the chemical composition of the atmosphere is the same at all periods, and in all places. M. AYMONE, though he conceives that other circumstances, besides the absence of light, have an effect on the body, agrees with M. de la Prade in supposing that the opera tion of night principally depends on a physical change, and that this change produces a sedative operation on the body. He also coincides with him in thinking that this change must be favourable in inflammatory diseases, and injurious in those of a contrary nature. We are of opinion that this essay, like that of M. de la Prade, affords a very inadequate solution of the question: but, at the same time, we must acknowlege that the author has indulged less in fanciful analogies, and has not erred so much in perverting facts to meet his own hypothesis.

The paper to which the other secondary prize was adjudged, from its size, and, we may add, from the nature of its contents, is in our judgment by far the most important in the volume. It appears, indeed, to have been considered in this point of view by the society themselves, since they bestow on it the highest commendation; yet they had it not in their power to

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assign to it the first prize, because it was originally presented to them in a very imperfect state; and we learn in a note subjoined by the author, that the delay in the completion of it was owing to his having been at Paris during the coronation of the emperor. It is written by M. MURAT, physician at Montpelier. In the general view which he takes of the subject, he differs considerably from the writers of either of the preceding papers. He is not satisfied with pointing out the nature of the physical difference existing between night and day, and with examining the effect which this change will produce on the body, but he farther inquires whether, according to the laws of animal œconomy, independently of any external circumstance, a periodic change does not take place in the functions and powers of the body. This he asserts is the case; and he endea vours to establish his position by a reference to a numerous collection of facts, and a great weight of authority. The diurnal revolution in the state of the animal ceconomy was first observed by Hippocrates; and the author takes occasion not only to support his own opinion by this celebrated name, but enters into all the speculations which the father of physic connected with it. He speaks of the four temperaments of Hippocrates as depending on the different constitutions, warm, cold, moist, or dry; of their analogy to the four seasons of the year, the four ages of man, &c.; and he infers that, in like manner, the diurnal period must consist of four parts. In all this he appears to repose full confidence, and to dwell on it not as a mere ebullition of the fancy, but as a sober train of reasoning that ought to influence the judgment.

After having attempted to establish the division of the day into four periods, and assigned to each their characteristic disposition, the writer next shews that in the evening a feverish state is always induced; and by combining this circumstance with the phænomena of fever in general, he thinks that the four following varieties will be formed; simple nocturnal fever, remittent nocturnal fever, nocturnal fever with exacerbation, and remittent nocturnal fever with exacerbation. Each of these species then becomes the subject of distinct consideration; and the author afterward enumerates several other nocturnal diseases, which are not indeed attended with perceptible fever, and yet would seem to depend on the diurnal revolution which takes place in the system. This part of the discussion is treated with considerable minuteness, and with a great display of learning, but in a manner which, we may venture to assert, could afford little gratification or instruction to an English reader. It abounds with references to the old systematic writers; and on their dubious authority the most marvellous histories are related

related, without any intimation of the weak support on which they rest.

At the same time, however, that M. MURAT seems to possess so intimate an acquaintance with the writings of the antients, he appears to be totally ignorant of many of the modern doctrines. The subject of hectic fever naturally falls under his consideration, and he employs a number of pages in proving that it does not depend on the absorption of pus into the blood; a doctrine which he seems to consider as quite original, and which he does not venture to bring forwards until he has apologized for his temerity in starting so novel an opinion. The whole work, indeed, has more the appearance of being the production of a scholar who values himself on the extent of his learning, than of a practitioner who is intimately acquainted with the phænomena of disease. Its writer betrays a total want of judgment in the selection of his authorities, and manifests that fondness for speculation which strongly characterizes the medical tyro.-The style of his memoir is completely French, being highly flowery and rhetorical, and filled with apostrophes and ejaculations. We present our readers with a short specimen, taken from the commencement. • What various and painful sentiments, Gentlemen, must our common parent have experienced, when he saw, for the first time in his life, the beautiful day yield to night! Oh Adam! return to earth, and tell us whether the astonishment which you felt at the sight of darkness was as great as your affright! What punishment did you undergo in one day! The anger of a God freezes you with dread; and, at the same moment, this night which surrounds you becomes for you, and for the delicate Eve, the terror of terrors.'-Yet the secretary, in his preliminary report, informs us that this memoir is written in a pure and didactic style.'

Having now entered pretty fully into the merits of the dissertations to which the principal prizes were adjudged by the society, we consider it as unnecessary to protract this article by adding any account of the remaining papers. The abstract which we have given will, we think, be sufficient to afford our readers a tolerably accurate idea of the contents of the volume; and consequently, as far as we may be permitted to make the inference, of the state of medical opinions in the great empire.