fet," who have flattered themselves with the hopes of their having discovered a remedy for the feurvy, have now the fatisfaction-we lament that Dr. Macbride is not in a fituation to partake of it-of finding that a whole nation have anticipated them in the discovery; and that Nature has dictated to the natives of Ruffia the ufe of that very antifeptic regimen against this disease, to which our modern philofophers have been led, in confequence of their ípeculations on fixed air.

Dr. Guthrie of Petersburg, the Author of the Article abovementioned, after enumerating the many pre-difponent caufes which tend to produce the fcurvy, and other putrid diseases, in Ruffia, obferves that the natives are nevertheless strangers to diforders of that kind; evidently in confequence of the antiseptic diet ufed among them. He thinks that it will be doing service to mankind to defcribe this falutary and prefervative regimen minutely; and introduces his defcription of it with the following reflections:

"It will probably give pleasure to thofe gentlemen, who have prescribed the new regimen to the British navy with so much fuccefs, to have the evidence of fome millions to prove that they have actually hit upon the very fecret by which Nature defends her creatures, in thofe countries where it is neceffary, from the very difeafe which has been the fcourge of the nobleft naval establishment that ever the world faw. Nay, one would think that the diet these people ufe had been dictated by modern philofophy; or rather that your Prefident," [Sir John Pringle, we fuppofe] "your Macbrides, &c. had ftudied at this school; for almost every thing they use seems to be of that kind which the fortunate attention to the antifeptic qualities of fixed air has recommended for medical ufe. Here the experimental philofopher may be indulged in a triumph; and I really think your Lords of the Admiralty ought, in gratitude, to erect fiatues to the induftrious and fuccessful profecutors of that noble and useful study."

After giving fome experiments on the effects of fixed air on the putrefactive procefs, and on the putrid effluvium; the Author treats of its ufe in cachexies and phagedenic ulcers. In confirmed cancers, he has not obferved any fenfible benefit produced by it, except a mitigation of the pain: but in old, fpreading, ill conditioned ulcers, it has, in many inftances, relieved the pain, brought on a more favourable digeftion, and much improved the appearance of the ulcers; and in fome it has effected a complete cure. He relates four cafes likewife of its having removed some diseases of the ftomach, when given in the form of effervefcing draughts,

Treating next of the fedative and folvent powers of fixed air in cafes of the ftone, the Author obferves, that they are fo

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far afcertained, as to give it a claim to the particular attention of the faculty. Further experience can alone determine, whether by the fteady and long continued ufe of this medicine, a cure may not, in fome inftances, be happily effected and it is no inconfiderable recommendation, that the medicine is pleafant, fafe, and even friendly to the constitution; and that it will relieve the painful symptoms, though it fhould not produce. a complete folution of the calculus.-The following method of adminiftering it he apprehends to be the moft eafy and powerful:

Let the patient take three times a day an ounce of the aqua mephitica alkalina, containing one fcruple of alcaline falt, faturated with fixed air according to the directions of Mr. Bewly *, and sweetened with a little honey: let him wafh this down with half an ounce or a large fpoonful of lemon-juice, made into lemonade. The patient thus takes not only the common proportion of fixed air contained in the alcaline falt, but likewife that which has been fuperadded to faturate or neutralize it. The common drink of the patient should be mephitic water, wort sweetened with honey, provided it fits eafy and agrees with the ftomach, mead, or found malt liquor. Cafk ale, I think, is preferable to that which is kept in bottles, on this account, that the fixed air is in a more quiefcent ftate, is not loft in eructations from the prima via, and is confequently conveyed in a larger proportion to the kidneys and bladder. Honey may be eaten at pleasure, as perfectly coinciding with the intentions of the medicine; and where it fuits the conftitution, may be ufed to the quantity of a pound, or a pound and a quarter every week, as recommended by Sir John Pringle.

By this method, the urine will be well impregnated with a conftant and copious fupply of fixed air; more fo indeed than by immediately injecting the mephitic water into the bladder.— Before the patient begins his courfe, it is a good precaution to examine the ftony fediment of the urine, or any calculous fragments which are paffed, by putting them to the test of fixed air. This will determine, as Dr. Ambrofe Dawson judiciously obferves, whether the calculus is of such a nature, as to be fo luble in the medicine which is propofed.'The Author adds that, as fome calculi abound fo much with mucus, as to elude the action of fixed air, their folution may be facilitated by exhibiting the cauftic alcali and fixed air alternately, as recommended by Dr. Saunders.

Towards the end of the work, the Author gives a comparative view of the difpofition to generate the ftone, in feveral parts of this kingdom. His eftimate is formed on the answers received by him to his inquiries, with refpect to the number of

• Priestley on the Air, vol. ii. p. 346.

patients

patients who had been cut for the ftone, in the various hofpitals to which he applied on this occafion; compared with the whole number of in and out patients that had been received at each hofpital: regard being likewife had to peculiarities in the food, drink, or fituation of the inhabitants of the respective diftricts. But for the particular results of this inquiry we must refer to the work itself; which we recommend to the attention of practitioners, as containing a plain narrative of philofophical and medical facts, related with candour, and without prepof feffion.

IN

ART. IV. The Antiquarian Repertory. 2 Vols. 4to. Concluded. N the former Articles concerning this work (vid. Reviews for April and July) we mentioned two defcriptions of England given by Frenchmen, who wrote near the times of Queen Mary and Charles the Firft; we are now prefented with another defcription of later date; it is a tranflation of the travels of Monfieur Jorevin de Rocheford, or at leaft that part of his work which treats of England and Ireland. His observations were made in the reign of Charles the Second, and his book, which was printed at Paris in 1672, (in three vols. 12mo.) is faid to be now extremely fcarce. Had it utterly perifhed, fome readers perhaps will think there would have been no great cause to lament the lofs. The performance, however, is curious, as the journal of a foreigner who traverfed our country upwards of a century ago, but who had not fo far conquered his national prejudices as to be able to make juft obfervations on our cuftoms and manners. The tranflator rightly obferves that his abstract of our national hiftory is falfe and ridiculous; but that his descriptions of places, buildings, &c. feem to have been accurate, as they ftill retain ftriking likeneffes of the respective fubjects, notwithstanding the alterations which must neceffarily have happened in the space of above an hundred years.-On the whole, this narrative, with all its faults, is not unentertaining. It confifts of feveral numbers, inferted in different parts of the volume.

An extract from a curious and authentic manufcript, a copy of which is in the poffeffion of Thomas Aftle, Efq; furnishes an inftance of the rude manners of our country in ancient times.

This manufcript contains, among other things, the private expences of King Edward the Second, wherein it appears that crofs and pile, or toffing up heads and tails (as it is now called) was a royal diverfion. The following tranflation from the old French may afford fome amusement :

Item, paid to the King himself to play at crofs and pile by the hands of Richard de Mereworth the receiver of the treafury, 12 pence.

Item, paid there to Henry the King's barber for money which he lent to the King to play at crofs and pile, 5 s.

Item, paid there to Peres Barnard ufher of the King's chamber money which he lent to the King, and which he loft at croís and pile to Monfieur Robert Wattewylle, eight pence.

Item, paid to the King himfelf to play at crofs and pile byPeres Barnard two fhillings, which the laid Peres won of him. Item, paid to Sir William de Kyngefton, for cabbage which he bought to make pottage in the boat.

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Item, paid at the lodge at Wolmer when the King was staghunting there, to Morris Ken of the kitchen, because he rode there before the King, and often fell from his horse, at which the King laughed exceedingly; a gift by command, 20s.'

A differtation concerning an ancient manufcript, in the Cornish language, will, no doubt, prove acceptable to most antiquaries. The manufcript itself appears to be of great antiquity, and the obfervations on it seem to be made by a person well acquainted with his fubject. The manufcript treats of our Saviour's paffion. As to the language of it,' remarks this Writer, it is fuch as the common speakers of the Cornish now used here do not understand, nor any but such as will be at the pains to ftudy it, no more than the common speakers of the vulgar Greek do at this day Homer's Iliad. So the Lord's Prayer, in the year 700, was thus in English: Vren fader thic arth, &c. In 900, Thu ure fader the eart on heofenum.

As to the antiquity thereof, we observe the name of our Saviour is all along written IHS, after the old form used in cru cifixes, and then alfo the name written Chreft, not Christ. So we find it written in Tacitus, Suetonius, and in fome other Roman authors. So Chriftians were called Chreftians, as Tertullian obferves, Apol. c. 3. and fo the vulgar in Cornish speak it Chreft, and not Chrift.

In this old piece are no words anciently intermixt of the Saxon tongue or Angles, which fhews, in all probability, that it was written before their time at leaft, if not much farther off; whereas the common fpeech of it now carries much of those latter figures, to the disfiguring of the face thereof.'

We are informed by a note at the end of this differtation, that it was written by Scawen, Efq; Vice-warden of the Stannaries, and was communicated by Mr. Thomas Aftle; but we are not told how long it is fince it was firft compofed.

The true lovers of antiquity cannot fee or hear of the demolition of very ancient monuments and buildings without fome regret; to fuch perfons no doubt it yields a kind of pleasure, as we acknowledge it does to us, that Alnwick Caftle, the great Baronial feat of the Earls of Northumberland, which was fallen to decay, has been within thefe twenty years most nobly re

paired by the prefent Duke of Northumberland, who has, fays this Writer, with great tafte and judgment, chaftely adhered to the ancient Gothic ftyle of the primitive fabric, and restored it as much as poffible (confiftently with prefent convenience, and the more improved ftate of the arts) to what it anciently was, or would neceffarily have been at prefent if it had never fuffered by the ravages of time.'

The plate which is here given of this building reprefents it before it was fo completely repaired. But the Writer declines inferting a particular account of this caftle, as a very exact defcription of it is to be feen in Groffe's Antiquities of England and Wales; and the plan of the Repertory, it is faid, does not allow of reprinting Articles fo lately published. Thefe Gentlemen are not always fo fcrupulous; we have occafionally met. with an extract from Pennant's Tour, &c. Some little remarks, however, on the age and original of the building might have been added, without any charge of plagiarifm; and the omiffion of fuch particulars is a defect, and likely to prove a difadvantage to a work of this nature.

Streatlam Caftle, in the weftern part of the county of Dur ham, is fomewhat remarkable on account of its fituation. It was part of the poffeffions of Bernard Baliol, grandfather of John, King of Scotland: he gave this caftle and lordship in dowry with his niece Agnes, who married Sir John Trayne. Sir John's fon and immediate fucceffor had one child, Alice, his heiress, who was married to Sir Adam Bowes, Knight, Juftice in Oyer of the liberties of Durham, and Steward of Richmondfhire, about the year 1310, when Streatlam became the poffeffion of the family of Bowes, who are owners of it at this time. In what state the caftle was at that period is not known: but it was rebuilt about the year 1 424 by Sir William Bowes, Chamberlain to John Duke of Bedford, and Regent in France during the minority of Henry VI. The caftle after that mo del remained to the beginning of this century, when the prefent ftructure was erected on the fame ground.

Nothing, fays our Author, but a veneration for the ancient feat of the family, could induce the proprietor to erect fuch a manfion, in fo ineligible a fituation. It ftands in a deep vale, a small brook runs close to its front, high and irregular hills arife on every fide, in fome parts covered with a forest of oaks; and the whole afpect is folemn. The oppofite grounds are occupied as a park for deer, and afford a narrow profpect; there is fomething romantic in thefe fecluded fcenes, which please the contemplative mind; but they are better adapted to the vicinity of a cottage than a palace. The purling brook, the broken cliff, from whofe fhaken fides old oaks impend, and caft a long extended fhadow over the narrow dell; the ivy

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