nation, and that the clergy, instead of allaying, did rather foment and inflame them. The Revolution may more justly be said to have been imposed upon the church of England, than seconded by it.

In 1695, when the Jacobites had determined to commence an insurrection by the murder of the King, Sir John Friend and Sir William Parkyns were convicted of the full offence; and at their execution justified the attempt; notwithstanding which, three Non-juring clergymen had the impudence, publicly upon the scaffold, to give them formal absolution by the imposition of hands.'

Mr. T. thus concludes his observations on the present topic:

I defy any anti-catholic to produce an instance from our history where the resistance to the civil government was so unpro. voked, or carried to more dangerous lengths, than this of the Non-jurors. What! when stale accusations from the remotest periods are heaped up to impeach the Catholic principles, is the reputation of the whole body to suffer for the conduct of a small part of it? or are we to forget that the knife was perpetually at their throats, and that they were a race hunted out by proscriptions, and tortured by every species of vexation that malignity could devise? At the period of history we are now considering, a new government had been established, though not with unanimity, yet, as every thing had proved, in compliance with the wishes of a great majority of the people. To what rigours had the church of England been exposed under it? An attempt had indeed been made to admit their Protestant fellow-countrymen to a participation in the benefits of the new constitution. This had failed. Yet a portion, and a large one too, of members of the established religion could be found, after the experience which the nation had suffered of James's character, so enamoured of slavery, that they were content to seek the restoration of it by the murder of the new monarch, and at the imminent hazard of their religion. Are we still to be told, that the church of England has always been more favourable to freedom that that of the Catholics? I am very happy and willing to believe, that by the extinction of the house of Stuart, and other causes, the loyalty of the church of England at the present day is better informed than that of their ancestors: all that I ask, and which (unless subsequent events repel the proof) common justice must grant, is, that the Catholics may be allowed to shew, that as once they shared in the political errors of that church, they have partaken of its repentance.'

Warmly as the author vindicates the claims of the Catholics to the privileges of the constitution, he is nevertheless a most dutiful and respectful son of the Established Church. Let him speak for himself, and our readers listen to his professions:

Actuated by nothing but the spirit of truth, I have freely delivered my opinion of the political merits of the church of

England;

England; and have lamented, as uncharitable and unwise, the persevering opposition of some of its most distinguished members to the Catholic claims. I trust this may be done without a suspicion of indecent hostility, or of latitudinarian principles. Believing, as I sincerely do, that its doctrine is the purest draught from those fountains, to which all Christians in common resort; that its discipline is the happiest mean between degrading superstition and disgusting fanaticism; and that, combined, it presents a scheme of worship, which the weakest of mankind may sufficiently comprehend, and from which the wisest need not recede, I think it a slander upon its excellence to suppose, that it can dread a competition with any rival sect whatever.'

We cannot enter more minutely into the contents of this excellent tract, which does so much credit to the head and the heart of its author; and in perusing which we are at a loss to decide whether to applaud most his zeal for his clients, or the ability with which he serves their cause. He enters fully into the subject, expresses himself neatly, and reasons closely while, by the selections from our history which he has made, and the sensible observations with which he accompanies them, he shews that he has read it with attention and discrimination. We must not dismiss his labours, therefore, without expressing to him the warm acknowlegements which, as well on our own behalf as on that of all the friends of religious liberty, we conceive to be his due.

ART. VIII. A Practical Explanation of Cancer in the Female Breast, with the Method of Cure, and Cases of Illustration. By John Rodman, M.D. &c. Paisley. 8vo. pp. 240. Boards. Underwood. 1815.

8s.

IT appears that the publication of this volume was immediately produced by the Society which was established in our metropolis for the investigation of Cancer; a number of queries being circulated by them among practitioners in various parts of the country, to which Dr. Rodman thinks that answers will be found in his treatise, although they are not given in a direct manner, but are left to be inferred from the facts and reasonings which he adduces. He informs us, in the preface, that his mind has undergone a remarkable change in the views which he has taken, at different times, of the nature of cancer. He originally supposed that there existed in the constitution what has been called a cancerous diathesis, which operates in some specific or even mysterious manner, unlike any other morbid process to which the body is subject: but more extensive experience has induced him to alter

alter his ideas; and he was gradually led to a very opposite opinion, viz. that cancer is a local disease, and that it does not possess any of those malignant or poisonous qualities which are usually assigned to it.

In order to support a doctrine so much at variance with that which is generally maintained, the author begins by considering the character of the female constitution; viz. as very delicate, easily thrown out of its proper bias, and rendered still more so, in the generality of instances, by the modes of life and forms of society to which females are necessarily subject. From the nature of the uterine and mammary systems, (the usual seat of cancer,) their frame may be regarded as more complicated in its structure and actions than that of the male, and therefore, independently of its delicacy, more liable to be deranged. The mental powers of females are evidently less firm and vigorous than those of the other sex; they are almost the exclusive subjects of hysteric and a long train of similar diseases; and they are, partly from original constitution and partly from acquired habits, much more exposed to dyspeptic ailments. These constitutional peculiarities lead immediately to affections of individual organs; especially of those that are complicated in their structure and functions, and liable to variations in their mode of action. The uterus and mammæ belong to this description of parts, and are of course prone to those evils to which the general habit subjects the whole frame.

After these preliminary observations, Dr. R. proceeds to a more particular consideration of the nature of the breast, its structure and actions in the healthy state, and the deviations from them which are supposed to constitute the commencement of cancer. The two circumstances on which he dwells, as most important in considering the healthy action of the mamma, are its variation in bulk according as it is more or less distended with milk, and the alteration which it experiences from the periodical revolutions of the uterus. These natural changes, which necessarily occur in the most favourable states, and in the most healthy condition of the gland, are much more felt when the constitution is feeble, or when the nervous power is labouring under any cause of irritation. Independently of these circumstances, although often connected with them, is the effect of external violence, either in the way of a sudden injury, or in what more frequently happens, of long continued pressure. From the combination of these causes, a foundation is laid for a morbid tenderness of the mamma, which is then easily excited into undue action, and thus a certain degree of uneasiness or enlargement is produced

in the organ. Hitherto, however, nothing has occurred that may not be regarded as the natural result of external circumstances, acting on an irritable part; no characteristic symptoms of cancer have appeared; nothing which can indicate either a specific action or a malignant tendency.

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So far we follow the author without much difficulty, and feel disposed to coincide with him in the greatest part of his ideas: but we now enter on more disputable ground. The third chapter is intitled, the Locality of Mammary Disease, arising from Affections of the Mind;' the object of which is to prove that the apprehension of cancer actually produces it. This doctrine, which at first view must appear in the highest degree singular, and even fanciful, is principally founded on the speculations of Dr. Adam Smith on the influence of sympathy: who conceives that a forcible impression of pain, existing in the body of another individual, really excites a degree. of the same pain in the corresponding part of our own body, To a certain extent, we may admit the truth of this opinion; and we may also go so far as to imagine that, when the breast of a female has been slightly inflamed by an accidental circumstance, the horror of cancer, by directing the thoughts to the part and producing a constant emotion of uneasiness in reference to it, may increase the tenderness and perhaps even the tumor of the mamma. We will let the author, however, explain his hypothesis in his own words :

There is a peculiar sympathy which reigns amongst females respecting cancer of the mamma. Many feel afflictive sensations of concern, whenever they hear of another being distressed with a mammary tumor named cancer. They reflect upon the calamities of this distemper with feelings of horror, particularly because the extent of these calamities is unknown, and because obscurity involves every relative circumstance, while they anxiously compassionate the state of the patient. Their interest in her ailments gains upon them, and brooding over ideal miseries, unhinges the mind, till the frame is disturbed, and disorder commences in their own breast. Hence the lively conception of sufferings from the mammæ of others affects these organs in themselves, by their attention resting upon them, which, in progress of time, occasions a painful plethora at a similar part.

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But the case is still worse, when any of these females have a breast in which a tumor of the same kind is growing. It may often have produced fears and suspicions, when local pain was roused by new disease, and became a cause of agitation; yet, as the pains abate, the fears generally subside, and the return of ease leads on to tranquillity. However, under all this, the hope of its not being` really cancer supplies consolatory support, and the mental in fluence ceases to disturb the gland. Whereas every consolation is speedily done away, by hearing that an acknowledged judge REV. JULY, 1816. pronounced

U

pronounced another tumor true cancer, known to have had the same origin, the same symptoms, and the same appearances. There is a natural alarm excited, now, for private safety, and this alarm, sharpened by sympathy for the other female, enters the mind so forcibly that its effects may be observed in a few hours, from swelling, uneasy warmth, and uncommon tenderness of the whole breast, with lancinating pains, and an increasing fulness all round the tumor.

It is from the workings of this latent agency, the mind, that the well known fact may be explained, of mammary affections being more active in some districts of a country than in others. And practitioners have often remarked, that an unusual number of females seek after medical advice for diseased mammæ, about the time of a cancerous breast having been cut off in their neighbourhood. The alarm spreads quickly amongst them, and those who think they have complaints of the kind, by musing upon the agonies of an operation, or the ravages of the disease, bring these views home to themselves, and lose all power to restrain their fears. In such a state the mamma is the object on which imagination settles, and in which it causes plethoric swelling, that soon enlarges a small tumor, hurrying the unguarded sufferer to steps of precipitation.'

On this ground, Dr. R. proceeds to explain all those circumstances which occur in the progress of the disease; and to point out the beneficial effects which are produced when the feelings are soothed by the assurances of the practitioner, and the individual is strictly enjoined to refrain, as much as she can, from dwelling on painful associations. Several cases are detailed in support of this doctrine, in which tumours, that had been pronounced cancerous by professional men of celebrity, and the patient had been doomed to the operation, were removed, or at least alleviated, by simply relieving the mental anxiety. Among the causes which produce tumours in the breast, and aggravate those that already exist there, the author forcibly insists on the operation of cold. In furtherance of this opinion, he finds that the application of warmth, or rather the steady employment of those means which retain the natural heat of the body, are among the most successful agents in removing tumours of the breast; and indeed to these he principally trusts for his method of cure.

We have as yet advanced only to that stage of the disease in which a tumour is formed in the breast; to which tumour the name of scirrhus is generally applied; and which has been regarded as the precursor of the more dangerous state, when it assumes the form of an open ulcer. We might conceive the possibility of the increase of vascular action being excited by mental impressions, and even the consequent enlargement of the part: but can we imagine that absolute ulceration will be produced,

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