ART. XLVI. An Efay on the Medicinal Education of Children, and the Treatment of their Difeafes. Translated from the French of M. Brouzet, physician in ordinary to the French king, and to the royal infirmary and hofpitals of Fontainbleau; correfpondent of the royal academy of fciences and belles-lettres at Beziers, &c. 8vo. 5s. Field. S the forming the minds, and directing the judgments of A children, properly come under the head of moral culti vation, fo* providing for their production, watching over their birth, and the growth of their bodies, preventing the diforders of their organs and humours, eftablishing the con• ftant order or fucceffion of their functions, and, in a word, raifing an infant to perfect manhood,' are the objects of that part of education more immediately treated of in this performance, and by the author ftiled medicinal. Whoever reflects on the analogy between the mental and corporeal affections, whereby *the tender brain of Newton or Alexander altered in their infancy by a fmall compreffion, or flight commotion, might have rendered the firft ftupid, and the other a wife king,' will fcarely difagree with our ingenious author, that this is too momentous a task to be wholly trufted (as is the common method) to the difcretion of governeffes, nurses, and mothers, who, M. Brouzet juftly obferves, are the faithful depofitaries of a thousand practices, that are often useless or pernicious, that are always employed without rule, and perpetuated by a conftant tradition, from one generation to another, without reformation or new discoveries.' The inconveniences and mifchiefs, that frequently refult from a carelefs or injudicious management of children, have induced our author to think it prudent to commit this critical and important employment to the care of phyficians, or, at least, that they fhould be more frequently confulted on these occafions than they commonly are. It requires,' fays he, but a very moderate degree of attention to the prodigious indifference most people feem to fhew to the medicinal education of children, to perceive that phyficians have a right to reproach them with the fame negligence, with which moralifts inceffantly blame them, with respect to moral education.' This branch of medicine appears to M. Brouzet to have been, in general, but fuperficially treated; according to him, we have icarcely a fingle precept on the diet of children well 6 *The lines diftinguithed by these afterims and inverted commas, are the words of the tranflator. 7 • efta eftablished by a difcuffion of the advantages and inconveniences of the received practice. All that has been written on the choice of nurfes, and the nourishing of children, is hardly any thing more than a collection of prejudices.' And with refpect to what has been publifhed by different authors, as well antient as modern, on the diforders of children, he confiders fome of them as deficient in point of precifion, others as confifting of only a heap of ufelefs recipes; and the obfervations contained in the greateft part of them, as neither interefting or inftructive, or reducible to practice. The truth of these free cenfures cannot, perhaps, be eafily contradicted: the province of managing infantile difeafes has, as our author takes notice, long been ufurped by nurses and empirics, whence phyficians have not only been deprived of the opportunity of collecting thofe obfervations they would other wife have made, but thereby rendered lefs attentive to fuch difeafes. To remedy therefore thefe inconveniences, arifing from the ufurpation of the former, and the inattention of the latter, M. Brouzet has undertaken to unite or affemble, in this book, the ufeful precepts already known, to add the rules that feemed to him to be wanting, to expofe the customs evidently founded on idle or dangerous prejudices, and to raise at leaft doubts with respect to practices whofe ufe or danger is not fufficiently determined.' The greatest difficulty,' he remarks, is över, when in fo enlightened an age as this, we begin to doubt; fince the choice of what is beft is almoft a neceffary confequence of a strict philofophical examination, which is the only way to arrive at truth.' Our author further informs the public, that this effay is the fruit of a particular ftudy of the medicinal education of children, and a confiftent application to the difeafes of that age; but that most of the precepts or counfels fpread through it, are only to children whofe parents are rich, or in eafy circumftances; and that it is difficult for the common people to put them in practice:' to which we shall add, as a caution to the English reader, to remember, they are calculated for a more fouthern latitude than that of any part of Great Britain. The arrangement of this work is in three books, fubdivided into chapters: the first book treats of whatever relates to the ⚫ medicinal education of an infant, from its formation or conception; but principally from its birth to the time of weaning. The fecond is appropriated to the other part of infancy, which extends from the weaning to the age of puberty. And the third treats of the difeafes peculiar to infants, and of the particular fymptoms that fhew themselves Cc 3 'in in children, in certain diseases that may be confidered as common to all ages.' Thefe heads are feverally discussed with a degree of perfpicuity and precifion, that indicate the author's judgment and experience. His directions are, for the moft part, fimple, and often, even beyond his own limitations, practicable; tho' he has now and then advanced fome things that are, at least, uncommon, if not new; particularly with regard to the diet of infants: but which nevertheless deferve attention. What has been faid with refpect to M. Brouzet, is really due to his merit; we wish we could as honestly commend his translator, whofe unacquaintance with even the names of medical authors (which is pretty evident *) affords a reasonable fufpicion, that he is not much less a stranger to medical subjects; and therefore not the moft proper perfon in the world for a tranflation of this kind: upon the whole, we cannot but look on his performance as one among many other late inftances of the truth of Mr. Addifon's remark, that there is a great deal of difference between putting an author into Englife, and TRANSLATING him.' The former is the task of every school-boy, but the latter requires somewhat more than mere industry. 6 I. L MONTHLY CATALOGUE for April and May, 1755. POETICAL. HE Irish Hudibras. In eight cantos. By William T Moffet, school-master. 8vo. Is. Reafon. The defign of this poem is to ridicule the manners of the country-people in Ireland. The humour is very low, and the poetry as low as the humour. II. A Satire upon Phyficians; or, an English paraphrafe, with notes and references, of Dr. King's most memorable oration, delivered at the dedication of the Radclivian library in Oxford. To which is added, a curious petition to an Hon. House, in favour of Dr. King. 8vo. 1s. Griffiths. Most of our readers, doubtless, remember the celebrated oration of Dr. King, of which fome account was inferted in the fecond volume of the Review. The piece now published un An English writer, with only a tolerable knowledge of authors on medicine, would hardly have retained Primrofius and Wallifius, inftead of Primrofe and Wallis; nor would he have preferved gallic terminations to names not generally known by them, as Pifon, Riviere, Hilden; for Pifo, Riverius, "Hildanus. der der the title, A fatire upon phyficians, is a burlefque verfion of When met, one nameless day in June, The king shall have his own again; The petition to an bon. boufe, mentioned in the title page, and printed by way of appendix to this jatire, is a very indifferent imitation of Swift's humble petition of Francis Harris. It is introduce with the under-written advertisement : The following piece of humour having been the cause of much pleasantry, about the year 1722. (in which year the doctor's unlucky genius put him upon offering himself a candidate to reprefent the university of Oxford in parliament, ⚫ and thereby brought upon him the foreft difgrace that ever ⚫ ambition felt) I hope the readers of these pages will not be difpleafed at feeing it in print. By the turn of the raillery, the doctor appears to have been much the fame character then and ever fince-A perfon of unbounded pride, and arrogantly laying claim to the fairest honours; vain beyond his circumftances; impatient of disappointment; a zealot, miftrusted by his own party; and a creature despised and laughed at by his enemies.' III. Ad honorabilem ornatiffimumque virum Robertum everoHampdeneum Ricardi Pownei epiftola parænetica. Oxonii, e Theatro Sheldoniano. Folio, 6d. Baldwin. This epiftle, containing near 80 Latin verfes, in eafy numbers, and no inelegant diction, flows from the writer of the Templum Harmonia, which is referred to in the firft page. After reminding his friend of the innocent pleasures of a life at college, where their friendship probably commenced; and confidering the different avocations to which his domestic affairs, and his eminent fituation now subject him; he advises him, after the manner of Horace, to enjoy his augmented fortune: which advice, if unneceffary, may imply that he does; if needful, it Nibil cenfeat, aut temporum metu, aut aliorum more bonis & ingenuis civibus indignum!-p. 32. + Aftræa. It represents the doctor complaining of the lofs of his election, and the expence it had put him to, and praying relief. will mean with Horace,Nullus argento color eft,nifi tempe Quicquid agis fummæ lucent in pectore dotes ; K IV. The Voice of Truth, an ode to his royal highness the Prince of Wales. 4to. 1s. Cooper. A frontispiece, in pretty fculpture, and a device in the titlepage, both in a kind of bronze-colour, are prefixed to this ode, which, indeed, is lefs the voice of poetry, than of truth. And as poets, according to Waller, are faid to fucceed better in fiction than truth, perhaps the fubject was but an indifferent one for an ode. The fentiments are generally juft, but trite; and the expreffion, tho' in rhyme, often too profaic. I hort, the whole feems better intended than executed. The following ftanza is no bad paraphrafe of Horace's Dalce et decorum eft pro patria mori, and not unfeasonable at this juncture. Yet when her fword thy Britain draws, For rights commercial, freedom, laws, War then is honour's call: And he who for his country bleeds, A glory gains from martial deeds, V. The Indignant Mufe, a fatire. To a friend. K 4to. 15. This author is much lefs elegant, or correct, than indignant; or poffibly too wrathful to regard embellishments. His impatience cannot wait for the ordinary return of the Term, but afks, before the day of trial, Why vile L--bp from juftice ftill conceal'd? Which he must now be convinced, was not the fault of Justice, But him I mean new finners daily makes, Shall |