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the hairs round my mouth; but, like other things, it became habitual; and, during the following years, I never failed to repeat it once in fix weeks or two months: I was free from every kind of vermin, the humidity of my prifon being, without doubt, unfavourable to their existence. My limbs were prevented from fwelling by the continual exercife I was careful to take, either by jumping in my chains till I perfpired; or, when I was freed from them, by the dif ferent occupations in which I paffed my time. The darkness I lived in was the only thing I could not accuftom myself to?

I had learnt too much, and feen too much of the world, to be without conftant fubjects for meditation; the habit I contracted of thinking, became fo great, that I compofed feveral difcourfes, fables, poems, and fatires, which I recited aloud, and which remained fo deeply impreffed on my memory that, after my deliverance, I was able to commit two volumes of them to paper.

Thus employed in mental labour, without pen or paper, my days of forrow paffed away with wonderful rapidity. The conclufion of my hiftory will prove, that I owed to the cccupation I had chofen, the attentions that were fhewn me by feveral friends, permiffion to write, light, and at length liberty. The confolations I received in my prifon were the fruits of the ardour with which I had applied myself in my youth to the study of the fciences. Let me therefore advise my readers to employ their time as ufefully as I did mine. As every king has it in his power to beftow employments, honours, and a fortune, on the man who best deferves them, fo he may take them again away, and reduce him to his original obfcurity. But all the endeavours of fovereign power would be vain if it attempted to give knowledge or an elevated foul to à fool, or deprive the man of genius of his mental advantages. This is the wife difpenfation of Providence, which has ordained that the attainments which we owe to ourfelves, fuch as virtue, knowledge, and a love of labour, shall still be ours, in fpite of misfortune, and all the efforts of human power while all that others give us, or all that we obtain from their weaknefs, is frequently as fleeting as a morning dream.

Thus, though the power and anger of Frederick made the neighbouring nations tremble, and deftroyed whole armies, yet could he never deprive me, in a gloomy dungeon and loaded with chains, of my honour, my eafe of confcience, or my fortitude. I braved his ineffectual efforts. Supported by my rights, I found in myfelf fufficient force to refift, and at laft obtained a triumph.'

With regard to the accuracy of the tranflation we can fay but little, not having the original work. The language, however, appears to be nervous and fpirited; and in this refpect it feems worthy of the Baron. There is in this tranflation too, what is wanting in another recently published, Baron Trenck's dedication of his work to the fhade of Frederick the Second the fentiments of which are manly, and breathe a great spirit of philanthropy, confidering the treatment he had received. The tranflator fays he has fuppreffed all that relates to the judicial proceedings

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proceedings between the baron and the perfons who retained his fortune in their hands, as thefe could not be interefting to the generality of readers. Those who give a detail of their miffortunes are not unfrequently apt to dwell too much upon what is more important to themselves than the public. We could. wish to have given the baron's account of his fufferings during his illness, occafioned by the preffure of his irons on different parts of his body; but we have already exceeded our limits, which we were tempted to dc, in order to evince to our readers that this man, fettered like a favage, seems to have poffeffed a foul fuperior to the common level of mankind; that if he was not exempt from frailty and errors, he was poffeffed, in a fuperior degree, of many heroic and diftinguished virtues; and that his memoirs are extremely uncommon and interesting.

Of this work two other tranflations have appeared; one in two volumes, price fix fhillings in boards, by an officer; another in three volumes, price twelve fhillings, fewed, by Mr. Holcroft.

ART. IV. The Works of the late William Stark, M.D. confifting of Clinical and Anatomical Obfervations, with Experiments dietetical and ftatical, revifed and published from his original Manufcripts. By James Carmichael Smyth, M.D. F.Ř. S. Phyfician Extraordinary to his Majefty. 4to. 10s. 6d. boards. Johnfon. London, 1788.

THE

HE clinical and anatomical obfervations in this work are divided into four parts; the firft of which is allotted to the diseases of the ftomach, inteftines, and liver; the fecond, to the difeafes of the cheft; the third contains remarks on the morbid difpofition of the fluids; and the fourth includes the difeafes of the head, nerves, and mufcles. In the recital of thofe various cafes the author first describes the fymptoms as they appeared in the patients, and afterwards the ftate of the different vifcera, elucidated by diffection. There occur few cafes of any particular importance, or of fuch as tend to throw new light on the hiftory and nature of difeafes; but, in general, they are related with precifion, and afford a strong proof of the author's in duftry in profecuting the attainment of knowledge and experience, by means of ocular obfervation. We have extracted the following as an example; the circumftances are hardness of the liver, and thinnefs of the bile:

A man aged thirty, after a fever, became yellow, and continued fo almolt conftantly for four years, his colour being fenfibl deeper every time he caught cold; but, except a flight loofencfs, to

which he was now and then fubject, he had no other remarkable complaint till three weeks before his death. He was then seized with thirst, fever, great pain in the upper part of his belly, and in both hypochondria; a frequent cough, his breathing thort and painful, his skin and eyes of a deep yellow, his tongue clammy, the greater part of it very red, and one edge of it covered with a white flough; his belly was tenfe and fwoln.

On diffection the liver appeared large, and of a dirty brown colour; it was hard and uneven on its furface, which was raised up into small eminencies in clusters. Externally it was variegated, dark orange and dark green being mutually interpofed. On preffing the gall bladder, a thin tranfparent bile, of a deep green colour, was forced into the duodenum; no stone, conftriction, or other diseased appearance, was found in the. gall-ducts or gall-bladder, though both were accurately examined. The omentum was thick and opaque, and turned upwards over the ftomach and hiver; over the ftomach, it was attached to the diaphragm at its edge; over the liver, by a broad surface; but it did not adhere to either of thofe organs: the fall inteftines adhered by their convolutions to one another, and to the parietes, being covered with a kind of cellular fubitance. Internally they were in a found ftate.'

The author appears to have been no less attentive to the operation of remedies than to the causes and progress of diseases. This is frequently evident from the judicious queries which he propofes relative to the method of cure; and, at other times, from the obfervations he had made on the different therapeutic expedients in practice. Of this kind are the fubfequent obfervations on the effect of remedies employed in the cure of difeafes of the cheft:

In difcafes of the cheft I have hardly ever obferved any certain good effect from internal medicines. Vinegar of fquills has, on fome occafions, feemed to give relief to patients affected with cough and difficult breathing; and oily medicines, or fpermaceti, appeared almost certainly to allay, for a fhort time, violent coughing. But the remedies which have ftill greater and more lafting effects, are bleeding, blifters, and other local d'fcharges; alfo fomentations. Bleeding is the appropriated remedy for a cough, and, except in the lat ftage of confumption, feldom fails to afford very confiderable relief, which fometimes is felt immediately after the operation, at other times not till the next day, or even the third day; and, upon fome occafions, not till after repeated bleeding. This remedy is alfo of fervice in cafes of difficult breathing, and in pains of the fide; although, for the latter complaint, the appropriated remedy is a bliter, which almoft conftantly gives relief either immediately or the day following.

blitters are likewife of confiderable efficacy in cafes of difficult breathing or hoarfeness, and fometimes of cough. Setons or iffues are ufeful in pains of the cheft; and fomentations are of fervice in pains occafioned by external injury. From the early application of

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thefe remedies, pains of the fide frequently, and dry coughs fome times, terminate favourably; but if they are delayed for a week or a fortnight, the disease does not yield to them, but feems to keep on in its natural courfe.

In cafes of cough with expectoration, and of difficult breathing, or afthma, thefe remedies feem to afford only a very tranfitory relief, and to contribute but little towards retarding the progrefs of the disease, Those disorders, therefore, which are the most common, and the most fatal of any, are unfortunately leaft under the power of phyfic. I have known good air of fervice in fuch cafes, after bleeding had failed to afford even a temporary relief.'

The most interesting parts of this work are the dietetical and ftatical experiments, inflituted by the author with the view of afcertaining the effects of different kinds of food, taken likewife in different quantities. The fatisfaction derived from thefe experiments, however, is greatly allayed by the circumstance that they were profecuted with a degree of rigour and perfeverance which, though necellary towards accomplishing the author's defign, appears to have proved fatal to his conftitution, We find him fometimes reftricting himfelf to bread and water, fometimes to ftewed lean of beef, at other times to flour and fuet, flour and honey, and fometimes to different combinations, The ftate of his health, and the quantity of the discharges, through all the viciffitudes of diet, are particularly fpecified. Dr. Stark was defirous of eftablishing as a fact, that a pleafant and varied diet is equally conducive to health with a more strict and fimple one, His experiments, however, are not decifive on this fubject; and there is little reafon to expect that, with fuch an instance in view of a palpable martyrdom to dietetical difquifitions, they will ever be farther profecuted by those who have a regard for the preservation of health. But while his conduct, in this refpect, will probably be avoided by future inquirers, his example, in others pertaining to the improvement of medical knowledge, is worthy of imitation.

Dr. Stark's father, we are told, was a native of Ireland, his mother of Scotland, but he himself was born at Birmingham. Of the latter part of his life we meet with the following

account:

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Having finished his ftudies at Edinburgh, he came to London in the year 1765, and now devoted himself entirely to the ftudy of phyfic; and, looking upon anatomy as one of the principal pillars of the art, he endeavoured to complete with Dr. Hunter what he had begun with Dr. Monro, and acquired, under this eminent profeffor, that perfect anatomical knowledge which appears in all his diffections. He likewife entered himfelf a pupil at St. George's hofpital; and difgufted, as he has often told me, with the inaccuracy er want of candour of the generality of practical writers, he deter

termined to obtain an acquaintance with difeafes at a better fchool, and under an abler mafter; and to have, from his own experience, a ftandard by which he might judge of the experience of others. With what industry he profecuted this plan, and with what fuccefs his labours were crowned, we may form fome judgment from the specimen now offered to the public.

Whilft attending the hofpital, he was alfo employed in making experiments on the blood, and other animal fluids; and likewife in a course of experiments on chemical pharmacy, which are ftill extant, and give the strongest evidence of his accuracy and diligence; but whether they are of importance enough to be prefented to the public, I have not yet had leifure to afcertain.

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In the year 1767 he graduated at Leyden, and published an inaugural differtation on the dyfentery. On his return to London he recommenced his ftudies at the hofpital; and, in June 1769, began his Experiments on Diet, to which undertaking he was greatly encouraged by Sir John Pringle and Dr. Franklin, whofe friendship he then enjoyed, and from whom he received many hints, both as to the plan, and afterwards in the execution of his defign, Thefe experiments, or rather the imprudent zeal with which he profecuted them, proved in the end fatal to himself; at least, fuch was the general opinion of his friends at the time; but, in my mind, and I fpeak from an intimate knowledge of his character, other caufes, particularly chagrin and difappointment, had no fmall share in bringing about this event. Dr. Stark was much more converfant with books than with men; poffeffing great firmness and dignity of mind himself, with uncommon fimplicity of manners, he was ill prepared for the cold prudence, the time-ferving meannefs, or the bafe duplicity which he met with in others. He had not yet learned in the great school of the world, a leffon which all young and ingenuous minds receive at firft with indignation, viz. that genius or talents avail nothing, when oppofed to intereft or to faction. Nor had he yet made the obfervation of Figaro, equally applicable to all ages and to all countries,

Que, le favoir faire, vaut mieux que le favoir.

But if Dr. Stark may by fome be reckoned unfortunate in having been cut off at an early period of life, and before he had obtained that eminence and diftinction to which his talents and application entitled him, he was peculiarly fortunate in what is infinitely more valuable. If his life was fhort, it had at least been spent in the most agreeable, as well as most useful of all purfuits, the pursuit of knowledge. If he did not accumulate wealth, he preferved his independence. If he did not obtain the vain praife of the world, he had the fuffrage of the wife and good, the praife that's worth ambition. He enjoyed the high fatisfaction, laudari au laudatis viris, and a ftill higher fatisfaction in the confcioufnefs of having always acted his part with integrity and honour; and, in his laft moments, might have justly confoled himself with the magnanimous reflection of the immortal Tycho, Non inutilis vixi.

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