They have not less succeeded at Caraccas, by limiting their potions to 3 glasses per day, until they were perfectly restored to health; this infusion is made with one ounce in 3 glasses of water.

I think it useless to confine ourselves to such or such particular formulæ, we must always consider the country we live in, the degree and nature of the complaint of the patient to whom we propose the application of this remedy. It is, doubtless, proper to follow as much as possible the first practical ideas which we have perceived. It is also proper to put some restrictions. I have more than sufficient reasons, but which would be here entirely superfluous, for advancing, that the success which has been in general obtained from it, has depended on diminishing and adding to the original prescription; but let it be well understood, that this remedy must not be applied as some have done, nearly or entirely in the last stage of the consumption.

The following method of prescription is, I think, more proper, generally speaking. Let the patient drink three bottles per day of the cold aqueous infusion, and luke warm with the honey at the times of rising and going to bed-but is this rigorous treatment, which is continued during 12 days, to be considered as the change from phthysic to more alarming symptoms; whose progress are at all hazards to be stopped without delay, when it can be done, as is practiced in intermittent or remit tent pernicious fevers? This last case is only practicable in certain species of phthysics.

When the disease has not yet arrived to the state in which it attacks persons of a middling age, in consequence of a humid catarrh, asthma, &c. or young people of a good constitution otherwise, but who are ex

hausted by the frequent errors of their regimen, and females of the age of 45 to 50.

In the latter case, the alcornoque may be given in a cold infusion of water. I maintain, that in this state of debility of the system, a vinous infusion of alcornoque may be ad. ministered without danger, and this in small doses with more certain success, especially in a cold climate like these northern states, and with a people whose custom it is, in a sick state particularly, not to use cold drink, which is proven by the general use of teas.

If the case requires to continue its use, taking 3 glasses per day of the infusion in water, instead of 9 glasses; sugar drops, or other confectionary articles, prepared with the alcornoque, may be taken, besides the tea. This way of apply. ing its principles, would be commendable in consumptions of the larynx with aphonia and hemophthysics in a convalescent state, to strengthen the organs of the voice, the muscles and membranes of the larynx and pharynx.

The alternate use of asses or mares milk and the alcornoque I approve of, because it is conformable to the principles of sound practice. It may be administered in all the different grades of the consumption.

The lichen of Iceland, Iceland liverwort), derives its success in medicine from its bitter qualities, united to a peculiar glutinous or inacous principle, which is conducive to our auimalisation.

Lastly, a very good bitter elixir may be prepared from the alcornoque, of which its strength might be meliorated by pouring a few drops on a piece of sugar; in short, it may be applied in the same manner as all those powerful medicines, which deserve to be used; but persons who would wish to undergo a course of

ignorance, and his unwillingness to be instructed.

Such fears will intrude, and lessen the confidence of philanthropy. Yet these fond expectations do not appear altogether without a solid foundation. The progress of knowledge is already so extensive, and especially the capabilities afforded to its still farther extention by means of the PRESS, seem to promise, that at least if we do not make progress, we shall never relapse again into barbarism, as in the instances of some nations, appears to have been the case. The present civilized portions of Europe, it is hoped, by no means, so long as the powers of the press are maintained, will ever so completely lose what they have gained, as has happened to the Greeks and Romans. Poets look

A

back, and philosophers look forward for the age of improvement. blind veneration for antiquity would tend to frustrate the hopes, I will not, according to fashionable phrase, condescend to call them, the dreams of philanthropy.

Barlow, in his Columbiad, unlike his poetical predecessors, joins the ranks of philosophers, and places his hopes in a future amelioration. His work will live to future

ages, although not being sufficiently brought down to the mawkish taste of the day, it will probably not acquire much popularity at pre

Lift keener eyes, and drink diviner day, All systems scrutinize, their truths unfold, Prove well the recent, well revise the old,

Reject all mystery, and define with force, The point he aims at in his lab'ring course."

worshipping the moon on the fifth The story of Mirza superstitiously fore-fathers, which pleased so fully day, according to the custom of his the fancy of your correspondent, reminds me of a story of a venerator of antiquity, who, more innocently showed his taste or perversity in an humble style. He was on the point of rebuilding his house, and resolutely determined to follow the plan of

bis fore-fathers. The stable accordsite to his front-door, and within a ing to ancient custom, was oppofew yards of the only entrance to his house through the kitchen. By a little alteration, be might have had a beautiful situation for his new house. But on the proposed plan being explained, he quickly silenced all remonstrance, by briefly observing, "This situation answered very weel for Wollie Moore's grand-father, and for Wollie Moore's father, and it shall do for Wollie Moore himsel." By arguments equally cogent, do the applauders of antiquity the praisers of past times, often support their cause. They build on authority, and on precedent, but are sparing of supporting their asser

tions on the basis of reason. They cannot claim much merit for their disinterestedness, for they only lend a little praise to their ancestors, in hopes of receiving, when they shall

become ancestors, a full return in kind. A veneration for antiquity has cramped the energies of the human mind, and powerfully perpetuated errors from one generation to another. It is founded on that vanity, which induces many foolishly to prize, by a false and exaggerated estimate, those things which belong to themselves, merely because they are theirs. It was a good maxim which Ovid puts into the mouth of Ulysses, "Not to rely on our ancestors, or kindred, but to call our actions only our own,"

Before we can give credit to senates for their wisdom in former times, or to preachers, for their praises of the faith of their ancestors, they must prove that the politics or creeds of former days have been pure. Magna Charta, the levying of ship-money, and the institution of the Star-chamber, are all the works of our predecessors, and yet entitled to very dif ferent estimation. Our ancestors have at different periods adopted opposite sentiments of religion, and could not be right at all times, and in all their changes, when the creed of one period was completely opposite to a former creed. Every question ought to be determined on its own intrinsic merit, and not on the adventitious claims of having obtain ed the sanction of those who have gone before us, and who were equal ly fallible with ourselves. Length of time throws an air which to those who look only at the surface, as. sumes an appearance of sanctity over decaying and morbid institutions. Reason removes the illusion, and points to higher destinies, as the rewards of patient and persevering

research.

For the Belfast Monthly Magazine."

ON READING ROSCOE'S TRANSLATION OF THE NURSE.

ASSUREDLY, the nursing mother has the enjoyment of an additional sense; nor can nature, in all her extent and variety, present a spectacle more interesting, than the maternal nurse in the performance of this most delightful of duties, looking down on the infant that draws life from her bosom, and yields in return a sweetest, purest, but most indescribable sensation, partly revealed in the eyes and attitude, but which can neither be translated by the pencil of Raphael, nor the pen of Roscoe. It is this serene sensation, this placid but consummate love, which repays the mother for much previous suffering (suffering that perhaps heightens succeeding pleasure); and this is the compensation ordained for the daily cares, the nightly watchings, and the numerous privations of the nurse.

That most affecting transport which at one highly contrasted moment (perhaps the most so in human life) when a female is at once delivered from agony the most excruciating, and terror the most impressive, and hears the cry of her first-born, and exclaims feebly, yet forcibly-My darling child! that affecting transport then felt and manifested by the generality of mothers, gradually subsides into the quiet and retired delight which blesses the nurse; but this secondary sensation, or rather sentiment, I am unwillingly obliged to observe, is by no means so common, or so comformable to the minds or habits of many mothers. Let me assure those ladies who have read Roscoe, that it is much easier to be a mother than a nurse. Let not poetry excite feelings, transient tenderness, romantic fondness for a plain, serious, sweet, laborious occupationlet not, I say, the pleasures of the

state well paraphrased by the poet, seduce every one who has the happiness of being a mother, to think she has also the virtue to be a nurse. And is it no virtue to stay at home from evening parties; to be careful and vigilant by night as well as by day, with eyes that open, with heart that is aroused at every uneasy cry; is it no virtue to regulate with the nicest attention every minute article of regimen, to be cautious in giving medicines, and still more cautious in preventing their necessity; to pacify the little impatient; to get by heart all the language of nature, various and comprehensive as it is, even in the earliest life; to distinguish pain from pettishness, and erroneous regimen from real malady; is it no virtue to live only, and at all times, for that child, who lives only by you; to keep the temper ever serene and unruffled, the mind, like the milk, sweet and fair, and bland and balmy; to keep yourself sacred from the contamination of strong liquors; in short, to keep the mind at home, always pure, always patient, always prepared, always strong enough not to surrender itself to the magic of any old woman, whether of the male sex, or of the female ?-Oh! Believe me it is not on that breast, at one time panting with feverish solicitude for some new pleasure, some change without variety. at another time chilled with indifference and ennui it is not on that bosom, whose milk is poisoned by anger, or those accursed cordials that rob women of their hearts, without immediately deranging their heads-no-it is not on that bosom, however fair, I should lay an infant, even though it were the breast of a mother.

She who roves after tumultuous and public joys, can only pretend a relish for the secret, silent, sabbath state of enjoyment, which dilates the heart of the natural nurse. Save the

infant from the mother, however, healthy, who has no equanimity, the virtue of a nurse-whose heart is never at home, who is full of fictitious sensibility, and who can leave in its cradle the waking and wailing child, to shed tears over a novel. Save the child-give it a truer mother, a domestic nurse, who possesses the equanimity of humble sta tion; whose self-interest is more vigilant and attentive, and (such is the providence of nature) whose attachment often grows more maternal than that of the mother herself. Give her the child-and take it from the natural parent.-Medea, who is said to have murdered her own children, was an unnatural nurse, a fashionable nurse-a mother, and not a nurse-a NURSE!-the consummate loveliness of a lovely woman, the excellence of every mental qualification, and the enjoyment of the most enraptured sense, without the smallest sensuality !— The wise men of the east might do obeisance to such a character, without attaching any divine attribute to the child.

Ladies are ambitious-They will, and therefore they must be nurses. For some weeks it does well. Such a mother, and such a child, are subject for a painter and a poet, who can sketch in the lucky minute, but not for the domestic historian who is to record the annals of the house. Fatigue begins to be felt at night, and lassitude in the day. It is felt as a shame to drop on a sudden what had been so firmly resolved. Fits of fretfulness begin to dry up the fountaias of life. To increase quantity, recourse is had to wine-wheys, to malt liquors, which are supposed nutritive, and which produce an artificial sleep, heavy and short, both to mother and child; and sometimes ([ trust, not often) the spirits are kept up to the undertaking by cordials, essence of peppermint, drops diluted