aftivum is a pretty plaything-We had almoft forgotten to mention a tranflation of the Iphigenia in Aulis of Euripides, beginning at v. 751, and ending with v. 800: we tranfcribe a few lines of it; STROPHE. • Where Simois in monarch pride Rage prophetic heaves her breast, Big with a weight of woes and forrows yet to come.' We cannot help thinking that the firft of these measures is of too comic a caft to be fuited to tragedy;-and even the second fort, Fair Cassandra, &c. appears to have too little dignity for the bufkin. ART. XX. A Treatife on the Epidemic Puerperal Fever of Aberdeen. By Alexander Gordon, M. D. Phyfician to the Difpenfary. 8vo. PP. 124. 35. Robinsons. 1795. our recommendation can avail, this valuable tract will foon be very generally in the hands of medical practitioners. Dr. Gordon, we think, has made great advancement towards eftablishing a fuccefsful method of treating a diforder, which is well-known to be terribly fatal to an interefting class of our fellow-citizens. In chapter I. the fymptoms are traced with a diftin&t pen, It is important to remark that, when the author was called in within 6 or 8 hours after the attack, he could put an immediate ftop to the fever, though the pulfe was 140.If 12-24 hours had elapfed, it could feldom be brought to a termination before the 5th day. After the expiration of this term, the difease was generally incurable. In chapter 11. cafes and diffections are related; from which the author concludes that the puerperal fever ' may be confidered as confifting in abdominal inflammation." Arguments are adduced to prove that the inflammation is of an eryfipélatous nature: but they will fcarcely, we fufpect, be admitted as conclufive; conclufive; and we must do Dr. G. the justice to fay that he delivers this opinion in a tone by no means pofitive. Rather, therefore, than occupy the little room we have to spare with our doubts, we shall extract the following inftructive fummary: The foregoing table contains feventy-feven cafes of the difeafe, which are the foundation on which my doctrine is grounded, and which I defy any theory to shake. died. Of that number forty-nine patients recovered, and twenty-eight Of the former, the greater part owed their recovery to such evacuations, as cure inflammatory difeafes, carried to a very great extent; fome, to the fame evacuations fpontaneously excited and continued; fome, to a translation of the inflammation to the extremities, or other external parts, in form of eryfipelas or abscess; and a few, to an aftonishing effort of nature, in difcharging the abdominal fuppuration by an external outlet, of which wonderful critis, I have given three remarkable cafes. Of the latter, or those who died, we have ocular demonftration of the nature of the difeafe in three diffections; and, in all the reft, there were evident fymptoms, either of mortification, or fuppuration of the parts contained within the cavity of the abdomen. And if to these facts be joined this additional one, that of those who got wine and cordials, upon the fuppofition that the disease was putrid, none recovered, it may be confidered as an established truth, that the Puerperal Fever is a disease of an inflammatory nature.' The remote cause of the puerperal fever (Chap. IV.) is a peculiar contagion. Every perfon who had been with a patient in the puerperal fever, became charged with an atmos phere of infection, which was communicated to every pregnant woman who happened to come within its fphere.' Many facts are brought forwards in confirmation of the transportation of the contagion. Typhus and the puerperal fever differ in feveral refpects. The circumftance that excites the infection of the puerperal fever, feems to prevent typhus. The former always takes place after and not before delivery: but typhus, if pregnant women are expofed to the infection, takes place before, and very feldom after delivery.' Chap. V. Prognofis of the difeafe; it has hitherto been almost invariably fatal. Chap. VI. From the quotation already made, it has appeared that Dr. Gordon had recourfe to large evacuations. At the beginning of the disease, when alone there is hope, 20-24 ounces of blood are to be taken at once, and calomel and jalap are immediately to be administered in fuch quantity as to operate fpeedily and brifkly; and the purging is to be kept up till the difeafe is cured. Chap. VII. The difeafe is to be prevented, 1, by taking care not to communicate the infection; and 2, by the author's purging bolus, of 3 grains of calomel, and 2 fcruples of jalap, adminiftered the day after delivery; ⚫ all all who got this medicine either escaped, or were eafily cured, if they did not." In an Appendix, Dr. G. enforces what he had previously delivered. He gives a ftrong caution against delufion from the ftate of the pulfe, which is more frequently weak than full and ftrong. It became stronger after bleeding. There are many curious and fenfible remarks in this treatise, befides those which we have noticed. MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For NOVEMBER, 1795. SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS, RELIEF OF THE POOR, &c. Art. 21. Thoughts on the most fafe and effectual Mode of relieving the Poor during the prefent Scarcity. 8vo. 6d. Longman. THE fole object of this fmall publication, which made its appearance before the late harveft, feems to have been to recommend a more fparing use of bread to all claffes of people, and to advise that charitable contributions be employed in furnishing the poor, at a cheap rate, with other articles of provifion rather than bread. Art. 22. A Letter to Sir T. C. Bunbury, Bart. one of the Members of Parliament for the County of Suffolk, on the Poor Rates, and the high Price of Provifions, with fome Proposals for reducing both. By a Suffolk Gentleman. 8vo. 1s. Rivingtons. The intelligent writer of this pamphlet regards as the cause of many public evils, the practice of uniting feveral fmall farms into a large one, and the confequent failure of the race of independent yeomanry, who formerly cultivated their own farms, from forty to fourfcore pounds a year. The mifchiefs refulting from this practice are clearly laid open; and a plan is fuggefted for reducing the poor rates and the price of provifions, which may merit the attention of the public. It is briefly this; that every owner of land, to the amount of one hundred pounds a year, lying within three miles of a populous market town, fhould build and let a cottage, with at least an acre of land adjoining. The immediate advantages to the public, which the author expects from this project, are the increafe for fale of many of the fmall articles of housekeeping, and the reduction of the poorrates. As a more remote confequence, he expects the revival of the old fyftem of fmall farms. The public attention being now unavoidably turned towards the important object of relieving and improving the condition of the poor, this public fpirited gentleman may reasonably hope that his scheme will obtain attention. Art. 23. An Addrefs to the different Claffes of Perfons in Great Britain, on the prefent high Price of Provifions. To which is added, an Appendix, containing a Table of the average Price of Wheat in every Year, from the Year 1595 to 1790, inclufive. By the Rev. Septimus Hodfon, M. B. Chaplain of the Afylum for Female Or phans. 8vo. PP. 57. Is. 6d. Cadell, jun, and Davies. We We can be in no danger of paffing a falfe judgment in pronouncing this addrefs an useful publication. It was printed in July laft, with an immediate reference to the public ftate of provifions at that time. However, as the dearnefs of the neceffaries of life continues, there is ftill an urgent call to examine how far the evil admits of a remedy, and to fearch for means of alleviating that part of the burden which cannot be removed. Mr. Hodfon afferts, we think, too confidently -that the dearnefs of wheat cannot fairly be considered as a confequence of the war. That this is one, though perhaps not the principal, caufe of the evil, will not be questioned by any person who attends to the large and fudden demands of government for the fupply of the army and navy, and who confiders how much more provifion is confumed and wafted in this public fervice, than would have been fairly ufed in maintaining the fame number of men as labouring citizens.— With the hope of relieving the prefent calamity, Mr. H. communicates to the public feveral useful fuggeftions. The opulent he adviles to restrain the use of bread in their own families to the lowest poffible confumption, and to refrain from the ufe of hair powder :which very few feem inclined to do. Mr. H. farther recommends abstinence from the use of young animal food, and from the fuperfluous confumption of full grown meats. To government he fuggefts that, in aid of voluntary fubfcriptions, the parishes through the kingdom might be obliged to fell bread to the refident poor at a certain rate below the market price; a plan, perhaps, not very judicious, as it tends to increase the confumption of a fcarce commodity. It is alfo recommended that the flock of wheat be lengthened out by a mixture of barley and oats; that greater attention be paid to the fisheries; and that the state of agriculture, in all its branches, be brought under the confideration of the Legiflature. The pamphlet concludes with a very proper addrefs to the poor, to diffuade them from violent measures, as tending to increase the evils which they are defigned to remedy. AMERICA. Art. 24. Reports of Alexander Hamilton, Efq. Secretary of the Treafury; read in the Houfe of REPRESENTATIVES of the UNITED STATES, Jan. 19, 1795; containing, 1. A Plan for the further Support of Public Credit. 2. For the Improvement and better Management of the Revenues of the United States; to which is annexed, an Act for making Provifions for the Support of Public Credit, and the Redemption of the Debt. Printed by Order of the HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES. 4to. 4s, ftitched. Debrett. Thefe authentic ftate papers of a rifing western empire will, we fuppofe, be confidered by political readers as documents of no inconfiderable value; and as an attentive perufal of them may poffibly furnish ufeful hints of found policy and national economy, to which European Governments may attend with advantage. HISTORY. Art. 25. The Hiflory of France, from the earliest Times to the Acceffion of Louis the Sixteenth; with Notes Critical and Explanatory. By John Gifford, Efq. Vol. IV. 4to. pp. 718. 185. Boards. C: Lowndes. 1793. The The opinion which we formed of this Hiftory on the perufal of the preceding volumes, and which we expreffed at the opening of our first article, has been fo fully confirmed by the fequel, that it might be fufficient to refer our readers, for a general idea of the work to M. R. New Series, vol. x. p. 121. The Hiftory, which is now brought down to the clofe of the period mentioned in the title, is throughout executed with indefatigable diligence in collecting materials, with a confiderable thare of judgment in the arrangement, and with uniform neatness and correctnefs of expreffion. If the writer feldom rifes into great exceilence, he never finks into reprehenfible negligence. If he affumes no very decifive tone in political philofophy, he rarely difgufts his readers by the violence of party spirit, or fhocks him by bold deviations from commonly received opinions. Whatever information, inftruction, or entertainment, can be expected from a plain and full detail of a feries of events, respecting one of the greatest and moft bufy ftates of modern Europe, may be found in this History. When we inform our readers that the prefent volume commences with the reign of Henry IV. and clofes with that of Louis XV. we need not say that it abounds with interefting materials. Many diftinguished characters are fairly and ably delineated. The feveral unfuccefsful ftruggles for political power in the parliaments, and their gradual fubjugation to defpotifm, are fully defcribed; and a clear account is given of the progrefs of the French fyftem of taxation. The impolicy as well as cruelty of religious perfecution is reprefented in ftrong colours, in the hiftory of the perfecution of the Huguenots; and the progress of commerce under the able minifter Colbert, and the improvements made in the arts and belles lettres during the fplendid reign of Louis XIV. are related. In fine, befides the great facts of civil and military history, the work is enlivened with many mifcellaneous anecdotes, and other articles of information. From this vaft mafs, nothing would be eafier than to select nume rous extracts highly amusing and inftructive: but those which we made from the former volumes are fufficient to affift our readers in judging of the merit of the work; and farther than this, in the midst of the prefent numerous demands on our attention, we must not proceed. We fhall only add that we have little doubt that this publication, which is certainly the moft copious hiftory of France in the English language, will be generally thought worthy of a place in historical libraries. A hiftory of the revolution is promised. We fhould have been glad to have feen better plates in a work of fuch importance: but these are matters of mere decoratien, and fubject to diverfities of tafte. LAW. Art. 26. The Hiftory of the Common Law, by Sir Matthew Hale. The Fifth Edition, (with confiderable Additions,) illuftrated with Notes and References, and fome Account of the Life of the Author. By Charles Runnington, Serjeant at Law. 2 Vols. 8vo. 145. Boards. Robinfons. 1794. We noticed the former edition of this valuable work by the fame editor in our 60th vol. p. 481, and are forry to repeat the cenfure |