$776. Review of New Publications. the arguments of orators, and the philofophy of the world, without any fupernatural affiftance; if any one can believe all these miraculous events, contradictory to the conftant experience of the powers and difpof tions of human nature, he must be pofseffed of much more faith than is neceffary to make him a Chriftian, and remain an unbeliever from mere credulity." CXXIV. Intemperate Zeal improved, and Chriftian Baptism defended. In a Letter to the Reverend Richard De Courcy, Vicar of St. Alkmond's, Shrewsbury, by Samuel Med. ley. 19. 6d. Keith. This pamphlet is published under a mifnomer; it fhould have been, "Intemperate zeal difplayed, and Chriftian Baptifm very indecently attacked, by S. M." The adult dippers will always have the laft word, that fo they may cry victory, and fing te Deum as they go down into and come up out of their water. CXXV. Obfervations preparatory to the Ufe of Dr. Myerfbach's Medicines, in which the Efficacy of certain German Prescriptions is afcertained by Facts and Experience. 6d. Dilly. " The author of this pamphlet, who is fuppofed to be Dr. Lettfom, has divided it into five fections; in the first he shews the improbability of discovering difeafes by the urine; and obferves as a motive for his publication, that mistakes in ordinary matters may be remedied, but a body ruined by injurious treatment, is a monument of folly, whole infcription the infatuated object painfully paules over as long as he lives. Such inftances, fays he, have fo often occurred to me, that I think it my duty to expofe to the public fome of the practices which have lately deluded a great part of this city; the effects of which I find daily more injurious to the people, having, in my own practice, lately, met with many perfons, whofe affecting treatment has been Tuch, as demands the tear of humanity, and that fympathy which the diftrefs of our fellow creatures excites, even when it arifes from their own imprudence and mifconduct." In the second section the author gives the formula of the German medicines in English, which appear to have been given in all cafes, let them have been ever fo diffimilar in their symptoms. As reafon and common fenfe muft immediately detect the ignorance of a practitioner, who indifcriminately adminifters the fame remedies to all difeafes; the author in the third fection expofes Dr. Myersbach's ignorance of the urine, as well as of medicines in general by numerous cafes, a few of which we fhall lay before our readers as inftances of prefuming ignorance. CASE V. In August, 1775, I was defired to vifit W. of Thames-Street, about 54 years old; he had laboured under a cough, and a flight 435 difficulty of breathing and reftleffness, for which he had confulted Dr. Myersbach about a fortnight before. When I entered the fick chamber, the patient was fo near his end, and the family in fuch diftreis, that I could not collect a very accurate account of the procefs he had been under: I found, however, in the room the green drops, red powder, and fome pills: took the pills to be opium from the refult of their ufe, as a fleepiness had enfued, and continued for three days when I faw him, from which he never was roufed; he opened his eyes two or three times, and I think uttered a few words before he expi red. CASE VI. C. a gentleman twenty-three years old, applied to Dr. Myersbach in the beginning of January, 1776, with a phial of urine; the doctor, after shaking it a moment, ran his hands on each fide of the body of his patient from the shoulders to the abdomen as quick as poffible, and with equal velocity in broken English, cried "the pain is bere, the pain is bere," imagining, doubtless, that by encompaffing fo large a portion of the body, he could not fail of including the disordered part. After the doctor had, in this abrupt hafty manner, guessed for fome time at every part of the body as the feat of pain and difeafe, but the right one; the gentleman informed him, that he frequently fuffered the moft acute pain at the extremity of the penis, particularly after walking or any fevere exercife; and likewife when he paffed urine, which he could effect only by drops. The doctor as quick as lightning anfwered, "Aye aye, aye, you are right, I meant that, that is the pain you have; it is an uncommon diforder. I bave bad two thousand patients in London, and only one (jo young) with your diforder. It is a liver complaint; but I will cure you. In com He then recommended him to take fome pilis three times every day, and alfo his green drops, and particularly infifted upon the ufe of much exercife. pliance with thefe directions the patient fuffered for many weeks the most excruciating pains, but his confidence in the doctor prompted him to persevere, till worn down by the most racking pain in the parts first complained of, he addreffed him by letter, and fent with it another phial of urine, bach declared his patient was better, that upon the infpection of which, doctor Myersthere were three ulcers in the bladder, which the urine difcovered; and that he would cura them, if bis medicines were perfifted in for three months, and plenty of exercise was taken," Thus amufed, the patient dragged on a miferable life to the end of February. Agony and violent inflammation in the part affected, having at length become too violent to admit of using exercife, he was neceffitated to keep his bed; and from reft a mitiga3 K 2 tion 436 Review of New Publications. tion of pain took place; this convinced him he had been used improperly, although doctor Myerbach repeatedly infifted upon the use of exercife. After dear bought experience, Mr. C. was too fenfible how much he had been deceived to depend upon foreign emigrants. He applied to Englishmen in the profeffion; was cut for the stone by a furgeon, who extracted a very large one; and he now enjoys perfect health. There is one circumftance in the prefent cafe which fhould not be omitted: when doctor Myersbach must have perceived the patient was convinced of his ignorance, he attempted to perfuade the unhappy fufferer that he had exactly three ulcers in his bladder, which he pretended to fee in his urine what a misfortune it was, that all the urine difcharged at once was not exhibited, by which the doctor might have feen, not only the three ulcers, but the ftone likewife. This reminds me of a cafe in the North of England, where water-conjurors abound. A countryman had brought his wife's urine, and after it had been extorted from him that his wife had fallen down ftairs, and thereby received an injury; the doctor, over earnest to fhew his knowledge, declared it was four steps he had fallen down; the Countryman, however, declared it was twelve; but, rejoins the doctor, have you brought all the water? No, replied the countryman. Aye there it is! concludes the doctor; you have left the eight fteps in the chamber-pot. The man went home fully convinced of the doctor's fagacity. Obfervations on C's Cafe. I have not examined the medicines in the above cale; but as doctor Myerfbach has in many inftances, wherein I have been confult. edy given fteel and aloes in the form of pilis, after declaring the liver to be affected, there is reafon to prefume the fame were exhibited here aifo; and if fo, we may venfare to fay, he could not have adminiftered any medicines more likely to aggravate the pains and other fymptoms attending a tone in the bladder, The doctor added to his pills frequent exercife, for a disease wherein every phyfician in Europe would have recommended reft; and from the inflammation and agonics which the medicines, or exer cife, or both, produced, one may candidly. conclude, that a farther pin leverance in the regimen recommended, would have produced fuch an aggravation of mifery, as could have ended only with the life of this worthy young gentleman. I cannot, even at this period, reflect upon the tortures he fuffered. without horror; as he frequently declared what a mercy he should think it, were death, to clofe his fufferings. But are health and life to be trified with? What confcience must that man poffefs,' who indif criminately, exhibits the fame medicine to Aug. every age, fex, and difcafe, when at the fame time he knows he is ignorant of the science to which he pretends? Are there no Jaws to punish that man who, robs another of health, the dearest bleffing of life, without which life is a burthen? Before I conclude, I shall notice a flight of hand, which has already, deceived a confiderable part of the town. It was observed in the preceding cafe, with what velocity Doctor Myerbach moves his hands from one part of the body to the other, all the time faying, "the pain is bere, the pain is bere :” by this means he must unavoidably, nine times in ten, approach near the past where the patient feels moft pain, who immediately mentions where it is, and the doctor replying that that was the part he meant, deceives the patient into a belief, that his disease, hitherto unknown, is now precifely difcovered, and his admiration is equally excited by the manner in which the difcovery is made." There are about twenty other cafes equally curious, and many of them fatal, and even fhocking to humanity and amongst other proofs of doctor Myerbach's ignorance of urine, the author relates his fending a mixture to impofe upon him, which fucceeded agreeable to his expectation, as the impoùtion was not difcovered by doctor Myerbach. We shall conclude our obfervations on this pamphlet, after recommending it to the perufal of valetudinarians, with the following quotation. "I remember an artful conjurer in the North of England, who raised an ample, fortune from the ignorance of the country peo ple, who came from feveral neighbouring counties to confult him. He tutored his fon, a forward youth, to receive the votaries in an antichamber; and to propofe fuch queltions to them, as fhould extort the motives of their attendance; during which time the father placed himself behind a fcreen, fo, as to hear all the converfation. When the fon had gained fufficient information, a certain tap on the fcreen was agreed upon as a fignal to introduce a patient to, the father, by the most indirect turnings the house afforded, into a remote apartment, where the father had previously retired, to repeat to the pa tients, on their entering the room, what the dialogue in the antichamber had furnished. By this device the doctor acquired great reputation; he could tell the difeafe without the help of urine; and the deception was not known, till he retired upon his fortune, and disclosed his own ftratagems."' CXXVI. American Patriotifm confronted with Reafon, Scripture, and the Conftitution: being Obfervations on the dangerous Politicks, taught by Dr. Price and Mr. Evans. By J. Fletcher, Vicar of Madely, gd. Buckland. Mr. Fletcher is a fecond to Me. Welley in his high-church politics, as well as in his religious principles, though they are fo wide ly 1776. Review of New Publications. ly different from the articles which they have both fubfcribed. In this pamphlet, the prefbyterian Mr. Baxter is our author's chief oracl, whole words he hath retailed plentifully. We have many pages, but no argument. We hall extract one of the best fentences in the pamphict: After obferving that to disregard the king's righteous commands is bad, and with which he charges the colonists, he adds "but to defpife the first table commandments of the king of kings, as we do, is still worse. Nor do I ice how we can answer it, either to reafon or our own confciences, to be fo intent on enforcing British laws, and fo remifs in yielding obedience to the laws of God. If the capital command fear God, and honour the king" could be properly parted, should not every Chriftian, prefer the former part to the latter? Will our honouring the king atone for our dishonouring God? And can we expect, that our loyalty fhall make amends for our impiety or luke-warmnels ?" This writer, like his principal Mr. Wefe ley, lays unmercifully on the Americans, in contending for liberty, while they trade in negroes: but he ought to have informed his readers, that years ago the American affemblies wanted to put an end to the flave trade among them, but their governors refused to pals every act of that kind as often as prefented. CXXVII, Common Sense: Addreffed to the Inhabitants of America. 1s. 6d. Almon This pamphlet was, firft printed in Philadelphia, and hath been afcribed by fome to the pen of Dr. Franklin, and by others to that of Mr. Sam Adams: but neither of them could make the declaration as doth the au thor "that he is unconnected with any party and under no fort of influence public or private, but the influence of reason and principle." The production is the boldeft that hath yet appeared during the prefent unhappy controverfy, and its manifeft defign is to promote the abfolute independence of the American colonies. We can only infert the author's remarks on the boasted conftitution of England. "Abfolute governments (though the difgrace of human nature) have this advantage with them, that they are fimple; if the peo ple fuffer, they know the head from which their fuffering fprings, know likewife there medy, and are not bewildered by a variety of caufes and cures. But the conftitution of England is fo exceedingly complex, that the nation, may fuffer for years together without being able to discover in which part the fault lies; fome will fay in one and fome in another, and every political phyfician will ade vife a different medicine. "I know it is difficult to get over local or long standing prejudices, yet if we will fuffer ourfelves to examine the component parts of the English constitution, we shall find them 43.7 to be the base remains of two ancient tyrannics, compounded with fome new republican materials. "Fift.-The remains of monarchial tytanny in the perfon of the king "Secondly.-The remains of ariftocratical tyranny in the perfons of the peers "Thirdly. The new republican materials in the perfons of the commons, on whole virtue depends the freedom of England. "The two first, by being hereditary, are independent of the people: wherefore in a conftitutional fenfe they contribute nothing towards the freedom of the state. "To fay that the conftitution of England is a union of three powers reciprocally checking each other, is farcical: either the words have no meaning, or they are flat contradic tions. "To fay that the commons is a check upon the king, prefuppofes two things: ་་ Firf. That the king is not to be truft ed without being looked after, or in other words, that a thirst for abfolute power is the natural disease of monarchy. "Secondly. That the commons, by being appointed for that purpose, are either wiler or more worthy of confidence than the crown. "But as the fame conftitution which gives the commons a power to check the king by withholding the fupplies, gives afterwards the king a power to check the commons by empowering him to reject their other bills; it again fuppofes that the king is wifer than thofe whom it has already fuppofed to be wifer than him. A mere abfurdity! "There is, fomething exceedingly ridicu lous in the compofition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cafes where the higneft judgement is required. The state of a king, fhuts him from the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the different parts, by unnaturally oppofing and deftroying each other, prove the whole character to be abfurd and useless. "Some writers have explained the English conftitution thus: the king, fay they, is one, the people another; the peers are an house in behalf of the king, the commons in behalf of the people: but this hath all the di ftinctions of an houfe divided against itself and though the expreffions be pleasantly arran ged, yet when examined, they appear idle and ambiguous; and it will always happen, that the niceft conftruction that words are capable of when applied to the defcription of fomething which either cannot exist, or is too incomprehenfible to be within the compafs of defcription, will be words of found only, and though they may amuse the ear, they cannot inform the mind, for this expla nation includes a previous question, viz. Hou came the king by a power which the people 438 Review of New Publications. people are afraid to truft, and always obliged to check? Such a power could not be the gift of a wife people, neither can any power, which needs checking, be from God; yet the provifion, which the conftitution makes, fuppofes fuch a power to exist. "But the provifion is unequal to the task; the means either cannot or will not accomplish the end, and the whole affair is a felo de fe; for as the greater weight will always carry up the less, and as all the wheels of a machine are put in motion by one, it only remains to know which power in the conftitution has the moft weight, for that will govern; and tho' the others, or a part of them, may clog, or, as the phrafe is, check the rapidity of its motion, yet fo long as they cannot ftop it, their endeavours will be ineffectual; the first moving power will at laft have its way, and what it wants in speed, is supplyed by time. "That the crown is this overbearing part in the English conftitution, needs not be mentioned, and that it derives its whole confequence merely from being the giver of places and penfions, is felf-evident; wherefore, though we have been wife enough to fhut and lock a door against abfolute monarchy, we at the fame time have been foolish enough to put the crown in poffeffion of the key. The prejudice of Englishmen in favour of their own government by king, lords, and commons, arifes as much or more from national pride than reason. Individuals are undoubtedly fafer in England than in fome other countries, but the will of the king is as much the law of the land in Britain as in France, with this difference, that instead of proceeding directly from his mouth, it is handed to the people under the more formidable fhape of an act of parliament. For the fate of Charles the First hath only made kings more fubtle not more just. "Wherefore, laying afide all national pride and prejudice in favour of modes and forms, the plain truth is, that it is wholly owing to the conftitution of the people, and not to the conftitution of the government, that the crown is not as oppreffive in England as in Turkey." Some of the Philadelphian quakers foon after this pamphlet appeared, published a teftimony against it, and against any of their people taking arms in the conteft. To this the author replied in an appendix, and obferves, "If the bearing arms be finful, the first going to war must be more fo, by all the difference between wilful attack, and unavoidable defence. Wherefore if ye really preach from confcience, and mean not to make a political hobby-horfe of your religion, convince the world thereof by proclaiming your doctrine to our enemies, for they likewife bear arms. Give us proof of your fincerity by publishing it at St. James's, to the admirals and captains who are piratically ravaging Aug. our coaft, &c.. Had ye the honeft foul of Barclay ye would preach repentance to your king." CXXVIII. Plain Truth-or Remarks on the Pamphlet entitled Common Senfe. This is in answer to the foregoing pam. phlet, and republifhed and fold with it. The author is not equal in abilities to his opponent, but fully proves that all the Americans are not for independence. CXXIX. The Royal Standard English Dic tionary, to, vbich is prefixed a comprebenfive Grammar of the English Language. By W, Perry. 35. Wilkie. Inftead of illuminating a weak capacity, the prefent performance requires a frong capacity to understand the rational divifions of fyllables, the numerous accents, the various fignifications, and the multiplied founds of the vowels and confonants denoted by typographical characters, herein contained. CXXX. Obfervations on Dr. Price's The ory and Principles of Civil Liberty and Government, preceded by a Letter to a Friend, on the Pretenfions of the American Colonies, in Refpect of Right and Equity. 28. Dodfley. The obfervations are candid, and well meant, but not convincing. CXXXI. Mc Fingal: A modern Epie Poem, or the Town Meeting. 1s. Almon. This poem is of Philadelphian manufacture, and for humour and poetry hath much merit. 'Tis an hudibraftic fatyr on the Tories, or the friends of adminiftration in America. It begins "When Yankies, skill'd in martial rule, Firft put the British troops to school; Inftructed them in warlike trade, And new manœuvres of parade; The true war-dance of Yanky-reels, And val'rous exercife of heels; Made them give up, like faints complete, The arm of flesh, and truft the feet, And work, like Chriftians undiffembling Salvation out, by fear and trembling; Taught Percy fashionable races, And modern modes of Chevy-chaces: From Bofton, in his best array, Great 'Squire M'Fingal took his way, And, grac'd with enfigns of renown, Steer'd homewards to his native town." The following is the author's defcription of the progrefs of the conteft between Britain and America, "So Britain, 'midst her airs fo flighty, Anath'matiz'd each unbeliever, Her 1776. Review and Lift of New Publications. Her fervants humour'd every whim, Set wide for Popery the door, Made friends with Babel's fcarlet whore, No ftate e'er chofe a fitter perfon Our author particularly defcribes the volcanoes of Heffe Caffell, which he fuppofes to be formed by the action of fubterraneous fire; and he is of opinion that many other mountains are of a volcanic origin. The following is his reprefentation of the utility of the enquiries in which he hath here been engaged. "This knowledge improves and corrects our ideas concerning the origin and the natural viciffitudes of the furface of the earth; points out feveral dangerous errors, and teaches us to find at home feveral forts of useful foffils, which either were not noticed at all, or were even at great expence imported from abroadobjects that certainly cannot be indifferent to 439 a friend of truth, nor feem fuperfluous to a lover of his country, or to a once has felt the confequences of error! every man that error is attended with its own natural punishment, and especially blunders committed in the expenfive working of mines, whofe punishment never fails to be immediate and extremely fenfible. Such errors might be committed, and I am apprehenfive have been committed very often, if in hope of metallic veins, one should venture to fink fhafts and to drive galleries through the vitreous rocks of volcanic mountains. They yield nothing but clear lofs of money, pains, and time. Be. ing accumulated by afhes, lavas, and ftrag gling vomited ftones, they may now and then contain in their melted maffes and cinders fome marks of metals; but their very nature forbids to hope or to look in them for metallic veins, which, by the fubterraneous fermentation, heat, and fire, are destroyed and melted into one mafs, with the unweildy barren rocks that fkirt them on every fide: There has been, under the late Landgrave Charles of Heffe, funk a pit and a gallery through a bafalt and lava-rock, under the fmaller Winterkaften at the Habichwald. The gallery is ftill open, and it is called the filver-well (filver-brunn). If these amazing fubterraneous works have been undertaken on account of the cafcades or the coal-pits, which are on the other fide of the hill, they may perhaps be excufable; but if there has been any intention to fish for filver in the filver-well, as feems to appear by its name, the enormous expences have certainly been thrown away, and would have been faved by a better acquaintance with the na ture of the whole mountain." PUBLICATIONS THIS MONTH DDITIONAL Papers concerning the A Province of Quebec; to which is ad ded, a Propofal for a Reconciliation with the revolted Provinces of North America, without exempting them from the Authority of the British Parliament. IS. White. HISTORY. A four Months Tour through France, 2 vols. 55. DodЛley. MISCELLANEOUS. The Hiftory of Gunnery: with a new POETRY. ceffes of the British Arms; particularly the The Truth of the Chriftian Religion, |