a few chains; and we apprehend, that they cannot have cost less than one million fterling: perhaps confiderably more.

We have obferved a mistake or two in this plan; one of which ought, particularly, to be corrected, viz. Burflem, in Staffordshire, famous for its Earthenware Manufacture, is placed on the wrong fide of the canal.

MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For NOVEMBER, 1779.

POLITICAL.

Art. 15. A Letter from Lieutenant General Burgoyne to bis Confli tuents, on his late Refignation; with the Correspondences between the Secretaries of War and him, relative to his Return to America. 8vo. Is. Almon. 1779.

G

ENERAL Burgoyne here (to use the words of one of his ANSWERERS) recapitulates his fervices, his endeavours, his expectations, and his disappointments; and he addreffes his parliamentary constituents, the freemen of Prefton, in fuch terms, as he may apprehend to be belt fuited to conciliate their regards, and fecure their interefts, at the next election. His ftyle is fuch as may be expected from a man whofe feelings are unufually irritated, and his refentment warm. He confiders the ministry as the plotters of his destruction; and he even goes fo far as to declare, that the ruin of officers forms almost the whole of their military fyftem '-But, furely, this is rather the language of despair and faction, than of a fober and TRULY PATRIO IC oppofition to the measures of an incompetent or wicked administration!

6

Art. 16. A Letter to General Burgoyne, on his Letter to his Conftituents. 8vo, 1 s. Becket.

Contains many just strictures on the General s letter, but is written with too much acrimony. Inftead of the liberal manner of a gentleman, the Writer attacks Mr. Burgoyne with the ferocity of one of his own favages, reeking and hot from the murder of poor Mifs Macray.

Art. 17. A Reply to Lieutenant General Burgoyne's Letter to his Conftituents. 8vo. I s.

Wilkie.

This answerer merits commendation for the decent and candid ftrain in which he writes. He does not, like the General's antagonist above mentioned, affail with a blunted tomahawk. His weapons are of a finer polish, and keener edge. He does not hew and chop like a butcher. He cuts up like a skilful furgeon; and diffects his fubject with the dexterity of an able anatomift.-The following half of a parallel between the cafe of Regulus, the celebrated Roman General and captive, and that of General Burgoyne, may be ex• tracted for the farther fatisfaction of our readers:

• LIEUTENANT GENERAL BURGOYNE was entrusted with the command of an army deftined to perform a material fervice to the ftate. His conduct was marked by zeal for the expedition upon which he was employed; and wherever he met the bated with valour. Victory for a time feemed to contend under his ftandard;

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enemy

he com

ftandard; but at length fhe deferted him, and he was expofed to the malice of Fortune. The enemy collected a force greatly exceeding his in numbers; and he was compelled to yield to their fuperiority. While a prifoner in the poffeffion of the enemy, he obtained permiffion to return to his own country; but he continued engaged to redeliver himfelf up to the enemy upon due notice being given to him. Upon his arrival, he found himself precluded from the prefence of his Sovereign, upon pretence that an Inquiry was to take place into his conduct, and that it was unfit he fhould appear at Court till the event of that Inquiry was known. He demanded a Court Martial; but this was denied him, upon a reprefentation from the heads of his profeffion, that it could not be held upon him while he continued a prifoner. He complained loudly of both thefe measures, and joined himself to a party which acted upon a plan of general oppofition to the Minifters of their Sovereign. Lieutenant General Burgoyne was a member of the Senate. There he attempted to take the lead upon many important occafions. It was obfervable, that his chief complaints were of the perfonal ill-treatment which he had received; and that he seemed to feel his own wrong more fenfibly than the lofs of his country. He received an official order fignifying to him, that it was the pleasure of his Sovereign that he should return to America and join his captive army, who were fuffering under cruelty and difgrace. He thought fit to reprefent what he fuppofed the feverity of this order. Again he was commanded; again he remonftrated; and at length finding the matter firmly infifted upon, he refigned all his civil and military employments, referving only his rank in the fervice. He gave an account of his conduct to the Public in a letter which he addreffed to his Conftituents, and inveighed with bitter acrimony against the Minilters of his royal mafter. This letter was received with a difference of opinion. Some thought it a pathetic reprefentation of unneceffary feverity; fome confidered it as a juftification of his conduct; and there were not wanting fome who pronounced it A LIBEL UPON THE KING'S GOVERNMENT,'

MEDICA L.

Art. 18. Cafes and Remarks in Surgery; to which is fubjoined an Appendix, containing the Method of curing the Bronchocele in Coventry. By B. Wilmer, Surgeon. 8vo. 5 s.. Boards. Longman. 1779.

From the mifcellaneous contents of this volume, we shall select fuch articles for the information of our readers, as appear most likely to be new and important.

The Author begins with fome obfervations on ftrangulated hernia. The chief purpofe of thefe is, to confirm the doctrine maintained by fome late writers, of the fuperior efficacy of cold and aftringent applications, above warm and relaxing ones, in procuring the reduction of the hernial contents. Some cafes are related ftrongly in favour of this opinion. The Author met with equal fuccefs in the treatment of the hernia humoralis after the fame method.

In the history of a fractured skull, the Author takes occafion to plead against the neceflity of removing a circular piece of fcalp in all fractures; a practice cruel in the execution, and which greatly retards the fubfequent cure. A fingulat cafe follows, of a large

laceration

laceration of the right hemisphere of the brain from external injury discovered on diffection.

Searification of the tunica conjunctiva of the eye, in inflammations of that organ and the eye-lids, is warmly recommended, and its good effects are proved by a decifive case.

The hiftory of a tumour proceeding from a blow, which thruft the globe of the eye entirely out of its focket, deferves notice, though it terminated fatally.

The fuccefsful treatment of a cancerous disease of the mouth, in which corrofive fublimate appeared to be the most efficacious remedy, may afford instruction and encouragement in a fimilar case.

The account of a fingular and fatal difeafe of the cefophagus, entirely deftroying the power of fwallowing even liquids, will be thought curious. On diffection, the whole annular fubftance of the upper part of this canal, to the extent of three inches, was found converted into a tough vifcid rotten mafs, of a dark brown colour.

Some cafes are given, corroborating Sir John Pringle's account of the good effects of blisters applied to the navel in the ileus. This remedy proved effectual, after the other means ufual in fuch cases had been employed without fuccefs.

A remarkable cafe is related, in which, before delivery, of a dead child in a very putrid ftate, an univerfal emphysema arose, attended with great heat and thirst. The patient was recovered by a liberal ufe of fruit and other antifeptics.

This cafe is followed by that of a fatal retroverfion 'of the womb, in a woman about four months gone with child. Reduction was found impracticable; and the cleareft proof of the nature of the difeafe was obtained on diffection.

An uncommon and very perplexing cafe of lithotomy is given, where the ftone, though frequently felt by the forceps, could not be laid hold of, nor extracted, till the fifteenth day from the operation, when a large purulent difcharge from the bladder had taken place.

Some obfervations on compound factures clofe the collection, in which the author brings feveral arguments again ft Mr. Pott's obfervations on the neceffity of immediate amputation, in certain cafes of compound fractures and dislocations. Thefe arguments are enforced by fome hiftories from the writer's own practice, of very dangerous and unfavourable accidents of this kind, which, according to Mr. Pott's doctrine, would have demanded amputation, but which were cured without this operation. Mr. W. imputes much of his fuccefs in thefe inftances, to the ufe of cold and aftringent applications, inftead of the greafy cataplafms and relaxing fomentations, fo commonly employed.

The Coventry method of cure in the bronchocele, mentioned in the Appendix, contains feveral circumftances of an empirical turn; but, when divefted of thefe, appears to owe its fuccefs principally to calcined fpunge, adminiftered in a bolus, to be laid under the tongue, and swallowed flowly.

Art. 19. Reports of the Humane Society, for the Recovery of PerJons apparently drowned. For the Year 1778. 8vo. Is. Rivington, &c. 1779.

The good effects of this benevolent inftitution evidently appear from the fummary of the last year's fuccefs.-Out of 159 cafes, 106

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proved

proved fortunate. Although, out of this number, there are feveral which required. no medical affiftance, and others in which the methods commonly known proved fpeedily efficacious; yet, from the relation here given, it cannot be doubted, that the encouragement offered by the Society, in the first inftance, to take the fufferer out of the water, and afterwards to perfift in the proper means for recovery, has been the cause of restoring to life a number of our fellow-creatures who otherwife muft have perished. With respect to the particular cafes, there are fcarcely any of them which, now we are accustomed to intances of this fort, are fingular enough to be laid before our readers. The longeft (even fuppofed) time of continuance under water, here mentioned, is a quarter of an hour; and the longest time of ufing the means for recovery before any figns of returning life appeared, half an hour. A pretty remarkable cafe is given of the recovery of a perfon apparently killed by lightning; but we cannot attribute much to the alliftance of the gentleman who relates it, fince, among other means, he thought proper to draw twenty ounces of blocd from the arm, and to pour volatiles into the mouth, before there was any power of swallowing. We lefs wonder, that under fuch treatment the patient was an hour before he fhewed figns of life, than that he recovered at all.

It may be worthy the confideration of the Society, how far it may be proper to continue the direction of throwing the fumes of tobacco into the bowels, against which practice fuch apparently reasonable objections have lately been raised.

Art. 20. A Letter to F. C. Lettfom, M. D. &c. &c. Occafioned by Baron Dimfdale's Remarks on Dr. Lettfoms Letter upon General Inoculation, By an uninterested Spectator of the Controverfy between Baron Dimfdale and Dr. Watkinfon, on the above mentioned fubject. 8vo. I s. Murray. 1779.

Among the various writers who have lately appeared on the very interefting fubject of general inoculation, we cannot but think, thát the author of the pamphlet before us has come clofeft to the point, and has hit upon the most folid and conclufive argument in favour of the practice. Without following him through his introductory obfervations and particular criticilms on Baron Dimfdale, we shall briefly mention his main argument; which is, that in London, the fmall pox already, from natural infection, prevails nearly as generally as it is capable of doing; and therefore, that any local spread of infection from inoculation would be of no confequence, as it would only anticipate a little the certain progrefs of epidemic contagion. Every inoculated individual may therefore be confidered as one fnatched from the danger of a very hazardous difeafe; while thofe he may poffibly infect, undergo only the common chance they would otherwise be exposed to. The proof of this point he deduces from the annual deaths from the fmall-pox ftated in the bills of mortality, compared with the annual births, with proper allowance for annual ingreffors from the country, and deduction for children who die of other difeafes under two years of age. Though we are fenfible, that thefe calculations are fomewhat vague and arbitrary, we are yet inclined to place a good deal of confidence in the argument in general; as we are certainly informed, that from the most accurate calculation, and actual enumeration in a provincial city, it appeared, that

the

the number escaping the fmall-pox, for want of infection, was fo extremely inconfiderable, that fuppofing them all infected in confequence of inccalation (a molt improbable fuppofition), all the lofs which could pothbly be fuftained, would be overbalanced by the annual inoculation of fewer than a thousandth part of the inhabitants. The fame thing is as likely to happen in every great town; and most of all in London, where fuch a quantity of contagious matter is continually exiting.

DRAMATIC.

Art. 21. Plymouth in an Uproar; a Mufical Farce, as it is performed at the Theatre-Royal in Covent Garden. The Mufic compofed by Mr. Dibdin. 8vo. 1 s. Kearsley. 1779. Infipid and ill-timed buffoonery!

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 22. A plain State of Facts, or the Justice and Propriety of a late Verdi& impartially confidered: In a Letter to Sir Alexander Leith, Bart. 8vo, 1 S. Cooper, in Drury-lane. 1779.

The extraordinary perfon to whom this narrative is addreffed, feems to have very little reafon to plume himself on the mark of diftinction which the Writer has paid to him. If he is not here ❝ damn'd to everlasting fame," he may, perhaps, be indebted for it folely to the perishable nature of a fugitive pamphlet.

From this plain State of Facts,' the Public will be greatly affifted in determining how far Mr. Pope (who lately profecuted Sir A. L. for a fy) has been directed by malice, and how justly the Baronet, who brought a cross-action against Mr. P. for ufury, was entitled to a verdict for 10,000 l. *-The ftory abounds with most extraordinary circumstances; and it is well told.-It will give the honeft, inexperienced reader an horrid idea of the arts too frequently employed in matters relative to the adminiftration of Law and Jus TICE. There is more rafcality in the world than good men would think. Art. 23. Authentic Memoirs of Capt. Paul Jones, the American Corfair. Containing his numerous Exploits and furprising Revolutions of Fortune in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, &c. &c. By Mr. Theophilus Smart, who escaped from Jones's Veffel a few Moments before fhe funk. 8vo. I s. Hogg.

Proper exercise for the credulity of failors, porters, hoftlers, poftchaife-drivers, and court politicians.-A fine print of the Captain is prefixed.

Art. 24. Franfplantation; or, Poor Crocus pluckt up by the Root. 8vo. I S. Evans, Paternofter Row.

Recites, in a plaintive, yet Shandyan kind of drollery, the hard cafe of Mr. Rymer, late furgeon of the Conquestadore guardship; who has been difmiffed the service, on account of some misunderstanding which had unfortunately broken out between our Author and the Admiral who was his commanding officer. As Mr. R. feems to be an ingenious man, and poffeffed of a good heart, we hope his petition to the King, introduced in the conclufion of this pamphlet, will procure him fome redrefs.

Sir A. L. obtained, from the Court, a copy of his indictment.