The women are difbelieved: however, Peter and John haften to the fepulchre, and find that the body is removed, but fee not Jefus.

Cleopas and his companion, having heard the report of the women and of Peter and John, leave the apoftles and disciples, and prepare for their journey to Emmaus.

Mary Magdalene and the other women follow Peter and John to the fepulchre. Mary Magdalene, either arriving before the other women, or remaining after them at the tomb, or revifiting it apart from them, looks into the cave, and fees a vifion of angels, and, after she has converfed a fhort time with them, Jefus himself appears to her.

She joins the other women, who seem to have continued in the neighbourhood of the fepulchre; and as they are returning to Jerufalem, Jefus meets them.

The guards leave the fepulchre, and relate to the Jewish rulers all that had occurred within their knowledge.

The women relate to the difciples that Jefus was alive, and had been seen by them; but are difbelieved.

After this Jefus appears to Peter, then to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, and then to the eleven as they fit at meat, with whom he holds a long conference: and thus end the great and glorious tranfactions of the day on which Jefus rofe from the dead.'

This arrangement his Lordfhip has fupported by a minute confideration and comparison of the feparate accounts of the four Evangelifts, and of the methods in which other Harmonists and Commentators have attempted to reconcile them, and by a number of judicious critical remarks. We could have wished to have made an obfervation or two upon fome of the particulars : but this Article is already protracted beyond our ufual limits. We, therefore, here take leave of this ingenious and elaborate publication, and earneftly recommend it to the attention of every lover of facred literature, on account both of the fund of erudition that it contains, and of the candid and liberal fpirit which it breathes.

ART. III. A Medical Commentary on Fixed Air, &c. &c. By Matthew Dobfon, M. D. F. R. S. 8vo. 3 s. fewed. Cadell. 1779.

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EFORE the nature of fixed air, and particularly the che mical qualities of that fluid, were fo largely inveftigated, as they have lately been, physicians were not inattentive to the falutary ufes to which that fubftance might be applied in the practice of medicine. Though the late ingenious Dr. Macbride, in particular, probably erred in that part of his theory, REV. Oct. 1779.

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where he was induced to confider it (as Hales, Haller, and others had done) as the cementing principle, or the bond of union between the infenfible particles of bodies; yet, from a plausible analogy, founded on the obfervations of voyagers, as well as on philofophical experiments, he was led to a falutary application of this fubftance, in the cure of the fea fcurvy, confidered as a putrid difeafe, originating from the want of this antifeptic principle in the food of feafaring perfons. He confidered that this defect might be most commodioufly fupplied by the exhibition of malt, or other portable fubftitutes for fresh vegetables; which are known to abound in this principle, and at the fame time to effect a fpecdy cure in this disease, independent of their peculiar qualities; whenever the fcorbutic had the good fortune to reach land, though even in the last stage of the diftemper.

Afterwards, when the method of impregnating water with fixed air was difcovered, the medical application of this fubftance was ftill farther extended, and to cafes of a very different nature. It was not only confidered as a remedy for all difeafes of a putrid kind; but likewife, in confequence of its acid quality, as a folvent for calculous concretions, or the ftone; particularly by Dr. Percival, and Dr. Saunders. The Author of the prefent Commentary, actuated by a laudable spirit of improvement, has peculiarly attended to this new fubject of the Materia Medica; and has here given us not only the refults of his trials in the diseases abovementioned, but in others likewife, in which he was led, by analogy, to adminifter it.

The different methods by which fixed air may be admitted into the fyftem are either by exhibiting, 1. The natural mineral waters, fuch as thofe of Spa, Pyrmont, Seltzer, &c. that are known to contain it:-2. Water artificially impregnated with it, in the different manners defcribed by Dr. Priestley, Dr. Nooth, the Duke de Chaulnes, and others:-3. Solutions of wild alcaline falts, from which the fixed air that they naturally contain is expelled, by adding a proper quantity of lemon juice, or other acid, at, or immediately after, the time of drinking them; in the manner propofed by Dr. Hulme :-4. Wort, or other vegetable and faccharine infufions, qualified to generate fixed air in the ftomach and prima via; as recommended by Dr. Macbride:-5. Solutions of alcaline falts, previously neutralifed, or even acidulated, or fuperfaturated, by fixed air, or the mephitic acid; as propofed by Mr. Bewly.-Thefe laft may either be taken fingly, on an expectation that they may be decompounded in the ftomach; or, in fome cafes, poffibly to more advantage, a part of the large quantity of fixed air, with which they have been fuperfaturated, may be expelled from them, by a fubfequent draught of any acid liquor:-6. Clyfters of fimple fixed air, as recommended by Dr. Prieftley :-or,

7. The fame fluid externally applied, to the lungs, for instance, in infpiration, or to other parts morbidly affected, by means of a proper apparatus; as hath been practifed by Dr. Rotheram, Mr. Hey, Dr. Warren of Taunton, and Dr. Percival.

The Author commences his work with an account of fome experiments, made with a view to afcertain the quantity of fixed air contained in fixed and volatile alcalis, and in chalk; by expelling it from them, by means of vitriolic acid added to them, in a large and tall vial. He found that two drachms of falt of tartar contained 28 grains of fixed air; the fame quantity of volatile fal ammoniac contained 48 grains; and the fame quantity of chalk contained 42 grains.

The difeafes, in the treatment of which the Author gives us the refult of his own experience, refpecting the adminiftration of fixed air, as well as that of fome of his medical correfpondents, are,-Putrid fevers, small-pox and measles attended with fymptoms of malignancy, gangrene, ulcerous fore throat, fea fcurvy, cachexies and phagedenic ulcers, and the stone and gravel. He relates the various cafes fimply, without fhewing any attachment to mere hypothefis; drawing no other inferences from the fuccefsful events which occurred, than fuch as appear to be juftly deducible from each cafe refpectively. With regard to the cafes, we must refer the reader to the work; confining ourfelves, for the most part, to general obfervations.

Under the head of putrid fevers, in which four cafes are related, the Author declares that he has directed fixed air, both in hofpital and private practice, for a variety of patients, in fevers attended with fymptoms of putrefaction, and with fuccefs. In the fourth cafe, in particular, a train of very alarming fymptoms, attending a putrid diarrhoea, appears to have been removed in the space of thirty hours, by means of quickly repeated doses of falt of tartar and lemon-juice given in the ftate of effervefcence. Some bad cafes follow of the confluent fmall-pox, gangrene, and putrid fore throat; in fome of which the fame method was fuccefsfully purfued in others, the alcali, first neutralifed, or fuperfaturated with the mephitic acid, was employed. In the putrid fore throat, evident benefit was obtained by the topical application, or infpiration of fixed air, expelled from chalk by oil of vitriol.

In a cafe of this laft kind, related by Dr. Haygarth, a judicious hint occurs, refpecting the exhibition of ftrong wort, as an antifeptic; and which confifts in exciting a commencement of the fermentatory procefs, by adding a tea-fpoonful of yeaft to a pint of it, and placing it near the fire about an hour before it is adminiftered. Dr. Haygarth apprehends that, without fuch addition, the fpontaneous change of wort is into an acetous ftate, by which very little fixed air is evolved.'

In the case of pulmonary confumptions, the Author has not met with one inftance, in his own practice, in which the patient recovered by the use of fixed air, when the disease origi nated from tubercles: but in cafes of abfcefs in the lungs, whether from peripneumony, or accidental injury, he has feen very falutary effects from fixed air; two inftances of which he relates.

We cannot, a priori, conceive any difeafe more likely to be removed or relieved by the ufe of fixed air, than the true fea fcurvy; had we even no other foundation for fuch an opinion than the obfervation that it peculiarly, though not indeed exclufively, affects feafaring perfons; who from their fituation, as we have already in part obferved, are deprived of fuch vegetable and fresh animal food as is adapted to generate fixed air; and that a cure almoft invariably enfues, when they have an opportunity of eating food that abounds in that antiseptic principle.

On this head, the Author briefly relates his own fuccefs in the exhibition of fixed air in this difeafe, particularly among the feamen at Liverpool; as likewife two extraordinary cafes communicated by Mr. Dawson, in which the cure was effected by the mephitic julep, or fixed alcali neutralifed by the mephitic acid but as the Author had been favoured with a letter on the fubject, from the late Dr. Macbride, the ingenious propofer of the method of curing this disease by the ufe of wort, and which contains the prefent ftate of the evidence with refpect to its efficacy; we fall transcribe from it fome of his last words on this important fubject.

Dr. Macbride first mentions the favourable accounts of the efficacy of the wort experienced in the trials made of it at sea, in his Majefty's fhip fafon, and in the Nottingham East-Indiaman, in ten cafes formerly publifhed. He next takes notice of the fuccefs attending the exhibition of the wort on board the Queen Eaft-Indiaman; and of the abstract of the journals delivered in at the Admiralty-office, by the furgeons of the Dolphin, Swallow, and Endeavour; and of a remarkable hiftory, communicated by Dr. Fothergill, in which the efficacy of the wort was very confpicuous. A fhort account of these trials was published in the Appendix to his Methodical Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Phyfic.-He then adds:

"Since the time of the laft-mentioned publication, I have received the journal of Mr. Skiddy, furgeon of the Intrepid man of war, on a voyage to India, in 1772; and that of Mr. Patten, furgeon of the Refolution, during her late voyage to the Southern Hemifphere, of which we have the twofold hiftory, by Capt. Cook and Mr. Forster.

"Mr.

"Mr. Skiddy gives a very diftinct account of about twenty fcorbutic patients, though he fays there was more than double that number on his fick ft. It appears that the ship was but fcantily provided with water, and for that reafon he could not afford more than two quarts in the day of the infufion, to fuch of the fick as stood most in need of it, and three pints to those whofe diftreffes were lefs urgent. Only two patients of the whole number could be faid to recover, while the ship continued at fea; but all of them were kept alive, and in most, the progrefs of the difeafe appears to have been retarded.—

"With respect to the fuccefs of the wort on board the Refolution, the Public is already pretty well informed, from the two hiftories of the voyages already mentioned, and from Sir John Pringle's difcourfe annexed to Capt. Cook's account. But the furgeon's journal, in my poffeffion, is ftill more explicit and fatisfactory; for whereas Capt. Cook makes a doubt whether the wort will cure the fcurvy in an advanced state, at fea; the cafes in Mr Patten's journal demonftrate that it will; and he expreffes his opinion, that the wort (if the malt be found, and the infufion properly prepared) will seldom fail to accomplish a cure, even though the fhip fhould happen to be kept out at fea; and he thinks that when it has failed, the difappointment has been owing, either to the unfoundness of the malt, inattention with respect to preparing the infufion, or not adminiftering it in fufficient quantity. There will, no doubt, however, fometimes occur fuch an untoward combination of severe weather, fcarcity of water, bad provifions, and a crowded fhip, that even the most approved antifcorbutics, if they were to be had, muft fall fhort of their ufual effects: as feems to have been the cafe on board the Swallow, in her paffage across the Pacific Ocean; and in the Talbot Eaft Indiaman, according to Mr. Clark's account, in his book entitled, Obfervations on the Difeafes in long Voyages, to hot Climates."

For reafons which will quickly appear, we fhall quote one paffage more from this letter of Dr. Macbride's to the Author. Alluding to the ten cafes referred to above, that late ingenious philofopher and phyfician thus feelingly expreffes himself:

"I did imagine that thefe cafes (fix of which are fufficiently conclufive in favour of the wort) would have gone near to establish the credit of the malt infufion as an antifcorbutic; but my expectations, it feems, were rather too fanguine; fince I find they did not ferve to convince the perfon whom of all others I could have wished to be convinced, namely, Dr. Lind; who ftill continues to pronounce, that it is not probable a remedy for the fcurvy will ever be difcovered from a preconceived hypothefis, or by fpeculative men in the closet.'-And he complains moreover of the mischief done by an attachinent to delufive

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