of thefe volumes; and are bold to affert, that in fo doing nei ther the critic, the hiftorian, the politician, nor the philofopher will think his time thrown away.

ART. X. Experiments and Obfervations on Quilled and Red Peruvian Bark; among which are included, some remarkable Effects arising from the Action of common Bark and Magneha upon each other; with Remarks on the Nature and Mode of Treatment of Fevers, putrid SoreThroat, Rheumatism, Scrophula, and other Difeafes; in order to aftertain the Cafes in which Bark may be adminiftered, either alone, or combined with other Remedies, to the best Advantage: To which is added, an Appendix, on the Cinchona Caribbea. By Thomas Skeete, M, D. 8vo. 5s. boards. Murray, London. 1786.

THIS appears to be the production of a young practitioner

in phyfic, but an induftrious inquirer after knowledge. The Jefuit's bark is one of the grand fpecifics in medicine, and. which the world is happy in the difcovery of: it is natural, therefore, to fuppofe that any additional knowledge in its use and application must be a defideratum in phyfic, and acceptable to the public, especially when this knowledge tends to fhew how to derive from it the greateft efficacy. Dr. Skeete seems to have turned his thoughts this way more than medical men in general, and in fo doing has rendered himself a useful member of fociety.

The treatise now under our obfervation is a collection of opinions and remarks of former writers on the bark, with the addition of many experiments and obfervations of its author. He tells us that he received part of his education at Edinburgh, and completed it under Dr. Saunders (to whom he dedicates the volume) and the other phyficians of Guy's Hospital, in London; that the work before us was originally written in form of a differtation, for one of the prize-medals of the Harveian fociety at Edinburgh, and obtained it; but that in its priftine ftate it alluded chiefly to the comparative powers of the flat and quilled Peruvian bark, which he determines in favour of the latter; but that the experiments he has now made on that drug have induced him to treat the fubject more at large, and give the refult of his inquiries to the public.

After giving us the hiftory of its difcovery, he defcribes the nature of bark in general; and points out those apparent qualities by which the best kind may be known: then, from a variety of experiments, fhews the comparative powers of different menftrua upon the red and quilled bark, and how much of their specific virtue each was able to extract from two drams of the powder. This is rather a curious inquiry, and as fuch we have thought proper to lay it before our readers.

• From

Our author next inquires into the nature and effects of the red bark in particular; and recommends it in preference to any other fpecies, as being the most powerful and efficacious.

He then enters into its mode of operating, and the different methods of adminiftering it. As large quantities of it are fometimes neceffary to be taken, he recommends it, in order to make it palatable and fit easy on the ftomach, to be mixed with fome one or other of the following ingredients, which he knows will not alter the effects of the bark itself. Milk, butter-milk, or old hock; or as an electuary, mixed up with brandy, and washed down with Port-wine negus; or in a draught, with the mucilage of gum-arabic and fome pleasant diftilled water of the fhops; or taken in wafer-paper.

But, continues he, as the decoction is fuperior in ftrength to any other mode of taking it, except when diffolved by fpirits, which would prove, from the quantity, injurious to the stomach, it fhould be contrived to render the decoction pleasant. New acids mixed with it will fometimes do this fo will liquorice, fugarcandy with gum arabic, or fugarcandy with the gum mixed with milk; or by rubbing the extract into an emulfion, and mixing it with fugar and almonds: it may alfo be joined with fome of the chalybeate preparations; or the extract may be made into pills with fal martis: none of which additions will fo act on the bark as to destroy its efficacy.

But as the great end of mixing the bark with other things is, if poffible, to increafe its efficacy, by extracting its virtues in greater proportion, Dr. Skeete afferts, from experiments he has made, and here laid down, that lime water, or magnesia, will answer that purpose.

For two drachms of quilled bark in powder, triturated with two ounces of lime water three quarters of an hour, after remaining together about 15 minutes more, and paffed through filtering paper, refembled in colour the tincture of bark in proof spirits, and was more bitter to the taste than the infufion

in cold water. But two drachms of the fame powder, and half a drachm of calcined magnefia, rubbed together in a mortar, with four ounces of diftilled water, for the space of ten or fifteen minutes, (the water being gradually added, fo as to reduce the materials, in the first inftance, to a pafté) and then paffed through filtering paper, gives a ftill redder colour, is bitterer and more aftringent, and exceeds, in fpecific gravity, the infufion of bark in lime water; and is at the fame time fo ftrongly antifceptic, that it will not ferment in a week, even in fummer time; whereas an infufion of bark with fimple water will ferment in two days; and, add to this the mixture of magnesia with it, will prevent coftiveness.

From this he infers, that practitioners would do well to make their preparations of bark with magnefia; for though it does not extract its virtues equally with rectified fpirits, it extracts them in greater proportion than any thing else will do, that will not, in the quantity to be taken, prove injurious to the patient.

In the second part of this volume our author proceeds to fhew the various diseases in which bark has been found ufeful, and the mode of treating patients under it. These diforders are fevers, putrid fore throats, rheumatisms, eryfipelas, dyfentery, fmall-pox, hæmorrhages, dropfies, epilepfy, and nervous disorders; gangrenes, fcrophulous affections, rickets, particular forms of phthifis pulmonalis, hydrocephalus, and the

lues venerea.

The work clofes with a fhort appendix, collected from other writers, of the Cinchona Caribbea, including the Jamaica bark, and that of St. Lucia, &c. Of this latter he relates a curious circumftance in its chemical nature, which he received from a Mr. George Wilfon, and is here given in his own words.

In the month of February laft, I put, to one pound of the St. Lu cia bark in fine powder, fix pints of rectified spirit of wine, and digefted them together for fix weeks, then filtered off the tincture, and proceeded to evaporate it to the confiftence of an extract. By an unlucky accident, before the process was completed, the pan tilted over, and only one pint of the tincture was faved; which yielded eight fcruples of extract, greatly loaded with a deep green oil, very acrid and bitter to the tafte. I feparated, by preffure, one drachm and a half of this oil, and the extract ftill continued to be loaded with it, through the whole of its fubftance. The oil is very active. It is fo very disagreeable, and dwells fo long on the tafte, that the leaft touch of it with the tongue produces naufea. A fingle drop occafioned a tedious and intolerable ficknefs in my apprentice, who tafted it. The tafte of the extract, thus prepared, is the fame, and but little inferior in its effects.

6

Having completed my procefs with the fpirituous digeftion, poured upon the refiduum, from which the tincture had been filtered, three

three gallons of water. These were boiled together very carefully, and more water was added from time to time, until the quantity it was boiled in amounted to nine gallons. The whole was then reduced to three gallons, which being ftrained cautiously through fine canvas, and then evaporated to an extract of a proper pilular confiftence, yielded twelve ounces and feven drachms. This was quite free from oil, and, although very bitter, did not, on tafting, produce the náufea as above-mentioned. There remained, after thefe proceffes with the spirit and water, an infipid earth, weighing fix ouncestwo drachms.

• Of the watery extract, my apprentice took a fcruple repeatedly, without experiencing any naufeating effects; whereas, lefs than half that quantity of the bark in fubftance, or even two or three grains of the fpirituous extract, never fail to excite nausea, and moit commonly vomiting, alfo. I think, therefore, that we may fairly conclude the emetic quality to be refident in the green oil and refin; and that it is not improbable, if the oil could be entirely feparated, that the pure refin would lose almost (if not altogether) these effects.

It remains now to be tried, whether the watery extract, thus deprived of the emetic quality, ftill retains its febrifuge properties; which I have yet had no opportunity of determining.'

Throughout the whole of this treatife Dr. Skeete thews himself fanguine in favour of the red Peruvian bark; and we are of opinion his arguments are not without foundation; that those who condemn it have not given it a fair trial; and that when a greater quantity is imported, and its price reduced, its ufe will be more general.

By William Cowper, of

ART. XI. The Tafk; a Poem, in Six Books. the Inner Temple, Efq. To which are added, by the fame Author, An Epifile to Jofeph Hill, Efq. Tyrocinium, or, a Review of Schools; and the Hiftory of John Gilpin. Small 8vo. 4s. Johnson. 1785. London.

HE bufinefs of a reviewer would often be infupportable, if works of genius did not now and then reward his labour. Of the many hundred poems which pass through our hands, how few are there which furvive the ufual period of publication? and how few are there which merit a place in a work which profeffes to record the progress of genius and of fcience?"A little learning" has been "a dangerous thing" to many a mechanic, who might have excelled in the exercise of. his lawful profeffion; and a little imagination, joined to an ear juft correct enough to liften to jingle, has increased the num ber of poetafters and verfifiers, whofe vanity, grown into con fcious excellence by habit, daily impels them to pefter the public with poems, which can neither be read or remembered. ENG. REV. Vol. VI. April 1786.

T

with

with ple fure. An eminent writer has faid, that all men, at one time or other of their lives, are poets. That unfortunate moment has accordingly been laid hold of; and many, who might have lived refpected as good citizens, and men of sense, proc aim themselves dunces, for the fake of being ranked in the number of poets. No fubject has been left untouched by the poets of the prefent age. Keligion, love, and politics, are, in their turns, the unhappy objects of their choice; and a large volume has frequently owed its birth to the admiffion of a fchool-boy fonnet in the corner of a newspaper.

While we are thus heavily taxed by dullness and vanity, we have a fingular pleasure in announcing to the public the works of a poet of the firft rank. From the former volume of Mr. Cowper's poems in 1782, there was every reason to expect works of a higher nature; nor have the public been difappointed. Whatever pleasure refults to the reader of tafte from the effufions of fancy, the livelieft ftrokes of a fine imagination; whatever cmbellishment philofophy and found fenfe can receive from elegant verfification, from vigorous and welladapted metaphor; is to be found in the Tafk. The history of the poem, we are informed by the author, is this: A lady, fond of blank verfe, demanded a poem of that kind from the author, and gave him the SOFA for a fubject. He obeyed; and, having much leifure, connected another fubject with it; and, purfuing the train of thought to which his fituation and turn of mind led him, brought forth, at length, instead of the trifle which he at firft intended, a ferious affair-a volume.

The contents of the first book are, Hiftorical Deduction of Seats, from the Stool to the Sofa - A School-boy's Ramble-A Walk in the Country-The Scene defcribed - Rural Sounds, as well as Sights, delightful-Another Walk-Mistake, concerning the Charms of Solitude, corrected-Colonnades commended-Alcove, and the View from it-The WildernessThe Grove-The Thresher -The Neceffity and the Benefits of Exercise -The Works of Nature fuperior to, and, in fome Inftances, inimitable by Art-The Wearifomeness of what is commonly called a Life of Pleasure-Change of Scene fometimes expedient-A Common defcribed, and the Character of crazy Kate introduced upon it-Gipfies-The Bleffings of civilized Life-That State moft favourable to Virtue-The South-Sea Iflanders compaffionated, but chiefly Omai-His prefent State of Mind fuppofed -- Civilized Life friendly to Virtue, but not great cities-Great Cities, and London in particular, allowed their due Praife, but confined-Fête Champetre.-The Book concludes with a Reflection on the fatal Effects of Diffipation and Effeminacy upon our public Measures.

From