naturally pofitive, to the zinc, which is negative; how, therefore, while they are applied to the fame fide of the inftrument, can they change its electricity? By applying filver and zinc alternately to the oppofite plates of Mr. Bennet's doubler, its electricity may be changed at pleasure, whence there can be no doubt of the real electrical influence of the metals :-but this part of the fubject will perhaps foon be illuftrated by a more expert electrician than even Mr. F. feems to be.

ART. X. Letters from Dr. Withering of Birmingham, Dr. Ewart of Bath, Dr. Thornton of London, and Dr. Biggs, late of the Ifle of Santa Cruz; together with fome other Papers, fupplementary to two Publications on Afthma, Confumption, Fever, and other Difeafes. By Thomas Beddoes, M. D. 8vo. pp. 48. IS. Johnson. THIS publication begins with a letter from the author to Dr. Black of Edinburgh, containing fome general reflections in favour of the pneumatic practice in difeafes hitherto found incurable, and particularly with refpect to the medicinal powers of oxygene or vital air. The next paper is a tranflation of fome obfervations made by M. Lavoifier on the alteration produced in the air of places in which a great number of perfons are af fembled, originally printed in the Memoirs of the Paris Society of Medicine. By this paper, it appears that falubrious atmofpherical air is compofed of a mixture of oxygene and azote, commonly in the proportion of 28 of the former to 72 of the latter. When vitiated by refpiration, the oxygene is diminifhed, and the azote increafed, with the formation of a fmall portion of carbonic acid air.

The letter from Dr. Withering confifts of various practical remarks relative to different topics mentioned in Dr. B.'s observations on confumption. The fact, which is moft to the purpofe of Dr. B.'s theory, is that the only claffes of men, which Dr. W. has obferved to be totally exempt from confumptions, are butchers, and the makers of catgut. We cannot say that our experience, as to the former of thefe claffes, is perfectly conformable to this remark.

The letter from Dr. Ewart relates two pulmonic cafes, in which mephitic air was tried. The firft is that of the late Hon. Col. Cathcart, and it amounts to no more than fome imaginary relief produced in a mortal difeafe. The second is that of a young lady, who, after a violent pleuritic feizure in Ruffia, ending in fuppuration, fell into a tabid ftate, and came to England with fymptoms which feemed to indicate a confirmed phthifis. After a liberal inhalation of the air rifing

from vitriolic acid poured on marble, she lost her hectic fever, and gained flesh and ftrength. This progrefs of amendment was interrupted by fresh inflammation, which being fubdued by bleeding and other remedies, the mephitic air was again applied with advantage. A fecond relapfe was fucceeded by fimilar events. At length fhe returned by fea to Ruffia, and has fince been in a ftate of progreffive recovery.

Dr. Thornton, by his communications, feems to be a thorough friend to the new system, and anxious to catch every circumftance in its favour from even the most common occurrences in practice. We, who are paft the age of "believing all things and hoping all things," cannot travel quite fo faft in our progrefs to conviction.

We wish that the letter from Dr. Biggs, defcribing his own cafe, had been fomewhat more particular. It appears that a kind of asthmatic paroxyfm, returning every night, which had refifted various remedies and change of air, was radically removed after having infpired, for eight days, a mixture of one part of oxygene with three of atmospherical air, thrice a day, from five to twenty minutes at a time. The account was written, however, only three weeks after leaving off the remedy.

A curious cafe of epileptic affection follows, related, as appears, by Dr. Beddoes himself; in which, oxygene air occafioned a kind of intoxication, like the effects of opium. This did not totally difappear till 52 hours after the last inspiration of the air. The epileptic fits had been fufpended for three days before this happened, and the patient feemed better than ufual.

An abstract of M. Vauguelin's experiments on the liver of the Skate is next given. It is adduced to fhew a connection between a deficiency of oxygene and the formation of fat.

The paper on the ufe of yeaft in putrid fevers, by the Rev. [and benevolent] Edmund Cartwright, exhibits one of the most aftonishing examples of fuccefsful practice that medical history affords. In three or four detailed cafes, a few spoons-full of yeast seem almost instantly to have recovered the patients from a dying ftate to perfect fafety; and Mr. C. afferts that, in nearly fifty cafes of fevers of the low and putrid kind among the poor, in which he employed yeaft (together, indeed, with other appropriate remedies,) he did not lote one patient. We know that thefe relations deferve every degree of credit, and it will be inexcufable in the faculty not to repeat the experiment. A cafe, communicated by Dr. Parry of Bath, of various symptoms of defective refpiration, ending in death, in which the right lobe of the lungs was found to be little more than a

plexus of membranes, and the leaft confiderably enlarged, is brought to confirm the opinion that the red colour of the blood is owing to the oxygene which it receives during inspiration.

ART. XI. A Chemical Differtation on the Thermal Waters of Pifa, and on the neighbouring Acidulous Spring of Afciano: With an hiftorical Sketch of Pifa, and a Meteorological Account of its Weather: To which are added, Analytical Papers refpecting the Sulphureous Water of Yverdun. By John Nott, M. D. of Briftol Hot Wells*. 8vo. pp. 161. 35. fewed. Walter. 1793.

IN

N the Preface to the differtation on the Pifa waters, we are told that this work is the fubftance of a treatise in Italian by Giorgio Santi, profeffor of chemistry and natural history in the univerfity of Pifa.

The warm baths of Pifa are fituated four miles from the town, at the foot of a ridge of hills called the Pifan mountains, a marthy plain extending from them to Pifa. Their air is moift but pure; and the climate is mild. We fhall pass over the writer's account of the Pifan mountains and their mineral and vegetable products, and proceed to the qualities of the waters themselves. Many fprings unite to form a large body of water for the fupply of the baths, which are 14 or 15 in number. The heat of the refervoirs is 106; that of the baths falls fhort of it in different degrees. The water is limpid and colourlefs, but depofits a strong incruftation on every thing that comes in contact with it. On exposure to the air, its volatile parts fly off, and the matters contained in folution are precipitated.. From the application of a variety of chemical tefts, and from examination of the refiduum after evaporating a large quantity, by many experiments here detailed, the contents are found to be, aerial acid, vitriolic and muriatic, neutral and earthy, falts, and uncombined earths of the three principal claffes. We do not copy the tables of quantities of each material, as they vary in the different baths and feasons of the year.

The acidulous water of Afciano, fituated two miles and a half from the warm baths, yielded, on a fimilar chemical exa~ mination, the fame ingredients in different proportions; that of aërial acid being twice as much as in the thermal waters, which gives it a brifk tartish taste.

With respect to the medicinal properties of these waters, those of the warm baths rank among the faline, and are used internally as detergents, diuretics, and deobftruents, in a variety of diforders for which remedies of thofe claffes are adapted. Bathing in them is employed in gouty, rheumatic, fpafmodic,

See our laft Review, p. 233.

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hypochondriac, hysteric, paralytic, fcorbutic, and scrophulous cafes. The cold Afciano waters have fimilar qualities, but are more exhilarating and tonic. They are recommended for finishing the cures which the bath-waters have begun.

The historical sketch of the town of Pifa, which feems to be written by Dr. Nott himfelf, we shall leave for the amusement of those who read the book.

The papers on the Yverdun water are preceded by fome flight experiments on them with the common tefts which he was able to procure on the spot. These fhew an alkaline and fulphureous impregnation, with the abfence of iron. The heat of the fprings at the fountain head was 77 or 78. baths are fituated at a short distance from Yverdun. fon comprehends two fources, one of warm and the other of cold water, fo blended that they cannot be feparated.

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The first of the papers is an analysis of the waters made in 1778 by M. Struve, phyfician and chymift at Lausanne. As to fenfible qualities, it is very clear, light, and soft, and has a strong smell and tafte of liver of fulphur. It does not foon change when expofed to the air, and may be kept a long time unchanged in bottles well corked. The application of tests proves it to contain fulphur united with fixed alkali, common and vitriolic falt, and an earth. The refiduum, after evaporation, gives calcareous earth, felenite, common falt, and foffil alkali.

The remaining papers, containing a letter of M. D'Ivernois in 1736, another analyfis made in 1729, and the method of ufing the waters, are of little confequence.

We muft obferve that Dr. Nott's ftyle is not always correct, nor are his tranflations free from mistakes; he has, however, performed an useful task in making the English traveller acquainted with fome valuable waters, to which he may occafionally have recourse.

ART. XII. Works of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin; confifting of his Life written by himself, together with Effays, Humourous, Moral, and Literary, chiefly in the Manner of the Spectator. 12mo. 2 Vols. PP. 585. 7s. Boards. Robinsons. 1793. HABITUATED as we have long been to venerate the name of Benjamin Franklin, we have in no fmall degree shared the impatience with which the public has for fome time been expecting a full and authentic narrative of his life. After it was known that Dr. F. had written memoirs of the early part of his life, down to the year 1757, and had fent over to Europe two copies of the manufcript, one to M. de la Rochefoucault and

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M. de la Veillard in Paris, and the other to Dr. Price and Mr. Vaughan in London, it was reasonably hoped that fo interefting a work would not be long with holden from the public; and we doubt not that many perfons, like ourselves, would feel Tome regret that Dr. Franklin's account of himself should not be fuffered to make its firft appearance in his own language, but in a French tranflation, and in fo defective a ftate as to come down no lower than to the year 1731. We are however given to expect the whole of this valuable manufcript, with other original papers, and a complete edition of the Doctor's works, from his grandfon Mr. Temple Franklin. In the mean time, it does not much gratify us to perufe a fmall part of the Doctor's life, in an English tranflation from a French tranflation of the original English.

With the hope of being foon required to give our fentiments more at large on the interefting fubjects of these memoirs, we fhall for the present only lay before our readers a fhort extract, to enable those, who are already acquainted with Dr. FrankJin's ftyle, to form an idea of the fuccefs with which this tranflator has endeavoured to conceive the probable manner in which Dr. F. expreffed his ideas in his English manufcript.' We select Dr. Franklin's inftructive account of the means by which, in early life, he improved his ftyle:

As the faculty of writing profe has been of great fervice to me in the courfe of my life, and principally contributed to my advancement, I fhall relate by what means, fituated as I was, I acquired the fmall ikill I may poffefs in that way.

There was in the town another young man, a great lover of books, of the name of John Collins, with whom I was intimately connected. We frequently engaged in difpute, and were indeed fo fond of argumentation, that nothing was fo agreeable to us as a war of words. This contentious temper, I would obferve by the by, is in danger of becoming a very bad habit, and frequently renders a man's company infupportable, as being no otherwife capable of indulgence than by indifcriminate contradiction. Independently of the acrimony and difcord it introduces into converfation, it is often productive of dislike, and even hatred, between perfons to whom friendship is indifpenfibly neceffary. I acquired it by reading, while I lived with my father, books of religious controverfy. I have fince remarked, that men of fense seldom fall into this error; lawyers, fellows of univer fities, and perfons of every profeffion educated at Edinburgh, excepted.

Collins and I fell one day into an argument relative to the educa tion of women; namely, whether it were proper to inftruct them in the sciences, and whether they were competent to the ftudy. Collins fupported the negative, and affirmed that the task was beyond their capacity. I maintained the oppofite opinion, a little perhaps for the pleafure of difputing. He was naturally more eloquent than Is words REV. MARCH, 1794.

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