after having paffed the preceding part of his life in eating and drinking without weight or measure, found himself, in the year 1764, and in the 45th year of his age, overwhelmed with a complication of the moft painful and terrible diforders. In the catalogue were comprehended frequent fick nefs at the ftomach, pains in the bowels, head-ach, and vertigo. He had almost a conftant thirst, a great lownefs of fpirits, fits of the gravel, violent rheumatifm, and frequent fits of the gout; and had likewife had two epileptic fits. To this copious lift of diftémpers were added a formidable fenfe of fuffocation, particularly after meals, and an extreme corpulence of perfon. On reading the Life of Cornaro, recommended to his perufal by the Rev. Mr. Powley, a worthy clergyman in his neighbourhood, he immediately formed a refolution to follow the falutary precepts inculcated and exemplified in that performance. He prudently however did not make a total or fudden change in his manner of living; but finding the good effects of his new regimen, after proper gradations both with refpect to the quantity and quality of his meat and drink, he finally left off the use of all fermented liquors on the 4th of January 1765, when he commenced water drinker. He did not long however indulge himfelf even in this laft-mentioned innocent beverage; for on the 25th of the following October, having found himfelf easier and better on having accidentally dined that day without drinking, he finally took his leave of this and every other kind of drink; not having tafted a fingle drop of any liquor whatever (excepting only what he has occafionally taken in the form of medicine, and two glaffes and a half of water drank on the 9th of May 1766) from that date to the prefent time [Aug. 22, 1771.]

With respect to folid nutriment-the 31ft of July, in the year 1767, was the last time of his eating any kind of animal food. In its room he fubftituted a fingle dish, of which he made only two meals in the twenty-four hours; one at Four or Five in the morning, and the other at Noon. This confifted of a pudding, of which he eat a pound and half, made of three pints of skimmed milk poured boiling hot on a pound of feabifcuit over night, to which two eggs were added next morning, and the whole boiled in a cloth about the space of an hour. Finding this diet however too nutritious, and having grown fat during the use of it, he threw out the eggs and milk, and formed a new edition of pudding, confifting only of a pound of coarse flour and a pint of water boiled together. He was at firft much delighted with this new receipt, and lived upon it three months; but not finding it eafily digeftible, he finally formed a mess, which has ever fince conftituted the whole of his nourishment, compofed of a pound of the beft flour, boiled to a proper

a proper stiffness with a pint and a half of skimmed milk, without any other addition.

'

Such is the regimen of diet, as agreeable to his palate as his former food ufed to be, by means of which, together with a confiderable fhare of exercise, Mr. Wood has got rid of the incumbrance of 10 or 11 ftone weight of diftempered flesh and fat, and, to use his own expreffion, has been metamorphofed from a monfter to a perfon of a moderate fize; from the condition of an unhealthy, decrepit, old man, to perfect health, and to the vigour and activity of youth:'-his fpirits lively, his fleep undisturbed, and his ftrength of mufcles fo far imp oved, that he can now carry a quarter of a tun weight, which he in vain attempted to perform, when he was about the age of 30, and in perfect health.

We fhall mention only two other circumftances in the cafe of this fingular pattern of temperance and refolution. The first is, the extreme flowness and sobriety of his pulfe, which Dr. Baker at three different times found to beat only from 44 to 47 times in a minute. The next and ftill more remarkable fingularity, is, that, notwithstanding his total abftinence from drink, and that no liquid is received into his ftomach, except that contained in his pudding, a part of which is neceffarily carried off through the inteftines; yet he daily and regularly makes about a pint and a half of urine. It is here obferved, that during the moft laborious and long-continued exercife, he has very little or no fenfible perfpiration. We think we may fafely conclude that, inftead of throwing in any of his perfpirable matter to the commmon mass of air, he on the contrary rather Spunges upon the atmosphere, and robs it of a portion of its humidity, which we may fuppofe to be greedily attracted by the mouths of the dry and thirsty abforbents on the surface

of his skin.

Article XVIII. An Account of fome uncommon Cafes. By Donald Monro, M. D. F. R. S. &c.

In the first of thefe cafes an account is given of a fingular fcorbutic diforder, which is fucceeded by the detail of two inveterate venereal cafes. The history of an obftinate intermitting fever or ague is related in the fourth; and that of a tumour on the brain, which protruded through the Os frontis, in the fifth. The cafe of a hydrocephalus, and of fome offifications in the mefentery conclude the article. Article XIX. Obfervations on the modern Method of inoculating the Small Pox. By Dr. Baker.

Article XIX. An Account of the Succefs of Inoculation for the Small Pox at Jamaica. By Mr. John Quier, Practitioner of Phyfic in that Ifland.

7

The

The first of thefe articles contains a very judicious examen, or review, of the practice of our modern inoculators, in the different ftages of the process; in which the Author fupplies, from further obfervation and experience, what was defective in his former publications on this fubject. At the fame time that he fhews what parts of their method are liable to objection, or require fome modification, he candidly points out the real and great improvements introduced by them into this falutary practice, by which the artificial difeafe has undoubtedly been rendered much milder and fafer than formerly, and which accordingly are highly worthy of being univerfally adopted.-Some good obfervations on the introduction of this method into the ifland of Jamaica are contained in the second of these articles. Article XX. Further Obfervations on the Poifon of Lead. By Dr. Baker.

The obfervations contained in this paper tend to illustrate and confirm the Author's opinion's concerning the noxious effects of this metal, and the various ways by which this poifonous fubftance may be received into the human body, unobferved, and without fufpicion. [See our account of the firft volume of thefe Tranfactions, in our Number for July 1768, p. 37, &c.] Article XXI. An Account of two Inftances of the true Scurvy. By Francis Milman, M. B. &c.

In these two inftances many diftinguishing fymptoms of the genuine or fea-fcurvy, fuch as putrid gums, fetid breath, difficulty of refpiration, ulcers of the legs, &c. were observed in two women, for which no other caufe could be affigned than the want of a fufficient quantity of proper food, to correct the 'natural putrefcent difpofition of the juices.

Article XXII. A Cafe of Hydatids, difcharged by Coughing. By

John Collet, M. D. Phyfician at Newbury, Berkshire.

From September 1771 to January 1772 the patient, a female aged 37, has difcharged, by coughing, 135 hydatids of different fizes; from that of a pea, to that of a pullet's egg; which evidently have been expectorated from the trachea. Some obfervations on the cafe, and anatomical remarks on the nature of the disease are added to this hiftory.

Article XXIII. Queries. By Dr. William Heberden. There are undoubtedly many doctrines and opinions, which daily pafs current in phyfic, that require a revifion, and which reft on no other foundation than that of authority. The medical tribe have long been a gregarious race, implicitly following their leaders, and in many inftances wilfully, or at leaft indolently, fhutting their eyes to the evidence of facts even daily prefenting themfelves to their obfervation; whenever they happened to clash with certain long established maxims. In the

first volume of these Transactions the Author proposed his doubts of the truth of fome of thefe orthodox, or commonly received opinions. In the prefent article, he profecutes the fame laudable fpirit of enquiry. The first of the prefent fet of queries relates to a matter on which every practitioner, who thinks for himself, must at least have entertained doubts. The Author afks, whether the fizy covering which is often feen upon blood, is of any ufe in directing the method of cure'? In the difcuffion of this queftion he fhews that this buff-coloured cruft, which has been obferved in inflammatory diforders, and has been confidered as an indication to take away more blood, may likewise be observed in diftempers of a totally different nature; in eryfipelatous gangrenes, in dropfies, in the putrid fore throat, and has been drawn from exhaufted and dying perfons, where the phyfician juftly laments that any had been taken away. He fhews on what flight and frequently unknown circumstances this appearance depends; and how little ftrefs ought to be laid on a fign that lies at the mercy of the moft trivial accidents. He concludes that the more we know of the human body, the 'more reason we find to believe that the feat of diseases is not to be fought for in the blood; to the fenfible qualities of which they seem to have very little relation;' and that in reality it is but in very few diforders that the blood affords a practitioner much ufeful information.

We have extended our account of this publication to fo great a length, that we can do little more than relate the subjects of the three following queries. In the fecond, the Author queftions whether the dangerous symptoms that attend what is called the incarcerated hernia, be really occafioned, as is pretty generally fuppofed, by any preternatural and extraordinary ftricture of the tendinous opening in the external oblique mufcle? In the third, the Author attacks a prejudice, if it be one, of the most extenfive and inveterate kind. We mean the opinion almost universally entertained of the dangers attending the fitting or lying in wet rooms, or in damp clothes or beds. With regard however to fome of the inftances, which he brings, of failors, laundreffes, &c. receiving no injury, though daily converfant in wet and moisture, it may reasonably be objected that he intirely overlooks the great power of habit, to which they probably owe their fecurity. In the fourth and laft query fome fenfible reafons are offered against the common practice of taking away blood from the arm or foot, with a view to the stopping of violent hæmorrhages from other parts.

ART. II. Infitutes of Botany. Part II. Containing an Analysis and Examination of the TOURNSFORTIAN and LINNEAN Methods of Arrangement; likewife the effential and fecondary Characters of all the Genera which compose the three first Claffes of the latter. By Colin Milne, LL. D. Reader on Botany in London, Author of the Botanical Dictionary. 4to. 6 s. fewed. Grifin, &c. 1772.

IN

N the first part of this work Dr. Milne had taken notice. of the two univerfal methods of arrangement, one acknowledging the fruit, the other the flower, for their bafis: the writers upon the first method he dismissed, after a minute examination, with a general cenfure. The fecond method, which is founded on the flower, he confiders as attended with far fue perior convenience and advantages. Rivinus, he observes, was the first who availed himfelf of thofe advantages to promote the purposes of science, but has not received, either from contemporary writers, or from pofterity, that tribute of acknowledgment which was fo eminently his due.

The leading character in the plan purfued by Rivinus and his profeffed imitators, is the number of the Petals; the next method which here falls under examination is that founded on their figure: Tournefort, and after him Pontedera, the one a Frenchman, the other a native of Italy, have adopted the latter diftinction, which they confidered as a more certain and infallible mark of difcrimination, than that derived from the number of petals. Our Author, in order to afcertain the comparative merits of these rival methods, immediately propofes the question, Is figure in general, or that of the petals in particular, 2 more infallible mark of diftinction than number? If not, upon what grounds is Tournefort's method fo univerfally preferred to that of Rivinus? In anfwer to this enquiry he obferves, that, were each diftinction equally fixed and invariable, each were not therefore equally proper for the purpose of scientific arrangement. In eftimating the fitnefs of either diftinction-we are not to confine ourfelves to their fuppofed conftancy. Another circumftance claims our attention. The terms for expreffing the feveral parts and modifications of number are fixed and definite; thofe which refpect figure mult, from the very nature of things, be highly arbitrary and indefinite. Numerals have a certain determinate meaning affixed to them, which is always the fame, and can never be fo affected by circumstances as to create ambiguity or doubt. Terms of figure, on the other hand, are in the fcience of botany, extremely equivocal; because, deriving their origin chiefly from fancied refemblances, they will convey different meanings of the fame fubject, as often as the Author and his Readers do not exactly coincide in For an account of which, fee Review, vol. xlv. p. 255.

their