humidity.' In the next paffage which we have diftinguished, • much harraffed' is an improper term. The paffage, as ufual in Aretæus, is elliptical, but certainly means no more than that they are fubject to it:' we know that many diseases of children are attended with fpafms and convulfions, which, in more mature age, form no part of their character. The words of the author are Παῖδες μεν ξυνέχεες; and we ought to add, that Harry Stephens agrees with our tranflator. The next paffage is confufed, and, we fufpect, inaccurate, though this might arife from fome error in the pointing. We should read, at that time it is moft fatal; fince cold and drynefs are equally natural to old age and death.' In the next passage, we find his footsteps in the Medica Artis Principes. The fentence is obfcure; but we have little hesitation in translating it, • Added to these symptoms, to speak comprehensively, there is a pain and tenfion of the tendons both of the Spine,' &c. Dr. Moffat follows Harry Stephens; but there are authorities equally respectable, for a very different fenfe. The paffage is Ξυνέσι μὲν ἀυτέοισι, ἀθρόον μὲν ἅπασι εἰρῆασθαι. Ειρῆμαι is the Attic paffive used as a neuter, from sgw or pew, and can never fignify any thing like the attack of a disease. It could be hafte only which induced Dr. Moffat to tranflate paxéos,' of

the back.'

The next Italic fentence is fudicrous enough: the author fhould have written or hold it,' as the original dictates, and · return it into the noftrils.' It would have been more neat and exact to have tranflated the next paragraph in this manner: we are not to defend Aretæus' mistakes in phyfiology:

For the fauces are compreffed, and the tonfils, hard and contracted, do not push forward the aliment to be swallowed.' We fee the isthmus in Stephens. In the next paffages, Aretæus fays the breathing is difficult,' and the chin shaking.' It would be difficult to shake the superior maxilla; but our translator frequently fteps out of his way for a hard word. In the fubfequent paragraph, the aftonishment fhould be applied to the motion of the ears; it is fo in the original; and in the next, Aretæus exprefsly fays that the urine is retained with a violent dyfury, not fuppreffed by a ftrangury. We have quoted the last paragraph to contraft the tranflator with his author. The only words of Aretæus are Ιδια δε ἐκάτης. Hæc omnibus propria is the neareft tranflation. In English he might have faid, thefe are the general symptoms.'

This is not the only part of the work which we have compared with the original; but we have had enough of this kind of criticifm. Our readers will now readily understand the general merit of the tranflation. It cannot give an adequate

idea of Aretæus, but may be of fervice in inftructing the young practitioner what kind of reward a more critical examination would procure. We have cafually mentioned, that Dr. Moffat often steps out of his way for a hard word. We never hint at a fault without reason, and scarcely ever without producing examples of it. We will not now forget fo good a cuftom.

Inftill a liquid,' and vitiated respiration,' have already occurred. In one paffage he mentions the excandefcence of the mind in another place he speaks of fomenting the Bath fires, inftead of kindling or fupplying them with fuel. In a fubfequent paffage he tells us, that in, asthma the præcordia are revulfed,' instead of drawn upward. In another place he fpeaks of * rheas or flux of water. Again, when speaking of the cure of phthifis, he tells us that

Milk is agreeable to the taste and eafily fwallowed, affords folid nourishment, and is more familiar to the conftitution than any other food; it is likewife pleasant to the fight, does not exasperate the trachea or artery, levigates the throat, renders the breathing eafy, is an eductor of the phlegm, and lubricates the inferior paffage; befides it is an avaging medicine to the ulcers, and more mild than any other.'

It cannot be for this reafon that he mentions the parts called plechas,' without any explanation. The fomentation may, for aught he knew, be applied to the part between the thumb and fore finger; for a little knowlege of analogy and dialects would have led a moderate Grecian to Пx, whofe accufative he would have fuppofed plechas. If he had, however, read Homer, he would have gone on to Hugo, which would have led him to the lower extremities, and then he might have found the real word Πλιχας, by the Eolians changed to Πληχας. The commoneft Lexicon would have told him that this meant cutis, quæ pudendis fubeft, inter utrumque femur. This is not quite exact; if we were inclined to fill our margin with the authorities which now lie before us, (but we hate reputation fo cheaply bought) we should tell him that it meant duplicatura cutis, inter femur & perinæum, in Greek, Пanxada. There are many other peculiar words, which our author thould have explained. He does not inform us what the antidote named biftimus, more commonly beftinus, is, the animal called cofcinos, or the gleucine oil; when a very flight search would have led him to probable conjectures. There are many other fimilar defects. The befafa may probably not be so rea

What makes this term more particularly improper in this place is, that it is ufed by Aretaus in a metaphorical fenfe, like defluctio, in Latin. Its real fignification is a fwelling of the glauds of the neck. di

VOL. LXI, April, 1786.

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dily found it means the feed of the ruta fylveftris; and the Egyptian bacchar is certainly the carpefium cernuum of Linnæus, Sp. pl. 1203. It is a strong fmelling plant, found in Italy, where Aretaus practifed, and probably well adapted to hyfteria. It must not be confounded, on the one hand, with the bacchar of Diofcorides, which is a species of inula; nor, on the other, with the baccharis of Linnæus, a very different plant. We cannot enlarge on this subject, and shall only add, that nothing is more wanting than a Grecian and Arabian Materia Medica, to connect their facts with modern practice, and modern difcoveries. It is a work that would require great labour, and fhould not be undertaken rafhly or unadvisedly.

On the whole, the language of this tranflation is easy, and often elegant; it is also pretty generally correct; but it is not the ftyle, the manner, or the language of Aretæus. Îndependent of the omiffion of the fifth chapter, or at least its remains, we think that the cure of phrenzy, lethargy, marafmus, apoplexy, and epilepfy, afford remarks of great confequence, which would be readily understood without the defcriptions. If the work is re-printed, we would advife Dr. Moffat to fupply this defect, and to elucidate the materia medica, and the practice of Aretæus, by a commentary. A translation of his work, in concife and correct language, with these explanations, would be a valuable addition to the flock of English medicine.

Experiments and Obfervations on Quilled and Red Peruvian Bark. By Thomas Skeete, M. D. 8vo. 55. in Boards. Murray.

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Scotchman once asked the famous Sylvius, in the botanical garden at Leyden, what were the properties of a particular and useless plant? Are you not from Scotland? faid he-Yes, fir. Have not you there a particular mode of torture, called the boots? Yes. I would advise you then to try the boots on it; and if it will not then confess its virtues, I am afraid your expectations from it will be frustrated. If ever this story has been virtually realized, the fubject of the torture must be the bark, which has been tried by the united force of fire, water, and every acrid menftruum; but with fo little real advantage, that we doubt much, fhould we ftate the inftances of misconduct, in opposition to the few improvements, whether we fhould be found gainers by our labours. Our author has again walked over the course, on which fo many contending chemifts have diftinguished their abilities, and, added to the ufual fucceffes, feems alfo to have obtained a profpect of a higher reward, of a promised land, which he has not yet reached.

Of

Of the different kinds of bark, our author prefers greatly the red bark, which appears not to be the bark of the trunk or of the larger branches of an older tree, as was once fuf pected, but really a variety. A fact of fome confequence, in this view, is that Dr. Skeete has found one piece at least of the true red bark in a quilled form. The common flat bark, feems, from our author's experiments, not to be inferior in goodness to that which we have usually fo much prized. Many of the various appearances probably arife from the bark not having been procured from the fame fpecies, but from varieties of the officinal cincona; and the Jamaica, the St. Vincent's, and the St. Lucia bark are, he thinks, we believe juftly, varieties of the second species. Of the ufual folvents, he found rectified spirit the most active, then the caustic spirit of fal ammoniac: brandy and rum were more powerful than proof fpirit, and water in decoction more powerful than any kinds of wine. In fhort, with refpect to medicinal forms, our author's experiments fully confirm our opinion, derived from the actual effects of the medicine which we mentioned in the Fifty ninth Volume of our Journal, page 16.

On the pharmaceutical treatment of the bark, he affords fome new lights, by making the refin more foluble in water after the gum is extracted: this is effected by adding gum Arabic; and he gives fome neat methods of exhibiting the medicine. These are chiefly by employing the extract, rubbed into an emulfion, with almonds or with milk *. The syrup of oranges in these formule would be a proper addition, for we can only leffen the naufeousness of a medicine, by adding one whose tafte is fimilar, but whofe flavour is more agreeable.

The moft material chemical fact in this volume is the effect of magnefia on the bark, by which the author fufpects that the folubility, or at least the folubility of its more active parts, is increased. We shall firft tranfcribe the experiment with lime, a fubject which has already been confidered by Dr. Percival and Dr. Macbride.

Two drachms of quilled bark in powder were triturated with two ounces of lime water, three quarters of an hour, and after remaining together about fifteen minutes more, the mixture was paffed through filtering paper. This infufion was of a red colour, refembling in a good meafure that of a tincture of the fame bark in proof fpirit. It was remarkably more bitter to the taste than the cold infufion in fimple water, though the increase of weight by no means correfponded with its fenfible properties, the common measure of it fcarcely weighing one grain more than that of the plain infufion.-This is a circumstance

We have fome doubts about this preparation : bark, in substance, de compounds common emulfions.

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difficult of explanation, as it was reafonable to fuppofe, from the difference in the taste and appearance, that the lime water had diffolved a much greater proportion of the bark than we can poffibly deduce from the specific gravity of the infufion. But if the abfolute weight of the bark be not much diminished by the action of fuch a menftruum, it certainly appears, from every other trial, to have difpoffefled it of its active properties in a proportion vaftly fuperior to common water. A teafpoonful, for instance, of the fo!ution of fal martis being added to fome of the above infufion, immediately rendered it very turbid and dark coloured, and foon occafioned a copious precipita tion of a blackish colour?

By fixed air and the faccharine acid a copious precipitation is produced, and the rich colour is loft. A larger quantity of lime rubbed with the-bark, previous to adding the water, fcarcely produced any folution of the medicine with its ufual fenfible properties. Again,

Two drachms of Peruvian bark in powder, and half a drachm of calcined magnefia, were 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 firft inftance to the state of a paste. The infufion, when paffed through filtering paper, was found to be poffeffed of the following remarkable properties:

Ift. An exceedingly deep red colour, fuperior to the infufion of common bark in lime water.

2d. It is more bitter and aftringent to the taste even than

an infufion of red bark.

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3d. It produces a very deep black colour, with a copious precipitation, upon the addition of a folution of fal martis ; while a fimilar addition to a common infufion of bark occafions a moderate difcolouration and fmall precipitation only,

4th. It remains beautifully tranfparent three or four days, and is fo ftrongly antifeptic, that at the end of a week, in fummer, it had fcarcely made any advances towards fermenta tion; while an infution of bark, with fimple water, will ferment in two days.

5th. It exceeds in fpecific gravity the infufion of bark in lime water, in the fame, or rather in a greater proportion, than that exceeds the fimple infufion.'

In this cafe the fixed air had no effect; the acid of sugaṛ acted, as in the other experiment, with lime.

Thefe experiments are only ftrange to thofe who are little acquainted with the nature of the aftringent principle. We cannot indeed yet decide with certainty upon it; but we have collateral facts fuficient to explain those before us. It is highly probable, that neither lime in folution, nor magnefia in fubfiance, increafe the folubility of the bark, or contributę to draw out its more active powers. For the firft part of the opinion,