with modefty, abounds with curious anecdotes, and is intersperfed with proper reflexions, and judicious practical remarks. The academy being thus finally established on fo advantageous a footing, continued to collect and digest materials for a second publication, which appeared in 1743, in 4to. This volume Mr. Neale has tranflated, in three volumes duodecimo. In a preface to the firft of these we are informed of the motives which induced him to this undertaking, and the obftacles he furmounted in the execution of it. He has likewife prefixed a dedication to each volume; in the two laft of which, befides the topics commonly infifted on in addreffes of this kind, Mr. Neale expatiates on the great utility of the art of furgery, the means of its advancement, and the encouragement due from the public to those who profess it. As Mr. Neale affures us, in the above-mentioned preface, that he had no motive for this undertaking, but a defire of doing fome fervice to the public, he is, undoubtedly, on that account, entitled to applaufe. It muft likewise be acknowledged that he has, in general, given, with tolerable exactness, the meaning of the original. Our refpect for truth, however, obliges us to obferve, that the tranflator does not feem to be fufficiently acquainted either with the French language, or with his own, to appear with great advantage as an author. He follows fo clofely his original, that though the words be English, the idiom is often entirely French. Une commerce aimable (for instance) et une parfaite egualité faifoient fon caractere, an amiable deportment and evennefs of temper made his character; or fuch an action fait fon eloge, makes his elogy; M. Petit au contraire montroit fon malade bien gueri marchant comme s'il n'eu pas eu le tendon d'Achille caffé; M. Petit, on the contrary, fhowed his patient perfectly cured, marching as if he had never had the tendo Achilles broken. Il s'ocupoit pendant l'eté a faire des demonftrations fur les os, he employed himself during the fummer in making demonstrations on the bones. So literally does he adhere to the French expreffions, that he terms Mr. Sharp's Critical Inquiry, Critical Refearches; because, in a reference in the Memoirs, the title is there tranflated Recherches Critiques. But were a pupil to enquire for Mr. Sharp's Critical Refearches, we are afraid it would puzzle the learning of many an eminent bookfeller. We find alfo fome expreffions in the English, extremely incorrect, fuch as a bladder inflated with urine, &c. By rendering the French in this fervile manner, the tranflator is fometimes betrayed into inaccuracies of another kind. We are informed, for example, of a part of the body hitherto unknown to anatomifts, viz. the Linea alba of the left fide. In the eulogy REV. March 1759. R оп ca M. de la Peyronie, we are informed, Qu'il eu le bonheur detre receu penfionnaire chez M. Marefchal; which is, as Mr. Neale tranflates it, that he had the good fortune to be received as a penfioner at Mr. Marefchal's-But we imagine, if Mr. Neale admits a young country furgeon as a pupil into his houfe, he will expect to receive, not to beftow; not to entertain a penFiner, but to be paid for a boarder which is the meaning, in this place, of the French word Penfionnaire. In another paffage we are told, that Mr. Marefchal having feen the King's ailment, made a fign with his hand, that it was neceflary to make a circular incision. Here perhaps, aftonishment, at Mr. Marefchal's extraordinary modefty, prudence, and circumfpection, who even dared not to give his opinion in an audible voice, lulled, on this occafion, our tranflator's attention; as we cannot suppose any gentleman of the profeffion not to know, that une incifion cruciale is not a circular but a tranfverfe incifion,-We shall take the liberty to point out a very remarkable overfight, which, although it be found in the Paris edition, yet, as the tranflator ought to underftand fomething of a science fo effential to every furgeon as anatomy, we should have hoped to have feen it rectified in this publication. In the explanation to the fecond plate, which represents the trunk of the body with the exterior integuments, and the abdominal muscles raised and turned back, &c. the cartilago enfi firmis is called the ventricule, or ftomach (represented full ;) the ftomach is miftaken for the omentum, or epiploon; a portion of the liver is erroneously called the diaphragm, no part of which appears; and K, which is the reference to that part of the figure laid to represent the liver, is placed on the very middle of the mentum. These palpable mistakes, it is hoped, will be corrected in the next Edition. We now proceed to give a short abstract of the different fubjects treated of in the work itself.-We are prefented firft with an account of the rife and progress of the academy, the substance of which has been already given: to this is fubjoined the new body of ftatutes, or regulations for the government of it; and next follow the eulogies on feveral eminent members deceased. We have afterwards a fhort review of the works published by different members of the academy, from its first inftitution in 1731 to the year 1741: among which are fome valuable books, particularly Le Dran on gunshot wounds, and Dionis' operations in furgery, improved by M. de la Faye. There are two machines delineated in this work, the firft for bleeding in the jugular vein, the other to ftop the blood of the intercoftal artery; neither of which, in our opinion, merit much attention. The firft memoir, by M. Verdier, contains a difquifition concerning the nature of the hernia of the urinary bladder, illuftrated with a great a great number of obfervations. Some of thefe are extracted from authors, but the greatest part is furnished by different members and correfpondents of the academy; many of which highly deserve the attention of practitioners. 2d Memoir contains an account of apoftems of the liver, viz. Several obfervations by the late M. Petit the fon; and a differtation concerning the nature and cure of them, by M. Morand. 3. Several observations on limbs torn off. In the various inftances here produced, the patients were all happily cured. Hence appears the manifeft difference of the fymptoms which enfue from a tendon flightly wounded, or partially divided, from thofe of a large tendon cut in two, or a more flender one intirely torn off. In the first cafe, the wound is attended with the moft dreadful fymptoms; in the fecond, there are none of any ill confequence: hereby confirming the old aphorifm, Diffciffo toto nervo, (to which is added, aut etiam avuljo) non fit fpafmus,-A hint of great importance in practice. mer. 4. Mr. Petit the fon, in the preceding volume, published an effay on extravafations; this memoir is a fequel to the forIt is divided into two parts, the firft ingeniously traces the manner in which extravafations are formed in the abdomen, and the confequences which may be drawn from it; namely, the attempting the cure, by procuring a difcharge to the fluid that happens to be extravafated. The fecond treats of the different figns of fuch extravafations. It is obferved in a note, that what is published in the former volume, and in this, only completes a part of what Mr. Petit had projected on this subject; and that his death deprived the public of the remainder. The next and laft memoir in the first volume of the tranflation, contains a farther difquifition on the fame fubject with the preceding, by M. Garengeot. In this he proves, by arguments drawn from the animal oeconomy, from opening of morbid bodies after death, and from practical obfervations, that Auids, extravafated in the abdomen, have a tendency towards a determined place in this cavity, and in which they are liable to ftagnate. On difcovering an extravafation of blood only, which has fubfifted for fome days, an indication that it does not proceed from a very large veffel, to prevent inflammation, fever, and other mortal fymptoms, that might be accafioned by such a stagnation, he advifes to make a counter aper ture to facilitate its difcharge; this is to be done wherever the Auctuation is telt, which he demonftrates, from the ftructure of the parts, will generally be in the lower and anterior part of the abdomen: R 2 abdomen: but he judicioufly remarks, that this counter-aperture ought not to be practifed, where the fuddennefs or violence of the fymptoms afford reafon to fufpect, that the larger bloodveffels, or bowels, are materially wounded. To this memoir is fubjoined the defcription of an inftrument, to prevent an hemorrhage from the intercoftal artery, by M. Belloq.-This may, probably, be as well contrived as the fituation of the part admits of; although we have great doubts, whether any inftrument, that muft neceffarily irritate the pleura and the lungs, can be applied with much advantage. The fecond volume of this tranflation opens with a memoir on calcalous concretions of the uterus, by Mr. Louis. This gentleman obferves, that the authors, who have taken notice of diforders arifing from thefe, fpeak of them in fo vague a manner, as to afford little inftruction, their writings being chiefly copied from one another, and their doctrine not fupported with any particular facts. The principal defign therefore of this memoir, is to fhew the various fymptoms which ftones in the matrix have occafioned, and to prevent our attributing to imaginary causes the diforders produced by fuch concretions. Mr. Louis illustrates this fubject, by the detail of a variety of cafes, exhibiting their different effects. We fhall briefly mention them. In the firft cafe, a uterine ftone occafioned an heavy troublesome weight, with extreme itching, in the lower part of the abdomen, and on the fore and upper part of the thighs. In the fecond fharp pain and fever: in the third an ulceration of the matrix in the fourth and fifth there happened a discharge of the concretions of the matrix, by the ulceration of its orifice. The fixth cafe is taken from the writings of Hippocrates, and exhibits an inftance of pains, followed with a natural discharge of the ftone. In the feventh cafe we are informed of a difpute, wherein the poffibility of the preceding fact has been contested; but, in Mr. Louis's opinion, without juft grounds. In the eighth, ninth, and tenth of these obfervations, we have inftances of a difficulty of making water, and a retention of urine, from the presence of a ftone in the uterus. In the three following cafes, uterine ftones occafion no bad fymptoms whatever. In the fourteenth, a petrified matrix is attended with a hemorrhoidal fymptomatic flux. The fourteenth and fifteenth are further inftances of a petrified matrix. In the fixteenth the ftones are encyfted; and in the eighteenth and laft cafe, mention is made of a ftone in the matrix extracted by an operation; but fo inaccurately, as to afford very little information in regard to the manner of performing it. Upon the whole, the figns by which thefe uterine concretions may be discovered, appear so anoma lous, lous, and the curative indications fo uncertain, that, in our opi nion, no rule of practice, decifive or fatisfactory, can be derived from what is here faid upon the subject.. Memoir 2d. of this fecond volume, contains remarks, by the fame gentleman, on the conftruction and ufe of the elevator, invented by Mr. Petit. The 3d. by M. Moreau, treats of the resources of nature, in the cafe of luxations of the thigh, which have not been reduced. It is illuftrated with two obfervations; in the first the thigh is luxated upward and outward; the second downward and inward, with a view of the different bones when laid bare. Memoir 4th contains three effays. The firft is an examination of the critical reflexions of M. Molinelli, published in the memoirs of the inftitutes of Bologna, on the memoir of M. Petit on the Fiftula Lachrymalis, inferted in the memoirs of the royal academy of sciences, in the year 1734. In this differtation M. Bordenave vindicates the propriety of Mr. Petit's comparing the Punita Lachrymalia, the lachrymal fac, and the nafal duct to a fyphon, whofe office is to abforb the fuperfluous moisture of the eye. He likewife obviates other objections raised by M. Molinelli, against M. Petit's method of treating the diforder abovementioned. The other two articles, by Meffrs. de la Foreft.. and Louis, relate to the fame difeafe. In the last of these are mentioned the various methods of performing the operation, and compleating the cure, as recommended by different practical writers. Yet after all, it may perhaps, as it is hinted by M. Louis, redound but little to the honour of furgery, if, with fo many operations, and fuch a multiplicity of means for the relief of this diforder, there fhould be as few cures performed henceforward, as have been done for the time paft. 5. The next obfervation exhibits an inftance of the fucceffful treatment of a gunshot wound by M. Guerin. The ball entered at the fore and lower part of the thorax, on the left fide, fractured the laft of the true ribs, and paffed out at the hinder part of the fame fide. The patient was at length cured,, after a train of dangerous fymptoms, and two and thirty bleedings, by the extraction of a splinter hid in the proper fubftance of the lungs, 6. On a method of ftopping the blood of the arteries, without the affiftance of a ligature; by Mr. Morand. The method here proposed, is by means of the agaric, the infufficiency of which the tranflator of these memoirs has endeavoured to prove, in A Letter to a Surgeon in the Country *. See Review, Vol. XVI. p. 464. SA |