348 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[SEPT. 



valuable from the great attention and 

 accuracy with which they were made, 

 the reader may perhaps be surprised to 

 find the theory of Hervey, on this ob- 

 scure and mysterious function, so full 

 of metaphysical arguments, and resting 

 at last upon an hypothesis incapable of 

 proof" meaning, probably, without any 

 foundation in fact. 



Sydenham's reputation is connected 

 with the plague ; he was in London at 

 the beginning and the close of it. Bleed- 

 ing was his remedy; and he details a 

 remarkable instance of the happy effect 

 of bleeding for the plague in the course 

 of the civil wars. A soldier, who had 

 been brought up a surgeon, was permit- 

 ted to treat his comrades in this way, 

 and not one of them died. To Syden- 

 ham is due the credit of introducing the 

 cooling system for the small-pox, so 

 successfully enforced, afterwards, by 

 Radcliffe and Mead. The father of 

 Maria Theresa, it is recorded, was 

 wrapped up in twenty good yards of 

 scarlet-cloth. Sydenham seems to have 

 had no notion of the contagiousness of 

 this fearful disorder. 



Radcliffe's is an amusing sketch. He 

 was rough and resolute, with a touch of 

 humour about him. Though a court 

 physician, he offended both William and 

 Anne. Once the princess sent for him 

 in haste, and on his delaying, another 

 messenger was despatched to describe 

 the nature of her indisposition. " By 



," said Radcliffe, " her highness's 



distemper is nothing but the vapours ; 

 she is in as good a state of health as any 

 woman breathing, could she believe it.'* 

 He was instantly dismissed ; but, after- 

 wards, when queen, on the fatal illness 

 of her son, the Duke of Gloucester, she 

 forgot the offence, and again consulted 

 him. William, upon some occasion, 

 shewed Radcliffe his swollen ankles, 

 forming a striking contrast with the rest 

 of his emaciated body, and exclaimed, 

 " Doctor, what think you of these ?" 

 " Why truly," said he, " I would not 

 have your majesty's two legs for your 

 three kingdoms," which finished Rad- 

 cliffe's attendance at court. Pringle 

 was eminent chiefly for his improve- 

 ments in army practice; and he had, 

 moreover, it seems, the merit of sug- 

 gesting to Captain Cook the means by 

 which ne so happily secured the health 

 of his crew. Parry is still remembered 

 at Bath. He commenced practice in 

 that town in 1780 ; his receipts that year 

 were 39. 19s.-in 1781, ?0. 7s. in 

 1782, 112. 7s.-in 1783, 162. 5s. in 

 1784, 239. 5s. in 1785, 443. 10s. 

 in 1786, 552. 9s. in 1787, 755. 6s. 

 in 1788, 1,533. 15s. From the tenth 

 year of his practice the amount rapidly 

 increased, and appears to have varied 

 from 300. to 600. per month. A let- 



ter is given from Dr. Denman, dated 

 1781 " I am not surprised," says he, 

 " that you find your receipts come in 

 slowly at present, but all young prac- 

 titioners think, when they set up their 

 standard, that the world should imme- 

 diately flock to it. But all business is 

 progressive; and the steps now taken 

 may be so calculated as to produce their 

 effect ten years hence. There must be 

 a vacancy before we can get into busi- 

 ness, and when there is, the competition 

 must be equal in many points, as age or 

 standing, character for knowledge, in- 

 dustry, or readiness to exert our know- 

 ledge for the good of our patients, moral 

 qualities, and the like. On the whole, 

 I do not know what any man can do to 

 get patients, but to qualify himself for 

 business, and then to introduce himself 

 to the notice of those who are likely to 

 employ him. But it is hard to say on 

 what hinge this matter may turn, as I 

 see men, in great business, of every dis- 

 position, or turn of conduct, and with 

 very different degrees of knowledge, and 

 some, I think, with very little, but with 

 great appearance of it, &c." 



Besides those we have alluded to are 

 short notices of Sir Thomas Browne, 

 Huxham, Heberden, Fothergill, Cul- 

 len, Hunter, Warren, Baillie, Jenner, 

 and Gooch. The last, as the friend of 

 the author, is given with more detail 

 and knowledge of the man. Generally, 

 there is a great lack of material for the 

 lives of the physicians, and ex nihilo 

 nihil. 



Arab Proverbs, <|-c., by the late John 

 Lewis Burckhardt. Published by Authority 

 of the Association for Promoting the Dis- 

 covery of the Interior of Africa The 



greater part of this ample gathering of 

 Arab Proverbs was collected, it seems, 

 by a native of Cairo whose scarcely 

 pronounceable name, if we printed it, 

 would stick in nobody's memory about 

 a centurv ago ; the rest were picked up 

 by Burckhardt himself, in conversation 

 in general society, or in the bazaar. 

 They are all of them current at Cairo, 

 and perpetually on the lips of the na- 

 tives. They are expressed in the vul- 

 gar dialect of the country, and are such 

 as all understand, and all use, except, 

 says Burckhardt, the few who affect to 

 despise the language of the lower classes. 

 They present, thus, a genuine specimen 

 of the Arabic now spoken in the capital 

 of Egypt, which is the same, or very 

 nearly the same, as that used in the towns 

 of the Delta ; and prove, at the same 

 time, that Arabic is not by any means so 

 corrupted as some travellers have re- 

 ported. Many of these sayings are me- 

 trical, and sometimes the rhymes are 

 extremely happy, but the drollery, of 

 course, evaporates in a translation, which 



