156 CRITICAL NOTICES OP NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



of view, we cannot for a moment admit that the introduction of 

 machinery ought to be condemned as an evil, or considered in the 

 light of a national calamity. It would be difficult to come to any 

 other conclusion, with a knowledge of the fact derived from well- 

 authenticated documents, that the exports in the cotton trade have 

 augmented forty Jold since 1785, and the amount of manual labour 

 employed in this branch has increased from forty thousand to one 

 million and a half! 



Mr. Gaskell represents the sufferings and privations of the hand- 

 loom Weavers, from want of employment and reduced wages, as 

 most severe, and quotes Sir D. Barry and Dr. Kay in corroboration 

 of this statement. Would not these sufferings and privations be 

 materially alleviated, if the hand-loom weavers could be induced to 

 turn their attention to those branches of industry wherein they 

 could be usefully employed at remunerating prices for their labour ? 

 That there is a deficiency of artisans in Lancashire must be admitted, 

 as the Poor Law Commissioners recommend the transfer of 70,000 

 to that county, where they are required, from those parts of England 

 where a superabundance exists. 



As a remedial agent for the relief of the artisan, Mr. Gaskell 

 strenuously advises the cultivation of waste lands, which he 

 observes* *' ought to be treated as a national domain, to be divided 

 and allotted as the demands of society for space and employment 

 happen to increase." There are, no doubt, many thousand acres of 

 ■waste land capable of profitable cultivation, a judicious allotment 

 of which to the unemployed artisan or agricultural labourer, would 

 be attended with the most beneficial results ; and we hope the 

 legislature will speedily turn its attention to a subject on which 

 the comfort and well-being of so numerous a class in a great mea- 

 sure depend. 



Observations on the diseases of the Stomach, chiefly regarding de- 

 rangements of its sensibility i with their sympathetic effects upon 

 some other organs of the economy, particularly the Brain, Lungs, 

 and Heart. By Langston Parker, M. R. C. S. Birmingham : 

 Hudson. 1836. 



These observations clearly indicate that the author has deeply 

 studied his subject before he committed them to the scrutiny of the 

 public ; and although a mere pamphlet of less than forty pages, 

 there is disseminated such a clear knowledge of the various diseases 

 of the stomach, and their sympathetic effects on the brain, lungs, 

 and heart, as could only be obtained by long and diligent application 

 and by an extensive practice. Some of the cases which the author 

 has selected, are rare and complicated, and his mode of treatment 

 and his remarks upon them are well worthy of attentive considera- 

 tion. We recommend Mr. Parker to extend the subject on a future 

 occasion — the present pamphlet is by far too concise. 



• p. 53. 



