726 
most part, in an enlarged, obstructed, 
or scirrhous liver, and are to be cured 
by medicines of the alterative, aperient, 
attenuating kind. It would be little sa- 
tisfaction, and no improvement to our 
readers, toaccompany theauthor through 
the various pieces of bad reasoning, and 
the many coarse, awkward, and _indeli- 
cate attempts at wit, which so often ap- 
pear in the course of this little work. 
That he may have been right in occa- 
sionally finding an enlargement in the 
liver, in chlorosis, or amenorrhea, we 
do not doubt; but that such is in- 
variably the case, and that the remedies 
generally employed for the cure of those 
complaints, particularly chalybeates, ne- 
ver do good, is a position which he would 
find some difficulty in establishing, be- 
cause he must previously remove an ac- 
cumulation of unequivocal facts,afforded 
by the practice of every medical man of 
experience. ‘Ihe author expresses much 
surprise that so much pains have been 
taken, with so little success, to explain 
the cause and uses of menstruation. To 
him this appears perfectly analogous to 
many of the other functions of the body, 
and no more difficult to explain; for the 
Art. XII. Three Letters on medical Subjects : addressed to the Reverend Gilbert Ford, 
Containing, 1. An Account of the Effects of an aloetic Medicine 
in the Gout and other chronical Complaints. 
the individual Prevention of the late Epidemics. 
of the granulated Preparation of Tin, in some Afficiions of the Mind. By Joun 
Ormskirk, Lancashire. 
M. D. Chester. 12mo. 
THE object of the two first letters, is 
to recommend an aloetic medicine (the 
particular composition of which the au- 
thor withholds) as highly beneficial in 
gouty complaints and influenza. — Its 
obvious action is as a purgative, but the 
author connects with it some particular 
operation upon the liver, and other or- 
gans. The third letter is upon the effects 
of granulated tin as a vermifuge, and as 
removing without difficulty, indurated 
feces, and viscid mucus from various 
parts of the alimentary‘canal, both which 
have a powerful tendency to produce, or 
keep up, various mental affections. 
MEDICINE, SURGERY, ANATOMY, &c. 
whole circumstance, says he, is nothing 
but a characteristic, which distinguishes 
the noblest from the inferior antinals of 
the creation. Butif he confess himself 
unable to explain the uses of this impor- 
tant function, in any other way than that 
now stated, and is dissatisiied with the 
attempts of other authors to account for 
it, we cannot admit his right to consider 
obstructed menstruation of itself as the 
mere retention of a certain quantity of 
blood, perfectly unconnected witha mor- 
bid state of the uterine system, and iftca- 
pable of having any further influence, 
upon the body, than what arises from an 
increased quantity of blood, which might 
readily be withdrawn in another way. 
The author does not inform us what 
medicine he employs of the alterative, 
aperient, attenuating kind, to answer his 
indications of cure, but we suppose from 
a hint in one of his cases thiat it is calos 
mel. 
The cahexia Africana, described. by 
Dr. Thomas, and the species of scrofula 
mentigned by Dr. Beddoes, are, from the 
symptoms, conceived by the author to be 
affections of the liver. 
2. A Practice which has been successful in 
8. An Account of the’ sedative I if it 
ORD, 
Empiricism cannot be concealed in 
this publication, under the thin mask of 
candour, philanthropy, and erndition. 
But as a newspaper is generally consider- 
ed as the best meeans of diffusing the 
knowledge of such’ preparations as the 
authors are convinced cannot be too uni- 
versally known by the public, we should 
not be surprised if Dr. Ford at some fu- 
ture period adopt the plan so successfully 
pursued by the Brodums and the Solo- 
mons of the present day, in order more 
extensively to disseminate the knowledge 
of a valuable medicine, prepared only by 
himself., 
Aart. XIIL. Medicina Nautica, an Essay on the Diseases of Seamen, comprehending the. 
~ History of Health in the Channel ‘Fleet for the Years 1799, 1800, and 1801. By Tuomas 
Trotter, M. D. Member of the Royal Medical Society, and honorary Member of the 
Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, late Physician to his Majesty’s Fleet under the 
Command of Admiral Earl Howe, K. G. and to the Squadrens commanded by Admiral 
Lord Bridport, K. B. Admiral Earl St. Vincent, K. B. and the Hon. Admiral Corn- 
wallis. 8vo. 507 pages. nore. “ 
THE present volume is theconclu- medicine, and consists, like the former 
- sion of the author’s work on nautical ones, of a general history of the health 
