, ~ Commenis on Sterne. 61 
“ fuch forms and proportions, and for fuch ends, 
 asis agreeable to his infinite wifdom.”* 
I with Sterne had known enough of Taliacotius 
to have done him juftice, on the fubject of nofes. 
The practice of that extraordinary man, wivch has 
been obfcured by mifplaced raillery, and the im- 
putation of follies entirely foreign to his method, 
deferves to be better known. It was both rational 
and fuccefsful; and it is a confiderable addition to 
his fame, that he anticipated later Phyfiologifts in 
fome furprizing and important facts refpecting the 
re-union of living parts.—Sterne has played unac- 
countably with the public curiofity, on the fubject 
of a very filly book, which he attempts to pafs off 
as curious, merely becaufe it is obfcure. This is 
the more furprizing, becaufe his fiction of Slaw- 
kenbergius is admirable. Mr. Shandy has the good 
fortune, we are told, to get Brufcambille’s Prologue on 
Nofes almoft for nothing—that is, for three half 
crowns.‘* There are not three Brufcambiiles in Chrift- 
** endom-—daid the ftall-man, except what are 
“« chained up in the libraries of the curious.”— 
This is well calculated to excite the appetites of 
epicures in literature, which perhaps was all the 
Author intended; and which is ill fupported by the 
work . in queftion, ‘That no future Collector 
. G 2 may 
* Id. Chap. 41. 
+ See his Book, De Curtorum Chirurgia, 
