*280 Medicine, 



often so fatally experienced ; and that alkaline and 

 calcareous substances afford the best means of ex- 

 tinguishing its virulence. The evidence he ad- 

 duces to maintain this doctrine, drawn from an- 

 cient as well as modern authorities, and from facts 

 observed in all parts of the globe, does equal 

 honour to his diligence and erudition. 



In Germany there are several eminent physi- 

 cians who lately have published systems of medi- 

 cal doctrines, which are said considerably to differ 

 from all preceding ones, and which attract much at- 

 tention in that enlightened part of Europe. Among 

 these, the names of Reil, Roschlaub, and Hufe- 

 LAND deserve particularly to be mentioned; but 

 the confinement of their opinions to the Germ.an 

 language prevents them from being sufficiently- 

 known to give any account of them in this review. 



Within a few years Dr. Reich, of that country, 

 has presented to the public a new theory of fevers^ 

 which seems, however, to have attracted but little 

 attention, and it is believed is now fahing into 

 neglect. His fundamental doctrine is, that fevers 

 are produced by destruction of the equilibrium be- 

 tween oxygen and the other principles which enter 

 into the composition of the animal body; and that 

 fevers may be most speedily cured by introducing 

 and restoring equally, to all parts of the body, such 

 a quantity of oxygen as is necessary to re-establish 

 the equilibrium between the different constituent 

 parts. And hence he infers that acids, especially 

 the mineral acids, and particularly the muriatic 

 acid, are more adapted than any other remedies to 

 the cure of fevers. 



Among the improvements which occurred to- 

 wards the close of the eighteenth century, Pneit- 

 matic Medicine holds a distinguished rank. The 

 knowledge of the gases in the last quarter of the 

 century assumed a regular and scientific form; 



