11^' 
Criiical Bemarks on Shakespeare, 
[Sept. 1, 
self, nor any who used it with perse¬ 
verance. The jaw may possibly be after¬ 
wards stiff for a time, and must be kept 
warm with flannel. The friction is as use¬ 
ful as the spirits ; therefore, if the skin 
become sore, the friction may be con¬ 
tinued with rum and oil. It is of no 
consequence, whether the tooth be whole 
or decayed. And who can grudge the 
loss of oV.e day for quiet sieep at night? 
Experience. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 
SIR, 
T he late death of a gentleman in this 
county has pretty generally been 
attributed to his having taken the new 
invented gout-medicine; and, having 
heard that this is not the only melan¬ 
choly instance of its fatal effects, I trust 
you will have no objection to a few en¬ 
quiries being made through the medium of 
your valuable Magazine, as to the virtues, 
either real or pretended, of this medicine. 
It is said to be of a nature so powerful, 
as either to eradicate the disease in the 
space of a few hours, or in as short a time 
to terminate life. 
If such, Sir, are really its effects, is it 
?!Ot of the greatest importance that every 
one should be guarded against making 
ose of it at all, or at least of being duly 
^ioprixed of its powers; and not be per¬ 
mitted to give implicit credit to the in¬ 
terested statement of its wonderful cures, 
which are detailed in newspapers, or on 
the covers of the bottles? I am willing 
to make due allowances for the prejudices 
of the faculty, which have usually at¬ 
tended the introduction of any new me¬ 
dicines, many of which have proved a 
blessing CO mankind. On the otner hand, 
ouack-medicine exaggeration and puff 
are so nearly allied, that to believe in any 
cure elfected by them, requires investi- 
'ration before any credit is given to their 
atatement; and I fully believe that most 
of these species of medicines, of which this 
mav be one, are often of a nature so 
strong, as to bring the disorder to a crisis, 
and consequently too desperate for any 
medical man to risk his credit upon by 
making use of it. The best method of 
learning its effects would be, to ascertain 
the ingredients of which it is composed; 
and some of your chemical correspon¬ 
dents will, I hope, be at the trouble of 
analysing it, and favour you with the 
resuit of their experiments. 
Derbyshire., A. L. J. 
July 15, 1811. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine* 
SIR, 
T seems somewhat surprising that 
there is not, at least in every coun¬ 
ty, some place for the accommodatinn 
of lunatics. In my travels a few 
months ago, among otliers, I found a poor 
woman, not many miles from Epping, 
witii her son, an idiot, twenty-seven 
years of age, who does every thing like a 
beast, and who is swaddled up every night 
like a baby, to prevent what delicacy for¬ 
bids me to name. The woman lives hr 
washirg, and has a poor, old, decrepit, 
husband, with her idiotic son, to care for, 
with only three shillings a week, which is 
all they can afford from the parish. In 
Ireland, in almost every county, they are 
wisely beginning to have a place set apart 
for lunatics. I know but one incon¬ 
venience arising from confining idiots, 
which is, their being prevented from being 
an inducement to others to be thankful; 
for evidently one design of Providence so 
ordering matters, that one, here and 
there, is deprived of reason, is, that others 
may see and be thankful that they are 
not in the same condition. With good 
wishes, I am, James Hall. 
Walthamstowy Dec. 13, 1810, 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
CRITICAL REMAP.KS On SHAKESPEARE. 
Timon or AthfN s —1. 
A LL those which were his fellows but of 
late, 
Some better than his value, on the moment 
Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with ten¬ 
dance, 
Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear. 
Dr. Warburton, in his very ingenious 
note on this passage, supposes sacriii- 
cial whisperings^^ to mean personal calum¬ 
nies, in allusion to the victims offered up 
to idols, but the scope of the observation 
is probably more general. Who that lias 
had any experience of the world will not 
acknowledge the mortifying truth con' 
tained in the lines immediately following. 
When Fortune, in her shift and change of 
mood, 
Spurns down her late beloved, all his depen¬ 
dants, 
Which laboured after him to the mountain's 
top, 
Even on their hands and knees, let him slip 
down. 
Not one accompanying his decliningToot* 
If his occasion were not virtuous 
I should not urge it half so faithfully. 
^ct III. Sane £. 
“ ViiTuouf 
