502 - 
man Body.** The objeét here, as in the 
former work, is to diminifh the neceflity of 
medical afliitance, by itripping the fcience 
of its robes af quakery, and by giving 
mankind fome plain and practical infor- 
mation on the nature of their own confti- 
tution, and the means of preventing its 
premature decay. Dr. GARNETT’s ‘¢ Lec- 
tures on the Prefervation of health,” 1s writ- 
ten with the fame benevolent defign, and 
contains much excellent advice. Not 
much is to be found in the ‘ Praéical 
Syaopfis of the Materta Alimentaria and 
Materia Medica,” which is not contained 
in other treatifes on the fame fubject : an 
ample and ufeful catalogue, however, is 
given of alimentary fub{tances, with a 
cefcription of their peculiar qualities, and 
the different modes of preparing them 
for food. A work of ingenuity is Dr. 
WILLAN’s © Defcription and Treatment 
of cutaneous Difeafes.”’ After having com- 
mented on the uncertainty and confufion 
which the ancients appeared to have la- 
boured under in refpeét to cuticular dif- 
eafes, by their frequent ufe of the fame 
term to reprefent different affections, Dr. 
W. proceeds to ftate the defiderata, which 
_he conceives ought to be attended to; 
thefe are, 1, “ to fix the fenfe of the terms 
employed by proper definitions; 2, to 
conititute general divifions or orders of 
the difeafes from leading and peculiar cir- 
cumftances in their appearance; to 
range them into diftin&t gezera; and to 
defcribe at large their /pecific forms or 
Varieties ; 3, to claflify and give names 
to fuch as have not hitherto been fuffi- 
ciently diftinguifhed ; and, 4, to fpecify 
the mode of treatment for each difeafe.”” 
The whole of thete difeafes, Dr. W. 
thinks, are comprehended in fix pri- 
Mary order;, namely, ‘* pimples, fcales, 
rafhes, veiicles, tubercles, and {pots :°” 
the orders branch into genera, {pecies, 
and varieties. Whether any objections 
lic againft fo formal and fyftematic an 
arrangement, we are incompetent to offer 
an opinicn. In order to convey diftin& 
ideas on the fubject, it is the intention of 
Dr. W. to elucidate every genus by co- 
ioured engravings, reprefenting fome of 
its molt ftriking varieties. The prefent 
interefting volume contains the firft or- 
der, namely, ¢ papulous.cruptions on the 
4kin,”’ with feven coloured plates. In Mr. 
Ware's “ Remarks on the Fiftula Lachy- 
malis, he defcribes an operation which 
he has frequently performed with much 
eafe and. fuccefs, and which is confidera- 
bly different from that in’ common ufe. 
Without the affiftance of a plate, the de- 
fcription would not be very intelligible ; 
Half-yearly Retrofped? of Domeftic Literature. 
in this fmall pamphlet Mr. W. has of-- 
fered fome ufeful obfervations on hz- 
morrhoids, and on the ophthalmy. A 
gentleman, who took them down in fhort- 
hand, has publifhed the ‘ Clizcal Lec- 
tures,” which Dr. CuLLEN delivered 
five-and-thirty years ago! It is not to 
be expected that they fhould contain much 
interefting matter, which has not long 
fince been generally known. The eccen- 
tric and untenable opinions of Dr. La- 
THAM, in his letter addrefled to Sir G. 
Baxer, ‘ On the Roeumatifn and Gout,” 
have been attacked with fuccefs, in ** Az 
Effay on the Gout,” by Dr. WALLIS,2 
gentleman who has had the fortuzate op- 
portunity of making every obiervatien he 
poffibly could defire—upon his own per- 
fon. After having ftated, at fome length, 
the opinion of a variety of authors on this 
fubje&, the Dr. gives us his own theory, 
which approaches fo nearly to the com- 
mon opinion, that we are much more dif- 
pofed to rely on its folidity, than confide 
in the fingular and paradoxical hypothelis 
-of his opponent. Mr. CaVALLo, in his 
“¢ Fijay on the Medicinal Properties of Fac- 
titious Airs,’ defcribes the various elaftic 
eafles which have been difcovered by mo- 
dern chemifts, in that clear and philofo- 
phical manner, which would naturally be 
expected from him: this volume contains 
a valuable Appendix on the nature of 
blood; his account of the red globules is 
_rendered particularly interefting, by the 
numerous experiments and microfcopical 
obfervations which are related. It 1s um- 
poflible to {peak in terms of the flighteft 
commendation cn awork entitled, ‘* PAy- 
fiology ; or an aitempt to Explain the Func- 
tions and Laws of the Nervous Sy/tem,” 
&c. &c. &c. by Dr. Peart. The dif- 
gut which is occafioned by the felf-con- 
ceit of the Doéter, is only equalled by 
that which every man muit feel, at the 
contempt with which the moft rational 
and ingenious theories, on a varity of 
philofophical fubjeéts, are treated. When 
we hear a writer dogmatically affert, 
‘that the chemical doétrines of M, La- 
Voifier, and the eleétrical theory or Dr. 
Fanklin, are abfurd principles ; and that 
he has proved thefe erroneous, by fuch ar- 
guments as he ‘* does not for a moment 
hefitate to affert, are abiolutely conclu- 
five ;°’ we rifk but little in calling him 2 
coxcomb. The efpecial object of Mr. 
SAUMAREZ, inhis “ New Sy/tem of Plifio- 
lozy,” is, as he informs us in his preface, 
<< to explore the nature of the principle of 
life, and affert its pewer,—to inveitigate 
the attributes of organizd lite, as the im- 
ftrument by means of which the phene- 
ment 
