Conftructive. A happy mixture of the feveral forts gives an agreeable variety and they ferve mutually to recommend and fet off one another.' The Bishop, having before mentioned that there appeared to be two forts of Hebrew verfes, differing from one another in regard to their length, proceeds to explain the nature, and point out the marks of the longer kind, which, though they admit of every fort of Parallelifm, yet belong for the most part to the class of conftructive Parallels. This diftinction, fays he, of Hebrew Verfes into Longer and Shorter, is founded on the authority of the Alphabetical Poems; one third of the whole number of which are manifeftly of the Longer fort of verfe; the rest of the Shorter. I do not prefame exactly to define by the number of Syllables, fuppofing we could with fome probability determine it, the limit that feparates one fort of verse from the other; fo that every verse exceeding or falling fhort of that number should be always accounted a long or a fhort verfe: all that I affirm is this; that One of the Three Poems Perfectly Alphabetical, and therefore infallibly divided into its verfes; and Three of the Nine other Alphabetical Poems, divided into their verfes, after the manner of the Perfectly Alphabetical, with the greatest degree of probability; that these Four Poems, being the Four firft Lamentations of Jeremiah, fall into verfes about one-third longer, taking them one with another, than thofe of the other Eight Alphabetical Poems. I fhall firft give an example of thefe long verfes from a Poem Perfectly Alphabetical, in which therefore the limits of the verfes are unerringly defined: "I am the man that hath feen affliction, by the rod of his anger: He hath led me, and made me walk, in darkness, not in light: "Even again turneth he his hand againft me, all the day long. "He hath made old my flesh and my skin, he hath broken my "" bones: "He hath built against me, and hath compaffed me, with gall " and travail : "He hath made me dwell in dark places, as the dead of old." Lament. iii. 1—6. The following is from the firft Lamentation; in which the Stanzas are defined by Initial Letters, and are, like the former, of three lines; "How doth the city folitary fit, fhe that was full of people! "How is the become a widow, that was great among the nations! "Princess among the Provinces, how is the become tributary! "She weepeth fore in the night, and her tear is upon her cheek: "She hath none to comfort her, among all her lovers: "All her friends have betrayed her, they became her enemies." Lament. i. 1, 2. 'I fhall now give examples of the fame fort of verfe, where the limits of the verfes are to be collected only from the Poetical ConAruction of the fentences: and first from the books acknowledged on all hands to be Poetical; and of thefe we must have recourfe to the Pfalms only; for, I believe, there is not a fingle inftance of this Q3 fort fort of verfe to be found in the Poem of Job; and scarce any in the Proverbs of Solomon. "The law of Jehovah is perfect, reftoring the foul; The commandment of Jehovah is clear, enlightening the eyes : More defirable than gold, and than much fine gold; "And fweeter than honey, and the dropping of honey-combs." Pf. xix. 7-10. That our fons may be like plants, growing up in their youth; "Our ftore houfes full, producing all kinds of provifion; "And no outcry in our streets." "O! how great is thy goodness, which thou haft treasured up, for "them that fear thee; "Which thou haft wrought for them that trust in thee, before the "fons of men ! "Thou wilt hide them in the fecret place of thy prefence, from "Thou wilt keep them fafe in the tabernacle, from the ftrife of "A found of a multitude in the mountains, as of many people; Jehovah God of hosts muftereth the hoft for the battle. They come from a diftant land, from the end of heaven; Jehovah and the inftruments of his wrath, to deftroy the whole "land." Ifaiah xiii. 4, 5. "They are turned backward, they are utterly confounded, who truft in the graven image; "Whò fay unto the molten image, ye are our gods!" Ifaiah xlii. 17. "They are ashamed, they are even confounded, his adverfaries, "all of them ; "Together they retire in confufion, the fabricators of images : Thefe examples, all except the two firft, are of long verfes thrown in, irregularly, but with defign, between verses of another fort; among which they ftand out, as it were, fomewhat diftinguished in regard to their matter, as well as their form.' Our difcerning Critic thinks that he perceives fome peculia rities in the caft and ftructure of these verses, which mark them, and diftinguish them from those of the other fort. The clofing paule pause of each line is generally very full and strong and in each line commonly, toward the end, at least beyond the middle of it, there is a small reft, or interval, depending on the sense and grammatical construction, which may be called a half pause. The Conjunction, Vau, adds Dr. Lowth, the common particle of connection, which abounds in the Hebrew language, and is very often used without any neceffity at all, feems to be frequently and ftudiously omitted at the Half-paufe: the remaining claufe being added, to use a grammatical term, by Appofition to fome word preceding; or coming in as an adjunct, or circumftance depending on the former part, and completing the Sentence. This gives a certain air to thefe verfes, which may be esteemed in fome fort as characteristic of the kind. The firft Four Lamentations are Four diftin&t Poems confifting uniformly and entirely of the Long Verfe, which may therefore be properly called the Elegiac Verfe; from thofe Elegies, which give the plainest and the moft undoubted examples of it. There may perhaps be found many other very probable examples in the fame kind but this is what I cannot pretend to determine with any certainty. Such, I think, are the forty-fecond and forty-third Pfalms; which I imagine make one entire Poem, and ought not to have been divided into two Pfalms: the lines are all of the Longer kind, except the third line of the Intercalary Stanza three times inferted; which third line, like that at the clofe of an example given above from the hundred and forty-fourth Pfalm, is of the Shorter kind of verfe; fomewhat like the Parcemiac verfe of the Greeks, which commonly makes the close of a set of Anapæftic verfes. Such likewife may perhaps be the hundred and firft Pfalm; which feems to confift of fourteen long verses, or seven Diftichs." The fublime ode of Isaiah in the fourteenth chapter is all of the fame fort of verfe, excepting, perhaps, a verfe or two towards the end and the prophecy against Senacherib, in the thirty-feventh chapter, as far as it is addreffed to Senacherib himfelf. With the following modeft and judicious reflections of our Author we shall close the prefent Article: I venture to fubmit to the judgment of the candid Reader the preceding obfervations, upon a fubject, which hardly admits of proof and certainty; which is rather a matter of opinion and of taste, than of fcience: efpecially in the latter part; which endea vours to establish, and to point out, the difference of two forts of verfe, the Longer and the Shorter. For though the Third Lamentation of Jeremiah gives a clear and indubitable example of the Elegiac or Long Verfe, and the two Pfalms Perfectly Alphabetical of the Shorter; yet the whole art of Hebrew Verfification, except only what appears in the Conftruction of the Sentences, being totally lott, it is not easy to try by them other paffages of verfe, fo as to draw any certain conclufion in all cafes, whether they are of the fame .kind, or not. And that, for this among other reafons; becaufe what I call the Half-pause, which I think prevails for the most part in the Longer verfes, is fometimes fo ftrong and fo full in the middle 24 of of the line, that it feems natural'y to refolve it into a diftich of two Short verses. I readily therefore acknowledge, that in fettling the diftribution of the lines, or verfes, in the following Tranflation, I have had frequent doubts, and particularly in determining the Long and Short Verfes. I am ftill uncertain in regard to many places, whether two lines ought not to be joined to make one, or one line divided into two. But whatever doubts may remain concerning particulars, yet upon the whole, I fhould hope, that the method of diftribution, here propofed, of Sentences into Stanzas and Verfes in the Poetical Books of Scripture, will appear to have fome foundation, and even to carry with it a confiderable degree of probability. Though no complete Syftem of Rules concerning this matter can perhaps be formed, which will hold good in every particular; yet this way of confidering the subject may have its ufe, in furnishing a principle of Interpretation of fome confequence, in giving a general idea of the flyle and character of the Hebrew Poetry, and in fhewing the clofe conformity of ftyle and character between great part of the Prophetical writings, and the other books of the Old Teftament, univerfally acknowledged to be Poetical.' (To be continued.) ART. IX. An Account of the Scarlet Fever and Sore Throat, or Scarlatina Anginofa; particularly as it appeared at Birmingham in the Year 1778. By William Withering, M. D. 8vo. I s. 6 d. 1779. THE Cadell. THE notice of a rare, and formidable, though not abfolutely new, difeafe cannot too foon be communicated to the Public; efpecially when there is reafon to apprehend that it may be mistaken for another, resembling it in some striking particulars, though of a very different nature, and requiring an oppofite mode of treatment. It is owing to mere accident that we did not laft Month fecond Dr. Withering's views in the publication of this pamphlet, by communicating to our medical Readers a part of the interefting information contained in it. The diftemper, which is the fubject of this performance, appeared at Birmingham, and its neighbourhood, during the last fummer and the fucceeding autumn; and resembled the disease known by the name of the Scarlet Fever, as defcribed by medical authors: but it betrayed a degree of malignity not obferved in the fcarlet fever defcribed by Sydenham, who recommended little more than a fimple regimen of diet to combat this disease, and even doubted whether it deferved the name of a difeafe. In its fimple ftate, fays Dr. W. it is not a very uncommon difcafe in England; but its combination with a fore throat, thè violence of its attack, and the train of fatal fymptoms that follow, are circumftances hitherto unnoticed by English writers: though Sennertus, and fome other foreign phyficians, particularly Navier and Plenciz, have defcribed a malignant scarlet fever, fever, which correfponded, in feveral particulars, with the diftemper which is the fubject of the prefent publication. The danger of mistaking this disease for the ulcerated or putrid fore throat, induces us to abridge the Author's judicious defcription of its mode of attack, and of its fubfequent fymptoms, in the order in which they occur. The more usual and milder fpecies of this disorder commences with a flight foreness or rather ftiffness in the throat, which is fucceeded by alternate chilly and hot fits. On the next day the foreness in the throat increases, and the patients find a difficulty in fwallowing, which feems chiefly to proceed from a difficulty of putting the neceffary mufcles into action. A fickness comes on, attended with fhortness of breath, a dry burning heat, and frequent pricking pains in the fkin. In the morning of the third day, the face, neck, and breaft appear redder than usual; and in a few hours this redness becomes univerfal, and increases to fuch a degree of intenfity, that the face, body, and limbs, refemble a boiled lobster in colour, and are evidently fwollen.-The skin is fmooth to the touch, nor is there the leaft appearance of pimples or puftules. The eyes and noftrils partake more or lefs of the general redness; and in proportion to the intenfity of this colour in the eyes, the tendency to delirium prevails.'The pulfe is quick, fmail, and uncommonly feeble. The alvine discharge is regular; and the urine, though fmall in quantity, scarce appears to differ from that of a perfon in health. At the end of two or three days more the intenfe fcarlet colour begins to abate, and the skin peels off in fmall branny fcales. The tumefaction fubfides, and the patient gradually recovers his ftrength and appetite. During the continuance of the fever the tongue is more or lefs covered with a yellowish brown mucus. The velum pendulum palati, the uvula, the tonfils, and the gullet as far as it is visible, partake of the general rednefs and tumefaction: but though the Author never faw any real ulceration in these parts, yet collections of a thick mucus are fometimes obferved on the back of the oefophagus, which greatly resemble the fpecks or floughs in the putrid fore throat, but which may be washed off with a gargle. In autumn, however, the tonfils were fometimes covered with whitish floughs; on the feparation of which they appeared raw, as if divefted of their outer membrane. In the moft malignant or fatal fpecies of this difcafe, in children, a delirium commenced within a few hours after the invafion. The fcarlet colour appeared on the first or second day, and they died very early on the third. In adults, the difeafe became fatal upon the fourth or fifth day, especially if a purging fupervened: but fome fur I vived |
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