the fake of whofe memory, and the benefit of his furviving family, we moft heartily wish that this " Dramatic Foundling' had been reared with more care, and nurfed with more tendernefs. After having difmiffed the above article, and fent the copy to the prefs, a very melancholy and most affecting occafion induces us to make a small addition to it, in order to pay a fincere, though very unequal tribute, to the memory of one of the most diftinguifhed, as well as moft worthy, characters of our own time. The Reader, we dare fay, anticipates us with the name of DAVID GARRICK, who long flourished an honour to the ftage, to letters, and his country. His talents, though great and various, were even furpaffed by his good qualities; and as we, among many others, long enjoyed the happiness of his acquaintance, we cannot fupprefs the firft emotions of regret on his lofs.-His peculiar felicity in writing Prologues and Epilogues, has long been felt and acknowledged; and this talent, though one of his fmaller excellencies, calls upon us to introduce his eminent name into this article. His refpect for the memory of the deceased Author, of whom he was for many reasons the intimate acquaintance, urged him to feize the opportunity of fhewing his regard to the literary remains of his friend. He accordingly wrote the Prologue and Epilogue to the Fathers; and we are touched with the deepest forrow when we reflect, that they are the last pieces of the kind, which the world will ever receive from his pen. Before the appearance of this pofthumous play, a malevolent report was circulated, that Mr. Garrick had communicated the principal incidents to the author of the Jealous Wife, who had worked them up into that comedy. Thofe, who were acquainted with Mr. Garrick, knew him to be incapable of fuch treachery, and the work itself sufficiently refutes fo fcandalous an accufation. Mr. Garrick's Prologue to the Fathers is as follows: But who the Author? need I name the wit ? Suppofe Suppose these characters, various as they are, If fuch are Chriftian teachers, who'll revere 'em-- Yet, like black 'Thello, I'd bear fcorns and whips, T'exult this play-may it decrease in favour; Squire Western, reeling, with October mellow, Tall, yo!-Boys!-Yoax-Criticks! hunt the fellow! To your kind care—what the dead wills obey; O then refpect the FATHER's fond bequest, And make his widow fmile, his spirit reft. After reading the above, the various characters represented by Garrick, will probably rife in imagination before the Reader, bearing the ftrongeft teftimony of his tranfcendent powers, and exciting the keeneft forrow for his lofs. ART. ART. XIII. Cafes and Obfervations on the Hydrophobia. By J. Vaughan, M. D. To which is annexed, An Account of the Cæfarian Section; with Reflexions on dividing the Symphyfis of the Offa Pubis. The fecond Edition. 8vo. 3s. 6d. Cadell, 1778. DR R. Vaughan's cafes of the Hydrophobia, and of the Cæfarian Section, were noticed by us in their former edition*. The reflexions on the divifion of the Offa Pubis, which are added to the prefent publication, were communicated by Dr. Hunter, and are extremely well deferving of the public attention. This very refpectable writer premifes his remarks on the operation in queftion, with the following general observations, which, we think, are of no fmall importance in the fyftem of what might be termed medical jurifprudence. Men of humanity, as well as of a reafoning faculty, need not be told, that in defperate cafes, our judgment and practice are not to be regulated merely by the chances with respect to life. The fufferings of the patient, both in body and mind, fhould be fairly put into the fcale, against the better chance for life. In fuch a trial, I have feen a patient pay a much higher price, in fufferings, than the little chance of faving life was worth. Thefe reflexions fhould be especially in our mind, when we are to give an opinion in any cafe of the Cæfarian Section, or of cutting the Symphyfis of the Offa Pubis. And, in calculating the chances of a life to be faved, we fhould take care to make a juft eftimate of the life itself. Thus, in more advanced age, the value of it is lefs in proportion; it is lefs too, in proportion as it is to be attended with pains or infirmities, or with whatever will diminish or deftroy the enjoyments of life. Existence is fo nearly equal to nothing, that its real value must arife from its connection with fome kind of enjoyment; and where, upon the whole, there is none, life is either worth nothing, or a pofitive evil. The value of life rifes likewife in proportion to the defire of life, and the dread of death. The life of the mother is, for that reafon, almoft of an incomparably greater value than that of an unborn child'; a being which, we may suppose, has no enjoyment, and has neither a defire to live, nor fear to die. This appears to be reafonable; and experience fhews it to be the dictate of nature, as well as common fenfe. I have lived thirty-nine years in one of the largest cities in the world, and, for the greater part of that time, in a very active ftation; so that numbers of dangerous cafes muft have come within my knowledge, and these among all ranks of mankind; yet I never, in any inftance whatever, knew the life of a child put into any * Vid. Monthly Review for May 1778. Art. II, fort fort of competition with that of the mother, by the husband' or any other perfon.' In conformity to thefe rational and truly humane principles, Dr. Hunter proceeds briefly to difcufs, with the greatest candour, the merits of the propofed operation. He confiders, firft, Its fuppofed advantages as a fubftitute for the Cæfarian operation; that is, with a view of faving the mother or child when otherwise both must be loft;' and, fecondly, How far it may be adviseable in fome very difficult labours, with the view of faving the child.' The moft material objection with respect to the first of these confiderations, and a very important one, indeed, it is, is that the room gained by flitting the Symphysis of the Pubis will not, in many cafes, allow the child's head to pafs; confequently it cannot be a fubftitute for the Cæfarian operation. This fact Dr. Hunter fatisfactorily proves, by the view of three different pelves of fubjects on whom the Cæfarian operation was performed, in none of which the allowance of two inches and a half more (the space gained by the feparation of the Pubis) would give the fpace which the French authors themselves require for the passage of a living child. As to the second confideration, that of faving the child in cafes which otherwise would require opening the head, the Dr. thinks it too fevere a duty to exact from the fex, that they should fubmit to a hazardous and painful operation for the probable chance of faving an infant, whofe life ought not to be put in competition with the mother's happiness and fafety. And in this determination, we are perfuaded the greatest part of our readers will heartily join. He concludes with acknowledging, that the new operation may in a very few cafes, be a much better refource than the Cæfarian fection; not for faving the child, but the mother. These cafes will be those in which the narrowness of the Pelvis does not admit the application of the crotchet; but where the room gained by the feparation of the Offa Pubis might be fufficient to bring the child within reach of this inftrument. ART. XIV. A Radical and expeditious Cure for a recent Catarrhous Cough. Preceded by fome Obfervations on Refpiration; with occafional and practical Remarks on fome other Difeafes of the Lungs. To which is added, a Chapter on the Vis Vitæ, so far as it is concerned in preferving and reinftating the Health of an Animal. Accompanied with fome Strictures on the Treatment of Compound Fractures. By John Mudge, F. R. S. Surgeon at Ply-mouth. 12mo. 38. fewed. Walter. 1778. THE HE variety of fubjects contained in this fmall volume, and the curfory manner in which, of confequence, they are treated, preclude the attempt to give an exact analysis of its contents contents; and as the theoretical and doctrinal parts, though ingenious, are not, in general, new, we fhall confine ourfelves to an account of the moft important of the practical obser vations. In a digreffion concerning the fault of giving medicines in trifling and inefficacious dofes, the Author related a very fingular cafe of the catalepfy; which, after the unfuccefsful exhibition of a variety of nervous medicines, and, in particular, of valerian, to the quantity of half a dram of the powder in a dose, was entirely cured by the fame drug, in doses of half an ounce in fubftance twice a day. The medicine was continued till feven pounds had been taken. A fimilar fpirited mode of practice cured the Author himfelf, in a hectic, attended with very formidable confumptive fymptoms, on his fubmitting to the application of a large cauftic between his fhoulders; which made an iffue capable of containing between forty and fifty peas. In fpittings of blood, he fays, he knows by long experience, that there is not a more efficacious remedy, than half a dram of nitre, taken two or three times a day, in a glass of water. Mr. Mudge, at length, proceeds to a remedy for a catarrhous cough, which is the main fubject of this publication. He says he was led to it, by a perfuafion that this disease took its rife from an inflammatory affection of the pituitary lining of the trachea, and its branches; and was, confequently, to be removed by diminishing the irritability, and difcuffing the inflammation of the affected part. Thefe intentions, he fupposed, would be completely answered by opium and the steams of warm water; and in the invention of a convenient and effectual machine for adminiftering the latter, does the whole of the discovery confift. This machine, termed an inhaler, is fo contrived, that the air drawn through a tube in refpiration, paffes firft through a body of hot water, and thus comes to the lungs loaded with warm vapour. The fame air, when expelled in expiration, paffes back through the tube, and thence through a valve, when by proper management, it may be distributed over the furface of the body, and thus act as a vapour bath. The Author's directions for this procefs are as follows. In the evening, a little before bed-time, the patient, if of adult age, is to take three drachms, or as many tea-fpoonfuls, of elixir paregoricum, in a glafs of water: if the fubject is younger, for inftance, under five years old, one tea-spoonful; or, within that and ten years, two. About three quarters of an hour after, the patient fhould go to bed, and being covered warm, the inhaler, three parts filled with water, nearly boiling, and being wrapped up in a napkin, but fo that the valve in the cover is not obftructed by it, is to be placed at the armpit, and the bed 3 cloaths |