Great part of the Savoy having been lately burned down, the prifoners are crowded into two rooms. This place is in a miferable condition; and the diftressful fituation of the prifoners occafions many deaths in the year. Westminster prifon is in a

condition very little fuperior.

In Tothill-Fields Bridewell, no bedding, no infirmary, no employment. A room, which the late worthy keeper used as a chapel, is now converted into a place of rendezvous, which the men and women steal over to at night, from their respective apartments, for the purpofes of debauchery.

In the King's-Bench and Marshalfea prifons liquors are fold in the fame manner as before the act of 24th of Geo. III. Within the Marthalfea there is an alehouse, which is frequently the scene of drunkenness and riot.

We shall now offer a concife account of the hofpitals in this great city. The many noble charities which prefent themselves every where to our view, we cannot but confider with fenfible fatisfaction, as so many undoubted proofs of the zeal and humanity of our countrymen; yet, when we turn our eyes upon the many bad contrivances and unaccountable overfights which disappoint thefe benevolent purposes, we acknowledge and lament the infirmity of all human schemes, which are often magnificent in defign, but in execution imbecile or abortive.

The author begins with the London Hofpital in Whitechapel road. In this generous inftitution patients are admitted without fee or reward to nurfes, or any fecurity for the expence of burial or removal. All accidental cafes, whether recommended or not, are received at any hour of the day or night. Here is a large chapel, in which divine fervice is performed twice every Sunday, and prayers read three days in the week. But the paffages are dark, there are no cifterns for water, medical and chirurgical patients are lodged together, and the house has not been whitewashed for fome years. The committee are, however, exerting themselves, and making improvements in this hofpital.

St. Bartholomew's hofpital is, in general, commended by our author. The wards being double have not the advantage of oppofite windows; but they are clean, and not offenfive. The ftaircases are wide, and the landing-places fpacious. Mr. Howard, in a long note to this page, gives us an account of Chrift's Hofpital, which adjoins to Bartholomew's, and does great justice to this noble and extensive foundation.

Middlesex Hospital, fupported by voluntary contributions, poffeffing but very low funds, has an air of great poverty and wretchednefs. Among the printed orders there is one which Mr. Howard very properly condemns, that all drugs, medicines,

materials,

materials, and neceffaries, be bought of thofe perfons who • will furnish them at the cheapest rate; and that the preference be given to tradesmen who are subscribers.'

The author very much approves of St. Thomas's hofpital in Southwark, and particularly notices an excellent order, which we fhall present to the reader, with Mr. Howard's comment upon it:

That if any furgeon have any confiderable or extraordinary operation to perform, he fhall give notice of the time of his doing the fame to the other furgeons, that they may be prefent' But I fearched in vain to find (what I have often wifhed were a standing order in all hofpitals) that no amputation fhould ever take place till after a confultation of three medical gentlemen, who fhall be of unanimous opinion that it is abfolutely neceffary, and that there is no probability of effecting a cure without the use of the knife and faw.'

Guy's Hofpital, in Southwark, was founded and endowed at the fole expence of Thomas Guy, a private citizen of London, and erected during his life-time. The plan and conduct of this hofpital appear to have met the ideas of the author above any

that had hitherto fallen under his confideration. theless open to fome exceptions.

It is never

The Westminster Hofpital in St. James's-Strect, and St. George's Hofpital at Hyde-Park-Corner, are liable to many objections. Both are offenfive and dirty, and the beds are parallel and close to the walls, with wooden tefters. Bedding is an article on which Mr. Howard particularly infifts, and which he complains is generally but ill attended to throughout all the receptacles for the fick and the criminal in this metropolis.

He bestows much praife on the Lock Hofpital, near HydePark-Corner, intended for the relief of venereal patients only; and exhibits the arguments in defence of the institution in a note, which we cannot forbear extracting:

A prejudice prevailing in the minds of many people against fuch hofpitals will, I hope, be my excufe for copying the introduction to the Abftract of the Rules and Orders.

The difeafe which entitles the objects of this hofpital to relief, is in itself extremely loathfome, and direful in its effects; and the unhappy fufferers, if poverty be their companion, are doubtless involved in the most deplorable wretchedness.

Many a worthy woman has here to lament the diabolical profligacy of an abandoned husband. Many a poor and helpless infant to deplore its being the offspring of a diftempered parent. Many a young creature of tender years, yea, even in infancy itself, has to bewail the inhuman violence of a diseased, filthy, and loathsome ravisher. Others who have been led away by the arts and wiles of

feducers,

feducers, by promifes made only to be broken, and fair words meant only to deceive. And, laftly, many who have inadvertently fought their own ruin, have also been cured in this hofpital; fuch, many fuch, but for this houfe, had rotted and perished miferably. Some of thefe, whofe lives have happily been preferved, have kiffed the rod of affliction; by the bleffing of God have turned from their iniquity, and been happily reftored to their family, their country, and themfelves.

Therefore their having brought on themfelves the disease by their own fin and folly is no reason why they should be left to perifh. A life loft to the public, from whatever caufe, is ftill a lofs. If we fpeak of the matter in a Chriftian view, how dare any, who profess to know the grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift, make this an objection? Suppofe the Redeemer had urged fuch a plea against becoming poor for our fakes; fuppofe he had faid of us, • Leave thofe finners to to the confequences of their fin and folly; they are miserable, guilty, loft and undone, but it was their own fault; let them perish eternally; let the law take its vengeance on them; I'll not become poor for their fakes, to fave them from its curfe, for they do not deferve that I should.' Had this been the language of our Lord, where had we now been? We should not now be partaking of his mercies, but feeling his righteous vengeance; not invited to an opportunity of fhewing pity and compaffion to others, but ourfelves in torment, crying in vain for a drop of water to cool our tongues.

And though this charity gives encouragement to repentance, by giving the most profligate one fair opportunity to reflect and amend their lives, yet it deftroys all incitement to prefumption, by affording no repetition of its countenance and favour, to the hardened and impenitent; for it is a fixed, determinate, fundamental rule of the charity, that no perfon whatsoever, if once difcharged, is ever to be admitted a fecond time. And all the patients have a paper of rules and directions delivered to them at their admiffion, at the bottom of which ftand thefe words:

N. B. Having been once cured, or discharged for any other cause out of this hofpital, you never can be admitted again.'

Therefore the language of this inftitution is, like that of our bleffed Lord, Go, and fin no more;' and, like him, it adds, left a worfe thing happen unto thee.'

[To be continued. ]

ART.

ART. VII. Advice to the Female Sex in general, particularly thofe in a State of Pregnancy and Lying-in; the Complaints incident to their respective Situations are Jpecified, and Treatment recommended, agreeable to modern Practice. The Refult of Obfervation and Experience. To which is added an Appendix, containing fome Directions relative to the Management of Children in the firft Part of Life. By John Grigg, Practitioner in Midwifery, Surgeo to the Pauper Charity in Bath, and late of his Majesty's Navy. 8vo. 3s. 6d. boards. Hazard, Bath; Robinions, London, 1789.

MANY

ANY books of medical advice have been addressed to the female fex; among which one of the moft confpicuous is that of Dr. Leake, which has already undergone feveral editions. The present author differs from his predeceffor in the execution, and apparently likewife in the defign of the work. For though we might infer from its title that it was calculated exclufively for the use of women, yet the manner in which it is conducted leaves no room to doubt that Mr. Grigg was defirous of introducing it to medical readers; and indeed not without fome juft pretenfions to their notice. We cannot fay that we meet with any thing new in the treatife; but the observations it contains have been confirmed by experience; and it is digefted into a general fyftem of the difeafes peculiar to the female fex. Of such a work it will be fufficient for us to give a fpecimen; for which purpose we shall take the chapter on the affections of the breafts in confequence of conception, not only as being the shorteft in the volume, but as directing the use of the nipple-machine, when the application of it is neceffary:

In confequence of conception, a more than ordinary connexion takes place between the uterus and breasts; the latter are gradually enlarged, the circle furrounding each nipple appears broader, of a darker colour than ufual, attended, in fome perfons, with a particular irritation about those parts, which increase in fize, and look redder than before; flight fhooting pains are felt throughout, with uneafiness in the arm-pits, and a fecretion of a milky fluid. When the above symptoms are attended at certain intervals with flight fhiverings, fucceeded by increased heat, nothing proves fo efficacious as lofing a little blood, gentle laxative medicines, fomentations of warm milk and water, and immediately after, anointing the parts with camphorated oil, covering them with flannel, and fufpending them in foft linen cloths from the fhoulders.

• Wearing the ftays tight over the breafts, is a practice at all times injurious, particularly in a pregnant ftate; for, by depriving them of their proper freedom, their natural fhape and proportion are lost, they become flattened by the long and continued compreffion, and ENG. REV. VOL. XIV, SEPT. 1789.

are

are often rendered incapable of performing the office intended them by nature; the nipples fink, fo that they are not without difficulty drawn out to their natural fize; and fometimes this cannot be done at all.

• Whoever confiders the structure of the cheft, which contains the heart and those important organs of refpiration called the lungs, and how this cavity requires to be enlarged and diminished, fees plainly that, whenever this motion is reftrained, which it must be to a confiderable degree by tight lacing the ftays, the conftant flow of air into the lungs, and its reflux into the atmofphere, is greatly obftructed, and the constitution itself eventually injured. Likewife if preffure from the stays is applied to the lower part of the trunk of the body, the womb is prevented from afcending, and either a miscarriage is the unhappy confequence, or the belly becomes pendulous; a circumftance which is not only very troublesome, but has a great fhare in producing difficult labour, and many inconveniencies, as well before as after it. This increafed bulk anteriorly, fo commonly met with among the inferior clafs of women, is generally owing to the above practice, or to their wearing hard stays, rendered heavy by their weight and large pockets affixed, &c. and many of them have still a very mistaken notion, that the lower the burden they carry is preffed downwards, the lefs difficult will their labour be. It requires no great fhare of reasoning power to confute fo dangerous an opinion.

The body should therefore enjoy perfect eafe and freedom with refpect to drefs, that nothing, either by its weight or preffure, may give uneafinefs or painful fenfation.

The nipples are fometimes fore and inflamed at this early period of geftation; and, as inflammation is apt to be extended from them to the breaft itself, timely recourfe fhould be had to fuch means as may prevent this effect. A tincture of the buds of the tacamahac tree in brandy, has been fuccefsfully used. The brine of falted meat proves generally too irritating, especially when the heat is confiderable, and the nipples chapped; in this cafe, washing them with a weak folution of fugar of lead and honey of rofes will be found more ferviceable. When they are funk into the breaft, an attempt fhould be made to draw them out, otherwife it will be difficult, and perhaps impracticable, for the mother, however defirous fhe may be, to give fuck; for this purpose a variety of glaffes have been invented and applied; but that which is to be preferred to all other means is the elaftic nipple-machine, which may be used by the perfon herself in the following manner:

Prefs the air out of the bag, without removing the compreffion. then place the glafs cap, which is affixed to it, upon the breaft, fo as that it may receive the nipple; upon taking off the preffure, fo great a fuction is produced (provided the elaftic is equally round) as draws out the nipple by degrees till it affumes its proper fize. The machine, if properly applied, firmly adheres to the breaft, where it may remain about the fpace of a minute (a very fmall degree of preffure on the bag will difengage it), and the ufe of it may be repeated difcretionally. Before it is ufed, a little warm water should

be