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Thefe ocular proofs of their fuccefs in war are agreeable enough to unpolished times: fuch was the age of Saul, when he required fome unequivocal marks of David having deftroyed an hundred Philiftines, or at leaft heathens, and that they fhould be brought before him, 1 Sam. xviii. 25, 27. But it is fomewhat aftonishing to find fomething of the like fort lately practifed in fo polite a country as Perfia; yet the MS. C. affures us, that in the "war of the Perfians against the Yuzbecs, the Perfians took the beards (of their enemies) and carried them to the king." Strange cuftom to be retained!'

From thefe obfervations, indifcriminately extracted, the reader will perceive, that commentators have not extended their enquiries far enough, when they have examined a text with grammatical nicety; but that it is abfolutely necessary to pay a particular attention to the cuftoms of the East *.

In this view, the work before us will be of great utility. It is compiled with accuracy and judgement; and contains illuftrations of feven or eight hundred paffages in the Old and New Testament. The author is Mr. Harmer, who published, in 1768, another work, entitled the Outlines of a New Commentary on Solomon Song †.

VII. Elements of the Practice of Midwifery. By Alexander Hamilton, Surgeon. 8vo. 45. 3d. Murray.

THIS work, the author informs us, is conducted upon the fame plan which he pursues in the course of his lectures on midwifery. He juftly observes, that nothing is more conducive to the proper method of teaching an art than to confider its principal obje, as well as its immediate relations to thofe that are most intimately connected with it; by which means a distinction can be made between fuch parts as ought chiefly to employ the attention, and others, which would rather embarrass than affift our researches.

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Mr. Hamilton divides the objects of obstetrical practice into two diftinct heads, viz. the operation of delivery, with every thing relative to it, and the ftate of the woman after parturition. The first of thefe divifions is particularly the fubject of the present work, and is treated with great precision and accuracy,

The following is an abstract of the plan on which these ele. ments are written. A minute anatomical defcription of the pelvis is premifed; which is fucceeded by that of the foetal

See fome farther remarks on the first edition in the Crit. Rev. vol. xix. p. 105.

+ See Crit. Rev. vol. xxv. p. 252.

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head and body, and next by general obfervations. The fe male organs of generation are then delineated, together with an account of the menfes, the different theories of conception, and all the various confiderations comprehended under the fyftem of uterine pathology. Afterwards is recited the hiftory and management of labours, diftinguifhed into three claffes, namely, natural, difficult, and preternatural. The author next treats of a plurality of children, monsters, and the Cafarian operation; to the whole fubjoining practical remarks and directions.

We shall lay before our readers the author's concife account of the theory of conception.

Nor is the theory of conception lefs dark and obfcure, than the caufe of the menftrual flux; for, as to the manner in which conception is effected, both ancients and moderns have been divided in their opinions; and though various hypothefes have in confequence been formed, we yet feem to know very little of the matter.

The different hypothefes on the fubject of generation may be reduced,

I. To thofe who think, that the rudiments of the fetus are contained in the mother.

II. To thofe who are of opinion, that they exift in the male. III. To thofe who imagine the fetus refalts from an union of both.

Of the firft, fome are of opinion, that the ova are impreg nated in the ovaria; others, that the femen mafculinum never enters into the tubæ Fallopianæ, but meets the ovum in the uterus, where it is conducted by the tube, during the orgasmus ve

nereus.

• Those who are of opinion, that the rudiments of the fœtus éxift in the male, alfo differ as to the manner in which this happens. And, from the difcovery of animalcula in femine maf. culino, by Leewenhock's glaffes, a new theory was adopted, which is not yet entirely exploded. By this theory, the ani malculum was fuppofed to be the entire fœtus, and the female ovum, only a matrix to afford a pabulum for the embryo.

• Moft of the ancients imagined, that generation refulted from a mixture of the male and female femen; and fome, aś Ariftotle, &c. entertained ftrange notions of a mixture of the male femen with the menftrual blood.

Amongst the moderns, Monfieur Buffon has a very fingular opinion he thinks, that both male and female contribute their fhare of feminal fluid: that corps organiques vivantes move through all the veffels of the body, and are ftrained off by the teftes of the one, and ovaria of the other that conception Lakes place in the cavity of the uterus, by a mixture of both feeds for he denies, that there are ova in the ovaria; he ima gines, that the female femen generally contains fewer organical

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parts than the male, but that a boy or girl may be produced, according as the one or the other prevails.

But thefe hypothefes, however apparently fpecious, are equally expofed to difficulties and objections, and neither of them can fufficiently account for a phænomenon, the investigation of which has in vain exercifed the talents of the ableft phyfiologifts; and which, even after the ultimate knowledge we are capable of attaining, in this limited and imperfect ftate, will perhaps ever remain inexplicable.

• Whether the rudiments of the fatus originally exift in the male, or in the female, or in both, it is certain, there can be no impregnation but by the mutual concurrence of the generative faculties of both fexes; and impregnation is fuppofed to be produced in this manner.

By the orgafmus venereas, and injection of the male feed, all the uturine appendages are put in motion, and the Fallopian tubes become turgid and erect, so that their fimbriæ grafp the ovaria and feparate one of the ova from it; which the male feed, probably by afcending through the tubes, there impregnates, and the impregnated ovum is conducted by the tube into the uterus, to become the rudiments of the future fœtus.

The femen is certainly conveyed into the uterus in coition : it has been seen in the uterus of different animals diffected immediately poft coitum : it is also probable, that the feed reaches further, and penetrates the tubes as far as the ovaria. This is proved from inftances of extra uterine conceptions already referred to; but that there are ova in the ovaria, feems very doubtful; for nothing is to be feen coming from them, but a mere watery fluid.'

Mr. Hamilton acquaints us, in the introduction, that he proposed to treat of the management of lying in women, and of new-born children, in a fecond volume, till fome late pub lications on the fubject had anticipated the defign; but that the reception which the prefent treatise fhall meet with, and the fentiments of the public respecting it, will ultimately determine his future refolution. We entertain not the leaft doubt that these Elements will be favourably received; and medical practitioners can never fail of deriving fatisfaction from the obfervations of a judicious author, efpecially respecting the cure of diseases concerning which fuch different ideas have been maintained,. as thofe of the puerperal state.

IX. A Treatise on the Nervous Sciatica, or Nervous Hip Gout. By Dominicus Cotunnius. 8.00. 35. Wilkie.

THE

HE obfervations contained in this treatise were made in the Hospital of Incurables at Naples, where the author's practice appears to have been remarkably extensive and fucVOL. XL. Jan. 1776.

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cessful in the cure of the fciatica, This obftinate disorder has hitherto in great measure baffled the utmost efforts of medical ingenuity; and therefore to point out a method of eradicating, or even alleviating the complaint, confirmed by repeated experience, ought to prove deeply interefting to all thofe, whose immediate province it is to afford relief in the bodily diftreffes of mankind.

The author obferves, that the species of the fciatica are various, according to the different parts in which the pain has fixed its refidence. Of thofe, however, he confiders two as particularly deferving attention. One is, where the pain is felt in the hip, and extends no further; the other, where it runs along, as it were, in a track, and is propagated down to the foot, on the fame fide. The former he diftinguishes by the name of the arthritic fciatica, and the latter by that of the nervous; the last of which only is at prefent the object of confideration.

Dr. Cotunnius diftinguishes the nervous fciatica likewife into two fpecies. The one is a fixed pain in the hip, fituated chiefly behind the great trochanter of the thigh, extending itfelf upwards to the os facrum, and downwards by the exterior fide of the thigh to the knee. This pain, he observes, feldom ftops at the knee, but often runs on the exterior part of the head of the fibula, and defcends to the fore-part of the leg, where it purfues its courfe along the outfide of the anterior fpine of the tibia, before the exterior ancle, and ends on the dorfum pedis. The other is a fixed pain in the groin, running along the infide of the thigh and leg. The former of these he calls the pofterior nervous fciatica, and the latter the anterior. He begins with the pofterior; of which he gives the following account.

I have obferved that it is either continual or intermitting: fometimes it tortures the patient day and night, without any intermiffion; but more commonly remits now and then, and returns again at fated intervals., But it is common to both, to have the pains exacerbated in the evening: and the intermitting fciatica generally begins its attacks at that time. In the attacks, the convulfion of the part is fo great, that the patient is tortured with a fenfation like the cramp, leaps out of bed, as the warmth there encreases it, and flies to the open air for relief. In the beginning, this fciatica is almost always continual, and intermits by degrees, as if it was tired. This intermitting, however, is oftentimes by far the most excruciating torture, and feems to paufe from one attack, to collect and increase all its ftrength for the next. But as I have known many perfons, who, from fuffering a continual, have been attacked by an intermitting, I never once faw the reverfe, or obferved the continual preceded

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by the intermitting fciatica; for then the difeafe would abate inftead of increafing, and the first attack be the most violent. However this may be; if the diforder remains a long time uncured, a femiparalyfis of the affected part will be the confequence, which is always accompanied with a great emaciation, and an infuperable lameness. From all the examples I can collect, I never faw a perfect palfy produced by this fciatica.'

This fpecies of sciatica he supposes to confift in an affection of the ischiadic nerve, which he thinks evidently appears, not only from the feat of the disorder, but likewife from the lameness, femiparalyfis and tabes which follow.

He then endeavours to investigate the caufe of the disease ; which he imputes to an acrid irritating matter, contained in the cellular vagine that enclose the ifchiadic nerve. In fupport of this doctrine he produces a great variety of facts and obfervations, both from anatomy and phyfiology, for which we refer our readers to the work; fubjoining only the recapitalation of the fubje&t.

I lay it down as a truth, that the permanence of a plentiful and irritating matter in the vagina of the ifchiadic nerve, causes the nervous pofterior sciatica; which fciatica, if the ftimulus of the acrid matter be very sharp, may begin with an inflammation of the vaginæ, and the disorder be very severe and obftinate. This is the firft ftage of the difeafe: then comes the dropfy and confirms the fciatica. If this dropfy continues for any time, it fo weakens the nerve that it cannot any longer be ferviceable to the mufcles; fo that, by a defect of the nerve, and the hebetude of the long unemployed mufcles, a femi-palfy of the leg comes on. This is commonly the laft ftage of the diforder. The sciatica has three periods, which require the affiftance of art: its onfet is often attended with an inflammation, its progrefs with a dropfy, and its clofe with a femi-paralyfis.'

In respect to the method of cure, he informs us, that, when the disorder was very violent and continual, blood-letting always afforded great relief to the patient; efpecially if a fuppreffion of an unaccustomed flux of the piles, or menftrual discharge, had been the cause of the disease.

However, fays he, we muft point out the place where phlebotomy is to be performed; for one and the fame place is not always beneficial in the fame stage of the disorder. If the dif order arifes from a fuppreffion of the piles, it is alleviated by applying leeches to the corona of the anus, to draw off the fuperabundant blood from that part: bleeding in other parts I have obferved not to be fo ferviceable as here. I once faw an instance of this fort; a man, who was troubled with the sciatica, felt, on a fudden, wandering pains in the abdomen; but in a day or two after he had fuffered this, the piles burst forth by a fpontaneous effort of nature, and in about three days afterwards

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