Readers, however mistaken he may happen to be, lays claim at least to our thanks for his good intention: but furely one who hath so much judgment as to hold his works cheap, is inexcufable for adding to the number of indifferent books already printed. Happy, indeed, is it that books, as well as men, are mortal, or in procefs of time the whole world might incur the danger of becoming one great library, and Authors be literally obliged to ftarve on their own works! Our great objection to the poem before us, is, that many parts of it are very deficient in the harmony of numbers, fo effential to poetry; but if, as we fuppofe, it is the work of a juvenile Writer, he may in time acquire a more perfect ear than he poffeffes at prefent, We do not tax him, however, with a want of fenfe or fenfibility; and, perhaps, he would do well to confider, whether, in any future production, he may not be likely to fucceed better in profe. Art. 30. An Epifle to the King. 4to. 6d. Waller. MEDICA L. Art. 31. A neceffary Supplement to the former Effays on the medicinal Virtues of Hemlock. By Dr. Anthony Störck, Aulic Counsellor, and a chief Physician to her moft facred Majefty the Emprefs-Queen, and Phyfician to the Pazmarian Hofpital of the City of Vienna. With feveral Corollaries and Admonitions, and a Figure of the Plant used at Vienna, drawn from the Life. Tranflated from the original Latin, printed at Vienna, 1761. By a Physician. 8vo. Is. Becket. We find this foreign phyfical Author, fo often reviewed on this fubject, is not difcouraged from a farther profecution of it, by the opinion of thofe unnamed "medical people of great rank," who, he fays, "have given a premature and harsh fentence against Hemlock nor yet by the enmity and ingratitude of other nameless perfons," whom he profeffes to have treated with the greatest refpect, and all manner of good offices." With regard to the former, if they have condemned it, without any experience of their own, or a wellfounded information of its noxious quality or inefficacy, they are jufly cenfurable: though if their condemnation of it is oppofitely circumftanced, they must be as juftifiable in rejecting, as Dr. Storck is in patronizing, it. But if any others, obliged to him, have allowed themselves in any perfonal fcurrilities or invectives against him, even after having experienced the injurious effects or infignificance of his favourite plant, it is both ungenerous and abfurd; and perhaps fuch conduct may partly arife from on the great honours and advantages which Hemlock has procured him. There is enough, however, in thefe repeated complaints, and, indeed, in our Author's oc cafional - cafional conceffions, to evince, that his medicine has fometimes been found as ineffectual, and even as inconvenient, in Germany as in England. But fince Dr. Storck has not acquainted us with the names, - nor the number of thofe who have decried it, we can form no eltimate of their weight and proportion in refpect to the many approvers of fpecified in his former pamphlets. The cafes in this pamphlet, being juft as many cures, are twentytwo; though some few Patients continued the medicine while he wrote. They took no other, and were afflicted with different difeafes. Eight of them were schirrous, others ulcerous, and one had an open cancer, which was almost healed, the Patient daily continuing to take a drachm and a half of the extract. He confeffes however, there are fome cafes, in which there is no fuccefs; of the number of which we could wish to have been ascertained. It is very plain at the fame time, that Dr. Storck confiders all fuch as incurables, by any remedy yet difcovered. But we have the lefs occafion to defpair entirely even about fuch, as he here exprefsly fays, page 40. If that was not fufficient, I have another ready-Thus I fhall afcend by degrees," &c. whence we may infer, the Doctor has been experiencing the effects of fome other plant, and moft probably of fome poifonous one. The Corollaries that follow thefe cafes, are pretty fimilar to many in his former pamphlets, and predicate the Hemlock very highly, indeed. Dr. Lebmacker has given him two hiftories of its fuccefs in ulcers after the small-pox; whence our Author recommends the trying it in the feverelt degrees and ftages of that distemper. In his Admonitions, after confeffing," he has had Patients of all kinds, to whom Hemlock was of no fervice [no fuch conceffion, we think, having been made in his first pamphlet] tho' indicated from a fimilitude of the difeafe," he immediately refers thofe who doubt of the certainty of the cures he has published, to the illuftrious Van Swieten, who, he fays, has an account of the names and refidence of the Patients. Upon the whole of thefe Admonitions, they contain very little new. The burthen of the fong is, Hemlock, Hemlock! notwithstanding he 1concludes at laft, a little inconfiftently, he does not affirm it has any fpecific virtue." He congratulates himfelf, nevertheless, on hearing there are feveral Phyficians who follow his example, about divers vegetables." Are thefe fuch as, like Hemlock, are to have no fpecific virtues? For as to plants, or parts of plants, which will purge, vomit, fweat, or provoke urine, we are not unprovided of duplicates, and quadruplicates abundantly. The refearches of thefe Gentlemen are, probably, exercifed, like his own, among the deleterious vegetables, which may be indigenous, or native, in Germany, the Solanum, the Cicuta aquatica, and the Aconitum primum pardalian hes of Gefner, or Thora Valdenfis of Ray, which Dr. Lewis fuppofes to be the poifonous root difcovered fome years paft, among the Gentian imported from Germany. Thefe venemous invefligations feem to verify our predictions, vol. XXV. page 349, 350: nor is it very certain this fancy may not hereafter eftabiifh fome travelling Academicians, for for making experiments with the poifonous vegetables in Nubia, and throughout the Torrid Zone. 66 But if Dr. Storck has fome occafions to congratulate himself in Vienna and elsewhere, we find his admirers there have not been unprovided with certain opportunities to condole alfo with him, on the oppofition of other Phyficians. Of fuch he thus feelingly complains, They who might and ought to have affifted me, defired to be excufed. Yea, they have even, by fharp cenfures, and repeated harangues to the fons of art, condemned and profcribed my works, and would have them deftroyed by fire and fword. Ah me! miferable fate of man.", Miferable enough, indeed; though he must have been the better enabled to fupport it, by the previous comfort he acknowleges, in compliment to Baron Van Swieten, "Happy me! who have an opportunity to practice phyfic under the aufpices of fo great a man.' There is nothing, however, very extraordinary in this viciffitude of happiness and mifery. As Forefight fays, our lives are chequered and we are truly concerned, on more accounts than one, that it is not honeftly at prefent in our power to add confiderably to the number of our Author's Comforters, by many instances of the fuccefs of Hemlock among ourselves. Perhaps the whole truth has not as yet been entirely drawn out of the well; but the portion, that has hitherto appeared here, has done, upon the whole, but moderate honour to the Extract. We have not a fingle inftance, in the last volume of Medical Enquiries and Obfervations, of either its fuccefs or failure: but the declaration of these Gentlemen in their preface, "That they do not chufe to determine finally against the Hemlock, until it has been tried to the utmoft advantage," bears an unpromifing afpect. Mr. Pott, who must have had various opportunities of feeing, and hearing of its effects in ulcers, and in venereal cafes, in which Dr. Storck fo* fupremely celebrates it, has declared in his late treatife on the Hydrocele," it has been always infignificant throughout his acquaintance with it," or fully to that effect. The cafe we formerly mentioned in Ireland, as alleviated † by it, and for whofe fuccefs we heartily withed, has terminated, we hear, in an entire care. It had been named an occult cancer, and never ulcerated. The extract was given feveral months, and increafed to fixty grains daily. On the other hand, a late interesting cafe in Chefhire, which feemed to mend confiderably for fome time, under 'a courfe of Hemlock and the Bark, terminated in a fudden and fatal hæmorrhage from the throat, to which the laft was not likely to contribute. We have been assured in fome of the Door's former Corollaries, that Hemlock does not act by a colliquation of the blood; and in the prefent, "that it cures the molt malign ulcers, filtulas, and finuffes." It is certain, however, in this affecting.cafe, it did not It carries off the relis (relics) of a venereal diflemper, that yield to no other remedy. Page 27. + Review, vol. XXV. page 296. 1 Liem, page 357. impart fuch a confiftence to the blood, as might have indifpofed it to a hæmorrhage; neither did it prevent or cure fuch an ulceration, as might have eroded the blood-veffels from which it iffued. Briefly, if the experience of Dr. Storck, and of its other admirers, are to deter mine us, Hemlock is the word; if our own, that affures us, tho' it be Jometimes a remedy, it is very often as fallible as many others. Perhaps it might not chagrin our Author, if feveral of our fchirrous Patients, and others, were conveyed to Vienna, to receive it of true German growth, and according to his own preparation, with the concurrent operation of Austrian air and regimen: but this seems unlikely to happen foon. For our own part, we acknowlege, the very different confequences of this Extract in Germany and here (for in France it appears to have done very little) are fo extremely difficult to account for; that we are fometimes tempted to imagine the most extraordinary cafes it has cured abroad, (as the perfect removal of two schirrous tumours as big as the man's head, and on each fide of it, &c. &c.) must have refulted from fuch a poisonous state of the whole conftitution, as could be removed by nothing less than another poifon of an oppofite quality. This, probably weak fuggeftion we have been driven to, from a refolution to credit Dr. Storck's evidence ftrictly with regard to facts; and not to conclude, that, like other true Lovers, he had been agreeably amufed with feveral impofing reveries*, and, under fuch an influence, had compofed the Legend, inftead of the Hiftory, of Hemlock. But having fufficient confidence both in his honefty and experience, we reject any fuch conclufion, notwithstanding many crudities, and fome puerilities, which might be inftanced in him as a Writer, but which by no means affect his credibility. We have not feen the Latin original of this tract, the translation is always plain and intelligible; and we fhould not omit, that a good copper-plate of the right Hemlock is prefixed to it; which, with the very deep gloffy green leaves of the plant, its potted hollow stalk, and its peculiar rank imell, may prevent any attentive perion from mistaking it. We may be deceived, perhaps, in fuppofing this pamphlet to be the laft on the fubject, that will require an English Review; but we shall certainly rejoice to find the Hemlock's future fuccefs here, equal to all its Patron's encomiums; and fhall experience more pleasure in publishing our happy conviction of it, than we have felt from our neceffary and well-intended strictures on all the performances concerning it. An qui verè amant ipfi fibi fomnia fingunt ?—In short, the many miraculous cures here af ribed to this Simple, may imply its medicinal virtues to exceed thofe of the famous Moly and Nepenthe of the Poets. The SERMONS in our next. Conclufion of the Account of the Doctrine of Grace. By the Bishop of Gloucefter. ་་ N our laft number we gave an account of what this learn ed Author has advanced in the firft part of his Difcourfe, which propofed to confider the office and operations of the holy Spirit as the Guide of Truth, who clears and enlightens the understanding. After having endeavoured to vindicate the inspiration of fcripture, to diftinguish the mode of that inspiration, to explain the character of an infpired language, &c. he proceeds to the fecond branch of his Difcourfe, which is, to confider the Holy Spirit under the idea of the Comforter, who purifies and supports the will. And here, we are told, his divine power manifefted itself in the fame miraculous operations. Sacred antiquity is very large and full in its account of the fudden and entire change made by the Holy Spirit, in the difpofitions and manners of those whom it had enlightened; inftantaneously effacing ally their evil habits, and familiarizing their practice to the per formance of every virtuous and pious action. To this illuftrious and triumphant conviction of the truth of Chriftianity, the very enemies and perfecutors of our holy Faith have been forced to bear witness': not only in the feri ous accounts which fome of them (Pliny the younger, Sute tonius, Tacitus, &c.) have given of the innocence and vir tue of PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY; but even in the mockery and ridicule of others, (Celfus, Julian, &c.), on the fub ject of the boafted virtue of water-baptifin; which was then VOL. XXVII. Ce com. |