1

demic without the other. Our author fuppofes them both to proceed from noxious exhalations from wet, low, and marshy grounds. What are the peculiar properties of thefe exhalations is perhaps not yet thoroughly understood. By experience it is found, that fevers and fluxes are more prevalent in places abounding with thefe exhalations, than in those fituations which are free from them; on which account, the exhalations are faid to be the causes of the difeafes; and the fact muft be admitted, although we cannot explain it. Befide the original caufe, Dr. Hunter confiders other circumftances which co-operate with it either in producing or aggravating the difeafe, fuch as an exceffive ufe of rum, fatigue, hard labour, bad or scanty diet, long fafting, diftrefs of mind, and expofure to rain.

The precautions which afe to be observed in fending troops to the West Indies, and the means of preferving their health in that climate, are the next objects of the author's attention; in treating of which he delivers many useful directions relative to the embarkation of the troops, their management during the voyage, their quartering after arrival in the country, their diet and exercife. In all thefe particulars, the calls of humanity, the interefts of government, and the fafety of our Weft India poffeffions, feem to be very materially concerned.

In the third chapter, Dr. Hunter defcribes the fevers that prevail in Jamaica, which he divides into two kinds, viz. Remittent and Intermittent. The Remittent is the moft frequent and the most fatal. The Doctor gives a long and minute defcription of all its fymptoms, and mentions the feveral variations with which it is attended; whence he fhews that feveral writers on difeafes of warm climates have multiplied the lift af fevers; thus the yellow fever of the Weft Indies appears to be the emittent fever, accompanied with the peculiar fymptom of a yellowness of the eyes and fkin.

In treating of the cure of the remittent fever, he gives an account of the remedies, in the order in which they were adminiftered, when the fever had its moft ufual appearance; he afterward enumerates the means that were found moft fuccefsful in removing, or palliating, particular symptoms; and adds fome curfory oblervations on the remedies, that have been either ftrongly recommended, or are in general ufe. He carefully avoids, in this part of the work, conjectural or fpeculative reafoning on the difeafe, and has confined himself to a fimple narrative of fymptoms, and of the effects of medicine, collected from obfervation and experience; but he afterward examines the hypothefis of former writers on the fubject, and advances many probable opinions of his own. He refutes, with ftrong arguments, the opinions that the bile is the caule of the remittent fever-that the remittent fever is putrid-that the yel

low fever is putrid and infectious, with fome others; and, acknowleging the great difficulty of explaining the phenomena, he ftates fuch methods as he thinks moft likely to produce a rational investigation of the nature and caufe of remittent fe

vers.

The intermittents of Jamaica are quotidians, tertians, and quartans, with all the varieties ufually attending them in Europe their cure is alfo the fame.

The fourth chapter relates to the Dyfentery, where the author confines himself to fuch obfervations as more particularly apply to the climate, not thinking it neceflary to enter minutely either into the hiftory of the dileafe or the general method of cure, which have been amply difcuffed by many able hands.

The dry belly-ach of the Weft Indies, as here defcribed by Dr. Hunter, is the colica pictonum of Europe, and the method of cure differs not from that in common ufe with us; confifting chiefly in procuring a free paffage. It is not probably of much confequence,' fays our author, what purgative is given, provided it operate effectually. In this country [England] the Extractum catharticum with Mercurius dulcis, and, if neceffary, a fmall quantity of opium, are very effectual. Many experienced phyficians have nevertheless preferred the gentle laxatives, fuch as manna, ol. Ricini, &c.' In Jamaica, however, he has found bad effects from the Calomel, five grains of it producing much inconvenience, by exciting falivation. This fact, known by experience, militates against the generally, and perhaps fallely, received opinion, that a determination of the humours to the skin prevents mercury from affecting the mouth; for in Jamaica the perspiration is at all times profufe.

The remaining difeafes of the foldiers defcribed by Dr. Hunter, are, fores, ulcers, the venereal difeafe, complaints from infects, inflammatory diforders, confumptions, mania, and the prickly heat. Thefe fometimes occur in Jamaica, but, except the fores, they are not attended with much danger, and are therefore flightly treated by the author.

Some remarks are added on the difeafes to which the negroes are fubject; and the work concludes with general directions for taking care of fick troops in Jamaica, and our other Welt India islands.

Such are the contents of the volume before us; which is replete with knowlege, and practical directions, grounded on experience and obfervation; and which will, confequently, be found not only ufeful, but even neceffary to fuch medical gentlemen as are appointed to attend on our foldiers or failors, in the warm climates. R......m.

ART.

Experiments and Obfervations, to inveftigate by chemical Analysis the medicinal Properties of the Mineral Waters of Spa and Aix-la-Chapelle in Germany, and of the Waters and Boue near St. Amand, in French Flanders. By John Ash, M. D. Fellow of the Royal College of Phyficians, of the Royal Society, and the Society of Antiquaries. pp. 400. 12mo. 5s. Boards. Robfon. 1788.

HEN it is confidered that the chief folvent of mineral

WH fubitances with which medicated waters are impegnated, is

the aerial acid; and that the properties of this acid were only lately difcovered, and perhaps all of them not yet fufficiently known; there can be little room to apologize, as Dr. Afh does, for obtruding on the Public a treatife on the method of afcertaining their component parts.

In the introduction to this volume, Dr. Afh gives a brief hiftory of the difcovery of the permanent claftic fluids, and a concife account of the Phlogistic doctrine, as well as of the aerial philofophy of chemistry, adopted by our neighbours, the French, He enumerates alfo the opinions that have been held respecting the caufe of the heat in feveral fprings, and points out the difficulties with which each hypothefis appears to be attended. He fhews the errors that prevailed on both fides of the question which, for many years, was debated, with much warmth, at Bath,- Whether fulphur was foluble in water, without the aid of an intermediate fubftance;' and he gives a fummary detail of the labours of Bergman and Kirwan in afcertaining the properties of the hepatic gas: together with the opinions of the Bishop of Landaff, and of Monnet, on the fubject.

The remainder of the long introduction is employed in deferibing the method which the author purfues in his analyfis. The tells commonly used are here enumerated, together with the appearances which they produce on being added to differently impregnated waters. Thefe re-agents, however, are not to be depended on for afcertaining all the conftituent parts of mineral waters, and much lefs for determining the proportions of the feveral ingredients. It becomes, therefore, neceflary to analyze mineral waters, and feparate the different fubftances which they hold in folution. The conduct of this procels, which must be varied according to circumftances, in a proper manner, is of great importance in the difcovery of their real contents: Dr. Afh, therefore, defcribes thefe feveral methods, with great precifion.

The Spa waters are the first which Dr. Afh examines; the refult of his analyfes, the particulars of each of which we fhall omit, will appear from the following comparative table:

Of the hot fulphurated waters of Aix-la-Chapelle 70.5 cubic inches contain 20 ounce measures of gas*, 14.5 grains of aerated lime, 30.75 of aerated mineral alkali, and 13.25 of falited mineral alkali. The temperature of these waters varies from 136 to 112 of Fahrenheit's fcale.

The waters of Bordfcheit, or Borset, are not analyzed; their contents being only gueffed at from the fimilarity which they bear to the Caroline waters.

The waters and boue [i. e. mud] baths of St. Amand, are defcribed as to their appearances with feveral re-agents, the author acknowleging his analyfis of them to be imperfect.

The medical reflexions which clofe the volume, as well as thofe that are interfperfed through various parts of the work, contain many useful remarks, and a brief hiftory of the medical fyftems of feveral authors, particularly thofe of Stahl, Hoffman, and Boerhaave.

Practical directions, both general and fpecial, are much wanted; and had Dr. Afh, who appears, from feveral paffages in his book, to be an experienced phyfician, increafed or enlarged the directions, which he hath given, he would certainly have rendered his labours more generally ufeful; the volume before us, however, will, no doubt, be gratefully received by moft scientific men. R......m.

ART. X. An Account of the Life, Writings, and Inventions of JOHN NAPIER, of Merchifton. By David Stewart, Earl of Buchan, and Walter Minto, LL. D. 4to. pp. 136. 7s. 6d. - Boards. Murray, London; Creech, Edinburgh. 1788.

THH

HE life of a learned and fcientific man is generally comprifed in the hiftory of his difcoveries and writings; and in proportion to the utility and extenfiveness of his labours, the account of his Biography will afford useful or curious information; and will, confequently, fo far engage and intereft the attention of the world.

If the epithet of FAMOUS is to be beftowed on a man, who, by a fingle invention, has fo fimplified the intricate and tedious.

The author calls this gas fixed air; and he no where mentions the quantity of hepatic air.

calculations

calculations neceffary in aftronomy, trigonometry, and various parts of natural philofophy, that the work of a few minutes fuffices, and is fubftituted for the labour of as many hours, few neen have a better title to that epithet than the person whofe life the Earl of Buchan has now laid before the Public.

John Napier was born at Merchifton, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, in the year 1550, of a family who had, for twelve generations, been of confiderable confequence in that part of the country. From St. Andrews, where he was educated, his biographer has not been able to trace him till the publication of his "Plain Difcovery" at Edinburgh in 1593; though Mackenzie, in his Lives of eminent Writers of the Scotch Nation, fays, that Napier paffed fome years abroad in the Low Countries, France and Italy, and that he applied himfelf there to the ftudy

of mathematics.

Lord Buchan has enquired, but without fuccefs, among the defcendants of Napier, for fuch papers or letters as might elucidate the history of his life. When it is confidered that Napier was a reclufe mathematician, living in a country, almoft, at that time, inacceffible to literary correfpondence, it can scarcely be expected that the most diligent enquiry could be able to afford much information. His own writings, or thofe of his contemporaries, are the only refources from which his biographer can hope to derive any benefit.

About the year 1593 Napier entered on that courfe of enquiry which led him to his great atchievement in arithmetic. This appears in a letter from Kepler to Crugerus, where that aftronomer fays, "Nihil autem fupra Neperianam rationem effe puto; etfi Scotus quidam, literis ad Tychonem, anno 1594 fcriptis, jam fpem fecit canonis illius mirifici."

Napier's "Canon Mirificus," the firft publication on logarithms, appeared in 1614, fo that upward of twenty years were confumed in preparing that wonderful book, which proved its author to be, as Kepler fays in his letters," the greatest man of his age in the particular department to which he applied his abilities."

Napier's laft literary exertion was the publication of his Rhabdology and Promptuary in 1617; in which year, on April the 3d, O. S. he died at the age of 67. He was interred in the cathedral church at Edinburgh: but no monument has been erected to his memory, nor is any other neceffary than that which every aftronomer, geographer, navigator, and political arithmetician daily erects, in availing himfelf of Napier's inven

This publication was on the Revelations of St. John. One great mathematician ended, but Napier began, his career with that myfterious book.