brought down from mountains, and disseminated over lower glounds, by running waters; and Mr. Playfair, drawing this inference from his own hypothesis, has accordingly asserted it as a fact. But if nothing like this is observed; if blocks and other stones are often accumulated in larger quantities at very great distances from mountains of their own kind, than in the immediate vicinity of such mountains; if, between spots where they are scattered in vast abundance, there are wide intervals in which none are found; if these blocks are of genera and species of stones of which none of the mountains, within a wide extent of country, are known to be composed; the hypothesis, on the contrary, must necessarily fall to the ground, and there cannot remain for these masses any other source, than that so clearly indicated by the disorder of the strata in the mountains, the hills, and the plains; namely, that in the catastrophes of those strata, by which, and not by the action of running waters, the vallies were produced, the above fragments were thrown out on the surface, by the explosions of the fluids compressed in the caverns in which the subsidences took place. Here then the question is clearly brought to an issue; and its importance in the History of the Earth cannot but be felt. Of the facts which will be described in the following travels, the application to this question will easily be made.'

It must be confessed that the facts and arguments, which the author adduces, to disprove the hypothesis of Dr. Hutton, are very numerous and powerful; and probably they will be deemed by most of his readers sufficient to overthrow it. At the same time, very great difficulties appear to us to oppose his own hypothesis of explosions; so that, although he may have been successful in refuting his antagonist's opinion, we do not think that he has, by any means, established his own.

We have next an account of several short excursions in different parts of the north of Germany, in the vicinity of Bremen, Hanover, Berlin, &c.; with a more ample detail of an expedition from Dresden to the Giants' mountains, in Silesia, and of one in the district of Bayreuth and the adjoining parts of Bohemia. M. de Luc presents us, as usual, with a very minute report of all his movements and adventures, and of the nature and appearance of the countries through which he passed. At every step, he perceives phænomena which he regards as confirming his geological opinions; and he seems to think that it is impossible to repeat them too frequently. His general principle is certainly good, that no facts should be admitted as of any authority unless they are found to occur in numerous instances, under a great variety of circumstances, and in various situations. He has, however, unfortunately no idea of abridgment; every thing is related at full length; and the same observations are repeated, again and again, as much in detail as when they were first described. Although, therefore,

therefore, the work in itself may possess nearly the same value with the author's former travels, yet, considering it as connected with them, we must regard it as being unnecessarily and tediously extended."

After having passed this remark on the present performance, we must, on the other hand, acknowlege that it displays the merit which we have noticed on former occasions, of very clearly expounding the principles which it professes to enforce. At the conclusion of the history of his different excursions, M. de Luc lays down a series of general propositions, deduced from the preceding observations; which, by the greatest part of his readers, will no doubt be considered as the most interesting and valuable portion of his labours. These propositions are too numerous and too long for us to transcribe: but we shall mention the heads of some of the chief of them, by which an idea may be formed of the nature of the whole. He conceives it to be a point of great importance, in the geological history of the earth, to distinguish between the two periods, the one prior, the other posterior to the birth of our continents.' The continents were not formed by any gradual process which is now going forwards, but by some sudden revolution or catastrophe ; and the date of this catastrophe is of comparatively no great antiquity. Many natural chronometers exist, as he terms them, which prove the recent construction of the continents. The strata formed at the bottom of the sea must have been origi nally continuous and nearly horizontal; these strata, when divided by fractures, were converted into ridges of mountains and vallies; and it must have been by these means, and not by running streams, that vallies are produced, since it appears that the effect of running streams is rather to fill up than to excavate vallies. The strata, of which the present surface of the earth is composed, could not have been deposited from the wreck of former continents, as Dr. Hurton supposed to be the case: but they must, according to the opinion of Saussure and Dolomieu, have been separated from each other by chemical precipitation; and continents were formed not by the elevation of a part of the strata, which were at the bottom of the sea, as Dr. Hutton imagined, but by the partial subsidence of the strata, and the retreat of the water.

Next to his general propositions, the author presents us with a table of geological facts,' arranged according to the two periods of the earth's formation to which we have adverted above. Each of the facts has a reference subjoined, pointing out whence it is derived, and on what phænomena observed by the author it is supported. Some of these geological facts have already been stated in the general conclusions; and the others

X 2

are

are such as seem to be naturally deducible from M. de L.'s system. We shall only farther observe that, if, for the reasons stated, this work will not add to its author's literary reputation, it affords additional proofs of his candour and his industry.

ART. XIV. An Essay on the Utility of Blood-letting in Fever, illustrated by numerous Cases; with some Inquiry into the Seat and Nature of this Disorder, by Thomas Mills, M.D., &c. &c. 8vo. 75. Boards. Printed in Dublin; and sold in London by Longman and Co. 1813.

WE

E have perused this work with more interest than satisfaction, and we rise from it with rather a painful impression on our minds. During the last half century, we have fondly imagined that we had discovered some of the errors of our forefathers, and had made some progress in the knowlege of the treatment and cure of fever :- we had found that no vitiated state of the Auids occurred, and that therefore it was not necessary to draw off the blood, but that the proximate cause of the disease consisted in a diminution of the vital powers, which were accordingly to be re-animated by wine and cordials:- but we are now informed that we must trace back our steps, revert in a considerable degree to the practice of the Humouralists, and suit our hypothesis as well as we can to the practice.

Dr. Mills has occupied the situation of physician to two extensive public charities instituted in Dublin for the reception of fever-patients. Being early impressed with an opinion of the inefficacy of the common treatment by stimulants, he ventured to use bleeding; and by the moderate employment of the lancet, together with a copious and steady application of purgatives, he found that all the varieties of what is usually called typhus-fever were removed, with a degree of ease and certainty which convinced him that he was proceeding on the right plan. As, however, he thought it was impossible that diseases which were cured by bleeding and purging could depend on debility, he changed his hypothesis with his practice, and laid it down as a principle that all fevers are attended with some local inflammatory action; which may exist, according to circumstances, in the Head, the Chest, the Stomach, the Liver, the Bowels, or the region of the Heart.

The following observations, taken from the preface, shew us the nature of the change which the author's sentiments experienced, and the gradual developement of his present opinions and practice:

• I was

I was induced to make the trials now mentioned by the fatality of the disease, by the fluctuating and opposite theories respecting its nature, by the want of any rule or principle to regulate the treatment, and by observing that recoveries took place under every variety of practice, sometimes even where no medicine whatever was administered. I had finally adopted the purgative and sedative as the most beneficial plan, when the valuable work of Dr. Clutterbuck fell into my hands; his reasoning appeared to me so conclusive, and his remarks so just on the use of blood-letting in fever, that I resolved, on the first favourable opportunity, to make the experiment.'

He then informs us that he entered on the plan of bleeding and purging in the fever-hospital; that in the first trials he felt considerable anxiety for the success of the new remedy, but that its good effects were so apparent that he quickly obtained full confidence in it, which every subsequent event has tended to confirm.

Dr. Mills commences with a short view of the theory of typhus-fever; in which, reasoning from the effects of remedies, he deduces the nature and cause of the symptoms, and determines them, as we remarked above, to be of an inflammatory tendency. Those circumstances which we were in the habit of referring to debility, he imputes to oppression; and when the pulse is weak and languid, and the muscular powers are generally impaired, he conceives that these effects do not depend on any absolute deficiency of sensibility or irritability, but on an over-excitement of the whole or some part of the system; that they are secondary; and that the powers of life are not really lessened, but only prevented from coming into action. His hypothesis is thus illustrated:

Suppose a strong, vigorous man, placed under a great weight, he cannot move; take off the weight, his strength remains unimpaired. Here there was no diminution of his physical powers; these powers were oppressed, not reduced.'

In the next paragraph, the application of his hypothesis is detailed:

Thus it is with fever; at the onset it overpowers the system, but the strength is unbroken. This will sufficiently appear from the remedies that are most effectual; these are emetics, cathartics, bloodletting, and sedatives; but these remedies debilitate the healthy body, and, if the strength be already diminished, they reduce it still lower; yet these very remedies cure fever. Now, if the debility were real in the incipient stage of fever, could it be removed by debilitants? To cure a distemper, are we to have recourse to the cause by which it was produced? The drunkard falls from his chair in a fit of apoplexy, he cannot move; here is a case of over-excitement, yet the apparent debility is extreme. Is the disease to be cured by increasing the quantity of wine by which it was excited?'

Dr. Mills's theory of fever is at least as well founded as those of his predecessors; and certainly it has the merit of being much more simple. He has had the discretion to make the hypothetical part of his work very short, and the detail of cases very minute; so that, if we can depend on the accuracy and correctness of the reports, we may draw our own conclu sions from them.

The species of fever, which in modern language is termed Typhus, is here divided into several varieties, according to the particular organ of the body which is affected with the inflammatory tendency; and, from this circumstance, they are termed Cephalic, Pulmonic, Hepatic, Gastric, Enteritic, or Cardiac, Some distinction of this kind is perhaps commonly present in the mind of most practitioners, who, in treating fever, venture to go beyond the mere routine of the lecture-room. It is admitted that some fevers have a great determination to the brain, others to the liver, and others to the bowels: but Dr. Mills has brought these varieties more distinctly into view, and at the same time has simplified the subject by referring them to the same cause, modified only by accidental circumstances. The cases are related at considerable length, the symptoms observed from day to day are enumerated, the remedies are stated, their effects are carefully noted, and, when the disease proved fatal, an account of the appearances on dissection is added. In this way is related the history of some hundreds of cases which fell under Dr. M.'s own treatment, chiefly in the fever-hospitals. His success is undoubtedly very remarkable, and, we believe, greater than any on record, where the disease was fully formed before it came under the care of the practitioner.

The first set of cases consists of such as we should call simple typhus-fever; many of them were immediately produced by contagion; and the others, in which the direct effects of contagion could not be observed, seemed to be brought on by exposure to cold, fatigue, intoxication, or some similar occurrence. The patients were received under the care of Dr. Mills at very different periods of the disease; some of them after it had made considerable progress: but the treatment was very similar and uniform, consisting of nothing but repeated small bleedings, and the daily use of rather powerful purgatives. The recovery commenced at different dates: when the state of convalescence was once begun, it was soon completed; and seldom did any relapses occur. In these cases, as we have already observed, it was conceived that a specific inflammatory determination to the brain took place; and we are therefore naturally led to inquire how far the symptoms that have been

described