We have extracted this declaration from the translator's inftructive preface, in which he alfo gives an account of his labours, to render this work as extenfively ufeful as the prefent ftate of science will admit. With this laudable intention he has, 1. Studiously retained the references in the paragraphs, or rather increased their number, in order to affift the recollection of the reader. 2. He has added, in notes, all fuch difcoveries and improvements made fince the German publication of this work, as come within the compafs of an elementary treatife. 3. The new nomenclature of the French chemifts has, with a few judicious variations, been preferred, tho' at the beginning of the work the ancient terminology has purposely been employed; yet, after having explained every particular fubftance and its conftituent parts, the new names are fucceffively introduced, and then, for fome time, both have been promifcuously ufed, fo that, towards the latter part, the preference has almost uniformly been given to the new nomenclature. 4. The most neceffary and ufeful chemical inftruments are reprefented in fix elegant engravings, by the mafterly hand of Lowry, and a feventh plate is added to the fecond volume, exhibiting a fufficient number of fpecimens of the new chemical fymbols, progreffively from the primitive and fimple to the compound. 5. The industrious editor and tranflator of this work has farther enhanced its value by an appendix rarely to be met with in fimilar attempts; as it contains Tables of Affinities, the new Chemical Symbols, the specific and abfolute Gravity of Bodies, the comparison of Fahrenheit's with Reaumur's Thermometer, the former French Weights and Meafures, as well as the prefent Metre, Litres, and Grammes, together with thofe of the English-to which he has added a fmall Chemical Library. The whole is concluded with a copious Alphabetical Index, to facilitate occafional reference, and chiefly intended to serve as a compendious Dictionary of both the old and new Nomenclature.

We refrain from faying more, with refpect to this important elementary work, whofe author is fufficiently known to our readers, than that the ingenuity of the editor, and the liberality of the publishers, are equally confpicuous.

Elements of Chemistry; comprehending all the most important facts and principles in the works of Fourcroy and Chaptal; with the addition of the more recent chemical difcoveries which have been made known in Britain and on the Continent; and with a variety of facts and views, which have never before been communicated to the world. Intended for the ufe, not only of thofe who ftudy Chemistry with thofe profeffional purposes to which this study is commonly preferred, but alfo for farmers, manufacturers, dyers, and the other artifans of the Chemical Arts in general, &c. By ROBERT HERON. Octavo. About 700 pages. Price 12s. 1800. London, Longman and Rees. THE Author's aim, in the compofition of the prefent work, appears pretty evident from this circumftantial title, as well as the preface: He affirms that the phlogistic theory is ftill lurking, not

Ccc &

only

only in the very best works of the French chemifts, fuch as thofe of FOUR CROY and CHAPTAL, but "that it triumphs in the chemical writings of most of those great men, the STOLIDISSIMI (We apprehend the STAHLIANS) of Germany." He farther cenfures the unfcientific confufion of arrangement prevailing in all former fyftems of Chemistry, except only the Philofophy of Chemistry," by Fourcroy; while he endeavours to account for this confufion, and to prefent the world with an arrangement more scientific and logical, of which the following is an outline:

"

The fimple fubftances," fays Mr. Heron, "at leaft those which have not been hitherto decompofed, are confidered so many diftin&t CLASSES: Compounds, in which two or three of thefe fimple fubfances exift in union, are regarded as ORDERS: the compounds of thofe compounds conftitute CENERA. Subordinate to thefe are the SPECIES; which are, of course, made up of VARIETIES; and thefe, of INDIVIDUALS."—" In the whole, he cannot but hope, that the arrangement he has followed will be found to be not only the moft fcientific, but by much the beft adapted to open up the fcience of Chemistry to the eafy intelligence of the Reader's mind."

We fhall not, in this place, attempt to investigate and duly appreciate Mr. Heron's claims to originality; for, befides his new arrangement, he has also advanced a new theory of the earth; and, while he charges Dr. Beddoes and others with a confiderable portion of empiricifm (p. xxii. of the Preface) he informs the reader, that in his book he has endeavoured to DEMONSTRATE, 66 that in all the functions of the animal powers, whether in health or fickness, there intervenes between the agency of mechanism and mechanical caufes and that of vitality-a CHEMICAL AGENCY, the thorough knowledge of which can alone enable us to establish the foundations of true medical science. This doctrine is ENTIRELY NEW in me

dicine. If true; it is of infinite importance. Of all the applications of chemistry, it must prove the most beautiful and the most interelling. It cannot but confer new dignity on chemical fcience; fince it exhibits it in this new relation to the principal utilities of human life. That the general truth is fully demonftrated, the author entertains the ftrongest confidence: That he may have erred in fome of thofe particular details into which he has attempted to follow it is exceedingly probable. He cannot but hope, that, by the truly candid and philofophical phyfician, he will be owned to have opened up a new path for medical investigation, which, in preference to alinoft all others, deferves to be inftantly and diligently explored," pp. 22 and 23 Freface.

Far from withing to difcourage new adventurers on fo arduous and obfcure a path of inquiry as that ventured upon by the author of thefe "Elements;" we would always recommend to writers a certain degree of modefty, and deference to the opinions of others, even on thofe occations where our predeceffors have obviously erred. No medical reader, we apprehend, will be regulated by the fanciful conjectures of thofe whofe ftudy is to cenfure, and not to correct or improve; to demolish the old fabric, without erecting a

new

new one; because they are little concerned about the ftability and folidity of the fuperftructure, provided they fucceed in broaching new theories, or new fancies: - whether fuch fuggeftions be of practical utility, or calculated to explain a fingle fact in Nature, does not appear to be their principal object.

To juftify thefe well-meant remarks, we beg leave to refer the reader to the work before us, viz. pp. ii, iii, vii, ix, x, xii, &c. of the Preface. In tracing, however, the merits and originality of Lavoifier, Mr. H. appears to have made a very important difcovery. He informs us," that he has found, even in Spratt's Hiflory of the Royal Society, an account of a Theory of Combustion, not merely akin to that of Lavoifier, but precifely, identically, indubitably the fame; a theory fupported by the indication of a train of experiments, not lefs ample than that of the French chemifts. It is not poffible that this Theory, and the experiments indicated for its fupport, fhould have been unknown to the French Academicians. It is aftonishing that its exiftence, and its coincidence with that of Lavoifier, fhould not have been fooner popularly pointed out."We are not prepared to examine this extraordinary coincidence; but we trust that our correfpondents, who have taken confiderable pains to ascertain the claims of Mayow and other chemifts, will not fail to inquire into the merits of this curious fubject, and favour us with the refult of their researches.

In the fourth Appendix to this work, of which there are no less than five, Mr. Heron endeavours to prove, that "lime is oxygen in a concrete ftate," while he informs us, that "A Dr. MITCHILL, of New York, amidst some very inaccurate chemical notions, has, with great juftice, reprefented the use of lime-ftone in paving the ftreets, in building, &c. as tending to prevent the infection of the yellow fever, and of whatever other diseases originate in a deficiciency of gas-oxygen. But it is impoffible that lime fhould, by any of its other known qualities, accomplish fuch an effect,-unless by an infenfible converfion of it into gas-oxygen."

A Continuation of Facts and Obfervations, relative to the Variole Vaccine, or Cow-Pox. By EDWARD JENNER, M. D. F. R. S. F. L. S. &c. 4to. London, pp. 42. Law, &c.

We cannot introduce thefe Facts and Obfervations better than in the words of the Author.

Since my former publications on the Vaccine Inoculation, I have had the fatisfaction of feeing it extend very widely. Not only in this country is the fubject purfued with ardour, but from my correfpondence with many refpectable medical gentlemen on the Continent, (among whom are, Dr. De Carro, of Vienna, and Dr. Ballhorn, of Hanover,) I find it is as warmly adopted abroad, where it has afforded the greatest fatisfaction. I have the pleafure, too, of feeing that the feeble efforts of a few individuals to depreciate the new practice, are finking faft into contempt, beneath the immenfe mafs of evidence which has rifen up in fupport of it. "Upwards of fix thousand persons have now been inoculated with

the

the virus of Cow-pox, and the far greater part of them have fince been inoculated with that of Small-pox, and expofed to its infection in every rational way that could be devifed, without effect.

"It was very improbable that the investigation of a difeafe fo analogous to the Small-pox, fhould go forward without engaging the attention of the Phyfician of the Small-pox Hofpital in London.

Accordingly, Dr. Woodville, who fills that department with fo much refpectability, took an early opportunity of inftituting an Inquiry into the nature of the Cow-pox. This Inquiry was begun in the early part of the prefent year; and in May, Dr. Woodville published the refult, which differs effentially from mine in a point of much importance. It appears, that three-fifths of the patients inoculated were affected with eruptions, for the most part so perfectly refembling the Small-pox, as not to be diftinguished from them. On this fubject, it is neceflary that I should make fome

comments.

"When I confider that out of the great number of cases of cafual inoculation immediately from cows, which have from time to time prefented themfelves to my obfervation, and the many fimilar inftances which have been communicated to me by medical gentlemen in this neighbourhood; when I confider too, that the matter with which my inoculations were conducted in the years 1797, 98, and 99, was taken from different cows, and that in no inftance any thing like a variolous puttule appeared, I cannot feel difpofed to imagine that eruptions, fimilar to thofe defcribed by Dr. Woodville, have ever been produced by the pure, uncontaminated Cow Pock virus: on the contrary, I do fuppofe that thofe which the Doctor speaks of, originated in the action of variolous matter, which crept into the conftitution with the vaccine. And this I prefume happened from the inoculation of a great number of the patients with variolous matter (fome on the third, others on the fifth day) after the vaccine had been applied; and it should be observed, that the matter thus propagated became the fource of future inoculations in the hands of many medical gentlemen who appeared to have been previously unacquainted with the nature of the Cow-pox.

Another circumftance ftrongly, in my opinion, fupporting this fuppofition, is the following: The Cow-pox has been known among our dairies, time immemorial. If puftules then, like the variolous, were to follow the communication of it from the cow to the milker, would not fuch a fact have been known, and recorded at our farms? Yet, neither our farmers, nor the medical people of the neighbourhood, have noticed fuch an occurrence.”

The Author next adduces a number of circumftances and communications from various practitioners, tending to confirm the preceding opinions. He concludes thus:

"This Inquiry is not now fo much in its infancy, as to reftrain me from fpeaking more pofitively than formerly on the important point of Scrophula, as connected with the Small-pox.

Every practitioner in medicine, who has extenfively inoculated with the Small-pox, or has attended many of those who have

had

had the diftemper in the natural way, muft acknowledge that he has frequently feen fcrophulous affections, in fome form or another, fometimes rather quickly fhewing themfelves after the recovery of the patients. Conceiving this fact to be admitted, as I prefume it must be by all who have carefully attended to the fubject, may I not ak, whether it does not appear probable that the general introduction of the Small-pox into Europe has not been among the most conducive means in exciting that formidable foe to health? Having attentively watched the effects of the Cow-pox in this refpect, I am happy in being able to declare, that the difeafe does not appear to have the leaft tendency to produce this deftructive malady.

"The fcepticism that appeared even among the most enlightened of medical men, when my fentiments on the important fubje& of the Cow-pox were first promulgated, was highly laudable. To have admitted the truth of a doctrine, at once fo novel and fo unlike any thing that ever had appeared in the annals of medicine, without the test of the most rigid fcrutiny, would have bordered upon temerity; but now, when that fcrutiny has taken place, not only among ourselves but in the first profeffional circles in Europe, and when it has been uniformly found in fuch abundant inftances, that the human frame, when once it has felt the influence of the genuine Cow-pox in the way that has been defcribed, is never afterwards at any period of its existence affailable by the Small-pox, may I not with perfect confidence congratulate my country and fo ciety at large on their beholding, in the mild form of the Cow-pox, an antidote that is capable of extirpating from the earth a difeafe which is every hour devouring its victims; a difeafe that has ever been confidered as the fevereft fcourge of the human race."

Obfervations on the Hiftory and Caufe of Asthma; and a Review of a "Practical Enquiry on difordered Refpiration," in a Letter to Dr. Bree, the author of that work. By G. LIPSCOMB, Surgeon at Birmingham, &c. &c. 8vo. pp. 108, price 3 s. London, Johnfon.

THIS work will doubtlefs be read by many practitioners, and by many who, perhaps, will be no lefs pleafed with the manner than with the matter of it. With refpect to our own fimple tafte, we have no hesitation in confeffing that we fhould have preferred the flavour of the dish, if there had been lefs pepper and vinegar in the fauce.

The Chemical Pocket-book, or Memoranda Chemica; arranged in a compendium of chemistry, according to the latest difcoveries, with Bergman's Table of fingle elective attractions, as improved by Dr. G. Pearfon, &c. By JAMES PARKINSON, 12mo. pp. 230, London, Symonds, &c.

THE increafing importance of Chemistry in numerous branches of science, muft render a well arranged compendium of its principles, a valuable and acceptable prefent to the public. The well known kill, accuracy, and induftry of the author of this compendium

are