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heart, equally folicitous for the good of the fervice and for the advantage of those who are entrusted with the care of the men. In his firft letter he animadverts on the answer given to Lord Keppel by a certain Court: "That Governanent does not give sufficient encouragement for able practitioners to enter into the fervice." According to the prefent regulation of a fervice in which other officers are allowed a fuperiority to those who serve on thore, the SURGEON (he fays) is not only prohibited the half-pay allowed to every furgeon of the army, (unless he has been five years in actual fervice, and comes within the fenior lift of a fifth part of the whole number employed), but, as foon as his health obliges him to go on fhore, he continues deftitute of any fubfiftence till he returns to fea."— This is furely a great hardship!

In the fecond Letter he relates the fingular cafe of a young gentleman recommended to a noble lord a few years ago, which does not feem to have much connection with his general defign of promoting the intereft of the navy furgeons. In the clofe of this letter he ks, If the naval fervice be deemed of equal importance with that of the emy, why is the furgeon of a first rate only a warrant officer, while the regimental furgeon bears a commiffion?" illere he remarks on the aukward fituetion of perfons known by the examinicis to be men of nied abilities, ftanding up before them to have their abiJits more certainly alcertained. "It cannot," he obferves, "be called a true er just trial of genius and ability when Impedence and Ignorance succeed where Modefy and Capacity fail.}

His third is a complimentary letter to Lord Keppel, on his lordship's promotion at a period in which the gloom that now darkens the political hemisphere is fo generally expected to brighten under the illumination of minifters on whofe united abilities the confidence of the people is fo univerfally repofed.

His fourth letter is addreffed to the fargeons of the royal navy, on the appointment of a naval prime minifter, under whofe regulations there is reafon to hope that the peculiar hardfhips of their fituation will be carefully attended to; that their warrants will be changed into commijhens; and that their half-pay will be made equal to that of lieutenants.-1 ere he remarks on the educaen necellary qualify for furgeons of

his Majefty's navy, in every respect equal at leaft to that of midshipmen to qualify them for lieutenants, and therefore equally entitled to the fame pay.

nies.

His fifth letter, relative to the manning of the navy, is of the laft importance to the health of the hips' compa"A thip," he obferves, "of 450 healthy men, has been rendered fickly by the precipitate fupply of 50 more." His reniarks upon this letter are truly worthy of attention; for which we muft refer to the treatife.

Letter VI. has no particular merit, as it has no particular object.

In the feventh letter there is a continuation of the narrative alluded to in the fecond letter, which feems to be a mixture of truth and fable, intended by the writer to excite the tender paffions."

To thefe Letters is added a P. S. in which he endeavours to thew, in contradition to the late Addrefs of Dr. Hawes to protract the burying of the dead, that such a practice, were it to become prevalent, would be of a more alarming nature than people are generally aware of. Ep demical malignancy in the common air would foon be propagated, and plague and peftilence would be the unhappy confequence.

10. The Recefs: or a Tale of other Times. By the Author of "The Chapter of Accidents" [Ms Sophia Lee]. Vol. I. 8vo.

THE fcene of this romance (for fuch it must be called) is laid in the eventful reign of Elizabeth, and the principal performers are two (fuppofed) twindaughters of the Queen of Scots by the Duke of Norfolk, educated in a Recefs near a St. Vincent's Abbcy; and the Earl of Leicester, who mairies one of them. But, though the writer has a fruitful invention, we cannot fay much in commendation of a work which abounds with intrigues, illegitimacy, and love at firft fight. Nor can we approve of the falfification of a hutory, to well known in various infiances befides thole of Lord Leicester's wives, though he had three, the poiloning Lady Effex, who furvived him, giving Sir Philip Sydney a wife, &c. &c. Quodcumque oflendis mibi fic incredulus odi. And how a Weft Indian from Jamaica could be refident in London in the 16th century, when that ifland was in the hands of the Spaniards, and was known by the name of St. Jago, we have the writer to explain. This volume ends very abrupt ly. More therefore may be expected.

103 Six Difcourfes delivered by Sir John Pringle, Bart. when Prefident of the Royal Society, on Occafion of Six annual Align ments of Sir Godfrey Copley's Medal. To which is prefixed the Life of the Author. By Andrew Kippis, D. D. F. R. S. 8vo. SIR JOHN PRINGLE was the youngest fon of a baronet of both his names, of Stichel-houfe, in the county of Roxburgh, North Britain, where he was born, April 10, 1707. His mother was fifter to Sir Gilbert Eliott, of Stobs, Baronet. He was educated at home, under a private tutor, till he was removed to the Univerfity of St. Andrew's, from whence, after fotme years, he went to Edinburgh in October 1727, and, being intended for the mercantile line, afterwards to Amfterdam. But there his mind was turned to phyfic, by accidentally hearing, at Leyden, a lecture of Boerhaave's*, whom, in contequence, he diligently attended. There alfo he contracted an intimate friendThip with Van Swieten, afterwards fo famous at Vienna, who was not only his friend, but phyfician. He completed his medical studies at Paris, and, on July 20, 1730, was admitted to the degree of M. D. at Leyden. His inaugural differtation, which (as ufual) was printed, was "De Marcore Senili."When he quitted Leyden, he fettled as a phyfician at Edinburgh, where he was generally eftecined, both by the magirates and profeffors, fo that the former appointed him, on March 28, 1734, joint profeffor of pneumatics and moral philofophy with Mr. Scott, while Mr. S. lived, and his fuccellor after his deceafè, and, in confequence, he was admitted a member of the University. His textbook, in difcharging the duties of this hew office, was Pufendorff de Officeo Hominis et Civis;" and he alfo annually delivered feveral lectures on the iminateriality and immortality of the foul. In 1742 Dr. Pringle was appointed phyfeian to the Earl of Stair, who then commanded the British army; and, by his lordship's intereft, he was conftitut ed, on Aug. 4, phyfician to the military hofpital in Flanders, with twenty thillings a day falary, and half-pay for life, being still allowed to retain his profefforfhip, and teach by deputies. The hofpitals, in both armies, were made fanctuaries for the fick during the cam

Thefe two circumstances were communicated by Mr. Bofwell.

GENT. MAG. July, 1783.

୪

paign of 1743, probably by his fuggeftions, the British and French generals concurring; and the attention with which he difcharged his duty as an army phyfician, is univerfally acknowledged. At the battle of Dettingen he was in a coach with Lord Carteret the whole time, in a dangerous fituation, being much expofed, and they were obliged occafionally to shift their post. On Lord Stair's refignation, Dr. P. offered to refign with him, but that his lordship would not permit. In 1744 he attended the army in Flanders. On March 11, 1745, the Duke of Cumberland appointed him phyfician-general to the British forces in the Low Countrics, &c.; and, on the next day, phyfician to the royal hofpitals in the fame countries: he then refigned his profefforthip. He was that campaign with the army in Flanders, till he was recalled, in the latter end of that year, to attend the forces fent against the rebels in Scotland. On October 30 he was chofen F. R. S. In 1746 alfo he was with the Duke of Cumberland in Scotland till after the battle of Culloden. In 1747 and 1748 he was again with the army abroad till the conclufion of the treaty of Aix la Chapelle. And from that time he principally refided in London. In April 1749 he was appointed phyfician in ordinary to the Duke of Cumberland. In 1750 he publifhed his "Obfervations on the Jail or

Hofpital Fever," occafioned by the jail dilemper then raging in London, which now forms the 7th chapter of the 111d part of his "Difeafes of the

66

Army." In the fame year he began to communicate to the Royal Society his famous " Experiments upon Septic "and Anti-Septic Subftances, with Re"marks relating to their Ufe in the "Theory of Medicine," comprised in feven papers, ending in Novemb. 1752. Thefe procured him the honour of Sir Godfrey Copley's incdal, and are alfo now fubjoined to the above mentioned work, by way of Appendix. In February 1753 he prefented to the Society "An Account of feveral Perlons feized

with the jail Fever by working in "Newgate, and of the Manner by "which it was communicated to one "entire Family," which was previ oufly, at the defire of Dr. Stephen Hales, for the general good, inferted in our XXIIId volume, p. 78-74. His next communications in the Tranfac

tions, vol. XLIX. were, Accounts of an earthquake at Bruffels, of another at Glafgow and Dunbarton, and of the agitation of the waters, on Novemb. 1, 1756, in Scotland and at Hamburgh; in the Lth volume, Obfervations on the cafe of Lord Walpole; and a relation of the virtues of foap, in diffolving the ftone; in the LIft, different accounts of a very extraordinary fiery meteor on Nov. 26, 1758, and a variety of remarks on the whole. In the Edin burgh Medical Effays, vol. V, he alfo wrote an account of the fuccefs of the vitrum ceratum antimonii.

On April 14, 1752, Dr. P. married Charlotte, the fecond daughter of Dr. Oliver, an eminent phyfician at Bath, who lived but a few years. [His behaviour to this accomplished lady, we apprehend, was not the moft fhining part of his character.] About the fame time he published the first edition of his "Obfervations on the Diseases of the "Army," which has gone through feven éditions, with additions, befides being tranflated into French, German, and Italian. "It is allowed (fays Dr. Kippis) to be a claffical book in the physical line, and that it hath placed the writer of it in a rank with the "famous Sydenham." In 1753 Dr. P. was chofen one of the council of the Royal Society. In the war of 1755 he attended the camps in England as phyfician, for three feafons; but in 1758 he entirely quitted that employment, and fixed wholly in London, being adinitted a licentiate of the College of Phyficians on July 5. In 1761 he was appointed phyfician to the Queen's houfhold; and in 1763 phyfician extraordinary to his Majefty. In the fame year he was chofen a member of the Academy of Sciences at Harlem, a fellow of the Royal College of Phyficians, London, and a fecond time one of the council of the Royal Society. In 1763 he fucceeded Dr. Leatherland §, deceased, as physician extraordinary to the Queen. In 1766 he was elected a foreign member, in the phyficalt line, of the Royal Society of Sciences at Goettingen, and alfo advanced by his Majefty to the dignity of a baronet. On July 18, 1768,

Mifprinted the fifteenth." Why not rather "medical?" Could Dr. P. be chofen a fellow of the College of Phyficians without being of an English univerfity?

Mifprinted "Dr. Wollafton."

Sir John Pringle was appointed phyfi cian in ordinary to the Princefs dowager of Wales, with a falary of 100l. a year. In 1770 and 1772 he was chofen a third and fourth time into the council of the Royal Society, of which learned body he was elected Prefident, on the death of James Weft, Efq. on Nov. 30 following, though oppofed by the late refpectable Sir James Porter. He was then 66. His difcourfes on beftowing Sir Godfrey Copley's gold medal, into which more liberal form that gentleman's donation of five guineas had been changed, were the firft that had been printed. And in the fubjects of them (which, as they are only republications, we fhall notice) the Prefident was peculiarly happy. They are, I. On the different Kinds of Air, 1773. II. On the Torpedo, 1774. III. On the Attraction of Mountains, 1775. IV. On fome late Improvements of the Means for preferving the Health of Mariners, 1776. V. On the Invention and Improvements of the Reflecting Telefcope, 1777. And VI. On the Theory of Gunnery, 1778. Dr. Prieftley, Mr. Walsh, Dr. Mafkelyne, Capt. Cook, Mr. Mudge, and Dr. Hutton, were the perfons rewarded. Sir John Pringle's laft English honours were, his being chofen F. A. S.; and appointed phyfician extraordinary to his Majefty Nov. 14, 1774. He was enrolled, in 1776, as a member of four learned bodies, viz. at Amfterdam, Madrid, Paris, and St. Petersburg; in 1777, of the Society of Antiquaries at Caffel; in 1778, a foreign member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, and of the Medical Society of Hanau, in 1779 a foreign member of the Royal Society of Sciences and Belles Lettres at Naples; and laftly, in 1781, a fellow of the newly-erected Society of Antiquaries at Edinburgh. He refigned the chair of the Royal Society in 1778, finding his health and strength decline; to recruit which he made an excurfion to Scotland in 1780, and purchased a house at Edinburgh, whither he returned in the following fpring, felling his houfe in Pall Mall, and moft of his books. But this removal did not anfwer his expectations. Moft of his old friends were dead, and the air alfo was too fharp and cold for his frame. He returned, therefore, once more to London in September. At his houfe, on Sunday evenings, he had the pleafure of fecing his friends; and at a fociety which met at Mr. Wation's, a grocer in the Strand,

he

he met them on other nights, and there, on Jan. 14, 1782, he was feized with a fit of which he never recovered, dying on the 18th, in the 75th year of his age. He was buried, with great folem. nity, in St. James's church. The bulk of his fortune, which was confiderable, he bequeathed to his nephew, Sir Jas. Pringle, of Stichel, Bart. fubject to annuities of about 700l. a year, revertible to that gentleman, and fome legacies. Particulars of Sir John Pringle's character it is not our purpose, nor within our limits, to detail. Suffice it to fay, that Dr. Kippis feems to have drawn it with his wonted candour and impartiality; at the fame time that he pays a due elogium to his intellectual, moral, and religious character, freely owning, that his friend was averfe to theory, unfupported by experiments, and therefore diliked Plato; and that he had no relifh for poetry, and therefore did not admire Shakspeare. Yet he was fond of Voltaire's critical writings, and of mufic. But divinity was his favourite and most interesting study, after having, in the early part of his life, been at leaft a fceptic. In this part of his fubject Dr. Kippis, in a note, very ably vindicates the rational Chriftians, of whom he profeffes himself to be one, from the fevere and unjust charge exhibited against them by a late Difquifitor. It remains only to add, that the nephew and heir of our phyfician has ordered a monument for him in Westminster Abbey, by Mr. Nollikens, for which an English infcription is intended.

104. Lodbrokar-Quida; or, The Death-Song of Lodbroc; now first correctly printed from various MSS. with a free English Tranflation. To robich are ad ted, the va rious Readings; a literal Latin Verfion; an Ilando-Latino Glufary; and Explanatory Notes. By James Johnstone, M. A. Chaplain to bis Britannic Majefty's Envoy Extraordinary at Denmark [Morton Eden, Efq.] jm. 8vo.

TO thofe who are verfed in Iflandic lore, and fond of Northern literature,

"A certain degree of uncertainty," p. Ixvii. we prefume, is an expreffion that was nor intended.

+ His critical attention to the New Teftament our friend Mr. Nichols confirms.Sir John Pringle was very anxious to fee the theets of Mr. Bowyer's "Conjectures" as they paffed through the press, made them the companions of his journeys, and even contributed fome notes. EDIT.

this poem will be interefting and curious. The chorus of the fong is, "We "hew'd with our fwords;" and it contains a fpirited recital of the actions of Regnier, king of Denmark, who is generally believed to have flourished in the VIIIth century. After a variety of adventures, this Northern Tyrteus was at last taken prifoner by Ella, a Northumbrian prince, and being condemne ed to die by the bite of vipers, during the operation of the poifon, is reported to have fung the Lodbrokar-Quida. Of the merit of the English or Latin tranflation we pretend not to judge.

105. The Norwegian Account of Haco's Expedition against Scotland, A. D. MCCLXTIL Now first published, in the original Inlandic from the Flateyan and Frifian MSS; with a literal English Verfion and Notes. By James Johnftone, M. A. Chaplain to bis Britannic Majefty's Envoy Extraordinary at Denmark [Morton Eden, Efq.] fm 8vo.

THE Frifian MS. a large vellum 4to, is fuppofed to have been written at the end of the XIIIth century, and the book of Flatey, a large vellum This account folio, in the XIVth. death of King Haco, who was interred begins in 1249, and ends with the

in March 1264 An account of the alfo by Mr. Johnftone, was given in Anecdotes of Olave the Black, published that we refer for our opinion of thefe our volume for 1781, p. 522, and to Northern Epics.

106. Some Account of the late John Fothergill, M. D. Member of the Royal College of Phyficians, &c. &c. By John Coakley Lettfom. 8vo.

Works, long promifed by Dr. Lettfom, THE publication of Dr. Fothergill's being ftill poftponed, the Life, which is to be prefixed to them, at the request of many, is here printed feparately, and the contents of the Works are fubjoined. Additional communications are alfo requefted. Having given memoirs of Dr. Fothergill in 1781, p. 164, and corrected and enlarged them from Dr Thompfun in 1782, p. 297, we fhall only mention a few particulars in which the prefent biographer differs, or which he has added. He was born (fays Dr. L.) "on March 8, 1712." [Dr. T. fays, "Oct. 12" His account of his excurfion to the continent in 1740 is here extracted from a Latin letter to Dr. Cuming, of Dorchetter. To the mention of his new and fuccefsful treatment of the Pelh in

ire

fore throat, as it was then called, it fhould have been added, in justice to a great phyfician ftill living, that Dr. (now Sir Edward) Wilmot, being called in, preferved Lady Catherine P. after her ions had died of it, by launcing her throat; a method which, he faid, he had once before purfued with the fame fuccefs Among the other beneficent fchemes fuggefted by Dr. Fothergill were thofe of bringing fish to London by land carriage, which, though it did not in every refpect fucceed, tended to destroy a fuppofed combination; and, to render bread much cheaper, though equally wholfome to the poor, a method of making it with one part of potatoes, and three parts of houthold flour. But his public benefactions, his encouragements of icience, the inftances of his attention to the health, the police, the convenience of the metropolis, &c. we cannot pretend to specify.

"As the

moft cerfurable part of a life, otherwife blameless," his friend confiders "the promptitude of adopting an opinion and tenacious retention of it," a failing remarked with cenfure by the faculty in confultations. Some propofitions pro duced by Dr. Franklin, in a conference with Dr. Fothergill and another gentleman, juft before the former left England, but which were thought to demand too much, are here inferted; and that the laudable exertions of the physician and the patriot were thus unhappily fiuftrated," cannot be enough lamented. Other endeavours for conciliation, ufed by our doctor, do equal honour to his head and heart.-Dr. Franklin's opinion of him appears from the following letter to ******, dated Pally, Feb. 12, 1781:

"DEAR SIR,

"I condole with you most fincerely on the lofs of our dear friend, Dr. Fothergill. I hope that fome one, who knew him well, will do juffice to s memory by an account of his life and character. He was a great doer of good. How much he might have done, and how much mischief prevented, if his, your, and my joint endeavours, in a certain MELANCHOLY AFFAIR, had been a little atrended to!

On the whole, the life of this great philanthropist feems indeed to have been one continued feries of doing good. For

the particulars we muft refer to his friend and biographer, who has delineated his character con amore, but, we doubt not, with the fricteft regard to truth. As a fpecimen we will felect a defcription of the doctor's plantations near Stratford.

"The whole estate at Upton, purchafed in 1762 or 1763, was extenfive; the feat was formerly called Rooke-hall, from the name of the perfon who poffefféd it in 1566; and in 1666 it defcended to Sir Robert Smyth, from whofe family it was purchased, almoft a century afterwards, by Admiral Elliot; of Dr. Fothergill. The walls of the garden and in August 1762 it became the property inclofed above five acres of land; a winding canal, in the figure of a crefcent, nearly formed it into two divifions, and opened occafionally on the fight, through the branches

of rare and exotic fhrubs that lined the walks on its banks. In the midst of winter, when the earth was covered with fnow, evergreens were cloathed in full verdure: without expofure to the open air, a glass door from the mansion-houfe gave entrance into a fuite of hot and green-houfe apartments, of nearly 260 feet extent, containing upwards of 3400 diftinct species of exotice, whofe foliage wore and Ariking contraft to the thrivelled natives a perpetual verdure, and formed a beautiful of colder regions. In the open ground, with the returning fummer, about 3000 diftinct fpecies of plants and thrubs vied in verdure with the natives of Afia and Africa. It was in this fpot that a perpetual fpring was realifed; where the elegant proprietor fometimes retired for a few hours, to contemplate the vegetable productions of the four quarters of the globe, united within his domain; where tic circle to be joined to the Equator. the spheres feemed tranfpofed, and the Arce

"But in the midft of this enchanting combination of nature, he never lost fight of the cui bono? "In thefe, as in every other pur→ "fuit, he had always in view the enlarge 4ment and elevation of his own heart; "having formed early habitudes of religious "reference, from the difplay of divine power "and wisdom in the beauty, the order, and "the harmony of external things, to the "glory of their Almighty Former. From "the influences of thefe habitudes, his mind "was always preferved in a difengaged and "independent fiate, enjoying, but yet a "doring *."

Dr. Hird's Affectionate Tribute to the 1 am

Memory of Dr. Fothergill, p: 13. forry to add here, that this excellent phyfi cian and agreable companion did not long furvive this Tribure to his honoured friend and relation. At the time of his decease he was phyfician to the Leeds Infirmary."

Ms.