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made them more agreeable to Scripture, as I conceived. My father at this was very highly enraged, and his paffion arofe to fo great a height, upon my defending my confeffion, and refusing to read the established form, that he called me 5 the most impious and execrable of wretches, and with violence drove me from his prefence. Soon after, however, he fent me Lord Nottingham's Letter to Mr. Whiston, and • defired I would come, to him when I had carefully read it over. I did fo; and he asked me what I thought of the book. I answered, that I thought it a weak piece; and if he would hear me with patience, in relation to that in particular, and to the cafe in general, perhaps, he might think my religion a little better than at present he supposed it to be. I will hear you, he faid: proceed. Then I immediately began, and for a full hour repeated an apology I had prepared. He did not interrupt me once; and when I had done, all he replied was, I fee you are to be placed among ⚫ the incurables. Begone, he faid, with stern disdain; and I refolved to obey. Indeed it was impoffible for me to stay, for my father took no farther notice of me, and my motherin-law, and the boy, did all they could invent to render my life miferable.

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On the first day of May then, early in the morning, as the clock ftruck one, I mounted my excellent mare, and with my boy, O'Fin, began to journey as I had projected, on feeing how things went. I did not communicate my design to a foul, nor take my leave of any one, but in the true fpirit of adventure, abandoned my father's dwelling, and fet out to try what fortune would produce in my favour. "I had the world before me, and Providence my guide. As to my substance, it confifted of a purfe of gold, that contained fifty Spanish piftoles, and half a score moidores; and I had a bank note for five hundred pounds, which my dear Mifs Noel left me by her will, the morning fhe fickened ; and it was all the bad of her own to leave to any one. With this I fet forward, and in five days time arrived, from the western extremity of Ireland, at a village called RingsEnd, that lies on the Bay of Dublin. Three days I rested there, and at the Conniving-houfe, and then got my horfes on board a fhip that was ready to fail, and bound for, the land I was born in, I mean Old England,' b

And now, having fhipped our Author for his native clime, we shall take our leave of him, for the prefent, to make room for a work of a very different kind; our mention of which,

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has been but too long delayed: however, we hope, the ex traordinary addition lately made to the number of our sheets, will foon enable us to pay off the whole of our arrear to the public.

A Treatife on Ruptures. By Percival Pott, Surgeon to St. Bar tholomew's Hofpital. 8vo. 4s. Hitch and Hawes.

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Na former occafion we mentioned the Venereal Difeafe as one of the principal refources of Empiricism; Ruptures may, with great propriety, be arranged under the fame Predicament. The boafted pretences of fecrets for the cure of the latter, have not been lefs numerous than for the former; and it will, perhaps, be difficult to determine, whether the pretenders to the one are entitled to the honour of having facrificed more victims than the profeffors of the other. But experience has clearly fhewn, that moft of these secrets, however countenanced, however applauded, whatever great feats their original poffeffors afcribed to them, have no fooner been difclofed, but they have fallen into contempt. If inftances of this kind, were neceffary, or convenient for us to enumerate, multitudes might be produced: let it fuffice to mention two remarkable ones; that of the Prior Cabriere, whofe arcanum was purchased, at no inconfiderable expence, about the latter end of the last century, by Lewis XIV; and in our own country, that of Sir Thomas Renton's, for which he was paid by his late Majefty 5000l. befides a pension of 500l. a year, and the honour of Knighthood.

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That Credulity has not loft its influence, or Pretenders to Phyfic their affurance, the public still daily experience. To re• move the prejudice against the profeffion (with regard to Rup⚫tures) which the repeated affertions of advertising Quacks has raised, and which a perfect ignorance of the nature of the difeafe, and the parts concerned in it, ftill fupports,' is one profeffed defign of the work now under our confideration.

Nor has our Author unaptly traced the probable source of this prevailing credulity: To labour,' fays he, under a • troublesome diforder, in the most active and joyous part of life, and to be told that a palliative cure, by wearing a bandage, is all that can be expected, is very difagreeable; the true reafon of this, they [the patients] are not acquainted ⚫ with, and are easily induced to believey what is infinuated

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The first comprehends thofe which are in fuch a ftate as to be capable of immediate reduction, and are not attended by any troublefome or bad fymptoms.-The fecond, thofe, which have been fo long in the fcrotum, as to have contracted adhefions, and connections, by which they are rendered incapable of reduction at all. The third, thofe in which fuch a ftricture is made on the prolapfed parts, as to bring on pain and trouble; and to render the reduction difficult, as well as neceflary.The fourth, thofe in which reduction, by the fimple operation of the hand, is impracti cable, and the patient's life can be faved only by a furgical operation. The directions given for the management of Ruptures, under each of thefe feveral circumftances, feem plain, practicable, and promife to be generally fuccefsful In the laft, our Author recommends the operation fomewhat earfier than is commonly practifed; but ftill with this reftrictions that it fhould not be undertaken wantonly, or unneceffarily, but only to preferve life, by removing the hazard of a mor tification arifing from the ftricture in which he agrees with preceding writers, on the fame fubject, particularly Du retus and Hildanus. from od obali smoldagn

In the 6th and 7th fections, the neceflary indications arifing from the ftate of the contained parts, as they may be found or unfound, are treated; and in fection eight, Raptures through the abdominal rings of females.subui viites 210 by d

Section the 9th is appropriated to the Crural Hernia; and in the 10th is confidered, the cafe of a Hernial Sac, free from REV. Nov. 1756.

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all connection with the Tunica Vaginalis, and Spermatic Chord, being returned into the Abdomen, while a portion of the inteftine, included within it, is ftrangulated by a stricture made on it, by its neck or entrance. A cafe, perhaps, not fo uncommon as our Author feems to apprehend it.

Section the 11th contains a concise hiftory of the feveral attempts and contrivances that have been made, at different times, for effecting a radical cure. Of these are particularly fpecified, the actual cautery; cauftics of different forts; caftration; the Punctum Aureum; the royal ftitch or future; and the cure by incifion. A fhort account is given of the method of performing these feveral operations, and of their refpective authors and efpoufers. Mr. Pott has mentioned fome reasonable objections to each of these practices; but, perhaps, it may be thought, by medical Readers, fomewhat peculiar, that among the Writers quoted on this occafion, no mention is made of Fienus.

The Exomphalos, Hernia Ventralis, and Hernia Cyftica, employ the three remaining fections: but as the fubject cannot be prefumed capable of affording the higheft entertainment to the generality of our Readers, we shall content ourselves

with the bare mention of them.

Upon the whole, Mr. Pott has not incompetently executed his defign; the more unexperienced practitioners may, probably draw fome useful inftructions from his work; neverthelefs we cannot recommend the repofing too implicit a confidence in all his directions. Books, properly employed, muft affift and improve even the able operator; but ocular obfervation, and repeated experience, are equally neceflary to render reading truly beneficial. At the fame time it may not be amifs to remark, that, tho' Mr. Pott has done great, and no more than due, justice to the late improvements in chirurgical operations, yet candour will admit, that the antients are entitled to no little applaufe for their accounts of this disease; a difeafe common to all ages, ever fince the art of healing, in any of its branches, has become a particular profeffion.

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Readers on medical fubjects, should be more especially cautioned, not to efpoufe opinions, or practice, upon truft: our Author's remark upon a particular clafs of writers, is pertinent; and may be extended to other topics befide Ruptures. • fervation-Writers,' fays he, who are, in general, too much addicted to tell their fucceffes only, are fond of relating gangrenous cafes, from which large portions of inteftines have been removed, the proper operations performed

with great dexterity, and the cafes brought to a happy iffue; and of these they all give us inftances, either from practice, from books, or, perhaps, from imagination; by which the young Reader is made too fanguine in his expectations. That thefe extraordinary fucceffes have fometimes happened, is beyond all doubt; and it is every man's duty to endeavour at the fame, when fuch cafes occur to him; but the inexperienced practitioner fhould alfo be informed, how many fink for one that is recovered; and how many lucky circumftances must concur, with all his pains, to produce a happy event, in thefe deplorable cafes: without this caution, he will meet with very irkfome difappointments, and having been often baffled, where he thought he had reafon to expect • fuccefs, will fometimes meet with it fo very unexpectedly, that he will be inclined to think the farcaftical diftinction be⚫tween cures and escapes, not ill founded.'

One of the declared purposes of this publication has been already mentioned; the other is, the inftruction of young practitioners. In order to have rendered fo laudable an intention generally effectual, it would have been no more than right, to have prevented the fame matter, which, in a proper manner of printing, would scarce have exceeded a twelve-penny pamphlet, from fwelling to a four-fhilling volume. In this we are unwilling to fuppofe the Author to have had any immediate concern; but the fight of fuch a page, is apt to put one in mind of an office-copy of a bill in Chancery, where words are paid for in proportion to their numbers.

An Enquiry into the Occafional and Standing Similitudes of the Lord God, in the Old and New Teftament; or, the Forms made use of by Jehovah Aleem, to reprefent themselves to the true Believers, before and fince the Law by Mofes. 8vo. 45. fewed. Withers.

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HE firft part of this work, as far as page 78, is employed in giving an account of the word Angel; to fhew, that the Angel of the Lord is an affumed Appearance of God, who calls himfelf by that name, and fpeaks, and acts, as if he were the numerical perfon or perfons. But concerning these Appearances, we have already, in the first Article for this Month, said so much, that we believe our Readers will excufe us from adding any more to it, out of this book. From page 78, to 222, this Author treats of the Che

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