About this time, they procured a bottle of the water from a noted medicinal fpring in Brea-mar, of which they endeavoured to make her swallow a little, but in vain. With the water that escaped from her mouth in those attempts, however, they rubbed her throat and jaws, and continued this practice three mornings. On the third morning, during this operation, The cried, Give me more water,' when all that remained in the bottle was given her, which she swallowed with ease. These were the only words the spoke for almost a year, and fhe continued to mutter fome more, for twelve or fourteen days; after which she spoke none, and rejected, as formerly, all forts of food and drink, till fome time in the month of July 1765, when by fome figns which the made, her fifter thought the wanted her jaws opened. This her father effected, not without violence, by putting the handle of a horn fpoon between her teeth. She faid then intelligibly, give me a drink;' and drank with eafe, at one draught, about an English pint of water. On being asked, why he would not make fome figns, though she could not speak, when she wanted a drink? She answered, why fhould the when he had no defire.

For four years preceding the date of this narrative, her family has not been fenfible that any thing has paffed over her throat, except the small draught of Brea-mar water, and the English pint of common water; and for the last three years, fhe has not had any evacuation by ftoo! or urine, except that once or twice a week she passed a few drops of urine, about as much, as the parents express it, as would wet the surface of a halfpenny; fmall as which quantity is, it gives her fome uneafiness till the voids it. What affords matter of aftonishment, her countenance is clear and fresh, her features not disfigured nor funk, her skin feels natural, both as to touch and warmth, and her body is not in the leaft emaciated.

Such was the extraordinary fituation of this woman, in the year 1757, as related by Dr. Mackenzie, who in October 1772, being informed that the patient was recovering, visited her, and found her condition to be as follows.

About a year preceding this last date, her parents one day returning from their country labours (having left their daughter as for fome years before fixed to their bed) were greatly furprized to find her fitting on her hams, on the fide of the house oppofite to her bed-place, fpinning with her mother's diftaff. I asked, whether the ever ate or drank? whether she had any of the natural evacuations? whether the ever spoke or attempted to speak; And was answered, that the fometimes crumbled a bit of oat or barley cake in the palm of her hand,

as

as if to feed a chicken; that he put little crumbs of this into the gap of her teeth, rolled them about for fome time in her mouth, and then fucked out of the palm of her hand a little water, whey, or milk; and this once or twice a day, and even that by compulfion; that the egefta were in proportion to the ingefta; that he never attempted to speak; that her jaws were ftill faft-locked, her ham-ftrings tight as before, and her eyes fhut. On my opening her eye-lids, I found her eye balls turned up under the edge of the os frontis, her countenance ghaftly, her complexion pale, her fkin fhrivelled and dry, and her whole perfon rather emaciated; her pulse with the utmost difficulty to be felt. She feemed sensible and tractable in every thing, except in taking food; for, at my request, she went through her different exercifes, fpinning on the diftaff, and crawling about on her hams, by the wall of the house, with the help of her hands: but when he was defired to eat, she fhewed the greatest reluctance, and indeed cried before she yielded; and this was no more than, as I have faid, to take a few crumbs as to feed a bird, and to fuck half a spoonful of milk from the palm of her hand. On the whole, her existence was little less wonderful now than when I first saw her, when fhe had not swallowed the smallest particle of food for years together. I attributed her thinnefs and wan complexion, that is the great change of her looks from what I had first seen when fixed to her bed, to her exhaufting too much of the Jaliva by fpinning flax on the diftaff, and therefore recommended her being totally confined to fpinning wool: this fhe does with equal dexterity as fhe did the flax. The above was her fituation in October, 1772; and within these eight days I have been told by a neighbour of her father's, that she still continues in the fame way, without any addition to her fupport, and without any additional ailment.'

The fecond article treats of the usefulness of washing and rubing the stems of trees, to promote their increase. The former of those methods had been recommended by Dr. Hales, the other by Mr. Evelyn; and both feem to be attended with fuccefs..

Number III. Difcoveries on the Sex of Bees, explaining the Manner in which their Species is propagated. By Mr. John Debraw, at Cambridge.

The bees have in all ages afforded fubjects of enquiry to curious naturalifts, who are divided in opinion, with refpe&t to the manner in which those infects are propagated. The more ancient observers concluded, perhaps from analogy, that the fpecies was perpetuated by copulation, though, in support of this idea, they never were able to obtain any ocular proof, The

O 3

The fagacious Swammerdam hence entertained a notion, that the female or queen bee was fecundated without copulation; and that a vivifying aura, exhaling from the body of the males, and abforbed by the female, might impregnate her eggs. On this fubje&t, the celebrated Reamur and Maraldi have alfo made many curious obfervations; in confequence of which they infer, that the queen is the only female in the hive, and the mother of the fucceeding generation; that the drones are the males by which she is fecundated; and that the working bees are of neither sex. Mr. Schirach, a German naturalist, on the contrary affirms, that all the common bees are females in difguife, in which the natural organs of the fex, particularly the ovaria, are obliterated, or at least, through their excessive minuteness, have not yet been obferved; and that every one of these bees, in the earlier period of its exiftence, is capable of becoming a queen-bee, if the community fhould nurse it in a particular manner, and raise it to that rank. Mr. Debraw, the author of this paper, who had begun to make his obfervations on bees two years before Mr. Schirach's opinion, was known to the public, coincides in his fentiments with that naturalift; in which he appears to be fufficiently authorised by the experiments he has made. Of thofe, however, we fhall not enter into any detail, but for farther information, refer the curious reader to the work.

Number IV. An Account of a Portrait of Copernicus.

Number V. An Account of a Journey into Africa from the Cape of Good Hope, and a Defcription of a new Species of Cuckow. Dr. Andreas Sparrman, who performed this journey, acquaints us that he has made many obfervations on the indigenous animals in Africa, which he intends to publish very foon. Mean while he gives an account of the cuculus indicator, a fpecies of cuckow, the most remarkable quality of which is, that it discovers to travellers wild honey, which is its favourite food.

Number VI. An Account of fome new electrical Experiments. Thofe experiments were made by Mr. Cavallo, and are related in the Treatife under his Name, of which we took Notice in our laft Review.

Number VII. A third Effay on Sca-anemonies. By the Abbé Dicquemane.

Number VIII. Experiments and Obfervations in Electricity. We are here prefented with remarks on the effects of lamp-black and tar, or lamp-black and oil, as protectors of bodies from the ftroke of lightning; with an account of fimilar effects produced by experiments, in the artificial electricity. Allo obfervations on the electricity of chocolate; with obfer

vations

vations on fome new and fingular phenomena in excited and charged glafs, and experiments farther illuftrating the Franklinian theory of the Leyden bottle.

[To be continued. ]

A Treatise on byflerical and hypochondriacal Difeafes. Tranflated from the French of Dr. Pomme, by John Berkenhout, M. D. 8vo. 5s. boards. Elmfly.

THOUGH different opinions have been entertained concern

ing the proximate cause of hysterical and hypochondriacal complaints, phyficians have generally been unanimous in regard to the method of cure, which, confidered in a palliative view, they fuppofe to be beft accomplished by the ufe of nervous medicines. In the treatife before us, however, thofe remedies are exploded; and the author fubftitutes in their room a new therapeutic procefs, affirmed to have been adopted with extraordinary benefit, in a great variety of cafes. It would feem as if Dr. Pomme had introduced this innovation, in confequence of a preconceived hypothefis, respecting the cause of hysterical and hypochondriacal difeafes, both which he afcribes to a racorniffement des nerfs. This opinion, we must confefs, appears extremely improbable, efpecially as being inconfiftent with the reputed effects of fuch means as are moft fuccessfully used in the radical cure of those diseases. But whatever may be the fate of the doctrine, experience, and not arguments drawn from doubtful theory, muft determine the utility of the practice which the author recommends. Of his method of cure, we meet with an abftract in the following paffage.

• Far from endeavouring to brace the nerves by ftrong and violent remedies, we fhall endeavour to relax them by contrary means. Thus we shall restore the elafticity of the folids, and confequently their harmony with the fluids. A moistening and diluting plan appears to me, not only the moft proper, but the only means required: viz. fimple or compound, tepid or cold bathing, pediluvium, glifters of cold water, or even ice, as the particular cafe or feafon may require; fomentations with emollient herbs, cooling ptifans, veal or chicken water, whey clarified or diftilled, broth made of pullet or turtle, of lamb, of calf's pluck, or of frogs. Oily, fweetening and mucilaginous draughts, and acid mineral waters. I shall never have

recourfe to the fuppofed anti-hyfteric or anti-fpafmodic medicines; fuch as the tincture of caftor, oil of amber, camphire, affafoetida, mufk, balm, mugworth, valerian, &c. with an infinity of emenagogues, bitters, carminatives, and gentle purgatives. Thefe remedies, though wonderfully efficacious

in various disorders, muft neceffarily, in the cafes I have defcribed, be of pernicious confequence; because they serve no other purpose than to add fire to a flame already too violent, and which ought on the contrary to be extinguished by mild and gentle means.'

The author afterwards recites his method of practice more particularly, in a variety of cafes both of the hysteric and hypochondriac kind, which were treated with fuccefs. The chapter on hysteric fhiverings may ferve as a fpecimen of the

work.

Amongst the various fymptoms of hysteric diseases, we comprehend that fenfation of cold and heat by which every part of the body is at different times affected. Some patients complain of a troublesome fenfe of cold in fome one particular part of the body, and others fuffer univerfal cold, in spite of all their precautions to guard against the inclemencies of the air. The cause of this fymptom is evidently proved, by the different effects of my remedies from those of a contrary nature, which were previously adminiftered to the patient who is the fubject of the next cafe.

A lady of fome rank in this town, about forty years of age, was for many years afflicted with a fenfation of univerfal cold, which obliged her to clothe even in the hottest dog-days, as carefully as others in the midst of winter. In spite of all her precaution to preferve herself from cold, fhe was equally fenfible of its effect. The exceffive heat of the ftove in her chamber, together with a bed warmed and immoderately covered, being found infufficient, fhe at laft fought medical affiftance.

The first phyfician fhe faw, pronounced her disease to be the effect of obftructed perspiration, which he accordingly endeavoured to reftore. Bleeding, cathartics and fudorifics were alternately employed, but without effect. The infufficiency however of these remedies made no alteration in the curative ideas of the phyfician, for he ordered the fand bath. Before it was administered, I was confulted.

By the inefficacy of the remedies which the patient had already tried for a long time, and by certain hyfterical fymptoms which I difcovered in the account fhe gave of herself, I immediately perceived that her diforder was hyflerical. The fpafmodic tenfion of the nerves which terminate in the skin, was the only caufe which I had to encounter. The warm bath feemed likely to answer all my expectations, as it would, in all probability, relax the texture of the fkin, open the pores, and by this means, reftore the circulation of the fluids therein fecreted. The patient preferred it to the fand bath;