nent of North-America. By virtue of these last words Mr. Turner was at liberty to hunt out the largest table of fees that could be found in the richest provinces of North America, (as for inftance, in Penfylvania, Virginia, or South-Carolina,) and make it the ftandard of thofe he was authorized to demand for himfelf in this poor province of Quebeck, or, perhaps, to compose a new table of fees that should be found to be taken in feveral different provinces of North-America: for the words of this part of the commiffion are fo loose and general, that it is difficult to afcertain their true meaning, as you will eafily perceive when I repeat them. They are as follow; "with all fees rights, profits, privileges, and advantages whatfoever, thereunto belonging, in as full and ample manner as any other provost-marfhal of any of our provinces or colonies, in North-America does hold and enjoy, or of right ought to hold and enjoy the fame." Thus Canada (which was at that time a poor province, and in which the people had been used to pay very low fees of office of every kind; I mean fuch as were low even for a poor province ;) was at once, in this negligent manner, made liable to pay as great fees as the richest province of North-America for every thing done in the office of provost-marshal,, that is, in the execution of the judgements and orders of all the courts of juftice in the province; and this for the private benefit of an English gentleman, who had no intention of coming over to Canada to execute the office himself, but who was permitted to farm it out to his deputies for the best price he could get. It is no wonder this proceeding was complained of by the Canadians Now the conduct which ought to have been purfued on this occafion was very obvious. An inftruction fhould have been fent to governour Murray aud the council of the province, to inquire in the first place, what were the fees paid by the people of Canada for the execution of the feveral proceffes of the courts of civil judicature and for the other branches of a provof-marfhal's duty, in the time of the French government, and make a report of them to his majefty; and, 2dly, to report their opinion concerning the fees which the faid people could then afford to pay, and would readily confent to pay for those fervices; and 3dly, what the annual amount of fuch fees would probably be; and, 4thly, whether it would be moft convenient to have, one provolt marshal, or fheriff, for the whole province, or to divide the province (which was very large) into two or three districts (as in the time of the French government it had been divided into three diftricts,) and appoint a feparate officer of this kind to each diftrict; and, 5thly, whether in their opinion, the amount of the fees which the Canadians had been used to. pay under the French government, or which they could then eafily afford, and would chearfully confent, to pay, would be fufficient to induce capable and refponfible perfons, refident in the province, and acquainted with the French as well as the English English language, to undertake thefe offices; and, if these fee were not fufficient for that purpofe, to report to his majesty their opinion of the quantum of the falaries which it would be neceffary to annex to thefe offices, over and above the faid moderate fees, in order to induce fuch capable and refponfible perfons to undertake them. When these things had been carefully enquired into, and fully reported to his majefty, by the governour and council of the province, it would have been proper to ap point one or more provoft-marshals, or fheriffs, (as fhould have been thought neceffary,) who fhould have been conftantly refident in the province and well acquainted with both the French and English languages, with moderate falaries, if neceffary, and a power to take fuch very moderate fees as fhould have been fet down in a lift allowed by his majesty's order in his privy-council for that purpose after the inquiry and report of the governour and council of the province above-mentioned; and without any power to make a deputy, except upon very particular occafions, as in cafes of fickness; and then with the governour's licence. All this appears to me to be fo plain, that I fhould have thought one hour's attention to the subject would have fuggefted it to any man.' -But, if the patent had been ever fo correct in the wording of it, and had even set forth a lift of the fees which it had enabled the provoft-marshal to demand, (as it ought to have done); and if this province had been rich inftead of poor; and these fees had been very moderate, and fuch as the Canadians could have afforded to pay; yet I fhould ftill have thought that the granting of this office to a perfon who was to refide in England, and to execute it by a deputy, would have been a wrong meafure, and unjuft towards the inhabitants of this province. For why should we Canadians be forced to pay a tax, (under the form and name of fees,) for the maintenance, or convenience of an English gentleman refiding in the county of Suffex? For every part of the fees we pay to any officer, beyond what is fufficient for a reward to the acting perfon who really does the duty of the office, is, in truth, a tax upon the subject for the support of an idle man: and, whenever the fees of an office are fo great and fo numerous that a proper and fufficient man can be found that is willing to act as a deputy in the office for a part of the profits of it, and confequently to pay a farm-rent to the principal officer for the privilege of acting as his deputy, the fees of that office, (however fmall they may be,) are too great by just fo much as contributes to produce the rent paid to the principal officer, and ought, in point of juftice, to be reduced fo far as to annihilate that rent.' The renewal of the diffenfions in America is not improperly, perhaps, afcribed to the imprudence of sending the company's tea thither, which the Americans threw into the boiling kettle of Neptune. Hi motus animorum, atque hæc certamina tanta, In fine, if what has been fo often faid already, were not here repeated for the twentieth time; and if this publication were a small pamphlet, inftead of a large octavo volume, it would have its merit and ufe. As it is, notwithstanding the performance feems to be well-intended, and is well-written, we fear the patriotism of few readers will stimulate them to attack fo bulky a work. An Hiftorical Effay on the Dropfy; By Richard Wilkes, M. D. To which is added an Appendix, by N. D. Falck, M. D. 8v.. 65. in boards. Law. THIS HIS treatife is a pofthumous work, written many years ago by Dr. Wilkes, a phyfician in Staffordshire. The author dying in 1760, the manufcript, with his library, came into the poffeffion of a reverend gentleman in the neighbourhood, who being well acquainted with the doctor's hand-writing, carefully tranfcribed it for the prefs; a task rendered neceffary on account of the frequent interlineations which occurred. As this effay contains a clear and copious enquiry into the fubject, it doubtlefs was worthy of being published, though we do not find that it is enriched with any new observations of importance. After mentioning the different kinds of dropfies, the author delivers the anatomical hiftory of perfons afflicted with the disease, collected from various authors. Making on those cafes fome curfory obfervations, he proceeds to confider the causes and figns of a dropfy; reciting afterwards an account of fuch hydropical patients as have been cured by fimple medicines, and then delineating the more scientific method of cure, both by internal and external means. The following extract may ferve as a fpecimen of the work. The ancients fay little about vomits, efpecially thofe of the rougher kind, in the cure of a dropfy, Themifon began the cure of an afcites with a vomit of fquills or hellebore, and ordered it to be repeated three times in a month. C. Celfus fays, if the belly fwells with pain, it is neceffary to vomit every day,. or every other day, after dinner. Here I fuppofe this author must be understood of fuch mild emeties only, as occafion the ftomach to part with its contents eafily, and fo take away that fulnefs and diftention fo troublesome to the patient. Many approve of gentle vomits at the beginning of a dropfy, both before and after meat, but forbid ftrong ones, for they weaken very greatly. • Her Hercules the Saxon, fufpects ftrong vomits; for ift, If they do not fucceed, the peritoneum, he fays, may be broken: zd, The force of the water upwards may endanger fuffocation; and Nicolas Florentinus mentions one who died by this operation. Barbette difapproves of ftrong vomits in this diforder, for thefe following reafons: 1ft, They difturb the fick, and make them fainty: 2d, They weaken the ftomach, fo that it never after digefts its food as it ought. This he had often observed, and concludes thus, let other men do as they please, for my part, 1 neither love nor order them. Sir Theod. Mayerne condemns rough vomits in this distemper, especially thofe made of ftibium; and fays, When the ftomach naufeates what it takes, fo as to require a vomit it should not be ftronger than fome preparation of vitriol, or the ripe feeds of the greater cataputia, made with almonds into the form of an emulfion. Etmuller however, is of opinion, that weak vomits will not work upon dropfical perfons, either becaufe of the atonia or weaknefs of the ftomach, or elfe because the medicines are altered, and fixed as it were by the falfo-acid ferofities contained therein; and therefore they ought, he says, to be ftrong, and given in a large dofe. Metro This author is the first who recommends ftrong vomits, and his reafons for fo doing are here produced, which in my opinion. are very indifferent ones. For many people in dropfics are very much inclined of themselves to vomit; fo that warm water alone. is fufficient to bring up the contents of the ftomach. doras, as we obferved above from Celfus, cured his thirst and his dropfy, by abflaining as long as he could from all forts of liquids, and then drinking a fufficient quantity of any liquor to make him vomit; but he does not fo much as hint that he made ufe of any medicine in this diforder to procure the desired effect. Dr. Sydenham, I fuppofe, from the foregoing authority, recommends, and is extremely pleafed with an infufion of crocus metallorum, commonly called vinum benedictum, given to gifs, or 3j. every morning, as the ftrength of the patient will allow. He relates a hillory of a poor woman to whom he gave fix dofes at leaft of this his favourite medicine, without doing her any manner of fervice, as far as I am able to judge. For he confeffes, that by this means the vapours were raised in her to a very great degree, and that he could not make a cure of her till he had recourfe to fuch purges as are accounted fpecifics in dropfical diforders. This method has found but little encouragement among the learned, as being, I fuppofe too rough, and feldom or never give ing relief. Dr. Sydenham himfelf, to do him juftice, feems to have been convinced of his error in being too fond of this medi cine, as well as fyrup of buckthorn; for in his proceffus integri, which was written as the latter end of his days for the inftruction of his own fon, he does not fo much as mention this kind of evacuation in the cure of a dropfy, which he furely would, if he had found it fo neceffary as he once apprehended it to be. The great Boerhave indeed fays, Aphor. 1245, that the vomits made ufe of in this diftemper fhould be ftrong and often repeated. But as he gives no reafon for this practice, nor any hiftory of cures wrought by it, we may look upon it as a gratis dictum, fupported only by his own great name, and that of Etmuller and Sydenham, If I may be allowed to fpeak in this controverfy, I must fay, that neither in my reading or practice, did I ever meet with a dropfical cafe, which was cured by ftrong emetics; but. have fometimes known them do harm. Foreftus tells us of a perfon that was cured of a dropfy by vomiting; but then medicines had no hand in it, for this was only caused by the fhip's motion, the patient having been adviled to go to fea. Very juftly, therefore, in my opinion, does M. Lifter difapprove this way of proceeding by frong vomits, for thefe following reafons: 1ft, Becaufe that great practitioner Sir Theod. Mayerne, as we before obferved, condemned rough vomits; and I think I may fafely add, that all the antient and many modern phyficians do the fame. 2d, Thefe kind of medicines increafe thirst, and occafion the patient to drink too much. 3d, Such an operation muft with great difficulty be undergone by perfons fo fhort breathed as thofe generally are who are much fwelled with a dropfy. 4th, More water may be difcharged by fool than can poffibly be carried off by this method. 5th, To thefe give me leave to add a fifth, which is the great danger there must be of burfing the lymphatics and other veffels, too much already ftuffed with vifcid and fizy humours. Fabr. Hildanus gives us a hiftory of a girl that was killed by a dofe of crocus metallorum in powder, the omentum being burst in the lower part of it by the violence of the operation; of a woman who lost her hearing by a dofe of vinum benedi&um; and of another who became a fool, after a ftrong vomit given her by an empiric: fo that with good reafon he bids us be cautious in giving ftrong vomits in cachectic and dropfical cafes.. I myfelf knew a colonel of the army, who had a jaundice, afcites, anafarcous fwellings of the legs, &c. for which he was advised to take, fome oxymel of fquills. He was in all appearance, when he took it, as well as he had been for fome days, before; he bore the operation well, and feemed relieved, but died fuddenly in, lefs than an hour's time. There was about a gallon of water found in his belly. Riverius fays, that in dropfies of the womb women should be vomited twice a week; but he does not say what kind of mes dicines fhould be ufed, whether rough ones, or those that are more mild and gentle in their operations. For my own part, I never durft give any ftronger emetic in a dropfy than oxymel of fquills. This is a fafe and good medicine, and may be frequently be repeated without doing any damage to the ftomach, provided the lymphatics are not burft. |