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ART. XXVIII.

Obfervations générales fur les Maladies des Climats chauds, &c. i. e. General Obfervations on Difeafes that reign in warm Climates, the Caufes whence they proceed, the Method of treating them, and the Means of preventing them. By M. D'AZILLE, the King's Phyfician at St. Domingo, and correfpondent Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine. 8vo. Paris. 1785. THOUGH this fenfible, learned, and humane phyfician con

fines his obfervations to the island where he refides; yet he gives many ufeful leffons in regard to other parts of the world. He paints, in lively colours, the bad management of the French hofpitals, which is fo fatal to the health and wellbeing of the colonifts, and fhews how these establishments ought to be regulated in all countries, in order to answer the falutary purposes for which they are erected. It is alleged as a general defect in the French hofpitals, at home as well as abroad, that thofe patients who are in a ftate of recovery, are not removed to a separate apartment from the fick and the dying; and that thus, breathing the infected air of the hofpital, they often relapfe into a ftate worse than that in which they were before. The management of the French hospitals in the colonies is let out to undertakers, who, to fill their purses, turn the hospitals into charnel-houfes, and are, indeed, undertakers in every fense of that word. We do better, it is to be hoped; but let us do better ftill.

ART. XXIX.

Hiftoria Politica de los Eftablicimientos, &c. i. e. A political Hiftory of the tranfmarine Settlements of the European Nations. By Odoardo Malo of Lucca. Volumes I. and II. 8vo. Madrid. 1785. THIS HIS work is recommended to curiofity by the importance and extent of its fubject, and the high rank and literary merit of its Author *. But as we have not the original at hand, we here communicate to our Readers the account of it that hath appeared in a foreign journal.

In the introduction, the noble Author gives his readers a general idea, and a methodical enumeration of the commercial fettlements and colonies of ancient nations; alfo an account of the fucceffive ftate of thefe nations, from the earliest hiftory to the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, and the ifles and continent of the new world.

It may be almoft confidently affirmed, that the first emigrations were made by land; that a long space of time elapsed before any people were fo intrepid as to attempt a paflage over the

*We have no doubt that this is the work of the Duke d'Almadovar, formerly minister from Madrid at the British court.

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waves

waves to diftant and unknown regions, and that, even when the art of navigation had opened a communication between countries which the ocean had feparated, the progrefs of that art, from its first discovery to the entire establishment of the Roman empire, was flow and imperfect. The ancients had fcarcely any knowledge of thofe extenfive countries that lie to the east of Germany, and ftill lefs were they acquainted with the vast regions that form at prefent the kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, Pruffia, Poland, and the Ruffian empire. In Africa their knowledge was confined to the countries which form the coafts of the Mediterranean, and to thofe that are fituated on the western borders of the Red Sea. In Afia they knew nothing of the rich and fertile provinces beyond the Ganges; nor do we find that they vifited the vaft regions of Tartary, formerly occupied by the wandering tribes of Sarmatians and Scythians: nevertheless the progrefs that they made in commerce and navigation, poor and fcanty as their geographical knowledge was, justly excites the admiration of our Author. The account of their efforts and difcoveries, in the introduction to this work, is accurate; but Dr. Robertfon left nothing new to be faid on that fubject.

Book I. of the work itself, is divided into eight chapters, and contains the firft maritime trials of the Portuguese in the Atlantic Ocean, the progreffive growth of their marine, their arrival in India, China, and Japan, the flourishing state of their navigation, and its decline. The principal facts, relative to this branch of history, are well known; and we have an elegant fummary of them given by the celebrated writer above mentioned in his introduction to the Hiftory of America. But our Author's circumftantial narrative of the Portuguese voyages is truly interefting, and exhibits a pleafing view of the knowledge and talents by which the operations of these adventurers were conducted, and of the fpirit and genius of the royal patrons by whom they were encouraged and protected.

The fecond book, which alfo contains eight chapters, is entirely taken up with Dutch hiftory; and it is one of the moft interesting and inftructive of the whole work. We can never represent to ourselves a Spaniard writing or reading of the rife. and progrefs of this republic without biting his lips: and yet we fee here the Duke d'Almadovar relating, with as much impartiality and temper as could be expected from human and national infirmity, the exploits and revolutions of the Dutch, the foundation of their republic, their firft voyages to the Eaft, their wars with the Portuguese, their conquefts in the ifles and on the continent of Afia, the eftablishment of their East India Company, and other objects of Belgic policy and commerce.

The third book, with which the fecond volume commences, relates to the commercial fettlements and conquefts of the English in the Eaft Indies.

APP. Rev. Vol. LXXV.

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In the first chapter we have an account of the commerce that was carried on in the British ifles, from the time of the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Gauls. The noble Author paffes here in review the principal epochas of English hiftory, the firft British navigators, the establishment of the English Company, and the expedition of Lanc after, who fet fail in the year 1601, and arrived the year following at Achem, a famous port at that time. The fuccefsful voyage and happy return of this able officer determined the Company to form fettlements in India. The original nature of thefe fettlements, which were merely commercial, the state of the Portuguese and Dutch colonies, who were already in poffeffion of feveral provinces, fortified towns, and commodious barbours, which gave them fignal advantages above their new competitors, and the attempts of the English to obtain a fimilar footing in India, are largely defcribed in this chapter. In the following one we find an account of the disputes to which this rivalship gave rife, as also of the league that was formed between the English and the Perfian monarch Schach Abbas to drive the Portuguese from Ormus, which was taken by the combined forces of the confederates, in the year 1623. The advantages which the English derived from their new fettlement in Perfia excited the jealoufy of the Dutch, who frequently rendered their fituation uneasy, and would probably have ruined their affairs in that part of the world, had not Cromwell declared war against Holland, and thus contributed a good deal to prevent the total decline of the Eaft India Company.

The privileges and protection granted to the Company in 1657 by this extraordinary man, who reftored its declining vi gour, and rendered it refpectable in Arabia, Perfia, and India, form a part of the contents of the third chapter. The hiftory of the Company is here continued; all the changes and revolutions it underwent in the reign of Charles II. the loffes it fuffered, the debates occafioned by the continuation and renewal of its exclufive charter, the erection of a new Company in 1698, and the union of the two in the beginning of the prefent centurv, are largely treated in the reft of this chapter.

The fourth chapter begins with the war that broke out between the English and the French in 1744, which is confidered in regard to the influence it had on the maritime commerce of these two nations. We find alfo in this chapter an interefting defcription of Arabia, an account of the character and manners of its inhabitants, and of the revolutions that have happened in that country, together with a circumftantial account of the trade carried on by the English in that part of the world. In the following chapter we have an ample defcription of the Perfian Gulph, and of the pearl-fishery in the Iland of Baharem. In treating of this branch of commerce, the Author ob

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ferves,

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ferves, that these pearls, though of a darker hue than thofe of Ceylon and Japan, are of a larger fize, and more regular form, and lefs fubject to the diminution of their luftre in warm coun

tries.

The Maldive Islands, and the coaft of Malabar, are amply defcribed in the fixth chapter, with an account of the different ftates into which this extenfive country is divided, and an accurate enumeration of its various productions.

The feventh chapter contains a defcription of Canara, of the Iflands of Salfete and Bombay, and of the prefent ftate of Goa, which our Author is pleased to call the center of the riches of India, and the greateft commercial fettlement in the world. The ftate of the Mahrattas and the revolutions of Surat come alfo under confideration in this chapter; and the next exhibits a view of the prefent ftate of the coafts of Coromandel and Orixa, which are inhabited by nations that differ from each other in their manners and languages. The internal and external commerce, particularly of the English on thefe coafts, their important fettlements, the cotton manufactures, their wars with Hyder Ali Khan, and many other interefting objects of policy and commerce, are amply treated in this chapter.

The fettlement of the English at Bencoolen, in the Isle of Sumatra, is the first object of difcuffion we meet with in the ninth chapter. The Author fhews how this fettlement was formed, and what the colony fuffered from the defpotifm and rapacity of the English agents. The fettlement that was formed in the Ifle of Balambangan was ruined by the fame caufes, after it had coft its founders about 400,000 pounds. Having given an account of the conqueft of Bengal by the English Company, the Author next describes the navigation of that Gulph from the River Ougli and the mouths of the Ganges. He enumerates alfo the productions and manufactures of Bengal, and gives a curious account of the ancient cuftoms of the inhabitants of Bifnapore, whofe manners and character are faid to be the fame at this day that they were a thousand years ago. This is one of the most interesting chapters of the work. In the three following we have a defcription of the islands of St. Helena, Anfovan, &c. with an account of their commerce, and the obftacles it met with; alfo a circumftantial relation of the events that have happened at Bengal in thefe later times.

To this work is fubjoined an Appendix, confifting of nine articles, in which the noble Author treats of the British conftitution, of the two Houfes of Parliament, of British liberty, of the civil and criminal jurifprudence of Great Britain, of civil and military employments, and other matters relative to the govern ment of this country.

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AR T. XXX.

Hiftoire de la Societé Royale de Medicine, &c. i. e. The History and Memoirs of the Royal Society of Medicine, for the Years 1780 and 1781. 4to. Paris. 1785...

THIS

HIS fourth volume fets out with the eulogies of nine learned members of the Society, who were ornaments to their profeffion by their characters and abilities, viz. the Drs. Fothergill, Montigny, Du Hamel, Pringle, Herman, Buttet, Vetillart du Ribert, Hunter, and Sanchez. Thefe are followed by a lift of the works published by feveral members fince the year 1779, and an account of the reports and memoirs that have been presented to the Society fince the publication of their third volume. Some of these reports are highly interesting, particularly one made by order of government, relative to the nature, fymptoms, and cure of a puerperal fever. This epidemical fever, whose fymptoms are terrible, and which often terminates in the death of the patient at the conclufion of the third or the commencement of the fourth day, manifefted itself at Paris, in feveral hofpitals, and alfo in private houses, with peculiar and fatal violence of late years. The efforts of medical art had long proved ineffectual for its cure. At length M. DOULCET, one of the phyficians of the Hotel Dieu, hit upon a method of treating it, which was attended with remarkable fuccefs. In the space of four months near two hundred women were perfectly recovered from this terrible diforder, while five or fix patients only, who refused the remedy, were victims to its fury, and their own obftinacy. We cannot enter into the minute and accurate details contained in this memoir relative to the fever in queftion. We fhall only obferve, that in order to treat it, according to the method fo fuccessfully employed by M. DOULCET, the firft moment of its appearance must be carefully obferved, and then, without delay, 15 grains of ipecacuanha are to be adminiftered in two feparate dofes, at an interval of an hour and a half. The next day the fame dofes are to be repeated, whether the symptoms have ceafed or ftill continue. If they continue the third day, the fame doses are to be again adminiftered, and repeated the fourth day in cafe of neceffity. In the intervals, the effect of the ipecacuanha must be seconded by a potion, composed of oil of sweet almonds, an ounce of the fyrop of marshmallows, and two grains of kermes mineral. The ordinary drink of the patient must be linfeed or fcorzonera tea, edulcorated with syrop of marshmallows. About the feventh or eighth day the patient

*For the first volume of this inftitution, with an account of its plan, fee Rev. vol. lxii. p. 511.-For the third volume, fee Rev, vol. lxviii. p. 553.

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