then, at the time we were quiet, believing ourselves to be at peace, people come to kill us, without saying a word.

Why, continued he, with an air of difpleafure, did the French come into our country? We did not go to feck them : they afked for land of us, becaufe their country was too little for all the men that were in it. We told them, they might ⚫ take land where they pleafed, there was enough for thein and for us; that it was good the fame fun fhuld enlighten us both, and that we thould walk as friends in the fame path; and that we would give them of our provifions, afit them to build, and to labour in their fields. We have done fo; is not ⚫ this true? What occafion then had we for Fren hmen? Before they came, did we not live better than we do, feeing we deprive ourselves of a part of our corn, our game, and fish, to give a part to them? In what repect then, had we occafion for them? Was it for their guns? The bows and arrows which we ufed, were fufficient to make us live well. Was it for their white, blue, and red blankets? We can do well enough with buffalo fkins, which are warmer; our women wrought feather-blankers for the winter, and mulberry• mantles for the fummer; which, indeed, were not fo beautiful, but our women were more laborious, and lefs vain, than they are now. In fine, be ore the arrival of the French, we lived like men who can be fatisfied with what they have; whereas at this day we are like flaves, who are not fuffered to do as they pleate.'

A people who could think and reafon in this manner, were too obnoxious to Frenchmen and French Governors. The latter, therefore, took every occafion to opprefs them, and, in the end, finally extirpated them, in the year 1730; not, however, before they had nobly formed, and in part executed, a fcheme for a general mallacre of their infolent and tyrannical Oppreflors. Our Author gives us part of a fpeech made by one of their old Chiefs, in a council held on that important occafion.

"We have a long time been fenfible, that the neighbourhood of the French is a greater prejudice than benefit to us: we, who are old men, fee this; the young fee it not. The wares of the Iren à vield pleature to the youth; but, in effect, to what purpofe is all this, but to debauch the young women, and taint the blood of the nation, and make thein vain and idle? The young men are in the fare cafe; and the married muft work themselves to ceth, to maintain their families, and pleafe their children. Before the French came amongst us, we were with what we had, and that was fufficient: boldness every road, because we were then

but now we go groping, afraid of meeting thorns; we walk like flaves, which we fhall foon be, fince the French already treat us as if we were fuch. When they are fufficiently strong, they will no longer diffemble. For the leaft fault of our young people, they will tie them to a poft, and whip them, as they do their black flaves. Have they not already done fo to one of our young men; and is not death preferable to flavery?"

"Here he paused a while, and after taking breath, proceeded thus:

"What wait we for? Shall we fuffer the French to multiply, till we are no longer in a condition to oppofe their efforts? What will the other nations fay of us, who pafs for the most ingenious of all the Red-men? They will then fay, we have lefs understanding than other people. Why then wait we any longer? Let us fet ourselves at liberty, and fhew we are really men, who can be satisfied with what we have."

The chief then proceeds to lay down the particulars of his defign; a plot formed with all the art, and carried on with all that precaution, which would have done honour to Roman or Grecian ftory; but which, like many other great defigns, mifcarried by the fatal influence of a woman, who found means to penetrate the secret, and then betrayed it."

In the fecond book, we have an account of the country and its produce, to which are added, fome extracts from the hiftorical Memoirs of Louisiana, by Du Mont, relating to the cultivation and curing of tobacco; the method of extracting tar, and making pitch; and of the mines found in that country.

Book the third comprehends, what is called the natural hif tory of Louisiana; but this is too imperfect, and apparently executed with too little judgment to be of any great authority with the lovers of this ftudy. The Author's fhort account of the Wren of this country, may ferve as a fpecimen of his manner of treating thefe fubjects, and as an excufe for our making no farther citations from this part of his work.

"When speaking of the king of birds, I fhall take notice of the Wren, called by the French Roitelet, (petty King) which is the fame in Louifiana as in France. The reafon of its name in French will plainly enough appear from the following history, A Magiftrate no lefs refpectable for his probity than for the rank he holds in the law, affured me, that when he was at Sables d'Olonne in Poitou, on account of an estate which he had in the neighbourhood of that city, he had the curiofity to go and fee a white eagle, which was then brought from America. Af

ter

ter he had entered the house a wren was brought, and let fly in the hall where the eagle was feeding. The wren perched upon a beam, and was no fooner perceived by the eagle, than he left off feeding, flew into a corner, and hung down his head. The little bird, on the other hand, began to chirp and appear angry, and a moment after flew upon the neck of the eagle, and pecked him with the greatest fury, the eagle all the while hanging his head in a cowardly manner between his feet. The wren, after fatisfying its animofity, returned to the beam."-This, as the News-Writers have it, merits confirmation.

In book the fourth, is given an account of the Natives of Louisiana; containing, among many trifling, fome curious and entertaining articles; but as the principal of thefe are to be met with in Charlevoix, Du Mont, and others, we fhall here difmifs this work of M. du Pratz; which, tho' neither deserving the name of a history, nor being the most agreeable performance as a work of entertainment, contains many things that may be of use to those who fhall hereafter vifit, or fettle, in those countries.

An Effay on the internal Ufe of the Thorn-Apple, Henbane and Monkshood; which are fhewn to be fafe and efficacious Remedies in the Cure of many Diferders. By Anthony Störck, M. D. Aulic Counsellor and chief Physician to her moft facred Majefty the Emprefs-Queen, and Phyfician to the Pazmarian Hofpital of Vienna. Tranflated from the original Latin, printed at Vienna 1762. 8vo. 1s. Becket.

WE

E have not been deceived in our repeated* prognostics of Dr. Storck's extending his medical investigations to other poisonous plants in Germany, after his fuccefs there with the common Hemlock. His next effay, according to their order in this piece, is on the Stramonium foetidum, or Thorn-apple, which, he confeffes, all ancient and modern Writers affirm, to cause madness, to deftroy our ideas and memory, and to occafion convulfions. Yet, like a staunch Lover of experiments, the Doctor confidering, whether it might not reftore mad folks to their fenfes, because it deprived perfons in fanity of them; very honeftly, as in the trial of Hemlock, began with taking one grain and a half of its extract. He might poffibly be prompted to this whimfical, tho' not wholly incurious, fuppofition, by what has been faid here of tobacco's making those who are well fick, and the fick well; fuppofing the fame thing to be

Review, vol. XXV, p 349, 350. vol. XXVII. p. 395, 397.

faid of it in Germany. The cafes in which he gave it are but five; which, he adinits, are too few to eftablifh much: and, on ecounting their events very briefly, they feem to establish nearly as much againft this poifon as for it.

The first cafe was that of a girl twelve years old, who had been difordered in her mind for two months, anfwering confufedly and inarticulately to every question. She took haf a grain of the extract fourteen days, without any alteration; but in three weeks became lefs fullen, an/wered more pertinently; and in two months time, when the dofe was increated to one grain and a half daily, she began to reafon well, faid her prayers diftinctly, gradually recovering her understanding; though we are not told how gradually The tecond Patient was a woman of forty, troubled with an obftinate vertig, accompanied with a degree of madness, as the tranflation tells us. She took half a grain morning and evening for feven days; and from the eighth to the twenty-eighth, daily three grains. The vertigo feems to have been but little abated by it; but as her antwers became more pertinent, her madnets is fuppofed to be cured. She continued five months in the hofpital, (her vertigo growing ftronger) at the end of which fhe died of a true apop! xy. This it is certain the extract did not prevent, and not quite to certain it might not caufe, or conduce to it. The third Paient, u der a true epilepfy, with violent convulfions, and frequent madness, took from one grain to three, for thirteen days; ipeaking more confiftently, and recovering his flesh, before he left the hofpital. In the beginning of the fourth week, however, he had an epileptic fit, but without lofs of ftrength or fenfe, and returned to the pills, taking many of them out of the hofpital with him; { 2nd promifing to return, if he found the left d forder: but hearing no more of him, the Doctor fuppoles him cured. In the fourth Patient, of nine years old, who was frequently and ftrongly convulfed, the Doctor candidly acknowleges, one grain a day heightned the convulfions; notwithstanding which, the fame dofe was repeated, but with the fame confquence. It was then intermitted for fome days and refumed again, but with the fame bad effect: after which other medicines were employed; but it is not faid to what purpose. The fifth and latt Patient was almoft cured; but as there were no more pills to be procured in the winter feafon, Dr. Storck obferves, it broke off the experiment. He had taken, however, from one grain and a half to four, five and fix grains full feventy days; and, when they were all-fpent, he refufed to take any other medicine, which, it feems, the Doctor thought neceffary. We cannot, therefore, reasonably fuppofe this above three quarters of a cure: tho' it proves, that the continuance of this, extract of the Thornapple,

apple, even to five or fix grains daily, was fafe at least. This plant abounds in Carolina and Virginia too; and Beverley's Hiftory of the last of these colonies informs us, that fome of the earliest Settlers, or fome Sailors landing there, and mistaking it for fpinage, (a very grofs mistake) boiled and eat plentifully of it. The confequence of which was, a ridiculous and filthy idiocy of about twenty-four hours duration. Perhaps its being boiled in a large quantity of water, might leffen the proportion of thofe oblong bright fpicular falts which, the Doctor informs us, abounded and fparkled in the black friable extract he obtained from the evaporated juice; and which remind us a little of the fhining needle like fpicula in a lump of crude antimony.

The Extract of Henbane was given in thirteen cafes, after a dog had firft taken ten, and then twenty grains of it, without any enfuing fymptom: but two drachms, given three days after the laft, were attended with high nervous ones; a strong contraction of the pit of the ftomach; a great dilatation of the pupil, nearly a total lofs of fight, with trembling and weakness; though after vomiting, purging, and fleeping much, he recovered entirely. Dr. Storck next took one grain fafting for feven enfuing days, without the least alteration in his health or fight; having rather a more open belly, and a far better appetite on thofe days, than at other times.The firft Patient and Subject of it, had been afflicted with wandering convulfions for a year before; which had baffled all other remedies. She took from three to nine grains of the extract of Henbane, for the space of about two months; after which, as no convulfive fymptom appeared, it was difcontinued. The fecond had a convulfive tremor of the right foot. She took from two to three grains of the extract; and in three weeks the diforder went quite off. She had daily plentiful stools with thefe pills, being coftive before. Within half an hour after taking a pill of one grain, which was given twice the four firft days, and thrice the fubfequent ones, The began to feel a chillinefs and fhuddering all over her body, with anxieties, a cold fweat, weakness of fight, and a fenfe of a beginning fainting fit, as the Tranflator expreßes it: but these fymptoms lafted not above two or three minutes. He calls this a perfect cure, which he had not fo exprefsly affirmed of the first Patient; but left his Readers to infer it. The third Patient was a man of fixty, afflicted with involuntary twitchings of the tendons of both feet. This we may reasonably fuppofe to be the circumftance of most painful twitchings, as no perfons would chufe them. The Patient imagined himfelf more chearful by the ufe of the extract. It is probable notwithstanding this, his chearfulness never rofe to joy; for after taking it a long time, the Doctor fairly confcffes the disease remained in the fame con

dition;