Let one of the following powders be taken early in the morning an hour or two before breakfast, and at five or fix o'clock in the aftornoon, every day for a fortnight or three weeks. The powder may be taken in a little fugar and water, or mixed with a little fyrup, or any thing, fo that none is loft: R. Cinnab. Antimon. opt. levigat. j.

Milleped. pp. & pulv.

Spong. calcin. ãã gr. xv. m. f. pulv.

After these powders have been taken for the time mentioned, the patient should omit them for about a fortnight, and then begin with them again, and take as many more after the fame manner, and alfo at bed time every night during the fecond courfe of the powders, three of the following pills are to be

taken :

R. Pil. Mercurial. ph. nov. Zís

f. Pil. n°. 48. æquales.

Thefe medicines generally agree fo well, that the patient is neither troubled with fickness nor any inconvenience from their ufe, nor is any confinement neceffary, unless they are taken in fevere weather, and then it may be only to the house; nor need the diet be much regarded. Indeed I think it fufficient, that the medicines be taken in a temperate feason, or rather warm weather, and the patient lives exactly in the ufual way, taking fome care againft catching cold. And if meat be eaten only every other day, and toast and river water, &c. drank inftead of malt-liquor, it will not be the worfe; nor can the medecines ever fucceed better than I have known them several times, when there was no difference at all made in the way of living. If the pills purge, two only should be taken, and if more than an extraordinary ftool a day is occafioned by them, the dose must be reduced to one, and continued fo till the pills are all taken. In general it will be proper for the patient to be purged twice or thrice with manna and falts, or any gentle cathartic, before the powders are begun with. The medicines are here proportioned for an adult, of a good conftitution, therefore if the patient is younger, or of a weakly habit, the dofes must be managed accordingly.

The patient is not to expect to find much benefit in a little time: perhaps it will be as long after the medicines are all taken, as the time they are in taking, before much difference will be perceived in the tumor of the neck. It is neceflary that the medicines be begun with at a proper time, efpecially the fecond courfe; a few days fhould always be difpenfed with upon that

account.

As to external application, I have never made ufe of any, nor would I advise the use of any, as I think none can be of much fervice. Many recommended I should fufpect of doing

harm,

harm, fuch as fomenting the part with warm vinegar; which by its hardening the gland, though it may fomewhat leffen it, would render it more difficult, if not incapable of being quite reduced to its proper ftate. But if any local application be made, I believe none better than rubbing the part every morning with fafting spittle; and dry friction, I fhould expect, would do as well, as the good, if any is produced by this means, arifes wholly from the friction and preffure upon the gland.

I have been informed by a gentleman, whofe information I think I may depend upon, that a relation of his, a young man of about twenty-five years of age, was cured of a tumor on the fore-part of the neck, by his chewing tobacco. If it was fo, and the chewing tobacco would cure the Bronchocele, I think if another remedy be known, that should never be used, as thereby young women might get fuch a habit of quidding, as they could never leave off.

Tumors of the neck are faid to be very common in many parts of Italy, about the Alps efpecially, (as quis tumidum Guttur miratur in Alpibus) is a very old remark. About Turin alfo they are faid to be frequent, and in many other places of that country, particularly near the rivers Po, and Doria; but how far they agree with the tumor of the neck, I have given an account of, as to the time of their appearing, and that of their encreafing, &c. I have not been able to make myfelf acquainted with, therefore I have called the difeafe here treated of the Englifh Bronchocele.'

We think the public indebted to Mr. Proffer for this communication. The mercurial pill indeed feems to be the moft efficacious part of the procefs: for the fpongia calcinata has long been in ufe; and the antimonials have likewife frequently been prescribed, without producing the fame good effects.-If we miftake not, fome of the practical writers have directed the mercurial ointment to be repeatedly rubbed upon the difeafed part, and a purgative to be occafionally interpofed.

From Mr. P.'s Remarks on the Experimental Effays of Mr.Alexander, we collect the following particulars :-that the putrifactive procefs in the dead and in the living animal, are widely different. Thofe fubftances which refift putrifaction in the dead, do not therefore neceffarily produce the fame effect in the living body; and that nitre, fo ftrongly recommended by Mr. Alexander as an antiseptic, would promote rather than refift this procefs in the living body, by ftill further weakening the powers of the circulation.

With respect to Mr. Alexander's Effay on the Dofes and Effects of Medicines, our Author fays, Unluckily, I think, Mr. Alexander has made the fame mistake in his essays on the dofes and effects of medicines he made in his experiments on the ufe

of

of nitre in putrid difeafes, i. e. he has made no fair trial at all: for I fuppofe there can be no proof made of the power any medicine has of doing good in a disease, but by the use of it in that particular disorder in which it is recommended as useful.'

The experiments were only made on the body in a healthy ftate, and are confequently inconclufive. To fatisfy myself (fays Mr. P.) of the truth of what I have faid refpecting a perfon in health taking a quantity of bark, or valerian, without being materially affected by it, I gave a man, about fixty years of age, and not of a very robuft conftitution, fix drams of the beft bark, fresh powdered, in a day, and neither the heat of his flefb, nor motion of his blood, was greater, when he had finished it, than when he took the first dofe; the next day but one the fame perfon took fix drams of valerian, newly powdered, at fix dofes in a day, and it neither encreafed the heat of his flesh, nor quickness of his pulfe: I would also have tried the musk, but had not then an opportunity, on account of its fmell being fo extremely difagreeable to many people,'

The Endemical Colic of Devon, not caused by a Solution of Lead in the Cyder. A particular Reply is here given to Dr. Saunders's Anfier, to Curfory Remarks; with fome farther Remarks on Dr. Baker's Elay on that Subject. By Thomas Alcock, A. M. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Plymouth printed, and fold by Baldwin in London.

THE

HIS pamphlet contains many judicious obfervations concerning the fubject in queftion; and the following facts are infifted upon in order to exculpate the Devonshire cyder.That the endemial colic attacks thofe who are not cyderdrinkers; that it occurs likewife, where it is confeffed there is no lead in the apparatus, and that in this cafe it proceeds from the acidity of the cyder, a quality which depends upon the harfhnefs of the fruit. That it cannot be produced by lead, because must will not diffolve lead. I put, fays our Author, a fmall piece of lead into a glafs of muft, taken immediately from the pound. And notwithstanding the lead here was fo confiderably more in proportion to the liquor, than it ever is in any of our troughs or preffes, yet on the application of the ufual tefts, not the leaft impregnation of lead could be difcovered in the space of three days: a space of time much longer than the muft continues either in the trough, or on the prefs. By the bye, I, muft obferve that the pounded apples at fome of the leaden preffes are laid upon boards, and do not come immediately in contact with the leaden plate. This contrivance is to prevent the paring-knife from cutting into the lead.’

It is further obferved, in confirmation of this experiment, that vinegar itself is a very flow diffolvent of crude lead,that the metal must be drawn into very thin plates, and expofed for a fortnight or three weeks together to the warm circulating vapour of this ftrong vegetable acid, before it will be confiderably corroded that the muft as it runs down from the press is bland, mucilaginous, sweet as honey, and feems to fhew little of that corroding acid, which is extricated or developed by fermentation that a piece of lead put into a glass of fresh must gave not the leaft impregnation in three days-that not less than four or five hogfheads of this fweet muft fometimes run down in fo many hours, particularly from the fcrew-preffes. Doth it feem probable, doth it feem poffible, that all this liquor, fo fwiftly paffing over the prefs, fhould be fo fenfibly impregnated by the crude lead, as to produce the endemial colic?'

It is likewife infifted upon, that there is lead in fome of the pounds of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Gloucestershire; that there is more iron than lead in the Devonshire pounds; that iron is more eafily diffolved in the vegetable acid than lead; and that the black colour mentioned by Dr. Baker from the folution of orpiment, depends on the iron and not the lead.

As our Author attributes this endemial disease, fo far as it arifes from the ufe of cyder, to the roughness and acidity of this Jiquor, he accounts for thefe qualities in the Devonshire cyder in the following manner;

It is probable, that feveral caufes may concur to produce this greater degree of roughnefs and acidity in Devonshire cyder, than what obtains in that of Herefordshire, Gloucesterfhire, and Worcestershire.

The apple trees in the Devonshire orchards are planted thicker and closer together, than in thofe of the cyder counties juft mentioned. This circumstance fcreens the power of the fun, and hinders his rays from having their due influence in bringing the fruit to maturation.

The foil of the three fpecified cyder counties is generally of a more gravelly nature. That of Devonfhire partakes more of a clayey conftitution. But an open gravelly mould more copioufly abforbs, and retains the fun's rays, than a clayey one; confequently the former muft, cæteris paribus, be warmer than the latter; not to mention the different nature of the juices of thefe different foils.

• Devonshire, in comparifon with thefe other provinces, may be confidered as an elevated mountainous country. And all high, hilly, or mountainous fituations, are found to be, cateris paribus, cooler than thofe of plainer furfaces.

• Devonshire is alfo more wet or rainy, than the other inland cyder countries before recited, in confequence of its expofition

to

to the clouds and vapour brought hither in great abundance by the weft and fouth-weft winds from the vaft Atlantic Ocean; which are ftopped here by the oppofing high hills, and condenfed into rain. This must be another great check to the mellowing of Devonshire fruit. For the more the apples are expofed to the fun, the lefs of an auftere acid, and the more of a faccharine fulphureous principle they acquire in their compofition. Probably too, the fruit of Hereford, &c. may be of a milder, or less auftere kind, and confequently contain lefs of an auftere acid.

We fee then, that the circumftances of the Devonshire climate, here briefly fketched, are naturally productive of a more rough auftere acid cyder, than that which is produced in the other counties, where this liquor is cultivated. And of this kind of fharp auftere cyder, when drank in excefs for a courfe of time, efpecially by perfons of delicate, tender, valetudinary conftitutions, the dry belly-ach, or endemial colic, must appear, from what has been advanced, to be a very obvious effect.'

Upon the whole, we think the accufation, which has been brought against the Devonshire cyder, is rather plaufible, than well fupported by the clear authority of facts.

Confiderations on Church-authority; occafioned by Dr. Balguy's Sermon on that Subject; preached at Lambeth Chapel, and published by Order of the Archbishop. By Jofeph Priestley, LL. D. F. R. S. 8vo. Is. 6d. Johnfon and Payne. 1769.

TH

HE fubject of church-authority having been so often difcuffed, and by writers of eminent abilities, it may fairly be prefumed, that little can be advanced upon it, that is either new or important. Whenever the interefts of truth and liberty are attacked, however, it is certainly proper, as Dr. Priestley obferves, that fome perfons fhould ftand up in their defence, whether they acquit themfelves better than their predeceffors in the fame good old caufe, or not. The Doctor Hatters himself that several of his obfervations will appear to be new; at least, that fome things will appear to be fet in a new or clearer point of light. How far this is true, his Readers must determine for themselves; as for us, we cannot help obferving, that, though the Doctor's zeal for the defence of civil and religious liberty deferves the warmest commendations, and though many of his remarks are both juft and pertinent, yet his performance has evident marks of hafte and inaccuracy, and great want of precision appears through the whole of it.