patient is averse to take food, porter alone has been used with evident advantage, always avoiding, in all cases, any degree of intoxication.' Mr. Tuke informs us that the bad effects arising from cold, which are described as frequent occurrences in some lunatic asylums, are never experienced at York. After having mentioned the opinions of Crowther, Haslam, and Pinel, on this subject, he says, Happily, in the Institution I am now describing, this calamity is hardly known; and no instance of mortification has occurred, in which it has been, in any degree, connected with cold or confinement. Indeed, the patients are never found to require such degree of restraint, as to prevent the use of considerable exercise, or to render it at all necessary to keep their feet wrapped in flannel.' He proceeds, however, to remark that maniacs are not exempted from the common effects of cold; and he adds, it is to be hoped, for the sake of humanity, that the opposite opinion, alike barbarous and absurd, will be entirely exploded.'

The chapter on moral treatment is the most important part of the work; since the moral management of the patients is the point to which the officers of the Retreat more particularly direct their exertions, and in which they appear to have been the most successful. This branch of practice is divided under three heads: 1. By what means the power of the patient to control the disorder is strengthened and assisted. 2. What modes of coercion are employed, when restraint is absolutely necessary. 3. By what means the general comfort of the insane is promoted.' Some very just remarks occur on the first of these topics, or the power of self-controul which the patient retains, even in very considerable degrees of derangement. When this can be called into action, it is found to be the most effectual means of counteracting the diseased state of the mind; and to be much more beneficial in its results than fear or corporeal restraint; either of which, although sometimes necessary, is calculated rather to exasperate than to soothe the over-excitement of the patient. The modes of coercion that are used in the York Retreat are always of the least irritating kind, and seem to be calculated to promote the present comfort as well as the ultimate recovery of the unfortunate sufferers. It is in the mildness of the coercive means, and the infrequency of their application, that the plans of this institution seem to differ from any other of which we have a published account; and which renders them so peculiarly deserving of the attention of all those who are engaged in this department of medical practice. The following paragraph is a sufficient proof of the justice of our remark: I feel no small satisfaction in stating upon the authority of the su perintendents, that during the last year, in which the number of pa tients has generally been sixty-four, there has not been occasion to seclude, on an average, two patients at one time. I am also able to state, that although it is occasionally necessary to restrain by the waistcoat, straps, or other means, several patients at one time; yet that the average number so restrained does not exceed four, including those who are secluded.'

We need not say any thing farther to recommend this work to the attention of our readers, Without assuming to itself the merit of discovering

discovering any new medicines, or any new method of treatment, it will suggest many valuable ideas both to the physician and to the moralist, while it exhibits a very gratifying specimen of candour and benevolence.

It is with regret we add that, since we took up this volume, the destructive element of fire has consumed the building here described; and some of the unfortunate patients are even reported to have lost their lives.

Art. 30. An Essay on the Signs of Murder in new-born Children. Translated from the French of Dr. P.A. O. Mahon, Professor of Forensic Medicine in the Medical School at Paris. By Christopher Johnson, Surgeon, Lancaster; with a Preface and Notes by the Translator. 8vo. pp. 114. Longman and Co. 1813.

We have spoken with approbation of Dr. Mahon's work on Legal Medicine, and we must recommend this essay on a part of its subject, not only for its intrinsic merit but as connected with a branch of knowlege, the neglect of which in this country is in some degree derogatory to the state of national science: we mean what is termed (to borrow the nomenclature of foreign authors, till we have a better of our own,) forensic medicine. This department of medical inquiry concerns the appearances exhibited by huntan bodies after a violent death, as leading to a discovery of the manner in which it has been effected. Whenever violent death becomes the subject of legal investigation, these appearances are necessarily among the subjects of discussion; and in a great variety of instances, in which the fact is involved in obscurity, the conclusions to be drawn from them form the principal guide in arriving at the truth. This is peculiarly the case whenever the circumstances attending the death admit a possibility, or a doubt, that it may have happened by accident, or been caused by the deceased himself.

Any person who has been in the habit of attending the proceedings of criminal courts, must have witnessed how often the difficulties, arising from ignorance or uncertainty on these points, have impeded the course of inquiry. No trials, however, so frequently give rise to questions of this kind as those in which the fact of child-murder comes under examination: since, here, concealment, which on other occasions always bespeaks violence as the cause of the death, may and often does occur from a different cause, viz. a desire to suppress any knowlege of the birth; which, in most of those cases in which the inquiry is necessary, is a powerful motive. The question as to violent death appearing in adults is confined to the causes of that death: but a previous and much more involved point is to be ascertained before the appearance of death in a new-born infant can be conclusively imputed to violence; and that is whether the infant were alive. In private and concealed births, this is extremely difficult to ascertain; and it is well known that many erroneous opinions have at various times been entertained, as to the tests by which that fact could be established. The most remarkable of these was the floating of the lungs; which for a length of time was deemed an indisputable criterion of

*See Appendix to M. Rev. Vol. xxxviii. N. S. p. 507.

life. This opinion was exploded by our celebrated countryman, Dr. Hunter: but not till it is very probable that many unfortunate crea tures had suffered by the hands of public justice, for a crime which they had not committed. It is indeed shocking to reflect that guilt, or innocence, should ever have been made to depend on a slight variation of specific gravity in the lungs, when more modern researches have discovered so many causes by which that gravity may be affected, and all independent of the existence of life.

There is still another consideration which enforces the necessity of cautious, accurate, and enlightened inquiry on this subject, and which demands.no small degree of attention and study in order to pronounce an opinion that ought to have weight on so momentous a question. The situation of a woman, alone and unassisted at the moment of delivery, often precludes the care and precautions which are necessary to preserve the life of the infant; and its frame may even be subject to violence sufficient to cause death, without criminal act or intention on the part of the mother.

When these circumstances are taken into the account, it cannot but be matter of surprize that the attention of men of science has not been more closely directed to a solution of the difficulties attending this subject; and it excites our wonder the more, when we know that the science of Forensic Medicine has for some time been cultivated on the Continent as a distinct branch of that art. A profes sorship even exists at Paris under that title; a mode of encouraging the acquisition of this useful knowlege, which might without any dishonour be borrowed by a nation that justly boasts of the wisdom, caution, and accuracy, with which its investigation of crimes is conducted.

The reputation of M. Mahon is, we believe, too well established to require our farther eulogium; and we may venture to declare that he loses nothing of his character in the hands of his translator: who has executed his task in a manner that manifests a perfect acquaintance with the subject and the meaning of his author, and is as creditable to his capacity for the work which he has undertaken, as the selection of it is to his taste and judgment as a man of science. We feel, indeed, that we perform a part of our duty in recommending the knowlege contained in this pamphlet, and comprized in the short compass of little more than a hundred pages, as essentially necessary both to those who may be called by their profession to conduct inquiries connected with its discussion, and to those who may be nominated to assist those inquiries by their opinions and information.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 31. Precursor to an Exposé on Forest-trees and Timber, &c. (intended as a preliminary Introduction to a more enlarged Work upon the same Subject,) as connected with the maritime Strength and Prosperity of the United Kingdom and the Provinces. With an Appendix, containing an Outline of the Dimensions, Force, and Condition of the British Navy, compared with that of the Enemy. By Captain Layman, of the Navy. 8vo. pp. 70. with an Engraving. Asperne. 1813.

We

We bring this pamphlet before the eyes of our readers as treating on a subject of obvious interest and importance, and as being therefore well intitled to their attention; though possessing no merit on the score of composition, and being open to censure as glaringly deficient even in typographical correctness. After a dedication of his labours to the Duke of Clarence, as Admiral of the Fleet, the author undertakes to investigate the extent of our resources for a supply of navy-timber, and sounds the same note of alarm that we have so often heard, respecting the magnitude of our consumption and the inadequacy of our growth. Much, he says, might be saved in the use of timber, were our ships built with a greater regard to uniformity of plan. Instead of varieties in the shapes and sizes, amounting in one way or another to the number of 80, we ought, he thinks, to confine ourselves to, 1st, three deckers; 2dly, two deckers; 3dly, frigates; 4thly, corvettes; 5thly, tenders or small cruizers; 6thly, gun-boats of an uniform description. In comparing the relative merits of different modes of ship-building, he takes occasion to explain the great difference of strength between the ships engaged in our unfortunate actions with the Americans, and states that the broadside of the Macedonian was to that of the United States as 1000 to 1764, the latter being equal to even a British 74 on the old plan. We accordingly agree with Captain L. in acquitting the captains of our frigates from blame in those contests. He mentions, among other curious facts, that the Americans have gone so far as to raise the pay of seamen in their navy to a dollar per day; a temptation which may serve to account for the mortifying truth of their ships of war being manned in a certain proportion by British seamen. Whether they have succeeded in constructing their ships of durable timber, we are not informed: but, if the oak to the southward of Canada be of similar quality to that which we have imported from that province, there would be little reason for expecting permanency in its duration. Of all the recent examples of rapid decay in our ships of war, the most extraordinary is that of the Queen Charlotte, (a first rate,) which had actually begun to rot before she was taken out of dock. She was built of Canada oak, and pitch pine; and the use of heated stoves in her construction is said to have accelerated her decay.

The timber from the Rhine, purchased by our government about twelve years ago, has proved equally unprofitable; two ships of war, the St. Domingo and La Hogue, being found after a few years' service in a state of decay. It is some comfort to know that Bonaparte, with all his management, has fared as ill as ourselves; and that, though our war-advocates are silent on the point, his boasted Scheldt squadron is verging rapidly towards a natural death. The insufficiency of North American and German timber induces Captain Layman to direct the public attention towards India, where the durability of Teak is well known; and expeditious sailing may, with skilful workmanship, be attained in the case of this wood as well as in that of the softer produce of the north. The city of Surat is favourable for the construction of ships, as far as facility in obtaining timber and workmen is concerned: but the ground, as at Cochin, is of too loose a texture to support a heavy pressure in building on it. In Bombay,

Bombay, it is necessary to import the timber: but the accommodation of docks, and its easy access during the south-west monsoon, render it an eligible situation for ship-building. It was here, accordingly, that the Minden, a 74, and the Salsette frigate, were constructed, and with a success which gives encouragement to a perseverance in the teak-building plan. Prince of Wales's island, so much noticed ten years ago, is no longer the seat of a naval establishment: it has no proper timber in itself; and the teak of Pegu, the adjoining main land, is deemed inferior in duration to that of Malabar. Trincomalé, in Ceylon, is now our naval depot for the south of India; and it is hoped that the introduction of Chinese settlers may improve the adjacent ground, so far as to remove the objections hitherto so serious on the score of bad health.

Captain L. is not backward in recording the testimonies of public men in his favour; and it is amusing to see with what composure he makes (pp. 12. 17. 40.) repeated declarations of this nature, and how readily he believes in the sincerity of this complimentary language. He takes care (p. 31.) to claim the credit of introducing a body of Chinese labourers into Trinidad ten years ago, without chusing to explain the circumstances which rendered the plan unsuccessful. He relates, however, (p. 42.) his ill success in his propositions to public Boards, without any consciousness that the officers in question were in the right in giving a negative to his applications. The most satisfactory point in his publication, could we depend on it, is the assurance (p. 36.) that British oak, produced on the poorest soil, may be made to answer extremely well in ship-building. Another position, of more doubtful accuracy we apprehend, is the project (p. 35.) of giving durability to our oak by extracting the juices before the tree is felled.-Amid all his improvements, Captain L. is not disposed to contemplate the practicability of constructing a ship for the double purpose of war and commerce. The swift sailing required in the one, and the extent of stowage necessary in the other, are points as incompatible, in his opinion, as the junction of the draught of a dray-horse with the fleetness of a Newmarket courser.' He recommends the separation, in a more complete form than at present exists, of the materiel and personnel of the department of the navy. The Admiralty, he thinks, should have little or no cognizance of the management of our dock-yards, but should commit the whole to the Navy-board; taking the precaution of making the officers in that department individually responsible for their respective shares. He concludes by exhibiting sketches of the mode of altering several of our present ships of war, so as to fit them for contending with those of America and France. Ample lists of the different rates of our navy are also given; and, on the whole, the pamphlet contains more miscellaneous information than we might expect from its irregular and almost incoherent composition. We dissent most from Captain L. when he ventures to forsake professional and to tread on commercial ground. Like many other persons, he calls loudly for an exclusion of neutrals from our East India possessions: but it would be no difficult matter to shew that we are ourselves considerable gainers by the benefit obtained by our colonists