In the remaining part of this discourse, the author obferves, that Arabia has produced many eminent writers in almost every art and science. To give us higher notions of Arabic learning, he fays, an ambaffador from the emperor of Morocco affured him, that in his country they had one library containing a hundred thoufand volumes in the Arabic language, another containing two hundred thousand, and a great number of inferior note.

They who have read the geography of Abulfeda, the reveries of Avicenna and Averroës, or the romantic hiftories of Eutychius and Abul-Pharajius, will have no great opinion of the learning and importance of Arabian authors. However, if there be libraries in Morocco containing many hundred thoufand volumes, it is impoffible to fay, what extraordinary productions may be hoarded up in these repofitories.

VIII. Commercium Epiflolicum continens Epiftolas Doctiffimorum Boylei, Olearii, Gronovii, Hermanni, &c. ad Hydium miffas.

Thefe letters contain fome literary anecdotes, but nothing of any great importance.

IX. De Sinarum & Tatarorum linguis, necnon tabulis æneis, quæ ad calcem hujus operis adjiciuntur, obfervationes. Au&ore G. S. inter quas epiftola viri Sinenfis inferuntur, quæ de linguâ aliifque rebus Sinicis ad Hydium miffæ fuerunt.

This appendix contains remarks and directions calculated for the use of those who attempt to learn the Chinese, the Japonefe, and other Oriental languages.

Hæc dicenda (fays this learned writer) habui Appendicis. loco; & quidem ex eo confilio ut Literarum Orientalium ftudia, Juventuti præfertim Academicæ impenfius recolenda commendarem. Novum quoddam cum Indis commercium aperiri cupio, non tam Mercatorium quam Literarium-Mercibus his Literariis Patriam locupletari cupio: proindè quæ ad hanc rem fpectant, undiquaque fubfidia, quotquot reperiri poterant, conquifivi, ad fcientiæ fontes faltem digitos intendi, & varia quæ adhiberi poffunt inftrumenta commonftravi-Lexica, Codd. MSS. hiftoricos, Geographico's varii generis, qui hactenus in

linguis verfatus mihi oftendit aliquot locos in Operibus Galeni quos ille reftauravit eos conferendo cum interpretationibus Arabicis. Quidam Codices Græci integriores in libris Arabicè verfis quam in ipfis autographis Græcis reperiuntur, quod particulatim in Euclide eft confpicuum. Multi alii Codices extantin Linguam Syriacam aut Arabicam verfi qui Græcè nufquam hodiè vifuntur,'

bibliothecis

bibliothecis incogniti delituerunt, commemoravi, ca mente ut în communem ufum fru&tumque aliquando è latebris proferri poffint,'

To this Appendix are fubjoined several Oriental alphabets, characters, numerical figures, &c. elegantly engraved from originals preferved among the papers of Dr. Hyde in the British Museum.

The editor having been enabled to complete this difficult and expenfive undertaking by the munificence of his Majefty, has given the impreffion to the univerfity of Oxford, that the profits arifing from the fale may be employed either in the publication of Oriental manuscripts, or the erection of a monument to the memory of Dr. Hyde. The literati are obliged to him for this inftance of generofity, which may be the means of bringing fome valuable manufcripts into light. But with refpect to Dr. Hyde, we will venture to affert, that this elegant edition of his works + is, in the estimation of real judges, Monumentum ære perennius.

* Index Tabularum ære incifarum quæ ad calcem Operis. adjiciuntur.

1. Continens Pyxidem Nauticam Sinenfem, notas numerales, & Semimenfium Solarium nomina.

II. Pondefum & Menfurarum, Locorum & Gentium apud Sinenfes, necnon Singalæorum menfium nomina.

III. Oratio Dominica Linguâ & Charactere Sinenfi.

IV. Symbolum Apoftolicum.

V. Verbum Sum in Linguâ Sinenfi.

VI. Figuræ & Poteftates Characterum Tatarorum prout â diverfis Scriptoribus variè exarati funt.

VII. Infcriptio Libri Tatarici apud Sinenfes impreffi. Autore P. Verbieft.

VIII. IX. Elementa Linguæ Brachmanicæ.

X. XI. Alphabetum Siamicum.

XII. Alphabetum Singalæorum.

XIII. Alphabetum Telengarum.

XIV. Alphabetum Malabaricum, numerandi ratio & breve Vocabularium.

XV. Tabula Chorographica totius Imperii Sinenfis ex quâdam longè majore, nempe fex pedes altâ, ab Editore G. S. acccurate contra&ta.'

As it is well known that Dr. Hyde had begun to write and tranflate feveral other books, which he defigned to publish, if he had lived, we should have been obliged to Dr. Sharpe, if he had informed us, whether all those manufcripts are ftill fubfifting; where they are; and in what condition.

VI. 4

VI. A Review of the Venereal Difeafe, and its Remedies. By William Fordyce, Surgeon. 8vo. Pr. zs. Cadell.

N knowledge, than an implicit acquiefcence in the generat

TOTHING can more retard the advancement of phyficat

practice of the times, with the opinion of its being the best and moft perfect, and carried to the higheft degree of perfection' it can poffibly attain, by the affiftance either of experience or rea fon. Next to this great obftacle in the way of improvement, may be reckoned the pernicious prejudice of authority, which fetters the understanding, and appears flagrantly confpicuous in almost all the writers on phyfic, from the age of Galen to the laft century. Many inftances might be produced, in that pe riod, where common fenfe itfelf has been facrificed to the ideas of an applauded doctor; and a palpably falfe hypothefis, in phyfic, maintained with a degree of zeal as blind and enthufiaftic as ever poffeffed the abetters of the most facred principles of religion. But no name, however venerable, no doctrine, however plaufible, ought to be exempted from the enquiries of truth, and impartial investigation of experiment. At the fame time, it cannot be urged, as any reasonable objection to the merit of a phyfical writer, that he was ignorant of fuch obfervations on diseases as were unknown in the age in which he lived. We can therefore approve the freedom of fentiment in the author of the performance under our cognizance, without any implication of imbecility in thofe on whom he has commented.

In the second section of this treatife, Mr. Fordyce canvasses the opinions of the most celebrated writers on the subject, viz. Sydenham, Boerhaave, and Aftruc. He obferves, that, according to the first of thefe, the cure of the clap depends wholly on purging medicines, by which the peccant humour is discharged, or a derivation is made of the natural juices that might otherwise feed the disease; and that any purgative, long perfevered in, will be fuccessful, but especially the more draftic kinds, of which he recommends a form to be taken daily, for the firft twelve or fourteen days, or more. In opposition to this practice, the commentator confeffes, that he knows of no fuch fure method, either in delicate or irritable habits, to keep up the cordee, bring on ftrangury and fever, or to produce fwelled tefticles, as draftic and daily purging. He proceeds to obferve, with refpect to the admired author, that he does not prescribe bleeding, even in fanguine temperaments, and where the complaint is obftinate, till after a month's purging, left he fhould

should throw the disease into the habit. But now, if, during this purgation for a month, the ftrangury, continual corder, watchfulness, or fever, occafioned by this heating method of cure, even in fpite of a fevere course of diet; if these evils, I fay, are not alleviated by bleeding, opiates, and abftinence from meat, which laft he does not require, what are the confequences? A fever fupervenes, by which the flow of the virulent matter from the urethra is ftopt, and the disease is blended with the habit; or there is produced in the testicles a fwelling, of which the refolution is tedious, difficult, and full of danger.'

When the method above mentioned, of Dr. Sydenham, did not fucceed in stopping the gonorrhoea, it might be done, he faid, more effectually, by a strong purge; or, if that fhould likewife fail, by two or three dofes of turpeth mineral at proper intervals, or else by a large dose of calomel twice a week. All thefe, however, Mr. Fordyce, in general, difapproves, as scarcely fuited to any but the most robuft conftitutions.

After this, he (Dr. Sydenham) has recourse to turpentine medicines, and the drying balfams; but without specifying fufficiently when they may be used with fafety, notwithstanding he feems fo well aware of the risk the patient runs of falling into a confirmed pox, from the peccant humours not being properly carried off by purgatives, in conftitutions where there is an antipathy to these, or a difficulty of being purged.

As to his notion that the hardness in the prepuce, or the ulceration brought upon that part, or under it, is to be cured by fomentations, and mucilaginous or oily applications alone, or even by the mercurial preparation of precipitate mixed with a foftening ointment; I muft needs fay, that I do not find it correfpondent with fact, having feen poxes frequently superinduced by this last application; I mean, where the antivenereal courfe has not been firft regularly purfued. In that cafe, indeed, the method I fpeak of will foften the præputium, and enable the patient to return it; or the fame thing may be effected by the leaden cannula contrived and recommended by Fallopius, to which I have been frequently forced to have recourfe, when all the ulcers had disappeared.

2

With regard to the treatment of the fwelled testicle; Dr. Sydenham does not give the leaft hint, that mercurial applications, or preparations, are often neceffary to fecure the patient from the pocky confequences of inflammation which happen frequently in that tender part.

But to conclude the ftrictures which juftice to my fubject has obliged me, however unwilling, to make on this truly great

man;

man; the principal objection to his method of treating the' confirmed pox lies against his trufting the cure to fo fmall at quantity of quickfilver rubbed on at firft to raise a falivation, and his depending on alteratives afterwards given inwardly to keep it up: for I doubt not of being able to demonstrate in the proper place, that the fecurity does not arife from the falivation, fo much as from the quantity of quickfilver neceffary to extinguish the symptoms.'

After thefe ftrictures on the practice of Sydenham, the author criticizes the doctrine of Boerhaave.

I begin with obferving, that his maxim of mercurial medicines being never neceffary in his firft fpecies of gonorrhoea, does not hold univerfally, it being certain that the pox has taken place, and been communicated to the wife, after the moft regular treatment upon his plan; probably indeed owing to the patient's having contracted this first species from a woman who was poxed.

In his second species of the gonorrhoea, attentive obfervers must have often feen the difeafe creep into the inguinal glands, during a course of brifk purging, accompanied with an antiphlogistic regimen, for two whole months, although the running has not received the leaft check whatsoever.

With refpect to his third fpecies, where the complaint affects Cowper's glands of the urethra, he remarks that the fuccefs of the cure depends entirely on the whole of the infectious matter flowing off by means of the discharge; but he does not fpecify when mercurials are to be used, though he observes very justly, that the fevere remedy of a falivation becomes here often neceffary.

The writer on this fubject, who, of all that have yet treated it, feems beyond comparison to have understood it beft, is Dr. Aftruc. If the following fhort remarks on his work are found justified by facts, the candid reader will, I trust, forgive a freedom, which nothing but thofe fats could have induced me to take with so able a profeffor.

• His notion that a gonorrhoea never terminates in a pox, provided the matter loaded with the venereal contagion is freely and copiously discharged, tends to prevent the attention that is neceffary for eradicating the whole infection; fince we fee every, day, in many obftinate gonorrhoeas, the worst confequences arifing from the leaft neglect in profecuting the antivenereal course to its full length.

Nor does he appear to inculcate, with fufficient force, the neceffity of employing mercurials, as foon as the double infection is discovered; neither can I find, that, in treating the gonorrhoea,

2