1 V. The Hiftory of Rhedi, the Hermit of Mount Ararat. An Oriental Tale. 12mo. 31. Cadell. IT will readily be inferred from the title of this performance, that it contains the hiftory of a perfon who has feverely experienced the difafters of life, and devoted the remainder of his days to contemplation and retirement. Amur Aflan Khan, governor of Ghilan, and a man of diftinguished virtue, being obliged to abandon his country for the fake of avoiding the ruin with which he was threatened, from a false accufation preferred against him to the fophy of Perfia by the governor of a province contiguous to that of Ghilan, departs with his little family, and his friend Mouli, for the city of Aleppo, where the latter refided, at whofe house he was invited to spend the future years of his life. In pursuing their journey over mount Ararat, an unfortunate accident happens which involves Amur and his wife in the deepest affliction. Riza Couli, their only child, a boy of about ten years of age, having cafually feparated from the rest of the company in the wood, is obferved by a wild boar, which rushing furiously upon him tears him to pieces on the fpot. Alarmed by his fhrieks, the unhappy father, in a tranfport of amazement and horror, flies to the place from whence the noise feemed to proceed. His interpofition, however, was too late, and the only office which he now could perform to his child was the last fad duty of depofiting his body in the earth. The grief of the parents on this mournful event, may be more eafily imagined than described. The mother was with difficulty forced to quit the hallowed spot where the object of all her hopes lay interred. Refuming, at length, their melancholy journey, they reach a fequestered grotto, the habitation of a hermit, whofe name was Rhedi, by whom they are invited to partake of such refreshment as his humble cot afforded. The affliction fo vifible in the countenances of his guests excited in Rhedi a defire of being acquainted with their hiftory, which is accordingly related by Amur. The relation of their woes finished, the sympathif ing hermit endeavours to confole them, by an account of the fevere difpenfations of Providence which himself had experienced. The misfortunes of Rhedi derive their origin from the refentment of a Perfian nobleman, named Savi Mustapha, who was defirous that Rhedi fhould efpoufe his daughter Abbaffah. His affection, however, being unalterably fixed on SeJima, a most beautiful young lady whom he met with on his travels in Georgia, he politely declined that propofal. While he was yet in Georgia, he received a meffage from his father Abu Abufaid, one of the chief beglerbegs of the province of Carimania, requefting him to haften his return as much as poffible after the celebration of his intended nuptials with Selima; as he (Abufaid) was defirous of pronouncing his benediction on them both before his death, which, from his declining ftate, he had reafon to think was at no great diftance. On receiving this intelligence, the lovers fat out for Kerman, the refidence of Abufaid, accompanied by Mortiza Cauli, the brother of Selima; having refolved to defer their marriage till after their arrival at that place. The expedition which they used to accomplish their journey, however, unfortunately proved fruitless, the worthy Abufaid dying two days before they reached Kerman. By the machinations of Savi Muftapha, Rhedi was now ftripped of his paternal fortune, under the falfe pretence of its having been acquired by fraud and oppreffion. A ftill feverer blow, however, was meditated against him, and foon after carried into execution. In an affault, devifed by Muftapha, and conducted by a band of armed guards, the beautiful Selima is violently carried off from her lover. After bravely fighting in her defence, Mortiza Cauli is flain by the affailants, and Rhedi taken prisoner. The unhappy pair feemed now to be feparated beyond the poffibility of ever confummating their wishes: Rhedi is caft into a dungeon, and Selima fent as a prefent to the fophy. In a fhort time, however, the captive found means to effectuate his efcape, and proceeded on his journey towards Ifpahan, whither he was informed that Selima had been conveyed, and where he hoped to obtain the afliftance of fome people of credit and fortune towards recovering his paternal eftate, of which he had been fo unjustly deprived. On his arrival at that capital, he found that his friends, though ftrongly in. clined to ferve him, could not, confiftently with their own fafety, efpoufe his caufe, as the grand vizier, Aman Ola, who' had been a principal agent in oppreffing him, poffeffed unbounded influence at the court of the emperor. Unfucceffful however, as proved his endeavours in this fuit, the misfortune was compenfated by a felicity which he almoft despaired of ever enjoying. Meeting with Obeyd, a fervant in the haram of the fophy, and who was devoted to the intereft of Rhedi from gratitude to his father Abufaid, he is informed that his beloved Selima ftill cherished in her heart an unalterable affection for him, over which all the blandifhments of the emperor had hitherto been unable to prevail. Through the means of Obeyd an interview is procured between the lovers in the haram, which had nearly proved fatal to all concerned. The fame faithful confident afterwards contrives a ftrata ftratagem for the escape of Selima from the haram; which happily fucceeding, the lovers, accompanied with Obeyd, proceed by his advice to mount Ararat, in the refolution of fixing their refidence with Bondezir, a hermit, who had formerly been known to Obeyd. On their arrival at the hermitage, they are cordially received by its venerable inhabitant, who foon afterwards performs the ceremony of uniting Rhedi and Selima in the facred bond of marriage. In this fequeftered abode, the faithful pair enjoyed for several years the utmost of human felicity. In a year from their marriage Selima brought forth a fon, and in two years. afterwards a daughter. These halcyon days, however, were followed by a fucceffion of difafters, which plunged Rhedi in the greateft diftrefs. Selima, by a fatal accident, as she was employed in washing her children's clothes near the brink of a rivulet, fell into the water, and was drowned: and a few years after, his fon was killed by a band of ruffians, whom he was bravely repelling in an attempt to violate his fifter's honour. Having given a detail of the outlines of this performance, we fhall, as a specimen, prefent our readers with a fhort extract from the conclufion. Such, Amur, is the hiftory of my life; let thy foul drink inftruction from the leffon it contains, as the tender flowers drinking the dews of heaven, which adorn them with the colours of beauty, beftow on them their gloffy enamel, and diffufe thofe agreeable odours that regale our fenfes with their fragrance. Let this important truth be engraved on the tablets of thy heart, that affliction of one kind or another is the lot of man; but that thofe who fubmit to the irremediable evils of life with patience and refignation, or overcome them by the exertion of fuperior fortitude, are the only per fons who reap real advantage from the afflictions to which they are fubjected. Remember that man is a fojourner upon earth, a traveller towards paradife, his native home; and that the joys and forrows of mortality, when put in competition with that state of endless happiness or mifery which shall fucceed the prefent, is as the drop of the bucket, compared with the river Ganges, which rolls its majestic courfe through the plains of Indoftan, or the fcanty rill that refreshes fome verdant meadow, compared with the immenfe ocean that fixes the boundaries of kingdoms and incircles the tabitable world.' As he fpoke the angel of inftruction impreffed the truths he delivered on the minds of his guefts. Rhedi returned to his cell in peace, and Amur, Almerine, and Mouli, with 6 minds minds compofed into refignation and tranquillity, took their way through the wildernefs of Ararat.' This tale is written in the figurative ftyle of oriental compofition. The narration, though fometimes unequal, is in general supported with an uniform luxuriance of ornament, the fentiments are virtuous, and the incidents are described in a lively and affecting manner. In thefe, however, there is not much novelty; and we may discover in the work fome trivial marks of inadvertency. VI. A Treatise on the Kinkcough. With an Appendix, containing an Account of Hemlock, and its Preparations. By William Batter, M. D. 8vo. 35. Cadell, THE fubject of this treatife has been diffinguished by vari ous appellations, whereof the kinkcough is the title by which it is denominated in Scotland. It is a difeafe that medical writers have not inveftigated with a degree of precifion fuitable to its importance, and which we are therefore glad to fee placed in a clearer light by a judicious practitioner. In the first chapter of the treatise, Dr. Butter delivers the fynonimous names, definition, defcription, and prognoftics of the kinkcough, or hooping-cough; in the second, he enquires into the nature of the difeafe; and in the third endeavours to elucidate in what part of the body it is feated. The latter of thefe enquiries has afforded fubject of much difpute among phyficians; fome afcribing the origin of the diforder to the lungs, fome to the stomach, others to the top of the trachea, and others to the lungs and ftomach in conjunction. Dr. Butter admits, with Aftruc, that the larynx and pharynx are affected in this disease; with Willis, that the lungs are affected; and with Waldschmidt, the affection of the ftomach: but he differs from these authors in not thinking any of the parts abovementioned the principal feat of the disorder. According to him the kinkcough derives its origin from the inteftinal canal. This opinion he endeavours to maintain by various arguments. He deduces his reafons, first, from the nature of fuch habits as are fubject to the kinkcough; fecondly, from the nature and cure of the kinkcough: thirdly, from the nature of fome difeafes confequent upon the kinkcough; and. fourthly, from the analogy which this disorder bears to other diseases which are fuppofed to have their feat in the intestines. We shall lay before our readers what the author advances on this fubject. In the first place, it seems that the inteftines of children are more irritable, and, by confequence, more eafily affected than than any other part of their tender bodies. For this reason it is, that the diseases of children, even the most remote from the inteftines, affect that canal. Thus we fee dentition almoft conftantly produces a diarrhea, colick pains, and flatulency. On the other hand, an irritating caufe in the intestines most certainly can affect the whole or any part of the nervous system. Doctor Harris has proved that almost all the diseases of children depend on an affection of the first paffages. And the hysteria and raphania, two diseases evidently of the firft paffages, though the former feems chiefly to be feated in the ftomach, and the latter in the guts, afford melancholy proofs of the direful symptoms that can be excited in every corner of the body from that origin even in adults. If it be asked why an intestinal affection fhould produce the kinkcough? I refer the folution of this question to those who fhall undertake to explain the manner of acting of the contagious particles of any disease whatever. We need only ob ferve here, that if a caufe fuch, as worms, lodging in the intestines, can produce a cough, and even general convulfions; we may suppose another caufe exifting in the fame bowel ca-, pable, under certain circumstances, of producing the kinkcough. The one cafe feems equally as intelligible as the other; although perhaps we fhall never be able to explain the manner in which either is brought about; any more than why hemlock produces a vertigo; indian pink, a particular motion, of the eyes; mercury, a falivation; cantharides, a frangury, &c. Secondly, as to the arguments deducible from the nature and cure of the kinkcough to prove that it is an inteftinal affection, it is obfervable, that thofe children pafs most easily through the disease that have an open belly; that vomits are moft ferviceable, when they render the body foluble at the fame time; and laftly, that fuch patients bear the action of vomits, much better than purges: all which circumftances. ftrongly point out that the intestines, and not the stomach, are the feat of the kinkcough. Thirdly, as to the difeafes confequent upon an obftinate kinkcough; thefe are chiefly the kings-evil and rickets. It is needless as well as improper to enter upon a long difcuffion of these maladies; as a few general remarks on each will suffi ciently answer the prefent purpose. It is univerfally allowed, that the kings-evil is chiefly feated in the conglobate glands; and probably those of the. mefentery are first affected. This much is certain, that an enlarged belly and colick pains are among the firft fymptoms;. and diffections prove, that the glands of the mefentery are al |