ing us to make search how these men came to their death, whether it were by the grievousness of their wounds, or by the lack of knowledge of the furgeons; and we, according to our commandment, made search through all the camp, and found many of the fame good fellows, which took upon them the names of furgeons, not only the names, but the wages alfo. We asking of them, whether they were furgeons or no; they faid they were: we demanded with whom they were brought up; and they, with fhameless faces, would anfwer, either with one cunning man, or another, which was dead. Then we demanded of them what chirurgery stuff they had to cure men withall; and they would fhew us a pot or a box, which they had in a budget, wherein was fuch trumpery as they did ufe to grease horse's heels withall, and laid upon fcabbed horfes backs, with nerval and fuch like. And other, that were coblers and tinkers, they ufed fhoemaker's wax, with the ruft of old pans, and made therewithall a noble falve, as they did term it. But in the end, this worthy rabblement was committed to the Marshalfea, and threatened by the Duke's Grace to be hanged for their worthy deeds, except they would declare the truth what they were, and of what occupations; and in the end they did confess, as I have declared to you before." "I Notwithstanding this reprefentation, it appears that when he wrote this work (1566) the ftate of furgery was become still more deplorable." I have myself," fays he afterwards, "in the time of King Henry VIII. holpe to furnish out of London, in one year, which ferved by fea and land, threefcore and twelve furgeons, which were good workmen, and well able to ferve, and all Englishmen. At this prefent day there are not thirty-four of all the whole company of Englishmen; and yet the moft part of them be in noblemen's fervice; fo that, if we fhould have need, I do not know where to find twelve fufficient men. What do I fay? fufficient men; nay, I would there were ten amongst all the company worthy to be called furgeons." The following quotation from a work of Dr. William Bulleyn, a cotemporary of the preceding writer, will probably amufe the reader. It exhibits a worshipful catalogue of knights and their dames, amateurs in furgery; and fhews how they employed themselves, in their country manfions, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, when furgeons were every where scarce, and long before quackery had opened its numerous warehouses in the capital, and poured forth its noftrums for the benefit both of town and country. 66 Many good men and women," fays Dr. Bulleyn," within. this realme, have divers and fundry medicines for the canker (probably cancer), and do help their neighbours that be in peril and danger, which be not only poore and needy, having no money money to spend in chirurgerie, but fome do dwell where no chirurgeans be neere at hand. In fuch cafes, as I have fayd, many good gentlemen and ladyes have done no fmall pleasure to poore people as that excellent knyght and worthy learned man, Syr Thomas Eliot, whofe works be immortal; Syr Phillip Parris of Cambridgefhyre, whofe cures deferve prayfe; Syr William Gafcoygne of Yorkfhyre, that helped many fore eyen; and the Lady Taylor of Huntingdonfhyre, and the Lady Darrel of Kent, had many precious medicines to comfort the fight, and to heale wounds withal, and were well feene in herbs. The commonwealth had great want of them and their medicines; which if they had come into my hands, they should not have bin written on the backfide of my booke. Among all other there was a knyght, a man of great worship, a godly hurtlefie gentleman, which is departed this lyfe; his name is Syr Anthony Heveningham (of Heningham, Suffolk). This gentleman learned a water to kill a canker of his own mother, &c." The good doctor, who fo cordially believes in the cure of the canker, laments with equal fimplicity and earnestness, that no efficacious remedy had yet been practifed against witchcraft ; which he affirms to be "more hurtful in this realm than either. quartan, pox, or peftilence;" and expreffes his forrow that damnable witches fhould be fuffered to live unpunished, and fo many bleffed men burned."It fhould be obferved, that hewas warmly attached to the principles of the Reformation. The credulity and fuperftition of Sir Theodore Mayerne, phyfician to four kings, is fcarce lefs remarkable. He prefcribes (fays his prefent biographer) a powder for the gout, one of the ingredients of which is, rafpings of a human skull unburied; and again, speaking of the good effects of absorbents, he particularly recommends human bones, of the fame kind with the parts affected.' He gives a recipe of an unguent for hypocondriacal perfons, which he calls his balfam of bats. In its compo fition there enter, adders, bats, fucking-whelps, earth-worms, hog's greafe, the marrow of a flag, and of the thigh-bone of an ox. Ingredients,' fays the author, fitter for the witches' cauldron in Macbeth, than for a learned phyfician's prefcription.' 6 In a posthumous work of the fame phyfician, published by his godfon, Sir Theodore de Vaux, confifting chiefly of prefcriptions, veftiges of ancient medical fuperftition frequently appear.- The fecundines of a woman at her first labour, who has been delivered of a male child, the bowels of a mole cut' open alive, mummy made of the lungs of a man who has fuffered a violent death, the liver of frogs, and the blood of weafels, are articles of his materia medica. Amulets, too, are not forgotten. Though I Though fuperftition is totally excluded from the modern practice of medicine, yet it must be owned, notwithstanding the reformation which has of late taken place in the art; custom, and the craft of phyfic, ftill fupport the credit, or at least the ufe, of many fuppofed remedies, which have as problematical a title to that appellation, as the balfam of bats, or the dried lungs of an executed convict. In our account of this performance, we have given extracts rather unfavourable to the art and its profeffors: but the biographical memoirs of a Linacre, a Caius, or a Hervey, would have led us into too long details. With the laft of these ornaments of the profeffion (or rather with Gliffon), the Author concludes the prefent volume; for which we think him entitled to praise, for the induftry he has fhewn in collecting his materials, as well as for the manner in which he has employed them. We accordingly hope that he will meet with fufficient encouragement to induce him to profecute his plan through fucceeding periods; which, as he properly obferves, will present objects ftill more interefting, and lefs liable to deficiency in the execution: a defign in which, he informs us, he has already made fome progrefs. MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For NOVEMBER, 1780. POLITICAL. Art. 15. An Effay on the Population of England, from, the Revolution to the prefent Time. With an Appendix, containing Remarks on the Account of the Population, Trade, and Resources of the Kingdom, in Mr. Eden's Letters to Lord Carlisle. By Richard Price, D. D. F. R. S. 8vo. 1 s. 6 d. Cadell. 1780. N our Review for February, we mentioned the third edition of Mr. Eden's celebrated Four Letters to Lord Carlisle, accompanied by his additional obfervations, in a 5th Letter, on Dr. Price's notion of the decreasing population of this country. Mr. Eden holds the contrary opinion; and we remarked, that he maintained his more comfortable doctrine with ability as well as candour. I In the prefent tract, of which a fecond edition has been publifhed, Dr. P. endeavours to refute Mr. E. and to fupport, on the moft folid ground of fact, and the best authorities, his general pofition, that, while other countries are increafing, this country, in confequence of the causes of depopulation which have unhappily diftinguished it, has for many years been decreafing.'-We fhall be • We fhould rather, perhaps, have said a third edition, because this Essay was originally printed at the end of MORGAN's Doctrine of Annuities and Affurances on Lives and Survivorships; See Review for June 1780, P. 450. glad glad to fee this doctrine refused by those who maintain, with Mr. E. that the ideas of our lofs of trade, and diminished refources, as well as a decrease of population,' are to be enumerated among the chimeras which haunt the joyless imaginations of some speculative men among us.' Art. 16. A Speech of Edmund Burke, Efq; at the Guildhall in Bristol, previous to the late Election in that City, upon certain Points relative to his Parliamentary Conduct. 8vo. I s. 6 d. Dodfley. 1780. We have perufed this excellent piece of oratory with admiration and delight.-Mr. Burke fuppofes his parliamentary conduct to have been arraigned, by fome perfons, particularly on the following points On the first Irish trade-acts-On Lord Beauchamp's debtor's bill, -And on the late affairs of the Roman Catholics. On each of these heads he very copiously expatiates; and gives fo clear, fo manly, fo convincing a defence of his principles and proceedings, as cannot, in our opinion, fail of extorting the warmest applaufe from every generous, candid, liberal mind. As for the inhabitants of Bristol, they are perhaps, rather to be pitied for the lofs, than cenfured for their unfortunate rejection, of so able a reprefentative. Art. 17. A Letter to the new Parliament; with Hints of some Regulations which the Nation hopes and expects from them. 8vo. I s. Rivington. 1780. The reigning evils of the times, religious, moral, and political, are here pointed out, with an earnest call upon the Lords and Gentlemen of Parliament, for the application of proper remedies.-In fome of the Author's hints, and reprefentations, we entirely agree with him; but with regard to his apprehenfions of danger to the State, from the political tenets of fome of our fectaries †, we are perfuaded that he argues rather from mifinformation, if not from prejudice, than from a certain knowledge of facts. Art. 18. Political Mirror, in which is contained a Review of the Conduct of the Premier, chiefly from the Time of his famous Conciliatory Bill to America, &c. &c. By a Gentleman of the University of Oxford. 8vo. I S. Evans. 1780. Although this gentleman of the University of Oxford' does not write in a very gentlemanly ftyle, nor in a manner which will reflect great honour on that illuftrious feminary, yet there are fome remarks in his pamphlet which merit the public attention: particularly on the fubject of fome late new taxes, and on the importance of an independent Parliament. Art. 19. Common Place Arguments against Administration; with obvious Answers. Intended for the Ufe of the New Parliament. 8vo. Is. 6d. Faulder. 1780. Another Anticipation.-Why will this ingenious advocate for Administration thus continue to employ himself in hunting down a fingle and exhausted idea;-be! who can never be at a lofs for fresh game. + Not the Roman Catholics, for of them the Writer appears to ensertain a favourable opinion. Government, he thinks, "have most to fear from the Diffenters!!! REV. Nov. 1780. Cc Art. Art. 20. Nathan to Lord North. 8vo. I S. Wilkie. 1780. An ironical panegyric on the Premier, under the form of abufe and popular invective. A M E RIC A. Art. 21. A Plan of Articles of perpetual Union, Commerce, and Friendship, between Great Britain and her American Colonies; founded on the folid Bafis of Juftice, and propofed as a Medium between the Claims of total Independence on the one hand, and thofe of legal Subjection on the other. 8vo. I s. 6d. Johnson, &c. 1785. t We really think this Author's profeffions are very honeftly meant, when he offers this plan, as founded on the folid basis of juftice, &c. And we alfo join with him in recommending it particularly to thofe who can diveit themfe'ves of paffion and prejudice,-who, with liberal hearts, and unbiaffed understandings, can judge with candor, and decide with juice, on the rights of mankind.'. We likewife cordially join with him, in his good prayer, at the close of his publication That the facred ties which reciprocally bind and connect the parts of fociery,-that our mutual fufferings, increafed burthens, and growing evils, may incline our hearts' [and the hearts of thofe with whom we are fo unfortunately at variance]feriously to pursue the paths that lead to peace: peace upon a broad and liberal foundation-fupported by justice and liberty, fecured by intereft, and cemented by mutual and folemn engagements!' POETICA L. Art. 22. Mufic in Mourning: or, Fiddleftick in the Suds. A Tragic comic, Poetical Burlefque, neither in Profe or Rhyme. 4to. I S. Faulder. 1780. This Mufic, though often out of tune, has fome lively notes, but not in the chromatic train. The following paffage contains fome crotchets that found ftrongly of the orchestra: Let worthy N-1-n with his martial Kets, Muft all in gratitude attend, and join |