March 1762. Storck on the medicinal virtues of hemlock. hours; upon this condition, however, ch, that the patient should drink after it confiderable quantities of an infufion of the tops of eye-bright, with the feeds difweet fennel and liquorice. This woman, from the 22d of April to the 3d of November 1760, took of the extract of hemlock the quantity of fixty eght ounces. In confumptions, I have often feen the prifing efficacy of the hemlock; and have rettored perfons by its means, who had been entirely defpaired of. In the worst cachectics, in whose ftoCachs too great quantities of mucous and gary matter was feparated, this extract, joined with ftomachic elixirs, has been often of great benefit, where other medicines, though continued for a long time, were not productive of the leaft good effect." What now fhall we fay to Dr Andree's crude affeverations in oppofition to fuch a cloud of witnesses, all eminent in their profeffions, and probably as candid as the Jenior phyfician of the London hofpital? Shall we reject their evidence because they are foreigners? Shall we fay they have combined to poifon mankind, only to fupport the character of Dr Storck? Shall we affirm, that Dr Andree alone has administered the true cicuta in the proper anner? Shall it be alledged, that our learned phyfician of the London hofpital is fallible, both in point of ability and integrity? Rather let farther efforts be rade for the relief of the afflicted, and Dr Andree's performance be regarded as premature, though well intended, until refeated trials under the inspection of divers eminent phyficians, fhall have more fully elucidated the question in debate. We fhall now prefent the reader with fhort view of the cafes related in Dr Storck's present publication. The first is &fchirrous fwelling of the parotid glands; the fecond, a large indurated tumor of the left breast, which broke, and discharged an ichorous fetid matter; the third, a foul cancerous ulcer on the left fide, towards the hip; the fourth, a foul ulcer the leg; the fifth, a foul inveterate cer in the right fide of the lower belly; the fixth, an indurated tumor of the left reaft, which fhifted to the right, at ended with a habit, apparently to us eucophlegmatic; the feventh, a cancer the left breaft, (under this head is reated an unfortunate cafe of an empyema the left cavity of the thorax); the 139 eighth, a foul ulcer under the roof of the tongue; the ninth, an extraordinary case of a flying gouty pain, which at last fixed in the right fhoulder, and coxendix bone of the fame fide, and, in the progress of the cure, difcharged itself in pustules all over the body; the tenth, a spina ventofa, (or erofion of the bone), in the heel of the right foot, and elbow of the right arm; the eleventh, foul ulcers in both heels, and between the fhoulders; the twelfth, a foul cuticular disorder, differing but little from a leprofy; the thirteenth, a cancerous ulcer in the neck of the uterus; the fourteenth, a cafe nearly fimilar to the former; the fifteenth, a putrid ulcer in the parts of female generation; the fixteenth, tumors of both breafts the feventeenth, a large hard tumor in the left cavity of the thorax, and four boils of a bluish caft, deeply feated between the skin and the membrana adipofa; the eighteenthi, a hard immoveable tumor in the left hypochondrium; the nineteenth, a hard fwelling of the glands of the neck to a prodigious fize; the twentieth, a hard tumor of the breast, of a livid colour; the twenty-firft, a cancer of the left parotid; the twenty-fecond, a fchirrus of the left ovary; the twentythird, a child of a ricketty habit; the twenty-fourth, a fimilar cafe; the twenty-fifth, a cachectic cafe, attended with pain, heat, and tenfion in the upper region of the belly; the twenty-sixth, a lymphatic fwelling of the knee; the twenty-seventh, a cataract in the left eve; the twenty-eighth, a gutta ferena; the twenty-ninth, a gouty cafe; the thirtieth, a fimilar cafe; the thirty-first, an arthritic cafe; the thirty-fecond, an incipient cancer in the breaft; the thirty-third, a ferous yellow fwelling over the whole body, efpecially at the joints; the thirty-fourth, a schirrous swelling in the fcrotum; the thirty-fifth, venereal ulcers, and a caries of the tibia; the thirty-sixth, a scald head; the thirty-seventh, a bad cutaneous diforder. To these cafes we thall join the fubfequent quotation, which will exhibit a view of the effects of the cicuta in a great variety of diseases. "Were I to relate more cafes," fays the Doctor, "I might, perhaps, feem prolix and tirefome to my readers. By the hemlock alone I have cured a vaft number of fcrophulous and strumous complaints. I have feen women finely fhaped, with U 2 faces faces handfomer than the most agreeable pictures, who have had the thyroid gland large and indurated; a blemish which, in the eyes of most men, eclipfes the fplendor of the highest beauty. To moft of thefe the hemlock was of great fervice, if the fwelling proceeded from an obftruction or fuifing of the gland. I forbear mentioning fchirs of a flighter kind, in the breafts, arm-pits, groin, neck of the womb, and womb itfelf, which have been difcuffed by the hemlock alone. Obftructions and hardneffes in the hypochondria, and various kinds of fwellings in the region of the lower belly, I fcarce ever failed of difperfing by means of this remedy. A woman upwards of fixty, had, for fixteen years, above twenty very hard fwellings, each of which was as big as a goole's egg, in different parts of the abdomen. Various medicines which the tried, yielded no relief; and the ailment increased to fuch a degree, that she could not make water, and was obliged often to have recourfe to a catheter. On taking the hemlock fhe urined freely; her appetite became better; and her strength returned. Some of the fwellings even became fofter, and a confiderable quantity of purulent matter iflued from the womb. If the patient abstained a few days from using the hemlock, the belly immediately grew tenfe, the urine was fuppreffed, and bad symptoms came on. In proportion to the quantity of matter difcharged from the womb, feveral of the fwellings grew foft and fmall; many others, however, remained unaltered. This woman has received great benefit from the hem lock; and, if the continues the ufe of it, may, perhaps, be entirely cured. Nor am I afraid of a fuppuration bringing on a mortal tympany, fince the diflolved matter finds a paffage by the womb; neither are there figns of the matter being re-abforbed, which might occafion a hectic fever. In inveterate heartburns, I have very often given the hemlock with the greateft fuccefs. In a fhort time it took away the burning heat, as well as pain, and defire of vomiting. Perfons, before weak and emaciated, recovered their ftrength by the ufe of the hemlock, and became lufty. Obftinate headachs and hemicranias of a long standing gave way to it. When I obferved any obftructions or Roppages in the veffels of the kidneys or the womb, arifing from an acrid tenaciou ferum; on giving the hemlock, I almo always perceived, that the menfes flowe in greater abundance, the blood afsume a better appearance, the racking pain of the cholic ceafed, as well as all une at retchings, bilious vomitings, and painti tenfions in the groin, or near the os fa crum; nor did headachs, dimnefs of fight or giddinefs, afterwards return. I attended two women, who, abou the time of the menftrual discharge, wer afflicted with the most dreadful fymp toms: they had been married fevera years, but never had been with child On taking the hemlock, they not onl were entirely relieved from these com plaints, but became much heartier, an both foon after became with child. Wha can the amiable fair fex expect furthe from the hemlock? I have often cured a fcrophulous con fumption with hemlock and milk. I hav had the fame fuccefs with the hemlock in obftinate, inveterate, ulcerated, for throats, whether eruptive, scorbutic, fe rous, or by whatever acrid defluxion the were occafioned. In many defperate difeafes, where I fav the most efficacious medicines exhibited fo a long time to no purpofe, I have mad conftantly trial of the hemlock, and b this means have often effected a cure. ' A dropfy, owing to a hardness of fom of the abdominal vifcera, has often yield ed to the hemlock alone; often it requi red the aft ftance of other remedies; an often the evil proved altogether incura ble. Ancient gouts, inveterate rheumatifins the fpina ventofa, pox, deafness, th deepeit melancholy (from a phyfical caufe) the fcab, feald head, bad ringworm, fou ulcers, and the moit obftinate finous and fiftulous fores, I have for the most par fubdued, and happily cured, by the fol afliftance of the hemlock. I met, however, with fome cafes, i which the hemlock did no fervice, though it was exhibited for a long time, and i a large dofe. A young girl, twenty years of age, fo a fwelling in her left cheek, which wa clofely united to the lower jaw, and big ger than a man's fift, took daily, for a bove half a year, a confiderable dofe o the extract of hemlock; from which re ceiving no benefit, he grew tired, and left it off. Another young woman, aged twenty March 1762. Storck on the medicinal virtues of hemlock. five, had, for many years, a large darkcoloured fwelling in the right fide of her neck. I made trial of the hemlock; but a fever was immediately produced, and fhe became weak. Other medicines, towever, prescribed for this fwelling, befides external applications, afforded no relief. Wherefore Mr Collin and I agreed to make another trial of the hemlock in this cafe, under a different form, in a very small dofe, and joined with other medicines: but the former symptoms immediately returned; and the patient, from the use of the hemlock, even in fo frall a quantity, grew weak, and was extremely uneafy. Hence it was judged proper to leave the ailment to itself. A woman, forty-two years of age, felt a very painful fchir in her right breaft for fix months paft, which was the time the menftrual discharge had left her. A furgeon advised her to apply an external fomentation of wine-lees, boiled in wine. In two days the fchir was much larger, harder, and the fkin grew livid. After wards the fcarf-fkin burst, and a fharp fetid ferum was discharged. For feveral weeks, different furgeons and physicians tried a variety of medicines. But the difeate gained ground: the patient complained of a dry cough, of a heat in the breaft; began to fweat in the night, and to become emaciated. Being at length confulted, I recommended the hemlock, with a decoction of common barley, and plenty of milk. From thence her ftrength was augmented; the night-fweats ceafed; ber appetite returned; the breails chanred to a brighter red; and the hardness decreated. For almost two months, there was the greatest hope of making a cure of this woman. Then, I know not from what accident, fhe was fuddenly feized with a cough, fo violent that the fpit blood. Hence I was obliged to difcontirue the ufe of the hemlock, and the patient at last died of a consumption. Another woman, afflicted with a runDing cancer in her right breaft, was better on taking the hemlock; and the exulcerated hardness was reduced at least two thirds. But, in the mean time, he was feized with a tertian ague, which wea kened her extremely. Upon this I difcontinued the hemlock, and gave her the Peruvian bark in confiderable quantities. The ague was fubdued; her ftrength was reftored; and from the ufe of the bark every thing feemed to promife well. Wherefore I continued giving her the 141 bark for a fortnight longer. At which time he was attacked with a humoral asthma, with which the had been afflicted about three years before. She was not able to expectorate, and thus died fuffocated. A man, turned of feventy, was feized with an apoplexy, from whence the left arm and foot of the fame fide, became paralytic. He was troubled at the fame time with a great cough, and had in the right fide of his neck a flefly fwelling, more than double the fize of a man's fift. After phyficians and furgeons had tried a variety of medicines for feveral months to no purpofe, the poor man was at length abandoned to his fate. The patient's wife then defired me to vifit him. I beheld him almost spent with old age, and with diftemper, fetching his breath with difficulty, and fpitting up a little adhesive glutinous matter; the fwelling on the neck was hard, livid, inclining to purple, and with a continual gnawing pain. I immediately pronounced the cafe defperate to his wife, and promifed nothing. I talked encouragingly, however, to the dejected old man, and ordered medicines that might afford him fome relief. He began to spit more copiously, and his refpiration grew eafier: his ftrength was fomewhat augmented; but the welling continued painful, and its fize increafed. Hence the patient himself earnestly befought me to try the hemlock. As I knew it was innocent, even in the most debilitated old men, I gave him two grains night and morning, and continued befides the use of expectorating medicines. The effect of the hemlock was wonderful; the difcharge from his breaft was copious and more concocted; and in a few days, a greater degree of motion and fenfation was perceived in the paralytic limbs. In the fwelling, the pain was leffened; neither was it continual, only returning at intervals but his ftrength did not increafe; and his appetite was gone. I did not augment the dole of the hemlock. In about a month's time the fwelling feemed fofter; but in other refpects he continued much the fame, and took little or no nourithment. Nevertheless, he was kept alive for four months; at the end of which, his ftrength being entirely exhausted through want of nourishment, the poor wretch languifhed for eight days, and then died. Sometimes I have given the hemlock in a cataract, and by a long course of it, in a a large dose, have at length fucceeded. Often, however, in this disease it produced no effect at all. I made a perfect cure of four women with cancerous ulcers about the womb, by means of the hemlock. Many others it relieved for a time, without effecting an en tire cure. In others, afflicted with cancers, the hemlock evidently did no fervice. There were even fome patients who could not bear it, complaining that from taking it, their pain became more violent, their weakness greater, and the ichorous difcharge more fetid, acrid, and copious. For instances like thefe, fhould the hemlock be exploded? or thould it never be tried in fimilar cafes? It was neceflary, candidly, and inge. nuously, to mention thefe exceptions, left I fhould be thought to want to impofe on the learned world, by dwelling only on the praises of hemlock. After all, it is very poffible, that this plant, like many other vegetables that anfwer to the fame botanic qualities, may be endowed with various powers in different foils and climates. C. THE hemlock ufed by Dr Storck is the large, common, Spotted, ftinking hemlock, called by Linnæus, Conium feminibus ftri. atis; and by Clufius, Cicutaria major vulgaris. For an extract, this plant is best gathered when its flowers are full blown; and every part of the plant, except the root, may be used for this purpote: and the extract is to be made, by prefling the juice into a glazed earthen veflel, and placing it over a flow fire, taking care to ftir it often till it is boiled to a proper confift ence. Dr Storck obferves, that, in general, apothecaries have been too careful in depurating this juice; for he prefers that extract which is thickest, and almost equal to a pulp. An extract may also be prepared from a decoction of the dried plant, when it cannot be procured fresh; but fuch extract will be lefs efficacious. We are alfo told, that fome hundred weight of the extract prepared from the dry plant, have been sent from Vienna into other countries, without Dr Storck's knowledge, and he exprefies great unea finefs on that account From the aforementioned cafes, the Doctor draws the following corollaries. 1. Hemlock does not diflolve the blood into a putrid colliquation. 2. Nor bring on confumptions. 3. Nor hurt the fight. 4. Nor take away the power of procr ation. 5. It may be fafely given in schirruf of the lower belly. He concludes his work with the follow ing cautions. I have related feveral cafes in whic the hemlock is beneficial; I do not, how ever, pretend, that we are to rely alway on this plant alone. Other remedies must also sometimes ac company the hemlock. It will be neceflary for the phyficia judiciously to follow the respective indica tions. The furgeon muft alter, add, and tak away, according as reafon, founded o experience, dictates. That it cureth cancers, `is a fact I have feen, and of which I am convinced by a multitude of experiments: but I do not from hence affert, that it is effectual a gainst every cancer; nor, that from the hemlock alone is the whole cure always to be expected. If there are perfons who, on account of their particular conftitution, or from a complication of symptoms, cannot fupport the hemlock, let such refrain from taking it. If the symptoms require, also, other medicines, why may they not be adminiftered together with this plant? Purgatives are often neceffary. Sometimes it may be proper alfo to order a bleeding. In plethoric difpofitions, hemorrhages fhould not fuddenly be stopped; for with fuch patients they agree much better than artificial bleedings In weak conftitutions, on the contrary, the agaric of the oak muft immediately and effectually be applied. The agaric, however, fhould be only fixed to the fpot from whence the blood flues: extended over the entire ulcer, or the wound, it is pernicious, and often fatal. In fome cafes, cooling antiphlogistic remedies are indicated as well as the hem lock. This happens most in the gout and rheumatism. Sometimes emollients, digeftives fometimes, and fometimes aftringents, are required. The knife must now and then also be employed in giving the matter a discharge, which I have often obferved in the pina centofa, in order that the carious and corrupted parts may be feparated from the found. A fungous cancer must also be fometimes extracted with the knife. But left, in fimilar cafes, a relapfe fhould happen, the hemlock ought to be employed, which is fufficient to prevent it. It happens, in many inftances, that the callous lips of cancers, or even fun gous cancers themselves, are confumed by the means of the following remedv alone: Take of the plant of hemlock two drams and a half; of honey of roses three ounces. Thefe ingredients are to be spread on pledgets of lint; and being applied to the part affected, are to be renewed as often as prudence fuggefts to be necessary. When a judicious phyfician joins with an expert furgeon, in endeavouring to cure defperate diforders, they frequently make furprising cures. But if they difagree, or are ignorant of the proper treatment, the patient must neceffarily fuffer or expire. If women would but difcover their complaints as foon as they perceive them, and the physicians prescribe the hemlock at a proper time, I make no doubt but that in fome years we fhould meet but with very few cancers of the breast. The hemlock never requires a strict regimen to be observed. It allows every thing which the ftomach eafily digests, and which is capable of becoming proper nourishment. Nor is wine forbidden, or acids hurtful, when taken in a moderate quantity. G. Elements of Criticism. By Lord Kames. [21.] These volumes appear to us to contain the fum of what hath approved itfelf, on the fubject of the fine arts, to an excellent understanding and a good tafte, after a diligent ftudy of beautiful nature, and the works of the best writers and the greatest artists, as well as of the human heart. Lond. Chron. THE prefent age hath not furnifhed a more ftriking inftance of the union of a refined philofophical genius, with an exquifite tafte for the arts, than in the production now under confideration; which we perused with such uncommon fatisfaction, that it would be unjust to our readers to detain them a moment with our own reflections, from the fuperior pleafure which must arife even from an imperfect analysis of the Elements of Crinicifm. The fubject is copious; it is 143 fometimes obfcure; and the author has admitted nothing fuperfluous; we must therefore strain every finew of attention, to comprefs within a reasonable compars the fubftance of what the ingenious Lord Kames has thought proper to extend to three middling fized volumes. Should we be fo fortunate as to render his principles intelligible in the proposed abstract, the profit arifing, both to the reader and ourfelves, will fufficiently recompense the trouble. C. [Such is the character given of this book. The analysis here mentioned, extending to 17 pages, and the article to be continued, we have not room for; and it is the lefs neceflary, that we have already inferted [21.] the dedicatory addrefs, the introduction, and the contents. 1 Long fword, Earl of Sali bury. An historical romance. 2 voll. 12°. 6 s. Johnston. WIlliam, firnamed Long-fword, (from his wearing a remarkable long one), was the natural fon of King Henry IÍ. by the celebrated Fair Rofamond. He made a distinguished figure, as a military commander, in the reigns of John, and Henry III. in whole time he died, as was faid, by poifon, treacherously given him by the famous Hubert de Burgh. The ftory of this gallant Earl's abfence from England during the wars with France, his long detention at fea by adverse winds, and the base arts employed in the interim by Hubert's nephew, to feduce his fair countefs, and to obtain a fraudulent poffellion of his earldom, is the foundation of this agreeable romance; in which the characters of the perfons, the manners of the times, and the style of narration, agreeable to the ages of chivalry, the valour of knighthood, and the chafte pride of female honour, are all well fupported. The truth of history is artfully interwo ven with agreeable fictions, and interesting episodes; and the whole has the appearance of being the production of fome. elegant female pen, formed on an intimate acquaintance with thofe paragons of literature, the romances of the 15th and 16th centuries: which, however ex-. tragant, and above nature, were always favourable to the cause of honour and virtue; and, fo far, preferable to many of the more natural productions of later times. There is alfo a certain pomp of diction, a richness, and at the fame time a fimplicity of expreffion, in this kind of writing, which feldom fails of captivating |