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being recollected, make an inaccurate auditor imagine, by the help of Caledonian bigotry, that he has formerly heard the whole.

'I asked a very learned Minifter in Sky, who had used all arts to make me believe the genuineness of the book, whe ther at last he believed it himself? but he would not answer. He wished me to be deceived, for the honour of his country; but would not directly and formally deceive me. Yet has this man's teftimony been publickly produced, as of one that held Fingal to be the work of Offian.

It-is faid, that fome men of integrity profefs to have heard parts of it, but they all heard them when they were boys; and it was never faid that any of them could recite fix lines. They remember names, and perhaps fome proverbial fentiments; and, having no diftinct ideas, coin a resemblance without an original. The perfuafion of the Scots, however, is far from univerfal; and in a queftion fo capable of proof, why fhould doubt be fuffered to continue? The editor has been heard to fay, that part of the poem was received by him, in · the Saxon character. He has then found, by fome peculiar fortune, an unwritten language, written in a character which the natives probably never beheld.

I have yet fuppofed no impofture but in the publisher, yet I am far from certainty that fome tranflations have not been lately made, that may now be obtruded as parts of the original work. Credulity on one part is a ftrong temptation to deceit on the other, especially to deceit of which no personal injury is the confequence, and which flatters the author with his own ingenuity. The Scots have fomething to plead for their eafy reception of an improbable fiction: they are feduced by their fondness for their fuppofed ancestors. A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralift, who does not love Scotland better than truth: he will always love it better than inquiry; and if falfehood flatters his vanity, will not be very diligent to detect it. Neither ought the English to be much influenced by Scotch authority; for of the paft and prefent ftate of the whole Earfe nation, the Lowlanders are at leaft as ignorant as ourselves.'

Such is the opinion, and fuch are the reafonings of our learned Author, in relation to the northern Homer and his fuppofed writings. To thefe arguments, nothing hath been oppofed, by the champions for Offian, but railing and ridicule, in the news-papers; together with an Advertisement from Mr. Becket, the Bookfeller, declaring that the original was publickly expofed, during feveral months, at his shop, for the examination of the curious. But ftill it does not appear in what language that fame original was written; and our honest publisher hath, fince, modeftly declined his part in the controverfy it is even faid that, in private, among his friends, REY. Feb. 1775.

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he makes no fcruple of acknowledging that he is no better acquainted with the Earfe, than Dr. Johnfon himself.

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The appearance of an inclination in our Author to believe in the fecond fight, (the notion of which hath fo long, and fo feriously obtained in the Highlands and the Ifles) hath given rife to fome pleafantry at the Doctor's expence. He does not, however, profefs his entire faith in this fpecies of prophecy. He declares that, on a ftrict inquiry into the fubject, he never could advance his curiofity to conviction.' But he acknowledges that he came away at laft, only willing to believe.' This will, no doubt, extort a fmile even from the graveft of our Readers; but all who have perufed the Doctor's book muft allow that he feems to have made the moft, and the beft, that could be made, of fo very fingular an investigation and that he hath thrown out fome obfervations on the fubject, which only a man of genius could have offered. And the moft infidel reader muft fubfcribe to the juftice of the Doctor's remark, that he, and his companion*, would have had but • little claim to the praife of curiofity if they had not endeavoured, with particular attention, to examine the queftion of the fecond fight.' He adds, Of an opinion received for centu ries by a whole nation, and fuppofed to be confirmed through its whole defcent, by a series of fucceffive facts, it is defirable that the truth fhould be eftablifhed, or the fallacy detected.' - The Doctor's remark, and intention, are equally entitled to our approbation; but the misfortune is, that, ftill, with regard to this question, there is no truth established, nor fallacy detected..

We muft now, for the prefent, take leave of this very able and entertaining writer; but not without expreffing our thanks for the pleasure we have received in the perufal of his animated and inftructive narration.

As to any little defects that may poffibly be efpied in this work, by the microfcopic eye of a minute critic, we have not, at this time, either leifure or inclination to engage in the fearch of them.-Indeed, the modefty, and dignity of fimplicity, with which this philofophic traveller concludes his volume, are fufficient to turn the edge of all true and liberal criticism.

Such, fays he, are the things which this journey has given me an opportunity of feeing, and fuch are the reflections which that fight has raifed. Having paffed my time almoft wholly in cities, I may have been furprifed by modes of life and appearances of nature, that are familiar to men of wider furvey and more varied converfation. Novelty and ignorance must always be reciprocal, and I cannot but be confcious that my thoughts on national manners, are the thoughts of one who has feen but little.'

* Mr. Bofwell.

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ART. XIV. Obfervations and Experiments on the Poifon of Lead. By Thomas Percival, M. D. F. 1. S. &c. 12mo. 2 s. Johnson.

1774

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HE deleterious qualities of lead, when received into the human body, have been fufficiently afcertained; but the various and unfufpected modes in which this infidious poifon may gain admittance into the fyftem, are not equally known. In this little Effay Dr. Percival communicates feveral new and interesting obfervations on the fubject; accompanied with some experiments which throw additional light upon it.

The great efficacy of faturnine applications, and their prefent extenfive ufe in furgery, render it a matter of very great importance to determine whether the external ufe of lead may not fometimes produce fome of thofe pernicious confequences that are known to follow its admiffion into the ftomach and lungs. Mr. White, it is faid, has ufed large quantities of the extract of lead, both in his private and hospital practice, and entertains the fame favourable opinion of its innocency and efficacy, with Mr. Aikin; whofe judicious obfervations on this fubject we communicated to our Readers in a former volume *.

It appears likewife, from a letter of Dr. Haygarth's annexed to this Effay, that the very liberal ufe of the faturnine water, among the great number of perfons who fuffered by the explofion of eight hundred weight of gunpowder at Chefter in 1772, was attended with the most falutary effects; and that not one of the numerous fufferers, whofe cafes appear to have been peculiarly favourable to the abforption of the faturnine particles, had the flighteft fymptom of colick or palfy, during the whole time of their recovery: though their wounds were fo numerous, extenfive, and deep; and fo many nerves were exposed to the immediate action of the lead upon them.

Notwithstanding this ftrong evidence in favour of the inno cency of lead, when topically applied, Dr. Percival is ftill inclined to believe, with Dr. Baker, that it fometimes produces its specific effects upon the body,' though employed only externally. He relates a few cafes that feem ftrongly to countenance this opinion, but which he candidly allows not to be perfectly decifive. In thefe cafes, certain fymptoms, greatly refembling thofe produced by lead, followed the external ufe of it; and, in fome of the inftances, difappeared on difcontinuing its application.-Some Readers, however, will rather perhaps be aftonished, than convinced, by one of the Author's

* See our 44th Volume, June 1771, page 485.

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fubfequent obfervations; in which the moft noxious effects are afcribed to the fimple contact of a plate of this metal. The cafe is thus briefly, and rather too uncircumftantially, related.

I have been affured,' fays the Author, from undoubted authority, that Dr. A had a flight paralytic affection of his legs, by the practice of fetting his feet every evening on a piece of lead placed near the fire. And that a dog, by lying on it, was entirely deprived of the use of his limbs.-We fhould add, however, that, in a poftfcript is given the cafe of a plumber's child, communicated by Dr. Wall, who afcribes the colicky and paralytic fymptoms of his young patient to his having been accustomed to run barefooted along the fheets of lead, whilft they were warm.'

The Author recommends the trial of alum, in flighter cafes of the colica pictonum, in confequence of the experience he has had of its efficacy in obftinate and painful affections of the bowels; referring the Reader to his account of the cures performed by the ufe of this remedy, in the fecond Volume of his Effays. With refpect to the afthma, with which the miners. or fmelters of lead in Derbyshire are affected, he obferves that experience has taught them to fly to the lime-kilns for a cure; which they foon, and more certainly than by any other means, obtain, by inhaling the fixed air fo copioufly expelled from the lime ftone during its calcination.

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ART. XV. Obfervations and Experiments on the Poifon of Copper. By William Falconer, M. D. F. R. S. 12mo. 2 s. Johnson. 1774.

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HE facility with which this metal is diffolved by all the three mineral acids, by the fixed and volatile alcalis, by all the neutral falts, and even by the generality of waters, and by that heterogeneous fluid, the atmosphere;-its active, and generally pernicious, medical qualities;-together with its extenfive ufe for culinary and other purposes, render an inquiry into its chemical properties, and into its effects on the human fyftem, worthy of the particular confideration which the Author of this Effay has beftowed upon it.

The form in which this metal moft frequently and unfufpectedly gains admiffion into the body, is in combination with the native acid juices of vegetables, and with the acetous acid, or vinegar. With refpect to the latter particularly, we think it is of confequence to the Public to be informed, how liable it is to acquire a noxious impregnation from brafs and copper, in the preparation of pickles; in many of which a fine blue or green colour is reckoned a teft of fupcrior goodness. This quality accordingly is often intentionally procured, or heightened, by

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the nicer and more notable housewives; who, for that purpose, and ignorant or heedlefs of the confequences, have been taught to prepare their pickles in a brafs or copper pan, and to heighten the tinge, when it is too faint, by throwing in a few halfpence. In fome of the most modern books of cookery, quoted by the Author, a brafs, bell-metal, or copper pan, is particularly directed to be used, whenever a fine green colour is required; and that this practice is adopted even in the beft fhops, and converts their pickles into poifons, is evident from the following obfervation of the Author :

He took an ounce of pickle from fome cucumbers remarkable for their fine colour, which had been bought at a noted fhop. This pickle betrayed its cupreous impregnation, even to the tafte; and on putting into it fome bright iron wire, it was evidently feen that the liquor contained copper; for the wire was foon covered with a rufty coat of that metal, in the fame. manner as when a knife or other iron utenfil is immerged in a folution of blue vitriol.

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Some of these cooks and Authors fcruple not to difpenfe very liberally even cerufs and lead in their printed recipes, for the cure of pricked wines;-ignorant, it is to be hoped, that they are scattering firebrands and death, in ambush, among those who drink them. In the Univerfal Cook,' (as Dr. Percival remarks, towards the end of his Obfervations) published in 1773, by John Townshend, late mafter of the Greyhound tavern, and cook to his Grace the Duke of Manchefter, is to be found a receipt in which a pound of melted lead is directed to be put into a cafk, to hinder the wine from turning.

We have particularly noticed thefe inftances, as being of very general concern; and fhall only add that the Author firft inveftigates all the modes in which copper may be rendered active and noxious, in the kitchen or elaboratory, by its combination with acids, alcalis, neutral falts, oils, fulphur, diftilled fpirits, water, air, and other menftrua. He next confiders the effects of this metal, when reduced by any of these agents into a faline and foluble ftate; obferving that the various menftrua that act upon it do not feem greatly to alter its effects on the human body; which are therefore owing to the metal, and not to the particular folvent. He then proceeds to treat, in order, of the different, and fome of them unfufpected modes, in which it is most likely to find admiffion into the body. The whole inquiry is judiciously conducted; and the Eflay, though fhort, contains many cautions of importance to the health of mankind.

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