powers to avoid; it is therefore to be hoped this public admonition may have its due effect. Art. 39. Appeals relating to the Tax on Servants; with, the Opinion of the Judges thereon. 8vo. 35. Cadell, &c. 1781. Published By permiffion of the commiflioners of Excife; and nfeful to all who wish to become acquainted with the manner im which the commiffioners for bearing appeals against the duty on Ser wants, and the judges who affirm or reverse the determinations of those commiffioners, have interpreted the act of parliament relative to this fubject, in a great variety of cafes on which appeals from the charges. made by the furveyors have been founded. The book would have been still more generally ufeful, if the Editor had given a proper abitract of the act in its own words. MEDICA L. Art. 40. A Treatife This, like the Writer's former work, is composed of fhreds and patches, from which the informed Reader will learn no more, than that Mr. Clare approves of the method of curing the gonorrhea at once by a vitriolic injection. With respect to his Critical Enquiry, it is a very concife one indeed. Some cafes are mentioned of the fur ther fuccefs of his method of rubbing in mercury on the inside of the mouth; but, unluckily, motives of delicacy have prevented their being properly authenticated. SERMONS. 1. The Incurable Abomination! or, God's afferting that Popery never did, nor ever will alter for the better; confidered in a Sermon on Rev. ix. 20, 21. With an Appendix respecting the Duty of the Civil Magistrate in Matters of Religion. By Thomas Reader, 8vo. 6d. Buckland. 1781. This curious gentleman hath already exhibited himself to the Public as a fpiritual almanac-maker;—-deep-learned in times and seafons ; together with all their figns and fore-tokens! Old LILY never funk deeper into the PROFOUND of occult fciences: and our modern WINGS never foared with fo bold a flight to reach the lunar house! How aftonishingly various must the powers of that man be, who (as Pope fays) is, now in the moon—now under ground!” Mr. Reader hath fixed his DATES with more cunning (if not with more certainty) than fome other adventurers in this track of calculation. The ten horns will not make the whore naked, and eat her flee, and burn her with fire, till the year 1942! Thus Mr. Reader hath wifely contrived to be out of the way at the time. The Appendix is purpofely written to prove the right of the magiftrate's interference in matters of religion and the proof of this right is chiefly founded in the directions given in the Old Teftament to the Kings of Ifrael to punish idolatry. His argument, however, is not fufficiently guarded for his own iecurity; for, by the Mofaic Law, wizards, N. A. wizards and necromancers, and all false prophets, are to be put to death. Now, if the English legiflature were to adopt the Mofaic B..k. code, what would become of Mr. Thomas Reader? II. The indifpenfable Neceffity of Faith in order to the pleafing God. Being the Subftance of a Difcourfe preached at Eydon in Northamptonshire, April 8, 1781. By Francis Okely, formerly of St. John's Coll. Cambridge. Small 8vo. 6d. Lackington. 1781. An amiable fpirit of unaffected piety breathes through this plain and evangelical difcourfe. We love and efteem the worthy and ingenious Author, though the juftice of criticifm hath constrained us to fpeak with little ceremony of fome of his German masters. The ftern and untoward bigotry of Mr. Thomas Reader is admirably contrafted by thofe gentle and engaging principles which Aruggle through all the darkness of good Mr. Okely's myftical divi We can excufe a nity, and throw a pleafing lufire on his character. thousand theological errors, when we behold fo much charity and good will to men: while the foundest faith is debased by uncharitablenefs, and the brightest talents are obfcured and difhonoured. If fo, how difguftful is bigotry, when its object is a nonfenfical creed, and its principle a weak understanding? As it can make no plea, furely it can expect no lenity. We were led into thefe reflections, by contrafting the modely of Mr. Okely with the confidence of Mr. Thomas Reader, in an intricate maze where fools are apt to be impertinent and decifive, but You have feen where a wife man would be cautious and diffident. (fays Mr. O.) every nerve of verbal criticism ftrained to apply the full completion of the prophecies refpeding Antichrift in the Revelations, to the Pope, and to the popedom; though endless inconfiftencies, and even hurtful, confequences, in fact, have attended fuch premature interpretations.' We with Mr. Reader had attended to this wife and falutary caution, before he fat down to expofe himself and the book he undertook to illuftrate, by a prefumptuous application of every thing terrible in it to what he calls the Incurable Abomination: and by a still more presumptuous attempt, to afcertain those times and feafons which Infinite Wisdom hath folded up in impenetrable darkness. To clofe this fubject, we will transcribe a paffage from a Puri. tan divine of the last age; and we transcribe it as a curiofity, because few of that clafs of divines were fo liberal in their opinions, or fo pointed in their expreffions, as the author of the following: "I know well the general vote is-that the Pope is Antichrift. Well, let it be fo;-let it be fo that he is externally the Antichrift-that he lives chiefly at Rome-that the Pope fhall be destroyed:-that then Antichrift will fall. For my part, I will not contend about it. Let moft voices carry it! But-but take heed you do not look fo long for Antichrift abroad, as to neglect one at home.” Now, with this good Doctor, we are of opinion that we need not wander far to meet with this incurable abomination :—the whore, the beast, horns and all! Do CORRESPONDENCE. To the MONTHLY REVIEWERS. GENTLEMEN, READING, in your Review for June, fome extracts from letters and papers published by a member of the Bath Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture, I found, among other useful and important fpeculations, an enquiry into the nature, caufe, and method of preventing and curing the rot in fheep. And this appearing to me to be an object of great national importance, I have taken up the pen, not from an idea that I am capable of explaining, in a clear and fatisfactory manner, the nature, and pointing out to the Public a certain remedy for a difeafe, which appears to be fo fatal to thofe very useful animals: but to rectify a very palpable error which that ingenious writer appears to have been led into. He imagines (as the most probable caufe of the rot) the eggs of infects to be depo fited among the blades of grafs, with which they are fwallowed by the sheep, and, from their ftomach and inteftines, abforbed by the lacteals, and paffed, with the chyle, into the fanguiferous fyftem, and meet with no obstruction, until they arrive at the capillary veffels of the liver;' where the writer fuppofes them to be too large to pafs with the blood in circulation. Anatomy teaches us, that it is very improbable that the lacteal veffels of the intestines, fhould receive any fubftances which are not fit to pafs through every blood veffel in the body. Even admitting, for argument's fake, that the lacteal veffels of the intestines do admit fubftances into the fanguiferous fyftem, which are too coarfe to pass through the minute capil lary veffels, thofe fubftances would be no more liable to be obftructed in the liver, than in any other glandular or extreme parts of the body; where the capillary veffels are always found to be of equal minuteness with thofe in the liver. Infects, of a great variety of genera, are found to be innumerable in the animal and vegetable worlds. The human fpecies, particularly the younger fort, are fre quently troubled with worms of different kinds: and, though they fometimes occafion troublesome complaints, it is very rare, if ever, we find them prove fatal. It is, therefore, extremely improbable, that the ova of infects, received with the food into the bodies of theep, are ever the cause of the rot. If these are not the cause of this disease, let us enquire what it may most probably be. As the liver is always remarkably affected in that diforder, the first thing to be here confidered, is the use of that vifcus and that is the very fame in a fheep, as in the human body; viz. to feparate the bile or gall from the mafs of blood. Now this bile is one of the most tenacious and most acrid of all the animal juices. The tenacity of it will difpofe it to ftagnate in the fmall biliary veffels in the liver. Its acrimony (which will increase by stagnation) will neceffarily be the cause of inflammation, fuppu. ration, gangrene, and, lastly, a mortification in the liver. This is what frequently happens in the human liver. What is the caufe of the bile obftructing more at one time than another? Those who are moft fubject to biliary obftructions are of hot plethoric conftitu tions, or, in other words, are poffeffed of too much blood, and that too too thick and rich; and agreeable to this (if I am right), we find only fat sheep are fubject to the rot. From thefe, and many other concurring circumflances, it appears to me highly probable, that the rot is a diforder of the liver; and that the principal caufe of it is obftructed and infpiffated bile; and not infects conveyed thither by the food. It may therefore be called the fheep's jaundice. As there are very few branches of useful knowledge with which I am lefs acquainted than that of farming, breeding, and preferving sheep, I enforce this doctrine only, as I find it analogous to what actually takes place in the human body. As another proof that a fuperabundance of thick and rich blood is the remote caufe of the rot in fheep,, the above mentioned writer obferves, that No ewe ever rots while fhe has a lamb by her fide;' the fame writer here requefts the gentlemen of the faculty to determine, whether it is not probable that the impregnated ovum paffes into the milk, and never arifes at the liver. As the whole chyle, formed in the ftomach and bowels, is conveyed into the venal fyftem, and from thence to the heart, to circulate, with the blood, in common through all parts of the body: there can be no power in the animal fyftem, that can convey thofe fuppofed ova into the udders of the fheep, rather than into their lungs, kidneys, or any other part of their bodies. I come now to confider a circumstance, which, I think, will explain that phenomenon on rational principles. It is fimply this: When a ewe fuckies a lamb, the thereby confumes daily a confiderable quantity of her blood (all that circulates in the arterial and venal fyllems may bear that name); the rest is thinner and poorer than at other times; confequently forms lefs and thinner bile; which, with the blood, readily pales through the liver. The Writer then fubmits two questions to the confideration of the gentlemen of the faculty. First, Why is the rot fatal to fheep, hares, and rabbits, and fometimes to calves, when cattle of greater bulk, which probably take the fame food, efcape uninjured? Befides your remark upon this question, it may be obferved that the former have very little exercife, and drink little or no water to attenuate their blood: while the latter, though they feed upon herbage, drink a confiderable quantity of that attenuating wholefome fluid, and are subject to severe exercise. The fecond question propofed by the above mentioned writer, is the digeftive matter in the ftomach of thefe, different from that of the others, and fuch as will turn the ova into a ftate of corruption; or rather, are not the fecretory ducts in the liver large enough to let them pafs through, and be carried on in the ufual current of the blood? This question I have, in effect, already anfwered. The writer farther obferves, that it feems to be an acknowledged fact, that falt marshes never rot. Salt is pernicious to most infects; common falt and water is a powerful expellent of worms bred in the human body. We are alfo prefented with an inflance of a farmer having cured his whole flock of the This is a confiderable miflake lean fheep are equally fubject to this distemper, and what is fingular, if the taint be difcovered in time, they may even be made fat enough for the butcher before the diforder gets to any great height, rot, by giving each fheep a handful of Spanish falt for five or fix mornings fucceffively.' Common falt, however powerful in expelling worms from the ftomach and bowels, has, I believe, little effect on thofe fituated in the fubftance of the liver; therefore I cannot help hazarding an opinion, that fat doth not become a remedy for the rot in theep. because it is pernicious to infects, but because it purges the sheep, and attenuates their blood and juices, and thereby prevents obftruction in the veffels of the liver, and difperfes that which may be there already formed. That the rot in sheep is an hepatic diforder, occafioned by obstructed, tenacious, acrid bile, I think farther appears from the obfervations which you have made on the liver of a rotten fheep; viz. that when boiled it diffolves and forms a fediment at the bottom of the veffel, refembling mud; this, in my opinion, clearly proves that the liver must be reduced, previous to the boiling, to a high degree of putrefaction. Therefore it feems highly probable, that any article, capable of opening bilious obftructions in the liver, and timely ufed, will prove effectual in curing the rot in fheep. Whether a portion of foap, aloes, and pearl-ahes, may not be given to advantage in this diforder, I leave to the confideration of thole who have better opportunity of examining the nature of that difeafe, which is fo very fatal to thofe animals, who, in a great degree fupply us with food and raiment. If you, Gentlemen, think these curfory remarks worthy of a place at the end of your Review. I shall be glad to fee them inferted. I am, GENTLEMEN, Grafton Street, Soho. Your moft obedient Servant, JOHN ROBERTS. A principal objection to the theory of this diftemper, which this ingenious Writer lays down, is, that the rot will be contracted in a night's time. That the rot is a putrid difeafe, is very probable, and the remedies Mr. R. propofes, might in the early stages of the disorder be attended with defirable effects. The Reviewer, who has detained the foregoing important letter fo long from the publick eye, offers only the truth by way of apology-He was on a tour into the northern parts of the kingdom, where Mr. R.'s favour was tranfmitted to him; and fince then it has been for fome time miflaid. ttt A Correfpondent, who figns himself" Nimrod," informs us, that we were mistaken in our conjecture refpecting the Author of Thoughts on tunting" See Review for September laft. Nimrod affures us, that the Public are indebted for that performance to Peter Beckford, Efq; of Stapleton, Dorfetshire, fon of the late Julins Beck-e ford, Efq; and, he believes, the gentleman to whom Mr. Brydone addreffes his Letters. wrong. - see corresp. at the end. Two Letters have been received from "A Conflant Reader and General Admirer of the M. Review," which will be further as tended to in our next. of the Appendix |