said by Marmontel to have rivalled the Lesbian poetess in the possesion of an "ardent soul and an inflammable imagina tion." It should not be forgotten that, when these letters were composed, the writer was not far from fifty years old, and had lost all pretensions to beauty by the ravages of the small-pox. They also contain various particulars which are more fit to be laid before a physician than a lover:-despair goes hand-inhand with opium ;-the sufferings of the heart are balanced by those of the chest ;- and the sad victim of an unfortunate passion describes herself as at once coughing and sighing, oppressed with phlegm and drowned in floods of tears. While wounded affection sacrifices every hope of happiness, "the stomach makes a surrender of all the dinner which it has admitted;" and the most uncontroulable emotions of disappointed love are (actually!) cut short by a sudden and still more dreadful attack on the bowels! Our readers have perhaps already exclaimed, "Something too much of this:" but we could easily have produced many similar examples. Notwithstanding, the letters can hardly fail to excite compassion for the state of mind which produced them: but it will be a compassion unmingled with any one agreeable sensation. The two chapters in imitation of the manner of Sterne are pretty and pathetic: but they are more like "l'Ami des Enfans" of Berquin, than the inimitable Journey of our English Yorick. ART. VIII. Du Cotonnier et de sa Culture, &c. i. e. Of the Cotton Plant and its Cultivation, or a Treatise on the different Species of Cotton Plants, on the possibility and the Means of Naturalizing that Shrub in France, on its Culture in different Countries, especially in the South of Europe, and on the Economical and Commercial Properties and Advantages of Cotton. By CHARLES PHILIBERT DE LASTEYRIE, Member of various Literary, Philosophical, and Agricultural Societies. With three Plates. 8vo. PP. 454 Paris. 1808. Imported by Dulau and Co. Price 128. sewed. THIS HIS is an extremely sensible and judicious treatise, well stored with the result of much accurate personal observation and research, and worthy of being attentively studied by all who are interested in cotton-plantations. The work consists of three parts; the first of which is intitled General Considerations on the Cotton-plant; the second treats of its culture in the warmer climates of Europe; and the third, of the practical modes of raising it in different countries. Under Under his General Considerations, the author very dispassionately weighs the practicability and the means of obtaining cotton-creps in France, the various advantages to be derived from an extension of this branch of husbandry, and the different species or varieties of the plant, with their appropriate qualities and habitations.-The topics discussed in the second part are, climate, exposure, soil, preparation of the ground, manure, choice and preparation of seed, the proper season for sowing, distance between the plants, mode of sowing and of forming plantations, beds, nurseries, transplanting, treatment of the crop when growing and when in blossom, the injuries to which it is liable from unfavourable weather and insects, reaping, modes of separating the seeds and extraneous matters from the wool, calculation of expences and nett profit, the particular attentions which are requisite for the healthy growth of the perennial species during the second and subsequent years, the mixture and rotation of crops, and the mode of culture which seems to be the best adapted to the latitude of Southern Europe. The third part treats of the culture of this plant in Sicily, Malta, the Levant, Egypt, China, CochinChina, the West Indies, Cayenue, and Surinam. From an entire conviction that our general readers would scarcely thank us for any detailed comment on this valuable publication, and that those who are more immediately concerned can be essentially benefited only by having recourse to the ungarbled text, we shall content ourselves with an extract from the supplement; which exhibits the results of experiments made in several of the departments of France in 1807, notwithstanding the late distribution of seed on the part of the government, and the inexperience of many of the far mers: Alps (Lower). From some trials made in the fifth arrondissement, and in the southern parts of the third, we are induced to believe that the culture of the cotton-plant may be there successfully established. Maritime Alps. Attempts in this department have not been equally propitious, though the climate and exposure are more favour able but we have reason to suspect that the failure originated in a defective mode of culture. Mouths of the Rhône. The Academy of Marseilles had selected from its members a committee to inquire into the culture of the cotton-plant. On the 10th of December, the commissioners reported that they had obtained satisfactory results; and that, previ Qusly to that period, several individuals who had reared the shrubby species, either in their gardens or in the open fields, had reaped a fair produce, which was manufactured into stuffs and stockings. Thus it is demonstrated by fact that the environs of Marseilles, Cassis, the Ciotat, Ciotat, and several other places of this department, are adapted to this new description of agricultural industry. • Corsica. Although the mild temperature which reigns in many parts of Corsica, and the great number of plains and sheltered spots which it includes, afforded strong indications of the facility with which the cotton-plant might be naturalized in that country, the trials which were made, last year, in the departments of Liamone and Golo, leave no longer any room to doubt on the subject. • Drome. The experimental essays conduced at Montelimar, Pirot, Miremande, and Buis, have been successful. In the vicinity of the last mentioned town, each plant yielded from eight to ten capsules, most of which arrived at maturity, though the sowing was so long retarded. • Gard. In this department, last year, several varieties of seed were sown, and that which came from Georgia was found to answer better than that of the West Indies, or of Fernambuco. For a considerable time past, some individuals of Nismes have been in the practice of growing in their gardens a few plants, of which the produce has been converted into stockings. They allow the shrub to grow quite freely, without lopping the tops of the branches, and thus deprive themselves of a large portion of the crop which they might easily gain. Garonne (Upper.) Some plants sown at Toulouse have yielded mature pods. Gers. The success which has been obtained in some communes, especially at Auch, seems to promise favourably for the future. Hérault. Our observations on the department of the Gard equally apply to this; and the results which have been for a long while obtained at Montpellier are not less favourable. Landes. The experiments at Mont-de-Marsan, and in some other parts of the Landes, when the season was already advanced, have nevertheless succeeded. This fact is so much the more important, as it affords us the prospect of converting to `useful purposes whole tracts of land which had been abandoned, and which, notwithstanding, are excellently fitted for the growth of cotton. Eastern Pyrénées. Some of the curious have long cultivated this shrub in their gardens at Perpignan. Last year, ripe capsules ware obtained at the same place. We are warranted to hope that the naturalization of the plant may be different in various valleys of this department, and in many spots which are screened from the cold winds. • Rhône and Loire. Experience has also demonstrated that the cotton-plant succeeds in the gardens of Lyons, being propagated by seeds, and yielding down of an excellent quality. Var. This kind of culture has been attempted on a large scale at Saint-Tropes, where it is favoured by the heat of the climate, and the various facilities of irrigation. Hieres is doubtless the quarter of this department which bids fairest for the most prosperous results, as has indeed been proved by the experiments of the last year. Vaucluse. From the trials at la Pepinière de Vaucluse, and at Carpentras, we may augur most fabourably of future attempts.' We We think that a good translation of M. LASTEYRIE's work could hardly fail to meet with encouragement. ART. IX. Acta Instituti Clinici Ca area Universitatis Vilnensis. TH Pp. 155. HE perusal of this volume has interested us on several accounts. It is desirable to have a correct report of the state of disease, in a country which differs in many respects from our own; to learn how far the practice of a well informed continental physician coincides with our established principles; and to observe the pregress of science in a remote district, which we are disposed to regard as almost on the verge of barbarism. The author of the work is the son of the Professor of the same name, who is generally known as having been attached to the hospital at Vienna, but who is now a resident and practitioner at Petersburgh. We could not, however, avoid smiling at the exordium. Dr. FRANK alleges, as the motive for publishing these clinical reports, that the labours of the university of Wilna (in the remote country of Lithuania) have attracted the attention of the learned men of the whole world, and that in course its medical transactions would claim some share of their curiosity! He then details the different opportunities which he has had for acquiring the knowlege that is necessary for his office, and gives a general view of the state of his opinions as to medical theory. It appears that he was formerly attached to the very ingenious theory of John Brown,' although he never assented to every part of it but he has now no hesitation in confessing that he ascribed by far too much merit to it." This is a mental process through which many medical students of these times have passed; and we feel our respect for the author increased by his candid confession. Having therefore rejected hypothesis, and being restored to liberty,' he anxiously inquired to what authority he might the most safely trust; and he soon discovered that the writings of such men as Hippocrates, Sydenham, and Baglivi, who chiefly devoted themselves to minutely recording their observations, are the best guides in the science of medicine: Let those,' he says, who would learn true medicine, that ait which will be salutary to the state and to their patients, read and read again the works of these authors. They will perceive that these great men almost entirely abstained from any judgment respectAPP. REV. VOL. LX. Kk ing ing proximate causes, or the secret powers of medicines; and that they were chiefly employed in accurately describing the phænomena of disease, and the different effects of remedies under different circumstances. All those who have enriched the science of medicine with the most useful precepts have followed their example. Who would not prefer reading the works of Galen, Celius Aurelianus, Hoffmann, Boerhaave, and Cullen, if they consisted of mere observation, without any hypotheses?' We quote these observations, not as containing any sentiments which are new to the medical men of this country, but as shewing our readers that the spirit of investigation, which originated in this island, is not now confined to it. The author does not, however, consign all the works of his predecessors to oblivion; since, though he so decidedly prefers observation to hypothesis, as the basis of all medical science, yet he admits that the different thcories, which have successively engrossed the attention of mankind, may each contain some useful truths. The doctrine of the humoral pathology, those of the mechanists and of the chemists, and even the theory of incitement itself,' may explain some morbid phænomena, or elucidate the action of some remedy, and should all be studied :-but if we thus disclaim all exclusive attachment to any particular hypothesis, whence are the indications of cure to be derived, or on what principles are they to be founded? Dr. FRANK points out three sources, the experi ence of former practitioners, our observation in each of the lædentia and juvantia, (as they are styled,) and the peculiar constitution of the season. Dr. F. then proceeds to give a description of the hospital at Wilna, and details many of the regulations which have been formed for the purpose of promoting cleanliness, ventilation, &c. The only circumstance, that strikes us as in any degree peculiar to this establishment, is the manner of disposing of the patients who die in the wards. The bodies are removed to a chamber which in the winter-season is kept warm, where the corpse is placed in a bed for 24 hours to his hands and feet ropes are then tied, which are connected with bells in the chamber of the superintendant; so that, if by any chance life should be restored, the circumstance is immediately made known. In the first nine months of his office, the author had 135 clinical patients under his care. We have next a description of Wilna, its climate and soil, the manners of the people, their diet, habitations, employments, &c., so far as these circumstances may affect their constitution, or may influence the diseases to which they are subject. The climate seems to be very ungenial; June and July are the II only |