dexes. 1. Of Hebrew and Chaldee words. 2. Of Arabic and Perfian words. 8. Of Greek words, &c. 4. Of texts more or less illuftrated. 5. Of general matters. Also by an accurate engraving of the famous Præneftine Pavement, often referred to by Harmer, which is fubjoined to the fourth volume.

ART. IX. The Pathology of the Membrane of the Larynx and Bronchia. By John Cheyne, M. D. Edinburgh. 8vo. 204 pp. 10s. 6d. Edinburgh, Mundell, Doig, and Stevenfon; London, Murray. 1809.

WE

E willingly acknowledge, that this fecond edition of Dr. Cheyne's Effay on Croup, contains fome new matter, which cannot fail to be confidered as an addition to its value; but whether this addition be proportionate to the confequent increase of price, we find fome hesitation in deciding. It is fomething, however, to have a new title-page, and a number of nicely finifhed cuts, which, as they may be faid to reprefent difeafe in general, as well as they do the peculiar appearances they are meant to illuflrate, must not be overlooked in our calculation. For thefe latter, however, it appears, we have to thank Mr. Charles Bell, with whofe extenfive practice, as an anatomical draftsman, the public has already had fufficient opportunities of becoming acquainted. Dr. Cheyne has been rather unlucky in the choice of his new title-page, for the book is certainly any thing, excepting a work upon Pathology. We are not difpofed to quarrel with its remaining an Effay on Croup in fpite of the titlepage, but the change reminds us of a certain fign-painter, who when defired to pint the fign of the George and the Dragon, was (and we think with propriety) particularly anxious that it fhould be called the Red Rofe; for, faid he, though I fhall, with all the pleasure in the world, paint the George and Dragon, I fear it will, after all, look fo very like a Red Rofe, that the bye-paffers will be apt to mistake it.

'The section entitled "an Attempt to explain the Pathology of Croup," is a frange jumble of hypothetical reafoning. We cannot take for granted, "that debility of the trachea is the predifpofing caufe of Croup," nor do we confider that the nature of the effufion" thrown out, by the internal membrane of the trachea, in this difeafe, is by any means "determined 10 confift of a puriform fluid." To us it appears more probable, that at least that part of it which forms the adventitious

66

"

membrane,"

membrane," is derived from the coagulable lymph of the blood, feparated from it by fome peculiar vafcular action, with which we are not thoroughly acquainted.

The author's Hiftory of Croup is concife and good; and his treatment not only coincides with that which at present is eftablished as the moft fecure, but appears to poffefs the additional recommendation of his own experience and attentive obfervation. When, however, he speaks of the employment of Calomel, he does not appear to do juftice to the merits of Mr. Ramfey's paper upon that fubject. Dr. Cheyne's work clearly fhows that there is confiderable variety in the form of Croup, and fufficient credit is certainly due to Mr. Ramsey, to afford reason to admit, that under the form in which that gentleman has met with the disease, Calomel may be employed with advantage; particularly as we believe this practice has lately been confirmed by fome northern writers of confiderable celebrity.

Dr. Cheyne has introduced fome well defcribed cafes of thickening and ulceration of the membrane of the larynx, and he has given the following defcription of the fymptoma produced by these diseases.

"The fymptoms induced by thickening of the membrane of the larynx, are, pain in the larynx, not very acute, unless on preffure; fome degree of fullness externally; a change in the found of the voice; difficult, and even crowing infpiration, but flow rather than quick; an altered, and fometimes ftridulous voice; fits of fuffocative coughing; and all thofe general fymptoms which arife from obftructed circulation of the lungs." P. 161.

"In ulceration of the larynx there does not exift much fwelling externally; but there is tenderness, particularly when the head is turned round, and upon preffure with the finger. There is a change in the found of the voice; it is no longer deep and full, it becomes fmall and whifpering, fometimes peculiarly harsh, and it cannot be extended. There is a correfponding change in the found of the cough, which is dry and ftridulous. The cough often rifes to an alarming height. When brought on by swallowing any thing, particularly fluids, incautiously, it fometimes becomes convulfive, threatening inftant fuffocation. The breathing is as if the air were violently drawn through a diy and narrow tube. The expectoration is generally fcanty, and confists of mucus mixed with purulent matter. To the appearance of the expectoration we muft chiefly trust in distinguishing ulceration from mere thickening of the membrane. There is hectic fever and emaciation; and, I believe this affection, in a great proportion of cafes, terminates only with the death of the patient." P. 178.

ART.

ART. X. The Defcription of Britain, tranflated from Richard of Cirencester: with the original Treatife de Situ Britannia; and a Commentary on the Itinerary; illuftrated with Maps. 8vo. 314 pp. 18s. White. 1809.

FEW

NEW circumftances have ever more ftrongly or more defervedly attracted the attention of British Antiquaries than the difcovery of the curious MS. of Richard Corinenfis, or of Cirencester, in the year 1747. The discovery was made at Copenhagen, by Charles Julius Bertram, an Englishman, and Profeffor of the English Language in the Royal Marine Aca demy in that city. The difcoverer fent over á tranfcript of the whole to Dr. Stukeley, with a copy of the original map, and Stukeley, in 1757, published an analysis of the work in English, with the Itinerary; and in 1758 the original was printed by Bertram, with the remains of Gildas and Neunius. The work, thus made known to the world, has been amply employed by J. Whitaker in his Manchester, by General Roy in his Military Survey, by Polwhele in his Hiftories of Devon and Cornwall, and by others; and the extremely curious nature of its contents made it fully worthy of their inveftiga tion. But the publications both of Stukeley and of Bertram had long become fo fcarce, as to be quite out of the reach of common purchafers, and we therefore received with tranfport the prefent very judicious publication. At the fame time, we could but wonder to receive it as an anonymous work. What motive there could be for concealment, in publishing a work wholly devoted to utility and liberal knowledge, except a fuperfluous and felf-injuring diffidence, we cannot imagine, and therefore have had no hefitation in publifhing the name of the author, Mr. Hatchard; a modeft but very deferving man, long employed, we understand, in literary occupations, under the auspices of our diftinguifhed hiftorian and antiquary Mr. Coxe. The work indeed is of a nature to fupport itself, by its mere utility, without the aid of a name; but to whom then is our gratitude due? The public ought to know, that it may properly difcharge the debt.

The contents of the volume are thefe: 1. A clear and intelligent Preface, in which the credit of Richard is properly vindicated, and his utility pointed out; and in which it appears, that his prefent editor has had the affiftance of fome very eminent antiquaries. 2. A fhort notice of the life and works of Richard of Cirencefter. 3. An exact copy of the map, as published by

Bertram,

Bertram. 4. An English tranflation of the whole work, with notes. 5. An excellent general map of the Roman roads in Britain. 6. The Itinerary, in Latin and English, with an English Commentary. 7. The original Latin, reprinted from Bertram's edition. 8. Bertram's notes. 9. A copious Index. 10. A fac-fimile of the original MS. of Richard. The whole admirably printed. Bertram, as we have obferved, though refident at Copenhagen, was an Englifhman; and, in the title to his notes, ftyles himself Carolus Bertramus, Londinenfis.

Of his author, Mr. Hatchard fays, in a manly and convincing manner:

"To the general fidelity of Richard I am happy to bear un. equivocal teftimony. I have confulted most of the authors from whom he drew the fubftance of his first book, and, with the exception of two or three inadvertencies, have found him fcrupu lously exact in his citations. He has indeed indulged himself in what a rigid critic, if he pleases, may term conjecture, when he applies the defcription of the Gallic cuftoms and inftitutions to thofe of the Britons; but he has used this liberty with due caution, and in no refpect has he exceeded the limits traced by the moft difcerning of the antients. If then we find him thus exact in those cafes, where we have the means of bringing his fidelity to the teft, with what justice can we charge him with deception in the ufe of thofe authorities which have not reached our time." P. vii.

Of Richard's defcription and Itinerary he says,

"He has defcribed the divifion of Britain into provinces, be fore imperfectly known, and he is the firft and only author who records the rank held by the British towns under the Roman government, as colonial, municipal, and ftipendiary; diftinctions well known in other parts of the empire, but loft in Britain till the discovery of his work. Laftly, his Itinerary is more. extenfive in its defign, and more complete in its execution, than that which bear the name of Antonine; correcting it when they differ, and confirming it when they agree; and containing the names of about fixty pofts and towns before unknown." P. xiii.

Concerning the author he tells us, as others have told, that he was a native of Cirencester, but a monk of Weftminfter that he entered the Benedictine monaftery of St. Peter, Westminster, during the abbacy of de Lytlington, as appears from the rolls of the Abbey; and that his name occurs in various documents of that effablishment in the years 1387, 1397, and 1399. But not to take all the merit of Richard

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BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXVII. FEB. 1811.

Richard upon the credit of an editor, who may be fuppofed partial, we will tranfcribe a part of what was faid of him by that very competent judge John Whitaker.

"That the work is genuine," he fays, "needs no proof. All the embodied antiquarians* of the fourteenth, and three fuccceding centuries, could not have forged fo learned a detail of Roman Antiquities. Whence Richard compiled it, we know not; or whether he found his authorities in England or at Rome, to which place he had a special licence to travel. The Itinerary, in particular, he declares himfelf to have collected from fome remains of records, which had been drawn up by the authority

a certain Roman General, and left by him for the ufe of fucfeeding ages. The 18 Itinera, which Richard has prefented to us, all unite to form an entire Itinerary. No fingle part ftands forth of a different texture from the reft; and the whole refers itself to one period. It was compofed after the wall of Hadrian, and even after that of Antoninus were erected, because it exprefsly mentions both. This neceffarily reduces the date of it below the year 138, the first of Antoninus's reign. And it was drawn up when the Romans retained their ftations on this wall and beyond it, and when they had profecuted their roads and conquefts along the Eastern coaft of the ifland as far as Inverness." Hift. of Manch. B. I. Ch. 3.

He concludes that its date was fomewhere after 128, and before 170. As every Antiquary must know that there is often very great difficulty in afcertaining the places mentioned in the ancient Itinera, we fhall fhow the principles on which the prefent author has proceeded, which appear to us found and judicious.

"In fixing the fites of the towns fpecified in thefe Itineraries, our antiquaries have affumed the most unjustifiable latitude. The mere refemblance of a name was confidered as a reason fufficient to outweigh all others; even the great Camden fuffered himself to be misled by this refemblance, in fixing Ariconium at Kentchefter †, Camalodunum at.Maldon, Bennavenna at Bensford, Fons Ælii at Pont Eland, and Ad-Pontem at Paunton. The explanation of the naines to fuit the fuppofed fituation has been another fruitful fource of error'; not only British and Latin, but Saxon, Greek, and even Hebrew, have been exhaufted to discover fignificant appellations; and where one language was not fufficient, half a word has been borrowed from one language and half from another to fupport a favourite hypothefis ‡.

+ The refemblance here is not very ftriking.

"The

On this fubject it may not be improper to obferve, that the