sive sense by Bergman and other chemists, who have written in Latin

Words at the foot of the table. The word mucus is indefinite; gluten is an unlucky word for those chemists who use the Latin lan guage as it is there ambiguous, and must be mistaken for gelatine or glue. The word aroma may be omitted, as in all probability there is no such principle. Tannin is too near the English word tanning, not to be ambiguous. Tan is much better, though not unexceptionable.

We have no observations to make upon Dr. Pearson's strictures on Keir, Priestley, Dickson, and Kirwan. We agree entirely in opinion with him. We cannot here avoid expressing our surprize, that Mr. Keir has not completed his dictionary. His relinquishing the study of chemistry is a real loss to the science, and takes a very great deal of weight from the British chemical philosophers.

Though we have already gone perhaps, too far, we cannot finish this article without making some remarks on Dr. Pearson's table of affinities, because we consider the subject as by far the most im portant one in chemistry.

Column first. Caloric. Why is ammonia put after alcohol? Its gaseous state is permanent, at a much lower temperature than alcohol vapour.Why does glass precede mercury? surely, it does not boil so soon. This column appears to us improper, and calculated to mislead. The only possible method of judging of the affinities of different bodies for caloric, is to ascertain the temperature at which they change their state, and to rank them inversely as that temperature. According to that rule, alcohol ought to follow the three gases, oxygen, hydrogen, and azot.

Column second. Oxygen.-Iron decomposes water, even at the temperature of the atmosphere, and ought therefore to precede hy. drogen; but lead, and most other metals do not; hydrogen is, therefore, by far too low in the scale. Why is sulphuric acid inserted? No distinction is made between metals and their first oxides; yet their affinities for oxygen are very different. Iron for: instance, decomposes water, but the green oxide of iron does not.

Column sixth. Alumina.-Insert suberic acid after oxalic acid.Column seventh. Barytes-Before nitric acid, insert molybdic acid. In column 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, insert suberic after muriatic acid. Columa fifteenth, sulphuric acids.-The order in which they precipitate each other is not that of the affinities of metallic oxides for acids. This

Proust has sufficiently demonstrated. The reason is evident, every such precipitation is an instance of the action of compound affinity. In columns 17, 18, 19, we would wish to know, why barytes is placed below the alkalies.

The affi

Columns 20, 21.-Oxymuriatic and nitro muriatic acids. nities of these acids, according to Lavoisier, are very different from what they are here represented to be. Column 22, 23.-According to Lavoisier, alumina ought to be placed after the metallic oxides. Column twenty-sixth. Citric acid.-After borytes insert strontian. Lavoisier places alumina after the oxides, Column twenty-seventh.

Benzoic

Benzoic acid.-Trommsdorf arranges the affinities of this column in the following order.

White oxide of arsenic. -Potass.-Soda.-Ammonia.-Barytes.. --Lime.-Magnesia.-Alumina.

Column twenty-eighth. Succinic acid. Guyton places magnesia after

the alkalies.

Column thirty-third. Sebacic acid.-Guyton places the affinities of this column as follows. Borytes, potass, soda, lime, magnesia, ammonia, alumina, jorgonia.

Column thirty-fifth. Prussic acid.-Mr. William Henry arranges the affinities of this acid as follows. Alkalies, borytes, strontian, lime. It is probable that the order of affinities, commonly assigned for this acid, is inaccurate. We think the reasons assigned for this by the author of the article, Chemistry, in the supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, are satisfactory; and that therefore the oxides ought to precede the alkalies and earths.

Column thirty-sixth. Carbonic acid.-Dr. Hope places lime before

strontian.

Column fortieth. Tungstic acid.-The Luyarts arrange the affinities of this column as follows. Lime, borytes, magnesia, alkalies, alumina.

Column 49, 50.-After sulphuric, insert pyromucous. Column fiftyfirst. Oxides of iron.-Before sulphuric, insert camphoric. After muria

tic, insert pyromucous. Column fifty-second. Oxide of lead.-Place

pyromucous acid first.

Column fifty-third. Oxide of lead.-The order of phosphoric and muriatic acids assigned here, holds only above the temperature of 245; below that temperature muriatic acid has the strongest affinity. After muriatic, insert molybdic, suberic, zoonic. After nitric,

insert pyromucous.

Column fifty-fourth. Oxide of copper-Place pyromucous acid first. Column sixty-second. Fixed oils-Bertholet has arranged the affinities of this column as follows. Lime, barytes, fixed alkalies, magnesia, ammonia, oxides of mercury, other oxides, alumina. The author of the article Chemistry, in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, has added the following table, which, however, is unconnected with the first. Nitric acid, muriatic, sulphurous, sulphuric, acetous, sulphur, phosphorus.

A column might have been added for pyromucous acid, the affinities of bodies for which are, according to Guyton, as follows-Potass, soda, barytes, lime, magnesia, ammonia, alumina, jargonia, oxides of metals. The affinities of pyrolignous acid are, according to the same philosopher, as follows. Lime, barytes, potass, soda, magnesia, ammonia, metallic oxides, alumina. A column, too, might have been added for jargonia. The affinities are vegetable acids, sulphuric acid, muriatic, nitric.

We have not room to extend our remarks to the affinities in the dry way, as it is called; nor to the tables of compound affinities. Mr. Kirwan's tables of the component parts of neutral salts are valuable. We wait with anxiety for the fulfilment of his promise,

tq

to demonstrate that the attraction between acids and their bases is not reciprocal. It would be the first exception to what philosophers have hitherto considered as an axiom, that action and reaction are equal. From Newton, surely, he cannot expect any assistance; for that philosopher lays down the contrary, as an established law of nature. The only proof that can be admitted must be rigid mathematical demonstration; and the data from which such a demonstration is to be deduced, is completely above our comprehension.

ART. XIV. A Cafe of Diabetes with an Hiftorical Sketch of that Difeafe. By T. Girdlestone, M. D. 8vo. Pp. 130. Robinfons. London. 1799.

THE treatment of the Cafe, here related, was conducted upon the plan formerly propofed in a very judicious publication by Dr. Rollo. Dr. G. firft corrects fome inaccuracies, which Dr. Rollo had fallen into, refpecting the cafe of Capt. M. which he published, (and who had previously confulted Dr. G.), and then gives a particular account of Mr. T.'s cafe. He defcribes him as in the fifty-fifth year of his age, and in confequence of contracting an asthma thirty-four years ago, which baffled the art of medicine, he had been advifed to drink water, which he had done for thirty-two years, and which had contributed to render his afthma a mild difeafe. When Dr.G. first faw him, on the 9th of May, 1798, "he had on that day, made feveral pints of straw-coloured urine, which had a violent finell, and a tafte fo fweet, that it could fcarcely be diftinguished from a folution of honey and water; his nights. were fleepless, his bowels were exceedingly coftive, his pulfe was quick, his fkin was uncommonly dry and hot; he loathed all forts of food; his gums and tongue were of a dark fhining red colour, befpangled with vifcid faliva; but he was not fenfible of any acid tafte. He defcribed a burning feverith-feeling throughout all his vifcera, fome feeblenefs, but no pain, about his loins, and great tremor and debility along the mufcles of his thighs." He found it impoffible to retract the prepuce over the glans, a fymptom which Dr. G. is induced to confider a characteristic of this difeafe, from having discovered "that out of nine cafes which have been noticed in this part of the country, eight of them were difeafed about the urethra." As he was difinclined to the ufe of medicine, he was only defired to take caftor or fallad oil, to keep the bowels open, and directed " to live on animal food, and toast and water, with as little bread as poffible; to have his food and his perfon daily weighed, and his urine meafured." Thefe rules were complied with, and were productive of good effects; but the Diabetic Diathefis could not be confidered as abfolutely fubdued, because it difcovered itfelf again on any deviation or indulgence in diet; Mr. T. obferved, that by the diet of animal food, he loft his asthma; but that on repeated trials with vegetables, &c. at the diftance of fix weeks, after he thought himself well, a dry

nefs

1

nefs of the fkin and limpid urine were reproduced. He purfaed the plan, attempting variations in his food till June 1799, when he fancied he was able to eat acids without producing a relapfe; but he very foon found that he was miftaken; and though he has again fubdued the diabetic fymptoms, by a return to his regimen, yet his

afthma is returned."

Dr. G. has given "an Hiftorical Sketch of the difeafe;" but when the information, thus collected, is fairly appreciated, we are difpofed to agree in opinion with Dr. R. that the knowledge of any real value we are in poffeffion of, may be found in a few recent authors.

Some Remarks" are added, in which Dr. G. obferves, that the experiments made by Dr. Rollo, on the urine of his patients, "have clearly proved, that almoft all vegetable fubftances contain more faccharine matter than the organs of digeftion of a diabetic patient can affimilate; but he is inclined to deny, that either the fymptoms which occurred in Capt. M.'s cafe, or the blood which which was drawn, or the quantity of fugar which was daily detected in his urine, were any proofs of a fuper-oxygenated state of the fyftem." The book is concluded with copies of letters which paffed between the author and Dr. R. In confidering the cafe above related, we perceive that this disease, upon this plan, requires a pretty ftrict adherence to a particular regimen for its removal; and it may be feared that more refolution will be requifite, to pursue the neceffary means of relief, than many patients will be capable of exerting; but we have now an opportunity of adding, that fome cafes in hofpital practice very recently published, by Dr. Gilby of Birmingham, have proved that the difeafe may be removed, without fuch a strict attention to diet, as propofed above, and by the ufe of the nitric acid. If this practice fhould be found to fucceed, upon farther trial, it will invalidate the prefent conjectures refpecting this disease, and furnish another proof. of the uncertainty attached to most medical theories. It were to be wifhed that fuch an occurrence would contribute to check the prevailing difpofition to obtrude upon the world thofe hafty and ill-digefted opinions, which, for a while may gratify and amufe; but have too often the effect only to mislead, and the fallacy of which, a very fhort experience ufually tends to discover.

ART. XV. A Table of Symptoms, pointing out fuch as diftinguish one Difeafe from another; as well as those which show the Degree of Danger in each. 8vo. Pr. 56. No Bookfeller's Name.

THE defign of this small work is thus explained. "By a reference to the following table, and by examining the fymptoms moft prominent at the commencement of difeafe, domeftic practitioners may, more readily, detect the difeafe, which they wish to remove; and will be then better able to determine as to the propriety of taking the talk of curing it upon themselves. If this be refolved on, a reference to the table may alfo ferve to fhew the degree of danger which is marked by any particular symptom, which may arife in the

progress

progrefs of the disorder, and which may call for very powerful affitance." We fee nothing particularly to object to the accuracy of this table, and the author's defign may be found useful; but we are led to hope that an examination of it will fhew the various and complicated nature of diseases; and in the prevailing rage for quackery, will apprize thofe of the impropriety and danger of attempting to treat difeafes, who fancy themfelves competent, merely " because they pofsess a medicine cheft, and a small fhare of fkill, derived from the perufal of fome treatise on domestic medicine." Such information fhould have the effect of difcouraging all fuch undertakings, and may poffibly in duce, at least, all confiderate minds to commit the treatment of diseases to the only proper hands, the intelligent and experienced practitioner. To this table are fubjoined, "Some obfervations on the exceffive indulgence of children, particularly intended to fhew its injurious effects on their health, and the difficulty it occafions in their treatment dur ing fickness." Some just and useful admonitions are included in these obfervations, and the ill-effects of fuch mismanagement are shewn even in their future progress in life.

A&T. XVI. Experiments and Obfervations on the Light which is Spontaneously emitted, with fome Degree of Permanency, from various Bodies. By Nathaniel Hulme, M. D. F.R.S. and A.S.. From the Philofophical Transactions. 4to. Pr. 28. Bulmer and Co. London. 1800.

IN this age of inquiry and experiment we are happy to fee any judicious perfon take up a fubject hitherto unknown, and thence derive ufeful information for practical utility. This is especially needful in medicine, provided it is properly directed and appreciated aright. The paper before us, which was "read before the Royal Society," contains an account of feveral experiments, made with a view to afcertain the nature of that light, which is fpontaneously emitted from various bodies ; "The obfervations on that fpecies of light," fays the author, (P. 1.)" being few in number," and generally very imperfect." He is, therefore, "defirous of drawing the future attention of the philofopher more particularly to this fùbject, and of communicating his own experiments and obfervations upon it;" and to diftinguish the fpontaneous emiffion of this light from all kinds of artificial phosphorus." From this, and its "adhefion to bodies," he calls it "fpontaneous light." The experiments are arranged under the heads of Ten Sections, each of which contains the principle or fact afcertained by, or deducible from, the experiments detailed. From thefe, which have been ingeniously contrived and varioufly modified, the following conclufions are drawn, and we may add, from the prefent ftate of the enquiry, are fairly deducible. Sect. I The quantity of light emitted by putrefcent animal fubftances, is not, as is fuppofed, proportionate to the degree of putrefaction; but the contrary. 2. This light is a conftituent principle of fome bodies, particularly marine fishes; may be feparated from them by a peculiar