"The principal ufe, to which the Indians feem to have applied the immenfe quantity of bullion, from age to age imported into their empire, was, to melt it down into ftatues of their deities; if, indeed, by that title we may denominate the perfonified attributes of the Almighty and the elements of nature. Their pagodas were anciently crowded with thefe golden and filver ftatues; they thought any inferior inetal muft degrade the Divinity, and the facred emanations that iffued from the Source of all Being. Every houfe, too, was crowded with the ftatues of their ancestors, caft in gold and filver; those ancestors that were exalted to the ftars for their piety or valour. This cuftom of erecting golden ftatues, in their houfes and temples, to brave and virtuous men, feems to have remained long after the time of Alexander; for, we are told, by Apollonius, that he faw in India two golden ftatues of that hero, and two of brafs, representing Porus, the conquered Porus, and therefore of inferior metal. The very altar of the temple was of maffy gold; the incenfe flamed in cenfers of gold; and golden chalices and vafes bore the honey, the oil, the wine, and the fruits, offered at their blameless facrifice. I have already mentioned the temple of the Sun, or rather of Auruna, the day-star, defcribed by Philoftratus, whofe lofty walls of porphyry were internally covered with broad plates of gold, fculptured in rays, that, diverging every way, dazzled the beholder, while the radiant image of the adored deity burned, in gems of infinite variety and unequalled beauty, on the fpangled floor. The floor alfo, of the great temple of Naugracut, in the northern mountains, even fo late in time as the vifit of Mandeiloe, we have feen, was covered with plates of gold; and thus the Hindoo, in his purer devotion, trampled upon the god of half mankind. In the proceffions alfo, made in honour of their idols, the utmost magnificence prevailed; they then brought forth all the wealth of the temple, and every order of people ftrove to outvie each other in difplaying their riches and adding to the pomp. The elephants marched firft, richly decorated with gold and filver ornaments, ftudded with precious ftones; chariots, overlaid with thofe metals, and loaded with them in ingots, advanced next; then followed the facred fteers, coupled together with yokes of gold, and a train of the noblest and most beautiful beasts of the foreft, by nature fierce and fanguinary, but rendered mild and tractable by the skill of man; an immenfe multitude of priests carrying veffels, plates, dishes, and other utenfils, all of gold, adorned with diamonds, rubies, and fapphires, for the fumptuous feaft of which the gods were to partake, brought up the reart. 'During all this time the air was rent with the found of various inftruments, martial and feftive; and the dancing girls difplayed, in their fumptuous apparel, the wealth of whole provinces exhaufted to decorate beauty devoted to religion." P. 497.

Having given the above fpecimens from the lighter and more entertaining portion of the volume, and willing, before we take our final leave of the work, to do effential justice to the

Philoftrat, lib. ii. cap. 11.

+ Strabo, lib. xv.

P. 710." las

laborious researches of the author, on thofe abftrufer fubjects that yet remain for confideration, we fhall, in this inftance, deviate from our general cuftom, in regard to volumes in an octavo form, and allot to a fecond article the detail of fome circumftances connected with literature and jurifprudence, not a little curious in their nature, nor wholly unimportant in their confequences. While our Gallic rivals in arins and literature are till using their most affiduous endeavours, for the wort of purpofes, to fubvert the established chronology of the Chriftian world, let us not treat with neglect, or indifference, literary efforts of a directly contrary tendency, in which the utmoft latitude is allowed to the exertion of human genius, in periods at all confiftent with the moft enlarged limits of the Mofaic computation of the earth's existence, as an habitable planet; in which arts and sciences are traced back to their antediluvian origin; and the laws and traditions prevalent among the primeval race, are truly reprefented as fometimes faintly glimmering, and at others beaming forth with irrefiftible Splendour, amidst the obfcurity of Afiatic codes, and the chaos of Oriental fuperftitions.

(To be concluded in our next.)

ART. IV. Practical Obfervations on the Ufe of Oxygen, or Vital Air, in the Cure of Difeafes: to which are added, a few Experiments on the Vegetation of Plants. By D. Hill, Fellow and One of the Council of the London Medical Society, and Honorary Member of the Medical Society at Guy's Hofpital. 4to. 58 pp. 7s. 6d. Rivingtons. 180q.

THIS author had long been employed, he fays, in examining

the properties of gafeous fluids, and their effects on the human conftitution, and had actually received confiderable benefit, from ufing them in his own perfon, before he ventured to adminifter them to his patients. A great number of trials fince made, in a variety of difeafes, particularly in thofe arifing from debility, or want of energy in the conftitution, and made, almost constantly, with advantage to the patients, induce him now to offer the refult of his obfervations and experience to the public. The cafes of nineteen patients are related, which form a fmall part only of the perfons who have been relieved, K

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XVII, FEB. 1801.

or

or cured, by inhaling the oxygen gas, under the author's di rection. The difeafes with which they were affected, were epilepfy, palfy, fcrofula, rickets, and fome anomalous complaints. From thefe we thall felect a cafe of hydrocephalus, as being a diforder of frequent occurrence, and hitherto deemed incurable by medicine.

Cafe of Hydrocephalus, in the Child of William Bennet, late of Bers ner's Mews, now No. 26, Devonshire-place Mews.

This was a ftrong healthy child, till fix months old, when he was feized with the farall-pox in the natural way. The epileptic fit, common to young children previous to the eruptive fever, lafted three quarters of an hour, accompanied with ftrong convulfive struggles, and much feeming pain and uneafinefs in the head. The morning after this fit the fmall pox appeared. With common nurfing, during the feveral ftages of the difeafe, the mother, to a certain degree, recovered the child; bat as it often happens that, without proper medical aid, the conftitution is much impaired, fo it was in this child; for, when the eruption was gone, the habit was very much exhausted, a great heavinefs affected it, and there was a confiderable inflammation in the

white part of the eye, where a puftule had been.

"The child was taken in this ftate to the Small-pox Hospital. Mr. Wachfel, the attendant apothecary, very judiciously ordered leeches to be applied to the temples, and feveral doses of phyfic, which foon recovered the eye. Shortly afterwards, however, the child began to appear more dull and heavy; his head gradually enlarged; the futures, which had been united except the two fontanels, were beginning to lofe their bony union; and his lower extremities were fo unable to fupport his body, that every attempt to move him gave him great pain. "He was now taken a fecond time to the hofpital. Mr. W. immediately difcovered, that the enlargement of the head proceeded from water lodged within it, and apprifed the child's mother of its fatal confequences. He notwithstanding advised more doses of phyfic, and fome tonic remedy. The opening medicines gave him relief for a few days; but after that fymptoms of oppreffion returned with great violence, when the fame remedies were repeated, but with no good effect. The head being now wonderfully increafed in fize, in confequence of the weight and preffure of the water on the brain, the paralyfis of all the extremities was complete.

The child was brought to me in May, 1796, then seventeen months old. On examining its head, I found the fagittal future, commencing from the nafal procefs, or bones of the nofe, and extending through the os frontis, or frontal bone, open to the full extent of half an inch. The other futures, connecting the feveral bones of the head, were in the fame proportion open, and expanded from their natural bony union into a wide membranous one, under which water was felt to fluctuate very readily. On any kind of preffure a convulfive motion of the body followed. His pulse was weak, and beat near a hun. dred in a minute; and all his lower extremities were perfectly flabby, and motionlefs.

"This

This deplorable cafe, on being prefented to my view, appeared to me one of the most incurable difeafes to which the human frame could be fubject; and from its extent far more threatening than any I had ever met with during my practice. The child's total incapacity to inhale, even if vital air could act as a remedy, was the first difficulty I had to encounter. I therefore contrived to apply a tube to the body of my apparatus, clofed the child's noftrils with my finger and thumb, made it cry, and, as often as it took a deep inspiration, forced the vital air from the apparatus into the lungs. This method fucceeded completely; for warmth in the extremities was immediately felt, with a firmer pulfe, and foft skin. The fucceeding night he flept with much more compofure than he had done for many months, and his mother obferved that he made an unusual quantity of water.

"From continuing the fame dofe of two parts of pure vital air to twenty of common air daily, in the course of a week he was evidently ftronger, more lively, and his bowels, which from the general paralytic torpor had been difpofed to great coftiveness, were become quite regular. As the action of the air by this time had produced a white tongue, I ordered a dofe of rhubarb and fal polychreft, to clear the bowels gradually, by repeating it at fhort intervals. This foon cleared the tongue; the child ate a great deal heartier, and improved very much in appearance; the membranes foon became flaccid; and, as the water gradually leffened, new offific matter gradually clofed the future in the frontal bone. In a month the whole of the futures, except the two fontanels, were again united by a firm bony union. The head being reduced nearly to its natural fize, on the caufe of its enlargement being gradually removed, the palfy of the lower extremities recovered. Tonic remedies were now ordered, fo that by the middle of October he could ftand, and walk alone; and to so great a degree did the vital air renovate this poor little being, that he cut eight new teeth. This farther effort of nature appeared to be the only reafon, why he did not recover the entire ufe of the lower extremities fooner. Since his recovery, this child has had his thigh fractured: but his conftitution has furmounted this accident, though he is rendered fomewhat lame, by the injured limb being shorter than the other.

"Obfervations on the preceding Cafe.

"Vital air thus mechanically applied with the happieft effects, in the laft ftage of this fatal disease, a difeafe too becoming more prevalent among children, with the phenomena of its thus imparting life to the blood, and exciting strong action in the heart and arteries, cannot fail to claim much attention, and give confidence in future practice. In the next place it promoted an increase of all the fecretions, by the fkin, kidneys, and bowels. To thefe effects fucceeded the restoration of natural fleep, the fubfequent abforption of the water covering the brain, the renovation of the offific procefs in uniting the various futures of the skull, and laftly the removal of all the paralytic affections of the arms, legs, and bowels." P. 14.

Oxygen is exhibited with moft advantage, the author fays, to young fubjects, as it affifts in developing the parts, and aids their growth; next to them, to perfons from the age of pu

K 2

berty

berty to about the forty-fifth year; to thofe who are further advanced in life, it fhould be adminiftered fparingly, and with caution. The author has found the application of oxygen to the roots of plants highly beneficial, in reftoring thofe that are decaying, and accelerating their growth. He thinks alfo that, adminiftered to fruit-trees, it heightens the flavour of the fruit. He propofes to give a delineation of the apparatus he employs, in applying oxygen to trees, in a fubfequent fafciculas or number, which will contain further experiments on the use of oxygen in the cure of difeafes. The cafes and obfervations are illuftrated by plates, reprefenting two children, deformed and crippled by the rickets, with the view of fhowing the advantage they experienced from inhaling the oxygen; and a geranium, first as blighted and nearly deftroyed, by being exposed to a cold frofty air, then, from the influence of the gas, full of bloom and vigour.

ART. V. Travels in the Interior of Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to Morocco, from the Year 1781 to 1797; through Caffraria, the Kingdoms of Mataman, Angola, Maffi, Monamugi, Mufchako, c. likewife across the Great Defert of Sahara, and the Northern Parts of Barbary. Tranflated from the German of Chriftian Frederick Damberger. Illuf trated by a Map, and coloured Plates. 8vo. 9s. Longman.

1801.

WE

E are anxious, promptly, and we hope effectually, to do our utmost in checking the circulation of what we cannot help confidering as a molt impudent and fraudulent publication. Some individuals on the continent availing themfelves of the public curiofity, with refpect to books of Travels, in general, and with what concerns Africa in particular, have, we do not the leaft doubt, from a Map of Africa before them, produced this farrago of falfehood and nonfenfe. Were the account given in the book true, which we are certain it is not, it does not afford one atom either of information or amusement, but is juft fuch ftuff as the most ignorant of mankind might have put together, from any German Map.

We will infert a few particulars, which not only juftify, but eftablifh this fufpicion.

The volume confifts of about five hundred pages; of which one half is taken up with defcribing the traveller's journey through Caffiaria, a portion of Africa, very well known for