they thought it vain to oppofe it. Even the declaration of the Iriff Houfe of Commons, in the year 1641, relative to the queries which maintained the independence of Ireland, is fcarcely an objection; because it was made in imitation of the encroachments of the Englifh House of Commons. It was fuggefted by the embarrassment of affairs in England, and was aimed against the authority of the King, rather than that of parliament. The fame legiflators, who wished to be held the affertors of the liberties of their country, hefitated not to acknowledge virtually the fupremacy of the Commons of England, by fupplicating from that body a redress of their grievances. What reflections the preceding narrative will fuggest to perfons of different characters, and in different interests, I prefume not to conjecture. One remark, however, will occur to every reader, that the policy of England, with regard to Ireland, for the laft hundred years, has gradually become more liberal, as commercial and political knowledge have been advanced and extended; but that all the examples of national generofity, which this period can exhibit, difappear, when compared with the magnitude of late acts and refolutions, which are to extend to Ireland the advantages of a free trade. One step only remains, perhaps, to fecure the future profperity and happiness of the two kingdoms, to extend the benefits of the British conftitution over the British Isles.' The above extract affords a fufficient fpecimen of the Author's ftyle, which is fimple, perfpicuous, and manly. His eloquence, we must however acknowledge, is of the austere kind; he endeavours rather to inform the understanding than to please the fancy; the harfhnefs of his periods too often offends the ear; and his performance would have been more agreeable and more popular, if he had fhewn lefs difdain of the graces of composition. ART. IX. Confiderations on the Efficacy of Electricity, in removing Female Obstructions; to which are annexed Cafes and Remarks. By John Birch, Surgeon. 8vo. I s. 6d. Cadell. 1779. A Work which announces, on probable grounds, a certain remedy for any one disorder with which the human fpecies is afflicted-efpecially the weaker and better half of it-we confider as deferving particular refpect; and we take pleasure in extending the knowledge of fuch a remedy, to the faculty, and the public at large. Such a one, we are here affured, is electricity, when properly directed, in the removal of certain female obftructions. Its efficacy, however, is by no means limited to this particular species of obftruction; though the Author has chofen, in the prefent pamphlet, to confine his obfervations to this fingle clafs; becaufe the cafes have been numerous, and the fuccefs uniform.' The happy effects produced by electricity, in the cure of difeafes, of which, we are told, every day has furnished fresh proofs, for two or three years paft, was, fays the Author, the the fortunate difcovery of my friend, Mr. Partington; and the credit which it has obtained in practice, fince that period, has awakened the attention of the public in this metropolis.I was induced to accompany him in his inquiries, from the fuccefs which followed his judicious application of it, in fome recent cafes of furgery which I fent to him. But, cautious of being mifguided by falfe appearances, I proceeded flowly, and doubted much; till experience taught me, that when I was unfuccessful, it oftener proceeded from want of judgment in the application, than from want of power in the remedy.'-The Author afterwards informs us, that a collection of cafes, and a view of the prefent ftate of Medical Electricity, is preparing for the prefs, by Mr. Partington; and will be published as foon as that gentleman's avocations will permit. When we reviewed Dr. Priestley's Hiftory of Electricity*, we took particular notice of the uncertainty which, at that time, attended the medical adminiftration of the electric fluid; by which, even then, fome indubitable and extraordinary cures had been performed: though repeated failures had likewise attended the application of it in other inftances. We then obferved, that one, and that too a principal, caufe of this uncertainty, was the difficulty of directing the course of the electric fluid through those particular parts, where its action would be beneficial. By an attention to this capital circumftance (and by means of fome particular contrivances, as we conjecture;-for the Author appears very reserved on this head) we apprehend he has been enabled to reduce his electrical method of cure to that degree of certainty, in the removal of female obftructions, which he profeffes to have attained to, by a skilful application of the electric fhock;' so as never yet to have failed in one inftance.' The Author, apologifing for his feeming invafion of the phyfician's province, by affuming the cure of a disease which has hitherto naturally fallen under the care of the physician, observes, that his mode of cure is ftrictly chirurgical;-being ⚫ an operation performed by the hand, with the affiftance of inftruments; adding, that anatomical skill is neceflary to direct it with propriety and fuccefs.' We with, however, that Mr. Birch had been fomewhat more particular, with respect to his modus operandi ;—using the phrase, not in its common or medical acceptation, but in its chirurgical, or rather in its new anatomico-electrical sense. We here meet with no particular directions on this avowedly very effential part of the fubject. In the first cafe here related, the Author only obferves, that no relief was obtained, during a whole fortnight, by drawing sparks from the ftomach and feet of the patient; or • See Monthly Review, vol. xxxvii. Dec. 1767. p. 449. by paffing fhocks from the hands and the vertebra of the neck to the feet: because the electric matter feemed to act only, without any good or bad effect, on the external mufcles.' He, therefore, confidering the obftruction as being probably feated only in the veffels of the uterus, concluded, that the fhock fhould be paffed, if not confined, to the direction of thofe veffels:' and obferves, that the effect was quick and falutary. He speaks likewife of placing his directors in such a manner, as to convey the electric matter through every part of the uterus.'-But hoc opus, hic labor eft! The reader naturally wishes to know how this is to be done; or whether the Author is in poffeffion of any method, not generally known, of rendering the electrical fluid more manageable, and obfequious to the defigns of the medical electrician. For the feven cafes related in this pamphlet, which the Author has felected from many other fuccefsful trials, we must refer the faculty to the performance itself. They certainly exhibit the medical powers of electricity in a very advantageous point of view. FOREIGN LITERATURE. d'un FRANCE. AR T. X. PLAN Traité fur l'Aurore Boreale, pour fervir de Suite à Celui de M. de MAIRAN, &c. i. e. The Plan of a Treatife on the Aurora Borealis, defigned as a Supplement to that of M de Mairan, on the fame Subject. By J. H. VAN SWINDEN, Profeffor of Philofophy at Franeker, Member of feveral Academies, and Correfpondent Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris. We have had more than once occafion to mention Profeffor VAN SWINDEN, with the high efteem that is due to his unremitting induftry, his judicious and well directed labours in the advancement of natural knowledge, and the fagacity and precifion that accompany his uncommon modefty, in the conclufions he draws from his obfervations and refearches. interesting work he has, at prefent, undertaken, and of which we have the plan now before us, will undoubtedly give him a new title to the attention and gratitude of both connoiffeurs and diletanti in natural philofophy. The Every one acquainted with matters relative to this fcience, knows the excellent treatise of M. de Mairan on the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Light, which is univerfally allowed to be a masterpiece of induftry, fagacity, and genius. But as five and twenty years have paffed fince the laft edition of that work was published, many difcoveries have been made during that period, which open new views of this curious fubject, and are adapted to carry our knowledge of it feveral fteps farther toward the true theory of this remarkable phenomenon. M. VAN SWINDEN, during the fpace of eight years, has obferved above 200 of these meteors, compofed accurate and circumftantial defcriptions of each, compared them with the motions of the magnetic needle, the different ftates and modifications of the atmosphere, and with the obfervations of the fame phenomenon, made, during the fame period, in other places, by learned men, whose accounts he has collected with care. This collection of his own obfervations and reasonings, and those of other eminent men, relative to the Aurora Borealis, he has refolved to communicate to the Public; and as the treatise of M. DE MAIRAN contains the theory, the principles, the combinations, and details, that must be the bafis of all welldirected researches on the fubject in question, our ingenious Profeffor propofes to employ his materials in fuch a manner, that they will ferve as a Supplement to the excellent work of the French Philofopher. M. DE MAIRAN's work contains two parts. 1ft, The Hiftorical and Phyfical-and 2dly, The Syftematic. The former is the principal object of M. VAN SWINDEN's illuftrations and refearches: the latter he means only to treat occafionally, as M. DE MAIRAN has pretty nearly faid all that can poffibly be offered for the illuftration and fupport of his fyftem. The Zodiacal Light, and the Aurora Borealis, are the two important objects that compose the physical part of his work; the first of thefe he treats mathematically, aftronomically, and phyfically; and as it is a part of M. VAN SWINDEN's plan, to complete the lift of obfervations that have been made on the Zodiacal Light, he entreats the learned, in all countries, to communicate to him any obfervations they may have made upon that subject. It is well known, that M. D'ALEMBERT + has propofed objections against the Zodiacal Light, confidered as the folar atmosphere, to which it is difficult to give a folid and fatisfactory anfwer: nevertheless, as this light follows invariably the courfe of the fun, M. VAN SWINDEN thinks, that it muft depend, in fome way or other, on that luminous body; and this confideration is fufficient to juftify thofe who adopt the fyftem of M. DE MAIRAN. In order to fhew our readers the extent and importance of the learned labours of M. VAN SWINDEN, on this curious fubject, it will be neceffary to mention (as he has done in the plan before us) the effential parts that compofe M. DE MAIRAN'S treatise on the Aurora Borealis: Thefe are, 1. An explanation + Opufcules, vol. vi. p. 333. of the phenomena.-2. A chronological lift of thefe meteors. 3. The immediate confequences deduced from facts, and the relations which the different phenomena bear to each other.4. The influence of the Aurora Borealis upon certain phenomena, and that alfo which certain agents may have upon it.5. An examination of the caufes which have been affigned to this meteor.-6. The doubts and conjectures to which the difcuffion of what relates to the Aurora Borealis may give rife. New obfervations and difcoveries have enabled M. VAN SWINDEN to make interesting additions to each of these articles, and the observations and difcoveries he has found in the later works of learned men in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Holland, have been carefully attended to in the execution of his plan. He does not give us here a fummary of his additions. He, however, tells us, that the most important obfervations, among those which he has made or collected, relate to the phenomena of the Aurora Borealis,-to the filence, which, according to M. DE MAIRAN, reigns in all the parts and periods of this phenomenon, or to the noife, which other obfervers have heard during its appearance, and, finally, to the Aurora Boreales, (or rather Auftrales) which are formed near the antarctic pole, whofe exiftence M. VAN SWINDEN propofes to demonftrate by new observations. 2. With respect to the chronological lift of these meteors, our Author's additions to, and improvement of, M. DE MAIRAN's excellent table (which goes as far as the year 1751, and contains 1441 of the phenomena in queftion) will be very confiderable. He proposes, firft, to continue the table down to the year 1778, or still farther,-to complete it by an account of feveral of thefe meteors that appeared before the year 1752, but are not mentioned by M. DE MAIRAN,-to rectify the errors that this celebrated philofopher has fallen into by imagining, that the dates in Frobes's table (which he follows) were formed on the old ftile, and reducing them to the new,-and to give the chronological table, a more exact, inftructive, and convenient form, than it has in DE MAIRAN'S work. 3. The third article of that learned work, which contains confequences deduced from facts, and the relations which the different phenomena bear to each other, will also be enriched with many improvements from the obfervations and additions of Profeffor VAN SWINDEN. Thefe will be relative to the great height of the Aurora Borealis (which we fhall henceforth call the Northern Light) in the atmosphere,-to the interruptions and returns that prevent its permanent appearance, even in the places that lie nearest to the pole,-and to the correfpondence that there is between its appearances and that of the Zodiacal Light. Under thefe articles, our learned Profeffor propofes, among |