fomewhere about the diftrict at prefent called Si-gan-fou. Their particular hiftory till the year 887, is almost unknown, except by the long difcourfes of the Chou-king, which, instead of relating events, are entirely employed about government and laws.

Such then is the true ftate of the Chinese hiftory, which the Miffionaries have reprefented as inconteftable, and founded upon, authentic records, only because they have adopted, without examination, the conjectures, and even the fables, of ignorant, fuperftitious, or unfaithful writers.-On an impartial view of the whole matter, our Author thinks, that there is no evidence for that remote antiquity, which many late writers attribute to the Chinese empire, and that all the lights we have on this fubject, concur in fixing its origin and establishment at fome period between the year 1122 and 887 before the Christian

æra.

ART. II.

Hiftoire de la Societé Royale de Medecine, Année 1776.-The History of the Royal Society of Medicine, for the Year 1776, with the Medical and Philofophical Memoirs for the fame Year. Published from the Registers of the Society. Vol. I. With Plates. 4to. Paris. 1779.

I

F focieties of this kind are of great utility towards the advancement of literature and fcience in general, they seem to be of peculiar importance to the improvement of medical fcience, the progrefs of which is fingularly flow and impercep'tible; and which, notwithstanding confiderable number of valuable difcoveries, is yet at an immenfe distance from perfection. This flow progrefs will furprife us lefs, if we confider the innumerable difficulties that attend this fcience, and the various branches of knowledge it requires. This latter circumftance renders affociations of this kind peculiarly neceffary; nay, the establishment of medical academies is the only poffible method by which any confiderable improvement can be made in the knowledge that is requifite in the art of healing for thus the fum of the labours, refearches, and difcoveries, of the induftrious and attentive obfervers of nature are collected, and every man, who is diligent and laborious, may, however limited in genius and erudition, throw in his mite to the general treasure, and thus contribute to multiply its valuable

contents.

The principal object of the inftitution and labours of the Royal Society of Medicine, which is the fubject of this article, is to extend medical knowledge, and afcertain the difcoveries relative to that science, and the conclufions that may be deduced from them. More especially, it is one of the great ob

LI 4

jects

jects of this inftitution, to inveftigate the immediate caufes of diforders, by an exact and circumftantial obfervation of the effects which phyfical caufes produce on the animal economy. This requires an affiduous examination of the ftate of the atmofphere, and of its meteors, a defcription of the places inhabited by men or animals, and an account of the nature of their food, and means of fubfiftence ;-as alfo, obfervations on the diseases that are ufual in each feafon, climate, and habitation; and thefe objects make an effential part of the plan of researches formed by this new medical academy.

Its plan, however, is not confined to thefe objects; it extends to particular observations relative to the practice of phyfic, to furgery, anatomy, and medical chymistry. The examination also of mineral waters, botanical refearches, and all the parts of natural philofophy, that are connected with medical fcience, will form a confiderable part of the labours of the academicians. In the publication of its materials, the new fociety proposes to obferve the method employed by the academy of fciences; thus each volume will be divided into two parts; one will contain the history of the fociety, comprehending its establishment, regulations, laws, the eulogies of its deceased members, the lift of its members and correfpondents, and of their works, the proposal of prizes, and many facts and obfervations relative to the objects already mentioned.-The other part is to contain the memoirs, compofed either by the members of the fociety refiding at Paris, or by phyficians and natural philofophers in other parts of the kingdom, and in foreign countries; and which, after having been read at the meetings of the fociety, have been judged worthy of public view.

After this general sketch of the plan of this useful institution, it will not be improper to inform our readers of the manner in which the plan is executed in this firft volume. After the dedication to the King, who has granted his peculiar patronage and protection to the Medical Society, we find an instructive and excellent preface, relative to the various objects that enter into the plan of the fociety, and every way proper to affift even those who are not phyficians, to co-operate with fuccefs in the advancement of medical fcience with those that are. This preface contains interefting details concerning the manner of making meteorological obfervations, botanical researches, chymical analyfes, &c. Accordingly, we find in the lift of the members feveral men of learning, and men in place, who do not belong to the medical faculty.

This fociety has alfo adopted a cuftom that prevails in the greateft part of the literary academies; we mean, that of compofing cubogies, or rather hiftorical relations of the lives, talents, genius, labours, discoveries, and merit of deceased members.

In this volume, we find the eulogies of Meffrs. Bouillet, Le Beau, and Haller, compofed by M. VICQ-D'AZIR, fecretary to the fociety.

The hiftorical part, and the memoirs of this volume, contain fuch a confiderable number of materials, that the mere enumeration of them would fwell this article beyond the bounds that we are obliged to prescribe to it.

The hiftorical part exhibits feveral curious cafes relative to Surgery and the practice of phyfic, of which we fhall indicate a few of the most interesting:

A young girl, after having been afflicted with a violent, convulfive, and obftinate cough, that refifted all the remedies employed to remove it, was, at length, reduced to fuch a state, that the could not fwallow any kind of nourishment folid or liquid: The threw them up perpetually as foon as they entered the cefophagus. In this cruel extremity, M. Macquart, confidering attentively all the fymptoms that had preceded and accompanied the diforder, and thofe alfo which were produced by the remedies that had been employed, was perfuaded, that the cause of this extraordinary complaint was an abscess formed in the lower part of the cefophagus, or gullet, and by calculating the time that had paffed, he perfuaded himself alfo, that the abfcefs was ripe, full of matter, and juft at the period proper for being opened. However, the feat of the diforder did not admit of any chirurgical operation, nor of the introduction of any inftrument; and it is on fuch critical occafions, that a phyfician has need of all the expedients and resources that knowledge and genius can furnish. M. Macquart hit upon a happy expedient: he introduced mercury into the cefophagus of the patient: this fluid metal arrived foon at the feat of the diforder, and acting, by its enormous weight, on the thinner fides of the abfcefs, burft it, occafioned a fpeedy evacuation of the matter it contained, opened a free paffage to food of every kind, and performed a cure, which appeared truly aftonishing.

Under the article of chirurgery, there is a piece of great moment, entitled, A Report concerning the bad Confequences of Caftration,-practifed as a Method of obtaining a radical Cure of Hernias, &c. The Royal Society of Medicine was confulted by the Miniftry on this fubject, which undoubtedly deserves all its attention. The answer, or report, was given by three members named by the fociety, and contains an account of the inconveniencies that refult from the temerity with which a great number of ignorant practitioners and empirics perform the operation here mentioned; together with new regulations for this branch of chirurgical practice.

Under the articles of chirurgery, there are alfo fome ingenious obfervations on the cure of feveral ulcers, performed by the

vacillatory

vacillatory motion of the burning glass. The action of fire, or the actual cautery, has been long, and almoft generally, employed as an effectual method of curing certain ulcers of a malignant kind, which refift the influence of all other remedies; but it is only of late, that the heat of the fun has been fubftituted in the place of red-hot metals, burning hards, and other cauftics of that nature. M. LA PEYERE Communicated to the fociety, four obfervations of bad ulcers speedily and happily healed by letting the focus of a burning glass fall upon the parts of thefe ulcers, which, he thought, required it. M. LE COMTE, furgeon at Arcueil, had (fo early as the year 1759) performed an excellent cure by the fame means, which is published here for the first time, at the end of the obfervations of M. LE PEYERE, under the title of Obfervations concerning a Cancer in the under Lip, cured in the space of three Weeks, by the actual Cautery of the Solar Fire.

It is, indeed, eafily to be conceived, that the focus of a burning-glafs, being nothing but the re-union of the particles of the purest fire, must have great advantages over the ordinary fire, proceeding from any bodies whatever in a ftate of ignition. The action of the former is abfolutely in our power, and we can modify it as we think proper; but this, as the two learned phyficians obferve, is, by no means, the cafe with the latter, as it acts not only on the part to which it is applied, but alfo on thofe that are near it; and this both augments the pain of the patient, and retards the cure. Befides, the emanations from bodies in a ftate of ignition may be unfavourable to the ulcer, more especially if it be of a cancerous nature; and the continual diminution of the heat of the bodies, or instruments employed, prevents our difcerning their effect, or regulating their action with precifion. Thefe inconveniences have, no doubt, engaged the generality of practitioners, at least in Europe, to abandon the ufe of the actual cautery. The focus of the burning-glafs is entirely exempt from thefe inconveniences; it has, on the contrary, the advantage of preferving its heat always in the fame degree, or of increafing or dimir ithing its action, as the operator thinks proper to render the rays more or less concentrated; and thus it may furnifh the art of healing with new fuccours, of which the obfervations of Meflrs. Le Comte and La Peyere give us promifing hopes.

The Memoirs in this Volume are both numerous and elaborate. Some of them form complete diflertations on the most important fubjects, both in the theory and practice of phyfic. Among thefe a diftinguifhed rank is due to M. LajJonne's account of the accidents occafioned by the miafmas, or peftilential effluvia of animals in putrefaction, Andry's refearches concerning madness, and the manner of treating it, and

Faubert's

Faubert's Memoir, which obtained the academical prize on the following question: What are the circumflances in exanthematous fevers, in which the cool regimen is preferable to the warm, and in what cafes is a contrary method to be employed?

The Memoir of M. BUCQUET, concerning the manner in which animals are affected by different aerial mephitic fluids, and the means of remedying the effects of these fluids, contains a circumftantial account of a great number of experiments made on above two hundred animals, fuch as quadrupedes, birds, frogs, and others. These experiments were made in the calcareous acid gas, in air, rendered deadly by the burning of charcoal, and in the inflammable gas, in order to examine the fymptoms, which appear in different kinds of animals, from the moment they are plunged in the mephitic fluid, till that of their death;-to obferve in their diffected carcafes the ftate of the different vifcera, and particularly of thofe by whofe concurrence the circulation of the blood and reípiration are carried on;-to see how far an animal may fuffer, without all hope being removed of its being reftorable to life; and finally, to determine, what are the moft fpeedy and efficacious means of reftoring fenfation and motion that have been fufpended.The refult of all thefe experiments, which feem almost to have exhaufted the fubject, is, that all ftimulants, acrid, and pungent remedies, volatile acids, or alkalis, may be employed with equal fuccefs in the greatest part of thefe cafes;-that it acts as a ftimulant or irritating agent (and not as an abforbent of acids), that the volatile fluor alkali produces good effects in certain circumftances, and that this cauftic deferves no preference beyond other ftimulants; nay, that it is only proper in the fecond degree of the afphyxies, that is, when the patient can draw in the odours which are placed under his noftrils: and though, in this cafe, fays M. BUCQUET, the volatile alkali may fucceed, it often happens, that it is lefs efficacious than the radical vinegar, because the violent fhock, which the volatile fpirit of fal ammoniac produces, is always followed by weaknefs, while the smell of vinegar, though often less active, yet is a greater fupporter of ftrength and fpirits.

With respect to the internal ufe of volatile alkali, M. BucQUET thinks that this remedy cannot be administered with too much circumfpection and caution, as it has a tendency to occafion heavings of the ftomach, troublefome hiccoughs, nay, even fometimes convulfive motions in perfons of weak nerves, and feeble conftitutions. This is true; but it is not the whole truth for too ftrong a dofe of this dangerous remedy occafions excruciating pains, a violent inflammation, the gangrene, and death.

The