ART. IX.-CRITICAL NOTICES.

1.-Notes on Cuba. Containing an account of the discovery and early history; a description of the face of the country, its population, resources and wealth; its institutions, and the manners and customs of its inhabitants. With directions to travellers visiting the Island. By a Physician. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1844.

THE subject of this volume must be of deep interest to our countrymen-more especially of the Southern States. We would have undertaken an analysis of it ourselves, perhaps, had we not been prevented by the able and elegant article on the same topic in our present number -furnished by one of the first American scholars. We are fortunate in being relieved of the task, by one, so pre-eminently qualified to do it justice in every particular; and to present the result of his labours, in the most chaste and captivating style. Cuba, has been almost a terra incognita to the great mass of readers. With the exception of Mad. Merlin's and the work before us, we know of no attempt in a popular way, to exhibit the features of this most interesting portion of the globe. Works there have been to be sure, but of a different kind. Every thing connected with the history, politics and internal economy of the Island, its manners, customs, soil and products, has been kept out of view. The desultory remarks of travellers, have only increased the appetite for information. Every thing relating to the Island is deeply interesting; scarcely a newspaper paragraph but what is devoured with avidity. England and America are on the qui vive. The one pondering upon the possible influence, which the declining power of Spain, may give her in the local concerns of the Island; and in consequence, in the local concerns of all North America :-the other, watching over the signs of the times, ready at any moment and at every hazard, to arrest the progress of this grasping empire, before she can plant herself on the Gulf of Mexico or gain an additional foot of land on the Western Continent. This well timed jealousy of our people, expressed so long ago as 1823, by Mr. Monroe, will perhaps have great influence in preserving to Spain her interesting province; but let it once appear, that the old Castilian grasp is about to be released—and Cuba is an independent government, -or ours forever, whatever England, or Europe itself, may advance to the contrary. This in the natural and necessary course of things.

With regard to the work before us, we are prepared to commend it to general attention; we have read it with great pleasure and never laid it aside, without regret. It is a plain narrative, simple-unpretendingpractical; no forced attempt to attain high things in the world of literature-but just what it should be, and in every respect satisfactory. The

information has been collected on the spot, during several years travel and residence. The author entitles his work "Notes"-this, with characteristic modesty. "These rough and unpretending notes," says he, "were written chiefly to relieve, by mental exercise, the tedium of an invalid's useless life." The style throughout, though devoid of ornament, is forcible and often eloquent in its simplicity. If there is no rhetoric-there is good sense. Many pictures of tropical scenery, et cetera, are striking and impressive, though there is no apparent attempt to be so. The author, is more concerned with his subject than his style. He has viewed the Island, in all its relations, in the most candid and impartial manner; and if he has not gone enough, into the characteristics of its higher classes of society, he has given sufficient reasons for not doing so. The book should be in every one's hands. To invalids it is invaluable-being the work of an invalid, it gives a thousand useful hints to those in his condition. The author is a physician-a Southern physician--one of our own citizens. He is a close observer, and of highest scientific attainments. His investigations do not rest on the surface of a subject. To all who would seek an adequate acquaintance with Cuba-its manners and customs-its climate, soil and productions-its government, laws and history-its minerals, shells, fishes, birds, quadrupeds, plants-its whole mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms,-we commend the work.

2.-Ellen Woodville: or, Life in the West. New York: Henry G. Langley. 1844.

WE would be glad to identify the author-but non constat this. He is evidently in a new field and occupies it well. His sketches are interesting; fact supplies the ground work, and the edifice is well-proportioned. The reader's attention will no flag, and the many substantial truths developed, will amply repay him. In the delineation of "Western Life and Manners," does, the chief merit of the sketch consist. As a tale, it is deficient in plot, and the characters move about in it, with too much stiffness and too little life. Their parts seem to be committed to memory, for the occasion; and the language, which should come fresh and warm from the heart, is too often studied and elaborate. In narrative, the success is admitted; the incidental reflections are, in general, happy; but in dialogue, that department, most important of all and beyond measure most difficult, a great deficiency is manifest. We are under the impression, that we are criticizing the production of a young man-a Southerner, and we infer from the work-a fellow-citizen. This has given the whole an interest, in our eye, which predisposes us to hold up its excellencies, which are many, rather than its defects which are few. Right glad are we, to hail any thing of the kind, which emanates from a Southern pen, and welcome into the literary world any

aspirant for its honors. The author of the work before us, has taste and judgment; he has read much, and digested well what he has read. His frequent classical allusions, and quotations of standard English poets and prose writers, prove much for his industry. We have only to regret, a deficiency of imagination, whose highly colored and life giving touches, must always confer upon works of this kind, their chief merit.

The scenes are laid in the wild West, at the time when that desperate spirit of speculation, was abroad in the land; when towns and villages rose up as by enchantment, figuring larger full often upon maps than upon terra firma; when millions were squandered upon acres, which at no distant period, were to be worth their surfaces in gold. To exhibit the workings of this mad spirit, in the new formed communities of the West, and the consequent deterioration of morals and manners, is a great aim with the writer. In this, he has not failed. The pictures appear to have been drawn upon the spot, with the eye of an accurate observer. The character of "Goldborough," is the highest wrought-his cool and calculating villanies-his genius-his profound dissimulation. The progress of "Woodville" through all the stages of the speculator,-the gambler-the suicide, is strongly marked. "Belmont" does not always please, and "Ellen" will inspire more of admiration than of love. "Morgan" is a desperate villain. "Mrs. Thompson," we vote a nuisance, as our hero and heroine doubtless did a thousand times over; and as for Messrs. "Clodpole" and "Pleadit," their names are quite sufficient. We wish we had more space to allot to the work.

3.—Medicines; their Uses and Mode of Administration; including a complete Conspectus of the British Pharmacopoeias, an account of all the new remedies, and an Appendix of Formula, by J. Moore Nelligan, M. D., Physician to Jervais-street Hospital, and Lecturer on Materia Medica and Theraputics in the Dublin School of Medicine. With Notes and Additions, conforming it to the Pharmacopoeia of the United States, and including all that is new or important in recent improvements. BY DAVID MEREDIth Reese, A. M., M. D., late Professor of the Institutes of Medicine and Surgery in the Washington University Baltimore, &c. NewYork: Published by Harper and Brothers, No. 82 Cliff-street. 1844.

THE above is a new and valuable work, just presented to the Medical profession and to the public, through the enterprise of the Harpers. Its unassuming title, seems to be indicative of the modest merit of its author. The work of Professor Dunglison on "New Remedies," which was a great desideratum to the practitioner of Medicine at the time it appeared, and which has passed through several editions, seems to be

in a great measure superseded by this, in as much, as it embraces the substance of that excellent work, in a much more condensed form. The Conspectus of Dr. Thompson too, upon a similar plan, will be probably superseded by it; and it will, no doubt, come somewhat in competition with the work of our distinguished countryman, Professor Payne, of the University of New-York.

The work of Dr. Neligan, has the merit of being somewhat original in its plan and general arrangement. It embraces within a small compass, perhaps, a greater amount of matter, than any similar work of equal size in the English language. And so judicious and complete is the process of condensation, that almost at a single glance, and generally in less than the compass of a page, the reader may be put in possession of all, that is necessary to be known in respect to any article of the Materia Medica. And in this, he is very much aided by the peculiar marks and typographic arrangement. This work embraces not merely "medicines and their uses," but as much Botany, Chemistry, Pharmacy, Toxicology, Pathology and Theraputics, as it is expedient or necessary to incorporate in a work on Materia Medica. In respect to the peculiar arrangement and order of description, that the reader may have a just apprehension of the subject, we will quote from the author's preface :"In describing each medicinal substance the following plan is adopted:

1st. The officinal appellation and English name of each article is given; and in the case of a vegetable substance, the native country and botanical classification of the plant from which it is obtained. For the advantage of the student, the most important characters of each medicinal plant are also concisely described.

2d. The physical properties.

3d. The chemical properties.

4th. The mode of preparation. Under this head, the processes of the three British Pharmacopoeias are given in full.

5th. The adulterations, and the manner in which they may be detected.

6th. The therapeutic effects, and the uses of the substance in the treatment of disease.

7th. The dose and mode of administration. Under this head, all the officinal preparations of the British Pharmacopoeias, as well as many of those ordered by the Continental and American Colleges, are introduced.

8. The incompatibles.

9th. In the case of poisons, the antidotes and mode of treatment. The author has added an Appendix of Formulæ, which are principally confined to the new remedies described in the work, and also an extended Pasological Table."

Dr. Neligan has attempted a Physiological arrangement of the Materia Medica, which all must admit is desirable; and if he has not been perfectly successful, there has been at least an approximation to it, and the effort is certainly commendable. He has furnished us with a copious table of contents, exhibiting his classification in alphabetical order;

and has divided the Materia Medica into 22 divisions or chapters, which are as follows, viz. :—Antacids, Anthelmintics, Antispasmodics, Astringents, Cathartics, Caustics, Diaphoretics, Diuretics, Emetics, Emmenagogues, Emmollients, Epispastics, Enherites, Expectorants, Narcotics, Refringerants, Sedatives or Contrastimulants, Sialogogues, General Stimulants, Special Stimulants, Tonics and Supplementary agents.

Some fault, it is true, has been found with this classification as being imperfect; but for practical purposes, we see not why it may not be regarded, at least, equal to any other. If it is not as "philosophical" as that of Professor Payne, it certainly has the merit of being more practical. For the sake of arranging all the articles of the Materia Medica, under a few specific heads, may not the work of Professor Payne be subject to the charge of too much generalization. And may not that of Dr. Neligan, on the other hand, be commended for its greater number of divisions according to the well-known action of the different articles of the Materia Medica, and the modus operandi of medicines in general, as better subserving the practical purposes of the physician?

In its pharmaceutical details, this volume furnishes the enquirer with a complete conspectus of the three British Pharmacopoeias, which is an improvement of no inconsiderable importance to the practitioner.

The editor, Dr. Reese, has performed a valuable service in presenting this new work to the American public-in changing, in some measure, its transatlantic dress, and adapting its nomenclature to the Pharmacopoeia of the United States,-in the number and character of the notes and additions, which, (through the aid of his friends, Messrs. Milhau and Dupuy,) he has made, and which are every where dispersed in loco through the volume, making them available to the reader, without the usual trouble of reference, and in a suitable preface and appropriate preliminary observations.

We recommend the work to general attention with pleasure, and regard it as a valuable book of reference for the practitioner, and an outline of Materia Medica for the student. J. B. W.

4.-Bible Episcopacy: A Bible Constituency of the Church, and Bible Church Ordinances Exhibited. Eight Lectures delivered during the Spring of 1844. By THOMAS CURTIS, D. D., Bishop of the Wentworth-st. Baptist Church. Charleston: Burges & James. 1844.

WHETHER Dr. Curtis is or is not Bishop of the Wentworth-st. Baptist Church, is a question, of course, with which, as reviewers, we can have little concern. As men, we may and do regard with deep interest this controversy, as well as every other movement in the religious world. The nature of our work precludes these discussions. We aim to establish a literary journal, and wherever the interests of literature are