sumed, the manufacturer concludes the bricks are sufficiently burnt.

"The reasons why the modern bricks are so very inferior to those made by the ancients, which, in their monuments, after having withstood the ravages of time for many centuries, are still in perfect preservation, appear to be principally the following: In the present expensive state of society, the price of manual labour, though far from being adequate to the pressure of the times, is so considerable, that the manufacturer is under a kind of necessity to make choice of those materials which are the cheapest and most easily procured: thus, a mixture of the most improper earths and clay is often employed in the manufacture of bricks, without refleeting, that two bodies specifically different in their nature, must necessarily require different degrees of heat in the kiln, in order to produce an uniform hardness, and an intimate combination of parts. On the contrary, the ancients not only selected the very best sort of clay, but combined it with other ingredients well adapted to form the most complete cement, such as coarsely powdered charcoal and old mortar, added to the clay. Of this description, likewise, were the bricks which Professor PALLAS, on his last journey through the southern provinces of Russia, discovered in the stupendous Tartar monuments, and which would scarcely yield to the force of a hammer. Another advantage peculiar to the bricks and tiles manufactured by our fore-fathers, arose from their method of burning them uniformly, after being thoroughly dried. There is no doubt, that if all the defects before pointed out, were removed, and modern brick-makers were to pay more attention to their art, by digging the clay at proper seasons, working it better than is done at present, bestowing more care on the burning of them, and, particularly, by making them much thinner than what is prescribed by the standard form, we might produce bricks of an equal strength

HAY-MAKING. In the county of Middlesex, whence the London markets are chiefly supplied with hay, all the grass mowed on the first day, before nine o'clock in the morning, is tedded, that is, uniformly spread over the meadow, divided as much as possible, and well turned, before twelve o'clock, and, perhaps, a second time in the afternoon. It is then raked into wind-rows, and formed into small cocks.

"On the second day, the grass mown the preceding day after nine o'clock, and what is cut on this day before that time, is tedded, and treated in the manner above described. Previously to turning the grass of the second day's work, the small cocks thrown up on the preceding day, are well shaken out into straddles, or separate plats, five or six yards square. If the crop be so thin as to leave large spaces between the plats, they ought to be raked clean. The next business is, to turn the plats, and also the grass cut on the second day, which is generally done before one o'clock, in order that all the grass which is mowed may be drying while the people are at dinner. In the afternoon, the straddles or plats are raked into double windrows, the grass into single ones, and the hay is thrown up into field cocks of a middling size, also called bastard cocks; the grass is then cocked, as on the preceding day.

Similar operations are successively performed on the third day; the hay in bastard cocks is again spread into straddles, and the whole is turned previously to the people going to dinner. Should the weather have proved fine and warm, the hay that was made into bastard cocks on the second evening, will, in the afternoon of the third day, be fit to be housed. On the fourth day the hay is put into stacks. This method has, from experience, proved very successful, especially in favourable weather.”

ART. II. A Treatise on Brewing; wherein is exhibited the whole Process of the Art and Mystery of Brewing the various Sorts of Malt Liquor; with practical Examples wpra each Species. Together with the Manner of using the Thermometer and Saccharometer; elucidated by Examples, and rendered easy to any Capacity, in brewing London Porter, Brown Stout, Reading Beer, Amber, Heck, London Ale, Windsor Ale, Welch Ale, Wirtemberg Ale, Scurvy-grass Ale, Table Beer, and Shipping Beer. Second Edition. By ALEXANDER MORRICE, Common Brewer. 8vo. pp. 180.

ART. III. Brewing made Easy; being a Compendium of all the Directions that have hitherto been published, with the Practice of Thirty-five Years in several Noblemen and Gentlemen's Families. Originally collected for the private Use of the Author, and offered as a useful Assistant to those who wish to brew fine, transparent, and bizbflavoured Beer. With full Directions for the Management of the Cellar, &c. and Instructions respecting the making and Preservation of made Wines. By WILLIAM MOIR, Butler to Sir Harbottle Wilson, of Leigh Hall, Derbyshire, Small 8vo. pp. 40 ART. IV. The complete Family Brewer; or the best Method of Brewing or making any quantity of good strong Ale and Small Beer, in the greatest Perfection, for the Use of private

Families, from a Peck to a Hundred Quarters of Malt; together with Directions for choosing good Malt, Hops, Water, brewing Vessels; cleaning and sweetning foul Casks, brewing Vessels, &c. To make new Malt Liquor drink stale;_with Directions for Bottling, and the most proper Time for Brewing, &c. &c. By THOMAS THREALE, Brewer. To which is added, an Appendix, containing the Art of brewing Porter, and making British Wines. 8vo. pp. 35.

Utrum horum mavis accipe. consult with advantage.

They all give directions, which the housekeeper may

ART. V. Observations on Beer and Brewers, in which the Inequality, Injustice, and Impolicy, of the Malt and Beer Tax, are demonstrated. By RICHARD FLOWER. 8vo. pp. 36.

Mr. FLOWER is one of the trade, and he has taken up his pen in selfdefence. Finding himself and his brethren the objects of continued calumny and abuse from the House of Commons to the alehouse, and observ. ing that the silence which has been preserved is construed into assent to all that has been said, he could no longer refrain from snatching a few hours from the

avocations of his counting house, and attempting to plead the cause of the poor, the publican, and the brewer."

It would have been well for Mr. Flower had he suffered his mighty anger to subside a little: if any of his observations have intrinsically the slightest value, the violence with which they are delivered will injure the reception of them.

CHAPTER XVII.

MEDICINE, SURGERY, ANATOMY,

AND

THE VETERINARY ART.

WHAT tribute can the labours of a year be expected to bring to these important branches of human knowledge?

The structure, the functions, and the diseases of the animal body, furnish subjects of enquiry which no æra in the history of the science, could ever afford a prospect of exhausting, though the persons on whom these studies naturally devolve, have long been distinguished for a liberal spirit of enquiry, and for that active zeal in experimental pursuits, which is so often rewarded by brilliant discoveries. The venerable art of Physic is, indeed, rich, but it is with the slowly accumulated wealth of many centuries; so that if the addition made during the single year which has just elapsed, be in any degree respectable, the public will be satisfied, that this useful science continues to be cultivated with industry and success.

In the department of Physic, the posthumous work of the late excellent Dr. Heberden, may, perhaps, be considered as the most valuable of the publications of the year. It contains a summary of the long and extensive practice of an accurate and sagacious observer, characterised by skill in the use of the accustomed and accredited methods of art, rather than by a genius fertile in resources by a caution sometimes approaching to timidity, and by a degree of diffidence in the powers of art, bordering on the utmost verge of scepticism. The well-known, and highly respectable character of the author, gives a stamp of authenticity to the observations dispersed throughout the work, and sanctions the close aphoristic style in which they are delivered. Another posthumous work, which will claim some attention, is the treatise on Intermittent Fever, by a late eminent teacher, the continuation of a series of essays on a subject of great extent, and a most preponderating importance in Physic. Like Dr. Fordyce's other publications, it will be found to bear the marks of acuteness, and of originality, always in manner, and sometimes in ideas. The discovery of vaccine inoculation, belongs to a preceding period, but the reader will find some valuable materials for its future history and present elucidation, in the treatises of Dr. Thornton, and particularly of Mr. Bryce; to which we may add the curious paper of Dr. Loy, in Dr. Duncan's Annals, relating to the still disputed and questionable origin of this infection. A striking picture of the hospital practice in the camp of an enterprising army, at one time victorious and elate with hopes,

at another, struggling with accumulated hardships, and suffering under every privation, is presented to the reader in the Medical History of the French Oriental Army, by Citizen Desgenettes. The ravages committed by the most calamitous of all pestilential fevers, are forcibly, and, apparently, very faithfully exhibited; and if the means employed to check its ravages, proved much too feeble for success, we cannot but admire the professional intrepidity displayed in the hospital service of the army of Bonaparte, as hazardous as that of the field, and less supported by the animating motives of glory and renown. The use of the vapours of the mineral acids, in destroying the activity of animal contagion, must be considered as a most happy application of chemistry to the aid of physic, the eventual importance of which it is not easy to exaggerate. Mr. Guyton Morveau has here substantiated his claim to the discovery, and has added the results of many valuable experiments of the curious, but repulsive subject of animal putrefaction. We apprehend that M. Morveau's reputation throughout Europe, will still depend on chemistry much more than on medical philosophy.

In the department of Surgery, the expensive magnitude of Mr. John Bell's volume, and the justly acquired reputation of its author, must arrogate for it the first place on our catalogue. The student in the lecture room, may feel his fatigued and tripping attention agreeably diverted by a style of profuse amplitude, and lively digression, but the reader will expect, and the purchaser will calculate on, no small share of intrinsic merit, to atone for cumbersome bulk, and defective arrangement. A valuable addition to Surgery is made by Mr. Russel's treatise on the Diseases of the Knee Joint, a subject in which every aid that art can bring, is too often required, and too often unsuccessful.

Anatomy is unusually rich this year. The indefatigable Cuvier, the most eminent teacher of comparative anatomy in Europe, has given the outlines of a vast collection of facts on this curious subject, made in the midst of a large metropolis, and assisted by every facility that rich museums, extensive corre spondence, and high patronage, can command. The publication of the last fasciculus, which completes Dr. Baillie's beautiful and interesting work, illustrative of Morbid Anatomy, entitles us to claim it to enrich our list. Mr. Blake has thrown much light on the difficult anatomy of the teeth, in his curious essay; and Mr. C. Bell has exhibited to the student so clear an insight into the anatomy of the brain, as most materially to assist, or, we had almost said, to supersede the research of the scalpel.

From the sample before us, we may fairly expect, that the Veterinary Art will in future exhibit that elevation in rank and respectability, to which it is so well entitled, and which it has of late been gradually acquiring, by the superior education and knowledge of its practitioners. As the anatomy of man illustrates that of other animals, so we find, that the principles of physic, as applied to the human constitution, are, with propriety, made the basis of the veterinary art, allowing, however, for some important distinctions arising out of the circumstances of the particular animal.

Policy, however, may perhaps suggest to the practitioners of this art, that, in by far the greater number of instances, the value of the life of a brute is only to be appreciated in pounds, shillings, and pence, and the cost of a cure will be

accurately weighed against the future serviceableness of the domesticated animal, a circumstance not always, we think, sufficiently kept in view.

Several publications, of inferior importance, will also be found in the catalogue of the year, some of a temporary nature, relating to the controversies of the day, others illustrative of a single fact, or variety of disease, and others, we may add, in which the motives which induced the writers to compose, have been much stronger than those which are likely to prevail on the public to become readers.

ART. I. Gulielmi Heber den Commentarii de Morborum Historia & Curatione. 8vo. PP. 417.

Commentaries on the History and Cure of Diseases, by WILLIAM HEBERDEN, M. D. 8vo. pp. 480.

THE circumstances under which these Commentaries have appeared, are peculiarly interesting. They are the posthumous works, published by his son, of a venerable learned and amiable physician, who sedulously employed himself during the active period of his life, in making the observations from which these Commentaries were compiled. The plan which he adopted to avail himself of the opportunities and observations which his practice afforded him, well deserves to be recorded and imitated. It was pursued with a perseverance and constancy highly creditable to the author; and if it were followed, in even a much smaller cegree, by other medical practitioners, it seems to be capable of producing very important and lasting advantages to the profession. His custom was to take short and hasty notes in the chambers of the sick, which he afterwards read over at the end of the month, selecting such facts as tended to throw any light upon the history of a complaint, or the effects of a remedy. From this general repository he extracted all the particulars here given. The Latin and English copy appeared within a few months of each other; but though the author lived several years subsequent to their being finished, it was his wish that they should not be published till after his death. In the Latin edition, (which is preceded by an elegant dedication of the present Dr. Heberden, to his Majesty) there is a short account of his life; by which we are informed, that he was born in the year 1710, commenced practice in London in the year 1748, and began to withdraw himself from its fatigues after about thirty years active employment. He died in the year 1801. The following wellmerited and appropriate compliment, by his son, concludes the slight sketch of

his life, to which we have now alluded. "Vir fuit singularis virtutis, modestiaque; non modo studiis humanitatis ac literarum ornatus; sed integritate vitæ, suavitate morum, pietate erga Deum, amore erga omnes bonos, præstans."

In the work before us, the author has not distinguished himself, and did not indeed seem to aim at distinguishing himself, by any important improvements in the theory or practice of his profession; but he has succeeded in giving us, in an easy and agreeable manner, with his own observations on the respective merits of such medicines as he employed, a concise, accurate, and interesting view of the principal phænomena of diseases, occasionally interspersed and relieved by a detail of cases. There are two extremes into which a physician may fall, in appreciating the value of those agents which he employs in his practice. He may estimate them too highly, or he may place too little dependance upon them. In the one case, he is likely to injure by doing too much; in the other, by omitting what may be serviceable to his patient. There are few who have scen much practice, who have not been frequently disappointed in their expec tation of the effects of remedies, and who have not often had occasion to lament how little could be done, in various diseases, by the utmost resources of art. It however seems to be highly advanta geous to professional improvement, that those who enter upon the practice of medicine, should have sanguine ideas of its efficacy. They are, by this means, led to observe the effects of a great number of medicines, and thus become accurate ly acquainted with their respective me rits, in the only way by which this know ledge can be completely obtained.

Dr. Heberden seems to have placed