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mit. The Linnean terms are rendered as nearly as possible to the idiom of the English language, and a general explanatory dictionary of such as are peculiarly appropriate to the science, is affixed to the last volume. For the conveniency of such as wish to become ac quainted with the productions of their own country, the different subjects of natural history hitherto found in Great Britain are pointed out by an asterisk. In the ornithological department, I have been chiefly assisted by the works of Dr. LATHAM; in entomology, by the last edition of the System of FABRICIUS; in that of vegetables, by the Species Plantarum of the learned and diligent WILLDENOW; and in all by the accurate Dr. SHAW, in his elegant and beautiful publication, the Naturalist's Miscellany.

"The traveller who has leisure and inclination to be acquainted with this charming science, who may find it necessary to determine what animals are fit for food, and what are poisonous, or who may wish to add whatever new materials may occur to him; the collector of such subjects as are valuable either for their beauty or their rarity, and who may wish to arrange his cabinet according to the laws of nature and science; and the retired and private individual, who may desire to fill his vacant hours with a natural knowledge of the various objects around him, must, except they be well acquainted with the Latin language, and the technical terms peculiar to the science, be for ever ignorant of the means by which this information may be best obtained. Had natural history been more scientifically known, MILTON would not have described the whale as a scaly animal, nor the snake as having a hairy mane; nor would the arms of many of our nobility have been supported by the representations of compound animals, existing only in the imagination of fanciful dreamers. The advancement of agriculture, and most of our arts and manufactures, must depend in no small measure upon our comparative knowledge of natural history, particularly chemistry and botany; and these will questionless become enlarged as this science is more studied and more known. The editor therefore hopes, that, in delivering this work in the English language, he is adding something to the stock of innocent amusement, and something to general utility."

Four volumes of this translation are dedicated to the animal' kingdom; the first volume includes the mammalia, birds, amphibia, and fishes, occupying about 950 pages; the second and third are devoted to insects; and the fourth to worms. The -fifth and sixth volumes embrace the vegetable kingdom, and the seventh gives an account of the minerals, with a vocabulary of terms, and a life of Linnè. We shall notice these volumes in the respective order of their subjects, in which it will appear that the translator has executed this arduous task with considerable ability and fidelity; that the important additions which he has made from the writings of later naturalists have rendered his translation almost a new work; and that he has laid before the English reader such a general system of nature

as all who either pretend to, or wish for, an extensive knowledge of the natural sciences, should attentively peruse; in a word, that his translation of, and additions to, the works of the illustrious Swede, deserve a place in the library of every well educated person, whether male or female.

[To be continued.]

By

Essays on the Morbid Anatomy of the Human Eye. JAMES WARDROP, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Societies, and one of the Surgeons of the Public Dispensary of Edinburgh. Ilustrated by Plates. Pp. 160, large 8vo. 11 Is. Constable, Edinburgh; Murray, London. 1808.

THE object of these Essays is to describe the various morbid alterations in the structure of the human eye, and to illustrate by engraving those which are most remarkable.

It would seem that the author has been led to this undertaking from no former attempt having been made in this country to treat of the pathology of the human eye; and though Richter, of Gottingen, has perhaps given the best description of these diseases, and laid down the most judicious practical rules that have yet been suggested---though Beer of Vienna has contributed many useful hints--though Voigtel and Sybel have collected a great store of facts connected with the morbid anatomy of the eye--though Conradi, Scarpa, and others, have likewise enlarged our knowledge of the treatment of the diseases of this organ--vet none of these authors have delineated the morbid changes of structure which they have described. A few drawings only are to be found in the works of Beer and Scarpa, and in some periodical publications. The author is of opinion, therefore, that the importance of a work, the object of which is to supply these defects, is sufficiently obvious.

In

Some general observations form its commencement. these observations the author explains the purport and tendency of the classification which he means to adopt, an abstract of which we shall lay before our readers.

"Most of the organs of our body are made up of a variety of elementary parts, crtextures, each of which, in whatever situation it is found, afords uniformly the same physical properties. These are the elementary parts, winch, by the diversity of their combinations, produce all the modifications of structure and functions which the different organs of animals exhibit. The study of these elementary parts, independent of the organs which they concur to form, is the object of general anatomy.

"This method of considering organized bodies is not an unnatural abstraction, nor a speculative refinement. It arises from the essential nature of their constitution, and it accords with every phenomenon with which we are acquainted. We may trace it in the observations of many of the older anatomists; and it may be considered as the basis of some of the most ingenious physiological theories of the late celebrated Mr. John Hunter. Although, therefore, at first sight, it may have the appearance of being arbitrary and artificial, it is nevertheless, I am persuaded, founded on the most approved principles of philosophical investigation. A knowledge of the qualities of the different parts of which our organs are composed must afford the surest means of acquiring information concerning the functions of these organs, and of becoming acquainted with the changes which they undergo in disease. On these principles Bichât has founded his anatomical system. To numberless experiments upon living an mals, he added all the information which could be acquired by dissection. He employed chemical re-agents to supply the deficiencies of the scalpel, and examined with minuteness all the varieties of morbid structure. By these means he endeavoured to fix the characters of the elementary textures, and then proceeded to investigate their combinations, as they are naturally presented to us in the different organs.

"Of these textures, he has enumerated twenty-one, all of which he has shewn to be differently organized; and hence he proves the dissimilarity of their properties, both in health and in disease. This is the ground-work of the whole fabric, and to it we must ultimately recur in every attempt, to account either for the natural or morbid appearances which are to be met with among organized beings."

On these principles our author divides the diseases of the eye, which he describes into two great classes. The first con- * tains an account of the morbid changes of each separate structure which enters into the composition of that organ; and the second, an account of those diseases which have a specific character, and have symptoms peculiar to themselves in whatever structure they appear, or which, when they attack the eye, affect a greater or less number of its different parts at the same time.

Under the first class are comprehended the diseases of the Cornea, Iris, Aqueous, Vitreous, and Crystalline humours; Optic Nerve, and Retina Choroid coat; Sclerotic coat; Conjunctiva, and Cellular membrane; Tarsi and Palpebræ, Lachrymal gland and Caruncle.

Under the second class are included Rheumatism, Cancer, Scrofula, Lues Venerea, Exanthemata, Ophthalmia, &c.

These subjects occupy fourteen chapters, the first of which contains general remarks on the Cornea; shewing that its structure neither resembles the nails, as has been conceived, nor that it is a mere continuation of the sclerotic coat, but a

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membrane sui generis; that its external surface is a continuation of the tunica conjunctiva, a mucous membrane; that its internal surface is lined by a serous membrane; that this analogy in the two surfaces of the cornea to mucous and serous membranes which is observed in the sound eye, is also remarked in the morbid changes of this organ, some of the diseases to which the cornea is liable being the same with those which occur in membranes of the serous and mucous texturés in all other parts of the body.

The second chapter treats of the inflammation of the cornea; first, as affecting the conjunctiva which covers the cornea externally; secondly, as being confined to the proper substance of the cornea; and, thirdly, as affecting the membrane which lines its internal surface. We quote the following passage as containing matter worthy of consideration in the treatment of this inflammation.

"If an attempt be made to divide the enlarged yessels as they pass over the cornea (a practice recommended in the treatment of the disease), they are found to lie deep, and they cannot be so easily raised from the cornea or sclerotic coat with the forceps, or elevated by a pointed instrument, as may be done in the natural state of these parts. In order to complete the division of one of these vessels, it becomes necessary to remove a considerable portion of the substance of the cornea, or sclerotic coat. Soon after such an operation has been performed, lymph is effused on the surface of the wound; and it often happens that vessels shoot through this lymph, forming a medium of communication between the divided extremities; so that, after the effects of the operation seem to have abated, the vessel remains in one continued trunk, and appears as if no division had been made. In other cases, the minute ramifications of the divided vessel which remain anastomose on the cornea, so that red blood continues to be circulated through the trunk." P. 18, 19.

The third chapter is employed in considering the pterygium, a term used to denote all those morbid changes in which that portion of the conjunctiva covering any part of the cornea or sclerotic coat becomes thickened, vascular, and opaque.

In the fourth chapter we have a description of Fleshy Excrescences of the Cornea. Of these there are two very distinct kinds one of them appears at birth, or soon after it, and resembles the nævi materni so frequent on the skin of various parts of the body. The second species has a greater analogy to the fungi which grow from mucous substances, and they arise commonly from previous ulceration. It is remarkable that these excrescences sometimes afford growth to a certain number of hairs. "Such tumours," it is said, “ ble those spots covered with hairs which are so frequent in greatly resem-.

different parts of the surface of the body, particularly the face."

An account of pustules of the cornea occupies the fifth chapter. These pustules or small tumours, however, are formed on the sclerotic coat as well as on the cornea; but they occur most frequently near the junction of these membranes. When the contents of a pustule are artificially discharged, all the accompanying inflammatory symptoms are much increased. The author thinks it highly probable that the pustules of the cornea and white of the eye very much resemble the small pustules, or aphthæ, as they are called, which are so frequently observed in the cavity of the mouth, on the tongue, lips, and on the internal surface of the alimentary canal. For,

"Although these aphtha may be perhaps considered as a morbid change of the mucous membranes, yet the phenomena attending the disease are very different from those which are observed in the common inflammation of a mucous surface. From the swelling which takes place, and from the tendency of this swelling to suppuration, there appears to me to be a striking analogy between this in-. flammation and inflammation in the cellular membrane in other parts of the body, or the common phlegmon: it is therefore by no means improbable that pustules are formed in the cellular texture which enters into the composition, or which lies immediately underneath the conjunctiva which covers the eye-ball." P. 43.

In illustration of this analogy, some remarks of Professor Himly, of Brunswick, are adduced. Cold is considered as the exciting cause of this affection. In Edinburgh, where it is not a very frequent complaint, the author has generally observed it in the winter months; and during the winter of 1804, he saw a great number of patients with this disease in the clinical school of Dr. Beer, at Vienna, for diseases of the eyes; and in all of them it was accompanied with such a degree of fever, as to require attention almost solely to the general treatment. He has in several cases been able to trace its origin to the sudden change from a very warm to a cold atmosphere. At one of the theatres of Vienna, where a very cold stream of air passed immediately behind the orchestra, it was observed that those people who were placed near it were often affected with this complaint.

The sixth chapter treats of the Abscess of the Cornea and Anterior Chamber. In the former case the matter is collected between the lamella of the cornea, and the disease is termed unguis or onyx; in the latter it is lodged in the anterior chamber along with the aqueous humour, and gets the name of hypopion, or empyesis oculi. When the matter is lodged in the anterior chamber of the eye, the author concludes that it sometimes

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