the pupil was very little dilated, if any thing more, than usual, and the iris feemed to have its power of action not at all imen paired.

The left eye was now increased to a prodigious fize, and, in the right, the pupil was more dilated, and the disease much more apparent; he had complained, for a fortnight before this period, of great pain in her left eye, which was now be come very violent; and the other eye was a good deal affected by it, fo that an inflammation was already begun in it.

It now appeared to me highly neceffary that fomething fhould be immediately attempted, to take off the diftenfion of the coats of the eye, which I fupposed to be the cause of her pain, and seemed to threaten the fudden destruction of both. I therefore defired fome furgeon of eminence might be called in. Mr. Hunter was again confulted, who was of opinion with myself, that the diftenfion was owing to a quantity of the humors continuing still to be fecreted, and that the only method which could be taken to give relief, and preferve the right eye, was the emptying of the left: we therefore agreed to perform the operation, as in extracting the cataract. Accordingly, that. fame afternoon, while Mr. Hunter was prefent, I paffed the needle, as in the common way, from behind the cornea to the oppofite fide I found, in doing this, the refiftance to the inftrument very confiderable, and that the coats of the eye were greatly thickened; a very small drop of water followed this incifion. I then directed the point of the needle within the pu pil, to wound the capfula of the cryftalline humor, with an intent, after extracting that, by preffure, to force out the vitreous ; but no humor following this attempt, I examined with a probe, and found it to pass on into the posterior chamber, and that, inftead of the humors, the whole cavity was filled with a fleshy fubftance.This discovery immediately pointed out to us our error, and the true state of the cafe, viz.

&

That it was of a cancerous nature; a circumftance which, as the child enjoyed, in other respects, the most perfect health, and as no gland, or any other part of her body, exhibited the leaft mark of disease, had not, by any one before, been in the leaft fufpected. Nothing in this fituation feemed now left to be recommended, but the intire extirpation of the difeafed part; though even this, from the appearance in the other eye, promised no great fuccefs: however, we represented it to the parents as the only chance remaining. Mr. Cæfar Hawkins was the next day called in, who likewife recommended the operation, and was prefent while Mr. Hunter performed, it;; 4 which, as feveral difeafed parts were found in the adipofe membrane, at the bottom and fides of the orbit, was rendered

. long and tedious: every thing, however, that had the leaft fufpicious feel, was removed. On diffecting the eye, we found. not the leaft remains of the humors, nor any of the e coats D but the fclerotica, which was filled in every part, except in the anterior chamber, with abfteatomatous kind of fubftance, and loofe fpungy flesh, whofe fibres had no particular direction; there was likewife a confiderable quantity of calcareous earth lodged in different parts of it.'

a

The child recovered of the operation, and was put under a courfe of the cicuta, which she used till near the time of her death. When the head was opened, the optic nerve of the right eye feemed perfectly found; and the eye-ball, when cleared of the furrounding parts, had quite the common appearance. Mr. Hunter took off the upper part of the sclerotica, choroides, and retina, with as much of the vitreous humor as was contained in this fection, and, by that means, expofed the cavity of the eye.

We found the coats and retina perfectly found, and the cryftalline humor, in its place, firm and tranfparent; but in the place of part of the vitreous humor, was a whitish curdly fubftance, which lay in the pofterior and outer part of the cavity, and had pushed the vitreous, that remained, to the an. terior and inner part of it. Whether this whitish curdly fubftance had been formed on the outfide of the vitreous humor, and had pushed it to the inside, or whether this fubftance was produced in the humor itself, which was wafted in proportion, as that matter was formed, is not very easily determined; but the latter feems moft probable; for it appeared as if the vitreous humor was continued into this fubftance, or, as it were, entangled in it. This fubftance was as much detached from the retina, as the vitreous is in common.'

In the fucceeding number are related two cafes of incontinency of urine, Cured by the application of a blister to the os facrum, by Dr. Fothergill, of Northampton. The first of these cases was attended with a diabetes, which was cured by the daily use of aftringents, rhubarb, and antimonial fudorifics.

The fixteenth article exhibits an account of feveral hydatides discharged with the urine, by a gentleman; communicated by Dr. Ruffel. The doctor informs us, that the number of hyda* tides voided cannot be ascertained, but that he has about forty of them of different fizes, from that of a large pigeon's egg to that of a pin's head; and that thofe of a large fize were all 20 burft before they paffed, and came away empty; but the En finaller were full of a liquid, which was never quite limpid, but elin fome more opaque than in others.

[To be continued in our next.]

II. Re

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fisl sdr bed ledt asvewon 1593 other bus gnol I Remains of Japhet being Historical Enquiries into the Affinity, and Origin of the European Languagess By James Parfons, M. D. Member of the College of Phyficians, and Fellow of the Royal and Antiquary Societies of London. 4to. Protetto Davisas velociting on big as Kadugi stool HIS performance is a recent and ftriking inftance show difficult it is for a man engaged in a favourite study to confine his inveftigations to the proper points of truth and credibility, without extending them to fiction and uncertainty. Had Dr. Parfons contented himself with fhewing, from the fimilarity of languages and etymologies, the probability (we may even fay certainty) that the Celtic was a radical language, and that it branched itfelf out through the greatest part of Europe, and among fome of the Afiatic nations, his attempt might have proved ufeful to the republic of letters, and done credit to his own industry and learning-But his researches are unbounded: they carry him into a familiar acquaintance with Shem, Ham, and Japhet, their ancestors, their defcendants, and connections; and he talks of them as minutely and precifely, as if he had been their family-phyfician. No part of his fyftem admits of doubt, diffidence, or difficulty; and our author treats of every occurrence as if he had made extracts from antediluvian gazettes.

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The fubject of Dr. Parfons's enquiries, however, is far from, being untouched; and we have frequently remarked, that it; has been the beft difcuffed by perfons who were the least qualified for other branches of literature. So far back as the reign of king William, one Wafer, a voyager, published his travels,. in which he makes the Scotch Highlanders and the Americans of Darien, among whom he refided, fpeak almoft the fame language. This account was adopted by Mr. Malcolm, a clergyman, the most uninformed in other refpects of any that perhaps. ever mounted a pulpit, who met with national encouragement for his etymological difcoveries, and published a fett of papers, entitled, "An Effay on the Antiquities of Great Britain and Ireland; wherein they are placed in a clearer light than hitherto. Defigned as an introduction to a larger work, efpecially an attempt to fhew an affinity betwixt the languages, &c. of the ancient Britons, and the Americans of the fifthmus of Darien. In answer to an objection against revealed reWe seratab to mada to ligion. Among many other notable difcoveries which Mr. Malcolm makes in this publication, he proves, that the inhabitants of ind China and this ple of St. Kilda, a weftern ifland of Scotland, spoke the fame language. In fhort,' there is no end to reveries

of

of this kind: we fhall therefore proceed to review the work bes fore us.

Dr. Parfons having a ftrong impulfe for the ftudy of lan guages, happened to spend several years of his life in Ireland, where he attained fuch a knowledge in the very antient tongue of that country, as enabled him to tranflate fome of their ma nuscripts, and to become inftructed in fome of their gram-s matical inftitutes. He next applied himself to study the Welsh language, and found a furprifing affinity between that and the Irish. Upon being fent abroad to ftudy the medicinal art, he became acquainted with young gentlemen from moft parts of Europe, and could discover the roots of most of their expreffions in the Irish or Welth. He then concluded thefe languages to be the originals of Europe; and becoming a champion for both countries, he refolved to rescue them (Ireland especially) from the illiberal abuse they had met with from fuch writers as Giraldus Cambrenfis, Cox, Bolandns, and Innes, who deny that the Irish had the use of letters before": their converfion by St. Patrick. With great regret (fays he) I must take further notice, that it is too much the difpofition of fome among us, to afperfe, and fet at nought, the natives of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales; I mean those who speak the dialects of the Japhetan language to this day, which are the Gomerian and Magogian, or Scotish languages; and yet these are the only unmixed remains of the children of Japhet, upon the globe; and the king of Great Britain, the only monarch upon earth who rules the remains of that original people, and who is himself defcended from a moft ancient race of Scythian kings, the offspring of that patriarch.'

We shall leave the reader to his own reflections upon this paffage, and purfue the doctor, who thinks himself happy in having fufficient materials wherewith to do the Irish ample justice, and to open several obfcure paffages concerning them. After many pompous encomiums upon the study and acquire ment of languages, our author tells us, that he had traced them to their fource, and had discovered that which was previous to the Greek tongue all over Afia Minor, Scythia, and Greece.

We have, in a preceding Number of this work,* (published before the doctor's book appeared) delivered our sentiments on this fubject, which, in fome measure, coincide with what he here advances. We can, however, go no farther, nor join with him in calling this univerfal tongue the Japhetan, the Pen lafgian, the Gomerian, and the Magogian, or Scythian lan

See page 250 of this volume.

guage,

guage, because, admitting all his affertions to be true, they muft at beft besonly conjectures; and we think the fubject of rio importance to learning. Our author acknowledges the affiftances he received from the authors of the Univerfal Hiftory and other writers; from whom he, notwithstanding, fometimes differs, for this very extraordinary reafon, viz. because of the connexions he has difcovered between the ancient Iith records and holy writ, together with the Greek hiftorians. The doctor. proceeds to give his opinion of the Irish records. As the moft ancient parts of them (fays he) were delivered in poetry, their facts are, in many places, blended with fable; which, in fome measure, may have leffened the confidence they very juftly claim from impartial readers; but nothing is more eafy than to diftingush the hiftorical facts from the ornaments they are drefled with. It was the noble manner of the ancient Gomerian and Scythian poets, before Homer was born, or the language he is supposed to have wrote in, was formed; and, indeed, there is great reafon, in the fequel, to believe he was no stranger, either to their language, or poetry; for his manner of writing carries with it the strongest resemblance of theirs : and it is as certain, the Trojans were of the Scythian race; and the auxiliaries of Troy, confeffedly Scythian princes, feveral of whom Homer enumerates."

We have, in our laft Number, touched upon the affinity. which fubfifts between the Phoenician and the Welsh patronymics; but we can by no means place the authority of the Irish fileads, or philids (as the doctor calls them) on the fame footing with that of the Greek history; neither can we think with this author, that the facred writings are a noble comment upon the Irish and Gomerian hiftories.

I

One of the pillars of Dr. Párfons's work is founded on an opinion which he labours to establish, contrary to that of many other great authors, (particularly thofe of the Universal History, and we think the exprefs words of Mofes likewife) that the confufion and difperfion at the building of Babel did not affect any of the iffue of Japhet or Shem, but was the fate of the defcendents of Ham, meaning Nimrod's people, only. Thus this. writer has the glory of refcuing an unadulterated tongue from pollution and barbarity, and bringing to light, for aught we know, the identical language which Adam and Eve spoke in Paradife.

3 • Another step (fays the doctor) which I thought neceffary towards obtaining the defited end, was to examine by what names fome of the defcendants of his fons were called by the

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