contagious principle latent within the country, to propagate the disease, whenever such circumstances shall favour its action, and call it forth, without having recourse to the annual generation of fresh matter, or virus, as necessary to account for the re appearance of disease at each plague season.

May it be imagined that this agent resides in the atmosphere? But whether this peculiar constitution of the air consists in a superabundance, or in a diminution of the ordinary proportion of oxygene. in the atmosphere, or in the combination of some peculiar gas, or gasses, diffused in it; or whether the whole may be brought about by variations of temperature only, connected with moisture or dryness of the air, I must confess my inability to determine. Time alone may unfold this mystery. Indeed, a series of eudiometrical and other observations, continued for several years, at the different places in the country, might possibly throw some light upon the subject.

I am much disappointed to find that so little light has been thrown on plague by the results of the French practitioners in Egypt.

should have been happy if, after several years residence in a pestiferous country, where I constantly searched for useful information, my labours had been rewarded in the discovery of an improved, or more successful treatment of plague. No such happiness has attended me; and as my own experience is, I think, too limited to presume to lay down a plan of cure, I must in preference content myself in the relation of the experiments and practice of others, which came to my knowledge while in the country.

For my own part, a prompt and early use of remedies appears to me of the utmost importance: indeed, the interval between the seizure and death is frequently so very short, that the trial for remedies is very limited. I treated the several cases which fell under my care, as far as it was practicable, in the manner adopted in fevers of the malignant kind, with this difference, that in the second case I conjoined the trial of oily frictions. Although I cannot venture to speak generally of the treatment of this disease, yet I would hazard an opinion, that where proper establishments are formed for the reception of pestiferous patients, with proper attendants, a cautious and fair trial of mercury and the oxygenated remedies would merit

attention.

The practice of a Venetian doctor, who lately died in Cairo, and who was much celebrated for his professional skill and prognosis in plague, was, hrst to bleed, but never after the expiration of thirty six hours from attack. He administered large doses of camphor, and gave the patient a lump of it to hold constantly in the hand He attended much to diet; gave rice water, chicken broth, boiled cucumbers, lettuces, &c and, as a cordial, occasional small quantities of a diluted spirit but always forLade wine. He entertained the opinion that a certain disposition or susceptibility in the patient was necessary to the reception of the discase.

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:

A free perspiration has been generally found useful; copious perspirations are the sensible effects of the oily frictions, and are excited without distress or inconvenience to the suffering sick.

'Our

Our interpreter, who was seized at El-Arish with plague before the Vizier's army arrived there, was seen and treated by a Turkish doctor, who had great confidence in a strong spirit which is distilled with aniseeds, and is in the country called rackey. He administered this spirit repeatedly and liberally in the day time to his patient; whose symptoms of plague were accompanied by a large carbuncle formed in the side, and a bubo in the axilla. As soon as I saw him, I recommended the bark liberally to him, and cataplasms to be applied to the sore in the side, which was very extensive from the repeated sloughings that had occurred since the opening of the carbuncle. One of the eyes was severely inflamed, and it was long before he recovered his perfect intellects as well as his sight.

The partial and unsteady manner in which plague patients appeared to be treated among the Turks, I confess afforded but little chance of success in the removal of the disease.

Bleeding, as a remedy in plague, has been the subject of much dispute among celebrated physicians. While at Jaffa, it was the practice of the Venetian doctors to make use of blood-letting. Many patients died suddenly after the operation: the deaths appeared has tened by the evacuation of blood.“

The indiscriminate employ of bleeding may be of serious conse quences in weakening those natural powers of the system which might be usefully exerted to the subduction of disease.

I used the oily frictions in the manner recommended and adopted by Mr. Baldwin, late English consul at Alexandria.

A typhus patient evidently derived great benefit from the use of the oily frictions. The result of my observations and practice with the oil induces me to hope it will be found useful as a preventive. I repeatedly recommended the frictions with oil to the Turks, but all to no purpose. While their prejudices continue, it will be in vain to attempt reform, or to annihilate the disease from among them. At Smyrna they continue to use the oil in plague, and it is said that this mode of treatment is more efficacious than any other. The merchants, however, from whom I collected this account, observe, that the proportional success with the oil is not every year the same. Sometimes the half and more of the infected are saved, at other times not more than a fifth or sixth.'

The paper on Ophthalmy contains many judicious remarks: for which, considering the length of this article, we must refer to the work itself.

This volume is decorated by handsome coloured portraits, exhibiting the costume of the East, (among which is one of the Sultan himself,) views of places, a frontispiece representing the march of the Ottoman Army across the Desert, various maps, and a fac-simile of a Turkish Firman or Passport.

On the whole, the public must feel themselves much obliged to Dr. W. for making them partakers in a gratification which was originally intended only for the circle of his particular friends.

ART.

Mo-y

By the Res.

ART. II. Daphnis and Chloe, a Pastoral Novel, now first selectly Translated into English from the original Greek of Longus. 12mo. pp. 265. 48. Boards. Vernor and Hood.

C.V. Le Grice THE anonymous author of this version of Longus has done great justice to the elegant original, not only in what he has translated, but in what he has omitted. Longus was a writer of a genius truly pastoral; and both the terseness of his style and the charming simplicity of the rural life, which he describes, contribute to delight the reader :--but it must be lamented that this author shares the general character of the erotici scriptores of the first centuries of our æra, whether Greek or Latin, in the unchaste freedoms and familiarities of the manners which they depict. It would be well if the same censure did not attach to too many writers of this kind in later times, whether in our own country or on the continent. The present translator has judiciously omitted whatever might be thought to sully the beauty of this pastoral tale; and, on comparing it with the original, we have great reason for commending his industry and his talents. Although he does not render the Greek, "verbum verbo fidus," yet, which is much more to be desired, he generally preserves the sense and spirit of the author; and in some respects, we think that he has done this very happily; as in the expression borrowed from Bloomfield's Farmer's Boy, "wily antics" of the flocks, for " σκιρτήματα ποιμνίων. "* We extract the passage, as a specimen of the merits of the translation, and as it may convey an idea of the simplicity and elegance of Longus:

It was the beginning of spring. -Through the woods, the mea. dows, and the mountains, the flowers were shooting forth amid the buzzing murmurs of the bee, the song of birds, and the "wily antics" of the sheep.-The sheep were skipping on the mountains, the bees flew buzzing through the meadows, and the songs of the birds resounded through the bushes.-The tender and susceptible minds of Daphnis and the young shepherdess were inspired with the gaiety of the season: they felt alive to every impression and imitated in sportive sympathy whatever they saw or heard. Hearing the carol of the birds, they sung: seeing the playful skipping of the lambs, they danced and in imitation of the bees they gathered flowers; some of which they placed carelessly in their bosoms, and others they wove into chaplets and carried them as offerings to the Nymphs.

They tended their flocks and herds together, and all their occupations were in common to each other. Daphnis frequently col lected the sheep, that had strayed, and when a goat had ventured too boldly near a precipice Chloe drove it away. Sometimes one

• Some objectionable phrases, however, have escaped correction; such as the Dolphin lay right in his path,' p. 165.

took

took the entire management of the pastoral concerns, while the other was engaged in some amusement.

The usual sports of youth were their common diversion, Chloe neglected her flock to range about in search of flowers, whose stalks she twisted into traps for butterflies; while Daphnis played sweetly from morn till eve upon his Pan's pipe, which he had formed of reeds by perforating the smooth part between the joints, and by glueing them together with soft wax. They made a common banquet of the milk, wine, and food which they brought from home as provision for the day; and you might sooner see one part of the flock divided from the other than Daphnis separate from Chloe.'

Another passage will display some of the accomplishments of Dat hnis:

On the fourth day Dion and Clearista arrived. Their train of male and female servants, and the pack horses, which carried their baggage, occasioned no inconsiderable noise and confusion. The hair of Dion was half grey, but he was tall and handsome; and in strength few young men were able to excel him. In riches he had not many equals, in virtues he had none. On the first day of his arrival he sacrificed to the deities of the place, to Ceres, to Bacchus, to Pan, and to the Nymphs, and poured out one common libation to them all. The next day he amused himself with viewing the ploughs at work in the fields, the vines, whose thick clusters remained ungathered, and the garden in high beauty. Astylus took the blame about the flowers on himself, so that his father upon the whole was highly delighted, praised Lamon exceedingly, and promised to give him his freedom. After viewing the farm he went to see the herds, and their young herdsman.

Chloe filed to the woods: she was ashamed to appear before so many strangers, and was terrified at so large a company. Daphnis stood still: a shaggy goat skin served hini for a coat, a new-made script was suspended on his shoulder, in one hand he held a cheese, that had just been pressed, and in the other a sucking kid. If ever Apollo tended the herds of Laomedon; such as Apollo must then have been, Daphnis was now. He never opened his lips, but crimsoned with blushes bowed to the ground, and presented his offerings. "This, Sir, (said Lamon) is the young man who has taken care of your goats. Fifty she goats, and two he goats were the number, which I received from you: this youth has increased the former to an hundred, and the latter to ten. Observe how whole their horns are, and how fat and sleek their bodies appear. He has made them quite musical;-for all their actions are regulated by the pipe."

Clearista, who was present, and heard what was said, expressed a wish to see a specimen of what he asserted, and desired Daphnis to pipe to his goats in his usual manner, promising him for his pains a coat and waistcoat, and a new pair of sandals. Daphnis desired the company to sit round, and placed them so as to form a little theatre; he then stood under the shade of a beech tree, took his pipe from his scrip, and just breathed into the recds. The goats Rev. JUNE, 1804. hearing

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hearing the sound stood still, and lifted up their heads.-Now he played the tune, that usually soothes them while they feed: they all put down their heads, and began to nibble the grass. Now he blew some notes of a soft and sweeter tone :-all his herd at once laid down. He suddenly changed to a sharper key, and they ran off to the wood, as if a wolf was in sight.-After a short interval he played the melody, that bids them return :-they darted from their covert, ran to his feet, and skipped around him.-Few domestic servants obey their master so well-Clearista promised to reward the beautiful and musical goat-herd: all the company were surprized at his skill, but she was particularly astonished. The party now returned to the cottage, sat down to dinner, and sent Daphnis part of what was on the table.

Daphnis invited Chloe to partake, and was delighted with the viands, that had been prepared by a city cook. The flattering prospect, which now opened to him, of success in his marriage suit put him in high spirits; and it was impossible to see a finer youth, than he now appeared. His air and mien were those of a freeman rather than a slave. "His hyacinthine locks in clusters parted," and his eyes shone under his eyebrows like gems set in gold. His face was suffused with the red blush of health, and his mouth displayed teeth as white as ivory. If Venus loved Anchises, well might G.2 Chloe love Daphnis.'

The present editor makes no mention of former English versions of this author, neither that of Craigs in the middle of the last century, nor that of George Thornley in the year 1657. As we have not their performances at hand, we are not able to speak of the comparative merits of the three translators but it is sufficient that we have compared the present with the Greek, and find it the work of a scholar and a man of taste. Since Longus abounds in imitations of the antients, this version might have been set forth with much more of pomp and the garb of learning: but the modesty of the editor appears to have induced him to prefer the humble form of a little novel. Who Longus was, and whether the 5th century be the period justly assigned to him, are very uncertain points. We only know that the manuscript is one of the many which took refuge at Florence, when the capital of the East was surrendered to Mohammed the 2d in 1453. The critical reader will perhaps be struck with the resemblance between Gesner's pastoral romance of Daphnis, and the pastoral of Longus; and he will probably be led to inquire whether Gesner has not borrowed more from this source, which he conceals, than from the Idyllia of Theocritus, which he professes to have imitated.

The translator proposes, if this work should be favourably received, (and we doubt not that it will be so,) to give a version of the Ethiopics of Heliodorus. When freed from certain vicious blandishments, which the discrimination of this