1756. HALLER'S infenfible Parts of the Body. fitting in a difconfolate manner over a To the AUTHOR of the LONDON SIR, DR. Whytt, of whofe worth the world B 5 3. The periosteum, when wounded. torn or burnt, caufed no pain to the animals. 4. He allows feeling to the teeth, but not to the other bones, because they are not furnished with nerves, and because he has feen the skull trepanned, without giving pain, in perfons who were poffeffed of all their fenfes. 5. He denies feeling to the marrow, not from any experiments of his own on living animals, but because it is a fatty fubftance, and deftitute of nerves. 6. When the dura mater was cut or lacerated, or burnt with oil of vitriol, fpirit of nitre, and butyrum antimonii, the animal feemed to have no feeling of the injury. 7. When the pia mater was burnt, by touching it with butyrum antimonii, the animals neither cried, nor were they convulfed; but, as foon as the brain itfelf was wounded, the body of the animal was twifted and distorted with vioClent convulfions. is thoroughly convinced, has in a late physiological effay, refuted certain conclufions of Dr. Haller, in his treatife D De partibus corporis bumani fenfibilibus et irritabilibus. Which conclufions are drawn from many new and curious experiments; and, as the doctor fays, had they been just would have produced considerable changes both in the theory and practice of the medical art. Dr. Haller, in treating of the fenfibility of the feveral parts of the human body, reckons, among the infenfible parts, the tendons, aponeurofes, ligaments, capfulæ of the articulations, periofteum, bones, marrow, dura and pia mater, pleura, peritonæum, pericardium, mediaftinum, and cornea. 1. He tells us, that living animals, whofe tendons were cut, burnt, pricked, or torn, shewed no figns of uneasiness; and, when a little part of the tendo achillis was left entire, they walked without any feeming pain. 2. When the ligaments and capfulæ of the articulations were pricked with a needle, (craped with a knife, or had oil of vitriol or butyrum antimonii applied to them, the animals fhewed no fenfe of pain. The wounds of thefe parts and of the tendons were followed with no bad fymptoms, and were cured without any other remedy than the faliva of the animal, and fometimes without this. E F G 8. The peritoneum, pleura, and pericardium, when laid bare and cut, or otherwife irritated, produced no change in the animal. 9. He denies feeling to the mediastinum, not upon the authority of any experiments, but because, like the pleura, it is a membrane, and deftitute of nerves. 10. He reckons the cornea infenfible, because its nerves cannot be demonstrated, and it is often pierced with a needle without giving pain. Befides the infenfible parts above mentioned, there are others, which, according to Dr. Haller, have either no fenfe of feeling, or a very obfcure one; and thefe are the arteries, veins, glands, and viccera, viz. the lungs, liver, fpleen, and kidneys, which, when pricked, cut, or otherwife irritated, fhewed nothing like feeling. The conclufions which our author draws from the above experiments, may be reduced to the three following. First, That the tendons, ligaments, capfulæ of the joints, dura mater, pleura, and other membranes, are quite infenfible. Secondly, From the infenfibility of thefe parts, and the difficulty of tracing, by diffection, any nerves to them, he concludes that they have none, and that this is the reafon why they are deftitute of feeling. Thirdly, He thinks it follows, that thofe parts which, from his experiments, he concludes to be infenfible, have been unjustly accused by phyficians, as the feat of many painful difeafes; particularly, that the pain, fwelling, and inflamma DERBYSHIRE QUACKS, tion, which have often followed venæ- [To be continued in our next.] Correfpondent, at Bakewell in Der A by hire, has favoured us with a narrative of the various quacks in that County, where it seems they abound, particularly in that part wherein he dwells, called the High-Peak-Hundred, a country perhaps as remarkable for the robustness and healthfulness of its inhabitants, as any country in Europe; and yet, as our correfpondent Lays, never was any country fo peftered with lad-midwives, pifs-prophets, and quack curates, as this is. "The pifs-prophets, fays he, undertake forad. without feeing the perfon, upon looking at their urine, to tell what the difeafe is, how long the patient has been ill, whether they shall recover or not, what fex they are of, and what religion they profefs: Nay, I myself not long ago (out of wantonnels) being in perfect health, fent E my urine in a phial to one of the most celebrated of them, and charged the mesfenger, to whom I difclofed the fecret, that from the moment he left me, until he faw me again, he should not open his mouth for any purpofe in life, except to eat, drink, or breath. Armed thus against any impofture he went, and I believe acted the dumb man as well as if he had been feven years a prifoner in Turkey, and after giving the doctor the urine, and the ufual fee, he was defired to fit down until it was his turn, for I think he told me that he counted 17 who were come on the fame errand before him. He obferved they were called one by one in their turns into Jan, houfe, began to ask feveral ambiguous queftions; fuch as, how far he was come that morning? Were not the roads very dirty? And laft of all, whofe water had he brought, and what did they ail? Were they poor and fo forth. The unwary meffenger readily answered every queftion afked him, whilst the falle prophet heard every word that was fpoke, by the use of a hole in the wainscoat, out of which my friend efpyed a cork to appear and difappear, as every fool entered or left the room. When the doctor was well informed of what he wanted to know, my friend-heard him privately withdraw down a pair of back stairs into another apart. ment, and ringing a small bell the perfon then waiting was informed by a fervant that his water was caft, (or fufficiently fubfided) upon which he waited on the doctor in his own room, where looking more bewitched than infpired, he told the poor gaping meffenger every circum ftance of the diforder without asking a question, and withal told him, that had he neglected coming but two hours longer the perfon would have been a dead man. The fellow amazed at the oracle's pro found skill in urinal-hydroftaticks came immediately and declared this amongst them all to their no little furprise. When every one had had his turn, and was well deceived, (having each payed three or Dfour fhillings for phyfick no better than the fweepings of an apothecary's fhop) my friend was beckoned, who upon entering the room was attacked by the fervant maid, faying to him, Well, and how far are you come this wet morning? What are you come for? your wife or fome neighbour? The doctor will foon fet them at rights if they be life-fhown, as The expreffed it. But he making no an fwer to any thing the faid, he called her miftrefs, who getting no more answer than the maid had done, faid, Certainly the fellow must be either dumb, deaf, or filly, or elfe all three; what do fuch creatures as thefe do coming on fuch errands? But hold, fays the (ftopping 'fhort) perhaps thefe are the complaints for which he comes to be cured; and if he has money, why not? For I have known the doctor cure a great many incurables. If my friend perfonated the dumb man he did not perfonate the blind man, for he kept a fteady eye upon the motion of the cork. The doctor hearing all this, and F another room, which feemed to be the G having obferved a kind of dumb pantokitchen or houfe-place, and the first who was called being asked to fit down to the fre, (for my friend could hear, being very attentive, every word that was (poke) a person who fat knitting in the chimneycorner, and feemed to be miftrefs of the mime amongst them, and finding there was no intelligence to be had, entered the room, and asking him aloud in his ear, Where the perion was fick ? He answered by dumb gas, lifting one hand to his mouth, 1756. LIMITS of ACADIA. A B mouth, as if he wanted to drink, and laying the other hand upon his empty belly, fignifying he was hungry. The fagacious doctor immediately concluded that the perfon he came about must be with child, and wanted a potion to destroy it, and durft not employ any one who had the ufe of speech in the affair. Upon which the doctor fat down, and wrote to me the following epiftle." Miftris, I parceve yo are big of a chyld by chaunce and paft whicke I can fee by your water, if yo wil fend the dum man with too ginnes I wil do for you and nobody shall ever be the wifer, but danny drive, I am your humbel farvant, &c."-It is true I am a fat man and big-bellied, but not with child that I know of. I laughed heartily at the fancy, and am of opinion, was every body who go to thefe impoftors to ufe them as I did, their ignorance would become popularly known, and the very race of thefe caterpillars in phyfick would quickly have an end. There's another known by the name of white-witch, (a Roman Catholick I prefume) and therefore fuperftitiously pretends to cure all diftempers by faith, and marks all his papers of medicines with crucifixes, an original of whose prescriptions (a weaver by trade) I have herewith fent you, if you can read and think proper to transcribe it for the good of the publick, which I believe is the main end of your Magazine, but although he is commonly called a witch, D one would not take him for one either by his fpelling or preferibing.—"+Take this uomeat in a tee cup of warm ayle at 3 a clock in afte nawne, 3 points of pofet drink after the uomeat beegines to worke. bee fore yau take the uomeat eet a good dinar of flauwer haifty pudding, and after the uomeat hath done working geet Tom chicken broth or muton broth. Re ceived of thomas brufhfield the fum 39. 6d. by me George frith." I have a fon whom I have fome thoughts of educating a phyfician, but he told me the other day, that unless the government will please to take these things into their confideration, (as the French king has F lately done by publishing an arret, that no mountebank, barber furgeon, or any kind of quack whatsoever, fhall vend any fort of medicines) instead of learning how to kill his majesty's good subjects, fecundum artem in England, he will go and learn to kill his majesty's enemies, fecundum fortunam in America: Since the G country people make a practice of running into the apothecary's debts very often for ever, and carry all their ready money to thefe jobbers in phyfick, who are hurtfal to the phyfician, hateful to the apo. 2 7 thecary, and very often mortal to those who employ them. I am, Sir, A conftant reader, H. C. From a Pamphlet entitled, A fair Reprefentation of his Majesty's Right to NovaScotia or Acadie. (See the MAr of North-America, in Vol. xxiv.) TH ~HE English commiffaries, by a memorial dated the 21ft of September 1750, fet forth what was claimed on the part of Great-Britain, as the real limits of that country, defcribed to be bounded as follows: On the weft, towards New-England, by the river Penobscot, otherwife called Pentagoet; that is to fay, beginning at its mouth, and from thence drawing a freight line towards the north to the river St. Laurence, or the great river of Canada.-On the north by that river all along as far as Cape Roziers, fituated at its entrance. On the east by the great gulph of St. Laurence, from Cape Roziers to the fouth-eaft by the iflands of Cape Breton, leaving thefe islands and the gulph on the right, and Newfoundland and the islands belonging to it on the left, unto the cape or promontory called Cape-Breton. On the fouth by the great Atlantick ocean, going fouth-west from Cape Breton by CapeSable, taking in the island of that name, round to the bay of Fundi, as far as the mouth of the river Penobscot or Pentagoet." But they obferved, "That the ifland of Cape Breton, as alfo all others, both in the mouth of the river St. Laurence, and in the gulph of the fame name, altho' defcribed as above to be within the ancient limits of Acadie, are, neverthelefs, by the XIIIth article of the treaty of Utrecht, excepted and declared to remain under the French jurifdiction." His majesty's commiffaries having been fo particular in deferibing the boundaries of this country, as claimed by the crown of Great-Britain, it was expected, That the French commiffaries, on their part, would have been as explicit ; but, on the contrary, by their memorial, dated on the fame day, they confined themfelves only to a negative affertion, "That PortRoyal was not comprised within the limits of Acadie, and, confequently, that ancient Acadie took in only a part of the peninfula which goes by that name ;that the ifland of Canceau, being in the mouth of the gulph of St. Laurence, was not comprised within Acadie ;-that the limits of Newfoundland and New-France had received no alterations by the treaty of Utrecht, and therefore ought to remain as they were before :And lastly, they referred 8 DESCRIPTION of FLINTSHIRE. referred themfelves, as to all other parti- This, at first fetting out, discovers that [To be continued in our next.] "TH HAT the nobility and gentry fhould furnish their fervants with all proper accoutrements, which would without any charge to the government arm thousands in its fervice; and the upper fervants, in general, would also with pleasure accept of arms. Let the upper fervants and the livery appear to be reviewed and exercifed every half year." This publick spirited lady adds, "were I a nobleman, how expeditious should I be in beginning; poor as I am, being willing to furnish two, tho' many I may affirm can produce thirty or upwards; what looks better than an armoury at the entrance of a great man's palace; and - with what pleasure would it be to lis - majefty to hear of fo noble a spirit? Jan. fifh and wild fowl, as does the fea, which has fafe harbours for fhips to ride and anchor in. This county is not fo moun. tainous as fome other of the northern counties of Wales are, and is interfperfed with fertile vallies, which afford both corn and pasture, feeding great numbers of fmall cattle, who fupply them with plenty of butter and cheese. Honey is a principal product of Flintshire, of which the inhabitants make a drink called metheglin. They have little fruit, and are very fcanty of wood. The air is healthy, tho' cold, as being expofed to the northern winds; however, the northern part of the county abounds in pitcoal, and its adjacent mountains are ftored with lead ore. A part of the county is fevered from the reft by the interpofition of Denbighshire. It is about 40 miles in circumference, and is computed to contain about 160,000 acres, and 3200 houses. It is chiefly in the diocefe of St. Afaph, tho' part of it is in that of Chester, and has 28 parishes, one city, and one market town, within its confines, and fends two members to parliament, one for the county, who, in the prefent parliament, is Sir Thomas Moftyn, Bart, and one for Flint, who is now Sir John Glynn, Bart. The towns are, 1. St. Afaph, an ancient city, diftant D from London 159 computed and 212 measured miles, but is neither large nog beautiful. It is fituated on the river Elwy, where it receives the Clwyd, and has a bridge over each of them. It is an epifcopal fee, founded anno 560, by Ken. tigern, a Scot, bishop of Glafcow, who was fucceeded by Afaph, from whom the city takes its name. It has very little to boast of but its cathedral, and has a Small market on Saturdays. The prefent bishop is Dr. Robert Hay Drummond. E 2. Cserwis, a very inconsiderable market town, between three or four miles S. E. from St. Asaph. 3. Flint, the fhire town, noted for nothing but an old ruinous caftle, being F very poorly and thinly inhabited, without a market, and is diftant from Londen 147 computed and 198 measured miles. G 4. Holywell, tho' not a market town, is very populous, and much reforted to on account of St. Winifred's well, of which many fabulous ftories are told by the fuperftitious. Over the head of the fpring, or well, is a curious chapel of free-ftone, with foried windows richly dight, with the adventures of St. Winifred. This county has many remains of Bitish and Roman antiquities, and it gives the title of earl to the princes of Wales, JOUR |