"I think it will also be conceded by those who are disposed to allow the advantage and safety of primary operations; that if the thirty-six of the forty-three who died and have only partially recovered, had been amputated on the first day, the country would have had at least twenty-five stout men, able, for the most part, to support themselves by their labour, instead of five, or, at most, ten, who will not be entirely dependent upon their pensions and parishes for their subsistence.

"As secondary amputation is totally inadequate to produce this effect, the patient should be carefully examined, and amputation performed, when necessary, on the field of battle. If the heat of the weather be great, as in the summer of the Peninsula, Asia, or America, the hospital to which the patient must be removed, at some distance, the means of conveyance bad, or the wounded very numerous, it is better to amputate, even in a doubtful case; and if the surgeon, by following this rule, should even cut off a limb that might have been saved, he will be amply compensated by the preservation of a number of lives, that would be lost by delay under precisely similar circumstances.

"In regard to officers, some little more latitude is to be granted than the above suggestions allow; for as they can often procure cool apartments in summer, good conveyance, plentiful attendance, and the best professional advice, all of which are occasionally wanting to soldiers; cases of disease and injury will always succeed in a greater proportion with them than with private soldiers in hospital; but not in so great a degree as to counteract my opinions in cases that are really serious.

"It is a difficult thing to persuade a surgeon, unaccustomed to the treatment of gun-shot wounds, or the patient himself, when he sees but a small wound, that amputation is necessary; and as cases of success have been heard of by all, whilst the fatal ones are buried in oblivion, many officers will not chuse to submit to it, and will rather hazard their future health and happiness, and undergo the most dreadful sufferings, for months, to save a limb, which, when cured, and their wishes are obtained as far as circumstances will permit, they find a useless burthen, and a source of inconvenience for the rest of their lives.

"Wounds from musket-balls, injuring the lower part of the bone, without communicating with the joint, do not require primary amputation; they are proper cases for delay, except there be great destruction of parts.

"Wounds of the knee-joint, with fracture of the great bones composing it, from musket-balls, require amputation, as I do not consider excision, of the knee-joint likely to succeed in military practice; or, if it succeed in an individual case, ever to become general, from the great care, quietude, and attention it requires, independent of the danger to which it exposes the patient. It is almost unnecessary to state, that the relief for wounds of this kind is to be obtained by amputating the limb; and, from an extensive

¥ 2

practice

practice in wounds of the knee-joint, with fracture of the articu lating surface of the femur or tibia, I have no hesitation in declaring amputation to be imperiously demanded, and that it ought to be performed with the least possible delay consistent with propriety; and on no account should the surgeon wait to give the wound a trial; for I most solemnly protest I do not remember a case do well in which I knew the articulating end of the femur or tibia to be fractured by a ball that passed through the joint, although I have tried great numbers, even to the last battle of Toulouse. I know that persons wounded in this way have lived, for a recovery it cannot be called, where the limb is useless, bent backward, and a constant source of irritation and distress, after several months of acute suffering, to obtain even this partial security from impending death; but if one case of recovery should take place in fifty, is it any sort of equivalent for the sacrifice of the other fortynine? or, is the preserving of a limb of this kind an equivalent for the loss of one man? The answer is, I believe, clear, and the practice ought to be as decisive; for secondary amputation offers not half the chance of success, and many will not outlive the in, flammatory symptoms and fever that ensue. I am aware that this point has been much argued, but the practice of the peninsular war has been so great and so decisive, that the opinion of all the surgeons of the British army of experience, is for immediate amputation in cases of this kind." P. 193.

ART. XVII. The Pharmacopaias of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Colleges, translated into English; with an Appendix, containing a systematic Arrangement of the Materia Medica, Tables of changed Names, and a Posological Table. By John Thomson, M. D. Svo. pp. 296. Ss. Anderson, Edinburgh; Longman and Co. London. 1815.

TO Medical students and to all those who dabble a little in the ars medendi, this will prove a very useful publication, as it presents in one point of view the Pharmacopoeias of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Colleges, with several useful tables, exhibiting the names as they formerly stood and as they now stand. The work is in English, but why the Posological table (a magnificent word this for a table of doses) should be in Latin we cannot divine.

ᎪᏒᎢ .

ART. XVIII. A Voyage round the World, from 1806 to 1812; in which Japan, Kamschatku, the Aleutian Islands, and the Sandwich Islands, were visited, Including a Narrative of the Author's Shipwreck on the Island of Sannack, &c. By Archibald Campbell. Illustrated by a Chart. 8vo. 288 pp. 9s. Constable, Edinburgh; Longman and Co. London. 1816. WE are well pleased to recall our attention from the ordinary routes of modern tourists, to those parts of the of the globe which have of late years been so much neglected. The narrator of this tale is a common sailor, who is now in a very humble situation at Edinburgh, but falling into the company of an intelligent literary gentleman, was enabled by his assistance to present the world with a well digested account of his adventures. The most interesting part of the relation is that which describes bis visit to the Sandwich Island. Of his reception at Wahoo, we shall extract the following account.

"We weighed in the morning of the 29th, and passing between the islands of Morokai and Ranai, reached the harbour of Hanaroora, on the south side of Wahoo, the same evening.

"A number of natives came off, as usual, the moment the ship hove in sight. King Tamaahmaah was in a large double canoe; on his coming alongside, he sent his interpreter on board to announce his arrival.

"The captain immediately went to the gangway to receive his majesty, and shook hands with him when he came upon deck.

"He was on this occasion dressed as a European, in a blue coat and grey pantaloons.

"Immediately on his coming on board, the king entered into earnest conversation with the captain. Amongst other questions, he asked, whether the ship was English or American? being informed that she was Russian, he answered, Meitei, meitei,' or Very good. A handsome scarlet cloak, edged and ornamented with ermine, was presented to him from the governor of the Aleutian islands. After trying it on, he gave it to his attendants to be taken ashore. I never saw him use it afterwards. In other canoes came Tamena, one of his queens, Crymakoo, his brother-in-law, and other officers of inferior rank.

My appearance attracted the notice, and excited the compassion of the queen; and finding it was my intention to remain upon the islands, she invited me to take up my residence in her house. I gladly availed myself of this offer, at which she expressed much pleasure; it being a great object of ambition amongst the higher ranks to have white people to reside with them. When the ship was brought to anchor, she sent me ashore in one of her

ganoes.

"Captain

"Captain Hagemeister recommended me at the same time to the notice of the king, by informing him, that I could not only make and repair the sails of his vessels, but also weave the cloth of which they were made.

"The king assured him that I should be treated with the utmost kindness. It will be seen in the sequel how well he performed his promise.

"Upon landing, I was much struck with the beauty and fertility of the country, so different from the barrenness of the Fox islands. The village of Hanaroora, which consisted of several hundred houses, is well shaded with large cocoa-nut trees. The king's residence, built close upon the shore, and surrounded by a pallisade upon the land side, was distinguished by the British colours and a battery of sixteen carriage-guns, belong to his ship, the Lilly Bird, which at this time lay unrigged in the harbour. This palace consisted merely of a range of huts, viz. The king's eating-house, his sleeping house, the queens' house, a store, pow. der-magazine, and guard-house, with a few huts for the attendants, all constructed after the fashion of the country.

"At a short distance were two extensive store-houses, built of stone, which contained the European articles belonging to the king.

I was conducted to the house occupied by the two queens. It consisted of one large apartment, spread with mats, at one end of which the attendants of both sexes slept, and at the other the queens occasionally slept when the king was in the morai.

"They and their attendants always eat here, and Tamena wished me to join them; but as I had been informed by Crymakoo, that if I did so, I should not be allowed to eat with men, I resolved to decline her offer.

"The Neva remained in the harbour three months, during which time I ate my victuals on board. At the end of that period, having completed a cargo of provisions, consisting of salted pork and dried taro root, she sailed for Kodiac and Kamschatka. I was then invited by the king to take my meals in his eating-house, and at the same time he desired a young American, of the name of William Moxely, who understood the language, to eat along with me, to act as my interpreter. The king's mode of life was very simple; he breakfasted at eight, dined at noon, and supped at

sunset.

"His principal chiefs being always about his person, there were generally twenty or thirty persons present; after being seated upon mats, spread on the floor, at dinner a dish of poe, or taro pudding, was set before each of them, which they ate with their fingers, instead of spoons. This fare, with salt fish and consecrated pork from the morai, formed the whole of the repast, no other food being permitted in the king's house. A plate, knife and fork, with boiling potatoes, were however always set down before Moxely and me, by his majesty's orders. He concluded his meal

by

by drinking half a glass of rum, but the bottle was immediately sent away, the liquor being tabooed, or interdicted to his guests. The breakfast and supper consisted of fish and sweet potatoes.

"The respect paid to the king's person, to his house, and even to his food, formed a remarkable contrast to the simplicity of his mode of living.

"Whenever he passed, his subjebts were obliged to uncover their heads and shoulders. The same ceremony took place upon their entering, or even passing, his residence; and every house which he entered was ever after honoured with the same marks of respect. Once, when employed in the house of Isaac Davis, making a loom for the king, I observed him passing, and being ignorant of this custom, requested him to enter and observe my progress; but he declined doing so, informing me of the consequence. He therefore seated himself at the door, till I brought out my work for his inspection.

"When his food was carrying from the cooking-house, every person within hearing of the call Noho, or Sit down, given by the bearers, was obliged to uncover himself, and squat down on his hams *.

"This ceremony was particularly inconvenient when the water used in the king's house was carried past; there being none of a good quality near Hanaroora, it was necessary to bring it from the mountains, a distance of five miles. The calabash carriers were obliged, when any person appeared in sight, to call out, Noho. They, however, ran past as quick as they could, not to detain his majesty's subjects in so unpleasant an attitude.

"White people were not required to pay these honours, though scrupulously exacted from the natives.

"Tamaahmaah was most attentive in performing the duties of religion, and constantly attended the Morai on the taboo days, which took place about four times each month. The ceremonies lasted one day and two nights; during which time no person was permitted to pass the bounds of the Morai.

"When the king was absent on these occasions, I did not experience the same attention as at other times; the attendants became very remiss in providing my dinner, and I was sometimes obliged to go without it altogether.

"I accompanied the king once to the Morai; but not relishing

"Scotice, on his hunkers.' The emphatic word used by the author in describing this particular mode of genuflexion, and which has no English synonym into which it can be translated, is thus defined by Jamieson: To sit with the hips hanging downwards, and the weight of the body depending on the knees."Scot. Dict. verb Hunkers.

"Wi' ghastly e'e, poor Tweedle-dee,

Upon his hunkers bended.' "-Burns,

the