prince, in point of antiquity. Accordingly, fays our Author, Se-ma-tfien goes as far backward as a perfonage called Hoang ti, but without marking any dates. This first hiftorian of China, whom even the Chinese behold with a fufpicious eye, did not live either in a country which was unknown to the reft of the world, or in an obfcure period of time. China, fays our Author, had confiderable connexions with the western nations, and even with the Romans. The Chinese had made war on the frontiers of Perfia, in order to furnish themselves with the Nifean horfes, mentioned by Herodotus, which were in high requeft with the kings of Perfia, and which the Chinese obtained under the form of a tribute. About the fame time the vine was tranfplanted into China: cotton was alfo carried thither, and it was, for a long time, confidered there as a rarity. If the hiftory of the arts in China be examined with attention, it will appear, that the greatest part of them may be dated from the time of the intercourse of the Chinese with the western nations. About the fame time, they had communicated to them fome treatises of aftronomy; fo that when Se ma-tfien compofed his hiftory, he had an opportunity of being acquainted with those of other nations, and might avail himself of this knowledge, to flatter more plaufibly the vanity of his fovereign, in giving a high and remote antiquity to the Chinese empire.-From all this, our Author concludes, that this firft hiftorian of China deferves but a very small degree of credit. Befide, what can we think of the hiftory of China, when the fragments, anterior to the burning of the books, which yet remain, are deftitute both of circumftantial relations and dates; and fince Se-ma-tfien, who is so often mistaken, and who believed in the fables of Tao-fe, has not had the courage to date farther back than the year 841 before Chrift? It is furely evident from hence, that all the dates, which relate to the reigns of princes, anterior to this epocha, have been forged by more modern writers. Se-ma-tfien, then, having left undetermined the duration of the reigns of the Chinese princes, in the two first imperial Dynafties, and alfo that of the reigns in a part of the third Dynafty, from what materials and fources did fucceeding writers venture to determine these points of ancient history? Our Author's anfwer to this question fhews the uncertainty of the Chinese history in the most evident manner. M. DE GUIGNES fhews, that the hiftorians who wrote under the Dynafty of Song in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries after Chrift, are not a whit more credible than those already mentioned. The most esteemed among them is Se-makouang, who lived in the eleventh century. He composed a grand hiftory of China; but as it only begins with the year 425 L13 before before Chrift, it has no relation to the chronology of the remote ages; and the fame may be faid of the chronological tables compofed by this author, in which there are no dates anterior to 841 before Chrift.-About the fame time, another learned man called Licou-jou, composed a hiftory of the ages anterior to the year 425, A. C. which is a compilation of paffages taken from all forts of authors, from Tao-fe, alfo, of whose abfurd and lying fect he was a member. Other writers, of the fame fect, drew up chronicles, in which they went backward, though without any credible records or guide, as far as the creation of the world.-Nay, feveral were abfurd enough to make use, in their hiftories, of the Y-king, an enigmatical book, that was fuperftitiously employed to foretel future events: they thought the combinations and riddles, that this book furnished for the discovery of future events, might be applied to the investigation of those that were paft, and of the precife time in which they happened. Methods of this kind, which demonftrate the ignorance, credulity, and fuperftition of the Chinese writers, are not furely to be admitted into chronological researches. Towards the conclufion of the eleventh century, Theou-bi compofed an abridgment of the work of Se-ma-kouang, to which was added, the hiftory, written by Lieou-jou, as above mentioned. In the fifteenth century, another writer treated the fame periods of the Chinese hiftory, and his work was preferred. Here then we have the materials that form the abridgment of the Grand Annals, lately published. Thefe details fhew the uncertainty of the ancient hiftory of the Chinese; and from thefe and other confiderations (for which we refer the reader to the publication before us) our Author concludes, that with respect to the two firft imperial Dynafties, it is not poffible to afcertain either the duration of the reigns, or the number and feries of the princes, or the places where they reigned, or the extent of their dominions, or the geography of the time. He has proved in another Memoir, that about the tenth and eleventh centuries before Chrift, there were no cities in China,-that the country was filled with different tribes of Barbarians, and that feveral little kingdoms had been formed, in the midft of these Barbarians, toward the end of the ninth centuty, A. C. which did not become powerful for a long time after this period. Thefe little kingdoms were difperfed in five provinces only: all the other parts of China were inhabited, as far down as the feventh century, A. C. by people that were not Chinefe; and the emperors of the Dynafty of the Tcheou, whofe eftablishment is placed in the year 1122 before Chrift, notwithstanding the power that has been attributed to them, reigned only in a fmall part of Chen-fi, fomewhere fomewhere about the district at prefent called Si-gan fox. Their particular hiftory till the year 887, is almost unknown, except by the long difcourfes of the Chou-king, which, inftead of relating events, are entirely employed about government and laws. Such then is the true ftate of the Chinese hiftory, which the Miffionaries have reprefented as inconteftable, and founded upon; authentic records, only because they have adopted, without examination, the conjectures, and even the fables, of ignorant, fuperftitious, or unfaithful writers.-On an impartial view of the whole matter, our Author thinks, that there is no evidence for that remote antiquity, which many late writers attribute to the Chinese empire, and that all the lights we have on this fubject, concur in fixing its origin and establishment at fome period between the year 1122 and 887 before the Chriftian æra. ART. II. Hiftoire de la Societé Royale de Medecine, Année 1776.-The History of the Royal Society of Medicine, for the Year 1776, with the Medical and Philofophical Memoirs for the fame Year. Publifhed from the Registers of the Society. Vol. I. With Plates. 4to. Paris. 1779. F focieties of this kind are of great utility towards the advancement of literature and science in general, they seem to be of peculiar importance to the improvement of medical science, the progrefs of which is fingularly flow and imperceptible; and which, notwithstanding a confiderable number of valuable discoveries, is yet at an immense distance from perfection. This flow progrefs will furprife us lefs, if we confider the innumerable difficulties that attend this fcience, and the various branches of knowledge it requires. This latter circumftance renders affociations of this kind peculiarly neceffary; nay, the establishment of medical academies is the only poffible method by which any confiderable improvement can be made in the knowledge that is requifite in the art of healing for thus the fum of the labours, refearches, and difcoveries, of the induftrious and attentive obfervers of nature are collected, and every man, who is diligent and laborious, may, however limited in genius and erudition, throw in his mite to the general treasure, and thus contribute to multiply its valuable contents. The principal object of the inftitution and labours of the Royal Society of Medicine, which is the fubject of this article, is to extend medical knowledge, and afcertain the difcoveries. relative to that fcience, and the conclufions that may be deduced from them. More especially, it is one of the great ob L14 jects jects of this inftitution, to inveftigate the immediate caufes of diforders, by an exact and circumftantial obfervation of the effects which phyfical caufes produce on the animal economy. This requires an affiduous examination of the state of the atmosphere, and of its meteors, a defcription of the places inhabited by men or animals, and an account of the nature of their food, and means of fubfiftence;-as also, observations on the diseases that are usual in each feafon, climate, and habitation; and these objects make an effential part of the plan of researches formed by this new medical academy. Its plan, however, is not confined to these objects; it extends to particular observations relative to the practice of phyfic, to furgery, anatomy, and medical chymiftry. The examination alfo of mineral waters, botanical researches, and all the parts of natural philofophy, that are connected with medical fcience, will form a confiderable part of the labours of the academicians. In the publication of its materials, the new fociety propofes to obferve the method employed by the academy of sciences; thus each volume will be divided into two parts; one will contain the history of the fociety, comprehending its eftablishment, regulations, laws, the eulogies of its deceafed members, the lift of its members and correfpondents, and of their works, the proposal of prizes, and many facts and obfervations relative to the objects already mentioned.-The other part is to contain the memoirs, composed either by the members of the fociety refiding at Paris, or by physicians and natural philofophers in other parts of the kingdom, and in foreign countries; and which, after having been read at the meetings of the fociety, have been judged worthy of public view. After this general sketch of the plan of this useful institution, it will not be improper to inform our readers of the manner in which the plan is executed in this first volume. After the dedication to the King, who has granted his peculiar patronage and protection to the Medical Society, we find an inftructive and excellent preface, relative to the various objects that enter into the plan of the fociety, and every way proper to affist even those who are not phyficians, to co-operate with fuccefs in the advancement of medical fcience with those that are. This preface contains interefting details concerning the manner of making meteorological obfervations, botanical researches, chymical analyfes, &c. Accordingly, we find in the lift of the members feveral men of learning, and men in place, who do not belong to the medical faculty. This fociety has also adopted a cuftom that prevails in the greatest part of the literary academies; we mean, that of compofing eulogies, or rather hiftorical relations of the lives, talents, genius, labours, difcoveries, and merit of deceased members, In this volume, we find the eulogies of Meffrs. Bouillet, Le Beau, and Haller, compofed by M. VICQ-D'AZIR, fecretary to the fociety. The hiftorical part, and the memoirs of this volume, contain fuch a confiderable number of materials, that the mere enumeration of them would fwell this article beyond the bounds ⚫ that we are obliged to prefcribe to it. The hiftorical part exhibits feveral curious cafes relative to furgery and the practice of phyfic, of which we fhall indicate a few of the most interefting: A young girl, after having been afflicted with a violent, convulfive, and obftinate cough, that refifted all the remedies employed to remove it, was, at length, reduced to fuch a state, that the could not fwallow any kind of nourishment folid or liquid : The threw them up perpetually as foon as they entered the cefophagus. In this cruel extremity, M. Macquart, confidering attentively all the fymptoms that had preceded and accompanied the diforder, and thofe alfo which were produced by the remedies that had been employed, was perfuaded, that the cause of this extraordinary complaint was an abscess formed in the lower part of the cefophagus, or gullet, and by calculating the time that had paffed, he perfuaded himself also, that the abfcefs was ripe, full of matter, and juft at the period proper for being opened. However, the feat of the diforder did not admit of any chirurgical operation, nor of the introduction of any inftrument; and it is on fuch critical occafions, that a phyfician has need of all the expedients and refources that knowledge and genius can. furnish. M. Macquart hit upon a happy expedient: he introduced mercury into the cefophagus of the patient: this fluid metal arrived foon at the feat of the diforder, and acting, by its enormous weight, on the thinner fides of the abfcefs, burst it, occafioned a fpeedy evacuation of the matter it contained, opened a free paffage to food of every kind, and performed a cure, which appeared truly aftonishing. Under the article of chirurgery, there is a piece of great moment, entitled, A Report concerning the bad Confequences of Caftration,-practifed as a Method of obtaining a radical Cure of Hernias, &c. The Royal Society of Medicine was confulted by the Miniftry on this subject, which undoubtedly deserves all its attention. The answer, or report, was given by three members named by the fociety, and contains an account of the inconveniencies that refult from the temerity with which a great number of ignorant practitioners and empirics perform the operation here mentioned; together with new regulations for this branch of chirurgical practice. Under the articles of chirurgery, there are alfo fome ingenious obfervations on the cure of feveral ulcers, performed by the vacillatory |