The author of this book is a man well known to the world for his daring defiance of power when he thought it exerted on the side of wrong, the popularity which he obtained, and the violence to which the Irish ministers had recourse, that they might set themselves free from an opponent so restless by his principles, so powerful by his conduct, and so specious by his cause; they drove him from his native country by a proclamation, in which they charged him with crimes of which they never intended to be called to the proof, and oppressed him by methods equally irresistible by guilt and innocence.

Let the man thus driven into exile for having been the friend of his country be received in every other place as a confessor of liberty, and let the tools of power be taught in time that they may rob but cannot impoverish.

In the book which we are now to examine is treated one of the most important and general of all physical subjects, the nature and properties of a body justly numbered among the elements, without which neither animal nor vegetable life can subsist.

This subject our author has examined with great diligence, not only by consulting writers, but by numerous and careful experiments, which he has tried upon more mineral springs, than perhaps any single man had ever examined.

But something is always to be wished otherwise than it is. This author has been induced by an affected fondness for analogy and derivation, to disfigure his pages with new modes of spelling, which indeed gives his book a forbidding aspect, and may dispose many to conclude too hastily, that he has very little skill in questions of importance, who has so much leisure to lavish upon trifles.3

Every book, I suppose, is written to be read: the orthographical innovator very little consults his own interest, for I know few faults so likely to drive off the reader as perpetual and glaring affectation.

He that studies singularity, should at least compensate that disgust which his disapprobation of custom naturally produces in all who follow it, by taking a better way than that which he leaves; he that despises the countenance of example should supply its place by the power of truth. But Dr. Lucas’s changes are sometimes wrong upon his own principles, as when he writes soveregne4 and arteficial;5 and sometimes contrary to the laws of analogous derivation, as when he makes lossed the preterite of lose.6

These faults do not lessen the usefulness of his book, though they may diminish the pleasure of perusing it.

After a general account of salts, acid, alkaline and neutral, he comes to his main subject, and gives the following definition of water. . . .7

He confirms every part of this definition by experiments. One of which quoted from Muschenbeck will to many of our readers appear remarkable.8

I mean not to deny the position inferred, but do not think that it follows from the experiment. To discuss it fully would require more time than I am willing to bestow upon it. The power of these two bodies must be proportionate to the space to which they can be expanded, which this experiment does not measure, nor indeed does it show the force of either body. The phial filled with Gunpowder was burst by a single particle, the rest was not fired at all, or fired when air had been admitted by the disruption of the glass. The water should burst the glass with more force than the powder I cannot conceive, for the glass was burst in either case at the moment that more power was put in act, than the glass could sustain. So useless are these trials, which an1 elegant writer has lately degraded to their proper rank by the name of bruta experientia, unless theory brings her light to direct their application.

But we shall pass from these speculations to things of daily use. We are taught in the following paragraph to try and select water for the purposes of life. . . .2

Dr. Lucas then proceeds to shew the different uses of different waters, which daily experience has taught almost all mankind to choose on common occasions, and which we often are incommoded by not distinguishing for uses that less frequently occur. . . .3

In the following pages is exhibited an exact analysis of the different kinds of water used in London, of which most readers will be more curious to know the result than the process.

Of the Thames water he observes; that “Many have sought, and some spoke of, a spirit to be extracted from the Thames water: it is found liable to ferment and putrify. . . .”4

Of the water of the New River,5 examined with famed care, he determines “That these waters may with safety and propriety be used, wherever a soft water is requisite, for drinking or bathing. . . .”6

He then passes from the culinary or domestic to the medical uses of water, which he explains with great copiousness. As the cold bath is the common form, in which water is applied, we shall conclude the extract of this month with some directions which may promote its success.

“They who accustom their children from earliest infancy, to frequent immersion or washing in cold water, will have the comfort of seeing them grow up vigorous and healthful . . . .”7

On these directions we shall venture the following remarks.

It is incident to physicians, I am afraid, beyond all other men, to mistake subsequence for consequence, to use the fallacious inference post hoc, ergo propter hoc. “The old gentleman,” says Dr. Lucas, that uses the cold bath, “enjoys in return an uninterrupted state of health.”8 This instance does not prove that the cold bath produces health, but only, that it will not always destroy it. He is well with the bath, he would have been well without it. I have known, every man has known, old men scrupulously careful to avoid cold, who enjoyed in return an uninterrupted state of health.

The caution not to bathe with a full stomach is just, though it is violated every summer day without hurt.

The rules about the posture to be used in the bath, and the directions to forbear to speak during the action of the water, are refinements too minute to deserve attention, he is past much hope from baths to whom speech or silence can make any difference.

From the dream of medicating a cold bath, a man may be soon awakened by computing the quantity of salts necessary to increase its coldness and how much more must be added to make any perceptible alteration in its pressure.9

The succeeding parts of Dr. Lucas’s book contain analytical examinations of the waters found in the most celebrated and frequented medicinal springs or baths. In foreign waters, though indeed often visited, but more commonly by voluptuousness or curiosity than sickness, the natives of this island have little interest, and we shall therefore pass over his observations upon them without extract or selection. But our own waters of Bath, to which almost all the wealthy and all the wretched make an annual resort, to which those have recourse to whom baffled physicians prescribe change of place, or exhausted luxury prompts change of pleasure; the baths from which such multitudes expect either ease of pain or increase of happiness, deserve to be considered with particular attention.

Sickness will fly to any place where health is promised, but what should draw the happy and healthy to Bath, it is not easy to discover, since all that Bath can afford preferably to any other place, the luxury of a warm fountain, is polluted by the most brutal grossness, and impeded by the most troublesome inconvenience.

Dr. Lucas then proceeds to analyze the waters which have been hitherto universally or almost universally believed to be sulphureous. Lucas has, I believe, irrefragably shewn that whatever else they may contain, they are without sulphur.

Of the sulphureous impregnation two evidences supposed invincible, were produced; one a sulphur, or sulphureous concrete floating on the water; the other, the known practice of making shillings become guineas, or of giving silver a yellow tinge.

Of the sulphur found in the water, this is his account. . . .2

The yellow tincture imparted to silver he has very carefully traced to its true cause, and gives the following history of the process. . . .3

It is of more importance to know what diseases these waters will cure than of what ingredients they are compounded; we shall conclude this extract with the author’s opinion of their virtues. . . .4