Account of a Book

VIII. Account of a BOOK. The History of Poland in several Letters to Persons of Quality, giving an Account of the Ancient, and Present State of that Kingdom, Historical, Geographical, Physical, Political and Ecclesiastical, &c. with several Letters relating to Physick. Vol. I. To which is added a new Map of Poland. By Bern. Connor, M. D. Fellow of the Royal Society, and Member of the Colledge of Physicians, &c. London Printed for Dan.Brown, &c. 1697. in 8vo. In this History of Poland, the Author gives an Account first of its Origine; that about the middle of the Sixth Century, it came to be a distinct Nation, when as yet it had no Cities, no Money, or written Laws; the first City was then Built by Lechus near the State of Brandenburgh, naming it Guesna; then treating of their Policy and Princes, which at first were called Dukes, he gives a particular History of all their Dukes and Kings, down to the present King Frederic Augustus. These he divides into Four Classes, the first beginning An. 550. ending An. 830. when the Government came into the Families of Pirstus and Tagello, to the Year 1574, which he prosecutes through the Reigns of several Kings, down to Sigismund II. when the Jagellonic Race ended, which make the Second and Third Classes, casually making several Remarks on the Government, Nature of the People, and the like; with the times and occasions of the Building of several of the chief Towns and Cities. The time of the Teutonic Knights Establishment in Prussia; how the Latin Tongue came to be so frequent in use, when the Lutheran Religion came to be there Propagated; the Joculor Commonwealth of Babina, when and how Instituted. The fourth Classis consists of mix'd Families, from the year 1574. to 1674. and here he observes when Courts of Judicature were first Erected, with the Original of the Cossacks, and extent of their Dominions; their Country, Character, Customs, Religion, &c. and in all these Reigns gives an Account of their Wars and Victories, Policies, &c. with a particular Relation of the famous Raising the Siege of Vienna, by John Sobieski late King of Poland; and gives an Account of a Dispute, he had himself, in his Court with several Divines, in the King's presence, touching the seat of the Rational Soul in the Body, and cause of Death, not from the Separation of the Soul from the Body, but more properly from the Cessation of the Heart's Motion, the other being rather a Consequent thereof. Here he relates the Circumstances of the Prince's Mariage to the Duke of Bavaria, whom the Author attended as her Physician, in her Journey from Poland, the particulars whereof, with her Reception at Brussel's, he relates, and gives some Account of the Election of the present King, which ends his History of their Kings. Next he gives a Geographical Description of Poland, its extent, Provinces, Towns, Products, &c. As to the Towns, he says, the greatest part thereof are Timber built, and Thatch'd, the whole Number of Cities, Towns and Villages, amounts to near 170000, of which not above Twenty are Walled; gives a particular Account of the University at Cracow, its Colleges and Learning, with the Churches and Monasteries there, as likewise of the Salt Mine there, with the Manufacture and Revenue thereof, amounting to Eight hundred thousand Polish Florins yearly: 'Tis observable, that in some places of the Mine, the Vapours will take Fire from a Candle, so that they dare not work there. He also tells us of a particular sort of Manna, gathered off the Ground, of which they make several sorts of Dishes for their common Food. Treating of Prussia he shews their way of making Glass: Speaking of the City of Thorn, he says, they have in a publick Library there, two of Cicero's Epistles written upon Tables of Wax. In the Province of Red Russia, on the Shoar of the River San, are found Trees Buried, very hard, and black as Ebony: Near the City Kiow, they shew the Bodies of Persons long since Dead, and Preserved in Caves of a Sandy dry Stone. There are several Observables touching the Liberality, and other particular Customs of the People, as the remains of Heathenish Superstition and Sacrifices still used, viz. by those of the Province of Samogitia, &c. for which we refer to the Book itself. Next he comes to speak of the Origine and Extent of the great Duchy of Lithuania, with the Description of its Towns, and Succession of its Dukes. In Vilna the chief chief City thereof is a Bell, which requires above Twenty four strong Men to ring it; and here likewise he mentions several Idolatrous Customs and Rites formerly observed; and speaking of the Woods and Deserts of Lithuania, he gives the Relation of several Children that have been bred up and suckled by the Bears, with their Cubs, with Observables of their eating raw Flesh, wild Honey, and Crabs; with the Difficulty of making them go Upright, bringing them to Speak, and the like, which ends this Volume. At the end of this Treatise the Doctor gives a Compendious Plan of the Body of Physick, or his Corpus rationale Medicum, being his Chymical and Anatomical Method; for understanding the Oeconomia Animalis, the Nature of Diseases, and the Materia Medica, as it was by him demonstrated at Oxen, London and Cambridge; first of the Elements, Fabrick, and System of the World; then of the Elements of Terrestrial Bodies, next the Structure and parts of the Human Body, in all its particulars; and lastly of the Union of the Soul and Body; coming to speak of the Materia Medica, he affirms, All inward Diseases have their first Seat in the Mass of Blood; that there are no Specific Medicines for any particular part of the Body, and that outward Applications cannot avail much for inward Distempers. He divides all the Materia Medica into Two Classes, evacuating and altering Medicines; where he reduces the Chymistry and Reason, the Nature and Operations of Medicines; this, he says, he endeavoured to demonstrate at Oxford, &c. and here he gives hopes of his obliging the Publick in a few Years, with a Latin Treatise of the Principles of Physick, and of the Oeconomia Animalis; he subjoins a farther Explication and Vindication of the Plan of the Animal Animal Oeconomy; and here, in order to a general view of the Universe, he proposes Matter as the first general Principle of all Bodies; and conceives Matter to be the only thing we have any clear Notion of, its Properties are divisibility and impenetrability, one part of Matter differs from another only in bulk, motion, or figure, and according as it differs from others in one or more of these Qualities, they will constitute different Bodies; and he requires but these three Qualities, to give a general Account of the different parts of the World, as the Stars, the Ætherial Fluid, and Terrestrial Bodies: The Atoms of the first Matter have a less Bulk and more Motion, the Atoms of the Second Matter are properly Spherical, have as little Bulk but less Motion; the Atoms of the third Matter are of an irregular Figure, and none, or a slower Motion than the rest; the Stars consist of the first, the Ætherial Fluid of the Second, Planets and Terrestrial Bodies of the third: The two first are exterior Agents, and rather influence a Motion into the Terrestrial Bodies, than enter into their Composition. These then are his Principles by which he explains the Phenomena of Nature. The last Letter is an Account of a Latin Treatise lately Publish'd by the Author, called Evangelium Medici, seu Medicina Mystica de suspensis Natura legibus; in which he compares supernatural Effects Philosophically, with Natural ones, and explains them by the Principles of Physick; and first he gives the reason of his Attempt, which was to Answer those that denied the Being of Supernatural Effects, because they could not apprehend them; in order to prosecute his Design, he lays down for a Basis, the Structure of the Human Body, Body, as far as it is discoverable by Anatomy, Microscopes and Chymistry; next the Cause, Nature, and Laws of Motion, which is the only true Cause of all natural Phænomena; and the Suspensions of these Laws of Motion, are the only Causes of all Supernatural Effects: Three ways these Laws may be suspended, and by one or more of those ways of Suspension, he conceives all Supernatural Effects may be solved. By Suspension he does not understand a changing or abrogating the Laws, only their Course being stopt for a time, while the Effect is produced. For a fuller Explication of this curious, and difficult Subject, we refer to the Learned Doctor's Letter, or rather to the Treatise itself, of which this Letter is but a short Abstract. London: Printed for Sam.Smith, and Benj.Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, at the Princes Arms in St.Paul's Church-Yard. 1698.