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With respect to the fuppofition of the 'feptic acid, or its modifications, being the principle of contagion, facts are still more against it. We can produce by art all the feptic compounds which are accufed as conftituting this poifonous principle, and can apply them in various ways to the human body: indeed they are daily and hourly fo applied, in a number of proceffes in the arts; yet it has never till now been fufpected that they gave birth to contagion. The feptic (nitric acid has of late been employed in medicine to a great extent; both internally and outwardly applied. In the laboratory of the chemilt, the feptic acid is often afloat in all its modifications. In nitre-works, the fame thing takes place the feptic vapours mult continually be applied to the lungs and furface of the body, without being influenced by the fixed alkali employed in the process. In none of thefe has it been fhewn that contagion exerts its deadly influence more than in other fitu ations; nor has it been found, that the fumigating procefs of Dr. Carmichael Smyth, above alluded to, has given in creafed energy to the contagion on board of fhips, or in hospitals, where it has been employed. On the contrary, there is all the evidence which can be had, that thefe very fumes operated to the destruction of the contagion which before exifted. When the fumigating procefs was begun, a fever of a molt malignant kind was making dreadful ravages, attacking almoft all that came within its influence in rapid fucceffion. A few days employment, however, of the fumigation fufficed to check its progress; and in a fhort time it fubfided altogether.

Laftly, the gafcous oxyd of fepton, that compound of fepton and oxygen, which Dr. Mitchill fuppofes to act the most confpicuous part, in cafes of peftilence and contagion, has of late been proved to be harmlefs, when inhafed into the lungs; and even to fupport animal life longer, and to give greater vigour to the fyftem, than atmofpheric air itfelf*.

If the queftion be taken in another view, and the effects of lime and alkalies, which Dr. Mitchill fuppofes to be the antidotes of contagion, be looked to, we fhall find nothing, I apprehend, on which to fupport his hypothefis. He was, doubtlefs, well employed in averting, by unanfwerable arguments, the public odium from a particular clafs' of manufacturers in the city of New York, who had been ftigmatized by public authority as giving birth, by their occupations, to noxious and peftilential vapours. He adduced very fufficient evidence to fhew, that the foap-boilers and tallowchandlers had no fhare in the generation of the prevailing peftilence. But his arguments go no further. The matter of contagion is probably destructible by both acids and alkalies, and is not neceffarily, therefore, either one or the other; but a certain fomething, generated in the living proceffes of the animal fyftem, of the intimate nature of which, as well as of the matter so produced, we shall ever perhaps remain ignorant. It is at least certain, that no good purpofe can be answered by affuming a knowledge of it on infufficient grounds. (To be continued.)

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*See Notice of fome Obfervations made at the Medical Pneumatic Inftitution, just publifh by Dr. Beddoes, where not only this, but many other curious facts refpecting this fpecies of air, are fhewn.

MACK

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MACKLINIANA;

ANECDOTES OF THE LATE MR. CHARLES MACKLIN, COMEDIAN:

TOGETHER WITH

MANY OF HIS OBSERVATIONS ON THE DRAMA, AND THE GENERAL MANNERS OF HIS TIME.

Ρ

(As principally related by Himself, and never before published.)

UBLIC curiofity, almoft ever fince the first establishment of a Theatre in this country, has demanded fome account of the lives and characters of its eminent profeffors-men, who have been fo much" the brief abftract and chronicle of the times," acquire popular favour both for their entertainment and utility; for as they are generally not inattentive obfervers on mankind, and reprefent them under all their feveral defignations, their own characters are fuppofed to bear fome diftinguished impreffion. Our affections often keep pace with our curiofity, and the person who has improved and amufed us for a great number of years we respect whilft living, and remember with a melancholy pleasure when he is no more.

Upon this principle we fhall make no apology for introducing to the public Anecdotes, &c. of the late Mr. Charles Macklin; a man who is not only entitled to our notice from his being in the first line of theatrical eminence, but from his being, for many years before his death, the Neftor of the stage. His character ftill gains on our curiofity, when we confider that this man raifed himself to the top of his profeffion from almoft the bottom of fociety, with little aid from parental protection, without the ordinary means of fupport, and almost without any other inftruction than what the native energies of his mind ftimulated him to obtain.

We have, however, to regret that a complete life of this value and this extent was not given by himself. A regular history of the ftage has long been a defideratum amongst all those who are fcientific amateurs of the profeffion; and though this could not be fully expected from Macklin, much affiftance towards a work of this kind may be obtained-a man who had touched the extremities of two centuries, and was very nearly entering on his third, must have a volume of events before him, rarely the lot of an

VOL. XXXVI. Nov, 1799.

individual: as his acquaintance with the ftage had just preceded the relinquishment of Cibber, he could have, from tradition, informed us of its ufages and customs fince the beginning of the prefent century-the profeffional and private characters of the principal performersthe talents and eftimation in which the dramatic writers were held, with their characters, &c.- the number, temper, and acumen of the feveral audiencestogether with the progreffive manners of the age operating on the whole.

He

Such a history would have been entertaining and ferviceable, and fuch could have been given by Macklin, had he begun to lay in materials in time. was often inftigated to it by his friends, under all the temptations of the first literary affiftance, and the offer of a liberal fubfcription, and he as often promifed he would undertake it; but, from a long continuance of life and good health, he calculated too much on the permanency of both-his anfwer generally was fomewhat like the excufes of the old man to Charon in Lucian's Dialogues: "That he had a lawfuit to get rid of, a comedy to finish, or fome things to fet in order, before he could bring his mind compofedly to fuch a work.". -"But then (faid he, raifing his voice), when thefe are accomplished, by G-, I'll fet about it."

He at the fame time would lament the want of manufcripts which he once had for this undertaking, and which were unfortunately loft in his paffage from Holyhead to Dublin many years back: but then he added-"Even this lofs fhail not prevent me; it is the wifh of my friends; it is my own with; and I have materials enough left to fhew the world, that if I have lived long, I have not lived altogether idly or unprofitably." But those who know the human heart, know that fuch refolutions only fhewed he was the dupe of irrefolution. He had not courage fufficient to undertake a

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work

work of fo much labour and retrospection; he therefore deceived himself by putting off to the next year what he found a difficulty in doing then. This procrastination therefore annually continued, till his memory began to fail him; and then it was in vain to folicit for what Nature faid could not be obtained.

The Anecdotes, &c. here offered to the public are the gleanings of many years intimacy with the author, whofe beft converfation was in this line; yet even drawing from this fource (particularly in the latter part of his life, when his memory gave way) much caution and comparison were neceffary, in order to ascertain the authenticity of the facts. Thefe have been as much attended to as was in the Editor's power; and as fuch, he trufts, will not be found unentertaining to the general obfervers on life and

manners.

OF HIS ORIGIN, WITH CONJECTURES RELATIVE TO THE PERIOD OF HIS BIRTH.

So many different accounts have been given of the origin of Charles Macklin, that it would be very difficult for a perfon carefully looking for the truth, which to fix upon. The following sketch, however, is taken from himself above thirty years ago, when his memory and intel lects were in their full prefervation, and which he has at different times confirmed by fubfequent recitals.

Charles M'Laughlin (for that was his original name) was defcended from the M'Laughlins of the North of Ireland; a clan as much diftinguished for antiquity of family, as for being principals in the various civil wars of that kingdom. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, they united with the Magees (another confiderable clan) in oppofition to Government; and, after feveral fkirmishes with the regular troops, their leaders finally fubmitted to, Sir Chriftopher Chichester, who, marching them up to Dublin, hanged twenty of the Chiefs in terrorem, and difperfed

the reft.

Macklin's immediate ancestors, after this, fettled near Derry; and, at the celebrated fiege of that city in King William's time, he had three uncles within the walls, and three without, who diftinguifhed themfelves, though on oppofite fides, with a bravery (to ufe the old man's phrafe)" that kept up the honour of the blood of the M'Laughlins." Some time after this his father died, and the little farm which he had was given

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up to a near relation of theirs, who was a Proteftant, in trust for the widow and children.

Such is the brief hiftory of his family, as often related by himself. The period of his birth is not, perhaps, quite fo certain. The report was during his life, and it was in fome refpect confirmed by himself, that he was born in the last year of the last century; but this account, upon a comparative inveftigation, is not founded upon fufficient authority to reft upon. In the early parts of his life, it has been faid that he often declared "he did not precifely know his age," and nothing can be more probable, confidering the condition of Ireland towards the clofe of the last century, and the obfcure and unfettled fituation of his family; but then it is to be asked, How came the precife period of his birth to be afterwards fixed upon, and retailed as a fact through the remainder of his life?—This has been partly anfwered in Memoirs of him, juft publifhed, wherein it is stated, "That instead of 1699 he was born in 1690, and that his taking off nine years of his real age was the better to conciliate the affections of a theatrical mistress,. who was then under twenty." Giving this anecdote its due weight, we shall offer another reason why he leffened his, real age:

Between forty and fifty years ago, when fpeaking of his age, he ufed to call hin.felf generally "a man of the laft century; but mentioned no precife period, till his daughter, the late Mifs Macklin, got fome celebrity on the stage. Then he began to fix the period; or perhaps his daughter rather fixed it for him, in order to make herself appear younger. Macklin himself indirectly confirmed this, as he always acknowledged "that it was from his daughter he received the particular information relative to his birth."

Thefe are the reafons offered why he might be induced to extenuate his age; but in refpect to the real period of his birth, we have much stronger documents:

There was living in the city of Cork, about the year 1750, a woman of the name of Ellen Byrne, the wife of a journeyman printer, who was a first cousin of Macklin's mother, and who lived in the family at the time of his birth; and this woman, who always bore. a

decent and respectable character, has often declared to many people (and in particular to the late Mr. Charles Rathband, Editor of The General Evening

Poft,

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