If a dictionary be sometimes the refuge of indolence, it is an useful resource in circumstances of emergency. It offers a collection of opinions, at one view, and within moderate limits, suggests hints from sources beyond the reach of common acquirements, beyond the extent of a common library, and leads the inquiring mind into paths of which he might not have suspected the existence, or been unable to pursue the intricacies. If these be the general advantages of a dictionary, this form is peculiarly applicable to a science where emergencies frequently occur, where the time for reflection is short, and the practitioner, from anxiety and distress, unfitted for cool consideration. A man of sensibility is, in such circumstances, obliged to conceal his pangs under the appearance of composure, and to cover doubt and hesitation by a seeming calmness and confident decision. His situation, also, is often little adapted for deriving assistance from numerous authors, in different languages: nor is his mind always so carefully regulated by education as to pursue a chain of reasoning strictly inductive, or to detect error, under the semblance of plausible improvement. To bring before him, therefore, the opinions of distant eras and countries, to offer what the ablest professors have thought, to describe how they have acted, must be a valuable acquisition to one class, while, to the intelligent and experienced, it may be no useless remembrancer-an index to those sources of information which may be more minutely, and, therefore, more advantageously followed. It is not the least of the advantages of the following pages, that they detect many reputed discoveries of modern times, in the neglected authors of former periods; and the sanguine admirer of what is new may learn, from the reception which any proposal has formerly experienced, to appreciate with greater accuracy its value.

To attain these objects has been the anxious wish of the author; and, with these in view, he can scarcely have entirely failed. This work is not the design of a moment: projected in the eagerness of youth, it is completed in the maturity of experience; constantly kept in his sight: a deposit of the accumulated stores of reading and observation.

To excel former works, under this title, at least such as had appeared when the plan was first laid, seemed no very difficult task. They chiefly consisted of definitions and short explanations, or were diffuse collections, from different authors, in the same form, frequently in the same words. He who consulted the latter work might well exclaim, inopem me copia fecit; while those who applied to the former caught the shadow, instead of the substance - learnt the etymology of a title, when they wanted a remedy for the disease.

The lexicon of Erotian (perhaps Herodian), the Voces Graecae of Julius Pollux, the lexicon of Herodotus Lycius, and others, published by Henry Stephens, with the Economia of Faesius, appended to his edition of Hippocrates, are scarcely more than elucidations of the terms used in the ancient authors. De Gorris (Gorraeus) was more full in his explanations, and more extensive in his views. The Definitiones Medicae, first published in 1564, afterwards, by his grandson, in 1622, contain a satisfactory view of medicine, as it was left by the ancients, and no imperfect account of the medicinal plants described by Theophrastus and Dioscorides. Blanchard seems chiefly to have copied Gorraeus, and scarcely advances beyond the definitions of his predecessor. Castellus is equally unsatisfactory; but the edition of Bruno, published at Geneva, in large quarto, and the still more extensive one which appeared at Naples, in 1761, are valuable, though unequal collections. The former contains the Arabic, the Hebrew, the Greek, French, and Italian appellations, added by Bruno, under the title of Mantissa Tetraglotta, and the latter many of the modern improvements.

Our own countrymen received, early in the last century, the assistance of Quincy, who has transcribed and abridged the definitions of his predecessors, adding the principal doctrines of the mechanical philosophy, and their application to medicine. Indeed the latter seems to have been his chief object; and, when Newton had, with the assistance of mathematics, expanded our view, and found the solar system subservient to one principle, gravity, it was supposed that the same success would follow their introduction into every science; and nothing but demonstration was talked of and expected. This work has been lately published, with numerous improvements, by Dr. Hooper; but within limits which necessarily preclude any very extensive disquisitions.

About the middle of this century, Dr. James offered a vast work of this kind to the public, in three ponderous folios. The erudition which he displays is extensive, and his explanations are often satisfactory. He has collected all the. learning of his predecessors, preserved their controversies, and added whatever a diligent attention to the works of the ancient physicians could contribute to the former stock. In the more strictly practical part of his dictionary, he has collected, with the same care, and has copied, not always with sufficient discrimination, the opinions of different practical authors. The diffuseness of his language contributes, however, to lessen the advantages which such a work ought to possess, as a ready resource in cases of difficulty; nor, in the mass of contending opinions, is it always easy to collect those comprehensive views, which will at once lead to a decisive and discriminated practice.

Some later dictionaries in our language are, in general, slight glossaries, with slender claims, which may be fairly allowed. One other work, of a more respectable bulk, and more plausible pretensions, we may be, perhaps, expected to notice; but any observations which we might offer would appear to be dictated rather by the spirit of rivalship than of sound criticism. We wish not to disturb the opinions of those who approve it.