How to read them. Look at the review below. It’s record #6889 in the database. It’s taken from the Critical Review, volume 9 (1760), pages 187-97. It’s a review of Elizabeth Nihell’s Treatise on the Art of Midwifery, published by Morley and sold for 6s. The symbol "8vo" ("octavo") indicates its size: the original sheets of paper have been folded into 8, so it’s half the size of a "4to" ("quarto"). The reviewer has been identified as Tobias Smollett by James Basker, on pages 220-229 of his 1988 book about Smollett.

> 6889

> Critical Review

> 9

> 1760

> 187-97

> Nihell, Elizabeth, Mrs

> professed Midwife

> A Treatise on the Art of Midwifery.

> Morley

> 8vo

> 6s

> English?

> F

> medicine topical

> Smollett, Tobias

> Basker 1988: 220-229

> affected onomastic lexis Latin French offensive content invective example confusing figurative unidiomatic foreign register

> Running pun on "Nihell" and "nihil".

Nasty figurative language: "We must own, however, we have sledom

known so much CREPITATION in a nurse's lecture, except when she

had made too free with the caudle, and mixed some extraneous ingredients

in the composition for the expulsion of wind." (187) 190: "with

the fluency of a fish-wife."

"As we cannot, in charity, suppose this [see above insult.] was

the case with Mrs Nihell, or her husband, we cannot help conjecturing,

that this good gentlewoman has employed some eructatious discipleof

Paracelsus Bombast, to inflate her stile, and BOUNCIFY her expressions."

[another simile follows.]

Don't like (and give ex of) her terminology: "PUDENDIST, a name

in the stile of occulist of dentist, more proper for a male-practitioner

of midwifery than ACCOUCHEUR" -- Proh! Pudor, could such a remark

drop from the pen of a real woman? Would a grave matron have thrown

out such a ludicrous hint of gross obscenity? [then explains why:

dentist takes his name from the teeth, so ...!]. (189). Review

ends with long list of objectionable aspects of her language. "The

language, indeed, is very suitable to the matter, being compounded

of gigantic metaphors, foreign idioms, uncouth and affected words;

such as TORTOROUS, PALPATION, SEXUAL, CONCEPTACLE, ... TRANSITORINESS,

INSTINCTIVE REPUGNANCE, INSTRUMENTARIAN, OCCLUSION, SHREWDNESS OF

FINGERS, REVOLTINGNESS, DEFLEXIONS OF THE UTERUS, ABERRATION FROMT

THE RIGHT LINE ..." [list contines]/

They really dislike her invective (189), and list many of the adjectives

she uses. Hence the fishwife insult.

> Y

---

> 6908

> Critical Review

> 9

> 1760 March

> 187-197

> Nihell, Elizabeth

> midwife

> A Treatise on the Art of Midwifery

> Morley

> 8vo

> 6s

> F

> medicine

> Smollett, Tobias

> Basker 1988: 220-229

> affected unidiomatic foreign figurative invective Latin

> lengthy negative review which ends with the suggestion that the

language is typical of "some person broke loose from Bedlam" (197);

this language is full of "gigantic metaphors, foreign idioms, uncouth

and affected words; such as 'tortorous', 'palpation'..." (see xerox

197).

> Y

---

> 6930

> Critical Review

> 10

> 1760 Aug

> 111-118

> Wilson, Andrew

> 1718-1792

anonymously

physician

> An Essay on Autumnal Dysentery

> London : printed for T. Becket; and sold by J. Fleming, Newcastle, 1761

> 8vo

> 1s 6d

> M

> medicine

> Smollett, Tobias

> Basker 1988: 220-229

> confusing redundant uneasy lexis affected new example

> complaints:

lexicon: author's neologisms and hard phrases suggest he is "cloaking

ignorance with affectation" (111)

specifically, complains of the words: "glarey", "stuff", "effete"

"obtemporate" etc. when more familiar terms are available (111);

these shortcomings do not diminish the "knowledge and sagacity"

in the work (112).

Final comment is that "an affectation of philosophising has rendered the performance obscure, ostentatious, and

prolix"(118).

> Y

---

> 7002

> Critical Review

> 11

> 1761

> 314-317

> Sterne, Laurence

> DNB xeroxed

> The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Vols 3 and

4

> Dodsley

> 8vo

> 5s

> M

> fiction

> Smollett, Tobias

> Basker 1988: 220-229

> register offensive affected

> 317. "A spirit of petulance, an air of self-conceit, and an affectation

of learning, are diffused through the whole performance, which is

likewise blameable for some gross expressions, impure ideas, and

a general want of decorum"

> N

---

> 7090

> Critical Review

> 13

> 1762

> 495-9

> Blacklock, Thomas, among other authors

> Scotch gentlemen. DNB for TB xeroxed.

> A Collection of Original Poems. By the Rev. Mr. Blacklock, and other

Scotch gentlemen

> Dodsley. ESTC: Edinburgh: printed for A. Donaldson; and sold by R.

and J. Dodsley, and J. Richardson, London, 1760. Vol. 2 appeard

in 1762. Vol. 3 never appeared.

> 12mo 2 vols

> 5s

> Scot

> M

> poetry anthology

> Smollett, Tobias

> Basker 1988: 220-229

> register ?

> 495 (begins): "How well so every this collection may be calculated

for the meridian of Edinburgh, we are afraid it will not answer

on this side the Tweed: not but that it affords some sparks of genius,

which may one day kindle into a brighter flame"

> N

---

> 7158

> Critical Review

> 15

> 1763 (February)

> 120-126

> Blair, Hugh

> writing anonymously

DNB entry for Blair xeroxed

> A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, the Son of Fingal

> Becket. ESTC: T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt

> 4to.

> 2s. 6d.

> Scottish

> literary criticism poetry

> Smollett, Tobias

> Basker 1988: 220-229

> elegant Scottish

> "...we recommend [this work] to the public as a masterly piece of

criticism, written with such elegance and purity of language, as

some readers of South Britain would not expect to find in the

works of a Scotch professor." (p. 126)

> N

---

> 7164

> Critical Review

> 15

> 1763 (March)

> 200-209

> Ossian

Macpherson, James (trans!)

> Celtic bard

Scottish poet

DNB xeroxed

> Temora, an Ancient Epic Poem

> Becket

> 4to.

> 10s. 6d.

> Scottish

> M

> poetry

> Smollett, Tobias

> Basker 1988: 220-229

> translation redundant orthography

> -reviewer accuses translator/editor of adding poetic epithets not

found in the original Gaelic

editor's orthography new to us!

> Y

---

> 7509

> Critical Review

> 20

> 1765

> 184-188 (Art V)

> Memis, John

> D.M.

> The midwife's pocket-companion: or, a practical treatise of midwifery

on a new plan. Containing full and plain directions for the management

and delivery of child bearing women in different cases, and the

cure of the several diseases incident to them and new born children,

in the safest manner, and according to the best improvements. Adapted

to the use of the females as well male practitioners in that art.

> medicine midwifery

> Smollett, Tobias

> Basker 1988: 220-229

> dialect profession confusing example Scottish

> The author uses many terms "absolutely unintelligible on this side

the Tweed" (186) such as calling the perinaeum the "seam of ths

hips".

> N

---

> 7530

> ?

> Critical Review

> 20 Art. 11

> 1765 Aug.

> 149-152

> Wilson, Andrew

> M.D.

> Short remarks upon autumnal disorders of the bowels

> Wilson and Fell

> 8vo.

> 1s 6d

> Eng.

> M

> medicine

> Smollett, Tobias

> Basker 1988: 220-229

> dialect Scottish incorrect example Latin ? pron

> -criticizes use of Scotticisms such as "predisponing" for

"predisposing" ; "these" is mistaken for "those"

- generally, "the language is neither very correct nor per-

spicacious"

> Y

---

> 7552

> ?

> Critical Review

> 20 Art. 6

> 1765 Aug.

> 124-134

> Stevenson, William

> 1719-1783

M.D.

> Original poems on several subjects

> Hawes

> 12mo.

> 5s

> ?

> M

> poetry

> Smollett, Tobias

> Basker 1988: 220-229

> example invective ad hom dialect Scottish rhyme profession

> -attributes metrical error to "Scotch manner of pronunciation"

such as `severe' rhyming with `air', `practise' rhyming with `rise'

-complains of poet inappropriately satirizing the now dead poet

Churchill : "we would have wished, for his own sake, he had not

disturbed the ashes of that satirist."

- reviewer states : "we cannot in conscience allow him to be a

great poet" though he is likely "an able physician" and a "moral

man"

> Y

---

> 9110

> Critical Review

> 46

> 1778 (September)

> 202-204

> Burney, Fanny

> ESTC:anonymous, 1752-1840

> Evelina, or a young lady's entrance into the world

> Lowndes

> 12mo

> 7s 6d

> F

> fiction novel

> good

> "well written" (204)

> N

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