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THE

QUARTE

OURNAL

LITERATURE, AND ART.

JANUARY TO JUNE, 18-28.

LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON-STREET.

MDCCCXXVIII.

CONTENTS.

On the Inland Navigation of the United States of America,

Parti. 1

Comments on Corpulency. By William Wadd, Esq. F.R.S. , 16
On the Origin of Air Balloons . . . . .29

An Essay on the Remittent and Intermittent Diseases, &c. by J.

Mac Culloch, M.D. &c. reviewed . . . .34

On Mineral Waters, Natural and Artificial. Communicated by

Mr. A. Walker ...... 62

Natural History of the Earwig . . . . ,78

The Characters of Achatinella, a new group of terrestrial Shells,
with Descriptions of six Species. By William Swainson,
Esq. F.R.S. L.S. &c. ..... 81

On the Comparative Population of the World in Ancient and

Modem Times ...... 86

An Account of a New Genus of Plants, named Macrsea. By
. John Lindley, Esq. F.R.S. , &c. .... 104

On the Comparative Merits of the New Refracting, Reflecting,
and Single Microscopes, with a Vindication of Microscopic
Science, and its votaries. By C. R. Goring, M.D. . 107

Hieroglyphical Fragments . . . . .122

On the CUmate of the Canary Islands . . . .123

On a Figured Variety of Coal, occurring in the Coal-field of Gla-
morganshire. By J. Mac Culloch, M.D. F.R.S. . I3i
Remarks on the Ruins at Palenque, in Guatemala, and on the

Origin of the American Indians. By John Ranking, Esq. 135
On the Presence of Chlorine in the Black Oxide of Manganese 154

Extracts from Dr. Ye ATs's Lectures on the Colon . .156

Proceedings of the Royal Institution . , . .167

On the Resonances, or Reciprocated Vibrations of Columns of

Air . . . . . I .175

On the Recent Improvements in the Art of Printing . , 133

Proceedings of the Horticultural Society , . .192

Astronomical AND Nautical Collections . . .195

i. Simple Determination of the most ancient epoch of Astro-
nomical Chronology, in a Letter to Francis Baily,

F.R.S. 195

ii. Elementary View of the Undulatory Theory of Light. By

Mr. Fresnel . . , . . .198

iii. Principal Lunar Occultations of the Fixed Stars in the
months of May, June, July, and August, 1828, cal-
culated for the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. By
Thomas Hsnderson, Esq. .... 215

CONTENTS.

MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.
I. Mechanical Science.

Pagfe
Medal for Chemical Discoveries ... 216

1 Motion produced by the contact

of difierent substances ib.

2 On a Difference in the Velocity

of Intense and Feeble Sounds ib.

3 Distances at which Sounds are

heard 217

4 On tlie Effect of Wind upon

Sound ib.

5 New Material for Paper 218

Page

6 Zinc Roofs 218

7 Method of obtaining the Figure

of a Plant ib^

8 Assamese method of Blasting

Rocks ib.

9 On the Etfects produced by

Magnets tb,

10 On the Apparent Motion of a
small Body in the immediate
neighbournoodofalarger,&c. 219

II. Chemical Science.

1 Heat evolved during Combustion 220

2 Conducting Power for Heat of

the principal Metals, and some
Earthy Substances ib.

3 On the relation of Water to Hot

Polished Surfaces 221

4 On the Tension of the Poles of

a Voltaic Battery 222

5 On Efflorescence ib.

6 Anhydrous Crystals of Sulphate

of Soda....'. 223

7 Habitudes of Sulphuric Acid .. 224

8 On lodo-fluoric Acid ib.

9 On Testing the Presence of Am-

monia in a Substance 225

10 Combination of Lime with Water ib.

1 1 Examination of Copper. Pre-

cipitation of Bismuth 225

12 Brown Oxide of Chromium . . . 226

13 AcccnsionofArsenicalCobaltOre ib.

14 Artificial Ultramarine ib,

15 Ancient Cannon raised from the

Sea ib.

16 On the Active Principle of

Hemlock 227

17 On the Identity of Althea and

Asparagine ib.

18 On Solanic Acid ib.

19 Purification of Alcohol 228

20 Formation of Sulphuric Ether ib.

21 On Proust's Caseous Oxide, and

CaseicAcid 230

III. Natural History.

1 Distribution of Nerves in Mus-

cular Fibre 230

2 Disease ofSilkWorms and its cure 221

3 Temperature below the Earth's

surface tb.

4 Extraordinary Instances of Fall

of Rain 232

5 Rain at Bombay ib.

6 Meteorological Prognostication

observed in the Shetland Isles ib.

7 Fall of Aerolites 233

8 Cold and Warm Localities in the

Valley of Ouse, in Norway... ib,

9 Inflammable Gas from Salt

Works ib.

10 Potash in Mineral Waters ib.

11 Heating Volcanic Products 234

12 Large masses of Native Platina ib.

13 Platina Sand of Russia ib.

Summary of Meteorological Observations for 1827 . . .235

Meteorological Table for December, January, and February . 236

TO OUR READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

We have to acknowledge the arrival of the following articles for insertion
in this Journal, which will be duly attended to : —

On the Junction of Granite and Sandstone in Sutherland, by Dr. MaC
CuUoch.

On the Diluvium in Norfolk, by Mr. Rose.

On the Agency of Carbonic Acid, by Dr. Marshall Hall.

Continuation of the History of Horticulture.

On Malaria, as affecting Ships.

On the Aurora Borealis, by Mr. Kendall.

On the Ornaments of Architecture.

We have also been obliged to postpone the reviews and notices of
several scientific works.

Our thanks are due to the suggestions of "A Constant Reader," who
will perceive that we have attended to them.

The inferences of a correspondent at Manchester are wholly incorrect ;
the length of the communication, which would have occupied at least forty
pages, and the refusal of the author either to abridge or divide it, were the
reasons that induced us to return it. We are frequently obliged to refuse
valuable papers upon similar grounds.

Dr. Mills's letter, from Bogota, has just reached us, and shall appear in
the ensuing number of this Journal.

Mr. Johnson's paper on Saline Manures will appear in our next.

ERRATA IN LAST NUMBER.

In page 285, line 32, for rest, read next.

1.86, „ 22, „ mean „ mere.

287, „ 15, „ Russia „ Prussia,

do., „ do. „ Siberia „ Silesia,

292, „ 12, „ Property „ Prosperity.

In theEphemeris of Encke's Comet, published in the last number,
the dates at the head of the columns are printed 1829 and 1830, instead
of 1828 and 1829; the return of the Comet being expected in the
course of the present year. The mistake was obligingly pointed out
by Dr. Olbers.

THE

QUARTERLY JOURNAL

OF

SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART.

On the Inland Navigation of the United States of America,

PART I.

(Communicated by the Author.)

It is now some time since the United States of America have
ranked as a maritime nation, second to Great Britain alone.
It is, however, only recently that the public attention has been
turned, in that country, to the improvement of internal naviga-
tion ; but such rapid progress has been made in that direction,
within the last ten years, that, in this respect also, it may be
considered as having surpassed any other nation except England :
nay, such is the demand for inland water communication, arising
from the wide spread of an agricultural population, whose pro-
ducts are of great bulk, and nearly all of whose artificial wants
are supplied from foreign countries, that the time cannot be far
distant when, in the extent and number of its canals, the United
States will probably exceed any civilized nation.

Previous to the year 1816 the artificial inland communica-
tions of the United States were limited to a very few imperfect
and partial attempts. With the exception of the Merrimack
Canal in Massachusetts, and the Santee Canal in South Carohna,
no continuous and complete line of artificial navigation existed ;
in all other cases, nothing more had been actually effected, than
to deepen and improve the channels of a few rivers, and to pass
their more abrupt rapids and falls by means of locks. Thus, a
boat navigation, of a precarious kind, had been extended from

JAN.— MARCH, 1828. B

2 Inland Namgation of the

the city of Hartford in Connecticut, to Barnet in Vermont, by
means of the Connecticut River. Locks had been erected at the
Little Falls of the Mohawk River, and a cut made from that
stream to one falling into Lake Oneida; and thus a laborious water
communication effected from Schenectady to Lake Ontario,
and, with the interruption of portages, to some of the smaller
lakes in the state of New York. A variety of canals had, indeed,
been projected — a few had actually been partially executed —
but the public had no faith in their success, and capital could
not be obtained to commence those projected, or complete those
actually begun. Apathy and distrust attended all schemes of
internal improvement ; and some new and powerful impulse
was required to arouse the attention of the community, and
prove the practicability and value of canals. To do this, it was
essential that resources, incapable of exhaustion by any excess
of expenditure beyond the strict estimates, should be provided,
and that an experiment should be made where the revenue
would be immediately sensible. To effect the first of these
objects, it was necessary to bring into action the credit and
revenues of one of the richer and more important states ; to
attain the second, it was essential to exercise great judgment
in the choice of the place where the first portion of canal should
be executed.

This important preliminary step was at last made in the state
of New York. It was resolved, by its legislature, to pledge
the credit of the State, for a loan to make a canal from the
Hudson River to Lake Erie ; and, in the pursuance of this
scheme, a portion of the route was so skilfully chosen, as to
satisfy, at once, even the most violent opponents of the practi-
cability and profit of the enterprise. For this successful expe-
riment, — so important not only to the state of New York, and
those whose commercial convenience is subserved by this canal
directly, but to the Union in general, from the powerful influence
it has exerted upon public sentiment, — the United States is in a
great degree, indeed we may venture to say, wholly, indebted
to the present governor of the state of New York, Dewitt
Clinton. At a time of violent political struggle he ventured
his influence as a politician, and threw the whole weight of his
character and talent into the scale of internal improvement*

United states of America^ 9

Although vehemently opposed by his political adversaries, im-
peded by the lukewarmness of his friends, and thwarted by
narrow views of public economy, he persevered, and succeeded
in convincing a majority of the legislature of the correctness
of his views ; and the resources of the state were embarked in
the enterprise. Even in convincing the reasonable and impartial
of the probability of the success of the undertaking, he met with
much difficulty ; and this arose, in a great measure, from acts
to which he had himself been a party, but from which he had,
on mature reflection, dissented.

The state of New York had, in the year 1810, appointed a
Board of Commissioners to examine and report upon the practi-
cability of an artificial navigation from the Hudson to Lake
Erie. This board, after some preliminary surveys and investi-
gations, made a communication to the Legislature in February
1811. The duty of drawing this report devolved upon the
chairman of the board, Gouverneur Morris, the first named of
the commissioners, and who, from his age, his high talent, and
opportunities for observing the public works of Europe, was
fairly entitled to exercise a preponderating influence over his
colleagues. That this influence was exerted in such a way as
to preclude them from any collateral inquiries, was most unfor-
tunate; for, while the report exhibited, in a most luminous point
of view, the advantages to be derived from a canal, the means
proposed for executing it were so unreasonable, as to startle
the most excited imagination — while, to the cool and calculat-
ing, they rather appeared to prove the impracticability of the
scheme, than as fitted to awaken any hopes of its success. —
Gouverneur Morris, who had some years before dilated with
eloquence on the practicability of a navigation for ships over
the contemplated route, did not venture to broach this magni-
ficent scheme in his report. From this he was probably prevented
by the better judgment of his colleagues ; but he proposed a plan
which, if less startling to those who had never seen a canal, or in-
vestigated the mechanical principles of hydraulic structures, was
equally impracticable in the eye of those who were acquainted,
either in theory or practice, with canal navigation. Stripped
of a few unimportant additions, the plan was, simply — that the
water of Lake Erie should be made to flow into the Hudson

B2

ii Inland Navigation of the

River, upon a plane of uniform descent, and for a distance of
upwards of three hundred miles. It is wholly needless to state
the objections to such a plan, it being obvious, to all competent
judges, that it is not merely impracticable, but impossible," in
the nature of things. This very report, then, upon the strength
of which Mr. Morris has been held up as possessing a superior
claim to Mr. Clinton for useful services in preparing the pub-
lic mind for the execution of the New York Canal, may be fairly
considered as having retarded that great work for several years,
and as having had a most marked effect in increasing the dis-
trust with which it and all similar enterprises were regarded.
Not only was this plan attended with physical impossibilities,
but it included, in its details, mounds and embankments of
mountain vastness, aqueducts of miles in length, and, in short,
structures of various kinds, to which Egyptian labour or Roman
power would have been inadequate.

Mr. Clinton was a member of this commission, and signed
the report ; nor is it to be doubted^ that, confiding in the talent
and genius of Morris, influenced by his powerful eloquence and
reposing trust in the practical aid furnished by the Surveyor-
General of the State, he concurred in it. But his enemies, in
seeking to deprive him of all merit, have absolved him from all
direct agency in preparing it ; while the duties of the most labo-
rious magistracy in the United States^ are a sufficient reason
that he should not have found time to investigate and reason
for himself on the subject.

In the vicissitudes of political life, Mr. Clinton found himself
deprived of office and occupation. He seized this interval of
leisure to devote himself to scientific pursuits 3 and, among
these, the principles of canal navigation were not neglected.
To this we are to ascribe the fact, that, when he was again
called upon to act as a canal commissioner, and became chair-
man of the board, the investigations and surveys, although in
many instances performed by the same persons who had been
so unprofitably employed under the former board, were now
directed so skilfully, as to result in a plan of a canal complete
and practicable in all its parts — the determination of a route

• The mayoralty of the city of New York, which Mr. Clinton then held.

United States of America*' 6

so well selected that it has been rarely necessary to deviate from
it — and the completion of estimates, that have tallied more
closely with the actual cost of construction than, probably, ever
before happened in any similar work. The first two of these
results might, no doubt, have been attained by the employment
of skilful foreign engineers. Such, however, had been the
mistakes in estimate committed by those previously employed
in similar works, by which, in many cases, the objects had been
entirely frustrated, that a well-founded prejudice existed against
their employment ; and the commissioners were left to their
own resources, and the aid of the imperfectly-educated sur-
veyors of the country. The profession of a civil engineer was
then unknown ; and the means of obtaining knowledge, in that
direction, entirely wanting. The other members of the board,
however intelligent and active, gladly yielded to Mr. Clinton
the labour and responsibility; and, under his auspices the plan
assumed a form that stamped it, in the eyes of all reasonable
men, as practicable in itself and within the compass of the re-
sources of the State. In this Board of Commissioners, the
influence of Mr. Clinton was as paramount as that of Mr.
Morris had been in the former. The result, in the one case,
was a plan that was anxiously pressed into execution and found
practicable ; in the other, of an abortive and impracticable
scheme.

We have been thus particular in dwelling upon the happy
influence exerted by Mr. Clinton in the plan of the Great New
York Canal, because many attempts, both direct and insidious,
have been made to deprive him of his merit. It is not in the
plan alone, but in the system of policy which he introduced, — by
which, for the first time in modern history, the whole resources
of a community, in revenue and credit, were brought to bear
upon a great public work, — that we can look for the most im-
portant of the services rendered by Mr. Clinton to his native
state, and to his country at large.

Since the impulse has been given by the successful example
of New York, every portion of the United States has teemed with
plans of public works. Many of these are, in their very nature,
either impracticable or useless ; others, again, are of the utmost

6 Inland Navigation of the

value and importance. The several local legislatures have, in
various ways, aided and encouraged the investigation or actual
construction of canals ; but in none except Ohio has the bold
and successful policy of the state of New York, by which its
whole strength was applied to the purpose, been fully imitated.
The federal government' was applied to at an early period, to
contribute its aid to internal improvement, by a grant of pubUc
land to the several States, in proportion to the extent and im-
portance of the works of internal improvement they might
execute. This failed at the moment, and a constitutional ques-
tion has since arisen, as to the powers of the general govern-
ment in this respect, which bids fair to become the dividing line
of powerful opposing parties.

The inhabited parts of the United Slates may be consi-
dered as divided into two great portions, the sea-coast, and the
western country. Hence, the internal communications may be
naturally arranged into three great classes : those which tend
to form a line of communication parallel to the coast ; those
which connect the AVestern States to the sea-board ; and those
more partial in their objects and limited in their influence.

The coast of the United States presents a variously indented
outline, pierced in several places by great arms of the sea, of
which the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, and Long Island
Sound, are the most remarkable. Their very situation and
direction appear calculated to elicit the inquiry, whether it
would not be possible to connect them, and thus to substitute an
internal communication safe from the violence of storms, and
easily defended from an enemy, for the more tedious and dan-
gerous passage by sea ? This great line of navigation has, con-
sequently, engaged the attention not only of local governments,
but of the general administration. Little has, however, been
actually effected. We shall proceed to point out the several
parts belonging to this system, and mention the condition in
which they respectively stand.

The most northern canal intended to facilitate a communi-
cation parallel to the coast, is one from Massachusetts to Buz-
zard's Bay. This has been carefully examined, within the
last year, by a board of military engineers, and reported to be

United States of America. 7

practicable at no great expense. It is intended that it shall b^
made a navigation for large sloops, but no active steps have
hitherto been taken towards its execution.

Long Island Sound, the Bay and Harbour of New York, and
the Rariton River, afford an uninterrupted navigation for large
sloops as far as New Brunswick, in the state of New Jersey.
From this town to the navigable waters of the Delaware, the
distance is no more than thirty miles. The country is remark-
ably favourable for a canal, which might be executed on a
level sixty feet above the tide, and requiring, in consequence,
about six locks at each extremity. A want of public spirit
and liberal views in the government of the state of Jersey,
has hitherto prevented its accomplishment. It would not be a
difficult matter to show that the tolls, on such a canal, would
yield a profit greater, annually, than the whole revenues of that
state. Still, however, no argument has been found sufficiently
powerful to induce the legislature to take the execution upon
itself. On two different occasions, acts to incorporate private
companies have been passed, but both have been so clogged
with restrictions, as to prevent capitalists from investing their
funds. Nor is there any reasonable hope that the object will
be speedily effected. The state unluckily labours, and must
always labour, under the original defects of its position. Sepa-
rated from the proprietary government of New York, while the
latter was still the apanage of James Duke of York, the limits
had no reference to any other object but ease of demarcation.
The Hudson separates it from New York on the one side, and the
Delaware from Pennsylvania on the other. However definite
these may be as territorial limits, they operate, by their facilities
of navigation, rather as bonds of union, than as divisions of the
inhabitants in their vicinity from those of the two adjacent
states. Hence, the citizens of East and West Jersey have
different feelings and views upon almost every question of public
interest, nor does it appear possible to unite them in exertion
by the force of public spirit. It is, therefore, hardly probable
that this, perhaps the most important of all the links in the
chain of the coast navigation, will be speedily effected, unless
the power of undertaking such enterprises be recognised to

8 Inland Navigation of the

exist in the general government, or it should be construed into
a necessary preparation for future defence. In this last light,
in truth, it may be considered as especially important.

The communication between the Delaware and Chesapeake
Bays, has been under more fortunate auspices. It has been
intrusted by the States of Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsyl-
vania, to a chartered company, which has undertaken, in good
faith and with much spirit, the objects of its incorporation.
This canal will, in consequence, be finished and navigable by the
close of the year 1828. It is calculated for vessels drawing seven
feet of water, and the locks are twenty-two feet in breadth, and
one hundred feet in length between the gates. It lies eight
feet above the high tides of the contiguous bays, and has, there-
fore, but one lock at each extremity, besides the tide locks.
To effect this plan, there is necessarily a deep cut nearly four
miles in length, and seventy-six feet in depth at the highest
part of the ridge. The whole canal is less than eighteen miles
in length.

The navigation of the Chesapeake is safe and uninterrupted
as far as the Capes of Virginia : within these is situated the
town of Norfolk, a commercial mart of some importance. The
harbour of this city has been connected with the sounds that
extend along a great part of the coast of North Carolina, by a
canal passing through a vast morass called the *' Dismal Swamp,'*
whence the name of the communication is derived.

Albemarle, Pamlico, and Core Sounds afford an uninter-
rupted land-locked communication as far as Beaufort, in North
Carolina. But to render the passage more safe and certain, it
has been proposed to cut a canal from Plymouth, through
Washington and Newbern to Beaufort. From this last town, a
range of islands extends, enclosing sounds, to within a few
miles of the mouth of Cape Fear River, with which a commu-
nication may be opened at a small expense. Near the mouth
of Cape Fear River, stands the town of Wilmington, from
which a canal is projected to Georgetown, situated on the river
Pedee, in South Carolina. A canal has also been surveyed
from this last-named place to Charleston, parallel to the coast.
From the harbour of Charleston, a passage exists behind Edisto

United States of America, ^

Island, as far as the river of that name, and from that river a
canal is proposed to unite it to the Savannah, the boundary of
the states of South CaroUna and Georgia.

The whole coast of Georgia is Hned by the sea islands,
within which are navigable sounds, and they extend beyond
the southern limits of the state as far as the mouth of the
river St. John's, in Florida. By means of this last river, or
the St. Mary's the southern boundary of Georgia, engineers,
in the service of the general government, are engaged in seek-
ing a communication for large vessels with the Gulf of Mexico.
That such a passage is practicable is said to be certain ; nay,
it is said that the government is in possession of papers that
prove that one actually exists for vessels of smaller size, which
had been used for piratical purposes, before the cession of
Florida to the United States.

All the canals we have mentioned, from Norfolk southwards,
may be constructed at small expense, as the country is low and
level ; even tide-locks may, in most cases, be dispensed with.

As an appendix to the artificial navigation parallel to the
coast of the United States, may be inserted the navigations of
the Connecticut and Hudson's River, and Lake Champlain.
These form links of the great chain of communication from
the extreme northern frontier to the Gulf of Mexico ; and are,
therefore, more properly classed under this head than as
merely local enterprises.

We have already stated that an imperfect navigation had
long existed from Barnet in Vermont, to Hartford in Connec-
ticut, which last place is accessible by the river of that name
for vessels of upwards of one hundred tons. This was, however,
so precarious and uncertain, that it has been resolved to aban-
don the river altogether, and construct a lateral canal. For
this purpose it has been proposed to leave the river near the
town of Northampton, to proceed by Westfield in Massachu-
setts, and Farmington in Connecticut, to the Port of New-
haven. So much of this canal as lies within the state of
Connecticut, is in rapid progress, and will probably be finished
during the present year, 1828. That part lying in Massa-
chusetts has also been committed, by a liberal act of that
state, to the same incorporated company. Lake Champlain

10 Inland Navigation of the

affords a deep and bold navigation from the Canada frontier to
its head at the village of Whitehall; at this place commences
the *' Champlain Canal" of the state of New York. This
navigation receives its waters from the Hudson River by means
of a weir thrown across it at Fort Edward. The summit ex-
tends north from this twelve miles ; the fall towards the Hud-
son is thirty feet ; towards Lake Champlain fifty-four feet ;
the whole length of the canal is about twenty-four miles.
From Fort Edward the passage was at first effected by deepen-
ing the bed of the Hudson, and by a few lateral cuts as far as
Saratoga, where a lateral canal commenced, extending a dis-
tance of seventeen miles to Waterford, at the confluence of
the Mohawk and Hudson. Subsequent improvements have,
however, been made, so as to form an entire canal from
Fort Edward to Albany, crossing the Mohawk just below the
Falls of the Cohos. From Albany the Hudson is navigable
without interruption, except for a few weeks in the year by
ice, for vessels of one hundred tons : ships of five hundred
tons may ascend as far as the city of Hudson, one hundred and
fifty miles from the sea ; and the largest line-of-battle ship may
find a channel, nowhere less than a thousand yards in breadth,
as far as Newburg, sixty-five miles above the city of New York.
Thus, then, three separate navigations may be considered as
centring in the city of New York, two of which extend to
the extreme northern frontier of the United States ; that by
the Hudson, Northern Canal, and Lake Champlain, is com-
pleted ; that by way of Newhaven to the Connecticut River in a
state of great forwardness; the third, intended to open a passage
to Massachusetts Bay, and to avoid the dangerous and exposed
voyage around Cape Cod, and the shoals of Nantucket, is
seriously contemplated, and practicable at a low expense.
From New York to the south a chain of inland communica-
tion has been investigated, (and one of the most important
parts nearly completed,) by which a vessel may pass safe from
storms, and out of the reach of a maritime enemy so far as the
Gulf of Mexico. When the whole of the links of this chain
will be completed it is difficult to predict. Many parts of it
are, however, called for to facilitate the local traffic of the dis-
tricts in which they are situated ; others again are important

United States of America, 11

only as portions of the general scheme. The first of these will,
no doubt, be speedily accomplished, now that the spirit of in-
ternal improvement has been awakened ; the last will probably
be left to the general government, and may very possibly re-
main untouched, unless the necessity be rendered imperative
by national wants, as it would be in the event of a future war.

To the second class of inland communications belong those
intended to admit a navigation from the sea-coast to the
Western States. These two great divisions of country are
separated by very marked natural boundaries, in the form of
mountains, dividing the streams that flow into the Atlantic from
those falling into the Mississippi or into the great lakes. In
Virginia, and the Carolinas, these mountains may be consi-
dered as forming four parallel chains ; and in these states
there is no valley that crosses all the ridges : indeed one of
them may be considered as entirely continuous, and constitut-
ing a complete barrier to artificial navigation, except by the
aid of long and difficult tunnels. In Pennsylvania, while the
eastern chain of mountains remains distinct, the others spread
out and become involved with each other, and the general
aspect of the country becomes that of a high table-land pene-
trated by a few large valleys. This great table terminates in the
state of New York, and descends, by a series of steps, to the
shores of Lake Ontario. Only a single ridge extends entirely
across the state of New York, and even this is cut through at a
great depth by the valley of the Mohawk River, {it the Little
Falls. The easternmost of these chains of mountains is of pri-
mitive formation, and may be considered rather as a series of
separate hills, than as one continuous ridge. Hence various
streams of large size run through the intervening valleys, but
none under circumstances to admit of an ascending naviga-
tion, except the Hudson. Its tributary, the Mohawk, breaks
through the sole remaining ridge by a valley opening from the
great basin of I^ake Ontario. Of all the other streams that
flow towards the Atlantic, none pass through all the mountains
with exception of the Susquehannah, whose branch, the Tioga,
rises on the w^estern side of the table-land we have spoken of,
and, consequently, forces its way entirely through all the

Vi Inland Navigation of the

ridges. But the lower part of the Susquehannah is so much
obstructed by rocks and rapids, that this circumstance is not
likely to lead to any important practical advantage. The
state of New York, therefore, in the deep navigable channel of
the Hudson and the valley of the Mohawk, possesses natural
facilities for opening a communication far beyond those of any
other state. These natural advantages were, as we have seen,
noticed and partially improved at an early period. They have
been finally completely developed by the construction of the
great western canal, which affords a continuous and uninter-
rupted navigation from the Hudson to Lake Erie, and com-
municates also, by means of a lateral branch, with Lake
Ontario at Oswego. This canal is 363 miles in length ; the
difference of level between Lake Erie and the Hudson is 564
feet ; but the canal may be considered as divided into two
great but unequal sections, one deriving its waters from Lake
Erie, the other from a summit level in the vicinity of Utica.
Lake Erie is made use of as a principal feeder from the mouth
of the canal as far as Montezuma on Lake Cayuga, a distance
of 67^ miles. The descent is 190 feet, by means of twenty-one
locks. Beyond this point the canal rises 62 feet by means of
seven locks to the summit level ; this extends for a distance
of sixty-nine miles of level and uninterrupted navigation.
The descent to the Hudson is by fifty-three locks, twenty of
which lie within the space of a few miles in the vicinity of the
Cohos, or Great Falls of the Mohawk near its junction with
the Hudson. Besides the lesser aqueducts and culverts by
which this canal is carried over smaller streams, it crosses the
Genessee River by an aqueduct of nine arches of 50 feet
span, and the MohaAvk twice by aqueducts of 748 and 1188
feet in length respectively.

The cost of this great work, up to the time it was opened for
navigation, was nearly nine millions of dollars ; seven millions
and a half of which were raised by a loan, for the payment
of the principal and interest of which the faith of the state was
pledged, along with the receipts of several branches of revenue.
These produce about ten per cent, upon the amount borroAved,
and hence ensure the liquidation of the debt within a period
by HQ means remote. Thus, then, had the tolls on the canal

United States of America. 13

been barely sufficient to keep it in repair, the construction of
it was entirely within the reach of the ordinary resources of
the state. But at the moment of its completion the revenue
derived from the tolls became so productive, as to show con-
clusively that the bare pledge of them would have sufficed, both
to pay the interest and extinguish the debt. The income for
the year 1826, the first after the navigation was opened from
the river to the lake, amounted to 800,000 dollars ; for the
year ending 1st of January, 1828, it will not fall short of a mil-
lion. Hitherto, however, the immense receipts have, in a great
measure, been absorbed by the canal itself, which can hardly
be said to be finished even at the present moment. In the
anxiety to reap the advantages its navigation promised, the
work was pressed hastily, and, perhaps, prematurely to its
conclusion. Hence much was unfinished — much required
alteration and repair. The expenditure, however, of the last
two years has gone far towards making the canal complete, and
in a very short space of time, it will be supported at an ex
pense no greater than attends the repairs and care of other
similar works. The debt will then rapidly diminish, and it
may be confidently anticipated that within ten years the state
of New York will possess, free from incumbrance, a source
of revenue more than four times as great as the largest
amount of direct and indirect tax that has ever been levied.
Two parties already exist in relation to the manner of dis-
posing of this wealth : the one would urge its application to
the ordinary expenses of the government, and to the extinc-
tion of burdens already insensible; the other, with wiser policy,
would apply it to the extension of the system of internal im-
provements by means of canals, and rail-roads diverging from
the canal to all accessible portions of the state. The direct
tax of the state of New York was no more than the thou-
sandth part of the value of the property paying it. Under
the influence of the former party, it has already been reduced
to one half. This short-sighted policy has, however, been op-
posed, and meets with deserved censure from the more intelli-
gent. In reference to this question, we conceive we cannot do
better than extract a portion of the message of Governor

14 Inland Navigation of the

Clinton to the legislature of New York, at the opening of their
Session in January, 1828. Coming from him, the great author
of this successful system of policy, it is worthy of deep attention.
*' Considering the high reputation, and the great name,
which this state has derived from her internal improvements,
it is equally astonishing and mortifying to observe elaborate
and systematic attempts to depreciate their utility and arrest
their progress. It is manifestly an uncandid and superficial
view of the subject, to confine an estimate of its benefits to
an excess of income above the interest of expenditure ; and
yet this standard of appreciation has been adopted. Artificial
navigation was established for public accommodation, for the
conveyance of articles to and from markets, and revenue is
a subordinate object. It was never intended as a primary object
to fill the coffers of the state, but to augment the general opu-
lence, and to animate all the springs of industry and exertion,
and to bring to every man's door an easy and economical means
of access to the most advantageous places of sale and pur-
chase. To narrow down this momentous and comprehensive
subject to a mere question of dollars and cents, is to lose
sight of the great elements of individual opulence, of public
wealth and national prosperity. It excludes from consideration
the one hundred millions of dollars, which have, in all proba-
bility, been added to the value of real estate — the immense
appreciation of all the products of agriculture which were for-
merly shut out in a great degree from market — the solid and
extensive establishment of inland trade — the vast accessions to
our marketable productions — the unbounded encouragement
of our marine navigation and external commerce — the facility,
rapidity, and economy of communication — the creation of a
dense population, and the erection and increase of villages,
towns, and cities, and the most efficient encouragement of
agriculture and the arts, by a cheap supply of materials for
fabrics, and of markets for accommodation. But if we were
to overlook these important considerations, and confine our-
selves to mere questions of revenue, we shall see enough to con-
vince the most sceptical, that immense pecuniary benefits must
flow from new channels of hydraulic communication with the

United states of America, IS

Susquehannah, the Allegany, and the St. Lawrence, and their
auxiliary and connecting waters, and by a great avenue or state
road from the Hudson to Lake Erie."

The lateral canals mentioned in the above extract, belong to
another branch of our subject. This, together with the ac-
count of the remaining plans of communication between the
Atlantic and Western States, we shall reserve for another paper.

The great canal of the state of New York terminates ia
Lake Erie, from which it opens a passage for barges of an
hundred tons in burden. From the eastern extremity of this
lake, an uninterrupted line of internal seas extends to the
furthest limit of Lake Superior. The shores of these vast
bodies of fresh water embrace a circuit of many thousand miles,
every part of which is accessible for vessels of size fitted to
bear the tempestuous weathers of these lakes. But one shore
of the most of these lakes is occupied by another nation, whom
proper considerations of policy will urge to divert the trade
into the channel of the St. Lawrence. Much of the shores of
these lakes, too, is unfitted in soil or climate to support a dense
and wealthy population. The most important extrinsic source
of the trade of the New York Canal is therefore to be sought
in the states that lie between the great lakes and the Ohio, and
even in the extension of artificial navigation to the new coun-
tries west of Mississippi. Of these states, Ohio is alone in a
position that can enable it to do much at the present period.
Of all the states of the Union, it is as yet the only one that
has imitated, on a broad scale, the policy of the state of New
York, in pledging its resources, in property and revenue, to pay
the interest upon, and redeem loans to be applied to, internal
improvement. With funds thus raised, a canal has been com-
menced, and is rapidly making from Cleaveland on Lake Erie
to the junction of the Scioto River with the Ohio; another is
projected and actually commenced, from the navigable waters
of the Maumee, which fall into Lake Erie, to those of the
Miami, a branch of the Ohio. What has been executed of
the first of these, has already produced a revolution of the
trade of the state ; as the tobacco that formerly descended the
Mississippi to New Orleans, has been forwarded on cheaper

16 Inland Navigation of America.

terms to NewYork, and thence ship[)ed to the sta{)les of Virgi-
nia and Maryland. The success of this enterprise will probably
lead to the establishment of a tobacco staple at New York.

In the early stage of the trade of the countries on the Ohio,
their products were embarked in rude vessels that descended by
that river and the Mississippi to New Orleans. Here the vessels
were broken up for fuel, and the money arising from the sale
of the merchandise remitted to Philadelphia or Baltimore:
from these cities the returns in foreign manufactures were con-
veyed across the mountains to the Ohio, and on its waters to
convenient points of distribution. The introduction of the
steam-boat produced a partial change, in permitting many
articles to be conveyed up the Mississippi against its powerful
stream. A third change is at hand, by which a great district
of country will be brought into communication with New York
as a mart both of import and export; while another, equally
extensive, will have it in its power to choose between that
city and New Orleans according to the circumstances of sea-
son, using the former in summer, the latter during the winter
months.

Comments on Corpulency. — By William Wadd, Esq., F.L.S.

Ridentem dicere verum

Quid vetat ?

The celebrated traveller, Dr. Clarke, alluding to the Pyramids of
Egypt, says, ** the mind, elevated by w^onder, feels at once the
force of the axiom, which, however disputed, experience con-
firms, — that in Vastness, whatever he its nature, there dwells sub-
limity." Why, therefore, may not the mountains of fat, the human
Olympi and Caucasi, excite our attention? — they fill a large
space in society — are great objects of interest, and ought to
afford us no small matter of amusement and instruction.

It is now nearly twenty years since I gave, in some *' Cursory
Remarks on Corpulence," an account of all the most conspicu-
ous of these mountaineers from the earliest period ; and not-
withstanding Mr. Malthus's theories for thinning the population,
and my own for thinning the person, bodily bulk, or obesity,
seems as much in fashion as ever: and, if we judge from the man-

Comments on Corpulency. 17

ner in which the jolly gentlemen of the age proclaim eternal war
with Maigre and Lent, the march of fat-folks will, at any rate,
keep pace with the march of intellect. Nor, is it to be won-
dered at, when we consider the great improvement in the art of
cookery — which has arrived at such perfection, as to bring within
the compass of one stomach, what nature provided for two.

'* Plures crapula quam gladius " — is an old adage ; which,
in a free translation, means — Cookery depopulates like a pesti-
lence ; — and we have had doctors disseminating this plague,
with as much moral culpability, as illegitimate practitioners
have the small-pox. This is no new doctrine ; it is as old as
the days of Seneca, who says, *' innumerabilis morbos mirabilis,
coquos numera" — we cannot wonder at the number of diseases,
when we recollect the number of cooks ! For this reason, a
celebrated modern physician, when visiting his opulent patients,
never failed to pay his respects to the cooks: — "My good
friends," he used to say, '* accept my best thanks for all the
kind services you render us physicians ; were it not for you and
your pleasing poisons, the Faculty would soon find themselves
inhabitants of the workhouse."

But let us speak with reverence of an art that is as old as
King Cadmus, and let us recollect that Henry IV. of France was
often in the kitchen ; that a corps of missionary cooks have
been considered the most powerful emissaries to convert the
Brahmins, — and that when the devil himself sends us a plague
in the shape of a bad cook, infernal malice can go no further.

Que je puisse toujours apres avoir din6,
B6nir le cuisinier que le ciel m'a donn6.

Were we inclined to philosophise on this subject, we should
say — that the portly show — the beautiful rotundity of Burke —
and the serpentine line of Hogarth — which exist in the fat wor-
thies of this day, compared with those of former times, are in
proportion to the superiority of modern over ancient cookery.

The hon vivant of our time turns shocked and disgusted from
the black broth, pulse, and meagre fare of the ancients ; and
his refined taste bestows due contempt on the patriot who could
dine on turnips ! Agesilaus, Lycurgus, and Cincinnatus, may

JAN. — MARCH, 1828.

18 Comments on Corpulency.

have been brave and wise — but would Brummel wish to dine
with them ?

Athens was httle skilled in the higher branches of cookery ;
— and even imperial Rome considered quantity more than qua-
lity. Lucullus, Apicius, and Cselius indeed deserved to have
lived in the days of turtle, French sauces, and Kitchener — the.
great culinary censor of the age. He was, indeed, the " Oracle
of Cooks." No man ever possessed a tact of palate more cer-
tain, more delicate, or more infallible. He fed with the gravity
of a senator — and tasted with the zeal of an artist, whose whole
gustatory organs were employed in promoting the progress of
his art. In the profundity of his reflections, he usually took
three or four hours to digest a peptic precept, or solve a dinner-
problem. Hence his opinions became oracular. From his de-
cisions respecting whatever appertained to the art of alimenta-
tion, there was no appeal. His opinion constituted law; and
should it ever be possible to form a collection of such decisions,
it will be hailed as the Epicurean code of the age.

In these days of philosophical fancies, we read a man's his-
tory and character at a single glance. As a craniologist will
tell you his good or evil propensities — so a physician, by the
expression of his visage, will say what he dines upon — and,
moreover, (what may not be generally known,) that our personal
beauty depends upon eating and drinking ; the ugUness of the
Calmucks being solely owing to their feasting on raw flesh, —
an alarming piece of news to all eaters of (half-dressed) beef,
and a convincing proof of the importance of cookery. In truth,
as many of our best physicians, and some of our ablest modern
surgeons, have demonstrated "that a healthy state of the body
depends on the due regulation of diet," the importance o^ judi-
cious cookery must be very evident. Nay, the philosophy of
some have carried them so far, as to conjecture that not only
the health of the body corporate, but that the safety of the state
is connected with this art. Ill-concocted viands not only pro-
duce commotions in the human bowels, but

" Convulsions and heats in the bowels of Europe : "

for it is an axiom sanctioned by the highest authority, that well-
digested opinions are the product of well-digested viands, and

Comments on Corpulency. J||

vice versd — from which it will appear, the domestic ordering of
diet is as important a matter of administration as the Materia
medica ; and that the Roman general who boiled his own tur-
nips, would, if he had had a cabbage to boil, have boiled it in
two successive waters, as he had doubtless discovered that vege-
tables were **/ac?e" and flatulent, unless freed from much
noxious matter by culinary process.

Cicero says *^ old age has no precise or determinate boun-
dary," — and many philosophers have thought, that men might
live, like the patriarchs of old, for centuries, if they took proper
means. Proper means ! What do they mean by proper means ?
The answer is — cookery and diet.

" Caro animata cur vivit et non putrescit ut mortua ? Quia quotidie renovatur."

Sanctorius.

Hippocrates, the great father of the medical and chirurgical
art, laid much stress, and wrote largely upon diet. But, during
the last century, medical men thought it necessary to apologise
for treating on these subjects : since, however, local complaints
have been found to be intimately connected with constitutional
influences, surgery has taken an enlarged sphere, and they are
now entertained as both proper and pleasant.

Fashion, which holds an undivided empire over the frivolous
concerns of life, extends its influence even to the healing art.
Thus we find fashionable complaints — fashionable remedies — .
fashionable seats of disease — and fashionable plans of treatment.
Haifa century ago, " nervous complaints " were the ton. These
were superseded by ** liver complaints," — and these again have
yielded the palm to '* stomach complaints. " *' Duodenal com-
plaints " are beginning to be talked of in London — while the
hypochondriacs of Bath have their fashionable localities : so
that, at present, the seat of alimentary complaints depends on
the accidental circumstance of the patient's residence.

Formerly, we sought the phenomena of insanity in the head
and brain — the causes of cough in the lungs and pleura ; — but,
"nous avons change tout cela," we look into the head for
the causes of hooping-cough, and for the causes of insanity
we search the bowels and stomach. In fact, the stomach
is charged (now a-days) with one-half the complaints of man-
kind ; and, amongst others, the complaint in Question, viz,

C2

20 Comments on Corpulency,

Obesity — notwithstanding some fancifnl properties given to the
colon, as to the secretion of fat. Sir Anthony Carhsle says,
that long-continued experience has taught him that the first
effects of senility are to be traced to the stomach, and that many
incipient disorders are to be sought for in the evidence of the
stomach, and its dependencies.

During the reign of nerves, camphor-julep and cordials were
in vogue. When the popular hypothesis about the liver pre-
vailed, mercurial drugs were lavished in a manner that made
Dr. Reynolds predict that calomel would be taken by the tea-
spoonful. '' Pe^j^icjarecep^s" perhaps prevented it. The chy-
lopoietic functions put in their claims ; and then every body
suddenly discovered that they had a stomach ! " Don't you
think," said an hypochondriac to me one day, '* that dyspepsia
has wonderfully increased of late !" adding, at the same time,
** By the bye, what is dyspepsia ?"

Although gastric disorders and gastric doctrines at present
engross the thoughts and employ the pens of all denominations
of persons, yet they are by no means novelties. The stomach
has been the subject of complaint from the earliest ages. The
rich man has complained that his stomach would not allow him
to eat any thing : the poor man, that it ate every thing, and
was never satisfied. — And the good Erasmus complained, that
in spite of all his Catholic propensities, his stomach would be
Lutheran ; — and, moreover, a very learned and ancient physi-
cian specifically treated this affair, in a grave work entitled
** Ventriculi querelse et opprobia." In truth, it has been satis-
factorily proved, that in every stage of human life — health and
disease — pleasure and pain — and even life and death, are depen-
dent on the functions of the stomach.

An old English adage says, " it is the stomach makes the legs
amble, and not the legs the stomach." Shakspeare knew its
importance and powers well : Fontenelle magnanimously avowed
that there was no enjoying Hfe without a good one — ^' pour bien
jouir de la vie il faut avoir un mauvais coeur, et un ban estomac ;''
— and Serenus Samonicus many centuries before says,

*' Qui slomachum regem totius corporis esse
Contendunt, vera niti ratione videntur."

In the vagaries of modern philosophy, it contends for the seat

Comments on Corpulency. (H

of the soul ; and naturalists have gone so far as to make it the
organ of civilization, from the fanciful hypothesis, that animals
submit to domestication in proportion to the subjection in which
their will is held by their appetite : certain it is, that the stub-
born and rebellious are remarkable for their indifference to the
pleasures of the table ; and that *' short commons " and insub-
ordination are uniform, as cause and effect, upon the princir
pie, no doubt, of Sancho Pancha's reasoning — that " when the
stomach is full the bones will be resting."

The variation in the capacities and powers of living organs—
the peculiarities and deviations from the ordinary course of
the human constitution, or what has been termed idiosyncrasy ^
particularly as relating to the stomach, affords much amusing
** materiel."

We find sometimes very stout, strong persons, particularly
Northern cousins, from some peculiar idiosyncrasy, or some
meagrim in the chylopoietic functions, cannot endure certain
of the most agreeable and innocent articles of food ; — thus fish,
flesh, fowl, butter, cheese, bacon, and good red-herring, each
in its turn, is despised and loathed. It puzzles philosophy to
account for some of these whimsicalities. As for instance, why
a man six feet high should faint away at the sight of a shoulder
of mutton ; why another tall gentleman should have muttonic
aversions so great, as to be able to point a mutton-pie, as a
pointer would a partridge ; — while a third " Herculean deli-
cate," minces his meat, and puts aside all fat, gristle, and skin,
with the fastidiousness of a puny school-girl.

Another peculiarity that excites our astonishment, is the va-
riety in the capacity and power of the stomach, which enables
one man to swallow the whole of another man's grievance, —
for there are those who would eat an entire shoulder of mutton
in as little time as his anti-muttonic neighbour would be
recovering from the sight of it*. Much of both these evils
arises from the error of early education, and the force of habit;
and both are to be controlled, or at any rate moderated by the
will, as might be illustrated by some singular examples.

♦ It is recorded on the tombstone of James Parsons, buried at Teddington, March
7, 1 743, that he had often eaten a whole shoulder of mutton and a peck of hasty
pudding.

22 Comments on Corpulency,

Some men have appeared with the digestive powers of a
double stomach, to which the grinding properties of a gizzard
seemed superadded. They may have been considered as " nati
consumere fruges/' and in the scale of living animals, ought to
have been ranked with the cormorant or the ostrich. Of these,
Marriot, the great eater of Gray's Inn, was a conspicuous in-
stance. He increased his natural capacity for food by art, and
had as much vanity in eating to excess, as any monk ever had
in starving himself. Nicholas Wood, mentioned in Fuller's
Worthies, was another example of great prowess.

These morbid or extravagant propensities of English sto-
machs, lead us very naturally to believe, that their late majes-
ties from the Sandwich Isles, might, as was reported of them,
pick the bones of a good-sized pig; or that an Esquimaux may
dine very daintily on a bit of a whale, a Russian on tallow, or,
what is still more revolting to our notions, that African gentle-
men should eat one another !

Humanity shudders at this barbarous and savage practice,
and some humane physiologists have questioned the power of
the stomach to digest human flesh, and doubted the existence
of Anthropophagi ; while others, who are latitudinarians, not
only allow it omnivorous powers, but affirm that the stomach,
in some instances, has been known to eat itself ! This, with
the feats performed some years ago, by the stone-eater, who
gave alarming indications of wishing to devour the marble Fa-
ther Thames, then just put up in the square at Somerset
House, may be considered the very "ne plus ultra" of di-
gestion.

The existence of Anthropophagi, however, is but too true ;
and when, for the sake of humanity, we had hoped that the
practice was on the decline, we are shocked at hearing, that in
a neighbouring country, symptoms of cannibalism have ap-
peared, the lamentable result, no doubt, of the high price of
provisions ; for the Journal de Perpignan contains a detailed
account of a family of cannibals being arrested so near our own
home as France. But we have another melancholy proof of
the existence of this propensity, in people who have not the
excuse of the high price of provision, given by John Anderson,
Esq., who went lately on a Mission to the Coast of Sumatra.

Comments on Corpulency, "SB

He found what might be considered the fashionables of that
part of the world, so vitiated in their appetites, that they could
relish no other food, and that they would have swallowed the
Missionary much sooner than his doctrines. The royal person
tvho ruled over them was always afflicted with a pain in his
stomach, whenever he ate any other than human flesh. A bit
of an enemy was considered a treat ; and whenever his majesty
went to war, besides the ready ** sauce piquante" of malignant
feelings, he was furnished with salt and lemon-juice.

It does not, however, appear that these Anthropophagi were
corpulent, any more than the French prisoner who ate sixteen
pounds of raw beef, and other great eaters of meat ; whose
whole history proves, that the ** coenas sine sanguine," of Ho-
race, possessed more materia pinguefaciendi.

While we congratulate ourselves on the diminution of mor-
tality, which has accompanied the improvements in the con-
dition of society, — our pleasure is alloyed by the reflection, that
considerable deduction is to be made in our estimate, according
to the mercantile phrase, of profit and loss, by the increase of
a set of diseases, which are to be attributed to the augmentation
of national wealth, with its concomitants, luxury and high-
living.

Thus, instead of finding the annual bills of mortality an-
nouncing in the deadly list, plague, pestilence, and famine, —
not forgetting small-pox, — we read gout, apoplexy, palsy, and
even obesity, and a host of minor evils connected with re-
pletion.

Among the grievous calamities incident to corpulency, no-
ticed in a former publication, was its susceptibility of contagion
and its proneness to combustion, — and an instance was men-
tioned of a French lady whose fat caught fire. The Margra-
vine of Bareuth also notices a fat French princess who melted
after she was embalmed. I have since discovered, in the Chro-
nicles of Cromwell's time, that these combustible materials iri
man, were turned to good account in those days, and that a
woman who kept a tallow chandler's shop in Dublin, made all
her best candles from the fat of Englishmen, and when one
of her customers complained of their not being so good as
usual, she apologized by saying,^* Why, ma'am, I am sorry to

124 Comments on Corpulency.

inform you, that, for this month past, I have been short of Eng-
lishmen."

Another inconvenience to which the corpulent must submit,
is the absolute prohibition from horsemanship, and the diffi-
culty of transportation from place to place, which may be
illustrated by the following anecdotes, of late occurrence : —

Mr. B , of Bath, a remarkably large, corpulent, and

powerful man, wanting to go by the mail, tried for a place a
short time before it started. Being told it was full, he still de-
termined to get admission, and opening the door, which no one
near him ventured to oppose, he got in. When the other pas-
sengers came, the ostler reported that there was a gentleman in
the coach ; he was requested to come out, but having drawn up
the blind, he remained quiet. Hearing, however, a consulta-
tion on the means of making him alight, and a proposal to
** pull him out," he let down the blind, and laying his enormous
hand on the edge of the door, he asked, who would dare to
pull him out, drew up the blind again, and waiting some time,
fell asleep. About one in the morning he awoke, and call-
ing out to know whereabouts he was on the journey, he
perceived, what was the fact, that to end the altercation with
him, the horses had been put to another coach, and that he
had spent the night at the inn-door at Bath, where he had
taken possession of the carriage.

A similar occurrence took place lately at Huddersfield. A
gentleman went to a proprietor of one of the coaches to take a
passage for Manchester, but, owing to the enormous size of his
person, he was refused, unless he would consent to be taken as
lumber, at 9c?. per stone, hinting at the same time the ad-
vantage of being split in two. The gentleman was not to be
disheartened by this disappointment, but adopted the plan of
sending the ostler of one of the inns to take a place for him,
which he did, and, in the morning, wisely took the precaution
of fixing himself in the coach, with the assistance of the by-
standers, from whence he was not to be removed easily. Thus
placed, he was taken to his destination. The consequence was,
on his return, he was necessitated to adopt a similar process^
to the no small disappointment of the proprietors, who were
compelled to convey three gentlemen, who had previously

Comments on Corpulency. ^

taken their places, in a chaise, as there was no room beside
this gentleman, \vho weighs about thirty-six stone !

In enumerating the little miseries of the corpulent, their
exposure to ridicule should not be forgotten. Even the austerity
of Queen Elizabeth could relax into a joke, on the fat Sir
Nicholas Bacon, whom she was classically pleased to define as
** Vir praepinguis," observing ** right merrilie," ** Sir Nicholas's
soul lodged well." The good-humoured antiquary, Grose,
was earnestly entreated by a butcher to say " he bought his
meat of him!" *'God bless you, sir," said the paviours to
the enormous Cambridge professor, as he passed over their
work. Christopher Smart, the translator of Horace, celebrated
the three fat beadles of Oxford ; and the fat physician. Dr.
Stafford, was not allowed to rest in his grave without a witticism :

" Take heed, O good trav'IIer, and do not tread hard,
" For here lies Dr. Stafford, in all this church-yard.^^

Our good King Edward IV. even made a practical joke with
the Corporators of London ; for when he invaded France, in
1475, he took care to be accompanied by some of the most
corpulent Aldermen of London, " Les bourgeois de Londres
les plus charges de ventre^^ that the fatigues of war might the
sooner incline them to call out for peace.

Many illustrious cases might have been found in France
equal to the specimens Edward took with him, even among royal
and noble persons-*-of which Charles the Fat, Louis le Gros,
Sanctius Crassus, and " Corpus Poetarum," the fat poetic Elector
of Cologne, were notable instances.

In the court of Louis XV. there were two very fat noblemen,

the Duke de L , and the Duke de N . They were

both at the levee one day, when the king began to rally the
former on his corpulency: '* You take no exercise, I suppose,"

said the king. " Pardon me, sire," said de L , '^ I walk

twice a day round my cousin de N •." About the same time

the French Queen, in a haughty tone, demanded of a fat French
wit, " Quand il accoucheroit ?" — " Quand j'aurais trouve une
sage femme," was the ready reply, which stopped further inter-
rogatories. Nor ought we to omit, among other minor personal
disadvantages of these great personages, the expense of cloth-
ing J and the inconvenience that has been known to arise from

26 Comments on Corpulency.

the likeness of one fat man to another, which, during the search
for Georges, in France, harassed all the fat people from one
end of Gaul to the other.

Having hitherto treated the subject in *' merry mood," let
us now look at it in a more serious way. Fat is, of all the
humours or substances, forming part of the human body, the
most diffused ; a certain proportion of it is indicative of health,
and denotes being in good condition — nay, is even conducive
to beauty ; but when in excess — amounting to what may be
termed obesity — it is not only in itself a disease, but may be
the cause of many fatal effects, particularly in acute disorders.
Many able medical writers of the last century attributed serious
evils to the local, as well as thie general derangements, that
occasionally take place in fat. Many of these might be " whims
of a day, and theories of an hour" — fancies dependant on the
then physiological and pathological theories, but they speak
very positively to certain facts.

Monsieur Lorry, a celebrated French physician, indulged in
Bome curious spieculations relative to acute diseases, arising
from the admixture of bile, milk, or pus^ with fat, in a fluid
state. Either of these uniting with the last, in certain con-
ditions of the body, would produce a sort of *^ tertium quid/*
in the shape of a soapy liquor, causing acute diseases in some,
and chronic diseases in others ; and persons have been supposed
to die of consumption when, in fact, they were washed away to
the other world by their own soap !* Pus and fat mixing toge-

* There is no substance in the human body, M. Lorry observes, more active in
reducing fat, than pus. Pus mixed with fat gives it the solubility of soap. A purulent
mass, and a fatty mass, mixed together, unite with uncommon promptitude. The
first effect of this liquefied mass is to produce high-coloured hot urine, which in a few
minutes becomes turbid, like badly made soap, when dissolved. It acquires an in-
supportable odour, and deposits very little red sediment. There floats upon the surface
an oily substance, imitating, in colour, the Ta.\nhoyv , the putrid volatility of which
is so strong as to affect the eyes. The patient feels an oppression about the chest,
and difficulty of breathing, which is a little relieved by spitting up a yellow bloody
phlegm. Frequently, erysipelatous spots appear on the skin, and become hard j
sometimes even the muscular parts become hard, as if penetrated by these spots ; in
a few days the eyes become yellow, the liver inflamed and painful. This threatens
jaundice, which, if it terminates successfully, is carried oft" by copious bilious eva-
cuations. Hippocrates remarks, that the crisis is fatal, if it happens before con-
coction, or if the evacuation does not lessen the bulk of the patient, by discharging
the whole of the soapy basis of the fat, that has the character of bile. The liver acts
as a depuratory organ to the fat, receiving and evacuating the corrupted humours,
and may be considered, according to this ancient doctor, in these cases, as the
emanctory of the fat.

Comments on Corpulency. 'VfJ

ther in a gland, became, according to this doctrine, as active as
gunpowder, and generally ended in a sort of critical explosion,
in the shape of an abscess : the omentum, as might be supposed,
was a frequent seat of these combustions. This is confirmed
by a celebrated English accoucheur — no less a person than
Dr. Leake, physician to the Westminster Lying-in Hospital, and
celebrated throughout Europe for his Pilula Salutaria, who, in
a book published 1775, describes a species of epidemic fever,
that appeared among the pregnant patients, which he attributed
to suppuration of the omentum. Nor is the mixture of milk
and fat, according to these authorities, less terrific. Notwith-
standing they both take their principal properties from the
aliment, and ought to assimilate, they quarrel desperately when
they come in contact, which occasionally arises from a meta-
stasis of milk to the principal seats of fat, particularly the omen-
tam and loins.

It is admitted that corpulent people, when in a state of health,
secrete less bile than others ; yet, from accidental causes, such
as acute diseases, they engender a vast quantity, and it appears
as if the liver assumed the power of manufacturing the fat into
bile. This gives rise to green bile, black bile, bilious vomitings,
and a thousand symptoms, not to be enumerated ; and the great
Ruysch is even found indulging in some fanciful notions, which
involve the Fallopian tubes in the consequences of some of
these biliary vagaries.

The immediate action of bile upon fat is not perhaps capa-
ble of strict proof, though there are a variety of phenomena not
easily accounted for on any other principle. Nothing reduces
a corpulent person so rapidly as those sudden bilious evacuations
that take place in hot weather. Who has not seen, in what is
called the ^' plum season," a combustion take place, commonly
charged to the account of the innocent fruit, that, in the short
space of a few days, transforms a fat friend into a delicate
dandy ! It is, in fact, a bilious, adiposical diarrhoea ; and those
who have looked into the matter very closely, have detected
fat with the bile, and some keen pursuers of animal chemistry
have asserted that a fatty substance may be obtained from bile.

Some French physicians have thought that acids gave a
character to fat ; and it has been questioned, whether the crude

28 Comments on Corpulency.

acid, found in the primae vise, in some cases of debility, and in
the weakness of infancy, do not occasionally produce very active
constitutional diseases.

Sir Anthony Carlisle, who has paid great attention to the
eftects of acids, and has given a scientific analysis of acid sub-
stances, says, '^ that acids not only act upon the stomach and
its contents, but they likewise pervade the whole body." Many
people are affected with pimples shortly after taking acids ; very
many are affected with burning heat in the face, immediately
after taking vinegar ; gouty pains, spasms, and itching over the
whole body, are inevitable consequences of the taking acids,
with a great portion of mankind. My own father was a sin-
gular example of the deleterious effects of acids ; and he found,
from experience, so much relief from preparations of chalk, that
he was never without a box of the Creta preparata in his pocket.

Alimentary acidities are also the causes of erysipelas, and
many herpetic diseases ; and those who are subject to eruptions
on the face, experience a sensible aggravation immediately after
taking acids.

External heat may be ranked among the causes that alter
fat. Fat people are much incommoded by any sudden transition
from cold to heat. In a very hot season, if a fat person under-
goes violent exercise, it is possible for the fat, not only to become
putrid, and produce petechial fever, but it may become in some
parts rancid and soapy, particularly after a previous dry season —
at least, so says Monsieur Lorry.

Aromatic substances are also supposed to give a character to
fat. From the aptitude of fat to imbibe aromatic particles, it
is natural for it to partake of the qualities of the aliment. Thus
the odour from the fat of those who live solely on animal food
is very foetid ; so with birds, living entirely on fish. It is re-
ported of the French prisoner, who cat many pounds of animal
food in the course of the day, that it was scarcely possible to
approach him. The odour of garlick remains with those who
have eaten it for many days.

Mr. Hunter says, ** The essential oils of vegetables and
animals, indigestible, are soluble either in gastric juice or chyle,
by which means they become medicinal, from their stimulating
powers. The essential oil of vegetables, but more particularly

On Air Balloons. ^'

that of animals, would seem to pervade the very substance of
those animals whose food contains much oil. Thus, we find
sea-birds, whose constant food is fish, taste very strongly of
fish ; and those who live on that kind of food only during
certain times of the year, as the wild duck, have that taste only
at such seasons. This fact is so well known, that it was hardly
necessary to put it to the test of an experiment ; yet, I took two
ducks, and fed one with barley, the other with sprats, for about
a month, and killed both at the same time : when they were
dressed, the one fed wholly on sprats was hardly eatable, it
tasted so strongly offish." — Hunter's Observations on Digestion,
p. 177.

From the preceding detail, it would appear that the patho-
logical examination of fat furnishes us much matter for reflec-
tion on the changes that may be produced in fat, in the living
state, by the process of digestion, as also the probable causes
of the transmutation of diseased appearances, and the sudden
change that sometimes takes place in the character of acute
diseases.

Leaving these discussions to the doctors for *' Non nostrum
inter vos tantas componere lites," we shall proceed to the object
of our inquiry, viz. corpulency and its consequences.

[To be continued.]

On the Origin of Air Balloons,

S Uj ^ Bristol, December 20,1827.

It is rather remarkable that so many books having been
published on the subject of balloons, and so much money ex-
pended in useless experiments to discover a method of guiding
them with precision, no one that I know of has as yet pointed
out the origin of the invention, which will be found, copiously
detailed, accompanied by a figure explanatory, in a folio volume,
dedicated to Leopold L, by Francesco Lana, a Jesuit of Brescia ;
and published by Rizzardi, of Brescia, MDCLXX. The prin-
cipal part of this volume is taken up by eight chapters on the
subject of telescopes and microscopes, in which he gives di-
rections for grinding lenses, and reflectors of metal, with plans to
give the true hyperbolic, elliptic, and parabolic curves, the latter

30 On Air Balloons

of which is extremely ingenious, and shows how well all this
part of the business was understood in Italy some years before
Sir Isaac Newton sent in his first papers on the subject to the
Royal Society. There are twenty plates of his own engraving,
in outline only, except No. 3, on which he has given a feebly
shadowed representation of his favourite invention, the aerial
ship, with its four balloons, its mast, and sail ; but as the book
must be very scarce, it not having been noticed by either
Fontanini, or Apostolo Zeno, or found in the Floricel catalogue,
I may as well give you the title at length, which is as follows : —

*' Prodromo — overo saggio di alcune inventioni nuove permesso
air arte Maestra — opera chez prepara H. P. Francesco Lana,
Breccian, Delia compagnia di Giesu, per mostrare li piii ri-
conditi principij della naturale Filosofia, riconosciuti con accu-
rata Teorica nelle piu segnalate inventioni, ed isperienze sin'
hora ritrovate da gli scrittori di questa materia, et altre nuove
deir autore medesimo. — Dedicate alia sacra Maestra Cesarea
del Imperatore Leopoldo I. — In Brescia, MDCLXX."

The book is beautifully printed in small folio, and has a
preface of seventeen pages, on the subject of the state of the
sciences in his day, and the necessity of adopting the expe-
rimental mode in natural philosophy. Of course, like all the
writers of that period, he is verbose, but in many respects very
interesting, and, in general, very rational and ingenious. We
will now, however, lay aside all criticism, and relate what he
writes on the subject of his balloon vessel, which is the most
remarkable novelty in his book.

After having, in his fifth chapter of mechanic inventions, to
cause birds to fly through the air, spoken of Architus's dove *,
Baptista Forio^^s flying dragon; the relation of Aulus Gellius
in his tenth book of the Aiijic Nights ; Regiomontanus^s famous
eagle, which flew to Charles V. on his entrance into Nurem-
burg ; Boetius's narration of certain copper birds, which not
only flew, but sang ; Glicas's relation of other similar birds,
which belonged to the Emperor Leo ; and Vamiano Strada's
account of those which Tariano made for Charles V., to amuse
him in his retirement, — he goes on to give the rationale of
such contrivances, by four different modes, all very plausible ;
and then, in his sixth chapter, the title of which is, How to

On Air Balloom, 3i"

construct skips ^ which shall be sustained only by the air^ and
be conducted by means of a mast and sail — the practicability
of which is demonstrated , he thus proceeds —

" The human intellect is not satisfied with the above inven-
tions, but proceeds to improve on them by a method, by which
meny like birds, should fly in the air ; and probably the story of
Vcedalus may not be fabulous, since we are told, as a certainty,
that a person (whose name I do not remember) in our times,
by a similar method, passed across the lake of Perugia, and
afterwards, in attempting to alight on the ground, let himself
descend with such impetuosity, that it cost him his hfe. No
one, however, has hitherto thought it possible to fabricate a ship
to pass through the air, as one does that is sustained by the
water, since it has been judged to be impossible to construct a
machine lighter than the air itself, which would be necessary to
produce the desired effect.

^* Hence, I, whose genius ever led me to recover difficult
inventions, after long study, conceive that I have obtained my
object of constructing a machine lighter than air, which not
only, by its own levity, can sustain itself in air, but be capable
of supporting men, and any given weight ; neither do I fear to
be deceived, since the whole can be demonstrated by certain
experience, and by an infallible demonstration from the 11th
book oi Euclid, received as such by every mathematician. Let
us, therefore, lay down certain propositions, from whence may
be deduced a practical method of fabricating such a vessel,
which, if it does not merit, like that of Argus, to be placed
among the stars, will of itself be able to sail towards them."

He then proceeds to describe in what manner he found the
weight of the air, by a method then in use, and which is after-
wards more fully detailed, when describing the practical part of
his machine ; and after going through a long series of calcu-
lations, founded on the principles laid down by Euclid, in his
11th and 12th books, to prove that the superfices of a ball or
sphere increases in the duplicate ratio of its diameter, — as, for
example, that a globe whose diameter is double that of another —
say one of one foot, and another of two — the superfices of the
globe of two feet will be four times as large as that of one, and
that the solid body of the globe, if two feet increased in a tri-

32 On Air Balloons.

plicate proportion, will be eight times as large, and conse-
quently eight times as heavy as a globe of one foot diameter ;
so that the superfices of the larger over the smaller will be as
four to one, and the solidity as eight to one. All of which may
be easily proved by experience, of which he gives numerous
examples in his own experiments with glass globes filled with
water, or divested of the air ; and then proceeds to calculate to
what dimensions copper globes may be made, light enough to
weigh less than the air they are capable of containing; and
comes to the conclusion, by figures, that they may be conve-
niently made to contain 718 lbs., and that when the air is
extracted they will weigh 410 lbs. loz. less than before^ and
consequently be capable of lifting two or three men. His
method of procuring the vacuum is as follows: — He fills his
globes of copper, resting on a stage, with water, by means of a
plug at the top, and by opening a stop-cock lets it out through
a long tube into a vessel of water below, and, unscrewing the
tube, his globe is in a condition to ascend, but is restrained by
cords ; and four or more of these globes are bound together,
according to the weight of the vessel to be elevated from his
balloon ; to which is attached the boat, furnished with a mast
and sail, capable of being turned in any direction, which is to
be accommodated with an anchor, also, when proposed to be
stationary.

And now, says the author, ^' I can hardly help smiling to
myself, to think that it seems to be a fable not less incredible
than that which issued from the voluntary and wild fancies of
the head of Lucian ; while, on the other hand, I know that I
have not erred in any of my proofs, having conferred on the
subject with numerous well-informed men, who could not dis-
cover any errors in my calculations, and who only desired to
behold the experiment, and see the vessel ascend ; which I
would willingly have gratified them with, previously to publish-
ing my invention, if the religious poverty I profess had per^
mitted me to expend one hundred ducats, ivhich would be more
than enough to satisfy a curiosity so agreeable. Hence, I must
request any of my readers who may be induced to try this
experiment to favour me with an account of their success ;
since, should any errors be committed in the operation, I may

On Air Balloons, ^

be able to correct them ; and, in order to incite others to the
trial, I will here resolve such difficulties as may be opposed to
the practical operation of this discovery."

He then proceeds to state a safe mode of exhausting the air ;
and remarks, that some persons may suppose that, from the
violence of the rarefaction, the balloon may either be broken, or
so bent, as to destroy its rotundity ; but in answer to this ob-
jection, he replies, that the globes, being perfectly spherical,
the air will compress every side alike ; so that it is more likely
to strengthen than collapse them, as his experience taught
him with glass globes, which, Avhen not round, were easily de-
stroyed by the egress of air ; but when perfectly so, then they
resisted all pressure. Next, he proposes, in order to be secure
of this form, that they shall be constructed, first, as two half
globes, and then soldered up as one balloon. Again, with respect
to the question as to what height this vessel may ascend, since,
if they could be raised to the surface of our atmosphere, it na-
turally follows that the men in it would not be able to respire ? —
to this he replies, that it could only be supported at a certain
height, where the atmosphere was sufficiently dense to sustain
it, and that she may be loaded according to the altitude in-
tended to sail in ; and would have the power to decline, by
merely opening the key of the valve, so as to introduce a certain
quantity of common air, and thus they could, at any time,
descend.

Again, it might be objected, that she could never sail in any
fixed direction, as ships do, who have a resistance from the
water ; but, says the author, ** although air does not resist like
water, it still makes some resistance, and if it has less than
water, there is less to overcome in sailing; and as there is
always some wind, however weak, there will probably be always
enough to propel the vessel, and with respect to its being con-
trary to the course they mean to keep, he has a contrivance to
allow the mast to rotate with its sail in all directions."

Lastly, it may be objected, says he, that it will be difficult to
overcome the violence of the wind, which may drive them
against the mountains — those formidable rocks in this ocean
of air, which might overset them ; but here, like all sanguine
inventors, he finds an easy answer, which is, that the four

JAN.— MARCH, 1828. D

34 Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers.

globes being above the navigators, they must always be a
counter-balance, and until atmospherical air is let in, they need
never fear to touch the earth.

" And now," says he, " I can see no other difficulty to putting
in practice this invention, except one, which is greater than all
the rest ; and that is, that God would never permit such a ma-
chine to succeed in practice, as it would disturb the civil and
political government of the world ! For who does not see that
no city would be secure from surprise, as these vessels would
have the power to place themselves directly over their public
places, and thus enter them P" And here he gets heated with
horror of the fatal consequences of his new invention, and
talks of their cutting ships' cables, throwing down darts, and
burning navies, by artificial fires and balls, bombs, &c., killing
men, and destroying cities and castles, since, by their height,
they might contrive to precipitate mischief on others, whilst
they remained secure themselves." In a word, the good Friar,
like Uncle Toby, seems really alarmed at last with his own dis-
covery ; and I should not wonder if the scarceness of his folio
was occasioned by his withdrawing it from general view at last,
lest he should be the author of so much mischief to mankind.
I am. Sir, &c.

G. Cumberland.

An Essay on the Remittent and Intermittent Diseases, include
ing, generally, Marsh Fever and Neuralgia ; comprising,
under the former, various anomalies, obscurities, and con-
sequences, and, under a new systematic view of the latter,
treating of Tic -douloureux, Sciatica, Head-ach, Ophthal-
mia, Tooth- ach. Palsy, and many other modes and con-
sequences of this Generic Disease. By John Mac Culloch,
M.D., F. R. S., &c. &c., Physician in ordinary to His
Royal Highness Prince Leopold of Saxe Cobourg. — In
Two Volumes. Longman & Co. 1828.

Having in a former Number given a brief review of the
Essay on Malaria by the same author, we feel it a sort of
duty incumbent on us to pursue the subject through its prac-
tical consequences, as Dr. M. himself has done, by attempting
such an analysis of the present work as the extent of our pages

Dr. Mac Culloch on Feveri, ^

and the character of our Journal will admit. This practical,
or properly speaking, medical work had been advertised in
the former ; and theautlior desires that it may be considered
as a portion of an entire essay, including the volume on
Malaria ; while he had been induced to separate this latter,
for the sake of general readers, who might not fancy them-
selves interested in medical writings, or not competent to
profit by them. We view this precaution on the part of the
author himself, or his booksellers, to have been unnecessary ;
as there is nothing in the two volumes before us which is not
adapted to the capacity of readers of every class, as well non-
professional as medical. Consistently with the principle
which he has followed in his geological and other scientific
articles, it has been this writer's object to exclude technical
language, and, as far as was practicable, even technical terms:
arguing justly, that it is the facility of stringing phrases of
common usage together, which produces that multiplication
of loose writings on medical, and, we may add, on many other
subjects, out of which it is too often impossible to extract a
single novelty or even a definite idea. And when he pro-
poses, as the test of the merit and meaning of such writings,
their translation into common English, we cannot but agree
with him that this is an operation which would go far to
reduce the number of books in our language, not merely on
medicine, but on many other departments of science, moral
as well as physical.

If the style and language of this book are plain English, and
the manner in which the medical subjects are explained, such
that they can be understood by any one, and if, very lau-
dably as we think, the author has carefully avoided all those
phrases, terms, and allusions, in which medical writers seem
to delight, so that these volumes may lie on any table, the
subjects treated of are especially of a popular nature — since
they concern, we may truly say, every individual; while,
without any of the usual pretences of popular books on
medicine, they really will enable the people to become their
own physicians to a very wide extent, and in the treatment
of diseases, among the most universal to which mankind is
subject. But for this, indeed, we should not have ventured
on a review of this work in our Journal ; and it must now
be our attempt to render our analysis not less popular and
intelligible than the Essay itself. And as we find that some
contemporary journals had accused us of incivility in treat-
ing somewhat rudely, in our review of Malaria, the very
writer whose essays on the same subject we had admitted,

D2

36 Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers.

we will, to avoid this adduced inconsistency, confine our-
selves to analysis, as far as this is possible. That our remarks
however had not offended the author himself, we must pre-
sume ; since he has, since that, favoured us with a third Essay
on the same subject.

This work is divided in such a manner that the first is
allotted to the proper fevers produced by Malaria, or de-
pendent on what are commonly called Remittent and Inter-
mittent ; while the last treats of those painful diseases of
Nerves, which physicians have lately distinguished by the
term Neuralgia, and which are popularly well known
through that of Tic-douloureux. That both sets of diseases
were much in want of elucidation is now most apparent :
and if, as has occurred to us in conversation, our author is
accused of having invented disorders before unknown, we
are among those who would be delighted to find this true,
and that every disorder here described was not the sad and
painful reality which we know it to be. So far from judg-
ing thus, we think that this writer has conferred a most essen-
tial benefit on mankind as well as on his own profession, — by
investigating, describing, and classifying under certain
general and leading principles, what was an entire mass of
neglect and obscurity as far as theory is concerned, as, in
practice, it was a chaos of empiricism and error : nor do we
hesitate in saying that it is the most important contribution
which has yet been made to medical science.

And the entire subject has been treated in a scientific man-
ner, as far as the wretched state of medical facts and observa-
tions permitted it ; the very attempt being a new one, as far
as the extent of our medical reading allows us to judge. Our
author denies that medicine is incapable of being treated in this
manner, and accuses its cultivators of those defects which they
choose to consider as inherent in the subject itself — holding
out hopes that, in proper hands, it may yet be rescued from
the disgraceful condition which, as a science, it exhibits. It
is justly remarked, that while all the physical sciences have,
in modern times, and through the influence of the Baconian
philosophy, been investigated or rebuilt on the solid founda-
tions which this system furnishes. Medicine alone has been
indolently contented with proceeding in the manner in which
it did in the dark ages; attempting, through words and
phrases, to build on the sandy foundation of the very infancy
of medical knowledge. And when he says that he has
attempted to apply to the object before him the same pro-
cesses which he has been accustomed to use in the other

Dr. Mac Cullocli on Fevers, 37

sciences which he cultivates ; namely, to collect and arrange
facts under some general principle, to trace analogies, not in
words but in realities, to balance and purify evidence, and,
from the generalizations thus formed, to extend conclusions
to other facts and analogies, we recognize the true logic of
science, and the spirit of the modern philosophy : while, if we
cannot help thinking that he neither could nor would have
done this, had he not been a cultivator of science at large, so
do we agree with him, that the fault of physicians, as writers
respecting their own science, has been the neglect of a
general scientific education, a want of knowledge and prac-
tice in those sciences which are comparatively accurate ones,
of that through which alone any one science can be effectually
cultivated ; since there is not one that can stand upon its own
foundation, nor be pursued to any purpose, excepjt through
the aid of many others, and through a general habitude with
philosophical investigations.

How far the author has acted on this principle, and what
the results have been, will be best judged from that portion of
the work which treats of Neuralgia. Here it was that the
utmost confusion existed, as we shall hereafter show ; and
it is here that, by the adoption of one general principle
derived from facts, and its application to the phenomena of a
great variety of diseases formerly judged separate and inde-
pendent, he has been enabled to bring these under one
generic form and one general cause ; with the valuable prac-
tical consequences of rendering them, for ever hereafter, not
onlyintelligible, but recognizable under whatever obscurities,
and with the ultimate result, the end of all medical investi-
gation, that of applying to them one general method of cure.
This portion of the Essay, in particular, presents an im-
portant example of what medicine can do by adopting the
machinery of science ; and the consequences are perhaps
most conspicuous in the novel arrangement of two most com-
mon disorders, Ophthalmia and Tooth-ach: the results of
which, in practice, cannot also fail to be most important. If
in the portion which relates to Fevers, the scientific train of
proceeding is less conspicuous, the results, as well as the
processes, are similar : since here also a great number of
disorders v/hich were, similarly, judged of an independent
nature, and, as such, improperly treated by physicians, are
hown to be but symptoms of the one generic disease, Marsh
fever, or variations of its varieties ; while the utility thence
derived will be found in the numerous reforms projDOsed as
to the treatment. It is true that, in our review of his Essay

38 Dr. Mac CuUoch on Fevers.

on Malaria, we doubted that he could make good his general
assertion of the community of causes and nature, in this long
list of diseases, formerly judged of so very differently : while
we much suspect that our doubts were shared by the whole
of his profession. All that we can do now is to express our
own conviction, while we take no shame to ourselves for not
having believed before evidence : what may be the decision
of the rest of his fraternity, we have no means of knowing ;
but if he expresses his total want of hope as to the producing
of conviction, we really know not how to contradict him — as
our own experience in the other sciences has taught us that a
teacher and a reformer is always looked on with an evil eye.
But he must console himself under the thunders that are
accumulating over his head, as well as he can: while, that
he will do so is probable, since he seems amply prepared, and
therefore little likely to suffer his peace to be disturbed by
that abuse under which he seems to have been tolerably well
trained. — To proceed to the book itself.

In the work on Malaria, and in the Essay on Fevers, with
which he has favoured our Journal, this author attempts
to show that no other causes of proper simple fever have
been proved, than contagion and malaria ; the first gener-
ating proper Typhus, and the other all the fevers of what-
ever character that are not contagious : though he makes a
reservation respecting what is called Inflammatory fever
when it is of very short duration. Hence, in the first volume,
he has described all the continuous or remitting fevers which
are non-contagious, as varieties of Remittent or Marsh
fever ; and these form one division in this volume ; the In-
termittent ones forming the other. Yet he objects to the
separation ; since these two kinds perpetually pass into each
other, as they arise from a common cause ; adopting it
nevertheless in conformity to popular usage, and thus sub-
mitting to some disarrangement and repetition, for which he
apologizes on this ground. Under each of these, also, he has
arranged certain varieties and variations which he has termed
obscure, anomalous, and simulating ; and here it is that the
chief value of these new investigations lies, since it is from
confounding these disorders with others of a very different,
and often of a diametrically opposite nature, that have arisen
those destructive errors in practice which he has so distinctly
pointed out. It being also the professed object of his work
to clear up obscurities, to describe what had been neglected,
to explain and rectify what had been misapprehended, and
above all, to refer to marsh fever under those variations,

Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers, if

symptoms and diseases which had been attributed to common
inflammation, or other very different causes, the bulk of the
volume in question is occupied on these subjects, while he
passes cursorily over that which has been well understood
and sufficiently described in other medical writings. Hence
that character of entire originality which pervades the whole
book : since, with the exception of authorities introduced for
specific purposes, we do not find a single passage, and scarcely
a single train of thought, which we can trace to any former
medical work. So much the worse for his repose: since he
will have to endure the fate that no reformer ever yet
escaped.

For these reasons we may pass over the first chapter^ which
is a sketch of the common acknowledged Remittent, intro-
duced merely as a basis of reference, and take up this volume
at the second. In this we have a careful and full description
of what is commonly called a nervous or low fever : a disease
appearing under many different forms, and very generally
entirely misunderstood. He shows that Cullen has con-
founded it with Typhus mitior ; while he proves, from its
symptoms, its duration, its passage into intermittent, and
occasionally from its causes, often to be traced, that it is a
variety of the remittent or marsh fever ; though not denying
that it may possibly arise from other causes than malaria,
nor denying, either, that there is a real Typhus mitior, while
he shows how these two mild fevers can be distinguished.
And if the termination in intermittent is a common event in
this disease, as it is a proof of its real nature, so does he show
that it is sometimes followed by " periodical head-ach, tooth-
ach, intermitting rheumatism, and even marked neuralgia :"
facts which serve, in conjunction with many others, to esta-
blish the connection of neuralgia in general with marsh
fever.

It is also here shown that this particular fever is subject to
relapses, and that it thus becomes even habitual : while if
this feature, never occurring in the contagious fevers, is a
further proof of its nature, a knowledge of the cause becomes
most important in practice ; since it is through exposure
to malaria that the relapses are renewed, and since the only
cure is avoidance — not un frequently change of residence,
when an insalubrious air is the renewing cause. Hence the
author has been induced to be very full on the subject of
this fever when it assumes the chronic or relapsing form :
while, if this disorder is as frequent as we should be induced
to believe from his statements, and as we know it to be ia

40 Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers,

certain districts of England, as well as on the Continent far
more conspicuously, an accurate knowledge and discrimi-
nation of it must be of the greatest importance. And that
importance is perhaps even greatest in the slightest cases,
since it is those which have been most thoroughly misappre-
hended. Thus he has shown that a fever of this character
is often mistaken for mere debility, (a term, he justly remarks,
without meaning,) or for a broken-down constitution, (an
equally unmeaning phrase,) or, as attended with peculiar
local or attached symptoms, for hysteria, dyspepsia, hypo-
chondriasis, hectic fever, atrophy, consumption, menstrual
diseases, and much more, including all those derangements
of mental and bodily health to which the popular but vulgar,
unmeaning, and mischievous term 7iervous disease is so widely
applied. And as an instance of this nature, he points out,
from Hay garth, as well as from his own experience, a state
of peculiar debility attended with nervous affections both
mental and bodily, to which young persons, and especially
young ladies, are subject ; often enduring for j-ears, if with
occasional intervals of better health, and exciting much sur-
prise, inasmuch as no organic, or scarcely any really assign-
able disease is present, while at the same time it is intractable
by medicine. This condition he shows to be the very chronic
remittent in question; while he proves here, and in other
places, that there can be nothing else to account for
such a state of things at that age, and where no organic dis-
orders exist. And we deduce generally, from this and other
chapters, that he considers the far larger portion of what are
called nervous diseases occurring in society, to be the nervous
symptoms which belong to this fever ; while the proofs are
such as to lead to conviction that such is the fact. We need
not point out the value of this conclusion to those who know
how frequent and how intractable these disorders are, and
how currently they are treated by injurious remedies ; since,
while such evil practices will thus be corrected, we are led
to the true and only methods of cure.

Hence there is a sort of general conclusion, for the full proofs
of which we must refer to the work, as our limits would not
permit us to state them ; and it is, that a remittent fever, or
that marsh fever, which is so termed, though it be as con-
tinuous as typhus ever is, may be a chronic disorder of
inveterate and almost endless duration, occupying, in fact,
the better part of life. This may be the sequel of a severe
and marked remittent, or it may have originally attacked in
a mild form : but, while it consists of a series of relapses,

Dr. Mac Calloch on Fevers, 41

with intervals of better health, or real health, it may, in its
progress, become so mild as scarcely to display any striking
febrile symptoms, particularly when medical advice is not
sought : the appearances being then what we noted above,
namely, debility, and so forth ; while it is by no means
uncommon in this disease for the pulse, the appetite, &c. to
remain unaffected, or to be only partially and temporarily
disturbed — a fact, to excite no surprise, since, even in very
marked marsh fever, the pulse is sometimes not affected, or
at least not accelerated. Nor should the existence of such
a durable remittent be a matter of any doubt. It possesses
an exact analogy to the equally durable intermittent, little
known in this country; the difference being, in fact, unessen-
tial : while of its reality there can be no question, since it is
the very condition of ill health under which those suffer
perennially, who are the inhabitants of the insalubrious dis-
tricts of France and Italy.

There are some interesting remarks in this chapter on the
state of the appetite and sleep, and also on the condition of
the mind. If we cannot, for want of room, venture to detail
them, we must notice, at least, one important conclusion
to which they lead : this is, that the hypochondriasis, so
common, is very generally or predominantly this very fever,
and nothing else ; while the author enters here, and else-
where, into some curious and important remarks on suicide,
showing how it is the occasional consequence of a febrile
delirium dependent on these chronic fevers, and not either
that state of insanity which it has often been considered, nor
the consequences of mere moral aberration. We need not
say how important this view is as it relates to the treatnient
of the mental diseases in question. The remarks on that
comatose state, which is so common a symptom in these
fevers, are scarcely less important: as they serve to rectify
those dangerous errors in practice which, by treating this as
lethargy, (a term to which no definite notions are attached,)
have often produced palsy, apoplexy, or death.

Thus also is it shown, that, as derangement of the stomach
is a necessary attendant on this fever as on others, so, many
of the cases of dyspepsia which occur in society are nothing
else : the most marked affection, in this instance as in so
many others, attracting the attention both of the patient
and practitioner, when the febrile symptoms are, from their
obscurity, neglected ; while the possession of a name, a
term, such as dyspepsia, hysteria, or whatever else, helps

44 Dr. Mac CuUoch on Fevers,

to mislead those, the great mass, who are guided only by
names. On this particular fact we are enabled to confirm
the author's remarks, by a wide experience in one of the
most insalubrious districts of England : where, while the
poorer classes are almost universally subject to this chronic
and obscure fever, either in a continuous or intermittent
form, the only complaints they ever make are of their
"stomach;" dyspepsia, under its endless forms, being so
prevalent among them as to be almost universal.

The author proceeds in this chapter to treat somewhat
fully of hysteria, and other symptoms of this fever, which
are perpetually mistaken for separate or independent dis-
eases : but as we are afraid of exceeding the bounds we
have allotted, and also of transgressing on the character of
a popular article, we shall pass on — remarking only, that
such fevers, with their various symptoms, constitute the
general ill health attached to marshy or unhealthy soils, and
that he has here offered the means, not only of explaining,
but of remedying, a great mass of diseases, always hitherto
obscure, while forming a wide cause of torment or incon-
venience.

We shall also pass by the chapter on the Proximate Cause,
which is little more, and very properly, than a confession of
ignorance. Nor will we dwell on the cure, which occupies
the fourth chapter, at least in as far as it is but a statement
of the usual methods of physic in these cases: it will be
better to appropriate the space we can afford to those
remarks which are most important as the correctives of past
errors. In the acute or severe disease, these relate to the
abuse and the hazards of blood-letting ; but as these remarks
occur again in different places, we shall reserve the whole
for a future place. As to the mild and chronic varieties,
it is shown that blood-letting, purgatives, or debilitating
practices, of whatever nature, are invariably pernicious, and
that it is from mistaking this disease for others, in which
such practice is recommended, that it is so often rendered
inveterate, incurable, or even mortal. Thus also, reversely,
a good diet and wine are recommended in cases, where,
under the same errors, modern fashion prohibits them ; and
hence a variety of details in the work, for which we must
unavoidably refer to it, from inability even to abridge them.
But the final remark is, that when the disorder has become
inveterate, scarcely any remedy is of avail but change of air
or place ; while as the chief value of that arises arises out

Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers. 43

of a removal from the ever-exciting cause, an accurate
knowledge of the soils or places productive of malaria,
becomes indispensable to every physician.

We cannot afford room to analyse the fifth chapter,
which treats of dysentery and cholera — slightly, but suffi-
ciently for the purposes in view. These are, chiefly, to show
that the latter disease, as well as the former, is the produce
of malaria : but we must refer to the work itself for the
arguments.

The sixth chapter treats of intermittent fever ; but, like
the first, passes over slightly whatever is best known and
already described, to dwell on errors and obscurities. But
as we omitted a most important fact by passing over the
chapter on common remittent, we must state it here, since it
is one that occurs under each mode of marsh fever, and
appears totally unknown to English practitioners, or, at least,
entirely neglected by them. We must condense into one
place what the author's plan has obliged him to separate.

It frequently happens that the marsh fever, whether its
type is to be remittent or intermittent, attacks like a fit of
apoplexy ; and this is common in Italy, under the term
febhre larvata* We might consider this as a merely aggra-
vated coma ; and so in certain cases it appears to be, since
the patient recovers perfectly from it after a certain number
of hours — its place being that which would otherwise be the
cold fit. But it is either not so, essentially, or is not always
so simple : because it sometimes terminates in palsy, hemi-
plegia or paraplegia, or, perhaps, in an aff*ection more
limited; more particularly if evacuations are used. More-
over, the attack is sometimes that of a palsy only, and this
under the several forms just described. Hence it is, according
to our author, that palsy is often brought on in labouring
people, even in our own country, by sleeping on the ground ;
a fact far more common in Italy, and especially in the
insalubrious districts. Elsewhere, in confirmation of this,
he remarks, that the application of a certain gas to the eye
will produce amaurosis ; while, as to palsy, the immediate
consequence of malaria, we can confirm his observations by
an interesting fact falling under our own notice, where, on
the opening of a water-cask, a naval officer was immediately
struck down in an apoplexy, which terminated in an incurable
hemiplegia.

Now he makes some important remarks on this leading-
fact. First, he says, that no one English author on palsy
has noticed this among the causes of the disease on which he(

44 Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers.

was specifically writing ; and we are unable to contradict
him, while it does not say much in praise of the writers, or
rather, as is but too true of almost all medical books, the
compilere of these works. Hence also he observes^ that no
English practitioner is prepared for such a cause of apoplexy
or palsy, while he refers to numerous cases of it in his own
practice, where a complete recovery took place, and in a
very short time, by merely doing nothing ; while he equally
alludes to numerous ones, where, from mistaking the disease
for ordinary apoplexy or palsy, it became mortal or incu-
rable. We can easily deduce further, that he holds those
diseases, if produced from this cause, as trivial, inasmuch as
easily curable ; while he says decidedly, in more places than
one, not only that they are rendered incurable by the
common and blind practice of blood-letting, but that such
practice, now unfortunately in vogue, is the common cause
of the palsies met with every day in society. And it is
plain that he considers the palsies of young people, in parti-
cular, to be of this variety, and the evil to be the result of
medical ignorance. We need not say that these remarks
are no less important than they are original ; and we wish
that we could contradict what unfortunately a review of
what has fallen under our own observation now shows us to
be but too true. We have dwelt so much on this fact,
however, that we must pass over much more as to inter-
mittent, of less novelty ; that we may give a sketch of the
remaining " simulations and anomalies" of intermittents (as
they are here termed), the account of which occupies the
seventh chapter.

We remarked already, from the work, that these varieties
had been partly noticed under remittent : but the account
here is much more full and detailed ; while this chapter
constitutes one of the most important portions of the book.
And in this case he does not rest so entirely on his own
observations as in many other parts ; as he has produced
abundant evidences from foreign authors, and principally
from Strack, as to the existence of these anomalies and
simulations ; though he is the first writer who appears to
have seen their value, as he is the first who has brought
them together in a systematical form, and under one leading
principle.

These anomalies and simulations occur when, in addition
to the simple fever, there is some local symptom of an
adventitious nature, such as the palsy and apoplexy just
described, or such as inflammations in noted organs, as in

Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers, 45

the pleura or intestines, or rheumatism in the muscles or
joints. If such symptoms exist with a very marked or
acute fever, the variety is termed an anomaly : if either the
fever is mild, or obscure, or if it is chronic, and if the
accessary symptom is the most conspicuous circumstance, or
if it is such that the fever is mistaken for the symptomatic fever
of such an inflammation for example, or in any case where
the practitioner overlooks or misapprehends the principal
disease, or fever, while he ranges the symptom with that
disease in which it is, in other cases, the principal one, the
term simulating is applied to it; while it is plain that the
simulation, in such a case, may depend solely on the igno-
rance or inattention of the practitioner. Or, to illustrate
this by example, if, with the fever, there is violent headach
of a phrenitic character, the marsh fever may be mistaken
for phrenitis; an error occurring daily to English prac-
titioners in hot climates; or otherwise, a rheumatic affection
of the intercostal muscles with a similar fever, mistaken for
a symptomatic one, may pass for pleurisy — an error of very
frequent occurrence among ourselves.

Now the importance of these distinctions, of an accurate
knowledge of these anomalies and simulations, is very great :
because, whatever the symptom or simulation may be, the
remedy of intermittent, namely, bark, is still the remedy, as
blood-letting is pernicious or destructive : while it happens
daily, that from mistaking such a disease for true pleurisy,
or whatever else, this remedy is adopted, and with the most
serious evil consequences. On the whole subject, the author
has been very full and minute ; while giving authorities and
examples, which have also been tabulated at the end of the
work, and while also furnishing the most ample means of
discrimination : but as we could not pretend even to abridge
all this, we must content ourselves with giving an enume-
ration of these varieties, these anomalies and simulations ;
remarking only, that they may occur under any type of
marsh fever, and in the acute and chronic fevers, both :
varying, therefore, in violence and in the power of decep-
tion, while also producing varieties of effect, according to
the mutual balance of the fever and the accessary symptoms
or disease, for which the original must be consulted — though
much also must always be left to the practitioner himself.

If we take the listof these simulating fevers which is given
in the table to which we alluded, we shall make our own
task at least easier, and also facilitate the researches of our
readers as to the original, to which we must refer for what we

44 Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers.

cannot pretend to detail. To commence with apoplexy, we
find that, besides that primary attack which we have already
described, it is sometimes periodical, or recurs in place of a
cold fit, in repeated attacks ; provided at least, that it is
Dot rendered mortal, or converted into permanent palsy, by
the destructive practice to which we have alluded in quoting
the author's opinion as to the effect of bleeding. The lethargy
which we described is also represented as being sometimes
periodical; in which case, by comparing it with what the
type of the simple fever should be, the discrimination of its
real nature becomes easy. Coma is also stated as being
periodical; and this simpler modification is so very common,
that it ought never, according to the author, to permit any
difficulty as to a decision on its real nature. There is here also
described what is called an universal palsy, arising from the
§ame cause : a disease so nearly incredible, that had we not
seen an instance recently, ourselves, in a very well-known
and conspicuous individual, whom it would nevertheless be
very indelicate to quote Sn a public journal, we should
scarcely have known how to credit the statements, though
one of them is given from a French medical writer of note.
Under the same general head, the several modifications of
palsy which we mentioned above, are registered as being
permanent or periodical ; and on consulting the work, we
find cases where the paralytic affection, often very complete,
occurred in lieu of a fit of the intermittent, or rather, per-
haps, as an attendant on it — subsiding again, to be renewed
at the next paroxysm : while if, under mistaken views of its
nature, blood-letting was resorted to, it became permanent
and incurable.

In a second division, termed spasmodic, we find a great
collection of the diseases commonly termed nervous, to some
of which we have already alluded : while here, as in the former
division, we find a mass of authorities in support ; to which
Dr. M. refers generally through Sauvages ; adopting his
terms as a mode of reference to the authors whom he has
quoted, and to others who are noticed in the work itself.

The first of these comprises epilepsy in its ordinary form,
and the analogous disease generally termed convulsions, as it
occurs in children ; to which we may here add catalepsy, oc-
curring as a species of substitute for the ague fit. Hysteria
we have already noticed in the analysis of the chapter on re-
mittent ; while it is here classed as being either irregular or
periodical : the former variety being that which is most sub-
ject to be mistaken, though we recollect many cases of a

Dr. Mac CuUoch on Fevers, 47

regularly periodical hysteria, which we are now at length
convinced must have been the very disorder in question.

A periodical spasmodic cough is one of the most singular
and deceptive forms under which the anomalous intermittent
appears ; while the cases given are not only supported by au-
thority, but are in themselves convincing, remote as the con*
nection between such a symptom and intermittent fever may
appear to those to whom this subject is new. And we may
liere make one general remark applicable to the whole,
which is this : that, however new, and possibly incredible,
all this may appear to the practitioners of our own country,
the separate facts seem to have been perfectly understood
by the ancient foreign physicians and systematic writers,
though they never had formed any generalization of the
subject ; so that we must now attribute to a want of
reading on the part of our fraternity, whatever hesitation or
incredulity they may display ; a want, we are sorry to remark,
which is much too general, and can perhaps scarcely be other-
wise, as medical education is now conducted, through lectures
and the attendance on shops and hospitals ; and a defect also,
of which we can see ample proofs, did we do no more than
examine the never-opened books that cumber the shelves of
medical libraries, replete with stores of knowledge, often
voluminous and ill arranged we cannot deny, yet wretchedly
replaced by the paltry modern copies and compilations which
have so ill superseded them in the reading of even those, the
few who do read on medicine.

Asthma, or rather perhaps dyspnoea, is another of the
spasmodic disorders found among the simulating intermittents ;
and of this, at least, we can speak from our own experience;
having found it not uncommonly, though, in the cases which
we have seen, we should, perhaps, rather have designated it
by the term febrile anxiety. In the same catalogue, we find
affections of the bladder, termed irritability and strangury:
and here also, if we have foreign authorities as well as the
author's own experience, we have seen this disease under
such circumstances as to make us now suspect that it was
what we find here described.

A more frequent and interesting anomaly appears to be the
palpitation of the heart, and on this the author is very full ;
while the proofs which he has adduced as to the reality of
this connection appear to be such as to admit of no dispute.
And as we have not yet noticed these, we may here remark
generally, as to this and all other analogous cases, that ihey
consist, briefly, in the following facts. There in an intermit-*

48 Dr. Mac Cnlloch on Fevers.

tent, if of an obscure character, and such spasmodic attack
is the cold fit or its substitute. If the disease is chronic and
there are relapses, one relapse may be pure fever, while an-
other is the spasmodic disease, whatever that may be. The
spasmodic disease replaces or puts a stop to the fever sud-
denly, or, reversely, the fever replaces the nervous affection :
or else this last is interchanged with some other anomaly,
and so on through a period of years. Lastly, all the colla-
teral and accompanying symptoms are the same, and the
nervous disorder is cured and aggravated by the same reme-
dies or treatment as the intermittent; while the ultimate
consequences of persistent ill treatment are the same in all ;
being, namely, palsies, fatuity, and death — or, in the slighter
cases, incurable inveteracy.

There follows a long list of nervous affections of the same
origin and character, of which some are attended by autho-
rities, while, for the others, we must take the author's word
and experience. Among these, we must pass over dyspepsia,
chlorosis, hypochondriasis, debility, atrophy, and what are
called generally nervous disorders ; having already no-
ticed them perhaps sufficiently, and having at any rate no
room to dwell on them. After this, mania and fatuity
are the most interesting ; and here we have the authority of
Sydenham, among others, to prove that these are either
anomalies or consequences of intermittent fever ; while the
latter disease, fatuity, is here shown to be a very common
result of the evacuant practice in marsh fevers, being by no
means rare, as is v/ell known, as the termination of severe
cases of this disease. That, in a modified degree, it is a very
common result of the delibitating practice in nervous affec-
tions, is tolerably familiar ; and according to our author, it is
the consequence in these cases, of the errors which he has
laboured so hard to point out.

As the subject of headach is again treated under neu-
ralgia, we shall here pass it over; as we may amaurosis, for
the same reason, and proceed to the list of simulations
classed under the term inflammatory. This catalogue com-
prises pleurisy, rheumatism under various forms, nephralgia,
catarrh, and phthisis ; together with a fictitious hectic
which we have already noticed, and sciatica, which is treated
of under neuralgia. The author has endeavoured to show in
various parts of his work, and by the comparison of symp-
toms and dissections, together with the consideration of
causes, the transitions of these diseases, the effects of reme-
dies for good and evil, and further, by authorities, accom-

Dr. Mac Calloch on Fevers. 49

panled by various ingenious arguments, that the -inflammatory
state of organs or parts in marsh fever is not the same as it
is in plilegmasia, and, very particularly, that it requires the
reverse remedies ; namely, the tonic system, or the remedies
of marsh fever, while it is aggravated by the evacuant one.
But as we find it absolutely impossible to abridge this im-
portant view so as to render it at all intelligible within our
limits, we must of necessity refer our readers to the work
itself. We can only permit ourselves to remark, that rheu-
matism is thus considered as nearly allied to marsh fever,
and that there is thus explained the utility of bark in that
disease : a question which has led to much controversy, as the
practice in this disorder is also of the most discordant and op-
posed kinds. We find ourselves, indeed, trenching so fast
on our alloted limits, that we must entirely omit the chapter
which relates to the cure of intermittent, as we nearly did
before that of marsh fever in its more continuous form ; re-
serving the little space which we can yet command for the
examination of the diseases arraved under neurakia.

To elucidate this great disease, now first rendered gene-
ric, the author has given a tabular view of all the affections
of nerves which may be classed under it ; and we think it
expedient to invert the order of our analysis, by commencing
with a general view of what we originall}^ feared would
somewhat appal our readers : a fear which the contempla-
tion of this formidable list has not removed ; though, were
we asked for our objections in detail, and for the reasons
why, we should be very much troubled to produce them.

In the first division of this table, we find the painful affec-
tions of assignable nerves. The common and well known
case of tic douloureux, being a pain in some branch of a
nerve of the face, will serve as an example of what is in-
tended by this list, and thus far it is not disputed. The
novelty here is, that the same term is assigned to that pain
in whatever nerve it may occur, while the reasons for thus
generalizing the disease are given ; and this chiefly from
his own observations, supported in a few cases by other au-
thorities. Dr. M. has given a considerable list of varieties of
tic douloureux, (if we may use this term,) which have not yet
been recognized as such, or have been mistaken for other dis-
eases. The places or nerves here named are, besides the
face, the spinal marrow or nerve, the optic nerve, those of
the teeth, producing toothach, the sciatic, causing sciatica,
the anterior crural, the spermatic, the radial, the fingers

JAN.— MARCH, 1828. E

5D Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers.

and toes ; while it is presumed that many blanks remain
to be filled, as no nerve is considered exempt from this
disorder.

Where the minuteness of the nerves renders their exact
names or places unassignable, ground is afforded for another
division; and in these cases also, it is remarked, that the
pain often differs in quality ; being less limited and acute
than in tic or sciatica, thous;h sometimes resembling it, in
consequence apparently of the high sensibility of the parts
or the great number of the nervous branches alloted to
sensation. It is under this head, perhaps, that the greatest
repugnance will be felt to side with our author; but we
must trust his fate to the general arguments which we shall
afterwards adduce from his statements, while we commence
by giving this catalogue. And we will extract this portion
of the table as it stands, since it will also serve to give
a specimen of the manner in which the whole has been
drawn up.

" Of Unassignable Nerves. Pain commonly less acute, or dull,
or none, (in this last title the author alludes to the neuralgia of
nerves of motion, as in the heart, causing spasms or palpitation
only.) Periodical, or irregular

Headach

Common : confined to parts : or general.

Intermitting.

Hemicrania.

Clavus.

Wandering or confined toothach or headach.

Palpitation of heart : no pain.

Palpitation of aorta : no pain.

Palpitation of coeliac artery ?

Stomach pains ?

Colic ?

Kidney and ureter. Decided neuralgia, nephralgia pains.

Bladder and neck : irritability ; stranguiy : no pain.

Rectum.

Palus.

Cauda equina. Lumbago.

Mamma : acute pain. Dr. Alderson.

Knee : pain various.

Shin bone : anterior tibial ? considerable pain."

The third division enumerates a certain class of inflamma-
tions arising from neuralgia ; while, for proof of the truth
of this view, we must refer to the few remarks which we
ghall make hereafter on the author's general theory. The

Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers, 51

diseases are, rheumatism under various forms, including, as
a very marked variety, that of the face and head, and oph-
thalmia ; that disease already known by the term rheumatism
of the eye, but which, in our author's hands, has put on a
most important form, since it is proved to be the most common
variety of this disease that exists, and also to have been as
much mistaken as it has been improperly treated.

Next follows a division of neuralgise from injuries, such
as wounds, tumours, ulcers, &c. ; while we need not specify
the varieties enumerated, as they are mere examples of facts,
and as this kind may obviously occur any where. For the
division which succeeds, entitled neuralgic affections of
glands, we must look entirely to Dr.M., of whose theory the
fact forms a portion, while the examples enumerated have
occurred in the kidneys, producing diabetes, in the lacrymal
and salivary glands, producing similarly augmented secre-
tion, and as it appears probable, in the intestinal mucous
membrane, and in that of the trachea and nose, generating
diarrhoea and catarrh.

Lastly, follows a table of the consequences of neuralgia.
These consequences, we must premise by saying, are asserted
to occur chiefly when a neuralgia has been of long dura-
tion, as also when blood-letting or other debilitating prac-
tices have been adopted ; yet in some local instances, they
follow very speedily, and even attack as the substitutes of the
painful disease. The enumerated ones are, mania, fatuity,
palsy, and nervous undefinable disorders, as of a general
nature ; and as partial, amaurosis, contraction of the iris,
and opacity of the cornea as a sequel of the ophthalmia, with
a few other particulars as to the teeth, into which we need not
here inquire.

Such then is this list which, in its tabular form, together
with that alloted to marsh fever, conveys an idea not less
clear than it is novel, of the extent as well as of the import-
ance of these generic diseases. As to the neuralgia, it is
almost superfluous to say, that, with the exception of a very
few cases, and those also of somewhat recent occurrence, the
term, and not less the disease, had been supposed confined to
the well known nerves of the face, and that all the previous
essays on it were equally limited ; being, if we may use this
term in its inofi*ensive sense, of an empirical as well as a
partial nature. Not the least suspicion seems to have been
entertained by any previous writer, that this disorder was
generic, not local and limited ; nor was it suspected that
toothagh, sciatica, and the other painful affections of i^eryea

£2

6S Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers.

•were but the same disease in other nerves, though it seems
now surprising how this could have been overlooked. As
littJe had it been noticed that an intermittent fever attended
evei'y neuralgia, or that this was in reality but a mode of
marsh fever; since the popular term occasionally in use,
namely, ague in the head, seems merely to have been adopted
from its intermitting character, and no generalization was
attempted on the subject. Still less was that ophthalmia
termed rheumatism of the eye, supposed to be thus associated,
clearly as the proofs are here made out ; and while the in-
troduction of toothach into this genus is the novelty which
is most likely to meet with opposition, perhaps not less re-
pugnance will at first be excited by the attempt to refer
palsies, and even amaurosis, to this cause. Of all this dis-
covery, arrangement, generalization, or whatever else it
ought to be called, our author claims the merit ; nor, indeed,
do we see how we can refuse his rights to originality ; while,
if our readers shall admit that he has made out his case, (a
matter respecting which we intend to reserve our own opi-
nion,) we would point out this as a striking instance of
the advantages which medicine, in common with all the
sciences, must derive from following the true method of phi-
losophizing ; as we suggested already in our introductory
remarks.

But we must attempt to abridge the reasons, first, for
considering neuralgia as a mode of intermittent or marsh
fever ; and next, for ranking the several disorders here enu-
merated under neuralgia.

The application of malaria is the most common cause of
both, though that of cold is not excluded, at least as to
neuralgia ; while it is here also shown that this disease is
produced by injuring a nerve, and the more easily, it is sus-
pected, if there is a tendency to intermittent in the habit, or
if the situation is insalubrious.

In the same situation, or even house, where many persons
are exposed to malaria, some will be affected by intermittents
and others by neuralgia under various forms.

The same person, being imbued with the habit of chronic
intermittent will, in some relapses, be attacked by mere
fever, in others by a neuralgia; and a patient of this nature
may have many of the neuralgisein the catalogue, in rotation.
And in such cases, should tne disease recur, even through
years, the same hour of attack will be that of the neuralgia,
or neuralgiae, and of the fever also.
, A simple intermittent fever is replaced, even in one day,

Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers, 53^

by a neuralgia, and tlie reverse ; while the one appears to be
the cure of the other : and in this case also, the hour of
attack is the same in both. Also, a double tertian or quoti-
dian may consist of one paroxysm of fever, and one of neu-
ralgia in alternation ; and one case is given where a toothach
ana an ague fit thus occupied the alternate days for a whole
year.

** To these two general branches of evidence, consisting in
community of cause and interchangeableness," the author
adds another founded on the effects of remedies : the same
treatment acting in the same manner on both sets of disorders,
whether the effects be good or evil ; and what is also re-
markable, the most purely local pain being cured only by
remedies that act on the constitution at large.

Further, every neuralgic disease, whatever its character
be, is an intermittent, or else a remittent : the types being
equally various, and the regularity of occurrences and the
durations of the paroxysms similar ; while, when chronic,
they similarly consist of relapses of a certain duration. And
if there be an irregularity, it is in the very chronic cases;
while the same irregularities occur in simple chronic marsh
fever, and from the same causes. Lastly^ that we may cut
short that evidence even to superfluity, in which the author's
anxiety to prove his case has led him to indulge^ every fit of
neuralgia, whatever be its nature, is attended by a paroxysm
of fever, though this may be obscure, as it is often over-
looked : the author having also shown, that the cold stage,
which is frequently quite local and limited, precedes the
painful one, and that this is simultaneous with, or a substitute
for, the hot fit.

Such is the general train of argument ; but we must refer
to the work itself for the more detailed facts in evidence
which do not admit of abridgment.

We must next attempt an abridgment of another of the
author's general arguments : it being one of importance,
inasmuch as it is that which connects the inflammatory dis-
eases, here enumerated, with simple neuralgia.

During the fit of pain in any considerable nervous branch,
the surrounding parts become unusually sensitive and red,
or there is increased action in the capillary arteries. If that
painful affection be in numerous ultimate ramifications of
nerves, the pain is more mild and diffused, while this species
of action, tending towards inflammation, becomes generally
also more conspicuous. This is what happens in neadach,
and in toothach very remarkably; and, in the latter di^

i» Dr. Mac CuUoch on Fevers,

order, it is especially common for this action to become
dermanent, instead of transitory, in which case the inflam-
mation is established, and is known by the term rheumatism
of the face.

To this peculiar inflammation the term neuralgic is here
applied : founded on the following facts, and for the follow-
ing reasons. It is connected with the causes of marsh fever
and neuralgia, and also with marsh fever itself, inasmuch as
the febrile state appertaining to it is paroxysmal under the
same modifications and types. In some cases, such as that
of the eye conspicuously, a decided neuralagic pain attends
it. In this case also, as in some others, the very inflamma-
tion is paroxysmal under all the types of intermittent :
ceasing, to be again renewed, and also changing from one
place to another^ in the manner which is sometimes termed
metastasis. Though it resembles common inflammation to
the senses, it is aggravated by blood-letting, and cured by
bark and tonics. Such is a sketch of the argument, which
we have not space to give in more detail, and with more of
the proofs here adduced : but we must add that the author
considers the neuralagic inflammation, and those which attend
intermittent or marsh fever generally, in whatever organs
situated, as of the same nature ; since those inflammations
also possess the very same characters in all respects. And
hence is explained the confusion which has hitherto attended
the subject of inflammatory affections in those fevers, and
very particularly the inefiicacy or evil consequences of blood-
letting, and the cures effected by bark. Our readers will
perceive that we thus come back again, under another form,
to the case of rheumatism, as formerly pointed out : and we
can only venture further to add, that in a summary and
theoretic view which terminates this work, the author
suggests the necessity of applying some term to this kind
of inflammation for the purpose of distinguishing it from
common phlegmasia ; as much pernicious practice and injury
are the consequences of confounding them, or of mistaking
this inflammation for phlegmasia.

Though we cannot venture to take room for all the
general views of an analogous nature which relate to this
subject, we must still say a few words on the paralytic
consequences of neuralgia ; while here also another analogy
is discovered with the mere marsh fevers^ in which palsy is
a mode or a symptom, or a consequence. We may com-
mence with the familiar fact, that palsy is not an unfrequent
consequence of sciatica, and also of the common tic dou*

Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers. 5^

loureux in the face ; and the author shows that it similarly
occurs in other neuralgiae : among others, very remarkably,
is that of the eye, producing amaurosis. And we consider
here especially that his remarks on this terrible disorder are
of especial value ; since they have not merely pointed out a
frequent, perhaps the most frequent cause of a disease, the
nature and origm of which were utterly unknown, but also
indicated the means of prevention or cure. And if he has
noticed that it is common in Africa, where this peculiar
inflammation is endemic and the produce of marshy land,
for those who have experienced it, to suffer that disorder,
which consists in blindness or imperfect vision after sunset,
we are happy to be able to confirm that fact by some cases
which he does not appear to have met with, in our own
country, where the very same disorder was the produce of
the chronic neuralagic inflammation of the eyes.

Under this head he has also traced the dependence of
mania and fatuity on neuralgia, as he had formerly pointed
out their connexion with intermittent ; further drawing some
curious and important parallels from the effects of cold : but
as we dare not follow him through all this reasoning and
evidence, we must barely content ourselves with pointing
out, that, in this class of disorders as in intermittent, all
these effects are the frequent consequences of the abuse of
blood-letting, or of the evacuant system generally : some very
remarkable cases, in proof, being also given.

But we must abandon what we have not room to pursue
any further, that we may give a sketch of his views as to a
few of the disorders which he has here treated specifically ;
selecting those which seem to us the most interesting, as our
limits prevent us from doing more.

Under headach he has attempted to trace a regular
gradation between the pure periodical disease, which is a
neuralgia, and the ordinary nervous headachs, as they are
termed : but while we cannot follow him through this, we
think that he has done more towards the elucidation of this
common and troublesome disorder than had ever been
effected before. And in the same chapter there is an im-
portant remark on a species of vertigo, which we can assure
him is much more common than he seems to imagine, and in
which much mischief is daily done by mistaking it, as he
remarks, for a tendency or " flow of blood" to the head : a
fashionable phraseology, as he calls it, to which he seems to
bear a most inveterate spite, as he misses no opportunity of
bringing it forward for censure.

66 Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers,

The chapter entitled various neuralgiae, contains exaniples
of the occurrence of this disease in a great number of nerves ;
while he concludes, that when practitioners shall have learned
to pay more attention to this disease under the lights which
he has now furnished, that list v/ill be materially aug-
mented.

We believe that some suspicions have lately been enter-
tained that sciatica was a neuralgia ; whether or not, the
fact is made so clear here, that we shall pass over this
chapter entirely, as we must also omit that on the " ques-
tionable neuralgiae," for want of space. That on the neu-
ralgic affection of glands is a subject equally new and
curious, aiding also to illustrate the author's remarks on
neuralgic inflammation. The singular case of diabetes, which
is given in illustration, removes all doubt of the truth
of this hitherto unknown or unobserved modification of
neuralgia.

That neuralgia may arise from injuries of the nerves, is
now fully proved, since various authorities are cited in
support of the author's own observations : but he has
deduced some valuable conclusions from this fact, a con-
sequence of the generalization which he has adopted as to
the whole disease, while hence also he derives a main argu-
ment in favour of his theory of toothach.

If these entirely new views of this very vulgar, yet almost
universal and most vexatious disorder, which we here find,
are the part of this work which is most likely to meet
with opposition, we observe that he is fully prepared for
that ; having, indeed, to use a vulgar phrase, " cried out
before he was hurt." It is, perhaps, not the very best policy
to begin by throwing down the gauntlet in this manner ;
but we caimot deny that his remarks on the persecution of
all similar reformers are true. This chapter is very detailed
and full, containing, indeed, nearly all that is necessary to
an entire history of toothach : and if we consider the
frequency of the disease and the aggregate of pain which it
produces, it is, perhaps, the most important portion of the
whole work. That what appears so obvious, now that it is
stated, should not have been known or discovered before,
is precisely that which will render the present views unac-
ceptable, and the arguments unavailing to conviction ; but
we will here transcribe the summary of these as we find it,
thus saving ourselves the trouble which we have incurred in
other places, while we also give a specimen of the author's
style, as is a part of our duty as reviewers.

Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers, 57

" Neuralgia is a pain occupying some point in the nerves of
the face among others ; and it may occupy any point in any large
branch which supplies the teeth, among other nerves of the
face. The pain which it produces is the same pain, whatever bo
the nerve or part of that nerve affected. The pain of toothach
is the same pain, and it is seated in an ultimate extremity of the
branch which supplies the teeth, or in more. If the pain is not
neuralgia, then it must follow, that although every other point
of that nerve, when pained, is suffering from neuralgia, let that
pain exist any where, from the brain even to the extremity, the
very last, ultimate point thus suffering, suffers from a different
disease. Reductio ad absurdum." " Or," as he remarks in
another place, " if the inferior maxillary nerve is affected with
neuralgia in one point, let us pursue that as a mathematical
fluent. It proceeds along the nerve till it arrives at the place
where the rfimification is given off to a tooth: it proceeds even
into the tooth, and the name is then changed to toothach. But
change of name is not change of disease : or, if it be so, let
the opposing assertion define the point in this fluxion, where the
cessation takes place, and a new element of equation must be
adopted, or where a new disease commences."

It is further remarked, that neuralgia and toothach
agree in being intermittent and periodical ; that if toothach
is irregular, so is neuralgia, and from the same causes ;
that both are attended with a similar, obscure, periodical
fever ; that both alternate with simple intermittent, by
relapses and by paroxysms ; that both present all the same
types as common intermittent does, and that a double tertian
may consist of a paroxysm of toothach on one day, and of
simple fever on the other. Further, the same heat, excite-
ment of the parts, diffused pain, and irritability attend
both ; the two are united or simultaneous, or either passes
into the other, or else it becomes impossible to pronounce
whether the pain is neuralagia or toothach : while, also,
they alternate in such a manner that what was neuralgia on
one day, or even in one hour or minute, may be toothach
at another, or the next. And, moreover, the case of tooth-
ach from caries is precisely neuralgia from the injury of a
nerve ; this being the most common of the occasional causes,
so far from affording an argument against this view ; while,
lastly, they are both cured by the same remedies, among
which, perhaps, the most remarkable circumstance is their
cure by means of charms.

Such are the proofs: but as we cannot afford space to
enter upon the several interesting details in which all the
varieties of this disease are described, traced, and connected

58 Dr. Mac CuUoch onFevers^.

under the general principle, we must content ourselves with
a few remarks on the utility or application of these new
views.

This is what relates to the cure of this frequent and painful
disorder ; though, as we cannot undertake to abridge even
that, we must limit ourselves to stating what is said generally
respecting extraction. Having demonstrated the inefficacy
of the barbarous practice of dividing the nerve in the com-
mon tic-douloureux, the author here shows that, in the cases
of toothach, as it is reputed, with sound, and even often
with carious teeth, the practice of extraction is equally
abused, and is often equally inefficacious. In these cases, if
the disease is in reality always a neuralgia, it is often, even
obviously, that disorder in its plainest form ; while, being
termed toothach, and from the habit of applying extraction
to that disorder, as well as its facility, and also from the de-
fective education or absolute ignorance of diseases of those
who practise as dentists, it is resorted to with consequences
to the patient that are often very grievous ; since, full often,
the pain continues or returns after extraction, while the
injury experienced from the loss of teeth is not only a great
deformity but a serious evil. And if he alludes to cases
where whole rows of teeth have thus been sacrificed, often
to no purpose, even in young persons, he has stated what
must be familiar to every one ; while we really are not sur-
prised at his surprise, that such a practice should still be
persevered in, even by educated physicians, and that a rea-
soning so very obvious as he has rendered this, should never
before have struck any one. And, as we go along with his rea-
sonings, we cannot help concluding that the consequences of
these new viev/s of toothach will become inestimable to the
" rising generation," as he terms it : since all that inconve-
nience and deformity produced by the loss of teeth will thus
be prevented in future, and for ever ; while the cure of the
pain, so seldom effected by these barbarous and ignorant
proceedings, will be found in the general remedies applicable
to all neuralgia ; namely, in the tonic system.

But we must pass on to the only other disorder of this
nature on which we can afford now to speak, and which we
should not be justified in omitting, important, common, and
mistaken as it is. This is the neuralgic ophthalmia, as it is
here termed, occupying a chapter to itself, and treated in a
very full and satisfactory manner. That it had been con-
founded with common inflammatory ophthalmia till very
lately, is well known to at least our medical readers :

Dr. Mac Calloch on Fevers, S#

while it appears that our author had long since classed it as
he has here done, and treated it on the general principles ap-
plied to all the neuralgia?. Recently, it has been distinguished
under the term rheumatism of the eye, by Mr. Wardrop:
but we cannot agree with our author that this writer
deserves any very great praise for his essay, when he did not
discover so very obvious a connection, and while also entirely
overlooking the chronic and far most prevailing variety: since
excepting a practice in the acuter cases which is merely em-
pirical, he has left the matter pretty much where he found
it, and has scarcely aided in diminishing the vast mass of evil
consequences, in blindness chiefly, which are its daily produce.
That it should so have been overlooked and mistaken by
the whole profession, by the entire centuries of physic ever
since Hippocrates, might appear perfectly incredible, com-
mon as it IS and marked as are its characters ; did we not
know but too well, as our somewhat satirical author justly
remarks, what the proceedings of physic and physicians have
been during those centuries.

Our author states this as being the most common of all the
varieties of ophthalmia ; and we are inclined to believe that
he is correct in this. It is an endemic in the same situations
as marsh fever, very notedly in France, Spain, Italy and
Africa ; it prevails in the same seasons of the year and periods,
and is most abundant in those in which malaria is most
active ; from all which, as far as community of causes goes,
its connection with remittent or marsh fever is established.
Its nature is more fully proved by the following facts. It is
attended by an intermittent fever of the usual character, and
very generally by a distinct neuralgic pain about the fore-
head or eyebrow : it is also itself intermitting, so as to sub-
side and be renewed again in regular paroxysms modelled
on all the several types of intermittent ; while, even more
remarkably, it is apt to pass alternately from one eye to
another, with great regularity, and under a quotidian or
tertian type, and while more frequently occupying one eye
than both. As a further proof of its true nature, it is
aggravated by the evacuating system, and cured by the tonic
one ; so that nothing is wanting to the proof of its real cha-
racter and connections, even to this, that a partial or more
complete palsy of the retina or nerve, namely the loss of
vision after sunset, or absolute amaurosis, is one of its con-
sequences.

As we cannot indulge in a further description of this

60 Dr. Mac Culloch on Fevers.

ophthalmia, we must content ourselves with stating that it
often terminates in opacities of the cornea : while, according
to our author, it is this very ophthalmia and no other, which
is the common cause of blindness, particularly when that
affects one eye only, while even suspected to produce cataract,
and very certainly proved to end in amaurosis at times : the
very severest cases alone terminating in the total destruction
of the eye ; but all these bad effects, according to our author,
being the consequences of wrong treatment. Nor must we
forget to remark, that it sometimes ajffects the iris ; thus also
producing blindness by contracting the pupil.

Our readers may now conjecture the importance of this par-
ticular disease ; and a remark or two from the account of the
effects of remedies, for good and evil, will show this in a much
stronger light, and evince the very valuable accession which
this new view of its nature has made to practical medicine.

It is clearly ascertained by him, and fully confirmed by Mr.
Wardrop's experience, though proceeding on different views
and on purely empirical or experimental ones, that where it
might be a slight disease, it is aggravated by the usual reme-
dies, namely, bloodletting, general or local, blisters, and pur-
gatives; and that to the abuse, or even the use of these, must
be ascribed the loss of sight from it, which is so common
an occurrence. From this wrong treatment also, that which
would have been a transitory case becomes inveterate or
chronic, so as often to last even through the whole of life,
yet with such intervals and relapses as occur in all the
chronic diseases of these general characters. It is the same
wrong treatment also which, leads to amaurosis or palsy :
and the author has given one striking case where, from per-
sistence in this system, mania, fatuity, and death were the
results. And when we consider how very common this
ophthalmia is, and that the chronic variety, which is even the
most common, has been overlooked by Wardrop, hitherto
the only guide for it, while, further, that the evacuant prac-
tice is followed by every one, mechanically, we shall have no
difficulty in seeing the utility to be derived from this new
description and correct theory. And as wrong practice is the
source of all the evil, so the right practice consists in what is
entirely opposed to it, or in the remedies for marsh fever and
neuralgia in general, under which it becomes a very manage-
able, and indeed almost a trivial disease. And if we said that
the author had conferred an important benefit on his race by
his new views of toothach, these are scarcely to be com-

Dr. Mac CuUoch on Fevers, 61

pared in importance with those which will follow from the
diminution of the heaviest calamity that can afflict human
nature.

Thus we must bring to an end all that we can possibly
venture to take room for ; while also apologizing for the
lengtli to which our analysis has extended, but which we
could not well have curtailed without rendering it useless.
We did promise to have extracted some of the author's general
remarks on the evacuant practice in its various misapplica-
tions ; but our limits forbid us to do all that we had intended
But as we cannot absolutely omit it all, we must trust to our
reader's pardon for the brevity and imperfection of what we
can alone undertake to state on this subject.

These relate to that practice, recently become a fashion,
as he truly calls it, which consists in bloodletting, cupping,
and the use of purgatives, comprising chiefly calomel and
salts ; and the application, or rather misapplication of these
remedies, which he censures, being almost as often the work
of patients themselves as of their physicians, is chiefly to the
following diseases : to palsies generally, and more particularly
to those affections as aependent on marsh fever or its causes,
and to apoplexy from the same cause, consequently, and for
the same reasons ; to an imaginary disease, fashionably, and
recently introduced under the term *'flow of blood to the
head," and very generally to a wide class of nervous affections
similarly mistaken for plethora and inflammation, whether
arising from chronic marsh fever or from any other causes ;
lastly, to specific disorders depending on neuralgia and marsh
fever, on which we cannot and need not be more particular,
after what we have said in the preceding analysis. And we
ought to remark that he includes the modern and fashionable
recommendation of low diet or abstinence in the same general
charge.

He shows, that be the causes what they may, palsies are
thus aggravated, or rendered incurable, or even mortal ;
and that fatuity, and even mania, are thus produced, as is
also epilepsy ; while in cases of a less aggravated nature,
numerous nervous affections of less severity are brought on,
and the health of the patient ruined for life. On the imaginary
flow of blood to the head, he shows that this is a temporary
action of the carotid or other arteries of this part, analogous to
that general action of the whole arterial system which occurs
in the hot fit of intermittent, and often arising from that
disorder in its chronic form, but unsuspected. And he shows
that the practice of cupping, and even of purging, or of low

fl2 On Mineral Waters,

diet, in these cases, leads to ruined health, often to fatuity,
palsy and epilepsy, as to long train of other nervous affec-
tions: and, attributing the great increase of nervous disorders
and of palsies, in nriodern society, and chiefly in young females
in the opulent classes, to the recent introduction and abuse of
cupping, so does he denounce the similar self-empirical abuse
of purgatives, especially of those most currently used and
abused, calomel, salts, and mineral waters. On all this and
far more than we dare to quote or notice, we recommend his
remarks and his work in general to the serious attention of
our readers, and very particularly to the several studious
and often fanciful persons, wherever existing, who think
that life cannot go on without physic, and who, in the
abuse of these powerful remedies, whether from their own
notions or the recommendations of routine practitioners,
are preparing the way to their graves with thorns and
misery.

We would gladly have noticed his last chapter ; but we
have so far exceeded our bounds, that we must end abruptly ;
being the more inclined to do this because it is a theoretical
view of all that has preceded, stated in a condensed and
purely abstract manner, and therefore the less fitted for the
readers of our Journal.

On Mineral Waters, Natural and ArtificiaL
Communicated by Mr. A. Walcker.

The earliest physicians and philosophers regarded mineral
waters as an important class of remedies ; and in our own days,
from the time of Frederic Hoffman, doAvnvvards, whom we may
justly entitle the scientific restorer of their use, their value has
acquired ample confirmation from the evidence of medical
writers. Yet, professional men have not been wanting, who
have considered mineral waters as nearly inert ; and have at-
tributed the cures, performed by them, chiefly to the mode of
living resorted to during their use.

That the observance of a strict regimen, relaxation from the
business and from the cares of life, together with the invigorating
recreations of a watering place, must, in themselves, have a
salutary tendency on an invalid, cannot admit of a doubt. If
we, however, reflect, that such mineral waters, as are least liable

On Mineral Waters. 63

to decomposition, are used with almost equal advantage at a
distance from the springs ; that the earliest cures by them were
mostly performed on the country people, constantly residing in
their vicinity; that, in many diseases, characteristic symptoms
occur during the treatment by them ; that frequently the cure
is not finally effected until some time after the course of waters
has been concluded ; and that they prove injurious, if misap-
plied ; we cannot but allow them to be highly active remedies.
Mineral waters are almost exclusively adapted to diseases of a
chronic kind, — the reduction of which, no less than their ori-
ginal developement, is the work of time, and unattended by very
striking critical symptoms. Were the fact, however, otherwise,
the regimen prescribed during their use should scarcely be
looked upon in a different light, than that enjoined with other
powerful remedies — as, for instance, with antiphlogistics — the
most skilful treatment with which would be rendered abortive,
if unaccompanied by a suitable diet.

Physicians have often been induced to think lightly of mine-
ral waters, because their alleged virtues do not appear sanc-
tioned by the results of analysis. But however accurately
chemistry may point out the acids and bases, there are no
certain means of determining the relative proportions of the
binary combinations into which they enter, and on which the
peculiar character of a mineral spring, appears, for the most
part, to depend. Dr. Murray, who first drew our attention to
this point, has shown that, by simply changing the order of
combination in which the elements are commonly arranged in
our tables of analysis, we are presented with an entirely different
view concerning the effects of a spring. Hence, in pronouncing
upon its efficacy, experience is our only unerring guide ; and
analysis can have no further value for the physician, than as it
enables him to estimate, from analogy, the medical virtues of a
spring, by its synthetical resemblance to another, whose effects
he already knows.

The inconsiderate praise sometimes lavished on mineral
waters, in recommending them for almost every disease with
which human nature is afflicted, has likewise had a tendency
to bring them into discredit ; for although the cases in which
these remedies are applicable, are very numerous, yet, to expect

64 On Mineral Waters.

in them, or in any other medicine, a panacea^ is absurd. The
diseases, therefore, in which they are indicated, are limited in
number; and yet it would be unjust towards medical writers,
who have treated the subject, to question their veracity, wherever
they may have recommended the same water in cases of oppo-
site characters ; for, on closer inquiry, we often find that con-
trary forms of disease originate in the same primary cause.

Thus the confined ideas of a few prejudiced individuals, and
the unworthy motives of others, alike fail in depreciating this
valuable class of medicines; whose reputation, on the contrary,
continues to extend and gain strength, from year to year.
Physicians, no less distinguished for the rank they hold in the
profession, than for their impartial love of truth, have published
the results of their mature experience, in the treatment by
mineral waters, and have borne ample testimony to their merits.
Germany, from her abundance in powerful mineral springs,
has presented the widest field for observations of this kind ; and
the works of F. Hoflfman, Marcard, Becher, Zimmermann, Diel,
Hufeland, Kreysig, Wurzer, and others, prove that they have
not been neglected.

As we possess no adequate substitutes for these salutary
remedies, it cannot but be considered highly desirable to attempt
their imitation by art, with a view to extend the benefit of their
use to persons whose occupations or whose pecuniary circum-
stances do not admit of a journey to the natural springs. But
almost all attempts of this kind have failed, from the arbitrary
and negligent mode of proceeding. Hence the suspicion with
which such imitations have been regarded. How far the
artificial mineral waters of Dr. Struve have been brought to
coincide with their originals, I shall endeavour to show in the
following pages : — •

An artificial mineral water, professing to be a perfect sub-
stitute for a natural one, must

1st. Contain all the ingredients of the latter; and in the
proportions established by accurate chemical analysis.

2d. It must coincide with the original in all physical phfeno-
mena, as well as in its impression on the external senses.

In respect to the first point, no branch of chemistry has been
the victim of so much abuse as the analysis of mineral waters;

On Mineral Waters, 65

and the labours of a master in the art, have been rarely adopted
as the basis of an artificial preparation. The fallacious notion,
too, that a knowledge of the effects of a mineral water was de-
ducible from the ingredients, as they are enumerated in our
tables of analysis, became another source of failure. Imitations
were considered satisfactory, if they but contained those few
substances that preponderate in the originals, and which are
known in themselves as possessed of medical power ; whilst
others, either existing in smaller proportions, or whose curative
virtues, under the form our tables of analysis gave to them, were
less striking, were either entirely omitted, or added in incorrect
proportions. This error was particularly frequent with regard
to the oxide of iron. I have already once had occasion to ob-
serve, that a mineral water is by no means to be regarded as a
mere solution of those salts enumerated in our tables of analysis,
co-existing without reciprocal decomposition. The earthy car-
bonates, for instance, which, as such, would be of little medical
value, exist in mineral waters in the form of sulphates, muriates,
and bi-carbonates, the efficacy of which cannot be disputed.
Silica, which in its state of solid aggregation, is indolent, exists
in the waters as a soluble silicate*.

The carbonate of iron, however minute its proportion may
be, has no inconsiderable share in modifying the effect of mi-
neral waters. Repeated observations have proved that in the
artificial Carlsbad waters, for instance, if the small quantity of
iron be omitted, they become possessed of the debilitating ten-
dency which saline aperients generally acquire, when used for
too great a length of time |.

• It is sufficiently known how little we are allowed to transfer our therapeutical
notions of an insoluble body, to the same when in a state of solution. I allude merely
to the different effects of metals and their insoluble sulphurets, compared with their
soluble salts. The different intensity of aggregation — even a minuter state of me-
chanical division — freq\iently implies a considerable change in the medical virtues.
Calomel, prepared via humidA, or via sicca ; sulphur, sublimated or precipitated ;
oxide of iron, before or after ignition ; duid mercury, or those preparations wherein
it is minutely subdivided, &c. &€., furnish proofs. of this statement. The action of
many of our antidotes, by their entering into combinations, relatively insoluble, must
be referred to the same principle.

t The salts of strontia, barytes, lithia, together with the fluates and phosphates
which some mineral waters yield, occur in proportions too trifling to admit of any
stress being laid on their medical effects. How far this remark applies to the more
prevalent manganese, which proves, from the late experiments of Professor Gmelin,
powerfully to affect the biliary secretions, we may not be too forward in presuming.
Be this as it may, it rests incumbent on chemists who profess to imitate a natural
spring, to omit no one ingredient; however inconsiderable it may appear.

JAN.— MARCH, 1828. F

66 On Mineral Waters.

Having thus compounded a mineral water, with strict adhe-
rence to the first position, it remains to impart to it the exact
temperature of its prototype ; to submit it to a corresponding
pressure of carbonic acid gas, excluding at the same time, es-
pecially if it be a chalybeate, every particle of atmospheric air.
With the observance of these requisites, we shall succeed in
obtaining a mineral water, which is not to be distinguished from
the spring. It will coincide in appearance, taste, smell, and
other physical properties, with its original. The gas-bubbles
will rise in the same form, and spontaneous decomposition will
take place Avithin the same period^ and to the same extent.
That these external bearings must be punctiliously attended
to, I shall endeavour to prove more at length. If an artificial
mineral water, whose original contains no other gas than car-
bonic acid, be not perfectly free from atmospheric air or other
gas, it will deviate in quality. Its capacity of absorbing and
retaining carbonic acid, being impaired, the latter escapes more
easily, more rapidly, and in larger bubbles; and the decompo-
sition of the mineral water, that is to say, the precipitation of
the earths and of the oxide of iron, ensues in a similar ratio.
It cannot, however, be looked upon as a matter of indifference,
whether this decomposition ensues earlier or later in the organs
of digestion.

Factitious mineral waters thus corresponding with the pro-
perties of the natural ones, will resemble them to the same ex-
tent in their effects on the human frame. Since the year 1821,
Dr. Struve has erected establishments for the purpose of their
exhibition, at Dresden, Berlin, Leipsic, Koenigsberg, Warsaw,
and Moscow. Most of the physicians in those towns are prac-
tically acquainted with the natural springs. The numerous
cases which they have contributed to Dr. Struve' s treatises*,
and to several medical journals, bear satisfactory testimony to
the coincidence of their medical virtues ; and the public, who
formerly were in the habit of resorting to the natural springs,
now entirely confide in these imitations.

Although these facts have been acknowledged by the faculty
in general, a few medical writers have, nevertheless, attempted

* Ueber die kuristliche Nachbildung der Heilquellen. P'^'. and 11*^' Theil,
1824 and 1826.

On Mineral Waters. 67

to maintain, that art can never succeed in closely following up
nature, in the reproduction of a mineral water. It is worthy of
remark, that this objection has been raised almost exclusively
by superficial chemists ; whilst men whose whole lives have been
devoted to the cultivation of the science, have abstained from
expressing such doubts. The importance of the subject, how-
ever, still demands, that the grounds on which the objection
rests should not be passed over in silence. We shall, there-
fore, proceed to examine and to reply to them.

Foremost, we may class the hypothesis, which ascribes the
virtues of mineral waters, in a great measure, to the agency of
imponderable bodies — especially to electricity. To this, the
baths of PfefFers, in Switzerland, and of Wilsbad, in the king-
dom of Wurtemberg, chiefly gave rise. Both are highly es-
teemed for their medical powers ; but as their efficacy does not
directly follow from the results of their analysis, (according to
which, the amount of their ingredients, whether of a fixed or of
a gaseous kind, is inconsiderable,) the imponderables were
pressed into the service. Not to dwell on the circumstance
that we possess no modern analysis of these springs, we have
only to keep in view the powerful influence which thermal
baths, even of common water, exert over the frame ; and we
shall no longer feel surprised at the effects of a system of bath-
ing, such as is followed at PfefFers, where the patient gradually
lengthens the period of his baths, from one to ten or twelve hours*

Even admitting electricity to be instrumental in the primary
formation of a mineral water, the idea of its permanent activity
is at variance with all experience in electrical phenomena. The
hypothesis, however, appeared to acquire strength from the
theory of Becquerel, who, from the action of certain substances
on the electro-magnetical multiplicator, when brought into
contact with it at the moment of their becoming united, was led
to infer, that a disengagement of electricity accompanied the
chemical changes. Subsequently to the publication of this
opinion. Professor Kiistner, of Erlangen, attempted to prove
that the springs of Wisbaden, in the duchy of Nassau, mani-
fested electrical phenomena, dissimilar to those of an imitative
chemical mixture. The fallacy, however, of the inferences
drawn by the French philosopher, has since been laid open by

F2

68 On Mineral Waters,

Sir Humphrey Davy*, and my own experiments f ; and, on fol-
lowing up the experiments of Professor Kastner, at the mineral
springs on the Rhine and in Bohemia, I ascertained that they
evinced no signs of electrical action whatever, and that their
mode of affecting the electro-magnetical multiplicator differed
in no particular from that of an artificial mineral water, contain-
ing the same ingredients. The source of the error into which
Professor Kastner had fallen, I have pointed out in an earlier
number of the above-mentioned philosophical journal \ . Thus
experience subverts the first ground of objection.

Another is, that the warmth of thermal springs is dif-
ferent from that obtained by artificial means. They have been
asserted to produce a different sensation on the frame, and to
demand a longer period for the reduction of their temperature
than common water heated to the same degree.

If the sensation produced by a naturally thermal bath dif-
fers from that of common water, heated to the same temperature,
the reaction caused on the skin by the ingredients of the former
must be taken into account. With respect to the greater length
of time which the mineral water is supposed to require in cool-
ing, the circumstance has been disregarded, that the bathing
reservoirs, being mostly constructed of such materials as
belong to the worst conductors of heat, retain a temperature
little inferior to that of the bath itself Nor is it possible, in a
close chamber, where no current of air is permitted, and whose
atmosphere, consequently, soon becomes saturated with vapour,
that the temperatue of the water can be sensibly diminished by
evaporation.

Authenticated proofs, however, afford us a still better means
of refuting such gratuitous assumptions. With this view, M.
Longchamp submitted the waters of Bourbonne,§ which prior
examinations || had endowed with a different capacity for caloric
than a corresponding factitious mixture, to a careful and minute
course of experiments ; and the results proved that the water

* Fide Philosophical Transactions for 1826, III.
t Vide PoggendoflF's Annalen der Physik, 1825, Nos. 7 and 8.
X Fide Poggendoff' s Annalen der Physik, 1825, No, 5.
§ Fde Annales de Chimie et de Physique, torn. xxiv. p. 247.
II Recueil des Memoires de Medecine et de Pharmacie Militaires, xii. p. 21.—
Paris, 1822. ^

On Mineral Waters, G9

of naturally warm springs, and water artificially heated, cceteris
paribus, require the same time to cool ; a fact which has since
been confirmed by the experiments of Professors Reuss, Neu-
mann, and Steinmann, on the waters of Carlsbad ; by Pro-
fessors Schweigger, Ficinus, and Reuss, on those of Toplitz,
and by Dr. Salzer, on the springs of Baden, near Vienna.

On a closer inquiry into the theory of the formation of ther-
mal springs, the positions laid down for the origin of their tem-
perature offer us no grounds to assume in them an extraordi-
nary capacity for caloric. The hypothesis which derives their
heat from the decomposition of pyrites, or from beds of burning
coals, has found its refutation in the chemical and philosophical
reasonings of Professor Berzelius;* and the view which he
himself has shaped out, has, from a multitude of facts, by far
the greatest title to probability.

Hot springs, he observes (as well as exhalations of gases and
of steam), occur in the vicinity of all active volcanos ; it is,
therefore, probable that such waters owe their temperature to
their passage through channels heated by volcanic fire. With
regard to the other fervid springs we are acquainted with, most
of which will be found to lie contiguous to extinguished vol-
canos, or at least in a soil bearing the stamp of volcanic forma-
tion, there is reason to suppose, either that volcanic action still
goes on in the interior of the earth, or that glowing masses, the
remains of primeval volcanic processes, still exist there. That
the former case obtains, with reference to some springs, seems
evident from the earthquakes that have been experienced in
their neighbourhood ; and the possible existence of glowing
masses in the interior of the earth, and requiring thousands of
years to cool, will be conceived with less difficulty, when it is
considered that volcanic productions are amongst the worst
conductors of heat ; yet wholly enveloped in immense strata of
such as these glowing masses must be, they can only part
with their temperature by conduction — never by radiation.

Of the remarkably bad conducting power of volcanic products
we are furnished with abundant proofs. Thus, Sir William
Hamilton observed, in 1769, that the lava which flowed at
Vesuvius in 1766, was still smoking. During the eruption of

* Vide Transactions of the Royal Academy of Sciences, at Stockholm, 1822,

70 On Mineral Waters*

February 1822, Messrs. Monticelli and Govelli discovered in
a crater of Vesuvius, a layer of snow, of a foot in thickness,
and which had lain there for a couple of days ; nor did these
gentlemen experience the slightest inconvenience on applying
the hand to the margin of a canal, formed of congealed lava,
although a stream of red-hot lava was flowing through it at the
time.

In considering the origin of thermal springs, I cannot omit
adverting to the warmth that prevails in the interior of the earth.
Observations made in the mines of Cornwall and other dis-
tricts have shown, that, at no great depth, the temperature is
augmented in no inconsiderable degree. Thus, in a mine of
New Spain, Von Humboldt found the temperature at a depth
of 1647 feet, to be 32 degrees higher than at the surface. To
the influence of this principle, in imparting warmth to the pene-
trating atmospheric fluid. Professor Berzelius and, with him,
M. Brognard are inclined to attribute the less ardent tem-
perature of springs, like those of Bath and Clifton, as the soil
in which they are generated has not a volcanic character.

The next objection urged against factitious mineral waters^ is,
that the means which Nature employs in their formation are
enveloped in mystery, but that they probably differ from those
which are in the power of Art.

This objection is obviously devoid of meaning. It is the
properties of the two products that it is our business to com-
pare, and not the causes that co-operated in their formation,—
for the cause ceases in the effect. Sufficient reasons were,
however, thought to have been discovered for overturning the
ancient Plinian doctrine : '' tales sunt aquae, qualis terra per
quam fluunt."

The aggregate quantity of water flowing from the source of
the Sprudel, at Carlsbad, in a single year, is calculated to con-
tain fourteen millions of pounds of carbonate of soda, and
nearly twenty-two millions of pounds of Glauber's salts. This
quantity, multiplied by the number of years the Sprudel may
be supposed to have existed, (and it has flowed to our know-
ledge for nearly five centuries,) appears so enormous, that na-
ture was assumed to have fixed on the inmost recesses of the
earth for her laboratory, and there, aided by the powers of elec-

On Mineral Watery, 71

tricity, to have created the mineral waters out of the elements
of their component parts. And this hypothesis seemed to be
favoured by the circumstance, that no saline strata occur in the
vicinity of the wells, — such immense strata of sulphate of soda,
Howhere.

On, however, taking a general survey of those mineral waters
which resemble each other synthetically, we shall become aware
of the same analogy in the geognostical relation of their vicini-
ties. The critical eye of Berzelius was the first to light upon
this fact with sufficient clearness. Thus, springs abounding in
the salts of soda are only to be met with in the neighbourhood
of volcanic mountains ; as, for instance, in the basaltic chains
which traverse the north of Germany, from west to east, in the
Pyrenees, in the Auvergne, in the Vivarais, and in the Cantal.
On the other hand, where the basaltic formation is not pre-
valent, as in the Alps of Switzerland, the salts of soda occur
but sparingly in mineral waters, and its carbonate is altogether
absent.

Hence, as volcanic fossils, such as clinkstone, basalt, obsi-
dian, lava, &c. alone contain soda to any amount, we may safely
conclude that these minerals are subservient to the formation of
mineral waters. Direct experiments of Dr. Struve have shown,
that by the treatment of certain fossils with water and a conco-
mitant pressure of carbonic acid gas, solutions are obtained,
which bear analogy to the respective mineral waters occurring
in the vicinity of the fossils in question. Such was the case
with the clinkstone of Bilin, the porphyry of Toplitz, the ba-
salt of Eyer, the marie of Seidschutz, and the loam of Piillna
in Bohemia.

The development of carbonic acid gas, a leading ingredient in
mineral waters, is likewise connected with volcanic action. The
evolution of this gas, consequent upon every eruption of Vesuvius,
and the perpetual streams issuing from the earth near volcanos,
as in the Grotto del Cane, near Naples, and at various parts in
Sicily, — place this fact beyond a doubt. Besides, these exha-
lations of carbonic acid gas are only observed either neaF ex-
tinct volcanos, or where the formation of the soil clearly denotes
a volcanic origin.

To examine all the means which volcanism may possibly

72 On Mineral Waters,

employ in the production of carbonic acid gas, would exceed the
limits of this paper. We shall content ourselves with observing,
that, for chemical reasons, its creation out of its elements is
far from probable ; as it must, in that case, necessarily come
forth, adulterated with azote, carbonic oxide, or even with em-
pyreumatic oil. Hence, in the volcanic laboratory, it can only
be produced by a decomposition of the carbonates — ^which may
be effected by a variety of processes, conformable with the laws
both of geology and chemistry, but which we have not here
room to specify.

The probability, however, is, that these processes vary, ac-
cording to the different features of the soil ; but that the deve-
lopment most commonly results from the ignition of carbonate
of lime — the decomposition of which requires less heat, when
it is brought into contact with steam or silica.

It might perhaps be expected, that where carbonic acid gas
is thus produced in large quantity, its temperature should ne-
cessarily be elevated ; and the Vesuvian grottos receiving this
gas have been ascertained, by Messrs. Monticelli and Covelli, to
exceed in temperature, by 4i degrees, the grottos which con-
tained it not.

The very general occurrence of carbonic acid gas throughout
the globe, proves that Nature has other means for its production
in smaller quantities. Dr. Struve has found that carbonic acid
gas is disengaged by bringing carbonate of lime in contact with
silicate of alumina and water, at common temperatures, though
more readily if the latter be heated. To this process of de-
velopment, common spring water is perhaps indebted for its
small portion of this gas.

With regard to the acids in the sulphates and muriates of
mineral waters, where the surrounding rocks yield only the
respective bases, volcanic action seems to be the principal
agent in their production. To notice all the facts, however,
which appear to favour this or other hypotheses, would spin
out the present paper to far too great a length. They have
been collected and revised in an elaborate work, by Professor
G. Bischoff, of Bonn*.

* Die Yulkanischen Mineralquellen Deulschlands und Frankreichs, deren
UrspruBg, Mischung; und Verbfleltnisse zu den Gebirgsquellen, 1826.

On Mineral Waters. 73

It has been questioned whether the ingredients consumed by
very copious springs should not in process of time leave such
cavities in the interior of the earth, as to occasion chasms on
its surface. The following calculation will render apparent the
improbability of such an event, and will at the same time serve
to show how inexhaustible is the fund of materials which
mountainous districts have in store, for the supply of mineral
waters. It refers to one of the most abundant springs we
possess.

The quantity of water yielded by the Sprudel fountain at
Carlsbad,* through its several mouths, averages per hour,
419,200 pounds, therefore, per year, upwards of 3672 millions
of pounds. The quantity of oxide of sodium, in the salts of
soda, which this mass of water holds in solution, amounts to
60,232,59 lbs.

Now the Donnersberg, a mountain of the Bohemian chain,
and constituting an almost perfect cone, consists exclusively of
clinkstone, of a specific gravity of 2.575, and whose consti-
tuent proportion of soda is 10.1 per cent. Assuming its eleva-
tion at 2500 feet, (although it is in reality higher) and the
inclination of its sides, towards the horizon, only at 45 degrees,
it follows that this single mountain contains a quantity of soda
sufficient for the supply of the Sprudel, during a period of

♦ These celebrated springs are situated in Bohemia, and were originally dis-
covered by the Emperor Charles IV., whilst engaged in the pleasures of the chase.
Being attracted into the rocky glen, where they rise, by the howlini? of one of his
hounds, he perceived the animal struggling in the hot well, into which it had fallen
whilst in pursuit of a stag. This occurred in the November of 1344, the year of the
memorable battle of Cressi, wherein the Emperor had been wounded in the thigh,
whilst fighting under the banners of Philip II. of France. Charles was subsequently
induced by his physician, Peter Baier, to try the recently discovered waters for a
})rotracted evil, arising out of his wound, and from the success attending their use,
the springs were named after this Prince.

The origin of these wells must have taken place at an extremely remote period.
Professor Berzelius assumes it to have been coeval with the violent revolutions in
nature, by which the valley of Carlsbad was created ; which hypothesis is strongly
supported by the circumstance, that the covering of the subterraneous reservoir
(called there the kettle) of the Sprudel-fountain, composes, for a considerable extent,
the actual bed of the river Tepel, and must, therefore, have existed before the valley
was excavated to its present depth by the river. The lid, as it were, of this boiler,
in some places eight feet in thickness, is composed of the earths precipitated from
the water. It represents a lime-stone of the hardness of marble, assumes a polish,
and consists of parallel strata, varying in every shade, from dark brown to yellow and
white. Over this lid, which is of considerable extent, the greater part of the town
of Carlsbad is built, and the water issues forth through several openings, which it is
found requisite to widen, from time to time, by boring, to prevent the dangerous
consequences of an explosion of the lid.

9i On Mineral. Waters,

35,000 years ; and yet this mountain is inconsiderable in size,
compared with others of Northern Bohemia, and these, con-
sisting of chnkstone, basalt, or other rocky substances, more
or less rich in soda. Nor would the aggregate solid contents
of the Sprudel, supposing the latter to have flowed, in its pre-
sent ratio, for the last 7000 years, that is to say, from the re-
motest era of history downwards, occupy so enormous a cubical
extent as might be imagined : for the entire quantity of its
salts, thus amounting to 70,175,589 tons, and their specific
gravity being 2.279, would not constitute a cube of more than
996 feet. Surely a space like this is a mere bubble in the
interior of the globe ; and, ere we expect the earth to give way,
let us remember that when a fossil becomes decomposed, its
volume is often simultaneously increased by a change in its
aggregate form.

If we reflect on the foregoing, together with many other phe-
nomena, such as the connexion obtaining between some springs
and the affluent atmospherical water, we cannot help subscrib-
ing to the opinion, long entertained by chemists, that the
formation of mineral waters is a simple process of solution,
subject, therefore, to the established laws of chemical affinity.
Their variety, consequently, depends on the different nature of
the strata through which they flow, — upon the relative quantity
of water and gas acting upon these strata, — and upon the
various degrees of temperature that are enlisted in the process.

Another argument opposed to factitious mineral waters is,
that although chemical analysis has the power of ascertaining
the acids and bases, still it is not possessed of the means of
determining in what combinations they are united in a mineral
spring. That the actual combinations differ from those of our
analytical results, is certain ; and as the effects of the waters
on the human frame do not satisfactorily correspond with the
latter, Dr. Murray has been led to conclude that the elements
in a mineral water unite under the form of the most readily
soluble salts. The Doctor contrived this theory chiefly with a
view to account for the effects of the Dunblane waters : but
the results of his own chemical investigations, and the effects
of mineral waters, in general, are far more clearly elucidated
in the theory which Berthollet has so ably conceived, and

On Mineral Waters, 99

which is borne out by a multiplicity of facts and reasonings—
a view which Professor Berzelius, and probably most other
chemists, have now embraced. According to its principles, a
common solution of several salts, and hence a mineral water,
contains as many different salts as the product of the number
of its bases by the number of its acids. Thus the Carlsbad
water, which yields six different acids and seven different bases,
contains forty-two various salts. Should it be asked, what ig
the exact proportion of each of these salts in the water, this
will depend upon the quantity of water, and its temperature
upon the actual quantity of the acids and bases, and upon the
degrees of their mutual affinities. In the total absence, how-
ever, of a numerical proportion relative to the last position,
and in our incapacity to ascertain what changes temperature
may produce in the affinities, we are at a loss for an adequate
answer. As far, however, as regards the point at issue, this
matters not ; for, provided a factitious mineral water contain
the same ingredients in a state of solution, and in precisely the
same proportions, provided it receive the same temperature
and be subjected to the same atmospherical pressure, it must
necessarily become subject to the identical laws of mutual at-
traction that prevail in a natural spring: for, to whatever
theory we may incline, respecting the primary formation of the
latter, we are compelled to admit, that in the product, the ori-
ginal causes can no longer assume any sway, and that the
power of chemical attraction is inherent in matter itself. Uni-
formity in the peculiarities of taste, and physical properties in
the natural and artificial products, are sufficient to prove this
fact.

It would be altogether misplaced to object here, that che-
mistry, whilst presenting us, on the one hand, the ultimate con-
stituents of many organised bodies, withholds from us, notwith-
standing, the power of accomplishing their reproduction. To
such a representation my reply would be, that organic chemis-
try is yet in his infancy ; and that we are enabled, in few in-
stances, to estimate its quantitative proportions with the same
degree of certainty that unorganised bodies admit of Still less
are we provided with the means of bringing their elements into
so intense a degree of contact with each other, as is attainable

76 On Mineral Waters,

ill a common solution of various salts. It is, moreover, a cha-
racteristic feature of organic nature, that her creations are de-
pendent upon the locality and disposition of the principles (ar-
rangement des molecules.) And yet we are in possession of
facts, such as the artificial production of oxalic and formic
acids, of sugar, of gum, of volatile oils, &c. which allow us to
hope that chemistry will, hereafter, accomplish many things
which at present appear impossible.

It still remains for us to examine the merits of Berthollet's
theory, in as far as it refers to the means of estimating the
value of a mineral water in a therapeutical sense. According
to Dr. Murray, a spring exhibiting, on analysis, the carbonates
of lime, and magnesia, and common salt, would hold the lime
and magnesia, regardless of the other ingredients, in the state
of muriates. Thus, mineral w^aters, from which we obtain
these earthy carbonates, in a comparatively large proportion,
as, for instance, the springs of Kreutzbrunnen and Auschowitz,
at Marienbad, should possess in a striking degree the medical
virtues of the muriates of lime and magnesia ; a circumstance
which experience by no means tends to confirm.

Again, it follows, that the iron must exist in all waters as a
muriate ! How are we, under this impression, to account for
the fact, that, on shaking up a chalybeate with atmospheric air —
even though an excess of carbonic acid gas, and of muriate of
soda, be present — the iron is precipitated, when we know that
its muriate is equally soluble as its permuriate ? Physicians
are more fully aware of the different effects of muriate of iron,
and of its carbonate in chalybeate waters.

Murray's theory assumes the actual ingredients to differ very
materially from — Berthollet's view, on the other hand, presents
them as in a great measure agreeing with, — the immediate re-
sult of analysis. And it must be confessed, that the leading
tendency of a mineral spring bears a near relation to these
results. The different effects of two springs (coinciding in every
other particular) from the predominance of a single salt in the
one, — an occurrence by no means uncommon, — is at once ex-
plained in the doctrine of Berthollet : for a change is thereby
effected in the proportions of all the other salts.

The imitation of mineral springs has one more obstacle to

On Mineral Waters. 77

encounter, in the argument, that the degree of perfection at
which our analyses have lately arrived, rather encourages than
precludes the hopes of their further improvement. It must
be confessed, that the modern and elaborate analyses of Profes-
sors Berzelius, Brandis, Steinmann, and Dr. Struve, afford a
certain degree of plausibility to this objection. On, however,
comparing their labours with those of experienced chemists,
who preceded them, we find them to correspond in all the
essential points, and the additions of the former to regard alone
the detection of a few ingredients in very minute portions, and
whose presence in mineral waters was never before suspected.
According to the present accurate mode of instituting analyses,
large quantities of water are submitted to the process at once.
The weight of every single ingredient is thus ascertained by the
direct method, and no longer by merely subtracting the re-
mainder from the entire mass ; and the amount of the single
ingredients is yet required to agree with the sum total. Nor
are the precipitates in the drain that carries off the waste water
from the spring, or the fossils occurring in the vicinity of the
latter, overlooked — both being submitted to a chemical exami-
nation. It is scarcely to be apprehended, that analytical re-
search, thus conducted, and facilitated by all the resources of
modern chemistry, will leave much to future detection, that can
be deserving of medical regard.

Thus, reasons, both chemical and philosophical, compel us
to admit, that mineral waters, prepared on scientific principles,
and with the observance of anundeviating accuracy of imitation,
will present us remedies, to the full as valuable as the original
springs ; — and recent medical experience tends amply to sup-
port such a conclusion. We might add, that they promise even
a more uniform efficacy than can be looked for in many of their
originals, whose constituent proportions are known, owing to
atmospherical influences, to fluctuate at times. Thus, varia-
tions of this kind have even been experienced in the springs of
Carlsbad and of Ems ; and the baths ofToplitz, in Bohemia,
have, within a period of five-and-twenty years, gradually been
deprived of one-half their solid contents. Dr. Scudamore's
*' Chemical and Medical Report" contains observations of the
samenatui'e, relative to the waters ofTunbridge-wells, Harrow-

78 Natural Histoi^ of the Earwig,

gate, and Cheltenham ; and we may remark, that those of
Seidschutz and PiiUna are not considered fit for medicinal use,
until they have stood long enough in their basins to become
adequately impregnated with saline particles, which their taste
then indicates.

The method practised in bottling artificial mineral waters,
whereby decomposition is entirely obviated, is an advantage
which the natural springs do not possess. With regard to a
pump-room, at which mineral waters of many various kinds are
dispensed, the facility of relinquishing the use of one spring in
favour of another, without sacrifice either of time or expense,
must be equally appreciated by the physician and the patient.
A gradual transition from a weaker to a more powerful spring —
even a mixture of two remote ones, a mode of treatment often
attended with benefit — is thus alone rendered feasible ; and
where experiment is the object of the practitioner, the conve-
nience afforded by such an establishment is too obvious to need
any further remark.

Natural History of the Earwig.

Insects. — Class 5. — Order 1. Coleoptera. — Wings 2, covered by two shells^ divided
by a longitudinal suture.
Genus Forjicula. — Antennae tapering; shells abbreviated; wings folded and

covered ; tail forked, resembling a forceps ; in each foot three joints.
Species Auricularia. — Earwig. — Antennae of fourteen joints ; brown ; body
depressed 5 shells tipt with white; length when full grown, eight lines.

The Earwig is common and well known j it is rather an ugly
and hostile looking insect : its very name has given it a cha-
racter of dread, and, consequently, is an object for destruction^
whenever or wherever met with.

This insect changes from its chrysalis state in the spring and
early summer months. From heaps of garden or field rubbish,
dunghills, or hot beds, they may be seen on fine warm evenings
issuing forth in great numbers, immediately taking flight, rising
to a considerable height in the air, where they disport them-
selves on wing till darkness sets in, when they descend and
retire to hiding-places till the next evening.

Natural History of the Earwig, 70

At this stage of their life they are of a pale yellow colour,
about four lines in length, and remarkably active and quick in
their motions. Their appearance at this time, in size and
colour, as well as in quickness of movement, both on wing and
on foot, has induced some naturalists to consider them as a
distinct species, under the designation of Forficula minor ; and
though further distinguished by two joints less of the antennaB,
yet it is probable they are only different semblances of the
same insect.

It cannot be observed how often the same individuals take
their evening's flight ; but as they congregate apparently from
the instinctive impulse of sexual association, it is likely they
only continue their flight till that important act of their being
is consummated.

Throughout the summer and beginning of autumn, they are
usually seen lurking in holes of walls, joints, and in crevices of
wood-work, or among any dry materials. As they are the
natural prey of many kinds of birds, particularly the Picse,
Gallinae, and several of Passeres tribes, they shun the light,
pass the day, if not disturbed, in their retreats, and issue forth
to assemble together or feed during the night.

They are one of the greatest plagues of the gardener, for as
soon as the earliest (and which is also the choicest) fruits begin
to be scented, the earwigs begin their depredations, generally
eating a hole either close to the stalk of pomeous, or at the
apex of drupeous fruits, disfiguring, if not destroying them.
Apricots are their favourite repast, and from which the spoiler
abstracts almost all their value. Many guests at the dessert,
and particularly ladies, have hardly courage to take a Moor
park apricot on their plate, lest they should be disgusted with
the sight of earwigs having possession of the cavity round the
stone ! Hence the gardener is ever at war with them, and
especially in defending his wall fruit, for there the insects have
not only safe retreats, but also ''the first-fruits" to invite their
voracity ; and as they are midnight plunderers, he can only
place reeds, and other hollow stalks of plants, to allure their
entrance, and where they may be daily caught and destroyed.

Though the richest fruits seem to be preferred by them,

80 Natural History of the Earwig,

there are many other vegetable substances which serve them
for food. The florist often has to regret the loss or laceration
of some of his favourites : they eat the epidermis of stalks and
leaves, sometimes the petals and stamina of the flower, and oc-
casionally devour young plants, as those of the French marigold
(tagetus patula), and others.

Throughout the summer and autumn they continue to in-
crease in size, and in the latter season become unwieldy, and
cease using their wings. The abdomen becomes much enlarged,
from which circumstance they all appear to be females ; this
cannot, however, be ascertained, as there are no visible sexual
marks in any stage of their existence ; but from the habitudes
of other genera in this class of insects, it is probable the males
die soon after the purposes of their life is completed ; and as
we see the full grown ones skulking about the places where the
young are resuscitated in the spring, it is likely the eggs are
laid in the course of the autumn, and pass the maggot and
chrysalis states during the winter.

From the weapon-like appendices at the end of the abdomen,
they appear to be intended for offence, and though used for the
purpose of defence, this is not the sole use of those threatening
instruments, but they are the organs, without which, they could
neither fold nor unfold their wings. When these are unfolded
for flight, they are at least half an inch in length, and when
folded lie under the protection of a shell not one-fifth of this
length I The membranous and transparent wing has no ten-
dinous or muscular motion in itself, but by the assistance and
form of the forceps, they are quickly folded, like a large map
in an octavo volume, with the greatest adroitness. Such pro-
vision has nature made for the disposal of appendages so neces-
sary to the animal at one time, and for the defence of the same
at another, when the pioneering habits of the insect endangers
the safety of those delicate organs. Another circumstance in
the structure of this loathed insect deserves remark ; its safety
depends on its power of secreting itself from its natural enemies,
by creeping into sinuous holes and cavities ; but this it could
not do without such flexuosity of body, as its short shells allows ;
for if it had shells or elytra, covering the whole length of the

Mr. Swalnson on Achatinella, 81

abdomen, like the greater number of the tribe, it could not enter
with facility into winding holes necessary for its safety.

The name of this insect, in almost all European languages,
has given it a character which causes a feeling of alarm even
at the sight of it. Whether or not they ever did enter the
human ear is doubtful, — that they might endeavour to do so,
under the influence of fear, is more than probable ; and this,
perhaps, has been the origin of their name, and the universal
prejudice against them. As it is said that anatomists deny the
possibility of their deep or dangerous entrance into the ear, it
is a pity that this is not generally known, as it might defend
the constitutionally timid from unnecessaiy alarm, and give a
more favourable idea of a part of animal creation, which forms
a most necessary link in the chain of being.

While the naturalist contemplates the economy of the ear-
wig, he cannot avoid noticing the wonderful power of instinct
with which this despicable animal is endowed. In starting into
active life from its dreary abode in the earth, and fitted at once
to become a temporary inhabitant of the air, what but instinct
opposes its not venturing forth until the evening, when the
swallow and martin, and other muscivorous birds have fled the
sky and retired to rest. The same unerring substitute for want
of reason, directs them to shun the light of day, lest they should
be exposed to view of their enemies, and they always prefer the
most secret recesses of quiet and darkness, for the preservation
of their existence, till the important work of securing a succes-
sion of their species is accomplished.

J. M.

The Characters of Achatinella^ a new group of terrestrial
Shells, with Descriptions of six Species. — By William
Swainson, Esq., F.R.S., L.S. &c.

The study of the MoUuscse is attended with difficulties not to
be found in any other class of animated nature. Their shells
or habitations, indeed, are easily procured, and are generally
the first objects with which the young naturalist begins his col-
lection : but the living animals to which they served but as a
protection, and whose structure alone can decide their place in
JAN.— MARCH, 1828. G"

82 Mr. Swainson on Achatinella,

nature, are evanescent and perishable; defying all artificial
preservation of their genuine form, and leaving the inquirer
no other object to speculate upon, than an empty, inanimate
covering.

It has, nevertheless, been found, in proportion as a more
correct knowledge of these beings has been slowly acquired,
that a general uniformity of structure in the shells of any par-
ticular group, is so frequently accompanied by a corresponding
similarity of organization in the animal, that little doubt can
remain of this being, with certain limitations, a general rule:
and that although we may be totally ignorant of the precise
nature of the one, yet that we are perfectly justified, by analo-
gical reasoning, to class and arrange its shelly covering in an
artificial system ; waiting for that knowledge, which will here-
after give us a more accurate insight into its natural affinities.

The truth of these remarks will appear very obvious, on
looking to the genus Helix, as it was left by LinnjBus, and as
it was considered only a few years back ; when the French writers
(who have been foremost in the necessary task of forming new
divisions) still considered it only in the light of a genus, con-
taining many hundreds of species. The illustrious Lamarck
perceived the utter uselessness of such a classification ; he seized
upon the most prominent types of form, and at once gave them
a character and a name. The peculiar views of M. Ferussac
led him, in the first instance, to return to the old arrangement,
so far as to consider these shells merely as a genus, divided into
subgenera, sections, &c. This view, however, he seems at length
to have gradually abandoned ; and virtually to admit what, in-
deed, is quite obvious — ^that they constitute a family, and a very
extensive one, comprising numerous minor groups, or genera,
many of which rest on striking dissimilarities in their animals,
and all on certain and obvious characters in the shell.

Th^ great error which, until lately, methodists have fallen
into, has been that of considering no group in the light of a
genus, unless its limits, or separation from that which was sup-
posed immediately to follow it, could be clearly defined. This
notion, still very prevalent among continental naturalists, has
been fast losing ground in this country, since the Avritings of
Macleay have thrown a new light upon the economy of nature,

Mr. Swainson on Achatinella. 83

and struck out a path which is now followed, almost universally,
by British naturalists. To characterize a new form, and to give
it a name, is no longer looked upon as a dangerous innovation.
Slight modifications of structure may, indeed, sometimes be
mistaken for types of a superior group, and placed in a station
which they may subsequently be found not entitled to. This,
with our present confined knowledge, is inevitable; and if it be
a real evil, it is still a very insignificant one, when put in
comparison with that, which, from a system of generalizing,
leads to the neglect of minute discriminations and rigorous
comparison.

Without a knowledge of the animal inhabiting these shells,
it is impossible to say anything on its natural affinities. Yet,
so far as we can judge from the shells themselves, they appear
intermediate between Lamarck's Bulimus and Achatina : between
A.fasciata and achatinella pica, there is, indeed, a much closer
resemblance than at first appears ; yet they clearly belong to
two distinct geographic groups.

ACHATINELLA.

Tetta ovato-contca, spiralis. Columellts basis truncata, incrassata. Labium

internum nullum, externum interne incrassatum, maryine acuto.
Habitat in Oceani Pacijici Insults.

Shell oblong-conic, spiral. Columellae with the base thickened and truncate.

Inner lip none, outer lip internally thickened, the margin acute.
Inhabits the Islands of the Pacific Ocean.

(Generic Type. Monodonta semi-nigraLam.) 1

The shells forming the present group are all of a small size ;
the largest not equalling an inch in length. In general ap-
pearance they resemble Bulimi, both as regards form, and the
proportionate length of the spire, the principal whorl being more
or less ventricose ; but in some it is sufficiently short to render
the shell trochiform. This circumstance, joined to the thickened
and somewhat projecting base of the columella, induces me to
believe, that the proposed type of the genus has been mistaken
by Lamarck for a marine shell, and described, in his Systeme,
under the name of monadonta seminigra. This supposition
cannot, however, be verified, unless by a reference to the spe-
cimen he described . it is also rendered somewhat doubtful, as
he does not quote the figures, in Dixon's Voyage round the

G2

84 Mr. Swainson on Achatinella.

World, which (although I have not the book at this moment
before me) accurately represent my A. pica. In this, as well
as in all the other species, the thick and abruptly truncated
base of the pillar gives it the appearance of an obtuse tooth,
covered with a white enamel. The extreme margin of the outer
lip is acute, but it is internally bordered by a thickened rim.
These characters, in all the species I have yet seen, are
strongly developed, and render this group one of the most con-
spicuous in the family of Helecina.

1. — A. pica.

A. testd trochi/brmi, nigra ; apice columellceque hast albis.
Sliell trochiform, black ; apex and base of the pillar white.
Monodonta, semi-nifi^ra Lam.?

Shell xV^^ ^^ ^" ^"^^ l^"g» body whorl convex, spite conic ;
the three upper whorls white or fulvous, without any convexity,
and forming a conic point. Suture thickened, and margined by
a sulcated groove : a character that runs through all the following
species, except A, acuta. Interior of the aperture, and base of
the pillar white ; the latter tinged with rose colour : margin of
the outer lip within, bordered with black.

2. — A, perversa,

A. testd sinistrorsci, sub trochiformi, fused faciis transversis nigricantibus

lineisque longitudinalibus ; apice suturdque albis.
Shell reversed, sub-trochiform, fulvous brown, with darker transverse bands,

and longitudinal lines; apex and suture white.

Shell less trochiform, but somewhat larger than the last.
The terminal whorls of the spire are likewise formed in the same
manner ; these, together with the suture, the pillar, and the
aperture, are pure white. The rest of the shell is a drab coloured
brown, variegated by transverse blackish bands and lines ; and
sometimes by others, in a waved direction, near the suture.
The spiral line, which follows the suture, and the tip of the
shell, both of a pure white, renders this a very elegant species.

3. — A. acuta,

A. testd ovalo-ohlongd, castaned, fascid marginnli fulvd ; spird longiusculd,

apice acuto, nigro.
Shell ovate-oblong, chestnut, with a marginal fulvous band ; spire somewhat
lengthened, acute, the tip black.

Shell somewhat pyriform 5 the spire being poiuted, and con-

Mr. Swainson on Achatinella. 85

siderably longer than the aperture. The colour is a deep reddish
chestnut, the suture having a marginal band of fulvous white,
but without any groove. The apex is blackish; the pillar
twisted, and but slightly thickened.

4. — A. livida,

A. tettd sinislrorsHjOvata, ohtu$d, livide-fuscd ; spird incra8said,8u{urafuivd.
Shell reversed, ovate, obtuse, livid brown, spire thickened, suture fulvous.

A small, unhanded species, scarcely exceeding half an inch
long, and perfectly resembling, in form, the green variety of
hulimus citrinus. The three specimens, now before me, are
reversed ; varying from a light olive brown, to a livid purplish
colour, which lies in longitudinal shades, and gradually changes
to white on the terminal whorls of the spire -, the suture is
marked by a narrow band of deep fulvous : aperture white,
tinged with purple.

5. — A, hulimo'ides.

A. testd ovato-ohlongdy subventricosd, albente, fasciis castanets ; spird incras

satu, apice fusco.
Shell ovate oblong, sub-ventricose, whitish, with chestnut bands j spire

thickened, the lip pale brown.

Larger than the last, and nearly of the same form ; but the
spire is less thickened, and more pointed at the apex. The
ground colour, in some specimens, is pale chestnut or ferrugi-
nous, banded with darker shades, and another of pure white :
in others the upper half of each whorl is whitish, and the lower
chestnut, marked by darker bands : the suture is scarcely, if at
.all, margined by a groove j the aperture and pillar white.

Var. ?^ — (rosea.)

A. testd sinistrorsd, pailide rosed, fasciis albis obsoktis.
Shell reversed, pale rose-colour, with obsolete white bands.

I place this, for the present, as a variety of the last, to which,
except in being reversed, it bears a close resemblance in size,
form, and general habit. It is entirely of a pale and delicate
rose colour, with two obsolete bands of Avhite on the body
whorl ; the margin of the lip and columella are of a deeper
rose colour, and the aperture white. It should be observed,
that the marginal groove, which is scarcely perceptible in the
last, is^ in this, very distinct.

VI On the Comparative Population of the World,

6. — A. pulcherrima,

A. testd ovato obiongd, sub-cylindrace&, albd velflav6,,fascii8 castanets omatis ;

labii niargine fusco .
Far. a. aurantia, sutura castaned.
Shell ovate oblong, sub-cylindrical, white or yellow, with broad bands of

chestnut ; margin of the lip, brown.
Var. a. golden yellow, suture chestnut.

This very elegant species is about eight-tenths of an inch
long, and is much more slender than any of the preceding. It
varies somewhat in form, some specimens being more ventricose
than others, and also in the number and colour of its bands.
The ground colour is a deep and rich chestnut^ with from one
to three bands of orange, yellow, fulvous, or white : the mar-
ginal groove to the suture is very close and distinct in all. The
golden yellow variety is without bands : in all the colours are
remarkably rich and vivid.

On the Comparative Population of the World, in Ancient and

Modern Times.

(Read before the Philosophical and Literary Society of Liverpool.)

[Communicated by Mr. Merritt,]

After the masterly essay of Hume on this subject, in which
the balance of evidence is so nicely adjusted, and the ultimate
decision so carefully and hesitatingly pronounced, it will appear,
to most persons, that the inquiry is quite exhausted. Any one
who now ventures to express his dissent from the conclusions
of so acute a scholar, and so accurate a reasoner, will subject
himself to the danger of being heard with feelings of con-
temptuous distrust, and will not be expected to prove much,
except his own ignorance and presumption. But on a point of
this nature, where an approximation to truth is all that can be
expected, no authority, however grave, must ever be permitted
to arrest inquiry. Hume himself has afforded us a laudable
example of what may be called ratiocinative courage, in the
question now before us. Some of the highest authorities of
modern times not only differ from him on this important point,
but differ in so great a degree, as almost to fix a presumption
of absurdity on one party or the other.
The errors of Mr. Hume are never on the side of careless

in Ancient and Modern Times. " 87

investigation or shallow observation, but the reverse. They
proceed mostly from his extreme subtlety, and minute and
excessive refinement. He is seldom in danger of losing him-
self, unless in the deep and intricate mazes of his own pro-
fundity ; but occasionally, while pursuing an inquiry into its
remote recesses, he is liable to overlook the obvious considera-
tions which first present themselves. This I believe to be his
vulnerable quarter in the essay in question, which assuredly,
on the whole, exhibits a greater mixture of erudition and phi-
losophy than is often brought to bear upon such a topic of dis-
cussion. In endeavouring, therefore, to show that he has over-
looked, or mistaken some of the most material points at issue,
I do not propose to enter into very minute details, but to offer
some considerations, which, in my estimation, tend to establish
a different conclusion from that to which the readers of Mr.
Hume's essay are apparently conducted.

In general, I agree with him as to the extreme importance
of the question, and that its decision would go far to determine
the comparative value of ancient and modern governments, in-
stitutions, and manners. The philosophy of Mr. Malthus, which
has obtained such general assent, strongly corroborates this
assumption. If the great checks on population are vice and
misery, which he is thought to have incontestably proved, it is
fair to presume that where population has most flourished, vice
and misery have been most effectually excluded. Mr. Malthus's
theory is supported by the evidence of all history, ancient and
modern. Wherever we find a fertile country, thinly inhabited,
we may be quite sure that there exist some gross defects in the
structure of that society, its government or institutions. The
natural tendency to increase our species is so powerful, that it
can only be overcome by restraints the most mischievous, op-
pressive, and immoral ; this point, therefore, will probably
afford us the fairest criterion of the actual state of that im-
provement in human condition, which, in modern times, has
been assumed, and perhaps justly, to be always progressive.
The inquiry, I am afraid, will show us, that the value of the
improvement consists rather in its degree than the extent ; that
the diffusion of virtue and knowledge is by no means commen-
surate with their advancement } and that when we extol the

88 On the Comparative Population of the Worlds

vast superiority of modern times, we are apt to forget on what
a narrow scene this superiority is exhibited.

It is scarcely necessary to premise that in this shght survey
of the comparative population of the earth, at the most flourish-
ing periods of ancient and modern history, the inquiry will, of
course, be confined entirely to the Old World. America is ex-
cluded from the question, on the old maxim of '* De non ap-
parentibus et non existentibus eadem est ratio." It is also
necessary to observe, that no attention is paid to keep separate
the arguments derived, a priori, from the presumptions afforded
by circumstances, and the proofs, a posteriori, deduced from
the evidence of facts. A process so unphilosophical is rendered
expedient in this case, as well from the cursory nature of the
inquiry itself, as from the difficulty of reducing to any classifi-
cation a body of evidence so vague, imperfect, and desultory.

That important and interesting branch of knowledge, so much
studied of late years, under the appellation of *' Statistics,"
appears to have attracted, in a very slight degree, the attention
of the ancients. Their writers, as well as their readers, dis-
tinguished more for their genius than their love of accuracy,
were generally impatient of detail, and delighted much more in
devising and examining theories, than in collecting facts ;
hence the scattered notices afforded by the ancients, on this
subject, are indirect and incidental, supplying rather hints for
observation and inference, than establishing such facts as lead
to positive conclusions. The Greek and Roman writers, like
the French of late years, were apt to consider every country in
a military point of view, and to examine its means of offence
and of resistance, rather than its state of society, its produce,
or occupations. Their economical writers, who have come
down to us, are few and concise, and not always most attentive
to those points which we are apt to regard as most interesting.
This deficiency of data, while it represses, of course, all tendency
to dogmatism on the part of the inquirer, renders every con-
clusion liable to dispute. We cannot, however, wonder that
the population of the ancient world is so difficult to ascertain,
when we consider that even at this time, with the exception of
a few of the nations of Europe, our reasonings on this subject
are founded on little more than improved conjecture.

in Ancient and Modern Times, 89

In taking a rapid glance oVer the three great divisions of
the ancient world, it is natural to begin with Asia, as that
quarter of the globe has, in all ages, sustained the great bulk
of the human species. Concerning the northern and eastern
regions of ancient Asia, as we are absolutely without any in-
formation, it is useless to enter into any inquiry ; it is only
necessary to observe that, in the Chinese empire, every thing
bears the aspect of the most remote antiquity, and the most
invariable prosperity. Those articles of food, which, beyond all
others, have been found capable of nourishing the greatest
mass of inhabitants, — rice and maize, constituted in every age,
as far as tradition can reach, the ordinary food of the people ;
we may take it for granted, therefore, that the population of
the Chinese empire has been, at all periods, nearly stationary.
The same remark may be applied to those immense tracts of
land, now called Tartary, Siberia, &c. ; and known to the
ancients by the general appellation of Scythia. From the short
notices left us by Justin, Herodotus, &c. there is no reason to
believe that the condition of these countries has undergone
any material change. The same general calculation may be
applied to all the southern and middle districts of Africa. —
Thus far, therefore, no preponderance can be assumed on
either side, and the inquiry becomes narrowed within the
bounds of Europe, some of the southern nations of Asia, and
the countries round the Mediterranean.

Returning to the consideration of Asia, we may remark that
something of a similar equality may be assumed with respect
to ancient India. According to the description left us by
Arrian, and the slight notices of Quintus Curtius, and others, we
are warranted in concluding, from the excellence of its govern-
ment and police, the mildness of its laws, and the high state of
its agriculture and manufiictures, that its population has not
experienced, in later times, any considerable increase.

Proceeding westward, we arrive at the once flourishing and
populous countries, known to the ancients by the names of
Persia, Armenia, Parthia, &c. ; and here the balance begins
to incline to the side of antiquity with a vast preponderance.
The scanty information left us by the writers of that period
begins here to assume something of a more distinct and positive

90 On the Comparative Population of the World,

character. From the narrative of Quintus Curtius, there
appears to have been, at the time of Alexander's invasion, a
considerable number of small monarchies, in that large tract
of land between Persia and the Indus, which is, at this time,
so wretchedly cultivated, and so thinly peopled. Persia itself,
from the concurrent accounts of various writers, was un-
doubtedly one of the most flourishing, opulent, and best-
inhabited kingdoms which has ever existed. Even in the
infancy of that great empire, immediately after its conquest by
the Medes, the army of Cyrus, on its return from a peregri-
nation through the provinces, consisted of no less than 800,000
men ; but this is nothing compared to the efforts of that power-
ful state at a later period. According to the statements of
Herodotus, Plutarch, and Isocrates, the army with which Cyrus
invaded Greece amounted to not less than five millions of
souls, a number perhaps incredible, but, after making due
allowances for exaggeration, that armament was assuredly
prodigious. We are warranted in this belief, from the con-
junction of almost every circumstance in the state of the
Persian monarchy, which usually indicates an exalted pitch of
power and resources. The prudent and salutary maxims of
policy, ascribed to that government by Xenophon, show a high
advancement in civilization, and the prevalence of that system
of domestic economy, which is now understood to constitute
the real wealth of nations. The division of the empire into
one hundred and twenty-seven sub-governments ; the splendour
of these appointments ; the establishment of posts, and many
similar circumstances, are unequivocal signs of a highly ad-
vanced period of society. The careful cultivation of the soil
was the great object pressed upon the attention of the pro-
vincial governors ; and each of these officers was sure to be
esteemed and encouraged in proportion to the flourishing state
of agriculture in his district. AVhen to these considerations is
added the well-known fact, that, among the Persians and other
Asiatics, most of the common-people and all the slaves were
nourished entirely on bread or vegetables, we may conceive
the multitudes of people which must have been accumulated,
in a country where such perfection of domestic economy was
united to such maxims of public poUcy.

in Ancient and Modern Times, 91

Nothing can be more melancholy than the contrast pre-
sented by the actual state of these extensive regions. From
the reports of the best modern travellers, the greatest part of
Persia is at present only cultivated near the great towns, and
these are far from numerous. Wandering hordes of barbarians
now occupy and desolate a great part of these ancient seats of
refinement and civilization.

From the western confines of Persia, to the shores of the
Mediterranean, we find, in ancient times, a population of more
uniform density than has perhaps ever existed in the same
extent of country. The two Armenias, Mesopotamia, Chaldea,
a great part of Syria, Cappadocia, and almost the whole of the
Lesser Asia, abounded with large, opulent, and flourishing
cities, the sure indication of a prosperous and cultivated
country. According to Xenophon, the district called Asia
Proper, contained above five hundred populous cities. Many
of the Asiatic cities, such as Babylon, Susa, Seleucia, Antioch,
Ephesus, Damascus, and others, almost vied with imperial
Rome itself in the height of its grandeur. The two great
rivers, Euphrates and Tigris, with their tributary streams,
facilitated a constant interchange of commodities and manu-
factures, and diffused wealth and fertility through every pro-
vince. We cannot refuse our assent to the concurrent tes-
timony of ancient authors to these facts, when we reflect that
these extensive countries constitute that part of the globe, the
most visibly destined by Providence to the support of great
masses of people. It has required the intervention of more
than common obstacles to retard the increase of the human
species in these happy regions. Throughout the whole of their
vast extent, there is, at this day, scarcely a single city of any
considerable magnitude. Every where the dreary spectacle
presents itself of imperfect civilization, stinted industry, and
magnificent ruins : — no regulated liberty ; no security for pro-
perty, and, consequently, few of those successful efforts in the
pursuit of private gain, which constitute the ingredients of
national vvealth.

If we pass from Asia into Africa, the marks of deterioration
are not less manifest. Ancient Egypt is believed, with great
probability, to have contained a greater number of inhabitants

92 On the Comparative Population of the World,

than any spot of equal extent on the surface of the earth.
Without paying much attention to the 20,000 cities of Hero-
dotus, or to the prodigious accounts which have come down to
us of Memphis, Hehopohs, Thebes, Alexandria, &c. we have
enough of credible testimony to satisfy us that Egypt, under
the Ptolemies, contained at least five times the number of its
present inhabitants. From the nature of the soil, and its
peculiar facility of cultivation, we may be assured that this
must necessarily have happened under any government of
tolerable eihciency.

Even the countries at a distance from the coast, if we are to
believe the account of Herodotus, were populous and flourish-
ing. The vast territory of Ethiopia, which is now little better
than a collection of hordes, appears, from several scattered notices
in ancient authors, to have formerly reached a considerable
advancement in Avealth and civilization. This, however, cannot
be much insisted upon ; but we are certain that the whole nor-
thern coast of Africa, from the Isthmus of Suez to the Straits
of Gibraltar, constituted an important part of the ancient civi-
lized world. Egypt and Carthage were rivals in commerce ;
and the dominions of the latter power supplied the materials of
a trade which has seldom been exceeded in any age or nation.
We may be satisfied of this from the size and opulence of the
port which was its principal emporium. The city of Carthage,
at the time of the third Punic war, contained 700,000 inhabi-
tants, and must, therefore, have been nearly equal to London,
at the beginning of the late reign. A large capital is almost an
invariable indication of a flourishing country, for an overgrown
metropolis is incessantly fed from the abundance of the provin-
cial population. Such a city as Carthage must have been reared
by a long-continued and extensive commerce. The territory
which comprised the Carthaginian dominion contained, accord-
ing to Strabo, three hundred cities. That its power was of gra-
dual growth and long duration is proved by the fact, that so
early as the time of Xerxes' expedition, the Carthaginians in-
vaded Sicily with an army of 300,000 men — a prodigious effort
for any nation in its early prosperity.

The rest of the northern coast of Africa, including Mauritania,
which skirted the Atlantic ; Numidia, Libya, &c. comprised a

in Ancient and Modern Times, 93

great number of powerful, wealthy, and populous nations, af-
fluent in all the necessaries and luxuries of life, beyond most
other parts of the globe, and so productive of corn, in particular,
that Africa was always considered the granary of the Roman
Empire. Several of those states, such as Cyrenaica, part of the
ancient Libya, Mauritania, and Numidia, were strong enough to
wage war, often of doubtful issue, with the mighty power of the
Carthaginians ; of which the naval superiority was then as con-
spicuous as is that of Great Britain at the present moment.
No part of the world has suffered such a lamentable decay as
that extensive division of Africa which leans on the Mediterra-
nean. The whole of that vast and fertile region is now sunk to
the lowest state of degradation ; enchained by a domination,
physical as well as moral, of so benumbing and deadly a nature,
that there appears neither prospect nor hope of future amelio-
ration — debased by its religion ; depraved in morals ; barbarous
in manners and institutions ; miserably peopled, and so imper-
fectly cultivated, that instead of being able to feed the south of
Europe with its superfluous produce, it can barely furnish a suf-
ficient supply for its own scanty population.

We come now to Europe ; and here, it must be confessed,
appearances are much more encouraging on the side of the
moderns. Sweden, Denmark, and Nonvay, comprehending the
ancient Scandinavia, and also Russia and Poland, known in
different parts by the names of Scythia, Sarmatia, Sclavonia,
&c. I should imagine are better inhabited at present than in
former times ; notwithstanding all that we are told of the pro-
digious swarms which issued from these dreary regions, and
overspread the south like flights of locusts. When a great part
of a nation changes its seats by a simultaneous movement, we
cannot wonder that it assumes the appearance of an overwhelm-
ing mass. These countries have shared in the improvements,
and profited by the discoveries of later ages, in such a degree,
that, upon the whole, we cannot doubt that both the population
and general condition are greatly advanced. Still it must be
admitted, from the very nature and capacities of these countries,
that this improvement cannot be such as to influence materially
the general comparison.

The great strength of the argument on the side of the mO'*

94 On the Comparative Population of the World,

derns, is derived confessedly from the astonishing progress which
has been made, in the three last centuries, by the nations oc-
cupying the middle regions of Europe ; particularly Great Bri-
tain, France, Holland, and Germany. With respect to Great
Britain, I should not suppose the difference to be by any means
so great as Mr. Hume supposes. Caesar, in speaking of the
maritime parts of the island, which were probably not the best
peopled, says, " Hominum est infinita multitudo, pecoris mag-
nus numerus ;" and though such general phrases are not much
to be relied on, yet, when used by so correct a writer as Caesar,
who was well acquainted with all the gradations of savage and
civilized life, they are not to be neglected. On the whole, how-
ever, I should be inclined to think that the British islands may
contain, at present, three times the number of people which
existed at the period of the Roman invasion.

Concerning France, the balance is not near so decided, nor
so easily estimated. The calculations of Appian and Diodorus,
with respect to ancient Gaul, it may be said, lose all authority
by their extravagance. The former of these writers says that
Caesar, in the course of his wars, killed and made prisoners not
less than two millions of the inhabitants of that nation. When,
however, we reflect on the murderous effects of the Roman
weapons and discipline among an unwarlike people, and when we
consider also the enormous waste of human life, which has re-
cently taken place in the wars of the same country, this state-
ment will not appear incredible. But the evidence of Caesar
himself is more circumstantial and definitive. That general hav-
ing received an intimation that Belgia, one only of the three
divisions of ancient Gaul, was meditating a revolt against the
Roman dominion, requested from his spies an exact account of the
forces which the Belgians could bring into the field. The enume-
ration which he receives in return makes the troops of that district
amount to no less than to 348,000 men. On the extreme suppo-
sition that this calculation includes every man fit to bear arms,
it would show a population of nearly two milHons ; a number
which would not be reckoned inconsiderable for a country of
that extent, even in modern Europe. I mention this summary
more particularly, because it is one of the most precise notices,
on the subject of population, which is to be found in any ancient

in Ancient and Modern Times. 95

author. The same writer, in speaking of Helvetia, one of the
most barren districts of ancient Gaul, says expressly that the
people went to war because their country was not large enough
for the number of its inhabitants : *• Pro multitudine hominum,
angustas se fines habere arbitrabantur." The southern pro-
vinces of Gaul, according to Pliny, equalled in wealth and pros-
perity the states of Italy. From these indications we may justly
infer, that the superiority of modern France, in comparison to
its ancient state, is not so considerable as some have supposed.

In respect to Germany, the superiority is much more appa-
rent. If the expression of Tacitus is to be literally understood,
" Terra etsi aliquanto specie differt, in universum tamen aut
silvis horrida, aut paludibus foeda," a great part of that exten-
sive country must have been entirely without inhabitants. A
little afterwards, however, he adds, "pecorum fecunda," from
which it appears that it was by no means deficient in the means
of subsistence. It is very certain that the strong aversion felt by
the Germans to all the pursuits of regular industry, and their
paramount delight in war, would greatly retard the increase of
inhabitants ; but on the other hand, their abstemious mode of
life, the freedom of their governments, and their habits of in-
dependence, would operate in a contrary tendency. On the
whole, however, the improvement of Germany is probably be-
yond that of any other country in the ancient world.

Throughout nearly the whole of the south of Europe, the ba-
lance, I suspect, inclines again to the other side. The Penin-
sula of Spain and Portugal, there is little doubt, has considera-
bly declined from its ancient state. The valuable products of
Spain, both subterraneous and agricultural, caused an immense
commercial resort from all parts of the world, and the cities of
Cadiz, Carthagena, and others, were among the most celebrated
sea-ports of ancient times. In the time of Vespasian, Pliny
enumerates three hundred and sixty cities in Spain, most of
which appear to have been of considerable extent. According
to Strabo, a single province of that country contained two hun-
dred cities. This is no doubt an exaggeration ; but we have
abundant evidence from the accounts of its intestine wars, and
the resistance opposed to the Roman conquests, that the nation
was everywhere prosperous and well-peopled. Such is at

96 On the Comparative Population of the World,

present the indolence of the inhabitants, and the inefficiency of
the government, that the Peninsula is the most constant and the
most extensive importer of grain in Europe. The cultivation
of the soil is everywhere neglected, and the excessive prevalence
of monastic institutions has tended still further to diminish the
propagation of the human species.

Italy, -which, at first view, seems to present the greatest facili-
ties for comparison, is that part of Europe concerning which
the controversy is attended with the greatest difficulties. The
notices on this subject afforded by the Roman writers, though
numerous, and given sometimes with apparent precision, are
yet so perplexing and contradictory, that it is very difficult to
arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. By some modern authors,
ancient Rome is estimated to have contained four millions of
inhabitants. Others compute its population as low as one mil-
lion. Mr. Hume, on comparing the various authorities, thinks
it may have contained about as many inhabitants as modern
London ; a calculation which appears to me, after an attentive
examination, to be rather below than above the truth. ^Eliau
enumerates eleven hundred and ninety-seven cities in Italy, but
many of them were probably small towns or villages. The pro-
vincial cities, though several of them large and opulent, did not,
I conceive, equal in number and size the cities of modern Italy.
From every appearance, the rural population probably excelled
on the contrary side. Agricultural pursuits seem to have been
as fashionable among the higher classes of the ancient Romans,
as they are at present in Great Britain. From the statements
of Columella, as well as from the general spirit of encouragement
to such pursuits, there can be no doubt that agriculture had
arrived at peculiar perfection. An immense number of slaves
was employed in these occupations, all of whom were nourished
on a very moderate allowance of corn and vegetables only.
There was little of that desolating luxury which, in modern
times, appropriates so large a proportion of the earth to the
production of animal food. Fish and game, as appears from
the description of Horace and Juvenal, were the chief dainties
of the wealthy. The middle and lower ranks, both in Italy and
Greece, seem to have subsisted almost entirely on bread, vege-
tables, and fruit — a circumstance which, combined with the

in Ancient and Modem Times, 97

careful cultivation of the soil, will account for their extreme
abundance of inhabitants. The splendid and opulent cities
which commerce and manufactures have reared in modern
Italy, will not overbalance these considerations.

Ancient Greece comes next under our review, and nothing
surely can be imagined more lamentable than the contrast be-
tween that illustrious nation and the countries now called Tur-
key in Europe. The great number of large cities, and the
immense population contained in so small a space, would ap-
pear quite incredible, if we did not recollect the extreme sim-
plicity of their mode of life, and that they received abundant
and perpetual supplies from Asia, Africa, and Sicily, The
assertion of the Greek historians, that Athens alone con-
tained 31,000 freemen, and 400,000 slaves, seems generally
admitted ; but I should suppose that this calculation included
some part of the surrounding district of Attica. Corinth, Sparta,
Thebes, and several other cities, were esteemed not much infe-
rior to Athens. Sybaris, which was never numbered among
cities of the first class, sent out, on one occasion, if we may
believe the historian, 100,000 fighting men, which, even on the
supposition that every man fit to bear arms was mustered
without exception, would lead us to infer that the place con-
tained nearly 500,000 inhabitants. The city of Crotona
supplied an army of almost equal magnitude. The various
nations into which Greece was divided, contained, in fact, each
a capital city ; which, even after making due allowances for the
national vanity of the Greek writers, appear to have been, in
most instances, populous and flourishing. The more northern
countries, such as Epirus, Macedonia, and Thrace, were pro-
bably not much better inhabited than the same provinces are at
present. Macedonia, it is true, gave rise to the third of the four
great monarchies ; but the armies with which Philip subdued
Greece, and Alexander conquered Asia, were raised with diffi-
culty, and were swelled with the auxiliaries of the subjugated
Greeks.

At the present moment, with the exception of Constantinople
alone, there is not a single large city in the whole of these nu-
merous provinces. Commerce and manufactures are held in
little esteem, and the useful, as well as the liberal arts, are in a

JAN.— MARCH, 1828. H

98 On the Comparative Population of the World,

state of the lowest depression. The modern improvements in
agriculture, which in some places have doubled or trebled the
produce of the soil, have never been able to pierce the thick
gloom of Turkish ignorance and superstition. The modern
Greeks, it is said, retain something of their ancient genius and
vivacity, but they have sunk under a despotism which suppresses
equally every motive to exertion, and every disposition to im-
provement.

But of all the nations of the ancient world, there is none,
perhaps, which has fallen so much below its former pre-emi-
nence, as the island of Sicily. That country not only sup-
ported a population nearly equal, in all probability, to the
whole of modern Turkey in Europe, but furnished large sup-
plies of grain and provisions to Italy, Spain, and Greece. From
the statement of Diogenes Laertius, the single city of Agri-
gentum contained not less than 800,000 people ; a number not
much inferior to the present inhabitants of the whole island.
Syracuse was, at one time, esteemed the largest of all the
Greek cities, and, at least, equal to Agiigentum. The smaller
cities, towns, and villages were almost innumerable. On the
other hand, the city of Palermo, the modern capital of Sicily,
and almost the only town in the island of considerable size,
contains little more than 100,000 inhabitants. Many districts
of the country, which, in ancient times, there is reason to be-
lieve, were cultivated like a garden, are now almost in a state
of nature. This island alone, in its former state, is a striking
proof that the modern improvements in agriculture are not, as
some have supposed, essential to the production and support
of an excessive population.

Such, as it appears to me, is the faint but visible outline of
the comparative numbers of the human race, in the ancient
and modern worlds. In this cursory survey, it is not assumed
that any very near approximation to the truth can often be
obtained; far less, that accurate calculation can in any in-
stance be exhibited. Nor is this at all a matter of surprise.
Even at the present day, when the science of statistics is more
studied and better understood than at any former period, it is
only in a very few countries of Europe, that the inhabitants
have been exactly numbered. In ancient times, it is well

in Ancient and Modern Times, ^

known, the subject occupied, in a very slight degree, the at-
tention either of their legislators or philosophers. Though li-
terature, as well as all the liberal and elegant arts were then
advanced to their point of highest perfection, the exacter sci-
ences were, with a few exceptions, very loosely and imperfectly
cultivated. It is true, a census of the citizens of ancient Rome
was periodically taken and regularly published ; but as this was
done chiefly for military purposes, it affords no sufficient data for
estimating the entire population of the country. The facts and
circumstances which have been enumerated, are, however, for
the most part, sufficiently conclusive ; and they are, in general,
such alone as we can ever hope to obtain in our reasonings on
this important subject. That Ireland, for example, is a more
populous country than Livonia, is a point ascertained by un-
questionable indications, though the inhabitants of these two
nations have never yet been accurately numbered. On such
subjects we have only to rest contented with the best evidence
which can be afforded by the nature of the case.

From the evidence then, such as it is, which has just been
produced, I think it is sufficiently manifest, that two, at least,
of the three great quarters of the ancient world, have been ma-
terially depopulated since the Christian era. Without assenting
to the extravagant speculations of Vossius, Montesquieu, and
other writers of very grave authority, who have been visibly
misled by their predilection for ancient times, a great decrease
in the numbers of the human species is but too apparent*
That vast portion of the globe, which is furnished with the
most abundant resources for the enjoyment and propagation
of life, where nature annually pours forth, in profusion, her
double and three-fold harvests, and where myriads might be
maintained with the toil of a few, — that richest and fairest
part of the earth is now a comparative desert. In the whole
of that immense tract which stretches from the Straits of Gib-
raltar, through Northern Africa to the Indus, the great seat of
ancient civilization, commerce, and population, there is scarcely
a single city of the first order ; not a single province which is
fully inhabited ; not one district which is perfectly cultivated.
The subjects of the Roman empire are estimated by M. Gib-
bon, on a very loose calculation, it must be admitted, at 120

H2

100 On the Comparative Population of the Worlds

millions. The latest and best authorities do not reckon the
whole inhabitants of the Turkish dominions at more than 18
millions. Yet this monarchy comprises the largest, the most
opulent, and populous districts of the empire of the Caesars,
with many countries to which the Roman sway never extended.

It is true that, in some parts of the world, an improvement
even more striking than this immense deterioration has visibly
taken place ; but it is plain that there is nothing which ap-
proaches to compensation. In the two largest divisions of the
Old World there is perhaps scarcely a single nation which has
experienced any considerable increase. Northern Europe, un-
doubtedly, has augmented in its population to a very great
degree, but it is not less evident that the nations of the South
have, for the most part, declined: not perhaps in the same
proportion, but yet so considerably as to afford, upon the ba-
lance, no sort of compensation for the dreadful decay of Asia
and Africa. The improvements, though great, are unhappily
on a small scale : the decline is not only excessive in its de-
gree, but enormous in its extent.

Here it will naturally be suggested, that there must have
been some great and permanent causes uniformly operating to
produce this constant decay of the human race through the
lapse of so many ages. If such an inquiry should be made, it
would not be very easy to give any satisfactory answer. Every
sudden and marked improvement in the condition of any peo-
ple may commonly be ascribed to visible and positive causes,
but a state of stagnation, or of gradual decline, is so much in
the course of human affairs, that it seldom excites investigation.
It may be sufficiently explained by the natural vis inertice of
man when placed in a situation that leaves untouched all the
great springs of human activity. Some external impulse is
commonly required to set forward a nation in the career of
amelioration. This holds particularly true with respect to
those regions of the earth, the most favoured by nature with a
benignant climate and a fertile soil. A nation thus circum-
stanced, when once depressed, will continue for ages without a
single effort to rise from its degradation.

The more immediate causes, however, of this long and
profound debasement, and consequent depopulation, of the

in Ancient and Modern Times. 101

fairest parts of the habitable globe, are sufficiently obvious.
Throughout the whole of these ^vast regions, it is well known,
there prevails an almost total ignorance of all the arts of civi-
lization, and a systematic contempt of all sound principles of
government. If a more remote cause is sought for, it may
easily be found in that entire subjugation of all the best facul-
ties of the mind and body, which has been effected by the Ma-
hometan superstition, engrafted on Turkish barbarism. 1 con-
sider this as the most enormous and the most pernicious nui-
sance which has ever been set up against the happiness of man-
kind, and one which, at almost any price, ought, if possible, to
be abated. Nearly all the institutions of that religion ; its rites
and observances ; its toleration of polygamy ; its encourage-
ment of monastic orders ; but above all, the spirit of despotism
which it inculcates, tend directly to the diminution of the human
species. An abject, and often an inhuman slavery, mental and
corporeal, is diffused through every class of society. The auto-
cracy of the monarch is not more absolute than the domination
of his meanest subject, who has acquired the right of subjuga-
ting to his will a few unhappy beings more depressed than him-
self As the laws are generally inefficient where liberty is
unknown, there is, of course, no security for property, and,
therefore, no incentives to industry, and no hope of indepen-
dence. The visible plan of Providence in the association of the
sexes is wholly frustrated. A rich voluptuary, exhausted by
years and excesses, can take as many wives and concubines as
he thinks proper, and as these are all rigorously confined, they
are of course condemned to perpetual barrenness. A poor man,
though disposed to regularity, and capacitated for rearing a
family, is commonly deprived, by such monstrous appropria-
tions, of the power of taking a wife ; and in any case can have
little hope of providing for his children. It is not surprising
that, under such circumstances, the finest countries in the world
should exhibit all the symptoms of sterility and decay.

The only chance of deliverance from this desolating evil which
has presented itself in later times, arose from the French inva-
sion of Egypt in 1799. That enterprise was assuredly under-
taken solely from views of ambition, and, probably, with some
ultimate designs on the British empire in India. It is also poa-

102 On the Comparative Population of the World,

sible that if the French had finally succeeded in their attempt, its
only effect, on the Oriental and African nations, would have been
the exchange of one species of despotism for another. There i^,
however, a great difference between an ignorant and an enlight-
ened tyranny. The French expedition was accompanied by men
skilled in every department of knowledge, and, if they had been
permitted to remain, some beam of light from these luminaries
of science must have radiated in every direction. But that
eternal obstacle to the civilization of Asia and Africa, the mu-
tual jealousy of the powers of Europe, interposed its influence,
and all the possible consequences of this extraordinary scheme
were in a moment rendered abortive. As citizens of the world,
we cannot but lament the interference, though it is not to be
condemned on the principles of sound European policy. It may
be urged, that even if the French invasion had produced the
happy effect of introducing the arts and refinements of Europe
into the East, these gifts would have been presented at the point
of the sword. Such would, most probably, have been the case ;
but it may be doubted whether even the horrors of war and
conquest be not a happy exchange for the mournful repose of
slavery. The fetters which bind these unfortunate countries
are too strong to be shaken off without a violent concussion.

After what has been said, it is scarcely necessary to remark
the fallacy with which Mr. Hume concludes his argument :
" Upon the whole," says he, " it seems impossible to assign any
just reason why the world should have been more populous in
ancient than in modern times. The equality of property among
the ancients ; liberty, and the small division of their states, were
indeed circumstances favourable to the propagation of mankind.
But their wars were more bloody and destructive ; their govern-
ments more factious and unsettled ; commerce and manufac-
tures more feeble and languishing ; and the general police more
loose and irregular." This summary conclusion may be an-
swered in the same style ; for some of his premises are plainly
false, and others inconclusive. In those regions of the earth
which were the great scenes of ancient population, the govern-
ments were not more factious and unsettled ; commerce was not
more feeble and languishing ; and the general police was not
more loose and irregular. The comparison is only valid, as be-

in Ancient and Modern Times* 103

tween the nations of ancient times and the countries of modern
Europe. Between the former and present state of Asia and
Africa, every parallel is in favour of antiquity. That the an-
cient wars were more bloody and destructive, must indeed be
admitted ; but this makes very little for the general argument.
It is found by repeated experience that population advances to
its habitual standard, after any casual waste, with surprising ra-
pidity. A permanent decline can only be produced by the
influence of causes which uniformly operate.

If then, as was observed in the beginning of these remarks,
the progress of nations in the arts of wisdom and happiness is
usually concomitant with the increase of their people, we are
forced upon a conclusion of a very saddening aspect. At first
sight we should be induced almost to despair of the fortunes
of the human race. The sanguine speculations of philosophers,
it would appear, have, thus far, proved illusory, and instantly
sink before the sober contemplation of facts. From the rapid
march of a few countries, in a remote corner of the world, in
science and humanity, we are apt to receive an impression that
the human race has reached an advanced post beyond all the
attainments of former ages.

Assuredly our exultation has begun too soon, but there is,
however, little to appal, and much to cheer us in the prospect
of the future. The great discoveries and inventions of modern
times, which have given to some parts of Europe such an im-
mense superiority over all other ages and nations, and which
secure us for ever from the return of barbarism, are yet in the
first stage of their operation. Every thing will be accomplished
in the fulness of time. The machine which is to raise the
world has found a fulcrum, and though, like the mechanical
powers, it may lose in time what it gains in force, its work is
steady and un intermitting. The tyranny of ignorance and
prejudice is not easily broken, but we may be satisfied that its
overthrow is progressive and ultimately inevitable.

104

An Account of a new Genus of Plants^ named Macrcea. — By
John Lindley, Esq., F.R.S., &c. &c.

In the number of this Journal for January, 1827, will be found

some remarks upon the orchideous plants of ChiH, founded upon
an examination of a large herbarium, from that country, in the
possession of the Horticultural Society. From the same rich
mine I have now selected a small set of unpublished plants,
both on account of their intrinsic singularity of structure, and
also for the sake of commemorating the deserts of the excellent
collector by whom they were first discovered.

The plants, which are the subject of the following observations,
are small arid shrubs, natives of high land, in the interior of the
western side of South America. Their leaves are opposite,
without stipulee, beneath glandular, and densely covered with
very thick tomentum. The flowers are axillary and terminal ;
the calyx five-toothed, and strongly ribbed ; the petals ungui-
culate, persistent, and unfading ; the stamens hypogynous, and
twice the number of the petals ; the ovarium superior, three-
celled, with two ovula in each cell, one of which is ascending,
the other suspended from a small common placenta in the mid-
dle of the axis ; and the stigmata are three. The capsule is
enveloped in the persistent calyx and petals, and divides half
way into three loculicidal valves, which separate from the axis.
The seeds are unknown.

Such are the most prominent features in the structure of the
three known species of Macrsea, the characters of which it will
be convenient to define, before any attempt is made to deter-
mine what affinity they bear to other plants already known to
botanists.

MACR^A.

Calyx inferus campanulatus 5-dentatus, costis cuique lacinise tribus quarum duoe
marginales sub sinu confluentes. Pelala 5, toro brevi inserta, unguiculata, arida, per-
sistentia, immutata, asstivatione contortiva. (S/amma 10, apici tori brevis inserta;
filamenta filiformia ; anthercE innatae anticae biloculares longitudinaliter dehiscentes.
Ovarium superum triloculare ,• ovula cuique loculo duo : altero ascendente, altero
suspenso ; placenta parva in medio ovario ad basin axeos. Stylus brevis ; stigmata
tria, linearia marginibus reflexis. Capsula vestita papyracea 3-locularis semitri-

valvis; valvis loculicidis ab axi secedentibus usque ad placentam. Semina

Suffrutices ai-idce (Chilenses). Folia opposita, exstipulala, pube simplicij

subtus lanata, Petala a/6a, v, rosea.

New Genus of Plants ^ named Macraa, 105

1. — tJl. grandtfolia ; foliis subtus griseis glandulosis : venis prominentibus,
ramis pubescentibus, pedunculis foliis brevioribus.

Sponte ciescentem juxta vicum Colitia, urbis Santiago finitimum legit
M'Rae, 1825 (v. s. sp.)

2. — M. parvifolia ; foliis subtus niveis glandulosis : venis obscuris, ramis
arachnoideis, peduriculis folio brevioribus.

Cum praccedente legit M'Rae (v. s. sp.)

3. — M. rosea; foliis distantibus subtus niveis eglandulosis, ramis pubescenti-
bus, pedunculis elongatis.

Ad Cumbre, Andium claustrum, Novembre floridam legit M'Rae (v. s. sp.)

In the absence of information respecting the structure of the
seeds of Macrsea, it is not practicable to arrive at any certainty
as to its affinity. Its structure, indeed, is so peculiar, that it
may be doubted whether, even with the seeds before us, its
station, in a natural system, would be positively determined.

In many circumstances it bears much resemblance to Cary-
ophylleae, with which it agrees in its opposite leaves, terminal
and axillary flowers, five-toothed monophyllous calyx, unguicu-
late petals, with a twisted aestivation, and stamens inserted into
a torus ', but it is at variance with the whole order in habit, single
style, and trilocular oligospermous capsule, the valves of which
separate from the axis. With Lineae it has nearly the same
points of resemblance and difference.

To Cistinese it has a striking resemblance, in the nerves of
its calyx, which are remarkable, and also in the variation of its
opposite exstipulate leaves : its anthers have also a similar in-
sertion ; but the monophyllous calyx, unfading petals, definite
stamens inserted on a torus, and three-parted stigma, are all at
variance with the essential diagnostics of Cistineae.

With Frankeniaceae, Macraea agrees, in having a monophyl-
lous ribbed calyx, and arid habit, and also in several other
points of structure ; and with this order I was at one time
disposed to place it, but a further consideration of the great
difference between their fruit has led me to abandon that
opinion, especially upon a consideration that the similarity,
supposed to exist in the ribbing of their calyx, is more apparent
than real. In all the species of Frankenia that I have examined
there have been, to each division of the calyx, two collateral
broad costae placed on each side of the axis, which, therefore,
as well as the space between the sinuses and base of the calyx,
Avas ribless. But, in Macraea, on the contrary, each division

106 New Genus of Plants ^ named Macraa.

of the calyx has three costae, one occupying the axis, and one
running along each margin, and becoming conlluent beneath
the sinuses. In Frankenia, therefore, the costa; of the calyx
occupy the place of the intervenia of Macraea.

Having thus instituted comparisons with those orders, to
which Macraea bears the greatest apparent resemblance, I
must next proceed to advert to another natural assemblage, to
which it offers, indeed, no prima facie characters of affinity, but
near which it is, nevertheless, probable that it will ultimately be
arranged ; the order to which I now allude, is Geraniaceae. It
is true, that the elastic coccus, the lobed leaves, the succulent
habit, and thickened joints, of Geraniaceae, are all absent in
Macraea, as well as a number of subordinate points of structure;
but there are others in which they remarkably agree. If we
understand the axis of the capsule of Macraea to be an elon-
gated torus analogous to that of Geraniaceae, and such an
opinion may be entertained with little difficulty, we have then
a fruit of a sufficiently similar structure to be compared to that
of Geraniaceae, Rutaceae, and other neighbouring tribes. In the
venation of the calyx there is also so material a similarity, that
if the distinct sepals of Geraniaceae were to cohere for half their
length, thus losing their membranous margin, we should have
a calyx little different from that of Macraea. The petals of both
have the same aestivation, are equally unguiculate, and their
principal veins, in hke manner, bend inwards, and become
confluent with each other within the margin. The stigmas also
are several, and the insertion of antherae is not materially
different.

For these reasons it may be concluded, in the absence of
more complete evidence, that the affinity of Macraea is far from
close with any of the known orders of plants ; that it probably
occupies an intermediate place between those whose fruit is
destitute of axis, as Frankeniaceae and others, and those vvhose
fruit consists of carpella, adhering to an elongated axile torus,
as Rutacae, Geraniaceae, &c., and that its greatest apparent re-
lation is with these last.

107

On the comparative Merits of the new refracting, reflecting,
and single Microscopes ; with a Vindication of Microscopic
Science, and its Votaries. By C. R. Goring, M. D.

[Communicated by the Author.]

Refracting and reflecting microscopes do not stand in the
same relation to each other that telescopes of similar construc-
tion do, though it is true that the ratio of their natural illuminat-
ing power and light is not very different : the light of the Ami-
cian microscope is equivalent to that of the Newtonian tele-
scope, (if we do not reckon the quantity lost by the interposition
of the small diagonal metal, which from its larger proportional
diameter amounting to about one-third of the aperture of the
elliptic one, is much more considerable in the microscope than
in the telescope.)

The light of the Newtonian construction is said to be in the
ratio of 5* to 8", or perhaps 7*, compared with that of an achro-
matic object-glass of the same aperture; but the small metal in
the microscope causes a greater loss, and perhaps reduces its
light to the ratio of only 5* to 8", or even 9^ compared with that
of a refractor of the same calibre. This difference would make
a very serious defalcation in the performance of a telescope^
but it by no means operates in the same manner on a micro-
scope, for reasons I have frequently alluded to, viz., because we
can brighten a microscopic object artificially, and thus com-
pensate for almost any mere loss of light. Moreover it has
always appeared to me, nay I believe it may be positively
demonstrated, that a certain perfect angle of aperture is
exactly/ as penetrating and effectual in metal as in glass, exhi-
biting all the objects within its reach, even if no care is taken
to compensate the want of light by artificial illumination ; the
only difference seems to be, that the picture of the reflector
is much darker than that of the refractor, but equally developed
and evident.

To this issue, therefore, I think the case between the two
kinds of microscopes may be committed. There are, however,
other circumstances which require discussion. The depth of
the curves of the small aplanatic lenses precludes the extension
of the aperture, of the best triple ones, beyond a certain
point ; whereas that of the metals may be carried a great deal

108 Dr. Goring on the new Microscopes^ Sfc,

further from the shallowness of their curves : it follows therefore,
that if a certain angle of aperture is just as effective and
valuable in the one as in the other, the reflector must inevitably
have the advantage over any single achromatic, at all events,
■with those objects which require a very large one, and
accordingly this is found by experience to be the case.
Thus the lines on the feathers on the wing of the Papilio
Brassica3, which are at best but barely visible with the
single 0.3 achromatics, with an aperture of 0.15 are most
distinctly and satisfactorily demonstrated by the 0.3 focus
metals with an aperture of 0.2 : the same may be said of the
interlaced lines and lozenges on the scales of the Podura, that
most valuable object lately discovered by Mr. T. Carpenter.

Opticians have lately been diligently exercising their powers
in stringing object-glasses together — instead of getting their
power and aperture in one glass, they obtain it bit by bit
in detached portions. This practice has been carried much
too far, but it must be confessed that when two objec-
tives are combined together in a fitting manner, they tread
very closely on the heels of a reflector in most respects, and
fully rival it in dulness and darkness, from the multiplicity of
the refractions employed, though by no means in the singleness
and simplicity of their optical operation. Two triple aplanatics
or three double ones combined, give, I think, as dark an image
as a reflector of the same angle of aperture ; in addition to
which there is a want of clearness and vivacity in the picture
which certainly cannot be laid to the charge of that of a good
reflector. It is a known fact that errors by reflection are six
times greater than those by refraction ; but if we have twelve
curved surfaces to manage in a glass microscope, its errors
will be most probably about equal to those of a catadioptric
constituted by two reverberations like that of Professor Amici.
Those who know how to put optical instruments out of focus,
and look into their defects, will be able to estimate more nicely
the distinctions between reflectors and refractors both single and
composite : for my own part I think it an indisputable fact, that
no single achromatic can be put in competition with a reflector,
(setting aside the secondary spectrum, always incorrigible by the
best arrangements,) unless the apertures employed in both are

Dr. Goring on the new Microscopes^ Sfc. 109

very small. It is curious to see how the aberration of a
single object-glass varies with different angles of apertures : a
good triple 0.9 focus will, with an aperture of only 0.2, incline
to have its spherical aberration in the convex, with 0.35 it will
be about correct with 0.4, the spherical aberration will incline
towards the concave, and with 0.5 it will be very overpowering
in the concave.

If two are combined, which both work well in a detached
state, the sa«ie state of aberration still continues, though with
diminished effect. It is only when the anterior object-glass is
made expressly to correct the other, and to be useless by itself,
that we get an approximation to that perfection in figure
which it is always practicable but difficult to give to metallic
surfaces.

" A metal of 0.6 focus with 0.3 of aperture, or any other
focus with the same angular opening, I have frequently seen
so figured as to be quite perfect, showing, when put out of focus,
no tendency either to sphericity or parabolism, but a true and
genuine elliptic curve, giving with a low power that intensiva of
distinctness which in my opinion will never be obtained from any
refracting instrument, however excellent. Simplicity must, I
think, ever be held to be a capital ingredient in the perfection
of works of art ; and nothing can be more simple than the
operation of a reflecting instrument, or more complicated than
those of a thick sextuple or double triple aplanatic object-glass
of large aperture, for diverging rays : there is perhaps not a
mathematician in Europe who dares to face the theory of it.
It has always been an admitted fact, that reflecting telescopes
would beat refractors, was it not for their want of light ; but it
has been shown, I think, that in reflecting microscopes this
defect is of little or no practical consequence. There is an
object which I have never yet seen satisfactorily with a refrac-
tor, viz.y the cross striae on the feathers of the Papilio Brassicse
and some others of that class ; whereas a reflector of 0.3 focus
and 0.2 of apertures brings them completely out either by day-
light or lamp-light in their full complement, and by the former
allumination so as to be visible along with the longitudinal
lines, presenting the appearance of a piece of brick-work.

The radiant point in the Amician microscope approximates

IK) Dr. Goring on the neio Microscopes, Sj^c.

so closely to the side of the tube containing the metals, as to
prevent the artificial illumination from being thrown down
upon opaque objects, so as to be returned at a sharp angle,
Unless we employ silver cups, with which they are a match
for any object requiring this sort of light, such as the fly's foot,
&c. All those opaque objects which require an oblique radi-
ance, such as the whole family of lines, are shown decidedly
better by the reflectors than the refractors. The 0.3 focus
metals with 0.2 aperture, allow just room enough for this kind
of illumination, and exhibit this class of bodies in a style which
no glass microscope will, I think, ever be able to surpass or
even equal. In short, where is the object which a good Amician
Cannot show in the best possible manner?* it has, however,
one imperfection, which renders it a disagreeable instrument for
giving a general view of objects, viz. it will not give a very low
power without a contracted field of view, with a nebulosity in
the middle of it ; whereas the achromaiics are not subject to
any such inconvenience : the superiority, therefore, with very
low poivers, must be conceded to them. Both of these valuable
instruments have their separate utilities and applications, and
I think it may be asserted, without disparagement to either,
that each possesses the properties which the other is deficient
in. Those who have not seen transparent objects wdth a good
reflector, cannot well form an idea of the effect produced by the
total absence of all coloured fringes, more especially, perhaps,
on very delicate animalcula3. In the best achromatics there is
always a tinge of colour left by the secondary spectrum, (though
I must say that my 0.2 object-glass approaches very nearly
to the perfection of a reflector in this point.) If, in addition to
the total absence of chromatic dispersion, a perfect figure has
been given to the metals caused to correct along with truly
achromatic eye-pieces, upon the same principle that the hy-
perbolical aberration of the large metal in a Gregorian telescope
is made to counteract the spherical error of the small one,

♦ In Vol. i., No. 11, of Gj7/'# Techno/ogtca/ Repository, August 1827, Art. 22, "Oa
Jt difficult test object for the IMicrnscope," is contained an underhand insinuation,
calculated to prodme an inopression to the mind of the reader, that the Amician mi-
croscope will not sliow the minute hairs on the larva of a dern.estes. I must state
that the said hairs are scarcely worthy to be called test objects, being far more easy
than bat's hairs, and demonstrable by any microscope; t/ie two inch metals of the
Amician show Uiem perfectly well.

Dr. Goring o/i th^ new Microscopes, ^, 111

together with that of the eye-pieces, the vision may be con-
sidered, (barring the circumstance of viewing an image, instead
of its real prototype) as mathematically correct, which that of
a refractor never can be, for spherical aberration can be per-
fectly corrected by the concave of the aplanatics only, to
small angles of aperture, scarce sufficient for practical pur-
poses. The superior natural brilliancy of single achromatics,
with any given angle of aperture, though not absolutely requisite
to render objects evident, yet cannot fail to strike the most care-
less observer, rendering the picture on the retina much more
pleasing and satisfactory : this is another point of superiority
which I willingly concede to the refractors. Again, though the
catadioptric microscope is more perfect in its principle, and
susceptible also of more perfect execution than the achromatics,
yet to the refractors must be conceded all those advantages
which are included under the head of conveniences and accom^
modations for observations in working tools. It must, I think,
be quite needless to insist on this point. How are we to view
an object in the bottom of a cavity with the Amician micro-
scope, which, perhaps, has not more than 0.1 of an inch of
distance between the tube and the object to be viewed ? How
can we examine objects contained in a jar of water or other
fluid at a considerable depth below the surface ? How are
we to find room for managing our tools if we mount it with
an erecting eyepiece for dissection, &c. There is still another
point which 1 had nearly forgotten, the image of the reflector
being many degrees darker than that of a refractor, cceteris
paribus, it must follow that there will be a power at which
it will cease to be visible, from mere faintness and dulness,
when the superior light of the refractor will still be enabled
to affect the retina ; and this will take place at last under the
most vivid artificial illumination which can be procured.

1 however deliver it as my opinion that such extremities
will never occur with any useful working poiver ; an Amician
is capable of showing an opaque object completely well, with
a power equal to that of a single lens o^ -^^ inch focus; (which
1 can state from my own experience, to be enough for any
opaque object I ever met with) on transparent bodies, it will
go up to -^ or even ^.

2*12 Dr. Goring on the new Microscopes, Sfci

, I have thus (though I am afraid in a very ill arranged and
rambling way) stated the different essential virtues and capaci-
ties of refractors and reflectors, according to my own ideas ;
it remains for me to compare the compound instruments with
the single ones, and the subject will be exhausted: this I have,
in fact, in a great degree, done in a note on Mr. A. Pritchard's
paper on diamond lenses ; so that it will not be requisite for
me to give more than a slight recapitulation of what I have
there advanced, with a few remarks on the action of the apla-
natics used as single microscopes.

The aberration of ordinary lenses is not thoroughly displayed
until they are caused to form a picture ; when we merely use
them as a medium to enable us to view objects under large
angles, they operate reasonably well, never producing indistinct-
ness enough to preclude the vision of anything they ought to
show, though they may veil it in a disagreeable vapour of scat-
tered light, and fringe it with prismatic tints. On this account
there is not a difference between the performance of achromatics
and common lenses, used as single microscopes, proportional to
that which they exhibit as object lenses. On a former occasion
I have remarked, that the figure of an aplanatic intended to be
employed as an object glass, is different from what is required
for a mere magnifier. To the latter purpose, however, their
curves might be adapted, and we should then arrive at the
extreme intensity of distinctness in viewing a real object. As
however usually made, if a sufficient reduction of their aper-
ture is effected, their performance is faultless. Nothing can be
more beautiful than the action of an achromatic of about an
inch focus used with any aperture (for the iris is sure to reduce
it sufficiently); the shorter foci of course must be cut off, other-
wise their false marginal rays will be able to clear the opening
in the curtain of the eye — I do not think we shall ever have
any single achromatics of shorter focis than about 0.2 inch, a
power which is capable of doing a vast deal of useful labour,
as indeed an inch focus will also.

What we want in microscopes, and what we should boast of,
is to he able to see everything with very low powers. It is as-
tonishing when we really go to work with good microscopes at
investigating nature, how seldom it is necessary to use a high

Dr. Goring on the new Microscopes, Sec 113

degree of amplification. Where the power of the achro-
matics terminate, we must be content to begin with that of
sapphires and diamonds, (precious stones indeed to the
optician and naturalist.) As the depth of single lenses is
increased, of course their aperture becomes proportionally
reduced, and at a certain power gives a cylinder of rays
so small that the impression which its light produces
on the retina is very faint and diluted ; this causes their
aberration, though still as considerable in proportion to
their solar foci, as in the largest glasses, to become as weak
and insensible (with regard to our visual perception, at least)
as their light is ; for the manifestation of aberration, depends
on the quantity of rays acted upon, so that a diamond or sap-
phire lens of about -^^ inch focus, will show no more aberration
than an aplanatic of 0*2 inch, and is equally fit for practical
purposes. The new single microscope, therefore, may be said,
with certain powers, to have as much superiority over the com-
mon glass ones, as the new compounds have over the common
rubbish of commerce. Their relation, therefore, to the new
refractors and reflectors, also continues about the same as
usual, and may be at once comprehended when we consider
that the single instruments show the veritable object without
aberration, and the compounds an image without aberration.

I have delivered it as my opinion in the note on Mr. Prit-
chard's paper already alluded to, that the new compounds,
(when their power is not forced beyond that of ^V of an inch)
beat common single microscopes, but of course not achromatics
used as single magnifiers; this would be a contradiction.
There however will be an hiatus* to be filled up in the
single microscope, between the termination of the achromatics
at 02 focus, and the beginning of the sapphires and diamonds
at about -^-^, for to this depth 1 think they must come, to render
their aberration faint enough to cause their performance to
compete with that of the aplanatics. The compounds must,

* This gap may, perhaps, be closed, and the whole range of power rendered equally-
perfect, by a set of compound magnifiers of Mr. Herschel's construction, consisting
of a meniscus combined with a crossed lens, having the curves calculated for and
evecuted in sapphire. This composition executed in glass only, is very superior in
performance, and would nearly rival the achromatics, did the chromatic dispersion
admit of correction.

JAN.— MARCH, 1828. . I '

114 Dr. Goring on ihe new Microscopes^ ^C,

therefore, ever remain of the highest value; for it will be
recollected that if their forte does not extend beyond powers
ranging as far as the J^ inch, that in this scale all the
working powers are included. The deepest single lens among
those employed by Leeuenhoek, was of no shorter focus,
and with this he saw more than ever was seen before his
time, or ever will be seen again, with all our boasted im-
provements.

When we come to powers exceeding the -^jj inch, the single
miscroscope comes into full effect, and carries us on till all
certain vision fades away into obscurity, and the strain upon the
eye in finding the object and adjusting the focus becomes no
longer tolerable: there can be no doubt that powers of ^\y and ^^
inch (to the use of which the eye may be familiarized) enable
us to look more closely, more narrowly, more deeply, and more
certainly, into the texture of highly-finished objects, than any
equal powers of the compounds.

It may not be taken amiss if I here give my advice concern-
ing the particular sort of microscope best adapted for any given
purpose ; for, as I have been the main agitator by whose in-
fluence and exertions the new microscopes have been brought
into use, I cannot be suspected of undue partiality towards
any of them. First, then, is your purpose merely amusement
for yourself and friends, without having any particular object
in view ? Will you be content to see what has been seen
before your time, without attempting to discover any thing
yourself, or to rectify the discoveries of others ? get an achro-
matic, and view large objects mth. low powers; two object-
glasses, one of two inches focus, and another of one inch, will
be quite sufficient. Any attempt to show small difficult objects
with high powers, to individuals unused to microscopes, is sure
to miscarry. The peripatetic microscopists in the streets,
and public exhibitors, know this full well ; they always show
large objects with low powers, and then put their disciples into
extacies, by telling them that they are looking at very minute
objects with very high powers. The o7 ttoXKoi moreover are
never pleased unless they can see the ivhole of their object ;
they must likewise have every mathematical point about it in
the focus at once, no matter how uneven or irregular it way be.

Dr. Goring on the new MlcroscopeSy Sf-c, 115

Nothing irritates them more than the stubbornness and
inflexibility of the laws of optics in this respect ; if they view a
drawing of an object, a fly's foot for example, they of course see
every thing about it represented as when in focus, how else can
it be drawn ? Yet not more than a point can be seen at once
in an instrument having the power to develope its high and
exquisite finishing: if the drawing is accurate say they, why
does not the microscope show us all these minutiae at once as
they are represented? It is vain and useless to contend or
explain with people of this way of thinking; microscopes are not
made for them. A solar achromatic is of all instruments that
most adapted to popular taste : it gives no trouble whatever to
the observer, and is sure to take with most, especially if used
with live objects, (invariably those exciting the highest interest
in ordinary minds.) What a sublime spectacle to see a battle
between voracious aquatic insects, terminating in a verification
of that great law of nature, eat and be eaten ! Bets may be
laid, and every particular round described in scientific slang.
I have recommended achromatics for these purposes, but I
must confess that the appetites of uncultivated amateurs are
60 gross, their eyes generally so dull, and their powers of inves-
tigating the performance of an instrument so feeble, that the
most common and ordinary constructions show them every thing
ihey care about seeing, quite as well as they wish to see it.

Again, if we want a regular working tool for drawing and
dissection, (especially if this operation is to be carried on under
the surface of a liquid, which is frequently a most useful mode
of proceeding,) recourse will naturally be had to the achro-
matics. The peculiar advantages of refractors as real opera-
tive instruments, have on so many occasions been detailed by
me, that a recurrence to the subject here would be quite a work
of supererogation. Moreover, it is not to be supposed that I
impugn or in any manner pretend to derogate from the merits
of refractors, when applied to any purpose. The deeper
their objective part can be made, consistent with perfec-f
lion, the greater will be the power at which they are capable of
arriving, preserving all the while that admirable clearness,
•beauty, and truth in vision, with which they set out in the com-
mencement of their scale of amplifying power,

x3

11^ Dr. Goring on the new Microscopes ^ S^c!

Regular men of science and real connoisseurs in the vision
of curious and difficult objects, Avill, I think, admit, that the
improved Amician reflectors will ever maintain their ground,
and remain at a proud level among microscopes. I have no
doubt that they will descend to posterity as a valuable legacy
pretty much in their present form, nor do I think they will
ever be superseded by other catadioptric constructions. I
recommend them to all those who admire a compact, scien-
tific, portable, and most effective instrument, without desiring
an absolute working- tool*, or low powers to show large
common objects — (for the Amicians will not afford to come
lower than one quarter of an inch.) The optical superiority
of the reflecting principle I have so largely dwelt upon in the
commencement of this paper, that I trust it will already have
produced a due and just impression on the minds of my reader.
I have myself that kind of perfect satisfaction in looking into a
really exquisite reflector, which I never experience with any
other compound instrument.

To the good old-fashioned single microscope pertains all those
advantages which result from extreme portability and compact-
ness ; it may be squeezed into the size of a snuff-box if requisite :
it must ever recommend itself, and maintain its ground as a most
useful working- tool for dissection, &c., with low powers. When-
ever we are at a loss with the compounds, as to whether we do
or do not see some particular object, it will always be highly
advisable to verify with a single lens. To the purpose of
verification, the high powers of the single microscope will be
eternally applicable ; the naturalist must ever respect it as the
most tried and faithful of servants, and the most valuable
appendage to the compounds. Did I myself wish to go over
the ground of other observers, to correct their views, to see
more than had been seen by them, and to push my researches
into the extreme penetralia of nature, I should certainly
attempt these objects by means of the deepest single lenses of
adamant and sapphire, which I could obtain or use. On the
inaptitude of the single microscope to particular purposes, I

* It must not be forgotten that Mr. Culhbert has adapted the stand and appa-
ratus of the Amician reflector, to an achromatic as well as a single microscope, so
that it combines the properties of the three instruments.

Dr. Goring on the new Microscopes^ 8^c. 117

have had occasion to insist so frequently in former papers, that
I conceive any recurrence to such topics must be here wholly
superfluous.

I here cannot withstand the inviting opportunity which pre-^
sents itself, of winding up this paper with a word or two con-
cerning the intrinsic merits of microscopes, which many
individuals have lately been pleased to assert have been set
up much too high, and have reached a level in the estimation
of men of science to which they are not legitimately entitled*
It has always been customary to vilify microscopes and those
who use them, as if all microscopical discoveries were at the
best useless, frivolous, and utterly unprofitable. Dissector
of blackguard vermin, observer of a drop of stinking ditch-
water, or of the amorous passions of worms and ants, Sfc, are
certainly terms which convey anything but an exalted or
even respectable idea of a man's character and occupation ;
and if microscopes could be applied to no other purposes, I
should be apt to think myself that a microscopist was but a
puny, pitiful pedant, whose passions and amusements were of a
childish and even degrading complexion. But I would ask
whether a microscope in the hands of men like Bauer is not
applied to high and important purposes, elucidating the most
curious and delicate points of anatomy and physiology. No
discovery has yet been made in any science more astonishing
than the detection and production of minute animated beings
without parents, out of nothing more than putrid vegetable
infusions, — facts which never can be suppressed or explained
away, — the most subtle disputants have been alike unable to
digest or get rid of them.

None are apt to treat microscopists with more lively con-
tempt than some supercilious astronomers and even mere star-
gazers. Astronomy is certainly the most sublime of all the
sciences — 1 have the most profound veneration for it. But
star-gazing forms a distinct department, (though apt to be con-
founded with it,) and is, in my opinion, little better than gazing
at anything else, or downright microscophizing. What is the
usual fate of telescopes when not employed as regular astrono-
mical tools ? After they have exhibited the spots in the sun^

118 Dr. Goring on the new MicroscbpeSi ^c.

the moon through a few lunations, with an edipse perhaps,
the planets in succession with their occultations, and the
eclipses of their satellites, tlie double stars, the milky way, and
the nebulae and clusters which are within their reach, together
with such terrestrial objects as surround the dwellings of their
possessors *, they are usually quietly interred in their cases,
or craned up into a garret, there to enjoy their otium cum dig^
nitate. Or it may be they will be mounted occasionally, just to
show people what a prodigiously scientific personage their
possessor must necessarily be. The fact is, that the objects
which a telescope shows us as a mere optical instrument are
numbered, and far more easily exhausted than microscopic ones.
If to the telescope belongs the great and sublime spectacles
of nature, to the microscope belong the petites and the beau-
tiful ones ; the former showing the world above us, the latter
the world beneath us. Had my fortune, health, and capacity
permitted me to become an astronomer, I should certainly
never have descended to microscopical pursuits, but pro-
cured a large Herschelian telescope of some twenty inches
aperture, and with it have swept and ransacked the southern
hemisphere for nebulae and clusters of stars, as the immortal
SirAV. Herschel has done our northern one. But the fates
have not permitted this ; so as I have not been able to get
a mackerel I have been forced to content myself with a sprat —
(to use the homely but expressive adage.)

There is an argument which it seems to me may be used
with force and effect, to justify or palliate an indulgence in
microscopical researches: it is simply this. Nature has been
pleased to bestow a most exquisite degree of finishing upon
some of her works, such as can only be perceived and appre-
ciated by man when assisted by the microscope. Now is it not
monstrous and insupportable that men, confessedly only the
works of nature, (and perhaps by her considered as little better

* Or if in town, perhaps, to exhibit the billings and cooings of the he and
she gentry from the country, on the gallery which surrounds the dome of St. Paul's,
or the Monument — (it is possible to find out low and degrading occupations even for
the telescope.) I have heard of an American gentleman who was called out from
a ball-room, for making use therein of an inverting opera-glass, to turn the ladies
iopsy turvy. -

Dr. Goring on the neiv Microscopes, Sj^o' 119

than insects devouring each other in a ball of clay,) should
take upon themselves to ridicule and deride those who merely
gaze upon and admire the minutiae which she has chosen to
execute in so inimitable and so exquisite a style ? Parva laeves
capiant animos, it is said ; but I say it is not only unscientific
but even swinish and ridiculous to contemn anything merely
on account of its minuteness. Will any one pretend to ad-
vance, that if human beings had been made as perfect as they
are upon a scale of an inch to a foot, they would have been
less worthy of their divine author* ? Or to put a case which
will come better home to our clumsy feelings, clumsy senses,
and clumsy fingers, suppose the automaton chess-player had
been made on a scale of -}^ inch to a foot, would it have been
less worthy of admiration, as a work of art?

Again, suppose some individual greatly distinguished for his
talents in ship building, in the formation of steam-engines and
astronomical instruments, and the like, was also to exhibit a
passion for making musical seals and snuff-boxes, or even such
Curiosities as a dozen of silver spoons in a cherry stone, or a
coach drawn by fleas, would it be good breeding or good taste
to contemn and ridicule his minute labours, while we extolled
his grander and more imposing works ? Now it appears to me,
that the Supreme Being does in some sense resemble such an
individual ; for there is nothing too grand or too petite, too sub-
lime or too humble, too minute or too exquisite, to be above or
below his consideration. His power loves to display itself i?i
every possible way in which it can be displayed; and I cannot help
thinking myself, that those who despise the minute works of
God, while they affect to admire the great wonders of his crea-
tion, are guilty of a species of impiety, and must be either
liars, or hypocrites, or fools. People are perpetually wondering
at what can be the use of bugs and fleas, and wasps and such
kind of vermin, and speak of them as if they were absolute

* Proportioning the cause to the effect, we might be led to the conclusion, that
excessive minuteness has a certain power of fettering and confining the operations
of nature. It seems certain, that the smaller animated beings become, the more
simple is their structure : the termination, or if we please, the beginning of the
Scale in the Monas Termo and other animalcules of tb
mere animated vesicles or hydatyds on the small scale.

120 pr: Goring oii the new Microscopes^ ^c^

blots ill the escutcheon of the Creator. The use of thes6 Httle
insects is, in my opinion, to teach man that most desirable, but
most difficult of all lessons, true humility. He is very apt
to consider himself as the very centre, the alpha,. and omega
of the creation, for whose use and satisfaction this planet and
every thing in it has been made. Now a very little consideration
ought to show him that this is by no means the case, and that
he only shares with other animals (according to the degree of
his force and cunning) the goods of the earth. Fleas, bugs, and
wasps, seem to have been intended to enjoy themselves in their
own way just as we do, without reference to the comforts,
feelings, misery, or happiness of men and other beings, or
as the lion and tiger can only exist by destroying weaker
animals. Each animated creature seems almost to stand by
itself, as much as if there had been no others to contend with
it for the produce of the earth, both animal and vegetable.

I have frequently amused myself with imagining what would
be the reflections of a bug, if it could think or reason. I have
no doubt it would consider itself as the only being in the crea-
tion, of any real consequence, and be full of gratitude for the
munificent provision made for it by nature in our bulky per-
sons, which it would, doubtless, think had been created only to
prepare its habitation and supply its food. The wars we wage
against them, would be considered the most execrable cruelty
and tyranny, and a most unaccountable contradiction in the
order of nature, that the same being which supplied all their
comforts, should also be their bane and destruction.

Upon the whole it seems quite as certain that bugs were
intended to prey on man, as that horses were made to ride on.
Pull in your horns a HUle, O ye lords of the creation ! ye are
but food for bugs while ye live, and for worms when ye are
dead.

There are puerilities, pedantiy, and nonsense in all the sciences.
Even astronomy is not exempt from these flaws, nor is it by
any means difficult to apply the touchstone of ridicule and
derision to them, as has been done pretty successfully by Dr.
Swift, and others : if mere utility is to be made the standard
of excellence, how circumscribed are the merits of most of

Dr. Goring on the new Microscopes ^ 8{C, 121

them, barring their effect in acting as counterpoises to super-
stition and barbarism ; and in this point of view, microscopic
science has its voice among the rest. All men are apt to de-
spise the pursuits of their neighbours and to dignify their own,
whatever they may be, as the only ones of real importance and
value. While microscopic investigations are consecrated by
the names of Pond, of Amici, of Herschel*, and of Woollaston,
who disdain not to relax themselves from their severer studies
in such pursuits, a man must be very hardy and fastidious to dare
to spurn or scoff at them.

I wish not to see microscopes or microscopic researches
exalted any higher or debased any lower than their just level;
but I have been frequently taunted with their insignificance
and frivolity, and have, therefore, entered into the preceding
vindication of them. I hope I may conclude by saying that
we have a right to ride our hobbies quietly along the road,
without being considered any greater fools than our neighbours,

I must confess that great disgrace has been brought on
microscopic science, by the manner in which the earlier ob-
servers have perverted it to the support of preconceived opi^
nions and hypothetical views, as well as to the spirit of
wonder-making. I trust, however, that since microscopes
have been placed on a par with telescopes, in point of the
science necessary to their construction, that observations
made with them will possess the same precision and scientific
accuracy as those of astronomers, or at least that vain and
lying details, ad captandum vulgns, will be exploded from the
pages of microscopic lore in future.

* In No. Ill, of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, Art. 20, may be seen a
most beautiful model of scientific investigation with the microscope, by Mr. H. entitled,
•' On certain optical Phenomena exhibited by Mother-of- Pearl, depending on its
internal Structure," and in Art. 32, of the same volume, an account of Professor
Amici's discoveries relative to the motion of the sap in plants, (the chara or stoue-
wort.)

122

Hierogly pineal Fragments.

Whatever may be done by the liberality of the French govern-
ment hereafter, in promoting the investigation of Egyptian
Antiquities, the spirit of private individuals among our coun-
trymen has, of late, been so active as to promise to exhaust all
the accessible materials before our rivals commence their ope-
rations. Mr. Burton's drawings of the Chamber of Kings,
at Thebes, have already been lithographized ; though his fellow
labourer, Mr. Wilkinson, has been less fortunate in sending
home his manuscript on the same subject, which has been lost
on its way. Mr. Wilkinson is, however, still employed, with
unremitting zeal, in increasing the bulk of his collections ; and
his drawings appear to be as accurately copied, as they are
beautifully executed ; and Major Felix has even lithographized,
at Cairo, some very interesting plates of names, arranged in
chronological order.

Among some drawings lately received from Mr. Wilkinson by
his friends in England there are two of particular interest. The
one is a ceiling from the Memnonium at Thebes ; the other a
tablet from a tomb at Beni Hassan.

The first of these contain twelve months in order ; they are
distinguished by three different characters^ accompanied by
numerals from one to four, nearly in the same way as the
months communicated by Mr. Champollion to Dr. Young for
his Hieroglyphics. This mode of expressing the months appears
to be sufficiently observable in the enchorial as well as in the
sacred characters : and Mr. Champollion is evidently acquainted
with their signification, though the characters cannot possibly
have any relation to the sounds of the Egyptian words by which
the months are denoted.

There is, however, an extraordinary difficulty in the reading of
a passage in the Pillar of Rosetta, in which the name of the sixth
month Mechir occurs, though it is denoted by the character
which in this series answers to Paophi the second month. The
first tetrad, beginning at the middle of the ceiling, is marked by
the character of a garden or a corn field ; and this character is
also in the Thoth of the triple inscription, repeated, as denoting,

Hieroglyphical Fragments, 12$

in all probability, the Thoth of each year : the second tetrad has
an open square and an oval ; and the third a long parallelogram,
which occurs, as it ought to do, in the Mesore of the pillar.
But Mechir has the garden instead of the open square and oval 5
yet it is perfectly well determined, and liable to no doubt or
ambiguity whatever from the context : so that whether it was
an error of the engraver, or a different dialect of the language,
must remain for the present doubtful.

The tablet from the tomb at Beni Hassan is also singular for
the sublime nature of the subject to which it relates, and as a
genuine specimen of the high importance which ought to be
attached to the interpretation of all the mysteries of Egypt.
It is no less than a child's spelling book, in the Greek cha-
racter however : had it happily been in the Egyptian character
it would have been seriously invaluable. It begins with the
alphabet from A to O ; then from f2 to A ; then A, O, B, if,
in direct and inverse order alternately, that the child's memory
might not assist his perception too much : then we have BA,
BE, BH, BI, BO, BT, BO ; FA, and so forth to ^O; then
BAB, BEB, BHB, and the rest of the syllables similarly formed,
as far as AHA ; with which the child's first lesson appears to
have ended. This at least we may probably infer, that the
tenant of the tomb was probably a schoolmaster or school-
mistress : at any rate that he had learned to read and write, and
that his survivors were proud of his qualifications.

* * * *

Park Square, March 14.

On the Climate of the Canary Islands,

The following remarks on the climate of the Canary Islands
are an epitome of the portion, allotted to that subject, in the
very valuable treatise of M. von Buch, entitled, *' Physica-
lische Beschreibung der Canarischen Inseln."

1. Temperature of the Atmosphere. — It was highly to be
desired that a correct mean temperature, at the level of the sea,
should be obtained in some latitude, which might connect
the valuable and exact determinations made by Humboldt
within the tropics, with the many careful registers which are

1 24 On the Climate of the Canary Islands,

kept north of the forty-fifth parallel. The observations o£
Heberden, at Madeira, in 1750, which were the only ones exist-
ing in the intermediate parallels alluded to, could not be re-
garded as sufficiently satisfactory for this purpose. The desi-
deratum has been at length supplied by a most careful register
kept at Santa Cruz, in TenerifFe, with good English instruments,
in an open gallery in the shade, from May 1808, to August
1810, by Don Francisco Escolar. The temperature of each
day is derived from the mean of two observations, one made
at sunrise, and the other at noon, or a little later. It might
appear, at first view, that, whilst the observation at sunrise may,
without hesitation, be admitted to have shown the minimum, —
that at noon, or a little later, might not justly represent the
maximum, — and, consequently, that the mean derived from
them would give a temperature somewhat too low ; and this view
might receive confirmation, on observing that the average tem-
perature of the noon register does not exceed that of sunrise by
more than 1°.16 R. or 2°.6 Fahr. But experience has shown
that, in the islands of warm climates, the maximum of heat very
rarely, indeed, happens so late in the day as halfpast one : that it
more frequently occurs a little after eleven, but most frequently
about noon. The increase of heat which takes place elsewhere
after the sun has reached the meridian, is, in such localities,
counteracted by the sea breeze, which, springing up when the
sun has reached a considerable altitude, increases in strength,
in proportion to the effect produced by the sun's increasing
heat upon the land. And in respect to any inference which
might be drawn from there being so small difference between,
sunrise and noon in Escolar's register, the observations of
Heberden, which contain the highest and lowest temperatures
experienced in every month in Madeira, show that, in no single
instance, the range of the thermometer for the space of a
whole month exceeds in that island 2°. 91 R., or 6°. 5 Fahr.

From these considerations M. von Buch concludes that Don
Francisco Escolar's observations may be regarded as affording
a fair representation of the mean temperature at Santa Cruz,
The abstract of the register gives the following mean tempera-^
tures for each month in the year ; —

On the Climate of the Canary Islands*

125

Reaumur.

Fahrenheit

January

February

March

14.15
14.35
15.63

(f3.7
64.3
67.1

April
May
June

15.70

17.83
18.62

67.2
72.1

73.8

July
August
September
October

20.12
20.84
20.19
18.96

77.2
78.9
77.4
74.5

November

17.08

70.4

December

15.03

65.9

Mean of the whole year 17.31

71.0

The progression of the temperature in the different months
follows the law common to places without the tropics ; the
greatest heat and the greatest cold are in the months following
the solstices. The mean temperature of the coldest month,
January, is the same as the mean temperature of the whole year
in southern Italy.

• Rains. — By the character of the rains, the climate of the
Canary Islands is also assimilated to the temperate zone, rather
than to the zone of the tropics ; there are no tropical rains, and
the rains -which take place occur at that season when the tem-
perature differs most from that of the equator. Their cause is
the same as elsewhere beyond the tropics ; the cooling of the
tipper current of the atmosphere, in its passage from the
equator, and the deposit of the great quantity of vapour with
Avhich it is charged. In consequence of the greater warmth
of the climate of the Canary Islands, this deposit does not
lake place there so soon in the autumn, or continue so late in
the spring, as in Italy, or in countries still further to the north»
It scarcely ever rains on the sea coast earlier than November,
or later than the end of March.

Winds. — During the summer months, the climate of the
Canaries is assimilated by the winds to the region of the tropics.
From April to October, the N.E. trade-wind prevails uninter-
ruptedly. During the remainipg months it partakes of the

126 On the Climate of the Canary Islands,

character of the zone without the tropics, by the general pre-
valence of south-westerly winds.

These islands are just within that distance from the continent
of Africa, which enables them to present highly interesting
examples of the gradation in which the true direction of the
trade-wind (that is to say, the direction in which it ought
to blow, from the general causes wkich occasion it) is
deflected from the influence, and in proportion to the vicinity
of a great continent. Within sight of the coast of Africa the
wind is found N. by E. ; at Lancerote and Fuertaventura,
N.N.E.; at Canary, N.E.; at TenerifFe, N. E. by E. ; and
the influence of the continent ceases to be perceptible at Palma.
At all seasons of the year, even when the N.E. Trade is strongest
in the lower regions of the atmosphere, the S.W. current, or the
general flow of the atmosphere in the upper regions from the
equator towards the pole, is experienced by ascending the high
land of Teneriffe, and of other islands in the group. Evidence
is thus afforded of the steady prevalence of that upper current,
the cause of which has been so satisfactorily explained by Mr.
Daniell, and of which the existence had been also manifested
by the phenomena of the fall to windward of the ashes of the
volcano of St. Vincent's, quoted by M. von Buch, from Mr.
Daniell's Essays. In proportion as the sun advances to the
southward of the line in autumn, the limit of the trade-wind
towards the north progressively recedes, following the sun.
Thus, the N.E. trade, which, in the height of summer, reaches
even the coast of Portugal, fails there, while it yet prevails at
Madeira ; and, in like manner, fails at Madeira, while it still
blows at the Canaries. Several very remarkable phenomena ob-
served at the Canary Islands, appear to justify Mr. Von Buch's
opinion that the N. E. trade-wind does not flow parallel to the
surface of the earth, but that it has a gradual ascent in its
progress southwards. It seems difficult otherwise to ex-
plain the great extent of lee occasioned by the several islands,
which has been carefully and accurately examined at each. At
Canary the lee is from twenty to twenty-five sea miles ; at
Teneriffe, fifteen ; at Gomera, ten ; and at Palma, thirty sea
miles. The distance to which the lee extends is well defined
by the breaking of the sea upon the smooth water, with so

.Ow the Climate of the Canary Islands. 127

much violence as to be even dangerous to vessels. On the
supposition that the course of the trade-wind is an ascending
one, it might be expected in autumn to cease to blow at heights
some days before it ceased on the sea shore, progressively de-
scending in height as the northern limit of the wind at the
surface of the sea approached the island ; and such is found
to be the fact. The S.W. wind, which takes the place of the
trade-wind as the latter ceases to blow, is observed in all
years to descend progressively from those highest points, on
which, as has been remarked, it prevails throughput the year.
Its descent is traced by the clouds, which, in October, veil the
south side of the Peak of Teneriffe ; sinking slowly, they rest
on a ridge of mountains, between Orotava and the southern
coast, six thousand feet in height, where they break in dreadful
storms. It is a full week, and sometimes even more^ before
the S.W. wind is felt on the sea coast, where it prevails for
months aftenvards, whilst it rains on the declivity of the moun-
tain, and snow is on the Peak. A remarkable fact, viewed in
this connexion, is the greater height of the barometer in the
summer months, when the opposite currents are prevailing
over the island, than in the winter months, when the S.W,
alone prevails. The mean of Don Francisco Escolar's register,
kept during three years, gives, for the months of winter and
summer respectively, as follows, the heights of the column of
mercury being reduced for temperature.

Inches. Lines.

May, June, July, August . . 28 „ 3.173
September to April , . . 28 „ 2.017

Excess of summer over winter . 1.156

or rather more than one-tenth of a British inch.

The island of Grand Canary presents a remarkable pecu-»
liarity in the progression of its mean monthly temperature,
which is highly worthy the attention of meteorologists. The
following table exhibits the result of a register kept at Las
Palmas, during ten years, by Dr. Bandini de Gatti. The time
of observation was daily at noon ; from whence the results in-
serted in the first column are immediately derived ; those in
the second column are the approximate mean temperatures, de-
rived from the observations at noon, by presuming the same

128 -i)n the Climate of the Canary Islands,

difference to exist, which has been already stated to have been
observed at Santa Cruz between the temperature of noon, and
that of the mean between noon and sunrise.

Monthly Mean derived from

Approximate Mean Temp. (

Months.

the Noon Observations,

each Month

computed.

Reau.

Fahr.

Reau.

Fahr.

January ,

. 14.05

63.5

13.30

62

February

. 14.52

64.6

14.06

63.5

March .

. 15.10

66.

14.56

64.7

April .

. 15.79

67.4

15.25

6693

May. .

. 16.68

69.6

16.10

68.2

June

. 17.53

71.5

17.02

70.2

July . .

. 19.24

75.3

18.50

73.6

August .

. 20.44

78.1

19.65

76.1

September

. 22.26

82.1

21.64

80.7

October .

. 23.74

85.3

23.16

84.1

November

. 18.67

73.9

17.76

72.9

December

. 14.51

64.6

13.93

63.3

By this table it is seen that the maximum of heat takes
place at Las Palmas in October instead of August^ that as far
as September the progression is regular, and accords with the
register of Santa Cruz ; but that, instead of diminishing in
September and October, as is usual from the decreasing
southern declination of the sun, the heat, on the con-
trary, continues to augment, until in the middle of October it
attains a height only known in the hottest tropical climates.
The general understanding of the inhabitants corresponds with
the register ; and the peculiarity of the climate is marked, as
might be expected, by a corresponding peculiarity in the vege-
tation. Thus the Palm-trees, from which Las Palmas takes its
name, and which flourish greatly in its vicinity, yield ripe dates
in abundance ; whereas the few trees of the same kind which
are found in Teneriffe do not ripen fruit. The Euphorbia
Balsamifera, which requires a great deal of warmth, is found in
the neighbourhood of Las Palmas, as high as eight hundred
feet, forming bushes ten or twelve feet high ; whereas at Santa
Cruz, and at Oratava, it hardly rises above the ground. Nearly
the same may be said of the Plocama Pendula. The gardens of
Canary are adorned with East and West India trees, not seen in
Teneriffe ; Poinciana Pulcherrima, of uncommon size and
beauty ; Bixa Orellana and Tamarind trees, as large as the
Lime-trees of Europe. A magnificent avenue of the large trees
of the Carica Papaya, or Papaw tree, is found in the hospital of

On the Climate of the Canary Islands, 129

St. Lazarus ; all these testify that, during a part oF the year at
least, Canary is subject to a degree of heat peculiarly intense.

Mr. von Buch attributes this remarkable peculiarity in the
climate of Grand Canary to the cessation of the trade-wind in
September, when a period of calms intervenes before the south-
west wind is steadily established ; during these calms, the at-
mosphere near the island, being undisturbed by the local winds
which prevail at the same period at the other islands, becomes
greatly heated by the effects of solar radiation, to which the pe-
culiar form and geological character of the island conduce in a
more than ordinary degree. It is, we believe, the first phe-
nomenon of the kind that has been noticed, and is highly curious
as a meteorological fact, as well as in regard to the influence of
climate on vegetation.

Temperature of S2)rings and Fountains in Teneriffe. — It
has been already observed, that the rains take place only in
the winter months, from November to March ; but during the
summer months there is a constant precipitation from nine or
ten in the morning to five in the evening, in the region of fo-
rests, at the elevation of from 2500 to 4100 feet. From
whichever of these sources we suppose the springs or foun-
tains, to be supplied, it is reasonable to expect that the tem-
perature of those that are found near the level of the sea should
be colder than the mean temperature of the year at that
level. Accordingly, it appears that the average temperature of
the following springs, ascertained by M. von Buch, is 14.25 R.,
or 64.1 Fahr., Avhilst the mean temperature of the year, as
shown by Escolar's observations, is 17.3 R., or 71. Fahr. ;
or, on the average, the temperature of the springs near the
level of the sea is 7" Fahr. colder than the mean temperature
of the air during the year.
6th May. — An uncommonly fine and copious spring,

gushing out from under a bed of lava, at Cape

Martianez, under La Paz, near Oratava - - 14.2 R.
This temperature is permanent throughout the

year.
8th May. — ^The spring *' del Rey," between Realexo

and Puerto - - - . - - 14.3

7th June. — .The same spring ----- 14.8

JAN.— MARCH, 1828. K

130 On the Climate of the Canary Islands.

6th Sept.— The same spring - , ^ - 14.8 R.

1st June. — Very copious springs, gushing out like

waterfalls from the rocks beneath the mill of

Gordaxuelo, near Realexo - - - - 13.3
6th Sept. — The same spring - - - - 14.1

Up to the height of 2000 feet above the sea the tempera-
ture of the springs, generally, suffers scarcely any sensible
diminution ; consequently the mean temperature of the air
in ascending gradually approaches that of the springs. Above
2000 feet, and between that height and the commencement of
the forest region, the springs diminish considerably and rapidly
in temperature all round the island, as is shown by the following
examples : —
August. — ^Agua de las Mercedes, 2200 feet, in the

wood of Obispo above Laguna, under gigantic

laurels 11.2 R.

Sept.- — Fuente de Vero, and Fuente de los Villanos,

2800 feet - - - . - 10.6

June. — A spring near the hermitage of Esperanza_,

2100 feet 12.2

August. — Fuente Guillen, a spring between Esperanza

and Matanha, 2565 feet - - - 12.1

May. — A copious fountain in the rocks above Realexo

ariba, 2600 feet _ _ _ _ 11.9

May and June. — A spring on the mountain of Ti-

gayga, 2000 feet - - - - 11.9

May and June — A spring on the left side of the Ba-

ranco, leading to Rambla, 2000 feet - 11.7

At the commencement of the forest region, therefore, the
average temperature of the springs may be considered as 11° R.
or 3° less than at the level of the sea. From that height to the
upper limit of the forest region, where the precipitation furnishes
a constant supply, the water in deposits differs little from the tem-
perature of the air : and above that region, the springs are too
few, and too inconsiderable, to preserve an independent tem-
perature. E. S.

131

On a Figured Variety of Coal, occurring in the Coal-field of
Glamorganshire ; in a Letter to the Editor, — By J. Mac
CuLLocH, M.D. F.R.S.

Dear Sir,

I WAS not aware that the singular variety of coal, to which
the title of this letter alludes, was unknown to mineralogists, or
I should not so long have delayed sending you this notice of a
peculiarity, which, independently of the difficulty which it pre-
sents, offers a fact deserving of regard in the history of this
interesting substance. I must presume, that it has never yet
occurred elsewhere, than in the place whence the specimens,
which I have seen, were procured ; because a form so remark-
able could not have failed to attract the attention even of the
workmen, and would, therefore, have, ere now, been brought be-
fore the attention of mineralogists. Should it merely have been
overlooked in other coal deposits, the present public notice may
serve to call attention to it ; and, perhaps, also induce mine-
ralogists, as well as workmen, to examine more narrowly into a
substance, which, in spite of its importance and familiarity,
must have been strangely neglected, when such doctrines re-
specting its chemical nature, as those of Mr. Kirwan, and
respecting its chemical origin, such as those of Sir James Hall,
and Play fair, could have been received, without question, for so
long a time, and entertained as truth till they were corrected,
at so very late a period, by my own examination of bituminous
substances, appended to the Essay on the Distillation of Wood,
in the Geological Transactions.

The variety, to which I allude, has been frequently found in
the coal works about Merthyr Tidfil, and, indeed, may be said
to occur almost daily ; but how widely it may extend through
this coal basin, there are no means of knowing. It would be
superfluous to describe, either the nature of this coal-field, or
of the coal itself, since both are familiarly known 5 it may be
sufficient to remind your readers, that it is a dry coal, though
not, in this respect, of a very highly defined character ; while I
hope that they are already aware, from the paper to which I
have alluded, that there are no definite varieties of coal, as is
commonly supposed, in consequence of certain Daisleading and

K 2

132 ' Dr. Mac Culloch on a

popular designations ; but that a regular gradation exists be-
tween all the varieties, from the driest Kilkenny coal or culm,
to the most bituminous coal of Newcastle ; or, chemically
speaking, from anthracite to asphaltum.

The term commonly applied to this variety, by the miners, is
crystallized coal : that it is not a true crystallization, will be
apparent, though it will be difficult to refer it, as will presently
be seen, to any other class of forms or causes than that unde-
finable one, termed concretionary, and to the peculiar laws,
whatever those are, by which these forms, so often connected
with, or approaching to, perfect crystallizations, are regulated.

It would have been desirable to give a finished and accurate
engraving of a form, which words alone will scarcely render in-
telligible 3 but as obvious causes render this impossible in your
Journal, your readers must be contented with an outline, which,
with that idea of the distribution of the general structure on the
surface, that can be conveyed in words, and the addition of a
few sentences, may perhaps render the subject sufficiently clear
for the present purpose.

The surface of this variety of coal displays that involution of
lines, which is commonly known by the term snail-creep ; and
that character is accurately preserved in every specimen which
I have seen. These specimens, therefore, bear a general re-
semblance to that well known madreporite, vulgarly called brain-
stone : inasmuch that the first impression is, that this coal has
been in some manner connected with some organic body of this
nature. A moment's consideration, however, shows that this
could not have been the case ; and even a cursory examination
proves that, whatever the resemblance may be, the differences
are still greater. This apparent disposition is part of a structure
which perhaps the appended wood-cuts, though rather diagrams
than representations, may render intelligible.

The outline in question is the protruding edge of a ridge

Figured Variety of Coal, 133

arising from the general flat surface of the block ofcoal, and
so^convoluted as to produce this figure on the plane. A section
of that ridge, across any part of its course, gives a wedge-like
form, as is shown at A ; the base being continuous with the
ordinary coal, and the edge, which has a sensible breadth, vary-
ing from the twentieth to the eighth of an inch, being serrated.
The face or plane of this convoluted wedge (if I may use such
a term) is striated, or apparently fibrous ; but, when broken, no
appearance of fibres is visible, the whole being undistinguishable
in aspect and character from the general block ; which is in no
way different from the ordinary coal of the same strata. Lastly,
in all the specimens which I have seen, the length of the wedge,
or the height of the ridge, is about an inch, perhaps rather
falling short than exceeding. With respect to the convolutions,
I must yet remark, that, while they are perfectly capricious and
uncertain, so as to differ in every specimen, they conform most
rigidly to a sort of law pervading the convoluted madrepores,
which may be called the law of avoidance, and for which, in
those corals, there is an obvious cause, arising from the design
of the animals by which it is constructed. The same law, and
for similar reasons, is found in the honeycomb ; but it will pro-
bably long remain a mystery why it should occur here, where
no apparent cause can be assigned. What I here allude to is,
that, however the curve may wander and be contorted, the
neighbouring one always follows at an exact distance, as far as
any single point is concerned ; though as this second, or any
other curve, may hold a very different general course, spaces
must occur which would be greater than the general interval,
which, for a reason that will presently appear, is equal to the
base of the wedge, or ridge, or somewhat more than a quarter
of an inch. Such intervals will be found occupied by straight
pieces, or other adaptations, in such a manner as always to
preserve this mixture of average distance and avoidance : just
as is familiar in the honeycomb, when the form of the hive
does not allow the whole to be fdled in a more regular and
continuous manner ; a proof, by the way, that bees do not
follow a fixed rule, or are not solely guided by what has been
idly and obstinately called instinct.

I must now point out the only remaining singularity of thi§

134 Dr. Mac Cwllocli on a Figured Variety of Coal.

coal ; and it is one probably which has often prevented it from
being remarked, as it doubtless causes the specimens to appear
more rare than they actually are. The eye does not conjecture
■where they are to be found ; or the blocks, which contain this
structure, are not different in aspect from the ordinary portions
of the stratum. It is only from casual fracture that they come
to light ; while many are destroyed every day in the act of
breaking up the materials for the coal hearths. If the fracture
has been fortunate, the block divides in the middle, parallel to
its stratified structure ; and, on separation, each piece is found
to contain the projecting figure which I have described ; the
ridge on the one-half fitting exactly to the vacuity in the other,
and admitting them to be refitted just as the fingers of two
hands may be so adapted. Occasionally, some adhesion oc-
curs between the opposite portions ; in which case a portion of
the ridge on one block is broken off; but I have seen speci-
mens of nearly a square foot in surface, where the whole was
absolutely perfect. This circumstance is the one to which I
referred above, as explaining the reason why the intervals be-
tween the ridges or curves, at the surface, were equal to the
breadth of the ridge at the base. The cut B represents a kind
of section of this fact.

Such is the description of this singular variety of coal. I do
not pretend to explain it. There would be no difficulty in filling
a page with conjectures and hypotheses in the usual taste; but
while there is no analogy to which it can be referred, nor any
general law elsewhere, with which it can be associated, I can
see no purpose in such waste of words. It is not possible to
conceive how it can have depended on any animal structure,
for various reasons j nor are there any means of referring it to

Mr. Ranking on the Ruins of Palenque* 135

what, were it really organic, it ought rather to belong — some
vegetable form. The adaptation of the opposed parts would,
itself, exclude those ; and thus, therefore, must the question at
present remain, until we become more extensively acquainted
with the concretionary structure, and the laws, by which that is
regulated ; a subject on which I formerly attempted to throw
some light in your Journal.

I am, &c.

Remarks on the Ruins at Palenque, in Guatemala, and on the
Origin of the American Indians, By John Ranking, Esq.

These ruins are situated on a plain, named Palenque, in the
province of Ciudad Real de Chiapa, near the borders of Gua-
temala and Yucatan, in north latitude, by Robertson's map,
17° 30'.

A description of this ancient city has been pubUshed in
English*, translated from the manuscript of Captain Don An-
tonio del Rio, dated Palenque, 1787, accompanied with a cri-
tical investigation into the history of the ancient Americans,
by Doctor Paul Felix Cabrera, of the city of New Guatemala,
dated 1794. The following is a summary :

The king of Spain having ordered another examination of
these ruins, Captain Del Rio proceeded to the site of the
ancient city, which is called Casas de Piedras (stone houses) for
the purpose of effectually clearing away the trees and copsewood
which hid the principal building. With seventy-nine Indians
and forty axes the wood was cut down in fifteen days, and
was consumed in a general conflagration, which enabled the
party to continue their operations with more facility. The pick-
axes were reduced to three, and the iron crow-bars to seven ;
but, by dint of perseverance, all that was necessary to be done
was effected, and, ultimately, there remained neither a window
nor a doorway blocked up, nor a room, corridor, court, tower,

♦ By H. Berthoud, Regents-Quadrant, and Suttaby & Co., Stationers-court, 4to,
1822, with seventeen plates. "The original manuscript of Captain del Rio, with
the criticism of Dr. Cabrera, was found in the archives of New Guatemala, and is
open for inspection at Mr. Berthoud' s." — Prefatory Address, '

136 Mr. Ranking on the Ruins ofPalenque,

nor subterranean passage, in "svliich excavations were not
effected two or three yards in depth.

There are fourteen stone houses situated upon a height, some
more dilapidated than others, but many of their apartments
being perfectly discernible. At the base of the highest moun-
tain forming the ridge, there is a plain four hundred and fifty
yards long and three hundred wide. In the centre, upon a
mound twenty yards high, stands the largest structure that has
yet been discovered, under which is a stone aqueduct of great
solidity. It is surrounded by five other edifices on the north,
four on the south, three on the east, and one on the south-
west. In all directions fragments of other fallen buildings of
the town are to be seen, extending along the mountain, that
stretches east and west about three or four leagues either way.
Its breadth is little more than half a league at the point where
the ruins terminate. The interior of the large building is in a
rude and massive style of architecture, resembling the Gothic 5
the entrance, on the east, is by a portico, or corridor, three
yards in width and thirty-six in length, supported by plain
rectangular pillars, without bases or pedestals, upon which are
square smooth stones, more than a foot thick, forming an
architrave ; while on the exterior superficies are stucco shields,
the designs of three of which accompany this report, numbered
1, 2, 3*. Over these stones there is a plain rectangular block,
live feet long and six broad, extending over two of the pillars.
Medallions, or compartments in stucco, containing different
devices of the same material, appear as decorations to the
chambers ; and from the vestiges of the heads which can still
be traced, it is presumable that they were the busts of the
kings or lords to whom the natives were subject. Between the
medallions there is a range of windows the whole length of
the wall, like niches ; some are square, some in form of a
Greek cross, and others, which complete the cross, are square,
being about two feet high, and eight inches deep.

Beyond this corridor there is a square court, entered by a
flight of seven steps. The north side is in ruins, but we may

* These, and many other things described, are not represented upon the seventeen
plates published, no more having been found with the manuscript ; and those seven-
teen which accompany the quarto, have no numbers, or marks, whatever for refer»
ence, but are given just as they were received by the publisher.

Mr. Ranking on the Ruins of Palenqiie, 13?

see that it had a similar chamber and corridor with those on
the east. The south side has only four small chambers, with
nothing but two little windows, like those described above.

The western side corresponds to its opposite in all respects,
except the variety of expression of the figures in stucco ; these
are much more rude and ridiculous than the others, and can
only be attributed to the most uncultivated Indian capacity.
The device is a mask with a crown and long beard, like that of
a goat ; under this are two Greek crosses, the one delineated
in the other, as appears in Fig. 1*, Proceeding in the same
direction, there is another court, somewhat similar to the last.
Some pillars yet remain, on which are relievos, alluding to the
sacrifice of some wretched Indian. I have transported from
this chamber the stucco head of the sufferer, (Fig. 8.) and the
foot and leg of the sacrificer, (Fig. 11.) There is a tower on
the south side, (Fig. 12.) ; its height is sixteen yards, and to the
four existing stories there has, perhaps, been a fifth with a
cupola. These piles diminish in size, and are without orna-
ment, yet the design is singular and ingenious. There is an
interior tower, quite plain, with windows to give light to the
steps by which you ascend to the summit. A solid body
passes through the centre of the tower, from which the earth
and stones slipped down, and prevented us from excavating
more than three yards.

Behind the above four chambers, there are two others,
larger, and well ornamented in the rude Indian style, and
appear to have been oratories. Among the embellishments are
some enamelled stuccos, (Figs. 13 and 14 ;) the Grecian heads
represent sacred objects, to which they made their offerings, pro-
bably consisting of strings of jewels, as the attitudes denotef .
Beyond these oratories there are two apartments, each 27 yards
long and three broad, containing nothing but an elliptical stone
embedded in the wall, about a yard above the pavement, the
height of it is one yard and a quarter, the breadth a yard. At the
extremity of an apartment, on a level with the pavement, there
is an aperture like a hatchway, two yards long, and more than
one broad, leading to a subterranean passage, by a flight of steps,

♦ Figure is used throughout the Spanish account for P/ate.
t Montezuma and Cortez put necklaces on each other ; it is a Mongul, or Mo^ul|
custom, for these two spellings are used by all wjriters iadifferently.

139 Mr. Ranking on the Ruins ofPalenqiie,

which has, at a regular distance, flats or landings, each having
its respective doorway, ornamented in front like Fig. 18. Fig.
19 represents another entrance, and there is a third buried
beneath heaps of rubbish. In another of the many entrances,
there was a stone, (No. 7,) Avhich I broke off from the left
hand side of the first step, with various devices in bas-relief, as
in Fig. 20 . On reaching the second door, we continued the
descent, with artificial light^ by a very gentle declivity. Turning
at right angles, we entered through a door into a chamber
sixty-four yards long, and nearly as large as those before de-
scribed ; beyond this there is another, exactly similar, having
light from windows commanding a corridor fronting the south.
Nothing was found in these places, except some plain stones, two
yards and a half long by one yard and a quarter broad, supported
by four square stands of masonry, rising about half a yard above
the ground, partitioned off in the forms of alcoves, and were ob-
viously receptacles for sleeping.

On an eminence to the south, there is a building about
forty yards in height, forming a parallelogram, resembling
the former in architecture ; it has square pillars, an exterior
gallery, and a saloon, twenty yards by three and a half, em-
bellished with a frontispiece, on which are described female
figures, with children in their arms, all of the natural size,
in stucco medio-relief; they are without heads, as in Figs.
21 and 22. Some whimsical designs, as ornaments to the cor-
ners of the house, were brought away; they are numbered
8, 9, and 10. The inhabitants used such devices for the con-
veyance of their thoughts, but we cannot know their real mean-
ing. In the gallery there are three stones, each three yards
high and one broad, covered with the hieroglyphics in bas-
relief recently mentioned. The whole of the gallery and
saloon are paved. Passing by some ruins, in a little valley
there is a similar structure. (Fig. 23.) Eastward there are
three small eminences, forming a triangle, upon each of which
is a square building, eighteen yards long, and eleven broad,
having, along the thin roofings, superstructures about three
Jrards high, resembling turrets, covered with ornaments and
devices in stucco. In the interior of the first mansion, at the
end of a dilapidated gallery, is a saloon, with a small chamber

Mr. Ranldng on the Ruins of Palenque, 139

at each end, and in the centre an oratory, three yards square,
presenting, on each side of the entrance, a perpendicular stone,
whereon there is the image of a man in bas-relief, as in Figs.
24, 25. On entering, the entire front is occupied by three
stones, joined together, upon which there are the allegorical
objects represented by Fig. 26. The outward decoration is a
moulding, finished with small stucco bricks, and the bas-reliefs,
Nos. 11 and 12. The pavement is smooth, and eight inches
thick. In the centre, at the depth of about half a yard, was
found a round earthen vessel, about a foot in diameter, fitted,
horizontally, with lime to another of the same size. A quarter
of a yard deeper, a circular stone was found, about a foot in
diameter, and, on removing it, there was a cylindrical cavity, a
foot wide, and a third of a foot deep, containing a flint lance,
two small conical pyramids, with the figure of a heart in dark
crystallized stone, named challa; and common in these parts'^.
There were also two small earthen jars, or ewers, with covers,
containing small stones, and a ball of vermilion. There was
another similar cavity in each of the corners at the entrance
of the oratory, containing the little jars Nos. 17 and 18. These
things convey to the mind, that this was the spot where they
venerated the memory of their greatest heroes, for the charac-
ters and bas-reliefs surrounding them evidently prove it.

The other two edifices vary only in the allegorical subjects
of the bas-reliefs on the stones. In the second were found the
delineations of men, as in Figs. 27, 28, and the front exhibited
the three stones displayed in Fig. 29. On excavating, there were
discovered a flint lance, two conical pyramids, the representa-
tion of a heart, and two earthen jars, numbered 19, 20, 21, 22,
Figure 30, the last of this collection, shows the interior front
of the third oratory ; it is like the others. If due attention be
given to the bas-reliefs thereon, the conclusion is, that the an-
cient inhabitants lived in extreme darkness f. In other similar
edifices, completely in ruins ; on digging there were found
an earthen vase, broken to pieces, which contained some
small pieces of challa, in the shape of lancets, or thin

• The IncaHuayna Capac, who died in 1527, desired that his body should be
•ent to Cuzco, and his heart to his beloved city of Quito,— Vega, ii, 414.
•|* See remark on Plate xii.

140 Mr. Ranliihg on the Ruins of Palenque,

blades of razors, probably used as such by these uncivilized
people*. They are numbered 23j 24. No. 25 is an earthen
pot, containing a number of small bones, grinders, and teeth,
found in the same excavation.

No. 26, and those that follow, denote the quality of the
lime, mortar, and burnt bricks, used by the inhabitants. It
may be inferred that the latter were used very sparingly, as all
that could be found were brought away. On this second ex-
amination of this ruined city, no exertions have been spared
to illustrate the points contained in the last royal mandate.

*' Father de Soza describes other ruins between the curacy
of Mona y Ticul and the town of Nocacab, twenty leagues
from the city of Merida, (in Yucatan). One is a large build-
ing in good preservation, upon an eminence twenty yards high,
and 200 yards on each fa9ade. The natives name it Oxmutal.

*' The apartments, the exterior corridor, the pillars with figures
in medio relievo, of serpents, lizards, &c., formed in stucco ;
beside which are statues of men with palms in their hands, in
the act of beating drums and dancing ; — all resemble, in every
respect, those in the buildings at Palenque.

" At a town called Mani, there is a conical stone pillory,
(pillar ?) and on the south a very ancient palace resembling
that at Palenque. These and other buildings on the road from
Merida to Bacalar, evidently jprore the identity of the ancient
inhabitants of Yucatan and Palenque J ^ — Page 6.

Regarding the origin of the inhabitants of Palenque, Captain
Don Antonio del Rio says — " The conclusion must be, that
the ancient inhabitants of these structures lived in extreme
darkness ; for in their fabulous superstitions we seem to view
the idolatry of the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans, and
other primitive nations most strongly portrayed. On this ac-
count it may reasonably be conjectured, that some one of these
nations pursued their conquests even to this country, where
it is probable they only remained long enough to enable the
Indian tribes to imitate their ideas, and adopt, in a rude and awk-
ward manner, such arts as their invaders thought fit to incul-
cate."— Page 19.

• These are such as the Mexicans made their swords with. — See Clavigeeo,
Plate xii.

Mr. Ranking on the Ruins of Palenque, 141

** Father Jacito Garrido, a Dominican friar, who was in
these parts in 1638, where he taught theology, and was well
versed in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages ; cosmo-
graphy, arithmetic, and music ; has left a Latin manuscript, in
which he states his opinion, that the northern parts of America
had been discovered by the Greeks, English, and other na-
tions, a supposition he deduces from the variety of languages,
and some monuments in the village of Ocojingo, twenty-four
leagues from Palenque ; but these are the mere conjectures of
the reverend writer, nor does he define the period when these
alleged strangers arrived." — Page 12.

The result of Dr. Cabrera's disquisition regarding the
peopling of America, which he says is an *' historical obscurity
that has hitherto fatigued the greatest talents in the world"
(page 35) is this — " That Atlas made the first voyage to
America; that Votan, a Hivite, third in descent from Hercules
Tyrius, led a colony from Syria to Hispaniola, which is the
island Atlantis ; and from the capital of that island he em-
barked his first colony for the continent of America, and founded
Palenque, from which city he visited the old world four times ;
that his port of arrival was Tripoli, in Syria ; that he was in
Spain, and that he visited Rome, and witnessed the building
of the * House of God,' by which is meant the temple that,
during the consulate of Publius Cornelius Rufinus, was erected
in honour of Romulus and Remus, B.C. 291 ; that it was
from Votan that the Romans and Carthaginians obtained their
first knowledge of America ; and that Carthaginians emigrated,
and founded the kingdom of Amaquemacan, (the original region
from whence the Toltecs, Mexicans, and other tribes, arrived
in Anahuac, and which Clavigero places in the north of Ame-
rica ;) but that so many inhabitants emigrated, that the Car-
thaginian Senate passed a decree, commanding their return, as
mentioned by Diodorus, and confirmed by Montezuma, in his
discourses with Cortez ; that the Carthaginians, fearing some
disaster from the Roman arms, kept from those conquerors
the secret of their having this secure refuge ; that, accordinoj
to Indian tradition, Votan wrote his own history, which was
taken from a cave by an Indian lady, who gave up the histo-
rical tract, and that it was publicly burnt in the square at

142 Mr. Ranking on the Ruins ofPalenque.

Huguetan, in the year 1691 ; that it is, however, possible,
that Vo tan's tract, or another similar to it, may be that which
is in the possession of Don Ramon de Ordonez y Aguiar, of
Ciudad Real, a man of extraordinary genius, and at this time
occupied in composing a work, the title of which is, Historia
del Clelo y de la Terra, which traces the original population
of America from Chaldea, immediately after the confusion of
tongues. His study of the subject for more than thirty years,
and his skill in the Tzendal language, in which the tract is
written, lead us to anticipate a work so perfect in its kind as
will completely astonish the world."

The erudite Doctor concludes his critical inquiry, of 103
pages, *' about it, Goddess, and about it,'^ in these words — ■
*' It was my intention to call this a new Attempt to solve the
grand problem ; but in consequence of the valuable information
which I have acquired from the learned work of the Bishop
of Sonoro, I denominate it a Solution, and in so doing I
sincerely trust the reader will not ascribe such alteration to an
overstrained confidence in my own abilities."

On the above opinions of the three Spanish authors, no
other remark is required, than that they have entirely neglected
to examine that part of Asiatic history, which is the true
source from which the solution can be drawn, and which is
offered as follows : —

Neither history nor tradition, worthy of regard, existed in
any part of America, when discovered by Columbus, earlier
than the sixth century of the Christian era; from which
period the nations in Anahuac, beginning with the Toltecs,
date their arrival. South of the fine no annals whatever exist
previous to the mysterious appearance of Mango Capac. —
(A.D. 1283.)

The Toltecs are the first people known to have arrived in
America. They left their own country, A.D. 544, supposed to
be the eastern part of Asia, and tarried at Casa Grande,
which they built, (N. lat. 34°, near California, by Robertson,
29° by Clavigero,) and other places, 104 years * ; they then ar-
rived in Anahuac ; and in the year 670 they founded Tula, after

* Dr, Cabrera, p. 65, says the 104 years were passed in Afrka,

Mr. Ranking on the Ruins of Palenque, 143

the name of their native residence. They were acquainted
with the art of casting gold and silver, and of cutting all kinds
of gems. They brought with them from their own country an
exact knowledge of the length of the solar year, where it had
been known about a century before the Christian era *.

The Toltecs multiplied exceedingly, and extended their
population in numerous and large cities ; till, in the year 1052,
they were dreadfully afflicted with drought, famine, and mor-
tality, and their monarchy terminated. Some of the wretched
remains removed to Yucatan^ some to Guatemala f, and some
dispersed themselves in Anahuac. There cannot be a doubt
but that they had a clear notion of the Deluge. (^Clavigero,
i. 87.)

For about a century Anahuac remained nearly depopulated ;
when in the year 1170, a numerous party of Chechemecas ar-
rived. They came from the north, and their native land they
called Amaquemacan, where different monarchs had ruled their
country many years. They were eighteen months upon the
journey, and passed the ruins of the buildings of the Toltec»,
(Casa Grande.) They had distinctions between the nobility
and commonalty. They lived on game, fruits, and roots of
spontaneous growth ; were clothed in the skins of beasts,
armed with bows and arrows, and worshipped the sun. They
established themselves six miles north of the future Mexico.
In process of time they formed alliances with the few Toltecs
who had remained. Eight years afterwards, (in 1178,) six
respectable persons, with a considerable retinue, arrived from a
kingdom near Amaquemacan ; these were the Nahuatlacs, and
consisted of seven tribes, Sochimilcs, Chaleks, Tapanecs,
Acolhauns, Tlahuics, Tlascaltecs, and Aztecs, who all spoke
the Toltec language. — (See Clavigero, B. ii., Humboldt^ Res,
ii. 251.)

After the beginning of the thirteenth century, Acolhuatzin,
and two other princes, arrived with a great army of Acol-

* See Clavigero, ii.226. Humboldt, Researches, ii. 249. Conquest of Peru
Rnd Mexico by the Moguls, A.D. 1283, p. 268. The knowledge of the Toltecs, re-
gardiYig the year of 365 days 4nd near si:v hours, agrees precisely with the Chines^
history. See Du Halde, folio ii. 230, and Conquest by Mongols, p. 274.

t There is not any thing in the history, as far as is known, to warrant the idea
of greater antiquity of the ruins in question; at these two places,

144 Mr, Rankiqg^ori the Ruins of Palenque,

huans : they were of the noble house of Citin. They repre-
sented themselves as sons of a great lord, and that they had
been attracted by the reports they had heard of the hospitality
of the Chechemecan monarch. The king was pleased with
their manners, and gave bis two daughters in marriage to the
two eldest princes.

The last thiat arrived were the Aztecs. The whole of the
above spoke the Toltec language. The Aztecs resided many
years at Culiacan and other places, but settled themselves, and
called their city Tenochtitlan, in 1324 : it was afterwards
named Mexico, and became an elective monarchy in 1377,
Montezuma died in 1520; he was the ninth king, and was de-
scended from the first monarch. Montezuma's ancestors had
arrived in ships under the command of a mighty lord, but
whether by design or accident was not manifest *. ^ '

Guatemala had been conquered by Ahuitzotl, the eighth
king of Mexico, who died in 1502.

Regarding the ruins at Palenque, says Baron Humboldt,
"they are evidences of the taste of the Toltec and Aztec race
for the ornaments of architecture. We are absolutely ignorant
of their antiquity, but it is scarcely probable that it goes back
farther than the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries of our era."
— Researches^ ii. 158.

* Speech of Montezuma to Cortez. See Peter Martyr in Hakluyt, vol. iv. 558 ;
Quarterly Journal of Science, January 1828, p. 359. Montezuma is an Asiatic name.
-The earliest writers, Peter Martyr, Purchas, Herera, Clavigero, (see Portrait, vol. i.),
and others, spell the name iVio/ezuma, and zin was added. Moti is a Chinese name,
(Du Halde, \^ol. i. p. 197, 203), and is also the name of the Emperor of the Kin, or
Nioutches, (D'Herbelot, Canon Chronologique, iv. 276), who are Mongols, (Abul
Ghazi, ii. 383.) Tscoum means venerable, (D'Herbelot, iv. p. 349, lines 8 and
23 ;) zin means ^reaf in the Mogul language,' (Abul Ghazi Bahader, part iii. ch.
iv.) Thus the name is consistent with the dignity of this famous monarch, who told
Cortez that his armour, jewels, &c., were those which he had preserved from his
forefathers, as the usage of kings is.— (Conquest by the Mongols, p. 325.)

Regarding the Emperor telling Cortez, that the Children of the Sun' expected
bearded men from the Rising Sun, (a) or east ; it could not mean Europe, as the
Americans did not suspect the earth being spherical ; and Japan is named Nipon,
and in Chinese Sipon, both of which mean basis or foundation of the sun.

(a) Cabrera, page 60, This is the most important and principal mistake which
has led this author, and many others, into their Carthaginian hypothesis. But Cortez,
in his letter to the King of Spain, says; — " I replied to all he had said in the way most
suitable to myself, by making him believe your majesty to be the chief whom they have
so long expected."— p. 62.

^m

Two Calmuc Idols,

lAMANDAGA,

JAN.— MARCH, 1828.

146 Mr. Raxiking on ihe Ruins of Palenque,

I'

Description of the Seventeen Plates which are published ;^ but not bound
in the same order in Two Volumes which the Writer has seen ; they
arey therefore^ now numbered and described so as to be easily re-
f&rred to,

I. — Is the largest plate, (fifteen inches hy ten,) representing a
Greek Cross, much decorated, with a bird perched upon it, with
something like a branch in his beak. A man stands on each side
of the Cross, one of whom is holding a figure of an imperfect or
fabulous infant.

The borders appear to be registers of their victories, by the re-
presentation of heads, hands, and ears ; accompanied with ciphers,
to denote the numbers slain.

Remark. — The Toltecs left their native land, A.D. 544,
and the leader of the Guatemalans was Votan. It has been
shown what tremendous convulsions existed among the Turks,
whose head-quarters were in the Calmuc country at that pe-
riod *, (^Turquestan.) The eastern nation, called the Eastern
Ouie, had a sovereign whose name was Voutim, and he was
j>oisoned in the year 543 f . Now it is quite probable that
this is the same name as Votan, for D'Herbelot, from whom
this is extracted, (vol. iv. p. 71,) uses m for n. Mongols he
spells Moumgols, (see his Index.) The American tradition
brings Votan from the north, {Humboldt, Res. i. 173. See
also vol. i. p. 319, for the remarks of Baron H. regarding
Votan : and also for the similitude of the border-registers of
the Indians of Chiapa (Palenque) to those of the Mexicans.)
The writer is averse to etymological proofs, but he does not
deem this an overstrained one. With respect to the Cross, it
was well known at this period in Tartary ; the Turks and Huns
warred with the Christians at Constantinople ; and the Tar-
tars of all descriptions evdr called themselves descendants of
Noah. At this epoch the Alcoran had not appeared. (Ma-
homet was born in 569.) These circumstances may very sa-
tisfactorily account for their knowledge of the Cross and the
bird. The border-registers are in the style of those of the
Mexicans, but not the same characters, nor so methodical J.

• * Conquest of Peru and Mexico, p. 269.

t " From 439 to 589, the north of China was governed by Tartars, the south by-
Chinese. Never was history more fertile in great events than during that period of
liriffandages." — D'Herbelot, iv. 57.

J See Clavigero, Vol. i. p. 107,

Mr. Ranking on the Ruins of Palenque. 147

The heads and ears are common with Mongols and Turks. The
early Parthians cut off also the hand. The head and right hand
of Crassus were presented to Arsaces Orodes. — {Hist. Parthian
Emp, by Lewis, p. 111.) Thus all these customs and allu-
sions may be referred to Tartary in the year 544.

II. — An ornament, probably in bas-relief — two human figures,
one with an animal's head, rather like a wolf, two human arms
and two eyes, as if plucked from a criminal. Another ornament of
a female half-figure, with a helmet and necklace. This head has a
high skull.

Remark. — The eyes prove this plate to allude to a custom
common in Upper Asia. The Emperor of Bochara's eyes
were put out, A.D. 998. Daw's Hindostan, i. 39.

III. — ^A man in a decorated kind of helmet-head-dress, with a
weapon in each hand, upon one of which is a small bird : a human
head is upon his girdle ; another man is upon his knees, with his
hands joined, imploring for mercy : they have both long or high
skulls. The neat border to this plate is merely ornamental, by its
uniform design.

IV. — A man in a helmet with a long necklace ; a weapon in his
right hand, and with the left holding another man by the hair,
perhaps to behead him : the latter is. seated. Under him is a skull,
and a head which has been cut off. There is a register-border
three inches long. Both of the men have long heads.

V. — Several large designs like border- writing ; with one oi
them there is a human profile, with a ram's head upon the forehead.

Remark, — There were no sheep in America. Usbecs (i. e,
Mongols) are distinguished by ensigns with black and white
sheep. [Sir R. K, Porter's Travels in Persia, vol. i. p. xix.)
The Peruvians and Siberians had figures of sheep in gold and
in stone. The sheep was sacred with the Mongols in their
sacrifices.— (Marco Polo, p. 253, Conquest of Mexico and
Peru, p. 221.)

VI. A warrior in a large fanciful helmet, upon which is a human
head, and two others upon his girdle ; a decorated staff in his left
hand, with a bird at the top of it : a net-work shoulder-covering,
and a kind of buskins on his feet. Two slaves are seated at the
feet of the warrior, with their legs crossed under them, and on©
of them with terror expressed in his features,

ti

l48 Mr. Ranking on the Ruins of Patenque,

' Remark, — ^These three persons, and nearly all the others
represented in the seventeen plates, have remarkably high
skulls and large aquiline prominent noses * ; and some of them
have projecting under lips. In a dissertation on this subject,
(Humboldt's Researches, vol. ii. 130,) it is said, that " this is
also the essential character of the hieroglyphical pictures pre-
served at Vienna, Rome, and the palace of the Viceroy at
Mexico." The greatest resemblance to any known people is
to the Turks. Among these plates the features of the man
upon the medal in No. ix. f, may be those of a Calmuc ; and
many of the heads upon the border-writing of these pictures
are rather flat than long. According to American history, the
Toltecs left their native Tula, in Asia, A.D. 544, and being
driven by famine from Anahuac, A.D. 1052, they settled in
Guatemala and Yucatan. — {Conquest by the Mongols, p. 269.)
From 506 to 545 Tartary was in the most convulsed state
possible, and the Turks, whose head-quarters were near the
sources of the Irtish, first rose to fame. This is now the
head-quarters of the Calmucs. The Geougen Tartars resided
at l^ula, (near Lake Baikal J in the year 520. In 555 the
Turks had conquered all the north of Asia. Yakutz was
named Northern Turquestan. Leao-tong was conquered, and
they describe sledges drawn with dogs, as in Kamtschatka. —
(Gibbon, ch. xlii. D'Herbelot, iv. 89, et seq. De Guines, vol.
i. partii. p. Iviii. 352, iii. 7.) The 2\rks had been the most
despised portion of the slaves of the Great Khan of the
Geougen ; but in a decisive battle the nation of the Geougen
were nearly exterminated by the Turks about A.D. 545. The
throne of Bertezena, the first leader of the Turks, the founder
of which nation, like Romulus, having been suckled by a
wolf, was turned towards the east, and a golden wolf upon tlie
top of a spear seemed to guard the entrance of his tent. (A
skeleton of a coyote, or American wolf, was found in a tomb
in Mexico, in 1791, and there were in that city a chapel and
a congregation of priests of the sacred wolf. Humboldt,
Res, ii. 48. 319.) If we are strong, say the Turks, we ad-
vance and conquer ; if feeble, we retire and are concealed.

* See two of these heads in the: preceding plate, letter C,
I See the plate, D.

Mr. Ranking on the Ruins of Palenque, 149

China was invaded by these conquerors. They besieged the
city of Bosphorus, at Lake Maeotis, subject to the Romans.
(Gibbon, ch. xlii.) About this period the northern parts of
China were entirely ruined, the Emperor turned bonza, and
by his weakness threw the country into the most terrible
anarchy. (See Du Halde, cycle, A.D. 484 to 544.) Tou-men,
chief of the Tou-Jiiue nation, entirely defeated the Kao-tche
Tartars, and carried off half a million of families. Embold-
ened by this success, he sent an embassy to China in the year
532. It is quite impossible to trace the persons or the geo-
graphy of these warriors, but it is evident that there are abun-
dant causes for flight and emigration. (See D'Herbelot, iv. 92.)

With respect to the shape of the skulls, it has long been
the custom, in Asia, to shape the heads of infants according
to fancy or fashion. The midwives at Constantinople inquire
of the mother, after parturition, what form she wishes to be
given to the head of the child ? The Macrocephali, (a people
of Asia Minor,) or Long Heads, moulded the skull to as great
a length as possible. {Rees's Cyc. Cranium. Macrocephali.)
The Omaquas, in South America, press the head between
boards till it is nearly sharp at top, and flat before and behind.
Some of the Americans have flat heads, some protuberances
behind, a strange custom, at length become hereditary. The
Council of Lima, in 1585, ex^iressly prohibited these customs.
But the free negroes and Maroons, although Africans, have
adopted it since they have lived among the Caribs, in order
to distinguish the children which are born free. (Enc, Brit,
Macrophalus.)

There appears to be some mistakes and erroneous notions
regarding the persons of the Calmucs*. '' The nose of the
Calmuc is ordinarily camus et ecrase vers le front |, the head
and visage very round. We are led to believe, from some tra-
vellers, that the Calmucs are ugly, and even hideous, but they

* See Rees's " Cyclopedia," Cranium, Mongolian variety.

f This line of beauty is accidental and does not generally apply. The writer of
these notes passed a night in the house of a family in Finland, whose noses were thus
deformed. The mother had a very young child lying upon her lap, and to free the
infant's nose from its dripping incumbrance, she pressed it hard with her thumb up-
>»ards the whole lenglh, and thus threw off' the nuisance with a jerk, by which the
child's nose was pressed flat, and the forehead, between the eyes, indented. She
said it was the custom, and that they had no handkerchiefs. Thus, the poor classes of
several northern tribes are disfisrured,

150 Mr. Ranking on tfie Ruins of Palenque,

are a good-humoured race, and some of the women are fair,
affable, and so handsome, and have such regular features, that
they would find numerous admirers in all the cities of Europe."
— Pallas, 5 vols. 4to, torn. i. p. 496, et seq. If, in conse-
quence of the Spanish decree in 1585, these deformations were
no longer practised, nature would resume her true features, and
we accordingly find that *' the inhabitants of Guatemala are
celebrated for personal beauty and sweetness of disposition, the
women being reputed the handsomest in Spanish America." —
Rees'^s Cyc, Guat, It was from the Oighours, in the part
of Tartary in question, that the Emperor Kublai procured four
or five hundred beautiful concubines annually. — Marco Poloy
Note, 527. — IVars and Sports, p. 62.

If we seek the cause of the Tartars and Americans forming
their skulls in different shapes, it may fairly be conjectured, that
in the manner of the negro afore-mentioned, it became a custom,
in order to enable the warrior to prove that he had exhibited
an enemy^s head, his own nation being distinguished by some
other peculiarity. It is remarkable, that the Turks and Cal-
mucs are of the same region. — See Humboldt on this subject.
Researches, i. p. 126.

VII. — Two men, in highly decorated dresses mutually holding
a jointed bent staff, about six feet long, (perhaps a bow) with a
small human head at one end of it, and a head at the feet of each.
They appear to be chiefs in earnest conference, as if pledging
fidelity. They have long heads.

VIII. — Six large objects of border-writing, in which nothing
is explicable, except a human eye and the cyphers which denote
so many in number.

IX. — Two round brass medallic representations. The first is a
large tree, with a huge serpent twined round it, and eleven
objects, perhaps meant for fruit, among the leaves. A smaller
tree, with six such objects. Another tree, with a bird perched
above it, and four small trees, making seven trees. The second
represents a man, with a cap, or turban, upon his head, naked,
and kneeling upon a flight of several steps. A monstrous beast's
head, with the jaws open, is seen before him, and another behind
him, as if threatening to devour him. There are two trees, each
with six of the fruit upon it, and four small trees, with part of
another tree at tlie edge, making eeyeji. The medal, sayi Djj,

Mr, Ranking on the Ruins of Palenque^ 15l

Cabrera, (p. 54.)- represents the expulsion of the Chiehemacas
from Amaquemacan, which is the city of Palenque, and not in tho
north of Mexico, or in Asia, as others have described. Ths
seven trees represent the seven tribes*. The large tree is cieba,
or wild cotton, with a snake twisted round it, which shows Votan
to be a Hivite and the principal posterity of Cadmus. Votan
had brought the first settlers, seven families, from Hispaniolia.
Having visited Tripoli, he was surprised on his return to find that
seven more tribes had arrived and blended themselves with thq
others who were of the same origin : and that they were named
Nahuatlacas or Tzequiles, the latter being the name by which the
Mexicans are known by the natives of Chiapa. (p. 95t.)

Remark. — This medal is, without any doubt, of Calmuc ori-
gin. The destroying beast is exactly the same that appears in the
representation of the idols of Sungore, or Zungore, Calmucs*
In that of lamandaga, this beast is running, with a condemned
Calmuc upon^his back. In another, of Erlik Han +, he is tramp-
ling upon a wretched criminal. lamandaga § is a destroyer, and
is enveloped by a monstrous serpent, many yards long, the
skin and claws of a tiger and other beasts, an elephanf s head,
and human limbs ; he is crowned with skulls, and holds in one
of his left hands, for he has six arms, and has upon his hea(j[
likewise, a sceptre with a skull upon it, adorned with flowers,
and a profusion of jewels, and a snake twisted about it ||. (Dr.
Cabrera says, that Captain del Rio discovered in the Temple
at Palenque, a figure of Isis, with a cap similar to that of
Osiris, holding with both hands a twisted stick, adorned with
flowers, having at one end a human head. — Page 44.) Erlil;
Han is sovereign of the infernal regions ; he has the human
body, with a hideous face, and bulls' horns, and there are three
divinities above him, to represent the sun, moon, and stars,

* If the conjecture of Dr. Cabrera, that the trees relate to the seven tribes, bo
allowed, this medal is of the twelfth century. But it does not appear to the
writer that the trees have any reference to the seven tribes. Medals were a part of
the dress of a Tartar general. — Conquest by Mongols, p. 216.

t See Baron Humboldt's remarks on Votan, Wodan, Odin, of the Goths and Celts.
^Researches, Vol. i. 173, 319.

+ See the plate, B. § See the plate, A.

11 This is, in many respects, similar to the Mexican God of Terror, Tetzauhteotl,
whose " body was girt with a large golden snake, and adorned with various lesser
figures of animals, made of gold and precious stones. They never made war without
Trnploring the protection of this god with prayers, and oflercd up to him a greater
ftmnber of human victims than to any other of the gods."--Clavigero, i. 256.

162 Mr. Ranliing on the Ruins of Palenque,

who wear a head-dress in shape like a mitre. • (Dr. Cabrera,
page 38, describes an idol at Palenque, with a mitre, or cap,
with bulls' horns, and says that, without doubt, it is Osiris.)
So minutely do the descriptions of Dr. Cabrera agree with the
figures in M. Chappe's volume, that he mentions a strap, or
thong, with three ends, in the right hand of Osiris, and laman-
daga has precisely such a strap in his right hand ^. This idol
has upon his feet buskins, or caligcs, similar to those on the
soles of the feet of several persons in these plates.

X. — A man, probably a divinity, seated upon a kind of throne^
supported by two beasts .like panthers, with his right leg bent
horizontally before him, dressed in a helmet and feathers, a
fringed apron, a necklace and wrist ornaments, a small portion
of border-writing of a human head. This figure has the long or
high skull.

' Remark. — The Calmuc divinities are represented with one
or both legs under them, generally like Bhudda, {Chappe,
Vol. i. several plates,) but this is more probably a Turcoman
idol ; the Calmuc and Turquestan region being the same.
This is the most civilised of all the figures. It has a kind of
Persian elegance, like the Calmuc idol Zouncaba, in Chappe,
Plate xxiii.

XI. — A full human figure, very fancifully decorated, the head
of a bird over his head, and an instrument in his mouth, as if
blowing it. Above the ancles, and at the wrists, it has orna-
ments round them ; they appear to be composed of about twenty-
five pieces of sticks or shells, three or four inches long, and close
together.

XII. — A building, three stories of which are represented.
They diminish in size at each story ; the entrance is by doors :
there are not any windows. The interior was filled with loose
sandy earth. In the small turrets, at the top of the tower, there
were two stones embedded in the walls, on which were sculptured
two female figures, with extended arms, each supporting an
infant, very imperfect, which appears to point out that this was
the burial place of two queens. There were three crowned heads^

• See the accompanying engravings, copied from Vol. i.303, 308, of Voyage en
Sib^rie, par M. Chappe d'Auteroche, 3 vols, folio. Paris, 1768. The third volume is
a description of Kamtchatka, by Professor Kracheninikof. This splendid work con-
tains very numerous fine engravings. It is called two volumes^ but is boHnd in three.

Mr. Ranking on the Rums of Palenque. 153

represented with devices, like those of the Mexican kings. These
circumstances, with Votan's history on the Medal, point out, as
clearly as evidence can prove, that Amaquemacan is the Province
of Chiapa, and not in Asia or the North of America. — Dr. Ca-
brera, p. 58. . ■ '.

Remark, — ^There is nothing in this tower to show a different
architecture from the Peruvians and Mexicans. A fire-temple
in Persia is of superior architecture, but has, like the above,
only a door, and no window ; and it is also accompanied with
bas-reliefs and tombs {Sir R. K. Porter's Travels* i. 562.) The
houses in Thibet have no windows, and are entered by a ladder,
just like Casa Grande, built by the Toltecs, N. lat. 29° by
Californiatfiij a tif,^ixJk\^^ >ty ■•.n^rufi >UAii..;j*i*4v

XIII. — A trtail highly' Ind fantastically deicorated ; he has the
long-head, armour upon his shoulders, jewels and ear-covers.
His helmet is surmounted with a bird's head, with a fish in the
beak ; three more fish decorate the head-dress, as if for trophies ;
and there is in the border-writing an ugly, rather flat, head, with
a fish upon it, to denote its nation or tribe *. There is a small
idol, as a kneeling human figure, with a fabulous beast's head,
and another such head at the girdle of the man; these heads are
possibly meant for those of the wolf.

Remark. — The Persians name the natives of the ancient
Gedrosia, Mahiser, or fish-heads, being somewhat similar to
a marine monster, besides which they lived wholly on fish ;
(they are the ichthyophagi, through whose territory Alexander
returned from India.) This country was conquered by Zaga-
tai, son of Genghis Khan, in 1222. He destroyed the city of
Tiz, and passed the winter at Quelanger, near the Indus ; and
as it belonged to Kublai, it affords a tolerably good proof that
there were such troops with the Japanese expedition, and aLo
of the modern origin of some of the people near to, or of Pa-
lenque. Kublai purposely weakened all his conquests by
recruits for the reduction of China ; and as he subdued that
empire in one great battle near Canton, in 1280 ; with the sur-
plus of his immense army he made the attempt on Japan, in
1283. — See BibliothPque Orientale, «* Mahiser." Petis de la
Croix, p. 336. Wars and Sports, p. 508.

* See the plate, E,

154 On the Presence of Chlorine

XIV.. — Ground-plan of a building, very simple.

XV. — A man in a helmet, seated ; upon the seat there is repre- '
sented a hand cut off. Another man in a helmet, a girdle in his
left hand, marked with arrow-heads, and holding an instrument
in his other hand, in an attitude as if to cut off the left hand of
the man upon the seat. These have the long-shaped head.

XVI.— A circle, in which is a couch, or seat, formed of a qua*
druped, like a cat, with a head at each end, and at one end a
human face, or head ; a man sits, upon the seat with his legs
under him, and his right hand upon his breast ; a human hand
and some flowers are upon his head. A figure, apparently a
female, kneeling, presents to bim a flower-pot, with a plant in it ;
both of these have long-heads. - There is some border- writing,
among which are four human heads. Underneath, upon a stone,
there is more border-writing, two small human figures, and one
head.

XVII. — An ornamental front, or entrance to a building, deco-
rated with two birds and two snakes. The design, on the whole,
is not devoid of taste.

[To be continued.]

On the Presence of Chlorine in the Black Oxide of Manganese^

[By James F. W. Johnston, A.M.]

i. I digested the native black oxide with the sulphuric acid
of commerce : an odour of chlorine was in a short time per-
ceptible, and was discernible for many weeks on stirring with a
glass rod.

ii. The brown oxide, remaining after preparing oxygen from
the native oxide by exposing it to a red heat, was treated in
the same way, and with the same result,

iii. Another portion of the same brown oxide was washed
with repeated affusions of hot and afterwards with cold distilled
water. On drying and pouring upon it concentrated sulphuric
acid, the result differed in nothing from the former.

iv. An impure sulphate of manganese was precipitated by
carbonate of soda; the carbonate, washed, dried, and heated
to redness, gave a brown oxide, which, with sulphuric acid,
afTorded precisely the same evidence of the presence of chlorine.
The odour was distinct, and the supernatant acid destroyed the
colour of indigo. I found & few minutes sufficient to develop

in the Black Oxide qf Manganese. tbS

it, both in this case and in No.iii,, if aided by a slight degree of
heat.

V. I threw down a pure carbonate from a pure muriate of
manganese, obtained by Faraday's process. This was dried
and partially decomposed by heating in an oven t with diluted
^sulphuric acid, it gave also the smell of chlorine.

From these experiments, we may legitimately conclude^ first,
that Mr. Mac Mullen was correct as to the fact of the emission
of chlorine from the native oxide, which Mr. Phillips has called
in question, for it is given off by artificial oxides, into which
no trace of a muriate could possibly enter.

Secondly, that Mr. Mac Mullen was wrong in his supposition
that the native oxide is, either in whole or in part, a chlorate of
manganese ; for the very supposition takes it for granted that
this chlorate is decomposed by the sulphuric acid, and hence
the origin of the chlorine. But after solution in sulphuric acid,
precipitation by the carbonate and heating, if Mr. M. be cor-
rect, we have a chlorate still.

Thirdly, that these facts form no substantial ground for the
further supposition that chlorine is a compound body. That it
is not a compound, is supported by evidence that cannot be
lightly passed over, and it is more safe to leave one point un-
explained, than to venture a reason which is contraiy to all
the received doctrines of the science. Nothing is more easy
than to find two atomic numbers, which, when added together,
will make up a third ; but a very wide induction of facts will
be necessary to render the supposed combination even probable.

I thought it possible that, notwithstanding the incompatibility
of the sulphuric and muriatic acids, a minute portion of the
latter might be present in the sulphuric acid of commerce. —
Into a portion of acid, such as I used in the above experiments,
I poured a quantity of muriatic, but after the effervescence had
ceased, and the acid had been gently heated, I could find no
trace of muriatic acid remaining;. . . .

A prosecution of the mquiry, in regard to the oxides or lead,
may throw some light upon an effect, which it is better in its
present stage to attribute to the agency of some foreign suh-»,
stance, contained either in the Oxide or the acid.
. Cja>^paih,I^urham,Qtk^ March, l^2Q. . . ,

156 Extracts from Dr. Yeats's

Extracts from Lectures delivered at the Royal College of Physicians
. ill May 1827, founded by Dr. William Crone, chiefly on the
Structure^ Functions, and some Diseases of the Colon, with some
Preliininary Remarks on Anatomical Knowledge, 8fc. By
G. D. Yeats, M.D., F.R.S., Fellow of the Royal College of
Physicians, &c.

Although there is no part of the human body which does' not
present objects for deep and interesting inquiry to the philosopher
and the anatomist, yet the more intimate connexion which some
parts have with the life, the comfort, and the happiness of the
individual, demands a closer and a more anxious investigation.
There is no study, however engaging, no pursuit, however agreeable,
which offers to the contemplative mind, objects more pleasing and
attractive than the animal frame. From the deep research which
has been employed upon it, the patient investigation it has under-
gone at different periods of anatomical history, in its structure,
its actions, and the laws which regulate them, by professional
men of high talents and knowledge, it can scarcely be ex-
pected that I shall be able to introduce any thing sufficiently
striking to excite your feelings, or acquire your notice : particu-
larly when it is considered that I address an audience whose
minds are familiarized with every subject I can present, and whose
pursuits have led them to similar inquiries, enhanced by their
acquirements in science. But notwithstanding centuries have past
away, during which much labour has been bestowed, and great
ingenuity displayed in investigating the economy and structure of
the human frame, yet it will be acknowledged that, although much
has been performed, much still remains to be done ; for, in our
dissections of the dead, and in our investigation of the laws which
regulate the living body, much novelty often presents itself to our
view, which excites our surprise and perplexes our understanding.
If we travel, therefore, in a beaten track we shall still meet with
some objects which will create new ideas, and stimulate to fresh
exertions : lor, be it recollected that what is common is not always
generally known, and what is known not always well understood ;
and that while we are pursuing our investigations some new dis-
eases are budding into existence and others are falling away ; and
of those which remain many change their types, their symptoms,
and their appearances, and require various modes of treatment in
different seasons and in different climes. — Differre quoque pro

Cronian Lectures on the Colon. 157

naturft loconim genera mediclnae : aliud opus esse Romae, aliud in
Mgy pio, aWiidmGaWik. (Celsus.)

A very attentive consideration, indeed, has been paid of lale, but
not more so, speaking generally, than at some former periods, of
which any reader may soon satisfy himself by looking over the
works of Hoffman, to the stomach and alimentary canal ; yet the
undistinguished manner in which diseases of the different portions
of this canal have been treated, claims some inquiry ; for the in-
discriminate use of remedies in certain morbid conditions of this part
of our frame, has not only been fruitlessly resorted to, but has
evidently been attended with considerable detriment. It has been
imagined that every case of dyspepsia, with a jaundiced appearance
of the eye, has called for the necessary 'exhibition of mercurials,
from the influence which a supposed morbid condition of the liver
has in producing it, although, "from inquiry, it would be discovered
that such a state very oflen arises from causes on which mercury
exerts a very unfriendly operation. Soon after our closer acquaint-
ance with the East (where mercury is always very largely used, and
where most diseases are traced [to some morbid condition of the
liver) had introduced a more frequent intercourse between that
part of the world and Great Britain, the professional gentlemen,
returning to their native shores, imported the eastern mode of
largely exhibiting mercury. This^ instrument, from the strong
representations made in its favour, was eagerly seized by injudi-
cious hands, and was indiscriminately, and therefore incautiously
wielded. In illustration of the opinion of how far an erroneous
notion may be entertained respecting affections of the liver which
do not exist, I may here mention a case of some importance in
itself as connected with this subject which occurred to me many
years ago. It was the case of a lady who was attended by an
eastern physician for a supposed disease of the liver; he had known
her in India, and she had taken a good deal of mercury at different
times. I was called in about a week or ten days before she died.
I ventured to say, that, although I could not tell what was the
precise nature of the complaint, there was no organic disease of the
liver. On opening the body afler death, which was done at my
particular request, the liver was discovered quite sound ; death
appeared to have been caused by some disease of the spleen, which
was extremely soft, and blood was found effused in its substance
from ruptured vessels.* The death was rather sudden.

• The case was attended by the late Dr. Dick and Mr. Andrews of Charing
Cross, -•'.'' - - • ^ •

j^ Extracts from Dr. Yeats's

It is not intended to deny the influence which the liver possesses
over the intestinal actions by the superabundance, the deficiency,
or the morbid quality of its secretion ; but the diseased impression,
which is made upon this great gland by irregularities in the tor-
tuous tube of the intestines^ has not been sufficiently ascertained,
or properly appreciated. It is, in many cases of the latter kind,
accompanied by what are called bihous symptoms, that an injudi-
cious resort has been had to mercury, the value of which, how-
ever, as an excellent remedy in various kinds of cases, I am at the
same time not at all inclined to depreciate, as I shall have occasion
to mention during these lectures. The control which the intes-
tinal actions exert over the feelings and the comfort of the indivi-
dual, the harassing and distressing sensations in the body which
arise from their morbid state, would, at any time, direct our atten-
tion to a consideration of the diseases which affect this tube, either
in its separate divisions or in the whole as one continued sub-
stance. An oppressed stomach, from the superabundant quantity
or vitiated quality of its contentKS, a torpid state or irregular move-
ments of the intestinal canal, a congestion of their vessels, or an
imperfection in the nervous energy there, with or without morbid
structure, will produce irritubihty of mind in different grades, from
simple eccentricity af conduct and confusion of ideas to complete
insanity. Morositas ilia ac segritudo, qua homo sibi aliisque oneri est
crebro ex mala ventriculi conditione oritur (Soemmering.) How-
ever trite then the subject may be, however beaten the path, which
has been gone over, no attempt should be considered superfluous
on any matter, until that matter be brought to all possible perfec-
tion, more especially when the greatest of all blessings, health,
both of body and mind, is intimately connected with the subject.

.HaviHgj'in the spring of 1817, delivered the Gulstonian lectures
on the structure, functions, and diseases of the Duodenum, ex-
tracts from which are published in the sixth volume of the Trans-
actions of the College, and the public having been pleased to
stamp some value on the hints I threw out respecting them, I
avail myself^ being called upon to deliver the Cronian lectures for
the present year, of the opportunity to offer to your notice some
observations I have made on the structure, functions, and some
diseases of the Colon ; being convinced by experience that as cer-
tain morbid conditions of the Duodenum have been treated as
affections of the liver, so have some deviations from healthy action
in the colon been improperly treated as a dyspeptic state of the
Stomach j it being recollected Jhat the great arch [of the former

Cronian Lectures on the Colon, Jfi^

Ijes close upon the latter, and that a swellmg- or piiffiness in the
one may be easily, without due care, and has often been, attri-
buted to the other. I take that opportunity to state some priority
of claim I have in my observations on the duodenum before Dr.
J. Hamilton, jun., of Edinburgh, because some of the periodical
journals have asserted that Dr. Hamilton had preceded me in this
field of inquiry in an excellent work which he has published. The
dates will show the reverse. Many similar ideas are entertained
in both these publications without any communication having pre-
viously taken place between the authors ; thus giving confirmation
to the correctness of the statements, and stamping a greater value
upon them. I read the Gulstonian lectures before the College in
May, 1817; and the extracts from them were published in the
Transactions for the year 1820. Dr. Hamilton's book was pub-
lished at Edinburgh in 1819. Thus the Gulstonian lectures were
delivered two years before Dr. Hamilton's publication made its
appearance.

It is a usual and a good rule to give an anatomical description-
of the parts, the functions, and diseases of which it is intended to
detail — it brings the whole subject more completely within the
mind's eye ; and whatever connexion there may be between the
structure, functions, and diseases, such connexion is brought more
directly under our consideration. But whatever amplification our
knowledge may derive from the study of anatomy, whatever pre-
cision it may give in the detection of the locality of disease, yet an
intimate acquaintance with minute anatomical structure is not
so essentially necessary as it appears to the successful practice of
physic : for it does not make the physician at all acquainted with
the effects of remedies in the proper treatment and alleviation of
disease. Did our knowledge of the minute structure of the kidnies,
or of the absorbent system, lead to the use of calomel, of digitalis,
or of the different salts, as diuretics? What analogy have we dis-
covered between the internal coat of the intestines and the eftect»
of jalap, of scammony, or rhubarb, or aloes, notwithstanding the
excellent knowledge we have derived from the labours of Peyer, of
Malpighi, of Lieberkuhn, and of Brunn? What between chylo-
poetie derangement and blue pill? between squill and cevtaia
diseased states of the thoracic contents ? Is there any thing in the
structure or appearance of the nerves which leads to the use or the
knowledge of the effects of opium ? You will look in vain to the
same quarter for any thing which would teach you the use or
effects of belladonna, of stramonium, or of colchicum. In viewing

160 JBxkads from Dr. Yeat s's

the geographical map of a country, we see its cities delineated, its
rivers, mountains, and valleys painted in different colours, its
various districts described and defined, but we gain no knowledge
therefrom of the customs, polity, and laws by which the inhabitants
are governed. The same observation will apply with equal force
to anatomical knowledge. We may be well acquainted with the
structure of the different viscera, with the position of the glands,
with the distribution of the ^blood-vessels, and the course of the
nerves ; but such knowledge however deep, such research however
recondite and laborious, will not teach us how the functions are
performed, or become deranged, nor upon what principles the
secretions are elaborated. We can raise no superstructure upon
this basis explaining the cause and effects of nervous energy, or of
the phenomena of healthy and diseased actions. The body is the
mere machine upon which the vital laws act ; it affords no know-
ledge of the nature of them. The physician can only gain this by
experience, observation, and long inquiry, and by that habit of just
reasoning, which, derived from a liberal education, is applied to the
patient investigation of symptoms. The knowledge of the nature and
effects of remedies preceded the knowledge of anatomy ; and some
of them indeed still remain, from the earliest ages, recorded as
valuable in our materia medica. Well has an ingenious friend of
mine observed, it would seem that anatomy is to the science of
physic what arithmetic is to algebra j we must know individuals
and their combinations before we can abstract, and though a very
important branch, is only one of the many which compose the tree :
in fact, after many years employed in discovering what anatomical
pursuits can do in the progress of the healing art, we have also
discovered what it cannot do, and the result will lead us back with
some profit indeed to the patient investigation of symptoms and
their remedies.

Soon after that valuable discovery which has deservedly immor-
talized the name of Harvey, a new impulse and direction were given
to the investigation of disease. The physicians busied themselves
throughout Europe by multiplied experiments on dead "and living
animals to discover the causes and effects of the healthy and morbid
conditions of the body. As long as they confined themselves to
the facts they witnessed in the different structures of the body, and
in detailing the different appearances they discovered, considerable
addition was made to sound and useful learning ; but a mechanical
tnode of explanation soon arose, in accounting for the phenomena
of the diseased and healthy functions, which led to the most absurd

Cfonian Lectures on the Colon, 161

conclusions, even in the able hands of Bellini, of Pitcairn, of Borelli,
and of Keil. Forg^etting the modifications and changes produced
by the vital powers, they applied their mechanical ideas to the
living as to dead and inert matter ; hence the contradictions in
their philosophical computations. For example, we are told by
Borelli, that the heart overcomes a weight equal to 180,000 pounds
in propelling the blood through the arteries ; by Hales, to no more
than 51 pounds ; while Keil makes the resistance only equal to
one pound, although he computes the fluids in the human body to
be five times more in quantity than Borelli. The same conclusions,
alike repugnant to fact and to experience, are di*awn respecting the
quantity of bile secreted by the liver ; and yet they all appeal to
mathematical demonstrations for proof; for example, Borelli first
measures the diameter of the ductus communis choledochus, which
he finds to be the 225th part of the diameter of the vena cava, just
before its entrance into the right auricle of the heart ; supposing
the whole mass of blood to be 20 pounds, and to circulate 16
times every hour, there would circulate 7680 pounds of blood in
24 hours ; hence Borelli infers, that if 7680 pounds of blood pass
through the vena cava in 24 hours, the 225th part of this quantity,
i. e. 34 pounds of bile, must, in the same space of time, be trans-
mitted through the hepatic ducts, (Perciral's Essays;) but mark
how a plain fact puts down all this mathematical reasoning about
the quantity of bile. Reverhorst ascertained by experiment, that
if a tube be inserted into the gall-duct of a large-sized dog, the
bile flows at the rate of about two drachms every hour, making six
ounces in 24 hours ; hence he calculated, that with man, who is of
greater bulk of body, with a larger liver, and, consequently, with
more numerous vessels for the secretion of bile, there would flow
in 24 hours about nine ounces, instead of 34 pounds. (Disser-
tatio Anatomico-medica deMotii Bilis.) This mechanical doctrine,
which served more to gratify philosophical pride than to afford
useful instruction, bids fair to be revived in the passionate propen-
sity which at present exists for explaining everything from the
appearances in morbid dissections. Soon after the publication
of Morgagni's Adversaria, and of his work De Sedibus et Causis
Morborum, evincing a mind indeed gifted with high talents, and
capable of patient and laborious investigation, the mechanical mode
of inquiring into and accounting for disease made great progress ;
and iu this country additional interest has been given to these
pursuits by the publications of the late justly-esteemed and lamented
Dr. Baillie. The path which he had tracked has been since

JAN.— MARCH, 1828, M

162 Extracts from Dr. Yeats's

trodden, and is still followed by others, without, as far as I am abl^
to see, much beneficial result of practical utility in the alleviation
of pain, and mitigation of disease. The desideratum in his Morbid
Anato7ny, and in most similar works, is a detail of the symptoms
which preceded and accompanied the morbid condition of the parts
when living ; and even with those where the symptoms have been
detailed, I scarcely find that the knowledge of those symptoms,
with the appearances after death, has suggested any remedial
means for that which the dissection has discovered. The seat of
pain, too, is not always the seat of the disease producing it.
Look at the painful affections of the head, arising from a diseased
stomach ; at the morbid condition of the stomach and liver, pro-
duced by excitation of the brain ; at the pains of the back,
consequent upon various diseases of the abdominal viscera ; at
the uneasy state of the stomach, too, connected with organic
disease of the heart, with many other examples familiar to you
all ; and you will have an illustration of this observation.
Of the latter example, the case of a great law officer, whom I
several times saw before his death, is a very strong instance. He
laboured under angina pectoris, as dissection afterwards proved ;
but he always persuaded himself that his complaint was in the
stomach, and that if he could get rid of his disease there, he would
be well. The coronary arteries were ossified, and the preparation
is in the museum of this college. I had warned his family of the
nature of his complaint, and that he would die suddenly ; and so it
happened. A morbid state of the stomach long continued will
lead to various diseases, to those of the liver, to apoplexy, palsy,
phthisis, affections of the skin, &c. Dissection will not tell me
how these various effects are produced, nor how they are to be
obviated. The first traces of morbid symptoms are to be coun-
teracted by different proceedings long before those effects are
produced which morbid dissection exhibits : for the consequences
require a mode of treatment very opposite to that by which the
original causes are to be combated. In fact, those effects are, as it
•were, conversions from one disease into another, so that what we
see in dissection is a different disease from that primary one which
the symptoms originally pointed out. A great deal of interesting
matter on this subject is to be found in Hoffman de Morhorum
Transmutatione^ in Baglivi, and in an ingenious paper of the late
Dr. Ferriar on the Conversion of Diseases. Morbid anatomy, it
is true, confirms to us what we learn from the symptoms, viz. that
irritation in one organ will often produce disease in a distant one,

Cronian Lectures on the Colon. 163

and this is important and useful information ; but we only see the
effects produced, for we must be guided by the symptoms in the
living body what means we are to employ to counteract the tendency
to produce these effects ; and these we learn from experience, and
from patient and discriminating observation. I do not complain so
much of the minuteness to which these dissections are carried, as
of the unnecessary importance which is given to them in a practical
point of view. We find great labour bestowed to trace a brown, a
white, a yellow, a hard, and a sofl tubercle of the liver, but no
practical indications of utility are derived therefrom. If there be
a polypus in a ventricle of the heart, or an ossification of its coronary
arteries, or of its valves, or of the chordae tendineae, or of the mus-
cular substance itself, however it may gratify philosophical curiosity
to know the minute discrimination of local symptoms during life,
or the nice distinctions in the morbid appearances after death, we
gain thereby no curative remedy ; and although we should be able to
ascertain whether the peritonaeum of the duodenum, of the jejunum,
or of any part of the abdominal contents be inflamed, it leads to no
difference of treatment. If the lungs be thickened or compacted
like liver, or are tuberculated, what avails the knowledge when it
does not lead to anything which can soften the one or resolve the
other? A great deal of valuable time is lost in making those nice
distinctions which would be better employed in endeavouring to
discover means to counteract the causes which lead to the con-
sequences.

It is far from my intention to insinuate that these studies are
altogether useless, that the knowledge of the condition of morbid
parts is no acquisition, though certainly not one of that utility which
is generally believed, and I deprecate the ultra-importance attached
these pursuits.

In certain diseased symptoms, within the thorax for example,
arising from a collection of fluid there, we know that digitalis,
calomel, squill, neutral salts, &c. will often relieve the patient
of this morbid load ; but unless we had had a previous knowledge
that medicines of this class counteracted the effects which these
symptoms indicate, no morbid dissections, however numerous, dis-
covering effused fluids, could have suggested any medicinal means for
their removal. Morbid dissections, by discovering diseased structure,
will often mechanically and beautifully explain and illustrate the
phaenomena which had occurred some time previous to dissolution ;
but they afford us, in general, little or no information of the causes
and nature of the symptoms which lead to the effects producing
* m2

164 Extracts from Dr. Yeats's

these phsenomena, and consequently leave us in the dark as to that
great object, a remedy to counteract them.

They, therefore, seduce the student, and are made to supersede
chnical inquiry into the effects of remedies on the modifications or
counteraction of symptoms, by which alone a practical physician
can both do credit to himself, and become essentially useful to the
community ; by which a Sydenham and a Heberden rose to merited
fame, and bequeathed in their observations a valuable legacy to
posterity. The examination of morbid parts did not teach the
former the cool treatment of variola, nor the propriety of bleeding
in the diarrhoea after measles ; neither is Hippocrates indebted to
the same source for the correctness of his aphorisms. We observe
in persons who die of fever, the ravages committed by its violence
on the brain, the liver, the spleen, and other organs — they are the
effects of the storm which has raged, and which has uprooted the
vitals of the constitution — this destruction of parts shows us how
certain symptoms will terminate by diseased structure in death ; but
assuredly this destruction did not suggest to the philosophic Currie
that beautiful theory, nor the reasoning upon it, which led to the
successful cold affusion in fever. Well has the author of the
Gold Headed Cane observed, *' For strange as it may appear, not-
withstanding the estimation in which the works of this great orna-
ment of physic (Sydenham) have been always held, he made
no powerful impression himself upon the general state of medicine,
nor diverted in any material degree the current of public opinion
from its former channel. The mathematical physicians who suc-
ceeded him, invented new theories more captivating than any which
had hitherto appeared, and the full effect of the example of Syden-
ham was for some time lost in the seductive influence of visionary
speculation," founded, I will add, on the mechanical doctrines. I
am, therefore, anxious to put the younger part of the profession,
and the student who is working his way to the practice of it, upon
their guard against too sanguine an expectation of practical utility
from such pursuits.

We know from experience and observation that a certain assem-
blage of symptoms will indicate a tendency to premature death, and
it is pf no consequence, in a practical point of view, whether disso-
hition take place from the destruction of the brain, the liver, or any
other organ, provided we can obviate the cause ; and in fact, during
the disease, fever for example, we do not always know which organ
will be destroyed, and perhaps no one in particular may exhibit the
appearance of disease, though death shall ensue. The morbid ap-

Cronian Lectures on the Colon, 165

pearances are the effects of preceding causes, and a biassed con-
templation of such effects has not unfrequently led to erroneous
practice ; this was certainly long the case with respect to hydren-
cephalus, which was always treated as dropsy till very recently,
because water was found in the ventricles of the brain*. The re-
putation of a modern celebrated surgeon in managing dyspepsia,
certainly does not arise from his anatomical knowledge, great as it-
is, but from his acute observations on the laws which regulate the
economy, and on the consequences which follow a morbid coa-
dition of those laws ; and the brilliant success which has marked
the professional career of our distinguished President, exhibits the
advantage of that happy union of philosophy and medical know-
ledge which refines the understanding, and chastises the mind into
a judicious discrimination of the symptoms of disease. It has been
well remarked, that without an alliance with literature, there is often
something illiberal that clings to the sciences. In medichie, the
want of this alliance is every way disastrous — it not only shuts out
the fairest paths of science in the origin and progress of professional
knowledge ; but degrades the mind itself, which, when it wants the
cultivation of learning, wants that which would temper its efforts,
rectify its judgment, and civilize its habits.

The idea that a minute knowledge of the anatomy of morbid parts,
coupled with mechanical explanation, will produce successful treat-
ment, has rapidly advanced manual tact into the regions of physic,
without improving our curative indications. This delusive impres-
sion has introduced further mechanical proceedings ; and now, in
addition to applying the hand to every pained part of the body, we
must employ instrumental examination, and endeavour to gain an
acoustic knowledge of the state of parts by mediate auscultation with
the stethoscope— thus gauging the depth, measuring the length
and breadth, taking the latitude and longitude, diving into the den-
sity of thickened parts, and circumscribing by chart and by scale
the extent and dimensions of adhesions and of fluid extravasations
— a proceeding derogatory to medical philosophy, and not so
beneficially useful in its ultimate practical application as the praises
bestowed upon it would lead us to believe. The student will be
led astray from the pursuit of objects more becoming one who is to
enter upon the practice of his profession with an understanding
formed by philosophy and literature. Instead of a judicious and
patient attention to the assemblage of symptoms so complicated in
morbid sympathies, he will neglect clinical lectures, which have un-
• See the Author's Statement of the Early Symptoms of Water in the Brain. 2d edit.

166 ' Extracts from Dr. Yeats' s

fortunately declined of late, for morbid dissections, expecting every
thing to be developed at the point of the scalpel. Qui ergo inter
sepulcreta anatomica diu defixus, e cadavere quovis inerti et de-
functo, actionum quorumcunque animalium causas intimiores,
utcunque audacter, frustra tamen eruere tentat — Frustra per mor-
tem ipsam, ad vitam illustrandam progreditur, omnes nodos cultro
solo rescindendos esse frustra jactitat, ac velut augur exta consulens
pro deorum effatis frustra commenta reportat sua. {Dissertation &c.,
d Thoma Okes, init. 1770.) I trust I am not understood as mean-
ing to depreciate the utility of anatomy, as intending to undervalue
the exertions of those who have worked, and are still working in
this fatiguing and fruitful field of inquiry. We are much indebted
for information to the patience, the talents, and the industry of
those who have given such anatomical accuracy to the splendid
achievements of the artist in his graphical descriptions which have
issued and are still issuing from the press.

The minutest knowledge of anatomy is indispensably necessary
to the practice of surgery ; and a most accurate acquaintance with
the different appearances between healthy and diseased structure,
is equally indispensable to the forensic physician, or the one who
studies juridical medicine ; but even here, this knowledge, however
deep, will often not avail the latter at all without the aid of that me-
dical philosophy to which I have alluded ; for some active poisons
leave no traces behind them of the mode by 'which they have accom-
plished the destruction of life ; and even where traces of deranged
structure are left, this change is so similar to what sometimes occurs
without the violence producing death, as to make the argument
upon the morbid appearances of little or no weight : here the philo-
sophical mind, tutored by clinical observations in the discrimi-
nation of symptoms, is of the first importance. This brings to my
recollection an anecdote of the late Dr. Baillie. A person, whose
life had, been insured at one of the Life-offices, had died rather sud-
denly, it was said of apoplexy with convulsions ; a phial containing
some laudanum was found near him. The managers at the office
suspected he had destroyed himself. The history of the case was
drawn up and sent to Dr. Baillie ; he returned it with the answer
that he could give no opinion on the subject, as he had never seen
a person die under the influence of laudanum.

Some years ago, I was subpoenaed to give my opinion respecting
the cause of the death of a young woman, who had been severely
kicked on the region of the stomach by a man. She was never well
from that time to the day of her death, which happened several

Cronian Lectures on the Colon. 167

months after, and she frequently vomited blood. On opening the
body after death, the internal coat of the stomach was discovered
inflamed. During my examination, I was asked by the court whe-
ther the appearances would not occur without the ill-treatment she
had received ; upon my affirmative answer, that such appearances
sometimes occurred from constitutional causes, the judge directed
the jury to acquit the prisoner, who was on his trial for murder.
Dr. Yelloley's excellent paper on this subject was not then pub-
lished. Medico-Chirurg. Trans. Vol. iv. p. 371.

The absolute necessity of a previous knowledge of anatomy to
the judicious practice of physic, is apparent at first sight, and needs
no illustration, yet the most accurate acquaintance with it is insuf-
ficient to explain the phenomena exhibited in the animal body ;
the study of physic is the study which qualifies a man for being- a
physician. He should be acquainted with midwifery and surger)',
for the study of physic includes these, though not for manual practice :
but this is not a dissertation on the qualifications and duties of a
physician. The subject is a very interesting one, particularly at
the present period, but any further indulgence in it would be a
departure from the matter of these lectures.

Proceedings of the Royal Institution.

The weekly evening meetings of the Members of the Royal Institu-
tion were resumed for the season, on Friday, the 25th of January. On
this occasion the subject brought forward for illustration was the dis-
covery of the vegetable salifiable bases, and more especially of those
alkaline substances which form the active principles in opium, and
in the different species of cinchona. Mr. Brande observed, that
these discoveries were not only curious as chemical investigations,
but of the highest importance in their applications to medicine ;
he traced the history of the discovery of morphia, or the active
principle of opium, and gave the credit of its discovery (and of
the train of inquiry dependent upon it, so ably followed up by
Pelletier and Caventou) to Sertuerner. The methods of obtaining
morphia were described, specimens of it, and of some of its salts,
were exhibited, and the properties of narcotine, another proximate
principle of opium, but not salifiable, were adverted to. These in-
vestigations were chiefly dwelt upon as being the origin of subse-
quent discoveries in this difficult department of chemistry; but
Mr. Brande observed, that in regard to their practical application

168 Proceedings of the

to medicine, they were mfinitely less important than those con-
nected with the different kinds of Peruvian bark. Of this drug
three varieties are directed to be kept for medical use, in the Lon-
don Pharmacopa'ia. The cinchona lancifolia furnishes 2?«^e 6«rA:;
the cinchona oblonglfolia, red bark ; and the cinchona cordifolia,
yellow bark. From the first of these Messrs. Pelletier and Caven-
tou obtained the peculiar vegetable-alkaline, or salifiable base,
called cinchonia ; it is crystallizable, intensely bitter, and forms
distinct salts with the acids : from the last they also procured a
distinct base, called quinia ; it is not crystallizable, but forms
several salts that are so, and which, like the former, are charac-
terized by intense bitterness. The red bark contains both cin-
chonia and quinia. Specimens of these substances, and of their
principal salts, were exhibited, and the modes of obtaining them
described and illustrated. The compound which has gained most
celebrity, and which, indeed, is a truly valuable addition to the
Materia Medica, is the sulphate of quinia. Mr. Brande said, that
he thought cinchonia and its salts had scarcely been fairly tried.
The adulterations of sulphate of quinia, and the means of de-
tecting them, were next adverted to, and the discourse concluded
with some general remarks upon the chemical analogies existing
among these vegetable proximate principles ; among these were
particularly noticed their very high equivalent numbers, and feeble
saturating powers, — their general medical activity, — the insolubility
of their compounds with gallic acid, — their difficult solubility in
water, and comparative solubility in alcohol, and their existence in
the vegetables whence they are obtained, in combination with
peculiar acids which have been but little examined.

Some specimens of the lately-discovered electro-negative element,
called bromine^ were laid upon the library table : also experimental
illustrations of rotation; there were also curious specimens of arti-
ficial flowers, manufactured by the Brazilians from the scales of fishes ;
and a variety of novelties in French and other foreign literature.

February 1st.

Mr. Faraday gave a series of illustrations of the new phenomena
produced by a current of air, vapour, or any other fluid, which have
recently been observed by M. Clement, and experimented upon by
him and other French philosophers.

We refer our readers to the abstracts from the papers of MM. Cle-
ment and Hachette, in vol. i., p. 473, and vol. ii., p. 193, for some
account of these phenomena, in which also the forms of apparatus \veU

Royal Institution of Great Britain, 169

calculated to show the effect, are given, and the true theory stated.
The effect in question is easily shown by making a small hole
through a flat smooth bung or piece of wood, inserting a tube
formed of a quill, so that it shall not project on the smooth side
beyond the surface ; then sticking three pins perpendicularly into
the cork or wood, at about three-quarters of an inch distance from
the quill hole, for the purpose of loosely confining a round disc of
card or paper, which is to be laid over the hole. In this state of
things, if the mouth be applied to the end of the quill, and an
endeavour be made to blow off" the disc, it will seem as if the latter
were urged in opposition to, and pressed agaimt the current of
air ; adhering consequently to the surface of the cork or wood, and,
by covering the aperture, tending to stop the hole, and prevent the
passage of the air.

The cause of the effect exists within the space between the two
flat surfaces, and was said to depend upon the momentum commu-
nicated to the particles of air, which tended to make them move
with equal velocity from the centre of the space between the two
discs, to that part corresponding with the circumference in the direc-
tion of radii ; but as the air, under these circumstances, is conti-
nually passing from a smaller to a larger space, the tendency to
preserve its velocity must cause a partial vacuum, so that, except
in a direction opposed to the course of the radiating current, the
pressure, or rather resistance, of the air between the two discs in
these parts, is less than the pressure of the atmosphere. Just at the
centre of the disc, the force of the current of air passing down the
tube is added to the elastic force of the air there, and the two toge-
ther are greater than the pressure of the atmosphere on the oppo-
site side of the same part of the disc : but as the disc is governed
as a whole, not by the forces upon any one part, but by the means of
the forces acting upon its two faces, so it will move from or towards
the fixed surface, according as the mean of the forces exerted upon
its inner face is greater or less than the uniform pressure of the
atmosphere upon its outer surface. Now, although at the centre
of the disc the force acting perpendicularly upon the inner surface
is greater than the pressure of the atmosphere ; that excess is more
than compensated for by the diminution (dependent upon the
momentum of the air, as already described) of the forces acting in a
similar perpendicular direction upon the more extensive parts to-
wards the circumference ; and the mean of all the powers is found
to be less than the pressure of the atmosphere, consequently the
latter has the predominance, and the disc is urged against th^

I'tO Proceedings of the

course of the central current. This is exactly the same explana-
tion as that given by M. Clement.

The general effect was first illustrated by the use of some of
M. Hachette's small mouth tubes *, and afterwards by a large
glass apparatus, into which air \Vas thrown by a pair of forge
bellows, and by which discs, from six to eight inches in diameter,
were supported in the air, although unsustained from beneath,
otherwise than by the causes already described.

The state of the forces in different directions, relative to a cur-
rent of air moving in the atmosphere, was thfen shown : the con-
stant force of the pressure of the atmosphere is increased before the
current by the added force of the stream of air, but it is diminished
at the sides and behind, because the force of the currents is from
those parts ; and part of the elasticity which, whilst the air was
quiet, was sufficient to oppose the pressure of the atmosphere, and
retain all at rest, is now opposed and neutralized by the force of
momentum ; consequently the air of the neighbouring parts is
urged in from the sides and behind, and made to move with the
current. Screens or other light substances interposed in the way
of the moving air, show by their direction in which way the air is
forced ; and some curious effects may in this way be obtained.
Two pasteboard screens, about six inches square, being suspended
parallel to each other, at a distance of two or three inches, move
towards each other, and seem to attract each other forcibly when a
stream of air is blown from the mouth through a small pipe between
them. If a screen, having a hole in the middle, be hung about an inch
from the end of an open cylinder, and a small pipe be inserted, an
inch or two through the hole, but not touching it, into the cylin-
der ; immediately that a current of air is blown through the pipe,
the screen closes upon the open end of the cylinder, and may
actually, by altering the position and continuing the current, be
suspended in the air, and sustained against the cylinder ; not by
any impulse of the air blown through the pipe against the screen,
but solely from the tendency of the air behind the jet to follow the
stream. If the jet of a blowpipe be introduced an inch or more
into an open tube an inch wide, and four or five inches long, and
then, whilst a stream of air is forced through it, the flame of a
Candle or lamp be brought to the mouth of the tube behind the jet,
the whole of the flame, though a large one, will be forced into the
tube, by an entering current of air, which owes its existence

f See Quarterly Journal, New Series, vol. ii. p. 193.

Royal Institution of Great Britain. lit

entirely to the diminution of the force of the pressure of tite ^mi6«
sphere in the direction opposed to the current.

Another illustration of the effbct was given, intended to lead directly
to a clear understanding of the phenomena of the original experi-
ment. A tin cone, about eight inches long, and three inches dia-
meter at the base, had about half an inch in length cut off from the
apex, so as to leave a small aperture there ; a round hole half an
inch in diameter was made in the side, about four inches from the
narrow etid. Upon blowing forcibly into this cone from the nar-
row end, the current of air continually passed from a smaller to a
larger space, and on bringing a flame to the lateral aperture, the
whole of it was urged into the cone, and could be seen by looking
in at the mouth of the instrument. By pressing this instrument
into a flattened form, it was then shown to be an exact represen-
tation of part of the original tube apparatus, and the relation of
the effects in both at once simply referred to the same cause.

M. Clement's experiment, in which he measured the forces per-
pendicular to and between the discs, by means of gauges, were
then referred to *, and also several other forms of the apparatus,
as well as other effects dependent upon the same cause. Mr. Fa-
raday also referred to the supposed explanation of the original
effect given by those who attribute it to the friction of the air, or
to the current which sets in all round upon the original current of
air. Friction can have nothing to do with it, because the force
which supports the discs may be resolved into one perpendicular
to its surface ; whereas friction can only be at right angles to this
direction. With regard to the influx of air, by which the effect is
supposed to be produced, it is itself an effect only, produced by
the same cause as that which supports the disc, and which may
easily be distinguished from it. In place of using a disc, it was
shown, that if a cylinder of the same diameter as the disc, and
closed at one or both ends, had the closed end applied in place
of the disc, it was equally well supported, notwithstanding it
might be many inches in length. It was also shown, that when
the influx of the neighbouring air upon the disc Was allowed, (wo
discs might be supported instead of one. The one by the causes
already described, the other by the sweeping of the neighbouring
air over the disc as it passed on, to follow the direction of the
stream originally put in motion.

Dr. Granville laid several curious objects upon the library table s :
♦ See Quarterly Journal, New Series, vol, ii,

172 Proceedings of the

amongst them were the skull of an Ashantee slain in the battle of
August, 1824, broughtby Captain Martin, with two occipital bones;
two quivers, with poisoned arrows, and two bows ; the arms
taken from the enemy on the same occasion, and a collection of
wrought and polished specimens of the hard stones from Catherins-
burgh in Siberia.

Mr. Lingard exhibited and explained his drawings and illustra-
tions of the Natural History of Fungi and of Dry Rot.

Pohl*s fine engravings of Brazilian plants, with several presents
of books, were also laid upon the tables.

February 8th.

The subject this evening, ^n the Architecture of St. Paul's
Cathedral, was taken up hy Mr. Ainger.

The object of the lecture was to show the inapplicability of
Greek architecture to the complicated buildings required by mo-
dern society, artd more especially to those in which the arch and
the dome formed important and conspicuous parts.

The origin of Greek architecture was explained on a dissected
model of part of the Parthenon, in which the derivation of the
several parts of the entablature, namely, the architrave, frieze,
and cornice, with the tryglyphs, and mutules, from the timbers
which composed the roofs of the Greek temples, was clearly shown.
It appeared, therefore, that the entablature (which, with the column,
constitutes what is called an order) is merely the representation
of the edge of the roof, and therefore that it cannot, with pro-
priety, admit any superstructure, but must always terminate the
building to which it is appHed, and that it must be confined to the
exterior.

The principle thus obtained was applied to the interior and ex-
terior decorations of Saint Paul's, which consist of imitations of
this roof, placed at various heights within and without the building,
in places where it is obvious they do not represent the edge of an
actual roof, and where it is impossible they could do so. Various
criticisms on the architecture of St. Paul's were adduced to show
that these imitations of the roof, these copies of the Greek entabla-
ture, were considered as if they actually could and did conform to
the types from which they are derived, the absurdity of which is
rendered evident by the circumstance, among others, of their being
within the building, and not half way towards its visible summit ;
in places, therefore, where their supposititious elements could not by
any stretch of imagination be fancied to exist, and where, by attempt-

Royal Institution vf Great Britain, 173

mg to ^ive the expression of a wooden building, they contradicted
that idea of difficulty, stability, and strength which would be sug-
gested by an unprejudiced contemplation of the edifice, as composed
of massive stone piers and walls, surmounted with stone vaultings.
From this it was argued that Greek architecture, or Roman
architecture, which is its offspring, could seldom be consistently ap-
plied to the decorations of modern buildings ; that the only instances
in which Greek architecture could be appropriate, were those of
simple porticoes not placed against a higher structure, as at Covent-
garden theatre, but where the portico, with the pediment, formed
the natural termination of the edifice, and of its roof, as in the
church of St. Paul, Covent-garden, and as was universally the case
with the Greek temples. It was contended that the departure from
the natural use of the order, as bequeathed to us by the ancients,
had been the means of introducing anomalies into the art which
had depressed architectural science to the condition in which it now
exists, and which had sanctioned the perpetration of every degree
of ugliness and absurdity under the shelter of Greek associations.

Master George Noakes, the young lad, now ten years of age, so
remarkable for his calculations and knowledge of figures, was pre-
sent in the library, answering numerical questions ; and in illustra-
tion of his method, thought aloud, or, in other words, wrought his
operations audibly.

On the tables were placed models of Thorold's reel, for commu-
nicating with stranded vessels from the shore — Hockey's improved
log-ship — Specimens of embossed black marble, and another of
pearl, by Mr. Pearsall, the original inventor of the processes by
which the effects were produced — and presents of books.

February Ibtk.

The subject this evening, in the Lecture Room, was on Reso-
nance, or the Reciprocation of Sound. It was delivered by Mr.
Faraday, who, however, gave all the credit belonging to the illus-
tration, and the new information communicated, to Mr. C. Wheat-
stone. It was illustrated by some striking experiments, by many
curious instruments of music from Java, for the loan of which the
Institution was indebted to Lady Raffles ; and by some very novel
and curious musical performances on the Jew's-harp, by Mr. Eulen-
stein. We refer our readers to the paper at page 175, of this num-
ber, for a detailed and scientific account of this subject.

The Library contained numerous objects of interest. There were

174 Proceedings of the Royal Institution,

upon the tables, and round the room, a collection of beautiful pen
and ink drawings, by Mr. Train. A fine proof of an engraving, by
Robinson, of Mulready's Wolf and Lamb ; and also proof engrav-
ings, by Turrel, of Adcock*s drawings of Steam-engines.

Mr. Turrel set up a new instrument, invented by him, and called
a Perspectograph. Its object is to find any required point in the
plane of the picture of a perspective view of any subject, and refer
it accurately to the paper on which the drawing is to be made. This
it does in the simplest manner possible, and without any embarrass-
ment of the drawing-board or t}ie object to be drawn. We shall
give a more detailed account of this useful and simple contrivance.

Some very perfect working models of Don's patent metallic
shutters were also exhibited, Mr. Don himself attending to ex-
plain the principles and advantages of his invention.

February 22nd.

An account of the recent improvements in the art of printing,
(seethe paper, at page 183,) was illustrated by Mr. Cowper, on6
of those with whom the improvements have originated.

Library. — The Kenong, a very sonorous and powerful musical
instrument, from Java, was placed upon the table. It is a large
metallic vessel, in the form of a contracted bowl, supported by its
edge upon two strings, over a cavity in an ornamented wooden case ;
it owes part of the character of its sound to resonance.

The apparatus for the performance of various experiments on
Resonance, or the Reciprocation of Sound, was placed upon the
table, that those who had been interested in the subject of the last
evening, might have an opportunity of repeating them, for their in-
dividual satisfaction.

A painting, by Sig. Luigi Gentile, being a panoramic view of the
city and bay of Naples, was fixed up in the room ; also one of Mr.
Bennington's fine sketches from the foot of the Rialto, at Venice.

There were illustrations of botanical physiology, by Mr. Lingard }
specimens of printing ; a model of Charlton's press, for official papers,
etchings, &c.

February 29th,

Mr. Solly exhibited a variety of specimens illustrative of the
comparative anatomy of birds, and delivered a discourse upon thp
same subject in the Lecture Room.

[To be continued.]

175

On the Resonances f or Reciprocated Vibrations of Columns

of Air.

[By Mr. C. Wheatstonb.]

An elastic body may be made to assume a vibratory state in two
ways; either, immediately, by any momentary impulse, which,
altering the natural positions of its particles, allows them after-
wards to return by a succession of isochropous oscillations to
their former state ; or, secondarily, by means of an immediately
sounding body, which causes it to reciprocate to the latter,
when certain conditions, on which depends its susceptibility of
vibrating in such a manner, are fulfilled. This reciprocation, to
which, when the effect is referred to, the term resonance is applied,
is effected by means of the undulations which are produced in the
air, or in any fluid or solid medium, by the periodical pulses of the
original vibrating body ; these undulations being capable of putting
in motion all bodies whose pulses are coincident with their own,
and, consequently, with those of the primitive sounding body. —
Galileo observed that a heavy pendulum might be put in motion by
the least breath of the mouth, provided the blasts be often repeated,
and keep time exactly with the vibrations of the pendulum ; and
this remark affords a correct explanation of the phenomenon.

Some of the most obvious cases of resonance are, — the vibrations
of a string when another tuned in unison with it is made to vibrate ;
the resounding of a drinking-glass to the sound of the voice, or of
a musical instrument ; the reciprocated vibrations of a sounding-
board, communicating immediately with a vibrating string or tuning-
fork, &c. In the last mentioned instance, though the string and
the fork are the original vibrating bodies, the audible sound is
dependent on the resonance of the sounding-board.

As all these effects are well known*, it is unnecessary to dilate
upon them here, and I may uninterruptedly proceed to the imme-
diate object of the present paper, viz., the investigation of the laws
of the resonance or phonic reciprocation of columns of air.

§ 1. If one of the branches of a vibrating tuning-fork be brought
near the embouchure of a flute, the lateral apertures of which are
stopped so as to render it capable of producing the same sound as
the fork, then the feeble and scarcely audible sound of the fork will
be augmented by the rich resonance of the column of air within the

♦ Biot.Traite de Physique: torn, ii, p. 183. Chladni, Traits d'Acousticjue,
222,223.

17G Mr. Wheatstone on jResonance,

flute*. The sound will be found greatly to decrease by closing or
opening another aperture ; for the alteration of the length of the
column of air in such case renders it no longer proper to reciprocate
perfectly the sound of the fork. This experiment may be easily
tried on a concert flute, with a C tuning-fork. To ensure success,
it is necessary to remark, that when a flute is blown into with the
mouth, the under lip partly covering the embouchure, renders the
sound about a semitone flatter than the sound when the embouchure
is entirely uncovered ; and as the latter must be unison to that of
the tuning-fork, it is necessary, in most cases, to finger the flute for
B when a C tuning-fork is employed.

A similar effect may be produced by substituting, for the column
of air in the flute, the alterable volume of air contained within the
cavity of the mouth. I have found the sounds of tuning-forks reci-
procated most intensely by placing the tongue, &c. in the position
for the nasal continuous sound of ng (in song), and then altering
the aperture of the lips until the loudest sound is obtained.

§ 2. A column of air may also reciprocate a sound originally
produced by a wind instrument, as the following experiment will
show. Place two concert flutes on a table, parallel to, and at a
short distance from each other ; on the one which is nearer, sound
C sharp (all the lateral apertures being open), and draw out the
tube of the second flute, so that it shall be about a semitone flatter,
to make it equivalent to the flattening of the first flute by the partial
closing of the embouchure by the lip ; a material difference will then
be distinguished in the intensity of the tone by alternately closing
and opening the first hole of the more distant instrument, thereby
rendering it incapable or capable of reciprocating the original
sound. That this effect is occasioned solely by the transmission of
the sonorous undulations, and not by any wind actually blown into
the second flute, is evident from the difference being in intensity and
not in pitchf.

This experiment may be varied by placing the fipple of a flageolet

* Dr. Savart has observed a similar effect by sounding a bell before a large tube
inclosing an unisonant column of air. Recherches sur les Ftbrations de I'Jtr. An-
nales de Chimie, torn. 24.

t Lord Bacon may be said to have anticipated this experiment in the following
passage in his Sylva Sylvarum : — " The experiments of sympathy may perhaps be
transferred from stringed instruments to others; as, if there were two bells in unison
in one steeple, to try whether striking the one would move the other, more than if
it were a different chord ; and so in pipes, of equal bore and sound, to try whether a
light straw or feather would move in one pipe, when the other is blown in unison
with it," Art, Phonics, (Sec/, xxi. On the Sympathy or Antipathy of Sounds with
one another.

Mr. Wheatstone on Resonancet 177

at a short distance from the embouchure of a flute, provided, of
course, that the columns of air, both in the flageolet and the flutQ>
be capable of producing the sam^ note, ff

§ 3. A cylindric or prismatic column of air, in a tube open at
both ends, may vibrate not only in its entire length, but also in any
number of aliquot parts, and in all cases the number of vibrations
is inversely as the length of a single vibrating part. As a column
of air is capable of reciprocating every sound which, according to
its different modes of vibration, it is itself capable of producing ;
supposing l=:;Ci to represent the lowest sound of the tube, it will,
without any change in its length, reciprocate sounds whose relations
_^^ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
"® Ci, C^, G2, C^ E3, G3, BbS C*, &c.

The harmonic subdivisions of a column of air in a tube closed at
one end are different ; a semi-vibrating part always exists near the
closed end, but between two nodes, or a node and the open end,
complete vibrating parts, as in an open tube, exist. The funda-
mental sound above mentioned, of an open tube, is given by. a tube
closed at one end, of one-half its length ; the series, corresponding
with the subdivisions, compared with the above, is ^^ ^, g.

7 Q

g, 3 Jj4 ^^ and these sounds it can consequently reciprocate.

§ 4. Any one among several simultaneous sounds may be ren-
dered separately audible. Thus, if two vibrating tuning-forks, dif-
fering in pitch, be held over a closed tube, furnished with a move-
able piston, either sound may be made to predominate by altering
the piston, so as to enable the column of air to reciprocate the
sound required. The same result may be obtained by selecting
two bottles (which may be tuned with water), each corresponding
to the sound of a different timing-fork ; on bringing both tuning-
forks to the mouth of each bottle alternately, in each case that
sound only will be heard which is reciprocated by the unisonant
bottle.*

• Had Sir Isaac Newton been acquainted with these, or with any similar facta*
he might have illustrated his theory of the reflection of colours by an experimental,
instead of a suppositious analogy with the reciprocation of sounds. As the passage
in which this comparison is made, is remarkable, I will quote it. " If light be con-
** sidered without respect to any hypothesis, I can as easily conceive that the several
" parts of a shining body may emit rays of ditferent colours, and other qualities, of
" all which light is constituted, as that the several pipes of an organ inspired all at
" once, or all the variety of sounding bodies in the world together, should produce
" sounds of several tones, and propagate them through the air, confusedly inter-
" mixed. And, if there were any natural bodies that would reflect sounds of one
" tone, and stifle or transmit those of another, then, as the echo of a confused aggre-
** gate of all tones would be that particular tone, which the echoiog body is di6pose4

JAN.^MARCH, 1828. N

178 Mr. Wheatstone on Resonance.

The phenomenon of a third sound, produced by the coincidences
of the vibrations of two consonant sounds, is well known. From
what has been premised, it is reasonable to suppose that if a
column of air be caused to reciprocate this third sound, or grave
harmonic as it is called, and not the two sounds which generate it,
it might be heard, uncombined with the two other sounds. But on
attempting" this experiment, I was unable, on the following account,
to succeed. The third sound is always unity when the ratio of the
lowest sounds is reduced to its lowest terms ; thus, with respect to
a perfect fifth, 2 : 3, the third sound 1, is an octave below the lower
sound, and the grave harmonic .1, of a major third, 4 : 5, is two
octaves below the lower sound ; we will suppose this fundamental
sound, represented by unity, to be the C, corresponding with the
sound of an open tube of four feet, or of a closed tube of two feet :
in the first case, the column of air being capable, as explained in § 3,
of vibrating in any number of aliquot . parts, not only, the grave
harmonic = 1, but the sounds represented by 2 : 3 and 4 ; 5, will
also be reciprocated ; and in the latter case, where the subdivisions
are as the arithmetical progression 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, &c., one sound
of each consonance will be reciprocated, besides the grave sound.
The expected result may probably still be obtained by employing
columns or volumes of air, whose subdivisions are less regular.

§ 5. Among the Javanese musical instruments brought to
England by the late Sir Stamford Raffles, there is one called the
Gender, in which the resonances of unisonant columns of air are
employed to augment, I may almost say to render audible, the
sounds of vibrating metallic plates. Of these plates there are
eleven ; their sounds correspond with the notes of the diatonic
scale, deprived of its fourth and seventh, and extend through two
octaves. The mode of vibration of the plates is that with two
transversal nodal lines ; and they are suspended horizontally by two
strings, one passed through two holes in the one nodal line, and
the other through similar holes in the other nodal line of each plate.
Under each plate is placed an upright bamboo, containing a column
of air, of the proper length to reciprocate the lowest sound of the
plate. If the aperture of the bamboo be covered with pasteboard,
and its corresponding plate be struck, a number of acute sounds
only (depending on the more numerous subdivisions of the plate)

" to reilect ; so, since there are bodies apt to reflect rays of one colour, and stifle or
" transmit thoFe of another,! can as easily conceive that those bodies, when illuminated
" by a mixture of all colours, must appear of that colour only which they reflect."
Pfiilosophical Transactivns, No. 88.

Mr. Wheatstone on Resonance,

179

will be heard ; but on removing the pasteboard, an additional deep,
rich tone is produced by the resonance of the column of air within
the tube.

The instrument from which the annexed drawing was taken is at
present in the museum of the Honourable East India Company;
and there is another specimen in the possession of Lady Raffles.

THE GENDER.
Musical Instrument of Java.

The same principle appears to have been employed, in more rude
forms, in the construction of several Asiatic and African musical
instruments ; but I am unaware of any instrument having yet been
manufactured in Europe, in which the unisonant resonances of
columns of air have been made available as a means of augmenting
the intensity of sounds. I shall shortly publish an account of the
several modes I have myself devised, and practically employed, for
advantageously applying this principle.

J 6. In the experiments I have hitherto detailed, the recipro-
cated vibrations have always been isochronous with those of the

N 2 .

180 Mr. Wheatstone on Resonance

original sounding body ; or, in other words, the resonance and the
original sound have always been unisonant. The experiment I
shall now bring forward will show that this is not universally
the case, and that there are other phenomena of resonance which
have never, hitherto, been investigated in their theory, or in their
practical applications. I took a tube, closed at one end by a
moveable piston, and placed before its open end the branch of a
vibrating tuning-fork of the ordinary pitch, C ; the length of the
column of air was six inches ; on diminishing the length of the
column to three inches, the sound of the tuning-fork was no longer
reciprocated, but its octave above (the sound of the column when
it is directly excited) was produced. By employing a graver
tuning-fork and tubes of very small diameter, and successively ad-
justing the lengths of the columns of air so as to be one half, one
third, one fourth, one fifth, &c. of the column reciprocating the
fundamental sound, the octave, twelfth, double octave, seven-
teenth, &c. to that sound will be produced. The relative numbers
of the vibrations of these sounds, considering the vibrations of the
fork as unity, are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c. It therefore is evident, from
experiment, that a column of air may vibrate by reciprocation, not
only Avith another body whose vibrations are isochronous with its
own, but also wheji the number of its own vibrations are any mul-
tiple of those of the original sounding body. >'

The converse of this law does not hold ; for when the number
of vibrations of a column of air are any sub-multiple of those of the
original sounding body, there is no resonance. To prove this with
regard to the octave, let the length of the column of air unison to
the sound of a fork be doubled, and not the slightest trace of the octave
below (i. e. the real sound of the column) will be perceptible : this
negative experiment must be tried with a closed tube which is in-
capable of producing a harmonic octave ; an open tube would
resound unisonantly to the fork by its subdivision.

§ 7. On the law experimentally established in the preceding
paragraph depends the explanation of the production of sounds by
the guimbarde or Jew's harp. This simple instrument consists of
an elastic steel tongue, riveted at one end to a frame of brass or
iron, the form of which is represented in the annexed figure ; the
free extremity of the tongue is bent outwards to a right angle, so
as to allow the finger easily to strike it when the iustrument i^
placed to the mouth, and firmly supported by the pressure of the
parallel extremities of the frame against the teeth.

Mr. Wheatstohe on Resonance* IBl

The vibrations of the tongue itself correspond with a very low
sound ; but being placed before the cavity of the mouth, the form
and dimensions of which are capable of various alterations by the
motions of the tongue and the lips, when the number of vibrations
of the contained volume of air is any multiple of the original vibra-
tions of the tongue, a sound is produced, corresponding to the
modification of the oral cavity.

Supposing the primitive sound of the tongue to be C\ the series

of sounds which it can produce by multiple reciprocation will be as

follows.

Multiples of the ordinal vibrations of the tongue,

f. ..2* ..3. ..4.. .5. .,6. ..7. ..8. ..9. ..10. ..11. ..12. ..13. ..14... 15.!. fe etc. 32.

Corresponding sounds.
Ci C2 G C3 E G Bb C* D E F+ G A- Bl, B Qs etc. C«

If the original sound be any other note, another series will arise,
but the intervals of the successive sounds will always preserve the
above relations. By the usual Jew's harps the three first sounds
of the series cannot be produced, the dimensions of the cavity of
the mouth not being sufficiently large to reciprocate them.

The scale above exhibited is evidently too incomplete and too
defective, to allow even the most simple melodies to be performed
on a single Jew's harp ; but the deficiencies may be supplied by
employing two or more of these instruments. Mr. Eiilenstein, by
availing himself of the resources afforded him by the scales of six-
teen Jew's harps, is able to modulate through every key, and to
produce effects truly original, and of extreme beauty. Those who
have heard only the rude twanging to which the performance of
this instrument in ordinary hands is confined, can have no idea of
the melodious sounds which, under Mr. Eulenstein's management,
it is capable of producing.

§ 8. the following experiment will prove the accuracy of the

182 Mr. Wheatstone on iZesonance.'

precedinj^ explanation, and will establish the true theory of the pro-
duction of sounds by the guimbarde, beyond the possibility of doubt.
I fixed a Jew's harp firmly at the two points where ordinarily it
rests against the teeth, allowing sufficient space between the two sup-
ports for the tongue to vibrate freely to its greatest extent ; and I tuned
the tongue by applying wax to its free extremity, until it sounded
C, corresponding to the sound of a closed tube four feet in length.
I then placed before the tongue the open end of a closed tube, con-
taining a column of air two feet in length and one inch in diameter,
and furnished with a moveable piston, by which the column could
be shortened to any required length. On striking the tongue, the
octave of the fundamental sound was produced, being the sound 2
of the scale in the preceding section ; by shortening the column of air
successively to one third, one fourth, one fifth, one sixth, one se-
venth, &c. &c. up to very numerous ahquot subdivisions, all the
notes of the series were correctly obtained. By marking the dif-
ferent lengths of the piston rod for each sound of the series, I
was able to produce the notes of the scale, ascending or descending
regularly, or to fix any sound at pleasure.

§ 9. No other sounds can be produced by reciprocation from
columns of air, but those perfectly identical with the multiples of
the original vibrations of the tuning-fork, or the tongue of the
Jew's harp. On inquiring what takes place when the length of the
column is intermediate between the lengths appropriate to recipro-
cate two succeeding multiples, — it will be found, that though each
sound of the series is heard most audibly when the column is
accurately adapted to it, yet it may also be heard, unaltered in
tune, though diminished in intensity, when the column is lengthened
or shortened within a certain extent, which is greater for the lower
sounds of the series, and less for the higher, on account of the
wider intervals between the sounds in the former case.

It may now be understood in what manner a column of air is
capable of reciprocating simultaneously two or three sounds of a
chord. In Mr. Elilenstein's performance, this effect is thus pro-
duced : suppose the perfect major chord of C is required ; three
Jew's harps, incapable of producing lower sounds than the fourth
of the series, are selected; and the mouth being made to corre-
spond with the C, the other two sounds, E and G, are likewise reci-
procated, though faintly, because these sounds are nearer that to
which the mouth is adapted, than any other multiples of the original
vibrations of the tongues are.

§ 10. When two imperfect unisons are sounded together, the
interferences of their undulations give rise to periodical alternations

Mr. Wheatstone on Resonance. 183

in the intensity of the sound ; this effect is called beating, and the
o-reater the deviation irom unison is, the more rapid are the beats.
From what has been above stated, the same column of air may
reciprocate sounds differing in pitch ; if, therefore, two vibrating
tuning-forks, imperfect unisons to each other, be brought together
over the embouchure of a flute, or the open end of a tube containing
an appropriate column of air, the periodical recurrence of the beats
will be rendered strikingly evident, slowly or rapidly succeeding
each other, accordingly as the forks are more or less in tune with
each other.

On the recent Improvements in the Art of Printing,

[Communicated by Mb. Cowper,]
It is a remarkable fact, that from the invention of the art of printing,
to the year 1798, a period of nearly 350 years, no improvement had
been introduced in this important art. In Dr. Dibdin's interesting
account of printing, in the Bibliographical Decameron, may be
seen representations of the early printing presses, which exactly
resemble the wooden presses in use at the present day. — The im-
mense superiority of the press over the pen induced, perhaps, a
general belief that nothing more was possible, or it might be that
the powers of the press were quite equal to the demand for its
productions.

A new era has, however, arisen, the prompt and extensive cir-
culation of the public journals and other periodicals requiring
powers which the ordinary press could never reach.

The first important improvement of the common press was the
invention of the late Lord Stanhope. This press is composed
entirely of iron ; the table, on which the types rest, and the platten,
(or surface which gives the impression,) are made perfectly level;
he has thus introduced better materials and better workmanship,
to which, however, he added a beautiful combination of levers,
to give motion to the screw, causing the platten to descend with de-
creasing rapidity, and consequently with increasing force, till it
reaches the type, when a very great power is obtained. There
have been, perhaps, twenty contrivances for obtaining the same
effect ; but as a press. Lord Stanhope's invention has not been sur-
passed. Still it is only a press, and in point of expedition has
little superiority over its wooden rival, producing 250 impressions
per hour.

Jjord Stanhope was also the successful reviver of the art ofs\^

184 Mr. Cowper on the

reotype founding-, — the process of which is as follows, — a brass
frame is placed round the form of types ; plaster of Paris, mixed
with water to the consistence of cream, is then poured on the type,
the superfluous plaster being scraped off. When the plaster is
hai-d, the mould is lifted off by means of the brass frame, and from
which it is readily detached — it is now baked in an oven, and when
well dried and quite hot, it is placed in an iron box or casting-pot,
which has also been heated in the oven ; it is now plunged into a
large pot of melted type-metal, and kept about ten minutes under
the surface, in order that the weight of the metal may force it into
all the finest parts of the letters, — the whole is then cooled, the
mould broken and washed off, and the back of the plate turned in
a lathe. This manufacture has been carried to a considerable ex-
tent ; Mr. Clowes, the proprietor of one of the largest and best-
conducted printing-offices in London, has on his premises between
700 and 800 tons of stel-eotype plates, belonging to various book-
sellers, — the value may be estimated at .£200,000.

In connection with the Stanhope press, may be briefly noticed a
Jittle improvement for the particular purpose of printing music,
after a new process, and for which I have obtained a patent. — In
this new process the lines are formed of thin slips of copper driven
into small blocks of wood, and the notes are formed of copper
^driven into a separate block. Two note blocks and two corre-
sponding sets of lines are placed on the table of the Stanhope press ;
to the ordinary tympan of the press is attached another tympan,
which revolves in the direction of its plane on a pin in the ordinary
tympan. Two sheets of paper are pla9ed under two friskets,
hinged to the revolving tympan ; an impression being now taken,
one sheet will receive the notes, and the other the lines. The re-
volving tympan is then turned half round, when the sheets will
have changed places, another impression is taken, when both
sheets will be perfected. — This plan is now in operation at the
printing-office of Mr. Clowes, to whom I have assigned the
exclusive use of the patent.

It was in the year 1790, that Mr. W. Nicholson took out a pa-
tent for certain improvements in printing, and on reading his spe-
cification, every one must be struck with the extent of his ideas on
this subject ; to him belongs, beyond doubt, the honour of the
first suggestion of printing by means of cylinders : the following
are his own words, divested of legal redundancies —

" In the first place, I not only avail myself of the usual methods
of making type, but I do likewise make and arrange them in a
new way, viz. by rendering the tail oif the letter gradually smaller,

recent Improvements in Printing, 185

such letter " (he erroneously says) " may be imposed on a cylin-
drical surface; the disposition of types, plates, and blocks upon
a cylinder are parts of my invention." See Fig. 1.

** In the second place, I apply the ink upon the surface of the
types, plates, &c. by causing the surface of a cylinder (smeared
with the colouring matter) to roll over, or successively apply itself
to the surface of the types, &c., or else I cause the types to apply
themselves to the said cyhnder, — it is absolutely necessary that the
colouring matter be evenly distributed over this cylinder, and for
this purpose I apply two, three, or more smaller cylinders, called
distributing rollers, longitudinally against the colouring cylinder,
so that they may be turned by the motion of the latter, — if this
colouring matter be very thin, I apply an even blunt edge of metal
or wood against the colouring cylinder.

*' In the third place, I perform all my impressions by the action
of a cylinder, or cylindrical surface, that is, I cause the paper to
pass between two cylinders, one of which has the form of types
attached to it and forming part of its surface, and the other is
faced with cloth, and serves to press the paper so as to take off an
impression of the colour previously applied— -or otherwise, I cause
the form of types, previously coloured, to pass in close and suc-
cessive contact with the paper wrapped round a cylinder with
woollen.*' (Fig. 1 and 2.) He also describes a method of raising
the paper cylinder, to prevent the type from soiling the cloth.

These words specify the principal parts of modern printing ma-
chines, and had Mr. Nicholson paid the same attention to any one
part of his invention which he fruitlessly devoted to attempting to
fix types on a cylinder, or had he known how to curve stereotype
plates, he would, in all probability, have been the first maker of a
printing machine, instead of merely suggesting the principles on
which they might be constructed.

The first working printing machine was the invention of Mr.
Koenig, a native of Saxony. He submitted his plans to Mr. T.
Bensley, the celebrated printer, and to Mr. R. Taylor, the scientific
editor of the Philosophical Magazine. These gentlemen liberally
encouraged his exertions ; and in 1811 he took out a patent for im-
provements in the common press, which however produced no favour-
able result ; he then turned his attention to the use of a cylinder, in
order to obtain the impression, and two machines were erected for
printing the Times newspaper, the reader of which was told on the
38th of November, 1814, that he held in his hand » newspaper
printed by machinery, and by the power of steam,

186 Mr. Cowper on the

In these machines the type was made to pass under the cylinder,
on which was wrapped the sheet of paper, the paper being firmly
held to the cylinder by means of tapes ; the ink was placed in a
cylindrical box, from which it was forced by means of a powerful
screw depressing a tightly-fitted piston ; thence it fell between two
iron rollers; below these were placed a number of other rollers, two
of which had, in addition to their rotatory motion, an end motion,
i. e. a motion in the direction of their length ; the whole system of
rollers terminated in two which applied the ink to the types.
(Fig. 4.)

In order to obtain a great number of impressions from the same
form, a paper cylinder (i. e. the cylinder on which the paper is
wrapped) was placed on each side the inking apparatus, the form
passing under both. This machine produced 1100 impressions per
hour; subsequent improvements raised them to 1800 per hour.

The next step was the invention of a machine, (also by Mr.
Koenig,) for printing both sides of the sheet. It resembled two
single machines placed with their cylinders towards each other, at
a distance of two or three feet, — the sheet was conveyed from
one paper cylinder to the other by means of tapes — the track
of the sheet exactly resembled the letter S, if laid horizontally,
thus, CZ2 : in the course of this track the sheet was turned over. At
the first paper cylinder it received the impression from the first
form, and at the second paper cylinder it received the impression
from the second form — the machine printed 750 sheets on both
sides per hour. This machine was erected for Mr. T. Bensley^
and was the only one Mr. Koenig made for printing on both sides
the sheet — this was in 1815. (Fig. 5.)

About this time Messrs. Donkin and Bacon were also contriving
a printing machine ; having, in 1813, obtained a patent for a
machine in which the types were placed on a revolving prism —
the ink was applied by a roller which rose and fell with the
irregularities of the prism, and the sheet was wrapped on another
prism, so formed as to meet the irregularities of the type prism :
one of these machines was erected for the University of Cambridge,
and was a beautiful specimen of ingenuity and workmanship ; it
was, however, too complicated, and the inking was defective, which
prevented its success. Nevertheless a great point was attained ;
for in this machine were first introduced inking rollers covered with
a composition of treacle and glue ; in Koenig's machine the rollers
were covered with leather, which never answered the purpose well.
(Fig. 3.)

recent Improvements in Printing, 187

In 1815 I obtained a patent for curving stereotype plates, for
the purpose of fixing them on a cylinder. Several of these machines,
capable of printing 1000 sheets per hour on both sides, are at
work at the present day, and twelve machines on this principle
were made for the Bank of England a short time previous to the
issue of gold. ( Fig. 6 and 7.)

It is curious to observe that the same object seems to have
occupied the attention of Nicholson, Donkin and Bacon, and my-
self, viz. the revolution of the form of types. Nicholson sought to
do this by a new kind of type, shaped like the stones of an arch. —
Donkin and Bacon sought to do this by fixing types on a revolving
prism, and at last it was completely effected by curving a stereotype
plate. See Diagram.

In these machines two paper cylinders are placed side by side,
and against each of them is placed a cylinder for holding the
plates ; each of these four cylinders is about two feet diameter, — on
the surface of the plate cylinder are placed four or five inking rollers,
about three inches diameter : they are kept in their position by a
frame at each end of the plate cylinder, the spindles of the rollers
lying in notches in the frame, thus allowing perfect freedom of
motion and requiring no adjustment.

The frame which supports the inking-rollers, called the waving-
frame, is attached by hinges to the general frame of the machine ; and
the edge of the plate cylinder is indented, and rubs against the
waving-frame, causing it to wave, or vibrate to and fro, and, con-
sequently, to carry the inking-rollers with it, thus giving them a
motion in the direction of their length, called the end motion. —
These rollers distribute the ink upon the three-fourths of the sur-
face of the plate cylinder, the other quarter being occupied by the
curved stereotype plates. The ink is held in a trough ; it stands
parallel to the plate-cylinder, and is formed by a metal roller, re-
volving against the edge of a plate of iron; in its revolution, it
becomes covered with a thin film of ink; this is conveyed to the
plate-cylinder, by an inking roller vibrating between both. On the
plate-cylinder, the ink becomes distributed, as before described, and
as the plates pass under the inking rollers, they become charged
with colour ; as the cylinder continues to revolve, the plates come
in contact with a sheet of paper in the first paper cylinder, whence
it is carried, by means of tapes, to the second paper cylinder, where
it receives an impression on its opposite side, from the plates on
the second plate cylinder, and thus the sheet is perfected.

These machines are only applicable to stereotype plates, but they

188 Mr. Cowper on fAe

formed the foundation of the future success of our printing-machinery,
by showing the best method of furnishing", distributing, and apply-
ing the ink.

In order to apply this method to a machine capable of printing
from type, it was only necessary to do the same thing in an ex-
tended flat surface, or table, which had been done on an extended
cylindrical surface ; accordingly, I constructed a machine for print-
ing both sides of the sheet from type, securing, by patient, the
inking apparatus, and the mode of conveying the sheet from one
paper cylinder to the other by means of drums and tapes. A full
description of this machine is given in J. Nicholson's " Operative
Mechanic," and in the supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica ;
in the latter, by some mistake, it is called " Bensley's machine.'*
A more brief account, and also a cut of the machine, appeared in
the " London Literary Gazette," the editor of which has obligingly
lent the cut for illustrating this paper. See the Cut and Fig. 9
and 10.

My friend, Mr. A. Applegath, was a joint-proprietor with me in
these patents, and he also obtained patents for several improvements.
I had given the end motion to the distributing-rollers, by moving the
frame to and fro in which they were placed. Mr. Applegath suggested
the placing these rollers in a diagonal position across the table,
thereby producing their end motion in a simpler manner. Another
contrivance of Mr. Applegath's was to place half of my inking appa-
ratus on one side the printing cylindei', and half on the other side,
in order that one-half the form might be inked on one side, and one-
half on the other, and so have a less distance to travel.

Another contrivance of Mr. A. was a method of applying two
feeders to the same printing-cyhnder ; these latter inventions are
more adapted to newspaper than to book printing.
■ We have constructed upwards of sixty machines upon our com-
bined patents, modified in twenty-five different ways, for the various
purposes of printing books, bank-notes, newspapers, &c. They have,
in fact, superseded Mr. Koenig's machines, in the office of Mr.
Bensley, (who was the principal proprietor of Koenig's patent,) and
also in the office of the "Times," as was announced in that journal
a few days since.

It may not be uninteresting to state that no less than forty wheels
were removed from Mr. Koenig's machine, when Mr. Bensley re-
quested us to apply our improvements.

Having; on the first trial of our machines, discovered the supe-
riority of the inkuig-roUer and table ovfer the common balls^ we

recent Improvements in Printing. 189

immediately applied them to the common press, and with comjxlete
success ; the invention, however, was immediately infringed
throughout the kingdom, and copied in France, Germany, and
America ; and it would have been as fruitless to have attempted to
stop the infringement of the patent as it was found in the case of
the Kaleidoscope. (Fig. 8.)

This invention lias raised the quality of printing generally, — in
almost any old book will be perceived groups of words very dark,
and other groups very light ; these are technically called " monks
and friars," which have been ** reformed altogether."

The principal object in a newspaper machine is to obtain a great
number of impressions from the sam£ form, or one side of the sheet,
und not from two forms, or both sides of the sheet, as in books.

In the Times machine, which was planned by Mr. Applegath,
upon our joint inventions, the form passes under four printing
cylinders, which are fed with sheets of paper by four lads, and after
the sheets are printed, they pass into the hands of four other lads ;
by this contrivance 4000 sheets per hour are printed on one side.

Machines upon our joint patents are also used for printing the —

Morning Chronicle,
St. James's Chronicle,
Morning Herald,
Whitehall Evening Post,
Examiner,
Sunday Times,

Bell's Messenger,
John Bull,
Standard,
Atlas,
Sphynx,
&e. &c.

The comparative produce of the above machine is as follows : —

Stanhope Press , ,

Koenig's Machine .

Cowper's (stereotype) .

Applegath and Cowper's (book)

Ditto (newspaper) Chronicle .
Herald
Times

250 impressions per hour.
. 1800 {. €. 900 on both sides.
. 2400 i. e. 1200 ditto.l
. 2000 i. e. 1000 ditto.
. 2000
. 2400
. 4000—66 per minute.

A variety of machines have been invented by other persons, which
have not been attended with sufficient success to make me acquainted
with their merits, with the exception of Mr. Napier, who hjas erected
several machines for newsjjapers.

Although the success of the inventions in which I have been ^n-
gaged has rendered frequent reference to them unavoidable, I trust
I have distinctly assigned to Mr. Koenig the honour of making the
first working machine, and to Mr. W. Nicholson the honour of sug-
gesting its principles, and that I have thus fairly stated the origin,
the progress, and the success of the recent improvements in the art
of printing.

DIAGRAMS OF PRINTING MACHINES
•in

Fig. 1. Nicholson's, for
• arched Type.

2 . Nicholson's, for
common Type,

3. Donkin and Bacon's,
for_^Type.

4. Koenig's single,
for one side of the sheet.

5. Koenig's double,
for both sides of the sheet.

6. Cowper's single,
for curved stereotype.

7. Cowper's double,
for both sides of the sheet.

8, Cowper's Inking Table and Roller.

^mm •••.TTfrfrnx

9, Applegath and Cowper's
single.

tf I tf^

10. Applegath and Cowper's
double.

Note. The black parts represent the Inking Apparatus.
The diagonal lines indicate the Paper Cylinders.
The perpendicular lines, the Types or Plates.
The arrows show the track of the Sheet of Paper.

192

Proceedings of the Horticultural Society.
December ith.
A LONG paper was read upon the pears chiefly cultivated in the Carse
of Gowrie. To residents in that part of the kingdom, it would doubt-
less prove highly interesting", on account of the pains and accuracy
with which it had evidently been prepared ; but from what we could
gather from hearing it read, there is great need of reform in the
fruit of the Carse of Gowrie, the very best of which is scarcely compa-
rable to the worst of that which we Southrons reject as valueless.
A dish of Litchi fruit, from China, a delicious kind of nut contain-
ing a substance very like a Guimaraens plum, was placed upon the
table. By the side of this was stationed a fine specimen of the
Ananassa bracteata, a Brazilian pine-apple, which is remarkable both
as a splendid flower and a delicate fruit.

December ISfh.

The most striking objects upon the table were some specimens of
apples, which, it was stated, had been altered in external appearance
by the influence of other kinds, the blossoms of which hung near
them. This is a fact, which, if true, is utterly inexplicable to the
philosopher ; but in favour of which, it must be confessed, that
there are many well attested cases which compel attention to the cir-
cumstances. It has been long asserted, that if two varieties of fruit
grow in the vicinity of each other, and the one is influenced by the
male pollen of the other,not only an ultimate eifect is produced upon
the seed of the variety so influenced, but an immediate and obvious
change takes place in the external characters of the fruit ; thus if a
green apple is affected by the pollen of a yellow apple, the former
will become yellow, and so on. Now, as far as we know, the fe-
cundating aura of the pollen only affects the stigma, the stig-
matic duct, and the ovulum, all exceedingly minute parts, wholly
inclosed from external observation, and having as little connexion
as possible with the coats of the fruit ; and in the apple and all
fruit, the mass of which consists of floral envelopes in a succulent
state, connexion is most completely interrupted between the parts
affected by the pollen, and the external coating. AH that we can
say is, that appearances are in favour of the assertion above re-
ferred to, and theory against it.

January 1st, 1828.

We were surprised at seeing at this meeting some fine bunches
of asparagus, which had not the sickly, unnatural appearance of a

Proceedings of the Horticultural Society. 193

forced vegetable, but tlie health and vigour of a natural production of
the season. Upon inquiry, we learned that they had been obtained
in the garden of the Society in open bees, by practising a method
employed in all the north of Europe, although but little known
here. This consists in filling the alleys of common asparagus
beds with hot dung, and covering the beds with the same material,
protecting the whole with mats in bad weather. In this way an
artificial spring is produced, which stimulates the asparagus plant
into vegetation, and induces it to deveTope itself in precisely the
same manner as it would under the natural influence of an April
sun. This practice is not only far more effectual than the less per-
fect plan of trusting to damaged roots heaped in a hot-bed ; but is
also more economical, whether the excellence or the weight of the
produce is estimated.

January Ibih,

A paper by Mr. Seton upon the utility of temporary copings to
garden walls was read. The object of the author was to enforce
the necessity of intercepting the effects of terrestrial radiation upon
the blossoms of wall trees, in the clear cold nights of March, by inter-
posing a substance between the plants and the sky ; for this pur-
pose, the common plan of adapting, in a temporary manner, boards
to the front of a wall was recommended ; a plan which is un-
doubtedly efficacious, if the boards are 15 or 18 inches broad, but
which is of very doubtful value if they are much narrower.

February bth.

An extensive collection of American apples, received from New
York, was exhibited. As these were undoubtedly a favourable speci-
men of the growth of North America, it may be useful to point out to
our readers their true quality, at a time when a good deal of false
value is attached to the fruit of that country, through the assertions of
a certain political writer, who has found it profitable to sell the trees.
In the first place, they were, without any exception, handsome fruit,
particularly well grown, and neither over nor undersized. In the
second place, they were, even at this late period of the apple season,
quite sound, although they had sustained the disadvantage of having
travelled from New York in a barrel. In the third place, they were,
with two exceptions, sweetish, without acidity, or any agreeable fla-
vour. The exceptions were the Rhode Island Greening, and the
iEsopus Spitzenberg; the former of which is perhaps the mostdelici-
cious apple in the world. In those who had previously studied Ameri-

JAN.— MARCH, 1823.

194 Proceedings of the Horticultural Society*

can appleSjthis difference between appearance and reality excited no
surprise, for it has long- been notorious, that the character of these
is that of American apples, even in their own soil, with the ex-
ception of the two above named, the Newtown pippin, the Pomme-
grise of Canada, and the Fall pippin. But even the latter are
but indifferently adapted to our climate, the Newtown pippin, in
particular, cankering", and exhibiting every mark of an irrecoverably
diseased habit, unless trained upon walls with a southern aspect.

February lOth.
A paper by Mr. Lindley was read upon an Italian apple, called
the Malcarle, which has been celebrated by Italian writers as the
most beautiful, the most delicate, the most delicious, and the most
fragrant of apples. In this opinion the writer concurred, and re-
commended that pains should be taken to reconcile it to our climate
by giving it the assistance of a south wall. An account was also
laid before the Society of the genus Calochortus, by Mr. David
Douglas, who succeeded, during his travels in North-west America,
in adding two fine new species to that already imperfectly described
by Pursh. Of one of these which had flowered in the garden of the
Society at Chiswick, a coloured drawing was handed about, from
which it appeared to be a plant like a Ferraria, with brilliant pur-
ple flowers, adorned with tufts of hairs in the inside, and one of the
most lovely bulbous plants with which we are acquainted. Fruit
of the King date of Morocco was exhibited ; this was a very sweet
delicious kind of date, not much larger than a French plum, and, like
that fruit, covered with a delicate bloom. It was infinitely supe-
rior to the dates of the shops, which are chiefly imported from
Smyrna and Alexandria, and are to King dates what the crab-apples
of our hedges are to the golden pippins of our desserts. We also
observed a bottle of the fruit of Gaultheria Shallon, a North-west
American plant, recently obtained alive through the activity of Mr.
Douglas. It is likely to prove an acquisition of very great import-
ance to this country, as it possesses the unusual merits of being an
elegant low tree, an evergreen, a hardy plant, a good fruit, easily
propagated, and promising to form capital underwood in preserves
of game.

195

ASTRONOMICAL AND NAUTICAL
COLLECTIONS.

i. Simple Determination of the most ancient Epoch of
Astronomical Chronology, In a Letter to FRAficia
Baily, Esq., F.R.S.

My dear Sir,

When I addressed to you some remarks on the date of
an astrological manuscript, found in Egypt, I was not aware
how perfectly superfluous the chronological evidence, aflbrded
by such fragments, is rendered by the accuracy of the ori-
ginal tables of Ptolemy, which were probably the basis of
the computations that those fragments contain. I have since
looked into these tables, as they are exhibited in the edition
of Basil, which, without any suspicion of having been sophis-
ticated by translators or commentators, is still very cor-
rectly printed ; and my copy of which I read with the greater
pleasure, as a gift of my friend. Professor Schumacheh:
you have also had the goodness to furnish me with the elabo-
rate Commentaries of the Abb^ Halma, which I did not
venture to consult until I had made a separate computation
of the chief points that I wished to ascertain ; although I
afterwards obtained from them some valuable assistance in
verifying my results, and in the more ready comparison of
the different parts of the wonderful original with each other.
The planetary tables of Ptolemy are all carried back to
the epoch of the Alexandrian noon of the first day of the first
Egyptian year of the reign of Nabonassar. The mean daily
motion of Saturn, as laid down in these tables, is 0° 2' 0"
33'" 31"" 28'"" 51"""; and that of Jupiter 0° 4' 59" 14"' 26'"'
46'"" 31'""' ; (P. 214, 215, 217, 218.) The former of these
motions is less by -^f^iyi *^® latter by -x^(]o(t ^^b"? ^^^^ those
which are laid down by Bouvard in the latest of our modern
tables. They therefore afibrd very convenient foundations
for determining the exact year that was intended ; and their
evidence is of the more importance, as the other very slow
changes, which might be employed for the same purpose,
indicate, for some unknown reason, a much greater antiquity

02

196 Astronomical and Nautical Collections.

than is consistent with collateral evidence ; the changes in
the position of the earth's axis, for example, both in its
direction and its inclination, being considerably greater than
the results of the best theories would lead us to expect in the
time that has elapsed.

We may suppose, in the first instance, that the epoch of
the sun's mean longitude (P. 81) is correctly laid down as
330° 45', and his true longitude 333° 8'; the great equation,.
2° 23', being found in the table of Prosthaphaereses (P. 78),
opposite to the mean anomaly 265° 15': then, taking the sun's
mean longitude at the beginning of the corresponding Gre-
gorian year, as about 280°, the difference in the sun's longi-
tude becomes about 50° 45' ; and it will be most convenient
to reduce the places of the planet to the beginning of such
a year, in order to compare them with the modern tables,
which are arranged according to Julian years ; the difference
of these years not being material for the present purpose.
We thus obtain from the epochs of the tables, which are
296° 43' and 184° 41' (P. 213, 216), 295° for Saturn, and
180° 23' for Jupiter ; that is, in the decimal notation of Bou-
vard, about 328^'^" and 200^'' respectively.

We now find that Saturn had returned nearly to the same
mean longitude at the beginning of 1814 ; for which we have
327.07 : and if we look back for all the years at the begin-
ning of which the longitude is the same within a very few
degrees, we shall observe recurrences more or less exact at
periods of 2, of 7, and of 12 revolutions, corresponding to
59, 206, and 353 years ; and we may easily make a table of
all those which particularly require attention.

^ GR

335/

322 f

327

333

326

331

323

Among these dates, those which afford the nearest coinci-
dences are -893, -834, -687, and -746: and it is sufii-

Year

1814

^ GR

327

Year

-657

T? GR

3351
322'

Year
- 863

1461

-658

- 864

1108

-687

327

- 893

755

-716

333

- 922

402

-746

325.6

- 952

49

-775

331

- 981

-304

-805

323

-1011

-834

329

-1364

Astronomical and Nautical Collections, 197

ciently well known that this last is the true date, as we may
at once infer from the place of Jupiter, which is 198.5^^ at
the beginning of this year, and in —805, the nearest alterna-
tive, 208'^'^^ in -687, 189««'only.

If we wish to verify the calculation, from Ptolemy's own
tables of Saturn, we have, for the 2560 equinoctial years
between - 746 and 1814, 2560 x 365.24222 days, making
2561 Egyptian years, and 255.1 days. Then (P. 213)

For 2268^=324x7

2°

29'

0"

288

280

18

55

5 (P. 214

)61

7

240«i (P. 215)

8

2

14

15.1

30

20

e in

1827, 202GR

285°

26' 42"

48

54 55

19

56 58

1

31 1

352 7 29
This is too little by 74°, or -^^ of a revolution, out of 87
entire ones, and the agreement would be more perfect if we
supposed the time a year longer : but the motion being
already slower than that of the modern tables, it is clear
that such a supposition is inadmissible. In a similar man-
ner we find, for Jupiter, the longitude
after 2574 Egyptian years and 258^ days.
Hence, (P. 216, 218) 2430^=810x3
144
240^^

m

355 49 36
The error here appears to be only 4° in 257 revolutions,
which is little more than ^^j-^jjir » ^^t, in fact, it is a degree
or two greater at each end, though still small enough to
make the year perfectly certain.

It is therefore abundantly demonstrated, from the tables
of Saturn and Jupiter only, that the Alexandrian noon of the
first day of the first year of Nabonassar happened in the
equinoctial year preceding the vernal equinox —746; and,
according to Ptolemy's reckoning, the sun's mean longitude
was 330° 45', whence the date was M. Eq.-746y -29.676^ :
or since, according to Ptolemy ""s equation, the true equinox
happened when the mean longitude was 359° 23' only, if we
call the true equinox ^, the date becomes ^ - 746' - 29.050^ :

198 Astronomical and Nautical Collections.

and this date is less likely to be affected by the error of the
equation than the former ; but they both require correc-
tion on account of the erroneous length of the year em-
ployed in carrying back the epoch : for though Ptolemy's
sidereal year is within 12 seconds of the truth, his tropical
year, as well as that of Hipparchus, is about five minutes too
long : since these great astronomers agree in making the
Julian year too long by -^%-^ of a day, while the Gregorian is
shorter by ^§-^ ; so that in the 600 years preceding the most
accurate observations of Hipparchus, they made this differ-
ence 2 days instead of 4^, and they supposed the sun to have
been 2^ days too far advanced on the day in question, and to
have described a space so much shorter than the truth. This
correction would give us the date ^ —746^ — 31. 55^ But the
mean of Hipparchus's actual observations, reduced, with all
possible care, according to the correct value of the tropical
year, gives us nearly ^ — 746^ — 30.4^ for the epoch of Na-
bonassar.

With the assistance of Mr. Raima's table of astronomical
chronology, and of the Memoirs of Professor Ideler, which he
has republished, I have endeavoured to exhibit, in chrono-
logical order, the various observations which are scattered
through the works of Ptolemy, and to connect them with the
series of Olympiads, and with other chronological epochs.
But I must defer this table to a future occasion.

Believe me, dear Sir,

Yours very sincerely,

Park Square, 8 March, 1828. T. Y.

ii. Elementary View o/^^e Undulatory Theory of Light,
By Mr. Fresnel.

[Continued fromthe last Number.]
Of coloured Rings,
The cololired rings, exhibited by two glasses pressed toge-
ther, when one of the surfaces in contact is slightly convex,
are explained in a very simple manner by the principle of
interferences : they evidently result from the mutual influ-
ence of the two systems of undulations reflected at the first

Astronomical and Nautical Collections. 199

and the second surface of the plale of air comprehended
between these glasses. But before we enter into the detail
of the explanation, it will be necessary to establish a prin-
ciple with regard to the reflection of light, which will be
required for this purpose.

When an agitation is propagated in a medium of uniform
elasticity and density, it never returns to the same point ;
and while it is communicated perpetually to new strata of the
medium, it leaves no traces behind, but the strata which it
has passed remain in absolute rest ; in the same manner as a
ball of ivory, which strikes another of equal magnitude,
communicates all its motion to this second ball, and remains
at rest after the stroke. But the effect is not the same
when the second ball is either larger or smaller than the first,
for in either case the first ball continues to move after the
stroke. When the second ball is greater than the first, the
new velocity of the first is in a direction contrary to that of
its former motion ; and when smaller, the first ball continues
to move in the same direction as before, so that the new velo-
cities of the first ball, after the stroke, must be marked
by contrary signs in the two cases. This comparison may
assist us in understanding the consequence of the wrrival of
an undulation at the surface of contact of two elastic me-
diums of different densities : the infinitely thin stratum of the
first medium, which is in contact with the second, and which
may be compared to the first ball, does not remain at rest
after having put the contiguous stratum of the second medium
in motion, on account of the difference in their masses, and a
reflection takes place : but the new velocity which belongs
to the stratum of the first medium, after the stroke, and
which is communicated successively to the neighbouring
strata behind it, must have its sign changed accoi*dingly as
the stratum of the second medium is more or less dense
than that of the first. This important proposition, which
Dr. Young deduced from the considerations which have been
here explained, has also been derived by Mr. Poisson from
the formulas which he has demonstrated by means of a rigor-
ous and refined analysis. When applied to the reflection of
light, it enables us to infer that, accordingly as an unduktion

200 Astronomical and Nautical Collections.

is reflected within the denser medium or without, the velo-
city of the particles which constitutes, the undulation is posi-
tive or negative respectively ; so that all the corresponding
motions must have contrary signs in the two cases.

We may now return to the phenomenon of the coloured
rings, and we ma}'' suppose, to simplify our reasoning, that
the reflected light, which is observed, is perpendicular to the
surface, or very nearly so ; and that one of the systems of
undulations is thrown by the illuminating object on the first
surface of a plate of air, which is also the second surface of
the upper glass: and what will be said of this system is
applicable to every other. At the moment when it arrives at
the surface of separation of the glass and the air, it suffers a
partial reflection, which diminishes, in some measure, the
intensity of the light transmitted to the air, and excites
within the first glass another system of undulations, of which
the intensity is greatly inferior to that of the transmitted
light ; so that this light, being very little weakened by this
first reflection, produces, when it arrives at the second sur-
face of the plate of air, a second system of reflected waves of
an intensity nearly equal to that of the waves which are de-
rived fi-wn the first reflection : and hence their interference
produces colours so bright in white light, and dark and light
rings so distinct in hom.ogeneous light. The two surfaces of
the plate of air being nearly parallel, in the neighbourhood
of the point of contact, where the coloured rings are formed,
the two systems of waves follow the same path : but that
which has been reflected at the second surface, will be found
retarded, in comparison with the other, by an interval equal
to twice the thickness of the plate of air which it was twice
crossed. We must, besides, remark that there is another
difference between them; the first having been reflected
within the glass, which is the denser medium, while the
second has been reflected without the second glass ; whence
arises, according to the principle already established, an
opposition in the direction of the elementary oscillations.
Thus when, from the difference of the paths described, the
two systems of undulations ought to agree with each other,
and so perform their motions in the same direction, we are

Astronomical and Nautical Collections. 201

to conclude, on the contrary, that they are completely at
variance ; and, on the other hand, when the difference of the
paths would indicate a complete discordance, we must infer
that their oscillatory motions agree perfectly with each other.
Upon these principles it is easy to determine the position of
the dark and bright rings.

In the first place, the point of contact, where the thickness
of the plate of air is evanescent, and produces no difference
in the length of the paths of the two systems, ought to exhi-
bit a perfect agreement in their oscillations : hence, from the
opposition of the signs, the reverse takes place, and they
destroy each other ; so that the point of contact, when seen
by reflection, exhibits a black spot. As we go further from
this point, the thickness of the plate becomes greater ; and at
a certain distance it becomes, for example, equal to half an
undulation, which would exhibit a complete discordance ;
but, from the change of signs, affords a perfect agreement,
so as to become the most luminous part of the first bright
ring. When the thickness of the plate of air is equal to half
the length of an undulation, the difference of the paths de-
scribed being a whole length, which answers to a perfect
agreement, there will again be a perfect discordance, and
the part will be the middle of a dark ring. It is easy to see,
in general, from the same mode of reasoning, that the black-
est points of the dark rings correspond to thicknesses of the
plate of air expressed by 0, J<i, |c?, 2d, ^d, and so forth ;
and the most brilliant points of the bright rings to thick-
nesses id, ^d, -5fl?, Id, 1^, V^?, and so forth ; d being the
length of a luminous undulation in air; or, if we take one
fourth of this length for our unit, the thicknesses of the plate
of air, answering to the maxima and minima of reflected light,
will be represented by the following numbers :

Dark rings 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 ... .
Bright rings 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 . . . .

It is evident that this unit, or the fourth part of a lumi-
nous undulation, is precisely the length of what Newton calls
the Jits of the particles of light : so that if we multiply by
4 the measures of them which he has given, for ** the seven''
principal kinds of simple rays, we obtain the corresponding

202 Astronomical and Nautical Collections,

lengths of their respective undulations : and we obtain in
this manner precisely the same results as when we deduce
the lengths of the undulations from the measurement of the
fringes produced by two mirrors, or from the diversified
phenomena of diffraction. This numerical identity, which
was first pointed out by Dr. Young, establishes between
the coloured rings and the diftraction of light, an intimate
connexion, which, before his time, had escaped the notice of
natural philosophers, who had been guided by the system of
emanation ; this connexion being a natural consequence of
the theory of undulation only.

According to the experiment of Mr. Arago, on the dis-
placement of the fringes produced by the interference of two
luminous pencils, when one of them has passed through a
thin plate of some refractive substance, we have seen that the
luminous undulations are shortened within the plate, in the
proportion that the sine of refraction of the substance bears to
the sine of incidence out of air. This principle is universally
true, and extends to all refractive substances, whatever their
nature may be : for example, the length of an undulation of
light in water, is to its length in air, as the sine of the angle
of incidence of rays passing obliquely from [water into
air], is to the sine of the angle of refraction. Consequently,
if we put some water between the glasses in contact, which
exhibit the coloured rings, the plate of air being replaced by
a plate of water, in which the undulations of light become
shorter, in the proportion which has been stated, the thick-
nesses of the two plates, which reflect the same rings, will be
to each other in the proportion of the sines of incidence and
refraction, at the passage of light from air into water. This
is precisely the result obtained by Newton from observation,
when he compared the diameters of the rings exhibited in
both cases, and deduced from them the respective thicknesses.
This remarkable relation between the phenomena of difirac-
tion, refraction, and coloured rings, which have no connexion
in the system of emanation, might have been very accu-
rately predicted from the theory of undulation, since, in this
theory, the sines of the angles of incidence and refraction
niust necessarily be proportional to the velocities of propa-

Astronomical and Nautical Collections, 203

gatlon, or to the lengths of undulation of the light in the
two mediums, as will shortly be seen in the demonstration of
the laws of refraction.

Having explained the formation of the reflected rings by
the interference of the reflections from the first and second
surface of the plate of air, Dr. Young has shown, that the
much weaker rings, which are seen by transmission, result
from the interference of the rays directly transmitted with
those which have first been twice reflected within the thin
plate ; and that they must naturally be complementary to the
reflected rings, as experiment proves that they are. It is un-
necessary to enter into the detail of their explanation at pre-
sent ; it must only be remembered, that the great faintness
of these rings, when the incidence is perpendicular, depends
on the great dift'erence of intensity of the two portions of
light : [and more especially on the effect of the unaltered
light, which is inseparable from them, in effacing their im-
pression on the eye ; for there is reason to think their inten-
sity more considerable than Dr. Young at first supposed.

Tr.]

We may also pass over the phenomena of rings exhibited
in light falling obliquely on the plates : observing only that
the theory explains the circumstance of the augmentation of
their diameters as the obliquity increases, and that the very
simple formula, which is derived from it, represents the phe-
nomena with perfect accuracy, at least until the obliquity
becomes extremely great : for when the light is very much
inclined to the surfaces, the results of the calculation are not
so perfectly conformable to the measurements of Newton.
But it is probable, that this irregularity depends upon some
deviation from the ordinary laws of refraction, which are
supposed in the calculation, in the case of light passing so
obliquely between surfaces so near to each other.

The rings, v/hich we have hitherto considei'ed, are such as
are produced by homogeneous light : but it is easy to infer
from them what must happen in white light, by considera-
tions similar to those which have been employed in the case
of fringes, exhibited by two mirrors. This analysis of the
phenomena may be found very mu^h at length in the Optics

201 Adronomic^il and Nautical Collections.

of Newton ; who first demonstrated that the effect produced
by white light depended always on the union of the different
effects of the coloured rays of which it is composed.

Of Reflection and Refraction.
It has been shown, from the example of the collision of
elastic bodies, in what manner a part of the undulatory mo-
tion must be reflected at the surface of contact of two me«
diums of different densities : while another part is transmitted,
and propagated in the second medium : and for further in-
formation on this subject, the reader may consult the elegant
Memoir of Mr. Poisson, on the reflection of undulations at
the surface of contact of two elastic mediums of different
densities, in which the general proposition is rigorously de-
monstrated. But although the division of the light, into re-
flected and transmitted rays, has been thus explained, the
laws, by which their directions are governed, have not yet
been demonstrated : and it will now be proper to attempt
such a demonstration, from the simplest possible considera-
tions, omitting all complicated development, which might be
required for a general and strictly mathematical view of the
question, in order to make the subject as clear and intelligi-
ble as possible.

D G' a- ii

Let ED and FG be two incident rays, proceeding from the
same centre of undulation, which we may suppose to be at
an infinite distance, so that they may be parallel to each other :
let AB be the reflecting surface ; let Gl be drawn perpen-
dicular to FG and ED : then GI will represent the surface of
the wave at the moment when it meets the reflecting surface
in G. Now, according to the principle of Huygens, we may
consider each of the points agitated by the wave, as G and
D, in the light of new centres of agitation acting indepen-
dently, and emitting rays in an infinity of directions, and with

AstfonoJnical and Nautical Collections. 205'

different intensities. It would, no doubt, be difficult to deter-
mine the law of the variation of their intensities in different
directions about these points : but happily there is no occasion
for such a determination ; for, whatever the law might be,
it is evident, that the rays passing from the two points in
parallel directions would be similarly affected by it, and must
possess the same intensity and the same elementary direction
of oscillation : so that this principle is sufficient to enable us
to judge of the direction in which the resulting undulations
can be propagated. In fact, we may consider the reflected
undulation at a distance from AB infinitely great, in com-
parison with GD, and other intervals of the same order : and
supposing GK and DL to be two elementary rays that have
been reflected, and that are proceeding to contribute to
the formation of an elementary point of this distant undula-
tion, and therefore parallel ; and the angle KGB being equal
to EDA ; it is clear that the elementary motions transmitted
in the lines GK and DL will agree perfectly with each other:
for on account of the equality of the angles, if we draw DC
perpendicular to GK, the two triangles GDC and DIG will
be equal, and consequently GC will be equal to DI. But
DI is the portion of the path of the incident ray ED, which
it has described in its passage to the surface, after the de-
scription of EG by its collateral ray, and (X is the portion
of the path of the ray reflected at G, which it has to describe
beyond that which is reflected at D, in order to arrive at the
point of their meeting : consequently when they meet, they
will both have described the same space, and will perform
their motions in perfect agreement.

But this would be no longer true, if the direction of the
reflected rays were Gk and D^, which are supposed also to
meet in a point infinitely distant, but not to make an angle
with the surface equal to EDA ; for then the interval Gc,
comprehended between the point G and the end of the per-
pendicular D(?, being no longer equal to ID, the paths de-
scribed by the rays in order that they may arrive at the point
of meeting, are no longer equal, and their oscillations at this
point must be more or less discordant ; now we may always
take G at such a distance from D, that the drfl^erence of GC

206 Astronomical and Nautical Collections.

and ID may be equal to a semiundulation ; which will esta-
blish a complete discordance, at the point of concourse, be-
tween the oscillations reflected along the lines G^ and Dl ;
and as they are besides of [equal] intensities, they will mu-
tually destroy each other ; and there can consequently be no
light reflected in that direction.

So true is it that the elementary ray Dl is neutralised in
this case, by that which comes from the point G, that if we
suppress this last, and the other rays which are sufficiently
near to co-operate with it in counteracting Dl, we give, or
rather we restore to the latter, the faculty of appearing in
its place. The different elementary rays, reflected at D, are
so much the more capable of diverging, as the extent of the
reflective surface is the more confined on each side of this
point ; for the elementary ray G'k' proceeding from a point
G situated at the same distance from D as the point G, coun-
teracts the oscillations of D/at the point of meeting, as well
as the ray G^ ; and the general mode of representing these
mutual destructions of the elementary ra3^s is to consider each
intermediate ray Dlas destroyed b}^ the half, in intensity, of
the ray Gk, together with half of G'^' : and then the remain-
ing halves of these two rays by the halves of the next on each
side, and so forth.

if we divide in this manner the surface of the mirror into a
series of parts DG', G'G', and so forth, equal to GD ; the
elementary rays reflected at the points G, D, G', G", all directed
to the same point of concourse at an infinite distance, and
consequently parallel to each other, will differ by pairs half
an undulation in their route : thus, for example, the ray Gy^
will be found half an undulation in advance of the ray D/, and
this the same distance in advance of the ray G'^', and so forth :
for the same reason, the ray proceeding from the middle of
the line GD will be completely at variance with the ray from
the middle of DG', and a similar discordance will take place
between the rays reflected from all the other corresponding
points of GD and DG' : in the same manner, all the rays re-
flected at the different points of DG' will be completely at
variance with these which are reflected at the corresponding
points of G'G", and so forth : now the intervals GD, DG',

Astronomical and Nmitical Collections, 207

G'G", and so forth, being equal to each other, the quantity
of rays which they reflect is the same : we may, therefore,
consider each pencil of elementary rays reflected in this di-
rection by any interval, DG', as destroyed by the half, in in-
tensity, of the rays of the preceding pencil, and by the half of
the following pencil. If the surface is limited, and includes
an even number of these intervals, the two remaining halves
of the extreme pencils will be completely at variance when
they meet, and will destroy each other at this point, so that
no reflected light will be visible in this direction ; but if the
number of intervals is odd, the light reflected in this direc-
tion will be as little extinguished as possible, the remaining
halves of the extreme pencils remaining in perfect agreement
with each other. It must, however, be remarked, that in this
case, the light diffracted, in the direction G/c, will be much
weaker than that which has been reflected in the direction
GK, since all the rays proceeding from the surface, and unit-
ing in the point of concourse, have described equal routes, and
co-operate in their effects. All the consequences of this theory
are confirmed by experiment. To give an idea of the extreme
rapidity with which the light must be diminished in propor-
tion as the direction GK deviates from that of the regular
reflection, it may be added, that even when we can reckon
on the surface of the mirror only five intervals such as GD,
which give differences of half an undulation between their
extreme rays, the intensity of the light refracted in the di-
rection Gk is only, according to the theory, J^r ^^ ^^^^ of
the light regularly reflected ; and when the mirror is of a
moderate breadth, it may easily be understood how very near
the direction of G^ must be to that of GK, in order that it
may contain but five intervals such as GD, or that there may
be but five semiundulations difference in the paths of the rays
proceeding from the two extremities of the mirror.

It is easy to verify the consequences of this theory by throw-
ing, in a darkened room, the rays proceeding from a luminous
point on a metallic mirror, or a glass blackened at the back,
of which the upper surface is covered with a coat of very
opaque black, with the exception of a long and very narrow
surface, comprehended between two right lines, which make

208^* Astrotiomical and Nautical Collections y

a very acute angle with each other, so that the breadth of
the reflecting space continually diminishes as it approaches
the angular point. If we place the mirror at a sufficient
distance, and receive the reflected light on a white card, and
then examine it with a magnifier, we shall remark that the
pencil reflected by the part near the angle is much broader
than that which comes from the remoter part, and that con-
sequently the divergence of the reflected rays is so much the
greater, as the reflecting space is narrower.

This manner of considering the nature of reflection not
only explains why the rays are not subjected, in their pro-
gress, to the ordinary law of the equality of the angles of
incidence and reflection, when the surface is narrow or dis-
continuous, but it even furnishes the means of computing
their comparative intensities in their new directions. It
has also the advantage of giving a clear and precise idea
of that which constitutes a specular polish. We must not
consider the surface of the best polished mirror as a perfect
plane : it is evident, on the contrary, as Newton has already
remarked, even from the mechanical process of polishing,
that it must be roughened by an infinity of little projections;
for the fine powder, which is employed for this purpose^ can
only scratch it in every direction, and it is only the extreme
fineness of these scratches that renders them imperceptible.
But what is the degree of fineness that they must possess, in
order to produce a regular reflection ? This may easily be
inferred from the explanation that has been given of the ordi-
nary law of reflection. For if the points G and G'^ instead
of being situated exactly in the mathematical plane ADB,
are a little above or below this plane, there will arise, in the
path of the rays G^ and G'k\ a small difl'erence, which will
lessen their total discordance with the ray D/ ; and in the
particular case of a perpendicular incidence, for example, this
difference would be twice the projection of the points G and
G' above the plane ADB : if, therefore, this difference were
the hundredth part of the breadth of aluminous undulation,
the diflerence in the routes, which it would occasion, would
be the fiftieth of an undulation : now so small an alteration
from the complete discordance of the elementary rays, would

Astronomical and Nautical Collections, 209

not produce any sensible light in the direction D/, as the
calculation founded on the law of interferences demon-
strates. It is therefore sufficient that the projection of
the elevations, or the depth of the depressions, should be
very small in proportion to the magnitude of an undulation
of light, in order that the surface of the mirror should reflect
no sensible light, except at an angle equal to the angle of
incidence ; and when the greatest inequalities do not exceed
the hundredth of an undulation, for example, that is, the four
or five millionth of an inch for the yellow rays, the mirror must
necessarily exhibit a perfect polish ; [and there is reason to
suspect that, when the scratches are tolerably regular, it will
have the appearance of a bright polish, even if they are in-
comparably larger than this. Tr.]

There is a consequence of this explanation which requires
to be remarked. Since the lengths of the undulations are
different for the different kinds of coloured rays which con-
stitute white light, it may be imagined that the asperities of
the surface may be of such a magnitude, as to afford a pretty
regular reflection of the longest, those of the red rays, and
yet to dissipate a considerable portion of the violet rays, the
length of undulation of which is shorter by a third ; so that
in the regularly reflected image of a white object, the red
and orange rays may predominate, while the green, and espe-
cially the blue and violet rays, may be in a smaller propor-
tion, so that the tint would become reddish : and this result
is confirmed by experiment. Instead of carrying the polish to
a certain point only, which it might be difficult to ascer-
tain, employ a mirror merely ground plane, and worked
with fine emery, and incline it to the incident rays until you
begin to distinguish a sufficiently distinct image of a white
object seen by reflection ; this image will appear tawny, and
even of an orange red colour, like that of the setting sun, if
the object is so bright as to be visible without too much incli-
nation of the mirror. The tint of the image is the same,
whatever the nature of the reflecting substance may be, whe-
ther of steel, for example, or of a greenish crown gla.^^s. In
proportion as the obliquity of the mirror increases, the image
becomes brighter and more brilliant ; and when it become^

JAN.— MARCH, 1828. P

210

Astronomical and Nautiml Collections^

nearly parallel to the incident rays, the reflection is as regu-
lar and almost as abundant as if it had been perfectly po-
lished. We see, in this experiment, that the obliquity of the
mirror produces the same efiect as a diminution of its rough-
ness would do : and it is easy to see the reason of this ; for
the roughnesses only alter the regularity of the refraction
in proportion to the differences of the routes which they
occasion : and it is easy to demonstrate geometrically that
these differences become the smaller as the obliquity of the
rays is greater.

We may now apply to the laws of refraction the same con-
siderations which have served us for explaining the laws of
reflection.

Let AB be the surface separating two mediums in which
light is not propagated with the same velocity. We may
still suppose the incident rays FG and ED to have proceeded
from a point infinitely distant, and consequently to be pa-
rallel to each other : and we may investigate the effects pro
duced by the elementary rays refracted at an infinitely great
distance only, in comparison with the interval GD, or other
quantities of the same order, in order to simplify the state
of the problem. Drawing GI perpendicular to the incident
rays, this line will show the direction of the undulation, or,
in other words, the corresponding motion of the undulation
will arrive simultaneously at G and I, and ID is the addi-
tional space that ED has to describe, in order to arrive at the

Astronomical and Nautical Collections, 211

surface. In the same manner, if we consider two elementary
refracted rays, proceeding from the points G and D, and tend-
ing to a point infinitely distant, in the directions GK and DL,
and suppose DM to be perpendicular to them, GM will be
the portion of the path that the ray GK must describe, be-
yond its companion, reckoning from the surface, in order to
arrive at the point of meeting. These rays will therefore
arrive at this point in equal times, if the light describes the
distance GM in the same time as ID : now it is clear that
this can only happen if the two spaces are proportional to the
lengths of the undulations of light in the respective me-
diums ; or, representing the lengths of the undulations by d
and d, if we have GM. -.Til^d' : d. But, taking GD for
the radius, GM will be the sine of the angle GDM, and ID
the sine of the angle IGD : but IGD is equal to the angle of
incidence IDP, and GM to the angle of refraction QDL;
consequently the sine of the angle of refraction must be to
that of the angle of incidence as d is to d, in order that the
two elementary refracted rays, which we are considering,
may perfectly agree at their point of meeting : and this con-
dition being equally fulfilled by all other elementary rays
proceeding from the different points of the surface AB, which
are reunited at the same point, all their undulations will per-
fectly coincide in this point, and will co-operate in their
effect. It would be otherwise with the elementary rays G^
and D/, tending also to a remote point, but in a different
direction ; for then Gm, being greater or smaller than GM,
is not described in the same interval of time as ID, and one
of these rays must necessarily be in advance of the other ;
now G may always be taken at such a distance from D, that
this difference in their paths may be precisely equal to half
the length of an undulation : so that for every elementary
ray D/, which departs from the direction DL, there is always
another ray G^ directed towards the same point, which dif-
fers from it in the length of its route, by half an undulation;,
and whatever may be the law of variation of the intensities of
the elementary rays which would, originate in the agitations
at G and at D, as proceeding in difierent directions, when
separately considered, it is clear that, the circumstances being

P 2

21^ Astronomicat and Nautical Collections

exactly similar for the two series of vibrations wliicli are pro-
pagated in the parallel directions, D/ and Gk, the intensities
of these will always be the same, as well as the directions of
the elementary motions ; and since these undulations differ in
their progress by half an undulation, their motions will neu-
tralise each other : and it will be impossible that any lumi-
nous oscillation should become sensible in the second medium,
except in that direction which makes such an angle of refrac-
tion, that its sine shall be to the sine of the angle of incidence
as d' is to d.

In the case of the divergence thus neutralised, it is not
only the oscillatory motions that^re destroyed, but also the
condensations and dilatations which accompany them: in short,
every thing being symmetrical and equal among the quanti-
ties with opposite signs that belong to the primitive motions,
the same must be true of the elementary undulations which
are derived from them: and this equality is sufficient to cause
the mutual destruction of all the quantities with contrary
signs that are concerned, whether velocities direct and retro-
grade, or condensations and dilatations, when any one of the
positive quantities is neutralised by a corresponding negative
quantity; or when there is a difference of half an undulation
in the lengths of the paths described.

It may here be remarked again, as In the case of reflection,
that when the surface AB is not infinite, some elementary
rays are always emitted by its extremities^ which are not
totally destroyed, unless the intervals, hke GD, answering
to the difference of a semiundulation, that are contained in
DL, happen to be in even number within the extent of the
surface. But when this breadth Is at