We have read the rare books of the wise ones of old, But their tomes and their spells are as old things to new Theatrical Gossip.-A part of the original "Der Freischutz" has been performed at Covent Garden, by native Germans. The performance went off well enough, but we do not see any great merit in the innovation.-It is said that the present season has been a bad one both at Drury Lane and Covent Garden, and that the managers of both establishments will find themselves minas several thousand pounds. We cannot say that we regret this, as we hope it will teach them the propriety of reducing, to one-fourth or fifth, the extravagant salaries now paid to leading performers. Laporte, the manager of the Italian Opera, is believed to have been, on the whole, more fortunate, though he has had a hard push for it. Matthews and Woman's love's not like hers;-rosy wine makes us gay, two, And woo Nature, and sing with her shouting cuckoo,- LITERARY CHIT-CHAT AND VARIETIES. We understand that Messrs Longman and Co. are preparing for speedy publication, among other works,-Sermons on various Subjects, by the Rev. Ralph Wardlaw, D.D.,-A System of Surgery, by John Burns, M.D., Regius Professor of Surgery in the University of Glasgow, A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Eye, by William Mackenzie, Lecturer on the Eye in the University of Glasgow, and senior Surgeon to the Glasgow Eye Infirmary,-Beatrice, a Tale founded on Facts, by Mrs Hofland, -The Venetian Bracelet, and other Poems, by L. E. L., &c. &c. Mirza Mahommed Ibrahim, a Persian gentleman resident in England, who is attached to the East-India College, is employed, and has made considerable progress, in translating Herodotus from the English into Persian:-thus the earliest accounts of his country which Europe received, and of the dynasty which was overthrown by Alexander, is, after a lapse of twenty-two centuries, likely to be introduced to the present inhabitants of that country in their vernacular tongue. One of the most interesting works lately published in Paris is the "Memoirs of the Duke of St Simon." It comprehends the history of the character of Louis XIV. and his mistresses; and some very curious details relating to the Revolution of 1688. also is doing well; but the Surrey, Sadler's Wells, and the Coburg, Rochefoucauld's Maxims have been translated into modern Greek, burgh Company next Saturday.-The Caledonian Theatre opens toand published with an English version. A French and Arabic Dictionary is about to be published, which will be exceedingly useful to all Europeans travelling in the East. SIR HUMPHREY DAYY.-Private letters have reached this country, announcing the death of this eminent man, who expired at Geneva, on the 29th of May, after a lingering illness. Science and Great Britain have thus lost one of their brightest ornaments. FRENCH LANGUAGE.-We had much pleasure in attending, on Saturday and Monday last, the examination of the pupils of Mr Espinasse, one of the most successful French teachers now resident in Edinburgh. The rooms were, on both days, crowded with a fashionable assemblage of ladies and gentlemen, who must have been equally pleased with the proficiency which the pupils evinced in reading, translating, writing, and speaking French, and with the enthusiasm and earnestness of the teacher. There was evidently no collusion between the two parties;-the whole was an intellectual display of a very interesting and delightful kind. FRANCE. We heartily recommend to our readers a new descriptive Road-book of France, just published by Samuel Leigh. It contains an account of all the post-roads, cross-roads, cities and towns. bathing-places, natural curiosities, rivers, canals, modes of traveling, diligences, packets, inns, expense of living, coins, passports, weights and measures, together with an excellent map and plans of several of the principal towns. It is a work which every Englishman who crosses the Channel ought to take with him. THE ISLE OF MAN.-We have read with much pleasure a little work, recently published, entitled, "Sketches of the Isle of Man, by a Tourist." It is from the pen of Mr Bennet, Editor of the Glasgow Free Press, and does him much credit. Whoever bends his excursive steps, in these blue and sunny days, to the Kingdom of Manx, will do well to provide himself with a copy of the " Sketches." This may be set down as a puff collateral; but it is not, any more than praising a book which deserves to be praised is a puff. THE MODERN ATHENS.-We observe that our arbitri elegantiarum are again beginning to "agitate" regarding the improvements of Edinburgh. Mr Gourlay has done us the favour to send us a copy of his "Plans," which, we think, contains some very sensible remarks; but as we shall probably have something to say more at length upon the subject soon, we shall not at present enter into the question of their superiority or inferiority to those already suggested. One thing we are clear of, that, seeing the gross blunders, in point of taste, some of our juntos of wise men have already made, the public should look well to it before they allow any decided steps to be taken. night under a new Manager-Mr Bass, of the Dundee and Montrose Theatres; -we shall inform our readers what we think of his arrange THE able Article by the Author of "Anster Fair," will appea next Saturday. Mr Brydson's verses shall have a place soon.-We are obliged t postpone several interesting poetical articles which are in types.-W reserve Dr Gillespie's amusing anecdote for the next appearance by Dr Gillespie, or any other person of eminence, to acknowled The author of one of the articles in to-day's Number will p ceive that we have been under the necessity of curtailing it to ada it to our limits; but we have no intention of abridging the other at communication with which he has favoured us. "R. C." is informed that we cannot possibly give a place to do ments connected with Mr Galt, which originally appeared in a Liv pool Newspaper. We observe that a writer in the Weekly Journal has misapprehe ed the tenour of our remarks on Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, revie in our last. We did not complain of the paucity of materials in work, but of the Editor having, to a certain extent, neglected to range these materials in the most judicious manner. LITERARY CRITICISM. The Five Nights of St Albans. In three volumes. Edinburgh. William Blackwood. 1829. THIS is a romance from the pen of Mr Mudford, who was for a considerable period editor of the London Courier. We have read the book with some attention, and we regret to say that our verdict concerning it cannot be a favourable one. The plot or machinery upon which the romance is founded is simple enough. Two persons, of the name of Peverell and Clayton, returning home one night to the town of St Albans, where they live, observe an old abbey in the neighbourhood supernaturally illuminated. Next day they inform their fellow-townsmen of what they had seen; and, in conjunction with the rest of the inhabitants, they determine to watch that night for the recurrence of the phenomenon. The phenomenon not only takes place, but is accompanied with still more extraordinary appearances than on the preceding evening. This induces twelve of the bravest citizens of St Albans to form themselves into an association, for the purpose of watching in the Abbey, till they have discovered the cause of these fearful portents. Their watch is held for five nights, in the course of which innumerable horrible and supernatural events occur; and with a detailed account of these the three volumes are entirely occupied. By fortitude and perseverance the powers of darkness are at last overcome; and, in conclusion, a very ridiculous and unsatisfactory explanation is given of the cause which induced the goblins and malicious spirits to fix upon St Albans as the scene of their nocturnal revels. It will thus be perceived that the author, avoiding all the usual subsidiaries of romance, wishes to rest the interest and success of his work solely upon its uninterrupted appeal to the superstitious feelings of our nature. But he has undertaken to handle a weapon, with the mode of using which he is very imperfectly acquainted. In the first place, the very assumption upon which the whole book proceeds, is, in these days, much more calculated to excite mirth than to create awe. It stoutly sets out with the tangible introduction of devils and "demogorgons dire," and leaves the reader no hope that towards the conclusion of the third volume a long string of mysterious circumstances will be satisfactorily cleared up, and shown to have been nothing counter to the established laws which regulate the material universe. Before we have proceeded six pages, we find that we must, with our author, cut the cable of reason, and drift away on the wildest tide of imagination. To get at all interested in the work, we must be content to believe, not only that supernatural appearances are possible, but that the earth, the air, and the sea, are, in reality, peopled with beings of a nature different from our own, with whom we are brought into immediate contact, and, as it were, rendered familiar. In the next place, besides the absence ab initio of all doubt, (one of the great engines of superstition,) and the consequent certainty that what appear to be goblins PRICE 6d. are goblins, we have so minute an account of their hideous sayings and doings, that terror is, for the most part, merged either in disgust or amusement. Mr Mudford seems to be profoundly ignorant that there is but one step between the sublime and the ridiculous. Having supped full of horrors, he seems anxious to treat his readers to a similar banquet, simply by crowding together all the loathsome and fantastic images which ever came, in the shape of nightmare or stifling dreams, to the unhappy wretch who has eat at supper seven or eight pounds of pork sausages, and an unweighed quantity of toasted cheese. Do not let us be mistaken. We are perfectly willing to admit that considerable genius may be shown in successfully grouping together a number of strange and grotesque images, whether of heaven or of earth; but if the leading object be to excite terror, no little caution and delicacy will be necessary, in order to keep this grouping within proper bounds, and likely to produce the end in view. A very good illustration of what we mean may be had by contrasting the Temptation of St Anthony, as painted by Teniers, with the same subject as treated by several Italian artists. The latter commonly represent the saint in a dark cave, through which the surrounding horrors glimmer dimly upon the eye, stimulating, but not satiating, the imagination; whereas the former brings every thing into view with the most laborious minuteness, and fills his picture with shapes of unclean birds, loathsome beasts, crawling reptiles, and all the similar disagreeables of a vivid, perhaps, but certainly a far less poetical fancy. The consequence is, that, in the first case, we sympathize with the undefined terror of St Anthony's situation, and in the other, wish only for a good sword or sturdy stick to drive the four-feeted abominations away. In the same manner, in fictitious composition, there is a certain boundary, past which terror changes into disgust. None but a man of coarse feelings would, for a moment, suppose that a full, true, and particular account of a raw-head-and-bloody-bones was nearly so spirit-stirring as one or two mysterious and indistinct hints of some undescribed horror. Mr Mudford entirely overlooks this fundamental law in the use of the terrible in composition; and he has been pleased, therefore, to present us with a tissue of descriptions, much more calculated to turn our stomach than to freeze our blood. It would be unfair to make this assertion without proving its truth; and with this view alone we shall introduce into our pages a few passages, to which we should certainly never have given a place on any other account. We need only open any one of the three volumes to meet with whole pages of coarse and loathsome bombast like the following :- "His flesh was one putrid mass of dissolving jelly; his face livid, with here and there broad blotches of cadaverous green; his features bore no distinguishable resemblance to what had been their character in life; while the black mark round his throat, which had been observed in the first instance, had eaten itself, as it were, into a trench or gash of fluid corruption." Or again,— "This imp of Acheron dwelt in a cave or den, a mile beyond the city, whose entrance was guarded by a monster, engendered, as it was said, by his necromantic art, from the seed of the serpent, cast into the seething blood of infants (the first-born of their parents) during an eclipse of the moon; and kept boiling for nine times nine hours, by a fire fed with maidens' eyes." Or again,-" Peverell stood, for a moment, gazing on the shocking object that lay before him. The eyes were staring-the features distorted, and smeared with blood-the wound gaping; but the sun shone brightly-all nature smiled around-while a bloated toad, unscared by the presence of Peverell, was dabbling in, and sucking up, the clotted lumps that lay congealed upon the ground." Or again, "If any neighbouring farmer, or his wife, sickened, it was because the hag Margery had stuck a heart of wax full of magic needles; or had made an exact image of the sick person, in wax, and roasted it before a slow fire; the marrow of the sufferer melting away, drop by drop, as the image itself dissolved." Or again,-" Some human bones, a skull, and what seemed to be the body of a new-born infant, with the dried skin of a water-snake coiled tightly round its neck, and two glow-worms shining in the sockets instead of eyes, stood on a table, in a dark corner, near the fire-place. In the opposite corner was a brood of enormous rats, weltering in blood, which was contained in a brazen cauldron." ment. 66 The sketch of the interior, which follows immediately afterwards, is still more delightful: "The interior was lighted, if light it could be called, with that kind of dusky gloom which is shed over every object by the descending shadows of evening. The eye could distinguish neither the height, nor the length, nor the breadth of the aisles. But pale phantoms, in shrouds and windingsheets, and in every stage almost of mortal decay, were visithat green and yellow hue, as if they had not lain in the ble. Some looked as if life had just departed-others with earth a week-some showed incipient rottenness, in the loss of lips, and eyes, and cheeks-others, with the features dissolving into putrid liquefaction-some were brushing away the worms that crawled out of their ears and mouth-and some, more horrible still, seemed to dress up their dry, fleshless bones, in the living characters of thought and passion! On every side these hideous spectres were seen, sweeping slowly along in the air, or gliding upon the ground, or stalking backward and forward with noiseless motion. Sometimes they would bring their pestiferous faces close, and their smell was of corruption; but if the uplifted hand was raised to put them back, it passed through mere vacancy." AN INCANTATION SCENE. "Margery now laid herself flat down, with her mouth close to the ground, and remained in that position for several minutes, writhing her limbs and pronouncing strange words. Sometimes she was still and motionless, "She arose. Her look was angry. There is some power near, or at work,' said she, which he dreads. I heard his groan in the centre of the earth.' "Helen remembered the signet, and felt it clip her finger with a burning pressure. "I will tear him up,' she continued, stamping her foot the moon from her path in the heavens! I am strong enough violently, "though his yells affright the dead, and drive back for that." These examples would probably be enough to prove that, in this particular style of writing, the "Five Nights of St Albans" will not yield to the most consummate trash that ever issued from the Minerva Press; but as the We doubt not our readers think that we have now facharge we make is a serious one, we must, however re-voured them with a sufficient number of extracts; but luctantly, add a specimen or two additional. The whole there is one other we beg to recommend to their attenscene in the witch Margery's cottage, which occupies a tion, as peculiarly characteristic of Mr Mudford's style. prominent part in the second volume, is in the highest We shall entitle it degree disgusting, and almost unfit to be read by persons possessing minds of the most common degree of refineHere is one short sample of it :-" There stood a coffin, not a span long, with the untimely yielded burden of an abortive womb in it; and close by its side the delicate white pap of the dead mother, seemingly fresh severed from the body. A knife, crusted with blood, was fitted into the throat it had cut, which lay, still dripping, in the hellish circle. There, too, was a cadaverous heart, half gnawed away, as if it had been tossed for food to the blood-weltered rats. A grey scalp, with the skeleton fingers of a clenched hand, tugging at the thinly-scattered hairs, was beside it; and Helen fancied it might have belonged to some despairing wretch, who had died blaspheming! Between these horrible objects, burned low, red flames, issuing from human fat and flesh, and emitting a most noisome smell." What can any one think of the taste and dispositions of the ex-editor of the Courier, who allows himself to gloat over such descriptions as these? The story of Alice Gray, the midwife, is, if possible, (and one would think it barely possi-led breast. ble,) still worse. Here is a brief sample of this most amiable episode:-" The maddened husband, and selfdenying father, with the look and gesture of a demon, cast the innocent babe upon the blazing fire, and then heaped upon it the burning embers! Its screams were loud and terrific! The noise of its crackling flesh, as it shrivelled up in the fierce flames, could be distinctly heard!" These are not accidental passages, for we could, with equal ease, quote pages of similar stuff. As the main horrors of the book are connected with the Abbey of St Albans, may be proper to give one short specimen of what these horrors are. On one of the nights that cauldron, and walked to the four corners of the room, ex"She then poured some of this precious syrup' into the Peverell and his companions went to watch, the follow-claiming, I call you from the east-I call you from the ing is a short view of the exterior of the Abbey: "As they approached the Abbey, the voices were redoubled. Monstrous shadows reared themselves in threatening attitudes along the walls-the bell tolled, and its beat was like the roaring of cannon-purple and sulphureous flames seemed to burst from the windows-the earth trembled beneath their feet-the rushing winds blew from every quarter of the heavens:blazing meteors flashed across the darkened sky-fiery hail fell before them at each step, as if "She threw her crutch upon the ground, and exclaimed, Unfold thyself!' "Helen gazed with mute terror, as she saw the crutch heave, and swell, and enlarge itself, till it gradually assumed the shape of an enormous black serpent, curling and waving about in massy folds. "Suck me one drachm of blood!' continued the hag, uncovering her withered neck, and dragging out a shrivel "The reptile coiled itself round her body with a hissing noise, and its eyes gleaming like two rubies. Helen shuddered; and the hag herself screamed, when the serpent darted its forked tongue into her nipple! "Bravely done!" she exclaimed. Hold it till I bid thee; and then void it, drop by drop, in the cauldron ! Each charmed drop is able to confound the elements, and make turreted castles rock to their foundations in the sudden tempest. But it must fall on the precious syrup made of child's grease, melted by a blue fire, kindled with lizard's brains, or it will not have power to compel Alascon when he is moody.' west-I call you from the south-I call you from the north!' She next stood in the middle of the room, and whirled round three times, saying all the while, I call you from graves, from woods, from fens, and from rocks! I call you from the deep river and the stagnant pool-I call you from charnel houses, and the grave of the unbaptized babe!" "Helen remained motionless-silent-but almost frenzied! Her cheek was pale-her eye wildly following every motion of Margery-her body trembling. The incantation had already gone beyond her acquaintance with such fearful rites; and she knew Margery was now working by tremendously powerful charms-an exertion of her art which she shuddered to think was probably required, in consequence of that golden signet on her finger. She began to dread, too, lest her resolution should be subdued by the intensity of her excited feelings. Once or twice it required all the command she could still exercise over herself to refrain from giving utterance to her agony of mind, though she knew a single word from her, even a half-stifled exclamation, would destroy the whole. open "The hag now bade the serpent give the charmed blood, drop by drop; and no sooner had the gorged creature, rearing its wreathed neck, distilled the warm gore from its ing jaws, than Helen's ears were assailed by the most dismal wailings, and by deep hollow groans from beneath her feet. The walls shook-the earth trembled the loathsome objects which formed the circle leaped and danced about skulls rattled against skulls-the iron teeth chattered-the low red flames, issuing from the unhallowed human fat and flesh, blazed like torches the thunder pealed-and the blue lightning flashed-and there were loud howling and screaming, as if the place were filled with ravening wolves and famished eagles. ture !'" you ;-we are not about to describe the sufferings of the rabbits, guinea-pigs, pigeons, pigs, and chickens, that have from time to time been gasping in articulo mortis beneath the scalpel of the physiologist ;-we have no desire at this moment to excite your sympathy with such horrors, and would not disturb the summer serenity of your thoughts by one unpleasing or unhallowed reflection. Our present remarks are simply to preface a notice of a very interesting and valuable work by Dr Holland, who has devoted much time and industry to physiological pursuits, and whose name, from the freshness of his mind, and the obvious zeal of his disposition in the acquisition of knowledge, is likely, at no distant period, to rank very high in Medical literature. markable variations. All animals, it is The limits which must be prescribed to the present review, and the circumstance of our Journal not aiming at the discussion of controversial points in physiological and medical science, must preclude us from disputing with our author many theoretical opinions, on which we are inclined to differ from him. Our notice of his work we wish to be rather analytical, than controversial; and we "In the midst of this wild tumult of unearthly noises, leave him and his contemporaries, whose opinions he arthe voice of Margery was heard crying aloud, Arise, Alas-raigns, to discuss them more at length in the periodicals con! Alascon, arise! Ascend, mighty Spirit of the fu- which are avowedly devoted to this subject. Dr Holland's Ohe, jam satis! From beginning to end, this book enquiries refer principally to the cause of animal heat; a subject that has engaged the attention of the most distinseems to us an outrage upon common sense, and common guished physiologists, and which has, unquestionably, a decency. There is a certain degree of rude strength in high degree of interest attached to it. some of the conceptions, but it is a strength more befit-known, have a tendency to preserve a temperature that ting a butcher in the shambles, than a Christian knight is more or less distinct from the medium wherein they at tilt or tournament. Besides, all the horrors are gra- live, and which, in diseases, is ascertained to undergo retuitous to a most unjustifiable degree ;-they answer no end, they elucidate no secret, they point no moral. been observed at 107°, in tetanus at 110°, and on some In fever, the heat of the body has They are a mouldering heap of cross bones, which ought occasions has been said to rise still higher. It manifests to be buried again in the charnel-house, from which they variety according to age, season, and climate. have been sacrilegiously dug. ing to Dr Edwards and Despretz, it is said to be lower in the young than in the adult; in infancy, the former has remarked the temperature to be 9440, whilst in the adult it varies from 96 to 98°. The latter asserts, that while in birds it is 105° in winter, it is nearly 111o in summer, gradually increasing in spring, and decreasing in autumn. There appears, also, to be a remarkable difference in the young of warm-blooded animals, as to their power of producing heat. A guinea-pig, soon after birth, is able to resist a low temperature, nearly as well as an adult; but kittens and puppies, when newly born, lose their temperature rapidly, when the external heat is artificially lowered; in a fortnight, however, they again acquire the power of evolving heat. Those animals which are born with their eyes open, can sustain themselves at a given temperature; the opposite class resemble at first cold-blooded animals, and their temperature falls with that of the surrounding media. An Experimental Enquiry into the Laws which regulate the Phenomena of Organic and Animal Life. By George Calvert Holland, M.D., Bachelor of Letters of the University of Paris, formerly senior President of the Hunterian Medical Society, and President of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh. Edinburgh. Maclachlan and Stewart. 1829. Pp. 466. 8vo. THE study of Physiology is commonly regarded as forming one of the most pleasing branches essential to Medical Science; yet it embraces so many subjects of an interesting nature, that they require only to be stripped of the technicalities with which they are often obscured, to command general attention, and be appreciated by the more popular class of readers. The voyager, who, in traversing the wide ocean, is the first to discover some previously unknown island; or the astronomer, who first perceives and demonstrates the existence of some new and distant planet, is not entitled to more credit and praise from his fellow-creatures, than he who is the first to disclose some new and important truth, prevailing as an established law throughout the animal economy. To enter the fields of science with an ardent and anxious mind, to explore their hitherto untrodden paths with unwearied assiduity and zeal, will almost guarantee some degree of success to every enquirer; for so much has yet to be accomplished, and there remain so many truths that have even yet escaped our investigation, that none need despair of ultimately triumphing over difficulties, and making discoveries that may still be of essential benefit to mankind. The experimental philosopher cannot fail to feel animated by this hope; it is the star at once to guide and cheer him in his progress; and thus he may reconcile himself to tasks otherwise of a most irksome and even painful description. But think not, fair and gentle reader! that we wish to summon the spirit of the charnel-house from Surgeon Square to discompose Accord John Hunter, Wilson Philip, Crawford, Edwards, Brodie, and numerous other distinguished physiologists, have exercised their abilities in endeavouring to explain the source of animal heat; and although various ingenious theories have been hazarded, and experiments performed, very different opinions respecting it are still entertained. Black was the first who regarded the respiratory function as producing changes on the inspired air analogous to those of combustion; and when this resemblance was ascertained, the lungs, which had formerly been supposed to act in cooling the heart, were invested by physiologists with the power of producing animal heat. To this it was replied, that if the heat of the body radiated from the lungs, their temperature must be much superior to that of the other organs of the body;—an objection which appeared at that time of so formidable a kind, that Black did not, it is said, attempt its refutation. Lavoisier advocated a similar theory, but speaks of the hypothesis as being entirely his own, and founded on his own experiments. Crawford, by numerous experiments, carefully conducted, became satisfied that arterial blood has a greater capacity for heat than venous blood; and thence inferred, that the heat liberated in the | lungs instantly became latent, and thus formed an unobserved element of arterial blood in its flow through the body, so that, at the subsequent conversion of arterial into venous blood in the capillaries, the quantity of heat became evolved and equalized throughout the system. These conclusions of Crawford have been ably contested by Drs Delaroche, Berard, and Davy, who, from their experiments, conclude that the difference of capacity between the arterial and venous blood is not so considerable as Crawford represented. Whether his theory, however, be correct or not, it may be said to be the prevailing opinion, that our temperature is dependent on respiration, and therefore on chemical changes. Opposed to this, it has by some been ascribed to nervous energy. Mr Brodie, an advocate of this opinion, removed the brain of animals, and continued the respiration artificially. The usual chemical changes of the blood he observed to continue in the lungs but the temperature of the animal diminished, and even more rapidly than if the respiration had not been continued. He therefore concluded, that animal heat is dependent on nervous energy, rather than on chemical changes of the blood. Le Gallois, Dr Philip, and other physiologists, by experimental investigations carefully conducted, subverted this opinion; but to detail further the evidence that is recorded on this subject, would far exceed the limits that could be allotted to it in our present Number. We thought it necessary, however, to enter into these preliminary details, that those of our readers who have not devoted time to this interesting enquiry, may more fully appreciate the investigations of the author of the work at present under review. Dr Holland endeavours to prove," that the Nervous System has no influence whatever upon the generation of animal heat, excepting in diminishing or retarding those chemical changes on which it depends, by destroying the natural proportions of blood submitted to the action of the air." Our author details a number of interesting experiments, which appear to have been very carefully conducted, and which fully establish this opinion. As the machine used by him in these experiments, for inflating the lungs with air, during the time he destroyed the brain and spiral cord, &c. is an invention of his own, and obviates the objection of injecting cold air, it deserves particular attention. By this simple contri vance, Dr Holland was enabled to perform a variety of experiments on a great number of rabbits, all of which tended to confirm him in the opinion, that the removal of the brain, or spinal cord, has no influence whatever on the apparent developement of animal heat, nor on the degree and velocity of cooling. The not awake the infant by its application, and was made much the which the system is adapted to the influence of cold; and The author next proceeds to consider the manner in afterwards devotes several pages to the torpidity of hibernating animals : "The subject of torpidity has engaged the talents of the physiologist and naturalist, and is enveloped in much mystery. The greatness of an effect too often blinds the mind in attempting to ascertain its cause, by mingling in the enquiry a degree of wonder or admiration; and I am disposed to think that the subject of torpidity has been investigated by some with a feeling of this kind. The regularity with which animals have retired to their convenient resorts, the duration of their repose, and the comparative vigour with which they have returned to active life, are certainly occurrences that cannot be regarded by the reflecting mind without a degree of wonder and admiration."-P. 161. "Many theories have been proposed to explain the cause of torpidity. Mangili imagined that the veins are larger, in proportion to the arteries, in hibernating than in other anithat there is only as much blood transmitted to the brain, mals. He supposes, in consequence of this arrangement, during summer, as is necessary to excite that organ to action. In winter, when the circulation is slow, the small quantity of blood transmitted to the brain is inadequate to produce the effect. Pallas observed the thymous gland, and of the thorax, unusually large, florid, and vascular, during two small glandular bodies under the throat and upper part for the occurrence of the phenomenon-viz., that it depends torpidity. The opinion I have brought forward, to account on the character of the external circulation, the effects of which modify the production of animal heat, whose influence is felt, whether excited or depressed, by every organ of the body-is consistent with a variety of facts and analogies, and in harmony with every appearance which these naturalists have adduced in support of their own view."-P. 167. by which the system is enabled to bear a temperature suWe have next, successively, chapters on "the means perior to that of the body;" on "the influence of diseight pair of nerves;" on "the influence of narcotics on ease in the production of heat ;" on "the function of the the generation of animal heat and the digestive powers;" on "the causes which influence the action of the heart;" on "palpitation-syncope;" on "the physiology of the passions;" on the nature of the vital principle;" on 66 Dr Holland proceeds to consider and refute the opi-"sympathy," &c. nion of Dr Edwards, to which we have above referred, that the temperature of infants is above that of adults; and objects, with some reason apparently, to the method which Dr Edwards adopted in taking the temperature: "In his experiments," says Dr Holland, "the thermometer was placed in the arm-pit. There are many objections to this mode of ascertaining the degree of animal heat. The part is particularly subject to perspiration, which may modify very much the results; or, if the arm has been removed from the contact of the body, it will be cooler than usual; or if it has been long applied to this, it will be warmer at one time than another. These circumstances are of sufficient importance to occasion great variations in the indications of the thermometer, and consequent fallacies in the reasoning. The plan which I followed appears to me more correct. Mr Moir, surgeon-accoucheur to the Lying-inHospital, Edinburgh, had the kindness to allow me the opportunity of taking the temperature of infants. The temperature of the body was at all times indicated by the indications which the thermometer gave in the mouth when the infant was asleep. To make the instrument as delicate as possible, it was dipped, for a moment before it was employed, into a cup of warm water, from 5 to 10 degrees above the animal heat. The bulb being thus slightly warmed, did land's are not adapted for discussion in a general literary Many of the subjects treated of in this work of Dr Holmiscellany; nevertheless, we have perused the volume with very considerable interest. The popular reader will find in it much that cannot fail both to amuse and instruct the mind; whilst it claims more imperatively from the man of science, and especially from medical men, a duction of a very able writer, who, in discussing the docmore than ordinary attention. It is obviously the protrines of Hunter, Wilson Philip, Brodie, &c. has displayed a degree of logical acumen and strength of reasoning, that render him worthy as an antagonist and competitor of all who have preceded him in the same interesting investigation. Waldstein, or the Swedes in Prague. From the German of Madame C. Pichler. By J. D. Rosenthal. In two volumes. Second Edition. London. J. Rodwell, and J. D. Haas. 1829. We We have not visited every corner of this world. have not (any more than Captain Parry) reached the |