MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE has hitherto made slight progress in this country. There has been little encouragement held out to men of talent to devote themselves to its study. There is a proud, wilful, obstinate pride of common sense in the English character, that looks with resentment on the superior pretensions of science, and repulses, as insulting, its offers of assistance. No more deadly offence can be given to John Bull than to lay claim to better information than he possesses. The supercilious neglect with which he has hitherto listened to the arguments of the medical jurist in favour of the introduction of a more strict and satisfactory mode of collecting medical evidence, and in behalf of an efficient medical police, is quite in character. We are daily accustomed to hear it gravely impressed upon the minds of juries from the bench," that this new thing called medical Jurisprudence is no part of the law of the land;" we have almost daily instances that lawyers successfully resort to the trick of bringing forward some ignorant dolt whom good luck has furnished with the title of surgeon, to swear in the teeth of a scientific and widely-experienced investigator, and thus neutralize, to the satisfaction of an ignorant jury, the evidence of the latter; we cannot walk through a street of any city in the kingdom without having our eyes insulted by placards headed, "Medical Aid," and promising "the strictest honour and secrecy," -glaring proofs of the inefficiency of a police which allows ignorant men, and of immoral character, to practise upon the shame, fears, and credulity of the lower orders, and commit murder by wholesale with impunity.

Among other inestimable blessings which we owe to this dignified apathy, not the least striking to one at all acquainted with Continental literature, is the miserably small share contributed by the experimentalists of Great Britain to the daily increasing stores of forensic medicine, when compared with what has been done in France and Germany. Hitherto we have been unable to reckon more than a stray pamphlet, an occasional article in a medical journal, and one or two institutional works, which are only adapted to teach the first rudiments of the science, not to diffuse an extended and practical knowledge. Dr Christison's volume is almost the first attempt among us to discuss the science independently, and in that detail which is requisite to exhaust the subject. The author has been long known in the Justiciary Court as a clear-headed and well-informed medical jurist; and he is still more widely known by his excellent and numerous contributions to the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal. The work which we have now in hands fully equals what our previous knowledge of his talents had led us to expect. As the subject is of such vital import

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ance to all, our readers will scarcely object to our enter-
ing into a pretty detailed analysis of the contents of this
book.

the body to which it is applied, and sometimes it extends
The action of poison is sometimes confined to the part of
to distant organs; in other words, it is sometimes merely
local, sometimes remote.
of three kinds. Sometimes they decompose chemically, or
The local effects of poisons are
corrode the part to which they are applied; sometimes
they inflame or irritate the part to which they are applied
and sometimes they merely produce a peculiar impression
on the sentient extremities of the nerves, unaccompanied
by any visible change of structure. The manner in which
the influence of poisons is conveyed from one organ to
another, seems to be, in some instances, sympathetic, in
others, by absorption. The discoveries of Majendie on
venous absorption, and the frequent disappearance of
poisons during life from the shut cavities in which they
have been enclosed, have rendered it a favourite doctrine
that most of them act through the blood. Dr Christison
holds it to be an erroneous opinion, that poisons affect re-
motely the general system. He admits that a few of
them, and, in particular, arsenic and mercury, appear to
affect most of the organs in the body, but maintains that
by far the greater proportion seem to act on one or more
organs only. Some of them act chiefly, if not solely, on
the heart; others on the lungs; a great number on the
brain, and a few on the spinal cord.

The action of poisons may be modified, both in degree and kind, from a variety of circumstances. Dr Christi son enumerates as the principal:-1. Quantity. Not only are the effects of a poison administered in large doses more rapid; they are frequently quite altered in kind. 2. State of Aggregation. Poisons act more energetically the more they are subdivided, and hence, most energetically in solution, or when reduced to a state of vapour. Differences in aggregation have been known to affect the kind, as well as degree, of action. 3. State of chemical combination. "Poisons which only act locally, have their action much impaired, or even neutralised, in their chemical combinations: the action of poisons which operate by entering the blood, although it may be somewhat lessened, cannot be destroyed or altered in their chemical combinations." 4. Mixture. The effect of mixture depends partly on the poisons being diluted; partly on the mere mechanical impediment thrown between the poison and the animal membranes. 5. Difference of tissue in the parts to which the poison is applied. The variations having their origin in this source, depend chiefly on the relative quickness with which the absorption goes on, but not always. Some poisons which cause death when applied to a wound in small quantities, may be swallowed in large doses with impunity. Others are merely diminished in activity; and in some, it matters little to what textures they are applied. It is worthy of notice, that mineral poisons are the least, and animal poisons the most, affected by difference of tissue; while vegetable poisons hold a middle place. 6. Difference of Organ. The differences hence arising may in general be referred to difference of tissue, but not always. 7. Habit and Idiosyn

crasy.

The tendency of the latter is to increase the activity of poisons, and even to render some substances deleterious, which to the greater number of persons are harmless. Such an idiosyncrasy may even be acquired. On the contrary, the tendency of habit is, with a few exceptions, to lessen the energy of poisons.

his testimony must be judged of by the rules recognised by the court. The office of a medical police is, to superintend the cleanliness of cities-the character of the food exposed in the markets-the supplies of water-the locality and structure of manufactories, which, in their process, evolve noxious exhalations and the qualifications of medical practitioners. All these matters are left in this country to chance; and we believe it is now the only country in Europe where this is the case. A medical officer, such as we have suggested in the case of the sheriff courts, might extend his activity with great benefit in this direction. This is sufficiently established by a number of interesting facts stated in the course of Dr Christison's book, for which we refer the reader (among other passages) to the chapter on Lead," and that on "Decayed and Diseased Animal Matter."

The classification of poisons is rather a difficult subject. Dr Christison has preferred classing them according to the symptoms they induce on man. He allows this method to be unsatisfactory, and only adopts it as the least deficient. According to him, all poisons may be arranged under one of three great divisions:-1st, The Irritants, including all whose sole or predominating symptoms are those of irritation or inflammation; 2d, The Narcotics, which produce stupor, delirium, and other affections of the brain and nervous system; 3d, The Narcotico-Acrids, which produce sometimes irritation, sometimes narcotism, sometimes both together. The first class comprehends the mineral acids, the fixed alkalies, the poisonous metallic compounds, some of the earths, the vegetable acrids, cantharides, the venom of serpents, poisonous fish, and diseased and decayed animal matter: The second, opium, hyoscyamus, lactuca, salanum, hydrocyanic acid, and the poisonous gases: The third, night-comparative views of the working of foreign poisons, or shade, thorn-apple, and tobacco; hemlock, and some other umbelliferous plants; monkshood; cocculus indicus, poisonous grain, and poisonous fungi.

The results yielded by the study of poisons, as tending to throw light on physiology and the practice of physic, have hitherto been such as to encourage further research, rather than such as can be said to have added materially to our knowledge in these two branches of study. Although they hold out fair hopes to the physician of the future discovery of new and more efficacious remedies and modes of treatment, it would be worse than madness to act as yet upon the immature researches of the toxicologist. Their bearing upon the science of jurisprudence is more immediate and practical; and to this subject, therefore, we must dedicate a few remarks, notwithstanding the length to which this article has already run.

It only remains that we address a few suggestions to Dr Christison. His book is professedly practical, and he, on this account, declines treating of any but the more common poisons. We are inclined to think, that a satisfactory work upon toxicology can only be produced upon the exhaustive plan, and that much light, even in what regards the practice of this country, may be obtained from of those known here under the influence of a different climate. We could also have wished that Dr Christison had given a catalogue raisonné of the principal Continental works which he has quoted. This would have had the double advantage of introducing his reader to a branch of medical literature which is too little cultivated among us, and at the same time of enabling him to judge of the value of any particular experiment, which must always be influenced by the accuracy of the operator and the credibility of the reporter. We make these suggestions for the benefit of Dr Christison's second edition, which, considering the valuable nature of his work, we doubt not will soon be called for.

Oliver Cromwell, a Poem, in Three Books. Edinburgh.
Oliver and Boyd. 1829. Pp. 200.

Medical knowledge is important to the lawyer and to the legislator, in two distinct points of view. To the former, it is chiefly necessary in discussing the evidence THIS work is, we believe, from the pen of Mr Dunlop for the commission or non-commission of a crime: to the of Greenock. On the whole, we look upon the preface latter, in enacting sound police regulations. With regard as the best part of it. The author is a much better prose to the former, we may remark, that in criminal cases of writer than a poet. The preface extends to twenty-two poisoning, the enquiry resolves itself (as in all criminal closely-printed pages, and contains an able and vigorous We have no intention to investigations) into two great questions:-First, the defence of Oliver Cromwell. reality of the death by poison; and, second, whether it enter into the merits of the question; but we profess ourhas happened through malicious intention or accidentally, selves to be "neutral and candid," and to such Mr Dunand by whose instrumentality. In the first question, the lop is of opinion that "it may be incontestably shown, opinion of the medical man gives the law to the jury. that disinterested patriotism, in the most moderate degree, His declaration, that death has been caused by poison, required decisive hostility to the King's measures; that ought to preclude all further enquiry into the fact. It Cromwell, as well as others, acted from honest principle stands in the same relation as the opinion of an architect, in this respect, and had but too cogent reasons to rouse to whom it has been remitted to report on the state of a them; that he fairly proceeded from one step of power to building. This view of the matter shows at once the another, by the natural progress of events, without being loose and unsatisfactory nature of the mode at present liable to the imputation of remarkable and criminal amadopted in taking this part of the medical evidence. bition; that the chief magistracy of Great Britain was The crown counsel employ a medical man, and proceed entailed on him by motives of self-preservation, by the upon his opinion; the counsel for the prisoner bring regard which is due to the protection of inestimable reliforward another to contradict him ;-the bench and the gious privileges, and in general by the incidence of things, jury, between this conflicting testimony, know not what which, perhaps, he himself could not in one sense counto think. It is the throw of a die whether the innocent teract; and that his reign, considering the untoward cirshall suffer or the guilty escape. Now it really seems to cumstances of it, presents nothing for which to load his us, that the remedy is as simple as the defect in our judi- memory with reproach." With so much admiration of cial institutions is notorious. The precognitions, which, his hero, it was natural to expect that our author would in Scotland, always precede the judicial investigation, are have devoted the main body of his book to a clear elucitaken by the sheriff. Let a competent medical officer be dation of his character and actions; and the name of attached to each sheriff court for the purpose of conduct- "Oliver Cromwell," which he has prefixed to his poem, ing such preliminary investigations as the one alluded to, certainly led us to conclude that we should find it dediand let his report be final. In the second part of the en-cated to his service. This is not the case. The plan of quiry-the question, namely, of intentional or accidental death, and the ascertaining of the criminal-the medical witness descends, of course, to the level of any other, and

the poem is as follows:-It is written in blank verse, and introduces us to Cromwell and his daughter, Mrs Claypole, between whom a poetical dialogue is sustained

CROMWELL'S DREAM.'

throughout. But, instead of talking of their own affairs, These specimens convey a fair notion of Mr Dunlop's in which the reader might have been somewhat interest- general style; and we therefore do not hesitate to say, ed, they scarcely say a word concerning them, except at that he must either alter it entirely, or cease to make any the commencement of the first Book, and at the conclu- farther attempts at the production of poetry. That he sion of the third. They converse rather "de omnibus might improve we consider likely, from the circumstance negotiis et quibusdam aliis." In the " Argument" to the of there being several passages in his book of a much first Book, we find such references as these,-" Descrip- higher order than those to which we have referred; and tion of Britain, prior to the coming of Christianity," as we are ever anxious to do justice to all men, we have "Its Introduction,"- "Account of Icolmkill,"-" Scot-pleasure in selecting one of these for our readers' approland and Ireland Christianised,"-" History of Oswald, bation: King of Northumberland." In the "Argument" to the second Book we have," Advance of Popery over Great Britain in the seventh and eighth centuries,""Allusion to Cyprian, Augustine, and the pristine hermits,"" Transubstantiation admitted-Good WorksIndulgences,"" The practicability of man's discovering and preserving a knowledge of the Divine Character in his own strength,"-" General Account of the Church of Rome,"-" The Culdees,"-" Sketch of Gospel truth," —“ Original Sin," &c. &c. What connexion all this and much more has with Oliver Cromwell, we do not undertake to explain. All that we can state is, that instead of being political or historical, the poem is, to all intents and purposes, strictly theological, and, with a few omissions, might have been called "Nicodemus," or " Edward Irving," with as much propriety as "Oliver Cromwell."

His

But as to the merits of the poetry,-what of them?
Our opinion is, that 'Mr Dunlop is a sensible and well-
́informed man, but not exactly cut out for a poet.
style, which is founded upon Milton, (heu! quanto in-
tervallo!) is terribly laboured, pompous, and inverted,
forming, in these respects, a striking contrast to his prose
composition, which is distinct and vigorous. Take an
example or two of what we call very hard and costive at-
tempts at versification. We think the following passages
nearly as dry reading as any of Euclid's propositions :-
"A maxim 'tis of sages, who explore,
With lucky search, the elements of things,
That in the haughty art of governance,
In arbitrating penalty and pain,
Displeasure moved against the general good
Reward should meet, adjusted to the hurt
And detriment the commonwealth endures:
Although the moral stain and guilt perchance
Of popular and non-offending treason,
Might be o'ergone by a more private sin;
Treason, the vasty basis of the state
Endangering, her loud alarm is just.
And parrying retribution perilous."
"The bark that swims unpiloted, may glide
And roll in circling voyage in advance.

Where wind or tide her worthless range impels;
But to attain the distant mark reserved,
And find the transatlantic beacon sure
Athwart th' illimitable breadth of foam,
All obstacle of air and sea nathless,
The pressure of the potent lath demands
Against the tugging wave, and force oblique
Of blanched sheet, bound faithful to the breeze."

"Urged by primeval custom, nations all
Their scrupling spirits have assuag'd, when ground
With deadly sin, and substituted blood,
That wrath to quench, that was suspect to chafe
And canker in the vengeance-brewing spheres ;
Yet deviate from the true original,
Into idolatrous and perverse rite,
They sacrificed in vain."

"Complete beyond compare, the tangled web
And traversed intertexture of our fate;
And unexpress'd, the involutions strange
Of our polemic broil of swords and words.
None can array the plastic polity
That summon'd into being all the play
Of clashing wits, and stern colliding jar
Of mind confronting mind, in conflict new;
Where old sedate opinion did not crouch,
As wont, in cloister'd abbacies and halls,
But issued on the stage of human life
Unparalleled in sequence and import,”

"As if in dreams and visions of the night,
When deep sleep falls on man, methought I saw
An ancient city's strengthen'd bounds within,
A lofty scaffold, clothed in doleful black,
Amid a close-wedged multitude uprear'd,
For consequence of stern judicial doom.
Stood round the scene of death th' engines of fate;
Sad expectation bent itself unmoved,
And breathless waiting still'd the living mass,
That on a secret portal strain'd their sight;
From whose recess they long did hope and watch
For spectacle to feast their mourning eyes;
And rest and silence for a space prevail'd.

Sudden throughout the crowd a murmur rose
Like sound of zephyr in the tops of trees;
And to the view of all men issued one
From the high dome, majestical and slow,
In sables clad: whose now defenceless head
A foretime graced a golden diadem,
And royal hands a rod of empire sway'd.
But now discrown'd, and from his throne descent,
He stoop'd unweapon'd, 'mid the iron tread
And guard of a closed watch of steel-clad men,
And stern officials of vindictive law,
All refuge fail'd him to the cruel stroke
Of hate and ruthless judgment was he doom'd.
Seemly decorum reign'd, befitting well
His calm and lofty mien; while jewell'd words
From his lips dropt, as with upraised hands
He bless'd his liegemen with a father's love.
Alas! he had a most forgiving eye

To all, save one. And, mid the weeping throng,
He singled me, methought, with such a look
As dying Abel to his brother sent ;

And witness'd that I had not shelter'd him
In destiny's obscure and cloudy day;
Like the prophetic voice of ancient seers,
His words stuck as an arrow in my veins.
Then stooping solemn, he pronounced a prayer,
And reverently inclined him on the block;
Till glided an ill-favour'd one behind,
Vizor'd in crape, like a foul hidden fiend,
Or delegate of darkness, to fulfil

The frenzied inquisition of the state;
And from the breathing corse sever'd the head,
Dext'rous, and swift from every eye withdrew,
Nor e'er in England's realm was seen again,
The people spake not; and the welkin lower'd.
My soul to this dark tragedy was chain'd,
When straight a force invisible me caught,
And ferried swiftly from the bloody scene
To distant coasts remote; yet still invades
Fierce and upbraiding wail throughout the land,
Men's hearts did fail for shed of royal blood;
And women, judging, from the throeing, earth
Was near her end, convulsed and died aghast.
And ever, 'mid the sad and moaning winds,
His stilly voice enter'd my very heart."-Pp. 10-12.
The following lines are also poetical and good. Mrs
Claypole speaks :—

"My loving father! many years have sped
Over thy head, and now they trace behind,
And leave some notice as they fleet away:
Silver upon thy temples here and there
Thy hand is sinewy, and autumn's tints
O'erflush thy season with admired decay.
Thine eye is freighted with a nation's cares,
And thou dost question with ascendency,
And speakest to be heard o'er laud and sea,
And France gives earnest heed, and guilty Spain.

Principles of the Law of Scotland for the Use of Students in the University of Edinburgh. By George Joseph Bell, Esq. Pp. 622. Edinburgh. William Blackwood. 1829.

Ir was high time that an institutional work on the law of Scotland, suited to its present advanced state, should appear. Since the publication of Lord Stair's Institutes, and even the later work of Mr Erskine, the form of our law has undergone an extensive change-many branches have become obsolete, or sunk into comparative insignificance, which formerly occupied almost the exclusive attention of the courts, and the extension of our commerce has introduced new and complex relations into society, which could not be contemplated in older works.

We have a high opinion of the talents and acquirements of many of our present lawyers as practitioners, but we must make bold to say, that our law literature is at this moment very deficient. There are but few modern books on Scotch Law that rise above mediocrity. The fault seems not to lie so much in the deficiency of the authors, as in the general intellectual character of the age. We are now-a-days, in all professions, prodigiously learned, and versant in the most profound investigations —but there is a mistiness about all our knowledge. We know every thing, and we can argue most plausibly on abstract principles; but when kept close to details, we are generally found deficient in distinctness and mastery over the subject. This, with all due deference to the gentlemen of the long robe, is peculiarly striking in their case. Set them upon the track of a question of abstract right the metaphysics of the law-and you are sure of receiving most luminous and eloquent disquisitions; but bring them to investigate its practical principles, and you find them at fault alike in clear views of established doctrines, and their application to special cases. How different is it with Stair, and some others of our older writers! There is scarcely a schoolboy now alive who could not demonstrate the shallowness of their metaphysics; but when they come to elucidate a legal doctrine, or show its application, their reasoning is like a problem in

Euclid.

Mr Bell is by no means free from this defect of his age; on the contrary, we could cull from his writings as striking exemplifications of it, as from those of any writer we know. There is a vagueness about his style that not unfrequently renders it somewhat difficult to see his drift. To compensate for this, however, he has what most of his contemporaries want a comprehensive and systematic knowledge of his subject. His commentaries on the mercantile law of Scotland are not only the best that we possess they are in reality the first, and, as yet, the only treatise on the subject. Mr Bell, therefore, has the honour of being the first who has given to the world a complete and methodised system of what has now become the most important branch of our municipal law. Nor have his labours been confined to mere theoretical investigations. He has taken an active and influential part in the modifications which have been introduced of late years in the forms and proceedings of our courts of law; and for doing justice to his last work-that which now lies before us he has been prepared, by the expe

rience afforded by a discharge of some years' standing of the duties of Professor of Scots Law in the University of Edinburgh.

Mr Bell has, with great propriety, rejected in his Principles the arrangement of Erskine, which is a singularly infelicitous attempt to class the doctrines of the Scottish law according to the division of the Roman jurists, without understanding the principles upon which that division proceeded. Our author's arrangement coincides in the main with that of Lord Stair, with some modifications, however, which the altered state of the law has rendered indispensable. Provided a systematic arrangement admits of the subject being exhausted within which the different divisions follow each other, being in its limits, we are not very nice about the precise order well aware that the very best method must leave some parts which can only be distinctly understood after we have mastered the whole. We refrain, therefore, from some objections we felt inclined to urge to Mr B.'s order; in particular, to his treating of the doctrine of obligations prior to that of property. We cannot, however, omit to suggest one improvement, which we find generally adopted by the institutional writers of Germany. It is to discuss, in a preliminary part, the simple doctrines of property, obligations, and persons; and afterwards the more complicated subjects of property as affected by feudal relations, rights and responsibilities arising from partnership, insurance, bankruptcy, and the like, which uniformly involve more than one of the simple doctrines.

As to the execution of the work, it is every thing we could wish, and calculated to be of use to the practitioner as well as the mere student. The doctrines are simply and lucidly stated; and a list of reported decisions and other authorities annexed to each, which may be consulted for its argumentative treatment. A copious index is added an indispensable part of every systematic law book-prepared, we understand, by the indefatigable Mr Cosmo Ferguson, the compiler of the very excellent indices attached to Mr Bell's Commentaries, and Mr Ivory's edition of the larger Erskine.

In conclusion, we have to add two things. In the first place, there are one or two works which deserve to be excluded from the sweeping censure pronounced in the beginning of this article; especially Mr Robert Thomson's Treatise on Bills of Exchange, Mr Brown's on the Law of Sale, and we might have added, Mr Ferguson's Consistorial Law, had not that gentleman tired of his work in the middle, and patched up the latter part rather slovenly. Secondly, we flatter ourselves that this article itself is rather a successful specimen of the style of writing we have been condemning.

Studies in Natural History; exhibiting a popular View of
the most Striking and Interesting Objects of the Material
World. Illustrated by ten Engravings. By William
Rhind. Edinburgh. Oliver & Boyd. 1830. 8vo.
Pp. 247.

THIS is a book excellently calculated for the ingenuous mind of youth. It contains little that is new, and nothing that is profound; but its materials are lucidly arranged, and its thoughts are prettily expressed. The views which it presents of the great system and operations of Nature, whether in their general or minuter features, cannot fail to lead to pure and lofty conceptions, and will at once strengthen the judgment and refine the heart. As to the praise due to Mr Rhind-though the work is one which will always be read with pleasure and edification-we think it right to state, that it is more a tasteful compilation than an effort indicative of much originality of talent; and is unquestionably more of an elementary than a scientific kind. Such works, however, can never come amiss; and we are always glad to see men springing up among us capable of doing justice to so noble a subject,

and of clothing it in those attractive colours which naturally belong to it. One or two specimens of Mr Rhind's style will be enough to show that he enters con amore into the task he has undertaken, and that it is well suited to his peculiar genius. From his first section we extract the following pleasing passage on

tions of the power, and wrath, and caprice of an unseen— unknown Divinity, the patient enquirer into nature will. find displayed before him a beautiful system of order, regularity, and mutual harmony,-the consummate arrangement of an all-powerful, benignant, and merciful God."-Pp. 12-6.

Mr Rhind rarely deviates, in the course of his work, into any speculations of his own, but contents himself with condensing the materials supplied by others. In one instance, however, he offers his own theory upen rather an interesting subject, and we think there is much good sense in it. It is well known that pure air is transparent and colourless, and the reason, therefore, why the atmosphere should have a blue tinge has given rise to some discussion. It is attributed, by one party, to reflection from thin vapours contained in it; and by another, to refraction, the blue rays being supposed to find a less easy transmission through the air than the other coloured rays. Upon this subject, Mr Rhind remarks—

blue colour of the atmosphere. If I might hazard my opi"The above are the generally-received explanations of the nion of the cause of this appearance, it would be the follow

THE ADVANTAges of the stUDY OF NATURE. "Nature has charms even for the most uninitiated. The green fields and the waving woods, the playful motions of happy animals, the wheeling flights of birds, the buoyant air filled with innumerable insects on glittering wing, the fleeces of white clouds rolling their fantastic lengths along the blue sky, are all capable of imparting a simple pleasure to the mind. But a knowledge of the various operations of Nature is calculated to heighten this pleasure of contemplation in a tenfold degree, and enables one to perceive delicate beauties and nice adaptations, before unheeded or unthought of. A philosophical poet has very beautifully remarked, that the sight of the rainbow never gave him so much pleasure as when he first was able to understand the principles on which it was formed, when he viewed it not only as the arch sublime' spanning the heavens, but as a curious and beautiful illustration of the rays of light, decomposed into their various constituent colours, by the natural prism of the globes of rain from the droppinging:-As the atmosphere extends upwards, its density be cloud. The landscape-painter looks with additional delight on a beautiful scene, because he can enter into the percep tion of the mellowing of tints, the disposition of light and shade, and the receding perspective of the relative objects. "The appearance of the silky-like haze rising from the ocean, floating about on the surface of the deep, and hence ascending in clouds of various shapes and hues, and sailing along the sky, and lighted up or darkened as they pass and repass the sun, is a sight of beauty and splendour calculated to please and amuse the eye; but when we know that this appearance from the deep is a species of distillation going on-that a portion of the pure water of the ocean is taken up by the atmosphere, carried along by the winds, and descends upon the face of the soil in refreshing showers, giving life and sustenance to the animal and vegetable world,-to our feelings of pleasure are superadded those of wonder, delight, and gratitude.

"It is the same with the botanist, the mineralogist, and the investigator of animal life. A tree is, perhaps, one of the most beautiful objects in nature; the massive strength of the trunk, the graceful tortuosity of the branches, and the beautiful and variegated green of the leaves, are all so Imany sources of pleasure to the beholder. But when we think on the series of fibres and tubes by which this tree for ages, perhaps, has drawn nourishment from the earth, and, by a process of assimilation, added circle after circle of woody matter round the original stem, till it has acquired its present enormous bulk,-when we reflect on the curious mechanism of the leaves, by which, like the lungs of an animal, they decompose the air of the atmosphere, selecting through the day what part of it is fit to enter into the composition of the tree, and giving out at night a different species of air,-when we think of the sap passing up the small series of tubes during summer, and these tubes again remaining dormant and inactive throughout the long winter, -these reflections awaken a train of ideas in the mind more lasting and more intense than even the first vivid impressions of simple beauty.

"The untutored imagination may have a vague pleasure from the contemplation of meteors and tornadoes, of flaming comets, or darkening eclipses, as the foreboders of important events, or the precursors of national calamities,-the wild savage may listen to the hollow voice of the coming storm, the shrieking spirit from the mountain, his good or evil genius, or the strange cries of unknown birds and animals, with an excited awe and delirious tremor,-but to the enlightened enquirer into nature there are pleasures no less intense, and grounded on a more rational, permanent, and ennobling basis. His admiration is no less great, as he looks on the vast and striking revolutions of the heavenly bodies, and the imposing phenomena by which they are accompanied, because he scans the laws by which they are upheld and regulated; and when he turns to the worlds of animated existence, descending to the minutest points he has a field opened to his view of accurate adaptation, and most curious and elaborate construction, the investigation of which is calculated to excite the highest feelings of admiration.

reflecting the sun's rays in like proportion diminishes, till comes gradually less and less, and of course its power of at last, at the extremest verge where it terminates, there is no reflection at all-a total darkness. The extreme strata then being most rarified, has the least power of reflecting the rays of light; and the light thus reflected is of a bluish tint, or consists principally of the blue rays. In this manner, a dark brown mountain, whose surface has small reflective capabilities, when seen at a distance has a deep blue appearance, exactly similar to the atmosphere. It cannot be the medium of the air through which it is seen that renders it of this colour; for if part of the mountain be covered with snow, which has strong reflective powers, this snow is still seen of a pure white colour. It has been ascertained, too, that the atmosphere, when seen from the top of a very high mountain, has a deep blue tint, approaching to black, and this tint becomes deeper the higher up you ascend. It may be observed also, that the centre of the atmosphere, looking perpendicularly upwards, always appears of a deep towards the extreme verge of the horizon, or in the lower blue colour, which gradually passes to a whiter appearance strata next the earth. Here most dense air is accumulated, and here the reflection is most perfect, or nearest approaching to white light; whereas, perpendicularly overhead, the rays of light pass through less of this air, the reflection is fainter, and hence the deep blue colour."-Pp. 45-6.

We have room for only one other short extract. It is upon

shall notice is, the various sounds produced by insectsTHE SOUNDS MADE BY INSECTS.-"The last thing we those diversified sounds which are so often heard, and which so enliven the animated creation. Perhaps the uninitiated will be astonished to hear, that the shrill clarion of the bee, the hollow buzz of the dor-beetle, the chirping of the cricket, and the merry voice of the grasshopper, are none of them produced from the mouth of the respective insects. Indeed, no insects have the power of producing sound by the mouth; they do not breathe through the mouth, and consequently can have no power of producing sounds by that organ. The sounds are produced either by the quick vibration of the wings, or by beating on their own bodies or other hard substances with their mandibles, or their feet. The sound of the bee is produced by the vibration of its wings in the air. The cricket, when it is disposed to be merry, beats time with its mandibles against its head and horny sides, in the same manner as a human being, when in good spirits or idle, drums with his fingers on the table. There is a sound which has often struck terror into the souls of the superstitious, and which is frequently heard behind the ceiling, called the death-watch. This has been ascertained to be caused by a small species of wood-beetle, and most probably in the same way as the cricket produces its sound, by beating with its feet on the wood."

We can safely recommend this work as one which combines a fine tone of morality with much practical and-useful information.