́ed, if it did not preserve its contracted territory absolutely inviolate, at least protected it from many of those "struggles" which constantly convulsed the continental states, while the justice and moderation which its people observed in all their naval affairs, made their maritime laws those of the civilized world, being adopted by Rome, and wrought into her Pandect. The materials of a lengthened eulogium present themselves to the recollection of every moderate scholar, and are, I confess, passed over with reluctance. But enough has been already said on this branch of the argument. The Rhodians maintained their liberties for the unexampled period of about two thousand years, and Rome had again the disgrace of annihilating them. The recorded charge against them, of universal luxury, proves, that unchecked as was their population, comparatively speaking, still their numbers did not exceed the means of subsistence, but the reverse. But their institutions solemnly record a still more interesting proof of this fact, so important to our present argument. In Rhodes the poorest and most destitute individual was never deemed redundant, much less pernicious; this discovery these heathens left for the politico-theologists of our present Christian age. They preserved their poor, universally, with the most sacred care. They laid it down, as a rule, that every man should work for his maintenance while he was able; but, when no longer able, he should be as well maintained at the expense of the state.' How absurd*;' our modern theorists being the judges! especially in such a crowded population, and so confined a territory, as that of Rhodes, Favoured, however, beyond the lot of most other countries upon the face of the earth, the Rhodians maintained their liberty and enjoyed their growing prosperity for the unexampled duration of nearly twenty centuries! nor were either endangered or destroyed by the principle of population,―the parental evil of human beings, according to Mr Malthus. No. Rome, as has been said, had, at length, the infamy of extinguishing this ancient state; and Christendom the double disgrace of tolerating the malignant and the turban'd turk,' in trampling down the wretched remnant of human beings, which Rhodes still contained, to the level of human subsistence; a retrograde operation, which would never be completed till it had extinguished the species." • Malthus, Essay on Population. : MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 1. On Domestic Brewing. For making excellent ale or table-beer, it is not absolutely necessary to use malt. To conceive this subject rightly, we must consider that it is the sugar of the malt which undergoes fermentation, and that any other sugar will ferment just as well, although no other sugar is so cheap. Economy and long habit have established malt-sugar as a brewing material, but cane-sugar will afford an excellent drink. To persons residing in the country, and far from breweries, as well as to those who do not choose the great trouble of managing malt, this is a valuable fact. Another advantage of cane-sugar is, that the apparatus necessary for converting it into beer is much more simple; all that is required, is a cask which has no bunghole, or has it well stopped up. This is to be set standing on either of its ends: a cock is to be fixed in one of the staves, about an inch above the bottom chimb, so that, in drawing off the liquor, the sediment cannot also run. In the centre of the top of the cask, that is, in the centre of its other end, a hole is to be bored, of such size as will admit a large bottle-cork. Let us suppose that the cask holds 10 gallons, and the drink is to be tolerably strong ale. The proper quantity of hops required for 10 gallons of ale, in this process, will be about 14 lb. On this quantity, contained in any convenient vessel, pour on 11 gallons of boiling water; or, what is much better, boil the hops in the water for about five minutes, and no more: then strain off the hops in the strained liquor dissolve 14 lb. of sugar, and mix in a pint of yest of the best quality. Pour the whole into the cask: it will soon begin to ferment; it will throw up its yest through the cork-hole at top, and, this being retained within the external rim of the chimb, it will, for the most part, fall back into liquor, and run back into the cask. It will require, at the ordinary temperature of summer, so much as three weeks or a month to complete the fermentation. For the last fortnight the cork may be generally kept in the hole; but it should, once every two days, be removed, to give vent to the fixed air, and then replaced. When the fermentation appears at an end, the taste of the sugar will almost entirely have disappeared, it will be barely perceptible. The cork may then be permanently driven in, and in four days the ale will be fit for draught, or for bottling. As to the quality of the sugar, it is a matter of little consequence; white sugar will afford an ale scarcely coloured; brown sugar will impart proportionate colour, and not quite so pure a flavour. Should colour be an object, it may be communicated by the raspings of an over-baked loaf, or by scorched treacle; but this is matter of little moment. The drink will spontaneously fine itself. — To persons who have acquired an inveterate predilection for the abominable and varied flavours which the skill of the brewer enables him to communicate, this pure and simple drink may be less pleasing; but it is singular how soon the consumer acquires a high relish for it, and prefers it to every other. There is a purity of taste belonging to it quite different from the indescrib able jumble of tastes so perceptible in common ales, and a light sharpness combined with tenuity, which is much more agreeable than the glutinous or mucilaginous softness of even the best ales. But it has one advantage which places it above all competition, and that is its lightness on the stomach; this, when compared with the sickly heaviness of malt-ale, is really remarkable. The whiter the sugar the lighter will be the ale; and age greatly conduces to the same end, provided that the drink is sound, which is best ensured by bottling.-Hops are by no means the only bitter which may be made use of for preparing and flavouring such ales; others can much more conveniently be procured in certain situations. Mixtures, in various proportions, of wormword, powdered bitter oranges, gentian root, and rind of Seville oranges, will afford an excellent bitter, perhaps more wholesome than hops, and, if skilfully combined, to the full as palatable: in this position the brewers cannot refuse to bear me out, for reasons with which many of them are acquainted. Gentian, and particularly quassia, must be used sparingly; for the bitterness of these is of so lasting and penetrating a kind, that much of it is sure to be disagreeable.—It has been shown by M. Dubrunfaut, that a good beer can be produced from potatoes: the potatoes are to be grated to a pulp; this is to be well mixed with boiling water, and ground barley-malt is to be added. The liquid being drawn off, is to be hopped in the usual way, yest added, and the fermentation induced. The beer thus produced, after being bottled, was found greatly to resemble Paris beer. In certain parts of Ireland an excellent beer is brewed from parsnips, by a process somewhat like the foregoing, except that no malt is used: the bitter employed is hops. In short, malt is by no means necessary to the production of wholesome and agreeable beers.-Lardner's Cyclopædia; Domestic Economy, vol. i. 2. Increase of the Numbers of Mankind.—On the supposition that the human race has a power to double its numbers four times in a century, or once in each succeeding period of twenty-five years, as some philosophers have computed, and that nothing prevented the exercise of this power of increase, the descendants of Noah and his family would have now increased to the following number ;-1,496,577,676,626,814,588,240,573,268,701,473,812,127, 674,924,007,424. The surface of the earth contains, of square miles,. 196,663,355 · 2,489,887,174,355 Hence, upon the supposition of such a rate of increase of mankind as has been assumed, the number of human beings now living would be equal to the following number for each square mile upon the surface of the earth, the sun, and all the planets,-61,062,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 030,000; or to the following number for each square inch,—149,720,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000. This last number alone is infinite with relation to human conception. Merely to count it would require an incredible period. Supposing the whole inhabitants now upon the surface of the globe to be one thousand millions, which is believed somewhat to exceed the actual number, and supposing that this multitude, infants and adults, were to be employed in nothing else but counting,—that each were to work 365 days in the year, and 10 hours in the day, and to count 100 per minute, it would require, in order to count the number in question, 6,536,500 millions of years. 3. Comparative Severity of the Winter at Paris and Edinburgh.-Mr Thomas Blaikie, a native of Corstorphine, near Edinburgh, Ingenieur des Jardins Anglais at Paris, and who has been settled for half a century in the neighbourhood of that city, mentions several striking examples of the great severity of the Parisian winter. Last winter, 1829-30, scarcely any plants of Viburnum Tinus or Laurustine, escaped with life at Paris, although this shrub was in flower during the whole winter with us. At Paris the Alaternus was greatly hurt, and strong Cypress trees (Cupressus sempervirens), were killed; large trees of the Aleppo pine (Pinus Halepensis), and of the sea-pine (P. mari. tima), were likewise killed. Mr Blaikie adds, that it will seem strange to a Scotsman, yet it is nevertheless true, that in the commons near Paris, the whin or furze (Ulex Europæus) was, last winter, killed to the ground; while on our Blackford and Braid Hills the plant was covered with flowers in the beginning of February. In gardens about Paris, the fig-trees which were left uncovered were all killed. But what is remarkable on the other hand, and may afford a lesson to our cultivators of ornamental shrubs, large plants of Magnolia grandiflora stood without any covering; and, although the leaves were destroyed, yet the trees have shot out afresh. With us this fine species of Magnolia was first tried in the open air at Colinton House, near Edinburgh; magnificent plants of it may be seen trained against the south side of the high wall of the Royal Botanic Garden at Inverleith, under the manage ment of Mr Macnab, and these have yielded their noble and fragrant flowers very freely, during the present summer, though not a favourable one. This Magnolia, we doubt not, will soon be more generally cultivated in our gardens. 4. Milk-tree of Demerara.-Mr Smith, in a letter to Professor Jameson, published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, gives an account of a tree discovered by him on an excursion up the river Demerara, possessing most of the qualities ascribed by Humboldt to the Palo de Vaca. It is a dif ferent species, however, and is described by Mr Smith as 30 or 40 feet high, with a diameter at the base of from 16 to 18 inches. The milky juice, which it exudes very copiously on fbeing cut, was thicker and richer than cow's milk, and destitute of acrimony, but without any considerable proportion of nutritive ingredients. It mixes freely with water. Mr Arnott, who has examined the dried specimen transmitted by Mr Smith, refers it to the genus Tabernæmontana, and proposes naming it T. utilis. 5. Alimentary Tubercle of Van Diemen's Land.—A singular substance has been found at the depth of a foot, or a foot and a half, in the earth of that country. It has not yet been described, but is called indigenous bread. It is covered with a thin skin, has a rounded form, like a potato or yam, and is sometimes as large as a man's head. When cut, it appears to be composed of a solid spongy mass, containing a considerable quantity of alimentary mat. ter. No root or fibre has been found adhering to it, so that sometimes it has been thought to be a sort of terrestrial polypus, possessing a principle of animal life. The only indication of its presence which the natives have, is the occurrence of an exceedingly small leaf, which rises from the earth, and is connected with it by very thin and delicate fibres, which break whenever the tubercle is raised.-Asiatic Journal. 6. Salicine.-M. Leroux, an apothecary at Vittry-la-Francais, has extracted from willow-bark a new substance, to which he gives the name of Salicine. This substance presents itself under the form of white crystals, having a very bitter taste, resembling that of willow-bark. It has been ascertained that its medical properties are very powerful, and that it may be advantageously employed in place of Peruvian bark. M. Magendie administered it in doses of 18 grains per day, at three several times, 6 grains at each, and this quantity he found sufficient to repel intermittent fevers.Experiments have also been made in several of the Paris hospitals, and particularly in the Hotel-Dieu and La Charite; and it has always been found, that the quantities of from 18 to 24 grains at the most, administered in doses of 6 grains, were sufficient to prevent the return of the accession. Three pounds of willow-bark yield an ounce of salicine; and if the extraction were carried to a greater extent, it is probable that the same quantity of bark would yield two ounces. 7. Docility and Faculties of Domestic Animals.-M. Dureau Delamalle lately read a memoir to the Academie des Sciences, in which he endeavoured to prove, 1st, That domestic animals are susceptible of a much higher development of the intellectual faculties than is commonly supposed; 2dly, That they possess, but within limits which we have not yet been able to determine, instinctive qualities, faculties of imitation, memory, reminiscence, will, deliberation, and judgment; 3dly, That the individual, and even the race, are capable of being improved in proportion to the knowledge of the classes of people with whom they live, the education which is bestowed upon them, their wants, their dangers, and in general the circumstances in which they are placed; 4thly, That several of the qualities which are looked upon as instinctive are in fact qualities acquired by their faculties of imitation, and that certain acts which are attributed to instinct are elective actions belonging to the domain of intellect, memory, and judgment. The author adduced numerous facts in support of each of these propositions. He showed that domestic animals, and especially dogs, acquire the defects and predominant qualities of the societies or individuals among which they live. Of the facts which tend to prove the influence which imitation exercises on the habits of animals, we may mention the following. M. Dureau Delamalle observed a dog, which having, at the age of two months, been placed with a cat of six months, and brought up along with it, without having any communication with the animals of its own species, acquired the habits and manners of the cat. It bounded in the same manner when it ran, amused itself with rolling round bodies with its feet, played with dead mice, and rubbed its head and ears with its feet. The cat, on the other hand, had not been in any degree changed by its intercourse with the dog; and this circumstance must no doubt be attributed to its having a much less propensity to imitate. Many animals really educate their young. Birds of prey, for example, which teach their young not only to fly at and seize their prey, but also to catch it dexterously on the wing. The author has observed falcons and hawks training their young in this manner. I lodged, said he, from 1794 to 1798, in one of the combles of the Louvre. The building was not then finished, and contained many birds of prey, which, not being molested in a city where it was not permitted to shoot them, were quite tame. My window looking into the VOL. II. NO. X. Tt |