VII. 1. A Letter to the Right Hon. Lord Holland on Foreign Politics. 2. Alarming State of the Nation considered; the Evil traced PAGE 3. Hints suggesting the possibility of essentially altering and amending the Poor Laws in Great Britain and Ireland. 546 VIII. 1. The Literary Souvenir. By Alaric A. Watts. 2. The Amulet. A Christian and Literary Remembrancer. By 3. The Iris: a Religious and Literary Offering. By the Rev. 4. The New Year's Gift and Juvenile Souvenir. By Mrs. 560 IX. The Law and Practice of Elections in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of the Trial of Controverted Elections, with an Appendix of Precedents, and all the Existing Statutes, analytically arranged. By Wm. Finnelly, Esq. 585 X. Almanacks for 1831:-1. The British Almanac of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.-2. The British Almanac.-3. The Englishman's Almanack.-4. The Tradesman's and Mechanic's Almanack.-5. Moore's Almanack Improved.-6. Vox Stellarum; or Moore's Almanack. - 591 XI. The Progress of Society. By the late Robert Hamilton, XII. Statement of Facts connected with the present State of Sla- XIII. Historic Survey of German Poetry, interspersed with various 598 608 609 THE MONTHLY REVIEW. DECEMBER, 1831. ART. I.-Two Lectures on the Study of Anatomy and Physiology, delivered at the opening of the Medical Sessions, 1830, in the Medical School, Aldersgate-street. By J. Quain, M. B. &c. London: Simpkin and Marshall. 1830. WE seldom introduce into our pages works which are purely scientific, and more seldom still such as are strictly medical. But any deviation from our ordinary path, of which in the present instance we may be chargeable, is amply atoned for by the spirit of the publication which has occasioned it. This pamphlet consists of two lectures, delivered in the Medical School of Aldersgate-street, at the commencement of the present session. The first is introductory to a course of Human and Comparative Anatomy; the second contains many general and important statements illustrative of the science of Physiology. An introductory address is not expected at any time, or from any person, to furnish much novelty of fact, or originality of view. Between prefatory congratulations, promises of service, prospectuses of plans, and hortatory conclusions, they are usually little better than harmless vehicles of compliment and courtesy. Nothing in general is introduced which can occupy much abstract thought, or might tend to direct the attention of the hearer more to the subject of the address, than to the person who delivers it. It, therefore, not unfrequently happens, that such complimentary preliminaries to more serious subjects are oftener published than read. The present lectures are, however, very obvious exceptions to the general class, in more respects than one; and, without feeling violently moved by the spirit of compliment, we can add, that they are in every way creditable to Mr. Quain. * Si mundum efficere potest concursus atomorum, cur porticum, cur templum, cur domum, cur urbem, non potest? Quæ minus operosa, et multo quidem faciliora.-Cicero de Nat. Deorum, &c. It has been often said, and we fear with truth, that they, who are best acquainted with the works of nature, and should be best qualified to appreciate the wisdom and power which these works display, are, in too many instances, latitudinarians in principle. Why this is the case it may not be easy to explain; but why it should not be so, it is far from being difficult to demonstrate. An attentive and enlightened mind cannot direct its contemplation to a single object in the creation almost, in which manifestations of intelligence and forethought are not abundantly displayed. The lowliest herb and the gaudiest flower; the minutest insect and the largest animal; every orb that rolls in the immensity of space, as well as the most diminutive mote that dances in the passing sunbeam; every creature under heaven, which either the eye can reach or the imagination perceive, teach alike clearly and alike convincingly, the same truth-that nothing has been formed without a motive, and that every thing which has been formed has been matchlessly adapted to fulfil the design which dictated its creation. We find that every organized individual forms an entire system of its own all its parts mutually correspond, and concur to produce a certain definite purpose by reciprocal reaction, or by combining to the same end. Hence it is that none of these parts cau change its form without inducing a corresponding change in the other parts of the same animal, so that each part taken singly indicates all the rest to which it belonged. If the viscera of an animal are so formed as to fit it for digesting raw animal food, the jaws will be found so constructed as to fit them for devouring their prey, the claws for seizing and tearing, the teeth for cutting and dividing, the limbs for pursuing and taking, the organs of sense for seeing at a distance, and the brain is endowed with instincts for concealing and lying in wait. These are the obvious characteristics of Carniverous animals; they are the very conditions of their existence, and point at once to an appropriate internal structure and conformation. Thus, in order that the jaw should be well adapted for the prehension of objects, its condyle must have a peculiar form, the temporal muscle a certain size, the hollow in which it is lodged a certain depth, the zigoma a certain degree of convexity to allow it to pass beneath, and also a certain degree of strength to sustain the action of the masseter muscle: in other words, the moving power, the fulcrum, and the resistance, must be adjusted and proportioned. Again: the teeth, to be able to tear and cut, must be sharp, and of a certain form, their roots solid and strong, to gnaw bones; hence they determine the form and development of the jaw bone into which they are inserted. The paws are subsidiary to the jaws and teeth: they are formed for strength and mobility; and, consequently, present in their bony struc ture a determinate form, as well as a corresponding adjustment in their tendons and muscles. For instance, the fore-arm must move freely in different directions, and therefore requires a determinate form in its bones. The bones of the fore-arm articulate with the humerus, so that any change in the one must influence the form of the other. The scapula too assumes a particular form, as it must be strong to give a firm support to the limb in such animals, and their muscles acquire a development corresponding with that of the bones which they have to move and to act on. A similar adaptation of structure and arrangement must obtain in the posterior limbs as well as in the spine and trunk; the bones of the nose are developed largely, so are the orbits and ears, corresponding with the perfection of the senses in such animals. We see, then, that the structure of the teeth regulates the form of the claw, the humerus, and the scapula, so that either of these enables us to determine the teeth, and reciprocally the teeth indicate the others just as the equation of a curve regulates all its other properties: and as in regard to any particular curve, all its properties may be ascertained by assuming each separate property as the foundation of a particular equation, in the same way a claw, a scapula, a leg, or an arm bone, enables us to determine the description of the teeth to which they belonged, and reciprocally we can determine the other bones by the teeth. It may be said, that though we may from such data infer the class or natural family to which an animal belonged, we could not fix with any precision its genus or species: we can, however, ascertain both, by going a little more minutely into its structure. Confining our attention still to the instance already cited, the Carnivorous animals, we find that each species has special aptitudes to fit it for the peculiar sort of animals on which it is to support itself, so that its minute conformation will vary according to the size, habits, and haunts of its prey. We can therefore trace in every part of it a general plan or outline which determines its class and order, and next, a number of minute modifications which fix the genus, and even the species. Thus a person who is well acquainted with the laws of organization, by commenc-ing with a single bone, may sketch out or re-construct the whole animal to which it belonged. Such were the principles which Cuvier brought to bear on the various questions which arose out of the examination of the Fossil remains of animals, and by which he was enabled to class and arrange them with as much precision as if he had their entire skeletons before him, and from which he has deduced so many important inferences with regard to the changes which the earth's surface has undergone during its different revolutions.'-pp. 12–14. Why, therefore, the world, and more especially the scientific world, should be so densely peopled with sceptics and materialists; why, amid so much design and intelligence, so much perplexity and error should exist, is not a little surprising. Yet, if it be considered that the nine-tenths of infidels are composed of those very minds, whose original constitution and accidental advantages should have made them the first to discover and the foremost to uphold, what they are both first and last to deny and ridicule, this astonishment must be heightened a thousand fold. In the structure and functions of the human body there is more evidence of design, more proof of forethought, more display of wisdom, than in perhaps any other form of created being; yet, in the medical profession, there are as many sceptics and freethinkers as there are in any other learned profession. The masterly mechanism of this unequalle' fabric is either overlooked, as an ordinary structure, or actually ascribed to the accidents of chance. Its eye can be seen, its ear can be dissected, its brain can be demonstrated, its heart can be unravelled, its blood-vessels can be traced, its functions can be analyzed, and its philosophy can be studied, and yet the student can depart with as confirmed a belief, that all is done by chance; that he sees, hears, thinks, moves and lives, sickens and dies by chance, as though he had been poring over some rotten mummy, in which death had dissolved every vestige of design. It is consoling, therefore, to find in the pages of Mr. Quain a strain of determined opposition to this unphilosophical and senseless system. It is delightful to discover that in, at least, one of our schools of medicine, our youth have the prospect of being taught their profession, not only as men, but as Christians; and that, in place of having their credulous and unprotected minds tinctured with an unworthy spirit of boasted independence, as though they were inferior only to their masters, they will be taught to respect the First Cause of all things, and to esteem themselves as the fairest and the finest proofs of his intelligence and power. The wretched resources, to which materialists are frequently driven, appear to us among the strongest arguments which can be adduced against them. To account for the very complicated and apparently intelligent formations which some parts of the creation so abundantly present, they are compelled to maintain that the structures, which at first emanated from the caprice of chance, were extremely simple,-so simple that no difficulty can be conceived to have occurred in their production; but that it is an inherent and essential property of matter, whether inanimate or possessed of life, to be ever changing in its form and qualities, and that these changes are always improvements on the original condition! In this way they endeavour to explain how the more perfect animals were formed, and how even man himself became lord of the creation. What is now a creeping shrub may, therefore, be converted, after the lapse of some half dozen centuries, into a towering tree, and the worm, which creeps in the dust, may gradually ascend to an equality with man! These and other childish subterfuges are ably and unceremoniously disposed of by Mr. Quain. 'The errors of such hypotheses as these, and the sources from which they spring, are readily perceived by placing them together and contrasting them. Each bears the impress of a mind strongly biassed by principles, deduced from a favourite pursuit, and both wander equally beyond the bounds of strict observation and legitimate inference. The geologist overlooks the absurdity he commits when he assumes that matter-one of whose most obvious properties is inertness-can impress on itself powers, viz. those of life, which can altogether control the fundamental property by which matter is governed, viz. attraction. And the zoologist, when he |