its dangerous companion, which, on its part, appeared to take no notice of the rat. After watching for the rest of the evening, my friend retired, leaving the serpent and the rat together; and on rising early the next morning to ascertain the fate of his two heterogeneous prisoners, he found the Snake dead, and the muscular part of its back eaten by the rat. I do not remember at what time of the year this circumstance took place, but I believe it was not during very hot weather."

We cordially recommend this work also to our readers. to place it in our own library.

We shall take care

III. THE NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. Conducted by Sir Willium Jardine, Bart. F.R.S.E., F.L.S.. &c. Mammalia, vol. VIII. Amphibious Carnivora, including the Walrus and Seals, also of the Herbivorous Cetacea, &c. Robert Hamilton, Esq., M.D., F.R.S.E., M.W.S., &c. S. Highley, London, 1839.

By

We take shame to ourselves for not having directed the attention of our readers who love natural history (and who do not) to the Naturalist's Library. It is a very delightful work, and should grace the shelves of any man who has a family. Productions of this kind will, we hope, displace the trash which was formerly in the hands and on the lips of young persons, and give them that relish for the study of nature, so invigorating to the mind, and so calculated to fit it for the sober occupations of life.

In the advertisement to the present volume we observe it stated, that :—

"Amongst the various benefits which the volumes of the Naturalist's Library have conferred upon the study of Natural Science, not the least valuable has been the publication of groupes, or families, of animated beings, of the extent of which we know that the public in general had no previous conception.

Such is our present volume on the history of the Amphibious Carnivora, in which are described all the known species, illustrated by numerous plates and wood-cuts, and these interesting details congregated together at the very trifling expense of six shillings."

Independently of wood-cuts this volume contains thirty well-executed coloured plates, and not the least amusing are three of the " Great Sea Serpent," and the "Craken." We cordially recommend the work to our readers, and we shall not fail to notice future volumes as they appear.

IV. A GENERAL OUTLINE OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. By T. Rymer Jones, F.Z.S. Professor of Comparative Anatomy in King's College, London. Parts III., IV. and V. Price 2s. 6d. each.

We noticed in our last the commencent of this useful work. We have now to chronicle its continuation.

The Second Part almost completed the First Division of the Animal Kingdom -the ACRITA, comprising :

:

With the Third Part we come upon the Second Division, the NEMATONEURA, comprising:

1. Bryozoa, or Polyps with Ciliated Arms.

2. Rotifera.

3. Epizoa.

4. Cavitary Entozoa, or Cœlelmintha.

5. Echinodermata.

We present the following brief sketch of the division of NEMATONEURA, the second step in the RADIATA of Cuvier. It is contained in the First Part of the

Outlines before us.

"The nervous matter is distinctly aggregated into filaments, and in some cases nuclei of neurine, which may be regarded as rudimentary nervous centres, have been noticed. It is to be lamented, however, that in this most interesting group of animals, in which we have the first development of most of the organs subservient to the vital functions, the extreme minuteness of some genera, and the difficulty of distinctly observing the nervous system in the larger species, has prevented our knowledge regarding their organization, in this particular, from being of that satisfactory character which it is to be hoped it will hereafter attain to.

Owing to the want or imperfect condition of the nervous centres, the nematoneura are necessarily incapable of possessing external organs of the higher senses, the general sense of touch being as yet the only one of which they are indubitably possessed; yet in their muscular system they are much more efficiently provided than the acrite orders, as the development of nervous threads of communication renders an association of muscular actions possible; and therefore, co-apparent with nervous filaments, we distinguish in the structure of the nematoneura distinct fasciculi of muscular fibre, and powers of locomotion of a much more perfect description.

The digestive apparatus is no longer composed of canals merely excavated in the parenchyma of the body, but is provided with distinct muscular and membranous walls, and loosely attached in an abdominal cavity.

The circulation of the nutritious fluid is likewise carried on in a separate system of vessels, distinct from the alimentary apparatus, yet still unprovided with a heart, or exhibiting pulsations for the forcible impulsion of the contained blood.

The fissiparous mode of reproduction is no longer witnessed, an obvious consequence of the increased complexity of structure, and these animals are for the most part androginous, or capable of producing fertile ova, without the cooperation of two individuals."

The accounts of the Cœlelmintha, the Bryozoa, the Rotifera, the Epizoa, and the Echinodermata, are concise, clear, and interesting. The woodcuts illustrate the text, and both are executed in the most creditable manner.

In Part IV. we are introduced to the HOMOGANGLIATA, the Articulata of Cuvier, the third grand division of the Family of Nature.

It includes, writes Mr. Jones, an immense number of living beings adapted by their conformation to exist under a far greater variety of circumstances than any which we have hitherto had an opportunity of examining. The feeble gelatinous bodies of the ACRITA are obviously only adapted to an aquatic life; and accordingly they are invariably found either to inhabit the waters around us, or to be immersed in the juices of living animals upon which they subsist. The NEMATONEURA, likewise, are all of them too imperfect in their construction to admit of their enjoying a terrestrial existence, for, possessing no nervous centres adequate to give force and precision to their movements, they are utterly inca

pable of possessing external limbs endowed with sufficient power and activity to be efficient agents in ensuring progression upon land; neither are any of them furnished with those organs of sense which would be indispensable for the security of creatures exposed to those innumerable accidents to which the inhabitants of a rarer element are perpetually obnoxious: the NEMATONEURA therefore are, from their organization, necessarily confined to a watery medium.

But the type of structure met with in the HOMOGANGLIATA admits of far higher attributes, and allows the enjoyment of a more extended sphere of existence senses become developed proportionate to the increased perfection of the animal; limbs are provided endowed with strength and energy commensurate with the development of the nervous ganglia which direct and control their movements; and instincts are manifested in relation with the increased capabilities and more exalted powers of the various classes as they gradually rise above each other in the scale of animal development.

The most obvious, though not the most constant, character which distinguishes the creatures we are now about to describe, is met with in their external conformation; they are all of them composed of a succession of rings formed by the skin or outward integument, which from its hardness constitutes a kind of external skeleton, supporting the body, and giving insertion to the muscles provided for the movements of the animal. In the class CIRRHOPODA alone is this external characteristic wanting, and the Homogangliate organization masked by a tegumentary testaceous coat of mail, which they seem to have borrowed from the molluscous type.

This division includes:-1. Cirripeda.

2. Annelida.

3. Myriapoda.

4. Insecta.

5. Arachnida.

6. Crustacea.

The properties and habitudes of the Annelida, Myriapoda, and Insecta occupy Parts IV. and V., and of the mode in which they are treated we can speak as favourably as we have of the preceding Parts. Altogether the work of Mr. Jones is a highly meritorious one, and should be in the possession of every medical man who wishes to keep pace with the current knowledge in the department of Zoology.

ELEMENTS OF CHEMISTRY, INCLUDING THE RECENT DISCOVERIES AND DocTRINES OF THE SCIENCE. By the late Edward Turner, M.D. Sixth Edition, enlarged and revised. By Justus Liebig, Ph.D. Professor of Chemistry in the University of Giessen; and Wilton G. Turner, Ph.D. ORGANIC CHEMISTRY by Professor Liebig. Part III. No. 1. Price 3s. 6d. London. Taylor and Walton. 1839.

We have watched with interest the appearance of the successive Parts of this Edition of the late Dr. Turner's Chemistry. We have recommended and we recommend it as the most valuable work of the kind in our language. The present Part, devoted to Organic Chemistry, opens up quite a new field in that region of chemical science. It would be impossible to present an intelligible sketch of it in any moderate compass, and we must therefore content ourselves with recommending the original to the profession in the very strongest terms.

THE QUARANTINE LAWS. MR. HOLROYD'S LETTER TO SIR J. C. HOBHOUSE ON THE ABUSES AND INCONSISTENCIES OF THE SAID LAWS. 1839.

We suspect that the fate of the quarantine laws will not be very unlike that of the corn-laws. Neither of them may be entirely abrogated, nor immediately; but both of them are destined to considerable modification. The mass of absurdities, inconsistencies, and diableries exposed in this letter, would fill a whole article, and we cannot condense it. The following extract from a letter of Dr. Gregson to Mr. Holroyd will give the reader some idea how the plague doctors manage these things in the East.

"On arriving at Beyrout I was put in Quarantine: during this time the Lazzaret and town were alarmed by the Doctor of the Commission reporting a Greek sailor from Cyprus attacked by plague; _luckily the Commission consisted of the Governor, who was a well educated Turk, a paid Inspector, and the Doctor. This case caused a sensation, as the trade with Cyprus is great. The Governor called in another doctor, who said it was not plague. During this perplexity the Governor, hearing I was in the Lazzaret (he had known me well in Egypt), sent for me to have my opinion; I found the patient suffering from an extensive gangrene with sloughing, caused by a severe contusion, produced by a blow from the cable breaking when they were heaving it up. Astonished at the ignorance, or rather malicious conduct of the Doctor, (he had an interest, in being paid so much for visiting people from infected parts) I gave my opinion in reprobation of the Doctor's conduct; he was immediately discharged. Had he belonged to the Alexandrian Commission, it would have screened him and persecuted those who differed from him. Our Consul Mr. Thurburn is an honourable exception; he did not belong to it, and has interfered to prevent British subjects from being dragged to the Lazzaret. In Alexandria I have been sent by order to inspect various cases in the Lazzaret. The Commission Doctors got on these occasions two Doctors to side with them; for these services one is now Commissioner Doctor at Alexandria, the other so at Damietta, viz. Couloutchi and Reggio."

Yes, Yes! we shall never want the plague of quarantines, while we have such purveying doctors as the above, who can convert the blow of a cable into a brace of buboes! The tenor of the various answers to various questions collected by Mr. Holroyd is all to corroborate the opinion that the plague is an endemic frequently spread out or elevated into an epidemic, and that it is caused by a febrific miasm, but occasionally propagated by emanations from the bodies of infected persons, as is the case with all, or almost all fevers.

THE MEDICAL PORTRAIT GALLERY.

Twelve Parts of this amusing and instructive work have now been published. They contain memoirs, more or less complete, of many of the eminent men of our profession. If the work is patronised, as it ought to be, it will be really, what its name implies, a gallery of portraits of whatever has been most learned, and famous amongst us.

Such a gallery is wanted. Success is more the test of merit, of one description or another, than the unsuccessful are willing to allow. In our profession, great success has seldom been attained without corresponding exertions or without the possession of some distinctive quality of mind. Success too, with us, almost certainly indicates no wide departure from moral rectitude. A history of medical success becomes a lesson for the future candidate. He reads, in the golden page, the bright results of industry, genius, and worth, and while he reads, the glowing sentiment of admiration insensibly blazes into the desire to emulate. N N

No. LX.

There is a sacred pleasure too in contemplating the images of men who have dignified the sciences we profess, who, in fact, have made it the science that it is. While we gaze we resuscitate buried generations-study physic from the votive tablets in the temples of the Greek-pace the cloistered walks of Oxford with Linacre-enjoy the hospitality and the learning of Mead-or roar at the jest of honest Abernethy.

We cannot of course give a formal account of each distinguished person whose portrait and memoir grace the Gallery of our excellent friend, Mr. Pettigrew. But we think that a few anecdotes, some collectanea, from his pages may not be unacceptable.

1. The Death of Vesalius.-The following account, which has been much distorted by tradition, is contained in a letter from Hubert Languet to Gaspar Peucer.

"Vesalius (he says,) believing a young Spanish nobleman, whom he had attended, to be dead, obtained leave of his parents to open him, for the sake of inquiring into the real cause of his illness, which he had not rightly comprehended. This was granted; but he had no sooner made an incision into the body, than he perceived the symptoms of life, for, opening the breast, he saw the heart beat. The parents, coming afterwards to the knowledge of this, were not satisfied with prosecuting him for murder, but accused him of impiety to the inquisition, in hopes that he would be punished with greater rigour by the judges of that tribunal, than by those of the common law. But the king of Spain interposed, and saved him; on condition, however, that, by way of atoning for the crime, he should undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.'

Boerhave and Albinus say that he was condemned by the Inquisition, from which he was, by the influence of Philip, saved. He made the pilgrimage with James Malatesta, general of the Venetian army, whom he accompanied to Čyprus, whence he passed to Jerusalem. There is much in the account given to excite unbelief as to its credibility, from the extent to which dissection must necessarily be made before the heart could be exposed; yet the possibility of the muscular fibres of this organ acting by their principle of irritability, a principle unknown in the time of Vesalius, remaining even after vitality had quitted the body, may tend to sanction the statement made.

In 1563, the principal chair at Padua became vacant by the death of his pupil, Fallopius, and Vesalius was, at the invitation of the senate of Venice, induced to return to succeed this celebrated physician. On his voyage, however, a a storm arose he was shipwrecked-thrown upon the Island of Zante, and there perished of hunger, on October 15, 1564. His body was recognised by a goldsmith of Venice, who procured an honourable entombment for it, in the church of St. Mary, of that island, and he placed the following inscription over his grave:

ANDREE VESALII BRUXELLENSIS TUMULUS.

QUI OBIIT IDIBUS OCTOBRIS,

ANNO MDLXIV.

2. Abernethiana.-A man of rank consulted Mr. Abernethy, and was received by him with remarkable rudeness. Upon some severe remark being made, the patient lost his temper and told Mr A. he would make him eat his words. “It will be of no use," said Mr. A., coolly, "for they will be sure to come up again!"

Pray Mr. Abernethy, what is a cure for gout?" was the question of an indolent and luxurious citizen. "Live upon sixpence a day-and earn it," was the cogent reply.