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pensary. It was founded in the year
1776, by Dr Duncan. The expences
are chiefly defrayed by an annual sub-
<scription. Dr Duncan the younger,
son of the worthy Professor, occupies
the place of physician in the Dispen-
sary. I numbered this able young
man among my hearers in the univer-
sity of Pavia. With the greatest sa-
tisfaction I renewed my acquaintance
with him in Edinburgh. He has ap-
plied himself particularly to the study
of Medical Police. He is completely
master of the German language, so
that he can easily derive every advan-
tage from the classical writings which
Germany has produced on this subject.
It were to be wished that a wider
sphere of action were afforded to this
very well-informed young man. A
subject, with which Dr Duncan is al-
so very extensively acquainted, is
Pharmacy. The last edition of the
Edinburgh Dispensatory, superintend-
ed by him, affords a proof of his pro-
ficiency. It were much to be regret-
ted, if circumstances should not per-
mit us soon to see Dr Duncan among
the number of the Professors. It may
be complained indeed that the chairs
in the University have become a sort
of inheritance, and professorships, in
this way, may often not go to the best
qualified; but to change this practice
at the very time, when the round hap-
pens to fall upon a most able young
man, who has shewn himself thorough-
ly qualified for the office, would not
surely be for the benefit of the Uni-
versity.

ORPHAN HOSPITAL.

Andrew Gardner was the founder of this institution. It afterwards received great support from presents and subscriptions; and this is still the case at present. The yearly income of this institution, which cannot be rated higher than a thousand pounds ster ling, would be insufficient, without some such help, for the education of 150 children. These are admitted in

at their seventh year, and dismissed at their nineteenth. They are commonly bred up as manufacturers. The situation would be very good, did it not lie too low. I had formed to myself a much more advantageous idea of this institution, than I found realised. Howard has borne testimony to this Orphan hospital, as being the most useful institution of its kind in Europe. He has praised beyond measure the order and cleanliness introduced into it. In this last respect I observed the very opposite; nor do I remember to have seen so dirty and disorderly an Orphan hospital as this. Nor could I refrain from expressing my wonder to many of the inhabitants of Edinburgh, and from asking the cause of such a contradiction. They unanimously informed me, that, since the death of Mr Thomas Tod, who had managed it in the time of Howard, this institution had greatly declined: a circumstance which ought to call forth the exertion of the present overseers. One thus sees, how precarious is the well-being of such institutions, and how often they depend on a single man.

HERIOT'S HOSPITAL.

Heriot's Hospital is indebted for its origin to Mr George Heriot, a Goldsmith. This person raised so great a fortune, that at his death he left 23,6257. 10s. for the support and education of poor and fatherless children of Edinburgh citizens. Since that time their property has risen to not less than 60,0001. sterling.

The situation of this hospital is, in an uncommon degree, beautiful and healthful. The building was erected between the years 1628, and 1650.It is very magnificent, and laid out in the Gothic style. The expences required for the mere building amounted to 30,000l. sterling; notwithstanding this, the institution still retains a yearly income of 30007. sterling.

The regulation of Heriot's Hospital is, without doubt, admirable.

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department, which has attained to the highest degree of perfection, is the heating of the sitting and sleeping chambers, as well as the fire place in the kitchen. This regulation has been established for seven years, and is due to the philanthropy and skill of Count Rumford. He caused the oven and the kitchen fire to be built under his Since that time, the institution saves yearly seventy bolls of coal, (reckoning the boll at twelve hundred weight,) and is besides better heated than ever. The fire place completely resembles a cabinet. A single vessel placed upon it cooks for one hundred and twenty persons, and seems scarcely employed in so doing, In this fire place we neither see fire nor smoke, nor feel the smell of the victuals. Through a very simple arrangement, the fire is able to communicate as much heat to each vessel as is held sufficient. The oven, in which they roast the meat, is admirably suited to its purpose. In short, such a fire place, in every respect, is beyond all praise. Without speaking of economy, do we not consider, how beneficial this is for the health of the cooks. The number of diseases which spring from our mode of cookery, in which the servant is roasted as well as the meat, is greater than people imagine, Loss of appetite, tremor of the limbs, eruptions, headach, and such diseases, are the common effects, partly of immediate working at the fire, partly of the drinking, to which those so readily yield who work at a great firé.Lastly, the discoloration of the skin on the face and hands, which working at the fire occasions, ought also to be taken into the account. This last circumstance alone is often sufficient to prevent ladies from learning cookery, or from taking the necessary superintendance of what is doing in their kitchen. In a fire constructed on Count Rumford's principles, the most delicate ladies could, without any danger of injuring their hands and

their face, devote themselves to cook. ery. May then the great superiority of this system call the attention of the public at large, to make use of the plan of the immortal Count Rumford.

The number of boys in this Hospital amounts to 120. They are instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic, and Latin. Those among them, who wish to devote themselves to trade or manufactures, receive, at going out, thirty pounds; but those, who wish to devote themselves to an academical career, receive ten pounds for four years. These sums may, two hundred years ago, have sufficed for a student.

GILLESPIE'S HOSPITAL.

Mr James Gillespie, formerly a merchant in Edinburgh, left, after his death, the greatest part of his fortune for the establishment of a house for the reception of old men and women, and of a school for a hundred boys. For this institution, a suitable place was chosen, lying upon a height. The convenient house built for this purpose has before it a large open plain, together with a garden. The interior of this hospital is cleanly. The cook and the kitchen could alone form any exception in this respect. The old people here accommodated, twenty in number, have each a roomy and neat apartment; in a few only two are lodged together. They appear very chearful and satisfied. The requisites for the admission of these aged persons are as follows; Good behaviour, joined to poverty, the want of claim upon any other institution; their age too must be fifty and upwards. Those persons are particularly named who have served George Gillespie; who bear the name of Gillespie; and who inhabit Edinburgh or its neighbourhood. No native of Scotland however is excluded.

The school receives 100 boys, without regard to their residence, provided they be poor, and their age not less

than

than six, nor more than twelve. These boys are instructed in reading, writing, accounts, as well as in the principles of the Christian religion.

ASYLUM FOR THE INDUSTRIOUS

BLIND.

The number of blind who are supported by this institution amounts to 27 men and 10 women, Most of these have lost their sight by the small pox. They make baskets, carpets, and other things of that nature. This institution is supported by voluntary contributions. Some of the blind, instructed in these things, have made their fortune by them. Among these, Dennis Macqueer, an Irishman, may be given as an example. This man, after being employed here in various manufactures, returned to his native country, and established in Belfast a similar institution. He instructed fifteen blind persons, who now earn near. ly a shilling a-day, whilst he himself makes half-a-crown.

THE PRISON.

This prison lies in the middle of the city, and is completely surrounded by houses. It contains upwards of sixty prisoners, partly debtors, partly malefactors. Those among them who are unable to maintain themselves, receive a small sum from the house. This prison is so bad, and kept so dirty, that it must rank with the meanest we have in Germany. In a room, where the malefactors were kept, the air was so corrupted, that it was impossible for me to remain in it above a minute. The sick lie mixed with

those in health. In a word, this prison is a disgrace to Edinburgh.

HOUSE OF CORRECTION.

The House of Correction, called Bridewell, is the handsomest in Eu rope. It lies without the city upon a height, which commands most part of it. The building, laid out on Howard's plan, both for punishment and improvement, was completed in the year

1795. The foundation stone was laid, with the greatest solemnity, in 1791. They buried under it a number of glass bottles, containing coins which had been stamped in the reign of the present king. In others of these bottles were the names of the Magistrates at that time, a copy of the Edinburgh almanack, and of the four newspapers printed here. The interior arrangements of this house are truly admirable.

Before I close my description of Edinburgh, I must mention one physician who possesses my highest esteem. He resides in the neighbouring sea port of Leith. The manner in which this young man has trod the medical career, gives ground to hope that he may always distinguish himself more and more, and may further extend the good opinion, which we entertain of the Scottish physicians.The first volume of a work which Dr

Cheyne has undertaken to write on the diseases of children, contains many important remarks, and deserves to be translated into other languages.

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academical ideas of the appearance of the ancient seat of learning and refinement in the east. But this "week in Edinburgh" has, in Sir John's hands, afforded topics sufficient to occupy the pages of nearly half a quarto volume; so that his time was not altogether misspent. How much is copied, and how much is original, no one will be at any loss to ascertain who has ever read Mr Creech's Comparative view of the state of Edinburgh in 1763, and in 1783, and especially Mr Stark's Picture of Edinburgh. Sir John Carr has not scrupled occasionally to transcribe the very language of this last; and he could not have done better: but we think he might have contrived to make some atonement, by introducing a compliment to this excellent pocket guide to the Scottish capital. He maintains, however, a profound silence on the subject.

This habit of implicitly borrowing, occasionally leads Sir John into errors, -to talk of things that once were, as though they still existed,-owing to the changes produced by the lapse of a few years. In "Torwood, near Stirling, (he tells us, p. 237,) the stump of an old oak is shewn," called Wallace's Tree. This stump has figured in almost every Tour in Scotland for the last twenty years. Our author does not expressly say that he saw this stump; but the reader would be very apt to infer so. The truth, however, is, that it is several years since the last fibres of the root of Wallace's oak were eradicated, and now no trace remains.

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been celebrated in any work generally read. Here, therefore, Sir John must be original. Let us hear him. “A light-house (he says) is about to be erected, under the direction of the ingenious Mr Simpson, upon that dangerous island." (p. 110.) I presume no stranger could divine that Sir John is here writing about a sunk rock, situated twelve miles in the German Ocean,-the top of which is visible only at ebb-tide, and the site of which at other times is discerned only by breakers, or tumultuous irregular waves. The " ingenious Mr Simpson" too, is an ideal personage; at least no such architect has any direction of the Bell Rock operations. These are directed by Mr Robert Stevenson, sole engineer to the Commissioners for Northern Lights, in whom genius and great professional acquirements are united with that zeal and perseverance peculiarly requisite in the arduous undertaking of erecting this Scottish Eddystone light-house.

From his account of Loch Ness it has already appeared that Sir John Carr is no great chemist. The extent of his mineralogical knowledge may be estimated from a single sentence."Arthur's Seat and the adjacent rocks (he says) are composed of whinstone, which is used for paving the streets of Edinburgh; and the summits are supported by hexagonal pillars somewhat basaltic." (p. 72.) This may possibly do for the meridian of London; it may, for any thing we know, pass at Oxford or Cambridge; but it seems highly ridiculous at Edinburgh, where every student is now a geognost, and where mineralogy is certainly better taught than in any other part of the empire. It strikes me, that Sir John's account of Arthur's seat is only to be equalled by that of Pentland Hills given in the Beauties of Scotland: "The Pentlands, and other large mountains, consist of different sorts of basaltic stone or whinstone, granite, and other strata, which are usually termed pri

mitive rocks; whereas the other fossils occupy the valley." How desperately adventurous is it in Sir John Carr and Mr Forsyth to write on subjects about which they are so completely uninformed! It is scarcely necessary to add, that no sect of mineralogists has ever considered basaltic stone as belonging to the class of Primitive rocks, and that at any rate there is none about the Pentlands; far less does any granite appear in those mountains. I may add, that if strata of basalt and of granite were to be found alternating in the Pentlands, as seems to be implied in Mr Forsyth's description, a complete puzzle would be produced both to the Plutonists and Neptunists; both to the Huttonians and Wernerians.

When Sir John Carr gets fairly among the remote Western Islands, he seems to give full reins to his carelessness, and to blunder upon every topic that he touches.

He informs us, that "the islands abound with game, including the cock of the wood, or kaperkelly.""This bird (he adds,) from some unknown cause, has been more scarce of late years than it was in former times," (p. 500.) Who would not here suppose that Sir John Carr had seen several capercailzies; only he had found them more scarce than he expected, and had them less frequently dressed for supper than he could have wished? Who could imagine that the Knight is speaking of a bird which he did not see at all, but which has been long extinct in those islands?

"The islanders (he informs us) are restricted to the most degenerated species of oats, with the hairy-bearded husk." They are most certainly not restricted to this sort: the truth is, they find by experience that it best withstands the autumnal blasts to which their fields are subject. Neither is it a degenerated kind; but a distinct species, the Avena strigosa of

Linnæus, while the common oat is the
Avena sativa.

"Kelp (he informs us) is the cal-
cined ashes of a marine plant of that
name, and is used in the manufacture
of glass and soap: it grows on the
rocks and shores of the Hebrides and
Highlands." (p. 490.) The plainest
Hebridean distinguishes between kelp
made from yellow ware, and that from
red ware or tang, and would be asto-
nished to be told that kelp grew upon
his rocks! Sir John seems anxious to
place himself on a par with Dr John-
son; and here, I confess, he has a fair
opportunity; for the Doctor's account
of kelp is precisely on a level with the
knight's for confusion and inaccuracy;
indeed Sir John seems to have bor-
rowed from the Doctor. "The rocks
of the Western islands (says Dr John-
son) abound with kelp, a sea-
a-plant of
which the ashes are melted into glass."
(8vo. edit. p. 184.) Sir John Carr
adds, that kelp is worth 37. 10s. a-ton :
This might possibly be the price in
Dr Johnson's day, but had Sir John
been at the pains to make any inquiry,
he would have found that for twenty
years past, the price has varied from
8/. to 147. a-ton.

But if our author is palpably deficient in physics, we might expect that his talent lay in some other line; for instance, in historical information.He favours us with some interesting historical anecdotes, relative to Prince Charles's" hair-breadth 'scapes" when lurking in the West Highlands. He concludes the whole, however, with an assertion, that a privateer from St Maloes came to Loch Rannach, and took Charles on board." (p. 344.)-This privateer, it will be observed, must have skipped over many a hill and many a moor to get to Loch Rannach. Had Sir John Carr consulted Home's History of the Rebellion (but it does not appear that he ever heard of such a book) he would have discovered that it was in Loch Moidart

that

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