progress of this branch of science from the most distant periods of time, before the rise of letters and philosophy in Greece, from the primeval Chersonese through the traditionary and heroic ages of the Grecian history, to Egypt and India. In this ingenious work, a part of which seems now only to appear, in addition to the curious research of the text, is found a body of annotation, comprehending an extensive mass of materials, illustrative, not only of the history of medicine, but of man.

In Anatomy, though the foundation of all medical and chirurgical knowledge, no novelty has occurred within the last eighteen months. Perhaps the minutiae of this art being pushed near to its acmé, has left little to be discovered. Consisting altogether of facts, it has its limits. When every fibre has been separated, examined, and explained, the Anatomist, like Alexander, may weep for new worlds of animal existence. To the Physiologist this state of exhaustion will never happen. The stores of the imagination are perennial : if one series of opinions or suppositions are overthrown or exhausted, others arise. The Physiologist resembles that great poet, who," exhausted worlds and then imagined new. And his science, on many occasions so nearly allied to invention, will seldom permit any period to pass totally barren of incident, fact, or hypothesis, intended to explain some action or train of actions belonging to animal or vegetable life; forms of being which mutually illustrate each other.

For many ages, the doctrine of generation, still perhaps the most abstruse of physiological speculations, turned on a circumstance so contrary to all truth, and so opposed to all analogy, though with the appearance of being founded upon observation, that in this age of philosophical illumi

these learned bodies, a nearly regular system of physic had been erected, at a very remote era in the East, yet to commemorate its details, or appreciate its merits, has never become the task of any historian of medicine. In this new field of medical archæology Dr. Millar has ventured to labour. By what is now published, an attempt is made to supply the chasm, as far as Egypt is concerned: in a subsequent volume it is intended to investigate the condition of the healing art, such as it may be found to have flourished in the other two oriental Monarchies, no less distinguished for their early proficiency in arts and science, namely, Hindustan and Iran. To this it is intended to subjoin in an Appendix, a Treatise on the Physic of the antient Jews. We congratulate the medical profession, on the prospect of an interesting portion of the history of the art being supplied by a person apparently so well qualified for the task as Dr. Millar: and we trust no appearance of neglect will occur to prevent the completion of what we consider to be an historical desideratum.

nation,

nation, the only feeling that remains respecting it, is astonishment. The hypothesis of equivocal generation, which existed so long and was to pertinaciously adhered to, could not be supported against even the dawn of experimental philosophy. The investigations of Harvey, Malpighi, Swammerdam, Valisneiri, Ray, &c. extinguished this absurdity; and the aphorism omnia ex ovo is as fully established as any precept in Physiology. To support this proposition, founded as it is on sound reason and unwearied inquiry, an infinite multitude of experiments have been made and numerous observations recorded, which lie dispersed in a vast number of volumes. It chances to be the fortunate lot of but few to explore the source, or follow the current of this flood of laborious and learned investigation: the naturalist and the physician are therefore indebted to Dr. Paris for a "Memoir on the Physiology of the Egg," which has been read before the Linnean Society of London; and which seems to have condensed into an historical and philosophical essay, the whole of the facts and deductions of the ovarian Physiology. To this detail Dr. Paris has added, it is understood, several new facts, which not yet being fully before the public, cannot, without improper anticipation of their author, be particularly stated.

The prima stamina of many ingenious works, which have subsequently been matured into standard productions, first appeared in this Journal. It cannot be necessary to enumerate these, but it is proper to notice a most ingenious physiological inquiry by Mr. Smith of Bristol, under the denomination of a "Theory of Sensation." (Jour. 25. 467.) This speculation, when it has received the finishing touches of its author, promises, from the ability with which it commences, to rival in precision and practical facility the theory of Darwin. It affords a peculiar gratification to the Editors of the Medical and Physical Journal, to observe how frequently it has been the arena where native talent has first manifested itself, and where genius has ventured its earliest fights.

The illustration that general nature receives from analogies that the study of parts develope, has never been more fully admitted than in the present day. The similarities and coincidences observed to take place among forms of being, apparently, far removed from each other, explain, very fully, that the whole of animated nature is governed by a system of laws as uniform in their operation as their influence is exten sive. This fact has received a striking exemplification by Mr. Knight, in observations on the progress of life and the approach of old age and final decay in trees. "Whatever,

differenec

difference exists between the functions of animal and vegetable life, there is," says Mr. Knight, "an obvious analogy between some of the organs of plants, and those of animals; and it does not appear very improbable that the correspondent organ, in each, may first fail to execute its office. The analogy between the leaves of plants and the lungs of animals is considered to be very close, and that in both, the inability in this organ, whether leaves or lungs, to make that change in the circulating fluid which is essential to health, Occasions decay and final destruction to the individual in which the respiring organ fails to perform its office. Experiments satisfied Mr. Knight that the debility and diseases of some old varieties of fruit trees, did not originate in any defective action of the bark or alburnum, either of the root or of the stem and branches, but in the leaves and succulent annual shoot. He observed also, that grafted trees, of old and debilitated varieties of fruit, became most diseased in rich soils, and when grafted on stocks of the most vigorous growth; and he was induced to conclude, that in such cases more food is collected, and carried up into the plant, than its leaves can prepare and assimilate, and that the matter thus collected, which would have promoted the health and growth in a vigorous variety, accumulates, and generates disease in the extremities of the branches and annual shoots of the old and debilitated; and that the diseases and weakness of old age in trees, arises from the want of power to produce leaves which can efficiently execute their natural office; and to some consequsnt imperfection in their circulating fluid. If these opinions be well founded, and the leaves of trees be analogous to the lungs of animals, is it not probable that the natural debility of old age in trees and animals may originate from a similar source? If it is a fact, that not only man, but those domestic animals, as well as others, longest retain their health and strength, and best bear excessive labour and insufficient food, in which the chest is most deep and capacious, in proportion to the length of current the circulating fluid has to run; and that those trees longest retain health and vigour whose foliage longest continues in the perfect exercise of this pulmonic function, an additional analogy is established between animal and vegetable life.

If the medical student desires to possess the enlarged views that constitute the accomplished and philosophic physician, he must study nature, in all her departments, with unceasing diligence. There is not a fact in the whole circle of her history, which may not be found valuable, on some occasion, in the practice of his art. The analogies that exist among all beings, the influences that reciprocally operate upon each,

1

the

the explanation that is given to some by the peculiarities of others, the resemblance and the diversity of their diseases, the remedies they afford or the poisons they inflict, all are objects of interest and importance. Not a leaf nor a blade of grass, a stone or a metal; not an animated being from the acarus to the elephant, but may afford instruction. Not an individual among all these but tends in some degree or mode to illustrate some other creature, or to explain some law in nature; but presents a study for man, and gives the means of enlarging his views, and refining his understanding. Yet where is the mind of capacity to comprebend the laws that govern, or the peculiarities that distinguish these miriads? If those who pursue the study of nature despair, let them remember the toils as well as the talents of those who have gone before to direct them. The comprehensive mind of Bacon, the minute exactness of Spallanzani, and the systematic genius of Linneus, have so far unfolded these intricacies, and pointed out the road to natural truths so clearly, as to leave, comparatively, but little of mystery. And since the time of Linneus, in the particular department to which he almost gave birth, certainly direction, much, by a thousand others, has been discovered, explained, and accomplished. The daring enterprize, the correct observation, and the skill which was seen in the pupils of the Swedish naturalist, in Kalm, Osbeck, Hasselquist, Sparmann, Solander, and many others*, who were employed to visit remote countries, have been revived in Humboldt, whose travels in some parts of South America rival, if they do not surpass, the most illustrious of the Linnean school. This person, a Prussian gentleman of fortune, under every favourable circumstance resulting from his own acquirements in all the branches of knowledge which could be useful in such an undertaking, having for his companion M. Bonpland, and countenanced, or even authorized by the Spanish government, began in 1799 an expedition to Spanish America, in which he was engaged

* It must not be forgotten that Peter Löfling, the favourite pupil of Linné, was selected to travel through the different provinces and settlements of the Spanish government in South America. But scarcely twelve months had he been in America before he was seized with a tertian intermittent, from the consequences of which he died in 1756. The substance of his travels was published by Linneus, at Stockholm, in 1758, with title of Iter Hi-panidum, eller Resa til Spanska Länderna uti Europa och America, &c. &c. But this did not, in any degree, anticipate the exploration of Humboldt. Among them who have encouraged by their example, and patronised by their liberality, those who have sought to explore nature in savage lands and remote regions, the President of the Royal Society is pre-eminent. C

(No. 149.)

till

till 1804. The facts and the final result of this interesting expedition are intended to be given to the public in a work of great scientific splendor. The part of this which is already published presents many new and curious facts in the history of man, in the lower orders of the animal scale, and of vege tables and minerals, as well as in geology and philosophical geography.

The effect of climate on the human frame has always been an object of solicitude. The details of Humboldt furnish some interesting facts on this subject. It appears from authentic documents, that there is a rapid increase of population in New.Spain. The proportion of births to deaths throughout the kingdom of Mexico is as 170 to 100 and in some parts of the table land (a district of land among the mountains of Mexico elevated from 6000 to 8000 feet above the sea) the proportion was as high as 250 to 100: but at Panuco, on the coast of the North Sea, it was as low as 123 to 190. This difference arises from the greater salubrity of the table land in the centre of New Spain, compared with the low marshy lands on the coast. The salubrity of the tropical climates depends more on the dryness of the air, than on any of its other sensible qualities. The burning province of Cumana, the coast of Coro, and the plains of the Caraccas prove, Mr. Humboldt observes, that excessive heat alone is not unfavourable to human life, and that in very hot and dry countries mankind attain to a greater age than in the temperate zones. At Lima a Peruvian Indian died at the age of 147, having been married for 90 years to the same woman, who had lived to the age of 117. Wherever the air is moist as well as hot, the climate is exceedingly unwholesome. It is so upon the north coast of Mexico, from the mouth of the river Alvarado to the river Tampico, and the plains of New Santandon. The south coast is equally unhealthy, from San Blas to Acapulco. The combination of heat and moisture in the atmos phere, in like manner, renders the coast of the Caraccas unwholesome, from Barcelona to Puerto Caballo. This is in direct opposition to the influence of the atmosphere in the temperate and cold countries; in them a cold and dry atmosphere is most destructive to life. The table land, the salubrity of which Mr. Humboldt states to be so remarkable, rising, it was before observed, from 6000 to 8000 English feet above the sea, forms a continuous plain, comprised between 18° and 40° of latitude, and extending in a straight line from Mexico to Santa Fé, a distance of about 500 leagues. The slight ridges which interrupt the absolute uniformity of this plain are seldom more than from 600 to 800 feet above the valleys which they separate. Some of the mountains,

indeed.