generally ending in iva. The local seats of the mind are as determinately indicated in each. The ancient German speaks of the cellula imaginativa, cellula communis sensus, cellula estimativa, seu cogitativa, et rationalis, cellula memorativa, &c. The fable is, therefore, as obsolete as it is absurd; and presents but the organic remains" of a craniology exploded more than 300 years ago. Donna Olivia Sabuco de Nantes, a native of Alcarez, possessed an enlightened mind. She had a knowledge of physical science, medicine, morals, and politics, as her writings abundantly testify. But what contributed the most to render her illustrious, was her new physiological system, which was contrary to the notions of the ancients. She established the opinion, that it is not the blood which nourishes the human body. This system, which Spain did not at first appreciate, was warmly embraced in England, and we now receive, says the Spanish writer, from the hands of strangers as their invention, what was, strictly speaking, our own. Fatal genius of Spain! before any thing to which thou givest birth can be deemed valuable, it must be transferred to strangers. It appears that this great woman assigned the brain as the only dwelling for a human soul; in this opinion Descartes afterwards coincided, with this difference only, that she conceived the whole substance of the brain to be the abode of the soul, and he confined it to the pineal gland. The confidence of Donna Olivia in her own opinions was so great, and her determination in vindicating them so powerful, that in her dedicatory letter to the Count de Barajas, President of Castile, she entreated him to exercise all his authority among the learned naturalists and medical men in Spain, to convince them that their heresies were inaccurate, and she could prove it. She flourished in the reign of Philip II.

ST. VITUS'S DANCE.

It is related, that after St. Vitus and his companions were martyred, their heads were enclosed in a church wall, and forgotten; so that no one knew where they were until the church was repaired, when the heads were found and the church bells began to sound of themselves, and those who were there to dance, and their bodies to undergo strange contortions, and which circumstance has since supplied a name to a disorder peculiar to the human frame, known by "St. Vitus's Dance.”

SMALLPOX.

The first who introduced inoculation into Europe was Immanuel Timonis, a Greek physician at Constantinople, who voluntarily communicated the art to the universities of Oxford and Padua, of which he was a member.

VACCINATION.

For the discovery of this great blessing we are indebted to the late Dr. Francis Jenner, of the city of Gloucester, to whom a monument is erected in St. Paul's Cathedral.

GREY HAIR.

The Medical Adviser states-"Some hypotheticals, among whom is a modern periodical, confidently assert, that the cause of Grey Hair is a contraction of the skin about the roots of it, and from this cause suppose that polar animals become white; the cold operating as a contracting power. If this argument were true, we should be all grey if we happened to be exposed to a hard frost! There are fewer grey people in Russia than in Italy or Arabia; for the Russians, having more generally lightcoloured hair, do not so often or so soon feel the effects of the grizzly fiend as those whose hair is black or dark. Cold, therefore, is nonsense; it assuredly cannot be contraction at the roots of the hairs. Has not the hair of individuals labouring under certain passions become grey in one night? Were these suffering from cold? rather, were they not burning with internal feeling? Sudden fright has caused the hair to turn grey; but this, as well as any other remote cause, can be freed from the idea of operating by cold or contraction.

"Our opinion is, that the vis vitæ is lessened in the extreme ramifications of those almost imperceptible vessels destined to supply the hair with colouring fluid. The vessels which secrete this fluid cease to act, or else the absorbent vessels take it away faster than it is furnished. This reason will bear argument; for grief, debility, fright, fever, and age, all have the effect of lessening the power of the extreme vessels. It may be said in argument against this opinion, that if the body be again invigorated, the vessels ought, according to our reasoning, to secrete again the colouring fluid; but to this we say, that the vessels which secrete this fluid are so very minute, that upon their ceasing their functions they become obliterated, and nothing can ever restore them."

LIVER COMPLAINTS IN INDIA.

Most people, says the Medical Adviser, suppose that it is the heat of the climate in the East Indies that produce so many liver complaints: this is not alone the cause; the Brazils are much hotter, yet these diseases are not by any means so frequent. It is also supposed that free living is the cause, but is refuted by the fact, that mere water-drinkers will be affected in common with wine-bibbers, and dogs that go from Europe to India will, in the same profusion of numbers as men, contract a disease of

the liver. The opinion of the natives is, that this formidable complaint is occasioned by the quality of the water, and with this opinion we agree. People going to India should look to this point; they should boil the water which is for drink, and then filter it.

ANATOMICAL WAX FIGURES.

Mademoiselle de Beheron, the daughter of a Parisian surgeon, was the first who invented Anatomical Figures of Wax and Rags. She modelled her imitations upon corpses, and they were executed with such perfection, that Sir William Pringle on seeing them said, "They wanted nothing but the smell.'

LAW ON ANATOMY.

It is said, that the earliest law enacted in any country for the promotion of anatomical knowledge, was passed in 1540. It allowed the United Company of "Barber-Surgeons" to have yearly the bodies of four criminals to dissect.

GOLDEN AGE.

The Golden Age, which we often have heard of, is an allusion to the era when the then known world was under the dominion of a single master: and this state of felicity continued during the reigns of five successive princes, viz., Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, and the two Antonini. Mankind was never so happy, and it was the only Golden Age which ever had an existence (unless in the warm imagination of the poets), from the expulsion from Eden down to this day.

EPOCHS AND ERAS.

Terms which constantly recur in history, and the elucidation of which belongs to the province of chronology. An epoch is a certain point, generally determined by some remarkable event, from which time is reckoned; and the years computed from that period are denominated an Era. The birth of Christ is considered an Epoch-the years reckoned from that event are called the Christian Era.

PROMETHEAN FIRE.

Prometheus was the son of Japetas, and brother of Atlas, concerning whom the poets have feigned, that, having first formed men of earth and water, he stole fire from heaven to put life into them; and that, having thereby displeased Jupiter, he commanded Vulcan to tie him to Mount Caucasus with iron chains, and that a vulture should prey upon his liver continually. Hercules killed the eagle, and thus set him at liberty. Bochart

will have Magog in the Scripture to be the Prometheus of the Pagans. From the above came the term "Promethean Fire." He was the author of all the arts among the Greeks.

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STENTORIAN LUNGS.

When any one declaims with a stronger voice than usual, we are apt to say, he possesses "Stentorian Lungs," or, he has a Stentorian Voice." The term is derived from Stentor, a herald of the Greeks in the Trojan war, who had as loud a voice (according to Heathen Mythology) as fifty men.

AUGEAN STABLE.

Augeas, a King of Elis, had a stable which would hold three thousand oxen, and had not been cleansed for thirty years. He hired Hercules to clean it in one day, which he did by turning the river Alpheus through it; but when he had finished, Augeas refused to keep his promise of giving him a tenth part of his herd. Thereupon Hercules killed him and all his family, with the exception of his son Phyleus, who was placed on the throne of his father. Hence is derived the classical quotation of “the Augean Stable."

GORDIAN KNOT.

This term, also used by classical speakers, is derived from Gordius, the son of a husbandman, and afterwards King of Phrygia, remarkable for tying a Knot of Cords, on which the empire of Asia depended, in so intricate a manner, that Alexander, unable to unravel it, cut it with a sword.

THE PALLADIUM.

This term, so often used in oratory-for instance, "The Palladium of our Liberties"-is derived from a wooden image of Pallas, Athena, Minerva, called Palladium, whose eyes seemed to move. The Trojans affirmed, that it fell from heaven into an uncovered temple; they were told by the oracle, that Troy could not be taken whilst that image remained there, which being understood by Diomedes and Ulysses, they stole into the Temple, surprised and slew the keepers, and carried away the image; the destruction of the city soon followed.

HARVEST MOON.

About the time of the autumnal equinox, the moon, when near her full, rises about sunset a number of nights in succession: this occasions a remarkable number of brilliant moonlight even

ings; and as this is in England the period of harvest, the pheno menon is called the harvest moon. The sun being then in Libra, and the moon, when full, being of course opposite to the sun, or in Aries; and moving eastwards, in or near the ecliptic, at the rate of about thirteen degrees per day, would descend but a small distance below the horizon for four or six days in succession; that is, for two or three days before, and the same number of days after, the full; and would, consequently, rise during all these evenings nearly at the same time, namely, a little before, or a little after, sunset, so as to afford a remarkable succession of fine moonlight evenings..

PARNASSIAN SPRING.

The Parnassian or Castalian Spring, a term well known to the lovers of poetry, is derived from a nymph called Castalia, who resided in Parnassus, and whom Apollo metamorphosed into a fountain; and those who drank of the waters were inspired with the Genius of Poetry.

SONS OF ESCULAPIUS.

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This term, or cognomen, as applied to medical men, is derived from the Heathen Mythology, which informs us that “ Æsculapius was a son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis; and that the care of his education was committed to Chiron, who taught him Physic, wherein he was said to be exceedingly skilful.”

ORIGIN OF LITERARY DEGREES.

The practice of conferring the honours of literary institutions on individuals of distinguished erudition, commenced in the twelfth century, when the Emperor Lothaire, having found in Italy a copy of the Roman law, ordained that it should be publicly expounded in the schools; and, that he might give encouragement to the study, he further ordered that the public professors of this law should be dignified with the title of Doctors. The first person created a Doctor after this ordinance of the Emperor was Bulgarius Hugolinus, who was greatly distinguished for his learning and literary labour. Not long afterward, the practice of creating doctors was borrowed from the lawyers by divines also; in their schools they publicly taught divinity, and conferred degrees on those who had made great proficiency in that science. The plan of conferring degrees in divinity was first adopted in the Universities of Bologne, Oxford, and Paris. (See Mather's Magnolia Christi Americana, book iv. p. 134.) It is remarkable that the celebrated Dr. Samuel Johnson, when he had become eminent in literature, could not obtain the degree of Master of Arts from Trinity College, Dublin, though powerful