"Be careful, M. Riego," you of command. a sign to his companion to stand still also. The priest Half an hour afterwards, each man began to settle himself in some corner of the hut, wrapped up in a sheep or goat's skin; Stephano stretched himself nearest to the door; and very soon all was silence. Just as Riego concluded his directions, the bear At the first dawn of day, Riego, fearing the hunters came to the point mentioned. "Now, Stephano !" would insist on accompanying him, gently got up, and, cried the curate. The young man fired; but whether choosing one of the rifles, stept out without being from agitation, or the distance, he missed the animal, heard. He had put on a dress borrowed from one of as appeared from the splinters of ice broken off by the highlanders. On his head he wore the small, flat, the side of the brute, which at once turned round, saw blue béret; over his legs, the long leather gaiters the hunters, and advanced towards them. He was at usually worn by these hardy mountaineers; round first little more than twenty yards distant, but fortuhis waist, a strong scarlet belt, in which he placed nately the path took some turns, which made the space to be passed greater. At a favourable instant, calmly a knife, the thick, sharp blade of which was eight or His and steadily raising his gun, Riego fired. The brute, nine inches long. He was not the same man. step was at all times firm and erect, but slow; on this however, chanced to slip aside at the moment, and of day, however, his energy amounted even to impa- the three balls, one only struck him in the flank. tience. As soon as he was out of the hut, he exa- A terrific growl was the only reply to the shot, which "Some mined the rifle with all the scrupulous attention of was totally ineffective in retarding his course. an experienced hunter; tried the lock, burnt some balls!" said Riego quietly, without turning his eye of the powder to ascertain its quality and dryness, from the bear. Stephano spoke not. "Balls, Steloaded carefully with three balls, and was just starting, phano!-in three minutes he will be upon us!" The when, at ten yards before him, he perceived his young young man had been feeling his pouch. "We are brother Stephano, ready equipped as a hunter. "What lost!" cried he, with a groan of despair; "the bag has are you doing there?" said he. "I am waiting for been buried in the snow at Maladetta!" you, brother." "Why?" "Because I want to go with you; and I must go." The curate answered not till after a moment's reflection-"Well, let it be so. Is your rifle loaded?" "Yes, brother." "Here are twelve balls, then, take them, and let us go." The growls of the bear became more and more vivid. We have no balls!" repeated the young man in tones of agony; "let us fly !-oh, let us fly, brother!""Fly!" said the priest ; "no-we cannot ! In twenty seconds the monster would be up with us, were we to go down hill!" "Oh, blessed Virgin !" cried Stephano, falling on his knees in desperation. Ar the distance of a league from Bagneres of Luchon, on the declivity of the hill, stands a small building, called the hospital, which serves as a halt or station for travellers journeying to Spain. In October 18-, a little higher up than the hospital, a small, temporary looking hut was to be seen, supported and sheltered by a huge rock. It was covered with branches and dry leaves, and built with loose rough stones, constituting a rude but welcome refuge for the highland hunters. It was but the habitation of a day, being regularly destroyed and carried off by every winter's storm. The approaches of autumn are terrible in the Pyrenees; and at the time mentioned, a fearful storm was bursting over the mountain. It was evening; every object was buried in darkness; but through the chinks of the door of the hut, darted at times a few glimpses of light. This door was also occasionally opened; a man's head would then appear through the lightened aperture, and be immediately withdrawn. The appearance of the inside was rather picturesque. In the middle of the hut, on a roughlymade table, were promiscuously placed a large basin of milk, some smoked bacon, a piece of goat's cheese, and some maize-bread; on the right was an opening made in the rock, which served as a chimney. In this chimney lay, almost in one blaze of fire, the best part of a tree, with its branches and leaves, which brightly illuminated the centre of the hut, and glittered on the long polished barrels of the rifles, placed upright against the opposite wall. Before the fire, a deer's haunch was comfortably roasting; and around were stretched five highland hunters, with their caps of brown worsted, their knee-breeches of coarse brown cloth, and their fong grey stockings. They had fled to the hut to save themselves from the storm, and were now awaiting the supper which was preparing. At the farthest extremity sat, reading attentively, by the light of a wick saturated with resin, a man who appeared not to be dressed like the rest of the hun-blood but that of the grizzly bear. At the termina-him tight; and do you stab him till he drops, in the ters; his occupation, the expression of his countenance, and the respectful distance preserved towards him by the highlanders, sufficiently testified his superiority over them. At the other side was suspended the open and reeking carcass of a deer recently killed. The crackling of the roasting meat, the hissing of the snow as it fell on the inflamed wood, the loud rumbling sounds of the frequent thunder-claps, repeated and increased by the echoes of the mountain, alone interrupted the silence which prevailed in the hut. There seemed some weight on the minds of the men; but at length one of them spoke aloud. "So, Janote, it was by the same bear which killed one of our friends before, that Baptiste was worried yesterday?" "Yes." "I shall kill him, Janote, or die; where was he seen yesterday?" "Near the glacier of La Maladetta." "I will go to-morrow morning, and encounter him; it shall not be said that this black skin has frightened us all, like a herd of chamois." "Peter," said Janote, "the snow has fallen for these two days, the hill is very dangerous, and Baptiste was surprised by the bear merely in consequence of his being caught by the cold; you had better not go to-morrow." "I shall go !" was the answer. morrow." "But" the man, The brothers started on their perilous adventure. After an hour's march, they passed the short rocky defile which separates France from Spain; and while threading its recesses, Riego would ever and anon raise his rifle to his shoulder, following steadily the course of some eagle, which was already abroad in the keen, clear morning air. But he fired not; for he deemed that there was no call upon him to shed any tion of the defile, they found themselves in front of La Maladetta (the accursed), the finest glacier of the Pyrenees, but the most dangerous, also, as its not inappropriate name implies. When the glacier appeared, here a mass of glittering ice, and there deadened in hue by flakes of dun snow, Riego felt the enthusiasm of former days return upon him, and he could not help exclaiming joyfully, "The snow! the hills!" Turning to Stephano, the priest then exclaimed, "If Janote be right, the bear must be in that fir-wood to the left. We must climb the Maladetta, Stephano. Have you the iron hooks and the ropes ?"" "Yes, brother." "Come, then, get ready," said Riego. A gloomy pause now took place, after which the man seated at the extremity of the hut rose and came close to Peter. Peter," said he, "how many children have you?" "Five." "You shall not go to"You shall not go!" These words were pronounced with so much authority, that Peter held down his head and remained silent. "Well then," said another, "I shall have the shot, for I have neither wife nor children." "Friend," replied "who lives at the village, in the smith's house?" "My mother." "You shall not go." "But," rejoined Peter, "now that we have found out the villain's den, we ought to take advantage of the discovery." "He shall be killed!" "And by whom? by whom?" "By myself, my friends." "You! reverend sir?" they all exclaimed. "Yes, my friends; by myself. I am but a peasant, a highlander, like your-power of motion; and the priest said to him in a selves. I spent twenty years among the rocks of Catalonia before becoming a minister of God; and the man you now name in the village the Reverend Curate Riego, was once called Riego the Bear-hunter." In a few minutes, they had buckled the iron hooks to their hands, and had united their bodies by a rope about eight feet long, the purpose of which was, that one of them might sustain the other, in case of a slip. Thus secured, the brothers resumed their route. For half an hour, they toiled silently up the precarious ascent, and were near the place of their destination, when, all at once, the ice gave way beneath Stephano's feet, and he sunk downwards into a deep crevice. Dragged back by his companion's weight, the priest slid rapidly to the very edge of the same gulf; a second more, and he also would have been over! Both must have perished; but, gathering his whole strength, Riego dashed his iron grasper into the ice with such force, that he stopped suddenly. To loosen one of his hands, and turn the rope round his arm for the purpose of shortening it, was the work of an instant. He then exerted his strength in raising Stephano. Soon the young man's hands could grasp the edge of the hole; by and bye his whole chest appeared. "Courage! courage!" cried Riego, putting forth his whole powers upon a final effort, which, being aided by the youth's pressure on his own elbows, was successful. Stephano was freed from his danger; but he fell almost in a fainting state upon the snow. A mouthful of spirits, from the small store of provisions which the hunters had brought with them, restored Stephano to the cheerful voice, “ Courage, brother!-you are all right again; let us move on!" Stephano replied, “Yes, brother," and resumed the march; but a great change had come over the young man. The narrow escape As he pronounced these words, the clergyman's which he had made had overthrown his resolution. He countenance was animated with a singular expression walked on, pale, tottering, and exhausted-a different of courage and energy. "I had come to the hill," being, altogether, from what he had been a few mocontinued he, "to admire the storm; Heaven, no ments before. Riego, who moved foremost, was too doubt, has directed me to this hut to hear your much occupied with the outlook for the bear, and with regrets; and although I have not touched a rifle the difficulties of the path, to be fully sensible how for fifteen years"- "Fifteen years!" said Peter. much his brother was changed by the late accident. "Yes, my friends; for blood, even an insect's blood, The bear was not to be seen at Maladetta when they should never stain the hands of a minister of God; reached it. The hunters then turned into the Spanish but what I intend to do to-morrow is merely to destroy Pyrenees, which they entered by La Picada. Scarcely what is hurtful and gerous; and as I have neither had they gone a few yards in this direction, when children, wife, nor another, I shall go, and fear not | Riego stopped short, and, without turning round, made | "Come, no faint-heartedness, brother!" exclaimed the priest, speaking very quickly, but in his usual intrepid tones; "there is one resource. Show me your knife !-yes, it is long and sharp. Mark me!— in one minute the bear will be on this platform! I will walk up to him-he will rush on me. I will hold left side, Stephano !" "Yes, brother," was the young man's reply. "Now, he comes!" cried the undaunted priest; "no unsteadiness, Stephano! Strike hard and true! Ha! the bears have felt Riego before now, and they shall not conquer me yet!" The priest seemed almost happy in his fearlessness. But, alas! deplorably different was the condition of the poor young brother. The bear appeared. "To work! to work, Stephano!" cried the priest, as he stepped forward with open arms. The monster, rising on its hind legs, seized Riego with a suffocating grasp. A terrible struggle began between them. "Help, brother, help!" cried the priest in a voice of thunder. Alas! Stephano had lost all presence of mind. His legs shook under him; a film passed over his eyes; he could neither advance nor retreat. The agonies of helpless terror were upon him. "Strike, brother, strike!" cried the priest in weaker tones. The bear howled in a terrific manner, its hideous head projected over the curate's shoulder, its eyes red as fire, and its paws tearing Riego's back, while they at the same time crushed him between them. The struggle had lasted a few seconds. Stephano, wild, insane almost, could not stir. "Help me, brother! save me!" cried the priest, his voice failing. At this last call, the young man seemed partly to recover his powers of action. He ran forward, and struck his knife against the side of the monster. But the blow came from a hand too unsteady to do any execution. The knife scarcely scratched the skin. The failure, and the near spectacle of the brute's open mouth and fierce eyes, overthrew Stephane's resolution utterly, and, dropping the knife from his nerveless grasp, he turned and fled from the spot. "Brother! brother!" cried Riego in a choked voice, but Stephano was away. Alone with his enemy, the priest tried to draw his own knife from his belt, but the brute held him too tight. Gathering vigour from despair, the priest resolved that, if he perished, the monster should perish with him, and, step by step, he pushed the bear to the edge of the precipice. At this very instant a powerful voice was heard from above the platform, exclaiming, "Courage! courage!" and a man bounded down the rocks with fearful rapidity. But it was too late! The priest and his grizzly foe had reached the brink of the abyss; the bear's feet slipped, and both of them rolled down the steep locked in that mortal embrace. The eyes of the new comer could not follow them into the gulf. The day following that on which this scene took place, was the epoch of a festival in the village of which Riego was curate. The people were assembled in their public room, and the generous daring of their pastor was the theme of every tongue. They lamented him deeply-for this much they had learned from Stephano, that the priest had perished in encountering the bear. The young man, however, would tell no more; he kept a moody silence, and the people ascribed it to sorrow for the loss of a brother whom he was known to respect and love deeply. Things stood thus, when a young peasant from a neighbouring village entered the public room. He was the man who had witnessed Riego's fall, and he had also witnessed Stephano's flight and desertion. He told his tale, and in an instant cries of indignation burst from every tongue. "Away with him! drive him from the village!" were the exclamations of all. The unfortunate youth seemed in a condition of despair, which nothing could add to; and he was moving mutely away, when a man covered with bloody rags made his appearance. "Riego!" cried the astonished villagers. It was indeed the priest. Stephano fell on his knees before his brother in a state of speechless rapture, and, with looks of imploring entreaty, kissed his feet and knees. The priest looked on him with an aspect of affection and mild forgiveness. "Did you not fall over the precipice with the bear?" cried one of the people. "I did," said Riego; " but heaven protected me. My belt was caught by a sharp rock; the bear was forced to quit its hold, and perished alone at the bottom of the gulf." Exclamations of joy now rung from every quarter. Stephano continued sobbing aloud. "My brother! oh, my brother!" was all he could say. "What meant those cries as I entered ?" said the priest in a severe tone; "why would you send away the boy?" "Because the coward”. "Coward! he is no coward!" cried Riego. "His presence of mind was destroyed by his having narrowly escaped death a few minutes before. Are you sure that the same effect would not have been produced on any one of yourselves? Surely none will blame him when I forgive and embrace him! And now, let us return thanks to God, and let the festival proceed." Riego's wounds were soon healed. As for Stephano, by many a brave feat the young man has since wiped away the reproach which was drawn upon him by his want of firmness at the death-scene of the great bear. have won that repute for brilliant talents which was justice to the forbearance of Washington on this occa- It has been doubted whether Washington was actually invited to assume the supreme power, or, in other words, to place himself permanently, whether as a Cromwell or a Bonaparte, a protector or an emperor, at the head of his country. He was so invited, GUIZOT'S ESSAY ON WASHINGTON.* and by those who elevated Cromwell and Bonaparte IN an early number of the present periodical (No.-the soldiery. "In 1782, he viewed with abhor42), a complete though not lengthened memoir of rence and reprehended with severity' the very idea of Washington was given; and some particulars, also, of assuming the supreme power and the crown, which his family history appeared at a more recent period. were proffered him by certain disaffected officers. In a It would be superfluous, therefore, to follow in a for- letter to Colonel Lewis Nicola I am much at a loss,' mal manner the narrative alluded to in the heading of said he, 'to conceive what part of my conduct could this article, and which was drawn up by the distin- have given encouragement to an address, which to me guished French historian M. Guizot, for an edition of seems big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall the papers of Washington, produced by the Parisian my country. If I am not deceived in knowledge of press some time since. We shall only extract here myself, you could not have found a person to whom and there such anecdotes and passages as seem to your schemes are more disagreeable. Let me conjure throw something of a fresh light upon the career of you, then, if you have any regard for your country, the great Liberator of America, a being whose name concern for yourself and posterity, or respect for me, must be revered until man himself becomes "but a to banish these thoughts from your mind, and never name." communicate, as from yourself or any one else, a senBy those who are disposed to take the least favour-timent of the like nature."" Few, indeed, can do full able view of the career of George Washington, it is sometimes said that he was a Fabius in military matters-one who attained success by the negative course of evading action, rather than of acting; and, in short, who had consummate prudence, but was deficient in positive genius and ability. Leaving aside other arguinents, it may well be said that it could be no negation of striking qualities which drew the eye of his country upon the son of an obscure country gentleman, in his early youth, and when he occupied no more important position than that of a subordinate officer of a proYet was Washington not left without his rewardvincial corps. "His abilities," says M. Guizot," were a reward exceeding in his eyes all that sovereignty not shown by the event alone they were anticipated could have bestowed. When his country had gained by his contemporaries. Your good health and for- its independence through his arm, he was called to the tune are the toast at every table," wrote Colonel Fair-presidency, and left his country-seat of Mount Vernon fax, his first patron, to him in 1756. In 1759, when to be installed at New York. "His journey was a he was elected for the first time to the House of Bur- triumph: along the road, and in the cities, the whole gesses of Virginia, on taking his seat, Mr Robinson, population rushed out to meet him, to salute him, to the speaker, expressed to him, with much warmth of pray for him. He entered New York, attended by colouring and strength of expression, the gratitude of the commissioners of congress, in an ornamented barge, that assembly for the services he had rendered his rowed by thirteen pilots in white uniforms, as the recountry. Washington rose to thank him for the com- presentatives of the thirteen states, amidst an enorpliment; but such was his confusion that he was unable mous concourse of people assembled in the harbour to utter a word; he blushed, stammered, and trembled and on the shore: but his frame of mind remained for a second: the speaker relieved him by a stroke of unchanged. The motion of the boat,' says he in his address-Sit down, Mr Washington,' said he; your journal, the flags on the shipping, the strains of music, modesty equals your valour, and that surpasses the the roar of cannon, the loud acclamations of the peopower of any language that I possess.' ple as I passed, filled my mind with emotions as painful as they were agreeable, for I thought on the scenes of a totally opposite character which would perhaps occur at some future day, in spite of all my efforts to do good." Again, in 1774, on the eve of the great contest, Patrick Henry, one of the most ardent republicans in America, on returning home from that first congress which had been formed to prepare for the event, and upon being asked who was the first man in congress, replied, "If you speak of eloquence, Mr Rutledge of South Carolina is by far the greatest orator; but if you speak of solid information and sound judgment, Colonel Washington is unquestionably the greatest man on that floor.'' Undoubtedly, he had not the faculty of displaying his powers in a brilliant manner; he possessed not, as the last quotation shows, the gift of eloquence, so essential to the acquisition of a character for shining abilities by a public man. But can we doubt that hundreds, with stores far less copious than those which lay latent in the mind of Washington, *Washington. By M. Guizot. Translated by Henry Reeve, Esq. London: John Murray, 1840. Nearly a century and a half before, on the banks of the Thames, a like crowd and like demonstrations of joy attended the procession of Oliver Cromwell, the crowds! what acclamations!' said the flatterers of the Protector of the Commonwealth of England. What protector: and Cromwell replied, "There would be contrast how glorious, between the feelings and the more to see me hung!' An analogy how strange, a language of the bad great man and the man great and good!" It is worthy of note, that in nominating his cabinetassistants, he selected able men from different parties, but afterwards gave sanction, by his practice, to a maxim of government often disputed. "Once engaged in business and with parties, the same man who had shown such latitude in the formation of his cabinet, adopted and enforced a vigorous uniformity of purpose and conduct in his administration. I shall not, whilst I have the honour to administer the government, bring a man into any office of consequence knowingly, whose political tenets are adverse to the measures which the general government are pursuing; for this, in my opinion, would be a sort of political suicide."" We shall close these brief extracts with a few sentences from M. Guizot's able and eloquent summary of the character of Washington. "He did the two greatest things which in politics it is permitted to man to attempt: he maintained by peace the independence of his country, which he had conquered by war; he founded a free government in the name of the principles of order, and by re-establishing their sway. When he retired from public life, both these tasks were accomplished. He might then enjoy them. It matters little, in such high designs, at what cost of labour they have been perfected; there are no drops of toil which are not dried by such a wreath, upon brow where God has placed it." the "Government," says M. Guizot again, "will always and every where be the greatest employment of the human faculties, and consequently that which demands the loftiest spirits. The honour and the interest of society are alike concerned in drawing and fixing them to the administration of its affairs; for no institutions, no political contrivances, can fill the place they ought to occupy. On the other hand, in men who are worthy of this destiny, all weariness, all sadness, though it be warrantable, is weakness. Their mission is toil; their reward, the success of their works, but still in toil. Oftentimes they die, bent under the burden, before that meed is vouchsafed to them. Washington obtained it: he deserved and tasted success and repose. Of all great men, he was the most virtuous and the most happy : God has, in this world, no higher favours to bestow." SKETCHES OF SUPERSTITIONS. THE subject of spectral illusions, or, to use the com- An apparition, spectre, ghost, or whatever it may be called, is vulgarly supposed to be a supernatural appearance-a thing occurring out of the common order of nature. No particular time or place is assigned for the appearance, but we may observe that the time is usually evening or night, and the place solitary, or apart from the busy haunts of man. According to old theories on the subject, the person who declared that he had seen such an appearance was either set down as the fabricator of an untruth, or his story was fondly believed, and in the latter case the supernatural incident was added to the mass of credible history. We shall now endeavour to set this conflict of testimony and opinion to rights. In all cases, it is quite possible for the declarant to speak the truth as respects what he saw, or thought he saw, and yet that no real apparition ever occurred. The whole affair, as we shall explain, is simply a delusion in sight, caused by some species of disease in the organs which regulate the vision. Mental and bodily disorder, organic or functional, is now allowed by physicians to be the basis of all kinds of spectral illusion. Organic disorder of the body is that condition in which one or more organs are altered in structure by disease. Disease of the brain, which involves organic mental disorder, is properly disease of the body, but enduring lunacy or fatuity, existing (if they can do so) without disease in the structure of the brain, may also be called organic disorder of the mind. These explanations will show what is meant by that epithet, as applied either to affections of the mind or body. Functional disorder, again, of the mind or body, is that condition of things where the healthy action of the organ or organs, in part or whole, is impeded, without the existence of any disease of structure. It may be said that violent excitement of the imagination or passions constitutes functional mental disorder; "anger is a for functional bodily disorder, temporary affections of temporary madness," said the Romans wisely. As the digestive organs may be pointed to as common these disorders, and kinds of disorders, may appear in cases of such a species of physical derangement. All a complicated form, and, what is of most importance to our present argument, the nervous system, on which depends the action of the senses, the power of volition, and the operation of all the involuntary functions (such as the circulative and digestive functions), is, and must necessarily be, involved more or less deeply in all cases of constitutional disorder, organic or functional. These powers of the nerves, which form the 303 sole medium by which mind and body act and react on each other, give us a clue to the comprehension of those strange phenomena called spectral illusions, which depend on a combination of mental and physical impressions. Organic mental disorder generates spectral illusions. Almost every lunatic tells you that he sees them, and with truth; they are seemingly present to his diseased perceptions. The same cause, simple insanity, partial or otherwise, and existing either with or without structural brain disease, has been, we truly believe, at dation of many more apparition-cases than far the greatest number of such any other cause. Dy cases ever put on record, have been connected with fanaticism in religious matters; and can there be a doubt that the majority of the poor creatures, men and women, who habitually subjected themselves, in the early centuries of the church, to macerations and lacerations, and saw signs and visions, were simply persons of partially deranged intellect? St Theresa, who lay entranced for whole days, and who, in the fervour of devotion, imagined that she was frequently addressed by the voice of God, and that our Saviour, St Peter, and St Paul, would often in person visit her solitude, is an example of this order of monomaniacs. That this individual, and others like her, should have been perfectly sensible on all other points, is a phenomenon in the pathology of mind too common to cause any wonder. We would ascribe, we repeat, a large class of apparition-cases, including these devotional ones, to simple mental derangement. The eye in such instances may take in a correct impression of external objects, but this is not all that is wanting. A correct perception by the mind is essential to healthy and natural vision, and this perception the deranged intellect cannot effect. A three-footed stool may then become a kneeling angel. We would therefore have such persons regarded, not in the uncharitable light of impostors, but of poor creatures who mistook natural hallucinations for supernatural. his case. Undoubtedly, however, many of those cases of spectral illusions which have made the deepest impression on mankind, have not arisen from organic mental disease on the part of the sight-seers. The lunatic is apt to betray his condition, and, that once recognised, his visions become of no weight. We have then to turn to other causes of spectre-seeing; and, first, let us notice the mode of operation, and effects of certain functional disorders of the system, operating on the visual perceptions through the nerves. A bodily disorder, which ought in itself to afford a solution of all apparitions, is that called delirium tremens. This is most commonly induced, in otherwise healthy subjects, by continued dissipation. So long (say medical authorities) as the drinker can take food, he is comparatively secure against the disease, but when his stomach rejects common nourishment, and he persists in taking stimulants, the effects are for the most part speedily visible, at least in peculiarly nervous constitutions. The first symptom is commonly a slight impairment of the healthy powers of the senses of hearing and seeing. A ringing in the ears probably takes place; then any common noise, such as the rattle of a cart on the street, assumes to the hearing a particular sound, and arranges itself into a certain tune perhaps, or certain words, which haunt the sufferer, and are by and bye rung into his ears on the recurrence of every noise. The proverb, as the fool thinks, so the bell tinks," becomes very applicable in His sense of seeing, in the mean while, begins to show equal disorder; figures float before him perpetually when his eyes are closed at night. By day, also, objects seem to move before him that are really stationary. The senses of touch, taste, and smell, are also involved in confusion. In this way the disturbance of the senses goes on, increasing always with the disorder of the alimentary function, until the unhappy drinker is at last visited, most probably in the twilight, by visionary figures, distinct in outline as living beings, and which seem to speak to him with the voice of life. At first he mistakes them for realities, but, soon discovering his error, is thrown into the deepest alarm. If he has the courage to approach and examine any one of the illusory figures, he probably finds that some fold of drapery, or some shadow, has been the object converted by his diseased sense into the apparition, and he may also find that the voice was but some simple household sound converted by his disordered ear into strange speech; for the senses, at least in the milder cases of this sort, rather convert than create, though the metamorphosed may differ widely from the real substance. The visitations and sufferings of the party may go on increasing, till he takes courage to speak to the physician, who, by great care, restores his alimentary organs to a state of health, and, in consequence, the visions slowly leave him. If, however, remedies are not applied in time, the party will probably sink under the influence of his disorder. The spectral figures and voices being solely and entirely the creation of his own fancy, will seem to do or say any thing that may be uppermost in that fancy at the moment, and will encourage him to self-murder by every possible argument—all emanating, of course, from his own brain. The whole consists merely of his own fancies, bodied forth to him visibly and audibly. His own poor head is the seat of all; there is nothing apart from him—nothing but vacancy. Dr Alderson, a respectable physician, mentions his being called to a keeper of a public-house, who was in a state of great terror, and who described | himself as having been haunted for some time with These phantasms lasted, as we have said, two years. The issue is peculiarly worthy of note. Nicolai had in former years fallen into the habit of periodical blood-letting by leeches, but had ventured to stop the practice previous to the accession of the phantasms, and during their prevalence he had only been advised to attend to the state of his digestive organs. After they had endured for the time mentioned, it was thought fit to renew the blood-letting. At eleven in the morning, while the room was crowded with the spectral figures, the leeches were applied. As the bleeding slowly proceeded, the figures grew dimmer and dimmer, and finally, by eight o'clock in the evening, they had all melted into thin air, never to re-appear! This most remarkable case, the first in which any individual dared calmly to come forward and avow such an affection, at the risk of incurring the charge of insanity, was founded, we thus see, simply on a plethoric or surcharged state of the blood-vessels.. Nicolai deserves great credit for the philosophic composure with which he recorded the phenomena presented. to him; but his statement, which has often been republished in this country, seems defective in some points, and, from the interest of the subject, we may be pardoned for presuming to notice these. rally speaking, he represents his spectral visitants as things which came and went, and assumed various shapes, and appeared in certain numbers, uninfluenced directly by himself. The total dependence which they had upon his own fancy of the moment, is not put clearly before us, though, by the truthful accuracy of his narrative, he unconsciously makes that fact apparent every instant. The surcharged state of the vessels was the fundamental cause of the phantasms, but his own passing fancies moulded them for the passing moment into shape, regulated their num bers, and gave them words. How could it be otherwise? The whole panorama was exhibited on his own retina, and the working brain behind was the manager and scene-shifter of the show. Gene The subject of particular apparitions, of banshies, of second sight, &c., must be left to another occasion. We have here but pointed out certain principles, which, with a little farther notice of the influence of the mind singly, will enable us to throw light, we trust, on most of the authentic cases of spectral illusions on record. OCCASIONAL NOTES. NAMES. Many additional cases from Hibbert, Abercromby, and other writers, might be quoted, in which the visual impressions and perceptions were in a similar way affected by the influence of digestive derangement. But as no doubt can rationally exist on the point, from the comparative commonness of the disease, no more proof need be brought forward. However, the inference naturally deducible from these facts is too important to be overlooked. Here we find, by unquestionable medical evidence, that a man walking about in apparent bodily health, and mentally sane, may nevertheless be subject to most distinct visitations of spectral figures, some of them in the semblance of dead persons. We find this, we repeat, to be within the range of natural phenomena. Now, is it not more likely, in those cases where wonderful apparitions are reported to have been seen, that the whole was referable to such natural causes, than that the grave gave up its dead, or that the laws of the universe were specially broken in upon in any other way? Even with only one such admitted source It need only be added, in further explanation of of spectral illusions as the malady alluded to, we the subject, that the reason why spectral illusions should certainly err in passing it by to seek for ex- are more frequent in solitary than in busy parts of planations in supernatural quarters. But in reality the country, is, that in these secluded spots the fancy we have many causes or sources of them, and to these is apt to become diseased, or at least deeply affected, we shall now look, in continuation of our argument. by external appearances. The raving of the wind in Among the other varieties of bodily ailments affect-mountain glens, the silence and gloom of winter, the ing either structure or function, which have been light and shade of summer-all work on the mind, and found to produce spectral illusions, fevers, inflamma- produce that species of functional disorder which leads tory affections, epileptic attacks, hysteria, and disor- to the delusions we have described. ders of the nerves generally, are among the most prominent. As regards fevers and inflammatory affections, particularly those of the brain, it is well known to almost every mother or member of a large family, that scarcely any severe case can occur without illusions of the sight to a greater or less extent. In hysteric and epileptic cases also, where fits or partial trances occur, the same phenomena are frequently observed. But we shall not enlarge on the effects produced by the influence of severe and obviously existing maladies, as it is in those cases only where the spectre-seer has exhibited apparent sanity of mind and body, that special wonder has been excited. It is so far of great importance, however, to notice that these diseases do produce the illusions, as in most cases it will be found on inquiry that the party subject to them, however sound to appearance at the time, afterwards displayed some of these complaints in full force; and we may then rationally explain the whole matter by supposing the seeds of the ailments to have early existed in a latent state. A German lady, of excellent talents and high character, published an account some years back of successive visions with which she had been honoured, as she believed, by Divine favour. Dr Crichton, however, author of an able work on Insanity, found that the lady was always affected with the aura epileptica during the prevalence of the illusions; or, in other words, that she was labouring under slight attacks of epilepsy. Thus simply was explained a series of phenomena which, from the high character for veracity of the subject of them, astonished a great part of Germany. Another case, where functional bodily disorder of a different and very simple kind was present in an unrecognisable state, and produced extraordinary illusions, was the famous one of Nicolai, the Berlin bookseller. This individual, when in a perfectly fit state to attend to his ordinary business, was suddenly visited one day, when casually excited by some annoying circumstance, by the figure of a person long dead. He asked his wife, who was present, if she saw it; she did not. The bookseller was at first much alarmed, but, being a man of sense and intelligence, he soon became convinced of the illusory yet natural character of the spectra, which subsequently, for a period of two whole years, appeared to him in great numbers, and with daily frequency. "I generally saw (says he) human forms of both sexes, but they took not the smallest notice of each other, moving as in a market-place, where all are eager to press through the crowd; at times, however, they seemed to be transacting business with one another. I also saw several times people on horseback, dogs, and birds. All these phantasms appeared to me in their natural size, and as distinct as if alive; none of the figures appeared particularly terrible, comical, or disgusting, most of them being of an indifferent shape, and some presenting a pleasing aspect. The longer these phantoms continued to visit me, the more frequently did they return." They also spoke to him repeatedly. A LAMENTABLE meagreness of taste is displayed in this country in giving Christian names to children. The usual custom seems to consist in naming the infant after some friend or relative, no matter how offensive or prosaic the name may be. This is perhaps done by way of compliment, but, generally speaking, it is treated very lightly by the person supposed to be complimented, and the favour might as well be spared. Where the name is euphonious or well-sounding, there can be no harm in the practice, but where it is a harsh or too common appellation, a positive injury is inflicted on the child for life, all to satisfy a passing whim, or pay an imaginary compliment. It can be from no other cause than this that there is such a limited range of Christian names amongst us. We have Johns without end, and then in numerical proportion come James, William, George, Thomas, Robert, and two or three others, all which being repeated in nearly every family every new generation, there is the greatest difficulty in tracing descents for the sake of inheritance; and in those cases in which each male member of a family has several sons, all with precisely the same names, an utter confusion is introduced into the genealogy. We have thus, for example, known five cousins, all possessing the name John Thomson, and similar absurdities must be continually occurring within every other person's knowledge. of naming children is, for the parents to look about What we should propose being done in the matter for a new and well-sounding name for their child, whether male or female, without any regard to the stupid old custom of calling infants after uncles, aunts, grandfathers, or grandmothers. Why not introduce more liberally into the common stock of Christian names some of the fine old Anglo-Saxon appellatives, such as Arthur, Athelstan, Alfred, Swynfen, Albert, Edmund, Egbert, Ethelbert, Edgar, Edwin, Cedric ; or for females-Adela, Adeline, Agatha, Amanda, Alice, Matilda, Eleanor, Constance, &c. The fund of Roman, French, and other names, might also be drawn upon, as Adrian, Adolphe, Hortense, &c. On a former occasion, we showed the impropriety of giving children two Christian names, or of giving a surname for a Christian name. But it indicates a much greater meanness of taste to call any child by the name or titular appellative of any member of the royal family. We lately heard of a gentleman in the metropolis who had called his three sons, respectively, Kent, Cambridge, and Sussex, a thing no doubt done for the purpose of creating a sensation among strangers. "Sussex, my dear, will you come this way?" or "Cambridge, I'll trouble you to hand me that book," sounds well when uttered by an elegant mamma in a promiscuous company, and for the moment raises the notion that one of the royal family is present. Such are the mean motives which sometimes influence parents in the naming of their children. DRINKING WINE AT DINNER. In high life, the practice of asking another "to drink wine with you," is quite worn out. It is only followed by an inferior order of persons in provincial towns, who are not yet aware that the change has taken place. The custom at first-rate tables has for some time been that which is followed on the continent; every one takes what he or she likes, without bothering neighbours. A servant usually hands round liquors. It is gratifying to observe that by this plan few take any wine, or at most only make a kind of sham of drinking. The use of intoxicating liquors at table is obviously declining in the best circles of society, and is kept up by the middle classes, not from a vicious taste, but from a wish to show off, and an idea of being hospitable. The sooner these ridiculous notions are corrected, the better. SONGS OF JAMES HOGG. It would be a difficult task properly to characterise in words the genius of the Ettrick Shepherd. The case is different with Burns; we can readily discern what were the leading features of his intellect, as developed throughout his poetry. But the Ettrick Shepherd had scarcely a single marked quality of mind in common with Burns; and, in saying so, we do not mean to undervalue the former in the slightest degree. The elder bard, it may be safely said, could as little have produced the Queen's Wake, Queen Hynde, Ringan and May, or many of the other highly imaginative pieces which Hogg gave forth, as the Shepherd could have written Tam O'Shanter, or the Cotter's Saturday Night. In their songs, these two Scottish poets differ as widely as in their larger productions. We do not find in the songs of Hogg that axiomatic pith, terse humour, and compressed beauty of sentiment, which appear in such pieces as "A Man's a man for a' that," "The Braw Wooer," and "Mary Morison." What we find in place of these qualities in the songs of the Ettrick Shepherd, it is not easy to tell, although it is undeniable that many of them possess a charm of no common kind, and one fitted to make them lastingly popular. A certain happy naïveté, or quaint simplicity of thought, expressed in the genuine Doric of Scotland, with frequent touches of tender and kindly feeling, and a flow of pleasing imagery, derived from homely natural objects and common rural occupations, may be described as perhaps the principal features characterising the songs of Hogg. Real humour is less apparent in any of them than odd turns and "queer" expressions, which supply its place, and produce much of its usual effect. The following stanza from a song written, in the poet's courting days, to the lady who afterwards became his wife, and who lives to lament his loss, will give a fair example of the happy turns alluded to : "Could this ill warld hae been contrived To stand without mischievous woman, But since it is the waefu' case That man maun hae this teasing crony, Oh had she no been made sae bonny!" As an example of the way in which he gives a lively point to verses by single expressions, we may quote another passage, from "My Love she's but a Lassie yet": "She's neither proud nor saucy yet, Bonny blinking, Hilty-skilty lassie yet." Of the tender and kindly feeling, and the flow of homely yet pleasing imagery, characterising the songs of the Ettrick Shepherd, fine examples may be found every one. in the "Wee Housie," "I hae naebody now," "When the kye comes hame," and "Oh Jeanie, there's naething to fear ye"-all of them pieces so well known, that their peculiarities will occur to the memory of Of all the songs, however, expressive of serious emotion which the poet ever wrote, the following one, little known, seems to us one of the most affecting. It is entitled a "Father's Lament," and appears with a fine air attached to it in Bishop's Select Melodies : "How can you bid this heart be blythe, When blythe this heart can never be? Who never can forgotten be- I blame not Providence's sway, A mortal thing should ne'er repine, In expressing the doubts, and fears, and pains of love, the Ettrick Shepherd is extremely happy, though he more often adopts a semi-burlesque tone, than the seriously-plaintive style of Burns. But the following stanzas, from a piece entitled "Bonny Mary," may be read after the Lass of Ballochmyle, without any risk of detriment to the reputation of Hogg: "Oh Mary! thou'rt sae mild and sweet, Nor wi' the spring his toil renew; trating his faculties upon works likely to live. Thus, the last ten years of Hogg's life may be said to have been devoted to destroying the fame which he had formerly, and under many difficulties, acquired. These desultory remarks must be brought to a close, and we shall do so with another beautiful little piece from Hogg's song collection :— A WIDOW'S WAIL. I canna leave thy comely clay, I have no hope but for the day I hoped thy sire's loved form to see, An' saw with joy thy sparkling ee With kindling vigour shine! I thought, when auld an' frail, I might Wi' you an' yours remain; But thou art fled, my bonny boy, An' left me here alane! Now closed an' set thy sparkling eye, But thou art fled, my bonny boy, The flower now fading on the lea MEDICAL QUACKERY. A CLEVERLY written pamphlet on medical quackery, by Dr Charles Cowan of Reading, has lately been brought under our notice, and affords us an opportunity of saying a few words on the subject. The manner in which thousands of persons in all parts of the United Kingdom, but England in particular, are absolutely cheated out of their money by venders of quack medicines, independently of the serious injury done to health by these pretended nostrums, is a great disgrace to our social condition. No circumstance that could be produced shows more clearly the state of ignorance among the mass of the people, than the existence of the vast delusion and credulity respecting these trumpery and often vicious preparations. Shrewd as the English are in every matter of business, they may be described as children in all that pertains to the curing of disease. It would appear that This last verse will bring to recollection the closing any man, no matter who, will be almost certain to one in the "Lament for Lord Glencairn :" "The bridegroom may forget the bride realise a fortune by manufacturing and selling pretended specifics for bodily complaints, provided he possess a sufficient share of impudence, advertise well, and keep up an imposing personal appearance. But it is not alone in England that the imposition is successful. Wherever there is a preponderance of EngCertainly the images in the shepherd's stanza are lish or descendants of English located, there the quack they are, nevertheless, very beautiful. The follow-settled part of North America, and in the colonies, not so forcible or appropriate as those of Burns, but medicine-vender flourishes. All over the Englishing song, to the tune of "Over the Border," is among quacks are as successful as in the mother country. the most popular of the shepherd's lyrical produc- Every American newspaper which we see abounds tions :with their advertisements. It has been calculated that 200,000 dollars are spent annually for advertising quack medicines in the United States. In Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the West Indies, the sum must also be considerable. The medicines are the same which deluge the advertising columns of the British press-elixirs, pills, purifiers of the blood, lotions, worm-cakes, dentrifices, &c. A peck of quackprepared pills is believed to be consumed daily in Boston; but New York, being larger, takes half a bushel. "Oh, my lassie, our joy to complete again, Meet me again i' the gloaming, my dearie; Oh, Jeanie, there's naething to fear ye! A' maun love it an' a maun revere it. "Tis love makes the sang o' the woodland sae cheery, Oh, Jeanie, there's naething to fear ye!" According to Dr Cowan, the facilities for extensively advertising are greater than is generally supposed. "The leading journals of the metropolis insert very few quack advertisements, for the simple reason that the proprietors themselves are not venders of patent medicines, and because they require cash for quack as well as for all other announcements. It is chiefly in the provincial papers, and in the less influential London journals, that the quack advertises, the proprietors of these frequently becoming jointdarling," and some others that might be named, there virtually his shop, and the sale of the nostrum is often In such songs as "Cam ye by Athol," "Charlie is my stock partners in his trade. The newspaper office is is, upon the whole, little poetic merit, and the larity of the pieces rests in no small degree on the the sole security for the payment of advertisements, national feeling incorporated in the composition. One the proprietors persisting in zealously advertising as circumstance materially distinguishes Hogg's poetry the only means of securing remuneration. Many of from that of Burns; the shepherd latterly wrote much the latter have large stocks of medicines on hand, that was below mediocrity, and evidently from an unpoetic motive. Urged on by magazine editors, which occasionally become valueless by the rapid sale publishers, and also his own necessities, he issued a of some more successful competitor for public favour. multitude of perishable things, in place of concen- | Journals just commencing, or of very inferior circula popu tion, not only insert puffs of the empiric on these terms, but sometimes deduct from the proceeds of sale only sufficient to meet the duty; and even this is occasionally paid by the newspaper proprietor himself, who seizes upon a quack advertisement as the only means of filling up his empty columns, and giving to his paper a fictitious appearance of importance and wide circulation. It is evident from this that the quack wields a fearful power in the public press; his expenses are often little more than nominal, while he secures the agency and interests of the newspaper proprietor in his behalf; and thus the very means by which the public mind should be directed and enlightened, is converted into a source of incalculable mischief." To this we may add a circumstance that has attracted our attention. The number of quack medicine advertisements in the English provincial papers is remarkably stationary; it usually varies from twenty to twenty-four in each newspaper, and you may observe the same announcements keeping their place for years. In the Scotch newspapers there are comparatively few of these advertisements, the people in the north, as we suppose, being less easily duped by the impudent falsehoods and extravagant absurdities of the race of newspaper empirics. are a million of people; if one dies in seven years, many Dr Cowan adduces the following instances from A mechanic was afflicted with a serious disease, to It is not denied that an advertised medicine contains a substance which may serve a good purpose in certain complaints. But the absurdity is, that in most cases the medicine is put forth as a specific for a wide range of diseases. We have pills offered to us which are to cure all kinds of "coughs, colds, asthmas, short-tain !' ness of breath, oppression of the chest, dropsy, and consumption." It is clear that this is an impossibility. Some coughs, for instance, are the symptoms of pulmonary affections, while others proceed from the stomach. Now, is it reasonable to suppose that any one medicine is calculated for these opposite states of derangement? The impertinent thing about quacks is, that they strike almost entirely at symptoms; they speak of cough and asthma as if these were diseases in themselves, and not mere external signs of some species of functional or organic derangement. To cure a cough, we must first understand what it is that causes the cough, and the same in all other maladies. Of what, it may be asked, are quack medicines generally composed what is their precise character? The writer before us gives the most complete information on this point. "Quack medicines, almost without exception, are nothing more than the revived formula of some obsolete pharmacopaia, the prescription of some medical man of eminence, or a modern preparation with a new name, and sufficiently adulterated to render its recognition difficult. They are not, as the empiric would have one believe, profound discoveries of his own, the result of deep experimental research combined with exquisite chemical skill, but formula pirated from the regular profession, and puffed into notoriety by the use of medical words and phrases extracted from professional books. They form no real additions to the art of healing, while they are indebted for their popularity and sale to their occasional success, but more particularly to the secret and mysterious mode of their announcement, the extravagance of their pretentions, and their adaptation to the fancies and prejudices of a medically ignorant population. The really distinctive character of a quack medicine is this, that it is an ordinary remedy to which are ascribed extraordinary virtues; it is administered by the empiric without knowledge or discrimination, while the educated practitioner attaches to it no other qualities than what experience has confirmed, and adapts its employment to those peculiar conditions of the system where it may reasonably be expected to be of use." To this is added an analysis of the composition of about thirty different specifics, pills, elixirs, drops, &c.; but we refrain from mentioning them, as the insertion of the names of the proprietors in any form in our pages would be attended with more harm than good. Considering the extraordinary pretensions of quacks, it must be a matter of curiosity to know who they really are, or what they have been. We learn from Dr Cowan, that in many instances the names attached to the medicines are fictitious, or adopted from the name of some well-known practitioner; in this way we have the names of Armstrong, Boerhaave, Ashley Cooper, and others, as if these celebrated individuals testified to the virtues and sanctioned the indiscriminate employment of the stuff fathered upon them. During the protectorate of Cromwell there were numerous instances of disbanded soldiers of the vilest character taking upon them the practice of physic. In the present day, the quack is usually a cunning knave, of no education, who, by sheer force of impudence, and tact in playing on a weak point in human nature, pushes himself forward from an humble to an exalted condition. Dr Thornton, writing in 1813, says, "It is a known fact, that thousands of children lose their lives annually by worm cakes, advertised by the legal and infamous destroyers of their fellow-creatures, who, for the sake of gain, are still suffered to go on in their work of death in an enlightened period; and, alas! no patriot has as yet stood up to remedy this growing evil. The calculation of the quack is this: I was in my youth a chimney-sweeper, next a scavenger, and now I am a tinker or mender of kettles; my brother, the cobbler, has made a decent livelihood, and is much respected, by turning from mending soles to converting souls. I have no mountebank to be sure, but I can circulate handbills. In London alone there Many adventurers in the pill trade in England have risen to wealth by this method. Among the list may be found several clergymen, as inventors of this class of medicines, although, probably, the most successful of late years, is a man who was a short time ago a barber, and shaved for a penny!" to paid puffs abounding in the grossest falsehoods. We cannot help feeling, also, that to the regular prac titioners of medicine, no small share of the blame of this state of things is chargeable. The Latin jargon in which medical prescriptions are clothed, the degree of mystery often maintained with respect to what is simply a plain matter of science, and above all, the incomprehensible variety of practitioners in the profession, not to speak of the unseemly contentions of rival medical schools and corporations-all afford admirable scope for the quackish pretender, and we can hardly wonder at uninstructed people being so easily imposed upon. While, therefore, earnestly warning our readers against purchasing or using a single medicine advertised in the columns of a newspaper, and recommending them in all cases of disorders to apply at once to a respectable medical man for advice, we are decidedly of opinion that the medical profession stands greatly in need of reform, and this reform must take place before any solid change is to be expected in the custom of depending on quackish pretenders. SIGHTS OF A FOREIGN FAIR. FAIRS in France are conducted with a much greater amount of fun and drollery than in England, perhaps for the reason that the French in general are better acquainted with the art of being joyous, and are more lively in their mirthfulness. Enter the field where a French fair is held, and the number of sights and sounds around you will astound both eye and ear. Peasants and citizens, men, women, and children, crush, press, elbow, and bawl without intermission. The whining of clarionets, the groaning of drums, the tinkling of cymbals, the piping of panreeds, and the explosion of fireworks, symphonise, pleasantly or unpleasantly as the state of your temper may be, with the voices of the visiting crowd, and the loud appeals of the dealers and tricksters there present. At every step, some of these latter personages, from booth, stall, or stage, tempt you to make purchases, or try your luck, or patronise an exhibition. Go into one of these places of exhibition, and you shall be treated to a set of pictures, formed by the slides of a magic lantern, most amusing and instructive to behold. You shall there see "the Emperor of Russia, at the moment when he is engaged in reviewing the grand imperial army. He has his staff beside him. You observe a young girl approaching. She is saying, 'Sire, my father wishes me to marry one man, and I want to marry another.' The emperor is replying in these remarkable words, 'Atten-kirkoffs!' which means, that to suffering humanity sovereigns should always be compassionate." After the magic lantern exhibition, pass on, and you will come to a natural philosophy lecturer, or, as he calls himself, physician-gene"It cannot be wondered at that so many take up ral of the people of France. He is a man who really the trade of quackery, as it is one of the most profit-possesses some knowledge of experimental chemistry, able in which a man can embark. Five hundred or and, with the help of an electrifying machine, and a six hundred per cent. is deemed but a fair and reasonfew other instruments, astonishes the peasants with able remuneration for the outlay of capital. This may his experiments in physics. The theatre of his labours startle, but it is true. Let me ask any rational indi- is a small circular space, enclosed with a rude wooden vidual how persons, without a farthing in the world railing. On a table in the centre stands an air-pump, to begin trading with, have been able to build splendid a voltaic pile, Leyden jars, and the various appendages mansions, drive a carriage and pair, keep their town of the electrifying machine. When he exhibits, the and country houses, with elegantly laid-out gardens country people ask in amazement how this man can and conservatories, and spend from five to six thou- bottle up the thunder of heaven in a phial. The voice sand per annum on advertisements, which is the case of the physician-general of France is sad and plaintive with more than one of the present race of quack-medicine doctors, if the trade was not most profitable? entertained in the palaces of kings." Poor fellow! when he says, "With my acquirements I might be On a recent examination at the Insolvent Court, it he perhaps believes what he says. He is the most oozed out that every pound laid out in the manufac- honest of the charlatans, and one must per force pity turing of their body-destroying trash, produced a clear him, when one beholds his attire, which speaks of a profit of six pounds." sore struggle between pride and poverty. "The fact is, that quack medicines, at the present moment, are among the most tempting and successful speculations to the needy, the unprincipled, and the avaricious; and success is nearly or wholly independent of the real utility of the remedy-but, on the extent of the publicity given to it, on the ingenuity with which it is adapted to the public prejudices and cravings, and on the persevering and reckless manner in which its pretended virtues are attested. In some instances, it does seem to have occurred to the modern empiric that it would be scarcely safe to found his claims to such wonderful knowledge upon his individual researches, and he therefore transforms himself into a body corporate, and his house into a college-(how?) by the speedy and simple process of having the word painted in large letters upon the wall! Fearing that statements might be mistrusted if put forth in the name of the party deriving the sole emolument from the sale, so the ingenious device is adopted of giving them the appearance of emanating from an 'association,' or 'society,' 'establishment,' hall,' or 'college,' of learned persons, and they come before the public with all the additional authority of an imposing name and an imaginary combination of wisdom!" Notwithstanding the numerous cases of death and personal injury produced by taking quack medicines in England, no pains whatsoever have been taken, either by the public or by the medical profession, to extirpate the nuisance. The press, with two or three exceptions, has been worse than silent on the subject; for it encourages the delusion by giving systematic publicity * Weekly Dispatch, February 24, 1839. experimenter, and crowd to the side of a family of rope-dancing and tumbling party, with a master or |