rays, and black and the other dark colours absorb them, clothes of a light colour are best fitted not only to impede the transmission of heat from without in warm weather, but also to retain the natural temperature of the body in an opposite state of the thermometer. There is another point connected with colour which should not be overlooked; namely, the greater aptitude the dark colours possess for absorbing and retaining odours; hence, observes Dr. Stark, "it would appear that physicians, by dressing in black, have unluckily chosen the colour of all others the most absorbent of odours and other exhalations, and of course most dangerous to themselves and patients." Our readers will find some interesting facts in corroboration of this opinion, which Dr. Dunglison has extracted from Dr. Stark's memoir, which we have not space to insert.

In speaking of the effects of bathing, which forms the subject of Chapter IV., Dr. Dunglison observes, that the reaction which takes place on emerging from a cold bath, is not as great as has been supposed, and that persons have been misled with regard to it, from not adverting to the fact, that all our sensations of heat and cold are merely relative. We cannot agree with him fully in this opinion; the excitement that follows the use of the cold bath is of too long continuance, and the sensations of warmth are too vivid to be merely a return to the state which existed previous to the chill occasioned by the water.

In making this observation, we are alluding to cases where the cold bath is used as it generally is, merely for a short period of time; where an individual remains in it beyond this, we readily admit that it acts rather as a sedative than a stimulant or tonic. With his advice as respects the use of all kinds of bathing, we heartily coincide, and earnestly recommend a careful perusal of this part of his work, both to the medical and the general reader, being fully convinced that many evils have resulted from an abuse of this important hygienic agent.

În considering the subjects of exercise and sleep, which are next taken up, Dr. Dunglison has exhibited his usual industry and perspicacity in the selection and arrangement of facts, and we regret that circumstances will not allow us to notice them in detail; but as we take for granted, that the work itself will, ere long, be in the hands of most of our readers, we shall content ourselves with the following extract, in refutation of a very common, and we have long been convinced, a very prejudicial error; namely, that the atmosphere of a bed-room should not be modified by a fire.

"Why should the body be surrounded by a temperature nearly equal to its own, whilst the face is in contact with air, perhaps near the freezing point, and often loaded with humidity? There is certainly more wisdom in the opinion of Kitchener, that a fire in the bed-room is sometimes indispensable, and that during half the year, those who can afford it, would do wisely to have one."

This is peculiarly advisable in all cases of pulmonary or bronchial disease; how often do patients complain that although they scarcely cough during the day, that it comes on immediately on retiring to rest? The reason must be obvious. During the day, they breathe a warm atmosphere congenial to the irritated state of their lungs, which is suddenly exchanged for the cold, and perhaps humid air of their bed-chamber. At the same time, the practice of some, of keeping the chamber at an elevated temperature, is equally objectionable; all that is required, is sufficient fire to moderate the great and sudden change above alluded to.

In the last chapter the author treats of corporeal and mental occupations, and points out the influence they exercise in the maintenance of health or the production of disease.

"This influence," he observes, "is caused by a few circumstances, and of these, the degree of exertion, of elevation and depression of temperature, of greater or less exposure to vicissitudes, the sedentary or other character of the calling, and the presence or absence of noxious exhalations, are the most prominent."

He also notices that the danger of even the most insalubrious avocations is not so extended as might be supposed, from the power which the living system possesses of becoming in some degree habituated to the most malign influences. It is a curious fact that many of those employments which are generally supposed to be the most unhealthy, are by no means so; thus, workmen exposed by their trades to most noisome animal odours, do not appear to suffer, whilst a person unaccustomed to these emanations is overpowered. Much has been said and written on the injurious consequences of literary employments, and that the mind in some cases wears out the body there can be no doubt, but this is less frequently the case than is imagined. The observations of Dr. Dunglison on this point are well deserving of attention, and clearly show that the diseases with which the literary are specially afflicted are identical with those which result from any sedentary employment. In fact, where due attention is paid to exercise, it has been proved that the severest intellectual employment, so far from shortening, in a great measure tends to prolong life.

We have no faith in the tables of comparative longevity in the different professions as proofs, on many accounts, as none of them are sufficiently extended, added to which so many circumstances require to be taken into view, that it is impossible to decide from them whether the effects of intellectual labour had any thing to do with the prolongation or abridgment of the existence of the examples cited.

The work concludes with a supplementary chapter, containing a brief exposition of the author's views on malaria, in the form of a deposition, and tables of temperature, and of the comparative diges

tibility of different alimentary substances, forming a useful appendix to the work.

We are conscious that the importance of the subject-matter of this work deserved a more extended notice, but we trust we have said enough to induce our readers to judge of it for themselves, and we rest assured that few will be disappointed.

ART. VII.-Lives of Eminent and Illustrious Englishmen, from Alfred the Great to the Latest Times, on an Original Plan. Edited by GEORGE GODFREY CUNNINGHAM. Vol. III. Glasgow: Fullarton. 1836. SEVERAL months ago, we took occasion to notice an early portion. of this national work, and to recommend its plan and execution, for being eminently calculated to convey an animated and faithful history of England, as embodied in the lives of her most distinguished and active sons, from a period when the constitution of the country, both theoretically and practically, began to be developed. Of the sixteen parts (eleven have already appeared), to which the publication in question is to extend-making eight octavo volumes, of a character fully equal to the original professions of the proprietors-we shall, after some preliminary observations, refer particularly to a section of the work that contains matter of special importance to the living generation.

England never was surpassed or equalled by any country in biographical riches. This impression is strongly enforced by the array of lives and names found in due historical order, in the work before us. Whether the reader takes the political, the ecclesiastical, or the literary series, the conviction is irresistible; the display is unprecedented, and far exceeds any general conception that might previously have been entertained, from a less complete or continuous exhibition of such worthies. It is hence, also, strikingly apparent, that there has been no age or era, from the time of Alfred the Great down to the present, that has not been adorned through its characteristic men of note. We can quote from the work under consideration, patriarchal names ;--we have the bold and original spirits of the middle ages, and the gradually softened and enlightened characters that reach down to our own day, arriving at the highest pitch of human refinement; the whole furnishing a subject of the most varying and peculiar description-of the noblest poetical dimensions and features. Nor do those names which have obtained notoriety on account of a perversion of brilliant talents, an abuse of extraordinary opportunities and privileges, or the commission of transcendent crimes, belong in an inferior degree to the great drama of a nation's history. They are posterity's property also; and from their career and fate, lessons of vast value are to be derived,

as well as from the example of those who have been the salt of the earth; or rather, the illustriously good and great can only be fairly appreciated when brought into connection with such as are of a totally opposite character, from collision with whom, perhaps, their chief merits had scope, and came to be known.

It is, however, in a great measure owing to the arrangement which has been adopted in this work, that a distinct and magnificent conception of England's biographical riches and historical value is arrived at. The lights afforded by the well-digested introductions, apportioned to the different periods into which the whole is here divided, and the manner in which the lives have been arranged under the heads to which they historically belong, produce the clearest and most forcible information. Thus, even in its biographical department, the "Lives of Eminent and Illustrious Englishmen" has a decided advantage over any alphabetical arrangement of names, however famous or numerous the individuals may be. Above all, the reciprocal lights which the actors and the events are made to throw on each other, under such a plan as is here followed out, must ever be awanting in any biographical dictionary, or purely straight-forward narrative of historical events.

Owing to certain features in the history of modern English literature, works of a sterling, yet attractive character, like the one before us, should be distinguished by journalists. There has been of late years, a prodigiously abundant, as well as a continuous harvest of novels, romances, and other fictions, scattered among the reading public; and the young have partaken largely of this exciting fare, to the disrelish of such voluminous and elaborate works as the history of England has been wont to fill. To all such readers, the lives of illustrious men, put into a popular and graceful form, offer an acceptable antidote to the evils consequent on indiscriminate novel-reading. Again, cheap publications are the order of the day; and the labouring man, as well as the rich, is eager after knowledge. He cannot, however, afford to gather the history of nations from large works; and to mere abridgments, there are generally many objections. They are, for the most part, either so bald, tame, and condensed, as neither to be engaging, nor calculated to inform the reader fully, respecting the spirit of the persons, the nature of the events, nor the complexion of the times described. We think that the study of the annals and the revolutions of a nation, in the lives of its great and prominent men, who have left the impress of their minds upon the particular periods during which they flourished, will greatly remedy these evils, in respect of national history. The sketches before us are no doubt comparatively short, because they are numerous; but if we be not much mistaken, they will widely diffuse a taste for farther study of the originals, and the transactions identified with their names. They in

fact here stand out as cabinet pictures, set in a frame-work of national magnitude and renown, receiving from such a setting a proper relief, but throwing light and infusing life in return.

Perhaps there never was a period in the annals of Britain, when a correct knowledge of the origin and progress of her institutions was so necessary as at present. This is called for from every man who has the slighest influence in the country; not merely because changes and reforms of organic importance have lately been carried out into operation, while others are loudly demanded, and will be farther insisted on, but because very many persons who are incessantly talking about the principle of the British constitution, have imbibed defective or erroneous ideas of what the supposed entity is, which requires immediate and complete revision, or amendment.

It is a misleading idea, to suppose that the British constitution can be distinct from the habits, modes of thinking, or spirit of the British people. It is no pure abstraction of perfect, definable beauty; but is rather that which embodies the national voice, taste, and opinions. To be sure, there are a number of principles, institutions, and laws, which might be particularized, as affording not only principles, and guides in legislation, but which in the course of ages have taken hold of the nation's feelings and approval, as if they were instinctive and incontrovertible. But when in the progress of knowledge, the march of improvement, and the general taste of the people, any of these formerly venerated things require to be purified or altered, who dare say that any constitutional axiom forbids the reform? We have pleasure in quoting here, from the life of Sir Matthew Hale, as given in the volume before us, some of that celebrated man's observations touching the amendment of the law.

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"At the present moment, when the amendment of the law has not only engaged the attention of the legislature, but has become a subject of no inconsiderable interest with the people at large, it will not be unprofitable to state what were the opinions of Sir Matthew Hale as to the possibility of effectuating so important an object. After some observations on the evils arising from over-hastiness and forwardness to alterations in the laws,' he proceeds to remark upon the over-tenacious holding of laws, notwithstanding apparent necessity for, and safety in the change.' The principles which Hale here lays down, though most obvious and simple, are yet most admirable, and well deserve the attention of those legislators who can see nothing in our institutions requiring reform. We must remember that laws were not made for their own sakes, but for the sake of those who are to be guided by them; and though it is true that they are and ought to be sacred, yet if they be or are become unuseful for their end, they must either be amended, if it may be, or new laws be substituted, and the old repealed, so it be done regularly, deliberately, and so far forth only as the exigence or convenience justly demands it: and in this respect the saying is true, Salus populi suprema lex esto. He

VOL. II. (1836) NO. I.

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