humour is broad and pungent. Some ill-natured the public in the course of a few days. These circumstances critic lately accused him of nonsense-a serious be alluded to. After a thorough investigation of the subject, are mentioned here in reference to several things shortly to charge against a poet of any reputation-and I was glad to find that Mr. Macnish strongly entrenched quoted the following lines in proof of the assertion; himself on the side of the contagionists; and from a careful which, however, we may premise, are, in our estima-scrutiny of the disease as it wandered apparently at its own dire will' from place to place, he furnished me with a variety tion, pretty and pictorial, besides being perfectly of facts and reasonings undisputed and conclusive. In 1 intelligible to any one who will take the trouble of writing to him at this time I find the following passage :— The medical men here and at Edinburgh are all at loggerglancing at the glorious panorama of the southern heads about contagion and non-contagion; but the success shore of our Forth, as seen from its pure and placid of my pamphlet has been a sore thorn in the side of the bosom-not now-but in high summer-or, better latter doctrinists. I do not know what may be its merits, but it ought not to have many, having been written within still, can pause to study it while having a quiet pop the week, and in the midst of scenes of misery, as I bustled at the rabbits of Inchkeith warren, or the Divers on from one death-bed to another, the like of which I never the water, watching the lazy things emerge :Saw before, and trust will never see again. The eve after a battle-field may be a sad thing; but here all excitement was absent, and death was literally cold and repulsive. I am sure I am within the mark when I say that the pamphlet never had a sitting of half-an-hour at a time, by day or by night."" "Traced like a map the landscape lies In cultured beauty stretching wide- There ocean with its azure tide; There Arthur's Seat; and, gleaming through White in the orient, Lammer's daughters, A distant giant range, are seen; North Berwick Law, with cone of green, Perhaps ten years ago, Dr. Moir edited a work, or "With the concluding months of this year," says Delta, " and the commencement of 1832, the health of Mr. Macnish continued to improve; his body strengthened, his mind lightened up, he went through his professional duties with cheerful alacrity, and his inherent love for intellectual exertion again exhibited itself in several pleasant as well as powerful compositions. "It was about the middle of January that the Asiatic Cholera, which had been imported into Sunderland, made its progressive way from Berwick to Musselburgh, and there seemed to take up its head-quarters-raging with pestilential violence, and prostrating alike the young and the old. So sudden and fearful was the mortality, that the burials within three weeks exceeded the average annual number of deaths, and this out of a population approaching to 9,000. I had formed no preconceived theory regarding the mode in which the disease was propagated. I knew that the great majority of the Indian practitioners reckoned it simply epidemic-but a week's narrow and scrupulous investigation of its mode of attack convinced me thoroughly of its purely contagious character. To this belief I adhere as confidently as to my own existence; and until it is universally acted upon (which I never expect to see) by the medical profession, Europe must from time to time be laid waste by the ravages of this terrible and soul-subduing pestilence. "From the numerous inquiries made at this period from all parts of the United Kingdom, regarding the nature and treatment of this new and fearful scourge of our race, I was induced, in my capacity of Medical Secretary to the Board of Health, at Musselburgh, to publish, on the spur of the moment, a pamphlet entitled Practical Observations on Malignant Cholera-of which, from the then absorbing nature of the subject, a second edition was demanded by Although it is digressing, we cannot resist giving the account of the outbreak of the disease in Glasgow, by Macnish (15th February, 1832) :— "Cholera has now fairly appeared among us. I saw a case yesterday, and one the day before, both of which proved fatal in a few hours. Every case hitherto has died. They were probably not seen till the stage of collapse had come on; and it is possible that the removal to the hospital has been injurious. The people have a dreadful antipathy to any person being sent to the hospitals: they stupidly imagine that they are murdered (burked!) by the doctors; and last night, when they were conveying a patient there, they were attacked by the mob. It is truly a dreadful disease. I have been compelled to give over visiting any of the cases, in consequence of the clamour of my own patients, who will not hear of it, so great is their terror of infection. Hitherto it has been confined to the lowest classes, and it will probably remain there." Delta's memoir of Macnish is valuable to us in another respect: De Quincey, whom we have also now in hands, is often mentioned in it; and if we are adjured, "tell me not what I have been, but tell me what I am," we must answer that, in this case, there will be found no change in the subject. We find him then, as now, in the midst of all sorts Dr. Moir says (11th May, of literary projects. 1829):: "Our new 'Literary Gazette' starts on Saturday, and I will cause them to send the numbers to you. It is, I believe, to contain an introduction by De Quincey, and a review of the Hope of Immortality,' by your humble servant, and two little poems of mine; No. 2 will have, Life of Galt,' by me, and review of Dugald Moore's poems; No. 3, 'Life of Wilson,' by De Quincey; No. 4, 'Life of Hogg,' by me; No. 5, Life of Coleridge,' by De Quincey; No. 6, On the Genius of Wordsworth,' by me; and so on.' But alas not even the medical skill of Dr. Moir, and all these alternations of meum and tuum with De Quincey, sustained "Edinburgh Literary Gazette" in life. He shortly explains : "I had promised to the proprietors of the Edinburgh Literary Gazette' to give them some aid at starting, understanding that De Quincey was to be their Magnus Apollo, when lo and behold! the eloquent chewer of opium takes done little or nothing for them." sick in Westmoreland; and up to this hour (June 3) has Akin to this is Moir's query to Macnish (22d October, 1831): "Have you lately heard of that curious production of genius, De Quincey? I suppose still writing for at the rate of a quarter of a page per day." And cke the following, dovetailed into the text of the memoir-“I (Delta) remember Mr. Blackwood, many years ago, telling me of his occasionally having received from De Quincey long, elaborate, and admirable lettersperfect articles in themselves-apologising for his not being able at that time to write an article." The savants who now flourish in Edinburgh form rather an extensive cluster; ex. gr.-Sir John Graham Dalzell, Sir William Jardine, Professors Forbes, Kelland, Smyth, Simpson, Low, and Balfour, Rev. Dr. Fleming, Hugh Miller, Charles M'Laren, Dr. Greville, David Milne; and, forming the gemini of a separate constellation, Dr. Martin Barry and Dr. Samuel Brown. We shall discuss this gallery of scientific stars in admirable disorder, by beginning with the last. Dr. Martin Barry and Dr. Samuel Brown are grouped together, because they both very narrowly missed a professor's chair from similar causes— through pretensions to marvellous discoveries never yet verified. The cases are parallel in that respect, but in none other. Dr. Martin Barry, a member of the Society of Friends, was the victim of University Tests. His medical discoveries, which had excited surprise, could not escape suspicion; and professional jealousy, by impugning them, rendered it better for him never to have breathed them. Dr. Samuel | Brown, who, besides the professorship, has also been in danger of becoming a popular lecturer, fell a prey to professional antagonism also. It was not very fair of the Baron von Liebig, or the Baron Liebig, to write him down on the strength of one of his pupil's experiments. But Justus did it. The Baron himself never experiments. His faculty reminds us of Chatham's eulogy on the sagacity of Cromwell, which, without his having spies in every Cabinet of Europe, afforded him a perfect knowledge of diplomacy. Liebig is not like the immortal Squeers, who held the opinion in regard to scientific study, that, "when he knows it, he goes and does it;" or, in other words, that botany is only to be studied by practically going into the garden and weeding the onions. He leaves all that, however, like Squeers, to his pupils; and on their hint he speaks. Brown may not have resolved the unity of matter, or the transmutation of substances; but with what propriety can Liebig maintain the impossibility of repeating his experiments? Failing in getting any man of eminence to repeat and authenticate his delicate and elaborate researches by experiment, Brown resigned his pretensions to the chair, but not to his discoveries, which he is understood still to prosecute in his private laboratory, whilst he does not omit to bestow his sparkling talents, and eloquent, as well as amusing powers, on the literary coteries that welcome his presence. It is understood, however, that Dr. Samuel Brown will, in future, decline to take a place upon the popular platform. Sir John Graham Dalzell is favourably known both as an antiquarian and a naturalist. Acute indisposition obliges the accomplished baronet to live in comparative seclusion, or at least retirement. He has lately soothed his hours by the production of a work in two quarto volumes, with 110 plates, mostly drawn and coloured from living or recent specimens of the "Rare and Remarkable Animals of Scotland." The Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh has for a few years been all but in abeyance. But an attempt has been made this winter to revive it by placing Sir John at its head; and he will probably exert himself to do so: at least we have the experience of the stimulus which his presidency of the Society of Arts, several years ago, imparted to a similar body, now of a very flourishing complexion. Of Sir William Jardine, of Applegarth, who is, we believe, a denizen of Inverleith Row, we need but say that this distinguished naturalist has contributed as largely to our scientific literature, chiefly in capacity of editor of "Lizars' Naturalists' || Library," as any man of his day. Professors Forbes and Kelland, and, for that matter, Mr. David Milne, shine in the Royal Society, the frigid aristocracy of which is scarcely to be thawed by the genial common-sense and graphic diction of the Rev. Dr. Fleming, but is formally and formidably represented by the other trio. Mr. Forbes is a clever man in spite of his coldness. To see him go through with a demonstration, be it mathematical, algebraical, or a mere diagram of the composition and resolution of mechanical forces, you must believe that there is something more hearty in the great expositor of the “ Theory of Glaciers” than snow and ice. But education has been at fault. The son of the well-known Edinburgh banker, Sir William Forbes -the Bill Forbes of the jolly tar who presented a fivepound note at the bank counter as "a tickler," and intimated that he would take it up in trifles, as he did not like to affront him before the lads-has been reared in isolation and upon a pinnacle. He labours under a deficiency of social sympathies. Yet he is communicative, and covets fame. Why else should he publish or expound? The Rev. Philip Kelland and Mr. David Milne are precisely of the same school. Mr. Kelland being an English, and, we fancy, a High Church divine, might wear this exterior with less challenge than the others. But, in truth, he is the most demonstrative of the three. Mathematical studies are little calculated to warm the human breast. Mr. Kelland has, however, a charm in his manner, which atones for the abstraction into which his peculiar position doubtless casts him. Mr. Milne, a practising counsel, commenced his scientific career as a prize essayist of the Highland and Agricultural Society, of which, as a country gentleman, he is now a leader. His essays were geological, and to that science he has chiefly devoted his attention; although he has also published Investigations on the Poor-laws, the Potato Disease, and other questions of social economy. Professor Low, in like manner, is identified as an author with the Highland and Agricultural Society. His works are well known. It will be found that most of them are habitually cast in the form of lectures, and framed to demonstrate rather than instruct. The best and most popular of them is his work on "Domestic Animals." But the influence of his writings on improving the management of land has been incalculable. The Rov. Dr. Fleming, author of the "Philosophy of Zoology," but better known by his "History of British Animals," has rendered himself formidable by the freedom with which he wields the scourge against "pretence." The worthy divine was formerly minister of Flisk, in Fifeshire, and holds at pre sent a professorship in the new College of the Free || and some of them apparently practised, the inducChurch in Edinburgh. In the preface to his Na-tion of anesthesia previous to operations, both by tural History he at once proceeded to draw a distinction, which marked him out as a devotee of original observation :- "If," said he, "anatomy and physiology be regarded as the basis of zoological science, the history of species will include a description of their structure and functions along with their external characters. If anatomy and physiology be discarded as foreign to the subject, and the professed naturalist acknowledge, without a blush, his ignorance or his contempt of both, then the history of species will be chiefly occupied with the details of external appearance." giving their patients narcotic substances to swallow and narcotic vapours to inhale. The merit of its application in his own particular walk of practice was, however, all his own; the first instance in which it was adopted having occurred in Edinburgh on 19th January, 1847. For this innovation Simpson has had incredible assaults to sustain and repel. Ether-inhalation was the mode employed; and the case answered all his anticipations. The inhalation of ether procured for the patient a more Such different conditions he asserted to have pre- or less perfect immunity from conscious pain and vailed in the study of the science in this country, and suffering, whilst it did not diminish the strength to have divided it into two great eras. Passing every and regularity of the muscular contractions. He panegyric on the golden age of Ray, Willoughby, had not before this time, nor for a month afterwards, Lester, and Sibbald, as the physiological era, he dared, however, to keep a patient in the anaesthetic consequently upholds their natural method, and de-state for more than half-an-hour. It was during nounces the artificial method of Linnæus-according the experience of the next three weeks he discovered all praise, however, to the Swedish Aristotle individually, and only incensed at the conduct of his "blind admirers." In the compilation of this work the Rev. Doctor showed so lively an acquaintance with the truths of natural history and the facts of literature, that it stands without exception the best text book of zoology yet produced. Disdaining to quote such authorities as the compilation of Gmelin, which frequently supplies the place of the 12th edition of Linnæus, and thus occasions the absurdity of quoting his authority for the names of species established subsequent to his decease, the Doctor went back in every instance to the best and most perfect edition of the various writers on natural science; and thus succeeded in giving things their proper names, discoveries their exact positions, and disentangling much of the confusion of zoological writings. that anæsthetic action could safely be kept up for one, two, three, or more hours. Subsequent cases to the first anaesthetic case of Dr. Simpson were shortly reported at London, Bristol, and Dublin. In about a week, however, after the first case occurred in Edinburgh, the practice had been tried in France. It was later adopted in Germany; and even America, the country whence the first know ledge of anaesthetic effects in surgery emanated, did not employ ether in obstetric practice until after its use in Europe. The ether required to be exhibited in large quantities to keep up its action, and in November, 1847, an impulse was given to the practice of anesthesia in this class of cases by the introduction of chloroform as a substitute for sulphuric ether. The bulk of ether required, its inconvenience for carriage, and the size of apparatus believed necessary for its effectual exhibition, had prepared the practitioner heartily to discard it; when it was super case of the size of an ordinary cigar case, and Decidedly the greatest of our scientific writers or discoverers is Simpson, the author of the original treatise on chloroform. Strange to say, the popu-seded by the discovery of Simpson, portable in a larity and singular efficacy of this extraordinary pain-subduing agent has not exempted it or its author from the ordinary modicum of envy and obloquy attendant on a scientific triumph. Simpson has indeed had less of the prejudice of the outer world to combat than of those who should know better-the members of his own profession. But he is more than a match for them at the literary small sword; and if he does not "seek the battle," he invariably observes the counterpart of Macpherson's couplet, by not" shunning it when it comes. His prowess as a controversialist is sufficient to establish the reputation of any theory or practice, however bold the innovation; and woe to the dull ass that brays in arrear of Simpson's march of improvement, and "will not mend his pace for beating." No sooner was his anaesthetic system impugned, than Proressor Simpson threw himself tooth and nail into the conflict; and his adversaries, after experiencing about as severe punishment as men could stand up and receive, are now beginning to understand "I do think you might spare ber, And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy," their position. He appealed at once to the most venerable authorities-Dioscorides, Pliny, Apu- is alleged to have been contributed by an English leius, Theoderic, Paré, and others, to prove that lady-proved that there has been found a means he was not guilty of advancing any new thing, as of mitigating indescribable human agony, removsome of these authorities had long ago described,||ing those anxieties which the dread anticipation of these sufferings have occasioned, and thus in many respects benefiting the patients, besides producing a great saving of human life, in respect of the increased number of children born alive. Professor Simpson adverts to the opposition encountered by the greatest modern improvements in practical surgery and medicine-such as the ligature of arteries, the discovery of vaccination, and the first employment of antimony, ipecacuanha, chinchane bark, &c. The London physicians, he states, have, on several occasions, specially distinguished themselves by their determined and prejudicial opposition to all innovations in practice not originating among themselves. When Robert Talbor, of Essex, removed to London in the 17th century, and employed chinchane bark in the cure of the common agues of the metropolis, "he found," says Simpson, "that as he gained the favour of the world, he lost that of the physicians of London; and apparently their persecution of him was such that the king at last was obliged to interfere, and in the year 1678, King Charles II, sent a royal mandate to the College of Physicians, commanding the president, Dr. Micklethwait, and the rest of the College of Physicians, not to give Talbor molestation or disturbance in his practice.' Sydenham, Harvey, and other illustrious names, are mentioned amongst the obstructives on this occasion. In a previous instance, the president had actually sent Groenvelt, the discoverer of the use of cantharides, to Newgate, for using his remedy. In like manner, a member of the London College of Physicians, in 1805, urged the propriety of putting down "the beastly new disease" of cow-pox; and in September, 1848, the "London Medical Gazette" sug. gested, whether the practice of relieving women by anaesthetics should not "be considered criminal according to law! Dr. Simpson has thus had to combat objections, religious and moral as well as medical, to his practice. Some parts of the controversy, had we not the pile of printed pamphlets before us, might be even thought preposterous. He has had to show cause against an alleged attempt to disturb the permanence of the primeval curse He maintains that the disputed word "sorrow," Etzeb (in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children), does not in the original Hebrew really signify the sensation of pain; and he has had to answer, in detail, the plea of allowing "nature" to conduct the case. Amongst his antagonists, one has challenged the Professor to single combat. This unhappy man is a Dr. Collins, of Dublin; who, "like that great goose, Cato," as Tom Hood has it, has fallen on his own sword. He has ventured to oppose Simpson upon data, which turn out to be in reality the data of Dr. Collins himself namely, some 16,000 cases in the Dublin Maternity Hospital; only, Simpson shows as clear as day that all this experience has not enabled the worthy Doctor to draw a single accurate deduction! Collins, in fact, is convicted of the most enormous Irish bull on record; and Simpson's drollery in proving the untenable absurdity of his opponent's position is about as amusing a thing as could be perused. Dr. Collins complains, that by not stating his practice to be "the most successful on record," Simpson has || done him wrong; and adds, “Ibelieve you would not intentionally pluck the laurel off my brow." But the Professor has not only the cruelty deliberately to substantiate that there is no laurel to pluck, but that a much more successful practice being on record, Dr. Collins must surrender the laurel.—Oh horror! to the female practitioners; or, as Simpson writes it, the "real petticoated midwives" of the London Maternity Hospital. You accuse me," says Simpson, "of the atrocious crime of youth. Every day I get older, and every day I feel more and more the vast amount of work that yet remains to be done by us all; and I would fain excite you, if I could, to expend more of your abilities and talents upon the real advancement of that branch of medicine which you and I practise. Further, you seem to suppose that the seeing an enormous number of cases is the means by which this advancement is to be accomplished, and that my want of experience (as you choose to term it) is enough to prevent me aiding in this good work. But I beg you again to remember that it is not a mere mass of cases seen that has ameliorated or will ameliorate the state of midwifery. In your hospital upwards of 150,000 women have been delivered, under the charge of different masters. If we except, however, the names of Auld and Clarke, I cannot at this moment recollect that any one of your other physicians, when acting as masters, has added a single new fact to obstetric science, or propounded a single new principle in obstetric practice." As we Along with the Rev. Dr. Fleming, Mr. Hugh Miller and Professor Balfour united in contributing in the course of last year to a volume projected by Mr. James Crawford, junior, W.S., and entituled "The Bass Rock." There were other contributors to this volume-the Rev. Thomas M'Crie, who possesses no little of the style and spirit of his venerated relative, the biographer of Knox; and the Rev. James Anderson, an industrious rather than illustrious compiler of biographies. have no anxiety, however, at least in the present article, to review the book, we must limit ourselves to Mr. Hugh Miller and Dr. John Hutton Balfour. The former is a popular and graphic party writer, who has struck out his path from the bottom of a quarry to the top of a tower, through a mass of red sandstone; his "Walks," his "Cromarty,” and, finally, his “First Impressions of England," sufficiently explain what we mean. The geological regions before noticed, which he has invested with a charm, through the mere felicity of language, are now assigned peculiarly as his province; and no one need dispute the sway he has established over his empire. In combination with a peculiar line of reading, both in poetry and romance, and a partiality for the older writers of the last half-century, Mr. Hugh Miller supplies an amusing occasional chapter, of the character of a melange, to our present stock of publications. He lives in comparative seclusion, and does not mingle much in society; and, from the details of chance conversations in railway and stage coaches, frequently repeated for the benefit of his readers, we should judge that he had much yet to acquire from social intercourse. He is editor of the Witness; but most of the successful papers from his pen have evidently rather been designed for separate publication than for the columns of a newspaper, Pro fessor Balfour, again, seems to observe the maxim || is known favourably, and even popularly; and his very strictly, ne sutor ultra crepidam. His ren- labours in compiling the legal portions of that business annual, "Oliver and Boyd's Edinburgh Almanac," are highly appreciated by the public, and have confirmed the reputation of the work. Messrs. Parker Lawson, and Daniel Wilson, might be added to this category. In a recent number of the Witness we noticed a flourish of trumpets, apropos of St. Bernard's Crescent and its origin. It stated that the avenue of clms, which Wilkie had rendered illustrious by admiring, and Raeburn by encasing in a palisade of stone columns, had renewed its glory by having become the abode of literary genius--no less illustrious a personage than Mr. Leitch Ritchie, author of "Schinderhannes, the Robber of the Rhine," having dignified it with his local habitation and his name; whilst Miss Rigby, whose particular literary distinctions we lamentably forget at this moment, and Colonel Mitchell, the translator of "Wallenstein," conspired, along with the aforesaid author of the "Magician," to form a literary coruscation on the banks of the Water of Leith. There is somehow a literary Will o' the Wisp atmosphere about the morass of St. Bernard's Crescent. Many others of the minor literati live about the spot-in Carlton Street, Danube Street, and Ann Street, and may be seen imWe must now approach "the mob of gentlemen bibing inspiration at the Temple of Health in the adwho write with ease❞—although there are some to joining valley by daylight any of these holidaymornbe disposed of previously, who scarcely merit that ings, along with the cream of the morning papers. title. There is Principal Lee, who, perhaps, could It is no disparagement to "the party," we have just not do anything "with ease," because the Principal mentioned, that it is led off by a lord. Yet we must is rather painstaking in his compositions. His own that the facility of the honourable author inaugural addresses at the University are de- of "Leaves from a Journal," and "Gleams of cidedly relished by the students, and annually Thought," is more fatal than that of octosyllabic attract a tolerable attendance. The Principal is verse with which every one is familiar. Lord Romore celebrated for his knowledge than for his bertson is no longer "a double-barrelled gun-one production of books. With the exception of Dr. barrel charged with law and another charged with Irving, late of the Advocates' Library, he is, per- fun "-for one of his barrels is now charged with haps, the first bibliopolist in the Modern Athens.matter far more explosive. How his lordship, with Yet the stream of his discourses by no means runs || Judge Blackmore's “Farewell to the Muse" before deep-a quotation from the Greek or Latin classics, his eyes, has adventured up the rugged steep of and a commendation of the style of Robertson as an Parnassus, is more than we can tell. His lordship historian, with a few common-places respecting the is a poet of " larger growth," and has essayed a sort good behaviour of youth, and the enumeration of of agricultural explanation of the phenomenon :the well-thumbed principles, that "virtue is its own 'Myself I dare not call a poet sown reward, and vice its own punishment;" these are the characteristics of the addresses of Principal Lee. The Rev. Dr. Hetherington is a genuine literary man, who has seen the life of a divinity student in all its phases, from tutor and teacher, to professor. His Church History is an able production, and shows that he is capable of great things. The Rev. Dr. William Lindsay Alexander, as a reviewer and pamphleteer, stands deservedly high in public estimation. His sermons on the death of Dr. Chalmers, and of Dr. Russell of Dundee, are amongst the best obituary discourses we have ever read. Mr. John Hill Burton, an author of In the train of the senator follow other members great ability, universality, and research, merits of the College of Justice-Professor Ayton with more than a passing notice; and were not his edi- his "Lays of the Cavaliers," and Theodore Martin, tion of the "Correspondence of David Hume," and or, as he is better known, Bon Gualtier, another his "Lives of Simon Lord Lovat," and "Duncan balladist, who give a fruitful promise of the tribe. Forbes of Culloden," already familiar to our read- Bon Gualtier's ballads are far more of the troubaers, we would assuredly pause emphatically on the dour caste than those of his brother bard, who nevermerits of John Hill Burton, As a law author hetheless is alleged to have borrowed from him "The By Nature's hand; or if there be a germ On stony ground, or wisely choked by weeds, |