sell, M.D.

London: William Headland.

We have received a great number of pamphlets on cholera-to all of which we have been unable to give that attention which the subject might command, because all of them are deficient in distinctness. The disease is described as a mystery-that being true of every malady except those resulting from accident. The origin of fever is as much concealed as that of cholera. Against both discases we are desired to employ cleanliness, regularity, temperance, warm clothing, good air, and abundance thereof. Farther, nobody seemsable to penetrate. The origin of the disorder is mysterious. Dr. Russell's volume presents a fair history of the calamity, and offers some suggestions regarding its origin that are more curious than satisfactory, arising from the general ignorance on the subject; for the author would evidently bring out the facts, if he knew them, in a plain and intelligent form. Regarding the recent origin of the disease, he says:

"In casting one's eye upon the map of India, it is impossible not to be struck with the watering of the great plain of the Ganges. Not only does the main trunk ramify on both sides, as we track it upwards towards its source, but instead of debouching by one large outlet, like rivers confined by barriers, as in our own country, it splits into many fingers, as it were, each of which finds its own separate entrance into the sea. There are few plains in the world watered like the Delta of the Ganges, Here it was that in the summer and autumn of 1817, cholera burst

out in various places simultaneously, destroying six thou

sand of the inhabitan's of the town of Jessore, about eighty miles north-east from Calcutta; and in a few weeks stretching from Sylhet on the east, to the extreme borders of Balasore and Cuttack, and reaching from the months of the Ganges, nearly as high as its junction with the Jumna. At this period, within an area of several thousand miles, scarcely a town or village escaped; and, so great was the mortality, that the bulk of the whole population was sensibly diminished. The large and populous city of Moorshedabad, however, situated in the heart of the conflagration, almost entirely escaped. It hardly crossed the Ganges-appearing on the eastern side like an exotic which soon dies out."

This extract merely goes to show that the influence by which cholera is caused has an extremely localised development; and the sad experience of the past and the present year, in this country, abundantly establishes that fact. Therefore we infer that while one cause of the disease may exist in the general atmosphere, this agency becomes vital poisonous, and fatal only by contact with another and a local agency-thus establishing the necessity of sanatory reform.

Respecting its progress, Dr. Russell says:

"The few conditions of its progress that we have become acquainted with are the following:-It has a decided affinity for water. By casting a glance at the map which accompanies this volume, this will be recognised at once. It has a strong tendency to run up rivers, even to their very Source. It frequently declines in winter, to revive with the approach of summer. It is most fatal in large, low-lying towns. It passes rapidly over plains; it finds difficulty in getting over hills. It has hither to confined itself to certain parallels of latitude. Its progress is generally most rapid in autumn, and its course is in a westerly direction.''

Contagion, or no contagion, is treated nearly in the same

way:

"Those who are most unwilling to admit the contagious. ness of cholera, allow its tendency to localize' itself, as they term it. That is, if cholera once gains access to a house, then all the inmates of that house, and all who enter it, become liable to be attacked by the disease. The fiet is undoubted, and we have seen many instances of it; sometimes after the lapse of two weeks the poison continued question-Where does the poison dwell? The rooms are to act upon a new comer. This naturally suggests the sometimes perfectly bare; not even are there bed-clothes to harbour the deadly and subtle power."

From which we would suppose the existence of a distinctly poisonous influence in the atmosphere. One theory recently promulgated was, that electrical derangement and deficiency caused the disease, and that towns where a great amount of combustion was going forward escaped its infliction. The answer to that may be found in the Board of Health returns. Merthyr Tydvil has suffered more than any other district in the present year, and Coatbridge and Gartsherrie in the last. These places are entirely sup. ported by the manufacture of iron, and the combustion in their atmospheres must be very large. People rush rapidly to conclusions, and Dr. Russell is not an exception. Ile tells us, while the plague cannot be averted from such towns as Edinburgh and Glasgow, yet Paisley may be saved; although we know of no condition existing in Glasgow that may not be found in Paisley, with this difference, that the latter contains a small population.

We may conclude, then, that while we cannot avert the plague from such towns as Edinburgh and Glasgow-the former exposed to a damp atmosphere, the latter situated on a river-we may prevent it altogether, or at least greatly mitigate its severity, by judicious sanitory measures, in such towns as Paisley.

"The impression on the mind of almost all observers of cholera seems to be, that at the time of its prevalence there was something unusual about the weather; it was unnaturally hot, cold. wet, or stormy. Dr. Orton, who strongir in favour of this belief." advocates this opinion, has collected a number of testimonies

It is not out of place to notice here that Paisley seem almost to have escaped the epidemic of the past and the Present year. It stands on low, level ground, a few miles from the Clyde, and occupying towards the Cart, exactly the position of Glasgow towards the former river. Last year, during the existence of cholera in Glasgow, we remember not that cases were reported from Paisley, although the distance is only seven miles.

This year,

Greenock, fifteen miles below Paisley, on the Clyde, has been severely attacked, and we hear of no cases in either Glasgow or Paisley. The circumstance denotes the narrow and localised influences necessary to render fatal this disease.

Dr. Russell refers to experiments by which it appeared that the atmosphere was heavier in cholera than in other districts; which would imply a strange alteration in the nature and quality of the air during the prevalenes of this pestilence. The most consistent recent and starting theory ascribes the whole evil to the existence of mine

atmosphere, without scientific research, but capable there by of being discerned. These organisations are to be found in the air, on the water, and may attach themselves to our food. They are described as of the 'fungus" tribe; and they are said to multiply then

66

If this theory should be correct, it almost follows-and we make the reference in all the seriousness required by both subjects that the strange disease assailing animal life is of the nature of that disease which has attacked vegetable vitality. But how are human beings the only sufferers amongst animals? And is the assumption correct that they are the only sufferers? On the other hand, has this disease amongst mankind any affinity to the new and fatal distempers that have recently assailed those species of the animal creation on which their comfort most depends?

Ernesto di Ripalta. By the Author of "Two Years in Italy." Three volumes. London Smith, Elder,

& Co.

THIS work is a historical novel of the last three or four years. The author is already favourably known in connection with Italian affairs. The object of this work is to explain those causes that have impeded the pro

Stilon. London: JOHN CHURCHILL,

A small, and, in existing circumstances, a most interesting treatise, which interferes with Dr. Russell's theory, because the island of Malta has no running streams, and is not low and damp. A number of facts are stated which are curious coincidences if they do not fully establish the existence of miasma in local currents of air calculated to produce this plague in a circumscribed locality. These facts rather favor the theory which we have already

mentioned.

Perth, its Annals and its Archives. By David Peacock.

of

1 Volume. Perth: Thomas Richardson. Perth has not wanted its historians before the present year; but Mr. Peacock's work is the most voluminous record of the ancient city that we remember to have seen. Situated nearly in the centre of Scotland, and in one the most fertile districts in the country, Perth, or St. Johnstoune, became, very naturally, its capital. It is one of the oldest, if not the oldest town in Scotland, and its local history is so closely wrought into the general history of the country, that in this respect alone the volume is useful and curious:

"Like most other places which have gradually risen into note, the city of Perth finds it very difficult, almost impossible, to trace her own origin. Dating, as that does, from a very high antiquity, her early annals are involved in much obscurity, and farther discovery is now hopeless. Just as 'some village Hampden,' whose talents or patriotism may be destined to dazzle the world, remains unnoticed while these are in embryo, and whose innate qualities, from the very obscurity of his birth and lineage, are doomed to blush unseen till they are fully developed, that world in which he moves neglects to mark his progress, and afterwards regrets that his early biography is a blank-so is it with such a place as Perth, whose original insignificance renders it impossible to trace those former stages of its existence which its subsequent At such a period, importance makes it so desirable to know. learning was little cultivated, and few, therefore, were capable of recording matters of merely local interest; and thus many a fact which must have constituted an event in its day, must have fallen into oblivion. Mark, for instance, the foundation of such an edifice as the old church of St. John the Baptist, the date of which is utterly unknown! Besides, it must be considered that Perth had risen into consequence long before the

lishment. The grand cause of Italian weakness is, according to the writer, Italian faith. The temporal power of the Pope and Italian liberty are, according to him, quite inconsistent; and the Jesuits are the great enemies of human liberty. All secret associations are dangerous to civil freedom, and none should be permitted. The men that know something good for the world should hasten to communicate their knowledge; while, if their purposes be bad, they are rendered worse by secresy. The subjects of the novel are Count di Ripalta, his sister, and their mother, the Marchesa. The former Count di Ripalta was shot in the previous Italian war of independence. The Marchesa is a gloomy ascetic, in Italian fashion; her confessor is the Jesuit Verrone, her friend the Bishop of Albana. A Swiss gentleman, a liberal, a scholar, and a Calvinist, loves Angelica, the sister of Count di Ripalta. An Italian Count, Casanova, is in the same predicament. A young English gentleman, Charles Montague, the son of General Montague, who, with his sister, and his father, the General, reside in Rome, nearly becomes their rival. That is the state of the case at the

opening of the book. They are at a musical party in the Ripalta Palace, and the Bishop of Albana thus converses with the Marchesa :

"Nay, Monsignore, I'm not surprised thou hast not-she is a forestiere, the daughter of Sir George Montague, an English General, whom thou seest yonder at the whist table. Ernesto is very intimate with her brother. We made their acquaintance whilst living at Florence, and Angelica seems to have conceived as firm a friendship for the sister as Ernesto for the brother.' "Are they of the true fold, Signora ?' again asked the ecclesiastic.

"Alas! no,' replied the Marchesa; they belong, they tell me, to the Anglican Church.'

68 6

Anglican heresy, say rather,' replied the ecclesiastic, sharply. Ma chi peccato! continued he, after a pause, and more mildly, while his venerable features assumed a look of deep compassion, what a pity that so fair and bright a being should be lost!-lost for ever, my friend!'

The Italian lady wished to dismiss the heretics, while the Italian bishop wants to convert them, and refers the lady to Verrone. The Church sanctions not mixed marriages, although it approves a marriage of convenience with its results; but to convert a young English or Swiss he

retic of property and station, a point may be stretched, for property is not heretical.

So the Marchesa, while speaking of her son, talks thus of her deceased husband-the boy's father:

"Alas! Monsignore, the sin of his unhappy father would not seem yet expiated; the fatality seems to pursue us. He raves of Italian liberty in the same strain as my unhappy lord used to do: he loves me and yet seems not to heed my warning voice. I fear the Count de Montmaure exercises an evil influence on my beloved boy. They are more than ever together; but what can I do, Monsignore? I have no more a right to dictate to Ernesto. I believe he is now in company with his English friend, Charles Montague. Truth to say, I would rather he associated more with the latter. He seems less bigoted in his heresy, and more open to receive our holy faith. With his sister, he frequently accompanies us to the Gesù,' and seems oftentimes, indeed, more than disposed to embrace the truth.'

66.

Ah! sayest thou so?' said the ecclesiastic, with a joyful look; Nay, I thought that bright creature too pure and lovely to be lost. We will see to this ourselves, Marchesa; here may be a glorious work before us! Thy friends are, doubtless, Puseyites, as they call those in England who are beginning to discover the error of their ways, and desire to return within the bosom of Mother Church. Thou wilt introduce me, during the evening, to Sir George Montague.'"

Cold hearts have these Italian widows-cold to everything except the church and the world. Once placed under proper training, the hearts of the Italian ladies are moulded by the priests. For a land whose daughters are under that description of management freedom can only be a name, for female influence is, after all that men may do, close to the core of human freedom, for its safety or its destruction. Between De Montmaure and Montague, the Bishop prefers, as may be noticed, Montague, a facile young gentleman, to De Montmaure, a young man of great intellect and firm religious convictions. He is right. The conversion of Montague were easy, for his faith stands on nothing. That of De Montmaure impossible, because his views are founded "on a rock."

The Marchesa had a long conversation with Verrone, the Jesuit confessor. He is ambitious. The expulsion of the Jesuits from Switzerland is agitated. De Montmaure has influence. What if Angelica Di Ripalta could move the stern Calvinist, who loved her, to spare the Jesuits? Verrone will try, and thus he meditates:

"The Marchesa, only waiting for a sign of assent from the Jesuit, hurried from the oratory. Verrone for some time appeared buried in thought. Doubtless he is consulting the interests of the Ripalta family; considering within himself what is best to be done to satisfy the desires and appease the fears of the Marchesa. Not so; the Jesuit has but one object, one desire the advancement of his order; for in this he believes is involved the advancement of religion. He turns over mentally every circumstance, every minute detail, with which the Marchesa has furnished him; he studies and arranges the different courses, which the interests of his religion, that is, as I have said, his order, seem to require. Adopting that line of policy which seems most to promote that interest, he hardens himself against every extraneous feeling which would intervene to disturb it.

'Yes,' said the Jesuit, 'tis only thus we can succeed. The labourers are, indeed, few, and the work is great. But let us each be zealous and untiring; and success must, at length, crown our exertions. This great globe is only composed of atoms; a little snowball rolled, anon becomes a mountain; and it is by the untiring efforts of individuals, on the masses, that we shall break down the mound of heresy. Every foot of ground we now gain is of immense importance. England and Switzerland! there is no safety for our faith, no hope of its increase, while these remain heretical. The first, in its daring propagandism, seems to usurp the authority of the keys; the second defies its

power-nay, menaces our faith even in Italy itself. These Moutagues belong to the very class we seek to gain. The example of their conversion would be of immense value; while, could this De Montmaure be won over, we might hope to see our blessed order established even in Geneva itself.'

"The Jesuit's eye brightened with a triumphant glance; he clenched his hand convulsively, as if he could palpably grasp the power he coveted. But what,' said he, continuing his reflec tions, if the pursuits of these plans of mine derange those the Marchesa has formed for her daughter? She approves of the suit of Casanova; and, truth to say, the Count has strong claims upon us--but then he is ours already. The richest and fairest heiress in Rome must not be given away too lightly! This Montague is young, noble, and handsome--Angelica,' said the Jesuit, with a heightened colour, and meaning look. Thou wouldst bless me for the change! But things need not take this course, my fair It must still depend on the Jesuit's hand to guide them.' "He resumed his usual placid appearance, for the Marchesa's step was heard approaching."

one.

Meanwhile, the Montague family progress rapidly towards Rome, for they had no principle to detain them. Sir George Montague had always voted against the Roman Catholic claims, but he had no hostile feeling for their tenets, and the urbanity of the Bishop of St. Albana pleased him much.

"Even Sir George Montague found his Tory and anti-Papal principles give way before the bland courtesy and dignified urbanity of the Roman prelate, and declared that he had never had a more agreeable partner at whist-no, not even at the Senior United Service Club itself; whilst his son Charles more than participated in these favourable feelings. The impression made upon the susceptible heart of Emma by the kindness of the venerable prelate was even still stronger. There was a winning softness in his address, and a simple, yet apostolical dignity in his manner, which recommended itself strongly to a mind like hers; and she could not avoid contrasting the simple dignity of the Bishop of Albans with the lordly pride and luxury which surrounded an episcopal neighbour of Sir George's in England. The good Bishop of Albans, with that tact and good taste which distinguishes his countrymen, was most marked in his attentions; and yet they only seemed, from the high-bred and dignified way in which they were made, to emanate from a desire to render their séjour instructive and agreeable."

This is a lesson to the bishops. And the novelist also adds that the lent preachers of Rome are abler orators than our clergy in England. That is to be believed. Twenty names will cover all the clergy of the English Church whom anybody cares to hear for their eloquence. A somewhat larger number perhaps may be found amongst the dissenters. Double that number, probably, over all the Scotch sects; and a somewhat smaller number amongst the Irish Protestants. We speak not of personal worth and zeal, both qualities happily common, but of personal eloquence; most miserably uncommon and uncultivated in the ministry of this country. The Lent preachers converted Emma Montague more readily that she was half-converted by Count di Ripalta, whom she married privately, and was abandoned by her father, with whom her brother left Rome; as De Montmaure had left it before.

The author bids us respect the zeal of the Jesuits, with a powerful argument, which, however, excuses not intervention in family affairs; yet that, we have heard, is an error not monopolised by the Jesuits, though practised by them with the greatest ability, and the least care for consequences to the parties involved.

"Recognising the right of private judgment, and accustomed in England to great indulgences of religious opinions, we can hardly understand the proselytising zeal of the devout Roman Catholics, nor the untiring and patient efforts made by them to win over the unwary and unstable among our countrymen who