beggars commit to chance the very alms they have received.

MACARONI-One cannot take ten steps in the street without meeting with great coppers filled with macaroni ready prepared, sprinkled over with cheese, and sometimes decorated with little pieces of tomates. The Neapolitans have an art in eating macaroni which is peculiar to themselves, and can only be acquired among them. They draw it out to a certain length, then taking it securely between the finger and thumb, they raise it very high, and let it fall into the mouth. It is prepared simply by boiling with cheese; about five or six minutes at most. Those who admire it, add a little of the liver of a fowl to it, which renders it very inviting.

FILTH OF THE STREETS-It is not enough that the street is the place for eating, drinking, milking of cattle, feeding of calves, labouring at occupations of every kind; that here are written letters and petitions, that here vermin are got rid of, &c. but it is also the receptacle for excrementitious ordures, which render the city of Naples an immense cloaca, insupportable to a stranger's sight and smell. How may this be accounted for? Thousands of Lazzaroni live and sleep wholly in the streets; in the street therefore they must satisfy every call. Besides, an infinity of country people daily enter the city with the productions of their grounds; these have no retirements, but what the streets afford; and it is even said, that the master of a house adjacent to an alley, cannot prevent the use of it, as a conveniency. Many housekeepers, however take advantage of the prevailing superstition, and paint a cross on the wall of those places which are most exposed to such offences. The Italians have so great a veneration for the cross, that they rarely transgress but if this be unavailing, their piety is further appealed to, by a picture of a soul in the flames of purgatory lifting up hands between two crosses. This usually succeeds, but not always. Would it be thought possible that one of the most offensive of these receptacles, is opposite to the royal palace, and adjacent to the church of St. Louis! The king, whose apartments are on this side of the palace, never can enter his balcony without beholding these abominations; nor can the faithful enter the church without defilement. All the houses are dirty internally; their halls, their stair-cases, their anti-chambers are dirty: the palace of the first minister differs nothing from the residence of the meanest retailer. I cannot conceive how the English, who love cleanliness, can so readily, and in such numbers, reside in this city. The streets, however, are sometimes washed by the rains; and industry, not of the police but of individuals, converts these defilements of the city to the advantage

:

his

of the country: but the houses are strangers to such ablutions.

WATER SELLERS-From the four corners of the table, behind which the water seller takes his station, rise poles, painted and gilt, united at top by a kind of canopy, whose termination is adorned in no very decent manner around this canopy are images of the saints; in the middle, on each side, wave two small flags: the other parts are adorned with lemons and flowers. The spectator, at the sight of this extraordinary composition, might be induced to imagine himself in China.

Beside the seller are two vases shaped like a drum, crossed by a bar of iron, in such a manner that they may be raised and lowered at pleasure: these vases contain a fair limpid water, and ice. On the interior rim of the table, are lemons and glasses. These stands are almost constantly surrounded by purchasers, and truly admirable is the dexterity with which the dealer draws from his drums to right and left, fills his glasses, squeezes a few drops of lemon juice, presents it, receives payment, gives change, &c. In the evening these stands are illuminated by lamps. The price of a glass of water is the smallest copper coin. Nothing is more inviting than to see these chrystal streams flowing, whose coolness bedims the surface of the glass! Contrary to the custom of the country, the whole is conducted with great neatness.

CHEESE SELLERS, MILK SELLERS-The Italians value cheese highly; but in general those kinds of it which are sold at Naples are not excellent; one or two are sour; the others have an ill taste. The most common kind has the form of a pilgrim's wallet, hung to a cord. Buffalo cheese is equally bad; it stretches like leather. Cheese sellers deal in no other articles: they are, however, a thriv ing generation; a proof of their good trade. They have a peculiar manner of dressing their shops. The principal and most indispensable ornament is, a large table of white marble, in the middle of which stands a smaller of the same material, supported by columns, by genii holding horns of plenty, or other analogous devices; in these the proprietors display their taste and spirit. The front of the lesser table is adorned with bas reliefs, such as the Last Supper; or proverbs, sacred or profane, not seldom laughable. Here we read

Dilate os tuum et implebo illud.
Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.
Or,

Butyrum de armento, et lac de ovibus, Butter of kine, and milk of sheep. The cows which yield the milk are conducted by the milk seller from house to house; where he milks the quantity wanted by this management it is secure from mixture.

BEGGARS. -Whoever enters a house is surrounded by a score of hats, or of hands extended, soliciting alms. Ten steps in the street cannot be taken without meeting an application for charity. women usually dressed in black silk, and veiled, demand with effrontery; men who call themselves modest poor, implore your assistance in whispers: thousands of maimed objects exhibit their arms, or legs, now useless: children, sometimes even men, absolutely naked, creep about in the mud. If any one attempts to enter a church, the door is obstructed by a crowd of beggars; within, is an equal number kneeling, and dragging themselves on their knees. In your own house, you are not secure from their worrying importunities. If the door of the balcony be opened, the sighs of these wretches ascend even there. Even the King's gardener begs, by offering you something rare which he has pilferred from the pots of his master.

SEA FISH. An enormous quantity of fish, raw or dressed, is sold in the streets. Their forms are equally various and curious. Some have the bill of a woodcock; others resemble a cake, others have a kind of fringe around their chaps, some closely resemble chestnuts, with their husks and prickles; others the agate handle of a knife. Oysters are plentiful; but they are very small, and their flavour is nothing wonderful. During the summer evening the populace assembles on the seabeach to eat various kinds of what they call fruits of the sea, and which the fishmongers offer for sale immediately as taken from the water. As the space allotted for this purpose is not large, places must be secured beforehand.

AMBULATORY PREACHERS.-An occupa tion particular to the Neapolitans is that of listening to preachers who proceed from place to place. A banner is borne along the streets, succeeded by a crucifix. This crucifix is followed by a priest full robed. He advances toward the mole, chooses the spot which he thinks mosts favourable, and makes a signal. The bearer of the banner stops, and waits at the distance of a few steps; the preacher mounts on some stone, or on a bench, with which some neighbouring shop has respectfully supplied him; he plants the cross by his side, and begins his discourse without further ceremony. The people take off their hats, and assemble to hear him. These preachers have a great influence on the populace; the government sometimes employs them to facilitate the execution of public

measures.

SAFETY IN INNS.-When a traveller arrives at his inn, the landlord is bound to ask him for a statement of all his valuables. The guest is free to give, or to withhold it, but then he must deliver to the landlord a written notice of its having been demanded. If the landlord cannot produce the property or the

notice, he is obliged to replace whatever may have been stolen in his house. He is also, equally obliged if he has not informed the stranger of this regulation. By this mean the inns are places of perfect security.

VIATICUM.-When the consecrated host is carried to the sick, its approach is denoted to the eye by a banner borne before it; while the sharp tinklings of a little bell inform the ear: it is surrounded by priests in full dress, and often by a guard of honour. Incense smokes before the procession, and the faithful who happen to be passing along the road, unite with the attendants. Wherever it passes Polichinello suspends his harangue, the fishmongers are silent, the gamesters utter not a word, thousands of spectators all on their knees, beat their breasts, and sign themselves with the cross: the guards stand to their arms, and the drums beat a salute, while the procession is in sight. This spectacle is much the most agreeable in an evening: a light appears instantly on every balcony; suddenly, and as if by enchantment the darkest night equals a brilliant day; and sometimes quantities of squibs and crackers are let off which sparkle and glitter around the proces sion. At the playhouse, in the middle of a scene, if the bell announces the passing of this sacred object, the actors instantly retire to each side, and all present as well in the boxes, as in the pit, fall on their knees. The comedians, bedizened, and painted as they are, kneel behind the scenes, and every head bends forward, till the tinkle is no longer heard: after which the performance is resumed.

THEFT.-Theft is very common at Naples, in spite of the wheel and the gibbet. It is even said that an executioner having left his shoes at the foot of the scaffold, in order to mount the ladder more readily, was robbed of his property during the execution.

The length of this article precludes us from extending our observations on it: but we may advise strangers not to trust implicitly to the annihilation of Neapolitan jealously. We observe also that the public readers on the mole of Naples, are not restricted to two, as stated by our author; and that, beside the history he mentions, and sundry of a like nature, select parts of Tasso, Ariosto, and other favourite authors, calculated to interest the auditory are repeated, or chanted: whereby they become so familiar to the populace, that many can repeat considerable portions of those authors by heart. Did Homer thus recite his verses to the Greeks? On the subject of filth, this city may vie'in comparison with the impe rial city of Paris: which, surely, is suf ficient reproach. The author ought to

Gemeinsassliche Anleitung zur Kentniss des Himmils, &c. An Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Astronomy, Geography and Chronology, by E. F. Rudiger. 1 Vol. 8vo. pp. 580. Plates 75.-6rxd. Leipsic.

THIS work is divided into four sections, which treat, 1. of celestial bodies and the general arrangement of the universe; (this division is illustrated by 49 plates.) 2. the earth, its figure, extent, surface and other peculiarities; (accompained by 13 plates.) 3. the computation of time, and the explanation of the calendar; very particular attention has been paid to this division, which occupies nearly one half of the work: the explanation of the calendar is treated astronomically and chronologically; two plates on eclipses elucidate this part. 4. The art of constructing different sorts of horizontal and vertical sun dials: this section presents eleven plates of sun dials, calculated for the longitude of Liepsic. The seventy five plates which accompany this work, are published separately, as an Astronomical Atlas, pr. 3rxd 13gr.

Essai sur la Structure et les Fonctions du Foie, &c.-Essay on the Structure and Offices of the Liver; by Charles William Ubersaal, M. D. Assistant Anatomist at the Medical School of Stras

burgh. 4to. pp. 67. Strasburgh, Levrault, 1805.

THE numerous diseases to which the liver is liable, the uncertainty which attends their symptoms, the difficulty of curing them effectually, and the different opinions of Anatomists on the uses and properties of this organ, induce us to record a treatise which evidently is the result of much personal and accurate investigation. In Physiology every original remark has its value; and we never know from what quarter we may be favoured with impor

tant discoveries.

vessels; those which introduce the blood and those which discharge it: and notices some varieties of conformation, observed by himself. The Lymphatics of this organ have greatly employed his consideration. He divides

them into those which are superficial, and those which lie deeper: he describes the progress and termination of both, with more precision than has hitherto been done; having made many injections for the purpose. The nerves which maintain the sensibility of the liver next engage our author's attention: he remarks their origin, progress, and distribution within the liver and describes also the excretory ducts of the bile. He then treats on the distribution of the vessels and nerves in the interior of the liver, down to the very minute glands which form the proper substance (flesh) of this viscus; he proves that the minute glands are composed only of vessels interlaced in different manners, each being enveloped with a continuation of the cellular membrane of the capsula of Glisson, which also envelopes the bundies of vessels respectively. He describes, at length, the anastomoses of the different vessels in the interior of the glands, and closes his Anatomical illustration of this subject by describing the gall bladder, including its external conformation, and its particular structure. In describing its tunics, he denies the existence of the muscular tunic in man, though many writers maintain the contrary. He carefully explains the structure of the internal membrane and its meshes, respecting which, his researches have been extremely assiduous. He insists that the small glands which Vicq-d'Azyr says, he saw on the internal surface of this tunic, do not exist in the human subject; he then presents a detailed description of the vessels and nerves which form part of the gall bladder, and closes by a description of the canal through which the bile passes.

In his second section, which treats on the offices of the liver, M. U. concludes thet the bile is secreted in the liver, and not in the gall bladder : he states his reasons for this conclusion, and proves it by facts which are indisputable. He then considers the uses of the vena porta, and the hepatic artery, in secreting the bile, evincing that the latter has a share in this

office. He examines the course of the blood within the liver; supposes its