diet; and, indeed, so long as business hours are regulated as they are at present in many public departments, as well as among the mercantile classes, it is impossible that the upper and middling classes in London can generally return to the custom of the good old times. The artificial modes of living during the hours of relaxation are blamed by our author-such as that of the men taking exercise in soft-cushioned chariots, and, instead of resorting to athletic exercises, making club and drawing-rooms the spheres of their enjoyment. What will the hair-croppers say to this?" The mode of keeping the hair closely cropped seems, like many other customs very unnatural, and it is not impossible but that the constant clipping promotes its rapid growth, and thereby exhausts the soil, which may account, in some measure, for baldness being so general amongst us. Females allow their hair to grow long; it is, moreover, seldom cut, and it is unusual for a woman to be bald."

We shall now address ourselves to some of the means which our author recommends, with the view that the health, mental and physical, of the community may be increased and invigorated. Here, although nothing entirely new as to the general idea is suggested, there is yet so much that is sensible and agreeable that the oftener it is repeated and the more widely it is published, the better; because, thereby the very things suggested may come to be carried into effect. Take the element of water, for example, which is so inexhaustibly supplied by old father Thames, and see to what advantages it might with comparative ease be turned in London.

"The deficiency is greatly felt in the impracticability of forming public baths; for these establishments, considered as luxuries in most other cities of Europe, are much wanted, as essential to health and cleanliness, in London. The human body requires, in all climates, frequent ablutions to keep it in wholesome condition; but nowhere do circumstances conspire to render the salutary custom of bathing so necessary, as in this metropolis. Nothing, however, was attempted by the public authorities to encourage so salutary a custom, but the culpable indifference displayed by these has, of late years, been partially made up by the public spirit of private individuals, who have established baths of great size in different parts of the metropolis.

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"Bathing has been considered essential to bealth in almost all countries, and at almost all ages; it is practised in cold as well as in hot climates. Many nations hold the bath as one of their chief luxuries, others value it both as a luxury, and as conducive to health. Among some people bathing is enjoined as a religious exercise, whilst water is considered sacred, and is used not only as a physical, but as a type of moral ablution. In ancient Rome, the baths, both public and private, were on a most extensive scale, and though it be now 1500 years since the rays of her glory have departed, the magnificent baths of Dioclesian remain at this day as monuments at once of the estimation in which bathing was held, and of the greatness of that wonderful people.

Houses, trees, cattle, drapery of all kinds, clothing, and even the skin itself, everything in fact becomes soiled and contaminated by the impurities in the atmosphere in London, and it is remarkable that measures have not been adopted to counteract the baneful effects of this evil.

"Instead of a smaller supply, the inhabitants of the metropolis require a larger quantity of water, (for the necessaries, to say nothing of the luxuries of life) than people in the country.

"Holland is not naturally a healthy country, but the inhabitants splash the water about in all directions, and by the strict observance of cleanliness in the houses, Amsterdam is rendered a much more salubrious city than might be expected.

"It would be desirable that one or more powerful steam engines should be erected on the banks of the Thames, at the distance of some miles above London, and that water should be poured into the town in any quantity that might be required.

"It would be desirable that, in addition to the cisterns in private houses being kept full from this source, fountains should play in every square, and jets spout into stone basins in every street, all of which water should be at the disposal of the inhabitants, or should be allowed to run to waste; for, even by running to waste, as it would be considered by some persons, it would contribute most materially to the health of the town, by clearing away all offensive matter from the subterraneous passages.

"It is surprising that, in this metropolis, where there is as great a necessity for copious supplies of water, as there is in the cities of Persia and Turkey, the necessity however arising from different causes, that we should be so far behind these less civilized states in the establishment of fountains, baths, and public reservoirs. During certain months of the year there would be little demand for fountains, but there is a long season in which heat and dust, and a murky atmosphere, render London almost uninhabitable. During this period, fountains and baths would be luxuries beyond all price, not to mention how largely they would contribute to the public health.

The palace gardens at Versailles are adorned by numerous fountains of great size and variety. They are tastefully distributed among the trees and shrubs; nymphs, sea-horses and dolphins, elegantly fashioned in bronze, forming the jet pipes of these beautiful water-works. It is said that there are fifteen hundred of these jets in the gardens, they all play at once at certain seasons of the year, when the effect is astonishing. The quantity of water used is of course immense, and is supplied by an engine on the River Seine at Marly, distant from Versailles about five English

miles.

"How greatly would the beauty of our parks be increased, were there stately fountains playing at the extremities of the various avenues and drives, and when we consider the luxurious disposition of the present age; and the ample resources of the government and of the people, it is remarkable that this beautiful and useful ornament has not been introduced long since."

Let the public mind be but once directed to this subject, and it can hardly be supposed that London will long remain without some

such refreshing and beautifying supplies as those here recommended. Akin to the last may be taken the following suggestions :—

"In addition to the improvements already suggested for promoting the salubrity of the metropolis and comfort of the people, there is one project which has been frequently before the public, and which, were the government and the inhabitants at large duly impressed with the importance of the subject, would probably, ere now, have been carried into effect, namely, Trench's Terrace along the bank of the Thames, from Westminster to London Bridge. Not only would this work contribute materially to the healthiness of the town, but form a magnificent feature in its appearance, "How the banks of the river became crowded with buildings down to the water's edge it is difficult to imagine, but there is scarcely another city or town in Europe, having a river running through it, where there are not broad and open quays, separating the houses from the stream, forming bold and beautiful promenades and carriage ways, most convenient either for business or pleasure, and generally displaying the town itself to the greatest advantage. Neither Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, nor St. Petersburgh can boast of a river as broad as the Thames, yet they all have fine open terraces bordering the current. The same advantage is possessed by towns in this country, the quays in Dublin, Glasgow, Hull, and Bristol, and other towns, are among the finest features of these ports; it is only in London that the river is cooped in by dusky brick warehouses, and the public excluded even from a view of it. The erection of a terrace, such as been proposed, would not obstruct the communication already existing between the wharfs and the water, for it would pass over them, and, as there would be no necessity for the terrace being level throughout, it might rise or fall to accommodate particular situations or buildings. As it would occupy a space over the mud, left exposed between the tides, it would have a beneficial effect in preventing, to a certain extent, the evaporation of the effluvia which is so offensive along the shore in summer. This terrace, upwards of two miles long, and open to the public from end to end, would be one of the grandest erections of modern times, and worthy of the first city in Europe; it would conduce to the health of the metropolis, directly and indirectly, for it would prevent the spread of miasmata, and would encourage the inhabitants to exercise by the splendour of the promenade; at present the banks of the Thames in London are the most unseemly, dirty, beggarly looking portions of the metropolis, and the plan proposed would not only remove a positive deformity, but replace it by what would be at once highly useful and ornamental.

"This project was taken up about two years ago, by Mr. Martin, the eminent historical painter, who enlarged and so improved on the original plan, that Sir F. Trench resigned the authorship of it to him. Mr. Martin proposed, with a view to improve the supply of water to the metropolis, and to promote its salubrity generally, to lay a very broad, but close sewer, along the shore of the river, to construct wharfs over this, and to form a terrace over the whole.

"He proposed that this work should extend two miles and a half on each side of the Thames in London, and calculated that by the great sewers receiving the contents of all the drains in the metropolis, instead of the river

being polluted thereby, a vast improvement would be effected in the quality of the water supplied to the people, and that the terrace on the top would offer them a strong inducement to take air and exercise, so essential to health.

"This scheme is graud in the extreme, and several scientific gentlemen, friends and others of Mr. Martin, among whom was Sir F. Trench, formed themselves into a committee, to consider of its merits, who reported very favourably on it. There can be no doubt but that the water we drink in London is a most heterogeneous solution, and it is disgraceful that no means have yet been taken to prevent its contamination at its very source."

Our author is a great advocate in behalf of providing means of recreation and innocent pastimes for the citizens, such as opening to their free admission various exhibitions, forming for them village greens, &c., and to refrain from fixing upon the people anything equivalent to the bearing rein in respect of the sabbath day, which he thinks would irritate and impede those disposed to go well, while it never would prevent a stumbler from falling.

Dr. Hogg's chapter on Life Assurances is deserving of perusal, were it for nothing than pointing out the enormous profits of the existing companies in general. But many other topics as handled sensibly and agreeably by him, can only be explained in the volume itself, taken in an ungarbled shape, to which the extracts presented above cannot fail to invite the attention of our readers, whether metropolitan or provincial.

ART. VII.-An Examination of Phrenology; In Two Lectures, Delilivered to the Students of the Columbian College, District of Columbia, February, 1837. By THOMAS SEWALL, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology. Washington City. 1837.

Ar the commencement of his first lecture, Dr. Sewall says that phrenology, besides having spread with great rapidity during the short existence of the science, "is at this time exciting a general and strong interest in the scientific circles of Europe and this country," (America). Now, whatever may be the case on the other side of the Atlantic, it certainly ought not to be affirmed that in England, at least, any such very strong excitement continues to be displayed or felt. With the exception of Edinburgh, the chief seat of the British phrenologists, we believe that nowhere else in the united kingdom is there to be found a general anxiety on the subject, or any extensive provisions for pursuing its study. Even in the Scottish capital, were it not that a few ingenious and enthusiastic disciples of Gall and Spurzheim reside there, we believe that phrenology would take its station among those curious but abandoned theories, which from time to time have absorbed the admiration or formed the amusement of scientific minds. One thing assuredly

cannot be said of its services, although years ago confidently prophesied, viz. that it was destined speedily to introduce a perfect and intelligible system of mental and moral philosophy, which would look down with compassion on the distinctions and speculations of Locke, Hume, Berkley, Hartley, Reid, and Stewart, as shallow and puerile, and prove to a demonstration-to the conviction of every inquirer, that previously the nature, capacities, and propensities of man had never been understood-that in short his history had been a perfect waste, till phrenology broke up his mind's soil, and pointed out how it ought to be cultivated. Mr. Combe, of Edinburgh, one of its most zealous and able advocates, has declared, that however splendid have been the discoveries of the revolution of the globe and the circulation of the blood, or however beneficial to the human race their results, compared with those which must inevitably follow from Dr. Gall's discovery of the functions of the brain, they must sink into relative insignificance. We repeat, and Mr. Combe cannot at the present adduce any proof to the contrary, that these marvellous and matchless consequences are still in the womb of futurity, and that if they are ever to have birth, there have not of recent years been any visible symptoms of early or advancing maternity. Ridicule has done much to throw the theory into disrepute, and argument not less. Of the latter sort of these hostile weapons, the present lectures furnish an effective specimen, for with a calmness and a candour which cannot be surpassed, and a mastery of knowledge, as well as of ratiocination, that is resistless, Dr. Sewall disposes of the subject, and shows that phrenology has withdrawn the attention of many sanguine and ingenious minds from far nobler and more profitable pursuits.

Like many other theories and schemes long ago abandoned, the study of phrenology is exceedingly attractive, because it professes to teach how men may easily and certainly arrive at a knowledge of the character of the human mind, and of the hidden emotions of the soul. Everything which pretends to supersede tedious labour, and deep research, is apt to gain the favour of enthusiastic persons. But the philosopher's stone could never have such powers as that science, which says that it can disclose the secrets of the heart by a momentary examination of the exterior of the head, and therefore never was so generally sought after.

Many of our readers know that this science (we use the term in accordance with the form of language sincerely applied to it by the phrenologists_themselves), was first promulgated not many years ago, first by Dr. Gall, an eccentric German physician, who was led, as he says, while quite a youth, to observe that each of his brothers, sisters, school-fellows, and friends possessed some peculiarity of talent or disposition, some aptitude, and propensity, or laboured under some defect of mind and temper, which distinguished them

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