up its heat. This is consistent with the teachings of experience respecting the fattening of cattle; for it is well known that this may be accomplished much sooner, if the animals are shut up in a warm dwelling and are covered with clothes, than if they are freely exposed in the open air.

"Now the condition of man may be regarded as intermediate between these two extremes. The construction of his digestive apparatus, as well as his own instinctive propensities, point to a mixed diet as that which is best suited to his wants. It does not appear that a diet composed of ordinary vegetables only, is favourable to the full development of either his bodily or his mental powers; but this cannot be said in regard to a diet of which bread is the chief ingredient, since the gluten it contains appears to be as well adapted for the nutrition of the animal tissues, as does the flesh of animals. On the other hand, a diet composed of animal flesh alone is the least economical that can be conceived for, since the greatest demand for food is created in him (taking a man of average habits in regard to activity and the climate he inhabits), by the necessity for a supply of carbon and hydrogen to support his respiration, this want may be most advantageously fulfilled by the employment of a certain quantity of non-azotised food, in which these ingredients predominate. Thus it has been calculated, that, since fifteen pounds of flesh contain no more carbon than four pounds of starch, a savage with one animal and an equal weight of starch, could support life for the same length of time during which another restricted to animal food would require five such animals, in order to procure the carbon necessary for respiration. Hence we see the immense advantage as to economy of food, which a fixed agricultural population possesses over the wandering tribes of hunters which still people a large part both of the old and new continents.

"The mixture of the azotised and non-azotised compounds (gluten and starch), that exists in wheat flour, seems to be just that which is most useful to man; and hence we see the explanation of the fact, that, from very early ages, bread has been regarded as the staff of life.' In regard to the nutritious properties of different articles of vegetable food, these may be generally measured by the proportion of azote they contain, which is in almost every instance less than that which exists in good wheatflour. But it must not be forgotten that, owing to the varieties of constitution which have been pointed out among different animals, the power of parti

cular substances to nourish man and cattle is not the same-the latter requiring a larger proportion of the saccharine and oleaginous compounds than is beneficial to him-especially when it is an object to cause a large quantity of fatty matter to be deposited in their tissues, or to be excreted in milk. Thus potatoes are found to increase the proportion of butter in the milk of a cow that feeds upon them; their starch being probably converted into fatty matter. It has been also shown by recent experiments, that the proportion of butter in the milk of a cow allowed to feed during the day in a pasture, and shut up at night in a warm stall, was much greater in the morning milk than in the evening -the former containing 5-6 parts of butter in 100, and the latter only 3-7 parts. This was evidently due to the diminished demand for the materials for respiration during the night, when the body was at rest and the skin kept warm. The experiment was then tried, of keeping the cow in a shed during the day, and feeding her with the same grass; and the proportion of butter in her evening milk then rose to 51 parts in 100. But this plan diminished the proportion of casein or cheesy matter in the milk, which was increased again by allowing the cow to pasture in the open field. Hence it appears that stall-feeding is most favourable to the production of butter, and pasturing to that of cheese.

66

These principles should be kept in view in regulating the diet of individuals, especially in certain disordered states of the constitution, which require to be treated by strict attention to diet. Thus there are some persons who have a remarkable tendency to the deposition of fat; and others in whom there is a morbid (or diseased) production of sugar in the body, which is carried off by the urine. In these cases, the diet should be so regulated as to contain the least possible quantity of the saccharine or oleaginous principles; the food being made to consist entirely of animal flesh, with a very small quantity of breador still better, with bread from which the greater part of the starch has been removed. On the other hand, there is a state of the system, known as that in which gout and gravel are liable to occur, in which there seems to be an excess of azotised matter: and the diet of such persons should be so regulated, that very little or no animal flesh should be employed as food, the aliment being made to consist almost exclusively of farinaceous (starchy) substances, such as rice, potatoes," &c.

Botany, and the physiology of plants, are subjects which deservedly occupy

a considerable space in the plan before us. The choice between the Linnæan and the natural system of arrangement, is perhaps, at the present day, less a matter of dispute than it was some time since, because the different objects aimed at are now more generally understood, and the two systems are not therefore regarded in the light of rivals. They have been well compared by an eminent botanist to an alphabetical, as compared with a classed catalogue: the one eminently useful for reference; the other for giving us a real view of the objects collected. In the Linnæan system a small number of characters, chiefly the number of stamens and pistils, are taken as the standard; and the whole vegetable kingdom is distributed under classes and orders, according to the correspondences and differences among the several genera in these respects, no regard whatever being paid to any other characters. In the natural system all the characters of the genera are studied; and those are united into orders which present the greatest correspondence in the characters that are regarded as of the most importance: on the same principle the orders are united into classes.

According to the Linnæan or artificial system, it cannot but follow that many genera, differing most widely in their structure and physiological characters, are often brought together under one denomination; while others, perhaps in reality closely allied, are separated into the most distant groups. So that in fact it often happens that under the same Linnæan genus two plants may have no one feature in common beyond the number of stamens and pistils. Such a system can consequently lead us to no general knowledge of the characteristic properties or habitudes of plants; whereas the natural system, grounded upon resemblances of a far more extensive kind, and having a far more intimate kind of relation to the actual nature and distinguishing properties of the structures, leads us to recognise much more of the real order of nature, and specific gradations and peculiarities o. organised structures from these accompanying outward manifestations, which we cannot but infer are connected by some hidden train of causation, some recondite principles of order and ar

rangement, with their external charac

ters.

Thus the mere assignment of a plant to its Linnæan class and order, tells us nothing of its real nature or relations; such an assignment in the natural system, on the other hand, is in fact at once a description of much of its character and properties; and this is observed to hold good even up to the highest or most general result of classification. The division of all plants into monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous at once marks the remarkable characteristic property of their mode of increase the one being always endogenous, and the other exogenous; the arrangement of the veins of the leaves (for the most part) parallel in the one and reticulated in the other; and the parts of the flowers more generally arranged in threes in the one, and in fives or fours in the other. Again, whole classes under this arrangement have common physical properties, which are consequently in a great degree indicated in any instance the moment we have ascertained the class to which a particular individual belongs: thus the whole of the Papaveraceæ possess narcotic properties; the whole of Ranaculaceæ are acrid; all the Malvaceæ are destitute of unwholesome qualities.

But without following any further the outline suggested by the view of the subject presented in the work before us, we have said enough to show the importance of an easy compendious systematic introduction to so highly interesting and important a branch of science, which we believe is in truth daily becoming more popular among us; and the more it is attended to the more will its value be duly recognised. Such an introduction, we think, is here furnished to the elementary student as will fully satisfy his wants, and afford a sufficient guide to more copious sources of information on the various points in detail.

It is obvious, that, in reviewing a work of this multifarious character, we cannot pretend to touch upon more than a few such points of its contents as incidentally present themselves; but we trust we have said enough to exhibit fairly to our readers somewhat of its general character and pretensions, and to express our opinion (so far as our examination has extended)

on its general merits and adaptation to its particular objects.

Having thus spoken of the work as already advanced, we cannot omit a word with reference to our expectations of the parts yet to come. The vast importance of chemical science at the present day, and the necessity for philosophical accuracy in the development of those beautiful principles now disclosed, connected with the entire changes in the nature of bodies, from different arrangements of the same elementary molecules, together with the vast range of inquiries recently opened, in connection with the mysterious agency of light, and even of some other, perhaps unknown, ethereal matter, are points generally appreciated; and in relation to which, so rapid has been the progress of discovery, that a new elementary treatise will be looked to with no small interest, as expected to embrace a comprehensive account of these extensive discoveries, which it is beyond the power of ordinary readers to follow up in detail, and which are in fact every day multiplying upon the compiler's hands. In geology, again, with all its rapidly progressing disclosures, the greatest diligence, as well as discrimination, will be required to arrest and condense the floating materials so abundantly furnished by the continued progress of research. But the great boast of the modern advance of this science has been found in the establishment, for the first time (in our opinion,) by Mr. Lyell, of the real foundations of a sound geological logic, or the true application of the great principles of induction, in a field previously little subjected to such rigid laws.

But we look with more special anxiety to the manner in which the delicate and difficult subjects of heat and light may be treated-we say anxiety, not for any doubt as to the capability of our author to do full justice to them, but simply from our experience of the very faulty and defective manner in which those important points have been treated in some existing popular compendiums; especially the absurd spirit of partisanship, which has seemed to us to animate some elementary writers with respect to the grand question of the undulatory hypothesis. Similar remarks will apply to the vast range of subjects connected with electricity, gal

vanism, and magnetism; while, we presume, the important and invaluable practical application of physical science, in the arts and manufactures, in the control and adaptation of the giant power of steam, will receive a separate and detailed review proportionate to their important and beneficial use in our social economy.

But the spread of sound elementary scientific information is deeply important in another, and that the highest of all respects;-as affording the basis for a real and sound natural theology, important in itself at all times-important, more especially in an age when a spirit very hostile to such an application of the subject, is but too prevalent in an open and undisguised form-and of tenfold importance at the present time, when that same spirit assumes the disguise of a zeal for religion, and masks itself under pretensions to a peculiar sanctity, which affects to deny and condemn all exercise of the reason in the investigation of Divine truth-which denounces all attempts to derive a knowledge of the great Moral Cause of all physical causes, from a study of these last, and with a sort of audacity almost incredible, adopts the very language of the bitterest enemies of religion, and plainly tells us that the more we employ our reasoning faculties in the search, the more difficult shall we find it to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion, or to assure ourselves even of the existence of a God! Nay, according to some of these writers, there is something sinful in the mere prosecution of those studies, and we are expressly informed, that "men who are absorbed in physical or metaphysical science, or in mathematics-such men are, in the sight of Scripture, most immoral!" (Sewell's Christian (?) Morals.) Such are the views which are at this time adopted, and widely inculcated by a very influential and increasing party-we deeply regret to add, existing and flourishing within the pale of the Established Church, and the precincts of our "orthodox" universities.

There is, however, something so glaringly offensive, as well as intrinsically futile in such views, that we firmly rely on the common sense of the public mind, as a sufficient barrier against the general admission of them. Still, so subtle are the argumentative

From the Rhine, August 1, 1843. LIEBER LORREQUER-The weather has been so cold and unfavourable for the last month, that serious apprehensions were entertained for the rye and wheat harvests. The corn merchants forced up the prices of corn so high that the poorer classes suffered severely, and the bakers in many places, as at Cologne and at Rastadt, in the Duchy of Baden, shut their ovens and refused to bake; the scarcity was so great that government were obliged to bring a large parcel of corn up the Rhine from Holland, and the commissariat ovens were set to work for the poorer classes. Although there is every prospect of saving the corn harvest, the scarcity is still great, as the western part of Germany exported to Belgium last year more corn than they could spare, and it will require all the present crop to restore the balance. The price of meat has also risen, and is now for beef from fourpence to fourpence halfpenny per lb. There is this year grass enough, but unfortunately there is a deficiency of stock, as last year's scarcity of forage, compelled people to sacrifice their half-fed animals.

I can assure you that there is little likelihood that any portion of south-western Germany or Belgium, will have either corn or beef to export this year; let this be a consolation to your agricultural friends.

There are but few English on the Rhine this year, and the hotel keepers are beginning to exclaim against the repeal agitation, which they suppose keeps the people at home.

Archbi

shop Droste von Vischering, of "mixedmarriage notoriety," passed through here on his way from Ems to Munster. Archduke Stephen, of Austria, was also here for two days on a tour which he was making of the Rhine provinces. King Leopold comes on the 3d, en route to Weisbaden, and the King of Hanover on the 8th, on his way to Hanover.

The rejection, by the Rhenish diet, of the new criminal code is, as I anticipated, likely to produce important results in the other Prussian provinces.

It is said that the king, in one of his latest cabinet orders, has expressed a decided wish that the open procedure and viva voce examination, should be introduced in the eastern Prussian provinces. It is well known that Mullen, the minister of justice, has long interested himself in favour of these mea

sures.

Political writings are increasing daily in number; one sees almost in every newspaper announcements of new books forbidden by the censor. These works are for the most part published in Switzerland, at Zurich; and notwithstanding the prohibition, are brought into Germany in great numbers. It is almost a fortunate circumstance for an author to have his book prohibited, as it is for that very reason, whether good or bad, more extensively read. These political brochures are for the most part extremely violent, and crammed with the most erroneous and absurd political doctrines.

Two numbers of Bauer's "Liberale Bestrebungen, in Deutschland," have appeared; the one entitled the East Prussian, the other the Badisch-opposition. A long chain of argument in one of these concludes with the following sentence:-" You will have now clearly perceived that the existence of a government is antagonist to the development of freedom." This pas sage shows pretty clearly what kind of freedom these people wish to attain.

It

The "true history of the German," published anonymously, but supposed to be from the pen of Held, is a very witty and amusing little book. gives the following account of the birth, parentage, and education of Michael, a name applied to the German peasant, as John Bull is to the English:

There was in the olden time a certain Miss Teutonia, who seems to have been but indifferently brought up, as she passed most of her time in wandering through the forests which abounded in her country. During one of these rambles she formed a rather too intimate acquaintance with a vagabond heathen god, whose morality was