they send patients with the same complaints to Aix and Marseilles, where the air must be essentially different; the latter city being on the level of the sea, while the former, according to his own admeasurement, is near 600 feet above it. In such a country as Switzerland, or on such a mountain as Etna, it is easy at all times to take off a weight from the human body of many thousand pounds; and thus, not only the quantity, but the quality also of the air, would be changed, which on the side of any very high mountain is more varied than in travelling through fifty degrees of latitude.

Our travellers were all present at the superb feast in honour of St. Rosolia; and Mr. Brydone declares, that the illumination of St. Peter's is no more to be compared to that of the chief church at Palermo, than the planet Venus to the sun. The heat by this time had become intolerable, for the quicksilver in the thermometer had now risen to above eightytwo degrees. In this state of the atmosphere the sea became too hot for bathing!

"I am sure,” observes our author, "that in such a day as this, in England, we should be panting for breath; and no mortal would think either of reading or writing.—This is not the case here; I never was in better spirits in my life: indeed, I believe, the quantities of ice we eat may contribute a good deal towards it; for I find that, in a very violent heat, there is no such cordial to the spirits as ice, or a draught of ice-water; it is not only from the cold it communicates, but, like the cold bath, from the suddenness of that communication it braces the stomach, and gives a new tone to the fibres. It is strange that this piece of luxury (in my opinion the greatest of all, and the only healthy one) should be still so much neglected with us.

"I knew an English lady at Nice, who in a short time was cured of a threatening consumption only by a free indulgence in the use of ices; and I am persuaded that, in skilful hands, few remedies would be more effectual in many of our stomach

and inflammatory complaints, as hardly any thing has a stronger or more immediate effect on the whole frame; and surely our administration of warm drinks and potions in these complaints tend often to nourish the disease. It is the common practice here, in inflammatory complaints, to give icewater to drink; nay, so far have they carried it, that Doctor Sanghes a celebrated Sicilian physician, covered over the breast and belly of his patients with snow and ice, and they assure us in many cases with great success. But, indeed, I ought in justice to add, that this physician's practice has not been generally adopted."

Our author found in his own person the efficacy of ice. He could sit in his chamber, and encounter the severest heat, without his spirits being in the least affected, while his store of that commodity lasted; but he became greatly depressed when no longer supplied with the exhilarating draught.

Treating of the opera, Mr. Brydone informs us, that Pacherotti was then the first man, and Gabrieli the first woman; but Farinelli produced greater effect than either of them. All these three performers have since appeared at the Haymarket, as then predicted, and experienced a most brilliant reception.

At length the whole party left Sicily, infinitely delighted with the island, and at the end of a voyage of two days, found themselves once more at Naples, on the 30th of June. There they remained for about three months, partly in order to enjoy the society of Mr. and Mrs. (afterwards Sir William and Lady) Hamilton, together with that of the Walshes, another English family, and partly till the time of the Mal Aria was entirely over.

“You know the danger of travelling through the Campania during that season; which, although it is looked upon by many of our doctors as a vulgar error, yet we certainly shall not submit ourselves to the experiment. We propose to pass the winter at Rome, where we shall probably find occupation enough for four or five months. From thence, by Loretto,

We shall

Bologne, &c. to Venice; the old beaten track. then leave the parched fields of Italy, for the delightful cool mountains of Switzerland; where liberty and simplicity, long since banished from polished nations, still flourish in their original purity; where the temperature and moderation of the climate, and that of their inhabitants, are mutually emblematical of each other. For whilst other nations are scorched

by the heat of the sun, and the still more scorching heats of tyranny and superstition, there the genial breezes for ever fan the air, and heighten that alacrity and joy, which liberty and innocence alone can inspire; there, the genial flow of the soul has never yet been checked by the idle and useless refinements of art; but opens and expands itself to all the calls of affection and benevolence."

Having indulged in a few more excursions in the vicinity of Naples, the subject of this memoir accompanied the late Colonel Fullarton to Rome, where they spent the winter. On the approach of spring they repaired to Venice; and after passing the summer partly at Geneva and partly in Switzerland, they arrived in England in the autumn of 1771.

Soon after their return, Mr. Fullarton, who was intended for the diplomatic line, commenced his career at the Court of France, and became, first, private secretary to the late Lord Stormont, then our ambassador at Versailles, and, at length, secretary of legation. He afterwards engaged in the military profession, commanded a large body of troops in India, and was finally nominated one of the three commissioners for the government of Trinidad. As for Mr. Brydone, he also obtained a respectable appointment under government, and after the publication of his travels, which procured for him no common share of credit and respect, was nominated a member of several learned societies, and occasionally published many able papers, in the Philosophical Transactions. The latter part of his life was spent in retirement, and almost in obscurity; and, having quitted the busy scenes of life, he

died in 1818, at an advanced age, greatly respected by all his friends.

Our author made his appearance in the world at a period when the doctrines laid down by Newton, respecting attraction and gravitation, began to be generally received; while those whose tenets he had objected to had sunk into insignificance. "I have seen many rigid Newtonians," observes he, in one of his publications, "who could bear with much more temper to hear the Divinity of our Saviour called in question, than that of Sir Isaac; and looked on a Cartesian or a Ptolomean as a worse species of infidel than an atheist. I remember when I was at college to have seen one heretic to their doctrine of gravity, very suddenly converted by being tossed in a blanket; and another, who denied the law of centripetal and centrifugal forces, soon brought to assent by having the demonstration made on his shoulders, by a stone whisked at the end of a string."

It was at this period, too, that the Franklinian philosophy began to be disclosed. The doctrine of electricity made a deep impression on the subject of these memoirs, who was accustomed frequently to make the experiment with the electrical kite that entitled the Trans-Atlantic philosopher to the "Eripuit Fulmen Cælo," and both his writings and conversation were deeply imbued with this subject. It must have been already perceived that Mr, Brydone attributed many of the phenomena of nature to electricity; and, indeed, Dr. Franklin, a little before his death, was accustomed to observe, "that we were on the verge of some great discovery, and that this branch of science was but in its infancy." Our traveller, who was one of his most zealous disciples, had early in life imbibed the very same notion; and this was greatly fortified by an accident that occurred to a lady of his acquaintance, Mrs. Douglas, of Kelso, who had almost lost her life during a thunder-storm, by exposing herself at an open window, with a fashionable cap, mounted on wire, without using an

electrical conductor. The lightning was attracted by the wire, and the cap was burnt to ashes. Happily the hair was in its natural state, without paper, pomatum, or pins, which alone prevented a catastrophe! He himself was at length accustomed to observe, that he never combed his head or took off his stockings without detecting the electric fluid. In short, he deemed this a fifth element, distinct from, and superior to the other four.

Many celebrated writers have agreed fully with him, as to the beneficial effects of electricity on vegetation. Bertholon, in support of it, quotes the testimony of the Abbe Toaldo, who beheld two wild jasmines on the borders of the Brenta, that happened to be twisted around a conductor, attain a most astonishing size. On the other hand, it must be fairly added, that Saussure, during his travels among the Alps, thought he discovered the order of nature to have taken a contrary direction.

It has been objected to Mr. Brydone, that by means of his justly celebrated performance he has contrived to engender some doubts in the Christian world. It is urged, in particular, that his philosophical speculations are not consonant to the opinions received and propagated by the Church, "having infused the infidel objections of the Canon Recupero into the minds of his readers."

Indeed, his insinuations against the Mosaic account of the creation have been answered by several eminent divines, to which, we believe, he on his part never took the trouble to reply.

List of the Works of the late Patrick Brydone, Esq. 1. Tour through Sicily and Malta,

2. Several Papers in the Philosophical Transactions.