How cheering is this assurance, after the following somewhat different sentiment delivered by Mr. Lawrence :

"If the intellectual phenomena of man require an immaterial principle superadded to the brain, we must equally concede it to the more rational animals. If we grant it to these, we cannot refuse it to the next in order, and so on in succession to the whole series-to the oyster, the sea anemone, the polype, the microscopic animalcules. Is any one prepared to admit the existence of immaterial principles in all these cases? If not, he must equally reject it in man.”—Physiol. Lect. p. 110.

When we came to examine Dr. Haslam's doctrines, however, we found nothing that supported these brilliant expectations of future existence.

"The human mind is not the progressive unfolding of intellectual germs, which Nature first protrudes and subsequently expands; but a structure that is reared, in its primordium, by casual excitations, and in its most important attainments, by the active exertions of the individual himself."

Now what is all this laboured definition but a new version of the theory of Locke, who likened the human mind to a blank sheet of paper, on which the ideas were afterwards written by the senses? Did not Newton ask-" Is not the sensorium of animals, the place where the sentient substance is present, and to which the sensible species of things are brought through the nerves and brain, that there they may be perceived by the mind present in that place?" Is it not the doctrine of Priestly somewhat mystified, who argues that "all our ideas either proceed from the bodily senses, or are consequent upon the perceptions of sense." Finally, is it not a periphrasis of Mr. Lawrence, who tell us, that the mind is built up before our eyes by the senses? There is nothing, in fact, so easy now-a-days, as to appear a great original by bringing forward old matter with a new face. Most physiologists, we apprehend, were acquainted with the fact that, in addition to those organs which carry on the circulation, respiration, diges. tion, secretion, and other processes, there was an apparatus called a brain and nervous system, by which man became acquainted, and held constant converse with the world around him. But we were mistaken. This grand discovery was to issue from a narrow, dark, and somewhat odoriferous court in Fleet-street, in the year 1827.

"Man is not a mere corporeal and animated mass, not exclusively the compound of circulation, respiration, digestion, secretion, and other vital actions this living system is endowed with organs and capacities of a different and more elevated nature; susceptibilities of impression, and capacities of intelligence, that, by proper culture and application, may become gradually ripened into the display of mind."

Dr. H. then goes on to inform his audience and the world, that, in a state of "perfect formation," we are furnished with five senses-that we have eyes, ears, a nose, a tongue, and "pulpy internal extremities of the fingers," " which compose the organ of touch. We are really at a loss to conceive what is meant by "the internal extremity” of a finger! We quite agree with Dr. Haslam, however, that no proof has ever been produced

"that the infant brought with it any memorial of its uterine existence." We should think, indeed, that" the pulpy internal extremities" of its fingers were but badly calculated for making memoranda, during its uterine exist ence. We are next informed that light impresses the eye, sound the ear, resistance impresses the touch, &c. We, also, subscribe to the observation, that," it is impossible to describe the imperceptible gradations of sight," during the first weeks of our extra-uterine existence. The Doctor's observations on perception contain nothing but what is known to the merest tyro in physiology, though they are delivered with an air of oracular originality that must excite a smile. There are some observations, under the head of perception, on which we shall take the liberty to make a comment or two. Dr. H. says, the organs of sense are fatigued by exertion, in the same way as the voluntary muscles, and recruited by rest, &c. This renovation appears to the orator a "perfect mystery"-not more perfect, we should imagine, than secretion, digestion, or any other process in the animal economy. "There are, however, slight glimmerings that seem to afford some clue to conjecture." Here our hopes were kindled, but an extinguisher was soon placed over them. The voluntary muscles are liable to fatigue and require alternations of repose; but the involuntary muscles are never tired, and "the heart will continue its pulsations for a century without any individual feeling of weariness." Now let us see how this learned philosopher is supported by facts. Upon the most accurate calculation that can be made, the contraction of the ventricles of the heart occupies one third of a second, and the relaxation the other two thirds, when the circulation is at 60 beats in the minute. The same ratio prevails, whether the heart's action be retarded or accelerated. Thus, then, the muscular fibres of the heart act eight hours out of the 24 hours-and are passive during the space of 16 hours in the same period. Yet this sapient philosopher represents the heart, as an involuntary muscle, as capable of continuing its action uninterruptedly for a century, without any individual feeling of weariness! If we examine the action of all other involuntary muscles, as those of the stomach, intestines, &c., we find the same alternations of labour and rest-and that Nature has not imposed on them any severer task, or endued them with any power of perpetual motion beyond other muscles in the human frame. Such are the slight glimmerings affording clues to conjecture, in the dark passages of Bolt Court !

Memory.

Dr. Haslam has occupied a prodigious quantity of verbiage on this mysterious power, without letting in a single glimmering that can afford a clue to conjecture as to its nature. We apprehend that two or three words might comprise the whole of what we know of memory. It is a record of perceptions, and reflexions, with the power of calling up these records to the mind's eye, voluntarily or involuntarily. We cannot entirely agree

with our learned metaphysician in the following passage: "We are fully aware of the directing wisdom that constituted memory the associate of perception, because perception alone would have conveyed no intelligence." Now we are inclined to think, that perception does convey intelligence, whether that intelligence be recorded by memory or not. Suppose Dr. Haslam was transported (we merely mean an imaginary flight) to Botany Bay, and then, for the first time, to behold a KANGAROO hopping about. Would his perceptions of this animal convey no intelligence, as to figure, colour, shape, &c., even if his memory were extremely defective? The doctrine, we think, is not quite sound. We see men in very advanced age, whose memories are almost completely annihilated, and who yet have clear perceptions of those objects that are presented to their senses at the moment, and reason on them accurately. The next moment they recollect nothing of what has passed. Memory greatly enhances, no doubt, the value of perceptions, but perceptions, we imagine, convey intelligence, whether they are treasured in the memory or not.

In the perusal of these lectures, we have not been able to collect any more distinct views of the intellectual composition of man than we before possessed-and we are quite sure that, in many instances, Dr. Haslam's attempts to unravel the mysteries of mind, have only tended to make obscurium obscurius. 'I should define thought" says he "to be that operation of the intellect, whereby it elaborates its peculiar and intrinsic attainments." If any man can form a clearer idea of thought by this definition, he must have a penetrating mind indeed. It is neither more nor less than-thought is thought!

"It has been considered altogether a spiritual process, and it has likewise been held, that any other manner of interpretation, would introduce and countenance materialism. This is a most mistaken and absurd inference, and appears to have arisen from our ignorance of the actual nature of the process of thought. In a former lecture it has been explained, that all the living functions, and all the intellectual capacities on which the mind is built up, are to be considered as the endowments of a divine cause, and are not to be expounded by any material solution. Ordinary observation will convince us, that the human mind is reared, or formed, by the excitations of the external world, and from its own intrinsic achievements; and the assumption of a spiritual inter ference would destroy the whole fabric of intellectual physiology, and abolish the responsibility of man.'

Thus living functions are divine endowments, but THOUGHT, the highest function of an ORGANIZED BEING, must be explained without "spiritual in terference." In short, dear Doctor, you know as much about the nature of THOUGHT, as you do about the inhabitants of the Moon-nor do we profess to be a whit wiser than yourself. You have contrived to clothe a small quantity of old matter in a large number of new words, which are by no means badly strung together. But as to the addition which you have made to our previous stock of knowledge-it is neither here nor there.

Medico-Chirurgical Review,

No. XVI.

[FASCICULUS VI.]

MARCH 22, 1828.

ART. XV.

Researches into the Causes, Nature, and Treatment of the most prevalent Diseases of India, and of Warm Climates generally. Illustrated with Cases, post-mortem Examinations, and numerous coloured Engravings of Morbid Structure. By JAMES ANNESLEY, Esq. of the Madras Medical Establishment, &c. &c. Imperial Quarto, pp. 700, with 21 coloured Plates. Vol. the First. Longman and Co. 1828.

THIS

[ART. I.]

HIS magnificent work will transmit Mr. Annesley's name to posterity in conjunction with the medical history of our extensive empire in the East. We know not which to admire most-the indefatigable labour, and the unconquerable zeal of the author in the collection of his facts, or the beauty and fidelity of the plates, which portray the ravages of disease as it appears in the Torrid Zone, with the most scrupulous accuracy.* We hope and trust that the East India Company will do an act of justice in rewarding Mr. Annesley for the toil of mind and body which he must have undergone in the construction of this immense undertaking-leaving the tremendous expenses out of the question. If they can so cheerfully vote away their thousands in the annual pension of those who make war-they surely might well expend a few hundreds in the encouragement of those whose labours will mitigate the miseries of warfare and the deleterious influence of climate, long after their bones are mouldered into dust.

We do not deem it necessary now to apologise for dwelling on those diseases which scourge our countrymen beneath a foreign and burning sky. Some of the greatest improvements in medicine have resulted from researches made in hot climates-and there is not a single fact observed, or a

* It will doubtless be said that some of the plates are too highly coloured. This may be true-and it is an objection to most coloured plates. But it should be remembered, that diseases run a rapid course in high temperatures, and that dissections are necessarily made there, in a few hours after death. 53

VOL. VIII. No. 16.

?

1

single disease investigated on the banks of the Ganges or the Mississippi, that does not bring its quota of utility to the practice of medicine in our own country.

After stating the excellent means which he possessed, for a great many years, in India, of acquiring and registering the most authentic information, Mr. Annesley remarks as follows:

"In India, the medical practitioner has every possible opportunity of investigating disease by post mortem examinations, and of connecting the symptoms and treatment with those morbid changes which take place in its course. To this subject the Author has always paid especial attention: but the great difficulty of describing morbid structures, and the impossibility of preserving the natural appearances in the way morbid preparations are usually made, led him to cause Drawings to be executed of the more interesting and remarkable changes produced upon the internal organs by the diseases he was called upon to treat. Circumstances placed in his power the means of accomplishing this object, and he fully availed himself of them. Post mortem examinations necessarily take place in warm climates soon after death, and before the capillary circulation in the internal organs has undergone that change which is experienced after a few hours, or before the blood has returned from the minute arteries into the venous trunks. Thus, the warmth of the climate has indirectly enabled him, it may be presumed, to give a more correct delineation of the appearance of diseased structure than could otherwise have been obtained. The knowledge unfolded by this circumstance induced him to follow up the indications to which it pointed; and as an early examination of the subject of disease after death appeared necessary to accurate ideas as to the more minute changes and finer shades of disorder, impressed upon the different internal viscera during life, it was never neglected when it could be practised with propriety."

This is a very important consideration, and tends to enhance the value of the work under review. We must pass over the preliminary discourse of our author, in which he dwells, with allowable earnestness, on the advantages which a long residence in India has conferred on himself—and points out, in no very measured language, the sources of error which may have operated, where the residence has been short, the scene of observation limited, or the constitutions of the patients of a peculiar description. All these things we are ready to grant to our experienced author; but we would just hint, from some 30 years close observation of men in all climates, that it is a comparatively rare occurrence to find any discovery or improvement in medicine result from mere length of experience. We refer Mr. A. to the history of our art generally-and to the medical history of tropical climates particularly, for the proofs of this position. Mr. A. regrets that few or none of the old and experienced practitioners of India have left us any records of their practice. If we look to the West, we shall see the same thing. Have any of the old residents of the Antilles left us any works to compare with those of Jackson and others, who were only a very few years in that unhealthy climate? In short, unless observations are made in the vigour of life, by medical men in hot climates, they will never be made at all! After a certain number of years, in hot as well as in cold climates, the current of zeal, in the minds of medical practitioners, is too often dried up or frozen up-and it is replaced either by a sharp look out for the " main chance"--or a settled resolution to take things easy