ticks. The lymph abforbed by the lymphaticks may be fuppofed to be particularly ufeful (though at prefent we do not know its ufe). Mr. Cruikshank fufpects that this fluid is in part the coagulable lymph of the blood. This fluid is certainly different from that exhaled on the furfaces of the body; this coagulating from extravafation, or from reft in the dead body. Thus it may be obferved, that the blood forced by the heart and arteries to the fmalleft arteries on the furface of the body, part of it enters the fmalleft capillary veins, whilft other parts are fecreted into the cellular membrane, and other parts are exhaled by the pores of the skin. The influence of the heart and arteries having performed their office, another power is neceffary to return the blood through the veins to the heart. This is the preffure of the atmosphere, together with the contractile power of the veffels themselves. N O T E. dif The preffure of the atmosphere, as has been obferved, is more than 3000lb weight, and muft have great influence in forcing the blood from the fmall veins into the larger, and fo on to the vena cava; this is rendered more eafy as it meets with no refiftance, but, on the contrary, there is a kind of attraction, as the larger veins into which they enter are nearer the centre, and contain more heat. When they arrive at the vena cava, the blood, together with a fresh addition of chyle, is thrown into the heart and lungs, to undergo the fame circulation as before. feem at prefent not to be perfectly underftod. It feems to appear that, when we drink more than is neceffary for the fupport of our body, and fafter than it can be carried off by perfpiration, it is fecreted on the cellular membrane, and carried by that membrane, to the ureters and kidneys, where it is readily and plentifully charged. This appears to be the quick and eafy method Nature makes ule of when a large quantity of liquids are drunk. That the cellular membrane acts in this manner feems to be confirmed by fcarifications on the legs of dropfical perfons; thofe fcarifications need to be no deeper than just through the fkin, to reach the cellular membrane, by which means a drain or outlet for the water is made; and, as the water runs off from the parts near the fcarifications, thefe voids continue to be immediately filled again by other water near them. This appears to be the cafe if you rub the arms, legs, &c. with oil of turpentine; as foon as its volatile parts enter the cellular membrance, it is carried, with the liquid contained therein, to the kidneys and bladder, and gives a violet fmell to the urine. Genius not the work of Education. N almoft every country in Europe, except England, the inhabitants are confined, by fome barrier or other, to the fituation in which they are born. The total want of education neceffarily obliges the greater part to gain their livelihood by bodily labour." National opinions prevent others from ever rifing above the level of their birth, however fublime their genius, or however fublime their acquired knowledge. But in our island the door of fcience, and confequently the road of ambition, is open to almost every individual. Even in the moft remote villages fome degree of education is beftowed on the pooreft inhabitants. : This may be of little or no importance to ninety-nine in a hundred: and of the fmall number who, by improving this pittance of knowledge, raife themfelves above the ftate in which they were born, very few arrive at any degree of eminence the reafon of which is, that great genius is a quality very fparingly dealt out to mankind. Though it must be allowed, that much the greater part of the inhabitants of the fame country and climate are born with nearly the fame natural abilities; and that the degrees of education, and other opportunities of improvement, gradually form all the difference which appears among them in after-life; yet I cannot, with Helvetius, believe that genius is entirely the work of education. . in every ftation of a finer organization, nobility; and as it is not the custom with an infinitely greater aptitude for for any gentleman to walk in the fcience of every kind, and whofe minds ftreets, at leaft one thousand carriages They are faid to be kept in the town. are capable of a more fublime and exare for the moft part in the English tenfive range of thought, than is attainable by the common run of man- tafte, very elegant, and fhewn to the kind with any poffible degree of cul- greateft advantage, with beautiful horThis natural fuperiority is what fes richly caparifoned, and I call genius. Wherever a confidera- footmen in fplendid liveries as can be ble fhare of this is lodged, a little culti- crowded together behind. Every evenvation will be fufficient, but fome is ing all the people of rank drive about abfolutely requifite to make it ap- in this manner on the grand public terrace by the fea-fide. There are alfo very convenient hackney-coaches, covered and open, waiting all day in their refpective stations.. ture. pear. When it does exift in the minds of peasants in Kuflia, Poland, and fome parts of Germany, it remains dormant from neglect, or is fmothered by oppreffion. But in Great Britain, the degree of education which is now univerfal, fmall as it is, will be fufficient to roufe, animate, and bring into action the fire of extraordinary genius,, the feeds of which impartial nature is as apt to place in the infant breaft of a peafant, as of a prince. The chance of great and diftinguifhed men fpringing up in a country, is therefore not to be calculated by the number of inhabitants, but by the number whofe minds receive that degree of cultivation neceffary to call forth their latent powers. On the fuppofition, that one kingdom contains eight millions of inhabitants, and another triple the number, many more men of original genius, and great eminence in every art and fcience, may, from the circumftances above mentioned, be expected to appear in the firft than in the fecond. In Great Britain, for example, almoft all the natives may be included in the calculation; but in the other countries which I have mentioned, the peafantry, who form the moft numerous clafs, must be ftruck out. An Account of the Cuftoms and Manners Hill as many The language fpoken here, and throughout Sicily, is Italian, nearly in the Neapolitan dialect, but in general better than at Naples. The cuftom alfo of mixing much gefture in their dilcourfe, efpecially with the head, fingers, or both, and more particularly when they are difpuing and quarrelling, is equally prevalent throughout Sicily as it is in Italy. The number of taylors here is prodigious: the drefs of the gentlemen is quite a l'Angloife, with frocks, round hats, and clubbed hair, the modern fashion of cropping all round having not yet reached Palermo. The drefs of the women of quality is nearly the fame as in England and France; but their cuftoms and manners are quite of a piece with their Italian neighbours. The crime of adultery is fo common, that no Dama of rank is thought worfe of for being guilty of it. The etiquette of the country is excellently well calculated to facilitate this kind of intercourfe; it being reckoned ungenteel for any lady of diftinction to be feen in public with her own hufband, or without her admirer or cicifbeo, who alfo conftantly attends her when the goes out in her carriage, either by night or day. Another thing which tends not a lit tle to promote this fort of commerce, is the ftrefs laid by the priests (in order to keep up the authority of the church) on breaches of human traditions, and men's inventions, fuch as electing an non-attendance aye-maria, or mediately against the pofitive and revealed law of God. Thus by ftraining at gnats, little or no difficulty is made in fwallowing camels. And it is well it the great frequency of murders and afiaflinations, particularly at Naples and Rome*, may not in fome mealure be owing to the fame caufe, though the want of police and energy in the laws, and the commutation of punishment for money, as well as making the churches an afylum for murderers, may be the principal reafons for fo many horrible butcherings in cool While we were at Rome, the following curious converfation took place between my brother and his Lacquais de Place. Sir R. H. Francefco, have there been any perfons ftabbed to-day? Francefco. Certainly fome, but not fo many as in the holidays of the laft week, or as there will be on Sunday. Sir R. H. Why fo? Franceico. Becaufe to day is not a feftival, and the ufual time for ftabbing is, when quarrels arife among the people who are affembled to make merry, and drink together. But as facts are beyond affertions, I fhall here mention a few inftances of what happened in our own knowledge, during the time we were at Rome and Naples. A few days before our arrival at the latter place, a man's body was found in the itreet without a head, and I believe it was never known who was the murderer, or the perfon murdered. Indeed it is most likely no enquiry was N 0 T E. During the laft holy week at this place, full forty perfons were fent reeking into eternity by the knife and filetto. ever made. The day after we came thither, Chriftmas-day, two young women, fifters, were both ftabbed in coming from mafs, about fix o'clock in the morning. The one died on the spot, the other languifhed in great agonies for a day or two, and then expired. This deed was done by a failor in a fit of jealoufy. n d Not long after this, we faw a poor fellow weltering in his blood, at the Crocelle door, a houfe where feveral English families of diftinction lodged. He had been juft ftabbed by another who had a flight quarrel with him a day or two before, and who, as foon as he had wreaked the revenge, fled to a neighbouring church for refuge. A few days before we left Rome, an English gentleman's coachman happening to have fome words with one of the undercooks of the hotel, while the carriage was waiting at the door, the fellow into the kitchen for his great knife, inftantly flashed him across the belly, o that his bowels came out; after ch he wiped the bloody weapon with his apron, and went into the house. The coachman, who was an Italian, was carried to the hofpital, but expired the next day. We were told that he had been ftabbed on different occafions at leaft thirty times before. The affaffin, by the activity of the Englith gentlemen who lodged at the hotel, was apprehended and committed to prifon, but fo long as he could raife any money, would probably efcape the punishment due to his crime. 17 On the peculiar Qualities of the Sexes. SOCRATES has given his opinion, that " women are as capable of attaining any art or fcience, of being every way as virtuous, and even as brave and valiant as the men." I will not difpute the juftnefs of this obfervation, but I think their prefent amiable qualities and perfections would be very ill exchanged, for thofe which would bring them to a nearer fimilitude and affinity with our own. There is nothing more obfervable than that the fame qualities, are extremely decent and ornamental in one fex, are very mifbecoming and reproachfu! |