agents is bound up with the consideration how and in what way do they affect the bodily organs. The various and important reports which have within the last few years been submitted to parliament, have shown, for example, that of all the causes which are productive of diseases in towns, infinitely the most influential is the vitiated state of the atmosphere. Now, upon this subject the most erroneous conceptions are generally entertained. By those who have even paid some attention to the question, it is often thought that the air of towns is principally deteriorated by the grosser and more palpable contaminations arising from smoke. But it is of the first consequence to know that this, although doubtless in itself a great evil, is altogether subordinate as a cause of disease, when contrasted with those subtle invisible effluvia which proceed from decomposing animal and vegetable substances. It is this latter class of agents which constitute the potent sources of the dis eases which ravage constantly and unceasingly our manufacturing towns. It is so essential that this fact should be firmly impressed upon the public mind, that I will claim your attention for a few moments, in order to illustrate the subject of aërial agency in the production of disease. If we turn to what may be called the domestic history of the middle ages, we shall find that the various countries of Europe were periodically, and again, and again, depopulated by pestilential diseases, which, although variously denominated the plague, the black death, the sweating sickness, and so forth, were, in fact, only modifications, in the worst form, of that morbid affection comprehensively termed fever. To conceive of the frightful destructiveness of this enemy of the human race, it will suffice to turn to the instructive pages of professor Hecker's classical treatise on the "Epidemics of the Middle Ages." It is there recorded, that by the pestilence, called in the northern kingdoms of Europe the black death, and in Italy the great mortality, there perished, in the brief space of four or five years, in the east, exclusively of China, above twenty-four millions of people; and in the various European nations twenty-five millions, or onefourth part of the then existing population. By the drainage of swamps and marshes, by the felling of forests, by the construction of better dwellings, and of more open cities, by the introduction of sewers, and other less important ameliorations, the western nations have emancipated themselves from such fearful visitants; but the same class of diseases still prevail among us, and, according to the startling assertion of Mr. Chadwick, one of the most direful of the number, typhus, causes in England and Wales an annual slaughter, exceeding that of the allied armies on the field of Waterloo. What heart, that is not steeled against human sympathy, can contemplate such a battle fought, year by year, by our poorer fellow-countrymen, and fought only to be lost, without feelings of the deepest commiseration and sorrow? Fever, then, is the offspring of the aërial effluvia which result from decomposing animal, and especially vegetable matter; and having ascertained this, w.ich is the cardinal point of the whole inquiry, it will greatly facilitate our consideration of the causes leading to this atmospheric deterioration, such as imperfect or non-drainage, accumulation of filth, and other impurities on the surface, defective ventilation, etc., if the manner in which contaminated air acts upon the human body be briefly explained. The solution of this important question involves an acquaintance with the structure and functions of those organs upon which only atmospheric influences directly operate; namely, the lungs, and in a much less degree the skin. The lungs, in their totality, are more vascular organs than any other parts of the body; in fact, in a given time, they receive precisely the same amount of blood as the whole of the rest of the system. At every time that the heart beats, it sends, by one of its cavities, the right ventricle, into the lungs two ounces of blood; whilst by another of its cavities, the left ventricle, it drives into the body an equal quantity of the vital fluid. The heart beats, upon an average, about seventy-five times in a minute; so that in that period of time one hundred and fifty ounces of blood are propelled into the lungs; in the course of one hour, five hundred and sixty-two pounds; and in twenty-four hours, thirteen thousand, four hundred and eighty-eight pounds, or about twentyfour hogsheads. Such is the enormous amount of blood circulating incessantly through the pulmonary texture. The quantity of atmospheric air admitted by the windpipe is proportionally large: at each time that we inspire there enter into the lungs about twenty cubic inches | torrid zone, including Guinea, Benin, of air, and there being twenty respira- Gaboon, Loango, Congo, and Angola. tions in a minute, four hundred cubic This curious ape is decidedly the nearest inches of air enter in that time, fourteen in its external configuration to the human cubic feet per hour, and three hundred being, and among the lower animals is and sixty-six cubic feet, or thirty-six distinguished for cunning, intelligence, hogsheads per diem. and habits and manners, to judge even by individuals in captivity, denoting a more than ordinary degree of elevation in the scale of brute intellect. Now what, it may be asked, is the object of this vast amount of liquid and gaseous matter being sent to the lungs? It is, essentially, to purify the blood, by unloading it of carbonic acid. But it is also proper to state, what to nonprofessional persons is not known, that the lungs are most important organs of digestion; that is to say, receiving from the alimentary canal the crude nutritious fluid which has there been elaborated, they, by their action, convert it into pure arterial blood; and as this is the last of the digestive actions, so, at the same time, it probably is one of the most essential; and thus the lungs are, even in the alimentary process, only second in importance to the stomach itself. It is, then, upon structures thus highly organized, that from the very first moment of existence to the last act of life, the enormous quantity of air just described, is, without the least cessation, acting; a circumstance which is the clue to all that we hear about bad air, want of ventilation, of drainage, etc., and sufficient in itself to prove that, compared with the importance of the respiratory process, all the other functions of life, considered in a sanitory point of view, sink into insignificance.-R. D. Grainger. THE CHIMPANZEE. AMONG the more interesting animals which we have recently noticed in the gardens of the Zoological Society may be enumerated a female chimpanzee, apparently about two-thirds fully grown, and remarkable for docility. The chimpanzee, called, by some of our early travellers, as Andrew Battel and others, (see Purchas, his Pilgrims, 11.,) pongo,* is a native of Western Africa, to the extent of about twelve degrees north and south of the The term pongo, which ought, perhaps, in strictness, to apply to chimpanzee, is now given by naturalists to the great orang-outang of Borneo and Sumatra. The two animals were formerly confounded together. Pongo is evidently a Portuguese word, denoting a tailless ape. There is in Africa a river called Río Pongos, its name having been taken from the number of chimpanzees infesting its banks. If we except a passage relative to wild men, called gorilloi, in a work termed "Periplus Hannonis," the Greek translation of a narrative in Punic, of a voyage along the coasts of Africa, undertaken by a Carthaginian, named Hanno, it is not until recent times that the existence of such an animal was ascertained. The credit of calling the attention of the scientific world to the passage referred to is due to that learned zoologist, W. Ogilby, Esq., who moreover suggests that the term drill, applied now to a species of African boon found in the same districts as the chimpanzee, may be a mere corruption of the old African term gorilloi; and this is the more likely, as in some districts the term drill, or mandrill, is still applied to the latter animal. As the narrative to which Mr. Ogilby has adverted with so much acumen is little known, for the " Periplus Hannonis" is almost an unread work, we shall be excused from giving a summary of the details. A Carthaginian navigator, named Hanno, about the year 500 B. C., as is conjectured, set out upon a voyage of discovery, commerce, or colonization, from the city of Carthage. He coasted Western Africa, and in twelve days after passing Gades (isle of Cadiz) arrived at the island of Cerne, and thence, following the coast, after a passage of seventeen days more, he came to a promontory called the West Horn, and in three days more, skirting a burning shore, he arrived at a promontory termed the South Horn. Off the shore he found an island, inhabited by what were regarded as wild men, covered with long black hair, who, on the approach of the mariners, fled to the mountains, and defended themselves with stones. These so-called wild men, the interpreters stated, were named gorilloi. It was found impossible to capture any of the males, but three females fell into the hands of the adventurers; with such desperation, however, did these wild creatures fight, biting and tearing, that the men were obliged to despatch them. Hanno carried their skins to Carthage, and hung them up in one of the temples, as consecrated tro- | tropical Western Africa, in whose narraphies of his expedition. We will not tives accounts evidently referring to the pretend to determine the capes indicated chimpanzee are to be found, though more under the names of the West Horn and or less mixed up with details which the the South Horn, nor what was the burn- most credulous might hesitate to believe, ing shore skirted by the Carthaginian are Andrew Battel, Dapper, Jobson, vessel, yet we think that there can be no Bosman, etc. (Purchas, his Pilgrims.) mistake respecting the wild men called gorilloi, covered with long black hair, the appearance and ferocity of which evidently made an impression on Hanno. We have now a long hiatus of time, during which the intertropical regions of Western Africa were utterly unknown; indeed the whole of the western coast of Africa south of cape Nun, and the whole of its vast interior, were as unknown to the nations of Europe in the middle ages, as if Africa had not existed. It was in the reign of John 1. of Portugal, that a few Portuguese vessels (A.D. 1412-1417) ventured to coast Western Africa, double Cape Nun, or Non, and proceed as far as Cape Bogador, whence, elated with their exploit, the mariners returned to Portugal. In 1418 Porto Santo was discovered, and in 1419 the adjacent island of Madeira. In 1423 Cape Bogador was doubled, the Portuguese advanced within the tropics, and shortly the coast from Cape Blanco to Cape de Verd explored. În 1449 the Cape de Verd islands were discovered, and soon afterwards the Azores. In 1471 the Portuguese (Alphonzo being king) ventured to cross the line. In 1484 the countries of Congo and Loango were discovered, and in 1493 Bartholomew Diaz doubled the Cape of Good Hope, which, from the tempestuous weather there encountered, he had called the Cape of Storms (Cabo tormentoso.) Though obliged by the tempests and the turbulence of his men to return to Portugal, he may be said to have demonstrated the long denied route to India. This occurred in the reign of John 11., son of Alphonso. In 1497 Vasco de Gama doubled the Cape on his way to the Indian seas. From this time the western coast of Africa became more and more visited, settlements were established, and the productions of these countries imported to Europe. At the same period, India, and the great islands, Sumatra, Borneo, and Java, were visited; and hence it was, most probably, that the chimpanzee of Africa, and the Sumatran, or the Bornean orang, as they became known about the same time, were confounded together. Among the earlier voyagers to inter Andrew Battel, a sailor, lived many years at Congo, having been taken prisoner in 1589. According to his account, two animals of the ape tribe are to be found there; one he calls the pongo, the other the enjeco. The former, he says, was as high as a man, with sunken eyes, long hairs on the sides of the head, and the face and ears naked. The animal walked upright, but the limbs had no calves, and in walking it generally clasped on the hinder part of the neck. In its disposition it is grave and melancholy, and even when young far from frolicsome. At the same time it is active and swift, and possessed of such muscular power, that the strength of ten men is insufficient to hold one of them. He further states, that these pongos are in the habit of constructing arbours among the branches of the trees in which they sleep. Fruits and nuts form their only subsistence; and upon the death of one of a company, the survivors cover the body with leaves and branches. Sometimes these animals have been known to carry away young negroes, and in the neighbourhood of Angola they have been observed to crowd around the remains of fires lit for the purpose of keeping off the ferocious wild beasts, by those who travelled through the forests, and when the last embers expired, to retreat into the woods. This pongo is doubtless the chimpanzee, and is, we believe, identical with the enjeco, for, be it observed, the stature attributed, upon hearsay, most probably, to the pongo, is greatly exaggerated. Bowditch, indeed, (see his "Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee," London, 1819,) expressly states, that at Gaboon, where it is not rare, the chimpanzee is known to the natives under the names of inchego and ingeno, evidently the same as Battel's enjeco. Mr. Bowditch, on the authority of the natives of Gaboon, whose accounts are coloured by fear and ignorance, states, that when adult, the chimpanzee (male) attains often to the height of five feet, with great breadth of shoulders, and paws of frightful magnitude. fatal; they are commonly seen lurking in the bush, by those who travel to Kalee, One blow is and are supposed to be on the watch for an opportunity of attacking and destroying unwary passengers. (Very doubtful.) Their food consists, in a great measure, of wild honey. It is reported also that they are so senseless, as to sacrifice themselves by carrying about burdens of wood or elephants' teeth, in imitation of men, till they sink exhausted by their labour. (A most improbable story.) Mr. Bowditch describes a half-grown individual, which he saw at Gaboon in a state of captivity. It had much resemblance to a very old negro, was obedient to the voice of its master, and evinced great agony at the sight of a panther. To return to the older travellers. Dap-| per, in his Description of Africa, 1686, calls the chimpanzee baris, and quojas❘ morron. "There is a certain species called baris, which is taken while young, and, when brought up and tamed, is almost as useful as a slave."-p. 249. “A sort of satyr is found in the woods, which the negroes call quojas morron, and the Portuguese, salvage. They have the head large, the body thick and heavy, and the arms nervous." In Barbot's Guinea, the chimpanzee is called barrys, and quojas morron; and Pyrard, (Voyage, etc. Paris, 1619,) relates that, in the province of Sierra Leone, a species of ape is found, called baris, of stout and muscular frame, and so industrious by nature, that, when an individual is taken young and educated, it may be made to work. These animals, he adds, generally walk on the hind limbs only; they may be taught to pound in a mortar, and to take vessels to the river for water, which they will bring back full; but as soon as they arrive at home the vessels must be taken from them, for otherwise they will let them fall, and, on seeing the fragments, commence a lamentation. Other old travellers, as Le Pere du Jarrie and Schoutten, say the same; and Le Guat even speaks in terms as extravagant, and with far less colouring of truth, of the Indian orang; in ignorance, however, that any difference existed between the animals. Another old voyager, Froyer, (see "Relation du Voyage de Gennes,") appears to have met with the chimpanzee on the shores of the river Gambia, where, as he states, are to be found apes of greater size, and more mischievous than in any other place of Africa. The negroes are in dread of them, and cannot go alone into the wild country, without running the risk of being attacked by these animals, which present them with a stick and oblige them to fight. (Most chivalrous apes!) Often have they been seen to carry children of seven or eight years old up the tree, and it has required the most arduous exertions to recover them. The negroes have an opinion that these animals are a race of rational beings, which have invaded their country, and forbear to use any language, lest (judging from old experience) they should be enslaved and made to work! Bosman (see "A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, etc., written originally in Dutch, and now faithfully done into English," London, 1721,) calls these animals by the name of "Smitten." He moreover affirms, that they attacked and destroyed such negroes as they chanced to encounter in the woods, carried off the women, pelted with stones those who disturbed them in their fastnesses, and even drove away the herds of elephants, either with sticks, or rapid attacks with their giant fists alone. He states as a fact, that, on one occasion, a number of them attacked and overpowered two slaves, and were in the act of poking out their eyes, when a party of negroes arrived to their rescue. M. DISCOVERY OF QUICKSILVER. A CONSIDERABLE mine of quicksilver at Idria, in Austria, near the gulf of Verona, was discovered in rather a curious manner. A few coopers of that place, having made a new tub, and being desirous to prove its soundness, one of them placed it where the water dripping from the rock might fall into it. In the morning it seemed to stick to the ground, and at first he superstitiously thought it was bewitched, but upon more closely examining it, he found something fluid, but shining and very heavy, at the bottom of the water in his tub. Not knowing what it was, he took some of it to an apothecary, who gave him a trifle, and told him to bring all the odd stuff of that kind that he could discover. The matter, however, soon became public, and a company was formed for working the mine. A traveller gives the following interesting description of a descent into this mine:"I thought I would visit those dreadful subterranean caverns where thousands are condemned to reside, shut out from all hope of ever seeing the light of the sun, and obliged to toil out a miserable life under the whip of imperious taskmasters. Imagine a hole in the side of a mountain, about five yards over. Down this you are lowered, in a kind of basket, to more than a hundred fathoms, the prospect growing more gloomy, yet still widening as you descend. At length, often poising in terrible suspense for some time in this precarious situation, you reach the bottom, and tread on the ground, which, by its hollow sound under your feet, and the reverberation of the echo, seems thundering at every step you take. In this gloomy and frightful solitude you are enlightened by the feeble gleam of lamps here and there dispersed, so that the wretched inhabitants can go from one place to another without a guide; yet I could scarcely discern for some time anything, not even the person who came to show me this scene of horror. Nothing can be more deplorable than the state of the wretched miners. The blackness of their visages only serves to cover a horrid paleness caused by the poisonous quality of the mineral they are employed in procuring. As they consist in general of malefactors condemned for life to this task, they are fed at the public expense, but they seldom consume much provision, as they lose their appetite in a short time, and commonly, in about two years, expire, from a total contraction of the joints. "I walked after my guide for some time, pondering on the miserable end these unhappy creatures had brought themselves to by their crimes, when, had they lived virtuous lives, they might have been still enjoying the blessings of light, health, and freedom. At this moment I was accosted by a voice behind me calling me by my name. I turned, and saw a creature, black and hideous, who approached, and, with a piteous accent, said, 'Do you not know me?' What was my surprise to discover the features of a dear friend! He had fought a duel with an officer, against the emperor's command, and left him for dead, and he had been punished by banishment for life, to labour in these mines. His wife was the daughter of a high family in Germany. Being unable to procure her husband's pardon, she affectionately shared his bondage with him. It is proper to add, that the officer did not die. When he recovered from his wounds, he generously solicited pardon for his antagonist, and obtained it, so that in a few months the duelist was restored to the happiness he had justly forfeited by wilfully transgressing the commands of God and his sovereign."-Rev. J. Taylor. REDEMPTION FROM THE POWER OF SIN. Ir must be evident to the thoughtful mind, that, if all that was done for man, alienated as he is from God by a depraved heart, was merely a deliverance from the condemnation of the law, that would not secure his happiness. If his nature remains unchanged; if all his evil dispositions are unchecked; there will be à repetition of former sins, and consequently a falling again into condemnation. must, therefore, be brought under a Divine influence, by which the soul's affections shall be turned off from sin, and its former power over him be controlled and ultimately destroyed. He must not only be justified, but sanctified too. Man In the gospel of Christ a provision is made to effect this sanctification, in the accomplishment of which the Holy Spirit is the agent. He redeems us from the power of sin, as Christ has done from the curse thereof; the one has wrought a work for us, the other works a work in us. Now the gospel, better than the law, leads men to the obedience of the truth. That, with its gentle appeals, its melting tenderness, has a more mighty influence than this, with its startling thunders and terrific threats. Hence the apostle Paul, writing to the Romans, says, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," which evidently means the gospel, "hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," viii. ch. 2-4. By the assistance of this Divine Agent, the Christian, who is the subject of his grace, is enabled to die unto sin, and live unto holiness; obeying the sacred injunction, "Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God," Rom. vi. 13. Being under grace the spirit is childlike and free, and duties are cheerfully performed; the very opposite to what would have been the case under the law. That |