CALCUTTA JOURNAL

NATURAL HISTORY:

AND

Miitscellany

OF THE

ARTS AND SCIENCES
tn nota.

CONDUCTED BY
Joun M‘Cretranp, F.LS., G.S., Bengal Med. Service—R. Wieut, M.D.,

F.LS., Surgeon, Madras Med. Service.—Grorcr Garpn_ER, Ksa.,, F.LS., x tot

Superintendent Royal Botanical Garden, Ceylon—Joun Macrnenson, M.D.,
Bengal Medical Service, General Hospital, Calcutta.

BISHOP’S COLLEGE PRESS..

M,DCCC, XLVI.

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Sixth Volume of the Calcutta Journal of Natural History.

DEDICATED RESPECTFULLY TO

THE GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL.

Contributors.

W. H. BENSON, ESQ., Bengal Civil Service.
CAPTAIN CAMPBELL, 2lst Madras N. I.

GEORGE GARDNER, ESQ., F.L.S., Superin/endent Royal
Botanic Garden, Ceylon.

CAPTAIN T. HUTTON, F.G.S., Bengal Service.

J. MACLEOD, ESQ., M.D., Inspector General, Madras
Service.

J. MACPHERSON, ESQ., M.D., Bengal Service.

F, MOUVAT, ESQ., M.D., H. M. 15th Hussars.

CAPT. LATTER, Bengal Service. |

R. WIGHT, ESQ., M.D., F.L.S., Madras Med. Service.

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PREFACE TO THE SIXTH VOLUME.

Tue heavy loss which the scientific world in general, more
particularly the Indian portion of it, and in an especial
manner the supporters of this Journal, experienced since
our last annual preface was written, so paralysed our efforts,
that at first we saw no alternative but to discontinue the work.

The very prompt and kind assistance, particularly of Dr.
Wight and Mr. Gardner, in the department in which the
death of Mr. Griffith had left so great a blank, ultimately
-determined us, with the aid of other friends, to continue the
work, at least for the present.

It was announced in a notice prefixed to the 23rd number,
that the Government had permitted the appearance of our
late friend’s papers in our pages, preparatory to their being
transmitted to England, and authorised, in the most liberal
manner, the necessary assistance for the execution of the
plates connected with the Botanical portion of his labours.

The Government however on becoming further acquainted
with the nature and extent of the papers in question, the
difficulty of transcribing them accurately, as a precaution
against accidents by sea, such as befell the similar papers and
collections of the late Dr. Jack, will probably be disposed to

sanction a preliminary publication of the whole in a separate

v1

form, which will have the effect of securing these invaluable
records from all risk, and of rendering them at once available
to the scientific interests of the country. The question as to
how they are to appear being at present undecided, (though
the work is progressing) we only allude to it in this place with
reference to the notice above adverted to.

The discontinuance of the ‘Indian Journal of Medical
Science,” may be expected in some degree to direct towards our
pages, communications of a professional character connected
with Medicine. To these they have always been open, par-
ticularly such as relate to improvements in anatomy, physi-
ology, chemistry, and materia medica. The only difference
now contemplated is, that such subjects will be conducted by
a distinct Editor, as far as possible, without interfering with
the original character and objects of the work, except in the.
shape of a very marked improvement to its general interest

and utility.

NOTICE.

ee

On receipt of the melancholy intelligence of
the death of our late lamented colleague, Mr.
Griffith, on the 8th of March, one month after
the sad event took place, the first thing deci-
ded on was to relinquish the present work, in
the object and support of which he had so large
a share. Since then, the generous and kind
encouragement received from Dr. R. Wight,
Superintending Surgeon, Madras Service, (dis-
tinguished no less by the extent and value of
his botanical works, than the independent means
and exertions with which they have been ac-
complished) Mr. Gardner Superintendent of
the Royal Botanical Garden Ceylon, and Mr.
Jameson Superintendent of the Botanic Gar-
dens, N. W. Provinces, Capt. Hutton, and other
scientific friends interested in the progress of
the work, particularly Dr. J. Macpherson of
Howrah, and Mr. A. Robertson of the Medical
College, induces the editor to venture on its
continuance. Engagements however trifling,
directed with a view to improved knowledge,
should be conducted without regard to friend-

ll

ships ; and the loss sustained by the premature
death of an ardent genius, and eminent votary
of science, however paralysing and_ painful,
should rather induce us to redouble our exer-
tions, if not with the hope of repairing the
loss, at least with the view of lessening its
effects, as far as the circumstances of the case
may admit of.

=

Extract of a letter from Dr. Wicut, dated Coimbatore 6th March,
1845.

“TI send along with this a little paper the joint production of
Mr. Gardner and myself as commencement of a quarterly series of
Botanical Papers from one or both of us. The modest labours of Mr.
Griffith has placed your Journal in the first ranks of Botanical
Periodicals. I do not anticipate that we shall be able to maintain
that high tone but still, we are anxious to do what we can towards
placing Indian Botany as nearly as we are able on a par with English,
as exhibited in the only purely Botanical Journal published at home.
Should we fail in this, I trust we will still be able to satisfy Euro-
pean Botanists that the Calcutta Journal of Natural History is the
proper source to which all must apply who wish to be informed
regarding the progress of Botanical Science in India.

Calcutta,
15th April, 1845.

NOTICE.

We have the pleasure to announce to our

Readers, that we have received permission to
print, in connection with this Journal, such
portions of the Griffith MSS. as may be
thought necessary to secure the priority of the
Author in his Botanical researches.
_ To facilitate this object, the Government of
Bengal has afforded the aid of the Lithographic
Press, together with a portion of the establish-
ment of native painters, &c. at the Botanic
Garden, for the execution of the plates. This
act of liberality has removed every obstacle to
the proper appearance in due course of Mr.
G.’s researches in the state in which they were
left by him at the period of his death.

They will appear as supplementary numbers,
as nearly as possible, at quarterly intervals, until

the whole be published. The plates, an im-

i
portant portion of the work, will be printed in
a separate quarto form to appear in fasciculi
with the letter press.

Those Subscribers to the Journal who do
not desire to receive such supplementary num-
bers, are requested to intimate the same to
the Editors.

THE
CALCUTTA JOURNAL

OF

NATURAL HISTORY.

The Natural History, the Diseases, the Medical Practice,
and the Materia Medica of the Aborigines of Brazil, by
Dr. Von Martius. Translated by Joun Macrurrson,
Ese., Assistant Surgeon.

Part I.—Natural History of the Aborigines of Brazil.
INTRODUCTION.

Although many travellers have written accounts of the
physical constitution of the aboriginal American, and of the
diseases dependent on tt, yet the subject does not appear by
any means to be exhausted. Indeed, it requires the critical
attention of philosophical enquirers on that very account, for
many erroneous views have been given forth, and been handed
down traditionally from the time of the first discovery of
the new world. It was in the spirit of that century, and it
was the interest of those discoverers, to represent many
things in the physical constitution of the inhabitants of the
newly-found continent as strange and wonderful, and differing
from the type of mankind previously known.

To this we may add, that the earliest describers of the
new world, chiefly Spaniards and Portuguese, wrote ac-

VOL. VI. NO. XXI. APRIL, 1845. B

2 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

cording to the prejudices and prevailing opinions of their
own country, and that they entertained no enlightened an-
thropological views regarding even the white races. The
literature of the rest of Europe, being equally under the
dominion of the doctrines of the middle ages, readily and
without any critical examination adopted their representa-
tions, which were either one-sided, or inaccurate in details,
and in consequence, they pretty generally maintain their
ground up to the present day. We may quote as a striking
example of the strange accounts of many points in the Na-
tural History of the American man, the book of DePauw,*
whose views, proceeding from his love of every thing strange
and unusual, are not even yet quite exploded, although
many other equally false pictures have, by this time, had
their exaggerations detected.

As the spirit in which such enquiries are in these times
conducted, is very different, it may be of some importance
to give a true anthropological sketch of the Brazilian abori-
gines, especially as other nations of the American family
have been described by Von Humboldt, Rush, Morton,
D’Orbigny and others, with enlightened and unprejudiced
views. Such an investigation also acquires additional interest
from the fact, that the aborigines are being gradually drawn
more and more into the vortex of social and civil movement,
out of which an altered and new population of the Brazilian
kingdom must arise; that in this movement they lose more
and more their original peculiarities, and at last,—such ap-
pears to be the law of the world,—will cease to exist at all,
as an independent member of the family of mankind. Every
sketch, therefore, which represents the physical condition of
the aborigines of Brazil at a particular epoch, must be re-
garded as an attempt to fix historically for that period, a
race fast hastening to dissolution.

* Philosophische untersuchungen uber die Americaner. Berlin, 1769.

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 3

The Indian population of the large Brazilian empire dis-
plays a distinct individual character in all its physical peculi-
arities. ‘To examine how far this marked character of the
Brazilian aborigines recurs or varies in the other parts of the
American continent, in short, in how far it is to be consider-
ed a more or less extensive type of the human family, is
foreign to my present purpose to enquire; yet unprejudiced
observation leads to the impression, that the red man, as he
is found, here in the aborginal forests, there in the bound-
less plains of Brazil, is in all essential respects the same, and
appears every where as part of one and the same race.
Although I have seen him over a great extent of country,
from the tropic of Capricorn to the line, from the eastern
sea-coast to the boundaries of Peru and Popayan, under very
various circumstances and in many different stages of social
development, yet I everywhere recognised the most striking
characteristics in stature, proportion of limbs, countenance,
color, and hair. I must not, however, be understood to say,
that the variety in the lineaments of the face, which we are
accustomed to observe among civilized nations, was in any
degree wanting in him. True it is, that my companion Von
Spix and myself, when we found ourselves among the Indians,
thought at first that we could not recognise these marked
differences ; but this solely arose from our not being accus-
tomed to the striking novelty of their whole appearance, and
has been the case with many other travellers in the com-
mencement of their journies. After we had got over our
first impressions, and were able to observe details, we satis-
fied ourselves, that the individual phystognomies of the
Indians are as varied and as distinctly marked, as those
of any other people equally low in moral, social, and in-
tellectual development. It is but natural, that the want of
varied occupations, and the absence of the different emo-
tions and feelings, which influence civilized man, should tell
on the mirror of the soul, the countenance, and deprive it of

4 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

the nicer shades of expression. But this is also the case with
the negro, who has had an unvarying and unindividualised
countenance erroneously attributed to him by some authors.

The same is equally true of their stature, of the colour
of their skin, and of their beard; those characteristics ap-
pear in great variety, and are by no means bestowed so
uniformly on all, that one could say that nature had formed
them strictly after one model. We see Indians in Brazil,
large and small, slender and broad, copper-red, pale-yellow,
nay almost white, with very weak, or, if they do not con-
stantly extirpate them, tolerably strong beards, so that of
all the physical peculiarities attributed to this race, the hair
of the head smooth, straight, black and shining, growing
down low on the forehead, and the beard rare, and always
soft, alone remain constant. (I have never observed hair
frizzly, brown, red, or blonde, nor a frizzly beard.) This cir-
cumstance must convince us, that the characteristics of the
Brazilian are not to be found in any exclusive mark, any
more than are those of other branches of the human family.
The races of men are indeed in the same condition in this
respect as the so-named natural families in the vegetable
world, which modern science endeavours to describe and to
fix, not by a few exclusive marks, but by a union-of several
characteristics, a collective character.

While, however, it is not any one prominent characteristic,
while it is the aggregate of all physical peculiarities, that
impresses us with the idea, that the aborigines of Brazil, and
of America in general, are a peculiar and independent race,
yet his first glance satisfies the mind of the traveller on the
subject, when he beholds the son of the wilderness in a
state of freedom standing naked in his wastes. The im-
pressions of so novel an apparition are then presented so
immediately to our observation, that our awakened attention
quickly embraces all its characteristics, and unites them
into a picture, the colouring of which no space of time can

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 5

efface in the mind of the observer. Thus, even to this day,
after the lapse of many years, the picture of my fisrt meeting
with the Brazilian savage remains fresh in my imagination,
and I find, that the sketches, which my deceased companion
Von Spix and myself drew, under the influence of our first
impressions, are the best calculated to give a correct view
of his physical constitution.* I mean, therefore, to insert
here the most important parts of our description of them,
but must remark, that the Coroados, whom we first met, are,
comparatively speaking, a weak persecuted race, and that
the description of the Indians given in that part of our
travels (vol. i. p. 375), cannot be regarded as a favourable

one.

General View of the Physical Constitution of the Brazilian
Aborigines.

The Brazilian savages are on the whole, as compared
with Europeans, of smaller or more middling stature. The
men are four feet ten inches to five feet five inches, the
women four feet three inches to four feet ten inches in
height. They are all of a strong, broad, and compact make.
This stature is generally pretty uniform in a tribe; we rarely
observe one or two individuals more than half a head taller
than their comrades. On the whole, they appear to the
eye of an European taller than they really are, owing to
their going naked. The head is proportionally large, the
trunk muscular. The neck short and strong, the chest arched
and fleshy. The women’s breasts firm and not so pendulous
as those of negresses, the belly well arched and prominent,

* It is now, we believe, more than 20 years since Von Martius left Brazil. Some
rather vague and general description in this paper may be fairly attributed to the
length of time that has elapsed since his visit. Still, besides the interest which it
possesses of its own, this sketch may furnish many useful hints to parties having
the opportunity or the inclination to describe any of the tribes of India, for instance,
the Hill, (may we say the aboriginal?) races. The translator has here and there
added a few notes, chiefly on points of obvious analogy.—T77,

6 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

with a large navel: the male organs much smaller than in
any other race, and not like those of the negro in a state of
persistent turgescence. The extremities short, and the
lower ones, especially, any thing but full, for the calves and
the buttocks are flat, while the shoulders and arms are
round and muscular. Hands and feet small. The former
almost always cold, with comparatively thin fingers and very
short nails, which they generally pare close. The foot
narrow behind, very broad in front, the great toe standing
wide apart from the others;* corresponding to the width
of chest, the middle of the face and the prominent cheek-
bones are distinguished for their breadth. The forehead
low, rough on its surface from the prominence of the
frontal sinuses, above narrow and retiring, with the hair
growing down very low. The back of the head does not
hang nearly so far back as in the negro,{+ whose skull is
altogether narrower and more oblong. Countenance broad
and angular, not so prominent as that of the negro, but more
so than that of Kalmucks and Europeans. Ears small, neat,
slightly turned outwards. Eyes small, black or blackish-
brown, placed sideways, with the inner corner directed
towards the nose, protected by eye-brows highly arched in
their centre ; nose short, very slightly depressed above, flat-
tish below; nostrils wide, turned a little outwards; the
lips not nearly so large as in a negro, if either, the upper
one projecting a little, or both alike; mouth small, and more
closed than in thenegro. Teeth very white ; the incisors broad
and regular, the eye teeth prominent. Chin short and

* This is always the case with people who go bare-footed: savages never
turn their toes out in the degree in which civilized nations do. Catlin records,
that in taking a long journey over the prairies on foot, he got over the ground
much better by imitating the Indians, and turning his feet in.—Catlin, vol. i., p.
219.—Tr.

+ It is only the prominence of the upper jaws that gives this appearance to the
negro skull.— 77,

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 7

rounded off.* The colour of the skin is more or less red-
dish like burnished copper,} varying according to the age, the
occupation, state of health, and race of the individual. New-
born children are almost white, or yellowish-white, like
Mulattos ; people when they are sick, have a brownish yel-
low colour. On the whole they are darker, the stronger and
more active they are. The sun and the smoke of their huts
may also contribute to make the skin a little darker. But
such shades, depending on transient causes, are not perma-
nent. On the inside of the flexures of the joints, the skin
is lighter. ‘The wild Indian can hardly be said to blush from
shame, though he blushes from indignation. In fine, his
skin is delicate, soft, shining, and, when exposed to the sun,
much disposed to sweat; the sweat has a peculiar urino-
scabiose smell,{ but is not so rank as that of the negro.§

* The following remarks on the skin apply pretty generally to the natives of
India, save as to the shade of colour.— TZ’.

t+ I can give no better designation for the colour of the American than this, yet
it varies in shade from a brownish-yellow even to a light-white, almost equalling
the tint of the European. The young cells and céll-granules of the inner layer of
the epidermis lying on the cutis, according as they contain more or less pigment,
determine the colour of the skin. This layer is known by the name of the rete
Malpighii. In the white races of men, this granular coloured layer is only to be
plainly observed in particular spots, for instance the nipples, but it is more clearly
recognisable in all parts of the body in Americans and negroes. Yet even the
existence of this layer in Europeans is still a matter of dispute among anatomists.
Flourens maintains that the skin of the American, as well as that of the negro and
Mulatto, is differently constituted from that of the European; for he attributes to
those races a fine pigmentary apparatus of two layers between the cutis and the
two layers of the epidermis (which is wanting in the European.) German anatomists
do not assume any such complexity, and consider the pigment-layers, the product
of the papillz of the cutis, as only a part of the inner, younger, and not yet firm
layer of the epidermis, distinguished by a greater deposit of pigment. [General rea-
sons are against M. Flourens’ doctrine: for in the infinite variety of shade in the
gradation from a coloured man to a white one, it is impossible to draw any line,
which should define where these two layers cease to exist.— 77. ]

ft Urinos-scabios: if such a combination be more intelligible to German than
to English readers, they must be a-head of us in the science of osphresiology, to use
another hard word.—7r.

§ Von Martius is silent on the subject of albinism, which is described as being
very rare in Brazil, though so common among the Indians of the Isthmus of Darien.
It is common enough in Bengal. The writer has casually observed three albinoes,
all in different families, and residing in his immediate neighbourhood,— 77.

8 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

His hair long, hard, tense, black, and shining, hangs down in
thick disorder from his head. It is never curly, though
often cherished with care, and indeed in many tribes shaved
in a peculiar way, or pulled out as a national distinction. His
hair is very late in getting grey, and very rarely becomes white :
baldness is hardly to be found in one among a thousand.
No hairs are in general observed in the axillze or on the
chest; and the hair on the male organs and chins of the
men is very weak and scanty. Yet sometimes one sees an
Indian with a tolerably strong black beard, but never with
a curly one.

Doubts regarding D’Orbigny’s Sub-divisions.

Such do the aborigines of Brazil appear in their collective
physical characteristics, and this picture recurs in different
parts of the country, from one spot to another, in such a
way, that it is hardly possible to ascribe to any one or other
race of this varied population individual and absolute charac-
teristics, sufficiently strong to distinguish them from the
rest. It is here just as it is in Europe, where no physiogno-
mist would venture, from his knowledge of the physical cha-
racteristics which mark the Roman, the Celtic, the German
or the Jewish races, to pronounce authoritatively on the race
of any given individual. I must also expressly remark, that
I recognised their collective physical peculiarities, without
any material variation, in Brazilian Indians in all the pro-
vinces of the empire, and found that prominent differences
depended solely on the degree of civilization of particular
tribes, or on the development of individual intelligence.
This makes me doubt whether we are entitled, with D’Or-
bigny, to distinguish three sub-divisions, or as he calls them
races, of the aborigines of South America. This writer,
who certainly had ample opportunities of observing many
aboriginal tribes on the continent of South America, distin-
guishes an Ando-Peruvian race, a Pampas-Indian, and one

“e

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 9

which he calls the Brazilio-Guarani. The race of the Ando-
Peruvians subdivided again into Peruvians and Antisians, east
of the Bolivia Andes chain, and Araucanians, is supposed to
be distinguished by olive-brown complexion, small stature,
forehead little elevated and retiring, eyes horizontal, never
turned upwards at the outer angle. The race of Pampas-
Indians (subdivided into the Pampas Chiquitos and Moxos), is
on the other hand characterised by olive-brown complexion,
stature often very tall, well arched forehead, eyes placed
horizontally, sometimes slightly turned upwards at the outer
angle. The Brazilio-Guarani race, by yellow complexion,
middling stature, slightly arched forehead, eyes oblique and
raised at the outer angle.

My own observations, though made among races scat-
tered over the space of twenty degrees or more, do not
sanction any such subdivision. While in different localities,
I have seen individuals removed from the characteristics
ascribed to the Brazilian race by D’Orbigny, and coming
nearer at one time to those of the Ando-Peruvian, at ano-
ther to those of the Pampas race, yet I could not resist the
conviction that the physical peculiarities common to any one
race or tribe, were chiefly dependent on climatic influ-
ences, its mode of life, and whole state of development, in
short, that there were no exclusive physical marks of dis-
ténction, for the members of a population, which, as proved
by many circumstances, is now excessively mixed, and has
given up the character of an independent race along with
the loss of its history and national independence.*

After these more general observations, which however
appeared to be necessary, in order to define the ground from
which I meant to sketch my portrait, I now proceed to give

* It may be remarked that the basis of D’Orbigny’s classification is chiefly
geographical. The little that is known of the South American languages, scarcely
aids in classifying the native races, and as far as it goes, does not seem to bear
him out.—77r.

C

10 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

an account of the most important physiological relations of
the Brazilian aborigines.

Strong development of the Muscular System.

Our first glance at the American savage convinces us, that
he possesses a predominant development of the muscular sys-
tem. The broad compact figure, fleshy on the trunk and upper
extremities, the swelling muscles, of his proportionately
short arms, on his broad and arched chest, and on his short
and thick neck, his light elastic regular movements, which
bring him forward with surprising quickness, even while
he takes short steps, his wonderful power of carrying bur-
dens, and of continuing for hours the use of the same set of
muscles,—all these are peculiarities which at once struck the
first discoverers of America, and which we recognise in the
Brazilian savage, whether he lives in deep aborginal forests
or in open plains. Nevertheless the variety in his mode of life
produces a distinct difference in the mould of his body. The
inhabitants of the forests are almost always fleshier, broader
and more muscular. Those of the plains again are slen-
der and smaller-limbed, their motions are more free and
supple, and they seem to set a great value on the deve-
lopment of muscular power in their legs, for on this account
they adorn them with cotton lacing and bird’s feathers, and
often try to promote the development of their calves by
applying round the ankles of their youths tight bands,
which are never afterwards taken off. Ido not, however,
remember ever to have seen an Indian with calves as mus-
cular as those which we frequently find among European
mountaineers. The freer use of the legs is also accompani-
ed by a diminution of size in the pelvic region. The savage
on the other hand who lives in dense forests, where he
can only take comparatively short steps, and can seldom
go quickly forwards in a straight line, is almost always dis-
tinguished, by a striking development of the sinews of his

On the Aborigines of Brazii. il

thorax and arms, and astonishes the European by the
strength which he displays in his neck and arms in bear-
ing immense burdens, and felling gigantic trees. An In-
dian willingly undertakes to carry a weight of 110 pounds
on his back for ten or twelve hours, if he is attracted by the
prospect of getting for his pains a bottle of brandy, or any
thing else that he values, Even the strongest negro would
not undertake to ply the axe for ten hours against hard
tough timber, and after his work was done, dance and feast
the whole night, under the intoxicating influence of the
drink caohy (afterwards described.)

Thickness of Skin.

Along with this great muscular power, the Indian is also
endowed with a special thickness and strength of skin. He
is subject to a uniform insensible transpiration, but he per-
spires much less than the negro or the white man. When in
motion, or when occupied in any active labour, the whole
surface of his skin shines. Although the determination of
blood to the surface is very moderate—yet he attains that
shade of colour which resembles burnished copper, and, when
Indians are seen dancing in this state, the colour and polish
of their skin give them the appearance of living bronze
figures, which the European eye views with considerable
pleasure, particularly if their black shining hair flying about
their shoulders, or their party-coloured ornaments of bird-
feathers aid in increasing the strange novelty of the scene. In
dancing, however, the Brazilian savage does not produce the
immense quantity of perspiration, which in hot countries runs
from the forehead and chest of other races of men, and

‘which causes a degree of exhaustion, from which they, espe-

cially the white races, are sometime in recovering.

This comparatively small secretion of perspiration, indeed,
in many cases total absence of it, even under considerable
corporal exertions, gives the Indian an expression of apathe-

12 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

tic strength. I have, however, on other occasions observed,
that he often breaks out into profuse perspiration, when
under the influence of any strong mental emotions. When
he is frightened or startled, large drops of sweat stand on
the forehead of the savage, who is otherwise so immoveable.
It is as if he were suddenly attacked with a colliquation.
And this peculiarity, which no traveller has remarked, so far
as I know, harmonises with a mental trait, which especially
characterises the American, I mean that sudden prostration of
mind, that helpless despair, as soon as the one-sided tension
of his mind, which is only maintained under a few condi-
tions, is relaxed. For similar reasons he is often covered
with a profusion of perspiration, when employed in work to
which he is not accustomed, or which he dislikes, and then
he ascribes the little progress he makes in it, to sudden ill-
ness or to witchcraft.

Small excitability of the Circulation.

The deficiency of perspiration in the Indian is obviously
connected with the proportionately small excitability of the
heart and large vessels, and perhaps even with a relatively
smaller mass of blood. I cannot bring forward any direct
experiments on this subject, but I may mention what many
physicians in Brazil have assured me of, that the abori-
gines of that country possess less blood than the negro or the
white man, and that they are more weakened by a compara-
tively small loss of blood.* One of the best observers of
the habits of the North American Indians, Dr. Rush, re-
marks, that as compared with Europeans, their women
have but a slight menstruation. Azara has given the same
out regarding the women of the Charruas and Guaranis,
and I can, from the accounts given me, say it of the women
of Brazil. ‘The catamenia seldom last longer than three

* This is notoriously the case with natives of Hindostan.—7Z7.

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 13

days, are very seldom copious, and occur commonly with
great regularity from month to month, at times however,
along with various hysterical affections. The catamenia ap-
pear to vary little in quantity according to the season of the
year. We may assume that they continue in a few cases up
to the 50th year, but commonly cease between the ages of
42 and 47.* Whatever, however, may be the case as to the
actual quantity of blood in the American Indian, it may be
safely assumed, that from his coarse and commonly very un-
nutritious diet, he is often in a condition to produce only a
little blood.

On the whole we may say, that the Indian, although com-
monly the inhabitant of warm localities, has but cold blood
in his veins. For this reason, his cutaneous transpiration is
scanty and cold. This strikes a European most, when he
extends his hand toa red man. He then always receives a
damp cold pressure, quite different from that of the Ethio-
pian, who has warm blood in his hand. There is perhaps
some similarity in this respect with the Malays, whose
hands generally feel damp and cold.+

* All this is vague and unsatisfactory, and given merely on hearsay evidence;
it is probable, that the date of the appearance and of the disappearance of the cata-
menia is tolerably uniform in all races, especially under similar sexual relations.
Even allowing for the premature marriages of this country, we find that of ]27
natives of Bengal, the date of whose first menstruation has been recorded by Dwar-
kanath Das Bosu, the majority began to menstruate at the age of 14, the same age
as that at which the majority of 1,100 women in London(Med,. Gazette, vol. xxxi.
p. 162,) commenced menstruating. ‘he old belief of the very late appearance of
the catamenia in women of northern latitudes, and their very early appearance in
those of warmer countries, has been gradually giving way, as accurate collections
of facts have been made, and must be greatly modified. he opinions of authors as
brought together by Prichard, vol. i. are very confused. It might be inferred from
the analogy of the vegetable world, that removal from one climate to another would
influence the date of the appearance of the catamenia, and this is probably the case,
but we want facts on the subject.—T7r.

7 The cold clammy feel of the hands of the natives of India is a common subject
of remark. The usual reasons assigned for it, poorness of blood, and languor of
circulation, are hardly sufficient to explain it, when we remember, that according
to the most trustworthy observations, the temperature of the body of man in a
state of health is the same in all climates and under all circumstances.— Tr.

14 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

Corresponding with this coldness of the extremities, the
Brazilian savage has also a small slow pulse, which has no
elasticity, and yields under the pressure of the finger. In
healthy men I often counted only from 55 to 68 beats in the
minute; in the women, who on the whole excelled the men
in liveliness, the beats were 76, 80, and more.

Inactivity of Vital Functions—Nutrition.

All that I have hitherto said regarding the physical pe-
culiarities of the Brazilian savage, points to a want of sensi-
bility, to an inactivity and langour of the vital functions. More
close examination confirms us in this impression. The Indian
has, comparatively speaking, only weak powers of assimilation.
He can digest with ease only the kinds of food to which he
is accustomed. He digests more easily a raw diet of over-
ripe roots and fruits, or of ill-prepared flesh, than food which
has been cooked and seasoned. He eats slowly, while he
tears with his fingers the pieces of flesh along the course of
its fibres, and chews them long. He eats at one time a large
quantity of food, but digests it slowly.* He never disturbs
his digestion by a second meal, as he seldom has any super-
fluity of food for another repast. His chief meals are
usually at intervals of four and twenty hours. His feeding is
slow, but regular and uniform. He keeps himself in health
and strength only by a uniform course of life, and by the
stimulus of the employments to which he is accustomed, and
of which he is fond. When placed in an altered position,
or in one that is repugnant to his habits, he immediately ex-
periences dissatisfaction, dislike of every occupation to which
his former life did not accustom him, and becomes a prey to
deep depression and despondency, the process of nutrition
fails, he fleshy elasticity of his limbs wastes away, and his

* American Indians are supposed to eat very large quantities of food, but Catlin
says, that under ordinary circumstances, a North America Indian does not eat more
than a European,—Tvr.

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 15

constitution breaks up with visible quickness, generally along
with colliquative diarrhoea. Colonists, who are in the habit
of carrying off Indians in hostile expeditions, and of making
use of them as servants or slaves about their farms, can
amply testify as to this great liability to fall away, as to this
want of all energy in the nutritive functions, especially when
their accustomed stimuli to exertion are gone, or when they
have to submit to a change in their mode of life; a few weeks
are often sufficient to convert the strongest Indian into a bare
skeleton, and to render death certain, unless his own resolu-
tion, or the assistance of his comrades, or what is a rare
case indeed, the sympathy of his master restores him to his
original freedom. This sudden failing of the powers of
nutrition always depends on depression of spirits, and
has been justly brought forward as a proof of the great
power of mental influences over the Indian. For our pur-
pose, we may consider it a proof of the weakness of the
plastic system in this race of men. We shall see this more
plainly, if we compare with it the analogous condition of the
negro, which is too well known among slave-holders in
the Brazils under the name of Banzo. This nostalgia of the
black man also manifests itself in a deep melancholy, which
in most cases leads to death. But while the exterior of the
Indian scarcely betrays what he is suffering internally, and he
seems reduced to the condition of an automatic machine,
which can produce only one idea, that of flight, the negro
displays an unusual elevation in all the feelings connected
with his state. He broods with incessant fondness over his
own melancholy thoughts, lives in an exstatic remembrance
of the past, which his fancy unceasingly paints in the fairest
colours, refuses to take nourishment, and appears busied
with suicidal zeal and resolution in putting an end, as soon
as possible, to his miserable condition by death. Neverthe-
less, the negro is much slower than the Indian in becom-
ing the victim of such. destructive emotions, and he often

16 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

wastes away for months, until he is seized with universal
dropsy, or with a galloping consumption, and is removed from
a state of dependence and misery, which he seems to have .
felt much more deeply, than the other.*

Several other facts might be adduced to prove the
especial weakness and inactivity of the nutritive system of
the Indian. One instance of it is, the indolence of wounds
and ulcers, which he often carries about for a long time,
in a torpid state, especially ulcers of the legs, without any
evident influence on his general health.

Passiveness of Nervous System.

Such a condition of the nutritive is only compatible with
an unexcitable indolent one of the nervous system, and we
must therefore set down as the second physical characteristic
of the Indian, a remarkable passiveness and dullness of the
nervous system. ‘That intimate union of all organic actions
among themselves, and with the higher intellectual life,
which is one of the most important peculiarities of the more
finely-organised man, is not found here in the same degree
as in the negro, not to mention the Caucasian. All the in-
dividual powers of mind and body lie in a state of separate
passiveness, unconnected with each other. All acts take
place more slowly; all sympathies are more one-sided and
weaker; all antagonisms less strongly marked.

Longevity.

The foregoing peculiarities naturally prepare us for the
same longevity of the Brazilian Indians, that is ascribed to
Americans in general. It is usually difficult to get any
accurate account of the age of an Indian who is in a state
of freedom. A few rare events only can be taken, as fixed
points in their accounts of the length of certain periods;

* Nostalgia is common enough among natives of Hindostan.—7r.

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 17

for in counting the number of years that have passed since
any particular event, these people (who may be considered
in some degree to be living without any time,) are never
consistent with themselves. ‘They mark the change of
years, chiefly by the ripeness of particular fruits, for instance,
of the chesnut (Bertholletia excelsa) along the course of
the Amazon; but their accounts of the changes are almost
always very imperfect and indefinite. During my travels
in the neighbourhood of the Amazon, I made use as points
for fixing my dates, of various expeditions made by the Por-
tuguese, the journey of Governor Mendon¢a Furtado, (from
1753 to 1755,) the circuit of the judge Ribeiro de Sampayo,
(from 1774 to 1775,) that of Bishop Brandao (in the years
1784-87 and 88,) and the last expedition for settling the
boundary (from 1781 to 1791), The appearance among
them at those periods of numerous Europeans, was a circum-
stance never to be forgotten by the Indians, and I have often
had cause to wonder at the accuracy with which they
remember many individuals and occurrences of those times.
The first of those expeditions, which had been made 65
years before, was described to me by an aged Indian in
Kga, who had served as guide to it, and who told me, that
even at that time he had grandchildren. He must have
been certainly 105 years old, yet all his senses were unim-
paired, he had still many teeth, his hair was not white, but
only grey, and his walk was firm and upright. This Indian
was the only instance of so advanced an age that I fell in
with.* Among hundreds of Indians, whom I have often
seen collected on the Rio Jupura, very few were distin-
guished by completely grey hair, and I may say, that com-
paratively few men exceeded their sixtieth year. The
cause of this is not to be found in any early failure of the

* Von Humboldt mentions the death of an Indian at Lima aged 143 years, who
had been married for 90 years to a woman aged 117 at the time of his death. The
story however will, like many of the sort, be regarded by most people, as apocry-
phal.—7r.

D

18 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

vital powers, but in the inconsiderate way in which the
elders join in the chase, and in the wars, thereby subjecting
themselves to sudden attacks of violent illness, which from
the want of all proper medical aid, most frequently prove
fatal. Women, however, are often to be seen of great age,
between the years of 70 and 90. ‘These aged creatures
attain in the filth and ashes of their hearths, among which
they always live, a state of decrepitude, which one cannot
behold without sorrow and disgust.

Development of the Senses.

The senses of the Brazilian Indian are certainly sharp, live-
ly, and of long endurance: but they are so developed only
in certain matters, and in varied degrees. They are almost
solely confined to the requirements ofa life of poverty. They
do not go beyond this, and they do not embrace abstract ideas :
they are occupied only with the life of the next moment, are
without past or future, and without the subtleties and the re-
finements of love, or the foresight of prudence. The savage
smells with distended nostrils, whether a friend or an ene-
my has entered the forest, he discovers a long way off among
the thickets the animal that he is in chase of, and can distin-
guish man or beast on the very horizon of a boundless plain ;
his vision of minute objects when near, is also very acute ;*
he hears, lying on the ground, with his ear pressed to it,
the lightest footstep of the approaching foe ; he wanders
with instinctive certainty in the darkest night through the
forest, and with his dark eyes, makes discoveries even in the
thickest gloom, in which a European can see nothing; and
yet the Indian is half-deaf, half-blind, half without feeling
or smell. That higher degree of intelligence, the concen-
trated not the extended, which sports and plays with

* Dobrizhofer tells of an Abipora, who, while sitting on horseback observed a
flea on the coat of a priest riding along side, dismounted, caught the flea and pre-
sented it with comic gravity to its proprietor.

On the Aborigines of Brazil. i9

nature, is wanting in him, because he never has occa-
sion for its use. His senses in the struggle with nature only
help him far enough to enable him to call out ‘“ Who’s there 2?”
when he is in danger or in difficulty. ‘They are accustom-
ed to work only in one direction with the instinct of an
animal. ‘They are the senses of the rude man of nature
with few wants, who has not accustomed himself to connect
together even the lowest mental operations, and to educate
them by the power of a combining intellect. Thus his
senses are not instruments for higher observations. That
development of the senses, in which they act in unconscious
harmony with the mind, has not been reached by him. I
have often made Indians look through a microscope, to try
their power of vision, and how they would take up objects ;
but I never found that they had actually seen anything; on
the contrary, they always turned away impatient and dissa-
tisfied.* A European does not need to be long among the
Indians, before he learns to value the intellectual refinement
of his own senses, and to know that those servants and
messengers of his organism, are only of high value to him,
when they are employed in supplying his intellectual wants,
in dependence on, and in mutual union with his higher
powers. Even the degree of development of the senses which
Africans and Malays have attained, is far ahead of that of
the red man, in spite of the cleverness and sharpness which
he displays in things which are necessary to him, and within
his own immediate sphere.

Narrowness of Intellect, Apathy.
The one-sidedness, I may say the simplicity, of the ner-
vous system of the Brazilian aborigines, prepares us for the
monotony of action to which their minds are subject. The

‘* Would not V. Martius find it the same, if he made the experiment with an
ordinary peasant ? This and the few following sections, from being translated liter-
ally wear a very German look,—T7r,

20 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

great and varied emotions, the deep-seated and mixed
feelings which regulate and influence the life and action of
the European, are in great measure unknown to the savage.
He lives an uniform life, varied by but a few emotions.
Hate and jealousy are the feelings, which when they gain
the mastery of his soul, cause violent perturbations, and
cloud to the very night of animalism, his dark or only
partially-lit conscience. The Indian, it is true, knows
that higher impulse of civilized man the love of glory, and
often acts under its influence; but it would almost appear
that he can only manifest negatively this natural love
for distinction and praise. ‘The Indian rests his claim
to glory on stoical indifference to bodily sufferings, and on
savage contempt of death. His finer and nobler feelings are
often purely instinctive. Thus numberless acts of maternal
love, which come under this head, are chiefly the result of
direct instinctive emotions.* I cannot deny to this degrad-
ed race conjugal love and fidelity, as among their higher
qualities ; but the Brazilians, who live near them, do not
give them credit even for this, any more than for a delicate
and powerful sense of right, which the Indians may display
perhaps in their intercourse with each other, but not with
men of other races. Modesty is undoubtedly a trait of the
Indian, but, strangely enough, it is not confined to the sexu-
al relations, but also embraces certain physical necessities,
which he endeavours with the greatest care to conceal from
the eye of a second party.t If then we take a general view
of all the feelings and emotions which occur in an Indian’s
life, we come to the conclusion, that they are few and uniform,
descending unaltered from race to race, along with the rude
unvarying occupations of the Nomadic warrior and hunts-
man, in one vitious circle, in which he ever turns round,

* Why should they not get as much credit for their maternal love as civilized
nations do ?—TZ7r.
¢ He covers up his excrement like a cat.

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 21

and finds no inducement to develop his natural powers to
a state of greater variety and freedom.*

Language.

Their language, as being the most intellectual expression
of the soul, that can take place through the medium of the
body, deserves at least a few words of remark. I do not
profess to ascribe to the dialects, which I have observed
among the Brazilian aborigines, the same character that
Duponceau gives to the North American languages, when he
calls them polysynthetic and polysyntactic. Many different
ideas are expressed at once in the shortest possible manner
by the union of single verbal symbols, inasmuch as those
individual symbols are connected with each other, not only
in their general connexion (totalitdt,) but often as it were
interwoven in their roots. Thus the condition of the sub-
ject is indicated not solely by its predicate, but by an
accent according to its connexion, state, number, place,
time, &c., as the verb experiences certain peculiar in-
flexions, augments, and alterations of vowels, and sharp-
enings of accent. Thus long words are formed from a few
broken syllables ;} and are equivalent to whole sentences
in those languages, which are by some grammarians termed
analytic, as the German, or synthetic, as the Greek and
Latin. The best marked character of the languages of the
Brazilians, appears to me to consist in this, that they make the
most varied use of the organs of speech{, while they not only

* If a good deal of this account be not founded on the prejudices of the early
authors, against which we were cautioned in the introduction, the South American
Indian must be indeed a degenerate type of the human family.— 77.

¢ For instance, Schoolcraft says, that the word kuligatschis, means ‘‘ give your
pretty little paw.’? The word is as it were agglutinated, or made up of &, the
second personal pronoun: wii part of the word wwlet, pretty : gat, part of the word
wichgat signifying a paw: schts conveying the idea of littleness.— 77.

{I am told, that among the Khonds of Goomsur, certain words bear opposite
significations according as they are expired or inspired; a very singular fact! Is
it known to occur in other languages ?—TZ7r.

22 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

represent in their numerous syllables the richest change of
vowels, and the quickest transition of one vowel into another,
but also bring forth consonants of the most different natures,
by the application of all organic means, such as hissing,
smacking the lips, speaking through the nose, rattling in
the throat, blowing, and whistling, and by their long-drawn-
out tone give their language a sing-song sound, which is
very strange to the ear of an European. I may say, that
these languages bear the same relation to those of Europe,
as an enharmonic scale does to the chromatic and diatonic,
in which we perform. They make use of many more organic
elements of speech than we do, but owing to their peculiar
combinations, and extensive modulations, they do not at-
tain in individual sounds, that appreciable distinctness and
strength, which we are accustomed to in our languages,
which are formed on a wider basis. On this account their
expressions appear to us void of all harmony, and we find it
so difficult to imitate them. According to the ideas of a
European, there is a childish helplessness in the peculiar
syntax of the Indian, but in his own mouth it gains a free-
dom and strength, (which the grammarian cannot fail to ad-
mire,) by means of its great richness in short, seemingly
broken, but easily combining elements of speech; by its
sharpness of intonation, by the changes in the modulation of
the voice, and by the sudden elevations and depressions
of its intensity and rhythm. The ease with which, in a
language so constituted, transpositions and transmutations
and running together of vowels and syllables, take place, is
no doubt the main cause of the mutability and incomplete-
ness when standing alone, of particular words, and of the
enormous number of dialects into which the languages of
America have become divided.*

* The variety of languages among the hill-tribes of India is very great. Thus,
the languages of the Goands, the Bheels, the Coles, the Khonds and the Sourahs,
are said to be quite different from each other, and to have no roots in common
with those of the plains.—Z7. :

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 23

Lymphatic Temperament, Phlegma.

From all the natural and acquired endowments of mind
and body which I have described, it follows, that the Indian’s
temperament is lymphatic. Poor in blood, in animal heat
and vitality, cramped in all those intellectual actions, which
might awaken his system, supporting himself from year to
year with recurring monotony on a coarse, heavy, ill-prepared,
unseasoned diet, the Indian has his naturally weak system
as it were steeped in crude fluids. He is an indolent, cold,
heavy nature, an amphibious man. The inexcitability of
his blood vessels, which, but few emotions can awaken into
activity, the cold creeping circulation of his blood, the slow
assimilation of scanty nourishment from a vast quantity of
coarse food, and the clouded, obstinate, grovelling, sunken-
ness of his soul, may be fairly regarded as the elements of a
specially lymphatic temperament. It shews the predomi-
nance of a phlegmatic and a melancholic disposition.*

Il.— The Diseases of the Aborigines of Brazil.

INTRODUCTION.

We have already said enough to enable us to divine,
what must be the nature of the diseases to which this race
of men is subject. They are such as originate especially
in the system of assimilation and nutrition: diseases of the
lymphatic system.

In accordance with the slight excitability of the Indian,
they run their course slowly, involve few other organs, assume
a very acute character but seldom, have rarely a marked
periodicity, and often terminate, without the nervous system

* Catlin’s accounts of the North American Indians, though perhaps too highly
coloured, paint them, when not in contact with civilized man, in a far more favor-
able light physically and intellectually, than that in which the learned Munich
Professor exhibits the Brazilian Indian.— 7’.

24) On the Aborigines of Brazil.

suffering at all till just before death. A Portuguese physi-
cian, who had lived thirty years among the Indians, assured
me “that death overtakes the dying Indian very slowly
and gradually. Unconsciousness from serous effusions on
the brain. occurs very late, and is unusual. The patient
in most cases feels a general sinking of all his powers, and ©
if an easy death (euthanasia) consists in awaiting its ap-
proach quietly, then the Indian may be said to enjoy it in
the fullest degree. He meets this change with an apathetic
quiet, which is only equalled by the cool indifference of the
spectators. No where is death slower in its approaches ;
no where is it met with greater indifference, and no where is
less grief or wailing to be observed than around the death-
bed of the Indian. Only at the close of the scene, when
the last breath has been yielded up, when the body has be-
come stiffened, do they reveal, in a burst of shrieks and
wailing, their sense of the fearful change, which, in a sort of
childish inexperience, they do not seem to have anticipated.”

The dangerous diseases of the Brazilian savage are then
especially chronic, and such as are connected with the
assimilative process: obstruction, inflammation and suppu-
ration of the mesenteric glands, of the ometum, the liver and
of the spleen, dropsy, and slow fever.

Before the introduction of Kuropeans into the new world,
the Indians died most commonly of these diseases. But
since then, small-pox, and according to Indian accounts
measles (sarampo) have been added. At present these
acute exanthemata make the most fearful ravages among
them. But in a description of the endemic diseases, the
introduced ones fall into the secondary class.

The above indicated chronic affections of the assimilative
organs have for their predisposing cause the natural con-
stitution of the Indian; but they have also their more imme-

diate causes, and among them their diet is especially influen-
tial.

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 25

Diet.

Their diet consists of game, fish, and raw or coarsely
cooked vegetables. These are yams, (Dioscorea), cards
(Caladium) batatas, (Convolvulus,)* the wholesome aypi root
(Manihot aypi); and the poisonous mandiocca root (Manihot
utilissima), the injurious properties of which are removed by
the use of fire. Among their more delicate vegetable food, we
find Indian corn, the only one of the Cerealia known to the
Indians of Brazil. Several vegetables, for instance species
of Amarantus (Carurti) and of Portulaca are cooked, some-
times alone, sometimes with powdered seeds of Sapucaya
trees (Lecythis, Bertholletia.) Plantains are, like other
fruits of the country, eaten raw, or boiled with water into a
kind of soup. All these vegetables are used without any
kind of seasoning. Flesh is either roasted on a spit or
boiled with water, but is almost always eaten without any
condiment. Common salt is utterly unknown to many Indian
tribes.{ Only the comparatively highly civilized ones in Mato
Grosso, where it effloresces from the soil, are familiar with
its use. A few tribes along the Amazon stream receive from
their neighbours in Maynas, Peruvian rock salt, but most
of the races which have not yet begun to barter with the
Brazilians, make use instead of common salt, of an impure
potash, which they extract from the lye of the ashes of the
bark of certain trees, (Lecythis, Kschweilera, and species of
Couratari, and Licania.) ‘The continued use of this salt
weakens the digestion. The only vegetable condiment em-
ployed by the Indian is the fruit of the Spanish pepper.
Many species of it, for instance the Capsicum frutescens,
the C. cerasiforme, and the C. pendulum, are cultivated

* Convolvulus batatas, is the common sweet potato; cassava and tapioca are
both procured from the root of the poisonous Mandiocca.—77r.
¢ Catlin says, that even in districts which have their whole surface encrusted with
salt, and in which brine springs exist, the wild Indian makes no use of salt. Are
the cattle that resort to the Canadian salt-licks, to be considered more civilized ?
—Tr.
1D)

26 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

in the neighbourhood of dwellings, and their berries used
both ripe and unripe along with meat. The use of these
condiments among the Indians is excessive. The poisonous
juice of the root of the Mandiocca, when boiled down to the
consistency of a fluid extract, loses its noxious properties.
In it the Indian steeps a great quantity of dried berries of
pepper, especially the C. cerasiforme, and makes of it a-sauce,
which he uses in great quantities with his food. ‘This sauce
is very heating, and often produces in persons not accustom-
ed to its use, all the symptoms of acute poisoning. ‘There
is no doubt, that the excessive use of it is injurious to the
Indians, and must favour that langour and plethora in the
abdominal system to which they are naturally disposed.* On
the other hand, the unseasoned flesh is also injurious, as it
is often in the first stage of putrefaction before it is eaten.
The nose of the Indian, it is true, is sensitive enough to the
smell of tainted meat, and he will not taste it as long as he can
get fresh, but he is often reduced to starvation, and then he
is compelled to eat it in whatever state it may be.

At other times however, he eats besides these, many kinds of
flesh, which we reckon unwholesome, such as toads and several
kinds of worms. The-ants which he eats dried in mandioc-
ca flour,} are probably not unwholesome, indeed may be useful
from the free Formic acid which they contain; but the like
can hardly be assumed of many other insects, for instance the
larvee of the palm Chafer, (Calandra Palmarum) and of others
which he preserves, for the purpose of stewing them, or of
sucking out their fluids after he has bitten their heads off.+

* According to German notions, Plethora abdominalis has to answer for half of
the diseases to which man is subject, perhaps even for more than sudor pedum
suppressus.—Tr.

¢ Mandiocca starch prepared in a peculiar way, when it is called Cassaribo, is
said to possess antiseptic powers, quite equal to those of salt.—T7r.

{ Ants are a favorite condiment with the Burmese and Chinese; shrimps eaten
after the manner described in the text, are believed by most European school boys
to have a peculiar relish.— 77.

On the Aborigines of Brazil. on

The flesh, which the Indian stores up, is either carelessly
dried on some open wood-work by means of fire, or in the
sun, and then rolled up in leaves of palm-trees or of a large
species of plantain, and kept in the roof of his hut, which is
always filled with smoke. The animal most frequently
hunted for this purpose is the ape, whose flesh resembles
in taste that of rabbit, but by the mode of preparation is
rendered very dry and tough. ‘These animals, after having
been skinned and disembowelled, are dried, but never salted.*
Of birds, the Indian collects chiefly storks, ducks, divers,
herons, and lapwings. Small fishes are simply dried in the
sun, packed in baskets, and placed in the smoke of the
hut: large fishes, such as the Piraructi (Sudis Gigas) are
gutted and hung up in pieces to dry. The Indians are
very irregular in all their domestic processes. The apes
are hunted during the dry season, and remain stored. up
for months until the rains. In this time the flesh becomes
so tough and dry, that no stomach, save that of the Indian
could digest it. This is also the case with their birds.
The Indian watches chiefly for the birds of passage, when
they visit his settlements. ‘The quantity of them that he
kills at some seasons is so immense, that he disregards every
rule of prudence and foresight in preserving them. It thus
happens that he stores up a kind of food that is very indi-
gestible, and from the quantity of oil which it contains par-
ticularly ill-suited to a warm climate. The Indian is just
as careless with his fish, which being dried in the sun with-
out any salt, is such as none but an Indian palate could to-
lerate. From the use of this bad oily food, diarrhoeas and
celiac fluxes are common in the rainy season. Add to this
the eating of unripe fruits, and we need not wonder that
whole villages are attacked with dysentery, which from want

* The North American Indians have a great advantage in the plentiful supply
of buffalo flesh, which they dry in the sun, without the aid of salt or smoke, and at
times pound into a powder called pemican..—T7.

28 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

of care, and from their bad practice of always in acute and
painful diseases rushing into a running stream, takes on the
worst character, and causes very great mortality.

Drinks.

The water has an equally unfavorable effect in increasing
the tendency to gastric disorders. ‘The Indian seldom set-
tles near a spring, but generally beside a brook, or if he
ean, by a river. The advantage of being able to fish in it
daily, the facilities of intercourse which it offers, and the
increased means of attacking enemies, or of meeting their
attacks which it affords, always lead the Indian to the
bank of a river, or of a lake communicating with one. Thus
it is along the great river streams of the Amazon, the To-
cantin, the Madeira and the Paraguay. It is only in districts
where there are no large sized rivers, that the Indian thinks
of building his hut in more remote and elevated positions.
The consequence of this is, that most of them drink river
water, and that too at every season of the year, whether it
may be pure or muddy. We do now and then find in the
hut of a savage a large earthen vessel to let the water stand
in; but he commonly drinks it fresh from the stream, from
which his wife or his child fetches it in a bowl of Cuieté
wood, (Crescentia Cajeti.) It is often warm, muddy, and
impure in the highest degree. The Indian oarsman on the
Amazon does not leave his seat to help himself from the
supply of clearer and cooler water kept for the use of the
master of the boat. He draws up the river water, and drinks
it freely, without considering that it contains the collective
impurities of the greater part of S. America. The imme-
diate result is the production of quantities of worms which
are exceedingly common in every boat’s crew, and indeed in
every village on the course of a river.

At the commencement of the warm rainy season, these
parasites often increase in prodigious numbers, and generate

On the Aborigines of Brazil. , 29

worm fevers in whole districts, which being totally neglect-
ed or ill-treated, quickly carry off the affected, and especi-
ally children, and girls near the age of puberty.* I myself
have had to suffer for months from a verminose dyscrasy,
and have seen in my companions all kinds of diseases com-
plicated with worms. It is no unusual thing to be disturbed
for nights in succession by the rattling in the throats of
patients, out of whose stomachs the worms creep, and cause
a constant sense of choking, till they are vomited up.

The habit of drinking impure river water also causes
other serious affections. The waters of the Tocantin, which
in several places flow over large layers of gypsum, carry many
grains of it in their stream, and cause such a disposition
to stone as is hardly to be found in any other part of the
world. The Rio Guama also and the Moju tributaries are
said to develop this disposition. There can be little doubt
that the prevalence of calculous and nephritic diseases in
Brazil may be fairly ascribed to the use of impure drinking
water. In some localities in the middle and in the North-
east of Brazil, as in the provinces of Goyaz, Bahia, Pernam-
buco, Rio Grande do Norte and Ceara, in which the lime-
stone formations that most dispose to calculus occur, run-
ning water is wanting, as the smaller streams get quite dried
up during the long droughts. In those districts the Indians
usually dig for water in the deepest parts of the bed of the
river, and procure a much better and more wholesome water
than their neighbours the Brazilians, who commonly make

* Worms are as frequent among the negroes as among the Indians in Guiana.
In this country they are common, and especially in seamen, and in children come
off long voyages. Troops proceeding on the river in country boats, [that sure mode
of sacrificing life] frequently have dysentery complicated with worms. In all these
cases the use of impure water is probably the main cause of their production. All
kinds of parasites are most common among those whose diet is poor. Thus maggots,
so often met with in the sores of natives, are rare among Europeans, and worms
are more common in the former than in the latter. It is curious that Rush states
he could find no accounts of worms occurring in grown-up Indians. —TZ7.

30 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

use of cistern water, which produces various morbid affec-
tions, especially worms and diarrhceas.

No where does man set a higher value on pure, cold,
pleasant water, than in those hot latitudes in which the sim-
ple element is the favourite means of quenching thirst. The
settlers are on this account in the habit of selecting and tast-
ing their drinking water, with as much care as a connoisseur
among us selects wine for his table. The Indians, however,
are very indifferent in the matter, and use the most impure
water, satisfying themselves with at most dropping in a little
of the expressed sap of fleshy leaves (such as those of the
Bromeliacez) or the juice of fruits (for instance of the Pu-
ruma or Cactus) to clarify it.*

The water of many rivers is mild and of a pleasant taste,
and may be drank without fear, especially when it is drawn
from the middle of the stream, where the current is strongest.
The season of the year has also to be borne in mind. The
water of the Madeira and of the St. Francisco, is clear and
wholesome while the river is low, but when it is full, is said
to produce fever. The Jupura in the upper parts of its course
flows over beds of clay containing iron pyrites. In such places
the water is unwholesome, and the Indians attribute to it the
prevalence of dysentery and of dysenteric diarrhceas.+

The prepared drinks of the Indians are of various sorts,
either fermented or unfermented. Of the latter, the most
important one, whether we consider its intoxicating qualities,
or agreeable taste, which resembles that of beer made from
wheat, is the Chicha, which is prepared from the boiled
seeds of Indian corn. The preparation of this drink is

* We recently noticed in a European Journal the common Indian mode of
clarifying water mechanically by alum, mentioned as a novelty.—TZ7.

+ As iron pyrites is not under ordinary circumstances decomposed by running
water, the unwholesomeness of the Jupura water is probably dependent on some
other cause ; we have heard well-educated medical men talk gravely of fishes
becoming poisonous from feeding on beds of copperas. Lately the fish of the river

Edin, have been poisoned wholesale, by peroxide of iron and sulphate of lime te
the extent of 33 grs. to the pint of water, introduced from a coal pit.— Z7.

On the Aborigines of Brazil. bl

known, and has been practised from time immemorial on the
whole American continent and its islands, wherever Indian
corn is grown. ‘To set up fermentation in the decoction,
we ourselves saw old women chew the seeds of corn,
and then spit them into it. In like manner they produce
vinous fermentation in a decoction of other fruits and roots
containing sugar, for instance plaintains, Acaji (Ana-
cardium occidentale) Batatas, and the sweet Mandiocca,
root (Macajera.) Many of these kinds of wine, when kept
in cool places, remain for several days, without getting sour.
They are in the Tupi language commonly called Caohy or
Cauim. The decoctions which they make from several
of the various fruits of the forest, and which they drink
when fresh made, are called Caxiri. ‘They are oftenest
made from the berries of the Assai, and the Patoua-palms
(Euterpe, Ginocarpus) and from the fruit of the Bubunha
palm (Gulielma speciosa.) ‘That made from the fruit of the
CEnocarpus family resembles in taste a light chocolate, and
is so nutritious, that Indians get fat from its continued use.
The preparation of what is called Pajuart is more compli-
cated. To make it, cakes of Mandiocca flour lightly baked
on the hearth, are either boiled or infused in water, and then
left to the vinous fermentation. The Indians also are ac-
quainted with the means of preparing a kind of vinegar (tupi
or Caui sai, that is, sour wine) from the juices and decoctions
of fruits. These decoctions, as well as their fermented
drinks, are drank at their evening dances and other festivals,
in great excess, and to intoxication.

Influence of the Weather on the Skin.
There is another predisposing cause to disease, to which
I must here particularly allude, I mean, the imperfect
protection and the little care, which the Indian bestows
on his skin. He goes about naked.* ‘The light aprons

* Imperfect clothing is the main cause of most of the diseases of the cold sea-
son in the natives of Bengal, especially of rheumatism which is so prevalent.— 77,

|
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32 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

made of the inner bark of trees, of cotton, or of lace, which
the women wear in some of the more civilized races, can
not be regarded as articles of clothing. They are only
meant for ornament, or to satisfy the requirements of mo-
desty. Their heads too are without covering. Only such
Indians as have experienced the influence of European
civilization, wear shirts and short trowsers, while their
women wear shifts and light gowns, with a hat or a cap,
the latter generally woollen. Now although the climate of
Brazil is very mild, yet it is subject to great variations,
especially in mountainous parts and in the neighbourhood of
the sea and of large rivers. The savage is in such places
often exposed within 24 hours to a change in the tem-
perature of 8 or 9 degrees.* It is clear that this cir-
cumstance must have a powerful effect on his health and
disposition to disease. The skin of the red man, is, as
already observed, uncommonly thick, and of stronger and
closer texture than that of the European, it has beneath
it a thick layer of fat, and besides is rendered hardy by
usage from youth upwards. From this we may assume that
it is but little calculated to act as an organ of reaction in the
healing processes of nature, or to favour crétzcal action, and
by its means produce favourable secretions. The skin of
the Indian is in fact unexcitable and coarse, and has not
the firmness or vital energy, which might be assumed from
its constant exposure.{ For this reason he often catches
cold. The red man is particularly susceptible of the injuri-
ous action of night dew and of moon-light: and he needs to
guard himself against them with a degree of care not at all
corresponding with his indifference in other matters. He
is very unwilling to leave his warm hut in a damp evening:

* We found the mean temperature of the air in the neighbourhood of the
Amazon to be about 814° or 823°, that of the surface of the river water 793°.
In these localities the greater changes of temperature do not take place, as in the
more elevated parts of southern districts.

¢ Many will regard all this as too theoretical.—77.

On the Aborigines of Brazil. ae

and he always protects his head at least from the moon
light by a cap.* In his cabin he sleeps naked on a mat
hammock. He does not protect his body by clothes, but, as
he himself says by fire, which he keeps alive at all seasons
of the year close to his sleeping place. If he must pass the
night out of doors, he buries himself up to the head in
the sand of the bank of a river, or he selects a dry place
between smooth projecting tree roots, and collects a nest
of leaves under and about him, or builds a light roof of
palm-leaves over his sleeping place. If he must pass the
night in an open field, he surrounds his body with light
brush-wood or palm-leaves, of which he forms a temporary
bower, and if he cannot have even this, he endeavours at
least to cover his face from the night dew with brush-wood
and palm-leaves. Any unusual change of temperature during
the night awakens him: after that he does not sleep again,
but endeavours to keep his body as much as possible in
motion until morning. Nothing has such an effect in keep-
ing an Indian awake for the whole night as cold. All these
facts in the mode of life of the Indian, shew that he is by no
means so much hardened against the influence of the weather
as is commonly supposed. Indeed I think I may say that
the European has greatly the advantage of him in this
respect. His cold nature, his inactive nervous system,
his weak pulse, prepare as to believe how much he feels at-
mospheric vicissitudes. We are not then to be surprised
if we find, that he trembles and shivers in frost and cold,
and suffers from catarrhal affections in inclement weather.

* Is there any truth in the universal prejudice, that sleeping in moonlight
is in itself a cause of disease, or is if merely, as some say, that when there is a
clear moon, there is a clear sky, consequently a rapid deposit of moisture ?—T'r.

+i. e. We suppose, taking the native as he is, and the European protected by
clothes. ‘The remark would certainly not apply to N. American Indians,— Tr.

( To be continued. )

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34

On the Manufacture of Bar Iron in India. By Captain
J. CAMPBELL, 21st Regiment M. N. I.

No. 3.

1. In India, our means of procuring information of the
march of science in Europe are still so imperfect, that it is
very difficult to find out what part of a new discovery may
be known to others who have taken in hand similar investi-
gations. We are therefore obliged to veil in obscure ex-
pressions, general descriptions which it becomes expedient to
publish, to prevent the idea of the whole mode of operation
becoming revealed to those whose attainments enable them
to take a hint.

2. I am now indebted to a friend high in office at Madras,
for what has lately been discovered in America and England,
and to the 85th No. of the Civil Engineer’s Journal, (pub-
lished in October 1844,) for the state of the iron manufac-
ture in France; from which it appears, that methods of
treating the pure ores of iron, similar to those resulting from
my own investigations, have been practically applied on the
large scale both in America and in England, proving thus
beyond a doubt, the feasibility of the plans I have advocated
as the best adapted for India; and also, that if in France
where wood fuel is so very dear, it can still be economically
employed in the iron manufacture, that of course the same
can be done by proper management in India, where the
wood is so very cheap and abundant; and ores similar to
those of France exist in profusion.

3. In my last paper, I have used the term ‘ bloomery
furnaces,” and given calculations of expenses based on ex-
periments with them. Furnaces of this kind, as generally
known, may be defined as “cupola bloomeries,” from the
general resemblance of their shape to the cupolas for melt-
ing cast iron; and although they are cheap and simple
to manage, and the best adapted for commencing operations

On the Manufacture of Bar Iron in India. 35

with, yet the operation not being continuous, but suspend-
ed, when the bloom is ready for removal, and the furnace
allowed to cool, much heat and fuel are wasted which might
manifestly be saved by maintaining the furnace always at
a proper heat.

4, This objection may be remedied in what may be de-
fined as ‘‘ reverberatory bloomeries,” in which the bloom is
reduced and balled contiguous to the focus of heat, but in
such a situation that its removal does not require the charge
of ore put into the furnace to be suspended, nor the blast to
be stopped. Furnaces of this kind were tried by Mashet, but
did not succeed in consequence of the ore not being intro-
duced in a proper manner. Even on the small scale at my
disposal, I have succeeded in making “ reverberatory
bloomeries” answer perfectly well; but my mode of manage-
ment though much the same in general principle, differs
considerably from that employed by Mr. Clay in Scotland.

5. ‘The New York newspapers announce that Mr. Simeon
‘*‘ Broadmeadow, of New York, has invented a method, by
*‘ means of which the iron ore is by only one process con-
‘verted into wrought iron, without being first made into
*‘ pig-iron, and at a less expense than the pig-iron can be
**made. ‘The iron ore is placed upon the floor of a rever-
‘‘ beratory furnace, the flame of the fire passing over it, when
‘**a chemical compound is used to unite the elements of the
‘iron by separating the slag entirely from it. By this first
“and only operation, the wrought iron comes out as perfect
‘in every respect as that by the double operation of pud-
** dling and piling pig-iron; and for the purposes of manufac-
* turing steel, even surpasses it. By this process wrought
“iron of the best quality can be produced at a cost not ex-
*‘ ceeding 253 dollars per ton. It is also calculated that the
“rough blooms, if the furnace is built near the mines of
** coal and ore, can be made with a good profit for only 14
dollars per ton. The inventor states, that with a capital

36 On the Manufacture of Bar Iron in India.

** of 100,000 dollars, forty tons of rail-road iron can be made
‘in every 24 hours.”

6. As the inventor’s account of his own process is not
given, we are unable to judge whether it is the result of mere
practical trials, or arrived at by a scientific inductive routine.
The ‘ chemical compound” alluded to, is ** black cast iron,”
a very small quantity of which is sufficient to disturb the
equivalent combining proportion of the elements of the ore,
and by setting at liberty a portion of the oxygen, deprives
the magnetic oxide of its characteristic refractory property,
and leaves it subservient to the reducing action of the car-
bon in contact with it, and the operation of the carbonifer-
ous gases of the focus of the furnace. But the objection
to the process is the great proportion of the ore which be-
comes separated from the reduced metal, in the form of
what is practically termed “slag,” and when a larger pro-
portion of cast iron is used to prevent this, the process then
becomes exactly similar to Mr. Heath’s ‘‘ cementatious pro-
cess.”

7. The process of Mr. William Neale Clay has been put
into practice at the Shirva works, Kirkintillock, Scotland.
‘*‘ Ulverstone iron ore (hematite) is ground with about 4-10
‘of its weight of small coal, so as to pass through a screen
‘of 4 of an inch mesh. ‘This mixture is placed in a hop-
‘* per fixed over a preparatory bed, or oven attached toa
** puddling furnace of the ordinary form. While one chargé
‘‘is being worked and balled, another gradually falls from
** the hopper, through the crown, upon the preparatory bed,
‘‘and becomes thoroughly and uniformly heated, the car-
*‘buretted hydrogen and carbon of the coal combining
“with the oxygen of the ore, advances the decomposition
‘of the mineral, while by the combustion of these gases,
‘‘the puddling furnace is prevented from being injuriously
“cooled. One charge being withdrawn, another is brought
‘‘ forward, and in about an hour and a half the iron is

On the Manufacture of Bar Iron in India. 37

** balled, and ready for shingling and rolling. The cinder
* produced, is superior in quality to that which results from
‘‘the common system: it contains from 50 to 55 per cent.
‘* of iron, and is free from phosphoric acid, which frequently
‘‘ exists, and is so injurious, in all the ordinary slags ; when
‘*‘ re-smelted, it produces as much No. 1 and No. 2 cast-
‘* iron, and of as good quality as the ordinary “‘ black band”
* ore of Scotland. The cast-iron produced from the slag,
‘* (amounting to one-third of what was originally contained
*‘in the ore,) is mixed with the ore and coal in the pud-
** dling furnace: and thus while nearly all the iron is ex-
*‘ tracted from the ore, as much wrought iron is produced in
‘‘ 4 given time, and at the same cost of fuel, as by the old
‘* system ; while nearly 4 more iron is produced by two pro-
** cesses only, and of as good a quality as by the six processes
*‘ of the old system. The iron resulting from Mr. Clay’s
** process is stated to bear a high polish, is very uniform in
‘its texture, is ductile and fibrous, having more than an
‘** average amount of tensile strength, and at the same time
*‘ appears to be more dense, as it possesses a peculiar sonor-
** ousness, resembling that of a bar of steel when struck.”
It has also been converted into steel of a good quality.
Mr. Clay’s process having been discussed in the presence of
scientific men interested in the subject, the general good qua-
lities of the iron produced was allowed, and it was expected
that the supplies of Paris ores, of iron ore in England, of
Ulverstone, of Cumberland, and of Dartmoor, might be made
available for making steel instead of Swedish iron.

_ 8. Even in Mr. Clay’s description, there appears to be
either a want of knowledge of the correct ultimate principles
of the process, or else this knowledge is concealed under
ambiguous expressions. The gases resulting in the furnace
are not carburetted hydrogen as is stated, and instead of
their merely ‘‘ advancing the reduction of the ore,” the fact
is, that the ore when brought to incandescence, burns in con-

38 On the Manufacture of Bar Iron in India.

tact with the gases, evolving in doing so, a heat so tremen-
dous, that instead of the furnace being “‘injuriously cooled,”
the great difficulty is to prevent the furnace itself from
being completely fused and destroyed.

9. The statement, that oxides burn and evolve heat dur-
ing combustion in carboniferous gases, I conceive to be a
new fact in experimental chemistry ; and although I have at
present but few books to refer to, in support of my assertion,
I think the following extract (from Dr. Ure’s Dictionary of
Arts and Manufactures, page 913,) sufficient for my purpose
at present: ‘It is probable that the coaly matter employ-
“‘ ed in the process is not the immediate agent of their reduc-
© tion; but the charcoal seems first of all to be transformed
*‘ by the atmospheric oxygen into the oxide of carbon, which
** gaseous product then surrounds and penetrates the interi-
** or substance of the oxides, with the effect of decomposing
*‘ them, and carrying off their oxygen.” Here we have no
mention of any combustion or evolution of either heat or
light, and as it is not likely that Dr. Ure would have been
unacquainted with experiments on a subject to which he
had given so much interest and practical attention, perhaps
I may be allowed to claim the merit of having first discover-
edit. I cannot, however, at present describe the method of
making the experiment, which is attended with phenomena
as beautiful and dazzling as the combustion of iron wire
in oxygen gas: because the mode of observing and manag-
ing the combustion forms a part of the practical manage-
ment of my furnaces, and I would not now have mentioned
the subject, but that any one endeavouring to repeat Mr.
Clay’s experiment, must have the opportunity of observ-
ing it.

10. While discussing the merits of Mr. Clay’s process,
Mr. Heath alluded to his own process of “cementation,”
with specular iron ore, and Indian pig-iron, by which he
stated, that excellent iron for steel-making has been pro-

On the Manufacture of Bar Iron in India. 39

duced. He stated, that for this purpose, the Indian pig-iron
might be procured very cheaply ; but as it is well known that
the Porto Novo Company were willing to repurchase old cast-
ings of their own iron at 40lbs. per ton; it is plain that they
could not make it cheaper than this rate, or they would not
have repurchased it; and if pig-iron could not be made in
India for less than this, it is not likely that it could compete
with wrought iron made on the spot with bloomery furnaces.

11. In France, the progress of improvement in the iron
manufacture has been very rapid within the last 10 years,
and so great has been the economy with materials expended,
that although the price of charcoal is three times as great
as it was formerly, yet the price of bar iron has fallen one-
third. This result has been produced by the introduction
of the hot blast from England, by the use of wood in the
blast furnaces, and the combustion of the gas as given off
in the blast furnace, to puddle and reduce pig-iron to the
malleable state.

12. ‘* On the use of wood in the blast furnaces in France,
*‘ many experiments have been made in the last 7 or 8
* years. Some have introduced the daily and habitual use of
‘** sreen wood; others, have dried; others and by far the
*‘ Jarger number, have used a process for preparing it in a
** close vessel by means of the heat lost from the mouth of
the blast furnace, so as to subject the wood to a less
“© advanced carbonisation than that performed in the forests,
“and producing a combustible intermediate between dried
“* wood and charcoal. The use of green or torrefied wood has
*‘ not extended as far as might have been wished. Only 51
** furnaces make use of it, and even this number seems to di-
“‘minish. Several reasons explain this result. The first is,
“the irregularity produced in the proceedings of the fur-
*‘naces. ‘The green wood occasions coolings down, which
** prevent fusion taking place in a regular manner, and tor-
* refied wood always presenting a very variable degree of

40 On the Manufacture of Bar Iron in India.

** desiccation, or carbonisation produces a similar result. An-
*‘ other and more important cause is, that if a true saving of
‘* fuel takes place by this process, it does not always shew itself
‘* in money results ; for if the works be at any distance from
‘* the woods, then the cost of green wood to the furnaces
*‘ increases. In order for the process to spread, the works
*‘ would have to be seated in the woods. Whilst the
** furnaces only consumed charcoal, the endeavour was to
** place them near mines, rather than near forests, for the
** ore weighs more than the charcoal consumed : but wood
‘weighing more than the ore, the neighbourhood of
‘‘ forests must be sought, if torrefied wood is to be used
“to advantage. Besides a great number of furnaces are
“at the same time distant from both mines and forests,
“ being forced to seek a site where water power was avail-
‘* able for the blowing machines. As the improvement which
‘‘has been completely successful, the use of the heat of the
“ furnace to heat a steam blowing machine, allows in new
‘‘ works a considerable saving of money to be effected by
‘the use of torrefied wood. Water power for the blowing
** machines is in fact useless, and as far as the mines allow,
‘‘the works may be placed in the midst of the woods of
‘‘ which they are to consume the produce.”

13. This method of using green wood is evidently just
the same as I have alluded toin my last paper, as having been
put in practice in my own investigations. But the vague
expressions made use of, with reference to the objections to
its use, such as ‘ coolings down,” and “ fusion taking place
in a regular manner,” serve to show, that the principle
upon which blast furnaces act is no better understood in
France, than it is in England; and so far from ‘“‘coolings
down” occurring either in my blast furnaces or bloomery
furnaces, I have found that when once the furnace has been
properly constructed, and the proper arrangements made
to ensure the success of the operation, that the same result

On the Manufacture of Bar fron in India. 41

has been regularly produced for six months together, with
none but natives to conduct the manipulation, after I had
superintended the requisite adjustments at first.

14. The next improvement due to the French manufac-
turers, is a most important one. It is the introduction of
what is termed “ gas-iron, a term which is now used in
*‘ trade, and applied to a class of iron superior to coal-made
‘iron, and almost equal for most purposes to charcoal-iron.
** Gas-iron, is iron manufactured with the gases lost in the
“blast furnaces, or with those arising from gasification of
‘© combustibles of small value, or unfit in their natural state
** for working iron. This process originated in the works of
“'Treveray, (Meuse,) belonging to Messrs. D’Andelarre and
*‘ De Lisa, and is extremely important to works using vege-
“table fuel. Refining with charcoal has already become
* impossible in most of the French furnaces, on account of
** the competition of coal, and in a very short space of time it
*‘ will be so with the rest. At present, coal bar-iron produc-
‘ed from charcoal pig is little better than bad iron entirely
‘** manufactured in the English way, and fetches rather better
*‘ price, but the difference in quality will not compensate for
**the great difference in price, and the cheaper article will
** exclude the other. The gas process on the other hand, if
** senerally adopted, will save the old charcoal works, though
‘fit also effects a great saving with regard to coal; an impor-
‘tant saving in the gas process is the diminished Joss in
** slag which is reduced one-half in the puddling and ball-
‘‘ing furnace. In the Treveray process, the gases lost in
** the blast furnace, or the gases which have exhausted their
** physical and chemical influence on the bed of fusion, are
*‘ collected and sent into the reverberatory ovens. ‘These
“gases before being so used in the subsequent processes,
‘are purified from the matter which they may contain in-
*jurious to the iron. This is effected by a very simple appa-
*‘ratus, and the pig-ironis brought into contact only with a

G

42 On the Manufacture of Bar Iron in India.

purified gas flame. The arrangement of the gas oven,
‘with jets of hot air and hot gas intermixed, obtains a very
‘‘ high temperature and perfect combustion, since the turn-
‘ing of a few cocks allows the fire to be regulated at will,
‘not only with regard to the intensity of its temperature, but
“the chemical nature of the flame ; so as to have a neutral,
*‘ an oxidising, or a red active flame.”

15. I have stated in my last paper, that I had reason to
believe the gases produced by combustion in close furnaces
held nitrogen in combination and I have adduced some of
the circumstances which at first led me to suspect this fact;
but I am unable to make public at present, some of the results
of my imperfect investigations, because they are connected
with the principles which I have applied in practice in my
furnaces, with the true explanation of the composition of
cast-iron, and with what I may be allowed to term the
theory of “ acerification,” subjects on which I am anxious to
preserve to myself the honor of completely analysing: and
which I have long ardently wished to follow out, if I could
have succeeded in persuading the government to afford me
the slightest assistance in support of my labours.

16. My surmise on this point is directly contradicted by the
analytical examinations of able French chemists, as given by
Péclet (Traité de la Chaleur,) but I think it will be allowed
by chemists to be probable, that nitrogen at a high tempera-
ture may have the property of combining with carbon and hy-
drogen, and also with oxygen: which compound may either be
resolved into other gases at a lower temperature, or else that
the mode of analysis may have been conducted so as to no-
tice quantitatively only known compounds. My own surmises
on the subject are not based upon chemical analysis, but on
physical effects and phenomena which I have witnessed, and
which I maintain could not be produced by carbonic oxide.

17. I will conclude this paper, by stating, that Mr. Clay’s
bloomery process and the French gas furnaces may be com-

On the Manufacture of Bar Iron in India. 43

bined, and I have experimentally proved, that the pure ores
of India may be reduced in “‘ reverberatory furnaces, bloom-
eries,” without charcoal, wood, or coal: using any carbona-
ceous substance which is capable of being made to burn in
a blast furnace and of affording gas. This mode of making
‘* gas-reduced iron,” promises to be valuable in many parts
of India, where iron ore abounds, but fuel is scarce: but as
the subject of “‘ gas furnaces” will afford matter for a se-
parate paper, I will not enlarge on this point at present.

January, 1845.

On Gas Furnaces. By Captain J. CAMPBELL, 21st Regi-
ment, M. N. ZI.

1, The use of “‘ gas furnaces” is an invention due to the
French, who have lately practically applied them on the
large scale in the arts, and have succeeded in producing
with them so high a temperature, as to answer the purpose
of heating reverberatory furnaces for the fusing and pud-
dling of cast iron, to reduce it to the malleable state. The
Germans appear also to have been in possession of the in-
vention prior to the French, but the principle was concealed
until the publication of it in France.

2. In ‘‘ gas furnaces” the carboniferous gases evolved
from the mouth of large blast furnaces, or from any sub-
stance capable of burning in a close furnace with a jet of air
from a blast pipe, are conducted through a range of heated
pipes, and forced out in jets from a series of nozzles in the
manner of a blowpipe; while a jet of heated atmospheric
air is forced through the centre. Each jet therefore be-
comes a vast blowpipe blown with heated air, and by in-
creasing the number of jets and concentrating the action of
the flames, a very high degree of temperature is readily pro-
duced.

3. The first application of gas furnaces, according to Péclet,
is dued to M. Aubertot, who in 1812 used the flame of a high

Ss

4.4. On Gas Furnaces.

blast furnace to calcine lime and burn bricks. In 1829, after
Reitron’s discovery of the hot blast principle, the air-pipes
were heated in the flame of the furnace both in France and
England. In 1835, MM. Thomas and Laurens in France
applied the flame of the furnaces to heat the steam boilers
of the blowing machines; and in 1841, they made known their
success in applying the gas process to reverberatory fur-
naces in the iron works of Treveray.

4, In India, I first became acquainted with the heating
powers of the gas principles in August 1842; in consequence
of the bamboos and ridge pole of the shed under which I
had placed my little experimental iron furnaces, having been
several times set on fire by the large volumes of flame
thrown up from a furnace hardly three feet high. To pre-
vent this, I had constructed a pillar chimney for the centre
of the shed, with a nine-inch flue, into which the flame
from the mouth of the furnaces was drawn up by the draft
through lateral apertures: when to my astonishment, I
found that in less than half an hour the whole flue was
heated red hot from top to bottom, for more than ten feet
in length, and a brilliant flame thrown out besides, from the
summit of the chimney, more than four feet high; producing
in the shades of evening a beautiful fire-work, resembling
an immense ‘‘Gerbe,” the sparks being afforded by the
powder of the charcoal drawn up. The discovery of the
different applications and mode of management of the gas of
course rapidly succeeded; but although I was aware of the
use of Thomas and Laurens’ blowpipe principle, and what
might be done with it, yet it was out of my power to try it
upon any scale larger than a small experiment.

5. In Bengal, I consider the application of the gas furnace
of immense consequence, as it affords the means of readily
using the worst coals, now almost valueless to heat the steam
boilers of the boats employed on the inland navigation of the
rivers. Many other applications must also readily present

On a new compound of Iron and Carbon. 45

themselves to practical men, but at present I shall content
myself with calling public attention to the subject in this
brief notice.

January, 1845.

On a new compound of Iron and Carbon. By Captain J.
CaMPBELL, 21st Regiment M. N. I.

1. In January 1842, during some experiments for making
cast iron with magnetic iron ore and charcoal, in which
an intense heat was produced, I found among the products
of the furnace some pieces of charcoal retaining perfectly
their original form and appearance, but quite metallised, and
for want ofa better name I will call this for the present “ fer-
ruginised charcoal.

2, All the cracks and pores in the piece of charcoal were
quite visible, and it seemed as if wetted with the metal,
which pervaded its substance. When scraped with a knife,
it resisted strongly, and shewed a smooth metallic ap-
pearance, strongly attracted the magnetic needle, and was
readily raised by the magnet. Examined with a lens, the
outside appeared covered with minute glistening planes of
a leadish black colour. Filed in a vice, was cut by the
file like metal, and gave a metallic surface of a dark-black
lead colour, with some pores and specks. The filings
had a black charcoal colour and appearance, but not quite
the sooé colour of charcoal powder, having a more leadish
hue. The filings were completely raised by the magnet.
A portion of the piece of charcoal retained the original ap-
pearance not having been wetted by the metal, this portion
filed, had a dark soot colour, and the filings were not affect-
_ed by the magnet.

3. <A piece of the “ ferruginised charcoal,” weighing
31.82 grains, was put into a digesting flask, and an ounce of
diluted pure muriatic acid was poured upon it; action

46 On a new compound of Iron and Carbon.

rapid, and gas given off was hydrogen from the smell. By
mistake was forgotten for 14 months, when the solution had
a rusty muddy appearance. On adding water, no action fol-
lowed. Solution diluted and decanted, and analysis washed
clean: dried on blotting paper, gave off the usual smell and
fumes from the residue, on dissolving cast iron in muriatic
acid ; dried did not affect the magnetic needle. Examined
by the lens, looked like a piece of charcoal: shewing the
pores of the wood and the cracks. A great portion still
showed the little glistening planes; dried at a low red heat
in platina crucible over spirit lamp, weighed 6.40 grains.
Had not altered in appearance from the heat. Was easily
friable, and crumbled under an ivory paper knife into a soft
powder, retaining the glistening appearance of the lump.
Rubbed on paper had exactly the colour of fine black lead.
Felt greasy, and gave polished lead coloured coat to the end
of the finger. India rubber removed the stain readily and
completely from the paper. ‘The charcoal, unaltered part,
did not crumble readily like the rest, but felt hard and
coally under the paper knife. The graphite, heated red hot
in a platina spoon, not altered at all, and did not glow or burn
when a stream of air was directed upon it. The graphite
with some fused saltpetre produced a violent action; effer-
vesced, with gas and white smoke giving off. Action con-
tinued sometime, when subsided and cold, no signs of any
of the graphite remaining, but the carbonate of potash had
a dirty reddish appearance. Experiments on the muriatic
solution decanted off the piece of ‘‘ ferruginised charcoal,”
gave nothing but what is usual with common ferruginous so-
lutions.

4. ‘ Ferruginised charcoal” as above described, can be
made with regularity and certainty at the expense of 10d. per
15 pounds of charcoal to 1 pound of the results: but I can-
not at present explain the precautions required to produce
the result, until I am able to resume again my iron experl-

Mineral Sulphurets. 47

ment. But I may say, that I am possessed of almost certain
evidence that nitrogen is the active agent; though I must
confess, that the theory of the operations is beyond my
science.

5. Ferruginised charcoal can certainly be made for
£200 a ton, and as it yields half of its weight of excellent
graphite, is it not possible that it may prove valuable as a
manufacture, when the worst black lead sells at 2 shillings a
pound ?

6. Imperfect as my information of this subject is at pre-
sent, I shall abstain from entering into any speculations
on what I have now announced, and shall conclude with re-
marking, that the only notice of any similar product which I
have been able to find is in an experiment by Doberciner,
which I have not at present the means of referring to.

January, 1845,

Exiract of a Letter from Captain J. CAMPBELL, 21st Regi-
ment M. N. I.

With regard to Lieutenant Latter’s account of the new
French process for treating mineral sulphurets, in your 11th
Number, I would remark, that I believe I am correct in
stating, that there is no method known in Chemistry for
making saltpetre afford oxygen to sulphurous acid gas, upon
which the principle of the whole method turns. There
seems to be no doubt, from the methodical description given,
that the process is instituted in practice, but that some de-
ception or concealment must have been practised by those
who permitted the operation to be inspected. Does saltpetre
at a red heat become decomposed by the contact of carbo-
naceous substances, and perhaps by carboniferous gases? It
is perhaps probable, that in the same way that the oxygen
combines with carbon, so also at a red heat, may the same
combinations take place by the contact of sulphurous acid

7 Se

t
?
|

48 Chemical Manufacture.

gas, but I am not aware that such an experiment has been
tried, or the results made public.’*
January, 1845.

Note on the above by Mr. A. RosBertTson.

* The description, referred to, of the apparatus for making sulphuric acid from
metallic sulphurets, seems to be complete without evasion or concealment, and
the apparatus itself to be admirably adapted for such a purpose. The theory of
the process given, is, however, faulty, and in the details there appears to be an
omission in regard to the saltpetre, which is not used alone, but mixed with its
equivalent of sulphuric acid. The nitric acid so evolved enables the sulphurous
acid gas to combine with oxygen, from the atmospheric air entering the lead cham-
ber along with it, in a manner explained in the well known theory of Clement
Desormes, which is noticed in every recent system or elements of Chemistry.

From what Lieut. Latter states of the ore used, that it sometimes contains not
more than 1g per cent. of copper, that there is much iron in the residuum, and that
it loses about one-fifth of its weight during the process, it is evident that much more
of the iron pyrites than of the copper pyrites must often be present init. In this
case the process is a well known one, and has been carried on to a great extent
in Britain during the last five years at least, when it was forced upon the manufac-
turers by the attempted monopoly of Sicilian sulphur, which had tripled the price
of that article.

It is merely a question of relative price whether pyrites or sulphur can be most
advantageously used. Sulphur, at present prices in Britain is likely the most
economical, even though the maker from pyrites be helped by the sale of the
residue to the iron smelters, as roasted iron ore. In Calcutta the sale of rough
sulphur (from Muscat) has been a monopoly in the hands of some native mer-
chants, and has ranged from two to three times the present price of rough Sicilian
sulphur in Britain, but it issaid that abundance of very pure sulphur might be had
for the trouble of collecting it in many of the volcanic Islands in the Indian seas.
Acid made from volcanic sulphur is pure, that from pyrites usually contains much
arsenic, which unfits it for many purposes.

There are at present three makers of sulphuric acid near Calcutta, who all sell
at the same price, two annas per lb. which considering the higher price of sulphur
in India, and the very limited sale of acid, is lower in proportion than that at which
it is sold in Britain, and it cannot well be expected to become less, while things
continue as they are, unless a party possessing capital should for some particular
reason be willing to submit to a temporary sacrifice.

As connected with chemical manufactures in India, it may be well to notice that
a native production, sajee-mati, which a few years ago sold at less than one rupee
per maund, has, in Calcutta, for the last two years, advanced to from three to four
rupees per maund, and that British-made carbonate of soda has in consequence
been freely imported. It would be desirable to ascertain the reason of this, as it
is said to be abundant in some districts not far up the river, and to be had for the
labour of gathering it. The soda contained in the sajee-mati is probably as essential
to chemical manufacturers in India as sulphuric acid itself.

TN

49

Observations on the Structure and Affinities of the Genus
* Azima” of Lamarck. By R. Wieut, M.D., F.L.S.; and
G. Garvner, F.L.S., Superintendent of the Royal Bo-
tanic Garden, Ceylon.

The genus Azima was first established by M. de Lamarck
at page 343 of the first volume of the ‘ Encyclopedie
Methodique,’ in the year 1783. In the following year it
was again characterised by L’ Heritier, under the name of
Monetia, in the first fasciculus of his ‘Stirpes nove.’ The
latter name, from what reason we know not, has been adopt-
ed by all succeeding writers, except Jussieu and Persoon.
In accordance with the law of priority, we adopt Lamarck’s
name.

Azima tetracantha, Lam. grows very abundantly in the
neighbourhood of Coimbatore, and being now profusely both
in flower and fruit, we have been enabled to draw up the
following description from recent specimens, from which
it will be perceived that those which have previously been
published are all more or less incorrect.

Descr.—A deeicious rambling shrub, with prickly branches from
4-12 feet long. Branchlets opposite, obtusely 4-angled, pubescent,
a little flattened at the nodes, which are about an inch distant from
each other. Prickles two from the axills of each leaf, divaricate,
somewhat triangular, grooved on the upper surface, terminating in
a rigid acute point, and from half an inch to an inch and a half in
length. Leaves opposite, shortly petiolate, ovate-lanceolate, acute
at the base, pungent at the apex, coriaceous, indistinctly penniven-
ous, pubescent, of a light green colour, shining on both sides, from
an inch to an inch and a half long, and from 8-11 lines broad.
Mate FLowers small, sessile, axillary, solitary or aggregated, each
furnished with two appressed mucronate bracts. Calyx viscously
pubescent, urceolate, 4-cleft, segments cuspidate. Petals 4, hypo-
gynous, linear-lanceolate, equal, estivation valvate, greenish-yellow.

Stamens 4, hypogynous, alternate with the petals ; fi/aments linear,
H

50 The Genus Azima.

stout, shorter than the petals. Anthers ovate, free, introrse, de-
hiscing longitudinally, connective, shortly produced, apiculate, incur-
ved. Ovary abortive, conical acute. FrmMaLe Fiowrrs: Calyx
irregularly 2-4-cleft. Corolla as in the male. Stamens 4, rudimen-
tary, alternating with the petals. Ovary hypogynous, equalling the
petals in length, turgid, glabrous, 2-celled, with a single erect ovate
in each cell. Style none. Stigma sessile, peltate, pappilose, ob-
scurely 2-lobed. Fruit a globose white berry (not unlike a large
currant), 2-celled, or rarely by abortion 1-celled, when 2-celled with
the septum nearly evanescent, cells l-seeded. Seeds erect, orbic-
clar, plano-convex : ¢esta coriaceous, brown somewhat rugose: Al-
bumen none. Embryo green lenticular. Cotyledons fleshy, cor-
date-auriculate at the base, the lobes over-lapping and concealing
the elongated straight radicle.

Lamarck makes no further mention of the natural affinity
of Azima, than merely observing that “ Il semble avoir des
rapports avec le Pzsonia, par son port; mais la fructifica-
tion l’en eloigue un peu.” Jussieu observes that judg-
ing from Lamarck’s description, it approaches Strychnos
or Carissa, but differs by being polypetalous. Bartling
puts it at the end of Apocynee, along with some other
genera with whose true affinities he was equally unacquainted.
Lindley takes no notice of it in the first edition of his ‘ Intro-
duction to the Natural System,’ but in the second, places
it doubtfully among his Aquifoliacee. Mr. G. Don follows
Bartling in considering it an imperfectly-known genus of Apo-
cynee. Harvey, in his ‘Genera of South African Plants,’
gives an original character, drawn up from Cape specimens,
and puts it in the Appendix with the following observation :—
«This genus has been referred to Apocynee ; I cannot agree
with the justness of the reference, but am unable to say with
what order it should be associated.” Meisner adopts
Lindley’s view, adding the following remarks: ‘‘ Spine ad
foliorum insertionem potius laterales quam axillares esse et

The Genus Azima. 51

stipularum locum tenero nobis (ex icone) videntur, unde
genus vix hujus loci, sed forsan potius Rhamneis adnumer-
andun esse credimus.

The principal reason, it appears to us, why those Botanists
who have written on this genus have not been led to refer
it to its proper position in the natural system is, that too
much importance has been attached to its being polypetalous.
Notwithstanding this structure, we believe its affinities lean
less towards the polypetalous than the monopetalous division
of plants; and in the latter, we are inclined to place it as a
distinct order between Oleacee and Jasminacee. That it
is nearly related to these orders, more nearly indeed, than
to any others in the system, our analysis clearly shows; but
to neither of them can it be referred from the almost equal
affinity it bears to each. Thus it corresponds with Oleacee
in the structure of the flower, differing principally in having
4, not 2 stamens. If we reflect, however, that Oleacee@ is
tetramerous in its floral envelopes, it is to be expected that
truly oleaceous genera may yet be discovered having four sta-
mens. The dicecious character of 42ima is met with in more
than one species of Olea; and free petals exist in Linociera.
From Oleacee, Azima is essentially distinguished by its
erect, not pendulous ovules, and exalbuminous seed. On
the contrary, it agrees with Jasminacee in the nature of its
ovary and fruit, but differs considerably in the details of its
floral envelopes. From Oleacee it differs in habit, while
it agrees with that of the scandent species of Jesminum.

By those who are inclined to keep up Oleaceae as a sub-
order of Jasminacee, (among whom may be mentioned Richard
and Arnott,) Azima will perhaps be considered as a proof
in favour of their opinion. We on the contrary, believe it to
be one of those plants which occasionally turn up to prove
the distinctness of orders, which were previously considered
as scarcely distinct. This, however, was hardly required as
regards the orders in question; the late Professor DeCandolle

52 The Genus Azima.

having shown in one of his earliest botanical works, (Prop.
Med. ed. 2, p. 206,) that the two orders were at least not
very nearly related, from the fact, that the members of the
one would not graft on those of the other.

The following is the essential character we propose for
the new natural order.

AZIMACEZ.

Flowers dicecious. Mae: Calyx urceolate, 4-cleft. Pe-
tals 4, hypogynous, equal, estivation valvate. Stamens 4,
hypogynous. Anthers 2-celled, introrse, dehiscing longitu-
dinally, connective, shortly produced, apiculate. Ovary abor-
tive. Femaute: Calyx irregularly 2-4-cleft. Corolla as in
the male. Stamens rudimentary. Ovary hypogynous, tur-
gid, 2-celled, with a single ovule in each cell. Style none.
Stigma sessile, peltate, somewhat 2-lobed. Fruit a globose
berry, 2-celled, or rarely by abortion I-celled: cells 1-seed-
ed. Seeds erect, plano-convex: testa coriaceous, rugose.
Albumen none. Embryo lenticular: Cotyledons fleshy, cor-
date-auriculate at the base: radicle inferior. A rambling
shrub, with opposite leaves, from the axills of each of which
spring two long, divaricate pungent prickles. Flowers small,
axillary, sessile, solitary, or aggregated. Fruit a white fleshy
berry.

Azima. Lam. Ency. Meth. 1, p. 343, (1783.) Illus. des
Gen. t. 807. Juss. Gen. Plant. p. 465. Person Syn. Plant.
1, p. 145.—Monetia. L’ Herit. Stirp. Novae. 1, t. 1, (1784.)
Schreb Gen. n. 198. Wild. Sp. Plant. 1, p. 669. Gaert.
fil. p. 247, t. 225. Spreng. Syst. Veg. 1, p. 369. G. Don.
Dict. 4, p. 105. Harvey Gen. p. 411. Meis. Gen. p. 252.
Endl. Gen. n. 5711 et 6891.

Character the same as that of the order.

1. Azima tetracantha, Lam. bb. cc. Monetia barlerioi-
des, LZ’ Herit. lt. c.

The Genus Azima. 53

Has.—Common in the peninsula of India, in hedges and
bushy places. Eastern districts of the Cape of Good Hope ?
Leyher.

OxsseERVATION I.—Lamarck and all succeeding botanists
describe two species of this genus, the one here described,
which is said to be common to India and the Cape, and
A. diacantha, also said to be an Indian species, but only
known from a figure in the ‘ Photographia’ of Plukenet (tab.
133. f. 3.) To whatever genus this plant may belong, it
certainly has nothing to do with the present one, the alter-
nate leaves, and the position of the prickles or spines—infra-
petiolar,—being totally at variance with it. Is it not rather
some Rhamnaceous plant? Wildenow in his edition cf the
Linnzan ‘Species Plantarum’, refers to Rheede’s Isjerou
Kara (Hort. Mal. p. 73, t. 37,) as being identical with the
plant of Plukenet, but the figure there given is certainly
that of Canthium Rheedii, DC. The same figure is again
quoted by Wildenow for his Webera tetrandra ( Canthium
parvifloram, Lam.) To these two species Sprengle has
added a third, the Camphorosma paleacea of the younger
Linnezus, which must also be removed from the genus. The
materials which we possess render it more difficult to ascer-
tain whether the Azima tetracantha of the Cape, and that of
this country are identically the same species. Harvey seems
to have had good materials from which to form the generic
character which he has given. Judging from that descrip-
tion, we incline to believe that the species are distinct, from
the fact, that the stamens in his plant are said to vary from
four to seven, and that two or three of the filaments are
sometimes combined. We have examined numerous flowers
of our species, and have never observed more than four
stamens, with their filaments always free. He further states
the ovules of the Cape plant to be suspended from the sum-
mit of the cells ; in ours they are always erect from the base.

54 The Genus Aszima.

Before, however, a decision on this point can be come to,
a comparison of specimens would be required. We know
nothing of Wallich’s Monetia? Branoniana (Cat. n. 7493,)
from the banks of the Irawaddy, no description of it having
as yet been published.

Oss. IJ.—In none of the various descriptions of Azima
tetracantha, which we have consulted, is the stigma properly
described, except in that of Mr. Harvey. This no doubt
has arisen from two causes ; first, the examination of dried
specimens alone; and, second, from only examining the
male flowers, the abortive ovary in which is, as always noted,
conical and acute.

Ozs. I1I].—What are the long prickles which give to
Azima so formidable a character? Meisner, supposing them
to be lateral with reference to the petiole, considers them to
be of the nature of stipules. They are, however, distinctly
supra-petiolary, articulated only with the bark, and easily
removed. From between the base of each pair there springs
either a cluster of flowers, or a small branch. To us they
appear to be magnified, and very much modified representa-
tives of those small scarious leaf-like scales which are found
in the axills of the leaves, and surrounding the bases of the
branchlets, in some species of olea. O. paniculata for ex-
ample.

Ogs. I1V.—One of the reasons which M. Richard ad-

duces for keeping Oleacee and Jasminacee@ united, is the |

circumstance, which he says he has discovered, that the
ovules of the latter order are originally pendulous as in the
former; but that they afterwards become erect in conse-
quence of the growth of the ovary, whose apex does not
elongate, while its sides extend considerably during the
growth of the fruit.* We have now before us recent speci-

* Vide Lindley’s Introd. to Nat. Syst. 2nd ed. p. 30%

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The Genus Azima. 55

mens of a new species of Jasminum,* collected on the Neel-
gherries, the careful examination of which does not confirm
the statement of that eminent Botanist. In the virgin, as
well as in the impregnated ovary, we find that the ovules
are ascending, being attached to the inner angle of the base
of the cell. They are not, however, so distinctly basilar as
those of Azima.

Ozs. V.—It has been usual to consider Oleacee and Jas-
minace@ as related on the one hand to Verbenacee and those
other monopetalous orders in which the number of stamens
differs from that of the corolla; and on the other, to Eben-
acee and Aposcyneae. ‘The association of Azima with them
more fully confirms the latter relationship, at the same time
that it brings them closely in contact with Ilicineae. They
may also be compared with some of the polypetalous orders,
such as Olacaceae; and with such genera of Aurantiacee
as Iriphasia and Glycasmi.

EXPLANATION OF THE Priatzs.—lI,

Fig. 1. Portion of a Staminiferous branch of Azima tetracantha.
Nat. Size.
a. A smaller portion more highly magnified.
6. A single flower and bract.
c. A flower laid open.
d. Front and back view of an anther.

* This species may be characterized as follows :—

Jasminum tetraphis ; scandent glabrous shining, branches and_ branchlets
roundish, petioles geniculate, leaves oblong-lanceolate acute at the base, attenuated
at the apex, 3-nerved, flowers from 3-5 terminal sessile, lobes of the calyx 4, rarely
2 or 3, subulate, erect, and about half of length of the tube of the corolla, limb
of the corolla 5-6-lobed, lobes lanceolate acute shorter than the tube.

Nearly allied to Roxburgh’s J. laurifolium, from which it chiefly differs in its
sessile flowers, and fewer colycine lobes. Flowers white, fragrant ; leaves from
2-23 inches long, and about 12 lines broad.

£

;4

56 The Genus Azima.

Fig. 2. Portion of a branch of the pistiliferous plant. Nat. Size.

a, A single flower, showing its position with reference to
the prickles and petiole.

b. A flower laid open.

ce. Abortive anthers.

d. Verticle section of an ovary.

e. Horizontal ditto ditto.

Jf. Ditto ditto of a ripe fruit.

g. A seed.

h. An embryo.

To the Editor of the Calcutta Journal of Natural History.

My pear Sir,—After an attentive perusal of Mr. Batten’s remarks
on the snow line of the Himalayas, published in the Journal for
October, 1844, I can see no reason whatever for altering my opinions
on the subject. The very self-sufficient tone which pervades that
gentleman’s critique, would have induced me to waive the farther
discussion of the subject, did it not occur to me that my silence
might lead to the belief that I yielded the point at issue, which is
so far from being the case, that I am now more than ever convinced,
from all Mr. Batten has urged, of the erroneousness of the hitherto
received doctrine when applied to the Himalaya, as a general rule.
Although, therefore it may appear highly presumptuous to array the
opinions of such light authorities as Dr’s. Gerard and Lord, Captains
Cunningham, Jack and myself, against those of the Commissioner
of Kemaon, I shall nevertheless, for the sake of truth, endeavour
as briefly as possible to show the actual facts of the case, as they
now appear to be elicited by the controversy.

In his zeal to defend Captain Webb and others from an attack
which had existence no where save in his own imagination, Mr.
Batten appears entirely to have overlooked the fact, that what may
be locally true in some parts of so vast and extensive a range as
that generally known as the Himalaya, may yet be quite the reverse
elsewhere on the same range, and this with regard to the question at
issue appears to be precisely the case. I will venture to say that in
recording our individual observations, it never for a moment entered

t

On the Perpetual Snow line. 57
into the minds either of myself or of my supporters, to pronounce
Captain Webb’s statements erroneous when applied to certain loca-
lities whence his facts were derived, but we thought it necessary to
show that his doctrine was not generally applicable, and therefore
that it stood in need of some modification.

Mr. Batten has well asked, ‘‘ how can the observations of one in-
dividual made in one part of the mountains, upset the observations
of another individual in another part?” But he has somewhat
strangely forgotten to apply the question to Capt. Webb’s state-
ments, for how can facts observed by him in Kumaon and the adja-
cent tracts upset the observations of others made in different locali-
ties to the westward? And if they cannot upset them, then have we
at once a clear and convincing proof that Capt. Webb’s facts are
merely locally and not generally true; his facts were the results of
observations made in one locality, mine in another, and Dr. Lord’s in
a third; each is locally true, and while in the two latter instances
the facts agree, they can no more disprove the facts observed by
Capt. Webb, than his case disprove them.

I have already acknowledged the faultiness of my first letter, in so
far as regards my having omitted to state in sufficiently distinct
terms, that my remarks referred to the actual northern and southern
aspects of the true Himalaya, or central, or main range of snowy
peaks, and not to the aspects of secondary groups and minor ranges.
My last letter, published in the October Journal explained all this,
and the question now appears to be, ‘‘ does the snow lie longer,
deeper, and lower down on the Trans-Himalayan or northern aspect,
than it does on the Cis-Himalayan or southern slope? I answer
without hesitation, that as a general rule applied to the Himalaya in
the proper acceptation of the term, the hitherto received doctrine is
decidedly erroneous. Nor is the assertion devoid of proof, for if,
as Mr. Batten declares, the observations made in different parts
of the mountains by different individuals, cannot upset each other,
we must necessarily admit that Captain Webb has recorded the
truth as observed by him in Kumaon and its neighbourhood, and that
Dr. Lord has also recorded the truth as observed by him to the
westward. The phenomena in the two localities are therefore true,
although directly opposed to each other, and furnish at once a

I

58 On the Perpetual Snow line.

decided proof that Captain Webb’s doctrine, or at all events the
doctrine deduced from his facts, is only locally and not generally
applicable. But in support of Dr. Lord's statements we have ob-
servations made by other individuals in a part of the Himalaya
totally distinct from the other two, and consequently if any general
rule is to’ be deduced from the observations already made, it must
rather tend to show that the snow lies longer on the northern than on
the southern aspect, for as yet the evidence preponderates in favour
of the northern side. It appears moreover that Mr. Batten in de-
fending Captain Webb’s statements, has drawn his conclusions from
what is observable on tne plains of Thibet, rather than from facts
apparent on the northern slope of the Himalaya. The question,
however, is not whether the snow lies longer on the elevated plains
of Thibet than on the sourthern slope of the Himalaya, but whether
it does not lie longer on the northern face of those mountains.
This point indeed Mr. Batten has already decided, for he says,
the northern slope of all the mountains retains the snow longer than
the southern side and that this applies equally to hills in Bhote !
That the snow lies longer on the southern slope of the central range
than it does on the plains of Thibet to the north of that range,
is not disputed, for comparatively little snow falls on those plains,
and that little is soon dissipated by the prevailing high winds ;
besides which, the sun is very powerful on those tracts during the
summer, and it is by no means wonderful under such circumstances,
that two feet of snow should take less time to melt on the plains of
Thibet, than four or six feet on the more elevated southern slope
of the mountains! No great credit is due for such a discovery
as this !

But Humboldt thought that Captain Webb’s observations referred
to the northern slope of the mountains, and not to the northern plains,
for in his theory of Isothermal lines, supposing from Captain Webb’s
statements that the northern face of the Himalaya, was more speedily
uncovered than the southern face, he endeavours to account for the
strange phenomenon by attributing it to the effects of great heat,
radiating from the plains of Thibet, thereby clearly proving that it

was the mountains and not the plains that were alluded to, by Cap-
tain Webb.

On the Perpetual Snow line. 59

Again if we allow that an equal quantity of snow falls over either
side of the main chain, and that the radiation of heat from the plains
below them causes that snow to melt, it will follow that the hottest
side of the range will be more speedily uncovered than the other ;
this would furnish additional evidence in favour of the north, for
the plains of India being hotter than the plains of Thibet, the snow
would leave the southern aspect sooner than the northern, and if to
this we add the influence of the periodical rains on the Cis-Himalayan
side, there will remain little doubt as to which side retains the snow
the longest.

What then becomes of the question? It appears to be simply
this, namely, Dr. Lord observed that contrary to the usual belief the
snow lay longer, deeper, and lower down on the northern than on
the southern side of the Hindoo cush; Dr. Gerard, Captains
Cunningham, Jack and myself observed the same facts in the dis-
tricts beyond Simla, and lastly Mr. Batten, albeit a strenuous advo-
cate for preconceived opinions, unintentionally shows, that precisely
the same phenomena are apparent even in Bhote. From all observers
therefore we have proof that the snow lies longer on the northren
slope of the Himalaya than it does on the southern, and consequently
that if everlasting snow, does in reality exist at all, it must be
sought for on the northern aspect.

The result of the controversy then seems to be, that the usual
doctrine is founded on insufficient evidence, and that Captain Webb’s
facts, if indeed he was not himself deceived, must be considered as
mere local phenomena having little or no weight as regards the gene-
ral question.

Having now placed the matter in as clear a light as my data will
admit of, I shall here dismiss the subject, leaving its further discus-
sion and elucidation in the able hands of Mr. Batten and ‘“ all the
men, women and children” to whom he has so very facetiously, but
unnecessarily alluded.

Mussoree, 28th February, 1845. Tuomas Hutton.

et
.

60

A Note on Boodhism and the Cave Temples of India. By Tuomas
Latrer, Lieutenant, Bengal Army.

It is a matter admitting of little dispute, although that portion of
history is not so clear, as it might have been, had we been more in-
dustrious in our researches—that there was in very antient times a
very intimate connection between A®thiopia and India. Our chief
authorities on this point are of Indian origin ;—and even when allud-
ed to by Latin, or Greek authors, the information is declared as
having been derived from Indian sources. The Indian authorities,
however, invariably assert that AZthiopia was first visited and settled
from India, and they enter not only into details connected with the
circumstance, but likewise pretend at the same time to give the
whole of the early history of that country. It is not my intention
here to adduce authorities, to prove the falsity of their assertions, but
I will only state that, taking it as a fact that a connection existed in
early ages between the two nations, the very circumstance of all the
reminiscences and remembrances of the incidents and facts of the
occurrence existing, according to the Brahmins, on the side of India,
is about the most powerful argument that could be adduced to prove
that she, and not Xthiopia, was the visited party—for it is a notori-
ous circumstance of every-day occurrence, that where families or indi-
viduals have separated from the mother-country, they long continue
to treasure in their memories, and hand down to their descendants,
all the ancestral traditions and recollections of the parent-stock ;
whereas the senior branch that remain at home rapidly lose sight of
the young off-shoots. Bearing on this subject likewise, is the cir-
cumstance of the similarity existing between some of the figures of
the Deities of the antient Egyptians, and those of the Hindoo idols
of the present day——as was evinced by the well-known circumstance
of the Hindoo Soldiers of the Bengal brigade, despatched to Egypt,
to assist in the expulsion of the French under Buonaparte, having
worshipped and acknowledged as identical with their own idols—the
sculptured figures which they found in that country.

From the circumstance of the oldest temples of India being cave
temples, (the antiqueness as it were of their type being in proportion
to their position Westwards,) and the earlier of the statues of Boodh

A Note on Boodhism and the Cave §c. 61

being of an AXthiopic caste of countenance, it is both probable that
when the first AXthiopians settled on our, perhaps desert, shores,—it
was at so early a date as to have enabled them to preserve their
Troglodyte predilection for the cave ; as also that the Bhoodistical
religion was of Aithiopic extraction. It is an opinion held by most
Egyptologists, and one that seems to gain ground by fresh disco-
veries, that to Aithiopia was Egypt first indebted for the commence-
ment of her splendid proficiency in civilisation ; perhaps to the same
source may be due the equal progress which antient India had made
in the same career. The dry climate of Egypt has enabled her
to preserve the title-deeds of her claim; whereas her sister India
has been daily for centuries, being robbed of the pledges of her
right, as much by the destructiveness of her climate, as by the
neglect of her Rulers; this neglect has made us the bye-word of
the civilised nations of the world: is it not then incumbent on
us to place on record these vestiges of her antient glory? At
this very moment, perhaps, a whole side-wall of beautifully paint-
ed fresco may be falling down—unheard of by us all, uncared for, I
feel assured, by none—but carrying with it into utter oblivion
the glowing record of scenes of bygone splendor, of passing interest
and truth. We must all of us, therefore, whatever may be our
individual or professional predilections or pursuits, feel interested in
the investigation of subjects connected with the antient state of
India, and with the preservation of the reliques that have come down
to us. But even the dry utilitarian principles, on which Govern-
ments profess to move, will find their reward in the same pursuits ;
for these subjects form a part of that system of Boodhism, which
they prove to have agreed admirably with the mental structure
of the race over which Providence has called us to preside. With it,
they were a happy, contented and noble-minded race, highly ad-
vanced in arts and civilisation, as is shewn by the vestiges they have
left ; deprived of it by the Brahmin, they rapidly sank into that
state of torpid barbarism in which we find them. If then the
Government should shew them what they are capable of, by placing
before them the record of what they have been; by culling, from
the ethics of the Boodhist creed, dogmas which might be incorporat-
ed into the public system of education, truths which the Christian

62 A Note on Boodhism and the Cave

would find akin to those which he has been taught to follow,
and which to the Indian would come recommended by their Indian
origin and their sacred antiquity ;—I say then by doing this,
Government would be amply repaid in the rapid social and mental
improvement of an affectionate and grateful people. .

In our investigations into the ideas and feelings incident to man
in an early age, or as we are pleased to call it “ a savage state,” we
are fond of giving him credit for little else than a debased and
brutal imagination ;—whereas in reality the savage mind is capable
of the most abstruse speculations, and even metaphysical deductions,
the effect of a luxuriant and unfettered imagination: with few
wants and those satisfied without difficulty, the contemplative savage
had little else to do than revel in the creations of his own imagina-
tion. We find, therefore, the poetry of a rude and barbarous age as rich
in its imagery as that of the most civilised epoch. It is even with
some mental exertion that we moderns with all the concomitants of
romantic scenery, a secluded locality, and the assistance of a memory
stored with the ideas that have gone before us, can raise ourselves
from viewing the air, earth and water around us—but as earth,
air and water. Whereas in the eye of the savage his native land
teemed with beings of an ideal essence and an airy form; with him,
every fountain had its Naiad, and every dingle had its fay ; each leaf
in the wide forest owned its peculiar sprite who shielded with his
little hands, its. light bloom from the rude blast, and trimmed the
notches of its edge; ’twas they, he loved to think, who sped the
Mote-Dance in the sun-beam and smiled in every dimple of the
stream. Every one of us must have remarked that the deeper we
penetrated into the secluded forests and mountain ranges of India—
and the more rude and untutored are their inhabitants—the more
addicted do we find them to such picturesque superstitions and
beliefs. Arguing, as I remarked before, a mind gifted with strong
ideal powers. For this reason we should not (as some writers on
Boodhism have been) be startled with the deep metaphysical ab-
stractions of some of its dogmas, and declare that therefore it savors
of a modern and not of an antient day. There is a true remark,
bearing on this subject, made by Mills in his History of British
India. When alluding to the fondness existing among the Afghans

|
!

Temples of India. 63

and other semi-barbarous nations for metaphysical speculations—he
says, ‘‘ these facts coincide with a curious law of human nature which
some eminent philosophers have already remarked. The highest
abstractions are not the result of mental culture and intellectual
strength.” And again, ‘“‘the propensity to abstract speculations
is then the natural result of the state of the human mind in a rude
and ignorant age,” And it was this that was the triumph of
Socrates that he taught that the mind should release itself from
the occupation of darkness—vague and useless speculations ;—and
should be applied to making ourselves good citizens and subjects,
and perfect in our individual calling. It was thus that he was said
to haye brought down Philosophy from the skies to dwell among
men. .

It will perhaps assist in explaining the points which I may have to
dwell upon, if I give a slight sketch of what probably was the origin
and progress of Boodhism. The best division we could make of the
early families of the Globe, would undoubtedly be that which we
find in Scripture, into those of Shem, Ham and Japheth—of the last,
we know but little in the early ages to which I allude; for they
seem soon to have wandered beyond the precincts of history, and
not to have returned within its cognisance until they had been deep-
ly imbued with the religious opinions of the other two, But with
reference to the families of Shem and Ham; there appears to have
been a marked distinction existing in their natural character, which
seems to have so influenced their career, that, although they started
from the same worship, they fell into different channels of supersti-
tion. The first and original worship of mankind, few will be inclin-
ed to deny, was that natural religion, a pure Theism, the belief
in an individual Being who was the Supreme Creator of all things
and Disposer of all events ; gifted with all the attributes of Omnipo-
tence ; Omniscient, and Omnipresent ; the rewarder, and the pun-
isher ; the father, and the judge. ‘The mind of man however craves
after substantiality, it could not long rest satified with the ideal realisa-
tion of a God, or the pure Spiritualism of His Worship. ‘The
first errors were induced by the presentation of substantial offerings
to the Diety; this led to the representing him symbolically ; then
followed the more materialising influence, which betook itself to the

64 A Note on Boodhism and the Cave

worship of the symbol and of the offering, to the entire forget-
fulness of the true God. It became necessary at last that mankind
should be recalled to the purity of an early faith; and the injunction,
that, as God is a Spirit, therefore he is to be worshipped in spirit and
in truth—stands a record as well of the truthfulness of the premises,
as the logical soundness of the deduction on which is based the prin-
ple of the reformation introduced by the Great Founder of our
Faith.

But it is singular to remark, that this inclination, inherent in
human nature, to realise by substantialising the idea of a God, acted
differently in the two families which we have under review. The
Semitic Nations appear never to have entirely lost sight of the view
of an individual God or Gods through all their symbols. Whether
as Sabzeans they worshipped the Sun and Moon and the starry Host,
they were still identified in their minds as individuals either through
the means of their supposed regents—or as exercising individual in-
fluences on mankind; the same was the case with the deification
of ancestral heroes, gods and demi-gods, as obtained in Antient
Greece and Rome. If adorers of the regenerative powers of Nature,
they never lost sight of their individualities, and marshalled them-
selves as worshippers of the male or female power. The Hamite
family on the other hand perhaps from being of a more enquiring
caste of mind soon became skeptic; they at first doubted and then
disbelived the existence of a creating God, a Demi-urge. The
first question that they seemed to have asked themselves was ; if
there is a being who created every thing, space, and matter, where
was he, in what medium did he exist, before he began to create
—when nothing was? ‘They soon got deeper in metaphysical
wisdom (Boodhism) till lost in a perfect maze of subtle intricacies
and wire-drawn distinctions. Still however with them the sym-
bolising and materialising propensities of human nature were at
work, if they were unable to exercise this influence in endeavouring
to symbolise or materialise the idea of a God, they did so with
metaphysical principles and mental qualities, &c, Their first sym-
bols, as must strike every one, were necessarily numbers, for, if they
considered that such and such, and so many metaphysical principles,
or such and such, and so many mental qualities existed in the Mun-

Temples of India. 65

dane constitution, then immediately, that same number conveyed
the idea of, and typified them. The next step was the still further
materialising into tangibility, or of the eye, or of the hand, these
numerical types or symbols. This was at first simply done by merely
the necessary number of scores, marks, glyphs, or erections—either
separately, or combined in figures. Soon however it was remarked
that some individuals of the animal creation seemed happily by some
idiosyncratic peculiarity; some striking conformation, habit, or
instinct ; some singularity in the mode of living or moving, &c. to
convey the idea of some mental-or metaphysical peculiarity, or
quality ; they then became the representation or symbol; the step
from this to the worst species of Fetichism, the worship of living
animals or their representations, was easy and natural. After this
may be said to have followed worship evincing a still more debased
and brutal. state of mind, outraging all the ideas of nature, sense
and truth, and that was the adoration of those many-armed, many-
limbed, many-headed and many-bodied monstrosities. It was things
of this type that the Bengal Soldiery recognised in their march over
the plains of Egypt. The sketch that I have given above is exactly
the progress that Boodhism has made in India, her most antient
partiality was in a reverence for certain numbers ; her earlier sym-
bols were numerical marks and scores; her later types were animals ;
and the decadence of her purity was the worship of the beast. As
an instance, how animals were used as symbols, I will state that
in the eye of a Boodhist the Elephant typifies the man who is con-
versant. with the esoteric dogmas of his craft, as much on account of
the sagacious gravity of that animal, as from the circumstance
that in crossing a river it sinks deeply into the stream; aptly
representing, then, the man who. has waded deep through the
stream of spiritual knowledge and of reason, and who, calm and col-
lected, whilst by superior sanctity and wisdom he avoids the
sorrows and evils entailed by sin, can likewise turn his attention
to the salvation of his fellow-creatures. The Horse, again, sinks
deep into the stream, though not so much so as the Elephant,
and is therefore chosen to represent the second grade. Whilst the
light, timorous Hare, fleeing headlong from danger, floats like down
upon the waters, and, making but little impression on their bosom,
K

66 A Note on Boodhism and the Cave

aptly emblematises the Neophyte, he who has penetrated but little.
Confer on this subject the admirable resumé of this portion of
Boodhism, given by that consummate and amiable scholar, the
late Abel Remusat in his notes on the travels of Foue-Koue-Ki.
One might adduce numerous instances of many other animals ful-
filling their part in this roll of symbolic representation, Now
we can trace with comparative clearness and facility, by the aid
of history, an exactly similar process (all but the first step) in the re-
ligious system of the antient Egyptians. And it was this first step,
the Mystic and the Ideal, which it is more than probable formed
a part of those mysteries in which the Egyptian priests initiated
Pythagoras and others, but which they were objurated not to reveal.
We know but little of Pythagoras and his doctrines, but there are
some startling coincidences in some of the outward observances of
his schools, and those of the Boodhist of the present day. The be-
lief in the Metempsychosis and the consequent unlawfulness of taking
animal life ; the renunciation of all worldly riches and enjoyment ; the
long period of contemplative silence and probation; the general
pantheisticul tendency and strmgent moral inculcations of their
creed ; the celibate vow, not because women were held in contempt,
but because the society of a wife and the rearing of a family awaken
passions, and entail cares and solicitudes that are incompatible with
deep mental abstraction ; the abstinence from the wearing of woollen
apparel; the sacredness of the yellow color, indeed, if asked to
describe in Greek the yellow vestment of the modern Boodhist
and Amharitic priest, one would employ the term o patoc TpiPwy
which expresses so quaintly and yet aptly the sub-flave, or dun-yel-
low garment of the follower of Pythagoras, for it is inculcated
that the stole of the Boodhist priest, when indued even for the
first time, should be threadbare and not new;; all these, and more,
are points of similarity that seldom occur in systems of totally
different origin. I have already had occasion to remark, in some
notes which I was requested to draw up on a Boodhist symbolical |
coin, in the collection of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, how that
many of the figures, and monoglyphs extant on the sculptures
of Antient Egypt would be viewed as most powerful and expressive
symbols in the eye of a Boodhist, as that paper is, I understand,

Temples of India. 67

about to be published in the Transactions of the Society, I shall not
enter into the subject here. With reference to the next step, the
symbolising metaphysical ideas and mental qualities by means of
animals, we find it one to which the antient Egyptians were most
particularly addicted ; as the Hawk emblematised to them the splen-
dor of a God—so did the Basilisk or King-snake, that of a King ;
“ Truth,” we are told was symbolised by an Ostrich, or a feather of
that bird, because all her plumes were believed to be of equal
length; not a single deified idea exists in the whole Pantheon of
Egypt that had not got its Fetich Cognisance. Coincidences might
be shewn between the ideas that were symbolised by certain animals
in the minds of the antient Egyptians, and those of the modern
Boodhist. Some of the explanations in that line given by Hor-
Apollo, which have been sneered at by some authors, and the whole
work branded as an imposition by others, would find a curious corro-
boration.

Another mode in which Boodhism is fond of symbolising its ideas
is by colors, especially by the reflected light of Jewels, to this also
were the ancient Egyptians attached as evinced by the Urim and
Thummim—the play of those divinatory ‘“‘ Lights of Truth”—bor-
rowed from them by the Hebrews. I should far exceed the bounds
which I have already transgressed were I to attempt to do justice to
this perhaps the most interesting part of my subject, I shall content
myself, therefore, with merely having mentioned the fact, and adding
that to the mind of a Boodhist every planet has its corresponding
Fetich, and every one of these animals has its representative Jewel,
and typifying color.

I have thus endeavoured to sketch the separate channels that
superstition, the falling from the worship of the true God, took
in the two families of Shem and Ham. But my subject would
be incomplete, if I did not mention one cult, which they shared
in common—one that took its rise from so striking and evident
a circumstance—that it is probable neither borrowed it from the
other. I allude to the worship of the Regenerative powers of
Nature. The mind of some Savage of a more contemplative and
intellectual nature than his fellows, must soon have become struck ~
with the circumstance, that whilst when viewed at a distance the

68 A Note on Boodhism and the Cave

ruddy peaks of his native hills glowed with one lasting hue—and
the dark outline of his forest haunts remained eternally the same;
yet when closer inspected a stirring change was continually taking
place : here some antient denizen of the wood came down thunder-
ing with decay, and there he saw the juicy sapling rising in its
place ; here the Mountain torrent sweeping its devastation before it,
and there the Shoalbank growing into land; and even nearer home
the same mighty influence was at work—his forefathers bore witness
that his native village had been fixed in the same site from immemo-
rable time, and yet a daily, at times perhaps to him a poignant,
change was going on—here the old man gathered to his Sires, and
there the nursling starting in his stead. This mysterious power
became the object of his wonder and therefore of his worship ; but
here again the materialising and substantiality craving influences of
humanity came into play, and appropriate symbols were sought for.
The family of Shem, perhaps influenced by the Star worship of the
Sabzean branch, chose the Sun and the Moon—the one as a repre-
sentative of the Female, and the other of the Male power which they
considered inherent in Nature. It is the fact of not keeping this
circumstance in view, viz. that the Sun and the Moon were objects of
worship in widely different points of view ; that has caused so much
confusion in endeavouring to explain the religious system of the
antient Irish. By one class they were adored as King and Qneen
of Heaven, as leaders of the Starry Host, this was Sabeism—by the
other they were regarded, as I have remarked, as the mere visible
symbols of the regenerative powers of nature. It is in this latter
point of view in which Moses speaks of them when he blesses Joseph
in the “‘ precious fruits brought forth by the Sun, and the precious
things put forth by the Moon :” indeed the whole passage strikingly
alludes to the fructifying and regenerative powers of nature. ‘‘ And
of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the precious
things of Heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth be-
neath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by the Sun, and for
the precious things put forth by the Moon, and for the chief things
of the antient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting
. hills, and for the precious things of the earth, and fulness thereof,
and for the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush,” The sym-

————OoO ist

Temples of India. 69

bols, chosen by the family of Ham, rapidly vitiated the worship,
they were on the one side, a single numerical score or mark which
progressed into a mono-style or erection; on the other a representa-
tion. The former was the prototype of that unhewn pyramidal
mass, propitiated by the Canaanitish Nations with the obscene rites
of Peor, which called down such severe punishment on the Israelites.
It is singular that on this point also do we find a correspondence in
the Boodhist land of India—in the Lingum Worship of Maha Deo.

I have allowed myself to dilate on these subjects much more fully
than I at first intended in order that those individuals who may be
employed by the Government here in the investigation of those
Boodhist remains to which attention has been drawn by the authori-
ties at home—may, by having a general view of the whole question,
be enabled to know to what peculiarities they must most essentially
turn their attention: all may be briefly summed up in one word—
Symzoits—the greatest possible attention must be paid to the num-
ber of their component parts, carefully searching whether traces
exist of any partially obliterated by time—these symbols whether
numerical, or animal would probably be formed running along the
architraves, friezes, and cornices: but I again repeat, the greatest
attention should be paid to the number of their component parts ;
for instance, should there be a Star the number of its rays should be
noticed—the three-rayed Star is of the most antient and rare type ;—
a four-rayed one never occurs; a five, is more antient than a six-
rayed one; and the many-rayed are of a comparatively modern
epoch. For instance should a five-rayed Star be found over the
head of a figure, one would unquestionably be justified in asserting
that the whole was of an African type and family ; for the five-rayed
may be called the African, as the six-rayed is the Indian Star; this
peculiarity explains a circumstance which has been a puzzle, and
which I am not aware has been solved; and that is that Hor-Apollo
declares that among the antient Egyptians the number five was re-
presented by a star. Another instance of the stress laid on certain
numbers in the minds of a Boodhist is this; whatever Astronomical
knowledge was possessed by the family of Ham, there is very little
doubt that they were indebted for it to the family of Shem. One
branch of the latter as they listlessly tended their flocks on the

70 A Note on Boodhism and the Cave

plains of Shinar, and during the clear and translucent nights of
Chaldea, had little else to do than con the stars; their’s was the
belief in the seven planets, seven being to them a sacred number ;
these were the Sun, and Moon, (then considered as stars moving
round the earth,) Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn ; to
each in his turn was given the presidency of the several days of the
week. To these seven the family of Ham seem to have added an
eighth, whose influence according to the Indian astronomical system,
was equally diffused over the whole week, to this eighth planet
Cicero alludes in his tract De Natura Deorum. But it is more than
probable that as our researches advance we may find that they did,
as do the modern Boodhists, give a double influence to the Moon in
order to make up the number 9, which is a sacred and holy number ;
thus identifying their peculiar reverence for the number “ nine,”
with the reverence incidental to all savage minds, paid to the
Wandering Star,

The next point to which attention must be paid is to color,
wherever found, whether of the drapery or parts of the drapery,
of the whole or parts of the figure. ,Some most important con-
clusions might be arrived at by means of such colorings.

To bring my subject to a close. As it is not probable that the
Government of India—(the master of twice as many subjects as any
other on the face of the globe, with the exception of China) will
undertake the investigation of the antient remains of their own land,
in the spirit, and on the scale that did the Government of France,
and the little one of Turin, those of a foreign country in the case of
Egypt; I need not enter upon what probably would be the best way
to set aboutit. But there is one small portion, one mite which calls
for their immediate attention; and that is the sending proper persons
to copy the painted caves of Ajunta. Upwards of a month of the
favorable season has elapsed; the jungles will soon be impassable
from malaria; then will succeed the rains, which will add sadly to
the work of destruction, whole pieces of fresco being loosened from
the damp. It is difficult for words to describe the curious splendor
of these remains; here may be seen painted in vivid colors, represen-
ations of the public, and social life of Antient India. In one com-
partment the public procession and the moving throng, in another

ee plese i

wits oe area sy, NAS ait sy!

A

i 2
d F eeintibetiNt Hie eae Cenee Une eiret

acs Pei Bil ath Hepa ey weir ae

grind: ite yee Ct ae in ata
Say a ha ey Tae aS te Re: are
. elie! ane het ‘A oily aay ube bib ay ie bs Ce a Sle
eas ph enetliup me wi, kat at nae: a

SM ae heselhe na, ep fear Bit ath: S eeoths 7

; : 1 ae Bid Fieg ig types fay! Bees:
MAE Sta is wh tae Var ae 1 eS gs i 4 4
‘tind Bs ae ae ‘pb es DP aha ot at i Oa

ee a bia hike Pinata J et a gtd “iy “a vA Bs

pas | as eats be Me % a ‘|
hiss ay hes at fi Ue BE ys ula a oe:
Mitt vein sept yea th plete pete aaa
ie tie eS ote apt t Rar sy Ms Ti WLI Moavaki Ie
. he at divine LUPE Ge re ty eet Loree nda Pp ty,
an #9 eclwstoh ca Ae Pee AT i? fake: % nae! ae ; ee
~ ah ud tiga ii*ide abd ede wie Pay y Cage ae f De
mgd nant Pe fe MiP re ae ‘ss my ees ll
i & Hae: stage ai acne Rae 7

fos Eiviate, ey 7a ake Ce Sy Hes eas
vir : f or 4 5) a aid i Be f
cankelineal Pesel Pais nowy TiS i: , ge Oe ;

'
?

i Le aBae i, ;
ies ihe te i yea :

wr id pl eelntae wet ok rt i oy tote aly
: ated oe ets Ft mach

\\

a deg {
‘yt J , a hae
Pa! Re ee al ee ~

Vou V7. Pudi. q

Caleulle’ yourw Nut Hist

Temples of India. 71

the interior of a private house, gentlemen of the olden times engaged
in conversation, taking refreshment from small cups and surrounded
by attendants; here a troop of gracile, and flower bearing maidens,
and there the contortions of the young athletes; now the busy traffic
of the market-place, then the port full of ships, the hum of its trade,
and the creaking of its cordage speaking to the life. There, may be
seen likewise representations of the leading types of the human race,
the swart Aithiopian with thick lip, and curly pate, the fair-haired
Son of the North, and the Red Man of the far West. And to think
alas! that all this has remained for years within a few miles of one
of the largest military stations in India—unsaid of—and unsung.
Calcutta Nov. 15, 1844.

nl

The Vegetable or Bulrush Caterpillars. By James B. Tuompson,
M. D., Physician to the British Hospital, Damascus, communicated
by Captain McNacuen.

This very remarkable plant, which is indigenous to New Zealand
and New South Wales, may be considered as one of the most curi-
ous vegetable productions with which we are at present acquainted,
and therefore merits as minute a description of its botanical charact-
ers as we are capable of giving from our very recent knowledge of its
very peculiar characteristics. The New Zealanders have been long
acquainted with it, and have used its top, when burnt, as colouring
matter for their tattooing, rubbing the fine powder into the wounds,
in which state it has a very strong animal smell. The natives eat
these plants, too, when fresh, as they do also the fern-root. In the
number of the ‘ Medical Times’ for November 4th, 1843, is a short re-
port of some remarks made at the Meeting of the Westminster Medi-
cal Society, on the occasion of my exhibiting the drawings of this ve-
getable, and at which time I offered some remarks on the opinions en-
tertained by Sir William Hooker and Professor Owen, regarding the
change produced in the caterpillar by the seed of a parasitic plant or
fungus.

Puate II.—Spheria Robertsia and Sp. innominata.

There are birds which dispossess others of their nests, and marine

animals which take up their abode in deserted shells; but this plant

12 The Vegetable or Bulrush Caterpillars.

surpasses all, in killing and taking possession ; making the body of
an insect-——and that, too, in all probability, during the life-time of the
insect—the origin from which the future plant rears its stem, and
the source from which it derives its nutriment and support. We,
therefore, may look upon this vegetable as one of the most sur-
prising links between the animal and vegetable kingdom, yet no-
ticed; and as such it deserves every attention, and as correct a
description as our present imperfect acquaintance with it will admit
of. The natives call it the Ameto-Hotete.

The Ameto is only found at the root of one particular tree, the
Rata. The female Pohuta Kana, the root of the plant, which in
every instance exactly fills the body of the caterpillar, in the finest
specimens attains the length of three inches and a half; and the
stem, which germinates from this caterpillar’s body, is from six to
ten inches high ; its apex, when in a state of fructification, resembles
the club-headed bulrush in miniature, and when examined with
a powerful glass, presents the appearance of an ovary. ‘There are no
leaves; a solitary stem comprises the entire plant; and should this
stem be, by any accident, broken off, a second stem arises from the same
spot, which is one of the peculiarities of this plant, and not known
to occur in any other plant with which we are as yet acquainted in
the vegetable kingdom. The body is not only always found buried,
but the greater portion of the stalk as well, the seed vessel alone
being above ground. When the plant has attained its maturity,
it soon dies away. When recently dug up, the substance of the
caterpillar is soft, and when divided longitudinally, the intestinal
canal is very distinctly seen. Most specimens possess the legs en-
tire, with the horny part of the head, the mandibles, and claws.

The vegetating process invariably proceeds from the nape of the
neck, from which it may be inferred that the insect, in crawling to
the place where it inhumes itself prior to its metemorphosis, and
whilst burrowing in the light vegetable soil at the foot of the
tree upon which it was previously suspended, gets some of the
minute seeds of this fungus between the scales of its neck, from
which, in its then sickening state, it is unable to free or disengage
itself, and which, consequently, causes it to die; and thus this seed,
being nourished by the warmth and moisture of the insect’s body,

The Vegetable or Bulrush Caterpillars. 73

vegetates therefrom, and not only impedes the process of change
in the chrysalis, but likewise occasions the death of the caterpillar.
It is now quite clear that the vegetating process thus commences,
and that, too, during the life-time of the insect. _It is not improba-
ble but that it might have received this seed while adhering to the
tree, as there is no doubt but these seeds float about, and are sus-
pended in the atmosphere, and are thus carried to a considerable
distance beyond their present locale.

It is also more probable that the caterpillar has got this seed in its
body previous to its inhuming itself, though it is the opinion of
some very high authorities that it is after its inhumation that it gets
the seed of this fungus.

The reason of assigning the process of vegetation to take place
during the life of the insect, is this: that when changed into a plant,
it always preserves its perfect form. In no one instance has decom-
position appeared to have commenced, or the skin to have contract-
ed or expanded beyond its natural size.

There are abundance of these plants to be found in New Zealand
in certain districts, and always in a light peaty soil, where these
trees are to be found upon which the caterpillars are being suspend-
ed previous to their inhumation. There are some very good speci-
mens to be seen in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.

A plant of a similar kind has been discovered on the banks of the
Murrumbidgee river, in New South Wales, in a rich alluvial black
soil. The insect in some specimens was six inches long, and the
plant about the same, springing, as in the case of the New Zealand
(Spheria Robertsia) from the nape of the neck. This plant is quite
different from the other in this respect; the New South Wales
(Spheria Innominata) has a thick stem, formed by the close union
of several stalks which unite at the top, and are surrounded by a
fringe, which, when expanded, assumes the appearance of a full-blown
flower upon the surface cf the soil, the rest being buried in the
ground, this top has a brown velvety texture. Numerous empty
shells and holes were observed in the soil in about the place where
these plants are to be met with; and at night, the numbers of
large brown moths were most remarkable, so much so as to extin-
guish a lamp. Both these specimens are cryptogamous plants.

L

Om oe EO A et

74 The Vegetable or Bulrush Caterpillars.

Insects having a vegetative process of a similar kind, have been dis-
covered in other parts of the world ; and probably when the Flora of
each country is more carefully examined, similar instances may be
found in each of them.

At the British Association for the Cultivation of Science, held in
August, 1836, a paper was read by Mr. J. B. Yates, ‘On the vegeta-
ting Wasp,’ found in the West Indies, and in which the author like-
wise was of opinion that the vegetating process commenced dur-
ing the life of the insect ; and the careful examination of these cater-
pillars will, I make no doubt, favour this hypothesis, which is now,
I believe, very generally the received opinion.

If these views should be corroborated by future investigations, and
found to be correct, the case of these plants and changes produced,
will be an instance of a retrograde step in nature, where the insect,
instead of rising to the higher order of the butterfly, and soar-
ing aloft to the skies, sinks into a plant, and remains attached to the
soil in which it buried itself.

There is some analogy between the mode in which these plants
are produced and that of our own missletoe (viscum_), which is sup-
posed to be propagated by birds, especially the fieldfare and thrush,
which feed upon its berries, the seed of which pass through the
bowels unchanged, and along with the excrement adhere to the
branches of trees, where they vegetate. The missletoe of the oak
has, from the time of the ancient Druids, been always preferred to
that produced on other trees; but it is now well known that the
viscusquercus differs in no respect from others.

In former times the Greeks attached many medicinal virtues to this
plant, but we learn little concerning its efficacy from the ancient
writers on materia medica. It obtained great reputation for the cure
of epilepsy ; cases given by Boyle: and Colbach afford several in-
stances of its good effects in various convulsive disorders. It acts as
a tonic, and is useful in hysteria and other nervous affections.

75

Observations of M. Raspail on the Chara mode of preparation. By
the late W. Grirritu, Esq. F.L.S., 1833.

Take an internodus of Chara detached from the plant, and depriv-
ed of the branches which spring from the two opposite articulations,
by which the internodus is separated; the bark which covers it may
be removed thus, the internodus is to be stretched out on a plate of
glass shorter than the space comprised between the two articula-
tions ; the glass is kept plunged in a shallow and small capsule
filled with water. Each shred of bark is.then to be pinched with the
point of a scalpel, proceeding from one end to the other, ayant
‘soin de ne pas pénétrir trop avant. When all the shreds of bark
are removed, a cylinder incrusted with a white substance, adhering
strongly, hard and brittle, and resisting the action of the scalpels
makes its appearance. It consists of carbonate of lime, which must
be removed by a lame emoussée, by scraping the tube longitudinally.
If the tube thus prepared, be placed in the focus of a microscope and
plunged in water, these phenomena are observed.

1. A white mesian line is seen crossing obliquely two longitudinal
layers of a green colour, composed of longitudinal series of green
globules, the direction of which is parallel to the white line; this
line extends itself on each opposite side of the tube.

2. It is soon remarked that this white mesian line is a sort of
line of demarcation, between two currents proceeding in an inverse
direction, the course of which is marked by the hyaline masses which
they carry with them. One of these currents proceeds on the left of
the observer, the other on the right: but the globules of the one
do not mingle with those of the other. On the line of demarcation
large albuminous globules are sometimes visible, which obedient
to the effects of the two simultaneous and opposite forces of the two
currents revolve on their axes, being retained at the bottom of the
liquid by their specific gravity.

-Raspail placed two ligatures on the scraped tube + of inch or
so from the articulation: the tube included in these ligatures was
detached from the plant. Not only did the circulation continue, but
even, in the space of some days the ligatures fell off, the ends of the
tube remained closed exactly by the union of their borders, and the
circulation continued to take place from the 26th July 1827 to the
3rd September of the same year.

|
|

76 Cireulation in Chara.

There is no septum in the tube: which is composed of a cartila-
ginous sheath, the parietes of which are thick but hyaline and very
transparent. The interior of this tube is lined on each side of the
mesian white line by a green membrane with parallel rows of green
globules. This membrane may be detached from its adhesion to the
sides of the sheath. The least dialysis of this green membrane stops
the circulation ; if it continue for some instants after the injury,
the fluid circulates around, but does not cross the part deprived
of the green matter. The fluid that escapes from the wounded cell
coagulates rapidly on reaching the water, but it takes place at least
much more slowly if at all in distilled water, one of these filed tubes
placed in water re-produces a covering or incrustation of carbonate of
lime: each of the cristals is imprisoned in the cellular interstice of a
membrane, which is only the epidermis of the decorticated bark. If
a tube that has been scraped &c. be placed in distilled water, no in-
crustation takes place. A drop of alcohol, liquid ammonia, caustic
alkali or vegetable or mineral acid stops the circulation suddenly.
He then states that the circulation is owing to aspiration and
expiration or absorption and transudation which keep up constant cur-
rents ; but only in the immediate situs of the parietes. Circulation
in animals is carried on in the same manner, the composition of
the fluid of Chara is exactly like the blood of animals, which he
says is homogeneous, the serum and coagulum being formed alike, he
says the globules finally disappear in water, the central globule is an
optical illusion. He says that the currents of the Vorticella are pro-
duced, the ones going to the animal by aspiration, the ones proceed-
ing from it by expiration: the ciliz are illusions, depending on the
difference of density of the expired liquid. According to him, the
tube of the Chara is composed as are all the membranes of vegetable
cells, of gum and lime; the green membrane is albuminous and
incloses in its granulations resinous matter. The juice is composed
in one of albumen precipitated in globules or dissolved in acetic acid
and combined with phosphate of lime, and in the other of ordinary
salts of albumen (?) tartrate of potass dissolved in albuminous acetic
acid, the hydrochlorates of ammonia, soda and potass.

These observations were made on the Chara hispida.—See Fig. 3,
Plate ii.

CR” fie Nath Bi ate PaaS: oe Aah Nan

sian

17

Dr. Justus Liebig in his Relation to Vegetable Physiology. By Dr.
Hueco Mout. (Dr. Justus Lizsie’s Verhdltniss zur Pflanzen-
Physiologie.) Tubingen. Frues. 1843.

This is the pamphlet of Dr. Mohl to which we referred in a
leading article of May the 20th, and which consists of a critique on
the work of Dr. Liebig, so well known in this country under the
title of ‘‘ Chemistry, in its applications to Agriculture and Physi-
ology.” Dr. Mohl says that work was anxiously looked for by
botanists both on account of the reputation of Liebig as a chemist,
and from a knowledge of the fact that they had much to look for
from the aid of Chemistry in their investigation of the phenomena of
the nutrition of plants. But Dr. Mohl observes that throughout
the whole work there is a want of original experiment, which is the
more wonderful, since it is written by the greatest experimenter of
his day, and the possessor of one of the largest laboratories in
Europe. Nevertheless Liebig every where insists on the importance
of experiments, and is continually appealing to those of Theodore
De Saussure. Under these circumstances the work can only be
looked upon as an attempt to construct a theory from data already
known to the world.

The next general remark by Dr. Mohl refers to the style in which
the book is written. If not always correct, it is energetic and clear;
the thoughts are propounded in short determinate propositions, and
there is not the slightest indication of doubt or uncertainty about
anything; the author seems to know everything for certain, and
says it boldly out. This sort of style is apt to mislead the uniniti-
ated, and frequently leads the author himself into positive contradic-
tions; in fact, a thing is stated to be black or white according as it
suits the author’s purpose. For instance, in one place (p. 22)* he
says that leaves do not decompose carbonic acid in the shade, (in
which he is wrong,) and in another place (p. 121) he says the leaves
do decompose carbonic acid in the shade, (in which he is nmght).
Such contradictions are frequent, and prove that the author is
neither well-grounded in the subjects on which he has undertaken to

~

* These numbers refer probably to one of the German editions.

78 Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organic Chemistry.

write, nor has fully considered them. The manner in which Liebig
attributes erroneous views, entertained perhaps by individual bota-
nists, to ‘‘ vegetable physiologists” and ‘“‘ botanists” in general, is
objectionable and liable to mislead. Thus he says (p. 6) that “ ve-
getable physiologists” consider humus as the principal food of plants.
Now this is not true: vegetable physiologists have no sacred books
in which their code of laws is contained, and if any individuals have
maintained such a view, the great body has not. In fact, Ingen-
housz, Senebier, Curt Sprengel, Link, and De Candolle, have all
either denied it or taken other views. The doctrine of humus is
altogether a chemical one, and has only been supported by chemists.
Again, Liebig says (p. 24) that ‘all botanists and vegetable physi-
ologists have doubted the assimilation of the carbon of the atmos-
phere by plants.” Yetall books on vegetable physiology contradict
such a statement; and the absorption of carbonic acid from the at-
mosphere is so generally admitted that Adolphe Brongniart, in the
13th volume of the “ Annales des Sciences,” has even proposed to
account for the excessive vegetation of the primitive world upon the
supposition, that the atmosphere at the period those plants were
growing contained a larger amount of carbonic acid in its composi-
tion than it now does. This might have been considered misrepre-
sentation, had not Liebig in many other instances displayed an equal
amount of ignorance of botanical literature and facts. As, for ex-
ample, when he says (p. 91) that the woody fibre of lichens may be
replaced by oxalate of lime, and that in Equisetum and the Bamboo
silica assumes the form and functions of the woody bundles, and
(p. 36) that a leaf secreting oil of lemons or oil of turpentine has a
different structure from one secreting oxalic acid.

An instance of Liebig’s misrepresentation of facts occurs in his
rejecting the theory of the respiration of plants. It is well known

that plants absorb oxygen in the dark, and give out carbonic acid ; and |

this has been attributed by botanists to a true process of respiration.
This, Liebig thinks, betrays great ignorance on the part of botanists.
He believes the giving out of the carbonic acid to be merely a me-
chanical process, and the absorption of oxygen to be a chemical one.
He says all leaves, dead or living, absorb oxygen, and the more oil
or tannic acid they possess, the more oxygen they absorb. He en-

A
:

Dr. Hugo Moil, on Liebig's Organic Chemistry. 79

deavours to prove this position by comparing, from tables made by
De Saussure, the quantity of oxygen absorbed by the leaves of
Pinus abies, Quercus robur, and Populus alba, as compared with the
quantity absorbed by the Agave americana. Mohl remarks on this
statement, that, in the first place, the quantity of oxygen absorbed
by the Agave is put down at 0.3, when it ought to have been at
0.8, so as to affect the calculations very considerably ; and that, in
the second place, those plants in De Saussure’s table which contain
neither oil nor tannic acid in any quantity, as the Triticum estivum
and Robinia pseudacacia, are altogether omitted, although they ab-
sorbed more oxygen than those mentioned by Liebig; whilst the
oily Juniper and Rue, which are also omitted, absorbed less.

Again, Liebig states on this point, that the absorption of oxygen
has nothing at all to do with the processes of life. How is it, then,
asks Mohl. that plants begin to be blighted when oxygen is with-
drawn ; that seeds will not germinate ; that leaves lose their irrita-
bility ; that the motions of leaves and flowers cease ; that leaf-buds
and flower-buds will not open when brought into an atmosphere
without oxygen? But the way to settle the question of respiration
would appear to be to determine whether the asserted relation be-
tween the quantity of oxygen absorbed and the quantity of carbonic
acid given out was wrong. In De Saussure’s experiments, there was
found to be an exact relation in all cases. This would not be the
case, were Liebig’s theory of the origin of the carbonic acid correct.

These few general remarks, observes Dr. Mohl, will serve to in-
dicate the claim of Liebig to become a reformer of botanical science.

The next part of Dr. Mohl’s observations relates to the chapters
of Professor Liebig’s book, inscribed ‘‘ The Assimilation of Carbon.”
The question at issue is, whether the plants owe their carbon to the
absorption of organic or inorganic substances, Prof. L. having given
his sanction to the latter opinion. The reasons which seem to have
weighed most with him are, lst, Humic acid loses its soluble
character by exsication as well as by freezing; 2d, Even conceding
that all the bases found in the ashes of plants should have been con-
veyed to their substance in the form of humates, yet the amount of
humic acid thus conveyed to plants is not sufficient to explain the
amount of carbon they contain; moreover, 3d, Even all the rain

80 Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organic Chemistry.

which falls on a certain area is not sufficient to explain the large
quantity of carbon they contain: but the chief argument against the
plants deriving carbon from humus is, 4th, That manured and bar-
ren ground will yield nearly the same amount of carbon in the plants
growing thereon. It is, in fine, to be observed, that 5th, Humus and
the carbon of plants must have the same origin, as it is impossible
that there could have existed any primitive humus, for plants must
have existed before humus. Plants receive, therefore, their carbon
from the atmosphere, where it exists in sufficient quantity to supply
all plants with carbon. Dr. Mohl says, then, that L. Aas arrived, in
- these remarks, at one or two results correct in the main ; but he also
shows that most of it (or at least as much as is true) has been known
to Saussure 40 years ago. As the above axiom, however, is one of
great importance in botanical physiology, Dr. Mohl proceeds to ex-
amine the doctrine of Liebig in detail. The argument stated under
No. 1 proves, he says nothing—because the combination of humic
acid with alkailies, stated under No. 2, is in direct contradiction to
it. These parts of the question have been, however, already sifted
by Schleiden ; and the utmost which can be conceded is, that plants
do not obtain all their carbon from the soil.

Liebig concludes one of his remarks relating to humus in the
following words :—‘‘ As plants grown on an acre of unmanured
meadow or forest-land will assimilate an equal amount of carbon to
those grown on manured and cultivated fields,—as, moreover, the
former soil will not become, by the process of vegetation, poorer in
humus, but, on the contrary, richer; there must be a source dif-
ferent from humus or manure, whence plants receive their carbon,
and this is the atmosphere.”—This mistaken argument of Liebig,
(says Dr. Mohl,) arises out of his confounding the origin of carbon
in the whole of vegetation with that in a single plant, as well as on
his placing unmanured soil on a par with that which is deficient in
humus. A plant might require a certain amount of humus for its
nourishment, and still prepare and yield, by the decay of its foliage
or herbage, the same quantity, or even more than it has absorbed,
for the growth of subsequent generations.

The next argument of Liebig discussed by Dr. Mohl (relating
always to the origin of carbon in plants) is, that in antediluvian

Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organie Chemistry. 81

times, plants must have existed before humus; and so they do now
—witness the Lecanoras and Parmelias growing on the perpen-
dicular cliffs of granitic mountains. This reminds him of the ques-
tion, whether the egg or the hen existed first; and being aware of
the abuse which has of late been made of scientifie axioms being de-
rived from mere algebraic calculations, he says that all sorts of results
may be ex-calculated (herausrechnen) in that way.

To settle the question about the existence of primeval humus,
Dr. Mohl makes the following remark on antediluvian vegetation.
** What do we know of the incipient vegetation of the primeval
world—and why, before the appearance of the highest developed
plants, such for instance as Ferns, should not others which can live
without humus, such as Mosses and Lichens, have prepared the hu-
mus necessary for the higher plants?’ This of course, is the eternal
progress of vegetation in all times and in every place of the globe.

It is, therefore, clear (continues Dr. M.) that L. -has completely
failed to prove that plants do not use humus for their food. Besides,
the question whether plants feed on organic or inorganic substances,
was mooted long before the publication of L’s. work. Although it
is certain that the chief portion of plants is formed by the assimilation
of inorganic substances, yet, the collateral questions, whether they
receive organic as well as inorganic matter; whether all or only some
plants require organic substances for their existence,—these questions
are far from an ultimate and scientifically-corroborated solution.
Conclusions, moreover, merely based on uncertain observations, or
made merely at random, cannot be of value, and ought to have been
replaced by minute and well-devised experiments. In this manner,
L. might have become eminently useful to science. He professes
(it is true,) to despise minute experiments ; nevertheless, the Appen-
dix to his Work contains the reprint of some made by Hartig,
which he adduced in corroboration of his doctrine. But it is un-
worthy of a great chemist (concludes Dr. M.) to mix up experiments
of men like Davy or Saussure, with those of a gentleman like
Hartig, who, we are sure, does not aim at the distinction to be con-
sidered a chemist,—a science foreign to his pursuits.

The experiments which have been hitherto made relating to the

question of the organic or inorganic nourishment of plants, may be
M

82 Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organic Chemistry.

divided into three classes. 1st, plants were reared in soil destitute
of humus, either with distilled water or such as contained carbonic
acid. Under both these circumstances they do not prosper; still,
this does not prove the necessity of organic food, because they are
here equally deprived of other inorganic substances, which they are.
in contact with, under common circumstances. 2d, Or, plants have
been reared in powdered charcoal. lL. says, (p. 58,) that they will
attain in this material the most luxuriant growth, flower, and bear
fruit; but he merely quotes in evidence the experiments of Lucas,
reprinted in his Appendix. But the reasoning of L., under this
head, is illusory. Lucas speaks of vigorous vegetation of plants

reared in a mixture of charcoal powder and decayed leaves; of such
as are grown in charcoal powder alone, he merely says that they
y speedily become rooted. Of their further vegetation he says nothing ;
and it has been proved by the experiments of Zuccarini that plants
will not grow at all, or very badly, in this substratum. The same
is stated by Saussure (Bibl. univ. xxxvi., p. 352,) who relates, that
Peas reared in charcoal did not grow much better than those planted in
mere sand, ‘The third class of experiments relates to the question,
whether plants will- absorb organic substances dissolved in water,
and especially humates; and whether they will prosper under these
circumstances. ‘The experiments of Saussure, Davy, and Sprengel
are affirmative; but L. has reprinted (as stated before) those of
Hartig, which are negative. The whole question, therefore, is, to
say the most of it, one yet undecided. At any rate, it cannot be
solved by experiments upon a single species of plants; and it is -
begging the question to state (p. 122) that, “All plants are the !
same in the chemical nature of their nutritive process.”

Dr. Mohl then proceeds, at some length, to refute this unqualified
assertion of Liebig. There is a considerable number, he says, of
true parasites, which require for their food the juices of living plants.
It cannot be doubted that such plants require substances of a pecu-
liar chemical combination and quality for their food. Many such
parasites are not green, and therefore cannot decompose carbonic
acid, so that their food must necessarily consist of substances already
assimilated by other plants, and stand in the same relation to the
mother plant as the flower and fruit of other vegetables to their

ee

a dal

‘ae

Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Lnebig’s Organic Chemistry. 83

respective branches. Now this sort of nutrition from substances
derived from living plants is also proper to a very large number of
parasites (Loranthace) which are quite green, and therefore provided
with organs for decomposing carbonic acid. Such plants are entirely
similar in structure to those which grow in soil; but they must, of
necessity, possess the capacity of feeding on substances already assi-
milated by other plants. ‘To these true parasites are to be added
the spurious parasites, which feed on decaying organic matter,
amongst which some have green leaves, and others are destitute of
that colour. The latter can have no capacity for decomposing car-
bonic acid, forming organic matter from it and water. The same is
also the case with many other plants of a green colour, which al-
though they decompose carbonic acid, still are proved by their place
of abode to be dependent for their food on organic matter in a state
of decomposition. From this series of plants there is but a step
toward those growing in peat and heath-soil, &c. Ido not mean,
concludes Dr. Mohl, to prove by these statements that all plants
feed on organic substances; my object is rather to explain that the
introduction of organic matter into the system of vegetation is not, as i
Liebig asserts, necessarily detrimental to the economy of plants;
and to show that it is by far preferable to have recourse to positive
and precise experiments, than to indulge in groundless and general li
remarks and theories. U
In the second chapter (Origin and Nature of Humus,) Liebig |
states, that vegetable matter is successively changed by decomposi-
tion into humus, and that it constantly forms a carbonic acid with the
oxygen of the atmospheric air; all which forms a constant source of )
nourishment for plants, which decompose both the carbonic acid
taken up by the roots, and that obtained by the leaves from the air.
This, says Dr. Mohl, was known long ago. New, however, most
certainly, is the argumentation by which L. intends to prove (p. 56)
that humus is unnecesssary, and that plants derive their food ex-
clusively from the atmosphere. In corroboration thereof, he adduces
the antediluvian and tropical vegetation, and says of the former, that
its gigantic Plams, Graminez (sic !), and Ferns, could dispense alto-
gether with soil, on account of the immense development of their

foliage, as they are also distinguished from those of the present ;
.
|
|

vi?

84 Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organie Chemistry.

world by their scanty roots. L. says further, that in hot climates
the succulent plants require but a slight connexion with the soil, and
develop themselves without its co-operation, in proof of which he ad-
duces the slender roots of Sedum, Cactus, and Sempervivum. L.
believes, in fine, that in lactescent plants the humidity absorbed from
the air, and indispensable to their growth, is protected from evapora-
tion by the very nature of their sap, as humidity is surrounded by
caoutchouc and jis protected by a sort of impermeable integument !
Risum teneatis, amici—exclaims Mohl, in allusion to these opinions.
The assertion that antediluvian plants lived on a soil devoid of
humus is so extraordinary, that M. refutes it at some length. We
know, he says, that monocotyledonous and cryptogamic plants
possess no tap-roots, but merely fibres, which, although they are
slender, still are very numerous. The assertion, therefore, that
plants with thick, branchy roots (like our trees) obtain their food
from the soil, and those plants which possess fibrous ones are nourish-
ed by the air—is untenable. L. himself ‘“‘ considers the absorption
of inorganic substances to be necessary for the nourishment of
plants ; those, however, can only be absorbed by the roots.” ‘The
reader’—concludes M.—“ will, I trust, not expect from me a refu-
tation of Liebig’s assertions on tropical vegetation, which are really
beneath criticism. If the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics, with
their virgin forests, Palms, and arborescent Grasses, is to be typified
by a few Sedums, Cacti, or Sempervivums, and if lactescent plants
are to be looked upon as surrounded by a coat of Indian-rubber ;
then, certainly, anything may be proved—and, not least, the igno-
rance of the propounder.”

Professor Liebig’s third chapter, inscribed ‘‘ The Assimilation of
Hydrogen,” proves pretty well that all which Chemistry has made
out about chemical processes in the interior of plants amounts to
almost nothing. L. states, in the first instance, that woody fibre
consists of carbon and the component parts of water, or of carbon
plus a certain quantity of hydrogen. Here, therefore, the very first
proposition in the progress of assimilation contains an either and
an or. L. thinks (p, 60.) that decomposition of water is the more
likely to take place, because water is the easier of decomposition ;
and this is plausible enough. But what shall we think of the con-

Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organic Chemistry. 85

sistency of Liebig, if in all other parts of his work the decomposition
of carbonic acid is considered as a self-evident fact (p. 121); and
leaves are said to possess powers of decomposition, stronger than
that of the most powerful chemical agencies, because they can de-
compose carbonic acid, which resists the strongest galvanic battery !
L. states further, that the formation of acids, of ethereal oils, (having
no oxygen,) and of caoutchouc, may be considered as combinations of
carbonic acid with water; all, or the greater part, of the oxygen
having been eliminated. This may be true in a chemical point of
view, but it remains to be proved that these combinations are really
formed by water and carbonic acid, and are not the result of other
organic combinations. But if the latter be the case,—if ethereal oils
are formed by the mutual combination of organic substances,—if
they exhibit certain determined stages of vegetable metamorphosis,
then the decomposition of water and carbonic acid cannot be taken
into account, because these do not exist as such in organic combina-
tions ; “and then” (concludes Dr. M.) ‘‘ the process to which the
above substances owe their origin is a far different one, and the
explanation of Liebig is anything but a formula explaining their
origin,’ but is quite as erroneous as the assertion would be that
sugar consists of carbonic acid and spirits of wine.

In the fourth chapter, “‘ On the Origin and the Assimilation of
Nitrogen,” L. starts from the correct assertion, that even in a soil
richest in humns, no vegetation can take place without the co-opera-
tion of some nitrogenous substances ; and that (as it has been proved
by Boussingault) their nitorgen is derived from the atmosphere. But
L. subsequently rejects the opinion (p. 65) that plants assimilate
the nitrogen of the air in a direct manner, and derive their nitrogen
from the ammonia contained in the rain-water (a discovery made by
himself), adducing in proof that nitrogen is conveyed to plants in
the form of ammonia, the analysis of the sap of Acorns, Birches, &c.,
in which ammoniacal salts have been found. This idea is certainly the
most valuable in the whole of L.’s work. But here, as elsewhere, he
has been satisfied with generalities, without looking to details of
great importance in vegetable physiology. Considering the am-
monia of rain-water sufficient for explaining the amount of nitrogen
contained in plants, he has entirely neglected the nitric salts, and

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lily Sani

2 ee te

86 Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organic Chemistry. -

asserts (without adducing any proof) that Borage, the Chenopodia,
and the Jerusalem Artichoke, owe their nitric salts merely to
ammonia—an assertion by no means confirmed by the experiments
of John.

In a chapter like that ‘“‘On the Origin and Assimilation of
Nitrogen,’’ it-was to be presumed that Liebig would have examined
the form under which ammonia is conveyed to the plants. As
almost all plants grow in black mould, the relation existing between the
atmospheric ammonia and the humus was to be examined—a topic
interesting not only in a theoretical but practical point of view.
But L, treats the matter very slightly, merely stating (p. 83) that
humus stands in the same relation to ammonia as powdered char-
coal, viz., condensing the ammonia, but we have seen already that
humus can not be supplied by charcoal, and although the latter
substance absorbs ammonia even more forcibly than humus,
yet plants will not prosper in it. This, therefore, does not
corroborate L’s assertion. ‘The province of a true chemist, in this
case, instead of being satisfied with the trivial fact that rotten wood
absorbs ammonia, would have been rather to inquire whether these
two substances will combine, and what combinations they will form.
C. Sprengel and Mulder have lately asserted that humus and am-
monia will form combinations soluble in water ; Saussure also found,
in all sorts of humus, a soluble nitrogenous extract, by which he
explains the conveyance of nitrogen to plants. Instead of making
experiments, and without even taking notice of those of such men as
the above, Liebig despatches the whole question with the asser-
tion that the humic substances contained in black mould (Damm
Ere) are entirely insoluble in water.

The explanation of the action of gypsum on plants is con-
nected by L. with the existence of carbonate of ammonia in the
atmosphere. He assumes that gypsum is decomposed by the car-
bonate of ammonia of the air ;-and he considers it, therefore, a means
of fixing ammonia, and conveying it to plants; and he adds
that—‘‘ This is obvious from the evident action of gypsum on
the growth of grasses, and by the increased luxuriance and fer-
tility of meadows manured with gypsum.”” This explanation (replies
Dr. Mohl) is only true in a chemical, but not in a physiological point

Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organic Chemistry. 87

of view ; because it is well known that gypsum is most beneficial to
leguminous plants. But if its action consisted in fixing ammonia,
there is no reason why it should not act beneficially on all plants,
especially on Corn. And although L. asserts the latter to be
the fact, (Am. d. Chem. u. Pharm. xli. p. 369), yet the farmers, who
are pretty good judges in these matters, will not agree with the
Professor. If L. explains in a farther part of his work the manuring
influence of burnt clay and oxyde of iron by their attraction of
ammonia,—an influence which, (he says) could not have been previ-
ously understood, it is certainly not to him that the discovery is
owing, but to Sprengel, who in his “‘ Doctrine of Manures” has also
explained the influence of such substances by their attraction of
ammonia.

Of the fifth chapter, headed ‘“‘The Inorganic Constituents of
Plants,” Dr. Mohl says, that Liebig justly rejects the prevailing
opinion, that the salts absorbed by plants act merely as stimu-
lants, and is right in considering the bases absorbed from the soil as
necessary constituents of vegetation. Liebig says, that all plants
contain vegetable acids, which become combined with inorganic
bases (or organic, formed by the plants themselves) into neutral or
acid salts ;—that, considering the constant presence of these acids,
we have to infer that they serve some vital purpose, and that
their formation constitutes some necessary part of the vital process.
Hence, Liebig arrives at the conclusion, that several earthy or
alkaline bases can be substituted for each other in the vital process,
and that the quantity of the saline bases absorbed by plants depends
on the saturating capacity of the acids they contain. ‘This, (says
Dr. M.,) is the second new and important principle contained in L.’s
work. Still, it cannot be considered as perfectly evident, for it
is only supported by the analysis of two plants. Whether the
enigma which still shrouds the absorption of inorganic substances
has been thus solved Dr. M. thinks doubtful. This theory, he says,
is, in this respect, one-sided,—that it regards only the basal propor-
tion of earth and alkali, and neglects the consideration of the specific
proportion, which appertains to such substances in a lesser or
greater degree. Many facts shew that the replacing of one base by
another is only possible to a certain extent ; that, moreover, the same

88 Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organic Chemistry.

quantity of a certain base, which may be absolutely required for the
prosperity of one plant, may act as a poison to another, &c. In this
respect, lime more especially is conspicuous, as the flora of the cal-
careous Alps, compared with that of primitive rocks, clearly proves.
In this respect some plants are very fastidious, and will only bear
one certain sort of soil, whilst others grow in both. In the species
which may be called fastidious of soil, the substitution of one
base for another cannot be supposed to take place.

In a subsequent part of his book, Dr. Mohl examines what Liebig
has stated or retracted in his late work, ‘ Organic Chemistry in its
Relation to the Doctrines of Dr. Grubes and Sprengel.” Dr. M.
considers the explanations of L. in that place only as additional proofs
of his inconsistency, and another sample of the uncertain style of his
writings, ‘‘ which leaves the reader, on almost every important topic,
in perfect uncertainty what it really is that Liebig means.” In only
one instance, concludes Dr. M., the author has spoken plainly ; viz., —
in alluding to silica, of which he says that it is the first solid
substance that is taken up by plants, and is that, moreover, whence
the formation of wood takes its origin : acting, therefore, like one of
those particles of a solution on which the first crystals are formed,
and that in Equisetum and the Bamboo silica assumes the form and
functions of the wood. This theory Dr. M. calls a physiological
blunder, (as it certainly is,) proving Prof. Liebig’s absolute ignorance
of everything connected with the physiology of plants.

Another important point, says Prof. Mohl, (p. 37,) which L.’s
theory does not explain, is, that the saline bases absorbed by plants
are not only absorbed in the shape of carbonates, (which are easily
decomposed by the mere vegetable acids,) but often also in the shape
of phosphates, sulphates, &c. According to all experience, these
salts are not less essential to vegetation than those bases combined
with organic acids. Silica, also, is an ingredient equally essential to
the growth of most, if not all, plants. Which part these substances
take in the vital process, is (says M.) almost unknown, unless,
indeed, we may presume that the sulphates yield plants the sulphur
required for some of their organs. Of the phosphates we know still
less ; we are ignorant why they chiefly occur in young plants, and in
their seed; and we are perfectly ignorant of the quantity required for

Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organic Chemistry. 89

vegetable growth—for analysis shows that the amount of phosphates
varies considerably even in the same organ in plants grown on differ-
ent soils, as is best seen in the different sorts of grain.

In that chapter which is devoted to the Culture of Plants, Pro-
fessor Liebig puts forth a regular theory of vegetable nutrition—as
far, namely, (observes Dr. Mohl,) as L.’s unconnected way of writing
admits of any systematic arrangement. He again starts from the
assumption, that humus cannot be absorbed and used as food by
plants ; for two reasons—one chemical, and the other physiological.
He, in the first instance, denies that the humus of vegetable mould
possesses the properties ascribed to it by chemists, it being absolute-
ly insoluble in water, and not combining with earth into soluble salts.
The latter, he says, may be seen in calcareous caves, whose stalac-
tites, instead of consisting of humate of lime, do not contain a trace
of vegetable matter. Dr. M. says that he does not intend to settle
these opinions, for he has no doubt that chemists will take them up
in due time. He merely throws out the following remarks :—“ It
cannot be positively asserted that the humates contained in vegetable
mould are insoluble in water, because water will dissolve out of the
soil a certain amount of an organic, brownish substance—an experi-
ment which can be made with any garden soil; still coal of humus
seems to possess the property of subtracting these substances from
a solution passing or filtering through soil, otherwise (as L. has
stated) all our springs would contain brown water. It appears, more-
over, that besides coal of humus, the inorganic substances of the soil
themselves possess (although in a lesser degree) the property of
withdrawing from water the substances dissolved in it—a circum-
stance to which the greater purity of springs coming from a great
depth may be ascribed. Still this withdrawal of organic substances
is obviously only a partial one, for our spring-water is never free
from organic substances—a fact borne out by analysis, as well as by
the putrescence to which spring-water is subject. This perfectly
agrees with the new experiments of Saussure, who found in all
waters an azotised substance soluble in water.” All these facts,
therefore, give quite another result from that which L. has arrived
at, viz. that the water which filters through vegetable mould will
always supply plants with some portion of organic matter. How far

N

90 Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organic Chemistry.

this substance influences the nutritive process of plants, was the pro-
per question for Liebig to examine, but which he has neglected
to enter into. Saussure has, however, made some experiments on
the absorption of humate of potash, and the extract of vegetable
mould by the roots of plants (Bibl. Univ., vol. xxxvi. p. 340). Al-
though these experiments do not strictly prove that this is really the
case, under all circumstances ; still they go so far as to prove, that it
will be the case as long as the roots are healthy, and do not, by their
putrescence, yield humous substances to the water. L., in a subse-
quent refutation of these experiments, ascribes their telling against
him to an error of calculation! In another part of this chapter
(p. 109), L. says, that humus, if not properly exposed to the influence
of atmospheric air, will form with water a solution of a brown
colour ; but that no plants can grow in such soil, for the humus will
consume all the oxygen contained in the air. It is (says Dr. Mohl),
quite inconceivable how a man can write such things, when the in-
spection of any peat moss will show the fallacy of such assertions.
The second argument which L. brings forth to support his
favourite assertion of plants not feeding on humus, is based on
physiological grounds. He first announces as a general principle,
that, under the appellation of food, such substances, only can be
included, as being derived from external sources, can maintain all the
vital functions, and which the organs of a plants can use for the
formation of the substances peculiar to them. This ambiguous
definition includes (says Dr. Mohl) some anomalies, and does not
apply to several reputed kinds of food. Starch, for instance, is
certainly one of the substances on which man feeds; yet he could not
live on it alone. In farther explantion of his views, Liebig adduces
the example of a grain of Wheat, which contains the necessary
ingredients of the germ, and the first fibres of roots; and he adds
that we have to suppose that these ingredients are mixed just in
the proportion that is required for the development of those organs.
If one of the ingredients, say starch or gluten, were superabundant,
they would not serve either for the formation of leaves or otherwise
Carbon, also, as well as ammonia and water, are always combined
in plants with an azotised matter; and it is for this reason that
substances, containing no nitrogen, like gum, sugar, &c., and con-

Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organic Chemistry. 91

sequently no humic acid (which stands next to them in a chemical
point of view), are mot used as food by plants, but would rather
impede the vital process and kill the plant. (p. 116.) In analysing this
string of assertions, Dr. Mohl observes, in the first instance, that
the absorption of azotised compounds as food by plants is a fact
doubted by no one; but he doubts whether the quantitative propor-
tion between the absorption and digestion of azotised and unazotised
substances, assumed by Liebig, be based on fact. L. says that
this proportion must exist in the grains of Wheat. But Hermb-
stadt’s fine experiments on the different sorts of grain show quite
the contrary ; for one sort of Wheat contains 41 per cent of starch
to 34 per cent. of gluten, whilst another sort shows a proportion of
65 to 9. But this varying proportion of azotised and unazotised
substances also occurs in the organs of vegetation themselves, as may
be seen in the roots of Beet cultivated on a soil rich in vegetable
mould, or in one manured with animal matter. Chemistry, therefore,
does not support Liebig’s assertions. Indeed, he himself, in some
degree, contradicts his own statements, when he says (p. 119) that
if plants obtain a greater proportion of carbon than of nitrogen, then
the carbon will not be used for forming gluten, or albumen, or wood,
nor for any constituent part of an organ, but will be secreted in the
form of sugar, starch, oil, wax, resin, mannite, gum &c.

The assumption (continues Dr. Mohl) that the organs of plants
consist of gluten, albumen, and wood, and that other constituents,
like sugar, starch, &c,, are mere secretions, is decidedly wrong in
an anatomical point of view, for the solid substance of all organs
consists of woody fibre alone, and all the other ingredients are
merely preserved in the cellular substance, &c. The same objection
may be raised against the opinion, that starch, gum, &c., preserved
in the cells, are mere excrements, and not constituent parts of the
organ. On the other hand Dr. Mohl considers Liebig’s opinion,
that a greater amount of nitrogen is required for forming woody
fibre, than sugar, gum, starch, &c., as perfeetly true. This is cor-
roborated by the experiments of Payen, who found in all young
organs, while in a state of vigorous development, an abundance of
nitrogenous juices—which leads to the conclusion that nitrogenous
substances are essential to the development of new clementary

92 Dr. Hugo Mohi, on Liebig’s Organie Chemisiry.

organs, a position fully borne out by recent microscopical experi-
ments on the formation of the cellular tissue in plants. If this is
the case, we may also assume that the formation of substances
nearly related to woody fibre, such as sugar, gum, and starch, re-
quires also a certain amount of nitrogen ; and that a less amount,
although it may suffice for the abundant formation of those sub-
stances, will only produce a small amount of woody fibre, is an
opinion adopted by Liebig. It may be also assumed, that if such an
amount of nitrogen as is sufficient for the formation of a moderate
quantity of woody fibre, is to be divided between the formation of
gum and other similar substances (composed of carbonic acid and
water,) and that of woody fibre—the same amount of nitrogen might
suffice for the formation of a greater amount of woody fibre, and
therefore, for the more vigorous growth of the plant; in those cases
where the plant has already absorbed part of its food in the form of
substances, which (being composed of carbonic acid and water) have
also attained the first degree of vegetable assimilation.

Liebig believes, that, in this case, the function of the leaves will be
impaired. This, however, it is impossible to decide, ‘‘as we have
not even an idea of the variations which the assimilative process
may undergo, according to the difference of the substances on which
plants feed. It is also, in most cases, less essential to know whether
plants absorb only organic substances and water, than whether it is
necessarily in conjunction with imorganic matter, that such ab-
sorption takes place ; in which case, the digestion (Verarbeitung) of
inorganic substances would not be suspended; but, in conjunc-
tion with this assimilative process, another and different one would
make its appearance.” To decide on the existence of these pro-
cesses, it would be necessary to know the metamorphoses which food
undergoes in plants. But this is not the case, as we neither
are aware of the manner in which gum or sugar are formed, nor of
the further changes of these substances into woody fibre. Chemis-
try, it is true, can change wood and starch into sugar, but only by
the application of strong chemical agencies, which we know are not
made use of by plants. To imitate the real process is beyond
the reach of chemistry ; still, it is to this very process that plants
owe their growth. Under such circumstances, all that we can do is

Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organic Chemisiry. 93

to make plants absorb organic substances, and to observe the pheno-
mena which their growth exhibits subsequently. It has been shown
already that certain plants live only when they absorb organic sub-
stances ; our cultivated plants prove the same thing, as well as the
detailed experiments of Davy and Saussure, which have not been
hitherto disproved. The theory of Liebig, therefore, is untenable, and
is equally unsupported by experiment, or by exact reasoning on the
nutritive processes of plants.

Liebig has himself felt that arguments founded on fact are requir-
ed for the support of his theory, and he has pitched upon Mount
Vesuvius to supply it. He dwells, therefore (page 131), on the lux-
uriant crops in the environs of this mountain, in a “ soil, which, ac-
cording to its origin, does not contain the least trace of organic mat-
ter, and still is considered as the very type of fertility.” We pos-
sess, however, no chemical analysis of this soil, derived as it is from
volcanic cinders, neither does L. say anything on the subject, but
merely appeals to its general volcanic origin. But it would be a
surprising thing (says Dr. Mohl), if a soil, on which, for many cen-
turies past, most extensive farming operations (Dreisch-wirthschaft ?)
have been carried on, should be destitute of humus. This could be
only the case, if, after every few years, it was again covered so deep-
ly with the ashes of constantly new eruptions, that the ancient soil
and all its organic matter should be placed beyond the reach of new
crops. This, however, we know is not the case, and even such
eruptions as do take place at intervals could not effect this. The
heaviest fall of ashes (since the destruction of Pompeii) was that of
1822, which amounted on the slope of the mountain to 3 inches, and
in the plain from 15 to 18 inches; but this was (according to
Humboldt) the treble of any previous fall of ashes. We know,
moreover, that even the slightest fall of volcanic cinders kills vegeta-
tion over an extensive area, so much so that one crop amongst eight
near Mount Vesuvius is always lost through such calamities. It is,
therefore, these very falls of ashes which cause the formation of a
vegetable stratum on a large scale, and such must contain humus.
This corresponds entirely with what Mr. Lyell states (‘‘ Princ, of
Geol.” ii., 148), that he found, near Pompeii, under the volcanic cin-
ders of 1822, a layer of vegetable mould of the thickness of three inches,

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94. Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organie Chemistry.

In a subsequent part of this chapter (p. 124) Dr. Liebig expresses
his surprise, that in all the works of Agronomists and Physiologists,
one looks in vain for the leading principles of cultivation ; neverthe-
less, at the end of this part of his work, he states that cultivation
supplies every plant with that sort of food which it requires for the
development of such organs or substances as are most available to
man. He further dwells on the means of arriving at that end, viz.,
the chemical analysis of the inorganic ingredients of soil. But these
latter facts, says Dr. Mohl, were known long before Liebig, Charles
Sprengel having written a series of memoirs, to demonstrate the
importance of the inorganic ingredients of the soil, both for the ge-
neral growth of crops, and for that of certain organs in particular.
Under this head, Liebig certainly ought to have mentioned the name
of Sprengel, and although he has not done so (concludes Dr. M.,)
the history of science will amply repay the omission.

In the last chapter, which is headed ‘‘ Rotation and Manures,” L.
opens the difficult question, why several crops of the same plant will
not succeed on the same soil in an uninterrupted succession, and
why, therefore, farmers resort to rotation. He thinks De Candolle’s
theory the best explanation of this, forgetting, it seems, that that
coarse excrementitious theory has no better foundation than bad and
injudicious experiments of Macaire Prinsep, the same man who
misled De Candolle on other occasions also. Liebig, however,
(says Dr. Mohl,) who has no idea that these experiments are fallaci-
ous and controverted by all succeeding ones of the same kind, works
out this theory in its most minute details, and proves, @ priori (p.
149,) that plants must have excrements. He divides the latter into
two classes: those ‘namely, which have been absorbed by the roots,
but not being adapted for the nourishment of plants, are again re-
turned to the soil; and secondly, such substances as having been
transformed in the vegetable organism by the process of nutrition,
are the result of the formation of starch, woody fibre, gluten, &c.
Excrementitious matter of the first class may serve as food for other
plants; nay, they may even be essential for that purpose. Those of
the second, however, cannot be used by other plants in the formation
of woody fibre, &c. until changed into humus, and decomposed into
ammonia, carbonic acid &c.

Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organie Chemistry. 95

This theory, says Dr. Mohl, is not only destitute of all reasonable
foundation, but is directly contradicted by the experience of Rota-
tion. There is no known evidence in proof of the existence of such
excrementitious matter. It is true, Liebig says, that such must be
the case, but then he adduces no proof except an ambiguous analogy
with the animal kingdom, and forgetting, as he so often does,
what he said (page 24,) “ that analogy is the parent of that unfor-
tunate comparison between vegetable and animal functions which
places both on the bed of Procrustes, and is the cause of all error.”
«“ There is not,” concludes Dr. Mohl, “the least necessity for assum-
ing a secretion from roots. If substances formed by vital processes
are of no further use to a plant, they are excreted in the form of gas
through the leaves, or deposited in the form of secretion in the glands
and other organs, or thrown off with decaying leaves.” ‘This theory
is, moreover, at variance with the experience of what takes place in
the shifting of crops. According to Liebig’s views, the excrementi-
tious matter of the second class above mentioned would not only
injure the plants whence it is derived, but could not be assimilated
by any others before it is transformed into humus. But experience
points quite another way, because the stubble of Clover, Lucerne, or
Saintfoin, which is unfit for the growth of those species, will at once
produce excellent crops of other plants. If Liebig should attempt to
meet this objection by saying that such excrementitious matter can-
not be assimilated by the plants, whence they are derived, but may
be used by others, he will upset his whole doctrine of vegetable
nutrition, according to which not only all the organic compounds
which remain behind after the formation of starch, sugar, &c., but
even starch and sugar themselves (and thus all the organic sub-
stances of plants,) are absolutely deleterious to other plants. It is
impossible, therefore, not to arrive at conclusions entirely opposite to
those of Liebig, especially if we consider the phenomena of rotation
at greater length, The barrenness of soil for the growth of one kind
of plant, whilst it is still fertile for others, can only depend (says Dr.
Mohl) on two causes. The first generation of plants may exhaust the
soil of such substances as are indispensable to growth, so that the
second generation will be starved ; and this certainly takes place : but
it cannot be the main cause of the failure of crops, else manure would

)
:

96 Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organic Chemistry.

again render the soil suitable for the same crop, which is only the
case to a slight extent. We must, therefore, assume that the first
crops do communicate to the soil substances detrimental to the sub.
sequent crops. These substances must be of an organic nature. It
has been shown that these cannot be excrementitious, and therefore
it follows that such deleterious substances must consist of organic
compounds, derived from the roots which have accumulated and re-
mained behind in the land. If, then, in a soil filled with the remains
of roots, the same crop will only succeed after a lapse of years,
whilst other crops will thrive luxuriantly, we may conclude, that
the organic compounds of such roots will be absorbed by plants
previous to their beg decomposed into inorganic substances ; and
that, consequently, plants of a different kind will use them for
food, although those of the same kind will be injured by them.

After having assigned the utility of rotation to the formation of
humus, Dr. Liebig states his views of vegetable nutrition at the dif-
ferent periods of growth. He says, that a plant returns just
so much carbon to the soil as it has absorbed from it in the form of
carbonic acid produced by decomposing humus. This supply of car-
bon is sufficient for many plants at the first period of their growth,
but it is not sufficient to supply some of their organs with the neces-
sary maximum of food. But the object of agriculture is to gain the
maximum of produce, and this, says Liebig p. 154, “stands in
a direct ratio to the amount of food which has been given to a plant
during the first period of its development,”’ therefore all pains are to
be taken to increase the amount of humus.

The short and the long of these rather vague assertions (says Dr.
Mohl), is, apparently, that a crop will be the greater the more food
a plant has received from the soil before its period of flowering.
But this axiom, although true in the main, is somewhat contradicted
by another at p. 111, where it is stated that humus is use-
ful to young plants, by contributing to the increase of their organs of
atmospheric nutrition; but it is not indispensable, and its ex-:
cess may even be detrimental in the first stages of development.
The food, namely, which a young plant receives from the air in the
form of carbonic acid and ammonia, is restricted within certain h-
mits,—it can assimilate no more that the air contains, If, therefore,

Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organie Chemistry. 9%

in the beginning of growth, the number of twigs, sprouts, or leaves
overpass this proportion in consequence of a superabundance of food
obtained from the soil at that period, when the plant requires more
food from the air for the completion of its development, and for its
flowering and fruiting than the air can supply it with, blooming and
fruiting will not take place. In many cases, such food will merely
suffice for the development of leaves, stems, or branches.

Here Dr. Mohl complains of the strange ambiguity of this part of
Liebig’s theory. In one instance (says M.), the usual quantity of
humus in the soil suffices merely to form leaves, and if we want an
abundant harvest, we must get it by conveying a maximum of
food from the soil. On the other hand, humus adds nothing to the
crops, but, on the contrary, is noxious, by conveying too much food,
for it causes the production of too much foliage, a sufficient supply
of food for which cannot be obtained from the air. Whence,
then, does it arrive that a plant which has many leaves can not ob-
tain from the air the food required for blooming, although it can do
so if it has only a few leaves? It has been hitherto supposed that
the reception of food from the air was in proportion to the number
and size of its leaves; and this is plausible, but the contrary is not.
When a plant standing in a moist and shaded situation grows too
luxuriantly, and will not flower, the reason is not to be sought in a
deficiency of food, but rather in its superabundance, and its influence
on the too luxuriant development of its vegetative organs; for
that will counteract the contraction of the axis and the metamor-
phosis of vegetative into floral organs.

Another statement, however, shows how Liebig arrived at the
above conclusion. He says that, after the completion of its leaves, a
plant does not require more carbonic acid from the soil; and
that even perfect dryness of the soil will not impede the completion
of its growth, if the plant continues to receive from dew and
air the amount of moisture required for the process of assimilation,
and that, in fine, it will derive*in a hot summer its whole carbon ex.
clusively from the atmosphere. :

This assumption (says Dr. Mohl) is the result of an erroneous
view of the fact, that in many plants—by no means in all—such or-
ganic substances are employed for the development of fruit, as, hav-

oO

i

Sa 1. eT Sere

98 Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organie Chemistry.

ing been prepared by the leaves before the period of flowering, have
been deposited in the stem or other organs, and are subsequently
conveyed to the fruit. We know that some bulbous plants will fruit
even when taken out of the soil. But general assertions, taken from
special facts, can only lead to absurd conclusions. Let Profes-
sor Liebig cut plants in bloom above their roots (unnecessary,
he says, at that period), and expose them to as much dew and rain
as he likes, and see what will happen; or, as he is fond of
experiments on a large scale, let him take the hay harvest for a test
of this theory; which, after all (concludes Dr. Mohl), seems
to be nothing more than a distorted and overdone copy of the doc-
trine of the development of plants given by Schwerz, in his treatise
on Practical Agriculture (Anleiitung zum Pract, Ackenbau, iii. 56).

Besides the formation of humus, Liebig adduces another reason for
the rotation of crops, viz., the relation which plants bear to the in-
organic constituents of the soil. As every plant deprives the soil of
certain ingredients, it thus makes it unfit for feeding similar plants,
until by subsequent decomposition a fresh amount of such ingre-
dients is again set free. To this proposition (says Dr, Mohl) no
one wil object ; but it has long been known.

Having thus examined in detail the work of Dr. Liebig, Dr. Mohl
concludes with the following general recapitulation. It appears up-
on the whole that Liebig has not availed himself of his chemical re-
sources to clear up doubtful points in the nutrition of plants. Con-
a trary to the spirit of a true investigator of nature, he has not formed
his conclusions on the detailed facts of vegetable phenomena, but on
random observations, or vague operations on a large scale, destitute
of all precision. His calculations are based on arbitrary assump-
tions. His book, therefore, far from being a consistent and well-di-
gested theory, swarms with contradictions and false reasoning. He
does not possess a knowledge of the most elementary doctrines
of vegetable physiology. His assertion that physiologists have
hitherto considered humus as the chief food of plants is untrue.
The assumption that plants live merely on inorganic substances
is by no means new, but has long been one of the controverted
points of vegetable physiology. The assertion that all Botanists
have doubted the absorption of carbon by plants by their decomposi-

’ eae oTOe

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a alr

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ee
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.

et

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Dr. Hugo Mohl, on Liebig’s Organic Chemistry. 99

‘tion of carbonic acid, is untrue. The assertion that plants neither
absorb organic substances, nor assimilate them, rests on mere
theoretical speculation, and is destitute of all proof. The statements
as to the relation borne to the atmosphere by plants in the dark is
in direct opposition to every fact bearing on the subject. The asser-
tion that the nitrogenous food of plants, and that which contains no
nitrogen, are absorbed in certain proportions, is uncorroborated
by the analysis of either the seed or the full-grown plant. The
theory of the rotation of crops is contrary to experience, and
unsound in its details. The assertion that plants receive their food
during summer from the atmosphere alone, is incorrect.

On the other hand, it cannot be denied that Liebig’s idea that
plants derive their nitrogen from the ammonia of the atmosphere is
very happy and pregnant with results, It is also probable that the
absorption of saline bases is in direct ratio to the power of saturation
of the acids formed in plants. ‘These two views are a real gain
to science, and it may be expected that his work will also have the
merit of exciting others to make correct experiments on the nutrition
of plants. But he has endeavoured to introduce into vegetable phy-
siology a series of most erroneous notions, and his unbecoming out-
breaks against other physiologists have proved him to be very little
acquainted with the subjects on which his book is written.— From
the Gardeners’ Chronicle for 1843.

ee ee

Fourteenth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science. York, September 25.

The General Committee assembled on Wednesday, at two o’clock,
and the chair was taken by the Earl of Rosse. ‘The minutes of the
two last Meetings held in Cork, were read and confirmed.

The Report of the Council was then read, on the results of the
applications made to Government pursuant to the recommendations of
the General Committee at the Cork Meeting. It was stated that
application had been made to the Master General of the Ordnance,
for aid in conducting experiments on captive balloons, and that he
had issued instructions to the Commandant at Woolwich, to afford
every facility for the purpose. A resolution had been adopted at the

100 Proceedings of the British Association.

Cork Meeting, at the joint recommendation of several Sections,
stating the desirableness of having contour lines of elevation en-
graved on the maps of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, as had ac-
tually been done in the map of the county of Kilkenny, so as to
show all the varieties and direction of level in the country surveyed.
A memorial pointing out the advantage of such indications, for
drainage, road-making, regulation of water-supply, mining opera-
tions, and several other important purposes, had been presented to
the Government, and though no distinct reply was given, informa-
tion had been received that the contour lines had been ordered to be
continued, The application for aid in the publication of Prof. Forbes’s
Researches in the A¢gean Sea, had been favourably received by Her
Majesty’s Ministers; the sum of 500/. had been granted for the
purpose ; 500 copies were to be printed, 50 of which were to be
placed at the disposal of Her Majesty’s Government for presentation
to various foreign bodies, 50 to be given to Prof. Forbes, and the
remainder to be sold to the public at a considerable reduction on the
cost price. The Government had also advanced a thousand pounds
in aid of the publication of the catalogue of Stars in the Southern
Hemisphere.

Section D.—ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY.

This Section met this morning at eleven o’clock, in the theatre of
the Yorkshire Museum. ‘The attendance at this Section was more
than usually numerous.

The Secretary commenced the proceedings by reading a paper
‘on the periodical birds observed in the years 1843 and 1844, near
Llanrwst, Denbighshire North Wales,’ by John Blackwall, Esq.,
F.L.S.—This was a continuation of the author’s former observations
on the same subject, which were commenced at the suggestion of
the British Association, in order that extensive tables of the period
of the arrival and disappearance of animals, and other periodic phe-
nomena in the organic kingdom, might be obtained.

Mr. Arthur Strickland, of Burlington, observed that a single paper
could not afford matter for inference. The period of appearance and
disappearance of birds is very uncertain.

Proceedings of the British Association. 101

A paper was read by Mr. J. Hogg, on the Ornithology of a por-
tion of the North of England, entitled, ‘A catalogue of the Birds
observed in South-East Durham and North-West Cleveland.’—The
author entered into an extended view of the habits of many of the
species, and made remarks upon the nomenclature of some of our
British authors. He also proposed some modification in the classifi-
cation of birds, adopting some of the families of Cuvier as additional
tribes, incorporating at the same time with them the greater part of
the families adopted by our English ornithologists. The number of
species contained in the catalogue amounted to 210.

The President observed, that as the author had referred to some
remarks of his on the willow-wrens, he could state that he believed
that there were four British species, two of which were well known,
and two more obscure. ‘There was first, the Sylvia trochilus, which
breeds on the ground, and builds its nest on heaths, and even in
strawberry beds; secondly, wood-wrens, which were found in
woods ; thirdly, the Sylvia rufa, which occurred in his own parish,
in Yorkshire ; fourthly a bird called the chiffchaff, but confounded
with the last, but which he called the Sylvia loquaz. This is very
common in Yorkshire. Why they are not distinguished, is, that the
young birds have a brighter plumage than the old ones. Another
bird mentioned by Mr. Hogg, the whinchat, was frequently called
grasschat in Yorkshire, and followed the mowers during haymaking.
The godwit had been mentioned ; it had a long bill, and it was ge-
nerally supposed that birds with long bills lived by suction; but
this was not the case with the godwit, as it fed voraciously and
flourished upon barley. It could not drink in deep water, but
was always obliged to have recourse to the edge of a stream to
drink.

Abstract of a paper ‘On the Flight of Birds.’ By T. Allis.—
Birds require the centre of gravity to be placed immediately over the
axis of motion for walking, and beneath it when flying; when sus-
pended in the air, their bodies naturally fall into that position which
throws the centre of gravity beneath the wings. The axis of motion
being situated in a different place in the line of the body when walk-
ing, from that which is used when flying, the discrepancy requires to
be compensated by some means in all birds, in order to enable them

102 Proceedings of the British Association.

to perform flight with ease. Raptorial birds take a horizontal position
when suspended in the air, and the compensating power consists in
their taking a more or less erect position when at rest. Another
class, including the woodpeckers, wagtails, &c., take an oblique posi-
tion in the air : with these the compensating power consists in their
cleaving and passing through the air at an angle coincident with the
position of the body, and performing flight by a series of curves or
saltations. Natatorial birds sometimes need very extended flight ;
they take a very oblique position in the air; they have the_ribs
greatly lengthened, the integuments of the abdomen are long and
flexible which enables them greatly to enlarge the abdominal portion
of their body by inflating it with air; this causes a decrease in the
specific gravity of that part, and raises it to a horizontal position. The
compensating power consists in the posterior half of the body be-
coming specifically lighter, while the specific gravity of the anterior
half remains unaltered.

This paper was illustrated by the skeletons of several birds.

Mr. A. Strickland, observing the guillemot upon the table,
stated, that although this bird had the power of flying over the sea,
it could not over the land.—Mr. H. E. Strickland had, originally,
doubted this fact, but, from experiments he had made on the east
coast of Yorkshire, he could confirm the statement of Mr, A. Strick-
land. He believed this fact had never been noticed by ornitho-

logists.—Mr. R. Ball, of Dublin, stated that he had appended a

note, to the effect that the guillemot could not fly on land, in a pa-
per which had been published about eight days, by the Irish
Archeological Society.

Mr. H. E. Strickland read the Report of the Committee
‘On the Vitality of Seeds.’—Most of the experiments reported on at
previous meetings, were still being continued. The Committee had
received a large collection of seeds from Sir Wm. Jackson Hooker,
which had been collected between the years 1800 and 1843. Of the
seeds, nearly one hundred species, gathered in 1800 and 1801, only
two species germinated, a Colutea and a Coronilla. The more recent-
ly gathered seeds germinated in a greater per-centage. Thus of
forty-two species gathered in 1840, thirteen germinated. Of those
which failed, were species of Cannabis, Othusa, Pzeonia, &c.

Proceedings of the British Association. 103

The President observed, that he considered the results obtained
by this Committee as exceedingly unsatisfactory, as seeds placed
in different circumstances manifestly differed in the powers of their
vitality.

Dr. Lankester stated, that absolute certainty, with regard
to the period which plants would retain their vitality, could not
be obtained ; but by a large number of experiments, in which every
fact was accurately noted, principles of considerable importance
might be deduced. Thus it would be interesting to know what rela-
tion the presence or absence of albumen had upon the vitality
of seeds, as well as the relation of the chemical compounds, which re-
cent chemists had developed in many of them; and it was only by
labours like those of this Committee, that it could be effected.

Mr. Francis Jennings, of Cork, presented to the Association
a copy of a portion of a work publishing by the Cuvierian Society,
and which is intended to comprehend a complete Flora and Fauna
of the county of Cork.

Dr. Allaman read a paper ‘ On a new genus of Arachnid,’ found
parasitical in the posterior nares of the seal (Halycherus gryphus.)

Mr. Peach read a paper ‘ On the Marine Zoology of the Coast of
Cornwall.’—He first made some remarks on the habits and structure
of the species of Blenny. He next drew attention to what he sup-
posed to be a new species of Holothuria, and which from the cir-
cumstance of its having twenty tentacula belonged to the species
typical of the genus. Although provided with twenty tentacula,
it had but four rows of suckers. He then made some remarks
on the Nereis tubicola, which he had observed floating on the water.
He described the ova of the Doris, and confirmed the observations of
of Messrs. Alder and Hancock relative to the larve condition of these
nudibranchs. He exhibited a specimen of the Cyprea monetas, or
money cowrey, which he stated to have been dredged up in a living
state on the coast of Cornwall, and which he hoped would be now
placed in the British Fauna.

Prof. E. Forbes expressed his great satisfaction at the discovery
of a typical species of Holothuria on the British coast, which he had
in his work stated, he believed, to exist, from the circumstance of ty-
pical species having been found in the seas of Holland and Denmark.

104 Proceedings of the British Association.

Although Mr. Peach had found but four rows of suckers, there
would probably be seen the rudiments of a fifth, He considered the
circumstance of Nereis tubicola floating accidental.

Dr. W. B. Carpenter confirmed Mr. Peach’s observations on the
ova of Doris, as he had found the same arrangement of the ova as
mentioned by Messrs. Alder and Hancock.

Section F.—STATISTICS.

On taking the chair, Col. Sykes made a few observations on the
nature and objects of statistical science, after which he called upon
Mr. Porter to read a paper on the mining districts of France. This
paper was a continuation of that which the author read before the
Statistical Section at the Newcastle Meeting. On that occasion, the
report was brought down to the close of the year 1836, and Mr.

Porter now continued it from the official documents to the end of the
year 1841. It must be remembered, that regular statistics of the
mineral products of France was commenced in 1832, and conse-
quently, we have as nearly as possible a power of determining the
progress of mining industry in France, during a period of nine years.
For the purpose of illustrating the advance made in this branch of
productiveness, he directed attention to the following table, giving
tne value of minerals raised in the years 1832, 1836, and 1841;
that is to say, during the nine years of which alone accurate records

are attainable.

1832. 1836. 1841.
Coal, Lignite, and An- \ f.16,079,670| 26,607,071) 33,159,044
thracite
Iron and steel ..........! 87,812,994|124,384,616/ 141,789,560
Silver:andidead =: «<0hwis 856,673 881,534 774,033
Antimony sae a.) ais, ek ath 71,233 305,032 155,251
Copper Sasteehs a5 o's ceils" 247,680 196,624 278,676
Manganese .. ... 105,150 152,671 147,783

gee and sulphate o 1,077,595| 1,760,607! 2,052,043

See

ee ee

f.1105,750,995| 154,228,455 | 178,356,090

or in Sterling Money, £ 4,230,040! 6,169,138! 7,134,123
The per-centage increase in 18386 over 1832 was 45°84
in 1841 over 1886 .. 15°62

and for the whole years) con Gots... Caran
7°63 per annum.

Proceedings of the British Association. 105

He next directed particular attention to the subject of coal, and des-
cribed minutely the geographical position of the coal fields of France.
The rapid increase of coal raised in France is shown in the following
return ;.

Coal raised in 1814...... 665,610 Tons.
S26...) o% 22.7 1,879,225-LTons.
1836 .... .. 2,544,835 Tons,
1841 ....... 3,410,200. Tons.

Mr. Porter calculated that the quantity of coal raised in England
was about ten times the amount raised in France.

The quantity of coal imported into France during 1841 was,
Mere eon... «i. «seen, 992,226 Tons.
Rhenish Provinces .... .. .... 196,502 ‘T'ons.
Promrisritain .... ....;. .... 429,950 Tons.
BRGPEADIGCCg Se cc ee 482 Tons.

1,619,160 Tons.

The following figures present the number of workmen employ-
ed in the different divisions of the iron manufacture, and the value
created in each of these divisions, in 1836 and 1841 :—

SSS Sr st eee | Se g Se

No. of Value No. of Value
Workmen! created. |Workmen| created.

semmingaemmnammend

1. Extraction and pre- £ Fe

P \ 17,557 | 500,632] 15,783 | 556,211

paration of the ore
2. “noe of Ate 6,776 |1,969,132| 4,885 11,925,673
3. ————— Mal-U! ¢ 678 11,506,247] 11,148 (1,749,810
leable iron.......

. Drawing, rolling, &c. 8,615 812,486; 13,165 |1,208,946
. Moulding, casting,&c.| 2,149 186,927 2,899 230,942

eee wemnrsss | omen ce ee | wees: Piece oe

Total, ..........1 48,775 14,975,424! 47,830 '5,671,582

oe

In Great Britain we make four tons for one ton made in France,
while the number of persons employed is greater in France than in
Englang: viz.

i France nee ree ee iioe. DOP enor 47,830
hi Groat Britany Ay Os pees (429,418
P

106 Proceedings of the British Association. —

Mr. Porter stated that the amount of the other ine raised in
France was not of any great national importance. Coal and iron
were the two great staples on which the prosperity of manufact. 8
depends, and he presented this paper as. a contribution toac
tive view of the mineral resources of the two countries, a
dustrial arts connected with mineral produce. The protecting d ties |
on iron were shown to have injured all the manufactures of France,
and to have conferred no benefit on the iron-masters themselves. ' ee ‘

In reply to some questions, Mr. Porter stated that the system of g
inspection in France was purely statistical, and had no, right to au-
thoritative interference. The absence of ‘strikes in Fran
buted to the habits of the people, and not to ae ce :

of the government inspectors. _ a
Mr. Felkin gave an account of his visit to the coal io, 2 arou bt co
St. Etienne, and stated that the great obstacle to their increase of
paper laieue ee was a Pe of means of transit, and he believed that di

Wy

but that this coal would be found more applicable to : nengines .
than to the processes of smelting iron, ee * g
A paper was read, sent by Mrs. Davis Gilbert, on i subject of
agricultural schools. The chief purpose of the paper was to recom- _
mend the combination of spade-husbandry and the allotment system 4
with the agricultural schools established under the national system.
It was stated that at the Willingden schools. the labour of the

scholars in the afternoon paid for their tuition in the forenoon.
Col. Sykes read a paper on the rate of mortality in Calcutta. He —
stated that the population of that city consisted of 144,893 males —
and 84,812 females, making a total of 222,705 souls. ‘It appeared
from the monthly returns of deaths that the rate of mortality for the
seasons follows the same laws of season as in temperate climates.
The cold season being the most fatal, and April being a month fi
of high mortality. In the months for the decennial period between _
18381 and 1841, the following were the number of deaths :— 7
January 7,877, February 6,870 March 8,850, April 10,232, May
8,381, June 5,822, July 6,671, August 7,631, September 8,008,
October 8,895, November 11,039, December 10,351.
As an illustration of the importance of taking a wide survey of

facts for statistical purposes, it was noticed that the rates of mortality

Lawl

Proceedings of the British Association. 10%
varied very much in different years; the minimum in 1831 being
2:90 per cent., and the maximum in 1833 being 8.07 per cent. The
= of mortality in persons of different creeds were very varied, as

e seen from the following table :—

4,
2 1 cee, eee 3-34 per cent.

Roman Catholics (chiefly ipo rtutavese) LOT" 3
Christians generally oe. ae. Oe,

ee nits e. eeee S) arages)
o Hitdus Lee ee oe. eS,
Bens ame Oh, a 448,

oa particul arly the Hindus, was illustrated by various comparisons,

ut the general result was the same as that given in the preceding
table. A: return was made of the rates of mortality among European
fiers, which showed the following various per-centages of deaths ;—

a eet Single. Married.
¥ ak poli... | a MS aE ihn 8 di Ooi ek” ee
;.. pitevel Fila 6°38 3:92
ee ; A ney. OLE . LOG
Beans 2 Fe Lees cris) A EELS, 12, OD

et cnants’ Peat ae TOO I a or Cea a
BG ch ee nnic cee te so nO One LOG
Pield officers generally ..\......° 4°12" 3°75
Subalterns, including Captains .. 3°76 2°36
(lagers generally). 00 0050.0) 887 2°74

A desultory conversation ensued, in which no fact of importance
was elicited, and the Section then adjourned.

Szection G.—MECHANICAL SCIENCE. .

In the absence of Mr. Rennie, who wrote to say he had been de-
tained on business by the Government, Mr. John Taylor opened the
meeting, but having to attend in another Section, Mr. Scott Russell
took the chair.

The first paper read was on a new Scantlometer, by Mr. James
Wylson. It is intended by this instrument to ascertain the scantl-
ings (or depth and thickness) of timber used in buildings.

108 Proceedings of the British Association.

Sir Thomas Deane mentioned that since the meeting at Cork, the
rooms in the Court House, which had been found most incon-
venient for hearing and seeing, had been altered according to the plan
proposed by Mr. Russell, which had been found to answer perfectly.

Mr. Hodgkinson was called on to report on the grant made last
year for examining ‘the Law of Defective Electricity of iron and
stone,’ but as this report was also made to the Mathematical
Section, we need not here further allude to it.

Mr. Scott Russel then reported that the Committee on the Forms
of Ships had now completed their labours ; that the whole of the
tables of the experiments, and all the drawings of the forms of
the ships were now ready for publication. These tables were so
voluminous, and the plates required for illustration were so numerous
and expensive, that the question of publication was likely to be at-
tended with some difficulty ; but a Committee consisting of the Pre-
sident of the Royal Society, the Dean of Ely, Col. Sabine, and Mr.
Taylor, had been appointed for the purpose of making the necessary
arrangements. He had now to communicate to the meeting an im-
portant addition, which had been made to these experiments during
the past year. The members of this Section were aware that the
former experiments made by the Committee comprehended vessels of __
many forms, and various sizes, from the length of a few inches, to .
ships of 2,000 tons displacement, but in all these experiments direct
mechanical means of propulsion had been employed, and not the —
force of the wind, and they were therefore regarded as applicable to
steam vessels, rather than to sailing ships. During last year, how-
ever, most satisfactory experiments had been made, in which the
propelling force was the wind acting on the sails of the vessel on the
open sea. The circumstances in which this experiment originated,
displayed in a striking manner the advantages conferred by an Asso-
ciation like this on the districts which it visited. The two gentlemen
who had conducted this experiment were both Irishmen: one, Dr.
Corrigan, of Dublin, having become acquainted, through the last
meeting in Cork, with the experiments of this Association, deter-
mined on building a pleasure boat to carry out the principles which
had been established by those experiments, and to have his vessel
built on that form which was pointed out by these experiments as

Proceedings of the British Association. 109

the form of least resistance. He accordingly built a small vessel of
about four tons measurement, in the wave form, for the purpose of
making experiments with it as a sailing vessel. The other gentleman
to whom we were indebted for this experiment was Dr. Phipps, of
Cork, now in London, who had formerly distinguished himself as a
naval constructor, and had invented a form of his own, which had
been attended with great success. At the last meeting in Cork he
had become acquainted with the wave form, and it was under his
superintendence that an experimental vessel had been built on the
Thames, during last summer. The vessel had been tried on the
Thames by Dr. Phipps, and subsequently in the Bay of Dublin, and
the results of the experiments were laid before the meeting in the
letters which had been received from Dr. Phipps and Dr. Corrigan.
From these letters it appeared that the performances of this small
vessel had been surprising. In speed she had already beaten every
vessel with which she had been tried, and these included pleasure
boats and yachts, some of them of high reputation for speed, and of
four times her size. It was of course difficult to conduct experiments
of this kind with mathematical precision, but the reports stated that
the experimental vessel was not only fast before the wind, but
weatherly, dry, stiff, and easily worked. ‘The experiments on this
vessel were still in progress ; and unless she should in future be beat-
en by some vessel of her own size, and of a different form, it would
appear from these reports that the wave form might be adopted with
as great advantage in the construction of sailing vessels, as it already
had been in the construction of the fastest class of steam vessels.

TuurspAY, SEPTEMBER 29,

Section A.A—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE.

The President, on taking the chair, briefly observed, that the first
papers which were usually laid before the Section, were reports
drawn up at the request or at the expense of the Association. Of
these some had arrived, and others were promised in the course of
the week; but he regretted to add, that one was prevented from be-
ing laid before them by afflicting circumstances in the family of the
gentleman who had kindly drawn it up.

———w

110 | Proceedings of the British Association.

Sir D. Brewster then gave a provisional report on the hourly
Meteorological Observations carried on at Inverness, at the expense of
the British Association, by Mr. Thomas Mackenzie. It appeared from
this report that the hours of mean temperature for the whole year
were 8h. 30m. and 7h. 35m. the interval between which is 11h. 15m.
which is called the critical period, and which is a constant quantity.
This value of the critical interval at Leith was found to be 11h. 15m,
which was the average of some years’ observations; and it is inter-
esting to observe, that the very same amount of the critical interval
has been found at Inverness, in a much more northern latitude.

The President remarked, that Meteorological observations requir-

ed the atmosphere to be in a very peculiar state, in order to insure ©

accurate definition. He believed it was Struve who first remarked,
that whenever the temperature of the night sunk much below the
mean of the preceding 24 hours, no accurate definition of objects was
to be expected. Dr. Robinson said, the hygrometrical state of the
air was of much consequence for astronomical observations ; he found
that it required to be very near the point of saturation, as a difference
between the wet and dry bulb thermometers of more than a degree
or two precluded all accurate definition, the brighter stars having
then a tendency to throw out scintillating lines ; and it was only in
the moist state of the air that they appeared distinct in themselves,
although surrounded by faint coloured rays. Rev. Dr. Scoresby
remarked how one branch of physical research bore upon other
branches. He believed that the hour at which Lord Rosse found
that he could best test the accuracy of figure given to his splendid
reflectors was that which Sir David Brewster had ascertained to be
the time of mean temperature for the 24 hours. Lord Rosse said,
that the test being the formation of a distinct image of a watch-dial
placed at a considerable elevation, say 100 feet, above the tower, it
was necessary, in order that there should be no tremor of the air,
that the temperature within and outside the tower should be as nearly
equal as possible, and that this was pretty much the time of the mean
temperature of the day—about 20 minutes past nine in the morning.

‘ On the Analogy of the Existencies or Forces, Light, Heat, Voltaic
and ordinary Electricities,’ by John Goodman. The existencies,
light and caloric, having by the labours of M. Melloni, Dr, Forbes,

{

oe aa oo a

Proceedings of the British Association. 111

Mrs. Somerville, and others, been shown as analogical, and the iden-
tity of the electricities being established, Mr. Goodman proposed to
exhibit the connecting link between the phenomena of caloric and
electricity, to the properties of which (the former) the voltaic fluid,
most nearly approaches. The term existencies is here employed by
the author in contradistinction to the ordinarily received opinion that
caloric, light, -&c. are only effects or Bemene resulting from the
motion of material bodies.

‘On a Principle in the Theory of Probabilities,’ by Prof. Young.
—Let pt pp*.. pz be the respective probabilities of happening of n
independent events: then the following general principle will have
place, viz :— :

p! +p? +p? Ea oe =the prob. of one of the events at least hap-
hatte pening. om
+the prob. of two at least happening in con-
d&co ds _ junction.
+ the prob. of three at Jeast.

ad

| ++ the prob. of all happening together. —

This general principle, Mr. Young observed, has not hitherto been
noticed. It affords an intelligible interpretation of the sum of the
probabilities of any number of independent events; and it is, more-
over, useful in enabling us very readily to determine certain com-
pound probabilities when others are already known.

‘On Diverging Infinite Series,’ by Prof. Young. The general
principles sought to be established in this paper are. 1. Whenever
an infinite series becomes divergent for particular numerical values,
what has generally been called the generating function of the series
requires a correction which cannot be disregarded without increasing
an error infinite in amount, 2, And that so far from such series be-
ing, as usually affirmed, always algebraically true though sometimes
arithmetically false, considered in reference to the generating func-
tion; on the contrary, they are always algebraically false, though
sometimes arithmetically true—true, namely, in those cases, and those
only, for which the algebraic function omitted becomes evanescent.

Prof. M’Cullagh communicated some remarks on an attempt
lately made by M, Laurent to explain on mechanical principles the

eer reas tan ea a

SY ene a

“oe

—-
ae

112 Proceedings of the British Association.

phenomenon of elliptical polarization ; and he showed that this at-
tempt had failed. M. Laurent supposes the particles of the lumini-
ferous ether sot to be simply material points, but to have dimensions
which are not insensible when compared with their distances ; and on
this hypothesis he deduces a system of differential equations, the in-
tegrals of which he conceives to represent the phenomenon in ques-
tion. The integral given by M. Laurent is, however, absurd, though
this circumstance was not noticed by M. Cauchy, in the remarks and
comments which he made on M. Laurent’s memoir. The true inte-
gral of these equations (supposing them to be correctly deduced) was
shown by Prof. M’Cullagh to indicate motions of the ether which do
not correspond to the observed phenomena.

Mr. E. Hodgkinson gave an account of some further experiments
“ On the defect of Elasticity of Rigid Bodies”. These experiments
originated in the suggestion that possibly some of the results which
Mr. Hodgkinson had communicated at Cork (see Athen. No. 827),
had originated in the friction caused by the supports of the extremities
of the bars on which the experiments were perfomed. He had there-
fore, in these later experiments, placed strong friction wheels as sup-
ports for the ends of the bars; he had also changed the mode of
measuring the deflection. He had previously used a wedge graduat-
ed on the side; he substituted for this a fine screw with a divided
micrometer head, by which he could measure the 10,000th part of
an inch of a deflection. He then gave the numerical details of the
sets taken by various bars after they have been loaded and then re-
lieved. The most striking general results were, that the index of
the power of the load to which he found the set taken most nearly
proportional was 2; that every load, however trivial, caused a set, and
that this set did not entirely disappear when the bar was given time
to recover its state, but in general diminished greatly.

Dr. Scoresby inquired if Mr. Hodgkinson had tried whether a
vibratory motion excited among the particles of the bar would enable
them to recover their original arrangement. Mr. Hodgkinson had
not, but promised to attend to the hint. Dr. Robinson suggested
that the vibratory motions should not be excited with violence suffici-
ent to cause mechanical derangement of the particles. Lord Rosse
stated two facts bearing on Mr. Hodgkinson’s investigations; one,

Sa

Proceedings of the British Assoctation. 113

that the standards which had been made to replace those destroyed
by the burning of the House of Commons had been found to alter very
slightly but decidedly their dimensions, after having been finished with
the greatest care. The other, that cannon were never permitted to be
discharged more than 400 times under ordinary circumstances, for
after that they were deemed unsafe.—Dr. Robinson stated that a fact
which had always appeared very strange to him received a probable
explanation from what he had just heard. It was found that the
platina standard of a metre which had been constructed under the
superintendence of the Academy, and which was a square prism,
each of whose four faces, therefore, was entitled to be considered as
the standard metre of France, when examined many years afterwards,
had no two of its sides of exactly the same length: this was supposed
to have arisen from the carelessness of the artist employed in its con-
struction, who had accordingly been much censured. He now
deemed it highly probable that it had been originally constructed
perfect, but had altered its own form. He also mentioned a case in
which the glasses of a telescope having been confined by adjusting
screws to their places, to which it was necessary for the perfection of
the instrument that they should be brought with extraordinary pre-
cision, the images of the fixed stars were found to form a cross of
light ; and it having occurred to him that the confining screws might,
by altering the relative positions of the particles, affect their optical
action on the light, it was found upon loosening them, that the irre-
gular image disappeared.—Sir D. Brewster detailed many examples
of the manner in which pieces of glass, being subjected to strains, by
the derangement of their molecular structure, polarized light, show-
ing zones of coloured spaces, with dark bands along the neutral parts,
where the particles retained their natural arrangement. These deli-
cate tints were found by him to vary in course of time; and a very
curious fact was that if cuts were made by a diamond along the dark
neutral spaces and the glass then divided, the parts were found to
possess a structure precisely similar to the piece of which they were
fragments; but the tints, though exactly similar, were much fainter.
FRipay.

‘On the Meteorology of Toronto, and its comparison with that of

Prague, in Bohemia,’ by Col, Sabine.—The observations at Toronto
Q

114 Proceedings of the British Association.

were made during the years 1841 and 1842, on every day except
Sundays, Christmas-day, and Good Friday, at intervals of every two
hours. Since 1842 they have been made at intervals of an hour.
For the purpose of rendering this communication more interesting,
Col. Sabine had compared these Toronto observations with those
made by M. Kairl, at the Observatory at Prague, in Bohemia. Col.
Sabine entered into a comparative description of those two stations,
both situate at a distance from the ocean between 300 and 400
miles in the middle of large continents. But there is one important
difference, that in Europe we enjoy a climate of higher mean temper-
ature, in proportion to the latitude, than they have in America, or
the isothermal lines descend lower in America than in Europe. Thus
the latitude and elevation above the sea of Toronto and Prague
stand thus :—
Latitude. Elevation.

Foronto s+ )./432 639bbe o.oo SBOE:
Prageiie fia) toe DOOD «Het rectrti St Deiat

itercnce @ ‘0° 20, 4.0) ue teer.
Prague should be coldér on account of its elevation, 0°8 Fah.

a] Qo.
Mean Temperature of eee am 4 \ Disko cas4cuen
¥ fe rague, 48°°7

Difference of Temperature corrected | Prague warmer

for difference of Elevation 5°1.

Prague being 5°:1 warmer than Toronto, although its latitude is
6° 26’ higher. Col. Sabine then drew attention to a table of the
diurnal oscillation of temperature, and explained it. The very small
differences in the results at the several hours of the two years, were
remarkable, as showing that we have already determined the diurnal
march of the temperature, as far as it can be obtained by two-hours
observations, with a close approximation to the truth. It also ap-
peared, that the climate of Toronto is warmer during the hours of
the day, and colder during those of the night, than that of Prague.
Another diagram exhibited the mean monthly and annual temperature
in each of the two years, compared with Prague, and a mean tempe-
rature of twenty years. He then exhibited a diagram showing the
elastic force or tension of the vapour in the atmosphere of those two
places, and the degree of humidity produced by it together with

Proceedings of the British Association. 115

their diurnal and annual oscillations. At Toronto the degree of
humidity was greatest at the coldest hour of the day, and least at the
hottest with remarkable regularity, the curve of humidity harmoniz-
ing with that of temperature, but being mverted in its range. The
average state of the air at Toronto was that it contained 0°78 parts
of the moisture required for its saturation. The curve of mean ten-
sion of the vapour had an ascending and descending branch in exact
harmony with that of temperature. He then pointed out some re-
markable deviations from this agreement, and particularized the
climate of Trevandrum, in the East Indies. After examining the
mean monthly humidity and tension, he proceeded to consider the
atmospheric pressure, and compared the barometrical ranges at
Toronto and Prague, and showed how remarkably similar were the
phenomena which presented themselves in this subject over the
two continents; and noticed a case in which, at each place, within
the compass of a very few days, the highest and the lowest observed
height of that instrument occurred, being apparently part of one
great atmospheric wave. Col. Sabine strongly recommended that
hygrometric observations should always accompany those of the baro-
meter; and that reductions should be made and registered at the
time, otherwise unreduced observations would be so unaccountable
as to become worthless.

A discussion followed, chiefly upon the theoretic views adopted by
Col. Sabine, all the speakers concurring in the value of the observa-
tions, and the skill and ability displayed im their discussion.

‘On a new process of Magnetic Manipulation, and its action on
cast iron and steel bars,’ by the Rev. Dr. Scoresby. Dr. Scoresby
found that it was impossible, by the ordinary process, to commu-
nicate the full charge of magnetic influence to very hard shear-steel
or cast steel bars, or such as were best suited for retaining it, and
therefore best for the manufacture of compasses. But he was led, by
the theoretic views he holds, to try the effect of interposing thin bars
of soft iron between the charging poles of the magnet, and the steel
bar to be magnetized: this answered effectually and Dr. Scoresby
exhibited to the section several experiments, whereby, with the old
process, the magnetism imparted to the steel bars was very trivial,

116 Proceedings of the British Association.

but by the adoption of the new process, a remarkably strong charge
was communicated by one single stroke of the balls of the magnet
over the bar.

Dr. Robinson exhibited and described the Orthochronograph, in-
vented by the late Mr. Lowman, which, however, the Earl of Rosse,
Prof. Stevelly and others, considered less accurate than other known
instruments.

‘ Account of an attempt to establish the plastic nature of glacier
ice by direct experiment,’ by Prof. J. D. Forbes. These experiments
were made in the month of August last upon the Mer de Glace of
Chamouni, with the view of establishing that the increasing velocity
of a glacier, from the side towards the centre, takes place (when the
declivity is not very great) by the insensible yielding of one portion
of the ice past another, without great rents at measurable distances
producing discontinuity in the motion. The only permanent marks
left by such differential motion are the veins, or blue-bands, to which
the author has, in his published writings, attributed such an origin.
A transverse line was drawn partly across the glacier in the most
compact part which could be found, which was quite devoid of open
crevices for a considerable space. The theodolite was planted over
a fixed mark in the ice at the extremity of this line nearest to the
lateral moraine of the glacier ; and the relative, or differential, velo-
city of the parts towards the centre were determined at short inter-
vals, and have been projected in a curve. This curve was shown
to the meeting. It is evidently a continuous curve, convex towards
the valley, and not a zigzag motion, such as must have resulted from
distinct rents parallel to the length of the glacier. The length of the
line, originally straight, whose deformation was observed, was 90 feet,
and the ordinates of the curve were determined by accurate measure-
ments at forty-five stations two feet apart. The experiments on the
continuous flexion of the transverse line were extended over a longer
period, at points 30, 60, 90, 120, and 180 feet from the theodolite,
with similar results. The author concludes, Ist, that the sliding of
the mass of the glacier over itself by insensible gradations cannot be
denied ; and that it is sufficient to account for the observed excess
of progress of the centre above the sides of the glacier; 2nd, that

Proceedings of the British Association. 117

this differential motion takes place in the direction in which the
veined structure exists, and that it is impossible not to consider the
one phenomenon as dependent on the other.

The discussion on this paper occupied two hours, and till the meet-
ing closed, when it was arranged that it should be resumed on
Saturday, at the sitting of the section, when the subject again
occupied the attention of the section for upwards of three hours.

In consequence of the more than usual interest which attached to
the proceedings of this section on Monday, when the Earl of Rosse
described the construction of his gigantic reflecting telescope, we
shall so far deviate from our custom, of reporting the proceedings
according to the order of their occurrence, as to give this paper
at once.

Long before the hour of meeting, the room was crowded to suffoca-
tion, and many ladies, and even gentlemen, could not gain admit-
tance. The address was illustrated by a model, with its supporting
piers and galleries complete, and by a working model of the grinding
and polishing machine.

The Earl of Rosse commenced by stating, that. the Council hay-
ing intimated their opinion that some account of the experiments in
which he had been engaged on the reflecting telescope would not be
altogether devoid of interest, he would endeavour to describe, as briefly
as possible, the manner in which he had attempted to accomplish the
object in view, and the principal results obtained. When, about the
year 1826, he first turned his attention to this subject, he considered
that the knowledge of our own system might be almost consider-
ed complete. ‘There were, no doubt, some portions of it, as the
motions and distances of the satellites of Uranus, the masses of some
of the planets, the rings of Saturn, and some others, which yet
required elucidation, and would doubtless amply reward industrious
research ; but on the whole, he conceived that our ordinary instru-
ments, aided by the nice contrivances for accurate measurement
which the perfection of modern art had introduced, were amply
competent to aid in this branch of research the many men of genius
who were engaged in it. But a new and a most interesting field had
been gpened to the view, and partially explored, by the indefatigable

118 Proceedings of the British Association.

zeal of the distinguished Herschel and his no less distinguished and
accomplished son. The subject of double and multiple stars pro-
mised a rich harvest, if our instrumental powers could be enlarged
to any considerable extent ; and another field, no less promising, was
that of nebule, of which some of those examined by the Herschels
seemed to lay open to the contemplation of the astronomer regions
in comparison with which our entire sidereal sphere might be consi-
dered as a mathematical point. Now, in examining these, he did not
mean to deny that accurate measurements were of much importance
—indeed, of the very highest ; but it must be obvious, that before we
can measure we must be rendered capable of seeing. Here, then, he
found the strongest inducement to attempt to improve the instru-
ment by which this was to be accomplished. ‘Two objects required
to be kept in view : first, to give the telescope sufficient aperture to
secure a sufficiency of light ; secondly, to increase to a sufficient ex-
tent the magnifying power. On these depended what might be
called the optical power of the instrument, but particularly upon the
former. For instance, the large telescope, of which a model stood
before them, to be used effectually, must have a magnifying power of
300 times. Now, another instrument, very inferior in size, might
have a much higher power, but, from the vast quantity of light
which it collected into the image, objects in it became distinct which
could not be at all seen by those of inferior aperture. The next
question he had to determine was, whether he should attempt re-
fractors or reflectors. Just at that time very large and very fine
discs of the proper glass had been produced upon the Continent, and
a strong hope was entertained of bringing the refracting telescope to
a degree of perfection which had been hitherto rather hoped for than
attained. But, upon a calm balancing of all the difficulties which
opposed their construction, he determined to attempt the improvement
of the Newtonian reflector, and that notwithstanding it was well
known that an error of form of the reflector produced an error in the
image more than five times as great as the same error in the refractor
would produce. It was to the steps by which he attained this object
that he was now about to direct the attention of the section.
‘Having concluded that upon the whole there was a better pros-
pect of obtaining by reflection, rather than by refraction, the power

Proceedings of the British Association, 119

which would be required for making any effectual progress in the re-
examination of the nebulz, the first experiments were undertaken, in
the hope of obviating the difficulties which had previously prevented
the application of the brilliant alloy which may be formed of tin and
copper in proper proportions to the construction of large instruments.
The manner in which the difficulty had been met, was, by adding an
excessive proportion of copper to the alloy, but the mirror was no
longer susceptible of a durable polish, and, when used, its powers
declined rapidly. It appeared to me, therefore, to be an object so
important to obtain a reflecting surface which would reflect the
greatest quantity of light, and retain that property little diminished
for a length of time, that numerous experiments were undertaken
and perseveringly carried on. After a number of failures the dif-
ficulties appeared to be so great that I constructed three specula,
where the basis of the mirror was an alloy of zinc and copper in the
proportion of 1 zinc to 2°74 copper, which expands with changes of
temperature in the same proportion as speculum metal. This was
subsequently plated with speculum metal, in pieces of such size as
we were enabled to cast sound. ‘These specula were very light and
stiff, and their performance upon the whole satisfactory; but they
were affected by diffraction at the joimings of the plates ; and although
very brilliant and durable, defining all objects well under high
powers, except very large stars, still as the effect of diffraction was
then perceptible they could not be considered as perfect instruments.
In the course of the experiments carried on while these three specula
were in progress, it was ascertained that the difficulty of casting large
discs of brilliant speculum metal arose from the unequal contraction
of the material, which in the first instance, produced imperfections in
the castings, and often, subsequently, their total destruction; and it
appeared evident, that, if the fluid mass could be cooled throughout
with perfect regularity, so that at every instant every portion should
be of the same temperature, there would be no unequal contraction in
the progress towards solidification, nor subsequently, in the transi-
tion from a red heat to the temperature of the atmosphere. Although
it was obvious that the process could not be managed so that the
exact condition required should be fulfilled, still, by abstracting heat
uniformly from one surface (the lower one), the temperature of the

TU

120 Proceedings of the British Association.

mass would be kept uniform in one direction, that is, horizontally ;
while in the vertical direction, it would vary in some degree as the
distance from the cooling surface. These conditions being satisfied,
we should likewise have a mass which would be free from flaws, and,
when cool, would be free from sensible strain; nothing could be
easier than to accomplish this, approximately, in practice ; it would
be only necessary to make one surface of the mould (the lower one)
of iron of a good conducting material while the remainder was of dry
sand. On trial, this plan was perfectly successful ; there was, how-
ever, a new, though not a very serious defect, which was immediate-
ly apparent—the speculum metal was cooled so rapidly that air-
bubbles remained entangled between it and the iron surface; but the
remedy immediately suggested itself, by making the iron surface
porous, so as to suffer the air to escape; in fact, by forming it of
plates of iron placed vertically side by side, the defect was altogether
removed. It only then remained to secure the speculum from cool-
ing unequally, and for that purpose it was sufficient to place it in an
oven raised to a very low red heat, and there to leave it till cold, from
one to three or four weeks, or perhaps longer, according to its size.

** The alloy which I consider the best, differs but little from that
employed by Mr. Edwards: I omit the brass and arsenic, em-
ploying merely tin and copper in the atomic proportions, namely,
one atom of tin to four atoms of copper, or, by weight, 58.9
to 126.4. As it was obviously impossible to cast large specula
in earthen crucibles, the reverberatory furnace was tried; but
the tin oxidized so rapidly, that the proportions in the alloy
were uncertain; and after some abortive trials with cast-iron cru-
cibles, it was found, that when the crucible is cast with the mouth
up it is free from the minute pores through which the speculum
metal would otherwise exude ; and therefore such crucibles fully
answered the purpose. It was very obvious that the published
processes for grinding and polishing specula, being in a great
measure dependent on manual dexterity, were uncertain and not
well suited to large specula ; accordingly, at an early period of these
experiments, in 1827, a machine was contrived for the purpose,
which has subsequently been improved, and by means of it a close
approximation to the parabolic figure can be obtained with certainty ;

;
;
I
;

Proceedings of the British Association. 121

as it has been described in the Philosophical Transactions for 1840,
it is unnecessary to do more than to point out the principle on which
it acts. ‘The speculum is made to revolve very slowly, while the
polishing tool is drawn backwards and forwards by one excentric or
crank, and from side to side, slowly by another. The polishing tool is
connected with the excentrics by a ring, which fits it loosely, so
as to permit it to revolve, deriving its rotatory motion from the
speculum, but revolving much more slowly. It is counterpoised, so
that it may be made sufficiently stiff, and yet press lightly on the
speculum ; the pressure being about one pound for every circular
superficial foot. The motions of this machine are relatively so adjusted
that the focal length of the speculum during the polishing process,
or towards the lateral end of it, shall be gradually becoming
slightly longer, and the figure will depend in a great measure upon
the rapidity with which this increase in the focal length takes place.
It will be evident that a surface, spherical originally, will cease to be
so, if, while subjected to the action of the polisher, it is in a con-
tinual state of transition from a shorter to a longer focus; in fact,
during no instant of time will it be actually spherical, but some
curve, differing a little from the sphere, and which may be made
to approach the parabola, provided it be possible in practice to give
effect to certain conditions. An immense number of experiments,
where the results were carefully registered, eventually established an
empirical formula, which affords at present very good practical
results, and may hereafter, perhaps, be considerably improved. In
fact, when the stroke of the first excentric is one-third the diameter
of the speculum,’ and that of the second excentric is such as to
produce a lateral motion of the bar which moves the polisher,
measured on the edge of the tank, equal to 27, the diameter of
the speculum, or referred to the centre of the polisher, of 1.7,
the figure will be nearly parabolic. The velocity and direction
of the motions which produce the necessary friction being adjusted
in due proportion by the arrangements of the machine, and the tem-
perature of the speculum being kept uniform by the water in which
it is immersed, there remains still other conditions, which are essen-
tial to the production of the required result. The process of polish-
ing differs very essentially from that of grinding ; in the latter, the
R

122 Proceedings of the British Association.

powder employed runs loose between two hard surfaces, and may
produce scratches possibly equal in depth to the size of the particles :
in the polishing process the case is very different ; there the particles
of the powder lodge in the comparatively soft material of which the
surface of the polishing tool is formed, and as the portions projecting
may bear a very small proportion to the size of the particles them-
selves, the scratches necessarily will be diminished in the same pro-
portion. The particles are forced thus to imbed themselves, in con-
sequence of the extreme accuracy of contact between the surface
of the polisher and the speculum. But as soon as this accurate
contact ceases, the polishing process becomes but fine grinding. It
is absolutely necessary, therefore, to secure this accuracy of contact
We | during the whole process. If the surface of a polisher, of consider-
i able dimensions, is covered with a thin coat of pitch, of sufficient
hardness to polish a true surface, however accurately it may fit the
speculum, it will very soon cease to do so, and the operation will fail.
The reason is this, that particles of the polishing powder and abraded
matter will collect in one place more than another, and as the pitch
is not elastic, close contact throughout the surfaces will cease. By
employing a coat of pitch, thicker in proportion as the diameter of
the speculum is greater, there will be room for lateral expansion, and
the prominence can therefore subside, and accurate contact still con-
tinue; however, accuracy of figure is thus, to a considerable extent,
sacrificed. By thoroughly grooving a surface of pitch, provision may
be made for lateral expansion contiguous to the spot where the undue
collection of polishing powder may have taken place. But, in prac-

tice such grooves are inconvenient, being constantly liable to fill up:
this evil is entirely obviated by grooving the polisher itself, and the |
smaller the portions of continuous surface, the thinner may be the
stratum of pitch.

‘‘There is another condition, which is also important, that the
Dae | - pitchy surface should be so hard as not to yield and abrade the softer
i portions of the metal faster than the harder. When the pitchy sur-
face is unduly soft, this defect is carried so far that even the struc-
ture of the metal is made apparent. While, therefore, it is essential
that the surface in contact with the speculum should be as hard as
possible, consistent with its retaining the polishing powder, it is

Proceedings of the British Association. 123

proper that there should be a yielding where necessary, or contact
would not be preserved. Both conditions can be satisfied by forming
the surface of two layers of resinous matter of different degrees of
hardness ; the first may be of common pitch, adjusted to the proper
consistence by the addition of spirits of turpentine, or rosin ; and the
other I prefer making of rosin, spirits of turpentine, and wheat flour,
as hard as possible, consistent with its holding the polishing powder.
The thickness of each layer need not be more than one-fortieth of an
inch, provided no portion of continuous surface exceeds half an inch
in diameter, the hard resinous compound, after it has been thoroughly
fused, can be reduced to powder, and thus easily applied to the
polisher, and incorporated with the subjacent layer, by instantaneous
exposure to flame. A speculum of three feet diameter thus polished,
has resolved several of the nebule, and in a considerable proportion
of the others has shown new stars, or some other new feature.”’

In conclusion, Lord Rosse exhibited drawings of the nebule, as
figured by Herschel, and also as they appeared in the telescope con-
structed by his Lordship.

Fig. 88, of Herschel, or 2 Mesier, and 21h.25m. §—1° 34’ south
many of the stars into which it is reduced by his telescope, are as
large as those of the first magnitude to the naked eye.

Fig. 81, Herschel, the bright nebula near @ Tauri, figured by
Herschel as perfectly elliptic and resolvable, but no stars seen, is seen
in the telescope, with three-feet aperture, as a rather oval cluster of
stars, with projecting filaments of stars, some of these filaments
extending considerably, so as to give something of the idea of a
scorpion.

Fig. 29, of Herschel. The ring nebula of Lyra, shows in the three-
feet telescope, seven stars, one triple. It is an annular cluster, with
fringes, and the nebulous-looking centre in patches.

Fig. 45, of Herschel, a planetary nebula, is also seen as anannular
cluster.

Fig. 26, of Herschel, the ‘‘ Dumbell Nebula,” is seen as an irregu-
lar cluster, or rather two in juxta-position, and nothing of the exact
elliptic termination of Herschel’s figure.

Dr. Robinson and the Marquis of Northampton briefly addressed
the section.

124: Proceedings of the British Association.

Taurspay.
Section B.—CHEMISTRY AND MINERALOGY.

‘On the Mineral Springs and other waters of Yorkshire,’ by W.
West, Esq.—The results of analysis of the waters of Harrowgate and
other places were detailed with great minuteness, and the districts
from which the waters were collected described. The quantity of
sulphate of soda existing in some of these springs was very great, and
to this salt was principally ascribed their medicinal qualities.

Mr. Hunt drew attention to the fact discovered by him in Corn-
wall, that the quantity of muriate of soda in the waters of that
county, increased greatly with their depth, until, at the depth of 312
fathoms, he had found as much as 6% per cent. of that salt.—The
Rev. W. V. Harcourt stated, that the waters of an artesian well in
the neighbourhood of York, gave evidence of a very great increase,
in the quantity of its saline ingredients as it increased in depth,
giving at its greatest depth, 48°3 grains of the sulphates of magnesia
and soda per gallon.

Prof. Daubeny communicated a verbal account of the phosphorite
rock in Spanish Estremadura, which he, in conjunction with Captain
Widdrington, R.N., had last summer undertaken to explore. He
stated its occurrence in one solitary mass, penetrating clayslate, the
dimensions being at most 16 feet in width, its length along the sur-
face of the rock extending to about 2 miles, whilst its depth is un-
explored, but certainly considerable, He stated its composition to
be about 80 per cent. triphosphate of lime, and about 14 fluoride of
calcium, and pointed out the first cause of the secretion of so large a
mass of both these substances in the older rocks in order to supply
two necessary ingredients to bones and other animal matters. He
stated his having detected fluorine in all the bones and teeth of
recent as well as of older date which he had examined, and suggested
that as a rock of such a composition could hardly fail to be useful as
a manure, if it were found in an easily accessible locality, it would be
worth the while of geologists to search for veins of this mineral in
the older rocks of this and of other countries, where there was a
facility of transport.

Mr. Pearsann observed, that the presence of fluorine in bone had,
in all probability, escaped detection from the fact that the fluate. of

Proceedings of the British Assoctation, 125

lime was soluble in muriatic acid, from which, by evaporation, it
could be obtained in crystals. He had tried experiments with
phosphorite as a manure without any appreciable advantage.—Mr.
Solly stated, that in some experiments on the comparative advantages
between the phosphorite and the phosphate of lime in bone, the
superiority was decidedly on the side of the phosphorite, which was
applied in the state of fine powder, mixed with the soil, He then
suggested for inquiry, whether fluorine might not be formed by the
plants themselves.—Prof. Graham remarked that fluorine could not
be detected in the ashes of plants. He considered that the fluorine
in bone was derived from water.—Dr. Carpenter made some remarks
on the differences observed under the microscope in the molecular
structure of the phosphorite and the phosphate of lime in bone.

‘The Influence of light on the germination of seeds and the
growth of plants,’ by Mr. R. Hunt.—The author postponed a full
report on this subject until he had been enabled by the experiments
of another year to reconcile, if possible, some very anomalous results,
Several experiments were described, all of which went to confirm the
statement originally made by Mr. Hunt that light prevented health-
ful germination, and was detrimental to the growth of the young
plant. The author now gave the results of some experiments made
with a view of determining the question of the production of the
woody fibre. He finds that plants growing under the influence of
light which has permeated blue aud red media, contains more water
than those which had been grown under the influence of rays which
had permeated yellow and green absorptive media. On the contrary,
the formation of woody fibre is greatest in the plants grown under
the yellow and green relatively as follows :—

Those under the blue leaving 7.16 per cent. of woody fibre.

the red 7.25
the green 7.60
the yellow 7.69

Young plants in a healthy state were removed from the garden to the
influence of the isolated rays. In all cases, the plants died under the
yellow light in a few days; they slowly perished under the influence
of the green, and only grew healthfully under the red and blue
light.

a ie a en ee

126 Proceedings of the British Association.

Prof, Grove wished to make some inquiries relative to the suppos-
ed existence of a new principle in connexion with light, which was
regarded by Mr. Hunt and others as the active chemical agent, to
which was to be ascribed all the phenomena of photographic action,
and the most genial influence on the growth of the young plant.—
Mr. Hunt explained that the luminous calorific and chemical spectra
were capable of producing extremely different effects. That the light
coming from the sun was not at all equal in quantity to the heat ; and
that that element was much less than the amount of chemical power.
He showed by diagrams, that the quantity of chemical power increas-
ed in the spectrum as the light diminished, and that when the light
was at a maximum the chemical action was ata minimum. It was
also stated, that by the use of absorbent media, light of great inten-
sity could be obtained, which possessed scarcely any chemical power ;
and on the contrary, that this chemical principle of the solar beam
could be obtained in the same way with but a very small amount of
light.

Dr. Bateman described Mr. Phillips’s method of discovering Adul-
teration in tobacco.—The basis of this plan is the ascertainment and
comparison of the relative proportions of soluble and insoluble matter
in tobacco; water being the solvent. Numerous experiments have
proved that every kind of vegetable matter has a determinate portion,
which is soluble in water; thus rhubarb-leaves range from 18 to 26
per cent., and horse-radish, lettuce, oak, elm, and many others, have
their definite limits. This amount, with reference to tobacco, in no
case exceeds 55 per cent. of the tobacco: and thus if tobacco be
adulterated with matter soluble in water, the extractive or soluble
part is increased, whilst the ligneous and insoluble matter are cor-
respondingly decreased. A sample of genuine tobacco, by careful
manipulation, affords 50 per cent. of soluble matter, and when
another portion of the same tobacco has been mixed with 15 per cent.
of soluble matter, the sophisticated article can contain only 85 per
cent. of tobacco; and it would be found by experiment to afford to
water 57.5 of soluble, and 42.5 of insoluble matter, thus affording
proportions for calculating the actual amount of adulteration intro-
duced,

Proceedings of the British Association. 127

Srcrion C.—GEOLOGY AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

‘Report of the Committee for registering earthquake shocks in
Scotland.’—The report is confined as usual to the detail of shocks
observed by Mr. M‘Farlane, at Comrie, in Perthshire. During the
last twelve months thirty-seven shocks have been registered, but
few were so violent as to produce any effect beyond the neighourhood
of the town. The most intense occurred on Sunday the 25th of
August 1843, during the morning service, and was felt simultaneously
over more than 100 square miles. The Seismometer at Comrie
vibrated 3 inch W.

‘On a newly discovered species of unio, from the Wealden strata
of the Isle of Wight,’ by Dr. Mantell. The species of unio described
was found near Brook, on the S.W. side of the Isle of Wight,
imbedded in the laminated clays and sands of the Wealden formation,
which compose the line of cliffs between Freshwater Gate and Brix-
ton. They were associated with the wood and branches of conifer-
ous trees, and are considered by Dr. Mantell as affording an addi-
tional proof that the Wealden deposit was formed in the bed or delta
of the river of the country of the Iguanoden, and not in an estuary
of the sea. The extensive layers of Paludine Cyclades, and minute
freshwater crustaceans (Cyprides) must have been slowly and periodi-
cally deposited in tranquil water, either the river bed, or inland lakes
connected with the main stream. The species of unio hitherto
noticed in the Wealden are small and delicate species, the largest not
exceeding two inches in length: the subject of the present memoir,
which the author proposes to call U. Valdensis on account of its
geological habitat, is a very thick and strong shell, several specimens
measuring five inches in breadth, three in length, and two in
thickness.

A paper was read by Prof. Ansted, ‘on the importance of preserv-
ing mining records,’ and to prove that without parliamentary inter-
ference, there is no prospect of obtaining or preserving such records.

Mr. Sopwith stated, that exact information would not only be
conducive to the progress of geological science, but of the highest
importance to the general interests of the country. The subject had
been brought before the Association at Newcastle : a committee was

|
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128 Proceedings of the British Association.

then appointed, the representations of which to the Government led
to the institution of a Mining Record Office, in connexicn with the
Museum of Economic Geology, and of an officer to take charge of
such plans and records as should be deposited there. But, notwith-
standing all that had been done, much remained to be done, and he
was convinced that the sanction and aid of the Legislature could alone
effect a general registration of mines. —Mr. J. Taylor described seve-
ral instances of the evils resulting from the want of such informa-
tion. On one occasion 80,000/. had been expended on a copper
mine in Cornwall, which became less productive the deeper it was
worked and was finally abandoned. In this case a minute record was
kept of the state of the operations, and the reasons for their abandon-
ment, so as to afford a complete refutation of the pretensions of a
company which had been recently formed for the purpose of re-open-
ing the works. In Mexico, on the contrary, workings had become
unprofitable on account of their expense, during the war with Spain,
a record having previously been made of the state of every part of the
mine. These mines had subsequently been drained and re-opened
under Mr. Taylor’s directions, and the account of them found to be
very correct. He was convinced that much loss of life and much ex-
pensive litigation might be avoided, if mine owners were bound by
law to keep a record of their proceedings. There ought to be no
mystery or secret in mining ; it answered no good purpose; in the
mining operations of Cornwall for fifty years there had been no
secrets ; a meeting was held every two months, at which all accounts
were made up and made known publicly.—Sir H. T. De la Beche
attributed many of the accidents in the mines to the absence of docu-
ments respecting old workings and adjacent mines. The Goverment
had done all in their power for the preservation of mining records,
but difficulties had been experienced in inducing interested parties to
avail themselves of the opportunities thus afforded.

‘On the Sections of the Cretaceous and Tertiary Systems in the
S.E. of the Isle of Wight, and the bearing of the evidence they afford
in the history of Animal Life,’ by Capt. B. Ibbetson and Prof. E.
Forbes.—Three models had been constructed by Capt. Ibbetson from
trigonometrical surveys in order to illustrate the sections of creta-

Proceedings of the British Association. 129

ceous and tertiary systems of the S.E. coast of the Isle of Wight.
Measurements of all the strata, both tertiary and cretaceous and
tables of their fossil contents, were also laid before the meeting. Re-
viewing the strata deposited from the cessation of the Wealden to
the prevalence of a fresh-water eocene formation in this locality, the
authors laid stress on the following facts in the local history of
organized nature during that long period :—That the seas in which
the lower greensand was deposited occupied the area described, in
consequence of the sudden subsidence of the great Wealden lakes,
and presented from the very commencement a Fauna which was
truly marine, and most of the members of which began their exis-
tence with the commencement of the cretaceous era in England.
Almost all the animals which appeared were such as were new to the
oceanic Fauna, but among them were many forms representative of
other species which had existed in the oolitic ocean. Secondly,
that this Fauna continued, though apparently diminishing in con-
sequence of the extinction of species from physical causes, until
the commencement of the deposition of the gault, when a new
series of animals commenced, among which a few previously existing
species lived on, but the greater part were either representative or
peculiar forms. The same system of animal life appears to have
continued throughout the remainder of the cretaceous era in this
locality, although great differences in the distribution of species, and
many species Jocal in time occur, depending on the very great change
in the mineral conditions of the sea bottom during this epoch. The
chalk formation especially presents many peculiar species, owing
rather to the zone of depth in which they lived, than a new zoolo-
gical representation in time. The authors called attention to the
assemblage of minute corals, sea-urchins, terebratulz, and Spon-
dylus spinosus, in that part of the Culver Section at which is seen
the junction of the chalk with flints and the hard chalk, as corres-
ponding to the characters which mark a very deep sea Fauna at the
present period. Thirdly, that in the tertiary formation which
succeeds there is an entirely new Fauna, distinct as to every species
in this locality, though elsewhere connected with the cretaceous
strata by the presence of that remarkable mollusk, Terebratula
s

130 Proceedings of the British Association.

Caput- Serpentis, which lives even at the present day. This Fauna,
which did not appear until after the deposition of a considerable bed
of mottled clays containing no traces of animal life, commences
similarly to the Fauna of the two cretaceous periods by a series of
clays containing numerous peculiar myaciform shells, and their
associated Pectunculi and Ostracee. The earliest fossiliferous bed at
Whitecliffe Bay is a most remarkable thin stratum, almost entirely
composed of a species of shell-bearing annelid, the Ditrupa (Denta-
lium planum of the Mineral Conchology), which appears to have lived
but a short time and suddenly disappeared. In the midst of these
strata beds charged with myriads of foraminifera, probably indicating
some change in the sea’s depth, appear and cease. The sudden con-
version of the sea into a fresh-water lake, indicated by a stra-
tum of Paludina clay, its return into a brackish state, and the
consequent re-appearance of certain marine animals, its reconversion
into a fresh-water lake thronged with myriads of fluviatile mollusca,
and the almost momentary influx of salt water during that period,
lasting only so long as to enable a race of oysters to live and die
away, all render the tertiary strata in this locality highly interesting.
From the great zoological break between the eocene and the chalk,
the authors conclude that a third or uppermost cretaceous formation,
characterized by a Fauna which would link the middle term of that
system with the middle term of the tertiary, has disappeared in this
locality, whilst they regard the cretaceous system there present, as
composed of two divisions, equivalent in time, the older consisting
of the lower greensand, and the upper or later composed of vault,
upper greensand, and chalks, considered as one system.

Mr. Oldham reported the progess of the ‘ Observations on Sub-
terranean Temperature in Ireland, undertaken at the request of the
Association.—In July 1843 thermometers were placed at the copper
mines of Knockmatson Company, Waterford, which are worked to
the depth of 774 feet. Of the four instruments employed, one
was hung in the open air four feet from the surface ; one hung freely
in the gallery at the depth of 774 feet ; one in the rock at the same
depth ; and one in the lode or metallic vein. The rock is indurated
clay-slate, the ore massive copper pyrites in quartz veinstone. The

Proceedings of the British Association. 131

average of all the readings of these thermometers during eleven

months was as follows :—
Thermometer at the
Depth of 774 feet.

At the surface. Air. Rock. Lode.
Average, .... 50°026 57°176 57°369 57°915
Maximum, .. 58°25 58°5 58°5
Minimum, .. 56° 56°5

Taking the average temperature in the rock as the mean at that
depth, and allowing 100 feet for the depth to which the action of
solar causes may extend, or to the line of no variation, there is an
increase of 7.343 for the depth of 674 feet, equivalent to 1° in 91.82
feet, a rate of increase about one-half as rapid as the rate deduced from
a large number of observations in England, which gave an increase of
1° in 45 to 50 feet. Mr. Oldham also noticed the fact that there was a
gradual decrease in the actual temperature during these observations ;
the average of the thermometer in the rock being 57.718 during the
first half of the observation, and 57.004 during the latter half,
being a decrease of.674 during the eleven months, although more
men were employed, and the works more extensive than at the
commencement.

Fripay.

‘Critical Remarks on certain passages of Dr. Buckland’s Bridge-
water Treatise,’ by the Dean of York.—[We give but a brief
abstract of this communication, as it was published the following
day, in the form of a pamphlet, entitled, ‘The Bible defended against
the British Association !,]|—The author objects to the theory of the
original formation of the earth, and the various subsequent changes
in its condition, described by Dr. Buckland, because his theory will
not account for the many facts made known by geologists. These
facts are, principally, the abundance of limestone rocks in formations
of all reputed periods ; the absence of a complete series of rocks, as
represented in tables of the strata, at any one locality ; the non-
universality of the coal, lias, &c.; and the inversion of the strata at
Malvern and Abberley. He also gives Dr. Buckland credit for many
improbabilities, such as the formation of all the strata from the
wreck of granite alone by the action of rainwater ; the omission of
the sea, &c., in his account; the growth of trees on bare granite ;

132 Proceedings of the British Association.

and fish living in fresh water,—in water only. The Dean then pro-
poses a theory of his own, ‘“‘to account for every modern discovery.”
He supposes that the world continued as it was made for nearly two
thousand years,—the land, air, and water being all thickly peopled.
He then introduces a series of violent convulsions, continuing for
several days uninterruptedly, by which all the strata, from the Silurian
upwards, were formed. Submarine volcanoes burst through the
granitic crust of the earth, and poured their streams of lava into the
sea, and torrents of rain descended from the higher lands. ‘The
author does not insist on attributing these agencies to natural or
supernatural causes. The strata first formed would only contain ‘a
few crawling reptiles, crinoidea, or trilobites ;” the second would
overwhelm the saurians, who lived on the edge of the waters; the
next, ‘‘the heavy animals, who, in the flood that is covering the
land, are unable to fly fast enough to the hills’’—the megatherium,
the didelphys, the pterodactylus, &c. Strata would thus be formed
every day, the materials arranging themselves according to their
specific gravity. The coal he supposes “ to ooze out from the side
of the volcano,” and the plants in it to have been caught by ‘‘ the
shale thrown up high into the air, and falling with velocity to the
bottom, carrying down upon the coal the large leaves of ferns, &c.,
which it meets with in its descent.” The lias fossils were sunk to
the bottom by the clay suspended in the turbid waters adhering to
them ; and the oolites were formed out of the “‘ purer lime, tossed
and rolled about into little balls.” ‘‘ Lastly, the chalk subsides and
the sand—but little remains for these to inclose—and little is inclosed
within them.” In this manner a deluge of but a few weeks’ dura-
tion would, in the opinion of the Dean of York, produce the whole
series of the stratified rocks, and explain every discovery which can-
not, he says, be accounted for by the theory of Dr. Buckland.

Prof. Sedgwick rose to offer some comments on this communica-
tion. ‘‘ But before I proceed to do so,” he observed, ‘I think it right
to state a few circumstances respecting the principles on which the
association acts, and the motives by which its members are brought
together. Our object is, the comparison of facts ; the sifting of them,
by kindred spirits meeting together, in the pure love of truth, for the
advancement of science, and thus ascending to higher generalizations,

Proceedings of the British Association. 133

and the knowledge of those laws by which individual phenomena
are governed. “Every man has generalized to a certain extent, by
separating peculiar and individual facts, embodying them in some
general conception, and giving it a name. Wherever truth can be
expressed in language, it is done as a generalization. As we advance
in the discoveries of science, facts multiply so fast upon us that
they would become unmanageable, if we could not group them by
certain resemblances, or include them under some simple law,
which is merely an expression of a general conclusion derived
from facts which we know to be true and from which all those
phenomena proceed, as necessary and inevitable consequences. The
moment we arrive at the knowledge of such alaw we can as-
sume, in a certain sense, a prophetic character, and predict events
with certainty, because we know that the Author of nature is
unchanging in his operations, and that the same effects will follow
the same causes in times to come as in times past. Astronomical
predictions afford a familiar example of the certainty of these con-
clusions, and, in fact, whenever we act upon ewperience in the most
homely affairs, we act on the same principle. We meet together
here to extend our generalizations by new facts, or to modify those
laws at which we had previously arrived by embodying all the new
truths we have attained, so as to bring our generalizations up to the
condition of present knowledge. In some cases we have tested our
general conclusions so often that we are as certain of their truth as
we are of our own existence. There are others in which we have
not arrived at any such certainty, and it is exactly such conclusions,
and the facts connected with them, that we meet here to discuss.
Even in astronomy there are still certain residual phenomena, at pre-
sent not fully explained; but in a new science like geology, which
brings to light such a vast variety of unexpected phenomena, such
indications of intense and powerful action, the mechanism of
which is but imperfectly comprehended, it is most advantage-
ous that collections of facts, brought here by observers with dif-
ferent views, should be closely examined, in order that one may
check another, and that laws of phenomena be made out, before
any one presumes to put forth any theory of the earth and its forma-
tions. I speak not now of the moral effects of such meetings and

134 Proceedings of the British Association.

discussions, although they are of immense importance, but I speak
now of the primary object of this Association, which is the further.
ance of physical science, on the principles pointed out. On this
ground I hold it certain, that the discussion of broad theoretical
questions and cosmogonies, like those now brought before us, is
utterly unfit for the present meeting. If this practice be once allowed,
any man will be at liberty to overhaul the pages of a volume like
Dr. Buckland’s ‘ Bridgewater Treatise,’ pregnant with most impor-
tant truths, and, without any personal knowledge of the subject, or
a single new fact to offer, he may raise objections to which it would
be impossible to give an adequate reply because they are drawn from
considerations out of the province of facts and observation. To
describe all the conditions which the earth has undergone from the
primeval days of chaos to the present time, were indeed impossible ;
and the liability to misrepresentation ought to deter any man from
attempting it, did he even suppose he had the means of doing so.
Besides, this is not our object, which I again assert to be the
examination of facts, either to modify our theories and generaliza-
tions, if we have gone too far, or bring into harmonious order our
new facts, by some new and noble generalization. We have nothing
to do, as members of the Association, with moral or religious or
political truths, in which the elements of human passion are so liable
to be mingled. Every one who brings a statement of facts to this
meeting, asserts his willingness to abide the test of observation and
experiments ; and when a paper is brought here which deals not
with facts, but with theories and cosmogonies, we should reject it
altogether, as in its nature unfit for our notice. Its discussion is
permitted’ now (but will, I trust, never be permitted again) out of
regard to certain opinions and feelings, in which we participate
with the Dean of York, and which not one of us would resign but
with life itself. At the same time, we are willing to show, on all
proper occasions (though this be a very improper one), that we are
not afraid of facing any of the difficulties with which the speculative
part of our subject may be surrounded.”’—So far our reporter endea-
voured to follow the remarks of Prof. Sedgwick in the order and
words in which they were spoken. The remaining portion of our
report must be considered as a short and imperfect abstract of

Proceedings of the British Association. 135

what was said:—With regard to Dr. Buckland’s ‘ Bridgewater
Treatise’, I believe that his account of the successive changes by

‘which the earth has been brought to its present state, substantially

represents facts. His account of the original nebulous condition of the
earth, is not a wild conjecture, but a probability, suggested by the
phenomena of the heavens. We know that at the present day the
whole globe is composed of a few elementary substances, taking
either a solid, fluid, or vapoury form, and that by an increase of
temperature such as we believe to have once existed, they would all
be reduced to the last of these conditions. The condensation of
such a mass of incandescent vapour by the radiation of its heat,
might form a shell or crust about a liquid centre; but he neither
says that all the solid matter was granite, nor that all the liquid was
rain-water. Dr. Buckland proceeds to state that this shell would be
composed of granitic and kindred rocks; that is to say, rocks of
crystalline structure ; not stratified, or arranged in laminz, by the
force of gravitation acting on particles held in suspension in a fluid
and spread out by currents. Now, it is a fact, that all the lowest
rocks with which we are acquainted have some such character. It is
true they contain but a small per-centage of carbonate of lime, and
some other constituents of the strata formed upon them, but these
may have been derived from the waters that covered them, or the
interior of the globe; for in such a mass who shall say what are the
elements within? Sir Humphrey Davy supposed the interior of the
earth to be the reservoir of the metallic bases of the earths ; and as
the cooling of the earth must have been attended with a diminution
of bulk, this crust would inevitably be broken and corrugated, and
the fluid contents of its interior from time to time forced out. The
objection which the Dean of York has taken to the truth of our tables
of the superposition of the strata, is founded on a total misconception of
the nature of our investigation, and of the facts of the case. No stratum
can be universal, any more than the sea, in which it was formed can be
supposed to have been universal ; and as the sea has always been shift-
ing its boundaries, it follows necessarily, that in some places certain
terms of the series will be wanting, and a formation of high antiquity
be overlaid by one of much more modern date. The sections given
by Mr. Murchison only show the strata which appear in the actual

136 Proceedings of the British Association.

escarpments, as seen in ravines and sea-cliffs, and wherever nature
has exhibited them ; and I affirm, that these sections prove the truth
of our arrangements. Even where there are exceptions, they do not
vitiate our arrangements ; for we can give a rational explanation of
them, and, by showing them to be exceptions, they confirm our pre-
vious conclusions. The Dean of York objects to Dr. Buckland’s
account of the formation of the various strata which succeed these
first-formed mineral masses, and proposes, instead, a theory of his
own, by which, he says, ‘‘ every phenomenon can be explained ;” and
as it is one thing to find fault with a theory, and another to propose
a better explanation, perhaps it will be well to compare the Dean’s
hypothesis with the actual facts, in the order he has himself adopted.
First, we find a set of strata reposing on those before mentioned,
and evidently formed from them by the mechanical action of tidal
currents and surf beating upon shores; stratified rocks containing
no fossils, either because their structure has been altered by crys-
talline action, or because they were formed before the existence of
organic life—a supposition which appears to be the more probable,
since in passing through the successive strata above them, in des-
cending order, we find the number of species, and of types also,
gradually diminish, still we arrive at a point where they appear to
cease altogether. Upon these again we find sedimentary rocks con-
taining fossils, and beds of limestone, which are nothing more than
ancient coral reefs, for we can trace the corals as they grew, and see
that they are all absolutely distinct from any now existing ; and
with these are beds of bivalve shells, not scattered at random and
broken by violence, but lying in pairs, where they lived and died,
and were quietly entombed. And out of all the multitude of species
which then existed, surely some would have survived the changes
which succeeded, and still be found in our own seas, if, as the Dean
York supposes, those changes were limited to a few days in their
operations. Next to these Silurian rocks, as they are called, is the
old red sandstone,—a system many thousands of feet thick in
Scotland, most of it being coarse conglomerate, formed of pebbles
worn round on a sea coast, and requiring an enormous lapse of ages
for their formation. With these are occasionally found beds con-
taining fish of forms strange and unknown at the present day, and

Proceedings of the British Association. 137

supplying new links and analogies to the zoologist in his classifica-
tion. Passing southward, we find the same series of rocks enor-
mously developed, in Herefordshire and the adjoining counties,
becoming finer in their composition, as if leaving the coast, and ap-
proaching a deeper sea; and still further south, in Devon and Corn-
wall, we find the same rocks, occupying the same place in the series,
assuming a new mineral type and swarming with animal existence.
If we look to other countries we find still this formation, containing
the same remarkable fish spread over large regions in Russia and
America, and, indeed, wherever geological investigations have been
carried. In almost all this series of rocks there is no such cement-
ing Java streams as the Dean supposes; rocks do occur, though
there are numberless examples of disrupting igneous action. With
respect to the inversion of strata at Malvern, which the Dean thinks
inexplicable by any forces which geologists can bring to bear, it
happens to be no uncommon occurrence. In Liege the very miners
are perfectly familiar with this circumstanee, and the certainty of the
fact may be at all times ascertained by following the inverted beds
along their strike, till, after various changes and contortions, they at
length assume their true position. Passing on towards the coal
strata, we find thick beds of limestone and grit, with which the coal
is found almost universally to be associated. The extent of the coal
formation itself, in various parts of the world, is much more wonder-
ful and difficult of explanation, than its absence from other regions,
I cannot stay now to inquire into the causes which promoted its for-
mation at this particular period, but when I remind you that it is
thousands of feet thick, that the beds of coal themselves are acknow-
ledged by botanists and chemists to be entirely formed of masses of
vegetables swept down into the sea by annual torrents, or the growth
of ages in peat bogs and forests, and the deltas of rivers, that it con-
tains the fronds and stems of hundreds of ferns and other plants,
all of extinct species, and requiring for their growth a climate widely
differing from our own, it does indeed seem scarcely worth while
arguing against a theory which attributes these extensive and com-
plicated phenomena to the ‘‘mud thrown up by a volcano, and
catching the leaves of trees in its descent!” Again, passing on to
the new red sandstone, with its tracks, of peculiar and extraordinary

4

138 Proceedings of the British Association. ‘

animals—the lias, with its no less wonderful saurians and shells, —not
the shells of the present seas—not the crocodile of the Nile or the
Ganges, but forms now utterly past away, we must pause for a
minute to consider the startling announcement made by the Dean re-
specting this period. He says, that after the trilobites and crinoidea
had been buried by the mighty inundation he had brought over the
earth, and after the saurians and other inhabitants of the shore were
intombed, we should expect to find next those ‘‘ heavy animals who
were unable to fly fast enough to the hills, the megatheria, didelphys
pterodactyle, &c.”” In this selection the Dean has been particularly
unfortunate. The megatherium was, indeed, an enormous animal—
mightier than any of the present degenerate inhabitants of the earth ;
he lived by tearing down the trees of the forest, and browsing on the
leaves and branches ; he was armed with terrific claws, and protected
by a skin more dense than that of the rhinoceros; but, unfortu-
nately for the Dean, he was one of the ast caught even according to
his own hypothesis, and, as we believe, did not exist till ages after,
if indeed, he were not coeval with the earlier races of men. His next
example, the didelphys, did certainly appear and perish in the oolitic
period ; it was, in fact, the earliest warm-blooded animal that existed
on the earth,—but what was it? A little opossum, not bigger than
a guinea-pig! The third is, if possible, worse chosen than the
rest—‘ the pterodactylus! Why, the pterodactyle was the flying
dragon of the ancient world, and would have been far enough
above the hills ere a flood could overtake him. For any man
so unacquainted with the most familiar facts of our science as
to confound together three animals of a different epoch,. and so
utterly unlike in their physical structure, is itself a portent in the
history of geology: nor would such an exposure have been allowed
were it not for the considerations before alluded to. As regards the
period of time occupied in the formation of the strata, I will mention
but a few circumstances. In one part of the oolitic series, we find
beds of coralline limestone, separated by a small thickness of clay,
and in this clay are multitudes of crinoids, whose bases yet remain
fixed to the rock on which they grew: in that little bed of clay is re-
presented at least a period of time sufficient for the growth of these
animals. In another formation, the lias, I have traced for twenty

a
5 ‘

Proceedings of the British Association. 139

miles together a deposit of the coprolitic matter of the great saurians
of the period, a formation which could only have taken place, tran-
quilly, during the lives of many generations of those animals. Ina
newer part of the series, the rocks constituting Portland Island, we
find, resting on beds of marine limestone, layers of vegetable soil
containing large prostrate trunks of dicotyledonous trees, and por-
tions of their branches remaining upright, and fixed in the earth by
their roots ; and trunks of plants resembling the recent Zamia, stand-
ing where they grew, but silicified, and covered up with beds of
fresh-water limestone. Here, again, a few feet of strata represent a
period of time in which the sea was converted into dry land, the land
overgrown by forests; and this again became a fresh-water lake,
inhabited by shells allied to species now existing. To the single
stratum, therefore, where these trees were found, belongs a period of
time sufficient for the growth of a forest. Time would fail me to
tell the numerous changes of physical condition, accompanied with
corresponding changes in animal organization, which characterize
every division of the cretaceous and tertiary strata. The Dean of
York, indeed, says, that “little remained for them to inclose, and
little is inclosed within them.” Here, again, is a strange ignorance
of notorious facts, for these are the very strata in which the traces
of organic life are most varied and abundant. ‘The conclusions of
geologists would indeed be vain if founded on such irrational guesses
and absurd hypotheses ; but by a steady and humble study of nature,
in a subject so vast and comprehensive, we could make but little
progress, did we not call in the aid of the zoologist, the botanist,
and the chemist, and, paying the utmost respect to their opinions,
regulate our conclusions by their evidence. In determining the
succession of the strata, or any other problem in our science, we
must be content to ascend, step by step, from small assemblages of
facts, to higher generalizations, until we obtain the whole sequence.
With regard to the succession of animal life, the evidence is so
conclusive that no naturalist or competent observer will now deny
that new species have continually appeared—not by the transmuta-
tion of those before existing—but by the repeated operation of
creative power. In hisordinary dealings with the natural world
God works by second causes; so that one natural phenomenon may

140 Proceedings of the British Association.

be said to flow directly from another. But when we see successive
orders of animal existence, and successive organic types, which once
ministered to the functions of animal life, we can only say a living
spirit had been breathed into dead matter, far differing from the

mere causative of material laws, and that the beings of whatever —

order were the effect of a direct creative will. In conclusion, the
Professor remarked, that what he had stated was as nothing in com-
parison of the evidence which might be brought forward in support
of his argument. There might be difficulties in the dark investiga-
tions of science, but the way to throw light upon them was to sift
them to the bottom, and not to shut our eyes like frightened chil-
dren and think thereby to save ourselves from danger. Truth could
never be opposed to itself; and the perception of truth, whether
physical or moral, was but a perception of one portion of the will of
God. He was not permitted there (he knew that were he to make
the attempt he would very properly be interrupted by the President)
to enter on a great question by formally attempting to reconcile the
phenomena of geology to the language of the word of God. But he
had no fears as to the result of such an attempt, if soberly made on
right evidence and in the simple love of truth; nor did he doubt that
the highest discoveries of science would ever be found in perfect
harmony and accordance with the language and meaning of revela-
tion.

‘On the Excavations of the Rocky Channels of Rivers, by the re-
cession of their Cataracts. —Mr. Featherstonhaugh drew attention
to the manner in which extensive lacustrine and marecageous districts
upon the continent of North America, have been drained and rendered
fit habitations for man. During his researches in that part of the
western hemisphere, he found evidences upon all the rivers whose val-
leys were bounded by lofty escarpments, that the gorge in which each
river flowed had been cut out of the land by the recession of a cata-
ract. The river Mississippi flowed in a valley of this character. From
the Falls of St. Anthony to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico, the
distance was about 2,000 miles, during the first 1,200 of which these
escarpments, varying from 200 to 450 feet in height, were every
where found, divided from each other by a width varying from one
to two and a half miles, the valley being during the greater part of

Proceedings of the British Association. 141

this course thickly studded with well-wooded islands, amongst which
the waters of the river flowed. Upona level with the surface of these
islands were extensive plains connected occasionally with lateral val-
leys coming through the escarpments, the soil of which was iden-
tically the same with that of the islands, being a light vegetable sandy
soil much mixed up with decayed freshwater shells; showing that
these soils were the old muddy bottom of the river, deposited
when it occupied the whole breadth of the valley from escarpment to
escarpment. These, and analogous appearances upon the courses of
other American rivers, especially the immense lacustrine deposits
separating Lake Erie from Lake Huron, seventy miles in breadth,
were adduced as proofs of a great diminution of the quantity of fresh
water once occupying the lakes and the fluviatile courses of that
continent ; indeed, from the difference of level between a point on the
Wisconsin River and the channel of the upper Fox River, over which
boats now pass in time of great floods, the water communication
betwixt the Mississippi and Lake Erie seems to have been uninter-
rupted. This portion of the paper was intended to show, that
the quantity of water in the rivers in ancient times so far exceeded
the quantity flowing in them at present, that the cataracts in the
rivers must have been much more powerful, and that therefore
the process of excavation of the rocky channels of rivers by the
recession of their cataracts, must have been then effected in much
shorter periods of time than at present. From all these considera-
tions, and from the known fact that the Falls of St. Anthony had not
receded more than twenty yards in the last 100 years, the author
drew the deduction that the whole valley of the Mississippi, from the
falls of St. Anthony to the point where the escarpments terminate,
had been excavated by the recession of that cataract, and that the
excavation had proceeded at a much more rapid pace than it does in
our times. The author next proceeded to explain the peculiar me-
chanical power which streams employ in forming their channels by the
operation of cataracts, and divided it into two methods, the molar or
grinding process, most common in mountainous countries constituted
of primary rocks and the subtracting or undermining power exercised
upon strata of a softer quality. To illustrate the first of these
methods, Mr, Featherstonhaugh exhibited a beautiful pictorial view

142 Proceedings of the British Association.

of a remarkable cataract in the Cherokee country, called Ovnay Kay
Amah, or White Water, which he visited in 1837, and which had
not attracted the attention of any other traveller. This cataract was
at a point several miles from the extreme edge of the mountain, and
was upwards of 600 feet high, the water falling in various pitches and
inclined planes from the top to the bottom. Wherever the water
found a depression in the surface of the gneiss it lodged there, and
on the first fortuitous pebble coming into the cavity the work of des-
truction would begin, the current incessantly whirling about the
pebble, and grinding the sides of the rock until a pot-hole was formed.
These were there in great numbers, some of them four feet in diame-
ter and six feet deep. Where great numbers abounded, the parietes
became at length weak, and, giving way, all the pot-holes would
coalesce into one. This process being repeated in various portions
of the rock, the cohesion of the mass became diminished ; and at the
season of periodical floods, huge masses, weighing forty-tons and
upwards, would be precipitated to the bottom. This was the state
of the great fragments at the bottom of the ravine, all of them bear-
ing evidence of having been dislocated by the power of the water
exercised upon the pot-holes. Such was the method by which this
gorge, several miles long and about 600 feet in depth had been
ground out of this mountain of gneiss. At this locality were the
evidences of the volume of the river having once been at least ten
times larger than at present. A semi-circular ledge of gneiss; at the
top, east of the stream, and 1,200 feet wide, was worn bare for a
great distance, and down its perpendicular face was concave, as if the
river had been projected over the top, and the screen of water in face
of the concavity, and the concussion, and the moisture, had produc-
ed the usual effect, of peeling off the coats of the rock. It presented
much such an appearance as the rock at the Horse-Shoe Fall at
Niagara would do, if the water were to be so much diminished at
that point as to abandon it, and to be projected only from the com-
paratively small fall of the Schlossa, on the American side of the
river. For the other example of the subtracting, or undermining
power exercised in the recession of cataracts, the Fails of Niagara
were taken, of which a flat view was given, together with a section of
the rocks, Mr. Featherstonhaugh had published a paper in 1831,

Proceedings of the British Association. 145

explaining the recession of this cataract. It is well known that the

‘river Niagara flows upon a bed of limestone from which it projects
itself, and that this rock is supported by a strong bed of friable shale
upwards of seventy feet thick, The moisture arising from the screen
of water, the current of wind behind it, and the concussion, loosen
and remove the shale, and the superincumbent limestone, losing its
support, falls down. In this manner the cataract has receded at
least six miles from the Queenston heights. Mr. Featherstonhaugh
expressed an opinion that this operation of excavating long channels
of rivers, as in the instance especially of the Mississippi, may be con-
sidered in the class of providential arrangments, since by it the lakes,
swamps, and immense marecageous surfaces become drained, and
rendered salubrious and productive habitations for man. There were
many other interesting points brought forward in this paper, of
which we have only room for this abstract.

‘On the physical character and geology of Norfolk Island,’ by
Capt. Maconochie, R.N., K.H.—The group, of which Norfolk
Island is the principal, is situate in lat. 29° 2’S., and 168° 2’ E.
long., 900 miles E.N.E. of Sydney, and 1,850 N.E. from Cape
Pillar, in Van Diemen’s Land. Norfolk and Philip Islands, the largest
of the group, are about 6 miles distant from each other; about a
dozen others, the Nepean and Bird Islands, are little more than dry
rocks distributed about them. Norfolk Island is not quite 5 miles
long, with a medium breadth of about 23 miles; and its superficies
is said to be 8,960 acres ; its greatest elevation is the double summit
of Mount Pitt, 1,050 feet high ; its sea-front is high and precipitous,
presenting cliffs 200 and 250 feet in height, and the small streams
which occupy the ravines in winter, fall, in cascades 30 or 50 feet
high, into the sea. Philip Island is about 1} mile long, with an
average breadth of #. Its most elevated point is probably two or
three hundred feet less than that of Norfolk Island. It is every-
where precipitous, furrowed by deep channels, and densely wooded,
though the timber is small and of little value. Both these islands
are masses of porphyry, much decomposed on the surface ;. boulders
of compact greenstone are abundant in both islands, especially in
the fields and watercourses of Norfolk Island, where they are em-
ployed as building materials. They are also found imbedded in

144 Proceedings of the British Association.

the porphyry at the greatest depths to which the rock has been
penetrated by wells or exposed in ravines. Near the south-east ex-

tremity of Norfolk Island are extensive beds of sand and limestone
resting on the porphyry ; the limestone, which is the lowest forma-
tion, is from 12 to 20 feet thick, and occupies about 20 acres of com-
paratively flat land; in two places it has been fractured, and up-
heaved from an angle of 10° to absolute verticality. It is thin-
bedded, the lamine being usually one to three inches thick, of fine
quality, slightly mixed with sand, but yielding 90 per cent. of lime.
The sandstone appears to be entirely a modern formation, lying
upon and against the dislocated limestone ; the bar and projecting
rocks along the whole south-east front are composed of it, but it is
no where above 6 feet thick; below it is found an unctuous black
clay full of vegetable remains, especially the leaves and seeds of
pines and other island trees. The sandstone is only compact on
the coast, where it is still forming; it contains marine shells, and
incrusts the boulders of greenstone on the coast. Being porous,
and filled with saline particles, it forms a bad building stone, the

houses built of it requiring to be rough-cast with lime. Opposite |
the settlement which is placed on these beds, and about 600 yards
from the beach, Nepean Island rises to the height of 50 feet; it is
about a quarter of a mile long, and of a horse-shoe shape, open to
the east. The limestone of which this island is composed is used
for the shafts of chimneys; its east and south-east beach is formed
of sandstone. No water has been found in it, and its vegetation has,
within the last few years, almost disappeared, owing to a colony of
rabbits which, having destroyed every thing edible, have now them-
selves perished. It is reported that in 1793 this island was only a
boat’s length distant from Norfolk Island, but that in 1797 two
severe earthquake shocks were experienced, by the second of which
the nearer point of the Nepean was submerged, and the channel
altered to its present form. The rocks which pave the channel be-
tween these island are almost all limestones, whilst elsewhere they
are porphyritic. The Bird Islands are rocks of porphyry distributed
along the north shore of Norfolk Island; they are of no economic
value, and are tenanted only by sea-birds. [See Statistical Section,
Monday. |

Proceedings of the British Association. 145

Mr. Elias Hall read a communication ‘ On the Midland Coalfield,’
being the substance of a pamphlet in course of publication.

THURSDAY.
Sxction E.—MEDICAL SCIENCE.

The first paper read was a report on Asphyxia, by Mr. Erichsen,
The different theories previously held on the subject were examined.
and tested by a series of experiments, and from an examination of
all the results the following conclusions were drawn :—lst, That,
although the persistence of the respiratory movements has some
influence in maintaining the circulation through the lungs, yet that
their arrest is not by any mearis the sole cause of the cessation of
the circulation.—2nd, That a diminution in the force and frequency
of the contractions of the heart, consequent upon the altered quality
of the blood circulating through its muscular substance, is one of
the principal causes of the cessation of the circulation in asphyxia,
as is evident from the fact that when the force of the heart’s contrac-
tions is maintained by a supply of arterial blood to its muscular
substance, it is enabled to propel black blood through a collapsed
lung.—3rd, That the obstruction which has been found to take place
in the pulmonary and systematic circulation is due to the venous
blood exciting the contractility of the minute divisions of the arteries
and pulmonary veins by acting on their special sensibility. —4th, That
the cause of the stoppage of the circulation in asphyxia is, therefore,
threefold, depending, Ist, upon the arrest of the respiratory move-
ments; 2nd, upon the weakening of the heart’s action, and 3rd, upon
the obstruction afforded to the blood by the refusal of the smaller
divisions of the arterial system to receive venous blood. ‘The author
then adverted to the subject of the treatment of asphyxia. After re-
viewing the plans generally adopted, he stated as a fact, determined by
a considerable number of experiments, that if artificial respiration be
set up, even after the heart have entirely ceased to act, the left cavities
of that organ will fill themselves with arterial blood, the congested
condition of the lungs be removed, and the pulmonary artery be
emptied of its blood, and this without the action of the heart being
renewed ; unless when pure oxygen gas was used, when these effects
took place with much greater rapidity; and the author succeeded in
many instances in restoring the circulation after the contractions of

U

146 Proceedings of the British Association.

the ventricles had ceased; he, therefore, recommended insufflation
with this gas in extreme cases of asphyxia.

The Secretary read a paper by Dr. Heming, on a disease of the
tongue. The author described the disease, the appearances of which al-
though varied in degree, were uniform in character. In the early symp-
toms the tongue is cedematous, sulcated, and prone to become ulcerat-
ed on the borders of the sulci, or in parts which may be irritated by
the contact of a decayed or ragged tooth ; the surface then becomes
morbidly smooth in longitudinal streaks, the papille being appa-
rently obliterated; the whole organ assumes the same character,
H| becoming dry and hard in its texture, the ulceration becomes more

i marked, is sometimes superficial, and in some cases forming deep
| ragged ulcers; in one case the ulcers had pierced entirely through
i the organ. The author detailed five well-marked cases: they all
. occurred in females, and the general constitutional health was much
impaired, the patients suffering from sick head-aches, deranged diges-
tion, cedematous ancles, &c. In some cases the disease was of many
years continuance. In the treatment, the author deems the restora-
tion of the general health of primary importance : after the ordinary
aperients, he gave soda and cicuta, and continued these remedies
many weeks. The local application found most useful was nitrate
of silver ; by perseverance in the treatment every case got well.

Evening Meeting—Thursday.

The Earl of Rosse, on taking the chair, directed attention to the
provision made for the continuance of the business of the Association
by means of the Council, in the intervals between the annual
meetings. This arrangement rendered it necessary that he should
be present to resign his seat to his successor, and it delighted him
to witness a meeting of the Association under such auspicious
circumstances. After an interval of thirteen years their body was
revisiting its birth place, having achieved many great triumphs, and
having still greater in progress; all their exertion had been directed
to the intellectual improvement of mankind; and the increase of in-
terest in their proceedings manifested by the increase of numbers,
was at once evidence that these efforts had been successful, and
had been appreciated by their countrymen. It was gratifying to
designate as his successor in the chair one of the first of living

Proceedings of the British Association. 147

mathematicians, and one not less estimable for his moral qualities,
than admirable for his scientific attainments. His contributions had
enriched their reports, as his presence had given interest to their
meetings. His Lordship then dwelt at some length on the value
of mathematics ; it was the foundation of all the certain sciences
and it kept them all in their just proportions. Mathematics formed
an engine of enormous power, which conferred upon us the con-
trol over the dominions of time, space, and number. They taught
us the laws that regulate the order and secure the permanence
of the universe; but while thus sublime in its applications, it could
accommodate itself to our humblest wants. Were mathematical
science to be lost, the misfortune would be felt through the
whole wide range of commerce and manufactures, and through ali
the relations of life. The sailor would no longer be able to find his
way over the pathless ocean; the merchant could not collect the
varied products of nature, as he would have no means of transport ;
and all engineering would become mere guesswork. Even in our
remote agricultural districts the loss would be felt, for the surveyor
would be wanting to arrange the boundaries of property ; indeed, so
pervading and necessary was that knowledge, that without it even the
commonest engagements and relations in the intercourse of society
could not be carried on; and he adverted to the still greater advan-
tages which must flow from a more extensive application of its prin-
ciples. He looked upon the present meeting as the first of a new
cycle; and as the objects of the Association were permanent in
nature, all interested in the advancement of science must be rejoic-
ed to see such signal indications of the permanence of the Associa-
tion’s prosperity. The history of all science showed that minute facts
were first observed, and elementary principles first established ; but its
progress was from strength to strength, and the advancement was
accelerated by co-operation and the sympathetic activity of all intelli-
gent men. ‘This augmentation brought a rich reward; for every
page added to the great record of knowledge, and registered for
mankind one of the eternal laws which the wise Creator had framed
for the government of the Universe. |
The Earl of Rosse then resigned the chair to the Dean of Ely.

(To be continued.)

=

|

148

The late Dr. Herrer.

A discussion having recently been raised regarding the late Dr.
Helfer, Col. Hutchinson of the Bengal Engineers, in a warm defence of
his late friend. remarks, that he cannot but feel assured from the good
tone and Christian spirit which has generally marked the Friend of
India, the Editor of that Journal will be sorry for having been led
into the assertion of any thing that was untrue regarding a most
amiable and honorable man, whose -zeal and talents were so well
known to all who had the pleasure of Dr. Helfer’s acquaintance.

The Friend of India on the other hand remarks, that if led into
error in stating the great bulk of Dr. Helfer’s collections did not
come into possession of the Government at whose expense they were
made, he is willing to retract the statement and appeals to public
| officers and scientific men who must be well acquainted with the
| | circumstances of the case.

BH). The question as to the disposal of Dr. Helfer’s collections is cer-
| tainly so far as we are competent to judge, not worth disputing
about. But if Col. Hutchinson be desirous of arriving at the real
value and importance of the collection obtained by Government
from Dr. Helfer during the period of his employment in the Tenas-
serim provinces, three years we think, he has only to pay a visit to
the Museum at the India House. We are greatly mistaken if he will
| there find the collections of Dr. Helfer which cost the public nearly
! a lakh of Rupees, are at all equal either in extent or value to many
contributions that have been made at little or no expense by several
members of the Public Service in India, who have been less fortunate
on the score of patronage than Dr. Helfer.

That Dr. Helfer was an amiable and accomplished man we allow,
that he was in any way scientific, or possessed of a single qualification
: for the duties on which he was deputed to the Tenasserim Provinces,
| beyond a moderate share of zeal and energy under privations to

which he seemed to have been accustomed, we cannot allow.

!) So long as persons of rank and influence will take upon themselves
to patronise things they do not understand, instances such as that of
Dr. Helfer will not be uncommon. What could Col. Hutchinson
possibly know of Dr. Helfer’s qualifications as a Naturalist ? And yet
he not only appears to have ventured to judge for himself on this
point, but to have exerted himself in influencing the judgment of
others. ‘‘In requesting you to use the means of your valuable paper
in his behalf, it was not as you say to put bread into his mouth, but
simply to draw the attention of Government to Dr, Helfer’s scientific

The late Dr. Helfer. ; 149

attainments of which he had been giving proof by his interesting lec-
ture before the Asiatic Society on the indigenous Silk-worms of India,
that by the assistance of Government he might be able to pursue his
researches as a naturalist, as much for the benefit of Government as
for his own private advantage.”” ‘Thus writes Col. Hutchinson, con-
stituting himself a judge of acquirements of which he could know
nothing, in a strange gentleman of whom he knew equally little, how-
ever respectably he may have been introduced !

With regard to the lecture on silk-worms at the Asiatic Society, all
that was original in it belonged to Mr. Hugon of Assam, whose
paper on silk-worms of that province was placed rather inexcusably
before publication, in Dr. Helfer’s hands. The lecture consisted of a
chapter from the popular account of the manufacture of silk in Dr.
Lardner’s Cyclopedia, from which it was transcribed word for word,
though read as an original composition, and received as such by the
President and members present who knew about as much of the matter
as Col. Hutchinson himself.*

Science is by no means considered essential to good sense
by Englishmen. Before Dr. Helfer became acquainted with this
peculiarity in our national character, he was content as a physician
on his first arrival in Calcutta to commence practice as a Homeo-
pathist. In this he encountered the opposition of the faculty,
was constrained to abandon practice, and in the course of a week
to become a naturalist. Poor man, he required all the address he
possessed to sustain the elevated position in his new profession
to which the indiscretion of his friends raised him, but he had in this,
fewer competitors to encounter, than in medicine. Accomplishments
and address, more particularly a taste for Music obtained for Dr.
Helfer and his lady, influential friends in the highest circles, who
urged his acquirements, not in Music, but as a naturalist with
unceasing importunity on the Government, and if any one should feel
disposed to blame the measure of his employment in a scientific
capacity, what are we to think of the Asiatic Society as the first to
recognise such claims ?

A promise of employment having been unconditionally afforded,
the next question his friends had to dispose of was his salary. Mr.
Griffith’s employment on the N. E. Frontier was supposed to be a
case in point; overlooking however the relative position of Dr.
Helfer as compared with a distinguished officer in the regular ser-

* The circumstance was pointed out to Mr. J. Prinsep in time to prevent the

appearance of the lecture inthe Journal of the Society. It was also exposed if
we may use the expression, in a letter singed Bombow Mori in the Hurkaru.

150 The late Dr. Helfer.

|
vice of the Company, his allowances were made the same, namely
500 personal, and 500 travelling charges. What was the result,
f | poor Griffith if he halted for a day, conscientiously omitted to draw
travelling charges, while Helfer on the other hand worked his allow-
ances up, according to Col. Hutchinson to 1200 rupees per mensem.
| If men who put themselves forward as the patrons of science which
anil) they do not understand, at the public expense, as Col. Hutchinson ap-
| pears to have done in the case of Dr. Helfer, were only to reflect on
} | the injury they do society by bringing science into disrepute,
] to say nothing of the injury they inflict on real merit, they would
probably act differently.
il In Calcutta Dr. Helfer made a collection of plants before he became
aware that cultivation destroys the distinctive characters, just as
domestication changes the colour of pigeons, nor did he appear to be
aware when he began to collect in Calcutta that the flowers or the
fruits, were at all necessary to specimens.

With regard to other collections ; birds during the first twelve
months amounting to 5 or 600 specimens, were made over to the
Asiatic Society, for Government; the duplicates, of which the greater
part consisted, were returned to Dr. Helfer for transmission to
Germany, where, no doubt the commonest things from India would
in many parts be great novelties. There were no further collections,
that we are aware of obtained from Dr. Helfer, unless sundry baskets
of clay sent up to the Asiatic Society without intelligence or meaning,
can be termed such.

The most valuable collection made by Dr. Helfer during his
employment in the Tenasserim Provinces was insects, particularly
beetles, which required no further art than was sufficient to catch,
and plunge them into spirits of wine. ‘This collection was retain-
ed by Mrs. Helfer partly on the plea of its having been made by
he herself, and partly on that of her late husband having been no wise
| bound by the nature of his agreement with the Government, to give
up all his collections. On both these grounds Mrs. Helfer may have
been quite right.

Helfer however found coal on the little Tenasserim river, which,
though it could not have remained many years longer undiscovered,
would have been worth all he cost the Government had he given a
good account of it, but unfortunately his reports on the subject are
barely intelligible.

THE

CALCUTTA JOURNAL

OF

NATURAL HISTORY.

The Natural History, the Diseases, the Medical Practice,
and the Materia Medica of the Aborigines of Brazil, by
Dr. Von Martius. Translated by Joun MacrPHErson,
Kse., Assistant Surgeon.

(Continued from page 33.)

Catarrhal affections.

Catarrhal affections manifest themselves chiefly by diar-
rheeas from the bowels, by pleuritic attacks, inflammation of
the throat, eyes or ears, and by Parotitis: but abdominal
affections are the most frequent. |

These catarrhal attacks are commonly ushered in by
fever: but the Indian is not on the whole much inclined to
such violent developments of nature’s reactive powers. Pa-
rotitis produces the strongest febrile symptoms. It causes
violent constitutional fever, and the Indians are more afraid
of this than of any other disease, as it always ends in
tedious suppuration, at times in sloughing.

The Indians who live in the western provinces, suffer most
from such catarrhal attacks, which often appear epidemi-
cally, especially after a dry cold south-west wind has blown.

VOL. VI. NO. XxII. JULY, 1845. x

;
(

152 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

for a long time over the continent, or when north-east winds
suddenly change to the south-west. At such times catarrhal
fevers often occur, which are very dangerous to children,
and often kill them with symptoms of suffocation: a bad
kind of influenza. The Indians along the coast of the
eastern provinces often suffer from such sudden changes of
wind, and from the cold sea breeze; and Dr. Paiva of
Bahia assured me, that the fresh east winds, which there
serve to invigorate Europeans and white men in general, and
indeed in the neighbourhood of the sea are considered bene-
ficial in incipient phthisis, act unfavourably on the Indian
population.

While the Indian is by such influences easily exposed to
catarrhal complaints, he suffers from rheumatic ones in a much
less degree. The latter, which have their seat chiefly in the
serous membranes, and the muscles, appear to have less
foundation in the constitution of the Indian than in that of the
white and black races. No doubt by catching cold, and by
exposure to draughts of air after full meals, or by passing the
night in damp forests, violent pains in the limbs (called Curi-
mentos by the Portuguese) are often produced. But these
darting, tearing or lancinating pains, which often take away
the free use of the limbs, and in a few hours render a heal-
thy man stiff and motionless, frequently attain such a height,
as to become dangerous to life, and require the most careful
treatment by powerful diaphoretic and anti-spasmodic medi-
cines, and at times by free venesection. ‘They are especially
common about full-moon, and, in the neighbourhood of the
sea, about the time of spring tides, are aggravated at night,
and often interfere with the liver and nerves of the ab-
domen, apparently by gouty metastasis. So far however as
I know, these rheumatic affections are rare among Indians.
The insensitive pituitous constitution of the red man seems -
to predispose much less to rheumatic than to catarrhal
affections, the latter characterised by abundant secretions.

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 153

Diseases of shin.

Besides these catarrhal affections, certain cutaneous dis-
eases appear to arise from the causes just indicated, for
instance Nettle-rash, Pemphigus, and Zona. They are al-
most always ushered in with gastric or bilious complications,
with or without distinct pyrexia, and are slight and have no
disagreeable sequele.

A widely spread disease in the country is an erysipelatous
form of disease (erythema vulgare, of Bateman) which is
called by the Portuguese, Sarna. It does not attack whites
only, who are often for a long time much annoyed by it, but
the red race also. ‘The latter however seem less predispos-
ed to it, and throw it off more readily, perhaps, as in them
it is usually the consequence of excess in eating. Indeed
this chronic erysipelas, which often produces painful ulcers,
seems to be generally connected with imperfect digestion
and impaired secretion of bile. But many people ascribe it
to irritation from the sting of insects, and especially of the so-
much dreaded musquitoes. It is indeed no wonder, that the
naked Indian, exposed day and night to the attacks of this
blood-thirsty insect, suffers more than the Brazilian provid-
ed with clothes. In the northern districts, especially along
the Amazon and its tributaries, where the Indian is during
the greater part of the year persecuted by the small gnat
(Simuleum pertinax) all day, and by the long-legged musquito
(Culex molestus) all night, it is no wonder that his whole
_ body at times exhibits bloody spots, which by the continued
re-application of the sting, and the intolerable itching, cause
a peculiar form of eruption. It is called, piera. It presents
spots of skin, in some places raw or superficially ulcera-
ted, in others covered with light crusts and scales of blood.
They occur on all parts of the body, oftenest on the back, on
the shins, and the calves of the legs. A burning pain, and
an intolerable smarting make this affection so great an evil,
that the European cannot help feeling sympathy with the

=

154 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

sufferer, when he remembers the effects of the gnat on the
uncovered portions of his own body.

It fastens on his skin, and raises the epidermis immediate-
ly into a vesicle, into which is poured a drop of blood, which
then dries up, so that by the third day it can be removed
by a needle like a dried-up pustule. The insect, which
only stings in the light of the sun, causes no pain when it
begins to suck. But afterwards a burning itching sets in,
which is quite disproportioned to the number of stings, and
drives the European, unaccustomed to it, almost mad, while
the Indian bears it with placid equanimity. The constitution
often sympathises. Feverishness, loss of appetite, headache
and swelling of the inguinal glands set in, and in unfavour-
able cases frequently end in suppuration, but more commonly
in resolution after a few days. This piera must, from its
general diffusion over the greatest part of Brazil, and from
the simultaneous epidemic attacks which it makes in whole
districts, be considered one of the peculiar diseases of these
lands.*

But besides it, the Indians are subject to various other
skin diseases ; among the most common, is a chronic painless
psoriasis, in the Tupi language, Curuba (or when it occurs in
animals Pyruca) which attacks chiefly the joints of Indians
living in the plains; and the face, the head, and the feet of
those who inhabit forests. It is remarked in general, that
such eruptions take on moist forms among the inhabitants
of woods, and drier ones among those of plains. I have ob-
served a quite peculiar disease, (which must be reckoned a
kind of ichthyois,) among Indians of the race of Puru-Purus.
The whole body appeared studded with irregular, generally
round, isolated or confluent blackish spots of various sizes,
which to the hand gave the feeling of slight indurations
of the skin, and did not yield any cutaneous discharge,

* Musquitoes are troublesome enough to new arrivals in this country, and often
cause irritative fever.— 77.

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 155

although their surface was uneven, and rougher than the rest
of the skin. The vicinity of the spots was frequently paler
than the sound skin; in some cases, almost quite white.
These patients suffered from enlargement of the liver.
This disease of the skin is said to be hereditary, and is con-
sidered by the neighbouring races, a national sign of the
Puru-Purus, the Amamatis and the Catauixis, on which ac-
count they go by the name of ‘ the spotted.’ Perhaps thiis dis-
ease may be derived from the amphibious life of these savages,
their bad food, and the custom of anointing themselves with
crocodile, or Lamantin fat. In the same neighbourhood, I
also saw a cachectic Indian of the race of Catauixis, who
had on his face and arms many white spots and points, and
was distinguished besides by an almost morbidly excessive
growth of hair. This disease too is said to be heredi-
tary, nay infectious also: individuals who have laboured
for some time under any of these various skin diseases, have
a cachectic appearance, which distinguishes them at first sight
from their healthy neighbours. The uniform copper red
colour changes into a dirty yellow, or into a characteristic
livid paleness, and a muddy heavy look pervades their dark
eyes. In such cases the hair gets gray, earlier than is usual,
in the American race. In general the Indian preserves
his straight, shining black hair up to his 60th year, without
any perceptible alteration. The women become gray earlier
than the men. I may here take the opportunity to mention
a very peculiar disease of the hair, which I observed not in
Indians, but in a woman of mixed Indian and European blood.
Long hairs grew under the cutis of the arms and knees,
and developed themselves with suppuration, and though pull-
ed out, renewed themselves from time to time. I saw her
at Joazeiro on the river S. Francisco, where common salt
effloresces from the soil, and she reminded me of the disease
called Wolosez, which occurs on the Don, at Tscherkask
and in other places in the south of Russia, where the soil

SS

156 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

contains salt, and which consists in hairs growing out of
wounds.

I have also observed a kind of athrax, and of painful boil
among these Indians.*

Febrile diseases.

I pass to the consideration of febrile diseases. Among
them, I must first name the acute exanthemata, small-pox
and measles, for they are among the worst plagues of Brazil.
To them, to syphilis, and to excess in the use of brandy, is
the great mortality of the red man to be ascribed.

Small-pox.

According to all accounts, this disease was entirely un-
known to the inhabitants of Brazil before the arrival of the
Portuguese. But now it has penetrated into the deepest
wilds with fearful celerity and the most calamitous results,
and every tribe knows and fears this disease as the most
deadly poison to its blood. In the Tupi language, it is call-
ed Meréba-ayba, 2. e. the bad disease. Unfortunately it must
be told, that the European settlers in many districts, for
instance in the interior of the provinces of Maranhaé and
Pernambuco, have with fiendish cunning contributed to bring
the plague among the Indians, and thereby devote a harm-
less population to the most frightful death. Where the
Indians have attacked the settlements of the Portuguese
with the purpose of robbery, plunder or murder, there the
colonists have hung up in the woods shirts and other
pieces of clothing poisoned with small-pox, and fearfully
realized the fable of Nessus. The Indian is, by his con-
stitution, ill formed for the development of small-pox. ‘The
eruption of the exanthema is slow and difficult. Racked
with violent headache, and burnt up with heat, the Indian
usually rolls himself up in his hammock, and strives carefully

* This account of cutaneous diseases is not very complete: we are much in
want of a distinct history of those prevailing among the natives of India.—77.

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 157

to exclude every breath of air, and thus increases the vio-
lence of his fever, or rushes into a running stream in which
he hopes to quench his inward fire. In it he often dies
of apoplexy: but others, who keep quieter, often do not
live till the eruption appears, but die previously of violent
delirium. In other cases the outbreak of the exanthema
is accelerated by cold baths or by hot drinks, and it appears
to such an extent, that the whole surface of the body is like
one huge sloughing sore. In some again large spots of inflam-
mation are formed under the cutis, which sometimes pass into
putrid suppuration, and sometimes cause metastasis to the
head or the lungs, and cause death after the most horrible
symptoms : but even the common forms of the exanthema are
bad enough; the uniformly coloured regularly formed pus-
tules are often attended with a very painful cough, and at-
tacks of Angina. In other individuals, we see besides regu-
larly developed pustules, others which are fallen in, wrinkled,
black or with black spots, or the whole body is covered
with a black exanthema. The disease attacks individuals
of every age and sex, but it is especially dangerous to
elderly people of atrabilious and sluggish temperament, to
pregnant and parturient women, and is on the contrary
got .over more easily by people of a younger and healthier
age. Women, seized with small-pox, frequently miscarry :
parturient ones communicate the disease to their offspring :
no wonder then, if the Indian is seized with the dread
of certain death, as soon as he feels the poison in his
veins, or sees any of his family attacked by it. Thus,
small-pox plays the same part among the red men that the
plague does in the East. Wherever it appears, all family
ties are dissolved: the sick are often left alone without
help; while those who are well, stricken with blind terror,
fly bereft of their senses into the woods. The Gover-
nor General of Estado do Para was once with all his
staff in a vessel that was to convey him from Para to Macapa.

ee aa

Se

SS —eeEeeeE—eEeEeereeeeee eee ee ee eS a er i
N

7.

~~

158 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

He had one and twenty Indian rowers. They suddenly
got the alarm that there was a case of small-pox in the
ship, when they instantly sprang overboard, into deep
water and made for the shore, leaving the Europeans to
wi shift for themselves. Dobrizhofer relates of some of the
‘| wild Indians, that on intelligence of the approach of small-

:

'

pox, they do not fly in a straight line from their homes,
but double about in all directions, thinking thus to be more
likely to escape their deadly foe. In the year 1819 an
i epidemic of small-pox prevailed in Para, from which about
A | 8000 men suffered, and of which at the worst time 36 to 68
| died daily. The epidemic which in the year 1734 attacked
| the thirty settlements of the Jesuits in Paraguay, was a fearful
| one. Of the population then estimated at 140,000 souls,
30,000 died. Inthe year 1765, when the settlements were
| increased to thirty-two, 12,000 Indians died. On the whole
; it is to be observed, that the epidemic is always more viru-
lent where many people live close together, than where the
huts are single and scattered, and this is of course more
common among Indians than European settlers. Experi-
ence has also hitherto proved, that the worst small-pox
epidemics, which have worked the greatest havoc among
the red men, have originated from newly imported negroes,
and gradually spread inwards from the coast. This too was
the case with an epidemic in Para in 1819, which was in-
troduced by a slave ship from the N. W. coast of Africa.
We observe few Indians with small-pox marks, as most
of them die under the disease. Blind and deaf Indians were
in some places the only remains that I found of whole vil-
lages. The Brazilian doctors assume, that under the most
favourable circumstances one-fourth of those attacked are
saved.
: It is on the whole proved by general experience that mixed
races, negroes, and white men, get through the disease
: iW much more easily than the Indians.
|

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 159

Measles.

This too is a very pernicious and widely spread disease
among the Indians, (called by the Portuguese Sarampo,
and in the Tupi language Mixuta-Rana, i. e. false small-
pox.) A Brazilian missionary tried to prove to me that
this disease also was unknown to the aborigines before
the arrival of Europeans, and the accounts which I got
from the Indians on the Yupurd, seemed to confirm it. But
the declarations of Doctor LaCerda and others, made me
think it more probable that measles must have prevailed
among the Indians before that event. The disease is espe-
cially common among children before the warm rainy season,
spreads epidemically with great impetuosity, and commonly
kills in the first stage with symptoms of violent inflammatory
fever ; hooping cough and dropsy are frequent sequele.

Scarlet fever.

This or an exanthematous disease very like it, appears
also epidemically from time to time on the banks of the
Amazon and the Rio Negro. But it is more dangerous to
the white and mixed population, than to the red.

Fevers.

Now as regards simple fever, it has been already re-
marked, that the sluggish, unexcitable constitution of the
Indian, and the slight energy of his nervous system do not
predispose to such forms of disease as are borne specially by
the nervous system, or at least reflected by it. The most
marked character observable in this respect, is the want
of distinct periodicity in his disease. Intermittent fevers
are thus more rare than remittent, and tertians are less fre-
quent than quartans. In the exacerbations, stupor and heavi-
ness are more common than regular pyrexia. Typhus fever
with highly developed affections of the nervous centres is
rarer than that which bears the character of synochus. Their
fevers are often accompanied with cutaneous eruptions,
and frequently with gastric and bilious complications. An

Y

=

160 The Aborigines of Brazil.

unfavourable termination frequently occurs suddenly, with
colliquation and dysenteric evacuations.

The belief that periodic diseases depend much on the
phases of the moon, is exceedingly common among the In-
dians, and that they are more violent at new and full moon, than
during the first and last quarter.* In the neighbourhood
i of the Amazon stream the belief is prevalent that all feverish
| | complaints are more dangerous when the waters are high,
Hi (from December to April) than at other seasons; somewhat
| analogous is the popular belief on the east coast of Brazil,
i that all fevers have stronger exacerbations during the flood
| than during the ebb, and that the spring tides, which oc-

cur when the moon is passing the meridian, are very dan-

gerous. At such seasons fever patients are said to die

frequently from sudden apoplexy. Piso has remarked this.
Chronic inflammation of the liver.

The most common fever of a bad kind, from which not
only the Indians, but all the inhabitants of Brazil suffer, sets
in with the symptoms of synochus with biliary complications.
It is at bottom a chronic inflammation of the liver, which
under certain circumstances puts ona febrile character, sinks

| back again to a chronic state, and after repeated exacerba-
tions generally produces in the end a fatal result, by disor-
ganisation, induration or chronic suppuration of the liver:
at times, along with general putrid fever, at times with
dropsy; more rarely, with the rupture of the larger vessels,
or sudden mortification.

All the injurious influences already indicated and the
heat of the climate predispose to this disease. It is one
of the most common among the Indian as well as the civi-
lized population, especially in low, damp, steamy neighbour-
hoods, as along the course of the Madeira, the Tocantin
and the Amazon. From simple loss of appetite with a feeling

* No one suffers long in this country from intermittent fever, without having
impressed on him the belief in lunar influence.—7'r.

The Aborigines of Brazil. 161

of oppression in the hypochondria, and a slight remittent
fever, up to the most violent inflammation and its worst ter-
minations, this disease presents an uninterrupted chain of
the most varied phenomena, according to the individuals, the
locality, the accidental complications and the duration of
the disease. It involves the most different organs, and de-
velopes itself in the most different ways accordingly. While
its beginning can often be checked by a few purgatives
and a careful diet, in its higher degrees it defies the skill
of the physician; and the great mortality of the Indians,
who know no remedy with which to protect themselves, is
chiefly to be ascribed to this disease. The (Bacos) fever cakes
which appear asthe most common result of this disease, are
so common in many districts, that one cannot help considering
it as endemic, as goitre is in others.* The whole of my boat’s
crew on the Yupura was often afflicted with liver cakes of
such a size, that they were perceptible to the eye without the
aid of feeling; the whole aspect of these patients betrayed
at first sight the deeply rooted nature of the malady. ‘They
were pale, ill coloured, gloomy, listless and without appetite,
and shewed the greatest repugnance to their ordinary diet
dried fish, salt-meat, beans, and Mandiocca flour) and an in-
creased craving for brandy. It was melancholy for me to be
scarcely able to do any thing for the wretched condition of
these people, who would have required long and careful
treatment, and instead of receiving this, fled to their woods,
where they were only threatened with a still quicker death.
Men between the ages of 30 and 50 seemed most subject to
this disease, probably from their unsettled mode of life:
women less so; I have however seen boys and even children
suffer from it.+

* For the sake of uniformity it would be very convenient if we could make out
these liver cakes to be spleens. Enlarged liver is not often observed, while enlarged
spleen is exceedingly common among the natives of Bengal..—Tr.

¢ Lallemant, an intelligent physician of Rio Janeiro, describes a similar disease,
in which he says the heart is enlarged, instead of the liver.— 77.

—

162 The Aborigines of Brazil.

Chronic stomach disease.

With this disease which although it is at first slow, after-
wards progresses with the most acute symptoms, two other
affections of the digestive organs are associated, regarding
the nature of which I still remain much in the dark. The one
| is the condition which the Brazilians call Engasco. It is a
| peculiar kind of indigestion, characterised by a heavy feeling
of over-repletion, by continued belching, joined with rumb-
ling and griping in the stomach, occuring after meals, and
attended by a constantly diminishing power of making fresh
blood. Women are especially subject to this condition, and
it often might be described as hysterical dyspepsia or Ano-
rexia. Raw coarse food eaten in excess seems to be the com-
monest cause of this disease, nostalgia is another cause, when
Indians are retained by settlers as labourers, in a condition
foreign to their usual mode of life. When the disease is once
established, they have often a constant craving to eat, the*
mud of rivers, the lime from the walls, or pieces of wood.
This disease is even still more common among negroes, and
individuals of mixed negro blood, and is common at places
along the coast, where the planters can neither by warn-

| ing nor by punishment break young slaves, who have once
| acquired it, of the habit.
Spinela.

The other chronic disease of the digestive organs, which
I have several times observed in Indians, especially among
the civilized offshoots of the Tupis in Bahia, Pernambuco
and Maranhao, is a bending inwards of the ensiform cartilage
of the sternum. Piso described this disease (edit. 1658, p.
36,) as being endemic there, and called by the Portuguese
Spinela; he called it a Prolapsus Cartilaginis mucronate.

* The river clay which I saw Indians in the neighbourhood of Coari eat, contains
according to Ehrenberg’s microscopic investigations, the following polygastric
infusoria with silicious coats, Eunotia Bidens, turgida, gallionella granulata?
Himantidium arcus, of silicious earthy plants, amphidiscus Martii, A. Rotula,
spongiolithis aspera, Sp. inflexa, Sp, rudis, spongilla lacustris.

The Aborigines of Brazil. 163

It is probably the result of rickets, and the immediate conse-
quence of organic alterations in the vicinity of the digestive
organs. Dr. Paiva told me that he had observed in the bodies
of those who had died of this disease, great varicosity of the
coronary veins of the stomach, and Piso remarked that they
could be recognised at first sight by lumps in the arms.
The inhabitants often complain for months, nay for years,
of a shooting or burning pain in the region of the heart,
which is greatest when the stomach is full, and at times
becomes quite intolerable. It increases after every full meal,
and after all violent movement of the body. At the same
time there is an increased secretion of mucus in the stomach,
and in some individuals a great tendency to the production of
acid. ‘To get relief from the violence of the pain, the patient
lies down in a horizontal position on his back or on his side.
At times the pancreas sympathizes, as seems to be shown by
an immense quantity of saliva and mucus coming up into the
mouth. The habit of the patient is cachectic, and reminds
one of a spleen case. After several years suffering, dropsy
or putrid fever sets in.*

Save this remarkable one, which deserves a thorough
investigation on the part of the Brazilian doctors, I have not
observed any form of disease among the Indians, which I can
describe as being of a rachitic nature. Yet it is not rare
to see children in a state of atrophy, reminding us of the
scrofula of Europeans.

These are the victims of neglect, especially in cases where
their mothers have died. Infants at the breast and small
children are by these savages abandoned almost wholly to the
care of their mother. While she, with the love of an ape,+

* I have lately met with a strange case apparently of ossification and eversion
of the ensiform cartilage, the end of which may be felt projecting against the skin
a little to the right of the mesial plane, the affection has been coming on gradually
for a year or two, it causes acute pain after a full meal, the man is otherwise

healthy, and well-made.—77.
¢ So in the original.—Tr.

|
|

164: The Aborigines of Brazil.

bestows on her infant not the care of a single year, but con-
tinues lactation till it is four or five years old, no one else in
the house cares the least for the little one, and if it be depriv-
ed of its mother, it is always neglected, and falls away into
the most miserable condition. Such unlucky children not
unfrequently die of hunger; if they are able to maintain a
wretched existence, they remain in a state of weakness and
of atrophy resembling that of the neglected children of
European manufacturing populations. If, however, they live
long enough to attain the power of supporting themselves,
they appear suddenly to regain their lost ground. JI at least
have never seen boys or girls of the age of 12, who had not
the usual strength and cheerfulness of the red man. The
only exception to this, was in the case of such girls, as, on the
appearance of the catamania, suffered from the strange mis-
management, which is commonly adopted. In many cases
the girl is at that period subjected to a three weeks’ fast.
She is removed from all intercourse with the tribe, made to
lie alone on a sort of scaffolding at the top of the hut, and
there allowed only water and a little fresh cooked fish for
nourishment, so that in this wretched penitentiary she is
often starved down almost to a skeleton, and for a long time
afterwards suffers from the consequence of such unnatural
privations.
Syphilis.

It is well known that this disease has made great ravages
among the Indians. It has penetrated into the remotest
districts, and like an eating worm gnaws at the marrow
of these devoted people, who use against its violent inroads
only a few vegetable medicines, and yet gain more by their
use, than from the treatment of the European doctors, who
continue to use mercury far too freely. I have observed
among the Indians along the Amazon rapid infection and rapid
spread of the disease. If improvement did not take place
soon and decidedly in the hands of the doctor, the infected

The Aborigines of Brazil. ~ 165

used to fly in despair to the woods, after which I never
could get further accounts of them. The Indians themselves
believe universally that syphilis was introduced by the
Europeans. It is unknown among communities which have
not had intercourse with the Brazilians. Nevertheless I do
not declare decidedly for the opinion, that syphilis is a
disease of the old world.

The Indian suffers little from other diseases, which are
especially connected with the assimilative and plastic pro-
cesses. I have indeed observed a few cases of lymphatic
swellings in the arm and knee joints, and also ankylosis of
the lower extremities in a couple of old Indians, but it was
the result of injuries not of constitutional disease.

Diseases of the Bones.

The bony framework of the Indian is slow in attaining its
full strength and firmness, It is known, as Herodotus re-
marked, that the bones of the head of negroes are harder
than those of white men, and the same is reported by
Spanish writers of the Americans. And not only the
first conquerors, but later observers have remarked that
the bones of the skulls of Americans are of uncommon
thickness, and resist the blows of Europeans better than
the skulls of their own race do. But there can be no doubt
that the bones of the pelvis and of the skull are exceedingly
firmly knit together, and attain an unusual thickness ; and
in church-yards and charnels the bones of Indians may thence
be distinguished from those of Europeans. The develop-
ment of the teeth is also strong. Dentition is late in
commencing, and slow in its progress. The second set of
teeth are distinguished by the absence of that transparent
milk-white colour, which is so commonly found among Euro-
peans, especially in northern lands; they are rather of a
yellowish-white shade, and little transparent; the enamel
lasts long, and the old men generally lose their teeth by
their gradually falling out, and seldom from partial decay :

or

Te ee a
t i.

166 The Aborigines of Brazil.

this may possibly be owing to their hardly ever eating hot
foods. Teeth and still more bone diseases are accordingly
rare among the Indians. I have only seen a few diseases
of bone, viz., exostoses of the fibula, which were treated
with advantage by the juice of Euphorbiacee and foment-
ing with the leaves of a variety of pepper. Toothache
among them is generally rheumatic, and seldom caused by
caries of the teeth.

I have never seen curvature of the spine, club-foot, or other
deformities of the skeleton. But it is probable, that when
children are born among them with any such deformi-
ties, they are made away with immediately after birth.
It is strange enough, and may serve as a trait in the moral
constitution of these races, that the Indian always represents
the spirit, called Gurupira, the terror of the woods, the pro-
duct of his own superstition, and an enemy to man, with a club-
foot, or with one growing forwards out of his chest. Lame
and halt are occasionally seen: their ailments have always
had a traumatic origin. Intentional limping, a result of
civilization in our children, is unknown among the Indians.

Diseases of the organs of respiration.

They are comparatively speaking uncommon among the
aborigines of America. They suffer very seldom from chronic
lung disease, although now and then, galloping consumption
is the consequence of acute chest affections, pleurisies and
pneumonias. The open-chested build and the regular occu-
pation of the Indian, who is hardened by regular exercise in
the open air, and the mild pleasant climate, prevent the fre-
quent occurrence of these diseases.

Gout. .

Though well known as the chief disease among the red
populaticn in N. America, gout is here scarcely known, as the
use of brandy has not yet spread itself extensively enough.
This poison operates most injuriously on those communities of
Indians, which though removed from Europeans, still have

é
;

The Aborigines of Brazil. 167

trade with them. Every expedition brings brandy and its
melancholy consequences among isolated tribes and villages :
we however trace the destructive effect of spirituous
drinks, and especially of new brandy made from sugar,
less here, than among the more civilized Indians along the
coasts of Bahia, Pernambuco, Parnaiva, Maranhao and Para.
There, where there is the largest population of civilized
Indians, brandy has exerted its baneful influence over large
masses of people. Besides the corruption of morals to
which it has led, it has had a material share in causing the
ever increasing mortality, in augmenting the strange steri-
lity of the Indian, and in increasing the quantity of liver
disease.

Heemorrhoidal affections.

They occur in various forms, and are frequently connected
with the chronic liver disease, which they usually precede.
As a characteristic and very frightful disease of this nature,
I must mention a complaint which prevails in the low damp
districts of the provinces of Maranhaa, Piauhy, Pernambuco,
and Bahia, and is called Doenga do Bicho, or Bicho do Cu,
and was described long ago by Piso as the scourge of the
population. The coast Indians call it Teicoaraiba, i. e. anus
rubens. It consists in relaxation, protrusion, and finally
gangrene of the rectum, and if not at once checked by the
most active measures, leads invariably to a fatal result.
This fearful disease is oftenest observed at the termination
of epidemics of dysentery. I have remarked a carcinomatous
form of it in horses in the province of Piauhy.

3 Diseases of the organs of the senses.

From what I have already said regarding the senses of
the Indian, and of his miserably narrow sphere of existence
as compared with that of civilized Europeans, we might pre-
sume that he is not subject to many diseases of the senses,
and such is in reality the case.

——

168 The Aborigines of Brazil.

The black, brown, or exceedingly rarely dark blue eye of
the Brazilian savage displays in its dark glance, the clouded
dreamy sunkenness of the race. It is often destroyed by
injuries—but gray cataract is not common, and green or black
are still rarer. Inflammation of the eye in consequence of ex-
treme exposure to light, and to the smoke of their huts, oc-
curs in those districts, in which the red man retires into dark-
ened hovels to avoid the intolerable swarms of musquitoes, as
is the case on the Rio Negro, and on several tributaries of
the Solimées. But with this exception, the noble organ of
vision enjoys, in the green glades of the forest, on the airy
plains of the table land, away from the injurious stimuli of
learning and of European civilization, never directed on the
close type of a school book, or bent on a novel while the
hands are employed in knitting,* never allowed the use of
spectacles, of opera glasses or of microscopes,—a fortunate
liberty, which can only improve its strength and sound-
ness. What I have oftenest observed among Indians as
well as negroes in these countries, is the arcus senilis, a cir-
cular thickening of a ring of the cornea round the pupil, and
this, not as a consequence of advanced age, but of catarrhal
inflammation. From the use of bad diet, especially of
salted fish on long water journies, the Indians are often at-
tacked with slight inflammation of the eye, for which they
commonly use the freshly expressed juice of the buds of the
Ambatiba tree (Cecropia) as a wash. The ear suffers oftener
than the eye among the autochthones of Brazil. I have seen
several men and women quite deaf, or more than half so.
In some I observed large scars from severe inflammation
of the Parotid, and probably of the internal ear. They had
come on at the termination of exanthematous fevers. The
Indian takes little care of the delicate organ of hearing;
he often has no covering to his head, and seldom wears

* Knitting, the eternal employment of German women.—77.
+ We doubt much whether, there is ever a connexion between arcus senilis and
catarrhal inflammation.— 7’r,

The Aborigines of Brazil. 169

a hat, so that the hot sun strikes directly on the external
ear, which by night is either heated too much by close
proximity to the fire, or catches cold from resting on damp
leaves or sand. Hence catarrhal and rheumatic inflammation
of the ear is common enough, chronic discharges from it are
frequent. Here also people are quite aware of the fine sym-
pathy between the organs which secrete the bile, and those
which generate the bitter wax of the ear.(?) Erysipelatous
forms of inflammation, and indeed the irritation of the sand
fly, whose eggs are well known to produce most painful in-
flammation, frequently extend to the ear.
Mental diseases.

From these the Brazilian savage suffers very seldom; his
dull senses, his brooding melancholy, and the absence of
every thing that can awaken a higher and more refined spiri-
tual life, readily explain how he remains a stranger to all
those alienations of mind, which with us are caused by excit-
ed affections and morbid imaginations; indeed, if we except
the momentary madness of drinking, and the rage of envy or
of hate, there remains scarcely a passion, which could lead
to derangement of mind in the Indian. But we occasion-
ally observe cases of imbecility and of idiotism, which are
probably caused by injuries of the head, or by internal dis-
eases terminating unfavourably.

The only mental disorder, of which I have heard among
the Indians, may be compared more readily with lycanthropy
than with anything else, i. e. with that alienation of the mind,
in which a man out of his wits from madness, rushes into the
open air and imitates the voice and gestures of a dog or wolf,
and-becomes a wer-wolf, i. e. a wolf-man. Dobrizhofer gives
a full account of the malady, and says that it only occurs
among the tribe of Nakaiketergehés. I have however heard
-exactly similar accounts from missionaries and others on the
Amazon. After the Indian has remained for some time pale,

i
|

170 The Aborigines of Brazil.

syllableless, wrapt up in himself, wandering about with con-
fused staring look, or withdrawn from all company, he breaks
forth suddenly some evening after sunset, with all the signs of
ungovernable madness and blind thirst for blood, he storms
through the village, and sets on every one that he meets, he
rushes howling to the spot where the dead are buried, tears up
the soil, and throws himself down, or madly loses himself
in the desert. This disease returns every 8 or 14 days, and
ends in complete exhaustion, or passes into fever. It is
said to have been observed to be epidemic, and to occur not
only in men, but also in women, and especially after conti-
nued debauchery, drinking, dancing and excitements of all
kinds. The Indians believe that witchcraft is its cause. The
missionaries always considered the removal of the person
affected from his community, as necessary to prevent its
spreading.*

I have now related the most important particulars of what
I have had the opportunity of observing, or occasion to hear
from trustworthy parties regarding the diseases of the In-
dians.

Diffusion of disease according to different localities.

All these diseases are especially those of the tropical man,
the nomad, the hunter, the stranger to European civilization.
They are in many districts endemic, and then the red man
shares them in a greater or less degree with his neighbours
of other races. It is natural that a country of the extent of
Brazil should not have the same climatic constitution in all
parts, and that local diseases should accordingly undergo
certain modifications. If we view the whole of tropical Bra-

* Catlin mentions something very similar among the N. American Indians. The
belief in wer-wolves was common among the Romans, prevailed throughout Hu-
rope for many centuries, andis not yet extinctin some districts. The European
superstition however makes no difficulty as to the actual conversion of the man
into a wolf. ‘The lycanthropy of the red Indian is no doubt at times epidemic,
like the dancing and leaping mania of the American Jumpers, &c.—Tr.

The Aborigines of Brazil. 171

zil in this point of view, we may recognize in this vast coun-
try a triple character as to disease.

1. The immense basin of the Amazon with its northern
and southern tributaries. This river valley, the largest on
the surface of the earth, following the equator in its chief di-
rection from west to east, and also in that of its most impor-
tant tributary the Madeira, from the 19° of South latitude
to the equator, partaking every where of a true equatorial cli-
mate, isalow damp land. The overflowing of the rivers,
and of the endless lakes and ponds in connexion with them,
endure on the average for two-thirds of the year. There
is no dry season here as in the other divisions; thick
forests, always green, and incessantly attracting damp clouds,
alternate with plains only, in the higher lying districts.
Throughout the whole year day and night vary little in
length; cold winds never prevail. In the later months of the
year there blows in the chief basin of the Amazon, the
wind called the general, an East wind, which is general-
ly without any unfavourable influence on the constitution,
since it cools, without making people catch cold, and common-
ly diminishes the plague of musquitoes. Universal nature is
here subject to that peculiar rest, that regularity in all the phe-
nomena of terrestrial life, and to that beautiful harmony of the
elements, which makes equatorial regions so attractive. The
prevalent diseases correspond with these relations ; feverish
exanthemata, dysenteries, dropsies, obstruction of the liver,
and of the portal circulation, and chronic inflammation of
the liver prevail. All inflammations shew a venous or pas-
sive character; they are less strongly marked than in more
southern climates; great failure of strength; and rapidly
supervening colliquation render diarrhceas and dysenteries,
which are often caused by catching cold, and by eating un-
ripe fruits, especially dangerous. ‘The infectious exanthe-
mata spread with unusual violence. Dropsy in its various

!
)
;

172 The Aborigines of Brazil.

forms, is the disease of which most Indians die; worm di-
seases in various complications are very frequent.

2. The physical conformation of the northern provinces,
Ciara, Rio Grande and Paraiba do Norte, Alagoas, Pernam-
buco and Bahia is quite different. This large tract of coun-
try is perhaps the most healthy of all, but it is at pre-
sent only inhabited along the coast by a few indians,
chiefly civilized offshoots of the Tupi race, and in the
interior by a few small groups of tribes that have settled
in it; it is a hot dry land, with less vegetation. The rainy
season, which in the basin of the Amazon may be said to
extend over the whole year, has its duration contracted
here. Itis often entirely absent for several years. The rivers,
as compared with those of other districts, are poor streams.
Their inundations are trifling, and have no such important
effect on the vegetation and the general phzenomena de-
pending thereon. The land rises into hills or elevated
table lands. It is much more exposed to the winds than the
equatorial districts, and when they come from the sea coast,
they often produce fever and diarrhceas; when they blow from
the west or north-west, rheumatic and catarrhal affections
and inflammations, especially of the eyes. The steady clear-
ness and warmth of the atmosphere braces the nervous
system. The dryness prevents the tendency to colliqua-
tion and putrid fever. This very favourable constitution of
land and climate prevails almost every where. Only some
of the larger rivers, especially the chief streams of the
district, the Rio de S. Francisco and the Parnahyba, form an
exception. In the neighbourhood of those rivers, and as
far as the inundations and the pestilent effluvia connected
with them reach, the chronic inflammations of the liver which
have been already described prevail under the form of pu-
trid and bilious fevers. They commence at the end of the
inundations, and decimate the population in a fearful way,

The Aborigines of Brazil. 173

he more because they never meet with judicious treatment.
Ve see in these regions many individuals with fever cakes,
rho generally are at last carried off by dropsy or putrid fever.
“he Indians had formerly settled in large bodies along those
treams, but like a few white colonists who afterwards mi-
rated thither, perished by that malignant fever, (Malinas.)
\long the upper Tocantin and on the Araguaya, which streams
1 this part of their course belong to this district, although
heir lower parts agree in climate with the Amazon region,
here are still numerous Indian tribes, among whom at this day
he Malinas from time to time works fearful ravages. ‘This
eautiful land is on the other hand remarkably beneficial to
ung affections. ‘They are exceedingly rare, and only occur
t one or two spots, which are comparatively speaking less
avourably situated, and are high and windy. Pernambuco
; remarkable in this respect; it is the Pisa of Brazil; and
he salubrity of the climate for patients with diseases of the
hest is well known in England, and hectic patients sent
hence to Olinda often experience great relief, even after
heir disease is far advanced.

3. The third well marked district for certain forms of
lisease, embraces the high lying provinces of Minas and S.
aulo, the mountainous part of Bahia which agrees in
haracter with Minas, the thickly wooded provinces along
he coast, of Porto Seguro, Espiritu Santo, Rio de Janeiro,
}. Paulo and 8S. Catharina. ‘The high lying places along
he coast of Bahia, for instance its capital, may come under
his head, in as much as from their vicinity to the sea they
re also exposed to the rapid changes of temperature which
haracterise in general this division. ‘This proportionately
est peopled district, though now possessed of a large
opulation only in its north-eastern forest parts, has a
rue tropical climate, like the other districts already des-
vribed. But it is deficient in that fixedness and uni-
ormity of climate, which makes the words—hot and damp,

174 Lhe Aborigines of Brazil.

sufficient to characterise the Amazon basin, and hot and dry,
the north-eastern provinces. ‘he latter of these climates
the Brazilians call clima agreste, the former clima mimoso.
In this part of Brazil then we have a high temperature dur-
ing the dry, as well as during the damp season ; both periods
alternate with each other with great regularity, and in both
we find sudden lowerings of temperature, which have their
influence on the general health, and often modify it in a very
striking degree ; the elevated position of many localities, espe-
cially in Minas, which on the whole may be counted high land,
the steep conformation of the coast Cordilleras, which seem
thickly wooded through the greater part of this district,
besides this the occurrence here of deep winding villages,
there of wide-spreading table lands, in fine, the absence
of extended river districts, and the preponderance of forest
vegetation throughout the whole—all these circumstances
unite to give this division of the country a separate character
as to its diseases, which is made up of that of tropical as
well as of extra-tropical lands. In consequence of this the
catarrhal and rheumatic character is more marked, and is in
a certain degree linked with the bilious. Violent catarrhs,
diarrhoeas that end in dysenteries, and inflammations of the
bones, are here especially common. The strong winds
which blow thither sometimes from the sea, sometimes from
the interior of the land, the south and south-west, bring
commonly acute muscular pains, pleurisies, and pneumonias.
But here also diseases in which the liver and portal system
are especially involved, are common, and a painful erysipela-
tous inflammation particularly of the lower extremities (Sarna)
is one of the commonest evils. In Rio de Janeiro, Sarcocele
and Hydrocele are almost endemic. The Indians of this
district live in greatest numbers in the woods north of Rio
Janeiro between the Rio Paraiba, Rio Doce and Rio Bel-
monte. Small-pox and measles have often made fearful
ravages among them, and they seem to have suffered still

—

On the Aborigines of Brazil. 175

more than their countrymen on the Amazon. Besides the
greater vicissitudes of climate, this circumstance may be
partly a cause of it, that being closely shut in by the ever-
spreading white population, they take less active exercise
than in a freer state.

I must allude only cursorily to extra-tropical Brazil,
which embraces a part of the province of S. Paulo and of
Rio Grande do Sul, and may be looked on as a fourth divi-
sion as regards the character of disease. Its Indian popula-
tion is, comparatively speaking, small, and it generally be-
longs to the Southern tribe of Tupis, the Guaranis, and has
been more or less disturbed by the influence of the neigh-
bouring Spanish missions, of the former Jesuit settlements.
The character of its diseases approaches that of the districts
last described, but the inflammatory rheumatic character is
more prevalent.*

General result regarding the diseases of the Brazilian
savages.

If we now combine into one point of view the outlines of
the flying picture which I have sketched, the following will
be found to be the essentially characteristic points :—

1. The Brazilian Indian has scarcely any disease, that
belongs to him peculiarly.

2. He shares with the other classes of the population the
diseases prevailing there through climatic influences. His
system reacts against these diseases in an analogous way
to that of the European, only with such difference as might
be expected from his natural constitution: and the charac-
teristic traits of his race are found in the diseases to which
he is most subject.

3. In his proportionately salubrious land, the Indian knows
no more than the European settler of the plague, of cho-

* We believe that no attempt has been made at a general classification of the
climates of the continent of India,—Tvr.

A

176 On the Aborigines of Brazil.

lera, of the yellow fever, of the frightful putrid fevers of the
west of Africa, or of the Vena medinensis.

4. The disease introduced by Europeans, the small-pox,
causes the greatest mortality, and the sterility* inherent in
his race is increased by syphilis, which was originally un-
known to him.

5. We may thence assume that the race of the red man is
naturally a very healthy one: (its longevity is well known,)
but this only as long as it is the exclusive possessor of its
own country, and not disturbed by European eivilization.

6. But, as things have changed since the arrival of the
Portuguese, a constantly increasing rate of mortality has been
observed. The only race of men, regarding which, one can
from preceding facts lay down a general prognosis, is_ the
American. In this prognosis, which pronounces the extinc-
tion of the red man, the aborigines of Brazil also share.

This melancholy view of things, against which the feelings
of the philanthropist struggle, has but too much foundation
in the state of medicine among the-red race, for when we
consider the matter a little more, it becomes quite plain, that
the savage is in no condition to discover for himself the
appropriate remedies for the physical evils from which he
suffers. Then again he is, from his social condition, quite
beyond the reach of any beneficial operation of the medi-
cal knowledge introduced from Europe.

* Dr. Lallemant attributes this sterility to the mere phlegmatic cold and in-
different nature of the red man. He has lately written regarding the diseases of
the neighbourhood of Rio Janeiro, but we have not hitherto had an opportunity
of comparing his accounts with those of Von Martius.—77r.

(To be concluded. )

hay

Description of an Electro-motive Engine, by Inspector Gene-
ral J. Macueop, of the Madras Medical Service. Com-
municated by Dr. F. Movat. Pl. iv.

[ Note by Dr. Movat.—Mr. Macleod is well known in the Madras
Presidency, as an able and excellent practical chemist and mechanic,
who has devoted considerable time and attention to such subjects. The
ingenious instrument described, which works exceedingly well, may be
applied to a variety of useful purposes, and the power multiplied to
any extent by increasing the strength of the battery, and size as well
as number of the magnets. Few subjects connected with the arts have
recently attracted more attention than the application of electro-
magnetic power to supersede steam in its infinite uses and appliances.
One of the greatest difficulties and barriers to its success has been com-
pletely overcome by Mr. Macleod, whose paper we have no doubt will
attract considerable attention among those engaged in similar inquiries
in Europe. ] 7

The discoveries made of late years in electro-magnetism,
more especially the extraordinary power imparted to soft iron
by means of the galvanic current, have given rise to various
ingenious attempts to apply the new agent as a motive pow-
er. All these attempts, however, appear to have been unsuc-
cessful. (See Mechanics’ Magazine, January 1844, page 61.)
I have tried the arrangements of Devonport, Jacobi, Davidson
and Taylor; and though small models or toys can be made
to work by either of them, I am inclined to think that it
could easily be explained, why they have not been found to
answer on the large scale.

The space over which electro-magnets exert any consi-
derable power being very limited, and by far the greatest
portion being exerted close to the magnet, it is evident that
none of this last can be sacrificed without the loss of a con-
siderable proportion, if not the greater part, of the power,
together with a corresponding waste of materials.

I do not find it stated at what distance from each other the
rotating and fixed magnets were placed in Devonport’s and

178 Description of an Electro-motive Engine.

Jacobi’s engines. The workmanship may indeed be so per-
fect as to bring them very close without actual contact. But
the expansion and contraction of iron by change of tempera-
ture, renders it exceedingly difficult to adjust them so close
as delicacy of workmanship might otherwise admit of. These
disadvantages appear also to be augmented by enlarging and
multiplying the parts composing the engine; and in propor-
tion, the loss of power and waste of materials will be greater.
However this may be, nothing short of actual contact can
render the whole power available, which is evidently imprac-
ticable in the rotating engines.

These considerations naturally suggest the plan of causing
the keeper to be attracted and repelled alternately, this obvi-
ous movement being made to act as a motive power. In this
case, however, the limited distance at which the electro-mag-
net acts is by no means the only difficulty,—the adhesion of the
keeper,* even when contact is broken, is another, which is
not obviated by changing the poles. It occurred to me,
however, that by means of the mechanical contrivance here-
after described, and availing myself at the same time of the
residuum power remaining for a moment in all electro-mag-
nets, that the keeper could always be separated from the
magnet the instant it came in contact with it; that by using
the contrivance, alluded to, the keeper never could adhere to
the magnet, and thus the strokes could be repeated rapidly
with the full power of the engine. This plan answers
perfectly.

I informed Mr. Palmer of Newgate street, of the result of
the above arrangement, in a letter dated 20th November 1843,
and his reply is dated the 28th December following.

In my model there is no changing of poles, and the keeper
can be made to strike the face of the magnet from 150 to 200
times in a minute, with its full force, when not loaded. The

* The clumsy and unscientific expedient of interposing slips of wood, or card,
to prevent contact and sticking, is hardly deserving of notice.

Description of an Electro-motive Engine. 179

keeper never adheres to the magnet; it is instantly repelled,
and this rapid alternate movement is made to act on a fly
wheel.

The annexed figure (II.) shows the manner in which the
magnet A. and keeper B. are arranged. The keeper is a tri-
angular prism, resting on two bits of brass projecting under
the magnet. The movement is evident from the figure; the
lower edge of the keeper never quits the magnet.

Both the magnet and keeper are electro-magnets ; they
are made to attract and repel by the same current without
altering its direction. The mode of effecting this is as follows :

The magnet and keeper communicate with the battery
alternately, and the motion of the keeper causes the current
to pass from the one to the other.

Let us suppose that the magnet being in communication
with the battery, attracts the keeper till they come in con-
tact. If, at this instant the current is suddenly shifted from
the magnet to the keeper, the latter is repelled by the residu-
um of magnetism remaining for a moment in the latter, both
having then like polarity. When the keeper is thus thrown
off, on arriving at the desired distance (or angle) from the
magnet, it causes the current to be thrown on the magnet
again, and so on alternately. It is absolutely necessary that
this movement should be instantaneous, and be performed
with the utmost precision and accuracy ; conditions, it will be
seen, very easily fulfilled, by means of the apparatus repre-
sented in the annexed diagram, Fig. I.

Mercury is not used in any part of this arrangement. It
would not answer the purpose of interrupting and restoring
the communication with the battery, because that manceuvre
requires a degree of precision the use of mercury does not
admit of. The mercury soon becomes an amalgam of copper,
and drags a tail, which alone is sufficient to interfere with
the movement ; and this is more especially the case when the
engine is large, and the electrical current powerful.

180 Description of an Electro-motive Engine.

Fig. I. represents the poles of a magnet with its keeper ;
both being electro-magnets. That from which this figure is
taken is a bar of soft iron, two inches square, and weighs about
80lbs. The apparatus by which the movement is produced
and regulated, is placed as represented in the drawing. A. B.
is a board firmly wedged or screwed between the arms of the
magnet. C.D.a copper bar, which moves on a pivot at P.
To this bar a permanent communication is made with one
side of the battery, say the zinc side. The copper side com-
municates with both the magnet 1, and keeper 2, by the cop-
per strap O. To the nut at E., the strap intended to com-
municate with the zinc side is screwed, and to E. is in like
manner attached the wire from the keeper intended to
communicate also with the zinc side. The bar D. strikes
alternately EK. and F. as it is acted upon by the keeper;
which it does as follows :

It will be observed that one side of the magnet, and one
side also of the keeper, are permanently connected with the
copper side of the battery, by the copper strap O. Now,
when the bar C. D. is made to touch E., the magnet receives
the whole of the current from the battery; and when the
same bar touches F., the current passes only through the
keeper. Therefore, when the magnet is rendered magnetic,
it attracts the keeper, which is then not magnetic; and when
the current is instantaneously shifted to the keeper, it is sud-
denly repelled by the residuum remaining for a moment in
the magnet, as already described.

The current is thus thrown alternately on the electro-mag-
net and keeper, and this is effected by the movement of the
latter. It is absolutely necessary that the copper bar D.
should remain in contact with E. during the movement of the
keeper from its greatest distance, till it actually strikes the
magnet. Let us suppose, that the copper bar D. is in contact
with E.; the magnet will now attract the keeper, and when
it arrives within, say the 20th of an inch of the magnet, it

Description of an Electro-motive Engine. 181

strikes the end of the long brass screw M. (passing through
C. D.) which throws the copper bar C. D. upon F.; thus
shifting the current from the magnet to the keeper. The
keeper is now repelled, and as it reaches the required distance
or angle, regulated by the screw L., to which it is attached
by the chain S., it necessarily throws the copper bar D. back
against K., shifting the current again to the magnet which
attracts the keeper as before; and in this manner the move-
ment is continued. The keeper is attached to the screw L.
by twine or a chain, so as that it may not move the copper
bar C. D. till it arrives at the required angle or distance.

- The movement of the bar C. D. between E. and F. may
easily be regulated by the screw F. It need not exceed the
20th of an inch, or it may be less ; all that is required being
to break metallic contact. The screw M. can easily be ad-
justed so as to make the keeper, when it comes in contact
with it, shift the bar C. D. from KE. to F.; but this adjust-
ment must be accurately made, to insure regularity in the
movement. As the keeper does not shift the current from
the magnet till it is within less than the 20th or 40th
part of an inch from actual contact, we shall find that actual
contact does always take place before the keeper is thrown
off by the magnetism induced in it acting upon the residuum
remaining for a moment in the magnet.

When the keeper is not attached to the fly wheel, it strikes
the magnet with great force and noise ; but there is no noise
when it is loaded or has work to do. It may be made to
strike 150 to 200 times in a minute; and never adheres to
the magnet.

With regard to the action of the keeper upon the fly wheel,
it will be seen by the annexed figure that it is performed by
a contrivance different from a crank. The crank can hardly
be applied with advantage where the impulse is repeated
several times during one revolution of the wheel. The motion
of the fly wheel is produced by repeated pulls upon the rim

182 Description of an Electro-motive Engine.

of a small wheel fixed upon its axle. This is managed by
means of the apparatus represented at Fig. III. A. is a steel
toothed wheel fixed on the axle of the fly wheel, Fig. II.
D. D. are brass cheeks moveable on the projecting sides of
the steel wheel, and screwed together at F. C. is a double
catch which freely allows the brass pieces D. D. to be thrown
back, but when drawn forward by the keeper, catches the
toothed wheel A., and thus causes the fly wheel to turn. E. is
the pin to which the bar from the keeper is attached ; it can be
shifted further from, or nearer to the main axle, at pleasure.
When the motion of the fly wheel is required to be reversed,
the brass pieces D. D. are turned under the main axle, the
catch being made to act in this position also, merely by push-
ing a spiral spring to the other side of it.

The action of the engine is instantly arrested by placing
a thin slip of ivory between EK. and C. D., and as quickly
restored by withdrawing it. It is unnecessary to say that no
impulse is required to renew the action.

There being no change of poles in these magnets, I find
that a certain degree of permanent power is induced in the
large bar. This is no disadvantage ; on the contrary, it helps
to repel the keeper when the current is shifted to it.

As the working power of the magnet is greatest when
nearest to the keeper, and as the strokes are also quicker in
this position, nothing is apparently gained by allowing the
latter to recede very far from the former. The manner in
which the power is applied to the fly wheel renders it un-
necessary, and in this respect the arrangement differs essenti-
ally from the crank. The adjustment of the bar R., where it
is attached to the keeper and fly wheel, as shown in Fig. II.,
enables us to regulate the length of the stroke at pleasure.

The model from which this description is taken consists of
two electro-magnets, side by side, as seen at Fig. 1V. They
each act independently on the axle of the fly wheel, as already
described. Several may of course be so placed. I have placed

Description of an Electro-motive Engine. 183

the bent end of the magnets next to the fly-wheel to enable
me to work it by a longer rod, which more readily admits of
reversing the motion by turning the apparatus at Fig. III.
above or below the axle.

A very short rod would not readily admit of this. Of course
a great deal more room would be occupied by placing the fly-
wheel opposite to the poles of the magnet. Various modifica-
tions however of this, as well as of other parts of the arrange-
ment, will readily suggest themselves. But the apparatus
at A. B. Fig. I. with its copper bar, binding nuts, and screws,
works in so satisfactory a manner, by the motion of the
keeper, which it also regulates, that the principle will be
found applicable, as I have found it, to a variety of modifica-
tions of that described.

It is impossible in this country to get apparatus of this
description, finished with any thing even approaching the re-
quired degree of accuracy. The two electro-magnets des-
cribed above, weigh about 80 lbs. each; yet so defective is
their construction, that their lifting power is not one-quar-
ter of what it ought to be, or what we find it in those made
in England. The iron is common bar iron, and there is but
one coil or strand of copper wire used, of about one-tenth
of an inch diameter.

For these reasons, I omit all details of experiments made
on the motive power of this arrangement. In fact, such de-
tails are unnecessary. All those conversant with the subject
will readily be able to form a correct judgment of the prin-
ciple on which the movement depends, and the means by
which itis produced. It will easily be seen what proportion
of the current from the battery or of the induced magnetism,
is wasted by any peculiarity in the arrangement. As for
the movement itself, it appears to be quite perfect.

With a view of obtaining a longer stroke, I have tried the
magnets and keepers, one over the other, working as one

magnet; but it did not appear that any advantage was ob-
2B

7 a

184 Description of an Electro-motive Engine.

tained by this arrangement. I have no doubt, that a single
magnet, with the same quantity of iron as in both, would be
much superior to.the combination alluded to. With a bar of
iron one foot square, the stroke would probably be sufficient
to work on a crank, if such should be preferred to the con-
trivance described. But I think the latter will always be
preferred for electro-magnetic engines, when the stroke is
several times repeated for one revolution of the fly-wheel.
I have tried a screw paddle worked by the axle, which ap-
peared to answer remarkably well.

As the poles are never changed in this arrangement, perma-
nent steel magnets answer very well, the galvanic current being
passed only through the keeper. It is a matter of economy
and convenience. But it is probable, that as electro-magnets
are much more powerful, they will always be preferred.

The galvanic arrangement employed, is the constant battery
of Daniel. The zinc plates (10 inches by 5) are placed in
thin leather cases, which are disposed as usual between plates
of copper. All the zincs, and all the copper plates are con-
nected together so as to produce the effect of one pair.

From Dr. Wight’s Neilgherry Plants.
I.—RANUNCULACE A.

This is an extensive and beautiful family of plants, many
of which, such as-the Clematis, Ranunculus, Anemone and
Larkspur, rank among the most admired favourites of the
flower garden and arbour. Its species abound in extra-tro-
pical countries, but are of such rare occurrence within the
Tropics that, so far as I yet know, there are not above 12 or
14 found, truly indigenous, in the whole of the Indian penin-
sula, the flora of which amounts to probably not fewer than
5,000 species of flowering plants, of all descriptions, or it
stands in the ratio of about 1 to every 400 species found

7

Neilgherry Plants. 185

within the same limits. The paucity of Ranunculacious
plants, within the Tropics, may be further shown by compar-
ing them with the Flora of the whole world: thus, assuming
that there are 600 species of Ranunculacex, and that there
are 80,000 species of flowering Plants, they then stand in
proportion of one to every 133 species.

According to published lists, the Indian peninsula, within
an elevation of 500 feet above the sea, can only claim one
species @Naravelia Zeylanica) and that of rare occurrence
within these limits. This plant, which abounds at the foot of
the Hills, is an extensively climbing shrub, so nearly allied to
Clematis as almost to require a Botanist to distinguish them.
Such being the case, it naturally follows that the next in suc-
cession should be a Clematis, and such in fact is the case,
Clematis Gouriana (Nos. 1 and 2) being frequent on the table-
land of Mysore and also on the eastern slopes of the
Neilgherries, at an elevation of between two and three thou-
sand feet. None of the other species found on these Hills,
except perhaps C. Munronii, which I found in the jungles be-
low Sispara, descend much below six thousand feet of actual
elevation, though all occur within a few hundred feet above
that limit.

Continuing our ascent of the Neilgherries, the next species
that presents itself is the Clematis Wightiana (No. 3) which
abounds in the thickets about Kaity, and along the road from
thence to Ootacamund. The Anemone Wightiana, begins to
show itself occasionally about Coonoor, but is no where fre-
quent until we have nearly attained the level of Ootacamund,
where in the pastures, especially on moist ground, it becomes
most abundant, but still ascends to the highest range of the
Hills. The species of Ranunculus are of rarer occurrence,
two species being generally met with in clumps of jungle, and
the third (Ranunculus reniformis,) is sparingly scattered over
the higher pastures on the more elevated hills, and in such
situations, is well calculated to remind the European sojour-

- ee

186 Neilgherry Pilanis.

ner of the Butter Cups which so charmingly variegate the
Hill-side pastures of our Father Land. It is also met with
in swampy grounds about Ootacamund.

The number of truly native species on the hills, so far as
yet found, amounts only to nine or perhaps ten. Thirteen are
described in our Prodromus, but three of these I have since
satisfied myself are introduced, namely the Adonis (Pheasant’s
eye) and two species of Delphinuim (Larkspur.) The remain-
ing plant, excluded from the present list, is Anemowe dubia,
which I have ascertained to be a mere variety of A. Wightiana.
These nine are referable to five genera, namely, Clematis 3,
Naravelia 1, Thalictrum 1, Anemone 1, and Ranunculus 3.
In still further proof of the extra-tropical character of this
family I may mention, that Dr. Royle enumerates in his [I-
lustrations of the Himalayan Flora, no fewer than 72 species
of Ranunculacee found on the Himalayas and in Cashmere.

CLEMATIS. Linn.: (Travellers’ Joy—Virgin Bower.)

Involucre none or resembling a calyx, and placed under the flower.
Sepals 4-8, coloured, in zstivation either valvate or with their edges
bent inwards. Petals none, or shorter than the sepals. Stamens
numerous. Achenia several in each flower, terminated by a long tail.
Seed erect.—Perennial plants with opposite leaves, which are simple,
trifoliate, or once or twice pinnate, with a terminal leaflet.

This is a fine genus of beautiful climbing plants,—all the species
of which seem well adapted for arbours,—and in Europe are much
employed for the formation of these retreats, (hence I presume the
old English names) as well on account of their rich foliage as for the
profusion of their flowers, a feature long preserved by the beautiful
silky hairs of the long feathery tail of their seed, (a rude idea of
which I have attempted to convey in Plate No. 2), a mark which
readily distinguishes this section from the rest of the family. The
genus Clematis includes about 150 species which are scattered all
over the world. The flowers are apetalous with petaloid sepals. Na-
rayelia differs in having both Calyx and Corolla.

Neilgherry Plants.

1, 2. Cxiematis Gourtana,
(Rozxb.) climbing: leaves pinnate
or bipinnate; leaflets ovate-lan-
ceolate, acuninated, cordate at the
base, 3-or obscurely 5-nerved,
entire or with a few coarse serra-
tures: young branches angled,
and peduncles, and oblong achenia
pubescent: sepals revolute.—W.
and A.

This beautiful species flowers
At this
time, January, it is in full bloom

rod. p. 2.
during the cool season.

in the jungles below Coonoor,
where it may be seen climbing to
the tops of the highest trees com-
pletely covering them with such a
profusion of white flowers as al-
most to conceal the tree that
supports them. In Mysore it is
of frequent occurrence inthe dense
thickets surrounding most of the
hamlets of that province.

8. Cxiematis WIGHTIANA,
(Wall.) climbing : leaves pinnate;
leaflets not wrinkled, very villous
and soft on both sides, coarsely

ANEMONE.

187

serrated, cordate at the base, pal-
mately 3-lobed, the middle lobe
the longest, or divided again into
3 ovate-lanceolate. segments :
young branches, peduncles, and
flat achenia, pubescent: sepals
ovate, outside very pubescent,
inside glabrous: filaments hairy.
—W. and A. Prod. p. 2.

This species is less frequent
than the preceding, but is abun-
dant among the brushwood of
clumps of jungle about Ootaca-
mund; also on the road side above
Kaity, and on that leading from
Southdown round the foot of Elk
Hill. In the latter station I met
with it in the greatest perfection.
It is readily distinguished by its
soft almost woolly pale green
leaves.

I may here remark that the
colourist has represented them
of too deep a green, for which,
however, I can scarcely blame him,

.as I found it very difficult to ob-

tain the proper tint.
Wind Flower.

Involucre 3-leaved, distant from the flower, the leaflets variously

cut.
Stamens numerous.

or less cut or lobed.
at each of its divisions.

Sepals 5-15, petaloid, imbricated in estivation.
Achenia numerous.
baceous plants with a perennial root.

Petals O,
Her-
Leaves radical, stalked, more

Seed pendulous.

Scape, when branched, bearing involucres

Of this genus nearly 100 species have been described in recent

Botanical works. They are for the most part herbacious with peren-
nial roots, and, generally, can be at once distinguished by their
flowers having no distinct calyx, the floral leaves being all petaloid :

188 Neilgherry Plants.

hence it is called a petaloid calyx. By this mark as well as by
habit, or general appearance, they are readily distinguished from
their next neighbour in the Botanical system, Ranunculus, which
has a regularly formed calyx and corolla.

Some of them are much cultivated in gardens, and under the
operation of skilful horticulture have become so completely doubled,
that all the stamens and pistils have been changed into petals. In
this state, however monstrous in the estimation of botanists, they
are certainly most beautiful objects and deservedly great favourites
in the eyes of the florist: many of them, especially the Anemone
coronaria, when in that state, being variegated with the richest tints.
Under such a course of treatment it appears to me, the one here
figured might be made to undergo that change, and become one of
the most choice garden flowers to be met with on its native moun-
tains. This change might probably be brought about by transfer-
ring roots to the rich soil of the garden, and preventing them flower-
ing for a season or two, by the simple operation of stopping, a
practice which has the effect of strengthening the root. At the end
of the season when the leaves wither, they should be taken up and
kept for a few weeks in a dark place, and again planted. As the
roots are perennial, this practice would probably in a few seasons ef-
fect the desired change, after which they can be propagated by
dividing the root. For obtaining new varieties, plants are raised from
seed, taken either from single or partially double flowers, and treated
as above, taking up the roots when the leaves wither.

4. Anemone WicuHTIANA, Frequent in pastures about Oo-

(Wall) clothed with silky hairs ;
leaves on very long petioles, tri-
partite; divisions very deeply 3-
cleft; segments cuneate, deeply
3-lobed; lobes cuneate, irregu-
larly inciso-serrated : involucral
leaves subsessile, deeply 3-cleft ;
divisions 3-cleft ; segments linear-
oblong, cut and serrated; sepals
6-8, elliptic-oblong : achenia gla-
brous: style hooked, persistent.
—W.and A. Prod. p. 3.

tacamund, but also generally dis-
tributed over the hills. Flowering
in May and June. Flowers white
within purple exteriorly. During
these months it is certainly one
of the greatest ornaments of the
hills. I have not heard of its be-
ing applied to any useful purpose,
though it may not be destitute of
useful qualities as some of them
are known to possess these.

Neilgherry Plants. 189

RANUNCULUS. Butter-Cup. Crow-foot.

Sepals 5, not free at the base, deciduous, imbricated in zestivation.
Petals 5, rarely 10 or more, the claw furnished inside with a nectari-
ferous concave little scale. Stamens and styles numerous. Achenia
ovate, pointed, somewhat compressed. Seed erect—Herbaceous
plants with annual or perennial roots. Leaves mostly radical; cau-
line ones placed at the base of the branches and peduncles.

This genus ranks very near the former in the Botanical system,
agreeing with it in its herbaceous character, its perennial roots, the
form of its flowers, and structure of its seed, but differs in having
a perfect calyx and corolla, in place of a petaloid or corolla-like
calyx, and the seed erect, not suspended in their cells as in Anemone.
Like Anemones these plants frequent pastures, shady woods, and
moist soils near water, and they equally, but more energetically,
participate in the acrid properties of the family. Like them, under
proper cultivation they become double, and in that state are equally
prized as garden ornaments. Of those found on these Hills only
one, Ranunculus reniformis, seems well adapted for the garden. It
grows in open pastures, has thick fleshy roots, is naturally furnish-
ed with numerous petals, about 12, and, probably, treated as above,
would soon shew a tendency to increase the number.

The Ranunculus when thoroughly doubled is a fine flower, especial-
ly when richly variegated. Formerly they were in much greater
repute as garden ornaments than in the present day, when gardens
are stocked with such a multiplicity of new flowers brought from all
parts of the world, but I almost doubt whether the lovers of fine
flowers have not sustained a loss in discarding them to so great an
extent as they have done from the Flower border : and I should not
be surprised, ere long, to see them again taken into favour when the
fashion for the large and gaudy Dahlia and such like has somewhat
abated, and that far more modest, but not less beautiful object, has
resumed its place among the admirers of really fine flowers. Of
this I, at all events, feel quite certain, that I have never on the
Neilgherries seen a Dahlia that would bear comparison with Ranun-
culuses and Anemones I have seen in even second-rate Cottager’s
gardens in England.

il
if
ie
-
:

190 Netlgherry Plants. |

5. Ranuncutus Wa tticut-
anus, (W. and A.) erect, hairy :
radical leaves roundish ovate,
rounded or somewhat cordate at
the base, coarsely crenated ; low-
est scape-leaf oblong, toothed,
narrowed at the base into a peti-
ole; upper ones nearly linear:
petals (yellow) numerous, 10-13,
twice as long as the patulous
calyx: heads of fruit globose:
achenia oblong, tumid, minutely
dotted: style nearly straight.—
W. and A. Prod. p. 4.

This species is generally met
with in moist woods, is of a pro-

7

cumbent habit, with small flowers,
flowering in May and June after
the rains of the South-west mon-
soon have commenced. It is
however found at other seasons,
especially during rainy weather.
Another species is found at the
same season, and so much resem-
bling this one, that, to the un-
practised eye, it is not distin-
guishable, but is at once known
by the seed, which, in this, is
furnished with numerous little
tubercles, in that, is quite smooth
and without asperities of any
kind.

Il. MAGNOLIACEA.—Champ, Champac.—Champany.

The species of this family are for the most part large trees

or shrubs, forming a remarkable contrast with those of the pre-
ceding family, and on this account apparently most unnatural-
ly grouped almost side by side with it. And yet the ablest
Botanists who have given their attention to the grouping of
natural families, so as to form a series in which those most
nearly associated by the structure of their flowers and fruit
should stand nearest each other, have hitherto failed in dis-
covering for it a more suitable place in the vegetable system,
a fact not to be much wondered at, as in the structure of their
flowers and fruit, the two families so nearly associate that, but
for other circumstances, Magnolias might almost be looked
upon as gigantic Arboreous Ranunculuses. |
The bulk of this family are natives of North America, a
few only being found in Asia, and none, so far as is yet
known, in Europe or Africa. Several are found in China and

Neilgherry Plants. 191

Japan, a few in the Himalayah range, three or four in Ceylon,
and two or three on the mountains of the Indian peninsula.
Generally they are distinguished by the fragrance of their
flowers, which has led to the introduction and extended dif-
fusion over India, of the Champac as a sacred tree, the flowers
of which, when procurable, are offered by the natives at the
shrines of their idols.

The tree here represented is the only one found on the
Neilgherries, and there attains the size of a large timber tree,
the wood of which however is only used in house building.
Owing to its hygrometric properties it is not adapted for
other purposes, as it swells and contracts, according to the
moisture or dryness of the atmosphere, to an unusual extent,
even after long seasoning. When formerly writing on this
family in my Illustrations of India Botany, I considered this
distinct from the plant there figured under the name of
M. Palmyensis, better acquaintance with this one, has led
me to doubt the correctness of the opinion there expressed,
which was mainly formed on what I now find an incorrect
figure and description.

MICHELIA. Linz.

Carpels arranged in a loose spike, of a consistence between lea-
thery and fleshy, 2-valved, opening from the apex downwards. Seeds
several (3-8), externally fleshy.—Leaves entire, petioled. Flowers
axillary, generally fragrant, usually of a yellow colour.—W. and A.
Prod. p. 6, No. |.

This genus which is the only one of the family found so far south
in India, consists of large trees or considerable shrubs, and may I
believe generally be met with, where abundant, in flower nearly the
whole year; but on the Hills are in greatest profusion during the
rainy season. The flowers are usually rather large, frequently with a
tinge of yellow, very fragrant. Those of the Neilgherry species are
nearly white.

2 C

192 Neilgherry Plants.

M. Nizacir@a, (Zenker.) Leaves
elliptic oblong, tapering to a
point at both ends, glabrous; sti-
pules and spathes silky petals
from 9 in three rows, stamens
numerous shorter than the column
of fructification, ovaries numerous

A large tree found frequently
in the clumps of jungle about
Ootacamund. There are several
very fine ones in the thicket im-
mediately adjoining the Church,
the branches of one or two of
them overhanging the road.

about 4 ovules in each: carpels
warty, one or two seeded.

Ill. MENISPERMACEA.

This curious family consists, with few exceptions, of twin-
ing shrubs, and is nearly confined to Asia and America, a
few have been found in other tropical countries. One is
found above 3,000 feet of elevation on the Himalayas, and one
in Siberia These I believe are about the only exceptions to
its tropical character, doubtless others are found beyond the
tropics, but still in warm latitudes where frost is scarcely
known. The one here represented has the widest range of
elevation of any I have met with in the Peninsula, extending
from the plains to Ootacamund, where it is found in almost
every thicket. One other species I have found on the Hills
and only there, but so rare that I have only once seen it, and
then not in good flower, otherwise it would have been a more
appropriate representative of the family for this work.

The order is in many respects peculiar, and seems hitherto
to have nearly set at defiance all attempts of Botanists to find
a suitable location for it in the natural arrangement of the
vegetable kingdom. I here retain it in the situation allotted
by the late most accomplished Botanist, Prof. DeCandolle,
though satisfied in my own mind it is not well chosen, from
feeling convinced that premature and partial reforms are pro-
ductive of greater injury to science, than the errors they are
intended to remedy.

Intense bitterness, more or less combined with narcotism,
is the prominent quality of the order, as evinced by the well

Neilgherry Plants. 193

known Columbo root, and the notorious Cocculus Indicus,
in which the bitter principle of the family is combined with
a less innocent narcotic property, which it is said London
Brewers impart to their porter.

CLYPEA.

Dicecious. Calyx of 6 sepals in a double series, with 3-6 close
pressed bracteoles. Corolla none. Matz. Stamens united into a cen-
tral column, dilated at the apex, bearing several 2-celled anthers ;
cells opening horizontally, placed end to end, and forming a ring
round the top of the column. Frm. Ovary solitary. Stigmata 3
(or rarely 6?) Drupe obliquely reniform ; nut compressed, wrinkled
round the margin. Seed solitary, uncinate. Albumen fleshy. Embryo
terete, of the same shape, and about as long as the seed.—Twining
shrubs. Leaves peltate. Panicles axillary, both male and female with-
out cordate bracteas.—W. and A. Prod. p. 14, No. II.

This genus is one of four or five appertaining to this family found
in the Indian Peninsula, and is easily distinguished from its congeners
by its male flowers, the stamens of which are united into a single
column forming at top a large capetate anther which opens round
the upper margin for the transmission of the pollen. The flowers of
this like those of the preceding order belong to the ternary form, that
is, are composed of one or more whorls, each having three leaves. In
this instance three such are shown in the diagram, fig. 8, while the
centre ring may be supposed to consist of either one or two such
verticles. In Cocculus there are two whorls of stamens, each having a
scale at the base; in this there are only three scales (fig. 3) surround-
ing the column, hence it seems probable that one whorl only unites to
form the compound stamen.

Cuyrea hernandifolia, (W. & Frequent twining among un-
A.:)—Leaves ovate, rounded or derwood, in the clumps of jungle
scarcely truncate at the base, about Ootacamund particularly in
mucronulate, upper side gla- low moist situations—It is equal-

brous, under slightly hairy : pani-
cles about equal to the petioles,
umbelliform ; rays umbelliferous ;
pedicels very short: pollinife-
rous ring 6-celled.—W. and A.
Prod. p. 14,

ly frequent in similar situations
on the Pulney mountains, but also
occurs on the plains in moist
shady jungles.

|
|
|
|
|
|

194 Neilgherry Plants.

IV. BERBERIDEA.— Barberry.

This is a small family of finely flowering shrubs, natives of
thetemperate regions of both the Northern and Southern hemi-
spheres. In the Indian Peninsula two species certainly occur, a
third is said to be found in the Coorg jungles, but on that point
there still seems room for doubt. Both are found on the Neil-
gherries, the one here represented being by far the handsomer
of the two. Other nine genera are referred to the order, but this
is the only one found in Southern India. The peculiar dis-
tinguishing mark by which this family is separated from the
rest of the vegetable kingdom is the curious anthers, which
open like the lid of a snuff-box to give exit to the pollen,
combined with a very perfect flower. The cinnamon tribe
( Laurine ) have similar anthers, but very incomplete flowers
in comparison with those of Berbertdee, and are in conse-
quence far removed from them in our linear series of natural
orders, but, notwithstanding, they have many points in com-
mon, showing a closer relationship than might at first sight be
suspected—among these are the ternary arrangement of the
flowers, the valved anthers, and single superior ovary.

The filaments of some, if not all the species of this genus
are endowed with a peculiar irritability, which causes them
when touched at a certain point near the base, to contract
elastically and strike the anther against the style, and in that
way scatter their pollen on the stigma. This property exists
in both the Neilgherry plants. The properties of the wood are
mildly astringent and bitter, and in the Upper Provinces an
extract is prepared by boiling the wood, which is highly
esteemed by the natives on account of its medicinal qualities.
In Upper Bengal the fruits of two species are dried like
raisins in the sun, and sold as kistmisses in the bazars all
over the country.

BERBERIS.—Barberry.

Sepals 3-4-6, deciduous, in a double row, accompanied externally
with petaloid scales. Petals hypogynous, equal to the sepals in
number and opposite to them, or twice as many ; often furnished in

Neilgherry Plants. 195

the inside with an appendage at the base. Stamens hypogynous,
equal in number to the petals and opposite to them: anthers bilocu-
lar, the cells opening elastically with a valve from the bottom to the
top. Ovarium solitary, unilocular, containing 2-12 ovules, which are
erect, or attached laterally to the inner margin, and forming there one or
two rows: style sometimes lateral, short: stigma orbicular. Fruit
baccate or capsular, indehiscent. Albumen fleshy or horny. Embryo
straight, in the axis of the albumen: radicle pointing to the hilum :
cotyledons flat.—Leaves alternate, without stipules—W. and A.
Prod. p..15,;' No, f.

The species of this genus, amounting to about 50, are nearly all
shrubs, or at most small trees armed either on their stems or leaves
with numerous thorns. In those with thorny stems the thorns are
considered a modified state of the leaves in which the parenchema or
dilated portion is displaced, and the ribs or veins have become in-
durated. Some Botanists propose dividing it, removing the plant here
figured along with some others to form the genus Mdhonia, which how-
ever only differs in the petals wanting two glands at the base, which
the others have, a character considered altogether insufficient for the
purpose. On this account the older name is here preserved. All the
plants of this section of the genus are very handsome shrubs. The
one figured is common on the hills, and when growing in favourable
situations attains the size of a small tree. A pale yellow dye is ex-
tracted from the wood of both the Hill species, a third species be-
longing to the Mahonia division, with drooping racemes of flowers,
is, I am told, found in Coorg, and which I think I once saw on
the Pulney Mountains, but not then in flower. The Pulney plant
differs in habit from this in having diffuse rambling branches.

Berperis (Manontra) Lescae-
NAULTII (Wall.)—Leaves pin-
nate; leaflets about six pair,
ovate, nearly equal in size, slight-
ly cordate at the base, repand
with 6-8 thorny teeth at each
side, about 5-nerved at the base;
lower pair of leaflets close to the

As this is a true congener of
Nuttal’s genus Mahonia, I pre-
serve that as a subgeneric or sec-
tional name. The plant is found
in almost every clump of jungle
about Ootacamund, flowering dur-
ing the South-west monsoon, but
may generally be met with in

196 Netlgherry Plants.

stem : racemes elongated, slender; flower at other seasons, though
bracteoles at the base of the pedi- more rarely, the fruit ripens dur-
cel oblong, obtuse: petals with ing the dry season, and when
two distinct glands; filaments fully ripe acquires a bluish purple
without teeth: berry globose, colour.

crowned with the evident style

and stigma.— W. and A. Prod.

p. 16.

V.—CRUCIFERA.— Cabbage Tribe.

This large and most useful family of plants, supplies man
with many of his most esteemed esculents, among which may
be named the whole tribe of cabbages, turnips, rape, mustard,
cress, scury grass, radish, horse radish, &c., and to the flower
garden, wall flowers, stocks, candy tuft, honesty, and many
others. But though it thus abounds in both useful and ornamen-
tal plants in the temperate regions of the globe, it scarcely
merits a place in this work, 3 or 4 insignificant species being
all that are found here which the one figured is the best look-
ing of the set. Such being the case, it seems useless to dilate
on a family that can possess so little interest for the lovers of the
wild flowers of our Blue-mountains. Though thus rare, even
in the temperate climate, the family is a large one, including
little short of 1,500 species. A few however are found in
warmer climates, the most curious and interesting of which is
the so-called Rose of Jericho ( Anastatica, literally resurrection
flower) a native of the sandy deserts of Arabia, the ends of the
branches of which contract during dry weather, and form a
ball which may be taken up and kept in that state for years;
and at the end of that time, if the roots are immersed in
water will re-expand, the flowers open, and in a few hours the
whole plant appear as if it had never been out of the ground.

The family derives its name from the Latin word Cruz cru-
cis, a cross, with reference to the four petals spreading in op-
posite directions, so as to form the appearance of a St.

Neilgherry Plants. 197

Andrew’s cross, and by this mark they may always be known
at a glance. They have besides six stamens, four long and
two short, whence Linneus derived his name Tetradenamea,
that is, four powers, in allusion to the four long stamens.
CARDAMINE.—Ladies’ Smock.
Calyx connivent or somewhat patent, equal at the base.
with a claw ; limb entire.

Petals
Stamens distant, without teeth. Siliqua
sessile, linear, elongated, compressed ; valves flat, nerveless, somewhat
smaller than the incrassated replum,* from which they usually se-
parate elastically. Style short, or none: stigma nearly simple.
Seeds ovate, without a border, forming a single series: podosperms
slender. Radicle applied to the edge of the cotyledons (o=).—
Leaves petioled entire, lobed, or variously divided, often different on
the same individual. Flowers white or rose-coloured.—W, and A.
Prod.'p:' 19.

The species of this genus are very numerous, and where they
abound, very ornamental ; as, for example, the C. pratinses of English
meadows, which, in spring, appear in such numbers as to whiten the
fields where they grow, so as to give the appearance of bleaching
greens; whence, it is supposed, it derived its English name of
“ Ladies’s Smock.” ‘The one here figured does not possess that re-
commendation, as it usually occurs but thinly scattered in woods, and
may generally be found in flower during wet weather at all seasons,

CarDAMINA BasBsonice (Per-
soon).—Leaves trifoliolate ; leaf-
lets, hairy on both sides, particu-
larly on the nerves beneath,
petioled, ovate acuminated un-

equal at the base, irregularly and
sharply toothed, terminal one
sometimes 3-lobed or divided into
3 leaflets similar to the others: si-

liqua erect.—W. & A. Prod. p. 20.

VI.—FLACOURTIANEAK.

This is a small family of trees and shrubs, but on the limits
of which considerable difference of opihion exists among
Botanists, a subject on which much might be said were this
the place for such disquisitions. Suffice it therefore to say,
that there are two nearly related families (Bixacee and Fla-

* Replum is the frame surrounding the dissepiment, from which the valves fall
off, and to which the placente are attached.

198 Netilgherry Plants.

courtianee) which many Botanists consider quite distinct, but
which others combine to form one large one. The prepon-
derance of opinion is on the side of those who keep them dis-
tinct, but they, on the other hand, differ among themselves as
to the genera that should be respectively referred to each, a
fact which seems to indicate a degree of affinity quite consistent
with their union and re-division into sub-orders, the course
which Professor Endlicher has adopted in his Genera Plan-
tarum. Mr. Bennett (Plante Javanice Rarioris) has ina

long and very elaborate article, under Phoboros rhinanthera,

undertaken to throw more light on the subject, and to recon-
cile the differences existing among Botanical writers on these
two families: but after a copious adduction of evidence on all
sides, has forgot to sum up, and, consequently, has left the
question involved in about as great darkness as when he com-
menced. I learn however from a careful perusal of that arti-
cle—Ist, That Mr. Brown coincides with Dr. Blume in
considering the genus Hydnocarpus as forming the type of a
new order, to which the latter Botanist has given the name
Pangiacee, derived from Pangium an old generic name of Rum-
phius.—2nd. That he agrees in opinion with those Botanists
who think the two families ought to be combined, a view in
which I can scarcely coincide, on his own showing, as he
states the ovary of Flacourtia has several cells, with central
ovules, while those of all the other genera have one-celled
ovaries and parietal ovules, as in the accompanying figure.
For this reason I conceive the order Flacourtianee should be
retained, even though limited to the single genus Flacourtia.
But supposing this difficulty got over by finding the partitions
more or less inconstant, I cannot help thinking the associa-
tion of numerous plants having dry dehiscing capsules with
others equally numerous having indehiscent baccate fruit, one
that ought, when possible, to be avoided.

a nr a a

199

Mineralogy of Southern India. By Captain J. CAMPBELL,
2lst Regiment, M. N. L.

I fear that the subject of petrology in India will hardly be
considered an interesting one, except to the man of profess-
ed scientific attainment, or to the tyro who may be seeking
information. ‘To the first, the publication of the crude re-
marks of my note-book will afford an opportunity of iden-
tifying the various rocks, which I have met with in Southern
India; while to the latter, the various notes and extracts
from the published works of authors, will serve as an index
to books, where he can procure more complete information,
and where the subject can be fully studied. _I shall not at-
tempt to classify the rocks, but give the names in the irre-
gular order as [ find them entered; as any more perfect
attempt at arrangement, would lead to a consideration of the
principles of the science of ‘* Descriptive Petrology,” a sub-
ject on which I purpose hereafter to hazard some remarks,
after the manner of Dr. Macculloch’s work on “ Rocks.”

Black Diallage.

This beautiful rock is well known in Southern India as
forming the famed pillars of Sultan Tippoo’s tomb at Se-
ringapatam. Buchanan Hamilton first called it Hornblende
Rock, to which it bears some resemblance, and the error
which he committed has been copied by a number of care-
less observers, who could not plead the want of leisure,
and the pressure of business of collection, which is a suffi-
cient excuse for Buchanan’s mistake; and some hasty and
prejudiced men have got in a rage at their blunders having
been pointed out. The remarks of both Capt. Newbold, 23rd
Regt. M. N. I. and myself, shewing that it was not Horn-
blende Rock, appeared simultaneously in the Madras Journal
of Science; but I believe priority is properly due to Capt.
Newbold, who visited the locality before me, though I was

_ not aware at the time of my visit that he had been there.
| 2D

200 Mineralogy of Southern India.

The characters of the rock are as follow. Colour: bluish,
lead coloured black; with the polished surface jet black
nearly, shewing very little of the speckled appearance of
black granite, except where the surface is wetted. Fracture :
irregular and granular, shewing to the lens some minutely
lined tabular crystals of Hornblende, and small pearly co-
loured splintery crystals of felspar. Structure: much the
same as black granite, aggregated, of confused imperfectly
fibrous and radiating crystals of a lead colour, mixed with
similar crystals of pearly felspar. Structure: something re-
sembling that of actinolite: Streak whitish. Infusible by
the most intense heat, a few minute specks only intermixing
slightly, but becomes whitened: is more brittle than black
granite. ’

In looking at the pillars of Sultan ‘Tippoo’s tomb, I sus-
i pected at once that they were not made of black granite,
i from the absence of the speckled appearance. On enquiry
| I found that no one could point out the quarries from which
| the stone had been brought; but I recéived credible infor-
mation, that the Sultan was very fond of it in architecture,

| and that a considerable quantity had been brought at vari-
} ) ous times. I therefore went off, hammer in hand, to examine
| the Sultan’s old palace, long since used as the gun-carriage
i manufactory, where the fine moulded bases under the wood-
| en pillars of the Durbar attracted my attention; and on
cleaning one, with a coarse cloth and water, from the dirt
and whitewash which coated it, 1 found it to be formed of
the identical stone of the famous pillars. My hammer
therefore speedily procured me a specimen, and from the
ease and readiness with which it snapped off, I was at once
| convinced of the correctness of my former guess. I have
| not been able to identify this rock with any similar one
described by authors as having been found in Europe, and

| Macculloch’s definitions are not very precise. Serpentine by
Macculloch is not classed as forming a compound rock of any

Mineralogy of Southern India. 201

kind; and as this rock is decidedly compound, I have pre-
ferred considering it as a compound of Diallage; because
Macculloch (“ Rocks,” page 648) says, that Diallage occurs
in Shetland of a black colour, and forms a compound rock
with felspar, of a brown colour. As Macculloch most likely
never saw the Diallage rock of Shetland polished, it is very
probable that there is little difference in the colour of the
fracture, which he calls dark grey and brown, and I have called
bluish, lead colour black, so as to maintain some ideal resem-
blance to the colour of the fracture of black granite. To
prove the composition of a compound rock is a difficult
matter, unless it can be freely examined in sites: this I had
no opportunity of doing ; but Capt. Newbold visited Tauvi-
cairy, where the stone is said to have been quarried. I have
not his remarks at hand to refer to; but from some spe-
cimens sent me by Dr. Cole of Madras, I may be allowed to
doubt, if he saw the real rock; as those specimens, though
very small, seemed to be a variety more like Serpentine, and
certainly much more Magnesian than the black Diallage.
Chemical analysis also of a compound rock is not a certain
guide; but as it affords considerable assistance I publish the
following quantitative analysis, though with some diffidence,
as the analysis of a Magnesian rock is not an easy job, while
our means in India are very imperfect, and I have not yet
had leisure to make a good one. The rock, powdered, was
a “ orey white” colour. The analysis, heated red-hot, lost 3-40
per cent. of weight; but ignited for fifteen minutes more, lost
4-73 per cent. It had been found that caustic potash did
not decompose the analysis readily, therefore mixed with
carbonate of soda, and ignited ; dissolved in muriatic acid,
evaporated to dryness, &c., acidulated, and water added, and
filtered to separate the silica. The filtered solution was
precipitated by excess of ammonia, and allowed to stand
a night to separate manganese: it was then filtered, and
evaporated to near dryness, diluted again with water and

202 Mineralogy of Southern India.

decomposed by carbonate of potash, according to Dr. Thom-
son’s method, to separate the magnesia; but this was not
satisfactorily done. The magnesia after weighing was super-
acidulated with sulphuric acid, and then dissolved in water ;
a few flocks remained, either lime or some lead, from the
acid not being quite pure. The precipitate of ammonia was
boiled with caustic potash to take of alumina, which was
again separated after filtering, by muriate of ammonia. The
ferruginous residue left on the filter was re-dissolved in
muriatic acid, and precipitated afresh by ammonia, and an
attempt was made to suspend manganese by an excess of
muriate of ammonia, but it was not proved satisfactorily that
the analysis contained manganese. ‘The iron was considered
to be in the state of protoxide. Several analyses were made,
but they were all imperfect in one point or other, and an
attempt to separate manganese by benzoic acid also failed:
however, the subjoined proportions may be considered as a
tolerable approximation :—

Silica, .. ha sap ue 40.99
Magnesia, “ as 8 TOD to
Protoxide of iron, Br Mes 9.23
Alumina, a A 40 6.29
Water, .. Es ue a 4.73 and volatile matter.

As the analysis was infusible, it is not probable that it con-
tained an alkali, and the loss is within the limits of a quanti-
tative analysis.

Salem yellow Wood-stone.

This is a very beautiful mineral, and I believe quite new
in petrology, for I have been unable to find any notice by
authors of a similar one. I think the name is quite as good
as any coined one, and the only objection may be in the use
of the word ‘ wood-stone,’ as it has no resemblance to the mi-
neral generally so called. In my earlier notes I find it called
‘ Salem yellow woody mineral.’ I have not seen it in sites, but

Mineralogy of Southern India. 203

found my specimen, a piece of about 18 inches long, and ex-
actly like a piece of a branch of a tree, in a nullah in the
Salem magnesia formation. I think Mr. Fisher of Salem told
me he had seen it in sites in Mr. Heath’s chromate of iron
mines. The outer surface of the specimen was water-worn
in the nullah, and the smooth surface thus produced and
the brownish tint it had acquired, made the resemblance to
a bit of old wood almost perfect, and in consequence I told
the lascar with me to split it. Its characters are,—Specific
gravity: light, not much heavier than water. Colour: a buff
yellow. Structure: continued fibrous-like wood, not thready
like amianthus, but rather box-wood, breaking short off.
Hardness: can be scraped smooth with the knife, like hard
chalk ; and the scraped surface smooth. Contains extrane-
ous matter (ferruginous ?) between the fibres, in parts. Ad-
heres strongly to the tongue, like a bit of new tobacco pipe;
hygrometric power great. It is associated with statactitia
iron ore (vide), the reedy marks, i in thie. sides of which seem
to be caused by the fibrous structure of this mineral, and
suggest the idea of its having been squeezed in a pasty state
through fissures. The best analysis, which I have had leisure
to make, is subject to the same objections as before; but I give
it for want of a better. A portion of the mineral picked as
free from iron as possible, scraped down with a knife, tritura-
ted in an agate mortar, was tough and cohered like chalk.
It was fluxed in a silver crucible with caustic potash, as car-
bonate of soda had very little effect on it. In boiling the
muriatic solution, a precipitate of white flocks appeared,
which again disappeared when the solution became concen-
trated, but did not again re-appear after diluting and again
boiling. ‘This gave rise to the idea, that the mineral con-
tained titanium, but in a fresh analysis the precipitate on
boiling did not appear. In two analyses the characteristic
blue colour of copper appeared in the ammoniacal solution,
from which the iron and alumina were precipitated ; but it

204: Mineralogy of Southern India.

was doubted if the copper had not been taken up from
the silver crucible, which might not be quite pure. The
analysis contained no lime. The following is a tolerable
approximation to the composition :—

Silica, - ae .. 40.11 (and Titanic acid ?)

Magnesia, .. ee apa + Fs

Iron, (peroxide,) .” si 6.84

Alumina, .. af oe 0.53

Copper, (oxide,) .. iy 0.50?

Water, ick a ib 13.50 volatilized by heat.
100.63

The iron was supposed to be in the state of peroxide, as
yellow ochres, &c. are thus coloured. No reliance can of
course be placed on the quantity of water, as the mineral
was hygrometric, but the other numbers have been computed
from the weight of the ignited analysis.

Naggery black Pot-stone.

This is another magnesian mineral, from the Naggery
hills, north-west of Madras, given to me by Mr. Fisher of
Salem. It is cut into snuff-boxes, &c. by the natives of the
place. I have no account of its geological associations. Cha-
racters are—Colour: lead coloured black, much the same as
black granite: Structure, imperfectly granular, and homoge-
neous: fracture, imperfectly conchoidal ; imperfectly granular
to lens: appears a little speckled. Lustre magnesian, and
bluish. Streaks bluish white. Smell: sulphurous. Spec. grav.
much less than black granite. Tough, and with difficulty
broken: hardness but little more than steatite, or pot-stone:
feels rough, but perceptibly greasy. I do not find that I have
attempted to analyse it.

Binary Granite.

A granular aggregation of white quartz, and resplendent
or glistening felspar. The crystals of each mineral being
each perfectly formed, and totally distinct, so as to be easily

Mineralogy of Southern India. 205

recognised by a lens; yet cohering after the peculiar manner
of granite rocks. Is a graduation from the prevailing Horn-
blendic granite of Southern India, and is generally found
associated with micaceous varieties. Is found near Ryacot-
tah, and is so tough as to require blasting to separate the
blocks. Has a perfect cuboidal cleavage, and if polished
would form a very beautiful building stone.
Pegmatite.

A binary compound of crystalline quartz and felspar, more
or less saccharine. It differs from binary granite in the
felspar, not forming resplendent crystals, but having an are-
naceous or an earthy appearance. It forms extensive beds
in the schistose series of rocks of Southern India, but has
no regular cleavage, and is generally so loose in aggregation
as to break readily to pieces, and sometimes crumbles down,
so as to be used asa road-making material. The term Peg-
matite was first used by the French geologists, as applied to
binary granite; but, as Dr. Benza has used the term in the
same sense as I have now defined it, I have therefore pre-
served it. Dr. Boase, (Primary Geology, page 203,) uses the
term as synonymous with graphic granite, and classes it with
the schists of Cornwall, with which he says it graduates. Dr.
Macculloch (Rocks, page, 340) describes it as a variety of
*‘red primary sandstone,” but his theoretic distinction I do
not allow to be correct, unless people choose to consider my
** schistose series” as being of derivative origin; but in itself
or its associations, the structure of the rock is totally differ-
ent from the ‘‘ coherence” of the composing materials of the
secondary sandstones. In Southern India, it seldom is found
without some slight admixture of Mica or Hornblende.

Eiurite.

This is a French term, and applied to the Weiss-stein
or white-stone of Werner. It was first used in Indian petro-
logy by Dr. Benza, but he has not been very precise in his
application of the term: and though I have visited much of

206 Mineralogy of Southern India.

the localities described by him, I am unable to define the
rock to which he intended to apply it, as he seems to have
used it for pegmatite when it was very white, and for binary
granite when it was too far distant for him to perceive the
crystalline structure of the felspar. Dr. Boase (Primary
Geology, page 203,) defines the difference between pegmatite
and eurite to ‘‘be according to the size of the grains; the
former being large and crystalline, the latter, small and
intimately blended or actually combined.” .

Graphic Granite.

This rock is rather rare: it occasionally occurs among the
porphyritic series. It is a variety of granular quartz porphy-
ry, being composed of contorted lamina of quartz embedded
in a granular paste of felspar, or in compact felspar. The
i lamina of quartz are contorted into fantastic shapes, some-
i thing like the characters of the Nagaree dialect. Dr.
| Macculloch’s definition also applies well to the Indian rock.
‘The quartz and felspar, which compose it, are aggregated
in lengthened parallel prisms, The prismatic structure there-
fore is seen in one direction; while, in the reverse, the pe-
culiar appearance, whence the term is derived, becomes visi-
ble. That appearance is produced by the cross section of
the quartz prisms. These are frequently triangular, occa-
| sionally hexagonal and flattened ; and in a few rare instances,
the two minerals form alternating lamine.”
| Saccharine Felspar.

The only work in which I have met with this term was in

a work called, (1 think) Journal of Popular Science. The

name is suggested by the resemblance of the mineral to close-

grained loaf sugar. It is soft enough to be scraped with a

knife. Fracture: earthy granular; melts before the blow-pipe.

I have not analysed it, and am unable to state whether it

| contains potash or soda. It occurs in Southern India in the
porphyritic series, and found embedded in large masses, di-

Mineralogy of Southern India. 207

vided into prisms by cracks. In the hill of Palicondah, near
Vellore, it is very common; it is never associated with quartz
rock, but generally occurs where euritic granite forms hills
of any size.
Schorl quartz Porphyry.

This is a rare and very beautiful rock in Southern India:
it is composed of crystals of black schorl, embedded in a
paste of homogeneous and translucent quartz. As I believe
it is not known in Europe, at least it has not been defined
by any author I have met with, it is therefore one of
those rocks for which I have been obliged to invent names.
To avoid loading the science with mere unmeaning words,
I have proposed to take Dr. Macculloch’s definition of * Por-
phyry,” in a generic sense, as a rock composed of crystals of
one mineral, embedded in a continuous non-crystalline paste
of another. Thus the definition of this rock becomes “* Black
schorl in quartz porphyry ;” and by dropping the preposition,
and as I know of no schorl in India which is not black, we
have “ schorl quartz porphyry,” which is surely a practical de-
fining term, sufficiently convenient for use, without requiring
any great jaw-deflecting exertion. It is easily distinguished
from hornblende by the appearance of the crystals, which
are of a jet black colour; neither lined on the surface, nor
imperfectly tabular. The fracture of the crystals, irregular
and conchoidal, and resplendent and shining. They are very
brittle, and yield easily to the knife: melt very easily before
the blowpipe, and intumesce in a peculiar manner, by which
they can at once be recognised, even when very minute
indeed. This rock is very different from what Boase calls
** schor! rock,” which he distinctly defines to be an aggre-
gation with “ crystals of quartz,” is found South of Paul-
wole, about twenty-five miles South of Ryacottah, and in the
“Trap Dyke formation of Mallapanbetta” (which vide here-
after,) in which it forms beautiful rocks with crystals of schor],
an inch nearly in thickness. It seems also to have been

25

—

|
i i
i

208 Mineralogy of Southern India.

mentioned by Dr. Heyne, as found near Hurryhur in Mysore.
Of its associations in India I do not know much, but I think
it belongs to the porphyritic or schistose series.

Schorl felspar Porphyry.

This is a rare rock, and I do not know much about it. I
have only met with it forming part of the mass of the Rya-
cottah rock, in the veins of hornblende felspar porphyry,
from which, like the last, it is easily distinguished by the
behaviour of the crystals of schorl before the blow-pipe
flame. It is composed of black schorl in saccharine fel-
spar.

Schorl Rock.

I believe I may put this down in the list of those I have
seen in Southern India; but as I have not any specimens at
hand, I am unable to define its character, and as I cannot
find any record of the examination of them in my notes, I
must state what I recollect. The rock is found in mass in a
deep nullah at south-east end of the (Mallapanbetta Trap
dyke formation,) and almost exactly resembles black granite,
except perhaps in being a little more lead-coloured and more
brittle, and the structure of very minute aggregated crystals.
When properly examined, it might prove to be a “ black
schorlaceous granite.” I have never seen it in any other
locality, and in consequence I suppose the specimens have
been forgotten, among other pursuits.

Clay-stone.

Not common in Southern India, but occurs occasionally
among the porphyritic series, and sometimes associated with
white quartz; and it graduates into wacké. Fracture: dull
and earthy, or imperfectly granular, or imperfectly conchoi-
dal, or imperfectly splintery. Is harder than wacké, and
differs from laterite in not being cellular; in being finer and
more regular in structure, like the fracture of a brown spar;
and being much heavier than an earthy rock, and a solid stone.
From wacké it differs in being hard and firm, and not coarse

Mineralogy of Southern India. 209

earthy. Ure defines it as soft and easily broken, in which
he differs from Macculloch. Might be called ‘‘ Ferruginous
clay-stone,” as all the specimens are highly ferruginous, and
coloured red from peroxide of iron: and then the connection
with rubble or red chalk, and red ochre, would be esta-
blished.

Szliczous Schist.

Not common: found only among rocks of the porphyritic
series on the Topoor ghaut. Fracture, even: small grains
‘of quartz visible in it. Is infusible. Colour, bluish black.
Is Lydian stone, according to Thomson’s and Ure’s defini-
tion; but differs from flinty slate, in not having a slaty frac-
ture. According to Brooke’s, is flinty slate; is called black
jasper by some writers. Macculloch separates two kinds,
apparently much the same, into flinty slate, and a quartzose
variety of argillaceous schist, which he argues have a different
geological position. It seems to be a silicious variety of
basalt, as some varieties of basalt do not melt easily before
the blow-pipe, and only imperfectly intumesce a little, and
turn white, in consequence perhaps of being silicous.

Felspar Porphyry.

Is formed of large crystals of felspar, embedded in a crys-
talline base of resplendent felspar. The embedded crystals
are often of very large size, and sometimes of a beautiful
flesh colour, which gives the rock a very handsome appear-
ance. The felspar is characterised by being infusible, or very
nearly so, before the blow-pipe, and even in a smith’s forge it
is hardly melted ; in which it differs materially from the fel-
spar of European petrologists. In character it does not seem
to agree with the felspar porphyry, described by Bakewell ;
because he describes the paste or base as being formed of
compact felspar (compact earthy felspar.) It graduates into
pegmatite and graphic granite. It isa common rock in the
porphyritic or schistose series, in which it forms extensive

210 Mineralogy of Southern India.

beds ; and it is characteristic of this formation, for it never
forms hills or mountains, or any extensive formation of ele-
vated points. Occurs as wall-sided dykes in the schistose
series near Anchetty, west of Ryacottah, and in Congoondy,
and also on the top of the Naiknairy ghaut. I may assert,
I believe, that wherever I have seen it, it is accompanied
with evidences of igneous action, slides, injections, dykes
and metamorphic action on the adjacent rocks. I cannot
help thinking it probable, that the enormous masses and for-
mations of porphyry ‘‘ said to be found in Norway,” are not
of felspar porphyry, but of porphyritic granite, like the
Yailgerry hills of Salem perhaps. Felspar porphyry never
has a cleavage, and is never used as a building stone in
Southern India.

Quartz Rock
is found in great profusion in beds and dykes in the schis-

tose series, and is commonly used for fluxing into glass
with the mineral carbonate of soda, by the bangle maker.

It is sometimes found embedded in granite, in irregular
| masses of 3 or 4 inches thick, butis not common. It is some-
| | times found forming small hills, but is always cracked, and
| so separated by irregular divisions, that a solid piece, more
than 4 inches thick, can seldom be procured. The varieties
it forms are—semi-transparent, rose, smoky, fat, milk, sac-
| | charine, wax; but of all these, milk quartz most commonly
occurs. Is found as veins, contorted, vertical and horizontal,
, both in the ferraceous series and in the beds of the schistose
series; but though the veins are sometimes of considerable
width, (tabular veins) yet they are always separated into
cracked prismatic pieces, with the irregular surfaces exactly
we answering to each other, (i. e. in sites.)

q Granular Quartz Rock.

Formed of an aggregation of small crystals of white
| | quartz, with a small quantity of black mica, forming an
| imperfect lamination, and the whole cohering rather loosely,

Mineralogy of Southern India. 211

or not, of a very firm structure. It is very rare, and forms
a small hill near Arnagherry, west of Salem, not far from
the banks of the Cavery. A similar rock is called quartz rock
by Bakewell, and classed as mica schist, and as primary
sandstone by Macculloch.

‘~e a
Limestone.

This is not a correct name for this rock; but as limestone
of any kind is very rare in Southern India, as a formation
(excluding kunkur of course) among the primary rocks, it will
do very well for the present, while no distinctions by definition
are required. It is properly a perfect granite ; of a firm, solid,
durable structure ; and possessing a perfect cuboidal cleavage,
and might serve as a building material. It is a binary granite,
formed of quartz and of carbonate of lime in acicular crystals,
confusedly aggregated. The lustre is a beautiful pearly
white, and so perfectly resembles binary granite, that I was
only induced to try it with an acid, in consequence of a
marked peculiarity in the appearance of the crystals, which I
am unable to define. It occurs in blocks at the southern end
of the Tally Mally, in the southern extremity of the Salem
district, close to the Cavery. I have not seen it in sites.
Ainslie seems to allude to this rock, but does not mention
where it is found. I have not met with a definition of any
similar limestone by European petrologists. This rock is
readily disintegrated by muriatic acid, leaving the crystalline
grains of quartz separated.

Wacké,

is properly applied to a soft earthy rock of the Trap family,
or a basalt; but as I cast aside all such theoretic distinctions,
I apply the term to a similar mineral occuring extensively
in my schistose series in Southern India, and which seems
to form the subsoil from which the earth of some of the
most fertile tracts is derived. Its fracture is sometimes even,

212 Mineralogy of Southern India.

and sometimes irregular, according to its hardness. In
hardness, it is intermediate between dried earth and that of
clay-stone. In colour—red, when ferruginous: whitish,
when magnesian : reddish brown, when hornblendic. Is some-
times tuffacious. Forms the matrix of the magnesia form-
ation of Salem, and then contains magnesia. Becomes
silicious, and graduates into clay-stone when in contact with
quartz rock. Is commonly intersected into rhomboidal
masses by joints like trap. Is sometimes cretaceous, which
is not extraordinary, as trap is also generally associated
with kunkar.

Magnesite,

or more properly, the magnesia formation of Salem, is a
far-famed locality: it does not form hills, as is asserted in
some European publications, though it is sometimes found
an hills. At Salem it occurs as an extensive series of dykes,
injected veins, and reticulated veins, through other rocks.
Capt. Newbold has published an account of this formation,
and had I any hope of being able to visit the locality, and
give up a few weeks to its examination, I would not now have
noticed it. Unfortunately, while in the district, my official
duties prevented more than a few morning visits. I am un-
able to state the extent of the formation, but believe it can-
not be less than 25 square miles. It is white, hard, and com-
pact. Lens shewsno granular structure. Hardness: variable,
from the toughness of a trap rock to nearly as soft as chalk.
Fracture: generally conchoidal, sometimes earthy. The hard-
est kinds do not effervesce with acids, but the softer do.
The wacké which forms its matrix, is slightly indurated
when in contact with the thickest dykes. It shews all the
signs of igneous action, injections, and squeezings, &c.; and
is frequently very much contorted. Asbestiform minerals
abound in association with it; and chromate of iron and
statactitic iron ore are found embedded in the dykes. In

Mineralogy of Southern India. 213

this meagre account of so interesting a locality, I have sup-
pressed all remarks, except what I am certain of; it is
several years since I have been able to visit the place.*

Pot-stone Steatite,

is common among the beds of the schistose series, and
is commonly used for writing pencils on slates by the native
bazar men. It does not form, however, any extensive beds,
except near Shoragamally, north-west of Salem, where it is
quarried to make cooking vessels for the brahmins, who
prize it much. I have, however, never been able to visit the
locality.

* The magnesite of Southern India was first brought to notice by Dr. MacLeod,
now Inspector General of the Madras Medical Service. Dr. MacLeod exemplified
its importance as an element in cements in which the property of hardening under
water is required, and also recommended its use in medicine as a substitute for
the artificially prepared carbonate of magnesia, which it equals in purity. The
difficulty of reducing so hard a mineral to a sufficiently fine powder by any known
mechanical means, is the only obstacle to the use of this mineral for the purpose
adverted to. Dr. MacLeod himself, and many years afterwards Lieut. Ouchterlony
and others, transmitted large samples of this mineral to England with a view of
having it tried there in chemical manufactures, but other sources of magnesia
nearer home, particularly from sea-water, were found upon the whole to be cheaper.
(See vol. ii. p. 284.) Recently it has been used in the Laboratory of the Honorable
Company’s Dispensary, Calcutta, for the manufacture of Epsom salts; (See vol.
v. p. 442,) but receiving no encouragement the object was abandoned.— Ep.

Se

Notr.—As an appendix to the above excellent paper, we beg to annex the fol-
lowing list of Minerals in the Mysore territory, furnished to the Committee for
investigation of the Mineral Resources of India, by Mr. Gilchrist, Madras Medical
Service. The Minerals enumerated have been forwarded to the Committee, and
form a part of its collection. —Eb.

214 Mineralogy of Southern India.

From Major General M. Cusson, Commissioner for the Government of
the Territories of the Rajah of Mysore,

To the Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department, Fort
William, dated Bangalore, 16th October, 1844.

Sir,—With reference to a letter addressed to me on the 25th
January 1841, at the desire of Lord Auckland, by Mr. Assistant
Surgeon McClelland, Secretary to the Committee for the inves-
tigation of the Mineral Resources of India, I have the honor to ac-
quaint you, for the information of the Right Honorable the Governor
General of India in Council, that I have despatched to Calcutta, vid
Madras, a cabinet of mineral specimens, collected by Mr. Assistant
Surgeon W. Gilchrist, attached to the Public Cattle Department of the
Madras Government, situated at Hoonsoor within this territory.

2. The accompanying copy of Mr. Gilchrist’s list of the minerals
forwarded in the cabinet, includes several specimens of the Chromate
of iron, about which I was particularly desired to obtain information.

3. The package has been forwarded to your official address.

I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
M. Cuszon, Commissioner.
Bangalore, 16th October, 1844.

A. 7. Silex and magnesia.

1. Quartz rock, 8. Flinty slate.
(White.) 9. Flinty slate,

2. Quartz rock, (Variety.)
(Smoke grey.) 10. Flinty slate,

3. Granular quartz. (Decomposing. )

4. Crystallized quartz, 11. Chert.
(on Chert.) 12. Chert,

5. Granular quartz, (Variety.)
(Agglutinated. ) 13. Chert,

6. Silicified wood, (Variety.)
(From Pondicherry.) 14. Chert,

6. Silex pebble, 15, Chert,

(From desert of Suez.) (Decomposed.)

16.
17.
18.
13.
20.
21.
22.

23.

24.
25.

26.

27.

28.

29.
30.

31.
32.

33.

34,
35.

36.

37.

Mineralogy of Southern India.

Chert,

(With specular iron ore.)

Prase,

Quartz and prase.
Semiopal.

Jade.

Mica,

(White.)
Mica,

(Black.)
Mica,

(Slate. )
Talc.
Talc,

(Passing into pot-stone.)
Talc,

(Passing into pot-stone.)
Pot-stone,

(With talc.)
Pot-stone,

(With chlorite.)
Pot-stone.
Pot-stone,

(Passing into asbestos.)
Asbestos.
Pot-stone,

(Variety.)
Pot-stone,

(Passing into hornblende.)

Hornblende.
Hornblende,
(Slate.)
Hornblende,
(Slate.)
Pot-stone,
(Passing into actinolite.)

38.
39.

40.

41.
42,

43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.

50.
51.

52.
D3.
54.

55.
56.
57.

Actinolite.
Actinolite,

(Slate.)

Compacted actinolite.
C,

Chlorite.

Chlorite,

(Slate. )

Earthy chlorite.
Crystalline chlorite.
Felspar.
Flesh-colored felspar.
Compact felspar.
Felspar porphyry.
Felspar porphyry,

(With talc.)

Glassy felspar.
Felspar,

(Decomposing.)
Foliated felspar.
Albite.

Albite,

(With hornblende.)
Albite and quartz.
Magnesite.
Magnesite,

(Passing into semiopal.)

. Clay slate.
. Clay slate.
. Clay slate.

D.

. Kunkur,

(Mamillary.)

. Magnesia and limestone,

(With hornblende.)

3. Shell limestone,

(From Western Coast.)
2F

64.

65.

66.

GZ.

68.

69.

70.

80.

81,

Mineralogy of Southern India.

Magnesia and limestone,
(Conglomerate.)

Magnesia and limestone,
(With quartz.)

Magnesia and limestone,
(With hornblende.)

Granular limestone.

Limestone,
(With chlorite and gar-

nets.)

Coralline limestone,
(Western Coast.)

Magnesia and limestone,
(Water-worn appearance. )

. Limestone tufa.
. Limestone,

(With chlorite decompos-
ing.)

. Kunkur,

(Common.)

. Silicious tufa.
. Silicious tufa,

(Variety.)

. Magnesite,

(Passing into semiopal.)

. Silicious pot-stone.
. Silicious pot-stone,

(Decomposing. )

. Quartz,

(Passing into semiopal.)
Kaolin.
E.
Granite,

(Quartz, felspar, and black
mica. The rock of which
the large statue at Shro-
goonah Bellagolah con-
sists.)

82.

83.

84.

85.

86.

87.

88.

89.

90,

oT.

Granite,
(Talc, felspar and quartz.)
Granite,
(Chiefly crystallized fel-
spar.)
Granite,
(Felspar, attenolite, and
quartz.)
Granite,
(Chiefly of quartz.)
Granite,
(Felspar and decomposed
garnets.)
Granitic porphyry,
(Felspar, rose quartz, (Nn.
Dn.) and hornblende.)
Granite,
(Red and white felspar and
chlorite. )
Granite,
(Garnets,
quartz.)
Protogine,
(Chlorite, hornblende, and
red felspar.)
Protogine,
(Chlorite, quartz, and fel-
spar. )

felspar, and

92. Pegmatite,
(White felspar and quartz.)
93. Granite.
(Chlorite, hornblende, fel-
spar and quartz.)
94. Graphite granite.

95.
. Granite,

Graphite granite,

(Rose quartz, white quartz,
and a little felspar.)

Mineralogy of Southern India.

97. Granite,

(Granular quartz, granular
felspar, and a_ little
hornblende.)

98. Granite,

(Foliated structure, quartz,
felspar and black talc.)

99. Granite,

(Granular felspar, quartz,
and a little black talc.)

100. Granite,

(Granular quartz, horn-
blende, and a little fel-
spar.)

F,

101. Granite,

(Passing into hornblende
rock, foliated felspar,
tale and quartz.)

Granite,

(Crystallized hornblende
and felspar.)

Granite,

102.

103.

(Augite, adularia and very
little felspar.)

Granite,

(Felspar and light-colored
hornblende.)

Granite,

(Chiefly hornblende, with

a little felspar.)

104,

105.

106. Granite,
(White felspar, talc, and
hornblende.)
107. Granite,
(Chiefly large crystallized
hornblende, a little fel-

spar, and a little quartz.)

217

108. Granite,
(Passing into hornblende
rock.)

109. Granite,

(Passing into hornblende
rock, consisting of com-
pact felspar with horn-
blende, and a few gar-
nets.)

110. Hornblende rock.
111. Granite,

(Fine crystallized horn-

blende, felspar, and gar-

nets.)
112. Granite,
(No. 111, decomposing.)
113. Hornblende rock.

114. Hornblende rock,
(With garnets.)

115. Augite.
116. Concentric hornblende.
117. Hornblende rock,

(Decomposing on one side.)
118. Foliated hornblende rock.
19.
120.

Augite rock.
Light green hornblende,
(Crystallized.)
G.
121. Crystallized hornblende,
(With a little chlorite.)
Crystallized augite,
(With a little chlorite.)
123. Crystallized augite,

toa

(Felspar decomposing, and
quartz. )
124. Hornblende rock,
(Hornblende quartz and
felspar.)

218

125.

126.
127.

128.
129.
130.
131.

132,
133.

134.
135.
136.
137.
138.

139.

140.

141.
142.

143,

Mineralogy of Southern India.

Hornblende augite rock,

(With vein of felspar and
quartz.)

Hornblende slate. _

Hornblende rock,

(Consisting of compact and
crystallized hornblende.)

Augite rock.

Granular hornblende rock.

Hornblende rock,

(Passing into pot-stone.)

Basalt.

Hornblende rock.

Basalt,

(Decomposing into litho-
margic earth.)

Basalt.

Hornblende porphyry.

Hornblende porphyry,

(Decomposing on one side.)

Augite rock,

(Nearly compact.)

Light green hornblende,

(Nearly compact.)

Augite rock,

(Nearly compact.)

Augite rock,

(Nearly compact, rhom-
boidal structure.)

H.

Concentric hornblende rock.

Augite rock,

(With adularia.)

Hornblende rock,

(Decomposing outside.)

144.
145.

146.

147.

148.
149.

150.

15

—

152.

153.

154.

155.

156.

157.

158.

Syenite.
Augite rock,
(Granular structure.)
Lithomargic earth,
(The debris of basalt.)
Augite rock.
Syenite.
Augite,
(Coarsely crystallized.)
Silicious pot-stone,
(With crystallized needles
of tourmaline.)

. Basaltic porphyry,

(From Nagpore.)
Felspar porphyry,

(Paste felspar, embedding
with crystals of felspar,
and green-colored crys-
tals of green tourma-
line.)

(Seringapatam.)

Felspar porphyry,
(Containing foliated crys-
tals of red felspar.)
Granular augite or horn-
blende,
(Decomposing.)
Laterite,
(Western Coast.)
Laterite,
(Western Coast.)
Laterite,
(Northern division. )
Laterite,
(Western Coast.)

159.

160.

163.

164.

165.
166.

167.

168.

169.
170.

171.
172.

173.

174.

175.

176,

Mineralogy of Southern India.

Laterite,

(Consisting of granular
quartz, and_ specular
iron ore.)

Laterite,

(Specular iron ore, and
quartz.)

I.

. Sandstone,

(British.)

. Green sandstone,

(British.)
Iron sandstone,
(Western Coast.)
Sulphureous clay,
(Western Coast.)
Coal, (British.)
Iron sandstone,
(Western Coast.)
Iron sandstone,
(Coarse granite. Western
Coast.)
Iron ore,
(In chert.)
Iron sandstone.
Stalactitic iron ore,
(Northern division.)
Jron glance.
Radiated iron ore,
(Western Coast.)
Iron ore,
(Western Coast.)
Magnetic iron ore,
(Rhomboidal structure.)
Magnetic iron ore,
(Course granular.)
Specular iron ore.

Wie

178.

179;

180.

181.

182.

183.
184.

185.

186.

187.
188.

189.

190.

191.

192.

193.

194.

219

Chromate of iron,
(Coarse grain.)
Chromate of iron,
(Fine grain.)
Chromate of iron,
(With = granular
blende.)
Glance iron ore,
(Cellular structure.)
J.

horn-

Garnets.
Obsidian.
Lydian stone.
Porphyrytic Lydian stone.
Bottle-green hornblende,
(With chromate of iron.)
Silicious clay-stone,
Friable sandstone.
Sandstone,
(English.)
Very coarse grained iron
ore.
Augite, rock,
(Augite adularia and fel-
spar.)
Adularia,
(Compact augite with foli-
ated adularia.
Supposed to be granular
quartz,
(Colored green with chro-
mate of iron.)
Granite,
(Consisting of augite, fel-
spar and quartz.)
Clay slate,
(British.)

206.

Mineralogy of Southern India.

. Granular talc.
. Felspar,

(Passing into kaolin.)

. Granite,

(Consisting of felspar,
quartz, black talc, and

tiemolite.)

. Pegmatite.
. Augite,

(Nearly compact.)

. Foliated hornblende.

K.

. Lithomargic earth,

(The debris of basalt.)

. Lithomargic earth,

(The debris of hornblende
rock.)

. Granite,

(Seringapatam.)

. Granite,

(Quartz and hornblende.)

. Granite,

(Quartz, somewhat striated
hornblende, felspar.)
Granite,
(Quartz, felspar, and black
mica.)

207.

208.

209,

210.

211.

212.

213.

214.

215.

216.

217.

Granite,
(Felspar, quartz and black
talc.)
Granite,
(Felspar, quartz and talc.)
Granite,
(Felspar with a little
quartz, and a little talc.)
Granite,
(Felspar, rose quartz, and
~ hornblende.)
Granite,
(Hornblende granite.)
Hornblende rock,
(With a large portion of
iron ore.)
Hornblende,
(Passing into chlorite.)
Granite,
(Hornblende granite ;
variety.)
Granite,
(Hornblende granite ;
variety.)
Pumice stone,
(Straits of Malacca.)
Ochre.

221

Abstract of labours in Rational Pathology since the commence-
ment of the year 1839. By Professor HENLE of Ziirich.*

Pus in the blood.

Pus cannot be recognised in the blood, because its glo-
bules are not distinguishable from those of lymph. Al-
though Gulliver found the pus globules large, more irregu-
lar, generally darker-coloured, and more numerous, and often
hanging together in clusters, while he always found the lymph
globules swimming singly and detached, yet these characters
are not certain; for the size of both kinds of globules varies
according to the stage of their development, and according
to the thickness of the plasma, and indeed smooth and an-
gular globules occur near each other in both fluids, and
Henle has often seen lymph globules clustered together in
healthy blood, and their number vary much. (It is greatly
increased by loss of blood.) Donné says, that blood contain-
ing pus is turned into a jelly by ammonia, like pus itself:
but this is only the case when the number of pus globules is
very great; and it seems likely that this may also be the case,
when there are many lymph globules present. L’ Héritier
has proved Mandl’s method of distinguishing pus-containing
from pure blood, by the softness of the fibrinous coagulum
to be insufficient. Yet there is no doubt of the occurrence
of pus in the blood (Pyzmia,) and we know too that it can-
not pass into uninjured vessels ; and people have thus come to
the conclusion, that it is formed within the veins themselves
by their participating in the inflammatory process.

According to this explanation, the pus globules, when mix-
ed with the blood are supposed by their large size to block
up the capillaries, and set up a new inflammation. (Second-
ary and metastatic abscess). But many facts are opposed

* Abridged from the Zeitschrift fiir Rationelle Medizin of 1844, and translated
for the Calcutta Journal of Natural History.

= “a
~
’

222 Progress of Rational Pathology.

to this mechanical explanation : for instance, absorption of pus
into the pulmonic circulation ought always to produce ab-
scesses in the lungs; and the capillary circulation ought to
be obstructed by an excess of large lymph globules, as well
as by pus, and we thus find ourselves thrown back on the
old humoral pathology. Thus Stannius and Pirogoff as-
cribe to the pus globules an irritative action on the coats of
the veins, Engel compares them to the minute fungi of fer-
mentation, and assumes that they have the power to convert
the blood into a state of purulent fermentation. But every
view of the action of the pus globules on the blood must
remain hypothetical, till their presence in it is proved.

I.—Inflammation and regeneration of special textures and
organs.

a. Bones.—In well-set fractures of bones that are rich in
vessels, consolidation takes place without any exsudation be-
tween the periosteum and the bone, simply by exsudation
from the broken surfaces (Lambron). Heine’s preparations
of regenerated bones have refuted Miescher’s opinion that
their re-production proceeds only from the substance of the
bone, in as much as whole bones excised along with their
periosteum have been reproduced, although in an imperfect
manner. Klencke observed the formation of new diaphyses
in the hollow bones of doves through the medium of the soft
parts. The regenerated osseous substance was hard, white,
and less vascular than ordinary bone. ‘Textor confirms
Heine’s observation, that the compact part of the hollow
bones is easily reproduced, but not the articular extremities :
he found in their place in the larger joints a kind of meniscus,
to which bands from the bones and muscles in the neigh-
bourhood were attached. Karawajew also observed the
complete reproduction from the periosteum of an excised
piece of rib, some inches long. Unhealthy inflammations and

Progress of Rational Pathology. 220

suppurations leave, according to Rokitansky, various impres-
sions on the bones. Syphilis produces thickening of the
osseous texture, with increase of thickness and weight in the
flat bones, along with an uneven knobby surface, and in case of
ulcers a round depressed scar, puckered in a radiating form.
Scrofulous inflammation is characterised by spongy soften-
ing, enlargement of the cells, and thinning of the walls: the
suppuration takes place from the laid-bare and expanded cel-
lular tissue, and when the process penetrates deep, forms a
honey-combed sinus, when bone is thrown out in the form of
velvety foliated exostoses. The cancerous degeneration is
distinguished by the absence of softening, of new formation
of bone, or of induration in the immediate neighbourhood of
the corroded spot. <Arthritic inflammation of joints causes
enlargement and flattening of the knee-pans, levelling of the
surface and edges of the ends of the bones, osseous vege-
tations of a shelly stalactitic form in the neighbourhood,
loss of the cartilages, and a gypsumlike polish of the laid-bare
medullary substance (by the deposition of a chalky earth, said
by V. Spécz to contain about 8 per cent. of lithic acid.) On
the long bones, thickening of the cortical substance and warty
or shelly vegetations are characteristic.

b. Cartilage.—Liston distinguishes three kinds of ulcera-
tive destruction,—from disease and swelling of the synovial
membrane; from swelling and vascularity in the tissue be-
tween the bone and cartilage ; and from suppuration and inflam-
mation of the cartilage itself. Albers speaks of inflammation
of the ossified or unossified epiglottis. Rokitansky and Henle
do not believe in inflammation of normal sound cartilage, and
think it is destroyed only by the effects of inflammation in
the neighbouring tissues. Klencke thinks, contrary to the
opinion of all, that cartilage is capable of regeneration.

c. Muscle.—According to Klencke’s experiments on the
regeneration of muscles, membrane is alone produced in the
place of the muscle removed, and it contains much lime, does

26

224 Progress of Rational Pathology.

not re-act from galvanism and mechanical irritants, but con-
tracts in cold water, and when dissolved in acetic acid is not
precipitated by ferrocyanide of potass.

d. Serous membranes.—The conditions for the production
of the so-named hemorrhagic exsudations of Lannec, are ac-
cording to Rokitansky partly general, (as the tubercular dia-
thesis) partly local, (at times simple inflammation, or repeated
inflammation in some imperfectly organised false membrane,
from the imperfect or too delicate structure of the new ves-
sels.) This exsudation forms a coagulum, which may be more
or less thick and consistent, adherent to the walls of the cavity,
rich in colouring matter, or white, within which the red effu-
sion is kept fluid. The coagulum changes into a resisting
leathery layer, which becomes at most only partially organised :
the enclosed fluid grows brown or yellowish, and clear, and its
secondary deposits get the consistence of a kind of pulp; re-
absorption is rare: death usually results quickly from exhaus-
tion ; in the most favourable cases, after the re-absorption of
the fluid, a breaking down of the periphery of the coagulum
takes place, inside which is found a rusty-coloured or yellow
layer. In the peritoneum hemorrhagic exsudations assume
a black and blackish-blue colour from the action of the gas
contained in the bowels (Melanosis stratiformis.) Of the so-
called milk spots in the heart, Skoda and Kolletschka dis-
tinguish two sorts—those on the serous membranes are the
effects of pericarditis, the others under them are caused slowly
by repeated determination of blood to the part. Paget consi-
ders it impossible to determine whether these spots are situated
above or below the serous membrane, and considers them to
be always the result of inflammation, because adhesions in
the form of fine threads between the large vessels are found
along with them. Paget considers pericarditis to be a very
common disease, for out of 58 bodies he found traces of it in
Jl. He thinks that it often occurs (though overlooked) in
many acute diseases, and in typhus.

Progress of Rational Pathology. 229

e. Arteries.—Their redness from imbibition is to be distin-
guished from that from inflammation, by this, that it is chiefly
confined to the inner coat (the epithelium), and ceases entire-
ly in the middle one. Levy observed inflammation and its
effects in the umbilical artery in 14 out of 15 cases of new-
born children who died of tenesmus. Scholler remarked a
case of inflammation of the umbilical artery without trismus.

J. Veins.—The progress of inflammation in veins otherwise
sound, is not (according to Pirogoff and Reumert) so rapid, as
is commonly supposed: Stannius thinks it doubtful whe-
ther from constitutional causes apart from local irritation,
inflammation of individual branches of veins can develop itself.
Hetherschij found all the veins of the lower half of the body
after puerperal fever filled with a soft, yellowish-red, dry,
pus-like mass mixed with normal blood: he believes that this
coagulum was not the product of the inflamed coats of the
veins, but only deposited in them. Stannius has observed
the complete re-absorption of obliterated veins along with a
thrombus, (in which also small vessels were observable.) Of
cases of inflammation of particular veins, there have been
observed, phlebitis of the sinuses of the dura-mater in conse-
quence of purulent otorrhcea, and phlebitis of the vena porte.

g. Brain and its membranes.—Kellie and Abercrombie
think that, from the slight compressibility of the brain and
the fixedness of the cerebral parietes, no universal increase or
diminution of quantity in the contents of its blood-vessels
can take place, and therefore, that in cerebral congestions
there can only be an alteration in the proportions of arterial
and venous blood. To this Cohen opposes the facts of the
flattening of the convolutions, in cases of water in the ventri-
cles, and of the brain being overfilled with blood, and reminds
us that in many cases the over-compressed brain, when once
extracted, cannot be made to return within the cranium.
Yet he admits, that positive overfilling and real compression
of the brain by blood or serum are not so often indicated

226 Progress of Rational Pathology.

as people imagine, and that we are not always to assume
absolute overfilling of the brain with blood, when after sud-
den death in cerebral cases, the veins of the pia-mater are found
distended with blood, for this is also the case after bleeding
to death. He considers, therefore, that the actual injury to
the brain in irregularity of its circulation, is not caused by
compression from absolute excess of blood or of serum, but
by the proportionate excess of the one over the other, and
hence it follows, that for the integrity of the brain a cer-
tain quantity of blood is necessary. Durand-Fardel de-
scribes a peculiar kind of inflammation of the brian, which
comes on with the symptoms of apoplexy: the patholo-
gical characters are: extensive redness and swelling of the
convolutions, superficial softening of the grey substance,
and adherence of the duramater. He explains the want of
inflammatory symptoms by the compression to which
the brain is subjected by the swelling of its convolutions.
Gluge considers inflammatory congestion of the cerebral
membranes to be proved, only when fibrine has been effused,
which then appears in the form of whitish spots or false
membranes: suppuration is a rare result of meningitis. Ac-
cording to Engel, however, the exsudation of the arachnoid
is sometimes fibrinous, sometimes serous, purulent, and even
bloody. The flakes in serous exsudations consist of pus glo-
bules. According to Gluge, the existence of numerous blood
points in the white substance indicates that there has been
congestion. Engel and Henle think that a uniform redness
of the cerebral substance indicates it. Toughness of the cere-
bral substance, particularly the white part, has been observed
by Nasse and Albers after congestion of the brain in typhus :
the white substance was firm, shining on its cut surface,
and poor in blood. Disputes continue regarding the inflam-
matory character of hydrocephalus acutus, and the _ har-
dening and softening of the brain: several of the later writers
will not admit that hydrocephalus A. is inflammatory. Cohen

Progress of Rational Pathology. 227

can discover in the exsudations no character of inflammatory
secretion: Gluge considers the effusion of fluid an increased
secretion of the normal cerebro-spinal fluid : Scharlau thinks
the same is caused, not by increased effusion, but by diminish-
ed absorption: Vogt looks on the effusion of fluid as compar-
atively unimportant, and thinks hydrocephalus a process ana-
logous to the softening of the brain in adults, and which takes
place either in the brain itself or in the arachnoid ; but he con-
siders rammolissement, and also acute hydrocephalus as con-
sequences of a chronic process of inflammation, which he terms
liquescent, venous, or typhous; he looks on rammolissement
as an organic maceration caused by previous changes of the firm
part and of the serum, from the effect of chronic inflammation.
Durand-Fardel declares the red softening to be always acute,
the white to be chronic. Eisenmann, on the other hand,
thinks the red discoloration is only a peculiarity of the first
stage of softening, which easily passes by. He lays down
four stages:—Ist, incipient softening, with redness of the
cerebral substance ; 2nd, the substance becomes pulpy,
the red colour passes into yellow, and disappears finally ; 3rd,
cavities form in the cerebral substance, filled with a milk-
like fluid, the cortical substance becomes a gray pulp;
Ath. cicatrization : on the surface, the yellow and at a later
period colourless flattened spots are the cicatrices, in the in-
terior, the fallen-together walls of the cavities, after the ab-
sorption of their fluid contents. He considers inflamma-
tion to be the proximate cause, and that it produces a serous
effusion, which weakens the cerebral substance. Gluge con-
siders that rammolissement is in most cases of an inflam-
matory nature, as he found in the softened places inflamed
globules among the fragments of the cerebral tubules. Yet
these globules were also found just as much in other as in
inflammatory effusions, especially in effused and coagulated
blood. Probably they are blood globules directly metamorphos-
ed, which are at first red, but latterly by some peculiar chemical

228 Progress of Rational Pathology.

process become yellow, and at last colourless; yet they may
also be produced in other ways as they occur in exsudations
that contain no blood globules. It seems probable, that
the peculiar shade of colour of the softened brain arises from
these globules. In the yellow flattened spots into which the
cortical substance becomes changed, Henle has observed be-
sides the different kinds of inflamed globules and vessels, other
peculiar fibres (of effused fibrine) and certain small flattened
spots (of a fatty substance). Valentin describes two species
of rammolissement, a coloured, and a colourless: in the latter
the brain globules are soft and without form, the nervous tubuli
varicose frangible and easily falling into globule-shaped frag-
ments (which are very likely often mistaken for inflamed glo-
bules, as by Gluge and Bennett.) In the coloured form, some-
thing new is added to this simple degeneration, namely a quan-
tity of broken-down granular globules, whence the colouring
arises. ‘They are like the pigment cells, with this difference,
that the included granules are brown and less highly coloured.
But as the pigment cells differ from the exsuded corpuscles in
containing fat, Henle thinks that the destroyed nervous fibres
themselves supply the material from which the globules are
formed. Gluge produced softening of the brain in rabbits, by
running needles into the cerebral substance ; but in this case
blood was always effused, so that it is not yet proved that soft-
ening and the production of inflamed globules are the results
of pure inflammation. All softenings have this in common,
that they are caused by the maceration of the cerebral substance
in exsuded or extravasated bloody fluid. Carswell describes an
additional form of rammolissement, the result of atrophy or of
gangrene in the other soft parts, and the consequence of defi-
cient nourishment, by the closure of the vessels leading to the
brain. In hardening of the brain, Gluge found the primitive
fibres quite altered, and of irregular form, as if compressed.
h. Nerves.—Their regeneration takes place, according to
Valentin, as follows:—The exsudation between their ends is

Progress of Rational Pathology. 220

first converted into cellular tissue, in which there is then
deposited in streaks, an oily, at first yellow, but at a later
period white substance, which unites the extremities of the
nervous fibres, while it proceeds from either end. If no union
takes place, the ends of the nerves grow thin, become tran-
sparent, and adhere by means of fine cellular tissue to the
neighbouring parts: the primitive fibres lose their contents,
and the sheathes continue in the form of thin weak fibres. Ac-
cording to Nasse, the newly formed nervous fibres are rather
narrower than the original ones. The shortest time in which
sensibility has been restored along the course of a divided nerve,
was 8 weeks, according to Ginther and Schon. It is remark-
able that only nerves of the same class unite again (Bidder).
The newly formed nervous fibres are longer in being able to
respond to the influence of the will, than to mechanical or
galvanic irritation.

i. Alimentary cana/.—After the use of tartar emetic, Marion
de Procé has observed a pustular eruption, not only in the
lower part of the esophagus (like Rokitansky,) but also
in the pharynx and throat, with the mucous coats of the
stomach and small intestines in places reddened and injected.
Hodgkin regards as a sign of fresh acute inflammation
of the mucous membrane of the stomach after poisoning,
a number of scattered small, almost opaque, whitish spots
deeply seated in the mucous coat. Briquet and Cruveil-
hier describe a chronic inflammation of the follicles of the
stomach and intestines: the mucous membrane was other-
wise normal, but studded with small swellings (from a few
lines in diameter to the size of a pin,) which in some places
were fiat, lens-shaped, and white, in others had pedicles, were
egg-shaped, reddish, or violet-coloured, without any opening,
but filled with a thick mucous fluid : no doubt this was a fung-
ous alteration. As to the perforating ulcer of the stomach,
which, according to Rokitansky, occurs more frequently than
is commonly supposed, Dahlerup disagrees with him in many

230 Progress of Rational Pathology.

respects, and says. that it occurs oftenest in the coats of the

stomach about its cardiac extremity: he thinks round
form is caused by the action of the muscular coat, which re-
tracts on all sides after it is perforated. Cruveilhier and Mohr
think the ulcer consists in inflammation and ulceration of
the glands of the stomach ; Rokitansky, in an acute red soft-
ening, or a sloughing, which kills the mucous membrane ;
Siebert calls attention to the connexion between these perfor-
ating ulcers and diseases of the brain and spinal column. Perity
philitis, or abscess of the iliac fossa on the right side, happens
occasionally, according to Grisolle, as a consequence of inflam-
mation of the coecum or of the vermiform appendix. It occurs
commonly in men, in women chiefly after child-birth, when
they do not suckle. The pain attending it is at times felt in
distant parts, in the whole lower part of the body, and in the

1 groins: from pressure of the pus on the nerves, the legs be-
| | come benumbed or the seat of deep lancinating pains: pres-
Hi sure on the veins causes cedema: suppuration generally super-
venes, and the pus makes its way out through the skin, the
alimentary canal, or the bladder. Riedel has met with a case
| of a communication between the coecum and ileum through
| | the vermiform appendix.

k. Salivary glands.—Of inflammation of them, Cruveilhier
Hy | distinguishes three varieties :—1st, inflammation of the excre-
Hy tory ducts and the granules of the gland (which most com-
monly extends from the centre to the periphery) ; 2nd, of the
| interstitial cellular tissue; 3rd, of their veins. He never saw

| suppuration of the parotid without simultaneous gangrene,

n) a fact explained, according to him, by the close texture of the

gland. .
| l. Liver.—-Becquerel considers cirrhosis, or granulated
liver, to be a hypertrophy of the yellow substance, caused (in
consequence of habitual congestion) by the infiltration of a
| plastic material, which afterwards contracts, and thus causes
| atrophy. According to Hallman, there are imbedded in a

Progress of Rational Pathology. 231

fibrous mesh-work, in some places granulations of rather large
liver cells with a few drops of oil, in others free fat cells. The
fibrous tissue consists partly of closely packed cells, partly of
firm thin fibres. The increased quantity of these fibres in
cirrhosis accords with the increased quantity of lime in the liver
(it contains 5 times as much.) J. Vogel reduces the structural
alterations of the parenchyma of the liver to four forms :—1,
deposition of fat; 2, filling of the cells with deep yellow or saf-
fron coloured granules ; 3, deposition of irregular masses of a
brown pigment between the liver cells; 4, deposition of
masses of small intensely dark granules (pigment) between
them: Henle cannot however regard these alterations as
characteristic signs of cirrhosis, (i. e. that condition in which
the liver is small, hard, lumpy or granular, and pervaded
by a whitish grey cellular tissue in bands:) he thinks that
in this affection, the peculiar characteristics of the parenchy-
ma, and the formation of the accidental fibrous bands (which
he regards as an important point of the disease) ought to be
considered separately. In this fibrous tissue, Henle recognizes
either cellular tissue, or numerous interlacing layers of flat
parallel fibres with granules and granule fibres, (like the fibres
of organised muscles, poor in blood vessels, and with a con-
stant tendency to contraction.) The yellow granulations are
the remains of the substance of the liver: beyond this point,
we need microscopic observation to shew the real degree
and cause of the alterations in the structure of the liver
granules: the glandular cells are rich in fat, and become
in part entirely converted into bladders of fat, or new fat
cells are developed between them: from them is derived the
yellow colour of the liver in cirrhosis. The two actions
concerned in the cirrhotic process, deposition of fat in the
gland cells, and formation of fibrine do not bear any ne-
cessary relation to each other: the deposition of fat at
times occurs alone without atrophy, or contraction of the

yellow spots, (for instance in the fatty liver in which Hallman
2H

—

232 Progress of Rational Pathology.

and Valentin found the same alteration of the cells as in cir-
rhosis.) The fatty degeneration is, however, no more a pecu-
liar disease of the liver than diabetes is of the kidneys, but a
symptom of a diseased state of the blood, the excess of fat in
which the liver cells have to separate. According to Roki-
tansky, the parenchyma of the liver granules in cirrhosis may
be of very various structure, either quite normal, or as it is
found in the fatty, atrophic and nutmeg liver, so that the
cirrhosis is an accidental combination: the new fibrous tissue
is the really important degeneration, and probably the result
of inflammatory exsudation. Exsudation may, according to
Becquerel, be the result of venous congestion and stagnation
of the blood, from excessive extension of the secreting canals,
in consequence of blocking up of the secretions. Bright’s
disease which often occurs along with cirrhosis, arises proba-

bly from the same cause, namely heart or lung disease. Pain —

is a rare Symptom in this disease as is icterus, but oedema of
the feet and dropsy of the belly are seldom absent. As to
shades of color in the liver, Henle says, that the division of
the liver into red and yellow substance does not correspond
with any actual difference in tissue, and least of all that of in-
vesting capsule and acini*. It arises solely from a peculiar di-
vision of the blood vessels. In the axis of each lobule of the liver
there is a venous twig, (of the vena Hepatica) : at its periphery
these are arterial twigs, (which accompany the vena portz) com-
municating with each other by capillary vessels, which per-
vade the lobule, and are wider towards the axis than towards
the periphery. According then as the blood is uniformly
diffused, or retained more in the venous or in the arterial
parts, so is the colour of the liver uniform, or marked by yel-
low and red spots. As the blood usually at death passes from
the arteries into the veins, the centres of the lobules are
commonly red, the periphery yellow, but the reverse may also
be the case.

* This is merely Kiernan’s account.—77r.

Progress of Rational Pathology. 233

m. Pancreas, according to Claessen, the symptom of acute
pancreatitis is, a slight kind of drawing together pain, united
with remarkable anxiety, which bears no proportion to the
violence of the accompanying stomach symptoms. The tongue
is moist and clean or with a white coating ; the fever trifling.
Resolution and induration of the organ have been observed as
its sequele, never suppuration or gangrene. This inflamma-
tion does not appear to arise, as some have supposed, from the
use of mercury, or from the suppression of the salivary flow,
indeed the sympathy between the pancreas and the salivary
glands has been assumed without warrant. Chronic inflam-
mation shews itself by pain, copious dejections and vomiting
of watery and slimy fluid (coming from the stomach) loss of
appetite, excessive thirst, obstinate constipation and falling
away.

nm. Organs of respiration. Angina externa comes on,
with or without slight fever, or with a feeling of lassitude
and rheumatic pains, as a hard swelling, but neither hot,
red nor painful in the submaxillary, parotid, or laryngeal
region especially of the left side. As it increases, difficulty
of speaking and of swallowing occur, but without any inflam-
matory symptoms in the mouth or lining of the air passages :
there is in addition fever with nightly exacerbations. The ter-
minations are, resolution, or death with the symptoms of
putrid fever by suffocation, either before or after evacuation of
the contents of the swelling. The fluid evacuated is ichorous.
Hither gangrenous destruction of the cellular tissue (of the
muscles and nerves in the neighbourhood, not of the salivary
glands) or infiltration of it with lymphatic albuminous fluid, are
found after death, or both. Henle sees in this inflammation
an excellent example of obstructed action in the absorbents ;
but this obstruction is distinctly related to the rheumatic pro-
cess; its most usual exciting cause is exposure to cold. Hen-
nemaen names as epiglottitis chronica exsudaliva, a disease,
in which from time to time a whitish crust of inflammatory

234: Progress of Rational Pathology.

exsudation, of the form of the epiglottis (?) is expectorated with
a violent cough that often lasts for hours, and with excessive
difficulty of breathing preceding it.—The seat of pneumonia,
according to the consent of most modern authors, is in the
mucous coat of the minutest. lung-cells, and the granulations
of hepatised lungs are formed by the filling of these cells
with exsudation: on this account they are largest in full
grown and in emphysematous lungs.

o. Kidneys.—Bright’s disease is, according to Henle, a mor-
bid action exactly similar to that of cirrhosis of the liver: in
both, elementary granules, fat, and cellular tissue in its various
stages of development, are found between the elementary parts
of the glands, in both is the gland at first thereby swollen, and
becomes afterwards atrophic, and granular by their contraction.
Of both, there is an acute and a chronic form: the first of
these appears to differ from pure congestion and inflammation
of the kidney only in degree and in extent, and perhaps also
in the source of the exsudation, in as much as it is thrown
out chiefly by the arterial portion of the capillary system in
pure inflammation, chiefly by the venous in cirrhosis and in
Bright’s disease. The various forms of Bright’s disease des-
cribed by different observers, are only stages of the same
affection.

p. Eyes.—Although many writers speak of alterations of
the corpus papillare of the conjunctiva in blennorrhoea of
the eyes, yet Engel and Henle prove that they do not
take place. What has been called hypertrophy of it, consists
in the plastic matter, deposited upon and in the tissue of the
conjunctiva, becoming organised. Nasse calls attention to
a form of inflammation of the cornea in women who are
nursing, which at first attacks only one eye, and is re-
markable from its tendency to form ulcers: he thinks that
it is caused by impoverishment of the blood, (anemia from
excessive secretion of milk, like keratitis in animals whose
blood has lost its fibrine.) Schroder van der Kolk regards a

Progress of Rational Pathology. 235

chronic and exsudative inflammation of the choroid as the
cause of glaucoma: the exsudation is deposited between the
choroid and the retina, and displaces the latter: thence the
amblyopia. Sichel explains the green colour of glaucoma, by
supposing that the bluish choroid is seen, through the lens
and vitreous body, deprived of its pigment. The crystalline
lens is reproduced (according to Pauli, Lowenhardt, Textor
and Valentin) in animals, and in man after the operation for
cataract: the new formed substance resembles exactly the
normal*.

qg. Skin.—According to Rosenbaum, cutaneous eruptions
are diseases of the glands of the skin, especially of the hair
follicles: but papulz and pustules occur on parts of the cutis
and on mucous surfaces, where neither hair nor hair follicles
occur (as on the palm of the hand, the glands, and the con-
junctiva) many papular eruptions, such as lichen, psosiaris, &c.
do no doubt proceed from the hair follicles.

I1.— Miasmatico-contagious Diseases.

Of late years two chief theories regarding contagion have
been advocated. The one seeks to explain the action of
infectious matter (like that of ferment) by its chemical and
physical properties. The other (the parasitic theory) regards
the infectious matter as an organic existence, having an in-
dependent life of its own, with the power of propagating it.

Chemical theory.—This rests on the principle “ of the
transposition of atoms by being shaken.” In certain bodies
the molecules are supposed to be kept together so very

* The general result of the numerous experiments, which have been made in the

transplantation of the cornea from the eye of one animal to that of another, appears
to be this—that there is not much difficulty in getting the transplanted cornea to
become attached in its new position, and that in a few rare cases the cornea re-
mains transparent for a day or two, but that in the end it always becomes opaque,
or quite useless for vision. A recent writer on this subject in Dr. Finch’s Journal,
does not appear to be aware that this operation was practised on the human subject,
at least seven years ago.— Tr.

236 Progress of Rational Pathology.

weakly, that every mechanical alteration by warmth, friction
and contact with indifferent bodies, causes such a distur-
bance among their molecules, that they separate, and
then form anew, fresh and more natural combinations.
Substances, when in motion and in the act of transposing
their molecules, are supposed to communicate their mo-
tion to other substances, just as ferment or putrefying mat-
ter does to sugar, the elements of which then form more
simple combinations, such as alcohol and carbonic acid. A\l-
though Liebig now tries to add new positive weight to this
theory, it is in fact a repetition of the old doctrine, that
the spreading of fermentation and of contagion are analogous
processes. On sufficient consideration this theory has been
found utterly untenable—as little tenable is Naumann’s
chemical theory of contagion. Winther tries to make out
ammonia to be the actual matter of contagion, while Liebig
regards that substance as only the medium of the gaseous
form of contagion. But all chemical theories have a radical
defect : they are not even hypotheses; they do not explain
facts, but hidden conjectural phenomena, and lay down the
necessity of the operation of causes, which after all may not
operate at all. It is indeed often assumed, but it never has
been proved, that contagion always reaches the blood: it
is just as uncertain that it is afterwards thrown out of it, as
it is certain that pustules, papule, &c. are not the secreting
organs of contagion, but the result of inflammation of the
skin. A theory of contagion, that makes pretension to the
character of a philosophic hypothesis, must begin not by
assuming the mutual action of infectious matter and blood,
but with the phenomena of contagions and contagious
diseases, that is with the operations of contagious matter,
which are real and appreciable by our senses, and this method
conducts us to the other theory.

Parasitic theory.—Holland looks for the parasites in the
animal kingdom (especially among insects), and regards ill-

Progress of Rational Pathology. 237

ness as the consequence of a kind of poisoning by them.
Henle, on the contrary, from his discoveries in fermentation
and putrefaction, and regarding the muscardine of silk worms,
is led to the conclusion, that infusoria and the lower forms
of plants are the sources of contagion, and cause disease by
the presence of their germs in the body: it is therefore neces-
Sary to determine the existence of contagion and miasma,
their forms and organisation, and the course of miasmatic and
contagious diseases. Henle divides the diseases to which a
miasmatic or contagious origin is ascribed, into the three
following groups:—l. Pure miasmatic disease (intermittent
fever): in it miasma has not been detected either in or out of
the body: it does not wander, but remains fixed in certain
localities: there are no proofs, that it is inorganic, ra-
ther than a physical agent. 2 Miasmatico-contagious di-
seases (such as small-pox, measles, scarlet fever, typhus, &c.)
arise from miasma (i. e. from something injurious in the
air,) and also from contagion (i. e. something injurious de-
rived from a sick body.) The miasma and the contagion
of the same disease must be identical in their nature, (for like
effects have like causes): the contagions of all these diseases
are transient, and therefore it is probable that what is called the
miasma (or infecting material of these diseases) is only a tran-
sient contagion, or vice versa. 3. The purely contagious diseases
(syphilis, itch, &c.) which never occur from miasma, have a
contagion which is not transient. The cause of miasmatico-
contagious diseases, appears as contagion or miasma, accord-
ing as its origin can or can not be traced from a sick body.
The fixed contagion of purely contagious diseases is infectious
matter, contained in asolid or a fluid substance taken from the
diseased body, commonly mucus or slime. It is thus, pro-
perly speaking, not contagion itself, but only the vehicle
of it. The process by which it is prepared is the ordi-
nary one of inflammation. The vesicles, pustules, &c. which
contain the pus are the ordinary results of inflammation

:
4
:

238 Progress of Rational Pathology.

of the skin.—The physico-chemical properties of conta-
gions shew, that their matter must be organic. From the
way in which they act, it follows that the matter of contagion
is alive, and indeed endowed with individual life, and that it
bears to the diseased body the relation of a parasitic orga-
nisation. Contagions, as is proved by the course they run,
and by the phznomena of the illness produced by them,
possess two properties which do not belong to any form-
less or dead matter: the power of multiplying themselves
on food, and by the assimilation of foreign organised bodies,
and a certain power of periodical development limited by cer-
tain conditions, (they either run a chronic course, or they
have a fixed succession of stages.) The spreading of con-
tagions on the diseased body is thus either limited or unlimited :
all contagions have a mode of propagation, which corresponds
with that of higher organisations. Wedonot need to assume
equivocal generation, if we admit that the germs of infectious
matter may lie, out of the diseased body, as the germs of the
lower organisations do, out of fermenting and putrefying sub-
stances, in a state capable of development, and only wanting
favourable conditions for their propagation. These conditions
appear to be: external ones, such as certain atmospheric re-
lations: and internal ones, such as changes in the body, which
render it fit for the support of parasites. In the same
way, the conversion of merely miasmatic into contagious
diseases, if the fact were once indubitably proved, could
be explained without the aid of equivocal generation. Purely
miasmatic disease, such as ague, catarrh, diarrhoea, &c.
would be the means by which the human frame is rendered
capable of receiving the infectious matter, which when once
taken in, is propagated in the form of contagion. Thus it is only
the origin of infectious matter and of contagion that remains
hidden ; but this is the case with all organisations, nay with all
matter.—It remains now to examine, whether contagion be
conditionally or absolutely independent, (of vegetable or of

‘
+

Progress of Rational Pathology. 239

animal origin.) We may consider as endowed with relatively
independent life, the elemental forms of organisations, which
inherit the power of nourishing and of propagating themselves,
only as parts of an organic whole, though they do not in-
stantly die on separation from that whole. Many reasons make
us suspect, that the contagious organisations belong to the
lower kinds of plants and animals, (in short, have an absolutely
dependent life of their own). Thus the origin of epidemic
diseases can often be traced to circumstances, which favour the
development of the lower animal and vegetable organisations ;
for instance, the destruction of organic substances, in over-
filled or ill aired spaces. The means, which favour, impede,
or destroy the action of the infectious matter, are the same
which are favourable and destructive to the life and reproduc-
tion of the known lower organisations. Of late years an infinite
number of such low parasites has been discovered, occurring
in plants as well as in animals and men; and on comparing
the action of contagions and miasmas with the consequences
of the formation of parasites in the lower animals, we are
struck by many analogies : from this comparison the following
results may be deduced :—1. Purely contagious diseases are
caused by parasites whose germs do not maintain themselves in
the air, or in a dry condition (itch) ; those parasites may be
considered as a middle grade, which cannot maintain them-
selves for a long time dry: in short, those diseases which are
infectious, through the medium of air it is true, but only in the
immediate neighbourhood of the patient, (glanders, consump-
tion). To produce epidemics, a contagion must be motionary :
but every motionary contagion does not necessarily produce
epidemics, only one, for which the constitution has a general
predisposition (for instance the contagion of Tinea.) 2.
Miasmatico-contagious disease occurs in individual cases and
epidemics, purely from miasma: in such cases the parasite
lives and grows, but does not form any fruitful germs within

the diseased body. The degree of contagiousness is also de-
21

240 Progress of Rational Pathology.

pendent on the place of growth of the parasite, and on the way
in which it is thrown off. The contagiousness is smaller, if
the parasite vegetates in the bowels, than if it be on the skin
or in the lungs. 3. Diseases are chronic, if the power of
| propagation of the parasite is not limited; acute, if after a
certain time it forms germs, and if the body in which these
germs are formed does not offer a bed adapted to their further
development. 4. Predisposition, is the capability of a body
to form a nursing bed for the parasites, without the capa-
bility of resisting their action. For every parasite does not
make the body on which it lives unhealthy : on the contrary,
nature is able to render this, as many other injurious in-
fluences, innocuous through habit, or to compensate for them
by nourishment. Contagions have, like all organisations,
specific preferences for particular soils and climates. Some
like a healthy body (most acute miasmatico-contagious
diseases:) others prefer a weakened and reduced one
(aphthe.) On the whole, the attraction and the develop-
ment of parasites appear to be favoured by a congested
state of the surface, on which they most usually spread, per-
haps on account of a partial separation of them from the
surface being caused by congestion, as the parasite of dysen-
tery and cholera by diarrhoea, of typhus by gastric fever,
of influenza by sneezing. As for entozoa, so for contagions,
there is a predisposition according to the age and kind of
animal: and in both the want of such predisposition may
be limited or unlimited. Contagion can become milder by
germinating in different families, or by repeated inoculation,
without losing the power of re-appearing again in full force
under favourable circumstances, (small-pox). The destruction
of the parasitic bed when the disease is over, reminds us of the
succession of different kinds of animals and vegetables in
infusions, in which each kind after a time exhausts the bed
fitted for its production, or rather for its nutrition. 5. The

miasmatico-contagious diseases are distinguished into local,

Progress of Rational Pathology. 241

(if the parasite has no disposition to spread beyond the
points of inoculation, or if it is tied down to certain parts
of the body,) and general. In the latter, the following
conditions may occur :—a. the parasite spreads over the
whole surface of the body or over the greater part of it:
5. it may not be the parasite itself, but the diseased con-
dition of the skin induced by it, that spreads by continuity and
by sympathy : c. the parasite passes into the blood, and through
it into all organs: d. the parasite, in the place in which it is
fixed, may act on the blood circulating through that spot, and
so at last get into the general circulation: e. the symptoms of
a disease of the whole system manifest themselves by means of
the sympathy of the nerves. 6. In relation to the seat or germ-
beds of contagion, parasites may be divided into three classes—
a. parasites of the inner and outer surface of the mucous linings
and of the skin : to this belong itches, tinea, and most miasma-
tico-contagious diseases ; their passage into the blood is possi-
le, but not necessary: 8. parasites of the fluids; here the
blood and the secretions are the vehicles of contagion; the
eruption is wanting or is unimportant : to this belong hydro-
phobia and possibly the plague : c. parasites which grow on the
skin as well asin the fluids, which begin by germinating on the
skin, but usually pass into the fluids, as glanders and syphilis.
7. The course of contagious and miasmatico-contagious
diseases is as follows: The parasite is taken up by the mucous
membrane or injured skin ; if the quantity taken up be small,
then follows the stage of latent contagion, during which
the parasite grows and multiplies. Neither does a skin para-
site disappear in the blood, to be deposited afterwards on the
skin, nor does a blood parasite remain inactive till the disease
breaks out, (as people believe of hydrophobia). When the
operation of the parasite is powerful (in the beginning of epi-
demics) death often occurs rapidly, and perhaps by sudden
alteration of the blood, or by suffocation from irritation of the
minutest bronchii—The skin parasites cause mortification

242 Progress of Rational Pathology.

or inflammation, the latter of which is more or less superficial,
and appears as diffused hyperemia or as an exanthema, accor-
ding to the nature of.the surface and the quantity of the exsu-
dation. Inflammation propagates itself by continuity, partly
by the increase of the -parasites themselves, partly by sym-
pathetic excitement. Only in glanders and syphilis does the
contagion propagate itself by lymph and blood. The humoral
pathology, which acknowledges only this last mode for the
origin and spreading of contagion, overlooks the question,
why the contagion should be deposited from the blood exactly at
and near the points of inoculation. All diseases of the whole
system, i. e. affections of the nervous centres, Henle considers
to bethe consequence either of local inflammation or of a change
in the blood caused by the abstraction of nourishment from it,
by the parasites which it contains. The development of con-
tagion is dependent on the fixed stages of miasmatico-contagi-
ous disease, which again are chiefly the result of external and of
accidental circumstances. Metastasesare caused by the develop-
ment of parasites and of exanthemata internally, under circum-
stances which are unfavorable to their development externally.

Supposing, however, that the hope of discovering parasites,
i. e. fungi or infusoria, in the eruptions and the contagions of
man may never be realized, yet the hypothesis of the parasitic
theory, the assumption of an invisibly small organisation too
minute to be distinguished from the animal elements, remains
far better, than the assumption of a chemical substance, which
38 not indicated by any re-agent and cannot be analysed.
The contagion of the parasitic theory is not indicated in
every case, but it agrees in its operations with those of analog-
ous bodies, and explains the symptoms of disease: the conta-
gion of the chemical theory is nowhere indicated, it varies
from all other known bodies in its supposed operation, and
does not explain the pheenomena of disease.

a. Pocks.—Schonlein agrees with those who consider
the varioloids to be eruptions specifically different from real

Progress of Rational Pathology. 243

small-pox : but Conradi and others have clearly proved by
facts, that this is not the case. As to the question whether
cow-pox is of the same origin as the small-pox of man, the
results of Wedekind, Sunderland, Numann, and others, who
tried to produce cow-pox by means of the atmospheric conta-
gion of small-pox, are all contradictory. The identity of
variola and of vaccine must, no doubt, be granted ; but it is
still doubtful, whether the pox in cows was at first and
is still produced by contagion of small-pox only, or whether
it can develop itself independently in the animals. By
inoculating variolous matter into the udders of cows, Ceely
and Thiele produced an eruption, which when inoculated back
into men, appeared to be a powerful vaccine. Indeed the
virus of small-pox may be altered to vaccine by inoculating
with variolous lymph mixed in warm cow’s milk, after it has
lain for a few days between plates of glass secured by wax :
if the experiment be continued, after the fifth reproduction,
fever will cease to attend its inoculation ; and after the tenth
reproduction, we may inoculate in the ordinary way from arm
to arm. Gruby has discovered microscopic beings in the
papule and vesicles among the elements of the pus—pox-
animalcules. They consist of a globular or conical body
and a fine neck with a small hook, which they keep constant-
ly moving, while they bend their neck backwards and for-
wards, and at times pull it back entirely. They are as large
as molecular corpuscles, and Henle suspects that they are
perhaps only such.—Sheep-pox. Several ewes in lamb were
inoculated, almost all the foetuses had pocks, and some of
the sheep produced lambs covered with pocks: pox in sheep
appears to have the same antipathy to the itch as human
small-pox has.

b. Measles.—When Catona inoculated with the fluid of the
vesicles of measles mixed with blood, or with the tears during
the height of the eruption, the inoculation took effect in all but
7 out of 100 patients: a red ring formed round the point

244) Progress of Rational Pathology.

of inoculation, which afterwards disappeared suddenly, and
on the seventh or eighth day after the insertion of the virus,
fever came on with the usual premonitory symptoms, and
two or three days later the exanthema followed. In scarlet
fever and in measles, Helfft declares that he has found the
cells of the thrown-off epithelium of the mucous membrane,
not only in the urine, but also in the excrement: according
to him, the spreading of the exanthema, and the process of
desquamation stand in inverse relation to the urinary and
to the digestive organs. Sebastian observed the simulta-
neous and regular course of measles and vaccine in one
individual, while in most cases the vaccine remains quiet till
the measles have run their course.

c. Pemphigus.—Scharlau thinks, that he has proved by in-
oculation the contagiousness of this disease among new-born
children. |

d. Typhus.—In the two forms of disease which have been
described under the names of typhus (7’. contagiosus exanthe-
maticus, petechialis,) and of typhoid fever, (Kievre typhoide T.
abdominalis,) Davidson sees only two varieties of the same
species. He endeavours to point out the analogy between
typhus and other exanthematous diseases. According to Val-
leix, typhus is distinguished from similar and especially from
typhoid diseases, by a characteristic eruption (numerous,
irregularly grouped, roundish, dark red or violet spots,
from the size of a pin head to that of a pea, not projecting,
and not disappearing under the pressure of the finger, while
in typhoid fever only a few, rare, coloured spots, slightly pro-
jecting, and readily yielding to the pressure of the finger ap-
pear in small number and only on the belly,—by the almost
entire absence of affections of the higher senses—by the com-
parative slightness of the cerebral symptoms—by the absence
of abdominal complications at the outset (ulcers of the bowels,)
and by their small number and slight intensity. According to
Valleix, typhus ought for the present to be reckoned among

Progress of Rational Pathology. Q45

essential fevers, since no constant local injury is found.
Rochoux observed besides the petechiz in typhus, a measle-
like erratic exanthema in the form of scattered points
always followed by desquamation : the exanthema of typhoid
fever consists of small round elevations, which last for six or
eight days. As an essential difference between typhus and
typhoid fever he cites the propagation of the former by in-
fection, which he positively denies to typhoid, (while Berland
accords it.) Those who look on a primary alteration of the
blood as the immediate cause of fever and of other exanthema-
tous diseases, are supported by the results of the investigations
of Andral and Gavarret. Winther deduces all the symptoms
of typhus from fluidity and congestion of the blood. According
to De Renzi, typhus-blood is very rich in blood corpuscles
(generally without a nucleus) the colouring matter dissolved
in serum, the placenta incomplete and soft ; there is a deficien-
cy of fibrine. Forget concludes from his researches—1, an
appreciable alteration of the blood is not universal: 2, the
blood seldom appears to be altered in the earliest stage: 3,
the blood is the oftener found altered, the more advanced
the disease is: 4, the degree of alteration, if there be any
such thing, does not bear any definite relation to the period
of the disease: 5, it is not coincident with the putrid and
typhous symptoms, which may occur with or without it:
6, the different kinds of alteration do not appear to be con-
nected with the fixed forms of the disease: 7, the degree of
alteration is not in proportion to the intensity of the disease :
8, nor to the number of times that bleeding has been em-
ployed. As a cause of the slowness of hearing and of the
deafness in typhus, Pappenheim discovered inflammation and
suppuration in the mucous membrane of the drum of the
ear. According to Engel the disappearance of a typhus
epidemic may be predicated from the corpses: at the com-
mencement, while it prevails strongly, we find the ulcers

246 Progress of Rational Pathology.

almost solely in the stage of infiltration or of sloughing,
before its disappearance open ulcerations and even scars are
found. Dysentery is also an indication of the breaking up
of a typhus epidemic. Vegetable parasites (minute fungi)
have been observed by Langenbeck, Hannover and Bennett,
in typhus patients and in their corpses.

e. Dysentery.—Rokitansky lays down four degrees or forms
of the dysenteric process. 1. The first, is characterised by
swelling, redness, and softening of the mucous coat of the
large intestine, especially the folds of the mucous membrane,
and by a serous exsudation in the form of a fine miliary
vesicular growth, after which the epithelium desquamates in
a clay-like state. 2. In the second degree, the mucous mem-
brane is softened like a jelly, wart-like or fungous protuberances
appear, which consist of serous inflammation of the submu-
cous cellular tissue (according to Siebert, the formation
of these protuberances commences with degeneration of
the mucous glands, which grow black, and are surrounded
with a chamois-yellow circle of the size of a lentil.) 3. In
the third degree, the protuberances are more compressed,
so that the inner surface of the bowel seems studded with
large glands. The mucous membrane is in part converted into
a black slough, or has disappeared entirely. 4. In the fourth
stage, the mucous membrane has degenerated into a black,
friable, as it were carbonised mass. The lymphatic glands of
the mesocolon are in a marked degree swollen and injected,
but without containing, as in typhus, a specific firm product.
The dysenteric process always gradually increases in violence
from the valve of the colon downwards towards the rectum.
The true dysenteric process occurs, according to Rokitansky,
also in the mucous membrane of the uterus, but only after
delivery. Some chronic diseases, especially tubercular ones,
seem to prevent the occurrence of dysentery; its predispos-
ing causes are, mucous discharges from the bowels, gout,

g

Progress of Rational Pathology. 247

rheumatism, hemorrhoids, ague. Cruveilbier as well as R.
have remarked the resemblance of dysenteric degeneration
to the corrosion of mucous membranes by acids.

jf. Aphthe.—Taupin comprehends under the name of séo-
matitis gangrenosa pseudo-membranous and ulcerated aphthe,
and gangrene of the mouth: but it is only the first that
can be epidemic or contagious. He considers the chief
predisposing cause to be the impure damp air of hospitals ;
it belongs especially to the period of life between five and ten
years of age. The degeneration commonly begins at the free
edges of the gums, and seldom on the cheeks. Taupin,
therein differing from Guersent, never found the mucous
membrane sound under the slough, but always ulcerated.
In these false membranes many observers have remarked
minute fungi. Besides them other microscopic elements have
been observed indicative of an inflammatory process ; elemen-
tary granules, exsudatory corpuscles, inflammatory globules,
and at a later period fibres standing together in groups,
running into short points at both ends, with long drawn-out
granules, which lengthen into indistinct fibres: between
them, irregular masses of finely granulated or of fibrous sub-
stance—probably of fibrine.

g- Ophthalmias.—From the researches of Cederschjold, a
discharge from the generative organs of women appears to be
one of the most frequent causes of ophthalmia neonatorum,
since the proportion of children with diseased eyes to those
with healthy ones, born of healthy mothers, is as 1: 18; of
those born of unhealthy mothers, as 1: 7. The Egyptian
or contagious ophthalmia is, according to Eble, on the
whole identical in nature with catarrhal conjunctivitis: he
declares for its primitive origin, and considers the most im-
portant cause of its production to be the congregating of too
many people in a narrow space. As to contagiousness, he
thinks that it is contagious to.a limited extent, that infection

2K

ae En.

248 Progress of Rational Pathology.

from a distance (i. e. by the air of a room filled with patients)
is more common than from actual transference of the secretion ;
it is most frequent when the disease is violent and at its
greatest height. Pieringer, in order to cure pannus, made
many attempts to produce blennorrhoea by inoculation, and
arrived at the following results. The contagion is fixed,
its vehicle the mucus-like secretion of the conjunctiva: it
is only in the second and third degrees of the disease that the
mucus is positively infectious; as the secretion gets thinner,
so does its infectiousness diminish: eyes already diseased are
infected less easily than sound ones: the virus of the mucus
is not preserved for more than three days after its removal
from the body. The re-action from its introduction comes
on in from six to twenty-four hours. The application of ice
and the washing out the eye within three minutes after the
introduction of the matter, protects against its action. Decon-
de, who says he has always produced in animals ophthalmia
by introducing the matter of gonorrhoea, thinks that by injec-
tions of argent. nitr. into the urethra, the discharge immedi-
ately loses its contagious power. In like manner a solution
of chloride of lime is stated to destroy the infectious power of
the gonorrhceal secretion and of the mucus of contagious
ophthalmia, but only if it be well mixed up with the secre-
tion, or dropped in a few minutes after its introduction into
the eye, not if it be dropped in before it.

h. Tinea.—In this disease, we need no longer talk of pus-
tules, and least of all of pustules filled with matter, for the
scabs are formed simply by the growth of fungi. Schonlein,
Langenbeck and Fuchs discovered fungi in several species
of favus and of alphus: Gruby has given a good account
of these fungi, whose seat is the tissue of the epidermis.
There is no doubt of the contagiousness of tinea, yet several
unsuccessful attempts have been made to propagate it by
inoculation of the fungi.

Progress of Rational Pathology. 249

j. Itch.—It cannot be propagated by the inoculation of
fluid matter from the itch pustules, any more than by its
scabs.

k. Syphilis.—Ricord’s results as to inoculation have been
confirmed by several observers in the main points. Hauck
rejects the designation of fluor albus syphiliticus, as leucorrhcea
never produces syphilitic sores, if there be not at the same
time syphilitic ulcers deep in the vagina or at the neck of the
uterus. Castelnau, like Ricord, finds the ulcers of secondary
syphilis not inoculable, but considers inoculation altogether
to be an uncertain diagnostic sign, since even fresh chancres
are not always to be propagated by inoculation. Donné’s
Trichomonas vaginalis was repeatedly found in the vagina
of syphilitic patients by Henle, as were fungi in the mucous
lining of the walls of the vagina.

l. Hydrophobia.—Breschet has ascertained, that the disease
can be inoculated back to dogs, from men and other animals
who have got the disease by the bite of mad dogs, not spon-
taneously. He thinks also, that he has observed that the poison
loses much of its strength in the third and fourth genera-
tion. The consequences of infection usually display themselves
between the 20th and the 30th day after the bite, at times
not till after three months. It would also appear, that the
poison is present in the blood, even during the latent stage of
the contagion, for two ewes that had been bitten, gave suck
to their lambs for fourteen days after it had happened, and
four weeks afterwards the ewes became mad, and were fol-
lowed by the lambs nine or ten days after.

*m. Disease of jaws and hoofs in cattle.—Although the ac-
tual contagiousness of this disease has not been proved by
inoculating back from man to animals, yet repeated experi-
ments prove the injuriousness of eating milk, butter or cheese

* g> See note at p. 250.

250 Progress of Rational Pathology.

procured from cows affected by this disease. It produces a
phlyctcenulous pustular eruption round the mouth, and ulcers
inside it, colic and diarrhoea, and at times eruptions on the
hands and feet. Almost all calves suckled by diseased cows
died of diarrhoea. Touching the diseased secretion, produces,
according to Siebert, an erysipelas bullosum at the point of
contact.

*n. Lung disease of cows—(contagious pleuro-pneumonia).
It is contagious, as Hertwig proved it to be, who produced it
by inoculation with blood and with the secretion of the nose,
as also by mere juxta-position with healthy cows.

*9. Gangrene of the spleen.—There are still disputes whe-
ther the eating of the flesh of an animal suffering from this
disease is infectious, but there is no doubt of its general con-
tagiousness.

p. Glanders.—Its contagiousness, at least in the acute form,
is generally acknowledged: views are more discordant re-
garding the chronic one. Magendie goes the length of con-
sidering the two distinct, and does not consider the chronic
form to be infectious. Hering proves, that chronic glanders
communicated from a horse to a donkey usually runs a very
acute course. In the way of experiment it has been un-
doubtedly proved, that glanders can pass from horses to other
animals of different genera, although the action of the poison
inoculated is slower and less certain, than in the solid unguli.
Cases of the accidental infection of men have also been observ-
ed, and Rayer has introduced glanders into his system of patho-
logy. The local symptoms are a kind of carbuncle, along with
the well known affections of the lymphatic glands: if the
disease becomes universal, then it resembles a good deal the
so-named reabsorption of pus. Glanders in man can be inocu-

* m,n, o. The translator is not acquainted with the English synonyms for these
names, — 77.

A few Remarks on the diseases of Seamen. 251

lated back to animals. As to the nature of the contagion,
some facts lead to the suspicion, that it may be caused by a
vegetable parasite. Langenbeck observed a filiform fungus
in the discharge from the nose of a horse sick of gianders.

Nore.—We thought at first of adding notes, and of making some remarks on
this translation; but it is so condensed, and contains so much matter on so great
a variety of subjects, that the task of annotation would have been unsatisfactory
as well as laborious. We have preferred giving it without comment, as a good
exposition of the most modern continental views on many interesting points in
medicine, and more especially of the opinions of what may be termed the natural-
historical school. We shall merely remark, that few practical men have any faith
in Liebig’s plausible theoretical views regarding disease and the action of reme-
dies; indeed he has damaged himself by the extremely confident way in which he
has applied his theories to sciences with which he was imperfectly acquainted.
Nevertheless we hope soon to have an opportunity of giving a more detailed ac-
count of his views, than this paper affords, and also to indicate from time to time

the most recent opinions in physiological medicine, which has of late acquired a

degree of interest and of consequence, never before possessed by it. As to the’

parasitic theory, it deserves at least the praise of much ingenuity.—J. M. P.

A few remarks on the Diseases of Seamen in the year 1844.
By Joun Macrpuerson, M. D.

The following table of cases treated in the Howrah
Hospital, exhibits a fair view of the diseases most common
among the seamen frequenting this port. Ona general survey
of it, it is apparent that cholera and dysentery are the two
most fatal diseases. Fever, generally of a remittent type, is
the most common complaint, and at times adds largely to the

1
|
|

252 A few Remarks on the diseases of Seamen.

mortality, though it has not done so of late. Hepatitis is by
no means sO common, as many suppose. The rareness of
primary affection of the organs of respiration and of circula-
tion is remarkable, as also the infrequency of acute rheuma-
tism, considering the great changes of temperature to which
seamen are exposed. Syphilis is usually very mild, and
scurvy is very rare, and commonly slight. We believe that
there are no means of ascertaining with any approach to ac-
curacy, what the actual loss of life among Europeans visiting
this port may be: but it is undoubtedly much greater than is
ordinarily supposed; nor shall we wonder at this, when we con-
sider the reckless habits of sailors, the loaded state of their
bowels so frequent after a long voyage, their sudden and ex-

cessive indulgence in unripe fruit and poisonous spirits, on
arriving in the river; their frequently having to work under a
midday sun, their wandering through the bazars in the day-
time, their indulgence in every species of excess on shore,
and their returning on board at night to lie on a damp deck,
deterred by its closeness from entering the forecastle :—add to
this, the sudden changes of temperature (at times amounting
in the course of a short north-wester, to 10° Fahrenheit,)
and that at some seasons many vessels lie in shore exposed to
| the most nauseous effluvia from the mouths of sewers; and
we Shall not be surprised at the production of disease.
We wish that we could say that, when produced, it was
promptly treated ; but it is unnecessary here to enter upon
that ungrateful subject.

In comparing the proportion of deaths to admissions, it is
to be remembered that the cases are always more advanced,
and usually more severe, than those admitted into military

hospitals.

———_

A few Remarks on the diseases of Seamen.

Return of cases of Seamen treated in the Howrah Hospital in 1844.

re en ne ee ee me ee

Fever, .. rae owas eas
Spleen, .... cose ede
Small-pox, .... ode ween
Cholera, .... owes ales
Dysentery, eco Nee oes
eRET OM »~ ® eee @bee
yspepsia, eoee eeee eoce
Obstipatio, sees dislde
Colica, eoee eves eee
Inflammation of bowels, aare
Worms, eeee8 eee0e eeeed
Hemorrhoids, ees asta
Hepatitis, de* Awe ves
Jaundice, ..«. bhiets ole
Excess, eece eeee cece
Delirum-tremens, .... Weta s

Cephalalgia, .... “ae Acne
Coup de Soleil, .... eee
Apoplexy, wayne Rag anes
Epilepsy, eoee cove @ece
Dementia, eoce eoce eee
Heart disease, sisl ae alate
Lung affections, voce okies
Rheumatism, wiaieis CARS
Scurvy, cece seen eee
Cachexia, ...«. ater owee
Syphilis, esiee cose
Stricture, .... eieleis mise
Cutaneous diseases, Chafers aelale
Concussion, cece eee
Contusions and Sprains, .. Neste
Fractures, .... sible’ coos
Wounds, eae aes eee
Musquito-bites, ..e.. apes
Scalds, eoee eee cece
Ulcers, eece eoce cece
Boils,.... eoeen seoe e@ece
Abscess, ecee eevee eoee
Inflammation of leg, .... $ 6b
Inflammation of periosteum,....
Inflammation of eye, .... sees
Odontalgia, .. eaee cone
Otalgia, ee e006 eece fee

ES A SE (OY eer

n. Ist, 1844,
Remained.

| Admitted.
elieved or

cured.

Eo
s

—
iS)
SQ
<
[oP)

Nw —
ON P

—
wNownec

— pb
MNOws1OWwWNN—

=
—

—
J
nd

—
—

DOH OIWON— WRK —WWNON DPD
—

oo
COm ONO SW =H wal
OSOLNANCWORKWNWDH OD

(Jt)
is¥)

—

od
=—NPWwWWE= = NUNNIN CK Be

KNWWEONUINNN§|O — bh =
—

=NWW—ONUNAN—CO Wr
coocecrocececeo=hceoecosecoceoeoocoocoocoeococsooocornecwco | Died.

coocoroooocececesooceococcooococesecococcaccocce

— | ecocccooceooceceeccscoosoosooccoccoceocoococecoHroccocco | Transferred.

—
Le)

2585

Remained,
Dec. dlst, 1844.

| eoocoeooeoecroooeorwoworrooemococececoeocececcesosco~= |

10

Mortality :—Fever 0; Small-pox 50 per cent.; Cholera 60 do. ; Dysentery 14 do.

On whole 5.2.

254: A few Remarks on the diseases of Seamen.

Table shewiny the relative proportion of cases of Fever, Cholera, Dysentery,
and Hepatitis among Seamen in 1844.

hc zs
lust Sie gie eae
w AS @! = inte a So
eee Bie) eames
January, Cf ce eeee eeee eeoe 4 0 1 1 (¢) 0 QO (0)
February, «- setein avis else} ong 0 0 1 O 0 0
March, ohne : as ey re? ele ¢) 1: Soak 2° 6 0 O
April, ‘ : 0-01) ts, 8 Se! 1 6
May, ee ° eee coe ee U 0°. 60 2. @) 1 O
June, ee e@ace 6 QO l 0 1 0) l @)
July, eoee eco e 5 0 0 0 4: 2a | ] 0
August, coee ° eoce eveel, 24. 0 0 8) 4 2 2 0
September, . ar Se 48 20 (0 0 QO 1 O 1 O
October, Ar aes swell. LO, © 0 O 3°90 1 O
November, --e-. sient Adve AG aires 0 O 1 O 0 0
December, i 4 = fare eraveisil a AAG OO 1 0O 0 1 0
Total, cece h2e. O}} 17. 10 29 A 9 0

N. B.—This table indicates only the vedative diffusion of diseases, i. e. their
proportion to each other during the month. In April, when cholera was epidemic,
no fever case was admitted. In July and August, Dysentery was most prevalent,
and most fatal.

Table shewing the ages of patients.

14 and under 20, Terry UR Rs
2O0randPunder oU0 wc tee ae tehotcee 181
30 and under 40, Se ie RRS CE IR A
40 and! under SOuWsi se. ee Tee ee 28
SO Uprtor SOs ree en: RRO AERIS Bee 8

Total 371

RemarRkKs.—110 more seamen were admitted in 1844 than in 1843. The general
mortality of 1843 was 7.7 per cent.—of 1844, 5.2.

Fevers.—It is exceedingly difficult to make the common
division of fever into continued and remittent, in any satis-
factory way, and it has not here been attempted.

The fevers of 1844 were generally of the common Bengal
remittent type, in nine cases out of ten with cerebral con-
gestion, and of a mild character, as might have been presum-
ed from the fact, of no fatal case having occurred during
the year. As far as treatment can be supposed to have
been influential in producing the small mortality in 1843,

A few Remarks on the diseases of Seamen. 255

1.7 per cent., and the absence of fatal cases in 1844, the
favourable results are attributable to the very sparing way in
which general blood-letting was practised, to the free use of
local bleeding and blistering, and to the early exhibition of
quinine.* In October and November there was a good deal
of gastric irritability, and the acuteness of pain in the loins
complained of by the patients was unusually great. In one
instance, after a slight attack of remittent fever, the spleen
was affected, but it was found that the patient had formerly
suffered from ague at Gravesend. Intermittent fever, as has
been remarked by others, appears to be unusual among the
seamen frequenting this port.

Small-pox.—A few cases were admitted, when this disease
was so prevalent in the earlier part of the year: all the men
had been vaccinated when children, yet it will be seen that
the proportional mortality was very great. Though it did not
occur in a hospital patient, it may not be out of place to men-
tion here a curious fact which fell under my notice in a private
patient. There was a single well-marked small-pox pustule
fully developed on the hand, at the time when the premoni-
tory fever commenced, and before there was a trace of any
eruption elsewhere.

Cholera.—lIt is a very rare thing to have an opportunity of
treating this disease in its earlier stage. A sailor usually lies
on the damp deck for some hours during the night, before his
comrades are aware of his illness; and then a few more hours
are lost by the miserable system of sending for the doctor who
has contracted to attend the ship. When a man is really
dying, it is thought time to send him ashore. Of the ten
fatal cases, seven died within nine hours after admission. In
one instance, the exciting cause appeared to have been the
drinking two table spoonsful of cream of tartar in water; in
another, the exhibition of an emetic on board ship. No satis-

* The character of the fevers must have altered much, for the mortality for the
four years ending with 1840, averaged 8 per cent. per annum.

a

ee

256 A few Remarks on the diseases of Seamen.

factory report can be given of any mode of treatment adopted
in this hospital. The hot-bath system has been tried pretty
extensively within the last two years, chiefly in cases in a
state of collapse, but it was only in one instance that it ap-
peared to be of decided benefit, and in that case it is difficult
to determine how much was due to the other remedies em-
ployed. There were two cases, which exhibited well the low
typhoid symptoms which frequently follow the acute stage of
cholera. In the first case, the efforts of the system were able,
after a long struggle, to produce a healthy re-action; in the

second they proved inadequate. An account of the last is
subjoined.*

Diet.
April 10th.—G. MansuiP: etat 34.
Had cholera three days ago, from R. Pil. Plumbi Acet. c.
which he is recovering slowly. Tongue Opio.
furred and brown, a good deal of thirst: Duo. s.s. ‘
motions frequent and watery: cuticle rais- Inject. Opiat.
ed from the abdomen, which is raw. Pulse
very weak. !
11th.—Has had constant vomiting dur- 1]th.—Haust. Acid. Hy-
ing the night, of greenish fluid: has pass-| Sago and|drocyanic. dil.
ed copious fluid stools, chiefly of bile:|brandy. Prore nata repet.
complains only of weakness and of vomit- Merid. A. Pil. Hydrarg.
ing. Ext. Hyosc. aa@ gts. v.
Tertiis horis.
Vesper.— Has only vomited twice since Vesper.—Applic. Empl.
the morning: is excessively languid, with Lytte Nuche.
some congestion of the head.
12¢h.—Has still bilious diarrhea: no 12th.—P.
vomiting.
Vesp.—No purging since morning: in
the same languid state: some vomiting
of green fluid.
13th.— Passed an immense quantity of 13th.—Mistura Crete,
bilious-looking stools: is excessively ex- cum ‘linct. Kino, post sin-
hausted, with some difficulty of breathing: gulas dejectiones.
no vomiting. Tongue cleaner.
Vesp.—Vomiting and purging both Haust. Ammon. et Spir.
stopped: excessively languid. Aither. Nitr. 2 dis horis.
14¢h.—Had only one motion last night : l4th.— Rept. Mist. Crete
voice stronger. prore nata et pil. h.s.
Vesp.—No vomiting: has had one stool : Sago.
improving.
15th.—Stationary. \5th, Vesp. —Applic. Empl.
Vesp.— Has some cough, and great dif- Lytta.
ficulty of respiration. | Repet. pil. h. s.

* We have been informed, that after the appearance of a few cases of cholera

on board ship, the practice of keeping the ports facing the east always shut, was
adopted, and no more cases occurred.

A few Remarks on the diseases of Seamen. 257

16¢h.—Chest relieved: tongue white,
and coated.

17th.—In the same languid state: mo-
tions scanty and dark.

Vesp.— Ditto: motions more natural.
18¢h.—Complains only of languor and
thirst: is slowly convalescent.

19¢k.— Ditto: heaviness about his head.

Vesp.—Head slightly relieved, but ex-
cessively weak: pulse quick: skin fever-
ish: motions yellow and watery: sore of
the blister on the abdomen large and
painful.

2Uth.—Feverish symptoms abating.

22nd. Gradually improving ; but from
excessive debility has sores on his hips:
his face covered with spots of a flat pus-
tular eruption, with an inflamed border.

23rd.—Exceedingly low, and more of
the ruppia-looking spots out: the sores and
the eruption are so painful as to prevent
his getting any rest.

25th.— Improves on the whole; but is
covered from head to foot with boils.

28th.—Many of the boils have ulce-
rated, and form nasty deep sores.

30¢h.— Excessively weak : sores spread-
ing, but not unhealthy.

May 4th.—\Improves a little, complains
of debility. Motions healthy.

9th.—Sores gradually improving, but
he continues exceedingly low: tongue dry
in the morning.

Vesp.— Has some fever: tongue brown
and dry.

1]th.—Sores healing, but continues in
a low state resembling typhus.

‘12th.—Remains excessively low, and
his head has been wandering much.

13th.—As yesterday, complains of no-
thing, but is quite delirious.

14¢i.—Continues in a state of low deli-
rium: symptoms of effusion within the
cranium: the second blister applied to
the head rose well.

Vesp.—Lower: moribund. |

15th.— Less jactitation, and appears ra-
ther more sensible: gums not affected : had
three glasses of wine.

Vesp.— Worse and lower: died in the
night.

Diet
Lemon- | 16tk,—Repet pil. h. s.

ade.
Low diet.) 1724,—R. Ol. Ricini, 3 vi.

ae Yinct. Opii, m xv.

3 bottles. Vesp.—Kepet pil. h. s.
18tk.—Infusi Gentian.

haust bis in die s.
Vesp.—Rept. pil. h. s.
19¢h.—Applic. hirud viii.
temps.

Radatur cesaries.
Vesp.—Repet pil., h. s.
20th. —Haust effery. ter in

die.
Half diet.| 22nd.—P. Haust. Quine,
Wine 3jter in die.
measures.

23rd.—R. Tinct. Opii, M1.

i. SS:

25th.—P.
26¢h—Ol. Ricini, 3yl.
Applic. Lotio Cupri Sul-
phat.
Beer 2) 30th.—P.

pints.
May 4th.— Pergat. in usum
Quine.
9th Vesp.—Omittr. Haust.
Quine.

R.Hydrarg. Chlorid. Puly.
Antim. a@ grs. lj. h. s.

ll¢k.— Liquor. Ammon.
Acetat. Misture Camphore,
aa. i. Ter in die Kepet
. Pulv. h.s.
: Applic. Empl. Lytte
hi

13th —Infric. Unguent.
Hydrarg.
Vesp.—Hydrarg. Chlorid.
rs. V.—h. s.
14th —P. et Hydr. chlorid.
grs. 1ije Tertiis horis.

15th.—P.

Sect. Cadav.—Viscera all quite healthy: no trace of disease. Brain remark-

ably firm.

258 A few Remarks on the diseases of Seamen.

REMARKS.—Manship was thus admitted on the 10th April, suffering from bilious
diarrhea. On the lIth, his head was congested: onthe 15th, there was congestion in
the thorax: 19th, the head again became affected, along with febrile symptoms:
22nd, the system began to throw out boils, which kept him low and weak. May 9th,
symptoms resembling typhus supervened, under which he succumbed on the L5th.
‘There was no effusion within the cranium, though the symptoms during life
seemed to indicate it. ‘he firmness of the cerebral substance was, I fancy, what
some authors have described, as hardening of the brain after typhus.

Dysentery.—The worst and most fatal cases of this disease
were all admitted from one ship in dock, which had a particu-
larly debauched crew. Asthe incipient stage is usually past
before men are sent to hospital, general depletion and the
means commonly employed to check the onset of the attack,
are frequently inapplicable. Indeed, as dysentery is essenti-
ally an inflammation of a mucous not of a serous surface, it
may be doubtful whether local be not often as effectual as
general depletion. As to the use of calomel, which is so
commonly employed at its onset, the general feeling of the
profession seems to be against its employment at a later
stage*, and indeed it is difficult to conceive what beneficial
influence it can exert on an ulcerated surface.

Accordingly the usual treatment in the Seaman’s Hospital
is the free exhibition of sugar of lead and opium, and it ap-
pears to answer well. As much as from nine to fifteen grains
of sugar of lead, combined with small quantities of opium, (one
or one-half grain of opium to three of sugar of lead) are given
within the twenty-four hours; and this treatment is continued
for several days, along with the free use of leeches and opiate
and sugar of lead enemata, with purgatives every other
morning, and milk diet. Perhaps in no disease is it more im-
portant, that the patient should not remain on board ship,
where his diet is sure to be neglected, and in none is attenti-
on to it so imperatively demanded. Indeed, such is the value
of milk diet, that we can readily believe that the albumen of
eggs, of late years confidently brought forward by writers
both in France and in Germany as a cure for it, may bea

* See a practical paper of Dr. Goodeve’s in the Transactions of the Medical and
Physical Society.

A few Remarks on the diseases of Seamen. 259

very useful adjuvant in the milder forms of the disease which
prevail in some parts of Kurope.

But to return to the sugar of lead treatment, it is unneces-
sary to enquire here, what shares the opium and the lead
relatively bear in the curative process; but that the sugar of
lead plays an important part we have no doubt, and we have
employed it combined with hyoscyamus very advantageously
in some chronic cases. This mode of treatment has been
tried very extensively among natives, and appeared to be very
efficacious, and convenient, as avoiding the chance of saliva-
tion. It would seem to be particularly adapted to that insidious
form of hemorrhagic dysentery, of which several cases have
of late occurred in middle aged men, characterised by the
pouring out of immense quantities of blood from the mucous
surfaces, indeed compared by some to flooding in child-birth,
but of which no well marked case has occurred. in the Howrah
Seaman’s Hospital.*

We have written at this length about sugar of lead, not as
advocating any exclusive mode of treatment, or meaning to
assert its superiority over that most admirable remedy, sul-
phate of copper, or over various others ; but having lately met
with a paper, in which, owing to its alleged bad effects when
given in small quantity in a single case, its total disuse was
recommended, we thought it as well to record that we have
used it in large doses in some 300 cases both in Europeans
and in Natives, without any of those disagreeable constitutional
effects which are attributed to its employment.

Of course after the dysenteric symptoms have begun to
subside, various alteratives are useful in aiding the bowels to

* There is no distinct account of this form of dysentery in Raleigh’s book: his
hemorrhagic form being quite different. Twining describes it, but does not seem to
regard it as the consequence of chronic disease. Several cases of it were related
to me by the late Dr. Garden, who has so recently been removed from us, when at
the height of professional eminence in Calcutta. Strong sense, high principle,
never-tiring, ever-zealous friendship, were some traits of a character, which was
most esteemed, where best known.

260 A few Remarks on the diseases of Seamen.

regain their healthy tone. Scybala, or hardened feces, are
hardly ever met with, and in the course of 1843 and 1844 no
hepatic complications were observed.

An abstract is given of the post-mortem appearances in
two cases, which differ a good deal from those usually
met with. In the first, the small amount of disease in the
colon was remarkable; in the second, the small intestines
and stomach were partially involved.

J. J——, Mtat 16, died after eight days’ illness. Sect. cadaver.

The small intestines and the colon, externally healthy and pale:
very slight inflammation of the mucous coat of the transverse colon,
which contained a lumbricus, but showed no tendency to ulceration:
from the descending colon along the sigmoid flexure to the end of the
rectum, the intestine was one mass of thickening and ulceration, in
many places yielding to the finger. Laver healthy.

a ie , Aitat 25, died after eleven days’ illness. Sect. cadaver.

Colon enormously distended with flatus, and concealing from view
the other viscera; its inner coat and that of the coecum studded
throughout their whole extent with thick-set deep ulcers, which had
in some instances almost penetrated their walls: small intestines in
many spots inflamed externally, and with some lymph effused on
their surface: healthy internally. Stomach small and shrivelled up,
with patches of red, but no ulceration on its mucous surface. Liver

sound.

Hepatitis.—The cases among seamen were all either chro-
nic or sub-acute, and easily relieved. An iron-founder was
admitted into hospital, who had burst an abscess of the liver
into his lungs, while he was at work, at which he continued
for some days after that occurrence. He died about six
weeks after with all the symptoms of phthisis, and on post
mortem examination his right lung was found completely
disorganised, and on the superior surface of the right lobe
of the liver were the remains of a superficial abscess which
was rapidly healing, having a base about the size of a crown

A few Remarks on the diseases of Seamen. 261

piece. The rest of the liver and the remaining viscera were quite
healthy. No doubt had his lungs been stronger, he would have
recovered ; though no tubercles were observed, yet he was of
a well marked strumous diathesis.

Cephalalgia.—Several of these cases were merely incipient
fevers, and were checked by the ordinary means. Some al-
lusion was made in the H. S. Hospital report for 1843,* to
several obscure cases of cerebral mischief. The following case
is a Specimen of them: they are of a very puzzling character,
and seem to resemble the earlier stage of the cases of disor-
ganisation of the brain, recorded by Dr. Green in his Hospi-
tal reports.

Diet.
J. TURNER. Aug. 12th.—Hirud. xvi.
Aug. |2¢h.— Pale and worn-out looking: temps. Pil. Calom. c Coloc.,
has been subject to severe headaches for h. s.
the last two months, and has been bled \3¢h.— Haust. Purgans.
three times for them: first attacked on Vesp.—Pil. Hydrarg. Ext.
coast of Africa fifteen months ago: gene- Hyose. aa grs. v., hes.
ral health good. Pulse natural: never re-
ceived a blow on his head. Low. |14¢2.—Empl. Lytte nuche.
14¢4.—Head much relieved, but has 15¢h.— Haust. Purgans.
still constant beating pain in it. 16¢h.—Applic. Empl. Lyttz
17th.— Head rather better. capit.
18¢h.—Complains of pain and constant 18¢2.—Haust. Purgans.
beating on the top of his head.
20¢h.— More swimming in his head. 20th.—Seton. Pil. Calom. ec:
Coloc., h. s.
2ls¢.—Pil. Calom. c. Opio,
bis in die.
25th.—Salivated, but no _ material 25¢h.— Pil. Hydrarg. Pil.
gangs in his head: seton discharges Rhei, aa grs. v-, 0. n.
reely.

28¢2.—No change. 28th.—Ol. Ricini, 3i, repet.

29¢h.— Mouth continues sore. my ane ae i Ae

13¢h.—Repet. Ol. Ricini.
R. Potass. lodid. grs. ijj. bis

Sept. 14¢h —In the same state : mouth Low. 1aeh “Vosp ee
we ° 3 cs .
15¢h.—Complains of having had violent temps

beating in his head last night. Spoon.

16¢h.—Had last night one of the fits

of which he complains; in them his head ae Cant et i
becomes quite giddy, and there is violent enta 1 a Ber
eg : : piti.
pain: no convulsions or falling down,
during the fit. Pulse slow.
17th—Slept better: bowels costive. 17th.— Pulv. Jalap. C Ais. s,
18¢h.—P. in usum Potass,
lodid. ‘
19¢2.— Head continues the same, com- 19ti.—Antimon. Potass.
plains of faintness and difficulty of breath- Tart. gr. 4 quater in die,
ing. Omitt Alia.

* In Dr. Finch’s Journal.

_

262 A few Remarks on the diseases of Seamen.

22nd.—Better: bowels costive.

26t2.— Has been better under the use
of nauseating medicine till to-day, when
his head is worse.

Vesp.— Has fever: temples throbbing.

ff Flii epes heat of head: tongue coat-
ed.

28¢h.— Ditto.

Merid. Much worse, with pain in head,
and difficulty of breathing. Great oppres-
sion at the precordia.

29th.— Head better, and pulse quieter ;
but complains much of difficulty of
breathing: tongue loaded: bowels open.
Coagulum soft, still some difficulty of
breathing.

Vesp.—Difficulty of breathing re-
lieved: skin and head still rather hot:
bowels not open. ‘Tongue dark and

coated.
39th.—Pulse quiet: skin cool: bowels

only open once.

Oct. 1st.— Vomiting came on last night,
and he has complained of constant sick-
ness since. Tongue thickly coated : bowels
not open : pulse quiet: no heatof head:
cramps in legs.

2nd.—Symptoms again relieved, but
his head has been wandering a good deal
for a day or two; cannot sleep.

Vesp.—Very restless.

3rd.—Slept well last night, and is cool
this morning. ‘Tongue remains much
coated.

4th.—Tongue much cleaner, the same
otherwise.

13th.—Has been much better since
the weather has been cooler.

20th.—Improves gradually. Ship go-
ing, discharged.

Diet.

Spoon.

Milk.

Half.

22nd.—Haust. Purgans.

Vesp.—Pulv. Ipecac. P.
Digital. aa grs. iil., h. s.

26¢th.—Hirud. vi. temps. P.

Vesp.—Hirud. xii. capiti.
Pil. Calom. c Coloc.

27th.--Haust. Purgans. Mist
Salin.

Vesp.— Pil. Hydrarg. Extr.
Hyose. aa grs. v., hes.
28¢.—Pulv. Jalap. Co Zl
Infric. Unguent. Antimon.

Merid. Hirud. xvi. temps.
Vesp.—Empl. Lytt capi-
ti; Hydr. chlorid gr. iv.
tertiis horis.—V. S. ad z
XVI.
29¢h.—Vini Ipecac.
Tinct. Hyosce.
Spirit. Ammon. Aro-
mat. aa Zs,
Mist. Camphor. Zxij.
M. ft. Mistura, &c.
Vesp.— Enema purgans.
Pil. Hydrarg, Extr.
Hyosc. aagrs. v., h.s.

30th.—Pulv. Jalap. c Jl. 8.8

Repet. pil. Calom. c Co-
loc.,h.s. Enema pur-
gans.

Ist.—Ol. Tigh. qlii., s. 5.
Sinapism abdom.

Pil. Hydrarg. Enxtr.

Hyosce. aa gts. v., h.s.

aid Cine Hyoscyam.
xl.
Mist. Camphor, ZISS. ,8.5.
Vesp.—Morphia Acet. gr. i.
h. s

3rd.— Haust. efferv. ter in
die.

Vesp.—Morphia Acet. gr. ss.
h, se
4th.—Omitt. Medic.

Remarks.—The bowels were throughout excessively costive: local applications
seemed at first to give temporary relief. Putting him under the influence of mer-
cury, did no good, nor did the seton. The iodine was not continued long enough
to be of any use, as it seemed to disagree with him. No satisfactory reason can be
assigned for his getting so much worse from the 26th to the 3rd. Vhe morphia
operated very favourably in quieting his incessant restlessness. ‘Ihe symptoms will

no doubt all return.

A few Remarks on the diseases of Seamen. 268

Apoplexy.—The patient was admitted insensible, and died in
half an hour. Post-mortem examination shewed only enlarge-
ment of the liver, which was of a light colour and fatty. There
was nothing in any degree abnormal in the contents of the
cranium.

Rheumatism.—The cases were chiefly chronic and articular ;
one was gonorrhceal, and another was accompanied with
secondary symptoms. __

Abscess.—The fatal case was a huge deep-seated abscess
in the thigh of a boy convalescent from fever, which had
separated all the muscles from their attachments to the femur.
There was considerable difficulty in getting at the seat of the
abscess, and on its contents being evacuated, he sank.

Inflammation of the eye.—The cases were, one of ordinary
conjunctivitis, one of syphilitic iritis, which came on six weeks
after a trifling sore on the prepuce had been healed, and one of
concussion of the globe with extravasation of blood into its
chambers, from a bottle being thrown at the head. Though
there is now no difference in the appearance of the two eyes,
save a slight irregularity of the iris, all useful vision is destroyed.

Lumbrict are common in seamen, but they do not appear to
be more frequent in diseases of the digestive organs, than of

others.

March 22nd, 1845.

Report on the Collection of Fossils from Southern India, presented by
C. J. Kays, Esq., F.G.8., and the Rev. W. H. Ecerton, F.G.S.
By Professor Epwarp Forsss, F.L.S.

(From the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, No. 1.)

In the descriptive catalogue accompanying this report, and refer-
ring to the remains of invertebrate animals in the valuable collection
of fossils from the South of India, presented to the Society by Mr.
Kaye, and increased by an extensive series of specimens collected
in the same localities by Mr. Egerton, 168 species of Mollusca are
enumerated, 156 of which, as far as can be ascertained, are unde-
scribed forms. There are also a number of species of Radiata.

2M

i

264 Forbes on Cretaceous Fossils from Southern India.

The results of their examination may be briefly stated as follows :—

Ist. The three deposits, viz. Pondicherry, Verdachellum, and
Trinconopoly, described by Mr. Kaye, are Cretaceous, inasmuch as
there are characteristic known cretaceous fossils in the collections
from all of them, whilst no fossils of any other system occur. The
nearest allies of the majority of the new species are cretaceous ;
and among the genera and subgenera are many which, as far as we
know, are confined to or have their chief development in the creta-
ceous system. The three deposits are connected with each other
zoologically by the associations of certain species common to two of
them, with others found in the third.

2nd. Two of the three deposits, viz. Verdachellum and Trinco-
nopoly, are of a different epoch of the Cretaceous era from the third,
Pondicherry. ‘The two former have several species in common (and
those species among the most prolific in individuals), which are not
found in the third. In them are found almost all the species identi-
cal with European forms. In several of the genera, of which there are
many species, the forms are altogether distinct; although, judging
from the evidence afforded by mineral character and association of
species, the conditions of depth and sea-bottom at the time of the
deposition of the strata seem to have been the same. The difference
therefore must have depended on a representation of species by
species 7m time and not in depth.

3rd. The beds, apparently contemporaneous, viz. Trinconopoly and
Verdachellum, may be regarded as equivalent to the upper green
sand and gault; the European species they include being either cha-
racteristic upper green sand and gault forms, or else such as occur
in those strata. The new species they contain are either closely al-
lied to known upper green sand or gault species, or peculiar to the
Indian beds.

4th. The Pondicherry deposit may be regarded as belonging to the
lowest part of the Cretaceous system. In it almost all the fossils
are new. Such as are analogous to known species are allied to fos-
sils of the lower green sand of English geologists and Neocomien
of the French. In the genus most developed in this deposit, viz.
Ammonites, three-fourths of the species belong to those subgenera
especially characteristic of the ‘‘ Lower Neocomen”’ of the Mediter-
ranean basin; whilst, of the remainder, as many representatives of

Forbes on Cretaceous Fossils from Southern India. 265

Qolitic fossils occur as of upper green sand. The resemblance
between the Ammonites of this part of the collection and those
of Castellane, in the south of France, is very remarkable, though the
specific identity of any of them is doubtful. Having seen no account
of the Conchifera of the Castellane beds, I cannot say how far the
analogy is borne out among the bivalve Mollusca among the Indian
species, of which there are many very peculiar forms.

5th. Considered in regard to the distribution of animal life during
the Cretaceous era, this collection is of the highest interest. It
shows, that during two successive stages of that era the climatal in-
fluence, as affecting marine animals, did not vary in intensity in the
Indian, European, and American regions, whilst the later of the two
had specific relations with the seas of Europe, which are absent
from the earlier. The cause of this remarkable fact is not to be
sought for in a more general distribution of animal life at one time
than at another, but rather in some great change in the distribution of
land and sea, and in a greater connection of the Indian and Euro-
pean seas during the epoch of the deposition of the upper green-
‘sand, than during that of the lower. To this cause must also be
attributed the peculiar tertiary aspect of the Indian collections,
depending on the presence of a number of forms usually regarded
as characteristic of tertiary formations, such, as Cyprza, Oliva,
Triton, Pyrula, Nerita, and numerous species of Voluta, the infer-
ence from which, since not one of the species is identical with any
known tertiary form, should not be that the deposits containing
them are either tertiary or necessarily connected with tertiary, but
that the genera in question commenced their appearance earliest in
the Eastern seas, which, when we recollect that in those very seas
at the present day, are found the great specific assemblages or capi-
tals of those genera, whilst they have either disappeared or have
few representatives in the seas of other geographical regions, is
exactly what we should expect, @ priori, to find. This fact would
go far to support the theory, that genera, like species, have geogra-
phical birth-places as well as geographical capitals.

The fact, that of the few species found in the Indian cretaceous
beds which are common to the same beds in distant regions, the ma-
jority are such as range through several deposits of different ages,
supports the probability of a law which I have elsewhere indicated,

266 Forbes on Cretaceous Fossils from Southern India.

viz. that the range of the geographical distribution of species is usually
correspondent to the range of their distribution in time.

The probability of the proposed law, that the marine fauns of
distant localities, under similar conditions of climate, depth, and sea-
bottom, maintain their relations rather by the representation of forms
by similar forms, than by identity of species, is also borne out by the
examination of these collections.

These inferences can be only put forth as provisional, until a
thorough examination of the deposits described by Mr. Kaye in their
stratigraphical relations be made, and the fossils of those localities
which he did not visit have been still! further examined on the spot.
To the paleontologist his collections are invaluable, as the specimens
are in so fine a state of preservation, as to permit of an examination
of their minute structure.

The descriptions of fifteen of the Trinconopoly species in the cata-
logues were furnished to Mr. Kaye by Mr. George Sowerby.

[ Note.— With regard to this report, it was als«) intended that it should have been
accompanied by a descriptive catalogue of the fossils, and by figures of new species,
and it is in so far, therefore, incomplete. It is published in this place as an indi-

cation of the important results actually arrived at by the study of these interesting
fossils.—Ep. ]

>

On the Permian System as developed in Russia and other parts of Eu-
rope. By RopEricx Impey Murcuisow, Hsq., F.G.S., V.P.R.S.,
and M. EK. pe Verneuit, Hon. Mem. (Zeo. Soc. of London.

(From the Quarterly Journal of the Geollogical Society, No. 1.)

On the part of his associates, M. de Verneuil and Count Key-
serling, and himself, Mr. Murchison has pireviously explained in the
Proceedings of the Geological Society the nature of the various depo-
sits which constitute the subsoil of European Russia. As in all
other parts of the world which have been adequately examined,
the Silurian rocks are those which contain the earliest forms of ani-
mal life, and in Russia they are overlaid by Devonian and carboni-
ferous deposits, each of which is there siitgularly well defined by
its organic remains and regular superposition.

Murchison on the Permian System. | 267

In common with many other geologists, Mr. Murchison was
formerly of opinion* that the above-mentioned three systems con-
stituted the whole Palxozoic series, but the examination of Russia
and Germany has led him to include also therein the next group
in ascending order, or that to which he had assignedt the name of
Permian.

When two or more conterminous formations are shown to have
a community of fossils, it has recently been deemed essential to
group them under one name; and following the practice of assign-
ing to any such newly classed group a geographical name derived
from the region where the strata are best developed, the term
“Permian” was employed. This system was first proposed to em-
brace the deposits known in Germany as the Rothe-todte-liegende,
Zechstein, Kupferschiefer, &c., and in England as Lower New Red
Sandstone, Magnesian limestone, &c.

In communicating some of the results of a journey in Poland and
Germany during last summer, Mr. Murchison, one of the authors
of the present memoirs, states that his object is to show that his first
view concerning the inferior limit of this system is correct—to ex-
tend its upper limits, and from the distribution and character of its
organic remains to demonstrate that it is of paleozoic age.

Near Zwickau in Saxony, and Waldenburg in Upper Silesia, pro-
ductive coal-fields (in the latter country recumbent on carboniferous
limestome) are unconformably surmounted by red conglomerate,
sandstone and shale (the rothe-todte-liengende), which in those
countries, as in Thuringia and Hesse Cassel, pass conformably up-
wards into Zechstein or its equivalents. The same relation of a
lower sandstone to the Magnesian limestone are, indeed, well known
in England, and have been pointed out in detail by Professor Sedg-
wick, Seeing that these two deposits are so intimately associated,
few, if any, geologists would wish to disunite them; but the ques-
tion arises, what is the uppermost limit of this group. In Russia,

* See “Silurian System,” p. 46. et seg. In England Professor Phillips has,
however, some time maintained that the fossils of the magnesian limestone ought
to be grouped with the inferior strata.

fT See ‘‘ Letter to M. Fischer Von Waldheim, Sept. 1841 ;”? Leonhard’s ‘* Jahr
Buch,”’ part i. p. 91, 1842; ‘* Phil. Magazine,”’ vol. xix, p. 418.

268 Murchison on the Permian Syslem.

beds of limestone identified with the Zechstein and Magnesian lime-
stone by their organic remains are overlaid by a great thickness
of marls, sands, and conglomerates, containing some of the same
types of life as the lower members, particularly the plants which are
very closely allied to and are in some instances identical with the
vegetables of the carboniferous era. It became therefore desirable
to ascertain whether similar paleozoic features were to be found in
other parts of Europe. Now in Thuringia and Hesse Cassel, the
Zechstein is, in numerous localities, conformably surmounted by
red and spotted sandstones, in which no traces of fossils distinct from
those of the Permian era are observable, the only land plant found in
them (the Calamites arenarius) being inseparable from well-known
carboniferous forms. This overlying sandstone being perfectly con-
formable to the Zechstein, may, it is conceived (like the overlying
sandstones of Russia), be classed with that rock. In making this
suggestion, the authors disavow the intention of derogating in any
respect from the Trias of German geologists, also a tripartite system,
and of which the muschelkalk is the centre, with certain red and |
mottled marls and sands beneath, and the keuper sandstone above.
The Triassic system does not contain a single Palzozoic form, whe-
ther animal or vegetable, whilst the fauna and flora of the Permian
are both so connected with the carboniferous and inferior systems,
that they evidently constitute the last remnant of the same era. In
the whole geological series, therefore, no two systems are more com-
pletely separated than the Permian and the Trias, the one forming
the uppermost Paleozoic stage, the other the base of the secondary
deposits.

After showing that the “‘ Grés de Vosges,” as described by M.
Elie de Beaumount, is one of the arenaceous equavalents of the
Permian system, and after alluding to its development in the neigh-
bourhood of Strasburg and in other parts of Europe, where it is well
separated from the Trias, attention is directed to the fact, that as
far as researches had yet gone, the Trias is always conformable
to the Permian, whilst the ‘“ rothe-todte-liegende,” or base of the
latter, is frequently unconformable to the carboniferous rocks on which
it rests, and out of whose detritus it has often been formed. These
phenomena, say the authors, prove that the most marked distinctions

Murchison on the Permian System. 269

between the fossils of succeeding formations cannot be referred
to physical revolutions of the surface; for in the examples cited
there is a sequence of congeneric remains, where the succession
of the strata has been powerfully interrupted (Carboniferous to
Permian), and a total change of fossils where the contiguous forma-
tions are conformable (Permian to Trias.)

These relations are expressed in this diagram :—

Keuper,. .

Muschelkalk, | mie

LoweER SECONDARY. Upper Bunter,

Soe Eh (Gres bigarre)
: Lower Bunter, ... |
UPPER PAL#OZOIC. Zechstein, ...... PERMIAN.

cme
a

Rote-todte-liegende, J

CARBONIFEROUS.

The Permian fauna is then considered, and is said to exhibit the
last of the successive alterations which the Paleozoic animals under-
went before their final disappearance. The total number of Per-
mian species known to the authors in different parts of Europe
(without reckoning certain ichthyolites not yet named, and a few
doubtful forms of shells) is 166, of which 148 are characteristic of
the system, 18 only being found in the subjacent Paleozoic rocks. The
Brachiopods being viewed as the shells of most value in determining
the durations of the ancient rocks, it is stated, that 10 out of the 30
Permian species are common to this system and the carboniferous.
After some observations on the species of Productus, Spirifer, Orthis,
Terebratula, Lepzena (Chonetes), which have lived on from earlier
periods, it is remarked that no form of the Pentamerus, a genus pe-
culiarly characteristic of the Silurian strata, has yet been found ‘in the
Permian strata, whilst the Brachiopod most frequent in the latter is
the Productus, a genus very abundant in the carboniferous or conter-
minous deposits, but unknown in the Silurian. Among the Conchifers
(26 in number) the Modiola is very characteristic of the Permian
system, both in Russia and England ; and though the large species
of Axinus so well known in England has not yet been found in
Russia, its place is there taken by two other species of the same

270 Murchison on the Permian System.

genus. The-Avicula is also a good Permian shell, the 4. Kazanensis
being the best. type in Russia, whilst the A. antiqua is there com-
mon to this deposit and the carboniferous.

The Gastoropods, so abundant in the carboniferous era have un-
dergone great diminution before the formation of the Permian stra-
ta, and had great difficulty in accommodating themselves to new
conditions ; still more so the Cephalopods, for the forms of Gonia-
tites, Nautili, and Orthoceratites, so very common in the preceding
epoch, are almost unknown in this system, a fragment or two of
one genus (Nautilus?) alone having been found in all parts of
Europe. This scarcity of Cephalopods at the close of the Paleozoic
series has a remarkable parallel in a subsequent geological period ;
for as these animals were reproduced in vast abundance and under
many new forms in the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous systems,
so towards the termination of the last of these we perceive a second
and similar disappearance of the greater number of the shelly Cephalo-
pods. The extreme reduction of the Gasterpods at the close of the
cretaceous periods, as indicated by M. Alcide D’Orbigny, is also
pointed out as an additional feature of analogy to the Permian changes.
Trilobites, so eminently characteristic ofthe Silurian system, and
which dwindle away to a few small species in the carboniferous sys-
tem, are unknown in the Permian of Western Europe, and in Russia
are only represented by a species of Limulus. Fishes, on the other hand,
are numerous in proportion to the other Permian classes, 43 or 44
species being named, and several from Russia being yet undescribed ;
these are all, with one exception, absolutely peculiar to the stratum
in which they occur, thus confirming the truth of the generalisation
of Agassiz, that these vertebrata mark with great precision the age
of the stratum in which they are found. Lastly, the Permian beds
of Russia, like the Dolomitic conglomerate of England and the
Kupferschiefer of Germany, contain bones of the codont Saurians, in-
dicating the earliest appearance of animals of that high organisation,
and their direct association with Paleeozoic shells and plants, some of
which are undistinguishable from true carboniferons species.

After thus following it back in time, the Permian fauna is next
considered in horizontal extension or distance, the fossils of Russia
being compared with those of similar age in western Europe. The

Murchison on the Permian System. — 271

number of species collected by the authors in Russia is 53, or about
one-third of the total number of the whole European fauna of the
period, and of these 32 are peculiar to Russia, a large number when
the recency and rapidity of the survey of the authors is adverted to ;
and when it is considered that 33 species only were found by
Professor Sedgwick in deposits of this age in England, and 41,
according to the recent tabular. view of Geinitx, is the total number
known in Saxony where the Zechstein is very fully elaborated.
Like other formations of synchronous age when at great distances
from each other, the Russian succession of Permian strata cannot
be brought into a detailed analogy with that of western Europe.
Instead of occupying a fixed place like the calcareous beds which
represent the Zechstein, they inosculate with great thicknesses of
fossiliferous grit, whilst Saurians and fishes with certain Producti
and Modiole, as well as most of the plants, unquestionably occur in
conglomerates, tufaceous limestone, and marls, which overlie the
beds which contain Zechstein or Magnesian limestone fossils. In
Germany, the Protorosaurus belongs to the Cupfer-schiefer which is
below the Zechstein, whereas in Russia all the cupriferous and
sauroid beds are above that rock.

In analysing the species common to the Permian system. of
Russia and the rest of Europe (by stating the number which have
lived on from the carboniferous to the Permian, and the diminished
proportion of the latter), Russia alone is appealed to, and three only
of the Permian species of that country are found to descend into
the Palceozoic rocks. The authors, therefore, infer that these results
necessarily prove the existence of a relation between the greater or
less duration of species and their propagation or extension to distant

parts, thus confirming a law previously announced by one of them.

Some detailed observations then follow on the species in each
class found in Russia, and Mr. Lonsdale is cited as having assured
them that although the Permian corals are evidently Palzeozoic in
their generic characters, there is not a single species which is identical
with a carboniferous form ; and it is also remarked that of 20 species
of Brachiopods found in Russia, 8 are peculiar to that country.

Lastly, deriving their knowledge of the specific character of the
plants from the examination of M. Adolphe Brogniart, aided by Mr.
2N

oe

272 Murchison on the Permian System.

Morris, who had previously examined them, it appears certain, that
whilst all the forms indicate a continuation of vegetable life of the same
nature as that which prevailed during the carboniferous era, there
are a few species (Neuropteris tenuifolta Lepidodendrom elonyatum,
and Calamites Suckovii) which are identical with carboniferous plants,
and not one which can be compared with a triassic plant.*

The results of the inquiries of the botanists, the authors conclude
by remarking, are therefore completely in accordance with those
of the paleontologist. They clearly prove that the Permian system
is the uppermost stage of that long Palzeozoic series, which, com-
mencing with the lowest Silurian rocks, presents a connected suc-
cession of animal and vegetable life, the last traces of which passed
away with the termination of the strata under review. Until
Russia was explored, the upper member of these ancient rocks
had scarcely afforded a trace of terrestrial plants. Neither in the
British Isles nor in Germany had there been found more than one
or two species of land plants in deposits of this age, not one of
which has yet been fully identified or described. Now in reference
to the Russian species, such of them as had been previously alluded
to by other writers were placed by some in the carboniferous rocks,
by, others in the New Red Sandstone.t Our sections, however,
have shown that neither of these views is correct ; and as the Russian
plants to which we have called attention, occur for the most part in
strata distinctly overlying beds containing the fossils of the Zechstein,
it is clear that certain red sandstones, marls and conglomerates,
above that rock, belong to our Permian group, are wholly distinct
from the Trias, and are truly Paleozoic.

We repeat, therefore, that we have now adduced ample botanical
as well as zoological and stratigraphical evidence to vindicate the

* The species of plants, ten or twelve in number, which have been found in the
Kupfer-schiefer or the sandy beds associated with the Zechstein in Germany, are
chiefly marine fucoids, and have been termed Caulerpites. According to M.
Adolphe Brogniart, the only terrestrial plants of the German strata are the
Teniopteris Echardi (Germar), and a Neuropteris mentioned by Naumann, which
not being determined must be considered doubtful.

t See a very recent memoir by M. Yasikoff, ‘‘ Bull. de Moskou,”’ 1843, part ii.
p- 237, in which he refers an interesting portion of the Permian rocks described
by us upon the Kama, and between that river and the Sok, either to the New Red
Sandstone or the Carboniferous Limestone.

Murchison on the Permian System. 275

application of the collective word Permian to a succession of strata
which had not been previously united through their geological
relations and organic contents.

These proofs will, we trust, be considered as still more strongly
borne out by the grandeur of the phenomena to which we have ap-
pealed; for the Permian deposits of Russia repose upon carbonifer-
ous strata throughout more than two-thirds of a basin which has a
circumference of not less than 4000 English miles.

A detailed tabular list of the animal remains of the Permian
system in Europe was also given, mentioning the names of the
authors who have described each species, the localities at which it
has been found, and its vertical range in the Paleozoic series. This
table will appear ‘‘ in extenso’’ in the forthcoming work upon Russia,
and in the meantime the following recapitulation is subjoined: but
the authors express their regret that their table was drawn up with-
out the benefit of the long-promised assistance of Professor Agassiz,
His observations on a few of the Permian ichthyolites which were
submitted to him will increase the number of that class of fossils.

Recapitulation of the Fauna of the Permian System in Europe.

o |o§ |& | Species found in Russias
i=") jor Bm! —
ma |, 8 ls 0 en
10 So Bl = {Previously found
Me om Bac P elsewhere.
2 Bed Seti orig Syn oh eRe a bene v
a. ealfoalssise |EEs/Eo 2/25 -
~~ Sa) de 5) a ten ae n=
gPoisselea| 2.2 ec 2elsss
VIBRMIlOBWFJloxH 3h = esi |igeeee ee
B/SS/RSayeS| Bssgs|sac| "as
Ole |n ND BanyrS S &
Polyparia «. 2 o- PY 7 (hie (3) 13 2 3 1? 2
Echinodermata... «2 «+ of 2| 2 if 1
Conchifera, Ord. Brachiopoda| 7| 30 20 10 8 3 4 5
————— Ord. Dimyaria ..|10| 26 | 26 8 3
————— Ord. Monomyaria| 5] 16 | 15 ] 4 3
Mollusca, Ord. Gasteropoda |1]} 22 19 3 3
—————Ord. Cephalopoda | 1| 3 3 i
Annelida ee ee oe eece ] 2 2
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274

Fourteenth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science. York, September 16.
[From the Athenzeum,—Continued from page 147. ]

The President’s Address.

The noble Lord, to whose office I succeed, and who has introduced
me to your notice, has spoken of me in terms, which, however flat-
tering to my pride, I can only accept as the expression of his friend-
ship and good-will ; and I hope he will permit me to add, that whilst
there are few persons for whose character and attainments I feel a
more sincere respect, there is none whose favourable opinion I
should be more anxious to merit. The members of the Association
who were present at the meeting at Cork can bear witness to the
courteous, dignified, and able manner in which he discharged the
duties of his office, whilst others, who, like myself, had the oppor-
tunity of seeing them, could not fail to be deeply impressed with the
magnificent works which are accomplished or in progress at his noble
residence at Birr Castle. Whatever met the eye was upon a gigantic
scale ; telescopic tubes through which the tallest man could walk
upright ; telescopic mirrors, whose weights are estimated not by pounds
bute by tons, polished by steam power with almost inconceivable ease
and rapidity, and with a certainty, and accuracy, and delicacy, exceed-
ing the most perfect productions of the most perfect manipulation ;
structures, for the support of the telescope and its machinery, more
lofty and massive than those of a Norman keep ; whilst the same ar-
rangements which secure the stability of masses which no ordinary
crane could move, provide likewise for their obeying the most delicate
impulse of the most delicate finger, or for following the stars in their
course, through the agency of clock-work, with a movement so steady
and free from tremors, as to become scarcely perceptible when in-
creased a thousand fold by the magnifying powers of the eye-glass.

The instruments, which were mounted and in operation at the time —

of my visit, exceeded in optical power, and in the clearness and
precision of their definition of celestial objects, the most perfect pro-
ductions of the greatest modern artists ; and though much had been
then accomplished, and great difficulties had been overcome, by a
rare combination of mechanical, chemical, and mathematical skill and

Proceedings of the British Association. 275

knowledge, in the preparation for mounting the great telescope of
six feet diameter and fifty-four feet focal length, yet much remained
to be done : but I am quite sure that the members of the Association
will learn with unmixed satisfaction, that the noble Lord has entirely
succeeded in his great undertaking—that the great telescope has al-
ready made its essay, and that its performance is in every way satis-
factory, and that he proposes to communicate to the Mathematical
and Physical Section in the course of the present meeting, an account
of the process which he has followed in the preparation and _polish-
ing of his mirrors, and of the expedients which he has adopted for
bringing under the most perfect control the movement of the vast
masses with which he has had to deal.

It is now more than sixty years since the elder Herschel, by the
superior optical and space-penetrating powers of his telescope, began
a brilliant career of astronomical discovery ; and the interest which
the construction of his great forty-foot reflector, a memorable monu-
ment of his perseverance, genius and skill, excited-amongst men of
science of that period, was not, if possible, less intense than what
now attaches to the similar enterprise of the noble Lord: nor were
the expectations which were thus raised disappointed by the result ;
for though this noble instrument was generally reserved for the great
and state occasions of astronomy only, requiring too great an expen-
diture of time and labour to be producible for the daily business of
observation, yet the very first time it was directed to the heavens it
discovered the 7th satellite of Saturn, and contributed in no inconsi-
derable degree to the more complete development of those views of
the construction of the heavens (I use his own expression) which his
cotemporaries never sufficiently appreciated, but which present and
future ages will probably regard as the most durable monument of
his fame. It is no derogation to the claims of this great discoverer
that art and knowledge are progressive, or that a successor should
have arisen, who, following in the track which he has pointed out,
should bring a considerable zeal and more ample means to prepare
the way for another great epoch in the history of astronomical dis-
covery ; and I know that I do not misstate the sentiments of the ac-
complished philosopher who has succeeded to his name and honours,
and who throughout his life has laboured with such exemplary filial

276 Proceedings of the British Association.

piety, and such distinguished success, in the development and ex-
tension of his father’s views, that no one takes a deeper or a more
lively interest in the success of this noble enterprise, and no one
rejoices more sincerely in the vast prospects of discovery which it
opens. .
Gentlemen, it is now thirteen years since the British Association
held its first meeting in this ancient and venerable city, under the
presidency of the noble Earl, who is always the first to offer his ser-
vices in the promotion of the interests of science, and of every good
and useful undertaking ; it was in this city that its constitution and
laws were first organized, and it is by these laws, for which we are
chiefly indebted to the excellent sense and judgment of Mr. William
Vernon Harcourt, with very unimportant changes, the Association
has continued to be governed. It is in conformity with the spirit
of these laws, that we should seek to co-operate, and not to interfere
with other Societies which have pursuits and objects in common with
our own; that we should claim no right to the publication of
memoirs which are read at our Sections, and which are not prepared
at our request ; that we should endeavour to concentrate and direct
the influence of the public opinion of men engaged or interested in
the pursuits of science, in favour of such objects, and such objects
only, as they agree in considering important for its interests; and
above all, that we should avail ourselves of the advantages which we
possess in the extensive range of our operations, and in our indepen-
dence of particular societies and particular localities, of organizing
and carrying into effect well-digested systems of co-operative labour.
Again, our meetings were also designed to bring men who are
engaged in common pursuits, and interested in common objects, into
closer union and more frequent intercourse with each other; to en-
courage the more humble and less generally known cultivators of
science, by bringing their labours under the notice of those men who
are best able to appreciate and to give currency to their value; to
enable our members to see, in the places which they visited, where
all establishments are, with rare exceptions, most liberally thrown
open to their inspection, whatever is most remarkable in the pro-
duction of their manufactures, in the principles and construction of
their machinery, in their collections connected with art or the na-

Proceedings of the British Association. ett

tural sciences, in their public establishments for charity or educa-
tion, in the moral or physical condition of their inhabitants, or what-
ever other objects their neighbourhood presents, which may interest
the antiquary, the geologist, or the lover of picturesque scenery ;—
we may venture to add, likewise, that they were designed for pur-
poses of social as well as of philosophical recreation, a consideration
of no small importance with men whose occupations are frequently
monotonous and laborious, and such as require the occasional
stimulus of change and variety.

In accordance with these views, we have visited in their turn the
most remarkable localities of the three kingdoms, including the uni-
versities of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the great seats of our
manufacturing industry, the great marts of our commerce. It is not
necessary for me to speak of the success which has marked our progress.
The numbers who have attended our meetings have been always large,
and sometimes so great as to embarrass our proceedings, from the
difficulty of finding adequate rooms to receive them. The communi-
cations which have come under the notice of our several Sections, have
continued to increase in importance and interest, more particularly
since the great co-operative inquiries of our body have come into full
operation. We have been enabled, by the application of our funds,
to complete some, and to forward many, scientific enterprises, of the
highest importance and value; and I see no reason to apprehend
that the future meetings of the British Association will not continue
to advance in scientific interest, or will cease to exercise a most
powerful influence in originating and promoting scientific labours
which will equally tend to promote the interests of knowledge and
the honour of the empire.

The founders of the British Association justly conceived, that
men of different shades of political opinion or religious belief would
rejoice in the opportunities which such meetings would afford them
of coming together, as it were, upon neutral ground, where their
natural warfare would, for a season at least, be suspended, and no
sounds be heard but those of peace. They felt persuaded that the
softening influence of mutual intercourse would tend to soothe the
bitterness of party strife, and would expose to view points of contact
and union, even between those whom circumstances had most vio-

27 Proceedings of the British Association.

lently estranged from each other, and show them that the features of
the monsters of their apprehension were not so repulsive as their
imaginations or intolerance had drawn them. I know that there are
some zealots who are ready to denounce the interchange of the com-
monest charities of life with those whose opinions, however honestly
and conscientiously formed, they believe to be unfounded or danger-
ous; but there is a wide and fundamental distinction between the
condemnation of opinions and of the persons who hold them; and
though I should be far from advocating that spurious and false liber-
ality which should assume, that in the selection of friends, or even
in the ordinary intercourse of society, there should be a total sup-
pression of all that is distinctive, both of profession and of opinion,
yet there are numberless occasions on which we can neither notice
them or know of their existence, without the violation of all those
rules of courtesy and good-breeding, which the most scrupulous
regard for the integrity of our Christian profession and for the best
interests of mankind would equally teach us to practise and to
respect.

It was with a view of securing this neutral ground as the exclusive
basis of their operations, that the founders of the Association cauti-
ously guarded against any extension of its boundaries which might
tend to admit new claimants to its occupation. They did not attempt
to define the precise limits at which accurate science terminates and
speculation begins, but they endeavoured to keep sufficiently within
them to prevent the intrusion of discussions which might disturb the
peace of our body or even endanger its existence ; experience has
fully established the wisdom of this law, and the absolute necessity of
a rigid adherence to its provisions.

In returning to the scene of our first labours, the place of our na-
tivity, but not of our childhood, it becomes us, as grateful children,
to acknowledge our filial obligations to our founders. A reference to
the list of these presents, as might be expected after a lapse of
thirteen years, some very distinguished names, who have been lost to
science. In their number we find the name of Mr. W. Smith, who
first received at our meetings the ample recognition of the value
of those original and unaided researches, which entitle him to be
considered as the father of English Geology; of Dr. Lloyd, Provost

— =. ——

Proceedings of the British Association. 279

of Trinity College, Dublin, the father of our excellent colleague
Prof. Lloyd, and the founder of that truly illustrious school of accu-
rate science in that university, which has given to the world a
Robinson, a Hamilton, and a M‘Culloch; of Sir J. Robison, who
inherited from his father, the well-known Prof. Robison, his taste
for science and its application to the arts; of Dr. Henry, one of our
most distinguished chemists, and only second in reputation to his
fellow townsman, Dr. Dalton, whose very recent loss we have occa-
sion to deplore, and whose name, under such circumstances, it would
be unbecoming to mention in merely a passing notice.

Dr. Dalton was one of that vigorous race of Cumberland yeomen
amongst whom are sometimes found the most simple and primitive
habits and manners combined with no inconsiderable literary or sci-
entific attainments. From teaching a school as a boy in his native
village of Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, we find him at a subse-
quent period similarly engaged at Kendal, where he had the society
and assistance of Gough, the blind philosopher, and a man of very
remarkable powers, and of other persons of congenial tastes with his
own. In 1793, when in his 23rd year, he became Professor of Ma-
thematics and Natural Philosophy in the New College in Mosley
Street, Manchester, a situation which he continued to hold fora
period of six years, and until the establishment was removed to this
city, when he became a private teacher of the same subjects, occupy-
ing for the purposes of study and instruction the lower rooms of the
Literary and Philosophical Society in George Street, rarely quitting
the scene of his tranquil and unambitious labours, beyond an annual
visit to his native mountains, with a joint view to health and meteo-
rological observations. He made his first appearance as an author in
a volume of ‘ Meteorological Observations and Essays,’ which he pub-
lished in 1793, and which contains the germ of many of his subse-
quent speculations and discoveries ; and his first views of the Atomic
Theory, which must for ever render his name memorable as one of
the great founders of chemical philosophy, were suggested to him
during his examination of olefiant gas and carburetted hydrogen
gas. His theory was noticed in lectures which he delivered at Man-
chester in 1803 and 1804, and much more explicitly in lectures deli-
vered at Edinburgh and Glasgow ; it was, however, first made gene-

20

280 Proceedings of the British Association.

rally known to the world in Dr. Thomson’s Chemistry in 1807, and
was briefly noticed in his own system of chemistry which appeared
in the following year; and though his claims to this great generaliza-
tion were subject to some disputes both at home and abroad, yet in
a very short time both the doctrine and its author were acknowledged
and recognized by Wollaston, Davy, Berzelius, and all the great che-
mists in Europe. But the atomic theory is not the only great con-
tribution to chemical science which we owe to Dalton ; he discovered
cotemporaneously with Gay-Lussac, with whom many of his re-
searches run parallel, the important general law of the expansion of
gases—that for equal increments of temperature, all gases expand by
the same portion of their bulk, being about three-eighths in proceed-
ing from the temperatures of freezing and boiling water. His con-
tributions to meteorology were also of the most important kind. Dr.
Dalton was not a man of what are commonly called brilliant talents,
but of a singularly clear understanding and plain practical good
sense ; his approaches to the formation of his theories were slow and
deliberate, where every step of his induction was made the object of
long-continued and persevering tnought; but his convictions were
oased upon the true principles of inductive philosophy, and when once
formed, were boldly advanced and steadily maintained. It is always
unsafe, and perhaps unwise to speculate upon the amount of good
fortune which is connected with the time and circumstances of any
great discovery, with some view to detract from the credit of its
author; and it has been contended that Wollaston, Berzelius and
others, were already in the track which would naturally lead to this
great generalization ; but it has been frequently and justly remarked,
that if philosophy be a lottery, those only who play well are ever
observed to draw its prizes.

>

“Though Dalton’s great discovery,” says the historian of the
Inductive Sciences, ‘‘ was soon generally employed, and universally
spoken of with admiration, it did not bring to him anything but bar-
ren praise, and he continued in his humble employment when his
fame had filled Europe, and his name become a household word in
the laboratory. After some years he was appointed a corresponding
member of the Institute of France, which may be considered as a

European recognition of the importance of what he had done; and

Proceedings of the British Association. 281

in 1826, two medals for the encouragement of science having been
placed at the disposal of the Royal Society by the King, one of them
was assigned to Dalton, ‘ for his development of the atomic theory.’
In 1833, at the meeting of the British Association for the advance-
ment of Science, which was held at Cambridge, it was announced
that the King had bestowed upon him a pension of 150/.; at the
preceding meeting at Oxford, that University had conferred the
degree of Doctor of Laws, a step the more remarkable since he be-
longed to the sect of Quakers. At all the meetings of the British
Association he has been present, and has always been surrounded
with the reverence and admiration of all who feel any sympathy with
the progress of science. May he long remain among us, thus to
remind us of the vast advance which chemistry owes to him.” This
was written in 1837, the year in which a severe attack of paralysis
seriously impaired his powers; he last appeared among us at Man-
chester, when he received the respectful homage of the distinguished
foreigners and others who were there assembled ; he died on the 27th
of July last, in the 78th year of his age. His funeral, which was
public, was attended by all classes of the inhabitants, who felt justly
proud of being the fellow-citizens of so distinguished a man.

I now proceed to notice some other topics which are connected
with the distribution of the funds, and the general conduct of the
affairs of the Association. Like other bodies, we have had our peri-
ods of financial prosperity and decline; and like other bodies, we
have sometimes drawn more freely upon our resources, than their
permanent prospects would justify. The statement which will be
read to you by our excellent treasurer, (see ante, p. 882) will show,
that during the last year our capital has been reduced: the great
number of life subscribers, which at one time rapidly augmented our
resources, has a natural and necessary tendency to reduce our annual
subscriptions, at every succeeding meeting; and some alterations in
the conditions of admission for those inhabitants of the places where
we are received, who are not likely to follow the farther movements
of the Association, have not tended to swell our receipts, though ren-
dered, at the time, necessary by the great numbers who crowded
inconveniently some of our sectional meetings.

I regret to find that some currency has been given to the notion,—
which I believe to be altogether erroneous and unfounded,—that a

282 Proceedings of the British Association.

large excess of income above our necessary expenditure, which may be
devoted to the promotion of scientific researches and scientific objects,
is essential to the successful working of the business of the Associa-
tion, and that our movements should therefore be always directed to
those places, where our coffers are most likely to be filled. It may
be quite true, that the objects of the Association are most certainly
and effectually promoted by going to those places which are likely to
attract the largest concourse of scientific visitors, and that our fi-
nances thus become immediately dependent upon our general prosperi-
ty: but if, under any circumstances, these two principles of selection
should ever come into collision with each other, there can be no
doubt to which of them our preference should be given; and though
I think we should very imperfectly accomplish the design of our in-

stitution, if our tour of visits did not comprehend, in their turn, —

every important district in the three kingdoms, yet it would be not
only unadvisable, but dangerous even to our very existence, if we
fixed our standard in any locality which did not present a reasonable
prospect of procuring the requisite scientific supplies, and of not
sustaining the union, as well as vigorous action of the body to which
we belong.

There are some great principles which have generally governed
the Committee of Recommendations, in recommending, and the Ge-
neral Committee in confirming grants of money for scientific objects,
which I hope we shall never lose sight of : that no part of our funds
should ever be applied to defray the personal expenses, or to com-
pensate the loss of time or labour of any of our members, in making
researches or experiments, even when they are undertaken or made
at the request of the Association: that they should not be granted
for the general promotion of this or that branch of science, but for
specific and well-defined objects: that in no case should they be
applied to make a bookselling or other speculation remunerative,
which would otherwise not be so: that the results of inquiries which
are carried on, partly or wholly at our charge, should so far belong
to the Association, as to secure its just claim to the scientific credit,
which they are calculated to confer. I know that some of these
principles have been, in some instances, partially departed from,
under very pressing and peculiar circumstances ; but the remem-
brance of the discussions to which some claims of this nature have

'

Proceedings of the British Association. 283

given rise, which it was improper to grant, but difficult and painful
to refuse, has tended to confirm my own impression, not merely of
the wisdom of these important rules, but likewise the almost impe-
rative necessity of adhering to them.

It was at the memorable meeting of the Association at Newcastle,
a period of great financial prosperity, that it was resolved to recom-
mend and to undertake a very extensive system of astronomical re-
ductions and catalogues: the first was the republication, under a
greatly extended and much more complete form, of the Astronomical
Society’s catalogue, exhibiting the latest and most accurate results
of astronomical observation, reduced to a common epoch, with the
permanent co-efficients for their reduction, which the Nautical
Almanac does not supply. The second was the reduction of all the
stars in the Histoire Céleste of Lalande, nearly 47,000 in number,
containing the most complete record which existed 60 years ago of
the results of observation, and affording, therefore, an interval of
time so considerable, as to enable astronomers, by comparing them
with their positions as assigned by modern observations, to determine
their proper motions and other minute changes, almost independently
of the errors of observation : a third, was a similar reduction of stars
in the Celum Stelli-ferum Australe, of Lacaille, 8700 in number,
which had assumed an unusual degree of importance from the recently
completed survey of the southern hemisphere by Sir John Herschel,
and the establishment of observatories at Paramatta and the Cape.

Another work of still greater expense and labour, was the reduc-
tion and publication of the Planetary and Lunar Observations at
Greenwich, from the time of Bradley downwards, which was under-
taken by the Government at the earnest application of a committee of
the Association appointed for that purpose, and acting in conjunction
with the Royal Society. This great undertaking has been nearly
brought to a conclusion under the systematic and vigilant superin-
tendence of the Astronomer-Royal.

The publication of these works must form a great epoch in astro-
nomy ; and though the expense to which it has exposed the Associa-
tion has been very considerable, and will amount, when completed, to
nearly 3000/., yet it cannot fail to prove a durable monument of the
salutary influence which it has exercised upon the progress of science.

284: Proceedings of the British Association.

The catalogues of Lacaille and Lalande are to be printed and publish-
ed, as is already known to you, at the expense of Her Majesty’s
Government; and the first, which has been prepared under the
superintendence of Prof. Henderson, is nearly complete. The cata-
logue of Lalande and the British Association catalogue, were placed
under the superintendence of Mr. Francis Baily ; and in referring to
the irreparable loss, which astronomical science has so recently sus-
tained by his death, I should neither do justice to my own feelings nor
to yours, if I did not detain you for a few moments,

Mr. Baily was, undoubtedly, one of the most remarkable men
of his time. It was only in 1825, that he retired from the Stock
Exchange, with an ample fortune, and with a high character for
integrity and liberality ; but his subsequent career almost entirely
belongs to astronomy, and is one of almost unexampled activity and
usefulness. ‘The Astronomical Society was organized by him, and
throughout life he was the most considerable contributor to its Me-
moirs. The catalogue of the Astronomical Society, the funds for
which were contributed by several of its members, was entirely
formed under his superintendence, and we are chiefly indebted to his
exertions for the more ample development which the Nautical
Almanac has latterly received, and which has added so much to
its usefulness. There was no experimental research connected with
the more accurate determinations of astronomy or physical science,
which was not generally intrusted to his care: the publication of the
Pendulum Observations of Capt. Foster, which were confided to him
by the Admiralty, gave occasion to the most complete series of
pendulum experiments which had ever been made, in which many
most important defects of those instruments were first brought to
light: he undertook the repetition of the celebrated experiment of
Mr. Cavendish, and his discussion of the whole question, which forms
a recent volume of ‘The Memoirs of the Astronomical Society,’ is a
monument not less honourable to his patience, perseverance, and skill,
than to the sagacity and accuracy of the great philosopher who first
devised it. He had also undertaken, for the Commission of Weights
and Measures, the conduct of the process for forming the new
standard yard from the scale of the Astronomical Society, which he
had himself compared with the imperial standard yard, destroyed in

Proceedings of the British Association. 285

the burning of the Houses of Parliament. He published, at the
request of the Admiralty, the correspondence and catalogue of
Flamsteed ; he presented to the Astronomical Society, a volume con-
taining the catalogues of Ptolemy, Ulugh, Beigh, Tycho Brahe, He-
velius and Halley, with learned prefaces and critical notes, showing
their relations to each other and to later catalogues. His preface
and introduction to the British Association Catalogue, and more
than one-third of the catalogue itself are printed ; and from the
critical examination of the authorities, upon which his assumed
positions rest, and from the careful distribution of the stars which
are selected (more than 8000 in number) in those parts of the
heavens where they are likely to be most useful to observers as
points of comparison, it promises to be the most important contribu-
tion to the cause of practical astronomy, which has been made in
later times. The whole of the stars of the Histoire Céleste are
reduced, and a considerable portion (more than one-fifth) printed,
but it is not known whether the introductory matter which, from
him, would have been so important, was prepared at the time of his
death. Mr. Baily was the author of the best Treatise on Life Annui-
ties and Insurances which has yet appeared, as well as of several
other publications on the same subject. His knowledge of the
mathematicians of the English school was very sound and complete,
though he had never mastered the more refined resources of modern
analysis. In the discussion of the Cavendish and other experiments,
he freely availed himself of the assistance of the Astronomer-Royal,
and Mr. De Morgan, in the investigation of formule which were
above his reach; but he always applied them in a manner which
showed that he thoroughly understood their principle, and was fully
able to incorporate them with his own researches. In the midst of
these various labours, (and the list, which I have given of them,
ample as it is, comprehends but a small part of their number), Mr.
Baily never seemed to be particularly busy or occupied: he entered
freely into Society, entertaining his scientific as well as mercantile
friends at his own house with great hospitality. He was rarely
absent from the numerous scientific meetings of committees and
councils—he was a member of all of them,—which absorb so large a
portion of the disposable leisure of men of science in London: but if a

286 Proceedings of the British Assoctation.

work or inquiry was referred to him, it was generally completed in a
time which would seem hardly sufficient for other men to make the
preliminary investigation. Most of this was undoubtedly owing to
his admirable habits of system and order: to his always doing one
thing at one time: to his clear and precise estimate of the extent of
his own powers. Though healways wrote clearly and well, he never
wrote ambitiously : and though he almost always accomplished what
he undertook, he never affected to execute or to appear to execute,
what was beyond his powers. This was the true secret of his great
success, and of his wonderful fertility ; and it would be difficult to
refer to a more instructive example of what may be effected by prac-
tical good sense, systematic order, and steady perseverance.

It was the same meeting at Newcastle which gave rise to the
design for the greatest combined scientific operation in which the
Association has ever been engaged for the extension of our knowledge
of the laws of magnetism and meteorology.

It was the publication of Colonel Sabine’s Report on the variations

of the magnetic intensity at different points of the earth’s surface, and
the map which accompanied it, which appeared in our volume for 1837,
which first enabled the celebrated Gauss to assign provisionally the
co-efficients of his series for expressing the magnetic elements; the
proper data of theory are the values of the magnetic elements, at
given points uniformly and systematically distributed over the surface
of the earth: and it was for the purpose of supplying the ac-
knowledged deficiency of these data, and of determining the laws
which regulated the movements of this most subtle and mysterious
element, the Association was induced to appoint a committee to
apply, in conjunction with the Royal Society, to her Majesty’s
Government, to make a magnetical survey of the highest accessible
altitudes of the Antarctic seas, and to institute fixed magnetical and
meteorological observatories at St. Helena, the Cape, Hobarton, and
Toronto, in conjunction with a normal establishment at Greenwich,
and in connexion with a great number of others on the continent of
Europe ; where systematic and simultaneous observations could be
made which would embrace not only the phenomena of magnetism,
but those of meteorology also: it is not necessary to add that the
application was promptly acceded to. ‘The views and labours of the

Proceedings of the British Association. 287

framers of this magnificent scientific operation ; the brilliant prospects
of discovery which it opened ; the noble spirit of co-operation which
it evoked in every part of the civilized world, were alluded to in
terms so eloquent and so just, in the opening address of Mr. W.
Vernon Harcourt, when occupying this chair at Birmingham [see
Athen. No. 618], that I should do little justice to them if I employed
any terms but his own, and I must content myself with simply re-
ferring to them. Much of what was then anticipated, has been
accomplished, much is in progress, and much remains to be done ;
but the results which have already been obtained have more than
justified our most sanguine expectations.

Sir James Ross has returned without the loss of a man, without
a seaman on the sick list, after passing three summers in the
Antarctic seas, and after making a series of geographical discoveries
of the most interesting and important nature, and proving, in the
language of the address to which I have just referred, that for a
man, whose mind embraces the high views of the philosopher with
the intrepidity of the sailor, no danger, no difficulty, no incon-
venience could damp his ardour or arrest his progress, even in those
regions where

Stern famine guards the solitary coast,
And winter barricades the realms of frost.

The scientific results of the first two years of this remarkable
voyage have been discussed and published by Col. Sabine in his con-
tributions to Terrestrial Magnetism in the Transactions of the Royal
Society ; and they are neither few nor unimportant. They have shown
that observations of declination, dip, and intensity, the three magnetic
elements, may be made at sea with as much accuracy as on land, and
that they present fewer anomalies from local and disturbing causes :
that the effects of the ship’s iron are entirely due to induced magne-
tism, including two species of it,—-one instantaneous, coincident with
and superadded to the earth’s magnetism, and the other a polarity
retained for a shorter or longer period, and transferable therefore
during its operation by the ship’s motion from one point of space to
another: that in both cases they may be completely eliminated by
the observations and formule which mathematicians have proposed
for that purpose : no intensity greater than 2.1 was observed ; and the
2 P

ao

288 Proceedings of the British Association.

magnetic lines of equal declination, dip, and intensity, were found to
differ greatly from those laid down in Gauss’s Theoretical Map, the
northern and southern hemispheres possessing much greater resem-
blance to each other than was indicated by that primary and neces-
sarily imperfect essay of the theory.

The range of Sir James Ross’s observations extends over more than
three-fourths of the navigable parts of the southern seas; and you
will learn with pleasure that one of his most efficient officers, Lieut.
Moore, has been despatched from the Cape, with a vessel under his
command, to complete the remainder.

Nothing could exhibit in a more striking light the completeness
of the organization and discipline of the system of magnetic
observations, than the observations of the great magnetic storm
on the 25th of September 1841; it was an event for which no
preparation could be made, and which no existing theory could pre-
dict ; yet so vigilant and unremitting was the watch which was kept,
that we find it observed through nearly its whole extent, and its lead-
ing circumstances recorded, at Greenwich, and in many of the observa-
tories on the continent of Europe, at Toronto, St. Helena, the Cape,
Hobarton, and at Trevandrum in Travancore ; for even the mediatized
princes of the East have established observatories, as not an unbecoming
appendage to the splendour of their courts. Some of the observations
of this remarkable phenomenon, and of many others (twenty-seven in
number) of a similar nature, have been discussed, with great care
and detail, by Colonel Sabine, and lead to very remarkable conclu-
sions. They are not absolutely simultaneous at distant stations,
nor do they present even the same succession of phases, as at first
anticipated ; and it is the disturbances of the higher order only
which can be considered as universal. They are modified by season
as well as by place, the influence of winter, in one hemisphere, and
of summer in the other, on the same storm, being clearly distin-
guishable from each other. The simultaneous movements in Europe
and America have been observed to take place sometimes in opposite,
and sometimes in the same directions, as if the disturbing cause was
in one case situated between these continents, and in the other not ;
and we may reasonably expect, when our observatories are furnished

with magnetometers of sufficient sensibility to indicate instantane-

i

Proceedings of the British Association. 289

ously the effects of disturbing causes, that the localities in which they
originate may be determined : these are very remarkable conclusions,
and well calculated to show the advantages of combined observa-
tions ; for such inquiries, observations in a single and independent
locality, however carefully they may be made, are absolutely value-
less.

The meteorological observations are made, in all these observato-
ries, on the same system, and with equal care with those of magnet-
ism ; they embrace the mean quantities, diurnal and annual variations
of the temperature, pressure of the atmosphere, tension of the aque-
ous vapour, the direction and force of the wind, with every extraor-
dinary departure from the normal condition of these elements, as
well as auroral and other phenomena. It would be premature to
speak of the conclusions which are likely to be deduced from these
observations, inasmuch as the reduction and comparison of them
have hitherto made little progress, but they cannot fail to be highly
important ; for it is by the comparison of observations such as these,
made with reference to a definite system, with instruments construct-
ed upon a common principle, and carefully compared with each
other, and by such means alone, that the science of meteorology can
be not only advanced but founded. Our philosophical records have
for the last century been deluged with meteorological observations ;
but they have been made with instruments adapted to no common
principle, compared with no common standard, having reference to
no station but their own, and even, with respect to it, possessing no
sufficient continuity and system; they have been for the most part
desultory, independent, and consequently worthless. It would be
unjust to the merits of one of the most assiduous and useful of our
members, Mr. Snow Harris, if I did not call your attention, in con-
nexion with this subject, to his Reports, included in the reports of
our twelfth meeting, [ Athen. No. 769, see also No. 827,] on the
meteorological observations at Plymouth, made by him or under his
superintendence, with the aid of a very moderate expenditure of the
funds of the Association. They comprehend observations of the
thermometer, at every hour of the day and night, during ten years,
and of the barometer and anemometer, during five years, carefully
reduced and tabulated, and their mean results cynographed or pro-

290 Proceedings of the British Association.

jected in curves. Nothing can exceed the clearness with which the
march of the diurnal changes is exhibited in these results ; and I sin-
cerely hope that means may be found for printing them in such a
form as may secure to them their permanent authority and value.

Another discussion of the meteorological observations made at
sixty-nine stations at the equinoxes and solstices in the years 1835,
1836, 1837, and 18388, which have been reduced, and cynographed
with great care and delicacy by Mr. Birt, at the expense of the As-
sociation, forms the subject of a Report by Sir J. Herschel, [ Athen.
No. 828,] in the volume of our Reports for the present year, and
may be considered as a prelude, on a small scale, of the species of
analysis which the results of the great system of observations now in
progress should hereafter undergo. The inferences which are drawn
from the examination of the changes of atmospheric pressure, with
more especial reference to the European group of stations only, are in
the highest degree instructive and valuable.

The system of magnetic observatories was at first designed to con-
tinue for three years only, but was subsequently extended to the Ist
of January 1846: for it was found that the first triennial period had
almost elapsed before the instruments were prepared, or the observers
instructed in their duties, or conveyed to their stations. The extent
also of co-operation increased beyond all previous expectation: six
observatories were established, under the zealous direction of M.
Kupffer, in different parts of the vast empire of Russia,—the only
country, let me add, which has established a permanent physical ob-
servatory. The American government instituted three others at
Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington; two were established by
the East India Company at Simla and Sincapore; from every part
of Europe, and even from Algiers, offers of co-operation were made.
But will the work, which has thus been undertaken with such
vast prospects, be accomplished before the termination of the second
triennial period? or is it not probable that the very discussion
of the observations will suggest new topics of inquiry, or more
delicate methods of observation? If the march of the diurnal, month-
ly, and annual movements of the needle be sufficiently determined,
will its secular movements be equally well known? In other
words, shall we have laid the foundations of the theory, which may

Proceedings of the British Association. 291

even imperfectly approximate to the theory of gravitation, in the
accuracy and universality of its predictions? It is with reference to
these important questions, and the expediency of continuing the
observations for another triennial term, that M. Kupffer, too, ad-
dressed a letter to Col. Sabine, suggesting the propriety of summoning
a Magnetic Congress, to be held at the next meeting of the British
Association, and at which himself, Gauss, Humboldt, Plana, Hans-
teen, Arogo, Lamont, Kairll, Bache, Quetelet, and all other persons
who had taken a leading part in conducting, organizing or forwarding
these observations, should be invited to attend. This proposal has been
for some time under the anxious consideration of your Committee of
Magnetism, consisting of Sir J. Herschel, Col. Sabine, the Astronomer
Royal, Dr. Lloyd, the Master of Trinity College, and myself; and it
will be for the General Committee, before we separate, to decide
upon the answer which must be given. I think I may venture to
say, that there would be but one feeling of pride and satisfaction, at
seeing amongst us the whole or any considerable number of these
celebrated men; and there can be little doubt but that, whatever be
the place at which you may agree to hold your next meeting, they
will experience a reception befitting the dignity of these great repre-
sentatives of the scientific world.

It is quite true, that the preparations for such a meeting would
Impose upon your Committee of Magnetism, and more especially
upon Col. Sabine, no small degree of labour. Reports must be
received from all the stations, up to the latest period, of the state of
the observations ; their most prominent results must be analyzed
and compared, and communicated as extensively as possible amongst
the different members of the congress, so as to put them in posses-
sion of the facts upon which their decision should be founded. Great
as is our reliance upon the activity and zeal of Col. Sabine, and of
his admirable co-adjutor Lieut. Riddell, perfect as is his acquain-
tance with every step of an inquiry, with the organization and con-
duct of which he and Prof. Lloyd have had the principal share, I
fear that he would require greater means than his present establish-
ment could furnish, to meet the pressure of such overwhelming duties.

If it should be the opinion of such a congress that it was expedi-
ent to continue the observations for another triennial period, and if

292 Proceedings of the British Association.

such an opinion were accompanied by an exposition of the grounds
upon which it was founded, there can be little doubt that there is
not a government in the civilized world which would not readily ac-
quiesce in a recommendation which was supported by such authority.

The last volume of our Transactions is rich in Reports on Natural
Science, and more especially in those departments of it which have
an important bearing on Geology: such is Prof. Forbes’s Report ‘ On
the distribution of the Mollusca and Radiata of the A®gean Sea,’
[ Athen. No. 830] with particular reference to the successive zones of
depth which are characterized by distinctive forms of animal life and
the relation between existing and extinct species. You will, I am sure,
be rejoiced to hear that Her Majesty’s Government has not only secu-
red the services of its author, in connexion with the geological
survey, but has most liberally undertaken, upon the application of
the Council, to defray the expense of printing the very interesting
work upon which this Report is founded. The report of Mr.
Thompson, of Belfast, on an analogous branch of the Fauna of
Ireland, is remarkable for the minuteness and fulness of the informa-
tion which it conveys. Prof. Owen has continued his report on the
British Fossil Mammalia, which was begun in the preceding volume,
and towards procuring materials for which a contribution was made
from the funds of the Association. I regret to find that a class of
Reports on the recent progress and existing state of different
branches of science, which occupied so large a portion of our earlier
volumes, and. which conferred upon them so great a value, have been
almost entirely discontinued : if the authors of these Reports could
find leisure to add to them an appendix, containing the history of
the advances made in those branches of science during the last
decad of years, they would confer an important benefit on all persons
engaged in scientific inquiries.

The history of the sciences must ever require these periodical
revisions of their state and progress, if men continue to press forward
in the true spirit of philosophy to advance the boundaries of know-
ledge ; for though there may be impassable boundaries of human
knowledge, there is only one great and all-wise Being, with whom all
knowledge is perfect, who can say, ‘“ Thus far shalt thou go, and
no further.”” The indolent speculator on the history of the sciences

Proceedings of the British Association. 293

may indulge in an expression of regret that the true system of the
universe is known, that the law of gravitation is discovered, that the
problem of the three bodies is solved, and that the rich mine of dis-
covery is exhausted, and that there remain no rich masses of ore in
its veins to make the fortune and fame of those who find them : but
it is in the midst of this dream of hopelessness and despondency that
he is startled from time to time by the report of some great disco-
very—a Davy has decomposed the alkalies ; a Dalton has discovered,
and a Berzelius has completely developed the law of definite propor-
tions ; a Herschel has extended the law of gravitation to the remotest
discoverable bodies of the universe ; and a Gauss has brought the
complicated and embarrassing phenomena of terrestrial magnetism
under the dominion of analysis: and so it will ever continue to be
whilst knowledge advances, the highest generalizations of one age
becoming the elementary truths of the next. But whilst we are
taking part in this great march of science and civilization, whilst we
are endeavouring to augment the great mass of intellectual wealth
which is accumulating around us, splendid as may be the triumphs
of science or art which we are achieving, let us never presume to
think that we are either exhausting the riches or approaching the
terms of those treasures which are behind. Still less let us imagine
that the feeble efforts of cur philosophy will ever tend to modify the
most trivial and insignificant—if aught can be termed trivial and
insignificant, which He has sanctioned—of those arrangements which
the great Author of Nature has appointed for the moral or material
government of the universe. Far different are the lessons which He
taught us, by the revelation of His will, whether expressed in His
word or impressed on His works. It is in a humble and reverent
spirit that we should approach the fountain of all knowledge ; and it
is in a humble and reverent spirit that we should seek to drink of
the living waters which ever flow from it.

Mr. John Taylor read the Treasurer’s account, already printed in
the Report of the General Committee [ante, p. 882]. Prof. Phillips
read the programme of proceedings.

The Marquis of Northampton moved, and Earl Fitzwilliam second-
ed, thanks to the President, which being carried by acclamation,
the meeting adjourned to Wednesday, Oct 2.

(To be continued. )

294

The late Mr. WiLu1aM GRIFFITH.

In a letter from Dr. Horsfield, we learn that on the
intelligence of Mr. Griffith’s death reaching Lord Auckland,
his Lordship in a most kind and benevolent manner prepared
without delay from his own recollection, a Memoir of this
distinguished man, which was incorporated with the address
read at the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society
on the 17th May, and excited much interest.

We mention the circumstance as highly creditable to, and
characteristic of, the generous character and disposition of Lord
Auckland who, we may remark, was one of Mr. Griffith’s
kindest friends while in India, and the first to appreciate rightly
his eminent merits, both as a scientific man, and public
servant.

The memoir adverted to has been in the most kind and con-
descending manner presented to us since the above notice was
written. It is as follows.

Extract from the Anniversary Address to the Royal Asiatic Society of
Great Britain and Ireland, May 17, 1845.

Mr. GrirFITH was one of the most accomplished botanists
of our day; with the most accurate and extensive acquisition of
learning in his department, he combined a spirit of activity and en-
terprise, such as has been rarely equalled, great talents, and a very
remarkable power of labor, arrangement, and application. He was
born in the year 1810, and was educated at the London University.
He went out to India, as an assistant-surgeon on the Madras Estab-
lishment, where he arrived on the 24th September, 1832, and was
shortly afterwards selected by the Bengal Government for the exami-
nation of the botany of the Tenasserim Provinces. He was, in 1835,
deputed to Assam, with Dr. M’Clelland, for the purpose of assisting
Dr. Wallich in his inspection of the growth of the Tea plant in
Assam, and from thence he proceeded, in company with Dr. Bayfield,
to the then unexplored tracts which lie between Suddiya and Ava,

The late Mr. William Griffith. 295

upon the extreme frontier of our Eastern territory. In 1837 he ac-
companied Captain Pemberton on his mission to the wild countries of
Boutan. In 1839 he was sent, with the army of the Indus, to pro-
secute inquiries into the botany of Affghanistan. In 1841 he was
appointed to the medical duties of Malacca. In 1842, upon Dr.
Wallich’s absence, from illness, at the Cape, he was intrusted with
the superintendence of the Botanical Garden at Calcutta, and with
the duties of the Botanical Professor in the Medical College; and,
upon the return of Dr. Wallich from the Cape, he resumed his place
at Malacca, where he was seized with disease of the liver, and died
at the early age of thirty-four, having already acquired a distin-
guished reputation,—having in every capacity in which he served
the Government received its approbation and its thanks; and having
given a promise of such further services to botanical science as few
have had either the opportunity or the talent of affording. In all his
varied and extensive journeys, his courage and his energy never
failed him; whether in the jungles of Assam, or the hills of Affgha-
nistan, he still pursued his researches, undeterred by danger, either
of disease or of violence; and if disabled, as he was more than once
by fever and debility, his first convalescence found him ever ready
for fresh exertions. He had thus, by the application of extraordi-
nary powers of observation, and in perquisitions extending through
the vast regions which have been enumerated, formed large and
valuable collections, and brought together materials for a great bota-
nical work ; and he looked with impatience to a period of repose for
compiling a Scientific Flora of India, when he sunk under his last
fatal illness. Perhaps no more impressive picture of the energy of
this extraordinary man, and of his devotion to his favorite science,
can be given than that which may be drawn from the following ex-
tracts from a letter which was dictated by him on his death-bed, and
addressed to Dr. M’Clelland :—

‘‘ | write this by deputy, being seriously ill of hepatitis ; the attack
has been very severe, and the treatment necessarily active, so that I
am reduced to an extreme state of weakness. Although my adviser
does not despair, still the issue is doubtful, and under this impression
I commence a few lines to you on business.

‘“« Mrs. Griffith (supposing the result of this illness to be fatal to
me) will bring up with her all the collections at Malacca, and they

2a

296 The late Mr. William Griffith.

being added to those at the export warehouse, and all having been
previously cleaned and packed, I leave to you to present to Govern-
ment, for the Honorable Court of Directors, to be sent home with-
out any delay. As you know the trouble I have taken with these
collections, and the hopes I had of making them subservient to a ge-
neral scientific Flora of India, I need not impress on you how much
I am interested in their proper disposal, and their being brought
properly before the scientific public; and I would say the same
regarding my drawings and manuscripts, which will accompany my
wife to Calcutta, should it so happen that I leave her.

‘“‘ In all the plans which I have consigned to your execution, both
regarding my wife and collections, I am confident your own feelings
will prompt you to every exertion on my account. Asking God’s
blessing on you and your wife, I bid you good bye.

‘Thus far,’ continues Dr. Moorhead, his medical attendant,
‘“‘ was written at Mr. Griffith’s dictation, but I grieve to say the fatal
result came to pass yesterday evening, Sunday, 9th February, at half-

past seven o’clock.”’

Memoranda on the above by Dr. M’Clelland.—*‘ To the above de-
tails, furnished by Dr. Moorhead, I may remark that Mr. Griffith’s
constitution for the last two or three years seemed greatly shattered,
his energies alone remaining unchanged. Exposure during his former
journeys and travels laid the seeds of his fatal malady in his consti-
tution, while his anxiety about his pursuits and his zeal increased ; he
became care-worn and haggard in his looks, often complaining of
anomalous symptoms marked by an extreme rapidity of pulse, in con-
sequence of which he had left off wine for some years past, and was
obliged to observe great care and attention in his diet. In Affghan-
istan he was very nearly carried off by fever, to which he had been
subject on his former travels in Assam. No government ever had
a more devoted or zealous servant, and I impute much of the evil
consequences to his health, to his attempting more than the means
at his disposal enabled him to accomplish with justice to himself.”

Although Mr. Griffith’s researches were directed primarily to Bo-
tany, he neglected no opportunity, during his visits to various parts
of India, of attending also to other departments of Natural History.
Of his zeal and success in Zoology, the collections which he made
afford abundant proof ; they consist chiefly of mammalia, birds, fishes,

|

The late Mr. William Griffith. 297

and insects. While attached to the army of the Indus, he made, on
account of Government, large collections of mammalia and birds,
which have been transmitted to the Honourable Court of Directors,
and which constitute a valuable addition to the museum at the In-
dia House. In mammalogy he collected a considerable number of the
smaller animals of Affghanistan, among which are several new to
science ; but his ornithological collections are more extensive, having
brought together about six hundred specimens, not only from the
route of the army, but from several separate excursions to the ranges
of mountains north of Cabul. Besides the discovery of a consider-
able number of new species, the interest of these collections consists
in their affording, perhaps, the most extensive and instructive illus-
tration of the geographical distribution of the several species of
birds found in India, which has as yet been attempted.

Mr. Griffith has also been zealous and successful as a collector of
the fresh water fishes of India, during his various travels: the im-
portance and extent of these is detailed in a paper on the subject,
printed in the second volume of the Calcutta Journal of Natural
History ; and some of his discoveries in Entomology have been com-
municated to the public by the Rev. F. W. Hope, in the eighteenth
volume of the Transactions of the Linnzan Society of London.

He was most especially remarkable for the philosophical spirit in
which he invariably prosecuted his researches, and for the patience
with which he watched the most minute phenomena which appeared
to him connected with the subjects of his investigation. Some of
his published papers, especially those on Vegetable Impregnation,
and the Progressive Development of Organs, have never been excel-
led and rarely equalled.

The merits of this accomplished naturalist and devoted labourer
in the field of scientific discovery, were appreciated and fostered by
the noble President of this Society while at the head of the Govern-
ment of India, and it is to his Lordship’s kindness that the Society
are indebted for some of the most interesting parts of the foregoing
communication. His loss has also been recently noticed in terms of
deep regret by the present Governor-General, Sir Henry Hardinge,
in his Excellency’s Address at the annual distribution of honors and
prizes at the Bengal Medical College. %y

298 The late Mr. William Griffith.

As it is understood that the whole of the valuable materials pre-
pared and collected by Mr. Griffith are consigned to the Directors
of the East India Company, the most confident hopes may be
cherished that the expectations of the scientific world will not be
disappointed of the full benefit which they are calculated and were
intended by him to confer on botanical and zoological knowledge,
and that the irreparable loss entailed on his widow by his early
death, and the sudden extinction of all those hopes of fortune,
honour, and reward, which his extensive knowledge and indomitable
energy were so well calculated to raise, will meet with such allevia-
tion as, to the enlightened liberality of the Honourable Court, the
great value of his labours, and the forlorn and ill-provided state of
his widow and family, may be considered to merit.

In connection with the above we may remark, that the
late Mr. Griffith’s private collections, MSS. and drawings are
now exposed at the Export Warehouse in Tank Square, pre-
paratory to making them over to the Government. The
MSS. consist of eight or ten bound volumes of botanical re-
searches, affording also full details of the natural productions
and objects of cultivation, scenery, people, &c. throughout
the lines of his extensive travels, together with the heights
and position of Passes and principal places, fixed by direct
barometrical and astronomical observations made by himself.

His botanical researches as exhibited in these Manuscripts,
are of the most extensive and important nature, so much so
that their publication will constitute a new era in botanical
science, and confer immortal honor on the public body or the
individuals by whom it may be brought about. .

Besides the vols. of MSS. above adverted to, there are
at least as many volumes more of scientific Botanical drawings
and descriptions of plants contained in the Herbarium, or met
with in his travels.

In addition to his Will, dated 31st Oct. 1844, and his let-
ter on his death-bed, quoted in the foregoing memoir, he has

The late Mr. William Griffith. 299

also left the following instructions written on the same melan-
choly occasion, regarding the disposal of his collections and
papers.

All specimens of whatsoever sort or kind to be presented and
given to the Honorable E. I. Company. Vide documents enumerated
below.

Ist. A list of Collections left at the Export Warehouse, Calcutta.

2nd. Collections now in my possession at Malacca, no list made out.

All Drawings and Manuscripts relating to Natural History also to
become the property of the Hon. E. I. C.

The collections are arranged chiefly from the countries in which
they were made, and each bundle is, or was, marked outside with
the natural family and the name of the country. To almost each
of the collections there is a rough volume of MSS. containing
numbers tallying with the No. marked on the specimens: many
other tickets also give besides additional localities, (thus all the
localities of the Affghan collections, many of the duplicates of which
have lately been sent to Mr. Lemann,) are to be found in the
Affghan MSS. and an additional vol. of MSS. gives barometrical
heights and astronomical observations; so are Cossiah, Assam,
Bootan, Mergui, Mishmay, &c. but there are some general col-
lections which were commenced to be arranged generally, and some
of the Natural Families in which I was most interested, as ‘‘ Tern-
stromiacee,”’ ‘‘ Ericiniz,” ‘“‘ Menispermacez,”’ ‘‘ Vacciniez,” are also
arranged generally ; in such cases the locality of each species of speci-
men is marked in pencil on the cover of the sheet. The collections of
Mosses and Ferns duplicated (the last of which are now with Sir
Wm. Hooker and Mr. Lemann) are among the most complete, and
I trust that the Honorable Court will allow them to be placed for
elucidation with Sir Wm, Hooker and Mr. Wm. Harvey, of Trinity
College, Dublin.

The collections in spirits of wine in five boxes, contain flowers
and often fruit of almost all the interesting kinds ; this was done to
afford good opportunities of studying them afterwards, as the constant
travelling during which most of the collections were made, did not
admit of their minute examination in the fresh state ; they will re-
quire fresh spirits, and in most cases fresh arrangement.

_f

300 The late Mr. William Griffith.

Although the MSS. and drawings are a good deal confused, often
rubbed and torn, yet, as they relate to India plants examined in
their fresh state, a little trouble will, I hope, enable them to prove
of use, for which intent I beg to recommend them to be arranged by
Mr. Lemann, Sir Wm. Hooker, Mr. Bentham.

I recommend myself to Mr. Brown, Dr. Lindley, Mr. R. H. Solly,
Dr. Wight, Mr. Bentham, Dr. Martius, Dr. Nees Von Esenbeck, Mons.
Decaisne, trusting that they have considered my exertions creditable,
and that they will assist in favour of my reputation as a scientific
Botanist, which I had hoped a longer life would have enabled me to
eotalieh. | * ** * + 2 ** ** ** x

To the Honourable Court, I humbly recommend my three unmar-
ried sisters, Apollonia, Matilda and Letitia, left in very indifferent
circumstances, trusting that the Honourable Court will be pleased to
grant them some degree of favour in continuance of their unvaried —
patronage of Indian Botanical pursuits, and their constant condes-
cension to me.

Signed, by the Medical officer who attended him,
Witiram Moreueap,

Madras Medical Service.

With the following views of Dr. Wight on the subject, we
conclude our remarks for the present.

Extract of letter from R. Wicut, Madras Medical Service, to J.
McCuettanp, Assistant Surgeon, Bengal Service, dated Coimbatore,
3lst March, 1845.

“You ask me what I think whether to continue or drop the journal,
my idea is that the surest plan by far for ensuring the publication
of Griffith’s papers is to continue the publication of the journal, each
number of which may be made to absorb a portion of them, and
when they are all published, it may then become a matter of consi-
deration as to its further continuance. But in the mean time it
is an object to preserve the fruits of one of the ablest and most
untiring labourers that ever embarked in the culture of the fields of

The late Mr. William Griffith. 301

science. To obtain that certainty, and without the risk of loss to
his friends and family, the journal affords a medium. True it may
not give them so wide a circulation as they merit, but still they
are secured in the first instance, and if it is found that there is a de-
mand for them after, his whole works could be collected and printed
in a distinct form.

“« My advice then is, decidedly to continue the journal for the pre-
sent, even in the event of its being found that the whole of his
papers are not intrusted to our joint care. If they are, there can be
no doubt, in my mind, of the propriety of carrying on the journal; if

they are not, then between Mr. Gardner and myself we will easily
keep up its character as a Botanical periodical for at least another
year. If the papers are intrusted to our care, immediate steps must
be taken for their publication, as things of that kind don’t keep ; other
labourers are at work in the same field, and unless we at once com-
mence the business, much will be lost. Acting on this principle,
you ought, if we are to have the publication of them, to advertise in
the forthcoming number, that the publication of the late Mr.
Griffith’s papers is to be immediately commenced in the journal, and
will be continued through successive numbers until the whole are
printed. As regards my co-operation, use my name in the way you
may think most advantageous with reference to both the journal
and MSS.

“« Should further funds be wanted, I shall gladly help to the extent
of 500 rupees in successive portions, or in getting his drawings
printed.”

From the same, dated Ootacamond, 4th May 1845. ‘I shall endea-
vour in this letter to keep as close to the subject as possible in
offering suggestions for carrying out what was evidently to the last
uppermost in his mind; namely, the proper preservation and dispos-
al of his collections, manuscripts, and drawings, so as to insure
their being rendered as much as possible available to the advancement
of the science of which he was such an enlightened and untiring culti-
vator. Towards accomplishing the wish expressed in the following
words of his last letter, preservation is the first and grand object,
publicity the next. ‘As you know the trouble I have taken with

302 The late Mr. Wilham Griffith.

these collections, and the hopes I had of making them subservient
to a general scientific flora of India, I need not press on you, how
much I am interested in their proper disposal, and their being properly
brought before the scientific public; and I would say the same re-
garding my drawings and manuscripts.’ The two can easily be
combined by printing and publishing the whole in this country be-
fore sending a single line or drawing out of it. Once published, they
are at once and for ever safe, and doubtless they will be as carefully
edited here as they could be in Europe, where those of his friends
who are really qualified to do them justice, and would be willing for
his sake to take the trouble, have for the most part occupation
enough of their own.

‘«‘ But even supposing we had an Editor in Europe ready to engage
in the duty, which is far from being the case now that Mr. Solly
is no more, still as nearly all his labours have reference to Indian
Botany, his papers to my mind, ought beyond all question to be
first published in India, especially under the existence of a proper
medium for doing so in your journal, which is very fairly supported
by the public.

‘‘ Qn these grounds I am strongly of opinion that an immediate
application should be made to Government for them, for the purpose
of publication in the journal previous to their being sent to Europe,
of course giving the assurance that the utmost care will be taken
of the originals, and that no pains will be spared towards having
them as correctly edited as circumstances will permit. It could at
the same time be urged, as you observe, that publication here does
not interfere with ultimate publication in Europe in a more perfect
form, accompanied with all his already published papers; nor do I
think that previous publication in the Journal would at all interfere
with the sale of a complete edition of all his works, should such be
afterwards published. I confess I feel most anxious for the pub-
lication of his Botanical papers in this country, under the impression
that, should they ever find their way to the India House before pub-
lication, the labours of the greatest Botanist that ever set foot in
India will be lost, perhaps for ever swamped, amidst the accumulated
records of hundreds of men, that are daily being added to their stores.

The late Mr. William Griffith. 303

«So much for Papers, now to Collections. For the same reasons that
it would be wrong to send home his papers uncopied, I think it
would be equally wrong to send his collections in mass.

‘‘ A complete set of his specimens ought, I think, to be retained for
India. This might be easily accomplished, as requiring, on the part
of the person making the division, no Botanical knowledge; all that
is wanted on his part being to lay aside one or two specimens from
each paper, with copies of whatever remarks or labels might be
attached to the original specimens, so as to make the set kept back
for India, as nearly a facsimile of the other as possible. Thi ssugges-
tion I think it would be judicious to bring to the notice of Govern-
ment, both with a view to guard against accidents, and to preserve to
India a lasting and proud memorial of the most Herculean labours
of one of the most philosophical and industrious men that ever tra-
versed its soil for the purpose of investigating its natural products.”

Dr. Wight next alludes to the probability of the collection being
.for a time useless. ‘But still these should not stand in the way of doing
justice to the memory of Griffith, were it for no other purpose than
to act as a stimulus to those who come after. And to ensure this
work being done in the best manner, I will willingly give my ser-
vices to seeing it executed, first by securing the specimens against
the attacks of insects through the application of a spirituous solution
of corrosive sublimate, and then having them properly glued down
on suitable paper for reference, at the same time arranging them as
correctly as my limited time and imperfect knowledge of many of
them will permit, into their proper natural orders and genera.

‘‘ So prepared, they might then be deposited among the Garden
collections for the benefit of all future Indian Botanists who might
wish to consult them. The cost of thus securing them against all
contingencies, would not I dare say, exclusive of the paper which
would come from the stores, exceed one hundred rupees, while the
cases to contain them might be provided for probably at 100 or 150
rupees more, and to Indian Botanists such a collection must be well
worth ten times the amount. I would urge the adoption of this
plan, for the sake of all future Indian Botanists.”

“From the same, dated Coimbatore, 20th June 1845. “As you re-
mark, I do not see that poor Griffith’s final instructions regarding

2k

304 The late Mr. William Griffith.

the disposal of his collections in any way affects the suggestions I
offered in my last, which I trust the Government will sanction ;
should such prove the case, then the first thing to be done is, to sub-
ject the whole collection to the preserving effects of a solution of cor-
rosive sublimate in spirits, which effectually destroys any insects,
whether hatched or in ova, for should the eggs afterwards hatch, the
insect is immediately poisoned. For this purpose a solution of the
strength of about one and half or two drachms to the pint is required,
to which two or three drachms of camphor is added. It is applied
with any sort of brush, the flowers being carefully soaked, as being
most liable to attack, and the most important part of the specimen.
A watery solution might answer equally well, except that it does not
dry so soon, and by wetting the paper is apt to cause mouldiness.
A considerable collection of Malacca plants he sent me just before
leaving Calcutta, is now undergoing that operation preparatory to
their being glued down for incorporation with my general Her-
barium.

“ Having been thus guarded from the depredations of insects, the
next operation is, to have them glued down on suitable paper, and
disposed in cases: The paper that I would recommend for the pur-
pose, both as being cheap and generally quite large enough, is that
known under the name of Laid Demy. The size is, as near as I can
guess, about sixteen by ten inches ; it is rather small for some plants,
but large enough for 99 out of the 100, and the larger ones can be
folded a little or cut to fit the paper.

“‘ The collections,” he says, ‘‘ are all grouped into natural orders fol-
lowing Lindley’s arrangement. These groups should be most careful-
ly preserved, enclosed in wrapper sheets (the specimens are put on half
sheets) each marked on the left hand corner with the name and
number of the order as given in Lindley, and finally arranged in boxes
according to, the numerical series, which greatly facilitates consulta-
tion, and the number at once points out the proper place of each
packet in the series.

‘I have been thus particular on the supposition that you, not being
a Botanist, might never have had an opportunity of studying the
economy of a Herbarium. My own Herbarium occupies twenty boxes,
each three feet high within, and wide enough to contain two series,
somewhat in that form with double doors for facility of access. It

——— oo

Ne ee eee eee

The late Mr. William Griffith. 305

would be more economical to make the box six feet high at once;
mine are adapted for travelling; that would be a standing one ne-
ver to be moved. The iocation of such a collection is of some mo-
ment; I would suggest that it form an appendage of the Medical
College.

‘If sent to the Garden, it might chance some few years hence to
suffer the fate of Roxburgh’s, which would be bad indeed. Suppos-
ing these suggestions adopted, it then follows, as a matter of course,
that the MSS. referring to each family should be printed, and two
or three copies deposited in the Herbarium for the information of
Botanists, who might at any time have to consult the plants. The
easy way of course to provide these would be, by printing the whole in
a continuous series in the Journal, and striking off twenty or thirty
spare copies to serve for both this country and Europe. The ori-
ginals could then without risk be sent for deposit in the Museum of
the India House. The expense of these arrangements would not ex-
ceed a few hundred rupees, and, to say the least, is a mark of res-
pect which the Government owes to one of its most zealous ser-
vants,—a more zealous one, I am convinced, it never had. But leaving
that out of the question, I apprehend that, as being, of all existing
Governments, that which has, throughout, been the most steady and
consistent promoter of science and scientific men, it owes it to itself
for its own credit ; as there does not at this moment exist a single
doubt, in the mind of any competent living Botanist, that Griffith at
the time of his death stood second only on the list of truly philosophical
Botanists, exclusive of his high attainments in other branches of natu-
ral science; and to fail in giving every facility to the posthumous
diffusion of his unpublished labours, would be a blot on its hitherto
untarnished character as the most liberal supporter of Indian science,
the more indefensible too, as all that is required could be accom-
plished at so small a cost, that I would myself, at my own charge,
undertake all I have suggested should be done, had the donation
been made to me in place of to the Government. These suggestions
though hurriedly written, are not the off-hand reflections of the mo-
ment, but the result of much consideration of the subject to which
they refer; such being the case, you are quite at liberty to make use

306 The late Mr. William Griffith.

of my sentiments, should you think them in any way calculated to
advance the object in which we both feel so deeply interested, namely,
that we at least, in common I believe with the whole Botanical
world, ‘ consider his exertions creditable,’ and are most anxious to
assist in establishing on the broadest basis his reputation ‘as a
scientific Botanist,’ which, unhappily for natural science, he has not
lived to do for himself.”

Extract of the Will of the late Dr. GrirritH, dated 30th Oct. 1844.

‘IT give and bequeath all my Books to John McClelland, Assistant
Surgeon in the East India Company’s Service on their Bengal Establish-
ment, and Robert Wight, Surgeon in the said East India Company’s
Service on their Madras Establishment, equally between them, and to
the survivor of them ; and I direct my Executors to put them or him
in possession of every such Books as soon as conveniently may be
after my decease: I leave, give, and bequeath all my collections of
Natural History and all my Mantscripts and Drawings unto the
Honourable the East India Company, and all my Microscopes to
Richard Horsman Solly, Esq. number Forty-eight, Great Ormond
Street, Bloomsbury, London ; and direct my Executors to put the said
East India Company and the said Richard Horsman Solly in posses-
sion of the same, respectively, as soon as conveniently may be after my
decease.

“ (Signed) WicxiaM GRIFFITH.”

See

THE

CALCUTTA JOURNAL

OF

NATURAL HISTORY.

The Natural History, the Diseases, the Medical Practice,
and the Materia Medica of the Aborigines of Brazil, by
Dr. Von Martius. Translated by Joun MAcPHERSON,
M. D., Assistant Surgeon.

[Concluded from page 176. ]

II].— Practice of Medicine, and Materia Medica.

Medical Practice.

This is entirely in the hands of a few men and in some
instances old women, who push themselves forward by their
powers of observation, and by their cunning. The doctor,
called in the Tupi language Paje, is always a man of influence
in the tribe, and perhaps treated with more respect than the
physician meets with at the present day in Europe. He belongs
to no corporation, to no particular class ; he is not doctor, is
not even master of arts : he does not acquire by any diploma his -
right to cure, yet his influence is very great, in fact unlimited.
The stolidity and ignorance of the multitude, and his own
activity, make him pass with it for a more elevated nature.
He is often at once the oracle and the lawgiver of the whole

VOL. VI. NO. XXIII. OCTOBER, 1845. 28

308 The Aborigines of Brazil.

tribe. He is employed to help and counsel in its most various
concerns, and the more his appearance is improved by age,
experience, or dignity of person, the greater confidence does
he inspire among his patients. He is commonly priest, pro-
phet, and soothsayer, and in addition worker of miracles,
and magician.* If we compare him with the Schaman of
the Asiatic nomadic races, we are struck with the great re-
semblance between them, and they may both be considered
measures of the intellectual and moral condition of the peo-
ple among whom they work. There can be no doubt that in
Schamanism the last fragments of a gone-by civilization, the
scattered traces of a higher knowledge of nature, are concealed.
This is also the case with the medicine of the Brazilian
savage. In the agency of the Pajé, superstition and cre-
dulity, cleverness and deep knowledge are combined. He
believes in the remedies and the curative processes which he
prescribes, and is so far as scientific as the European physi-
cian: but like many of our profession, he does not despise
various formalities, which calculated for the superstition of the
blind multitude, are supposed to aid the uncertainty of the
remedy, by the increased confidence which they inspire in the
patient.

The traces of ruin and of decay which are so striking in
all the social and political relations, in all the mental endow-
ments of the red men, the wonderful confusion which meets
us in their languages, which have separated from each other
to an endless extent,—are all to be found in their medical
knowledge. We can therefore regard the individual facts
which refer to the practice or theory of these men, only as
isolated and confused traditions, as the last remains of a
knowledge of nature, the foundations of which lie deeper
than that violent and uncertain catastrophe, of whose his-
torical date and cause we do not in the present state of our

* See Catlin’s account of the N. American medicine-men.— 77.

The Aborigines of Brazil. 309

ethnographical and historical knowledge have the least indi-
cation. But this very circumstance is calculated to increase
the interest of the European scientific world in that past
condition of medical knowledge.

I must before going further remark, that the Indian doctor
applies in every case remedies, which to him as well as to his
patient are secrets. Of the nature of these remedies, of the
way in which they operate and cure, he has certainly no clear or
distinct idea. On this account his practice is always undecid-
ed, his prognosis is uncertain, and the result doubtful. He is
not led to the choice of a particular remedy by any regular
induction from well-known analogies, by the result of experi-
ence, or even by any truth, which he may have learnt by
tradition. He possesses but a confused idea of the efficacy
of remedies, or perhaps only a superstitious dread of their
power. We therefore consider the medical practice of the
Indian to be a kind of magic.

Magic or Sorcery.

We may assume that the essence of magic is an attempt
to call in the aid of unknown powers (spirits), to enclose
them within certain bounds (the Magic circle), to keep them
there, and to apply them. This must happen by severing the
unknown power from its usual connections, and by fixing and
isolating it within a certain circle. The sorcerer therefore,
who tries to overturn the order of nature, appears as a being
inimical and hostile to the established state of things, and
as having a certain power to disturb it ; accordingly he is an
object of fear to many, and is often banished from the social
union. It was in this point of view that I always regarded the
processes of the Indian Pajé, and if we are to appreciate truly
the savage as physician and worker of miracles, we must
descend to the depths of those black processes, in which
man works with diabolical powers, whose source is unknown
to him. Of all the Indians with whom I have spoken on
this subject, old Tubixaba, of the race of Coérunas, was far the

of Bo

310 The Aborigines of Brazil.

most intelligent. When I asked him one evening how he
cured his patients, he made an indecent gesture and grinned.
Not satisfied with this symbol, I desired further information
from him ; he then drew, to my no small astonishment, a cir-
cle in the sand, and in it a lingam, and said solemnly, “ All
Magic comes from lust or from hate, and by means of them
also do we cure.”

This speech gave me much to think of. If I do not err,
it points in reality at the source of all magic, as well as
of the medicine of the Indians.* Their practice is a blind use
of unknown hidden powers of nature, at present devoid of every
particle of scientific knowledge, and in many Pajés united
without doubt with a confused idea that they have procured
this crude simple knowledge by unlawful means. For I
must not conceal, that the knowledge of the Pajés, whether
male or female, is often imparted to their pupils only as the
price of prostitution.

Thus, secret arts, lust, and unnatural crimes are connected
together: by such means is magic propagated, and by such
will it continue to be so among uncivilized tribes, until they
become chaste.

The pupil usually retires into the desert with the Pajé for
some time; and when an adept, receives some substance, such
as a root, a piece of animal or vegetable charcoal, the claw of
an animal, &c. as a sign of being initiated. This he always
carries about with him as an amulet, and he expects from
it direct aid in cases of sickness. But the pupil does not
always receive it directly from his master. He is some-
times informed of it by a dream ora vision. The Indians
attach great weight to many dreams, and to visions. They
not only boast of having seen the evil spirit, but of having had
converse with him. I need scarcely remark that a belief in
the existence of such a spirit is at the bottom of all these

* We can scarcely agree with our author.— 77.

The Aborigines of Brazil. 311

ideas. This unfriendly being is represented under various
traditional forms in different tribes. Honour is not paid, but
superstitious dread attaches to him : and the Pajés avail them-
selves of this. Many tribes have a whole series of evil spirits,
others only one. I need not enter further into these mytholo-
gical ideas of the Indians; but cannot help remarking that in
the Old Testament, magic is represented as conversation with
false gods.

The idea of impurity also enters largely into the magic of
the savage : every thing excreted from the body is considered
by the Indian to be impure, and therefore applicable to the
foul arts. Certain excretions, such as the spittle and the
urine of the magician, play an important part in many cases.
The first is considered to be healing and soothing, and as such
is applied externally ; the last is used internally, as an ex-
citant, and also as an emetic. The air deeply expired from
the chest of the Pajé, has an enlivening power and virtue
against disease, attributed to it.* Connected with these
ideas is the belief of the Indians in the injurious influence
of women, at the catamenial period, and in the purity and
expiatory power of young children and of virgins.

But, as Gregorio remarked, hatred also plays an important
part in the magical and curative processes of the Indians.
The multitude commonly fears the Pajé as a dealer in the
black arts, and there is a degree of hostility in their mutual
relations. Among the Abipones the doctor is called plainly
Keebit, 2. e. devil, as they identify the two. The doctor is as
it were a necessary evil to the tribe.t When a patient is
once taken under treatment, he falls exclusively into his
power. By means of certain magical words or symbols, the
doctor gets complete possession of the mind of the patient,
withdraws him from all sympathy with his ordinary relations,
and places him completely under the influence of his dark

* This reminds us of certain mesmerist Pajés among white men.—7r,
+ He is occasionally so to the village in more civilized lands. —Tr.

312 The Aborigines of Brazil.

practices. The Indian sick accordingly, when once given
over to the Pajé, are no longer nursed by their own families ;
indeed are often not even allowed to be visited by them.
This strange idea of the power of the doctor over his patient
is confirmed by the belief that every disease is caused by some
dark, hostile power or by sorcery. However obvious the
causes of an ailment may be, the patient and his friends never
ascribe it to them, but to some personally unfriendly power.
The patient is looked on as bewitched; and if he has any
known enemies, they are immediately considered to be to
blame for the illness. If no enemy is known, then suspicion
falls on some individual who may have happened to incur the
dislike of the patient or of his friends. This individual is not
unfrequently made away with secretly, or openly killed, for
the purpose of counteracting the malignant influence.
‘| } The deaths of the doctors themselves, and after them of
| old women having the reputation of witchcraft, are oftenest
| sought for the purpose of curing the patient. Among the Paia-
quas on the Paraguay, the Pajé in whose hands a patient dies,
| | pays the forfeit of his life.* The Chiquitos sometimes put to
it | death the wife of a man who has been long ill, thinking that
} | she has been the cause of his illness. Among the Abipones
ih too the belief is universal, that every disease is the consequence
: \ of the black art of another party. If the patient dies, the Pajé
i rit tears out his heart and tongue, boils them, and gives them to
the house-dog to eat, being satisfied that this will occasion the
death of the person who caused the malady. In doing so,
i | he acts on the belief that the enemy of the dead man had
} 4 | made his dog eat some game killed by himself. Missionaries
7 | have told me of innumerable instances, in which the long-con-
tinued illness especially of a man of importance, has caused
a whole round of most revolting murders. Thus does the
mind of the Indian sink into these dark abysses of hate and

superstition.

—

* Surely we are not to credit this.—7Z7.

The Aborigines of Brazil. 3

In truth, nothing is more calculated to place in a favorable
point of view our enlightened investigations of nature, than
this deficiency of judgment, this darkening of the under-
standing. We too practise magic, we also in handling the
numberless natural powers which surround us, are magicians
and sorcerers. The philosopher who from a solution of sul-
phate of copper deposits a new copper plate on the silvered
model, or makes a daguerrotype picture in a second, is a
magician in the sense which I have just described. He
isolates and confines within the narrow magical circle of
his acquired knowledge, physical powers, whose nature is
unknown to him.

But if we compare this condition of modern science with
that intricate combination of cunning and superstition, which
the medical procedures of the Indian Pajé present, we are
struck by the strange fact, that in the history of the intellec-
tual progress of the civilized world, each step in advance has
been the consequence of a preceding one, and that we know
exactly how we have attained our present eminence—while it
is quite inexplicable, and is likely to remain so, why the
American population which is as old as we are, has not been
able to reach any degree of certainty or of clearness.

To develop from psychological, historical and natural-histo-
rical grounds, how the present state of intellectual darkness
has been produced, and has spread over so large a portion
of the world, would be a most interesting, at the same
time a most difficult attempt. But the only lantern to guide
us in the inquiry, must be the conviction that the present state
of American gloom is a darkening of what was brighter,
a secondary condition. As a contribution towards the solving
of this interesting problem, I shall now give an account of
some of the more general ideas and of the imperfectly ob-
served facts which we find prevailing in the natural, histori-
cal and medical knowledge of the Indian.

|

of Bor

314 The Aborigines of Brazil.

Physics.

The pervading idea of all the Indians’ knowledge of physical
phenomena, is that of the unity of nature. All terrestrial
things hang together, every individual thing is connected
with another. In accordance with this belief is the con-
viction that there is something mysterious in the mutual
action of bodies, and one step more brings us to the belief
that every thing terrestrial is in intimate connexion with
something supernatural. However savage or sensual the
Indian may be, this belief is always found in him; but it
assumes the character of a blind superstition, because the
individual facts want connecting links. Nor has the Pajé
applied it to any generalisation of facts; besides his rela-
tion to the multitude is in reality esoteric.

According to the views of the Indian all the works of
nature, and the actions of the elements are supposed to aid
or to injure each other. Hence he deduces the idea of a good
and beneficent, and of an injurious principle. He sees
these principles everywhere, he embodies them, and peo-
ples woods and deserts with evil unfriendly natures. Thus
he becomes a spirit-seer, and all inimical powers, especially
poisonous and rapacious animals, are to him only manifesta-
tions of the evil principle. These again he tries to counter-
act by other friendly powers, and thus he is led to the use of
specifics. Indeed he knows of no remedies, but special ones.
He has not got the length of any large or general views
of the nature of their action; as he recognises a dualism
between what is friendly, and what is inimical, so also
does he believe the sexes to be antagonistic in their
effects. Thus he considers woman to be injurious and poi-
sonous to man. Under certain circumstances a woman is
positive poison: for instance, he avoids the vicinity of a wo-
man during the catamenial period, especially if he has been
wounded or bitten by a poisonous animal, or if he has

:
:
:

The Aborigines of Brazil. 315

been attacked by fever.* The common practice among the
Indians of staying at home during the lying-in season in place
of the woman, and apart from her, has its foundation ina
similar idea. The child at the breast is according to them
so intimately connected with the mother, that even a pinch
of snuff taken by the father, is supposed to be injurious to it.

From the same idea they will not in some diseases, eat the
female of an animal, for instance, of the ape or tapir. In cold
fevers again, they consider the penis and the clitoris of the
ape, powerful remedies. Their belief in the antagonistic
powers of different animals, has led them to various other
remedies, of the positive efficacy of which I cannot talk from
personal experience, but of which I have very often heard
favorable accounts. Thus they observe that poisonous snakes
will never remain in the neighbourhood of the Dasy-procta,
(like a hare). Whenever they are bitten, they try to procure
a living Dasy-procta. They scarify the wound with its teeth,
and drink their warm blood. The like is the case with the
Falco Degener, the Palamedea Cornuta (a large water bird,
bigger than a goose,) and the Parra Jacana (a marsh bird).
They pound the beaks, the talons and the spurs of these birds,
and drink them in an infusion of certain herbs.

They also believe in similar antagonisms and friendships
between certain plants, between plants and animals, and be-
tween different parts of the same plant. The Anana bush is
supposed to have a friendship for the rattle-snake ; the Man-
diocca plant an enmity against the Mais. The prejudicial
effects of the poisonous Mandiocca root are supposed to be
removed by the expressed juice of the Mais.

The belief in the injurious influence of certain stars on man,
especially when he is sick, is universally prevalent. The
most injurious effects are ascribed to the moon, especially at
new and full moon. Moon-light, striking directly on wounds,

* She is also in certain cases a counter-poison.

27

i
ot
f
7
¥
|

316 The Aborigines of Brazil.

is believed to make them worse. Clear star-light is also
unfavourable to diseases, while a clouded sky is benefici-
al. Sun-light too impedes the cure, especially of wounds
and fevers, and therefore patients suffering from them must
await their recovery in the darkest corner of their huts.
They almost always augur bad results from winds, especially
when during the dry season they blow from the south, or
during the rainy from the west.

The Indians divide the year by the seasons, when certain
trees ripen their fruits, or the turtles lay their eggs in the sand-
islands. From these fixed epochs they reckon the changes
of their simple existence, the pregnancies of their wives,
and the maturity of their women. These terrestrial changes
concern them more than the celestial ones. A few only of
the most observant take any interest in the latter, and in re-
lation to the periodicity of diseases,, the phases of the moon,
the time of high-water, and of spring and ebb tides, are the
only points to which they attend.

Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the crude and
limited physics of these neglected men, is that of their cos-
mogonies and geogonies. Here we find the most traces of a
former knowledge of nature, although much debased and very
confused. I must however only allude to them, as they
have nothing to do with the immediate object of these re-
marks, and are rather connected with their religious myths.

Anatomy.

Their anatomy is in its merest infancy. They never exa-
mine a body systematically. They only dismember and dis-
embowel the bodies of their enemies. They know the large
organs in the interior of the cavities, and have for them dis-
tinct, and often very descriptive names. Thus, in the Tupi
language, the lungs are called, ‘ pya bubui,’ 2. e. floating liver ;
the stomach is called, ‘ cigié-assu,’ 7. e. larger ; the intestines,
‘ cigié-merim,’ @. e. smaller stomach. They have not of course
studied the convolutions of the brain, but they show that

The Aborigines of Brazil. 317

they have a good general idea of its structure, by the imita-
tions of the brain with coloured cotton, which some races,
such as the Mauhés and Mandructs, make to adorn the dried
skulls of the enemies slain by them. I may add, that they
cut up game with much precision and quickness.

Pathology and Nosology.

We should be surprised if the Indians had made any pro-
gress in these sciences, in which results are only obtained by
enlightened, rational, and unprejudiced observation. The
Indian distinguishes but few conditions of disease, and has
only a dark notion of its essential symptoms. He knows a
certain condition, which he names fever. He describes a
few kinds of cutaneous eruptions, which he knows by certain
sensible characters. He has for certain affections separate
names, commonly derived from the part of the body in which
they are observed. But his special nosology is confined
within these narrow limits.

In like manner he has only the crudest notions about the
nature of disease, and its exciting and predisposing causes.
Besides having a confused idea of the periodicity of certain
diseases being connected with the phases of the moon, he
seeks for the causes of his ailments in the circumstances
which appear nearest to him, in the wind, the sun, the rain,
certain foods, infection by white men or negroes, the former
of whom he dreads especially as conveying certain diseases.
He next looks to witchcraft as a cause: in fact, the Indian in
his idea of nature thinks exclusively of a selfish strife of op-
posing beings and powers. He says in the sense of Aristotle,
‘H pare Samovia, add’ ov Ocia ¢ “ Nature is daemoniacal, not
divine.”

This belief in the demoniacal nature of disease develops
another one, which has at times some influence on the treatment
and management of the sick. If the cause of his ailments
be not quite plain, the patient is regarded as a changed

— a ee

318 ~ The Aborigines of Brazil.

being, who does not continue in his former relation to his
family, but is possessed, and fallen under the influence of un-
friendly powers. He is subject to a necessity from which he
can be released only by his own powers, assisted perhaps
by friendly natural ones. His vicinity has something ill-
omened,* and dangerous in it. He is therefore left as much
as possible to himself. This idea has laid the foundation of
the panic which seizes an Indian population on the appearance
of an epidemic, and which leads to the great mortality attend-
Ing it.
IV.—Materia Medica.

It is in the Materia Medica and Pharmakognosy of the
Indian that we find the strongest traces of a former knowledge.
In every age man follows analogy, and thence the system
of signatures in medicine, of which traces are so common
among the Brazilians. But it requires a higher degree of
knowledge to escape from these loose analogies, and to study
the powers of remedies according to the principles of induc-
tion. The remedies of the Indians require to be fully exa-
mined by scientific physicians, and it is wonderful to how
small an extent this has been done, although the small
number of educated doctors who have gone to Brazil may
be some excuse for it. As it is, the traditions of the Indians
have remained almost exclusively in the hands of barbers,
self-taught men, and old women, and have never had their
truth thoroughly investigated.

Throughout the whole of America the belief in the cold or
hot action of certain substances on the body is universally pre-
valent. Thus, bananas and rice are hot, Mandiocca flour and
the Cards (Caladium) are cold kinds of food. In like manner
their remedies are divided into hot and cold. This is however
probably an idea of Arabic medicine imported from the
Spanish peninsula, where to this day it is very generally enter-
tained.

* Uncanny is the best translation we know for Unheimlich.—Tr.

The Aborigines of Brazil. 319

Articles from the Animal kingdom.

The Materia Medica of the Indians is remarkable for the
number of substances belonging to the animal kingdom which
it includes. All the excretions of the system are to him either
impure and injurious, or pure, and under certain circumstances
beneficial. He carefully buries human excrement the moment
it is passed. He attributes unclean properties to the mucus
of the nose, to the blood, and to the wax of the ear, and em-
ploys them in preparing magical charms. The spittle and the
urine are also remedies in use. The secretion of Tyson’s
glands is used as a cure for the bites of serpents and of large
ants. He has a great idea of the healing virtues of certain
bones, beaks, talons, and spurs, of particular birds, (such as
Parra, Palamedea). He wears the teeth of the ounce, the
claws of the great ant-eater, the hinge of the large river
oysters, &c., not only as ornaments, but as amulets on his
neck and his extremities. Thus, he considers wearing the
teeth of the crocodile a prophylactic against the bite of poison-
ous serpents, and their powdered teeth are drunk in water
as cures for snake bites. From the musky smelling fat,
which is found in two bags under the neck of the crocodile,
he prepares a powerful remedy against the bite of the rattle-
snake. He cuts portions of the horns of the Cervus Palu-
dosus into four cornered pieces of the length of an inch, heats
them till they are almost burnt, and then drops in the croco-
dile fat. The pieces of bone thus prepared are bound over
snake bites, from which they are supposed to extract all
the poison. Many people of European origin have faith in
this remedy, and wear it on their persons. The Indians
employ the Bezoar of the deer as a most excellent medicine
in complaints of the digestive organs, and the green fat of the
crocodile is used as a liniment in rheumatism, and as a salve
for wounds. The pounded flesh of the black toad (Spix Rane)
split and roasted at the fire, is a protective against witchcraft,

|
|
|

of Bor

320 — The Aborigines of Brazil.

and is used by women in labour to render childbirth easier.
The pounded fangs of the rattle-snake are ordered for un-
healthy ulcers; alive rattle-snake has its head and tail cut
off, and is then boiled down with a young fowl, long enough
to make the whole of the consistence of a jelly. This mess
drunk off at once is supposed to heal chronic eruptions and
syphilis. Large ants, we have already said, are eaten pre-
served in Mandiocca flour ; they are also considered to be good
stimulants in weakness of digestion. The dried and powder-
ed stomach of the crocodile is used for gravel ; the small stones
sometimes found in the intestines of that animal are used for
several diseases, and the powder of dried fish-bone, for stran-
gury. ‘They stuff into carious teeth calcined tiger claws to
cure the pain. The pounded rattle of the rattle-snake
when introduced into hollow teeth, is said to make them drop
out. Bezoars are often brought down from the mountains of
Peru to the plains of the Amazon, and are in high repute in
stomach complaints. They ascribe great efficacy in dis-
cussing swellings and improving the unhealthy granulations
of wounds, to various animal fats. ‘This is not only the case
with the fat of the crocodile, but also with that of ounces,
deer, cattle and fowls. They apply it directly over the part,
either unmixed, or rubbed up with various kinds of charcoal
or with herbs. The fat of the ounce is applied for the espe-
cial purpose of destroying worms in unclean wounds. In
sciatica they apply the freshly stripped skin of dogs over the
part.
Articles from the Mineral kingdom.

Few minerals are used by the Indian in medicine. The
Amazon-stone, or Lapis Nephriticus, (whose country is still
a riddle, like the history of various pieces of stone, which
shaped and polished with more or less skill are common over
the whole of South America) is worn as an amulet: but the
Indians, whom I questioned, knew nothing of its use in
diseases of the kidneys, sciatica, gout, and rheumatism, in

The Aborigines of Brazil. 321

all which Jesuits have in former centuries ascribed to it great
efficacy. Pumice, which sometimes floats down the rivers
from the Peruvian frontier, is on account of this strange pro-
perty, prized and used as an amulet. Of other minerals employ-
ed as medicines, the Indian is acquainted only with salt and
lithomarge ; both are used in complaints of the abdomen.
He has no idea however of preparing them by any chemical
process. He does not even know how to separate potash
from the ashes of the wood which he burns. Thus the low
state of Indian medicine is abundantly proved by the absence
of any one chemical substance in his materia medica.

Articles from the Vegetable kingdom.

The remedies used by the Pajés are chiefly gathered fresh
from the tree or shrub, and applied in the form of infusions
or of decoction internally, and of cataplasms and washes ex-
ternally. He does not think of more recondite preparations.
Their plants thus applied have often the most powerful effects,
and are frequently substituted with advantage for the chemical
preparations of Europe. These superficial applications amply
deserve the attention of rational medicine. The effects of
fomentations with fresh leaves on bad ulcers, which I some-
times witnessed, were so rapid and powerful as to border on
; the wonderful. Thus the sores on the feet of a negro of my
party, which I had for months been trying in vain to cure,
were healed by a mess of fresh squeezed leaves of Julocroton
phagedzenicus, one of the Euphorbiacee. I saw equally favor-
able results follow the application of poultices of Kuphorbia
cotinifolia to large warts, and of the fomentation made of the
squeezed flowers of the water-plant Pistia occidentalis to
the old ulcers of a boy. Poultices of the American cotton
plant also often heal old unhealthy ulcers with wonderful
quickness. In fractures of the extremities the Indians on the
Rio Doce use the squeezed plant of the Tillandsia recurvata,
which is made into a poultice with the half-hatched eggs

322 The Aborigines of Brazil.

of the Crax alector. Bernard Gomes recommends a similar
application after the reduction of fractures. The fresh juices
of many Aroidez, whose powers would be lost by any other
mode of exhibition, are especially powerful; the roots and
mucus of various plants, such as Canna glauca, and Alpi-
nia pacoseroca, are, when fresh gathered, applied usefully to
heal and clean wounds. The root of Piper nodulosum, in
taste resembling a pepper-corn, is also chewed to relieve
tooth-ache. The fresh expressed juice of the leaf-buds of the
Cecropia, which is rich in mucus and in salts, is used as a
cooling application in inflammations of the eye, and in erysi-
pelas. I have in like manner seen a West Indian cure syphi-
litic ulcers of the penis by bathing them in the fluid of an
unripe cocoa-nut. Possibly this method may have been in-
troduced by the Portuguese. I find that it was in use in the
Kast Indies one hundred and fifty years ago.* (Meister ;
Orientalisch-Indianischer Kunst und Lustgartner. Dresden,
1642, p. 53.)

But for internal use the Indians employ only fresh plants.
Their store-house is the wood. They are never in the habit
of gathering any plant and of drying it for future use. The
only vegetable substance that I have seen preserved by them,
is the rind of the Strychnos gujanensis and toxifera, whose
extract is the chief ingredient in the poison of their arrows.

Experience has taught even the ignorant Indian, that his
remedial plants are not equally efficacious at every season of
the year. Thus an Indian declared to me, that the cold in-
fusion of the wood of Echites cuarnosi, is only efficacious
against gastric fever, when the shrub has passed from the
flowering to the seeding period. In lands, in which the plants
afford substances of such very different qualities, it becomes a
matter of importance to mark the stage of development at
which they yield them, and there is a wide field for observation

* The common sources of information make no mention of this use of it at
the present day.— 77.

The Aborigines of Brazil. 323

still open. The number of plants used by the Pajé is very con-
siderable. I have myself seen many of them in their hands: of
others I have heard accounts given, and I am convinced that
several hundreds are in use. Many of them are no doubt of
little value, and the knowledge of others may not have been
communicated to Europeans, from the feeling of distrust
with which those new-comers are regarded by them. In my
‘* Systema Materiz Medice Brasiliensis,” 470 plants belong-
ing to 226 families are described ; but many of these have been
introduced by Europeans. If we now enquire into the sources
from which the Indians have derived the knowledge of so
many plants, it becomes plain that many must have been in-
troduced at a period antecedent to historical records. They
are the cultivated or mythical plants.

Mythical Planis.

Almost every tribe has a more or less complete myth or
story, about the way in which useful plants have been applied
to household or to medicinal purposes. In short, their plants
are like the most important ones of the Old World, various
kinds of grain, the olive, the vine, the bean and other kinds
of vegetables: as we do not know their original country,
So are we ignorant of that of the analogous ones of the New
World. No sure tradition tells how the Indians first discovered
them, or when or how they first used them. They are never
found wild, except where here and there they have run so, and
are every where cultivated with much care. We must there-
fore assume regarding these plants, that like the European
cultivated ones, they are derived from paradise, or (if this ex-
pression will be objected to by some) that the Aborigines
of America have derived them, and gradually extended their
cultivation, from districts of America where the inhabitants
were once in possession of a higher degree of knowledge and of
cultivation, of which they have left traces behind them in their

colossal buildings, As regards the mythical plants of Brazil,
20U

324 The Aborigines of Brazil.

it is very remarkable, that almost all of them without ex-
ception, occur in the islands of the Caribbean sea, just as
in Brazil, and also in widely separated districts of the New
World, and that several were known and used in North Ame-
rica, Mexico, and Chili, when Columbus landed there for the
first time. Another still more remarkable circumstance is
this, that these plants are designated by different names in
several American languages, but that these same words have
also quite a different meaning in each of these languages.
This peculiarity, if thoroughly investigated, might throw
much light on the aboriginal history of the American man.
But I cannot here enter into the subject, and mean only to
point out the most important of the plants termed by me my-
thical, which occur in Brazil.

1. Manihot utilissima, Pohl, the poisonous Manioc-plant,

from which the common flour and bread of the American are

prepared. In the Tupi language it is called Maniida, and in its
| Guarani dialect Mandiba. Among the Caribs of the continent
it has often this name: in the Haiti language it is called Juca,
and the flour, Kiere. Among the Chaymas and the Cumana-

i Hi gotos, the plant is called Quicharapo, the root Quichere.

i} | | 2. Manihot Aypi, Pohl; in Tupi Aypim, the mild Mandi-
A) occa. In Haiti, it is said by Oviedo not to be indigenous.
ee i There it is called Boniata; by the Chaymas, Cazé or Cachite ;

i in Mexico, Huacamote.

3. Indian corn, Zea Mais, L. I have found no species in
; use in Brazil, except that known among us. In Paraguay
| | and the most southern provinces of Brazil, the Zea Crypto-
; sperma, Bonafous, is found. This circumstance deserves
: more attention, from the fact that at present several others of
the species Zea are distinguished as being cultivated in differ-
ent parts of the New World. Thus there are the Zea Curagua,
Molina, of Chili, the Zea Hirta, Bonafous, of California,
the Zea Erythrolepis, Bonafous, of the Missouri districts ;
and finally, several species different from all these, in Mexico.

The Aborigines of Brazil. 325

In the Haiti language, the Indian corn (which is said to
have been introduced about the year 1204 from Anatolia) is
Mahiz. Among the island Caribs it is Auachi, Goazxi or
Marizi ; among the continental ones Aouwassi or Yurar ; among
the Azteks Tlaolli, and in Tupi dAuaty or Uva-tim, which
means beaked corn.

4. Different kinds of Batatas, Convolvulus Batata, L.: in
Tupi, Jetica; in Haiti, Batata; in Carib, Napi; in Aztek,
Camottt. -

5. The creeping and tuber-bearing kinds of Dioscorea
(yams) are named Cara in Tupi, Jgname on the coasts of
Paria, and 47é in Haiti. I may mention here that another
tuber- bearing plant, which is called Tupinambi, the Helianthus
Tuberosus, L., was not known to the aborigines of Brazil. Its
country must be sought in Buenos Ayres, if not perhaps in
Mexico.

6. Taid, Tayoba Mangaraz are the Tupi names of the mild
mucilaginous and mealy Aracee, which are eaten as vege-
tables when boiled. These plants go in Brazil also by the
name of Inhame.

7. The EKarth-nut, Mandubi in Tupi, Mani in Haiti, or
Arachis Hypogea, is eaten both raw and roasted, and also
yields a favourite fatty oil.

8. The Melon tree, Caria Papaia, and other species, as
C. digitata, C. Dodecaphylla. The species of this remarkable
family do not seem even yet to have been sufficiently dis-
tinguished. One species, that grows in the Carib islands,
with simple three-lobed leaves, called Adadai, is essentially
different from those of the main-land. The species called by
the Portuguese Mamdo, introduced by them into Africa and
the East Indies, differs from the Peruvian one which is called
Papaie, and which distinguishes itself from all others by the
superior size and flavour of the fruit. The Indians use the
milky juice of these trees for worms,* and think that meat

* It is in great repute in the Mauritius as a vermifuge.—77.

526 The Aborigines of Brazil.

becomes more tender and better tasted by being kept for some
time exposed to its exhalations.

9. Plaintain, Musa Sapientum, in Tupi Pacoba, and Musa
Paradisaica, in Tupi Pacobugu, the Banana of the Caribs.
This tree was found spread in numerous varieties over tro-
pical America, when the New World was discovered; and,
as far as I know, it has never been met with in a wild
State.

10. The Guava tree, Psidium Guajava, Raddi, or Ps. Pomi-
Serum and Pyriferum, L. This tree also, in Haiti Guajabas,
among the island Caribs Cojabu, among the Chaymas Gua-
rapa, must also be reckoned among the mythical plants of
Brazil, where it is hardly to be found wild, though extensively
cultivated by the Indians. The Psidiwm Aracd, Raddi, is
again found growing originally wild, though producing an
equally good fruit.

11. The Cashew-tree, Anacardium Occidentale, L. This
tree called in Tupi Oacaju and Caju, by the Caribs of the
islands Caschit, of the mainland Mouwé, occurs chiefly in many
spots near the sea and the mouths of great rivers, in places
where probably Indian settlements stood formerly. Here
also it possesses that large pear-shaped swelling of the fruit
stalk, which recommends it as a fruit tree. A remarkable
species, the Anacardium mediterraneum, is perhaps to be re-
garded as the wild stock, and is specifically different from the
small one, A. humile.

12. The Spanish pepper, Capsicum. Of this family many
species are used. Their fruit is the most important condi-
ment of the Indians. There is no doubt that these plants
have been in use among the Indians time out of mind. They
are called in Aztek Chilli, in Zapotek Quijuna, and, what is
very remarkable, have the same name in Tupi (written by the
Portuguese Quiinha) in the language of Chili Thapi, in Haiti
Axi, among the continental Caribs Pomi, among the Chaymas
Pomucy, and in Cusco Uchi.

The Aborigines of Brazil. 327

13. Calabash-tree, Crescentia Cujeté, L. This tree also
occurs within the tropics in almost all portions of the new
world, and always in the neighbourhood of the aborigines,
who prepare from its gourd-like fruit, very neatly carved
drinking vessels, in Carib called Cuz, in Tupi Cuja. The tree
is called by the Tupi tribes Choité or Cuité, by several other
ones Tutuma.

14. Cotton shrub, Gossypium vitifolium, Lam. was found
every where in cultivation on the discovery of America. Cot-
ton was one of the chief articles which the Indians brought
as tribute to their Caziks and to their Kuropean _plunderers.
The Indian indicates the limits of his field by a small cotton
thread drawn round his plantation. The cotton shrub is
called by the Tupis Amynii, by the Guaranis Mandiyi, by the
island Caribs Amoulou, by the continental ones Maourou, by
the Azteks, who weave beautiful cloths from it and colour
them, Yehaxihuitl, by the Zapoteks Xilla.

15. The Arnotto-bush, Bzxa Orellana, L., in Tupi Uruci,
in Carib Rocu, and on the continent Bzche, is known as a
colouring matter, and as a medicinal plant among all the
aborigines of tropical America. I have never seen this spe-
cies wild, but avery similar one, the Bixa Urucarana, Willd.
as a curious example of the resemblance of names used
among different tribes, I may mention that the Abipones
in Paraguay call the yellow-yielding bark of the Trichilia
Catigoa, S. Hil. Achite, while the Azteks call the Uruciu
Achiotl.

16. The bottle-gourd, Lagenaria Vulgaris, DC., is also one
of the most widely extended plants connected with the re-
mote history of the Americans. It is called by some of the
Brazilian Indians Caramemté, by the insular Caribs Bazza,
by the continental ones Maiatd, which means a vessel, by the
people of Chili Penca. :

17. The Physic nut-tree, Jatropha Curcas, L., is often
found in the vicinity of Indian huts, but I have never found

328 The Aborigines of Brazil.

it actually wild. Its use appears to have been long extended

over great portion of America. It is called in Aztek Qu-
auhayohuatlis, and by the Tupis Manduy-guagi, large earth-
nut. The Spaniards of Buenos Ayres call the seeds Pinno-
nes del Paraguay.

18. The Castor-oil plant, Recinus Communis, L. This tree
is found growing to the height of our elder-bushes in great
abundance near Indian dwellings, but not in a wild state.
The Brazilians call it Mamona, the insular Caribs Lamaheu,
Chouloumanum and Alamaramarou. The practice of beating
oil out of the seeds is known universally among the Indians ;
but they entirely neglect the culture of the plant, as they
but seldom make use of its product.

The history of the foregoing cultivated plants is not yet
sufficiently developed, even in a purely systematic point of
view. Thus it remains for future observation to determine,
whether many of them on closer examination may not be
found to consist of specifically different kinds, whether the
original stock of some one or other of them may not yet be
discovered, and whether we may not be able to assign more
distinctly defined limits for the diffusion of each species, by
historical reference to the people that used it first.

Wild plants used in Medicine.

From the group of mythical or pre-historical and culti-
vated plants, we must next distinguish another set, which
the present Indian inhabitants of Brazil have not re-
ceived down from a period of knowledge now gone by,
but which they have only in later times become acquainted
with and applied to useful purposes; they have become
gradually known to them in the course of their long (perhaps
thousands of years long) wanderings, which are not however
enlightened by any rays of history. These plants are to this
day in a wild state: 7 ¢., they are not cultivated by the
Indians for domestic or for medical use. Here we must

SS & PS?) a

g

The Aborigines of Brazil. 329

observe the very remarkable fact, that among these plants
we find those which have the most powerful medicinal
properties ; for instance, the Cephaelis tpecacuanha, in Tupi
Ipe-caa-goene, i. e. creeping emetic plant, different species
of Copaiva balsam, gum elemi, gum anime, those plants
which are used in the same way in Brazil, as the common
Nicotiana Tabacum and Rustia in Florida, Mexico and the
Carib islands, where it is called Judi: the tree which pro-
duces elastic gum, Hevea Gujanensis : a great number of pow-
erful cathartics, various Convolyuli and Ipomee, the Cucurbi-
tacee, Trianosperma ficifolia, and Tayuyd, Mart. &c., and the
purging nut, Anda Brasiliensis, Raddi: the most powerful
alteratives, as different species of Guarea, of Andira, and of
the Umari, Geoffrea spinosa, L. whose seeds are powerful
vermifuges, &c. The list might be much increased, but I
content myself with here referring to my ‘‘ Specimen Mater.
Med. Vegetab. Brasil. Leipzig, 1843.”

Some of these plants are common to Brazil along with
many other tropical regions, like the Ananas (pine apple,) the
Icaco-plum, Chrysobolanus Icaco, L. some widely-spread kinds
of Mureci, Brysonima V. and Chr. of Kunth. &c. Others are
less widely extended, but have been confounded with allied
American species. Among them for instance is that Rudiacea,
whose fruit, when unripe is employed to prepare a dark
colour and in tattooing, and is when ripe, eaten: the Genipa
Brasil. Mart., a tree, different from the G. Americana, L. as
well as from the G. Caruto, Humb. In like manner the
Mombin-plum, Spondias venulosa, Mart. is different from the
Mombin and Hobo, Sp. purpurea and S. lutea, L. I must
also in this hasty enumeration not forget to mention, that
certain useful plants grow wild in Brazil, the use of which
was as good as unknown to the aborigines before the arrival
of Europeans, although other American tribes were at the
same time familiar with their uses. The most striking exam-
ple of this is the Cacao-tree, Theobroma Cacao, L. While, as

j
i.

330 The Aborigines of Brazil.

is well known, most tribes of New Spain knew how to prepare
from it a paste like our chocolate, and used their beans in
place of coins, the Indians of the Amazon stream, along which
the tree is very abundant, used only to make a fermented
drink from the sweetish-sourish juice which the shell of the
seed contains. This would seem to shew that at the period
of our arrival there was no intercourse between them. In
like manner, (if I may believe the reports I received) the
Avogato Pear, Persea Gratissima, Gartner, which grows
wild throughout a great portion of the lower Amazon basin,
was there scarcely known to the inhabitants, while it has been
long known to the Indians, and eaten by them and the
colonists throughout a great part of America, as a great deli-
cacy. It is called in the Haiti tongue Ahacaca, in Peru Pailta,
and among the Azteks Quaufitil. On the whole many things
seem to show, that for many centuries there has been exceed-
ingly little intercourse between the hordes of Brazil and the
more civilized races of the New World. Perhaps the only visi-
ble signs that we can see of a former connection are those
artificially cut specimens of the Amazon stone, which are
found among the most different tribes of Brazil. If their inter-
course had not been interrupted, we should certainly have
found among the Brazilians many useful plants, which they do
not possess, or at least do not know the properties of. Such
is the Agave Americana, L. It is found indeed in many places
along the sea coast, but no where in the interior. The Brazi-
lian savage does not know the art of preparing the fermented
drink Pulgque from it, and I do not know that it is designated
by any name except its Carib one. In New Spain the 4. Ame-
ricana is commonly called Mayuey, a Haiti word, which pro-
bably formerly designated the Fourcroya Cubenis. The latter
is a native of warmer districts than the former, whose original
habitat is to be sought in New Spain or in some of the eleva-
ted plains of Central America. Another indication of the little
intercourse between these tribes, is the fact that the varieties

ee

The Aborigines of Brazil. 33 1

of Indian corn common in Mexico and the neighbouring coun-
tries, are unknown in Brazil, and that the love-apple, Solanum
Lycopersicum, L., in Aztek Tomalt, in Zapotek Pethowé, and the
Mexican kinds of Pine-apple, and of Sapota, Achras and Lu-
cuma are none of them cultivated ; an etymological examination
of the cultivated plants growing wild in Brazil, must among
other things satisfy us that the names of many of them are sim-
ple roots, which are sometimes applied to a single species, and
sometimes to several allied ones, but that most of them are
compound words. The words Caa leaf, tiva in the Guarani dia-
lect, plant, [diva tree, Spé twining plant, are some of the com-
monest, as Caa-apeba broad leaf, Piper Peltatum, Caa-pim the
name of grasses, Tajoba, the hot Araceae, from ¢ai to burn in the
mouth : Icicar-tiva resin tree, from Icica resin, &c. &c. Many
compound words have a generic and specific meaning, as
Jetai-Cicar-iiva, tree of the resin Jetai, Hymenea. Many of
their simple roots occur also in languages very different from
the Tupi, but bear quite other meanings. Thus Mari or Mali,
means in Tupi Geoffrea spinosa, in Carib Cassia Brasiliana.
Copa means in Tupi balsamic resin, and Copa iiva Copaiba:
Copallia, in Aztek is incense, Copal in Chili sulphur.

I close these etymological remarks with a few more exam-
ples of theircompounds. Nandy-yroda bitter oil, Carapa Guja-
nensis, because such oil is expressed from its seeds. Gua-
vyroba, several species of Mryius and Eugenea, which have
an acrid oil in their leaves or fruit. Pinda-iiva, several kinds of
Tylopia, so named because they make fish-line, Pinda, from its
inner bark, Japicanga, thorny bushes with round heads, seve-
ral kinds of Smilacee. Curuba-y, itch tree, Bowdichea Major,
Mart., because the bark of the tree is used against eruptions.

The peculiarities of this botanical nomenclature of the
Indian seem to indicate, that the useful properties of these
plants were gradually recognised while they were in their
present low state of civilization: and the mixing together

of more simple with more complex designations is another
2x

B02 Lhe Aborigines of Brazil.

ground for assuming, that they are by no means in their pri-
mitive condition, but in that state of moral and of social ad-
vancement, which meets us as an inexplicable riddle among
nations in a similar stage of progress.

The sources of the Indian’s knowledge of remedies.

We now come to enquire, how it happens that the rude
Indian has discovered certain medical properties in plants ex-
cept by tradition, which however in many cases does not seem
to have helped him. The most important aid has been derived
from that perception of analogy, which lies so deep in the na-
ture of man at every stage of his progress. He compares
the physical characters of certain natural objects with simi-
lar ones of his own body, and is led to the doctrine of signa-
tures, on which the whole materia medica of antiquity, of the
Arabs, and of the middle ages, and indeed partially that
of the present day, is found to rest. In this manner the
Indian thinks plants and parts of plants of a red colour are
related to the blood, and yellow ones to the gall and liver.

Thus he applies the blood-red fungus Boletus Sanguine-
us, Urupé-taud in vomiting of blood; dark, brown or red
astringent barks of several trees for erysipelas and chronic
eruptions and swellings; the yellow juice of a species of Vismia,
the yellow wood of species of Abuta and Cocculus in diseases
of the liver and of the gall-bladder: he considers the snake-
like root of the Pareiwra brava, an efficacious remedy for
snake-bites, as likewise the tubers and the juice of the stalks
of the Dracontium polyphyllum, the foot-stalks of whose
fi leaves resemble in their dark marbled surface the skin of the
rattle-snake. He finds some resemblance between the form
of the testicles, in Tupi Capyd, and the roots of various
kinds of Caapid (2. ¢€., herba testiculi) Dorstenia, and there-
fore considers them powerful stimulants in general debility
and in nervous fever. He observes that the milky juice of
many Euphorbiaceae, Figs, and Apocynee, when it issues

The Aborigines of Brazil. 338

from the bark and dries in the air in whitish threads, re-
sembles round-worms, in Tupi Seduii, and he therefore
employs it to clear himself from worms, and calls several of
these plants Sebuii-iiva. The Selaginella convuluta rolls
itself up in the dry season like the rose of Jericho, and ex-
pands again as a sensitive hygrometer when the air be-
comes damp, and acquires a fresher colouring: the Indian
sees in this, to him very surprising phenomenon, an indication
that the plant has the virtue of awakening the dormant
powers of life, and he therefore employs it as a restorative.
In this respect he follows the same instinct as the Hindu,
who ascribes kindred powers to the similarly organised Lyco-
podiacee. He has observed that wounds of the bark of the
Araucaria Brasiliana, and of several Terebinthacee and
Leguminose fill with Balsamic resin, which gradually thick-
ens, and forms a coating to the injured part, and therefore he
uses these balsams to heal hisown wounds. He seesaslimy
juice issue from many of the Aristolochia family, on being
wounded, and he therefore considers them to be sudorific.
These examples may be enough to shew that the old apo-
thegm “similia similibus’” is known even to the wild Bra-
zilian.

We recognise also another source of the knowledge of

the properties of plants in his nice observation of the instinct

of the lower animals. Many medicinal plants have be-
yond all doubt been discovered in this way. The Indians in
Minas, and the eastern coast-provinces, know by the name of
Tit tiva, a Euphorbiacea, (Adenoropium opiferum,) whose
root, a capital cathartic, is sought and eaten by the Lacerta
monitor, L., when it is ill: in like manner the Drymis grana-
tensis is called in Tupi Tapyra-motuti, i. e. Tapir-bark, be-
cause the Tapirs make use of the bark of that tree to cure
themselves from colic and diarrhceas. It now only remains
for me to make a few remarks on the method of procedure
of the Indian Pajé.

J34 Lhe Aborigines of Brazil.

Medical Treatment.

The treatment of their sick is very simple and uniform.
That imperturbable equanimity, or rather that stolid indif-
ference, which has become a second nature to the Indian, is
displayed here also. A sort of fatalist delay makes him
often miss the favourable moment, and the fatal termi-
nation of the disease is much oftener caused by deficient and
tardy, than by energetic and precipitate treatment. The
Pajé is never the master, he isat most the minister of na-
ture. While the medical faculty in Europe very often render
a complaint serious, the Indian doctor remains merely an
observer, often without any distinct diagnosis, and is an un-
decided spectator of the progress of disease. But when he
has once got a distinct idea of it, and of the treatment to
be directed against it, then he assumes as it were the position
of a priest of nature towards his patient. This is like the
position in which we find the physician in antiquity, when
he directed himself individually with his whole might against
the demoniacal power of the disease, and when his knowledge
of the nature of the opposing circumstances, and the direct-
ness of his dealing with them, inspired the respect and vene-
ration of the patient for his procedure, as being the inspira-
tion of a higher being.

A consequence of this peculiar sacerdotal relation is this,
that the Pajé’s operations are directed almost exclusively to
the patient, that the members of the family draw back from
him, that every external influence is excluded as much as
possible, and all things are kept in an unusual degree of quiet.
If the hut has several compartments, as is especially common
along the Amazon and its tributaries, the patient is placed
in the most retired corner, and there secluded from light,
air, noise and company. In some districts, when the musqui-
toes prevail for many months, during which the Indians with-
draw into those dark closets with mud wails, (called Furnos

.
:
:
d
;

,

The Aborigines of Brazil. 309

by the Brazilian colonist, and Hornitos on the Orinoco) this
place is usually the sick room.
The Examination of the Sick.

Before however the patient is withdrawn from the light, he
undergoes a very narrow ocular scrutiny on the part of the
careful Pajé, which extends to every portion of his body, and
includes touching and feeling. When the pulse is examined,
it is felt at the temporal artery. The oral examination is, as
might be expected from the natural silence of the Indian,
very monosyllabic. In conducting it, the Pajé repeats very
often certain words, which, if I have not mistaken their
meaning, refer chiefly to the exciting causes. I have never
observed the examination extend to the excretions of the
patient. On these occasions the Indian always complains
of pain in the heart; even if there be only something the
matter with his extremities, he repeats this complaint with
a most pitiful expression of face. The doctor however is
not led astray by it, although he certainly speaks but few
words of comfort. He constantly asks whether the patient
has an appetite for food, and if the reply be affirmative he
counts it a bad sign. But the examination extends to the
whole family: with a tedious indifference, which among us
would drive the relations half-mad, he asks a number of the
most common questions, such as where the members of the
family had been on a certain day, what they had said or
done, whom they had met, &c. All the while he maintains
an earnest countenance of concern, and shakes his rattle
from time to time. It is made of a hollowed-out gourd
or calabash with a stalk, adorned with various birds’ feathers,
claws of animals, &c., and half filled with small pebbles.
This instrument is of as much importance to the Pajé, as the
large gold-headed cane used to be among us in the hands of
a consequential member of the faculty. Besides being a sym-
bol of his excellence, it is also the vehicle of his magic powers.
The Pajé sets it on the ground, after he has whirled it round

;
:
.
.

——— —
.
©

336 Lhe Aborigines of Brazil.

with an expression of profound admiration, and listens to the
noise of the stones rattling against each other, as to an
oracle. He and the female doctors, who resemble him,
are thence called Maraca-Imbara (Rattle Whirlers,) a name
by which the missionaries designate a sorcerer or magician.
Sometimes the Pajé brings with him a tame snake, which he
makes to dance while he is busied about the patient.
Application of Remedies.

The relations witness all this as dumb and timid specta-
tors, till at last they break forth in the cry “ Pocanga,” ‘* Me-
dicine,”’ ** Medicine.” The Pajé’s remedies are now sent for,
if he has not brought them along with him. No one can
assist him in compounding them, unless perhaps some old
female of the family happens to be present. I have already
said that he seldom thinks of preparing his remedies before
hand. If they be vegetable ones, he must first go to the
woods and fetch them. The stalks, roots, wood, &c. if in-
tended for internal use, are prepared in a hot, rarely a cold in-
fusion, or in a decoction. The Indian ascribes high medicinal
powers to the feculent matters which are deposited from
plants well rubbed and stirred about in water. The practice
therefore of bruising roots, barks, stalks or leaves between
stones, or in wooden mortars, is very common. Besides these
modes of applying remedies, the Pajé also makes poultices
with boiled herbs, and salves or balsams, in which the natural
balsamic gums play a conspicuous part. He is acquainted
with many emetic plants : but when he has not got them, he
excites vomiting by irritation of the throat, which he causes
by thrusting into it some leaves rolled together.

As to his remedies from the animal kingdom, the Pajé
commonly has them all ready in his hut, where they are rol-
led up in a palm leaf, or kept in the hollow of a bamboo.

In cases of wounding, the first procedure of the Pajé is to
bend himself with great gravity over the patient, apply his
mouth to the wound, and then suck freely. If the wound is

The Aborigines of Brazil. 337

caused by a poisonous animal or by a poisoned weapon, the
doctor often takes a piece of the tobacco plant or of a siala-
gogue root, as of one of the peppers, &c. into his mouth,
to chew, and to protect him from the chance of harm. He
spits out what he has sucked with great gravity on the floor,
and then rubs it with his foot. But he often also makes
use of this application over painful spots, even if there be no
wound. He frequently spits out cockchafers, worms, and
thorns, shews them to his patient, and assures him that he
must get well, now that the cause of his complaint is re-
moved.
General Management and Care.

In this respect their practice resembles much the homceo-
pathic. The most rigid fasting is ordered. Seclusion from
light and air, and complete silence are enjoined. The patient
usually lies motionless, and does not by any sound betray his
sufferings, however acute they may be. The doctor, who
in severe cases, seldom quits the patient’s side, often goes
through a great many operations, which to the eye of the
European appear only as deception and juggling, but to which
both the patient and the family ascribe a deeper meaning,
than meets the eye. The most common operation, to which
a patient is subjected for an internal complaint, is that of
shampooing, not only the part affected, but the whole body.
This process is performed by the Pajé with great persever-
ance, and in the most complete silence. The doctor is often
covered with perspiration, and takes food from time to time,
to recruit his strength. But this forcible mode of cure often
causes the patient intense pain, which he bears in silence.
The Pajé usually commences with the affected part, and goes
on to press the extremities up and down, and generally pro-
duces profuse perspiration, at times vomiting and purging
also. When the process is finished, the patient is allowed
some drink, and left to sleep for several hours. I have seen
this treatment employed in several cases of snake-bites, and

308 The Aborigines of Brazil.

may take occasion to remark, that I have never seen a fatal
case of this dangerous accident among the Indians ; while
two other cases, one of a white man, the other of a mulatto,
in which the help of an Indian doctor could not be procured,
terminated fatally. If the treatment just recorded may shew
some slight traces of animal magnetism, their other pro-
cesses bear much rather the character of exorcisms.* Their
priest-doctor falls upon the patient’s bed with fearful contor-
tions of face, or if the patient be in a hammock, upon the
ground, and spurts out all kinds of exorcisms to drive out
the evil principle. In this stage the following processes are
particularly applicable. Spitting on the patient ; fumigating
him with the large cigars,} which the Indians use at most of
their feasts and carousals; covering the patient with strong
smelling herbs, and smearing him with blood. The substan-
ces, which the Pajé uses for such purposes, vary much in
different tribes. I have already mentioned that supernatural
powers are ascribed to certain animals ; but hairs also, and
the ashes of bones, &c. are among the strange preparations
i which the Pajé employs.

If we consider the dreamy life which the Indian almost al-
ht} ways lives, and from which nothing but the effects of the vio-
| ie lent passions arouse him,—if we think of his superstitious dread
r of the unknown powers of nature, his fear of spirits, and his

deep-rooted inclination to feign what man does not possess,
ie namely, mastery over some unknown higher power in nature,—
we may be able to understand the light in which the doctor
is regarded by his patient. But the doctor is a self-deceived

* Analogous processes are common in this country: and barbers often prevent
the returns of intermittent fever by such manipulations ; (though, it was reserved
for the judicial wisdom of a Bengal civilian recently to pronounce, that they can
kidnap children by mesmerism.) Some customs of the Burmese in sickness are
exorcismal.— 77.

) t+ The Brazilian Indians use very large cigars, often a foot and a half long, and
two inches thick. Cigars are called Tamot by the Chaymas. This word is the
probable root of Tabacus,

EE
> =
.

Zs

The Aborigines of Brazil. 339

conjuror, much more than a crafty deceiver: and the patient
is rather a timid, thoughtless, passive agent than a steadily
confiding friend. To describe their mutual relation still more
completely, I must add that it is commonly the Pajé who
understands how to prepare poison for their arrows. He is
also generally the depository of the knowledge of the kindred
arts. Thus, he directs the preparation of the fine red colouring
stuffs, Carajurté and Guarandpaste, and guides the tribes to
gather the plants which stupify fish.* Many races are ac-
quainted with certain poisons which, when introduced into
the system, are supposed in a longer or shorter time to cause
death. The Pajé is the possessor of the secret of these sinister
arts, and is thus in some places dreaded as an actual poisoner.
These poisonous plants are partly Liane, especially of the fa-
mily of Sapindacee, partly species of Amaryllis. From the
first, they are supposed to prepare their most virulent poisons
from extracts of the stalks, from the latter, by drying and
preparing the bulbs in a peculiar way. In the work of pre-
paration they also make use of superstitious practices, and
labour by night, unseen by Europeans whom they always
distrust. It is universally believed along the Amazon stream,
that there are poisons which, when introduced into the
mouth, in small quantities during sleep, produce gradual
sinking, and certain death. But the Indians are very reserved
on the subject. I could only learn that it was a powder pre-
pared from the roots of a bulb (an Amaryllis ?) which had a
golden-yellow flower.

The Pajé as Surgeon.

The surgical attainments of the Pajé, as might be expected,
are not very great; they scarcely extend beyond scarifica-
tion, venesection, and the application of splints in fractures.

* V. Martius has given a list of plants employed for this purpose in ‘‘ Spix et
Agassiz Pisces Brasil ;’’ we have seen fish stupified in this way in great numbers
in the sea at Khyouk Phyoo.— Tr. :

2y¥

340 The Aborigines of Brazil.

The first of these is practised on the chest in diseases of the
whole system, or on the inflamed part in local affections.
The Pajé performs it with the beak of a hawk or of a toucan,
or with the spine of a ray-fish (Raja.) Venesection is also
performed with this spine, or with the sharp tooth of a Coati
(Nasua,) and among several races in the east of Brazil, as the
Coroados, Puris, and Botocudos, by shooting into the vein
from a small bow a little arrow armed witha piece of rock
crystal. A vein in the calf of the leg is most frequently select-
ed, more rarely oneat the elbow or on the temples. Blood-
letting is very often used as a precautionary measure. Young
married women are in the habit of losing, almost regularly at
the end of the rainy season, a large quantity of blood to
prevent conception. Baron V. Eschwege states, that he once
found a number of women bathing in a river, and saw an old
man open a vein in each of them. Missionaries have told me,
that they have frequently seen this operation performed simul-
taneously on several women. This custom is connected with
the general wish which they feel to cause abortion, and save
themselves the troubles of pregnancy. I have seen cases, in
which the unnatural mothers struck their bodies violently
with this design. The women also are often bled about the
time of child-birth. In obstinate tooth-aches, the Pajé punc-
tures the gums. Broken limbs are put up in the splint-like
leaf-stalks of the Assat palm, (Huterpe oleracea, and edulis,)
the proper setting of the bones being of course frequent-
ly neglected. For dressings he uses various fresh or boiled
plants, or a dog’s skin, fresh taken off. In large open wounds,
the Pajé frequently uses fire to hasten recovery. The wound

ed member is thickly enveloped in the inner bark of trees, and
is often half-roasted on a prop, beneath which burning coals are
placed. The patient bears this painful procedure with his
usual indifference, and strange to say, it generally causes rapid
cure by the first intention. I can, as an eye-witness, affirm
the recovery of an Indian, whose skin had been pierced with

The Aborigines of Brazil. o41

lances in several places; on the sixth day he left his couch
with his wounds healed. | Quos ferrum non sanat, ignis sanat.

If the Pajé has exhausted his stock of remedies, and recovery
does not follow, and he sees the death of his patient ap-
proaching, he withdraws from him, using a variety of depre-
catory phrases. The relations approach, and cover the sick man
with the inner bark of trees, or with cloth, that they may not
see the death-struggle or hear the last cries of pain. They cover
him up to such a degree, that the sick man’s death is often
hastened by suffocation. I have been told that in some cases,
where recovery is considered quite hopeless, it is customary to
shorten his painful existence by a blow on the head. During
his last moments, the family and the neighbours raise a wild
cry of lamentation, to deaden the sounds of the dying man,
and their own grief. The corpse is, a few hours after death,
enveloped in the inner bark of trees or in cloth, sunk in a round
grave, in a squatting position, with the head between the knees,
turned towards the east, and covered in with earth, which the
relations trample down with their feet, uttering the while wail-
ings and lamentations. Among some tribes, bodies of distin-
guished warriors are gradually mummified over the fire, or the
skeleton is kept anointed with oil and Rocou, and adorned
with feathers.

The Paje’s Fee.

If we now come to enquire, according to the ideas of EKuro-
pean civilization, what the doctor receives for his trouble? we
must answer, everything or nothing. In a society so poor,
there is no wealth. ‘ Dat Galenus opes’’ is here an inapplica-
ble phrase. The Pajé who has effected a cure, may carry
away with him from the cabin of his patient any of the products
of Indian industry; but nothing, with the exception of the
weapons, is of any value. A few of the products of Kuropean
civilization, such as an axe, a knife, a fish-hook, or a bottle of
brandy, are sometimes to be found; but are considered much

i

342 The Aborigines of Brazil.

too expensive a honorarium. Iam not sure, however, whe-
ther the patient if asked to give them, would venture to re-
fuse. He might give them through fear, if not from grati-
tude : for the Pajé is dreaded as the handler of mighty natural
powers, and it is dangerous to refuse him any thing. He also
takes care to make his rank and the rights of his position
respected. As a proof of his importance, I may mention that
among many tribes, the jus prime noctis is conceded to him.

To conclude: this point of view again presents to us that
deep degree of demoralization and of barbarism, which the life
of the red man presents, in all its phases and developments.
We must confess that the attempt to discover traces of a
higher kind of knowledge in the isolated and confused facts and
traditions which constitute Indian medicine, has been a failure.
Here, as in the history, the language, the mythology and
the ethnography of the red man, we find only one dark pic-
ture ; and while we cannot let so dark and sunken a state of
things pass by us in review, without feelings of grief and con-
cern, yet we immediately begin to wonder, and to ask this
question—what singular catastrophe has the red man ex-
perienced, in what fearful paths of error has he wandered for
thousands of years, to occupy now so degraded and so lament-
able a position ?

This paper appeared originally in Buchner’s Repertorium fur die Pharmacie,

in 1844, and was afterwards printed separately. We have been obliged to
abridge the third portion slightly.

V. Martius’s account of Brazilian medicine resembles in its general features the
history of that art among all barbarous nations; we may add, that the same
strange mixture of credulity, self-deception, and imposture, ever varying in degree,
and preponderating at times on the part of the patient, at times on that of the doctor,
is the foundation among civilized as well as among savage men of the belief in the
efficacy of various absurd processes. ‘Thus the alleged cures by homeopathy, the
water cure, galvanic rings, mesmerism, or whatever happens to be the fashionable
delusion of the day, never fail to find a large circle of credulous believers, just
as the virtue of the Pajé’s mysterious processes is implicity believed in by his
patients; though this is, we fear, the true view of the case, it is mortifying enough
to our vanity.—Tr.

a rrr reineeneeinrl spag ns aa,

343

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. By GEroRGE
Garpner, F.L.S., Superintendent of the Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kandy.

Under the above title it is my intention to give, from time
to time, a series of articles preparatory to the publication of
a Flora of the whole island, the materials for which I am
now elaborating. They will chiefly consist of descriptions of
such obscure or new genera and species as may turn up dur-
ing my investigation, and which may be considered worthy
of more immediate publication. It is not a little astonishing
that the Botany of this island should be less known than that
of almost any part of the continent of India, especially when
it is known that a Botanic Garden has been kept up in it by
Government for upwards of thirty years, under the superin-
tendence of individuals who, we must suppose, were consi-
dered by those with whom the appointment lay, to be in every °
respect competent to fulfil the duties connected with such an
institution. In place of this, I find that, with the exception
of my immediate predecessor, who, however, never did any
thing for Botany, the whole of the others were common gar-
deners. It is not then to be wondered at that hitherto the
science of Botany, as connected with the Gardens at least,
should have aimed at little higher than the cultivation of
cabbages. ‘There is, however, one name among those four
which stands out in bold relief from the others, that of Mr.
Moon, the founder of the present Garden, who, in the year
1824, published a “* Catalogue of Ceylon Plants,” the only
work entirely devoted to the Botany of the island which has
been published since the ‘‘ Flora Zeylanica” of Linnzus
appeared in 1747. Considering the difficulties under which
Mr. Moon laboured, principally from the want of a library,
that belonging to the Garden being then, as it still is, very
limited indeed, he deserves much credit. It must be con-
fessed, however, that mere catalogues of plants such as this

|

344 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

never have, and never can further science, since it is so easy
to set down a name, whether it be correct or not, and, that
such is the case too often in Mr. Moon’s, I have determined
from the examination of such of his specimens as exist in
the Garden Herbarium with his names attached to them.
When there are no distinctive characters published along
with the name, so that others may be able to ascertain what
plant was meant, the utility of the work is completely nulli-
fied ; and hence it is that now when the natural sciences are
cultivated with an accuracy hitherto unknown, it is seldom
that a catalogue makes its appearance, unless, indeed, those
which refer simply to the contents of a museum or a garden,
for facility of reference. In Mr. Moon’s Catalogue there are
the names of a good many Ceylon plants which he correctly
determined to be new, but as there were no characters
attached to them whereby other Botanists could ascertain
what they were, the consequence has been, that most of them
have since been published under other names, by other
Botanists, such, for example, as by Wight and Arnott in
their works on the Botany of the Peninsula of India. Mr.
Moon has also done much more than any of the others to-
wards the formation of a Ceylon Herbarium, that portion of
it formed by him which still remains at the Gardens, con-
taining specimens from nearly all parts of the island. It
shall be my endeavour to do justice to his labours in the
work on which I am now engaged.
ANSTRUTHERIA. Genus Novum.
(Orb. Nat. ELZocarPe&.)

Cuar. Gen.—Flores hermaphroditi. Calyx bibracteo-
latus, 4-partitus, foliolis ovatis subzqualibus, cestivatione
valvatis, persistentibus. Corolle petala 4, hypogyna, cesti-
vatione imbricata, cuneata, subregulariter laciniata; stami-
na circita 30, hypogyna; jfilamenta filiformia, glabra; an-
therae erecte, cordato-oblonge, obtusa, biloculares, longitu-
dinalita-dehiscentes. Ovarium sessile, triloculare. Ovula in

Cu ot ©. te. — peng pew a

,

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 345

loculis 2, pendula. Stylus simplex, persistens ; stigma capi-
tato-subtrilobatum. Bacca sicca, membranacea, ovata, glabra,
3-locularis, indehiscens, loculis monospermis. Semina pen-
dula, compressa, glabra: Embryo in axi albuminis, carnosi,
orthotropus: cotyledonibus planis, ellipticis, venosis radicula
tereti, elongata, crassa, supera.—arbor parva, ramosa, Ceyla-
nica; foliis oppositis, petiolatis, ovato-ellipticis, acuminatis,
integerrimis, stipulis deciduis pedunculis axilliaribus, uniflo-
ris, solitarius vel binis, petalis glabris, albis.

1. Anstrutheria Ceylanica.—Plate IV.

Hasit.—Common about Point de Galle, in the southern
province, on low wooded hills near the sea. Flowers in
September.

Derscr.—A very much branched shrub or small tree. Branches
round, glabrous. Leaves opposite, petiolate, glabrous, entire, ovate-
elliptical, acuminate, rounded at the base, from 3—3} inches long,
and about 14 broad, green and shining above, pale beneath, reticu-
lated, veins prominent on both sides; petiole about 4 lines long,
convex beneath, channeled above. Stipules oblong, deciduous. Pe-
duncules solitary or binary in the axils of the leaves, shorter than the
petiole, 1-flowered. Calyx with two rounded, concave bracts imme-
diately below it, and enclosing the flower bud in its young state,
free, 4-parted, segments ovate, acute, about equal, persistent, densely
covered externally with adpressed hairs, cestivation valvate. Petals
4, hypogynous, cuveate, deeply and somewhat regularly lacintated,
with an imbricated cestivation. Stamens about 30, hypogynous;
filaments filiform, glabrous. Anthers erect, cordate-oblong, obtuse,
2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary sessile, superior, 3-celled.
Ovules in each cell 2, collateral, pendulous. Style simple, persistent.
Stigma capitate, somewhat 3-lobed. Fruit a dry berry with a thick
spongy membranous coat, ovate, glabrous, indehiscent, 3-celled,
cells 1-seeded. Seeds pendulous, somewhat triangularly compressed,
glabrous. Embryo in the axis of a fleshy albumen orthotropous ;
cotyledons plane, elliptical, veined: radical cylindrical, thick, elon-
gated, and directed upwards.

!
.
4

346 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

I have named this very distinct genus in honour of Philip Anstru-
ther, Esq., late Colonial Secretary of Ceylon, a gentleman who during
a long residence in the Island was the warm patron of all that relates
to Agriculture, Horticulture, and Botany. It is, therefore, with plea-
sure that I connect his name with one of the many undescribed vege-
table productions indigenous to the country.

Oss. I.—It is evidently to this plant that Dr. Arnott refers
at page 23 of the third volume of ‘ the Annals of Natural
History,’ in the following words :—** Allied to Elaocarpus,
I possess a new genus, also from Ceylon, of which the petals
are exactly as in Eleocarpus, the filaments long as in
Grewia or rather Tilia, the anthers short and considerably
different from those of either ; the leaves, with nearly the
structure of some species of Capparis, are opposite and
quite entire ; the calyx has a valvular cestivation, and when
in bud is glabrose and enclosed within two rounded concave
bracteole ; it may be Elewocarpus integrifolius of Moon’s
‘ Catalogue of Ceylon plants.’ I have seen neither fruit
nor seed.”

Ample opportunity has occurred to me, since my arrival
in Ceylon, for the investigation of the structure of this plant
in all its stages. It grows in great plenty about Point de
Galle, where I have collected fine fructified specimens,
my flowering ones being from a tree which flowered in the
Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradenia in October 1844. It
is a remarkable circumstance, that the flower buds are pro-
duced, and attain nearly their full size, about six months
before they actually open.

At first I was inclined to refer this genus to Chienacee,
principally from the little involucrum which is formed of two
approximated bracts immediately under each flower, and
from the structure of the fruit; but from a more attentive
consideration of its entire structure, 1 now agree with Dr.
Arnott, in considering it more nearly related to Eleocarpus.
Yet it does not associate well with the genuine genera of

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. O47

that order, or although it possesses in common with them a
valvate calyx, and fimbriated corolla, it has anthers which
dehisce longitudinally, and a dry baccate indehiscent fruit.
There is a genus, however, which has been placed dubiously
in Elgocarpee, to which it bears a very great resemblance
in the structure of its fruit. It is Friesta of DC., which
consists of trees, natives of Van Dieman’s Land and New
Zealand. The principal differences which exist between
that genus and Anstrutherta is the mode by which the
anthers dehisce, and the position of the ovules ; those of
Friesia being superposed, while in the other they are col-
lateral, ‘They both agree in having opposite leaves.

Oss. I].—The order Ele@ocarpee is divided by End-
licher into two tribes, the first of which contains those ge-
nera which possess drupaceous fruit, while those which have
it capsular belong to the second. Ifa third be established
for Friesia and Anstrutheria, in which the fruit is baccate,
there will be a regularly graduated scale of carpological
structure in the family. The three tribes may stand thus :

Orp. Nat. ELZocarPea, Juss.

Trisus I.—EuLaocarPEa2 Ver&. Endl: Fructus dru-
paceous.

Trisus Il.—Friesiee, Gardn. Fructus baccatus.

Tribus IlI.— Tricuspidaree. Endl. Fructus Capsularis.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE IV.

Fig. 1, Portion of a branch of Anstrutheria Ceylanica, nat. size.
2, Bracteoles. 3, do. and flower bud. 4, an expanded flower,
magnified, 5. A flower with the petals removed. 6, back and
front view of an anther. 7, ovary and style. 8, cross section
of ovary. 9, vertical do. 10, ripe fruit, nat. size. 11, a seed.
12, section of do. 13, embryo, all magnified.

2.9,

048 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

SARCANDRA. Genus Novum.
(Orv. Nat. CHLORANTHACEZ.)

Cuar. Gen.—Flores hermaphroditi, laxe spicati, singuli
intra bracteum navicularem sessiles, Stamen 1, ovario supra
basim antice insertum; filamenta incrassata, cylindrica;
Anthera biloculari, loculis introrsis, apice approximatis, basi
distantibus, longitudinaliter dehiscentibus. Ovarium ovatum,
uniloculare. Ovulum pendulum, orthotropum. Stzgma sessile,
subcapitato-depressum. Drupa monosperma, staminis cica-
trice gibbosa; putamine tenui, fragile. Semen pendulum,
testa membranacea. Embryo antitropus, in apice albuminis
carnosi inclusus; radicula infra. Suffrutex Ceylanica,
chloranthi facie; ramis nodoso-articularibus, foliis oppositis,
petrolatis, penniventis grosst glanduloso-serratzs, petrolis bast
in vaginam brevem amplexicaulem combinatis, spicis termi-
nalibus, simplicibus.

1 Sareandra Chloranthoides.

Has.—In dense virgin forests in the Central Province.

Fl. in May and June.

Descr.—Suffruticose, glabrous, about 3 feet high. Stem and
branches round, with tumid joints. Leaves opposite, from 4-6 inches
long, and about 2 broad, elliptic-lanceolate, much accuminated,
caveate at the base, coarsely glandular—serrated from below the
middle, green and shining above, paler and opaque beneath. Petioles
short, combined at the base along with the interfolious stipules into
a membranous sheath, which has two setaceous teeth on each side.
Spikes terminal, simple, shorter than the leaves, smooth; rachis
striated. Flowers alternate, sessile in the axils of ovate acute bracts
which are about equal in length to the ovary. Floral envelopes none.
Stamen 1, inserted on the middle of the anterior face of the ovary,
of a brownish colour. Filament very much thickened, cylindrical :
anther two-celled, cells bursting inwardly, approaching at the apex,
but separated below by the fleshy connective, slightly incurved. Pollen
globose, yellow. Style none. Stigma sessile, capitate, depressed.
Ovary ovate 1-celled with a solitary pendulous orthotropous ovule.

<
4
J
)

i

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 349

Drupe obovate, black, about the size of a small pea, bearing on its
anterior face the scar of the deciduous stamen, 1-sided: putamen
thin fragile, ash-coloured. Seed pendulous, nearly round ; testa mem-
branaceous. Hmébryo antitropous, small, included in the apex of

a copious fleshy albumen : radical inferior.

OsseEr. I.—In every thing but the number and the struc-
ture of the stamens, this plant is a Chloranthus. There are,
however, such marked peculiarities in these organs, that I
have determined to keep it separate from that genus. I
have now before me recent specimens of what I believe to be
Chioranthus officinalis of Blume, and in them I find that
there are three stamens, which, according to all authors,
seem to be the normal number in the genus. These are
united at the base, and inserted on the anterior face of
the ovary, as in my plant. In place, however, of each
stamen consisting of a solid cylindrical oblong mass, with a
cell on each side of its inner face at the apex, which unite
above, but are separated below both behind and before by a
fleshy connective, I find those of Chloranthus officinalis to
be each an ovate hollow organ, with a longitudinal slit in
front, on the upper edge of each side of which there is the
single cell of an anther situated. ‘This, remarkable differ-
ence in the organization of the anther, is too important not
to be considered as forming a distinct generic type.

Osser. II.—Lindley and others describe the anthers of
Chloranthacee to be 1-celled. This, however, I do not find
to be the case. In the plant which I have just described,
there can be no doubt that the two cells borne by each
filament belong to the same anther, as is evident from their
being united at the apex. A horizontal section, moreover,
of the filament only shows a single bundle of vascular tissue.
In Chloranthus officinalis it appears more probable, at first
sight, that each stamen is made up of two, each having a
single cell; but here also the filament only shows one bun-
dle of vessels. The posterior wall of the hollow organ, which

—

a aes

350 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

forms the anther, is evidently only a widely dilated connec-
tive. |

OsseEr. II].—Most authors agree in referring Chloran-
thacee to the neighbourhood of Pzpnacee and Sausuracee,
which is unquestionably their true position, the point of
attachment of their ovule being the only important distinc-
tion between them.

STROMBOSIA.—Blume Bydr. 1154. G. Don Dict. 2. p.
21. Meisner Gen. 71.(51.) Endl. n. 5752.

(Orp. Nat. OLACINEZ.)

Cuar. Gen.— Calyx adnatus, 5-fidus. Corolle petala 5,
intus villosa, cestivatione valvata, apicibus sub antheri revo-
luta. Stamina 5, cum petalis inserta, tis opposita et basi
adnata. Anthere oblonge, introrse, incluse, 2-loculares
longitudinaliter dehiscentes. _Ovarium disco immersum, basi
5-loculare. Ovula tot quot loculi spurii ex apice placente,
pendula, anatropa. Stylus brevis, filiformis. Stigma 5-lobum,
lobis obtusis. Drupa oblonga, exsucca, calyce toto adnata,
monosperma. Semen inversum, testa membranacea. Embryo
in axi albuminis, (copiosi carnosi,) orthotropus, apici fructus
proximus, brevissimus terebinsculus ; Cotyledonibus compla-
natis, orbiculatis; radicula magna, supera.—Arbores Java-
nice, et Ceylanica inermes; foliis alternis, exstipulatis, inte-
gerrimis, lucidis, penniveniis, floribus in fascicults axillaribus
dispositis.

1. Strombasia Ceylanica.

Hazs.—In dense virgin forests on the mountains near
Kandy. Flowers in October.

Descr.—A tree 50-60-feet high. Branches round, the young
ones subflexuose, and of a green colour. Leaves alternate, exstipu-
late, petiolate, oblong, or ovate-oblong, acuminate, obtuse at the base ;
entire, glabrous, shining, penninenous, veins about six on each side,
midrib, prominent both above and below, from 4-7-inches long, and

aa ee ee ae

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 351

from 2-23-broad: Petioles about 2 lines long, thickened from the
middle upwards, convex on the under surface, and channeled above.
Flowers small, of a greenish white colour, in nearly sessile clusters of
from 6-15 in the axils of the leaves, and also occasionally on the
internodes. Pedicels about a line long, bearing a few small reddish
coloured bracts. Calyx adherent, limb 5-lobed, lobes rounded, per-
sistent. Corolla campanulate, 5-free valvate oblong-lanceolate petals
which are hairy inside. Stamens 5, opposite the petals, and to
which the flattened filaments adhere for half their length. Anthers
oblong, introrse, 2-celled. Qvary completely immersed in a conical,
fleshy, entire, yellow disk, 5-celled at the base, but only 1-celled at
the top, with five ovules pendulous from the apex of a central
placenta. Style short, filiform: Stigma obtuse, obsoletely 5-lobed.
Fruit an oblong, somewhat fleshy drupe, of from 8-10 lines long,
and to which the calyx firmly adheres, leaving only that small portion
at the apex exposed which is covered by the disk, the withered
margin of which is seen surrounding the persistent base of the style,
1-celled, and by abortion 1-seeded. Seed pendulous, inverse, of
the same shape as the drupe, the cavity of which it nearly fills,
Testa thin, membranaceous, adhering firmly to the very copious al-
bumen. Embryo very small compared with the mass of albumen, in
a small cavity at the upper end of which it is found. Cotyledon of a
whitish colour, flat, and orbicular. Radical pointing towards the
upper end of the seed—with reference to its attachment—of a greenish
colour, round, thick, and about twice as long as the cotyledons.

OzseEr. I.—I have but little hesitation in referring this plant
to Blume’s genus Strombosia, notwithstanding the very short
character he gives of it in his “ Bzjdraygen,” which, however,
is partly correct so far as it goes, for he seems to have been
unacquainted with the structure of the fruit and seed. Since
he first described it about twenty years ago, no one seems
to have met with it again, for the character given by Don,
Meisner, and Endlicher, are merely transcripts of Blume’s
one. By Blume himself, as well as by the above mentioned
authors, it is placed at the end of the natural order Rham-
nacee, from being considered more nearly related to it than
to any other. This was also the conclusion I arrived at

352 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

when I first met with the tree, which was then only in flower:
now, however, that I have found it in fruit, and have exa-
mined the ovary with more care, I find that it must be re-
ferred to Olacinee, with which it agrees in every point ex-
cept one, which I do not find taken notice of in any of the
published genera belonging to this order. ‘This anomaly is
the fleshy disk in which the ovary is completely immersed

up to the base of the style. But as in some of the genera,

Scheepfia for example, the torus is pretty fully developed,
and as it is from that organ the disk arises, it is easy to
suppose that in this instance a superior degree of develop-
ment has taken place. |

Osser. IIl.—Strombasia will range in Bentham’s first tribe
Olacee along with Olax and Schepfia. Its nearest affinity
is with the latter genus, from the perfect adherence of the
calyx to the ovary, and the stamens being opposite the petals.
This latter peculiarity in these two genera is easily account-
ed for by supposing that the external series, which exists
in the other genera of the tribe, entirely suppressed. Ac-
cording to Bentham (Linn. Trans. 18, p. 618,) Brown
considers Schaepfia to be a true Santalacious genus, but
I believe Bentham to be more correct in referring it to
Olacinee, the economy of the ovary being the same, and
perfect adherence of the calyx is now known to exist in other
two genera of the order, viz. in Hypocarpus, Alph. DC.
(Prod. 8. p. 245,) and in a new Indian genus which will
shortly be published by Dr. Wight, under the name of
Bursinopetalum.

Osser. II].—From the very imperfect natural character
which Blume has given of the Java species, it is not easy to
say how far it is distinct from the Ceylon one. There is
only one point in which I can detect a well marked difference,
viz. the shape of the fruit, which in Blume’s plant is said to
be turbinate, while in mine it is oblong.

Kandy, Ceylon, 15th June, 1845.

353

Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, §c.
Editore et pro parte Auctore. ALPHONsO DE CANDOLLE.
Pars 8 et 9, Paris 1844-45.

It is now one-and-twenty years since the first volume of
this work was given to the world by the illustrious father
of the present editor. Seven years previous to that period,
viz. in 1817, he laid before the public the first volume of a
similar work, but on a much more extensive scale, under the
title of Regni Vegetabilis Systema Naturalle, &c.,” in which
it was his intention to give—what was then a desideratum
in Botanical science—detailed descriptions, and an extended

synonymy, of the whole vegetable kingdom arranged accord-

ing to the natural system of classification. Finding how-
ever, that there was but little probability of his living long
enough to finish such a task, from the great research and
labour attending such an undertaking, it ceased on the pub-
lication of the second volume in 1821. These two volumes
contain an elaboration of the natural orders Ranunculacee,
Dilleniacee, Magnoliacee, Anonacee, Menispermacee,
Berberacee, Podophyllee, Nympheacee, Papaveraceae,
Fumariacee, and Crucifere ; besides an enumeration of all
Botanical authors and their works up to that period.

It was then that he determined on producing the present
work, which was intended to contain only the essential
characters of the genera and species of all known plants,
with a few select synonomes. From the time of the publica-
tion of the first volume in 1824, up to the period of the
author’s death in 1841, seven volumes appeared at irregular

intervals. Nearly the whole of his time was devoted to it, and

unlike most systematic Botanical works which have appear-
ed during the present century, it is not a compilation merely
of what was already known, but each natural order was
worked up with great care, and all new species which the
author had access to were accurately described. In a few

354 Prodromus Systematis Nat. Regni Vegetabilis, §e.

only of the 118 orders which are contained in the seven
volumes, did he receive any assistance, and that principally
from one or two of his favourite pupils. To the elaboration
of one natural order alone—the Compostt@—six entire years
were devoted, and with it two volumes and a half of the
work are occupied. Such numbers of new species belong-
ing to this interesting tribe have of late years accumulated
in the Herbaria of European Botanists, that in these two
volumes and a half, M. De Candolle has described about
eight thousand, being a greater number than Linneus knew
of plants altogether from all parts of the world.

To those who have made botany a study, it is useless to
say how well M. De Candolle was qualified for the task he
imposed upon himself, from his intimate knowledge of
vegetable anatomy and physiology, the true basis of sys-
tematic botany,—the clearness of his perception, and the
possession of an enlightened and philosophic mind, the
workings of which are obvious in every page of his numer-
ous writings, whether scientific or otherwise. To those who
are beginning their practical botanical studies, and who wish
to gain a knowledge of the many beautiful and strangely
organized vegetable beings which people the earth’s surface
from the poles to the equator, and even the sea itself, this
work, even though incomplete, is quite indispensable, as in
no other is there a like number of plants described.

To many of the orders, particularly those in the earlier
volumes, very large additions of species have since been
added in various periodical and other publications. These
have lately been accumulated in a work entitled ‘‘ Reperto-
rium Botanices Systematice,” by G. G. Walpers, the first .
volume of which was published at Liepsic in 1842; and
together with another which appeared in the following year,
may be considered as a supplement to the seven volumes of
the ‘‘ Prodromus” published by the elder De Candolle. The
publication of this compilation was, indeed, a great boon

Sere

Prodromus Systematis Nat. Regni Vegetabilis, §c. 355

to the working Botanist, as it brought together materials
which lay scattered through many volumes, although it must
be confessed that the compiler has, in many instances, been
guilty of great carelessness, several books and monographs
having been overlooked, and even in some of those which he
has consulted, there exist descriptions of species which have
been quite neglected. Four numbers of a third volume have
just been received by us, and sorry we are that we have no-
thing to say in their favour. While the work brought up De
Candolle’s leeway, it was, indeed, most useful; but the suc-
cess attending that portion has led the author to run ahead
of the “ Prodromus,” and the consequence is, that he has
gone beyond his depth. The principal orders which the
third volume contains, are Solanaceae, Scrophulariniae, and
Labiatae, the whole of which are very nearly transcripts of
the monographs of Dunal and Bentham on these tribes.
The two volumes, the 8th and the 9th of the ‘* Prodro-
mus,’ which it is our intention more particularly to notice,
have only lately appeared. The work is now carried on by
-M. Alphonse De Candolle, who seems to inherit all his
father’s Botanical zeal and ability. The whole labour does
not, however, devolve upon himself, he being only, to use
his own words, “ Editore et pro parte auctore.” The
volumes are now to appear at much shorter intervals than
heretofore, and the editor has secured the assistance of
some of the most learned Botanists in Europe to aid him in
bringing the work to a close. The seventh volume brought
to a termination the orders belonging to the sub-class Caly-
ciflorae. ‘The present two are occupied with 22 orders
belonging to the Corolliflorae, among which may be men-
tioned Oleaceae, Jasmineae, Loganiaceae, Bignoliaceae,
Cyrtrandaceae, and Boragineae, from the MSS. of M. De
Candolle, with notes and additions by his son ;—Lentibu-
lareae, Myrsineaceae, Sapotaceae, Rhenaceae, Styraceae,
Apocyneae, and Hydrophylleae, by M. Alph, De Candolle ;—
OA

a4
’

356 Prodromus Systematis Nat. Regni Vegetabilis, §c.

Primulaceae, by Duby ;—Asclepiadeae, by Decaisne ;—
Gentianeae, by Grisebach ;— Polemoniaceae, by Bentham ;—
and, Convolvulaceae, by Choisy.

In the earlier volumes of the “ Prodromus” both the
generic and the specific characters are very short, so much
so, that in such orders as contain many genera, and such
genera as contain a great number of species, the difficulty of
distinguishing between them often becomes very great. In
the late volumes, however, a great change was made for the
better in this respect. A still further improvement will be
found in the two last volumes, especially in those orders
which have been worked up by M. Alph. De Candolle him-
self, a short general character being added to the essential
specific one, To those who are daily occupied in deter-
mining species from descriptions, this renders the labour
comparatively easy. With how much greater facility, for
example, are the pocyneae made out from M. Alph.
De Candolle’s characters, than the Asclepiadeae from those
of Decaisne, where only essential characters are given. Only
one thing is now wanting to render the ‘“ Prodromus” the
most perfect systematic work which has ever been given to
the Botanical world,—a synopsis of the genera at the head
of each order. This would cost but little trouble to prepare,
would occupy but little space, and to working Botanists would
be a very great saving of time.

The tenth volume may be expected about the end of the
present year, as we learn from Mr. Bentham, who is oc-
cupied with the Scrophularinee for it, that the printing was
to commence in January last.

357

Notes on Indian Botany. By Rost. Wieut, M.D., F.L.S.

Under this title I propose occasionally, as opportunities _
offer, in the course of my botanical pursuits, to communicate
observations on such matters as may appear of sufficient
scientific interest to merit a place in the pages of the “ Cal-
cutta Journal of Natural History.”’

The matters embraced in these “* Notes’? will, it is probable,
prove as miscellaneous as the title is indefinite, comprising
remarks on any subject relating to Botanical Science that for
the time happens to engage my attention; discussions on
natural affinities ; on the composition and characters of na-
tural orders ; revisions of old, or descriptions of new genera ;
descriptions of new or imperfectly known species, &c. Such
being the mixed nature of the matters they are intended to
embrace, I have chosen for these contributions the above in-
definite title. |

The subject I have chosen to head the series, as being cal-
culated to give an idea of what is to follow, is one which
lately engaged my attention, and led in the course of the
enquiry, to very unexpected results,—an examination of the
structure of the ovarum of the genus Viburnum. I think I
shall be able to show in the course of the following remarks,
either that the structure of the ovary of this very old and
almost universally known genus, is unknown, or that two
distinct genera are combined under that name. —

On the structure of the Ovarium and generic character of
VIBURNUM.

This, judging from the circumstance of Sprengel quoting
Virgil as his authority for the name, seems to be a very old
appellation. Linnzus quotes Tournefort as his authority for
it, but was himself the first to fix its limits by a precise
definition, which was in these words, ‘* Pentandria trigynia.
Calyx 5 partitus superus. Corolla 5-fida. Bacca \-sperma.”

No notice is taken either here or in the extended natural
*%

358 Notes on Indian Botany.

characters of his Genera Plantarum of the ovary. This
character passed current among Botanical writers until the
publication of the 4th volume of De Candolle’s Prodromus
in 1830, when he altered it by the addition of the word
““abortu”’ ‘* Bacca abortu \-sperma,” thereby implying that
there were in the ovary a plurality of ovules, all except one
of which aborted in progress towards maturity. This addition
has, since then, been admitted by all writers, so far as I am
aware, except Professors Endlicher and Lindley. The former
describing the ovary ‘‘ Ovarium inferum triloculare. Ovula
in loculis solitaria ex apice anguli centralis pendula,” but
adds ‘* Bacca aboriu unilocularis monosperma,” evidently
implying that he had himself examined the ovary of at least
one species, if not more, and found it as here described,
plurilocular. Lindley, in his School Botany, takes no notice
of the ovary, but allows a 3-seeded fruit ; “* Fruit succulent,
3-seeded,” though in two of the three species he defines, ~
I find the ovary ]-celled with a single ovule.

q

’
ree it et iiedementienendieianiete

While examining the four Neilgherry species with reference
to the articles on Caprifoliacee for my “ Illustrations of
« Indian Botany” and “ Neilgherry Plants,”’ I found in all a
! it l-celled ovary with a single pendulous ovule, and naturally
inferred, on comparing them with Endlicher’s character, that
they must form a distinct genus. But before finally sepa-
i rating them, and adding I knew not how many synonyms
a to our already overgrown list, I determined to examine the
structure of the ovary in every species to which I had access,
among which fortunately was V. Lantana and V. Opulus,
two British species, in both of which the same structure
exists. Three American species were next examined with the
same result; then five Nepaul ones, still the same ; and lastly,
three from other parts of India, in all seventeen species, in all

of which the ovary is l-celled with 1 ovule.
. It results from these observations that the inference already
drawn in regard to this genus becomes almost inevitable :
namely, that if either Endlicher or Lindley’s ahaaatlees are the

a

Notes on Indian Botany. 309

result of actual observation, all these species must be removed
from the genus they define, or that they, in common with all
other recent writers, must have assumed, without examina-
tion, the presence of a plurality of ovules, which does not
exist, when stating the berry to be either ‘ l-seeded by
abortion,” or ** 3-seeded.”

I am unable to advance beyond this point, but trust enough
has been said to direct the attention of systematic Botanists
to the subject now touched upon, which, when carefully in-
vestigated, may lead to interesting results, examples of solitary
one-seeded carpels with several stigmas being of compara-
tively rare occurrence in Dichlamedyous orders: Composite,
Valerianee, and Dipsacee, being almost the only orders in
which this combination occurs. Among Monchlamydeous
plants it is more frequent, one-celled ovaries being the pre-
dominant, though not invariable, structure in Endlicher’s
class Thymalee.

Owing to its possessing this peculiar structure, the genus
Viburnum appears more nearly related to these orders and to
Loranthacee than might at first sight be suspected. Loran-
thacee and Caprifoliacee have long been associated as nearly
related orders, though apparently with little propriety, as the
former is assuredly more justly referrible to the Thymaleous
group than to either Araliacee or Caprifoliacee, with which
it is now associated. ‘The intervention, however, of Vibur-
num with the flowers and habit of the one, and the ovary and
fruit of the other, tends materially to strengthen the previ-
ously existing, but remote relationship.

Description of some new species of LORANTHUS.

The genus Loranthus is one of great extent, including up-
wards of 300 published species. This of itself is enough to
render the labour of investigating its species a most irksome
task, even under the most favourable circumstances. But
great as the difficulties are, arising from the mere number of
species, these, previous to the publication of the 4th, volume
of De Candolle’s Prodromus, were augmented beyond calcula-

fe
a

360 Notes on Indian Botany.

tion by want of arrangement and loosely constructed specific
characters. The labours of that great Botanist in recasting
the whole genus and grouping the species into easily under-
stood subgenera and sections, combined with a more uniform
system in the construction of his specific characters, have
done much towards abridging the labour of future Botanists,
who may have to engage in their investigation. Much how-
ever as he has done, I believe, I may still assert, that there
are few, if indeed a single genus in the system of plants, that
yet stands so much in need of the skill of an able and philo-
sophical Mongraphist as Loranthus. t
The succinct characters and judicious arrangement of De
Candolle, aided by the copious descriptions of many, or
rather most, of the species, brought together by the younger
Schultes (Syst. Vegetab. Vol. VII.) have rendered the deter-
mination of known species a comparatively certain operation,
} | but still much is wanted towards a really philosophical ex-
position of this great genus as a whole.

Martius, Blume and G. Don, seem all to be impressed with
the idea that it might be advantageously divided, and among

r them it is broken into about 20 genera.
} In the correctness of this view I cannot coincide, for taken
| | as a whole it seems, so far as our acquaintance with its struc-
ture goes, a singularly natural genus. As regards the Indian

examination of a number of species, and it is my _ belief
the American division is quite in keeping. That it is readily
susceptible of division there can scarcely be a question, but
that the parts ought to have a generic value assigned, I am
far from thinking, under the conviction that being, as a whole,

portion, I can speak with considerable confidence, from the
:

so extremely natural and uniform in its structure, its parts
must prove most artificial: and to that extent become a
blemish in a natural system.

In advancing this opinion, I wish however to be under-
stood as laying particular stress on our present ignorance of
the seminal structure, a most important point in the construc-

*
; sh

Notes on Indian Botany. 361

tion of natural genera, but not once alluded to in the generic
characters of any of the above-named authors, all of which
are based on distinctions taken from the number and form
of the bractez, the form and divisions of the corolla, and the
inflorescence ; points in themselves of barely sectional value,
and to which much too high importance is assigned.

Having premised these general remarks on the genus
generally, I shall now add characters of a few undescribed
species, adopting De Candolle’s subgenera.

1. Lorantuus (Eutorantuus) ARNOTTIANUS, (R. W.)
Fruticose, very ramous, the ramuli and young leaves covered
with minute ferruginous scales, (like Elzagni) leaves short
petioled, opposite or subalternate, coriacious, form obovate,
very obtuse to orbicular, spikes axillary, solitary, about the
length of the leaves, many flowered; flowers sessile on the
rachis: petals 4, linear, gibbous at the apex : ovary depressed,
crowned with the slightly 4-toothed limb of the calyx: style
filiform, persistent ; stigma capitate ; berry globose, small.

Has.—Courtallum—Parasitic on trees.

This species belongs to the §. Odorati, DC., and is very
nearly allied to both L. odoratus and Hookerianus, (W. & A.)
from the latter, though in technical characters so like, it is
certainly distinct, and equally so from the former. The leaves
vary in size from half an inch to one and a half in length,
and the larger ones are about an inch and a quarter broad near
the apex; the ovary is little depressed, and is not immersed
in the rachis. In both the flowers are about a quarter of an
inch long and gibbous at the apex before expansion: in both
the style is persistent as in the stylose section.

2. Lorantuus (KuULORANTHUS) INTERMEDIUS, (R.W.,
L. Wallichianus, R. W. Icones, No. 143) glabrous branches
terete: leaves obovate obtuse, often retuse at the apex,

cuniate towards the base : racemes axillary fascicled, simple,
*

362 Notes on Indian Botany.

2-3 together, about the length, or occasionally longer than
the leaves : flowers pedicelled, with a single lateral cuculate
bractea at the base of the ovary, petals four, linear, thicken-
ed at the point : flower bud acutely 4-angled ; angles slightly
winged towards the apex : ovary subglobose truncated : berry
globular, about the size of a pea.

Has.—Travancore, Shevagherries, Neilgherries, on the
road side below Coonoor—Fiowering, July and August.

This species is exactly intermediate between L. obovatus
and L. Wallichianus ; it has the angularly four-sided flowers
of the former with the diminutive size of the latter, though
still twice as large, those of Wallichianus being about two
lines long, while here they are fully four. In the length
of the racemes, as compared with the leaves, it exceeds both.
The leaves are from 1 to 2 inches long, and about | or 14
broad, coriacious. All the three species are found on the
hills: L. Wallichianus at Burliar 2000 feet ; intermedius at
Coonoor 6000; and odovatus abundant about Ootacamund
8000 feet of elevation. When I formerly published it as L.
Wallichianus, I had not then seen that plant.

3. Lorantuus (EuLorantuHus) Biumeanus, (R. W.)

Glabrous branches terete, young shoots furfuracious : leaves

short petioled, broad ovate or subcordate at the base, sub-
acuminate : racemes simple, axillary, or 2 or 3 fascicled at the
knots of the branches, much shorter than the leaves: flowers
pedicelled, bractea anterior, gibbous below : flower bud cylin-
drical pointed furfuracious, calyx truncated entire: petals 4,
linear acute : ovary globose.

Has.—Courtallum—August, 1835.

Both this and the preceding belong to De Candolle’s
section “ Breviflora,”’ though in this the flowers are fully an
inch long. The flower buds being pointed not gibbous at the

*

7

Notes on Indian Botany. 363

point very readily distinguishes this species from all the
others of the section. Leaves about 4 inches long, by from
21 to 3 broad, rounded or subcordate at the base, pointed,
coriacious, racemes from an inch and a half to 2 inches long
with from 8 to 12 short pedicelled flowers ; bractea small,
thick and fleshy, and being adpressed to the base of the
ovary gives it a humpback appearance, which is common to
other species of the section. It is a most distinct species.

4, Lorantuus (Scurrvuta) EKurnorsi£(R.W.) Glabrous,
erect, very ramous branches, leaves short petioled, ellip-
tic or orbicular, with a tendency to attenuation downwards
when dry, obscurely 3-nerved, succulent, veinless, when green:
flowers sessile, axillary or fascicled round the knots of the
branches: bractea lateral, embracing the base of the ovary,
very obtuse; calyx truncated entire: corolla tube terete, limb
elongated, indurated, acute before expansion, laciniz-subulate,
becoming elastically involute on dehiscence: filaments red ;
anthers subulate: stigma clavate: berry red, about the size
of a small bean.

Tas. Parasitic on Euphorbia antiquorum and tortilis,
flowering July. Frequent about Coimbatore.

Very nearly allied to L. elasticus, but I think quite distinct ;
differing in the form of the leaves and in their being only 3,
not 5-nerved. ‘The flowers of this are slender, about an inch
and a half long, above one-third of which only is truly peta-
loid, forming the proper tube; the limb is firm and coriaci-
ous; at first bursting with elasticity, and then becoming
spirally involute like the main-spring of a watch. The whole
plant is exceedingly fragile, and will scarcely bear the gentlest
handling, tumbling all to pieces in drying. The juices of this
plant do not show a trace of milkiness.

364

Observations to accompany the Annual Return of Sick and Wounded of
H. M. 15th, or King’s Hussars, from \st April 1844 to 31st March
1845. By F. Movat, M.D. Surgeon, H. M. 15th Hussars.

(The most valuable contributions that have hitherto been made to
the statistics of disease among European troops within the Indian
presidencies, are undoubtedly the tables furnished by the late Dr.
Murray to the second Volume of this Journal: unfortunately only
two of them had appeared, when they were put a stop to, by the close
of his active and energetic career.

The following elaborate report by Dr. Mouat, now acting Inspec-
tor General at Madras, gains additional weight, from the great ex-
perience which he has had of the diseases of soldiers, of the climate
of India in general, and especially of Bangalore, at which station he
has so long resided. It is especially interesting at the present time,
when a plan for assimilating the returns of all the presidencies is
believed to be under consideration, as being quite a model of an
annual report, and as affording information on every head on which
it can be required.

There has been for the last three years a general tendency thitibde
the assimilation of the forms of the returns of the Queen’s and
Company’s troops in Bengal, and the particular form, under which
the matter of this report is arranged, has been in use among the
Company’s troops in Bengal since November, 1842.

At least six years ago, Major Tulloch and Dr. Marshall declared
all the Indian returns which they had seen, to be quite useless for
general statistical purposes, and accordingly they have not included
any portion of India (Proper) in their statistical reports.

We do not know that measures of any consequence have been
hitherto adopted to improve this state of things, as regards the Com-
pany’s troops, and it does not redound to the credit of any one, that
up to the present date, owing to the imperfection of our returns, we
are not able to ascertain many points of the utmost importance, as

regards the health and welfare of our vast and widely scattered
#

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars. 365

armies. We even doubt, whether there are in existence, any ade-
quate materials for giving a medical history of so recent an event
as the late Gwalior campaign.

It is almost needless to remark, that it is only by general inves-
tigations, by throwing together a whole series of returns, and thus
combining the experience of many years, that the accuracy of the
results of more limited enquiries can be fairly tested, and that ques-
tions regarding the healthiness of particular stations, and the various
effects of climate, can be satisfactorily decided.

To attain such important ends, it is necessary to improve our
present system of returns, and to enforce uniformity throughout the
three presidencies, as also highly desirable to have copies of all re-
turns sent to Calcutta as a centre.

As to the new forms of returns to be employed, the simplest way
would be to adopt those now in use in H. M.’s Service, perhaps
with some slight modifications.

It is far from unlikely that each presidency may be unwilling to
alter the forms now in use, and it is no doubt quite possible to
point out many imperfections in H. M.’s returns, but they answer
admirably for all practical purposes, and the annual returns compiled
by H. M.’s Inspectors General since the year 1826, at a vast expense
of labour, ought already to be yielding valuable results.

If a system of centralising all the returns were once adopted,
it would increase very considerably the duties of the Members of the
Medical Board in Bengal: but, if after an addition to their office es-
tablishment, they found the burden of arranging and compiling them
to be too heavy, Government would no doubt relieve them of this
additional duty, and would find it its interest to appoint a separate
officer for the special purpose of superintending the returns of all
India.

The monthly returns of H. M.’s Service give merely a bare list of
diseases, and attempt no classification of them; it might be as well
to adopt some practical classification, such as that now used in the
annual returns. But the sooner any forms, based on theoretical views,
such as the monthly ones now in use for Company’s troops, which are
founded on Good’s classification, are got rid of, the better, They are
ludicrous in many of their details.—J. M. P.]

ee

366 Medical History of H.

M. 15th Hussars.

H. M. 15ru Hussars srationep at BANGALORE.

Average Strength 722.

Remained last return, Seee eae eee

Admitted, «. eote cove cece Coes core 799
Discharged, © ese. eee sees see cece 733

Died, eoee ee2ee @ece eee @ eee cece 5)
Remaining, ooté eve eters side okwe ol
Proportion of deaths to diseases, eee sate cose 1 in 94

Be of sick to well, .. sleits are scapes

Changes during the year.

Officers Joined, ...« esa ae yr Jed 6

», Exchanged or removed, .... see }

_» Died at Head-Quarters, .... araleye vee 3

99 23 Elsewhere, ee eoee eese e@ece O°

Men Invalided from Poonamallee, .. “sani t= sets 10

», Sent home effective to join Depét, ..+. cece 2

», Transported as criminals, .... waists fea ]

», Discharged by purchase, ..+. Perse eee 6

99 LB) Free, @eeco eoes @eoe e@eee l

99 Enlisted at Head-Quarters, ecce @ece eoee l

Recruits from England, eoete eove e@ecoe ee 4k

Transfer Joined, .. vere ‘ae 8 eens coos 0

2” Given, eo cove eoee eeee eeee l

Constitution of the Regiment.
vw |i a 5 q E
B42 4-2 | Soe

aléféje| eye
English, Ears Sears Wiese coset Od | ZO 4 7 | 501 0735
Seah ecce osee eoee Sece 2 l ee ee 29 32
Trish,.... e@eee eevee eote @eeoe hl 5 is ] 81 101
Foreigners, .. eles eee ebine [Pode fi es |iivisrotts 15 15
Total,..../ 48 | 32 7 8 | 626 721
Under 18 years of Age, .. aaa watee tS Bee PhS cP find iat ty eee 4
From 18 on to 90, @ere eote eo ee oe ee | 16 F 16
” 20 > to 25, ee ®@een @oeee ee 6 I 4 | 137 148
9° 25 99 to 30, @eeo @oee 12 16 ] 3 318 250
9 30 55 to 35, ee eoee eoee| 18 9) o l 69 95
a 35 95 to 40, ecee esviey 8 3. es eet iGe 80
” 40 Ar to 45, eo eoee eooe| 4 2 ee eo | 18 24
a) 45 29 to 50, eove Cece | ee ee e | ee ]
Upwards of 50, ee oor eccee ecos 0 0) | 0 O 0 0
Total,....| 42: | 82 | 7 | 8. 696 |. 797

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars. 367

Return shewing the composition of the Regiment, according to the periods
the Men have been stationed in the East Indies, for the annual period ; com-
mencing 1st April 1844, and ending 3\st March 1845: as well as the re-
lative admissions and deaths in the different classes specified for the pur-
pose of determining whether the liability of the Men to sickness and mortality
is lessened by length of residence.

Strength of Admission | Death of

Period of Residence. each class.| of each jeach class.
class.’

Under 1 Year, oo 16s afd 43 28

Pram 1 to -2 Years, .. «- ose 17 23 ate
4 Mites .g 5;, stEstes aa 3 a ae
ag a to.4 5, oie arivog 4 22 84 ‘
| 4 to 5 ,, aelethte ted 124 327 4
a woto. Oo. ¢,, Sepia 422 193 4
” G te 7 ” ee ee eocve 2 +) eo

Above 7 Years, co eo eece 86 ) 126 ']

Section i.

Topographical description of Station—its Vicinity—nature of the Climate—atmospheric
Phenomena, &c.

Bangalore, the Head-Quarters of the Mysore Division of
the Army, is situated 12° 57’ North latitude, and 77° 46’ East
longitude, about 200 miles West of Madras, on a table-land
or plateau; forming an area of about sixty miles by fifty, in-

chiding Nundy Droog, Colar, and Ossoor.

The climate of this elevated region is comparatively cool.

The country in the vicinity of the station is undulating,
and, though well cultivated of late years, yet at certain sea-
sons possesses a peculiarly dreary and sterile appearance, in-
tersected by ravines studded with granite rocks and masses of
boulders, and each valley headed by a tank or series of tanks.
But the cantonment itself is beautifully wooded, with a luxu-
riant vegetation, and ornamented with gardens, containing
a profusion of flowers, shrubs and ornamental trees, and
affording an ample variety of vegetables throughout the
entire year. Hence to the European visitor it possesses
peculiar attractions, and recalls many pleasing associations.

The soil is very fertile. It requires, however, both water
and manure, (as the decayed vegetable matters, which form

—

ty

eae,
oo
»

368 Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

so fertile an alluvial deposit in many other places do not
exist, except in the valleys, the jungles, and under the
bunds of the tanks,) being generally a red ferruginous clay
with nodules of iron and particles of sand, formed by the de-
composition of the granite from the surface exposed to the
action of the atmosphere. 7

The rocks are principally gneiss ; and there is much granite,
consisting of mica, felspar, and quartz. The former is often
in a state of disintegration, well adapted for China crucibles,
&c., and the felspar disintegrates into a clay used for pottery
by the natives.*

Iron ore is found in great abundance; but the other mine-
ral products are as yet little known, and doubtless will yield
to future enquirers and explorers, a rich harvest.

The agriculture, the vegetable productions, and much that
is interesting to the medical enquirer, must be omitted in a
report like the present ; as well as the physical appearance of
the country, its mountains, valleys, rivers, &c.

The station itself is situated on an elevated crest running
east and west, about two miles from the fort of Bangalore,
and extending, when the new Barracks are built, to the Race-
course. Of its eligibility for a Cantonment, we shall copy
from last year’s Report.

Bangalore as a station for European troops, possesses pe-
culiar advantages, as being on the centre of a plateau 3000
feet above the level of the sea, enjoying the constant refresh-
ing breezes of two monsoons, and an atmosphere exceedingly
pure and elastic. To the human frame and feelings it is very
agreeable and refreshing; and to vegetable life, exceedingly
well adapted, as is evinced by the luxuriant crops and variety
of fruits and vegetables, which it yields during the entire year.

If it possesses many advantages, it likewise has some draw-
backs as a station for troops. ‘The former it derives from
its elevation, its central position, its freedom from swamps,

* Vide Benza, in the Madras Journal of Literature and Science.

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars. 369

jungles, and other sources of malaria, the frequent refresh-
ing showers, constant strong breezes, and a bracing elastic
air with cloudy or hazy mornings for several months, which
mitigate the fiery rays of a sun that is vertical twice in the
twelve months.

Hence, though the air is almost always cool and refreshing,
yet in the day-time outside, when exposed to the sun’s influ-
ence, it is hot and oppressive ; and the injurious effects are as
great as in other less favoured situations. In fact, the tran-
sitions from heat to cold are great, and, when due precautions
are not observed, trying to the delicate, and conducive to in-
flammatory attacks in those predisposed to them.

In the house the annual average of the thermometer is 74
degrees, with an annual variation of only 7 degrees. Exposed
outside, however, it ranges from 50° to 129°, with an annual
variation of no less than 443°.

Here at once we have the explanation of its extreme salu-
brity, as well as of its very trying effects on the frame ex-
posed unprotected to its influence ; together with the violence
and frequency of inflammatory attacks, the rapidity of con-
valescence, the small proportion of deaths to treated, and
the exemption which certain classes possess altogether to the
assaults of those very affections : leading, as the subject does,
to the very important consideration of the entire economy of
the soldier, as it is influenced by these physical considera-
tions, and reconciling the strange paradox of a place being
very healthy, and at the same time exhibiting much violent
and inflammatory disease, and, under certain circumstances,
a very heavy list of casualties.

It tends, however, to the conclusion, that the benefits pos-
sessed by the station are its own; the disadvantages or draw-
backs those of faulty economy, or capable of being mitigated
or removed by better Barrack accommodation, by care to
avoid exposure, by absence of extreme fatigue, dissipation,
and of unnecesary restraints, as well as ill adapted dress.

>t
~*

Se 8

ll

370 Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

These subjects have been especially noticed in previous
reports. What is so intimately associated with health and
disease, as the atmospheric phenomena, we should give in
detail, as they form one of the great links of statistical and
hygienic enquiries.

Atmospheric Phenomena.

April, 1844. Weather.—Mornings and nights cool ; days hot, and at times close
and oppressive: sun exceedingly powerful.

Wind.—Variable; westerly in the mornings, and easterly at night.

Rain.—Showers 15th, 17th, 20th, 22nd and 26th, and 1 inch 30 cents fell.

Dew.—None.

Clouds.—Occasionally on the days it rained, otherwise clear.

Haze.—Light, a few mornings.

Fous.— None.

Health.—Corps very healthy. Catarrh among the children, and epidemic
among the horses.

Prevailing diseases.—N umerous local affections, chiefly venereals and contusions.

Deaths.—None in hospital, but one man shot himself in Barracks.

Thermometer. Extreme range during the month, 77° to 88°

ie Ditto difference in the 24 hours, 8° Exposed in the
7 Least ditto ditto, 4° house.
Es Average ditto ditto, 6°
i Highest when exposed tothe sun, 126°
% Lowest when exposed to the weather, 64° Exposed out-
a Extreme variation when exposed out- side.

side, 62°

May. On the whole, hot and oppressive; and the sun exceedingly powerful

in the mornings.
Weather. —Still cool; the evenings and nights often cool, but as frequently close,

hot, and oppressive.
Wind.—Westerly and S. W., and at times variable.
Rain.—Fell twelve days, indicated 4th, 6th, 13th, 16th, 2Ist, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th
and 27th, and 5 inches 32 cents fell.
Dew.—None.
Clouds.—Occasional clouds on these rainy days.
Haze.—Much hazy weather, which made the mornings cool and pleasant.
Fogs.— None.
Health.—Corps very healthy.
Prevailing diseases.— Fevers, dysentery, venereals, and contusions.
Deaths.—None.

Thermometer. Extreme range during the month, from 74° to 88°

Ditto difference in the 24 hours, °
i Least ditto ditto, a In the house.
f Average ditto ditto, o°
45 Highest when exposed to the sun, 124° :
7 Lowest when exposed to the weather, 63° oe out-
. Extreme variation when exposed outside, 61°

aie eee Fs ee nee eee

’
:
:

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars. 371

June. Weather.—Delightfully cold, and pleasant at times; high, disagreeable
winds; mornings and nights very cold; evenings pleasant and cool: sun at times
very hot.

Wind.—W. and S. W.., generally very high during the day, and squally in gusts,
dry and parching.

Rain.—Fell fourteen days, but only indicate by gage 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 15th, 16th,
17th, 25th, 26th and 29th, and about | inch 95 cents fell.

Dew.—Generally heavy in the mornings.

Clouds.—Generally cloudy.

Haze.— Mornings nearly all hazy till 8 or 9 o’clock.

Fogs.—None.

Health.—Corps very healthy.

Prevailing diseases.—Acute dysentery, cephalalgia, and ophthalmia amongst the
children. ;

Deaths.—Four deaths; one cholera Ind., one hepatic, one dysentery acute, and one
febris cont. com.

Thermometer. Extreme range during the month, from 72° to 83°
Ditto ditto~ in the 24 hours ZO
9 ?
os Least difference ditto, oo In the house.
zp Average ditto ditto, 4° to 25°
Highest when exposed to the sun 124°
28 Lowest when exposed to the weather, 62° ¢ Pxpused pat-
3 Extreme variation when exposed outside,62° e

July. Weather.—Cold, bracing, and delightful ; hazy till 8th or 9th, and the days.
cloudy or cool; but with high, disagreeable, cold, gusty squalls.
Wind.— Westerly and S. W., occasionally W., and squally during the day.
Rain.—On 2nd, 5th, 10th, LI th, 12th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 2lst, 26th, 27th,
28th, 30th and 3Ist, but only indicates sixteen days, and 3 inches 60 cents fell.
Dew.—Occasionally heavy in the morning.
! Clotids.—Generally the days clouded the entire month.
Haze.—Mornings all hazy and cool.
Fogs.—None.
Health.—Corps very healthy.
Prevailing diseases.—Acute rheumatism, dysentery, venereal cases, contusions.
Deaths.— None.

Thermometer. Extreme range during the month, from 72° to 78°
fs Ditto difference in the 24 hours, 2

5 Least ditto ditto, 30 in the’ hose.
55 Average ditto ditto, 4° to 10°
os Highest when exposed to the sun, 112°
a Lowest when exposed to the weather, 59° Exposed out-
‘S Extreme variation when exposed side.

outside, 53°

August. Weather.—Cold, bracing, and most agreeable; at times cold, occa-
sionally rain, damp and frequent showers : cloudy with heavy squalls, and at times
high winds.

Wind.—Westerly and W. S. W., and at times W. N. W.; occasionally squalls,
and high winds,

Rain.—It rained twenty days, and indicated Ist, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th,
10th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 21st and 29th, and 4 inches fell.

Dew.— Heavy some mornings.

Clouds.—Clouded weather the whole month.

“ i
Se

. — = —_—— .
- OR NT re I en tr ee A

372 Medical History of 1. M. 15th Hussars.

Haze.—Mornings all hazy, even to 9 and 10 o’clock, or later.

Fogs.— None.

Health.—Corps very healthy.

Prevailing diseases.—Hepat. rheumatism, and local diseases.

Deaths.— One, from hepatic abscess. Capt. Baird died also of hepatic abscess.
Thermometer. Extreme range during the month, from ae to 79°

“ Ditto difference in the 24 hours,

ee Least ditto ditto, 3° In the ‘house.

te Average ditto ditto, 4°to 9°

a Highest when exposed to the sun, 124°

% Lowest when exposed to the weather, 59° When expos-

Extreme variation when exposed out- ed outside.
side, 65°

September. Weather.—Cool and delightful end of month, at times close and
oppressive; but mornings all cool and refreshing, and nights cool.

Wind.—Westerly till 23rd; then variable and easterly, ranging from west a. M-

to easterly at noon and P. M.

Rain.—Five inches 90 cents fell in thirteen days, indicated only Ist, 3rd, 4th, 7th

22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th and 30th.

Dew.—A few mornings.

Clouds.— Much cloudy weather.

Haze.— Mornings almost all hazy.

Fogs.—One morning.

Health.—Corps healthy.

Prevailing diseases.—Rheumatism and venereals.

Deaths.—One death, from phthisis pulmonalis.

Thermometer. Extreme range during the month, from to to 81°

Ditto difference in the 24 hours, MS (aheas
a Least _ ditto ditto, 2° BGS arcure:
53 Average ditto ditto, 4°
he Highest when exposed to the sun, 1269 Wh
se Lowest when exposed tothe weather, 60° ee ty 5
we Extreme variation when exposed outside,60° ie hagas

October. Weather.—Cool, pleasant, very delightful: mornings delicious, days
cool, and nights cold.

Wind.— Easterly till 8th, then westerly and variable till 20th; after which E. N.

E. or N. W., or variable.

Rain.— Rained twelve days, indicated on 7th, 8th, 9th, 12th, 14th, 16th and 18th,

and 2 inches 30 cents fell.

Dew.—Generally heavy in the morning.

Clouds.—Several cloudy mornings and days.

Haze.—Generally heavy until about the 22nd, and then clear.
Fogs.—None.

Health.—Regiment healthy.

Prevailing diseases.— Fever, dysentery, hepatitis, and rheumatism.
Deaths.— None.

Vhermometer. Extreme range during the month, from 71° to 79°
Me Ditto difference in the 24 hours,

os Least ditto ditto, jo In the house,

i Average ditto ditto, 4° to 2°

iv Highest when exposed to the sun, 113°

a Lowest when exposed to the weather, 63° ¢ When expos-

is Extreme variation when exposed out- ed outside.
side, 50° \

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars. 373

November. Weather.—Most delightful the whole of the month; mornings and
nights cold, and the days and evenings cool, bracing and elastic, and very cold at
times.

Wind.—N. E.; at times N., and occasionally N. W.

Rain.—None the entire month.

Dew.—Heavy the first half of the month, and not much afterwards.

Clouds.—Scarcely any cloudy weather.

Haze.—-Only a few hazy mornings.

Fogs.— Light, three or four mornings.

Health.—Corps healthy ; some sickness in Right Wing returned from Arnee.

Prevailing diseases.—Febris, dysenteria, hepatitis, rheumatism, and catarrhus.

Deaths.—One, from paralysis, and one shot himself in Barracks.

Thermometer, Extreme range during the month, from 66° to 79°
go

c Ditto difference in the 24 hours

ai Beast". ditto atone | 30 In the house.

- Average ditto ditto, 93°

- Highest when exposed to the sun, 115?

aS Lowest when exposed to the weather, 959° When expos-

33 Extreme variation when exposed out- ed outside.
side, 60°

December. Weather.—Very cool and delightful the entire month: indeed at
times very cold; and while the rain lasted, damp and chilly, scarcely any sun, and
the wind keen and bracing.

Wind.—N. E.; at times E., occasionally varying to N.

Rain.—Rained thirteen days, but indicated only on 7th, 8th, 14th, l5th, 18th,
19th, 20th, 21st, 27th, 28th and 29th, and 4 inches 80 cents fell.

Dew.—Generally heavy in the morning.

Clouds.—Much cloudy weather, especially the days it rained.

Haze.— Mornings mostly hazy.

Fogs.—Three or four foggy mornings.

Health.—Regiment healthy.

Prevailing diseases.— Hepatitis, rheumatism, and dysentery.

Deaths.—None.

Thermometer. Extreme range during the month, from 67° to 75°

He Ditto _— difference in the 24 hours, 7 Exposed in

as Least ditto ditto, 22 the house.

a. Average ditto ditto, 32 to, 8?

3 Highest when exposed to the sun, 124°

n Lowest when exposed to the weather, 950° Exposed out-

as Extreme variation when exposed side.
outside, 69°

January, \845. Weather.—Cool, agreeable, and most delightful; mornings and
nights delightful.

Wind.—Easterly, North-east, and once or twice Southerly and South-east.

Rain.—Rain fell four days, indicated Ist, 3rd and 4th, and one inch 59 cents
fell.

Dew.—Generally heavy in the morning.

Clouds.—Cloudy mornings first week, then clear.

Haze.—Hazy till nine o’clock, then clear.

Fogs.—About eight foggy mornings.

Health,—Corps very healthy.

374 Medical History of H. M. \5th Hussars.

Prevailing diseases.— Hepatitis, rheumatism, and dysentery.
Deaths.— None. 4

Thermometer. Extreme range during the month, from 65° to 78°

a Ditto difference in the 24 hours, - 7° Exposedin
RS Least ditto ditto, 2° the house.
ie Average ditto ditto, 4° to 22°
: Highest when exposed to the sun, 12a? Buaey

: a Lowest when exposed to the weather, 09° se Sea
> Extreme variation when exposed outside, 64° ;

February. Weather.—Mornings cool and delicious, days rather warm; but the
air cool, and the weather delightful and fine: evenings agreeable, and nights cold.

Wind.— Easterly and North-east the entire month.

Rain.— None.

Dew.— Heavy till middle of month, then light, or none at all.

Clouds.—Scearcely any all the month.

Haze.—A few hazy mornings.

Fogs.—Three foggy mornings.

Health.—Corps very healthy.

Prevailing diseases. —Hepatitis, rheumatism, and dysentery.

Deaths. —One, disease of colon, and Captain Chambers shot himself.

Thermometer. Extreme range during the month, from 73° to 81°

~ Ditto _— difference in the 24 hours, he Exposed in
‘| 55 Least ditto ditto, 4° the house.
it bai Average ditto ditto, 53°
if ~
( gf a0 Highest when exposed to the sun, 125° E d
H ke Lowest when exposed to the weather, 629° ( ue
. By Extreme variation when exposed outside, 63° outside,

: March. Weather.—Mornings cool, but the days getting hot and close; sun
powerful ; evenings and nights agreeable, but at times hot.

.

| 4 Wind.— Easterly till about the 22nd, then variable or Westerly a.m., and Easterly
a P.M.

if, Rain.—Only 16th and 17th and night of 3lst, and 1 inch 75 cents fell by gauge.

Dew.—N one all the month.

Clouds.—Occasionally middle of the month.
Lie} -Haze.—A few hazy mornings, &c. 10th to 25th, but light. .
Fogs.—One morning.

Health.—Corps healthy, but admissions more numerous.

Prevailing diseases.— Hepatitis and dysentery.

Deaths.—One death, dysentery.

Thermometer. Extreme range during the month, from 75° to 87°

| = Ditto _ difference in the 24 hours, g° Exposed in
B Least __ ditto ditto, 2° the house.
s Average ditto ditto, Bae
. - Highest when exposed to the sun, 129°
: be Lowest when exposed to the weather, 66° Exposed
Lf ; Extreme variation when exposed outside, 63° anteae

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

Scale of Thermometer exposed in the open Air for 1844-45.

Months.

April, 1844.

ee

August,
September, ..
October,

November,
December,
January, 1849,
February, ».
March, ..

eS

Scale of Thermometer in the House for 1844-45.

Months.

i re es es es Se | ee ff

April, 1844. .
May,
June,
July, .-.
August, ..
September,
October,
November, -
December, .«-
January, 1840...

ES SS

Annual Average,

co
SSeS
| 8 |8e5\oe
2 | = 882/985
J/|t jS2aysa
77°| 88°| go 4°
74|88| 8 2
72 | Sree 7 3
705-38. \~ 6 3
700) FOG 3
7 4 Ce al 3
70 | 79 | 6 l
6>| 79 | 8
67 | 75 |. 9 2
65178 | 7 | 2
72 BE. F 4
75 | 87 | 8 2
.!70°7,8193| 7 1996 |

General Observations.

The past twelve months have been cool, and, we may
add, very healthy. The mortality has been small, and we
have had no epidemic affection. ‘This may be referred to the
very low average difference of temperature in the house, only
4% desrees, whereas it is usually 7 degrees. Hence, with good
Barracks thoroughly ventilated, and the absence from ex-

“3 B ry ry )
2 i ,/o0 | oo, | oo
as/Os/EsiEs [fs
= bi 2 ale@i/sea [>a
‘os ltoo|two itor [too
126°] 74°} 64°; 118°] 73°
124) 73 | 62 | 120 | 772
124) 69 | 63 |} 110 | 71
112} 66 ! 61 | 109 | 67
124| 62 | 61 | 107 | 64
126} 62 | 63 | 112 | 64
113} 62 | 63 | 109 | 63
115} 59 | 60 | 113 | 61
124; 58 | 61 | 107 | 63
123| 66 | 61 | 108 | 67
125] 67 | 64 | 114 | 69
P2972 aor | Var?" 73

| Average dif-
ference in
24 hours.

375

|
|

ference in
24 hours.

| Greatest dif-

376 Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

posure to the sun, and a suitable covering for the head, and
bedding at night, it would give this station an exemption
and immunity from disease possessed by few places within
the tropics.

We have had twelve deaths during the year, but two shot
themselves in Barracks, and one was killed by his horse throw-
ing him against a bandy. This at once illustrates, what has
so often been urged. Here out of 723 men at Head Quar-
ters, only nine have died from disease in Hospital. Some of
these would have died in any part of the world, others have
fallen a sacrifice, to remaining out of Hospital till disease
had induced organic change: and we are thus led to the
conclusion, and to the confirmation of the statistical reports*
in other parts of the world, that an elevation of 3000 feet
even within the tropics, renders that place as salubrious as
Great Britain itself.

Table of Humidity, from 1st April 1844 to 31st March 1845.

Quantity. Spee ‘ x nes fa

TT eee

Months. a So. 3 soe h al 4

® yn |2 igloo) el iS rs]

212 (SS: 5 | oe eee ee

= o | S-so-5/5-55 0 Sew

— |/O Gtstig4asesiaca le
Mori: Teas a the Nee, Loeb elt yanclh alee 9) 4 9
May, ee ee ee ee ee ee 9) 32 12 ] 13
June, ee ee ee ee eo ee ecee 1 95 14 4) 19
July, eo eo ee ee ee coe @o0e 3 65 16 ff 23
August, ee oe eo oe ee ee coe: 4 0 20 D 25
September, ats ese 0.6 AB eis sewiall sO ay OO 13 2 15
October, eo eo ee eo ee ao ene 2 30 12 6 18
November, awe Ulisie ctvecs eabete biota: 0 0 0 0
December, ee ee eo ee eo eeee 4 80 13 3 16
January, 1845. 2. «2 20 os 1 | 30 4 1 5
February, ee ee ee ee ee 0 0 0 0 0
March, sigptete ev etein” oo 14 75 3 ] 4
Total, oe se), 27 112 35 147

If the annual fall of rain be compared for a series of years,
it will be found subject to great fluctuation, as may be seen
from the accompanying Table.

* By Major Tulloch.

——————— Oe -

SS —————

a a eS

i
’
uf
4

ov7

comm Om DH LON

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

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378 Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

Section LL.

Position of Barracks and Hospitals, with the extent and the nature of the accommodation
they afford—Means of ventilation, &c.

DEscRIPTION OF BARRACKS.

Site elevated and dry, on a gentle slope: erected in
1808, and consists of eight ranges running north and south,
calculated to hold 672 men.

Were it not that the married families live in patcherries,
and for the number of men in hospital or on duty, they would
be incapable of holding 712 men, the present strength of the
corps, without injurious crowding.

Each room is 224 feet long, 20 wide, 12 high, having
eight doors and thirty-two windows, surrounded by an 8-feet
verandah: at the corners are four rooms for non-commis-
sioned officers, with one door and three windows each.

The ranges are 126 feet apart, and 58 feet from the south,
and 400 feet from the north wall; this latter space being
used for parade, &c. ,

The whole is surrounded by a 9-feet high wall, having
three entrances and one wicket, and contains Barrack rooms,
officers’ guard-room above the archway, standard guard-
room, three rooms for prisoners, serjeant-major’s quarters,

solitary cells, orderly room, ball court, artificers’ and tailors’ |

shops, sadler-serjeant’s quarters, skittle alley, theatre, can-
teen, privies, armourer-serjeant’s quarters, school-room,
school-master’s quarters, married soldiers’ huts, regimental
serjeant-major’s quarters, trumpet-major’s quarters, defaulters’
room, gram godown, regimental store-room, two wells and
eight bathing rooms.

The horses are picqueted on the outside in the open air
on the south parade. The Barracks are good, but the veran-
dahs are too narrow, and almost useless from being unen-
closed, and badly ventilated from the doors and windows
being of solid plank, and admission of fresh air being attend-

o

Medical History of H. M. \5th Hussars. 379

ed with pernicious currents; and this remark applies to all
the buildings occupied by the Regiment, except the hospi-
tal, which has been enclosed, and the new guard-house.

The married families occupy a patcherry, an assemblage
of mud-huts, in our opinion, in every way most objectionable ;
they are low, often very dirty, badly constructed with mud-
floors; and are confined, ill ventilated, and take the soldiers
from under the care of their non-commissioned officers, and
are, it is alleged, a concealment for much depravity, traffic,
and the sale of spirituous liquors.

We should therefore recommend the families being ac-
commodated in barracks, as is done in Bengal.

The faults of the barracks are generally,

Ist. The verandahs are not enclosed.

2nd. The verandahs are too narrow for real utility.

ord. The doors and windows being of solid plank, when they
are shut there is no light or air; when open, the glare, the
wind loaded with dust and sand, or injurious currents of
cold damp air are admitted; they are in consequence not
only ill ventilated, but incapable of being well ventilated ;
the ventilators lately made in the roof of each barrack are
of little use.

4th. The roofs themselves are bad, the bamboos decayed,
and swarming with bugs; the application made use of to
destroy those vermin was but a very temporary benefit.

There are two urine tubs to each Troop, enclosed by a wall
adjoining the wash-houses; they are emptied and cleaned
twice a day. There are eight small bathing or washing-houses :
that they are of use it is needless to deny; but that they are
too small for real utility, too far from a supply of water,
and ineligibly situated, too close to the barrack rooms, be-
tween the ranges, preventing ventilation, is alike evident
and objectionable, the water running from them causing in-
jurious exhalations. These baths should have been large
buildings, situated near the patcherries, with wells made

380 Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

close to them, so as to insure a sufficient supply of water,
and of easy access to all classes, including the women and
the children.

The water for drinking, cooking, bathing, washing utensils,
and the married families, is brought by Puckallies, of which
sixteen are allowed to the Regiment, and each is calculated
by the Quarter-Master to bring 160 gallons daily, a quantity
we should say in a hot climate, quite inadequate to the con-
sumption of 721 men, 137 women, 181 children, and such
of the followers as are employed within the Barrack Square,
for all the purposes of domestic economy and cleanliness.

Barrack Furniture.

In India. In England.

Ve )
Tables and Forms. | | Tron pot and lid, | & 3
_ 1 Trivet, lela gj
1 Cot, or bedstead for each || 2 Pot hooks, [| 30) Basan Ris
Man, consisting of 3 teak || 1| Iron ladle, apa ee aa
boards placed upon 2 tres- || 1 Flesh fork, a : a
tles of the same wood. 2 Meat dishes, | 2 | -
2 Water cans, ¥ os

sips toe J

The foregoing contrast will shew the relative situation of
the soldier at home and within the Tropics at Bangalore.

Those trestles or bedsteads are so infested with bugs, that
we should recommend iron cots to be substituted; these
bedsteads are placed in pairs, quite close to each other, with-
out any intervening space; at the distance of 6 feet are two
more, with a window or a door intervening.

The soldier has no bedding, he has merely a cotton quilt
renewed every two years, which serves the double purpose
of bed and covering. It is totally inadequate either for
comfort or for health; he has no means of change, and conse-
quently no means of promoting cleanliness; and as a soldier
is often covered with perspiration and dirt from the very
nature of his duties, it may well be imagined what their state
must be in a hot climate, at the end of two years, saturated
as they must be with filth and sordes. |

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars. 381

At home the Royal Warrant provides them with one iron
bedstead, one palliasse, one bolster, two blankets, one rug,
two sheets, and these washed or changed, as they become
soiled or useless. |

Description of the Hospital.

Built in 1808, on a high dry slope about 320 feet to the
east of the Barracks, and consists of two buildings, the
largest, 3 sides of a square surrounded by an enclosed veran-
dah 12 feet wide, with venetians and glass above; but the
ends are not enclosed, which materially detracts from the
appearance of the building and the comfort of the sick.

The building consists of four wards; the largest to the
south is 101 feet long, 18 wide, and 122 high, with three
ventilators ; the one to the east is 61 feet long, 81 wide, and
has two ventilators; that to the west is divided into two
wards, which are respectively 24 and 27 feet by 18 in width,
and are appropriated for the women and the worst cases.
These wards are well ventilated and very comfortable.

To the north, and detached, at a distance of sixty-three
feet, is the convalescent ward; it is 84 feet long, 18 wide,
and 123 high, and has been altered and surrounded with a 12
feet enclosed verandah, similar to the rest of the hospital.

The hospital is calculated to contain 60 patients; but in
the event of an emergency, the verandahs being now enclos-
ed, it will contain as many more. The hospital is surrounded
by a wall 9 feet high, and forms an oblong, 279 feet from
north to south, and 1993 feet from east to west. The dis-
tance from the hospital to the wall on the east, west and
and south, is about 33 feet, and on the north 43 feet. It
contains the hospital Serjeant’s quarters, the guard-room,
cook-room, surgery godown, or store-room, privy, and dead
house; in the centre is a shed for holding water, or for
shower baths. |

As a general remark, the wards of the entire hospital are
too narrow and also too low, which gives them a confined

3D

SES ieee

°

lt a

————

wos. 7 —
. : = = -
: ~ ole <
ep St
rn a eT LST =
- ~ t * -_ -- -
7

382 Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

appearance, and leaves no room for tables for the patients at
which to eat their meals; the compound is too small, and the
space is insufficient for the convalescents to take exercise.

The Riding School, on two sides close to the hospital wall,
is a great nuisance, from the noise and dust; it destroys that
quiet and repose so necessary in all well regulated hospitals.
The compound should be extended, and new out-offices
erected. Application for building a conjee house for the re-
ception of noisy, turbulent, and mad patients was made last
year, and has been sanctioned by Government.

The hospital bedding consists of a wooden painted cot
64 feet long and 3 wide, which takes to pieces, and is taped ;
it is in every respect a most suitable, clean, soft, elastic bed-
stead; the beds are stuffed with straw, with a cotton quilt,
and Europe blankets and sheets; only 10 per pair per 100 of
effective strength, however, are allowed and Surgical cases
are excluded from the benefit of clean linen.

The Guard-house lately erected is a splendid building
and well ventilated, with sufficient room for prisoners; it
answers the purpose for which it is intended, and ‘consists of
guard-room, cells for defaulters and a capacious verandah.

The guard-room, 22 feet high, 20 wide, and 50 feet long
with arched doorways. The cell is 22 feet high, 20 wide,
and 20 long, with a verandah in front 17 feet high, 12 wide,
and 71 long. It affords ample accommodation, is cool, flat-
roofed and free from vermin. The new cook-houses erect-
ing, also conjee house and prisoners’ guard are very superior
buildings, but not completed.

The men on line guard have temporary guard houses, which
have had a favourable influence on the health of the men em-
ployed on that duty. On several of the sentry walks however
the men are much exposed, and more or less likely to contract
disease, either from direct exposure to a vertical sun, the heat
and glare reflected from the walls, the damp dews at night,
or pernicious currents of air, and miasmatic exhalations.

en Cee ere ee be nee ate eee Pee ae ee ne

Xie
—_

‘el aot

f
‘

,

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars. 383

Section LL.

Rations and Diet, detailing the nature of the Soldiers’ meals and facilities the Station affords
for improvement in this respect.

Rations oF DIET.

The diet for the troops is furnished by Government, and
consists of 1 pound of bread, 1 pound of meat, 4 ounces of
rice, 14 oz. of sugar, 5-8ths of an oz. of tea or coffee, 1 chit-
tack of salt, with allowance of 3 pounds of wood for cooking.
Beef is supplied two days, and mutton every third day.

Each. troop is divided into 3 messes, and the men have
three meals per day. For breakfast a pint of coffee, occasi-
onally tea, with bread. For dinner a pound of meat cooked
according to directions given by each man in his turn, with
a proportion of vegetables, roots, &c. For supper one pint
of tea with the residue of any of the cold meat and bread left
at dinner. ‘The bread and meat are of excellent quality, and
supplied by the Commissary as per G. O. of 8th July 1840,
and are inspected by the Orderly Officer, and Quarter-Master
previous to issue. The rations are so cheap, that it would
conduce to health and comfort were these articles of the best
or first quality. }

The cooks are placed under the general superintend-
ence of a man selected from the Regiment, who is struck
off duty for that purpose, These meals appear plentiful
and nourishing, and afford a reasonable variety, and have
had a beneficial influence on the health of the men; it
however would be an improvement, if it were imperative
that a portion of the meat were daily made into good broth
with vegetables, &c.

The water is brought, as already stated, by Puckallies, and
when allowed to stand and filtered, is very good.

384 Medical History of H. M. \5th Hussars.

Section iV.

Duty and employment—specifying whether these are in any respect so severe as to be
likely to prove prejudicial to the health of the Troops.

Duty anp EMPLOYMENT.

This subject has been considered in the Sanatory report :
here we shall enter more into the detail, as well as quote from
the report to the Secretary at War.

Dr. Burke alludes to the greater sickness in Cavalry
Corps in the Bengal command, and this we consider attribut-
able, in this country, to the nature of the duties the Dra-
goon has to perform, for even with every care, attention and
modification, it entails much exposure. ‘That those per-
formed by the 15th Hussars have been mild, is evinced by
the small proportion of acute disease and few deaths; had
tle rigour of severe, harassing, or protracted drills been
superadded, it must soon have had an unfavourable influ-
ence.

The duty and employment must vary and fluctuate, there-
fore the following is given as the nearest approximation to
those usually ordered.

Days. Morning. Evening.

Sunday, .. ..-|Church parade, Line duties, and

Surgeon’s Inspection at 10 a. m.| Line duties.
Monday, -- «-|Riding School, or Adjutant’s drill

and Line duties, .. .. «./Inspection drill for awkward
men, and line duties.

Tuesday, .. ..»| Brigade exercise and line duties. Do.
Wednesday, ..| Watering order and line duties. Do.
Thursday, --/Squadron drills or Riding school
and line duties. .. an --|Foot parades under arms and

line duties.
Friday, .. ..|Field exercise, or Adjutant’s drill,
and line duties, ee .-|Instructing drill for awkward
men, and line duties.
Saturday,.. ..| Watering order and line duties. ..| Inspection of saddlery, or ne-
cessaries and line duties.

The Barrack and Line Guards alone take nearly 50 men
for those duties, and the sentries are much exposed, whereas

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars. 389

in Bengal most, if not all, exposed duties are done by Sepoys.
This becomes important to note, as the Forage cap in use
with the the 15th Hussars, appears but an imperfect protec-
tion to the head, and may have had much influence in pre-
disposing to the numerous cases of paralysis during the past
two years, and was therefore noticed in the Sanatory Re-
port.

The following is the Commanding Officer’s scale of guard
for the past year.

“* The daily detail of duty generally performed at this station, by the Re-
giment under my command has been as under.”

White Troops.

Pits ba Bd a
Sentries.
Leoitcigs bes Wa (s ls
= | ro) B 2 a “
= Qa ~~ ee an ps
Sai Bo) eungrlaliey |o8
a 5 = ‘eo al p> | &
n|\|o]le O. | a190
Guard at Barrack Gate, .. «2+ «+ esse} I 1 1 | 30 ; 10! 10 1
——,,—— Hospital, si) dai line -eoe| OF 1 Ou 26. Vee eB 4710
——,,——Lines, ee ee ee eo eo see l J 0 18 6 6 0)
——,,——-Mess and Paymaster, .. eine-ladk) 2 0 6 0 2 0
——,,——-As Police, ee ee ee ee l 2 0 9 0 3 0
Total. Ce aes Fo | 69 \ 18 1.93 |. 1

The Mess Guard and Pay Master’s guard we havé only
seen at this presidency, but the men on that duty have now a
comfortable guard house, still we should recommend their
abolition.

The foregoing detail of duty is very large for a tropical
country, yet it does not give an accurate statement of the
actual duty performed by the men, who are thus actually
occupied, and the following table will illustrate this.

|

386 Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

Return of men variously employed in addition to the daily detail of duty in
the return A. No. 3 of the Sanatory Report.

3| 5
ale
Sis} |.
e/2eisl4/e
a| S| 3 5 5 |e =
Gy {EX |W | fey Aa ie
( Staff, ee e ee ee 2e ee eees 1 l 3 ] 0 0 8
| Regimental orderly, SEG Sia Seatey eles eee. | 1} O} Ly] O} O} OF 2
Daily. ....4 Room Guard, ». +2 «2 «2 of ee «we. | 9) O| O| 0} 0! 8] 8
; | Barrack Police, .. os +s oo os ecee | OF OED On Sat
LOrderly Sick Corporal, «« «+ «e 0} 0; 0; 1} 0 O| 1
Weekl §. Defaulter’s room, s. sc ev uo. ee evs.) UO] Ul O) GellO (Ole
eex'yY+**) Sick line orderly,*:\-s. eo, 02 os | ewes Ol 0) DROW Ono's
(Canteen, ee ee ee eo eo eo ee e@eos 0 0 ] 0 0 1 2
General Store, ee ee ee eo ee eves 0 0 ] 0) 0, O 1
a igi eo ee eo eo eo ee eeee 0 0 ] 0 0 4| 5
ee eo ee ee e@e ee ee @eee ; ~ 2 : 0/21 21
Sa men, ee eo @o ee ee ee iat @eee 0; 20 20
Permanent. 4 T ailors, ee rT) ee ee ee ee @eecs 0 0 l 0) 0 2 3
Riding department, co 00 6s ee ooo} O} VU} 1] 0} O| 3) 4
| Drill ditto, ee ee @e ee ee @eeee 0 0 ] 0 0) 0 1
° In charge of Cooks, ee ee eo eo ae eevee O 0 0 0 (9) 9 2,
Saddler’s Shop, «2 of ce ce eo cose} O} 0} O} OU} O} 3) 3

Total, | oe hee | os -co.: ch), see, Zi stmMeal aia) an

i All those who are noted in this table, should be taken from

i the gross strength of the Regiment, and though it may be

in a slight degree influenced by a few other employeés being

in hospital, yet as these will generally be replaced from those

i detailed in return A. No. 3, of the Sanatory Report, it

| shews that in estimating the actual detail of duty performed

i by the Regiment, the whole of the foregoing details, should

have due consideration, as well as the average number of

i sick in hospital, in estimating the influence of a conjoined

WT agency of the effects of a particular duty and climate on the
health of the soldier in India :—

Thus the Commanding Officer’s state gives, 57

Detail of men on other duties, we se
Annual average daily sick, ... ae ven On

Making a total of tg eo 207

(i to be deducted from 722 men, the average strength of the
(| Corps during the year, which leaves 515 men for the duties of

‘DD! pied Ue

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars. 387

guard, lines &c. Hence the great necessity of attention to
guard room accommodation, head dress, and exposure, &c.
on the sentry walks.

The guards usually mount at 10 o’clock, an hour certainly
too late in this country, and entailing an exposure which no-
thing but absolute necessity should sanction.

Section Vv,

Internal Economy, particularly as regards the measures for repression of Intemperance—the
prevalance or rarity of Crime and Punishment among the Troops and—Measures employed
to furnish them with healthy exercise and amusements.

There have been 269 acute cases treated during the year, of
which only 26 appear to have been caused by intemperance.
Drunkenness therefore apparently has had more influence
as a predisposing, than an exciting cause of the soldiers’ ma-
ladies. Facilities for obtaining intoxicating drinks always
exist.

It is the same at all stations throughout India; a variety
of fermenting substances are easily obtained, and the natives
are adepts at converting them into alcoholic potations. The
abkarry contract legalizes the sale of spirits to the Natives,
and thence the Europeans can, and do obtain it, notwithstand-
ing the prohibitions which exist to such sale. Some impute
much of the intemperance to this source, though others, for
whose judgment we entertain great respect, consider that the
abkarry contract secures a better kind of spirits, and rather
conduces to health by substituting a less pernicious beverage,
for the poisonous trash concocted by the natives.

There has been, according to the Commanding Officer’s
return, an increase of crime and punishment, as compared
with the preceding year. 61 have been tried and sentenced,
which is greater than the number in the previous year, as
61 is to 55, but as there has been only the same number of
deaths and less sickness, the increase of crime does not seem
to have influenced disease.

388 Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

The cells for prisoners in the Barrack Square are in good
repair and well ventilated, but those in the Fort, now seldom
used, are highly objectionable, being close, confined, with
little light, and quite unventilated.

The mid-day punishment drills continue, and the ab-
jections formerly urged against them still exist, and indeed
increased so far, as they may have contributed, with other
causes of exposure, to our numerous list of paralytics, and
tendency to cerebral diseases in the Regiment, particularly
last year.

There is a Skittle Alley, and Racket Court, and the men
occasionally amuse themselves at Cricket, Long bowls and
Quoits, every requisite being furnished at the expence of the
canteen fund, and in the Serjeant’s room of the Canteen
there is a Bagatelle Board.

''The men of certain troops get books from their troop
libraries, of which there are three established in the Regi-
ment, and supported by the men of those troops. The rest
of the Corps get books from the Station Soldiers’ Library,
and the Theatre has just been converted into a Library,
Reading and Coffee room.

We have already reported our sentiments on the dress
regulations ; it is however but very seldom that the Hussar is
decorated in full panoply, but it would be an improvement
if he had a peak to his Forage Cap, as he is much exposed ;
indeed the Sanatory Report of last year will shew the im-
portance we attach to this subject, whilst endeavouring to
account for the numerous cases of paralysis. The following
general observations from our Sanatory Report for the Secre-
tary at War, may be introduced in this place.

It is proved by the Statistical Report, published by order of
the British Government presented to both Houses of Parlia-
ment by command of Her Majesty, that all intertropical sta-
tions for H. M. Troops, enjoying an elevation of 3,000 feet,
possess an immunity to disease as great, as if serving in Eng-

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars. 389

land. Hence Bangalore, from its elevation, its coolness, its
freedom from swamp, jungles, and all sources of malaria,
should be equally healthy, as is evinced by the comparative
healthiness of Natives and European women and children.
There is however much sickness, and chiefly confined to the
soldiers, and it is therefore much in the power of Govern-
ment and its officers to preserve the health and efficiency of
the troops.

The following suggestions are consequently submitted for
consideration.

Ist. Enclosed verandahs to the Barracks, similar to those

of the Hospital, as a means of promoting ventilation and
comfort.
- 2nd. The dress regulations to be modified and strictly
enforced, agreeably to Sir Stamford Whittingham’s order.
The Forage Cap to be made of a useful size, worn well on
the head, and furnished with a peak.

drd. Suitable protection to the men on the several sentry
walks, by erecting thatched sheds.

Ath. The abolition of Mess and Pay Master’s, and all
superfluous day and night guards.

5th. The deficiency of bedding must be, and is, a source of
privation and discomfort, as well as of filth and disease, in a
hot climate; it is recommended that the quantity be assimi-
lated to that in use in H. M. service at home and abroad.

6th. The roofs of the Barracks to be constructed of proper
materials, to avoid that great source of irritation and loss of
rest, from bugs.

7th. The abolition of the miserable, small, low, badly
constructed, huts with mud floors, called “ patcherries,” used
_for married soldiers and their families, often the receptacles
for vice, infamy, and sale of liquors, &c.

8th. Native Hospitals should be established, which might
receive diseased females, especially in a country where there

are no public institutions for their cure, and the entire re-
3 E

~_- — _—

390 Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

sources and revenues are appropriated for the use of the
State.

9th. The removal of all vegetation and unauthorized
temporary erections from within the Barrack Square, as well
as the extermination of all dogs, goats, poultry and other
sources of vermin and filth.

10th. The exposure to the sun at this station is known to
be so prejudicial, that no duty should be exacted during the
hot months, that exposes the soldier after 8 a.m. or at any
period after 9 a.m., or a little before 5 p.m. during the entire
year.

11th. Men should not be employed at Lines before it is
light, as they get cold and chilled, and its injurious conse-
quences are fully borne out by the obstinacy, inveteracy, and
frequency of rheumatic diseases.

12th. All that can distress the mind in health or harass
the frame in disease, or disturb that order and quietness so
essential to the economy of a well regulated Hospital, should
be avoided, such as large funeral parties, signing accounts in
Hospital (now dispensed with in most Corps), or visits by the
various religious ministers for spiritual and religious pura
poses, being employed for temporal purposes.

Section Wi.

The average strength of the Force throughout the year, distinguishing White from Black Troops,
and showing any changes in its composition by the removal of one Corps and the arrival of
another : followed by a detail of the Deaths and Admissions into Hostipal—also distinguishing
White from Black Troops.

The annexed tables of White and Black Troops composing
the force at the Station throughout the year, are separately
arranged, so as to afford at two views the information required
under this head. These tables have been prepared with
considerable labour, requiring no fewer than 300 distinct
calculations.

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Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

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Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars. 393

Section Dik.

Remarks as to the principal classes of Diseases, by which the sickness and mortality have been
oceasioned: any peculiarity either as regards the form in which they present themselves, or
rarity as compared with former years, or other stations to be carefully noted.

PrevaILinG DIskASEs.

The most prevailing diseases have been the usual ende-
mics of the country.

The period embraced by this Report has been free from
all epidemic diseases, and the following table would show
that disease has not increased during the last four years
except Paralysis, which has more than doubled itself.

Table of Diseases admitted into Hospital from April 1840 to May 1845.

1840-41. | 1841-42. | 1842-43. | 1843-44. | 1844-45.

| ee

Diseases. | |
| = 3 a] a]
® Aa ae = - | 3 si rile gee 2
elAte i alae lals/ialaesa
Febrile affections, ....../182 | 2 |106| 3/81] 1|86| 0/49) 2
EUlIMOMIC, ws os i eee sy 0 | 16 0 | 26 4 | 28 2 | 33 1
Hepatic, .. 2. «+ «| 92! 7 | 87 | 6/72 | 2] 53 1 | 32! 2
Dysenteric, oo ee eeee 176 4 121 3 119 5) 78 9) 140 4
Rheumatic, .. «- «..-| 66; 0} 72; 0; 59 | O| 42} 0} 46] 0
Paralysis, .. os dren! op Ob Ot. 2 nod 3} 0 4 0 | 10 1
Venereal, .. «. «. o+e-/506 | O |357 | O {202 | 2 [159 | O {184 | O
Wounds and accidents, .... | 236 2 |243 2). 252 0 {175 1 {173 0
Other diseases, eo eee 469 3 |365 ae 5 {183 0 | 75 0
Total, 11708 18° 1369 rie 1092 19 ‘808 | 9 1843! 9
Particular Affections.
Dysentery. There have been 140 cases with 4 AG
Average period in hospital, os ee an «. 3U days.
Greatest quantity of blood drawn, ve ne as -» AQ ounces.
Average ditto, ee ve Sie oe -- 20 ditto.
Greatest number of leeches applied, oe ee oe »» No. 250,
Average ditto, . ee ous sie > No. 40.
Greatest quantity of calomel taken, Be as ve -» 240 grains.
Average ditto, ee oe oe ee ve -- 80 ditto.
Fevers, 49 cases treated, with 1 death
Average period in hospital, , ve oe es «» 16 days.
Greatest quantity of blood drawn, as oe ee -» 32 ounces.
Average ditto, oe ee ve ae «+ 24 ditto.
Greatest number of leeches. applied, oe os ae -» No. 82.
Average ditto, oe : oe ve fe -» No. 78,
Greatest quantity of calomel, ee ee ee oe -» 154 grains,
Average ditto, oe eo oe es ee i »» 02 ditto.

Se

394 Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

Hepatitis. 32 cases treated, with 2 deaths.

Average period in hospital, se oe ee ve «- 36 days.
Greatest quantity of blood drawn, ee ee ee -- 30 ounces.
Average ditto, ee ee ee ee eo 30 ditto.
Greatest number of leeches applied, te ee ee «> No. 140.
Average ditto, ee eo ee os No. 40.
Greatest quantity of calomel taken, ee oe ee -- 180 grains.
Average ditto, ee ee ee ee eo ee ee 70 ditto.
Rheumatism. 44 cases treated, with no death.
Average period in hospital, ee oe ee ee ee 60 days.
Greatest quantity of blood drawn, ee ee ee -- 40 ounces.
Average ditto, ee ee ve «» 30 ditto,
Greatest number of leeches applied, ee ve oe ee No. 160.
Average ditto, a 5A ee 2. Neo. 60.
Greatest quantity of calomel taken, ee ee -- 150 grains.
ee -» 40 ditto.

Average ditto, ee ee ae ee oe

General Observations.

There are few general observations needed. It will be
seen by the tables, that acute disease has not increased, and
that disease in the aggregate has greatly diminished during
the last two years.

Mortality has also decreased, and the deaths in hospital
have been reduced nearly one-half since 1843.

Paralysis has been frequent: it merits attention in con-
sequence of being confined entirely to the 15th Hussars,
indicating that the sources of the disease, whatever they may
be, are in some measure confined to the Regiment.

The first year we have no case; the second, two cases ;
the third, three cases; the fourth, four cases; and last year,
the fifth, we have eight cases—total seventeen cases.
Whereas the 13th Dragoons, the first year, had no case;
the second year, one case ; third year, no case; fourth year,
one case—making two cases in four year. This contrast
needs no comment.

We shall now briefly illustrate the causes or supposed ex-
citing causes, so far as we possess the materials. Such tables
if kept for a series of years must be useful, shewing as they
will do the influence of external and internal. causes, and,
above all, their impressions on the sick; for although these be
fallacious, yet as the remote or predisposing causes prove a
direct influence, they will lead to important practical results.

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

395

Table of causes or assigned causes of acute disease from \st April 1840,
to 31st March 1845.

a re a SS CS ED RES |
———.

Causes or supposed exciting causes.

1.; Who impute their diseases to cold caught by

2.

10.

1}.

12.
13.

14.
15.

16,

exposure to currents of air on line or
Barrack guard, or lying on damp bed,.. ..

Who impute their diseases to cold caught
in their posts on the different Regimental
guards, at early lines 42 a.M., or by going
round with the relief,

.|Who impute their diseases to cold caught by

exposure to the night air, of by sleeping op-
posite to doors and windows left open in the
Barracks, or while prisoners in the guard
room or defaulter’s room, or on Police or
Paymaster’s guard, or going to privy, or
shoeing horses on the line of march, or by
lying under trees, .. oe .

.| Who impute their diseases to cold caught, but

cannot particularize how, .. ee es

Who impute their disease to cold caught in
the rain, when at watering order, ball prac-
tice, going round with relief, washing horses
and bathing, «. °

.| Who impute their diseases to cold caught by

change of the weather, cold mornings, neg-
lecting to put on their flannels, or changing
clothes when perspiring, . of “a
Who impute their diseases to drinking cold
water, buttermilk, or lemonade, when heated,
Who impute their diseases to superintending
boiling gram, or getting ears picked,
Who impute their disease, to exposure to the
sun while on sentry, or barrack line, or
gram guard at lines, midday punishment
drills, and heat of weather, .. a AE
Who impute their diseases to diet, as having
eat curry and rice, bacon and eggs, pork,
mangoes, mango puddings, cucumbers,
water melon, guavas, sour oranges, bad
coffee, porter, cold water, or ginger beer, ..
Who impute their diseases to riding or falls
or kicks from their horses, or blows, or cos-
tiveness, or blowing on instruments in the
at or coughing, and the bite of a mad
19) > eo eo eo eo eo @e
Whose diseases were caused by intemperance,
Who know no cause for their diseases, but
have been drinking, .. a ae a
Who know no cause for their diseases, i
Who imputes his disease to cold caught when
sitting up with race horses, .. oe oe
Who impute their diseases to cold caught in
the rain while carrying orders to officers’
quarters, walking without shoes, getting wet
at funeral parties, or coming from the

canteen, ee ee « @@ ee ee
Diseases re-admitted from the above, chang-
ing to other acute affections, eo ve

Total, oe ae ee

During the years.

————— 6. ees

BS | Seeospity a
Sia iaiSis
ie.) @ oO GO 90
= = —! = —_

30} 27; 33} 30) 38
42} 35} 33} 20) 40

M3 1h Bl Gh SG

6 ae) ee’ ) 2
ofc 3] 4 ]

j=)
So
w
So
oS

12] 12] 12 6 l
14) 14] © 36] 21} 28

6 Ol°” 2

o| 4
290) 243) 205) 173} 96/1007

Ob. Ofer 0 ] 0

0} 0 0; 0} 10
Is) Zh) FO) TO). 14

38

158
170

62

22

27

38

43
113

23

1

| 476) 411| 383| 302| 269!1184

a a

ape Oe eee

te al

396 Medical History of H. M. \5th Hussars.

Tables of causes, or assigned causes, of 269 acute Cases admitted into the
Hospital of Her Majesty’s 15th Hussars, from 1st April 1844 to 31st
March 1845.

by lying on cold flags, ..
Toa jerk when on horseback, .. a ee
To intemperance, ee oe ee ee
Know no cause, ve ee ee

a
oO
No. and Diseases. Causes or supposed exciting causes. Dy =
Cee ond
; Sue
Fever, 48. -+e+| Lo cold caught on line, mess, and bazar guards, --| 5 .
fi by lying opposite doors or windows
left open in Barracks, ee a
am by lying in verandah, .. sites Wala
%s by exposure to night air and lying
in a wet cloak, ee ga
S by getting wet in the rain, but can-
not tell when, Dias he a
5 by lying on damp ground, re ee |
hs at early lines and field exercise at
4a. M., ante ee
To exposure to the sun on duty at stables 10 a. M. l
i while walking in the bazar 11 a.m. 4
# while out shooting, le rte See
Know no cause for their diseases, a bec Stal
Intemperance, ee oe ee eooe| 6
| a
Dysentery, 89. .«+.|To cold caught on Barrack guard, oe wis 2
a by lying opposite doors and windows
left open in Barracks, .. >a O
s6 by lying in the verandah, 4
3 by lying on the ae flags, hospital
guard,.. ve ee] 2
ar cannot tell how, . ee 13
ze by getting wet in the rain at funerals 6
FA ditto co ming from canteen, os Ta
ay at early morning lines, .. 3
A by exposure to a current of air when
ina perspiration, OW l
af by drinking cold-water in a perspira-
pons’) ss A ee a |
To eating cabbage for dinner, oe a ool
Know no cause, ere 50 Oc eo Le) ates
® | Intemperance, oe oe oe ow] 7
are Be
Hepatitis, 34. «+e.|To cold caught by lying opposite open doors and
windows at night, ee e-| 6
a by lying on cold flags, oe sea. 2
= by getting wet in rain while carry ne
orders to officers’ quarters, 2
by afoatte J without shoes on the cold
flags, ee eo| 1
Ei but cannot tell how, ote o-| 6
Know no cause, oe ve ee e-| 18
Ta oe
Rheumatism, 45...|Yo cold caught on line guard, .. i ots
As by pulling off their jackets when in
aperspiration, .. ee z
m by opposite doors or windows left
open,.. ee eof 4
a but cannot tell how, ee oe Lar
5 by a current of air when shoeing
horses, .. oe ee wl
a by getting wet in the rain, e+) 3
2
I
3
19

Medical History of H. M. \5th Hussars. 397

Tables of causes, or assigned causes, of 269 acute Cases admitted into the
Hospital of Her Majesty’s 15th Hussars, from 1st April 1844 to 31st
March 1845.—( Continued. )

|

ze
No. and Diseases. Causes or supposed exciting causes. 3 3
6 |e
Diseases of lungs,15 To cold caught by exposure to night air, seqihick
“5 by lying on cold ground, .. apes
As but cannot tell how, ne 3
9 by getting wet returning from privy, l
ae after exposure to the sun, «. cel Il
Intemperance, oe oe ee swiae
Know no cause, an o5 aa a ee
—-| 15
Cholera, \\. ...«+.|To cold caught by doors and windows being left
open, ee oe e-| 2
To eating cabbage for dinner, a es sei UE
Know no cause, oe o* ce eo] 6
Intemperance, o. oe a o. oo{ 2
—| ll
Colica, 25......--.|To eating salad and cabbage, ». a ooh Bee
Botaiors, ae oe ard ine
Know no cause, ease
To cold caught by exposure to ‘wet and ‘damp on
the march, .. eo waite a
- on line guard, oe oe gate 2
Intemperance, oe ee| 6
To cold caught but cannot tell how, oe oo| 4 o
Delerium Trem., 2, To intemperance, we de oe eater 2
Grand Total, ae ihe ae | 269

Venereal Disease.

Syphilis has decreased ina marked manner. This may have
arisen from two causes: first, the women either getting them-
selves cured, or those affected with the worst forms dying,
or the men avoiding those from whom they had previously
suffered ; second, from the disease itself partaking of the
general healthiness of the past year, and from the men’s im-
proved habit of body, since it is well known that only certain
habits and constitutions are subject to the worst form of ve-
nereal disease.

398 Medical History of A. M. \5th Hussars.

The decrease of numbers, however, must arise from the
decrease of disease, whatever may be the cause of the im-
provement.

We have just noticed, that venereal has been less fre-
quent. The following table illustrates the subject more fully
than any detailed history we could give of its nature, fre-
‘ quency and treatment.

Table of Venereals, admitted from 1st April 1844 to 31st March 1845.

No. Treatment.

cm | i nn in a er

Of 60 Syphilis primitiva.

23 | Were treated without Bubo and without mercury.

6 ditto ditto and with ditto.
17 ditto with Bubo and without mercury.
4 ditto ditto and with mercury.
ditto without Gonorrhoea and without mercury.
ditto ditto and with ditto.
8 ditto with ditto and without ditto.
2 ditto ditto and with ditto.
60 Of 10 Syphilis consecutiva.
2 Were treated without primary a aes eo without mercury,
6 ditto with dit and with ditto.
2 ditto ditto and with ditto.
10 Of 25 Bubo simplex.
18 Were treated without mercury.
7 ditto with ditto.
25 Of 71 Gonorrhea.
53 | Were treated without mercury.
8 ditto with Bubo and without mercury.
10 ditto with Syphilis and without mercury.
71 —_—

Statistical Tables shewing the treatment adopted in the Hospital of H. M.
15th Regiment, or King’s Hussars, from 1st April 1844 to 81st March
1845.

No. l.
Of 269 acute cases, averaging 26 days in hospital, 9 died.
35 were only bled, “ 22 a 0
52 had only leeches applied, ,, 24 ss 0
178 both bled and leeched, Bp 30 A 8
4 neither bled nor leeched, ,, 27 “ ]
269 9

ee ee es ee eee ee

213 were bled from the arm, averaging 22 days in hospital, with 8 deaths.

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

Ne. 2.

Of 269 acute cases treated, averaging 20 days in hospital, 8 died.

{2 were bled between the Ist and 6th hour of attack, averag. 31 days. 0
6th and 12th
12th and 18th

o

erie ob & ce-en- sg

Ld
ww

|

Of 213 bled from the arm, averaging 22 days in hospital, with 8 deaths.

9?

”

2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
12th
14th
15th
17th
2|st
30th
6ist

187 were bled once, ie

29
1

2?

”?

twice, ,,
three times,

”

No. 3.

26
29
201

No. 4.

20 were bled on the Ist day of attack, averag. 19

20

rz)

Ly)

9
9

0
0

393

days in hospital, with 2 deaths.

lealocoscceocoeonr oo com we

loloow

Of 213 men bled from the arm, averaging 22 days in hospital, 8 died.
3 lost from 8 to 10 oz.

60
74
52
18

10 to 20 do.
20 to 30 do.
30 to 40 do.
40 to 30 do.
50 to 60 do.
60 to 70 do.

a9

9

laleoceuwnnwe

400 Medical History of H. M. \5th Hussars.

No. 5.

Of 269 acute cases treated, averaging 26 days in hospital, 8 died.
230 had leeches applied, averaging 20 days in hospital, with 8 deaths.
10 had from 5 to 10 leeches, averag. 20 days in hospital, with 8 deaths.

29 ey 10 to 20 do. Ae 15 7, 0
47 es 20 to 30 do. 12 fs 1
27 “5 30 to 40 do. = 17 . 0
30 mS 40 to 50 do. a 14 af l
15 rs 50 to 60 do. 5 16 bn 0
hh x9 60 to 70 do. % 18 a 1
7 . 70 to 80do. 3 31 s 0
10 Ag 80 to 100 do. . 35 cs 1
6 ; 100 to 120 do. .”? 8&0 a 2
4 Fe 120 to 140 do. pte AO: # 0
2 ‘si 140 to 160 do. e 17 #3 0
I ey 210 ” 22 99 ]
Ly, 230 » LIS i 1
230 8
No. 6.

Of 269 acute cases treated, averaging 26 days in hospital, 9 died.
266 took calomel, averaging 26 days in hospital, 9 deaths.

36 took from 5 to 10 grains, ,, 9 ” 0
Gi eae 10 to 20 do. 2 12 Me 1
48 5 20 to 30 do. j 15 Fy 1
dG, 30 to 40 do. Pee . 0
a4, 40 to 50 do. ma 27 3 1
12 - 50 to 60 do. - 14 be 0
AS: oo; 1 to .2drams, ___,, 45 van 3
8 Ar 2 to 3do. ” 62 oe) 2
CARNES 3 to 4do. AN Yo <) B 0
idea 4 to 5do. » 164 iN 1
1 ag 12drs.29 grains, ,, 253 a “0
266 9
No. 7.

Of 269 acute cases treated, averaging 26 days in hospital, 9 died.
266 took calomel, am ‘i with 9 deaths.
3 ,, no calomel, 5 " . i 0

269

Of the foregoing 266, that took calomel, with 9 deaths,
10 had ptyalism, with 3 deaths.
41 had their mouths sore, but without free ptyalism, with 3 ,,
6 had only their gums affected, -
151 had not their mouths affected, 3
266

—

29

49

epee

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

Of 10 who had ptyalism, with 3 deatlis,
2 took from 30 to 40 grains of calomel with
3 7 40 to 50 do. »
]
1

0
0
rh 50 to 60 do. + 0
] ss lto 2drams, 1
Bs 2to 3 do. ¥ 1
| * 3to 4 do. 9 0
1 . 4to 5 do. aS l
10 3
Of 41 who had their mouths sore, but without free ptyalism, with 3 deaths,
9 took from 20 to 30 grains, Ms ne 0
1] - 30 to 66 do. Bf rp 0
17 A Ito 2 do. ts 3 2
2 pr 2to 3 do. ie e 1
1 7 4to 5 do. aw ‘ 0
1 PA 12 to 13 do. ne + 0
4] 3
Of 64 who had their gums affected, with 1 death,
44 took from 20 to 40 grains, ; 0
1Say Ks 40 to 60 do. su l
ie 1 to 2drams, e 0
| ae 2to 3 do. pel 0
64 1
Of 151 who had not their mouths affected, with 2 deaths,
34 took from 5 to 10 grains, e 0
3): en LO to 20 do. ég 1
2 er 20 to 30 do. pe 1
ee. 5 3() to 40 do. A 0
Bir. 3 40 to 50 do. a 0
Aras 950 to 60 do. os 0
7 a lto 2drams, F, 0
151 2
Recapitulation of the foregoing Tables.
Quantity taken. g
. pe | 5
Seeieiat |) lasi8 | =
Effect. Bie glsleield gigglziaa | s
a) & | 60] Of) G0) OH) LIS) Si s| slo 3 °
® WM sislolololsisisisim/Siesa} =
2 Se eS la lolitholslsia sl &
§ elSiSlSiSiSleololojolfieis3) &
con _ alolsalicolo P/H le loin > a) =
A 0 |S RIB IS 1D [a [en [oo [| Ay
10| Ptyalism, ., eoloo{oo| 21.3) 1 2b) 1) 1) 1) (81) 3 jin 3
41|Mouth sore, but “without | | | ;
free ptyalism, .- mares OT LL) al «| 17] 2)..) 1) 1/84) 3 |lin 14
64|Gums affected only, ..|++|+./44/..{13/++| 6] 1]..}../+0/87) 1) oe.
151|Gums not affected, .. |34/58/27/20] 8) 2) 2)--|..]-.]+-/24) 2 [lin 75
3} Have had no calomel, He Aleta plac! el ee) ro lweile |e eae ‘i's
Total, -.|34/58 55 34 3 26 4) 1) 2) 158) 9/1 in 20
269 Deaths, +. [ool Websyte dive 3) Boel Leslee} ea | os

401

—— wo ren

402 Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

Abstract of the average period in Hospital, with treatment, &c., of 277 acute
cases admitted into Hospital from 1st April 1844 to 31st March 1845.

Diseases.
a= g ines
Std es =| ° na e a
215 s| si 2 Ae
gsj= | jo | 8] 8| Zl o| &
8 lo 3 a) so) Se i=] (=) rs)
oe ica Sha tives hl supe tinal tae a) .2
S ag ie) re = o o| a 3 n
= r=) =I E |e | og | om ad ‘s
el ss ge SPS yee | ee dee emeweey aay | mos
Sie |jeio | 3! 2] 2(Sis| 3) 813
Gm fai! a) QO) AlOjo| Al al &
Total number of acute cases admitted,} 4) 9/35) 34) 45) 89) 315)11/25) 2) 8/277
Ditto ditto, voto} eof 1] 2] .ehi Bl CBRE ont HS
Average period in Hospital, .. days,|11| 25)15| 36) 60) 30} 90/20)15} 20)150
Greatest quantity of blood drawn, ounc.| 30) 32/30) 50) 40) 40) 40/32/20) 40} 70
Average ditto, -« ditto,|20| 30)20| 30) 30} 30) 20)20)15} 20) 32
Greatest No. of leechesapplied, No./82, 74|80)|140}160/250| 120/80 80] 100|210
Average ditto, .. --|40, 30/46] 60} 60; 40} 60/20/30) 50|100
Greatest quantity of calomel taken in
grains, es oe oie ae »-|40|154|40|180) 150/240} 70)60 60} 30,749
Average @itto, Ors. -. (23 40/20} 70) 70; 80] 30(30,301 25' 70

A case of Paralysis. Private Kirby, still in Hospital.

Section PLL.

A detailed notice of any Epidemic which may have visited the station in the course of the year,

the circumstances under which it appeared, and its subsequent progress, and if it was at-
tended by any atmospherical phenomena.

The past 12 months, or period embraced by this report,
has been free from Epidemic disease in the regiment.

Section LX.

If sufficiently extensive materials are possessed, show whether the sickness and mortality at
the station has most affected young soldiers or those advanced in life, and whether it has
fallen in a higher proportion on those recently arrived than on the long resident.

This will be ascertained by comparing the number alive at each age and each period of resi-
dence in the station, with the numbers of the same class who have died in the course of the
year.

These calculations however are not required, unless at least 1000 men have been under ob-
servation at the station, but the Principal Medical Officer at the station will always be expect-
ed to furnish it in his general summary and abstract of all the returns of the command.

s

403

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

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‘WH ut syzpaq pup suowsrupp fo pnjaq

Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars.

404

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Medical History of H. M. 15th Hussars. 405

Section WX.

Vaccination.

Fifty-nine children have been vaccinated from Ist April
1844 to 3lst March 1845, of whom ten failed, but these
were re-vaccinated, when they proved successful.

Section Xi,

Detailed histories of such cases as have been particularly worthy of notice, with the symp-
toms, diagnosis, and mode of treatment pursued and post mortem examination.

No case requiring especial detail during the period em-
braced by this report. Forty-one recruits joined from Eng-
land, and one was enlisted at head-quarters, all bearing
marks of previous vaccination.

Volunteers,..se.e.e.. None.

Invalids, .....«es-.+. len have been invalided from Poonamallee, whose cases are
detailed in a separate return.

Officers,............ During the period six joined, one exchanged, and two died

; at head-quarters, and one (Captain Chambers) committed
suicide.
Out of thirty-five officers there have been fifty admissions,
which give a ratio of 143 per cent. Of the individual
cases no detail is required, one having been killed by a
fall from his horse, the other from hepatic abscess.

Women, ......++-+..Out of 137 women, forty-nine have been treated, with one
death. The cases of the women have been mild, and they
appear to possess an extraordinary immunity to the ende-
mics of the country as compared with the officers and men.

Children, ..... «+eeeeOf 181 children there have been 108 admissions, with seven
deaths, six from Dysentery and one from Febris Remit-
tens; no case requires especial notice. Fevers, Catarrh,
Dysentery have been the most frequent diseases ; Ophthal-
mia appears every year; it is at times very prevalent, and
always exists in the Bazar; it is known as the country sore
eye, and is highly infectious.

J. MOUAT, M.D.
Bangalore, \st April, 1845. Surgeon H, M, 15th Regt. or King’s Hussars.

ep

Ld

406

Removal of a portion of the Liver from the living human sub-
ject. By Joun Macpuerson, M.D.

The only notices that I have met with, on the subject of
the excision of portions of liver, are the following.

In Blanchard’s “‘ Anatomia Practica Rationalis,”? Amster-
dam, 1688, is to be found the case of a soldier, who was
wounded by a sword in the hepatic region; the wound was
succeeded by a profuse hemorrhage and deliquium: on the
cessation of the hemorrhage, a morsel of the substance of the
liver was removed by the forceps, and the patient recovered
after many threatening symptoms. At the end of three years
he died of fever. On dissection, a’small portion of the lower
part of the wounded lobe of the liver was observed to be
wanting ; the other viscera were sound.*

Professor Dunglison quotes a case from Dieffenbach’s Jour-
nal, in which a boy fell on a knife, and a portion of the liver
protruded. Without being aware of its nature, the surgeon
in attendance cut it off with his scissors: no bad effects fol-
lowed. Americ. Medic. Intelligencer, vol. 1, p. 191.+

The history of the second of these cases is very imperfect,
and in both the portion of liver removed seems to have been
very small.

I now proceed to the case which has fallen under my own
observation, and which appears to be the first case of the
kind of which a complete history has been published.

A Hindoo, aged between 60 and 70, was in June last brought
in, a distance of six miles, to Howrah, with a spear wound
in the abdomen, about 3 inches above the umbilicus, and 2
inches to its right, through which a triangular portion of liver
protruded, of about the size and shape of the four fingers
of the hand, lying side by side. The wound itself did not

* Quoted in Hennen’s Military Surgery.
+ See Beck’s Medical Jurisprudence.

Removal of part of the Liver. 407

exceed an inch in length, and was completely choked up
by the liver. The man stated, that he had been stabbed in
the dark about 12 hours previously, and that the liver came
through the wound, as the spear was drawn out. It was added,
that there had been very copious hemorrhage, but the liver
itself was not wounded, and though the patient was in consi-
derable pain, the pulse was very little depressed.

My friend, Dr. C. M. Henderson, who was present, agreeing
that it would be impossible to return the protrusion without
enlarging the wound to the extent of several inches, it was re-
solved, rather than wait for the tedious process of sloughing,
to remove it by the knife.

To prevent hemorrhage, a ligature was applied tightly
round the base of the protrusion, which was then cut off.
Nevertheless, two arterial twigs bled very freely, and it was
found necessary to take them up, and a double ligature was
also passed through the stump, and tied on either side,
when all bleeding ceased. No attempt was made to re-
turn the portion of liver which still filled up the wound, as
it was of course desirable to prevent all risk of blood or of
bile being extravasated into the cavity of the abdomen. For
a day or two the patient was rather low, and had slight
irritative fever, and the bowels remained costive. These
symptoms, however, yielded to a few doses of purgative
medicine, and in nine days the ligatures came away along
with a small slough of liver, the wound granulated and heal-
ed, and the man returned to his home in three weeks.
No bilious discharge occurred from the granulating surface
of liver. The portion of liver removed, after having lost its
blood, and being in spirits for some weeks, weighed 1} oz.
Its surface is uneven, though not torn, and it is probably a
portion of the edge of the right lobe, from near the notch
between it and the left.

It is difficult to explain how so large a portion of liver
could have protruded through so small a wound, even. if

24

+ 4 a
(g

408 Removal of part of the Liver.

allowance be made for the size of the wound being diminished
by the contraction of the abdominal muscles, and for the pro-
truded portion becoming congested.

It is unnecessary here to allude to wounds of the abdomen
generally, or of the liver in particular, (for in this case the
liver does not seem to have been wounded,) or to the extra-
ordinary recoveries from almost every variety of them. Such
cases are innumerable.

It has long been known, from the experiments of one of the
Munros, that rabbits have suffered very little from having por-
tions of their livers cut off. It was also known, that patients
live for years after the loss of very considerable portions of
liver by hepatic abscess, and may exist for months, with the
whole liver converted into a mere cyst; but the actual re-
moval of a considerable portion of the liver from the human
subject, with so very little constitutional disturbance, even
allowing for the patient being a native, is a fact of consi-
derable interest in medicine and in physiology.

I may add, that the patient complained of a good deal of
pain when the surface of the liver was touched, but that cut-
ting through its substance hardly caused him any.

The old man appeared two months after, as prosecutor in
his own case: he was in perfect health; there. was a little
puckering in of the skin about the wound, and the liver was
evidently adherent beneath.

Lithiasis ; its endemic origin in the geological nature of the
soil, and its connection with the formation of the osseous
system. By Joun Macpuerson, M.D. ~

According to the researches of Dr. Heusinger, lithiasis pre-
vails throughout some of the more recent calcareous forma-
tions: for instance, |. In the part of Russia, which belongs
to the chalk formation. 2. In the North East of England,
on the chalk formation. 3. In Germany, within the range

Lithiasis. 409

of the Jura limestone, by the boundaries of which its pre-
valence is sharply defined, and, 4. In Dalmatia, whose moun-
tains belong to the Jura or Chalk formations. Regarding
Italy in which calculus is so common, we want sufficient in-
formation. But we know of Upper Italy, that it is very
rare in some granitic districts, as in Sondrio, and very com-
mon in some limestone ones, asin Cremona. The Mauritius is
no exception to this general rule, as, although its mountains
are volcanic, it is, like all volcanic islands, surrounded with a
girdle of coralline limestone, on which the towns are built.

Hence it happens, that almost all the calculi of the patholo-
gical Museums of St. Petersburg, of Moscow, and Charkow,
have been obtained from patients sent in from the province
of Kursk, in which only calcareous rocks are found: and we
can thus understand how a living surgeon, Dr. Hildebrand,
has practised the operation of lithotomy with his own hands
as often as two thousand times in one hospital in Moscow.

In the muschel kalk (of the new sandstone group,) and
in dolomite, upon which goitre is so common, calculus is less
frequent.

According to V. Walther, the cause of lithiasis is the pro-
duction by the system of a fluid of a very binding nature,
and bearing nearly the same relation to calculus, that gelatine
does to bone. Stark, in his general pathology, has pointed
out by reference to comparative anatomy, the relation that
exists between the kidneys and the osseous system. The
more imperfectly the osseous system is developed, the larger
are the kidneys, or in other words, the kidneys are the con-
verse of the osseous system. In the latter, the salts of lime
and of phosphorus are deposited in a solid form: the former
excrete them in a fluid state.

In the system of every animal we observe a most strongly
marked antagonism between the expressions of the universal
and of the individual life, between the formation of hard and
of soft parts, between the development of the skeleton

ALO Lithiasis.

and the formation of the muscles and glands. The general
tendency of the animal system is organically indicated by the
organs of assimilation, of motion, and of sense; the individual
tendency, by the brain and osseous system. The degree of
development of these two antagonistic formative powers dis-
tinguishes in reality, and partly defines the varieties of the
human constitution. The first tendeney to the formation of
bone in excess, is favoured by the newer formations from the © —
Jura limestone upwards, and so also is the tendency to
tubercular deposits. The second tendency occurs in the older
formations up to the Jura, and it predisposes to scrofula in
all its varieties. Dr. Escherich considers the formation of
urinary calculi to be a symptom of the former tendency, of
the phosphatic diathesis, as it were a complement to excessive
formation of bone. Excessive formation of bone diminishes
the activity of the kidneys, and sparing secretion of urine
favours the prevalence of lithic acid in the urine, which is
dit almost the invariable nucleus of urinary calculi. Lithiasis

if and endemic tendency to tubercles, agree in geographical dis-
1 tribution, with this difference, that in the same district, the
{7 first is found in only 1 per cent. of the inhabitants, while the
| | last occurs in 15 per cent. It is also much more easy to
| \ counteract the tendency to stone (especially by drinking
| | ) abundantly,) than the other one. V. Walther’s account of the
(| iF , antagonistic action of the skin and kidneys agrees with these

get views, as calculi and cutaneous eruptions do not occur toge-

ther(?), which is explained by the co-existence of a thick,

} strong epidermis with the tendency to formation of bone.

7 Further, in accordance with these views, is the fact in com-

i parative anatomy, that almost all the rodentia, in whom the

osseous system predominates, for instance rats, have as a rule,

] stone in the bladder. (Calculi have also been found in tor-
toises and in other chelonian reptiles.)

(| But there is much difficulty in recognising lithiasis as a com-

{ plement of the osseous system, as a result of excessive forma-

Lithiasis. ALL

tion of bone, from the fact, that these concretionary formations
have not yet been distinguished from their opposites, in which
the formation of lime appears as a supplement of defective for-
mation of bone. Instances of this.are in man,—tartar on the
teeth, salivary calculi, gall-stones, ossification of the ovaries,
&c., which appear in the most different individuals, and under
the most opposite constitutional and geographical relations.
We find many analogies in the lower animals, in the forma-
tion of concretions and of pearls by mollusca, of the stones in
the intestines of the crab, of the salivary concretions of the
cetacea, &c. ‘That they must be regarded as supplements to
_ defective formation of bone, is plain from the following facts :
1. Their occurring most frequently under those circumstances,
and among those classes of animals and individuals, in which
this deficiency is most obvious. 2. Their periodical appear-
ance and disappearance in accordance with the changes in
the osseous system, for instance the stone in the crab, with
the changing of its shell. 3. The entirely different chemical
constitution of the supplementary from the complementary
concretions. The connecting organic matter is also of much
less importance and in less quantity, and bears a small per-
centage to the whole mass.

The foregoing observations are compiled from papers by
Drs. Heusinger and Escherich. The interesting, but rather
vague views thrown out by them, are intended merely as pos-
sible hints towards a rational pathology of calculous diseases.
A careful enquiry into the diffusion of lithiasis in India, (like
that of Mr. M‘Clelland, into the diffusion of goitre in Ku-
maon) would be valuable, as at present we possess no accurate
information on the subject.

In 183], Mr. Burnard wrote an interesting paper, contro-
verting the received opinion in Europe, that Calculus was
rare in India, as in all tropical countries. About that time it
had been suggested, that the frequency of stone in Norfolk

412 Lithiasis.

might depend upon the diet of its inhabitants, consisting
chiefly of what is termed ‘ Norfolk dumpling.””? Mr. Burnard
remarks, that the chepatees of the Hindoos of the Upper
Provinces are a very similar kind of food, and may at least
have some secondary influence in the production of stone.
This opinion has been repeated by later writers.

From information kindly afforded by Mr. Forsyth, it would
appear, that Calculus is more common in the Upper Provinces
than in Bengal, and that operations for stone have been most
common at Cawnpore, Agra, Muttra, and Delhi. They have
not been unfrequent at Benares, Allahabad, Bareilly and
Jubbulpore, but have been far more frequent at Delhi than
at any other station. It would be curious to ascertain whether
the prevalence of Calculus at most of these places may not
be connected with the kunkur, and at Jubbulpore, with the
beds of limestone which prevail to some extent in the
coal formation; but we cannot venture to theorise on the
subject.

As connected in some degree with this subject, we quote as
follows from the * British and Foreign Medical Review’’ for
July, in a notice of a Thesis of Dr. Falck’s on Bronchocele :—

**}. Although different authors have found bronchocele to
be accurately confined in certain districts to particular strata
of rocks, as in Kumaon, according to M‘Clelland, to transi-
tion limestone: in Wurtemberg, and according to Riedle, to
shell limestone: in England and in Siberia to magnesian
limestone: in Hesse to shell and magnesian limestone: in
Switzerland to transition limestone and nagelflugh, yet in
several districts situated on similar formations, as in Wolf-
hagen and Hof Geismar, bronchocele rarely occurs.

<°2, The assertion of M ‘Clelland that bronchocele is infre-
quent in districts where the primitive strata prevail, is op-

. Eleciro- Culture. 413

posed by. the observations of Dr. Falck in Hesse. He has
further been informed that bronchocele is frequent in the
districts of Schierke, Lehrbach, and Neuwerk, in the Hercy-
nian forest, which are situated on primitive and transition
rocks: and similar observations are recorded by Humboldt,
De Vert and Iphofen.”

Dr. Falck’s negatives, even if based on more complete data,
cannot affect the positive results of Mr. M‘Clelland; they
can at most only limit the extent of their general appli-
cation.—J. M. P.

ELECTRO-CULTURE.

(From the Agricultural Gazette.)

I am obliged to you for having inserted, and to your corres-
pondent, “A. H.,” for having written the letter that appears in your
Gazette of the 17th instant, for these reasons:—I1st. It affords me
an opportunity of laying before your readers a few of the facts and
experiments both ancient and modern, for and against the assertion
that plants are influenced by electricity, artificially applied. 2ndly.
It enables me to give some rules to be observed in the height of
poles and size of plots, &c.; and lastly, to correct errors that have
crept into the various papers and journals, when speaking on this
subject.

Your correspondent, ‘“ A. H.,’” places much importance on the
period of Ingenhouss’s experiments and book (with a variation,
however, in so short a letter, of ten years). If your readers will
refer to the ‘“‘ Encyclopedia Britannica,” vol. vil., pages 800 and
801, they will find that one of the earliest experimenters on plants
with electricity was Mr. Maimbray, of Edinburgh, in 1746; and as
far as he went, they were decidedly in favour of its utility in pro-
moting growth and earlier development ; also, see ‘ Priestley’s
History,” Part 8, section 4. The next of the earlier savans who
studied this subject was the Abbé Nollet, as detailed in his “ Re-
cherches,” and in “ Priestley’s History.”’ He made ‘“‘ some compara-

i ie

414 _ Electro- Culture.

tive experiments on the germination of seeds,” with the electric
fluid and without it, and the result was “similar to that of Mr.
Maimbray’s.” ‘Then, continues the same Encyclopedia—“ Similar
experiments were made by M. Achard, of Berlin, and several other
philosophers, but still with the same result; until Dr. Ingenhouss
instituted a very complete set of experiments,” &c., ‘“‘ which were
attended with very opposite results,”—on which alone “ A. H.” is
disposed to rely, although they were at the time opposed, and
severely animadverted upon by M. Duvernier.

‘‘ A. H.’s” statement that Dr. Ingenhouss found <“‘ ae electricity,
even in its most concentrated form—that is, as lightning conducted
by iron—produced no sensible effects on vegetation,” requires com-
ment; for we are admitted to the belief that a too powerful and too
transient application of this vital fluid was employed—similar to the
mode of Nairne, Banks, and other members of the Royal Society,
except that they produced very sensible effects—decay and death—
which analogy would have predicted by referring to the evil of the
superabundance of stimuli on all creatures.

To resume: Dr. Carmoy, the Abbé D’Ormoy, after Ingenhouss’s
caveat, and subsequently, and with great force, the Abbé Bertholon,
give further coincident testimony from their experiments of the value
and benefit of this agent. How is it that these seven, and several others,
are to be disbelieved ? and Ingenhouss, and his echo, M. Swankhardt,
believed ? The presumption, I humbly suggest, is that the use of this
agent was not laid aside as incapable of useful application, but that,
by a reference to the time, it was swept from the memory of man, and
many of its early experimenters from the face of the earth, by the
French Revolution and its consequences—want of free communica-
tion between countries and individuals, and the high prices of the
succeeding struggle.

Having cited many of the older experimenters, I will now give a
few of the later ones, who, from experiment, favour my opinions :—
Messrs. Crosse, of Broomfield, near Taunton; Pine, of Maidstone;
Weekes, of Sandwich; Walker, (I understand) of the ‘‘ Electrical
Magazine ;” M. Wyatt, your correspondent on Onions electro-cultur-
ed, as in your Paper of the 10th instant, signed ‘“‘ Beta ;” and many
others experimenting with the fluid obtained by the galvanic arrange-

Electro- Culture. 415

ment, amongst whom the Dutch Tulip growers, in giving richness of
colour to the flower, &c., should not be omitted.

Your readers will forgive me if I again recite my distinct experi-
ment made last year on the Eastern eight-pole plot. It was electro-
cultured with poles 4 feet high; when the Barley was 6 inches high
it was very decidedly of a darker green colour than the surrounding
Barley. On reaching a foot in height it lost this deeper colour, as
its points collected all the electricity within the reach of the sus-
pended wire’s power of attraction; and the colour was partially, but
equally clearly restored.to it by two suspended wires, and more lofty
poles being adjusted. ‘This fact was to me the most conclusive of
all, and many persons saw it beside myself.

If I add the evident benefit effected by electricity this year on six
plots of one-third and one-fourth of an acre each, in the front and back
lawns of this house, which any person may see, and any “‘ mortal’
has the power of equalling ; if he possesses also the necessary com-
mand of ground, seed, and firmness of purpose, the matter may safely
be left to the discerning agriculturist.

Lastly, as to the proper height of the poles, or rather of the lowest
suspended wire, where more than one is employed. The rule is to
have the lowest wire fully 6 to 8 feet above the highest probable
altitude of the vegetable under experiment, when at its full growth;
and if more than one wire is required for wider or larger plots, there
ought to be a space of 3 feet in elevation between them. The reason
for these proportions depends on the relative attractive powers for
the electric fluid that many electricians have proved to exist between
the points of plants, and points or edges of metals ; the former being
three to four times more powerful than the latter. And the pre-
ference given for one line of wires arises from the convenience of
being then enabled to harrow and plough without removing any of
the arrangement and of having far larger areas in one plot. This
removes the doubt expressed by your correspondent “‘ Beta’ as to it
being most likely that electro-culturing will only be found possible
in narrow plots. As to using the fluid obtained from zinc, copper, &c.
in agriculture, the expense alone would suggest their inappro-

priateness.

3H

Fy

416 Electro-Culture.

The following are the areas for plots as given by me. Many errors
having been observed in periodicals on this point, it may be advisa-
ble to send them to you :—

Fora plot of 2acres ., «. 129 by 75 yards (this is deficient 5 yards.)

Tacre .. »« 88 955 exact.

Zofanacre .. 82% 44 ditto.

Rditto .. .. 73% 33ditto.

Dditte Pee Soe oe aitio:

B dittos L300. 36 163 ditto (wants 3 yards.)
And similar proportions for larger areas, in which, of course, it will
be necessary, as suggested above, to have two, three, or more sus-
pended wires.

By referring to pages 87, 88, and 89 of Mechi’s “ Series of Letters
on Agricultural Improvement,” except as above corrected, it is possi-
ble to pursue experiments this year with accuracy, and, I believe, a
certainty of success. Even “ A. H.” may be induced to try, in spite
of Ingenhouss’s startling discoveries. That such may be the result is
the expectation of your early and constant reader.—R. Drwry
Forster, Findrassie, May 22.—From the Elgin Courant, June 6, 1845.

A Treatise on the Forces which produce the Organization of Plants.
By J. W. Draper, M.D., New York. London, Wiley and Putnam.

The phenomena connected with the processes of vegetation are so
curiously complicated, and so singularly interesting in their beautiful
developments, that they have naturally excited the attention of all
observant and reflecting minds. The Botanist, the Physiologist, and
the Chemist have therein found extensive scope for their inquiries
and experiments ; and almost every branch of Natural Philosophy has
been brought to bear on the investigations which have been made
into the causes operating in the production of the organization of
plants. Still, however, considerable obscurity hangs over the ques-
tion, which can only be cleared away by patient experiments and un-
wearying habits of observation.

Dr. Draper professes to explain many of the most remarkable
phenomena connected with vegetation. This treatise is evidently the

Organization of Plants. a 417

work of an industrious experimentalist, and the production of a com-
prehensive mind; and as such, it must be reviewed with respect.
Many of the views, indeed, therein put forth are opposed to the re-
ceived opinions of modern philosophers ; but to this we are not at all
disposed to object. We would, however, protest against the dogma-
tic style in which the author’s doctrines are promulgated, and the
constant arrogation of the discoveries and the ideas of other investi-
gators to himself. The cause of Truth is materially damaged by
this; less reliance is placed on the author’s investigations than they
probably deserve. Hence even striking facts have to struggle
against awakened prejudices ; and thoughts and suggestions, valuable
in themselves, are treated with undeserved contempt; unkindly
feelings are generated, and the investigator of Nature, in consequence,
rapidly degenerates, in his vain endeavour to support a false position,
into a partizan. Having done our duty in pointing out this unfor-
tunate mistake, to use no severer term, we proceed to the more agree-
able task of examining the question under consideration,—and this we
hope to do with fidelity and candour.

Dr. Draper, in the first place, ventures on the exploded speculation —
of some naturalists of the last century, who fancied that, under the

>

influence of certain unknown ‘‘vital forces,” inorganic matter was
converted into an inorganic body; and he refers this change to
the action of the solar rays. Although “the sun may breed
maggots in a dead dog,” it cannot now-a-days be admitted that
either animal or vegetable life can be produced from pounded fiints
or fragments of marble. Indeed, the author himself at length, even
against his own previous reasoning, appears to admit the necessity
of an organized germ. The influence of the sun’s rays in the
development of the conferve from their germs must be admitted ;
and the explanation given, referring their growth to the decom-
position of the gaseous elements of water, is satisfactory. We
cannot, however, say the same for the author’s notices of the general
processes of germination, although these are founded on his own ex-
periments. The statement that light—and that, too, to take the au-
thor’s own ideas, light deprived of the principles of heat and chemical
action—is beneficial to germination, is contrary to experience. Every
one knows that the covering of the soil, insuring darkness, warmth,

418 Organization of Plants.

and moisture, are the essentials required. This is more strikingly
shown in the process of malting than even in the natural condition ;
and it is only by the most scrupulous attention to these points that
the required change can be produced in the seed. The question
whether the luminous or the chemical rays are the most beneficial to
the growth of plants, is still open for examination. Dr. Draper
states positively, as the result of his enquiries, that the luminous rays
alone act in producing the decomposition of carbonic acid by plants,
and in forming the colouring matter of the leaves; whilst the chemi-
cal rays are active in producing motion—that is, that the bending of
plants towards the light is due to their influence. Upon these points
he is at issue with other investigators, who have stated the very
reverse of these results. We hope that the question will be set at rest
by some careful experiments on both these points. The circulatory
system of plants is another point which is brought under consider-
ation. The rise and fall of the sap, in obedience to laws regulated
by the changes of the seasons, are phenomena upon which there has
been much speculation, and some very good experiments. When we
consider the force necessary to lift a column of water sixty or seventy
feet, we shall perceive that no unimportant power is brought into
action in raising the sap to the “ topmost twig” of the tallest trees.
Capillary attraction has been called in to aid the ascending current ;
but this, it has generally been admitted, is an inadequate power.
Vital action—a term to which no very definite meaning can be at-
tached—is brought to the aid of capillary attraction. With these
powers several theoretical writers have been satisfied, and the world
has rested somewhat contentedly with an explanation which it could
not. understand. It is not unfrequent that we are content to hide
our ignorance under a sounding epithet. Dutrochet and Porret dis-
covered the peculiar power of organized diaphragms in raising water
above its natural level. More recent investigations have shown that
this power is not confined to organized tissue, but that any porous
body, with its two sides in opposite electrical conditions, has the
power of endosmose and exosmose to a remarkable extent. The force
with which this principle will overcome resistance is exceedingly
great. ‘To this action, then, associated with capillary attraction, Dr.
Draper is inclined to refer the rise of sap in the vessels of plants. This,

Royal Society. 419

indeed, seems to be the most probable explanation of the mechanical
part of the phenomena; and with the assistance of electrical power,
excited by the agency of solar radiations, much of the difficulty of
the question disappears.

There are, however, many positions taken up by Dr. Draper, which
we consider to be untenable. We might instance his argument, that
the endosmose action is only another form of capillary attraction. It
would be out of place to discuss this question here; and we will
merely remark, that no capillary tube is ever found to overflow, where-
as the fluids in all arrangements with the porous diaphragms are found
to overflow with great mechanical force.

One-third of the above volume alone is devoted to the subject in-
dicated by its title ; and even of this part, two-thirds are irrelevant.
The other portion of the volume consists entirely of reprints of papers
which have been published by Dr. Draper in the ‘ Journal of the
Franklin Institute,’ and in the ‘ London and Edinburgh Philosophi-
cal Magazine.’ These have, most of them, reference to the chemical
action of light; and many of them certainly contain much curious
information. Their purely scientific character, however, renders it
impossible for us to do more than thus refer to them.—Atheneum,
June 21, 1845.

SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY.

Roya Socrery.—June 12.—The Dean of Ely, V. P. in the chair.
—A paper was read, entitled, ‘ Electro-Physiological Researches :
Memoir the First,’ by Professor Matteucci. The author describes
several arrangements by which he was enabled to make new experi-
ments in confirmation of the law of muscular currents. He finds
that in these experiments the employment of a galvanometer is un-
necessary, as the sensibility of the electroscopic frog of Galvani gives
sufficient indications of the electric current, without the use of that
instrument. The general results obtained from these experiments
are the following :—In the first place, the intensity and duration of
the muscular current is independent of the nature of the gas in
which the muscular pile is immersed. Secondly, it is altogether
independent of the cerebro-spinal portion of the nervous system.
Thirdly, the circumstances which exercise a marked influence on its
intensity are the conditions of the respiratory and circulatory systems.

4:20 Royal Society.

Fourthly, those poisons which seem to act directly. on the nervous
system, such as hydro-cyanic acid, morphia and strychnine have no
influence on the nervous current. Fifthly, sulphuretted hydrogen
has a decided influence in diminishing the intensity of the muscular
current. Sixthly, the intensity of this current in frogs varies ac-
cording to the temperature in which the frogs have been kept for a
certain time during life; a result which, of course, is not attainable
with animals which do not take the temperature of the surrounding
medium. Lastly, the intensity of the muscular current in animals
increases in proportion to the rank they occupy in the scale of be-
ings; and, on the other hand, its duration after death is exactly
in an inverse ratio to its original intensity. The author concludes
by stating his belief, that the property of the muscles immediately
connected with their electric currents is identical with that which
was long ago denominated by Haller irritability, but which is at pre-
sent more usually designated by the term contractility. He ascribes
the development of this muscular electricity to the chemical actions
which are attendant upon the process of nutrition of the muscles,
and result from the contact of the arterial blood with the muscular
fibre. He conceives, that in the natural state of the muscle, the two
electricities thus evolved neutralize each other at the same points at
which they are generated; while in the muscular pile contrived by
the author a portion of this electricity is put into circulation, in the
same manner as happens in a pile composed of acid and alkali, sepa-
rated from one another by a simply conducting body.—Jbid.

Roya Socizty.—June 19.—R. Owen, Esq. V. P. in the chair.—
‘On the connexion between the Winds of the St. Lawrence and
the Movements of the Barometer,’ by W. Kelly, M.D., Surgeon
R.N., attached to the Naval Surveying Party on the River St. Law-
rence.—The author adduces a great number of observations, which
are in opposition to the generally received opinion, that the mercury
in the barometer has always a tendency to fall when the wind is
strong. During a period of fifteen years passed in the Gulf and River
St. Lawrence, he found that the barometer as frequently rises as falls
under the prevalence of a strong wind; and that the winds often blew
with a greater force with a rising than with a falling barometer. He

Institution of Civil Engineers. 42]

gives a circumstantial account of the progress and course of various
gales which came under his observation during that period, and from
which he infers the existence of a steady connexion between the pre- |
vailing winds of this region and the movements of the barometer, and
enters into an inquiry into the mode in which that instrument is affect-
ed by them. The extensive valley of the St. Lawrence is bounded at
its lower part, for a distance of nearly 500 miles, by ranges of hills,
rising on each side to a considerable elevation. Within this space
the ordinary winds follow the course of the river; and in almost
every instance where they approach from windward, the barometer
rises with them; and when, on the other hand, the wind approaches
from leeward, the barometer not only falls before the arrival of the
wind, but continues to fall until it has subsided. An appendix is
subjoined, containing extracts from the tabular register of the baro-
meter and winds at various points in the valley of the St. Lawrence,
during the years 1834 and 1835, accompanied by remarks on differ-
ent points deserving notice in particular cases.

‘On the Elliptic Polarization of Light by Reflexion from Metallic
Surfaces,’ by the Rev. Baden Powell.—In a former paper, published
in the Philosophical Transactions for 1843, the author gave an ac-
count of the observations he had made on the phenomena of elliptic
polarization by reflexion from certain metallic surfaces, but with re-
ference only to one class of comparative results. He has since pur-
sued the inquiry into other relations besides those at first contem-
plated ; and the present paper is devoted to the details of these new
observations, obtained by varying the inclination of the incident rays
and the position of the plane of analyzation, and by employing dif-
ferent metals as the reflecting surfaces. By the application of the
- undulatory theory of light to the circumstances of the experiments
and the resulting phenomena, the law of metallic retardation is made
the subject of analytic investigation. A polariscope of peculiar con-
struction, of which a description is given at the conclusion of the
paper, was employed in the experiments; and tables are subjoined
of the numerical results of the observations.—Jbid, July 5, 1845.

InstituTIon oF Civit Eneineers.—June 10.—Sir John Rennie,
President, in the chair.—The paper read was by Mr, J, Stirling, and

422 Entomological Society.

described an air Engine, invented by his brother and himself. The
movements are founded upon the well-known pneumatic principle,
that air has its bulk or pressure increased or diminished in proportion
as its temperature is. raised or lowered. The application of this
principle was exemplified by drawings, and a model exhibiting a ma-
chine composed of two strong tight air vessels, connected with the
opposite ends of a vertical cylinder, in which a piston works in the
usual manner. Within these air vessels are suspended two air-tight
vessels, or plungers, filled with non-conducting substances, and at-
tached to the opposite extremities of a beam, capable of moving up
and down alternately, to the extent of one-fifth of the depth of the
air-vessels. By this motion of the plunger, the air which is ina
heated state below is moved to the upper part of the vessels, and in
its transit traverses a series of vertical capillary passages between
three metallic plates, which absorb the major part of the caloric.
The remainder is taken up by a refrigerator of tubes filled with
water. The air at the heated end is about 700 degrees, and has a
proportionate pressure ; when it arrives at the cooled end it is reduced
to about 150 degrees, and the pressure diminished to a correspond-
ing extent. Therefore, as the internal vessels move in opposite di-
rections, it necessarily follows that the pressure of the condensed air
in one vessel is increased, while that of the other is diminished. A dif-
ference of pressure is thus produced upon the opposite ends of the
piston, and a reciprocating motion results, which communicates
through a beam, connecting rod, crank, and fly-wheel to the ma-
chinery when driven. Machines on this principle were stated to
have been worked, for some years past, at Dundee, with considera-
ble saving of fuel, as compared to a steam-engine of similar power,
and doing the same work. It is now proposed to adapt it to marine
purposes, to which, from its simplicity and slight expenditure of fuel,
it appeared well fitted.— Atheneum, June 21, 1845.

EntromoioeicaL Sociuty.—J/une 2.—The Rev. F. W. Hope, Pre-
sident, in the chair.—Various new species of insects were exhibited,
including a fine species of Trictenotoma, from the Himalayas, by Capt.
Parry, the male of the rare and singular Dorthesia characias by Mr.
Weir, an apparently new Tortrix, by Mr. Douglas, and living

Paris Academy of Sciences,—Cannel Coal. 425

specimens of the rare Rhynchites cupreus, by Mr. S. Stevens.
The President alluded to the destruction caused by the white ants
and other insects to the wooden sleepers of the railroads in India ;
and the kyanizing process having been alluded to, Mr. J. F. Stevens

mentioned that he had observed Thanasimus unifasciatus on palings

at Camberwell, but that they avoided the kyanized staves. A letter
from Captain Boys, addressed to the secretary, was read, containing
notes*‘ On the Economy of Dorylus myrmeleon,’ a species of Tetrix,
which swims with great agility, and other Indian insects, and also a
paper by Mr. Westwood, ‘ On a new genus of Carabidz from Ceylon.’
—Atheneaum, June 21, 1845.

Paris Academy of Sciences.—June 9.—M. Babinet read the report
of a committee appointed to examine an apparatus for the production
of artificial ice, the invention of M. Villeneuve. M. Villenueve pro-
duces the cold by dissolving sulphate of soda in chlorhydric acid. The
process appears to be rather tedious. It requires an hour, and an
expenditure of about two francs, to produce seven or eight pounds of
ice.—M. Arago informed the Academy that he had received a letter
from M. Colla, the director of the Observatory of Parma, informing him
that on the 2nd inst., at about two in the morning, M. Colla disco-
vered in the constellation of Perseus, a few degrees above the head of
Medusa (B), acomet with a very brilliant nucleus and a tail of
very nearly a degree in length, almost visible to the naked eye.—Three
communications of systems of atmospheric railroads were made
this day.—A communication was received from M. Ducard, relative
to a new system of electrical telegraphs with the aid of mercury.—A
letter was received from General Dembinski, giving an account of a
simple, but powerful ventilation in use in Hungary. It is a girouette
(weathercock,) the hollow cylindrical tube of which communicates

with the apartment. This cylinder is connected with another hori- .

zontal cylinder, leaving a small round space between the two surfaces.
The wind rushing into this space, puts the column of air of the internal
cylinder in motion, and rapidly aspires the foul air of the apartment.

Cannel Coal.—It is not generally known that Cannel coal can be
employed in the Fine Arts, and that for the bases of statues, plinths,
31

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4:24) Railway from St. Petersburgh to Moscow.

and a variety of other purposes, for which black marble and other
fossil substances are used, this fossil can be substituted at a less cost
and with less difficulty in the cutting or carving. A very elegant
vase of this material, something in the shape of the well-known
Warwick vase, but flatter and partaking more of the patera shape,
has been lately cut out of a block of Cannel coal, or rather ‘‘ turned’”’
out of the block by means of the lathe, and the tools are similar tools
to those employed in the cutting of wood or brass. The artist is a
Mr. J. Dallaway, to whom it would be less than justice not to say that
he has produced a most elegant piece of work. The vase stands ona
fluted column of the same material. The polish, which the material of
which it is composed receives with very little labour, is surprising,—
it appears like the finest negro antico. The block came from the
estate of the Duke of Norfolk, near Sheffield. —Times.—Ibid.

Railway from St. Petersburg to Moscow.—The Revue de Paris
says, that no European railway will go so directly to its terminus as
this. The one great point was, to effect the journey between the
two capitals in a single day; and this could only be done by keep-
ing the road away from all the intermediate towns—carrying it
over the steppe by a line like the bird’s flight. The distance will,
accordingly, be twenty-eight leagues less than by the Imperial high-
way. ‘There is,” says the Revue, ‘‘something truly Muscovite in
this idea of an iron road which nothing can turn out of its course,
but which, across boundless solitudes, hurries on to its object, in-
flexible as destiny.” —Jdzd.

Migrations of Salmon.—About a year and a half ago, Lord Glen-
lyon, with the praiseworthy motive of deciding the long-agitated ques-
tion as to whether the salmon, after returning to the ocean from its
spawning-ground, again re-sought the same river on another return
of the season, caused a number of kelts, or foul fish, to be caught and
marked, by attaching a label, by a ring, to what is called the dead fin
of each. Last summer a number of these were captured on various
stations in the Tay, but, so far as we have heard, none in the Eam;

~

Migrations of Salmon,— Geographical Society. 425

on Tuesday last, another was caught at the Rashbush, a fishing-
ground below Inchyra. This fish was in excellent condition, and
weighed 21 lh. The label bore as follows : ‘“‘ Lord Glenlyon, Dunkeld,
No. 129.”—Perth Advertiser.—Ibid.

GroGRAPHICAL Society.—June 23.—Lord Colchester, President,
in the chair.—Six new members were elected. The paper read
was ‘ Considerations against the supposed Existence of a great Sea in
the Interior of Australia,’ by E. J. Eyre, Esq.—‘‘ An opinion,” says
Mr. Eyre, ‘‘ very generally prevails, that the continent of Australia
is, comparatively speaking, little more than a narrow crust or barrier
intervening between an outer and an inner sea. ‘This opinion origi-
nated with Capt. Flinders, and is still entertained by Capt. Sturt,
Mr. Windsor Earl and others. Mr. Eyre admits that the non-
existence, at least as far as we know, of any large river, with the ex-
ception of the Murray, discharging itself into the sea, on the eastern,
western, or southern coasts, to the southward of a line drawn from
Moreton Bay to Shark’s Bay, is the strongest argument in favour of
the theory of an inland sea; nevertheless other and weighty consi-
derations militate against this idea; and Mr. Eyre has come to the
conclusion that the interior of New Holland will be found generally
to be of a very low level, to consist ‘of arid sands alternating with
many basins of dried-up salt lakes or such as are covered only by
shallow salt water or mud, as in the case of Lake Torrens; that
there may be many detached and even high ranges, as the Gawler
Range, interspersed among the arid wastes, and that in the midst
of these ranges there may be rich and fertile spots. As far as Mr.
Eyre’s own personal observation goes, it supports the suggestion
thrown out by Capt. Sturt, that Australia was formerly an archipe-
lago of islands, and that their emergence from the sea is a compa-
rative modern event. Be this as it may, Mr. Eyre founds his opinion
against the existence of an inland sea, upon the following three

circumstances ;: first, the hot winds, which in South Australia blow

constantly from the north, or centre of the continent, and which he
compares to the fiery and withering blasts from a heated furnace, and
the little probability that such winds have been wafted over a large
expanse of water ; secondly, the accounts of the natives inhabiting

Le

426 Familiar Letters on Chemistry and its Relation

the outskirts of the interior, who have no knowledge of any large
body of water inland, either fresh or salt; thirdly, the coincidence
observable in the physical appearance, customs, character and pur-
suits of the aborigines at opposite points of the continent, while no
such coincidence exists along the intervening line of coast, connect-
ing these points. The development of all the facts contained under
three heads, and the mention of others, such as the arrival of parrots
from the interior, &c., constituted the mass of Mr. Eyre’s paper ; but
as mere abstracts would break the chain of reasoning adopted by
the author, we must content ourselves with saying that, however
plausible that reasoning may be, and it cetainly has great weight,
nothing short of an actual examination of the interior can satisfy
us as to the nature of that peculiar country.—It was stated at the
meeting that Lieut. Ruxton had arrived safely and in good health
at Walwich Bay; that he had hired hottentots and cattle, and was
about to proceed on his exploration to the interior, intending to
return by the Cape.—Atheneum, July 5, 1845.

Familiar Letiers on Chemistry and its Relation to Commerce, Physio-
logy, and Agriculture. By Justus Linsic. Taylor and Walton.

Whatever may be the dispute between chemists and the public
as to the position Liebig ought to occupy as a man of science, there
can be no doubt of his relative superiority in the practical tendency
of his mind. He has successfully pursued the most abstract prin- —
ciples of chemistry in their practical application to the daily occu- |
pations of man, in almost every branch of human exertion. We
need but quote his larger works on agriculture and organic chemistry
as proof of the truth of this statement, and in the little volume
before us we have an additional illustration. A series of letters on
the application of the principles of chemistry to the improving the
mode of manufacturing many of the articles of daily use, such as
glass, soap, sulphuric acid, sugar, &c., and suggestions for improving
the treatment of disease, the feeding of cattle, and the manuring of
land on chemical principles. Even those who do not understand
chemistry will read this yolume with interest, and we recommend it to

to Commerce, Physiology, and Agriculture. 427

all who take an interest in the productive resources of our own island,
as pointing out in what way the labour of England can most profit-
ably be employed. We would also draw attention to the views of
the Professor on political economy, which seem to us as sound as they
are liberal and enlightened. As a specimen, we extract the following...
passage from a letter on the trade in sulphur :

«It is no exaggeration to say, we may fairly judge of the com-
mercial prosperity of a country from the amount of sulphuric acid
it consumes. Reflecting upon the important influence which the
price of sulphur exercises upon the cost of production of bleached
and printed cotton stuffs, soap, glass, &c., and remembering that
Great Britain supplies America, Spain, Portugal, and the East, with
these, exchanging them for raw cotton, silk, wine, raisins, indigo, &c.,
&c., we can understand why the English Government should have
resolved to resort to war with Naples, in order to abolish the
sulphur monopoly, which the latter power attempted recently to.
establish. Nothing could be more opposed to the true interests of
Sicily than such a monopoly ; indeed, had it been maintained a few
years, it is highly probable that sulphur, the source of her wealth,
would have been rendered perfectly valueless to her. Science and

industry form a power to which it is dangerous to present impedi-

ments. It was not difficult to perceive that the issue would be the
entire cessation of the exportation of sulphur from Sicily. In the
short period the sulphur monopoly lasted, fifteen patents were
taken out for methods to obtain back the sulphuric acid used in
making soda. Admitting that these fifteen experiments were not
perfectly successful, there can be no doubt it would ere long have
been accomplished. But then, in gypsum, (sulphate of lime), and
in heavy-spar, (sulphate of barytes), we possess mountains of sul-
phuric acid; in galena, (sulphate of lead), and in iron pyrites, we
have no less abundance of sulphur. The problem is, how to se-
parate the sulphuric acid, or the sulphur, from these native stores.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds weight of sulphuric acid were
prepared from iron pyrites, while the high price of sulphur conse-
quent upon the monopoly lasted. We should probably ere long
have triumphed over all difficulties, and have separated it from gyp-
sum, The impulse has been given, the possibility of the process

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428 The Royal Asiatic Society.

proved, and it may happen in a few years that the inconsiderate
financial speculation of Naples may deprive her of that lucrative
commerce. In like manner Russia, by her prohibitory system, has
lost much of her trade in tallow and potash. One country purchases
only from absolute necessity from another, which excludes her own
productions from her markets. Instead of the tallow and linseed oil
of Russia, Great Britain now uses palm oil and cocoanut oil of other
countries. Precisely analogous is the combination of workmen
against their employers, which has led to the construction of many
admirable machines for superseding manual labour. In commerce
and industry every imprudence carries with it its own punishment ;
every oppression immediately and sensibly recoils upon the head of |
those from whom it emanates.” —Jdid.

Asiatic Socrety.—June 21.—Sir G. T. Staunton, Bart., M.P., in
the chair. —R. Alcock, Esq., was elected a Corresponding Member.
Mr. A. Bettington, of the Bombay Civil Service, read a paper on

_ certain fossils procured by himself on the Island of Perim, in the

Gulf of Cambay ; more particularly on a gigantic ruminant, having
some affinities to the Sivatherium and the Giraffe. After adverting
to former notices of fossils obtained on this island, the writer describ-
ed its situation in the midst of the gulf stream of Cambay, which
separates it from the main land, and deposits large quantities of
alluvium brought down by the rivers emptying themselves into it.
These rivers, in the present day, in the freshes, transport into the
Gulf large trees, and the bodies of oxen, deer, bears, and other ani-
mals ; and in the great floods of past ages are considered to have
brought down and deposited, as now discovered, the remains of rumi-
nants and pachydermata, some extinct and unheard of, others having,
in the present day, their living congeners in the Indian rivers. The
hed from which the writer obtained the fossil specimens exhibited is
below the usual water mark, and inaccessible except at the ebb of
spring tides. A portion only of those obtained were brought to Eng-
land, the remainder were left in India. The most remarkable of those
in this country was a large skull, which is now, by competent judges,
pronounced to be the first specimen of a new genus. The mass of
conglomerate which contained it weighed about 170 lb., and the

—

Asiatic Society. 429

separation of the skull from near 100lb. of matrix occupied Mr.
Bettington many weeks. The skull, on the whole, is well preserved,
though a portion has suffered from the action of water. The lines of
teeth on the two sides of the palate are unconformable; and it has
been conjectured that the head must, at this part, have suffered from
violence, but there is no appearance of fracture. For the purposes
of comparison, Mr. Bettiagton had made a close measurement of
every part of the Perim fossil, of the sivatherium, and of the skull of
the adult giraffe in the British Museum ; from all which it appeared
that the Perim fossil is the smaller. The teeth are similar in num-
ber and character to those of the sivatherium, and are somewhat
smaller, as the comparative size of the heads would lead us to expect.
A marked distinction between the two is found in the excess in width
of the cranium at the vertex, being in the sivatherium 22 inches, and
in the Perim fossil little more than 11 inches, in which character the
latter approaches nearer to the giraffe. But the greatest point of
difference is in the form and position of the horns. In the sivatherium
the horns bear somewhat the same relation to each other as in the
four-horned antelope; whereas, in the fossil under consideration, the
anterior horns rise from a confluent base measuring twenty-five
inches; the horns above the line of division measuring eighteen
inches. This formation the writer considers to be without precedent
in the animal kingdom, fossil or recent. The general character, can-
cellar structure, and extensive development of the protuberance at
the lower edge of the transverse ridge of the occiput, compel the
conviction that it was a posterior horn, “ reflected” as in the com-
mon Indian buffalo, and must have produced an appearance truly
monstrous. The whole formation indicates great force and
power. Among the other fossils, there were some identical with those
of the Sevalic hills, and others peculiar, as yet, to Perim. Among
the latter was a new crocodilean. There were specimens of three
species of mastodon, gariols, and rhinoceros; and the heads, horns,
and teeth of stags, antelopes, oxen, &c. The writer concluded with
the observation that there was still a rich field of research remaining
at this deposit, and that he had sent to India, not only for some of
the specimens before referred to, but was also making arrangements
for prosecuting further research.—Dr. Mantell, who was present

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430 The Royal Asiatic Society.

by invitation, remarked that the specimens afforded additional con-
firmation of the fact, first pointed out by Captain Cautley and Dr.
Falconer, that in the tertiary formations of India were collocated the
remains of several species of reptiles and mammalia, with those of
extinct species and genera belonging to the most ancient European
deposits of the same geological group (the Hocene) ; as, for example, —
the teeth and bones of the chiropotamus, and other pachyderms of
the Paris Basin, with those of the existing garial of India. Dr.
Mantell then offered some observations on the analogy which the
specimens from Perim, as well as those from Ava, and from the
Sevalic hills, presented in their-mineralogical condition, and the me-
chanical action to which they had been subjected, with those more
ancient fossil bones and teeth that abound in the Wealden deposits of
the south-east of England; particularly with those obtained from the
conglomerate and grits of Tilgate Forest. The Indian and the British
fossils are alike mineralized by iron, and have an investment of in- ~
durated, ferruginous sand, interspersed with quartz, pebbles, and
rolled fragments of other rocks ; and the bones are, for the most part,
mutilated, and much water-worn, proving that previously to their
mineralization they had been exposed to abrasion from streams and
rivers, and were transported from a great distance by currents. Dr.
Mantell dwelt on the discrepancy between the Faunas of the two
epochs, although that of the Wealden was as decidedly of a tropical
character as that of the tertiary strata of India; but in the latter
large mammalia prevailed, while in the far more ancient secondary
formation of England mammalia were absent, and the place of
gigantic ruminants and pachyderms was occupied by herbivorous
reptiles of appalling magnitude.

451

Fourteenth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science. York: September 28th, 1844,

(Concluded from page 293.)
Section AA—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE.

The discussion of the difference of opinion between Prof. Forbes and
Mr. Hopkins, as to the mechanism of the motion of Glaciers was resum-
ed, and occupied three hours. As the views of the parties have been for
some time before the public, we need not further enter on the subject.

‘On the Geodetical Operations of India,’ by Lieut.-Col. Everest, late
Surveyor-General of India.—A series of triangulations, on the most
magnificent scale, has for many years been conducted in India, by Col.
Lambton up to the year 1823, and after his death, by Col. Everest (who
had, for some years previous, been his chief assistant) up to the close
of 1843, when this officer resigned the charge to Capt. Waugh, of the
Bengal Engineers. As the Court of Directors of the East India Company
have directed the publication of Col. Everest’s labours, it is unnecessary
to enter into the important details laid before the Section. It is to be
regretted that the series of triangles and several others which are de-
scribed in Col. Everest’s paper, have not been filled up by any secondary
triangulation, or made available to any of those social purposes to which
accurate district maps are so important. In Colonel Everest’s conclud-
ing words, ‘It is to be hoped that the powers who govern India will
see the necessity of taking early measures to cause all these series to be
filled up with topographical details, in keeping as to accuracy with the
material now on record. At present, the principal triangles are, in
many places, mere skeletons, instruments of mighty power lying use-
less. But it seems very clear, that without accurate and specific detail,
whether as relates to topographical or statistical knowledge, no state can
be well governed; and the maps in the possession of the governing power
ought, for this purpose, to lie within certain and decided limits of error.”’

Col. Everest also described an instrument, called a Barometer Pump,
. for filling barometer tubes in vacuo. This was a single acting air-pump,
sO arranged as to exhaust the air from the tube to be filled, while a
capillary tube, dipping into a reservoir of mercury, and curved at the end
next the tube, dropped the mercury into the tube as it rose above the
bend, (after the exhaustion had been carried as far as possible), by dip-
ping a glass rod into the reservoir. The mercury as it comes into the
tube is heated to a temperature sufficient to boil it, and it is desiccated
by a bottle of strong sulphuric acid, which is made to communicate with

the canal into which the tube to be filled and the capillary filling tube
3 K

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432 Proceedings of the British Association.

are luted. Col. Everest mentioned, that the best material for the valves :
of an air-pump was the swimming bladder of a fish.

A Comparison of the Rain which fell at the seat of the Earl of Ennis-
killen, Florence Court, from July 6th, 1843, to July 6th, 1844, with that :
which fell at Belfast during the same period, by Mr. W. Thompson.— :
Belfast and Enniskillen are seventy-two miles apart; one towards the

east, the other towards the west, of the north of Ireland.
Inches.
The total depth of Rain which fell, was

At Florence Court,.. om Ss aie se ee 40-6
At Belfast, ee ee ee ee ee ee ee 30 34

Monthly average at Florence Court, ee ve ee 3°38 |
99 Belfast, eo eo eo ee 9°53 d

ee

The greatest Monthly fall, was
At Florence Court, in November, ae ae -- 6-051
At Belfast, in October, .. ae SH = ee 09°046

The fall at Florence Court, during October, ee ee =5'943
5 Belfast, during November, .. oe eo. 93°943

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or

The least fall happened in May 1844, at both places, 7
At Florence Court .. An a6 oe oF -» 0-041 |
At Belfast, ee ee ee eo eo oe eo 0:275

The only singular discrepancy which occurred was that, in the month
of September, 1843, only 0:51 inch fell at Belfast, while at Florence
Court, in the same month, 2°759 fell. This, when explained by Lord
Enniskillen’s steward, who keeps the register, was found to arise from
a very heavy fall which took place in one day. The month was gene-
rally very dry at both places.

‘On the Irregular Movements of the Barometer,’ by T. Hopkins.—
Mr. Hopkins maintained that the irregular movements of the barometer
arise, not from alterations of surface temperature, but from the con-
densation of aqueous vapour, and the consequent formations of rain.
This (he said) caused local heatings of the atmosphere and considerable
reductions of its pressure in the locality, particularly in the colder lati-
tudes. Within the tropics, the barometer does not ordinarily fall as
much as in colder latitudes, notwithstanding the abundant rains which
take place there, because the condensation occurs, and the temperature
is increased at a greater height in the atmosphere, and the reduction of
the incumbent pressure in the part is spread over a wider area. The
condensation takes place too at an elevation, where the air, from being
subjected to inferior pressure, is more attenuated, and the heating is
consequently more diffused. Rain is formed in certain latitudes, say at
an average height of 3,000 feet, where the air has a density proportioned

ae a om oe

Proceedings of the British Assoctation. 433

to that height, and where the whole effects of the local heating are con-
fined to an area of moderate extent, thus reducing the pressure of the
atmosphere on the barometer in every part of that area in a consider-
able degree; whilst, in other parts nearer the equator, the condensa-
tion which produces rain takes place at an average height of, say 6,000
or 9,000 feet, where the air is rare in proportion to the height; the heat-
ing effects are, therefore, diffused to a corresponding extent, whilst the
reduction of pressure at the surface is spread over a wider area. It
follows, that with equal amounts of rain, the fall of the barometer will
be the greatest, and confined to the smallest area, in the coldest cli-
mates. Mr. Hopkins also represented that the diurnal oscillations of the
barometer arise from, first, the condensation of aqueous vapour into
cloud, and then from the evaporation of the particles of water that con-
stitute that cloud. He stated, that the morning sun warmed the lower
air, and caused it to rise until condensation formed cloud, and liberated
heat sufficient to warm amass of the atmosphere, and thus to cause the
barometer in the locality to begin to fall at, say about ten o’clock in
the morning, which fall continued until about four o’clock in the after-
noon, when condensation ceased. From this time, evaporation of the
cloud commenced which cooled the air in the part—made it heavier—and
caused the barometer to rise until about ten o’clock, p. m., by which
time the cloud was evaporated. The cooled and heavier air now de-
scended to the surface, from which it absorbed a portion of heat, and
became somewhat warmer. From this second warming of the air, and
from a reduction of the quantity of aqueous vapour in the atmosphere,
as is evidenced by the fall of the dew point, the barometer again fell,
and from the operation of these two causes, continued to fall until four
in the morning ; from which time, those general cooling influences that
operate in the absence of the sun, caused the barometer again to rise
till ten in the morning, thus completing the two risings and two fall-
ings in the twenty-four hours. This was shown to be in general ac-
cordance with the tables of the Plymouth observations for three years,
and with those made at Madras and Poona. The fact, also found in
the Plymouth observations, that the dew-point rose with the tempera-
ture until eleven o’clock, a. m., when, although the temperature conti-
nued rising, the dew-point did not rise higher, showed that the vapour
formed during the hottest part of the day was expended in supplying
that which was condensed in forming the daily cloud. According to
these tables, also, the dew point at the surface continued stationary
until four o’clock, rp. m. when it began to fall, and continued falling
with the declining temperature until the great cold resulting from eva-

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43.4 Proceedings of the British Association.

poration ceased. The diurnal fluctuations were also shown to be the
least, when the irregular were the greatest (as observed by Mr. Birt),
because rain was then produced, and evaporation prevented from cool-
ing the air at the regular diurnal period, and in that way prevented the
rise of the barometer at that recurring period.

Mr. Byrne gave an account of a new proportional Compass, which
by a vernier at the centre, and a means of adjusting the points, could,
by the aid of tables, multiply, divide, and compare lines, surfaces, solids,
and angles, with considerable precision.

Fripay.
Section B.—CHEMISTRY AND MINERALOGY.

‘Ona peculiar Condition of Zinc, produced by a long continued high
temperature,’ by Dr. Tilley.—Dr. Tilley presented a specimen of zinc,
which had undergone a remarkable change in its arrangement, from
being kept at a heat above that of fusion for a considerable time. This
change was thought to bear some analogy to the alterations which
sulphur and some other bodies are known to undergo at different tem-
peratures. The condition of the zinc was singularly crystalline. The
zinc in this state was found to have the same chemical condition as the
ordinary zinc of commerce, and, although its oxides and salts had not
been examined, it was found, that when distilled, the zinc was restored
to its original texture. It was suggested, that many interesting examples
of similar molecular changes in other metals might be detected by sub-
jecting them to similar conditions to those in which this sample of zine
was placed. ,

Mr. Patterson entered into an explanation of his process, by which
silver was separated from lead, and stated, that he had observed similar
molecular changes in those metals.

Report on a Hydrogen Furnace for Vitrification, and other applica-
tions of Heat in the Laboratory,’ by the Rev. W. V. Harcourt.—At
the request of the British Association, Mr. Harcourt had undertaken
some years since to make experiments on vitrification. Dr. Faraday, in
his experiments on glass, had the greatest difficulty in procuring perfect-
ly homogeneous masses, arising in most cases from the almost impossi-
bility of procuring a regulated heat in the ordinary furnaces. Mr. Har-
court, impressed with the advantages which might be gained for optical
purposes, by procuring glasses formed by other salts and bases, institut-

ed some experiments with a view of ascertaining this point. It was
considered, that if a tribasic phosphate formed a glass, and the bibasic
phosphate formed a glass, we should have, in all probability, glasses

Proceedings of the British Assoctation. 455

having different optical properties. Finding difficulty in proceeding ©
with these experiments, at the heat given by ordinary furnaces, and the
risk to which the platina crucibles were exposed, he was induced to
try the effects of hydrogen burning in common air. Dr. Dalton was
consulted on the construction of the first hydrogen furnaces, and he
suggested the difficulty which was found to arise in practice—that hy-
drogen gas burning, through small orifices, with great pressure, would
‘blow itself out. This difficulty was, however, overcome in the manage-
ment of the apparatus brought before the Section. This apparatus
consisted of an iron tube, in which the gas was generated by the addition
of 15 ounces of zinc to three-quarters of a pint of oil of vitriol and ten
pints and a half of water. The gas produced was found to be in ten
minutes under a pressure of 21 atmospheres, in sixteen minutes and a
half under a pressure of 25 atmospheres, and in eighteen minutes under
a pressure of 26 atmospheres. The gas was conducted into another
cylinder, and from thence to the jets, over which was suspended a
platina crucible. The gas being ignited at these jets, maintained, with
the above charge, the platina crucible at a white heat for twenty
minutes. Gems had been fused by the heat thus generated. Several
kinds of jets were used, as it might be necessary to surround the crucible
with heat, or only to apply the heat to the bottom of it. Experiments
with this apparatus have been made upon the phosphates of antimony,
zinc, barytes, and cadmium. The results have not been, however, quite
satisfactory. In some the striz interfered with the transparency of the
glass formed ; and in the case of the monobasic phosphate of zinc, it
was found that, to whatever heat the compound may have been exposed,
the glass thus formed was deliquescent. The reading of this Report was
accompanied by some experiments with the hydrogen furnace in question,
for the purpose of showing the intense heat which could be produced.
_ Dr. Faraday bore testimony to the advantages of this arrangement.
He had found in all his experiments on glass, in which the elements
were chemically combined, that crystallization took place. He regarded
all common glass as examples of solution, rather than of chemical
combination. Borate of lead and silicate of lead, if fused in small
quantities, so that they cooled quickly, were transparent, but if fused in
masses, which required a longer time, they were in a crystalline condi-
tion.—Mr. Harcourt remarked, that in the monobasic phosphate of zinc,
which was transparent when vitrified, the quantity of acid was probably
exceeding small, but this glass was striated.—Dr. Faraday said, that
some of the purest specimens of American ice show similar striae
although it was in a state of exceeding purity, yielding the purest of all

436 Proceedings of the British Association.

water when liquefied.—Some remarks were then made by Mr. Pearsall,
on the action of hydrogen on platina. An experiment was named by
Mr. Harcourt, in which a platina tube was destroyed by an attempt to
fuse ultramarine in it. Prof. Liebig stated, that platina was soon fused
if exposed to a charcoal fire, from the action of the silicon contained in
the charcoal.

‘The Measure of Nervous Force developed by a Current of Electricity,
by Prof. Matteucci.—This communication, which was delivered in
French, detailed some experiments which had been conducted with a
view of detecting the amount of nervous excitability. This was effected
by calculating the number of contractions produced in the limbs of
a frog in a given time by the power of a galvanic battery, the force
of which was known. A frog was prepared in the nsual manner for gal-
vanic experiments, and being suspended by a pair of nippers, a weight
was attached to its limbs, and the animal connected with a galvanic
battery, a voltameter being interposed in one part of the circle. This
voltameter gave a correct measure of the power of the battery, and,
under the influence of the same current, the weight being raised over
a graduated scale by the contractions of the muscles, gave a measure
of the nervous force developed in the animal. Some other contrivances
were also named, by which the same end could be obtained, but none of
them appeared so simple as the one above described.

Prof. Grove suggested the substitution of a galvanometer, which is
easily affected by weak electrical currents, for the voltameter, which re-
quires the force of a powerful battery.

‘On Specific Heat,’ by J. P. Joule.—After examining the law of Dulong
and Petit, that the specific heat of simple bodies is inversely propor-
tional to their atomic weights, the author proceeded to detail the attempts
made by Haycraft, De la Rive, and Mercet, to discover the specific heats
of gases and liquids. The observations of Newmann and Regnault on
the specific heats of simple and compound bodies were next examined.
Mr. Joule then exhibited to the Section a table, in which the theoretical
specific heats of a variety of bodies impartially selected were calculated
on the hypothesis, that the capacity for heat of a simple atom remains
the same in whatever chemical combination it enters. On the whole,
the coincidence between the theoretical and experimental results was
such as would induce a belief that the law of Dulong and Petit, with
regard to simple atoms, is capable of a greater degree of generalization
than chemists have hitherto been inclined to admit.

‘On the alternate Spheres of Attraction and Repulsion noticed by
Newton and others, and on Chemical Affinity,’ by the Rev. T. Exley.—

Proceedings of the British Association. 437

An attempt to establish a new atomic theory, involving two principles
—first, that every atom of matter consists of an indefinitely great sphere
of force, varying inversely as the squares of the distance from the centre ;
second, that atoms are of different sorts, when their absolute force or
spheres of repulsion are unequal. It is imagined, by the author, that
there are four distinct classes of atoms, viz. tenacious, electric, etherial,
and microgenal atoms.

SATURDAY.

‘On the Limestones of Yorkshire..—These limestones may be com-
prised under the four following classes, viz.—

1. The Mountain Limestone.

2. The Magnesian Limestone, including both the upper and lower beds.
3. The Oolitic Limestone.

4. The Chalk.

The Mountain Limestone is developed, to a great extent, in the dis-
trict of Craven and in other parts of the north and north-west portions
of the county. It is of a dark grey colour and hard in-texture, breaking
with a species of conchoidal fracture. Its specific gravity is about 1-70.
According to analysis, the following are its principal constituents, viz.—

Carbonic Acid, .. Se ie 2° as Ac e- 43°00
Lime, ee e° eo eo eo oe ee ee 55-50
Foreign Matter, ve ee or ee oe ee =: 150

100-00

It thus appears to contdin about 98:50 per cent. of carbonate of lime,
and consequently would appear to be an excellent limestone for the
purposes of agriculture.

The Magnesian Limestone.—The lower portion of this formation is
found in immediate guccession to the coal measures. It is of a yellowish
white colour, and breaks with a dull earthy fracture. Its specific gravity
is about 2°64.

A specimen from Conisbrough, near Doncaster, gave the following as
its chief constituent ingredients, viz.— )

Carbonic Acid, .. a oe Ne ve ae ee 46°90
Lime, .. wa ate ee oe as oe «- 30°00
Magnesia, ee ee ee oe oe a) ee 17°75
Red Oxide of Iron, .. oe ee od _ eo 0:75
Insoluble Matter, PY ig és ee av ee er

—o

100:00

—~ss— —

Se Se” elle ee Oe

ee. P= Sa ee eee

438 Proceedings of the British Association.

Another specimen from the village of Wheldon, adjoining the York
and North Midland Railway, near Castleford, gave the following as its
principal ingredients, viz.—

Carbonic Acid, .. 4p ie i eas ate .. 46:00
Lime, a se ee os 4A ou ae »» 35:04
Magnesia, .. oa wi we a 4 oa «. 17:50
Red Oxide lron, .. ate a as we AS -» 0:90
Insoluble Matter,.. ain = AP 5 at «.. 0°50
Loss, ae os ie os -- aig ate -- 0:06

100-00

This limestone appears then to consist of 62:32 per cent. carbonate
of lime, and 36°75 carbonate of magnesia, or approaching nearly to the
constitution of dolomite, containing 1 atom carbonate of lime and 1
carbonate of magnesia. From the above statement, it would appear
that this species of limestone is not well calculated for agricultural
purposes, except perhaps, under peculiar circumstances, and applied in
small quantities.

The Upper Magnesian Limestone is in immediate succession to the
lower one, and directly beneath the new red sandstone. It is found in
considerable abundance at Knottingley, Brotherton, and, no doubt, in
other localities in this county. Its specific gravity is about 2°64. It is
of a greyish brown colour, much harder in texture than the preceding
variety. According to analysis, the following are its principal ingre-
dients, viz.—

Carbonic Acid, 44 ee ae ore ae Ae 42°35

Lime, ere i oe on 9 En Ae 51°61
Magnesia, -- oe oe oe oe oe -» a trace.
Red Oxide Iron, .. ae de aie ae Ss 1°42
Insoluble Matter, .. ae ae ae ie ss 4-50
Loss; -.. Be a ee in Ms See 0:12

100-00

As this limestone appears to contain about 93-96 per cent. carbonate
of lime, it would seem to be tolerably well adapted for the purposes of
agriculture, as the very small proportion of magnesia that it appears to
contain, can scarcely be supposed to exert much deleterious influence.

The Oolitic Limestone is the next in order to the magnesian, and is
found in considerable abundance in the neighbourhood of Malton. It
is of yellowish white colour, and appears to be composed of innumerable
small round particles, and hence it is commonly called roe-stone. The

Proceedings of the British Association. 4.39

specific gravity is about 2°59. According to analysis, its principal con-
stituents are—

Carbonic Acid, ah Ae oe we ofa ah 44°35
Lime, .. ee os $ Ae pe remtre. »» «=: 358
Red Oxide Iron, ot ote ne st “e se 0:69
Insoluble Matter, .. ee oe a al oe 1°26
Loss, «- “ie SA oe oi ays 3h ays 0:17

100-00

From the large proportion of carbonate of lime contained in this
limestone, it appears to be well calculated for agricultural purposes,
and is used to a considerable extent.

The Chalk formation occupies a considerable extent in the eastern
part of the county, forming that peculiar feature in it known as the
Wolds. This substance scarcely requires any description. It is, as is
well known, of a white colour, and easily scraped with a knife, and
readily soils the fingers. Its specific gravity is about 2°55. According
to analysis, its chief ingredients are—

Carbonic Acid, .. os a oi ae ot -» 43-00
Lime, .. ae a5 at ot is : ve OO'42
Insoluble Matter, ee Ali 5 we se oa LQ
Loss, oy =< oh “4 ae gu oo ge «=—(048

100-00

This, like the preceding variety, appears to contain a large propor-
tion of carbonate of lime, and consequently affords, by burning, a simi-
larly large proportion of lime, and hence is particularly adapted for
agricultural purposes, although it is said not to produce so strong a
lime as the oolitic limestone.

Sir J. Johnstone remarked on the very injurious effects produced,
in many districts, on the crops, by the use of the magnesian limestone,
and wished to know if chemists could at all account for the very re-
markable differences, which agriculturists found to exist in limestones,
which gave nearly the same products by analysis.— Prof. Daubeny ob-
served, that it was probable that the difference might be found in the
fact, that one limestone contained a larger portion of the phosphates
than another. In ordinary analysis, the phosphate of lime, being so-
luble in muriatic acid, was very generally overlooked.—Dr. Playfair
stated, that the existence of iron, in the state of protoxide in one stone,
and of peroxide in another, would explain the difference in the observed
effects of different limestones. He adduced some instances in which

clays, from the same pit, being used as manures, were found to possess
aL

440 Proceedings of the British Association.

beneficial or injurious properties as it contained the iron in the higher
or lower degree of oxidation.

‘On the Energiatype and the Property of Sulphate of Iron in deve-
loping Photographic Images,’ by Mr. R. Hunt.—In a former number of
the Atheneum [ante, p. 500] the author communicated the discovery of
a new photographic process of great sensibility, to which the above
name was given. It consisted essentially in the development of a dor-
mant photographic image, formed on a paper prepared with succinic
acid and nitrate of silver, by the deoxidizing power of sulphate of iron.
Numerous failures had been communicated to the author, which ap-
peared to arise from the varying rates of solubility possessed by suc-
cinic acid obtained from different manufacturers. It was now recom-
mended, that five grains of succinic acid should be put into a fluid
ounce of distilled water, and allowed entirely to dissolve—the salt and
gum is then to be added to this solution, and the author believes that,
with care, the effects will be certain. Recent researches have, how-
ever, proved that this property of the sulphate of iron may be made
available on any photographic paper. On paper merely washed with the
nitrate of silver, good camera pictures have been thus obtained in a
few minutes, and on papers prepared with the chloride of sodium,
bromide of potassium, particularly the iodide of potassium, camera
views are procured in less than a minute. Mr. Hunt exhibited a great
number of specimens procured on the above and many other salts of
silver—the most beautiful being procured on papers covered with the
acetate, the benzoate, the citrate, and other organic salts of silver.
These drawings were all fixed by washing with moderately strong am-
monia.

Prof. Grove called the attention of the Section to a new photogra-
phic process, by which pictures might be obtained by one operation.
Papers were prepared with the iodide of potassium, nitrate of silver,
and gallic acid, in the same manner as for Mr. Fox Talbot’s calotype
process, and then allowed to darken. The paper is again washed over
with the iodide of potassium in solution, and dried. When required
for use, it is to be immersed in a weak solution of nitric acid in water,
and then exposed to light. In a very few minutes, copies of engravings
could be procured.

‘On Guano,’ by Mr. Warrington.—This was a notice, intended particu-
larly to draw attention to the imperfect manner in which the estimation
of the nitrogen in the analysis of guano, was given to the agriculturist.
On the quantites of nitrogen depended, in a great degree, the value of
a given sample, whereas in general the quantity of ammoniacal salts was

Proceedings of the British Association. 44]

nly given. It appears, from the use of guano in the production of
he prussiate of potash, that the quantities of this element are always
inderstated.

A conversation ensued as to the relative value of the Peruvian and
\frican Guano. It was remarked, that in some cases it had been found,
hat the weight of the ear produced by the use of guano, was too great
or the stalk to support ; consequently it fell, and the grain was injured;
nd information as to a means of giving greater stiffness to the straw,
fas much to be desired.—Mr. Hunt stated, that it had been found in
he west of Cornwall, that the use of the China stone, a decomposed gra-
ite, the felspar of which contained much silicate of potash, produced a
traw of a very remarkable degree of stiffness.—Mr. Warrington sug-
ested that silicate of soda might be very readily formed at all places
ear the sea, by calcining together sea-sand and common salt. This led
) a conversation on the power which plants possessed of substituting
oda for potash in different districts.—Prof. Liebig said, he had been
ngaged in the analysis of plants growing in different districts extend-
1g from Giessen to the sea. It was found that corn, peas, beans, and
rass, contained a larger portion of soda as they grew nearer and nearer
1e sea coast: thus satisfactorily proving, that plants could substitute
oda for potash, without injury to their growth. No plants were found
1 which there was not potash, but there were many in which there was
o soda. It had been asked in what proportions soda and potash were
und in the animal economy? Soda existed largely in the bile and
lood—potash was found most abundantly in the muscles, hence the
2ason was evident why the use of soda (common salt) with the
od of man, was universal. It was quite evident that plants could sub-
situte one constituent for another—it had been even found, that in the
bacco plant lime had been replaced by potash.—In answer to other in-
uiries, Prof. Liebig remarked, that the alkalies in plants were not in
ymbination as organic constituents; they could be dissolved out. Car-
on, on the contrary, formed a part of their structure. Carbonic acid
as absorbed by plants, and served, uniting with hydrogen and with
ater, to form a series of compounds containing varying proportions of
vese elements. An organized body is formed by the action of chemical
irees; its structure shows it is not the result of physical force. We
ave the formation first of the vegetable acids of sugar, &c.; oxalic
id, tartaric acid, and citric acid were vehicles of transfer, combining
i they did with the potash or soda of the plants, from which were at
ngth separated the carbon which went to the composition of the vege-
ble structure.

442 Proceedings of the British Association.

Sir John Johnstone observed, that the value of guano was supposed
to depend on the quantity of uric acid it contained : he begged to inquire
if any experimental evidence existed as to the qualities of this acid as
a stimulant or otherwise.—Prof. Liebig stated, that there was not a
single experiment on uric acid—that all which had been said as to its
advantages, was mere assumption.—Dr. Tilley made some remarks on
the fact, that the skin of the leg of a gull had been found by him in
guano, the entire bone of the leg being dissolved out; seal skin had also
been found, but no bones.—Mr. Hunt stated, that of two cargoes of
African guano which arrived at Falmouth, one entire cargo consisted
of decomposed seals. In this he found the skin with the fur quite per-
fect, and a great number of bones far advanced in decomposition. It ap-
peared, on inquiry in various quarters, that half a century since the
seal fishery was carried on most extensively on that coast, the seals were
all taken to the shore, the oil extracted, and the remains thrown into
large heaps—thus, on this particular spot, had accumulated those immense
heaps, which they had been removing as the production of birds. Its
value as a manure was not less than that of true guano; analysis giv-
ing very nearly the same results in the two samples examined by Mr.
Hunt from these ships.

SATURDAY.
Section C.—GEOLOGY AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

‘On the Microscopic Structure of Shells, &c.’ by Dr. W. B. Carpenter.
—Dr. Carpenter gave an abstract of his Report on the microscopic
structure of recent and fossil shells, &c. He stated that, with the aid
of the grant last year voted to him by the Association, he had made
upwards of 1000 sections and other preparations of shell-structure; and
. that, in many instances, he had examined the entire structure of shells,
which presented the most characteristic features, in order to anticipate
the objection that varieties of structure might exist in different parts of
the same individual. Dr. Carpenter then explained, with the aid of
a series of large coloured drawings, his views on the formation of shell.
In regard to the prismatic cellular structure, he pointed out a series of
striz, crossing the long prismatic cells; and present also on the cal-
careous prisms (casts of the interior of these cells,) which may be ob-
tained by the disintegration or fossil Pinna, and sometimes even from
recent shells. These striz he believed to indicate the points where a
series of flattened cells, arranged in a pile, had coalesced to forma
single long prismatic cell. He pointed to the alternation of deeply-
coloured and colourless strata, in a single layer of Pinna migrina, as

Proceedings of the Brittsh Association. 443

proving that the formation of this layer was not accomplished at once,
but was continued for some time; and adduced other facts in support
of his view. Dr. C. then described the cancellated structure of the Ru-
distes ; to which there is nothing very analogous among recent shells;
this structure is composed of a series of cavities, lying between the ex-
ternal and internal layers of the shell, and separated by shelly parti-
tions disposed with considerable regularity. These cavities may have
been filled, in the living shell, with animal matter. The Pleurorhyncus
hibernicus was stated by Dr. C. to possess this structure in common with
the Rudistes; which is a confirmation of the views of those who, on other
grounds, had referred them to that group. Dr. C. then stated, in regard
to the Terebratule, that the examination of a considerable number of
species had confirmed his previous statement, that the non-plicated, and
slightly-plicated species are characterized by the possession of the perfora-
tions in the shell first described by him; whilst these are absent int he
deeply-plicated species. They exist in all the known recent species, ex-
cept Zerebratula psittacea ; which has, on other grounds, been separated
from the rest, and has been referred to the genus Atrypa, several spe-
cies of which, examined by Dr. C., are also characterized by the ab-
sence of perforations. Dr. C. further alluded to several cases, in which
this mode of examination had furnished characters of great importance
in classification, and in the recognition of fossil shells; and he con-
cluded by drawing attention to certain structures contained in the shell
of the crab, and in the skeletons of the Echinodermata. With the con-
tinued assistance of the Association, he hoped to be able to present,
next year, a detailed report on these classes. His present report em-
braces the structure of the shells of the Brachiopoda; and of the families
Placunidee, Ostracez, Pectinide, Margaritacez, and Unionide, among
the Lamellibranchiate bivalves. In conclusion, he requested the aid of
his auditors towards the prosecution of his researches, by the transmission
of fragments of recent and fossil shells (named) for examination; and
he mentioned that the smallest fragment might be of essential service
to him.

Prof. Phillips observed that this paper was an example of the man-
ner in which doubt was gradually removed, and certainty obtained in
geological inquiries. One object of these investigations was to ascertain
the true affinities of recent and fossil grades of animal life, and, by this
means, a knowledge was also obtained of the corresponding problem of
the condition under which animals and plants formerly lived. In these
researches the aid of the zoologist was most important ; and Mr. Phillips
contended, that calling in the aid of the naturalist and the chemist was

4.44 Proceedings of the British Association.

respectful to the advocates of those sciences, was a legitimate way of
advancing geological inquiries, that it appealed to right reason, and its
results were as much deserving of confidence as any other branch of
knowledge.—Prof. E. Forbes remarked the great value of microscopic
investigation to the physiologist and systematic naturalist, but at pre-
sent he should hesitate to found conclusions on the isolated facts of a
research at present in its infancy.

Sir H. Dela Beche exhibited the Ordnance Map of South Wales and
the South-West of England, and a section through the Silurian rocks
in the vicinity of Builth. The vicinity of Builth is one of much geolo-
gical interest, as showing the connexion between the Silurian rocks at-
Ludlow, Wenlock, and other localities on the N. E., with the same
deposits in Brecon, Carmarthen, &c., and as affording considerable in-
struction relative to the intermixture of sedimentary and igneous rock
at this early period. The section described by the author is part of
one now making by the Geological Survey between the old red sand-
stone of the Black Mountains in Brecon and the sea N. of Aberystwith.
Sir H. De la Beche then compared this developmeut of the Silurian
rocks with that in Salopia, and observed, that although the Wenlock
iimestone is but a trace near Builth, and the Aymestrey limestone little
else, still there is a general resemblance to the sequence described by
Mr. Murchison, at Malvern, Woolhope, &c. It is at the base of the
Wenlock shales the greatest modification is found; instead of the
Caradoc limestone and sandstone are the shales and slates with Asaphus
Buchii, and beneath these a mixture of conglomerates, sandstones, &c.,
with similar fossils, so that either the sandstones representing the
Caradoc, are included in the Llandeilo flags, and one appellation must
be applied to both, or the Caradoc sandstone must be supposed to have
thinned off, so as not to occur in the Builth and western sections.

Mr. Murchison stated that every group of rocks, when traced into a
distant region, must be expected to present a difference in its fossils.
He considered the upper Llandeilo flag series the complete equivalent
of the Caradoc sandstone, and expressed his belief that in no country
would be found fossiliferous rocks older than the lower Silurian sys-
tem.—Mr. Sedgwick described the various modifications presented by
the carboniferous strata of the north of England, Devonshire, &c., and
by the Silurian rocks of North Wales, and the typical region of Shrop-
shire, with the same series in Cumberland and Westmoreland. He con-
tended that the term Silurian should be confined to the Ludlow and
Wenlock rocks, which formed a complete system, with distinct mineral
structure and organic types. The Caradoc sandstone and Llandeilo

See !Tti<C

Proceedings of the British Association. 445

_ flags ought never to have been included with these ; they belonged to
the great system of North Wales and Cumberland, consisting of many
successive universal masses of very different character, and contain-
ing groups of fossils developed as one common type; the Professor
thought some general name ought to be applied to them, such as the
geologists of Europe and the rest of the world would accept. They
constituted a true Protozoic group, as far at least as England was con-
cerned; and the absence of fossils in the rocks below them, shows that
the end of the story had been reached as far as regarded animal life.

1. On the Silurian region of the counties of Galway and south of
Mayo: 2. On the Fossiliferous Slate district of the counties of Water-
ford, Wexford, Wicklow, Kildare, &c., by Mr. R. Griffiths. The series of
rocks described in the first of these communications occupy a district
usually known as Connemara, bounded on the north by Clew Bay,
in the county of Mayo, south by Galway Bay, west by the Atlan-
tic, and east by Lough Corrib and Lough Mask, which separate it from
the great carboniferous limestone field of Ireland. In the second com-
munication, Mr. Griffiths describes the extensive slate district situated
between the east coast of the counties of Waterford, Wexford, and Wick-
low, and the granite district of Wicklow and Carlow.

Fripay.
Section D.— ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY.

A report ‘On the Marine Zoology of Corfu and the Ionian Isles,’ by
Capt. Portlock, R.N.—The researches of Capt. Portlock, by means of
the dredge, were confined to the channel between Corfu and Vido, to a
narrow strip beyond Vido, and to a similar narrow strip extending
from Cape Sidero to Castraves. The bottom of the sea in these districts
was mostly clay, and consequently bad for dredging.

Prof. E. Forbes observed, that although the paper indicated much
zeal and labour, yet it was defective. Many of the species described as
new were not new species at all, and Capt. Portlock had been led into
error by the want of books. It was also not stated from what depth
the animals were dredged up, and yet this was one of the most impor-
tant points. What was wanted in such reports were not critical re-
marks on species, but a statement of what had been found, or speci-
mens which might be examined.

The Report of Messrs. Alder and Hancock, on Nudibranchiate Mol-
lusca, was then read. The reporters alluded to the researches of M. de
Quatefages on the Nudibranchiate Mollusca, and especially his placing
some of them under a new order, which he called Phlebenterata.

446 Proceedings of the British Association.

But not agreeing with the views of M. de Quatefages, they remained
content to consider the Mollusca Nudibranchiata as still forming one
entire group, divisible into two sections, distinguishable from each other
by external characters, and probably equally so by physiological pecu-
liarities, the limits of which have not yet been ascertained in the several
genera. These animals were much neglected till the time of Cuvier, who,
however, only dissected specimens preserved in spirits, and fell into
some errors. In Great Britain little was known till recently, but
through the researches of Prof. E. Forbes, Mr. W. Thompson, of Belfast,
and the authors, the species now amounted to seventy-five. The Report
then proceeds to examine the distribution of these seventy-five species,

adit ns CR A Rie gia me ~
a Se —_ x
Se ; seers -
a i oe
==, aE ~ =. - aoe

Hi
{

which is a greater number than is given for any other part of the world,

’ on the coasts of the British islands. This is followed by an account of
their development, their minute structure, and a list of all the known
British species.

Professor Allman mentioned a new genus, approximate to the genus
Venillia of Messrs. Alder and Hancock, which he obtained from a salt-
marsh in the south of Ireland.

Report of the Dredging Committee for 1844.—This Report consisted
of two parts: Ist, of the records of a series of dredging operations
conducted round the coasts of Anglesea, in September 1844, by Mr.
M‘Andrew and Prof. E. Forbes, exhibiting the distribution of the
marine animals procured in various depths down to thirty fathoms,
and the state of the sea-bed in the localities explored. Among the more
interesting facts recorded in these papers were the following: rolled
specimens of Purpura lapillus, a shell which lives only above low-water
mark, were found in 28 to 30 fathoms water on the gravelly bed of
a line of current, at the distance of eight miles from the nearest shore. _
In the same line of current it was found that the few mollusca which
lived there, such as Modiole, and Lime, had constructed nests, or
protecting cases of pebbles, bound together by threads of byssus; and
one species, the Modiola discrepans, had made its nest of the leaf-like —
expansions of Flusira foliacea cemented together. The attention of the
dredgers was directed, among other subjects, to the distribution of
Serpulze, and the results of their researches were confirmatory of the _
statements recently advanced by Dr. Phillippi, of Cassel, namely, that
no dependence could be placed, even as to the genus, on the shell ofa
serpula, perfectly similar shells being constructed by animals of different
genera. Thus they found all the serpule of a particular form in 12
fathoms water to be a species of Eupomatus, whilst exactly similar shells
in 20 fathoms proved to be the habitations of a species of the genus

a

Proceedings of the British Association. 447

wanting opercula, of which S. tubularia is the type. All the triangular
serpule they met with were Pomatoceros tricuspis. In 12 fathoms, at
the entrance of the Menai Straits, they dredged the shell of Helix aspersa,
the common snail, covered with barnacles and serpulz, and inhabited
by a hermit crab.

‘On the Reproduction of Lost Parts in the Crustacea,’ by H. D. S.
Gocdsir.—That all the species of crustacea are endowed with the power
of regenerating parts of their body which have been accidentally lost,
is a fact which has long been known. The manner, however, in which
these are developed, and the organ also from which the germ of the
future leg is derived, has never yet been either properly explained or
examined. If one or more of the distal phalanges of the lez of a com-
mon crab be torn forcibly off, the animal instantly throws off the re-
maining parts of the limb. This is effected with little apparent exer-
tion, and always takes place at one spot, which is marked externally by
a delicate line, covered with an annulus of thinly scattered hairs. The
phalanx on either side of the ring is considerably contracted; and when
the shell is taken carefully off, so as to expose the contents, they are
found to consist of a fibrous, gelatinous, glandular-looking mass- -the
organ which supplies the germs for future limbs. Some hours after the
limb is thrown off, the small foramen becomes gradually filled by a small
rounded body—the germ of the future leg—which gradually increases
in size, so as to push out before it the cicatrix which had been formed
on the raw surface after the injury, and now forms the external cover-
ing of the young limb. As the germ increases in size, the inclosing
membranes become thinner and thinner, until they burst, when the
young limb, which has hitherto been bent upon itself, becomes extend-
ed and has all the appearance of a perfect limb, except in size.

‘On the Fishes of Yorkshire,’ by T. Meynell.—The total number of
species which have been detected as inhabiting the shores or frequent-
ing the fresh waters of Great Britain, are stated by Mr. Yarrell’s sup-
plement to be about 250, of which number Mr. Meynell presented a
list of 140 species as frequenting the waters of Yorkshire.

Dr. Carpenter then communicated to the Section some observations
on the position which he deemed ought to be given to the compound
ascidians in the zoological scale. In opposition to Milne Edwards, he
considered that the compound ascidians should be placed with the
Mollusca, and the ascidian polyps with the Radiata.

Prof. Allman did not think the polyps should be classed with the
Radiata. They were not zoophytes—they were not mollusca.—Prof,
E. Forbes agreed with Dr. Allman, that we were not in a position to
change the place of compound ascidians in the zoological scale.

aM

448 Proceedings of the British Association.

SATURDAY.

The attention of the Section was this day devoted to Botany.

Chevalier Schomburgk read a series of papers, the first of which was
entitled ‘Description of Alexandra Imperatricis, a new genus of
Papilionacee.’—This tree, in appearance, is one of the most beautiful
and gorgeous of the family of Leguminosz, and was discovered by the
author at the foot of the northern ridge of sandstone mountains in the
pluvial basin of the River Cuyuni, in Guiana, and reaches a height of
from 100 to 120 feet. The flowers are developed directly from the trunk
and woody branches, in large clusters, and the racemes, pedicels, and
calyces are of rich crimson, the petals bright orange, striped with
crimson, the vexillum of a deep purple, and ascending. The pod is from
18 to 20 inches long, and contains several seeds.

The President inquired what was the largest tree the Chevalier had
observed in the forests of Guiana.—Mr. Schomburgk replied, the Mara
excelsa was the highest tree.

The next paper by Mr. Schomburgk was a description of a new
species of Barbacenia.-—This plant grows on the table-land from which
Mount Roraima rises. It reaches frequently a height of 10 or 12 feet,
branching in a dichotomous manner, and bears a number of flowers,
which, in their appearance, are liliaceous, and 5 to 6 inches long. They
are, outside, of a delicately purplish hue, and deliciously fragrant. It
differs from the species of hitherto described Barbaceniz, in possessing
18 fertile stamens. The difference in the number of stamens is not,
however, allowed to be generic in allied species of Velloziz, and, there-
fore, the author has placed this plant with the Barbacenie.

‘On the Ophiocaryon paradoxa, the Snake-nut tree.’—In a former
communication Mr. Schomburgk had called the attention of naturalists
to the peculiar seed of this tree. The seed is covered over with a mem-
brane, which, on being removed, presents the embryo elongated and
twisted in a spiral manner, so as to give it the form ofa snake. From
a recent examination of the flowers of this tree, the author had found
that it belonged to the natural order Sapindacez. The embryo is
twisted in other members of this order.

On the Calycophyllum Stanleyanum.—There are several genera of the
natural family of Rubiacez, as Calycophyllum, Musszenda, Pinkneya,
&c., where one of the teeth of the calyx expands into a coloured
petioled leaf, of a membranaceous texture. In this tree it is very
remarkable; and as these bract-like organs are of a rose colour, they
give a very beautiful aspect to the forests where they grow. This
appendage only grows after the flower has dropped off, and develops

Proceedings of the British Association. 449

itself with astonishing rapidity. The tree grows on the banks of the
rivers Rupununi and Takutu, in the third parallel of north latitude.

Mr. Schomburgk then communicated a paper, entitled ‘ Description
of Lightia lemniscata, a new genus of the family Buttneriaceze.—The
Buttneriacez are very common in Guiana, and in some districts the
author met with whole forests of the chocolate nut tree, a plant belong-
ing to this family. The Lightia belongs to this family. The great
peculiarity of this plant is, that the petals have an elongated appendage,
which hangs down from the cluster of flowers, like ribbons, and hence
its specific name. This tree attains a height of 20 or 24 feet, and pro-
duces its flowers directly from the stem, below the axis of fallen
leaves. Only three specimens of this tree were discovered in Guiana
by Mr. Schomburgk.

The last paper by. Mr. Schomburgk was ‘On two New Species of the
family Laurinez, from the forests of Guiana.’—The first is a tree which
affords timber which is brought to England, and known by the name
of Greenheart. This tree was found, by Dr. Rodie, to possess febrifugal
properties, and Dr. Maclagan has published an account of two new alka-
loids which he had obtained from it by chemical processes. These
alkaloids may be used instead of quinine. The second tree has long
been known, and yields an aromatic fruit, known by the name of the
Accawai nutmeg, and is extensively used in Guiana as a remedy in
diarrhoea, dysentery, and other intestinal diseases. The author suc-
ceeded in obtaining flowers and seeds, and had found this tree to be
a species of Acrodiclidium, to which he has given the specific name,
Camara. It appears to be restricted to the sandstone mountains of
Roraima, between the fifth and sixth parallel of north latitude.

Mr. Schomburgk exhibited dried specimens and drawings of most
of the plants he described, as also of the Strychnos toxifera, a plant
which produces the true Wouraili poison of Guiana.

Prof. Balfour stated, that the Greenheart was much used for build-
ing vessels on the Clyde. The alkaloid obtained from this tree was
called by Dr. Maclagan bibirine, but its insolubility rendered it unfit
for medical uses.— Prof. Tilley stated, that although Dr. Maclagan had
named two alkaloids as being present in the wood of the greenheart,
subsequent experiments had led him to conclude, that there was but
one, and this he called bibirine. This alkaloid presented a similar
chemical constitution to quinine. It was not, however, combined with
an organic acid.

Mr. Babington then exhibited to the Section specimens of three
plants which had been added to the list of British plants during the

4.50 Proceedings of the British Association.

summer of 1844. These were, 1. dlsine stricta, discovered on Widdy-
bank Fell, in Teesdale, Durham; 2. Carduus setosus, growing near the
shore of the Frith of Forth, in the neighbourhood of Cullrow; 3. Galium
Vaillantii. |

Mr. O. A. Moore read 2 report ‘On the Flora of Yorkshire,’ written
at the request of the Council of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, the
drawing up of which had been intrusted to himself and Mr. Baines. In
this list were included 1,117 species and 158 varieties, exclusive of a few
whose claims to be regarded as Yorkshire plants rest on insufficient
grounds. Ofthese about 87 species and 81 varieties were mentioned,
which had not previously appeared in any general list.

Mr. Babington observed, that the occurrence of Orobanche rubra in
Yorkshire proved that this plant was not, as supposed, sometimes con-
fined to basaltic formations. It was always found growing on the roots
of Thymus serpyllum.

The President stated, that a paper ought to have been brought be-
fore the Section, ‘On the Phosphorescence of Mosses,’ by Mr. Fox
Strangways, but this paper had unfortunately been lost.—Mr. Babington
said, that he had observed the light called phosphorescence in mosses,
particularly in the Schistostega pennata. He could not explain the cause
of the occurrence of this curious phenomenon.—Prof. Balfour referred
to some recent papers on this subject, and spoke of the curious light
given out by flowers of an orange and red colour. It was well known
that many cryptogamia gave out light during their decomposition.—
Chevalier Schomburgk had been frequently surprised in the forests of
Guiana at the bright light given off by plants belonging to the fungi.
He had also seen it occur during the decomposition of the cassava
roots.— Dr. Lankester stated, that it had been supposed that Schistoste-
ga pennata exhibited the appearance of phosphorescence on account

of its crystalline structure. Mr. Edwin Quekett and himself had,

however, examined the moss in vain for crystals. He believed that the
phenomenon of phosphorescence might be referred to the union of
oxygen with the tissues of the vegetable, producing a low form of
combustion, and in which light was emitted.—Prof. Allman considered
the light observed to issue from colored flowers an optical delusion. If
it were real phosphorescence it would be seen better in the dark than
in the twilight, which was not the case. He did not consider that this
kind of light had any analogy with that which appeared from the stems
of decaying trees and cryptogamia.

Mr. Allis, of York, whose exhibition of living ferns in the gardens of
the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, caused so much astonishment,

-

Proceedings of the British Association. 451

from the number, variety, beauty, and rarity of the ferns cultivated,
read a paper ‘ On the Mode he had adopted in cultivating the Ferns, as
well as Notes on the rarer Species.-—At the conclusion of the paper the
President and Members of the Section, accompanied Mr. Allis to the
tent in the gardens in which his ferns were deposited, where he des-
cribed the characters and modes of cultivating some of the rarer and
less known of the family of ferns.

Fripay.
Section E.—MEDICAL SCIENCE.

A paper was read, received from Prof. Peretti, of Rome, ‘On the
Bitter Principles of some Vegetables.’—The greater part of those vege-
tables, he observed, which contain a bitter principle not depending on
an alkaloid, owe it to an alkaline resin; they are decomposed by large
quantities of water, by acids, and by earthy salts. By the processes he
adopted (and which he described in detail), the Professor obtained the
bitter principle of wormwood, quassia, coffee, gentian, &c., and also the
pure bitter of bile. The bitter princple which attracted his chief atten-
tion was that of the Absinthium Romanum, which he stated to have
much power in allaying severe irritation of the stomach, and he had
successfully used it as a remedy in sea-sickness, half an ounce of the
solution being enough to prevent it, or stop it if it had commenced.
The Professor detailed several of the chemical properties of these
resinates. The so-called resins he stated to be bi-resinated alkalis ; such
are the resins of jalap, guaiacum, &c. The gum resins he stated to be
combinations of resinate and bi-resinate of potash with resinates of lime
and magnesia. The paper concluded by observations on some other
points of vegetable chemistry, and the announcement of the discovery
of a new alkaloid derived from a new species of Pereira, the Cryptocaria
pretiosa, different from the bark of the true Pereira, examined by M.
Pelletier.

The next paper, by Dr. S. W. J. Merriman, was on a physiological
subject of purely professional interest.

SATURDAY.

Dr. Hodgkin read a paper ‘On the Tape-Worm as prevalent in
Abyssinia.’—He also gave some particulars of the plant called Kosso in
Abyssinia, but known by different names in other regions of Africa,
the flowers of which are powerfully purgative, and are used as a speci-
fic remedy for the endemic prevalence of worms.

452 Proceedings of the British Association.

Dr. Williams presented two specimens of Teenia, one of which had
been removed by the use of spirit of turpentine, after the male fern
root (Aspidium flix mas) had failed, and the other by the latter remedy,
after the turpentine had failed.

Dr. Fowler stated, that he had found turpentine in conjunction with
tincture of opium of great value, not only in suspending an expected
paroxysm of ague, but in also removing the disease.

Dr. Laycock read a paper ‘On the Reflex Function of the Brain.’—
The object was to show that the reflex function, as possessed by the
spinal nerves and ganglia, is also manifested by the cerebral ganglia,
and the cerebral nerves of sensation, the optic, acoustic, olfactory, &c.,
—that in fact, as the cerebral masses and the cerebral nerves are pro-
perly to be considered as a continuation of the spinal, they are furnish-
ed with the same endowments and subject to the same laws. He reviewed
the doctrine of the reflex function, and the facts on which it was founded,
as taught by Dr. Marshall Hall. The excito-motary irritation may be ap-
plied either to the periphery or to the central axis in the spinal system,
and may produce its effect independent of sensation or perception or voli-
tion. Yet consciousness and perception may, in some cases, be superadded
to the organic effects of the irritation ; examples of both those peculiari-
ties of nervous action were alluded to: and Dr. Laycock contended, that
if similar phenomena arose from mere cerebral excitement, they must be
considered as reflex excited acts, accompanied by sensation and consci-
ousness, these central cerebral irritations producing a series of changes,
commencing in the posterior grey matter, and exciting what Dr. Lay-
cock terms zdeagenous changes ; from thence the series of changes extends
to the anterior grey matter, and kinetic change (KLVEW, moveo) result,
whence the harmonious muscular movements are produced. The points
insisted on by the author were, that the cerebral nerves are incident
excitor, and the brain an excitor of movements in all respects analo-
gous to the reflex ; the proof of this he thinks must be sought in patho-
logical observations, as those nerves are not irritable by the ordinary
stimuli of heat, mechanical violence, &c., as are the nerves of the
spinal axis. The phenomena of hydrophobia and chore, he contended, __
furnished those proofs: in the former the sound, or sight, or mere idea :
of water excited the convulsive paroxysm, and certain odours are known
to excite convulsions. Toshow that the brain is the excitor of reflex
acts, he referred to the case of chorzea in the Medico- Chirurgical Transac-
tions, and analyzed its phenomena. He also referred to spasmodic
muscular movements of the face, trunk, and extremities, produced by
neuralgia of the fifth pair of nerves. Cases of irregular chorzea, and
partial loss of memory from disease of the brain, confirmed this view of

Proceedings of the British Association. 456

central excito-motary power; examples were adduced. The reason
why mechanical violence to the central ganglia did not exhibit these
phenomena (as in the experiments of Fleurens) was, because such an
irritation was foreign from the true exciting influence of this part of
the nervous system. The phenomena of hemiplegia were adduced as
proofs of the author’s position; and the imitative actions of animals
were represented as true reflex acts, induced by irritable stimuli received
through the cerebral nerves.

Dr. Bacchetti communicated the particulars of a case of extra-uterine
pregnancy.

Dr. Fowler communicated some additional facts relative to the case
of the blind and deaf mute, which he detailed at former meetings of the
Association. She had been visited by Dr. Home (of Boston), the
instructor of Laura Bridgeman, who found in her intellectual and moral
manifestations a strong confirmation of the susceptibility of education
possessed by those cases, which some doubted even after the instance of
Laura Bridgeman. Several particulars relative to the instruction of
the blind were given by the Rev. W. Taylor, and some details of the
instruction of a blind and deaf mute, at Bruges, by the Abbé Carton.

FRripay.
Section F.—STATISTICS.
‘On the Statistics of Malton,’ by Mr. Copperthwaite.—This paper

detailed every particular connected with the social, moral and economic —

condition of the agricultural districts of Old and New Malton, in the
North Riding of Yorkshire; but as such details can only have a local
interest, we shall merely select some striking particulars. The
population in 1831 was 5,377, and in 1841 it was 5,231, showing a de-
crease during the decennial period of 2:07 per cent., which is about the
same rate of decrease as the “Occupations of the People’ Report
exhibits in a very large number of the agricultural districts. During
this decennial period there has been an increase in the rate of mortality,
but the per-centage of the number of persons above 60 years of age is
double that of Sheffield or Manchester, though a little below the general
average of the North Riding of Yorkshire. There has been an increase
in the proportion of marriages; but a decrease in the per-centage of
births, and a pregressive increase in the proportion of illegitimate to
legitimate births. In the course of thirty years this proportion has
risen from 5°3 to 9-4 per cent.; that is, it has nearly doubled. The la-
bourers are paid at the rate of 12s. per week the year round, and in

454: Proceedings of the British Association.

addition have an allowance of food in harvest. The rent, including tithe,
amounts to 1/. 15s. per acre, and all the other charges to about 5s. per
acre more. The allotment system has been introduced, with the appro-
bation of the farmers, who deem it likely to keep down the poor-rate;
small allotments are let at the rate of about 4/. per acre. Out of 1,417
persons between the ages of 3 and 15, there are 1,120 receiving educa-
tion, a larger proportion than is found in any other part of the kingdom
that has been statistically examined. Small lending libraries exist, and
a Mechanics’ Institute has been established. Mr. Copperthwaite entered
at great length into all the details of farming produce, mode of cultiva-
tion, rotation of crops, &c.; but as the result showed nothing more
than that the agriculture of the district is susceptible of improvement;
we do not think it necessary to record the particulars.

The Rev. C. Drury read a paper entitled, ‘Hints for improving the
condition of Agricultural Labourers.’ He recommended the establish-
ment of provident societies, schools, allotments, religious instruction,
and assistance in food and clothing. .

Dr. Laycock read a ‘ Report on the Sanitary Condition of the city of -_

York,’ supplementary to that which he had drawn up at.-the request of
her Majesty’s Government, and which has been published. He exhibit-
ed a map of the city of York, constructed on a scale of sufficient magni-
tude to illustrate the levels, the density of population, the course and
prevalence of epidemics, the state of ventilation, drainage, and other

circumstances connected with public health. As all his communication '

had reference to this map, which would be unintelligible if presented on
a small scale, we must confine ourselves to selecting some results of
his inquiry, which possess general interest, and are not dependent on
mere localities. The deaths in York on the average of the last five
years were nearly 1 in 40, or 23 percent. annually. The deaths under
five years of age amounted to 42 per cent. of the annual deaths, and the
deaths of children under one year was 23 per cent. of the annual births.
As this latter circumstance has been chosen by some eminent statisticians
as a test of the sanitary condition of a district, Dr. Laycock prepared a
table exhibiting a very extensive record of the per-centages of the
deaths under 1 year of age to the annual births. We select the follow-
ing examples :

York, «2 oo «+ ee e+ 23°77 per cent. of deaths to births.

Liverpool, «se «+ e+ e+ 20°97

Manchester, c< sev.se se 20 19

Tieeds, - 2 vet ees siete tae lO SO

North Riding of York,.. .. 10:27
All England, eo ee ee ee 14-48 Ms

a

8 ee oe ND ee

pe

Proceedings of the British Association. 455

Dr. Laycock found that the most sickly and injurious parts of the

city of York were those which were built on the lowest levels; and he

presented the following table, which will be found to embody the princi-

pal particulars connected with the health of towns to which the attention
of statisticians has been directed.

< Oran 3 2a Inhabitants to one gt
. m4 aoa 8 es] ~ Se on
= &§ suns 2 . @ 5 j death annually. oes < a 8 it
From 1839 to |“ ¢ a2, Sao | en eS Scala eres
a asleas/2 85S) 28 |S88| an |Epiae-| Pulme aso lees
o of R|PVUHS, Oo ss F nary dis 3 Cats
3 |e Be S| Mod causes | mics. | 2.6 [A Bea
Best drained
and ventilated 50 Q7 17°6 36°31 | 38 60 | 51°43 | 323°) | 277°23 | 12°92 | 34°00
parishes,’ ......
Intermediate, ...| 43 40 200 28°37 | 28°71 | 40°80 | 303°4 | 235-23 | 21°73 | 51°07
RUVOTSE covincrisasteccen! OO 63 23°18 | 24°14 | 16°42 33°97 | 176°0 | 158°33 | 23°41 | 70-46

Dr. Laycock stated that he had investigated the records of the plagues
and epidemics which had devastated York in the Middle Ages, from
the corporation records and from the ecclesiastical registers, and had
found that the localities which are now the most unhealthy, were those
in which epidemics proved most fatal in ancient times. He illustrated
this by the history of the sweating sickness in 1550, of the plague in
1640, and of the recent cholera.

SATURDAY.

Mr. Felkin read a paper on the statistics of the Hosiery manufactured
by machinery in the United Kingdom, compiled from an actual census
taken under his direction in the present year. He stated that before
the age of Elizabeth, stockings were either knitted of coarse woollen
thread or cut ouf of linen and silk tissue. Towards the close of the
sixteenth century the Rev. W. Lee succeeded in producing the stocking-
frame, and his ingenuity was appreciated by Queen Elizabeth, who visited
him at his lodgings, and accepted specimens of his productions. Her
kinsman, Lord Hunsdon, entered into a kind of partnership with Lee, and
one of the Tudor family became the first stocking-maker’s apprentice.
James I. refused to follow the enlightened policy of Elizabeth; and Lee,
neglected in England, accepted the offers made by the French minister
Sully ; he established a manufactory at Rouen, but after the murder of
Henry IV. the patronage he had received was withdrawn, and he died of
2 broken heart. The stocking-frame spread rapidly over England, France,

oO
ON

456 Proceedings of the Britesh Association.

Spain, and the Netherlands; Lee’s brother introduced the manufacture
into London, where the “ Frame-work Knitter's Company” still exists,
though it has been long an empty name. Out of 660 frames, in 1669,
there were 490 in London, three-fifths of the whole being employed in
the manufacture of silk goods. In 1710 there were 100 frames destroyed
in London on account of disputes about wages, and in 1714 there were
2,500 frames in London, 600 in Leicester,-400 in Nottingham, and about
§,600 throughout all England. From this time the trade began to leave
London, probably from the vexatious nature of the company’s regula-
tions ; and in 1753, when the total number of frames in England was
14,000, London had fallen to 1,000, while Nottingham had risen to
1,500, and Leicester to 1,000. The application of the stocking-frame
to the manufacture of imitations of pillow lace, led the way to a great
variety of ingenious inventions, and a consequent. extension of the
trade: in 1782 there were about 20,000 frames in England, of which
17,350 were in the midland counties. Though the stocking-makers
and lace-makers started from the same point, their fate has been very
different ; the manufacturers of stockings are about the worst paid and
those of lace among the best paid of the operative classes. Mr. Felkin
stated that there are about 42,652 persons engaged in the manufacture
of stockings, and as many more employed to wind, seam, and sew up
the hose. He denied that as a class they were idle and negligent ; he

had known them from boyhood, having worked for his support at their a

frames, and he knew that they were no worse than hard work and small
wages would make any class of the community. To explain the posi-
tion of the stocking manufacturers, Mr. Felkin stated that the frames
were rarely the property of the workmen, but belonged either to the
hosiers or to a class of middlemen, who.let them to the operatives.
Foreign competition has had little effect upon this branch of industry,
for the amount of the exportation of hosiery has neve¥ been important.
There were only 147,507 dozens exported in 1843, and that was nearly
double the amount of the preceding year. Mr. Felkin then referred
to some diagrams exhibited in the Section to explain the nature of work-
ing the frames; the operation is one of considerable toil, but does not
for ordinary goods require much skill and training; the employment
is injurious to the sight. It is for the most part a domestic branch of
industry, and has no connexion with the factory system. The total
number of frames in the three midland counties is 39,442 employed and
4,598 unemployed. There are 1,572 frames in the rest of England, 265

in Ireland, and 2,605 in Scotland; and taking the whole of Great Bri- —

< ue fei ie
" ‘
|

Proceedings of the British Association. 457

tain there are 42,632 employed and 5,830 unemployed, (many of the
latter, however, being under repair), making a total of 48,482 frames
available for the machinery of the trade. The earnings of the frame-
work knitters are subject to heavy deductions, for the rent of frames and
other incidents, which frequently reduce the net earnings to a most
miserable sum. The earnings, clear of shop deductions and expenses,
range generally from 4s. 6d. to 7s. per week, and in some places, where
cotton-hose is chiefly made, wages are even lower than the above mini-
mum. Many cases of hardship from excessive frame-rent were re-
corded; and it deserves to be remarked, that frames are not perishable
articles, many of those now in use having been manufactured in the
reign of Queen Anne. The general condition of the frame-work knitters
is described as very deplorable; they work generally from fourteen to
fifteen hours per day, and their net earnings are generally inadequate
to procure subsistence for themselves and their families. The ultimate
results of the hosiery trade are to turn imported raw materials and
those of home growth of the collective value of 705,900/. into the
selling value of 2,562,713/. There are manufactured annually 84,000
dozen of silk stockings and socks, 2,164,000 of cotton, and 1,770,000 of
worsted. Including gloves and other hosiery products, the annual pro-
duction is 5,705,600 dozen, which would not give more than one pair of
stockings and one pair of gloves for each inhabitant of Britain.

Dr. Thurnam read a paper on the statistics of Insanity, designed to
refute Esquirol’s theory that women were more predisposed to insanity
than men in the proportion of 38 to 37. The discussion of this point
turned chiefly on the corrections necessary to be made in statistical
tables of insanity, by taking into account the rates of mortality, the
proportions of male and female population, and the probability of re-
covery inthe two sexes. Dr. Thurnam came to the conclusion that
Esquirol’s profortions ought to be reversed; but the question ulti-
mately resolves itself into whether more confidence is due to the statis-
tical returns of insanity in France or England.

In the discussion that ensued, Mr. Tuke entered at length into an ex-
amination of alleged disproportion of insane among the Society of
Friends, tending to prove that the predisposition to mental alienation
in that Society is less than in the general community.

In the absence of Col. Sykes, Mr. Heywood read his paper on the
Lunatic Asylums of Bengal. They are chiefly remarkable for the ra-
pidity with which they have improved since their first establishment,
and the very trifling cost at which they are supported.

458 The Young of Sharks.

Mr. Bracebridge read a statistical account of the Union of Atherstone,
principally designed to show the nature and amount of the information
which could be procured through the agency of Boards of Guardians.
The paper did not enter into such minute details as that describing
Malton, and the author announced his determination to undertake
further inquiries for the purpose of rendering it more perfect. |

The Young of Sharks. From A CorRESPONDENT.

On the 27th of December 1840, when off the Coast of Luconia,
the sea being perfectly calm, I and some of the officers on board
were amusing ourselves with catching Sharks, and perceiving one
with an apparently very enlarged abdomen, we were very anxious
to secure it and, were at last successful. On opening its stomach,
twenty young Sharks, perfectly well formed, and in high life, about 14
foot in length, fell out ; we kept some of them alive, several days, in salt
water. I have one now preserved in spirits; the only peculiarity
about it is, that between the side fins on the under part of the ‘body
is a cord about 14 inch long, resembling an umbilical cord. I have
never yet been able to meet with any good account of the natural
history of the Shark, especially as relates to the production of its
‘young ; and I should be very glad to hear from you or any of your
readers some remarks bearing on the fact above mentioned.

Nore.—Cartilaginous fishes are all viviparous, the young being perfectly form-
ed, and of very considerable size in proportion to the parent when produced. We
have seen seven or eight young Sharks, each ten inches long, extracted from a
parent about four feet in length; and we have seen a young Ray, which measured a
quarter of its parent’s size, and quite as well formed, taken from the uterus.—Eps.

THE

CALCUTTA JOURNAL

OF

NATURAL HISTORY.

Description of four new species of the Coleopterus Family
of the Pausside, and notice of a fifth species forming the
type of a new Genus. By W. UH. Benson, Esea., Bengal
Civil Service.

The following species are not contained in the interesting
monograph of the Family of Paussida, lately brought to a
conclusion by Mr. Westwood in his Arcana Entomologica,
wherein he has done much to facilitate the study of these
singular insects. The record of their characters in the Calcutta
Journal of Natural History may not be devoid of usefulness,
although it is not improbable that the specimens, or draw-
ings of them, may eventually be forwarded to Mr. Westwood
for illustration, should that naturalist determine on the
continuation of the Arcana, or the publication of a supple-
ment to the Pausside.

Section A. Prothorax quasi bipartitus.
a. Antennarum clava postice haud excavata.

1.—Pavussus Baconis, nobis.

P. livido-succineus, antennarum articulo basali, clavz
angulis margineque, prothoracis lateribus posticis, femoribus,
VOL. VI. NO. XXIV. JANUARY, 1846. 30

460 Four new species of the Coleopterus Family

podice, elytrorumque plaga magna communi, piceis; abdo-
mine elytrorumque marginibus, tibiis, tarsisque, castaneis.
Antennarum clava obliquo-triangulari, basi emarginata in
spinam longiorem externé producta, posticé late impressd,
cavamine rugoso. Long 3/20 poll.

This species is so nearly allied to Paussus rufitarsis of
Westwood, the habitat of which is unknown, that, beyond
question, that insect is to be referred to the list of Indian
species. I shall note the differences observable on a compari-
son of the two forms, as I proceed with the description. The
antenne in P. Baconis are lengthened, oblique, triangular,
instead of being elongate-globose, and fall off more suddenly
from the base to the apex, which forms an obtuse angle.
On the inner basal side there is a much deeper emargination
between the articulation of the joint and the spur, which is
more produced than in rufitarsis. ‘The anterior margin is
acute, and the hinder face has a larger and deeper impres-
sion, sulcated longitudinally in the centre, and crossed by
three raised ribs. Four obsolete ribs are apparent on the
upper side of the disk near the superior margin; the inner
side is convex.

The clypeus is deeply emarginate in front, and a strong
sulcus runs from it to the back of the head, widening con-
siderably, and being more depressed behind the eyes, which
are very minute, black, uniform when viewed laterally, and
wide apart. The space between the eyes and central chan-
nel is much raised, and, somewhat in advance of the eyes,
presents on each side a large and deep rounded depression,
and immediately at the top of the elevation, between the
eyes, is a small rounded depression on each side. In ruf-
tarsis the central depression is isolated, instead of communi-
cating with the emargination of the clypeus, by a deep sulcus.

The fore-part of the bipartite thorax which is livid-suc-
cineous, is obtusely angled at the lateral extremities, and
depressed in the centre, the ridge is rounded, not angular,
and it is about the same breadth as the head. ‘The piceous

a) Pee se -

a ee

of the Pausside, and notice of a fifth species. 46]

sides of the posterior part are broader in front, equal in
breadth to the fore-part, and furnished in front with a
double prominence shewing a short sulcus between. In the
centre, between the sides, are two succineous prominences,
divided by a longitudinal sulcus. The elytra are polished,
obsoletely erose-punctate, broader towards the apex, are
margined all round with yellowish castaneous, and a piceous
black patch occupies the disk, which is much darker than in
rufitarsis. Instead of short tufts of hair, four on each side,
and two at the apex, as in rufitarsts, the elytra are margined
with long recurved spinous sete, sometimes double, of which
there are seven on each side, and a double row, with four in
each row, at the apex of each elytron. The podex is piceous
and protruded. The abdomen and under side are cas-
taneous and glossy.

The tibiz and tarsi are castaneous, the femora piceous,
and much enlarged towards the extremities, especially in
the intermediate pair, and are deeply and closely punctate.

The last joint of the labial palpi is very long and subulate ;
the antepenultimate joint of the maxillaries is even more
inflated in the form, and disproportionate to the two terminal
ones than in rufitarsis.

This interesting Beetle was taken in an excursion which
we made to the Dhoon, or valley of Dehra, at the foot of the
sub-Himalayan range, between the Ganges and Jumna, by
Dr. J. F. Bacon, a zealous collector and field-naturalist,
and the possessor of an extensive cabinet. I have named
the species after him. It was captured on the 14th August,
1844, in a sweeping-net among grass and bushes, at the same
time as a specimen of Paussus pilicornis.

b. Antenarum clava postice excavata.

2,—PAuSsUS NAUCERAS.

P. fusco-castaneus, prothoracis lateribus antice angulatis,
parte postica elongatiuscula, tenuiori, picea. Elytris thora-

\,
“

462 Four new species of the Coleopterus Family

ceque setosis, illis elongatis, plaga magna communi picea
preditis. Capite carina elevatiuscula, a clypeo emarginato
egredienti usque ad nucham attingente; tuberculo ad verti-
cem posito: clava antennarum naviformi marginibus denticu-
latis, denticulis inferioribus setigeris; carina centice versus
apicem subangulata, versus basin profundé emarginata quasi
scissa. Tibiis mediocribus. Long 7/30 poll.

Has.—In India orientali montibus sub-Himalayanis.

This species is closely allied to Paussus denticulatus, West-
wood, Art. Ent. vol. 2. Pl. 92, fig. 1, and No. 1, of Capt. Boys’
paper in No. 54, J. A. S. new series, in the latter of which the
setee of the denticulations of the antennz are omitted in the
engraving. It differs from it in the following particulars. ‘The
anterior angle of the keel, or fore-foot of the boat-shaped
clava of the antenne, is more prominent, and a deep emar-
gination runs in under the counter, or basal part of the
clava, just behind the insertion of the penultimate joint.
The terminal denticulation and the four inferior ones, like
the rowlocks of a boat, are alone setigerous, as in P. denticu-
latus; the other five are less prominent and rude. The
sete are whitish and not dark. The sculpture of both por-
tions of the thorax is similar to that of P. denticulatus, but
the proportions differ. In P. denticulatus the breadth of the
inferior portion exceeds that of the upper part as well as
its own length; in P. nawceras the angles of the upper portion
project beyond the side of the hinder part, and the breadth
of the latter is not greater than its own length. The chest-
nut edging round the black mark on the elytra is narrower
in proportion in the new species, and the elytra are dull, not
polished.

The clypeus in both species is emarginate. In Captain
Boys’ Nehor species there is merely an excavated tubercle
onthe vertex; in P. nauceras the tubercle of the vertex is

of the Pausside, and notice of a fifth species. 463

papilioform, and is placed on a low keel running through it
from the clypeus to the nape, and on either side a slight ele-
vation proceeds obliquely from the tubercle to the base of
the antennz. The first joint of the antenne is granulated.
The legs are slender, and all the five tarsi are distinctly
visible.

The description is taken from a specimen captured early
in July 1845, at Green Mount, Mussoorie, by Capt. T. Hut-
ton, while at rest on the under side of a leaf of night shade,
and which was kindly made over by him to my collection.
A specimen was taken by Dr. Bacon on the 5th July 1844,
with a sweeping-net in grass on my grounds at Rockville,
Landour, distant about three miles from Green Mount. On
comparison it differs merely in the following particulars.
The tubercle at the vertex shows something of an excavation
in the centre, the basal part of the thorax is broader in pro-
portion to the anterior part, the elytra are more lengthened,
and it wants the loose incurved hairs on the podex which
occur in my specimen, and which are probably a sexual dis-
tinction.

3.—PAaussus PLOIOPHORUS, nobis.

P. fusco-castaneus, abdomine elytrorumque disco nigris
politis, horum marginibus laté castaneis. Antennarum clava
e e A ° A A e e A e °
naviformi, fissura basali profunda, angusta, incisa; cavaminis
marginibus denticulatis, marginis inferioris denticulis seti-
geris; abdomine setarum brevium fasciculis duobus munito.

Long 2/10 poll.
Has.—Ad Moradabad, agris Rohillanis, ultra Gangem.

This species, which is of the size and habit of P. denticu-
latus, Westwood, is intermediate between itand P. nauceras.
It resembles the latter in having a slit in the clava of the
antenne at the hinder base, more coaretate than in P. nau-

464 Four new species of the Coleopterus Family

ceras, but the clava is shorter and more rounded towards
the apex of the cavity than in P. denticulatus, the anterior
edge or keel is deeper, and is obsoletely corrugated. The
denticulations of the lower posterior edge of the excavation
are setigerous as in the two allied species, and the setz are
black. The anterior apical angle is more rounded than in
P. nauceras, and the base is less lengthened towards the
penultimate joint; the termination of the base being square
in P. nauceras, and oblique in P. plotophorus.

The head has an emarginate clypeus, with a slight chan-
nel running up to a papilla placed in the centre rather in
advance of the eyes. It is shagreened like the anterior part
of the prothorax, which is slightly emarginate in the centre,
nearly as broad as the posterior portion, and with the angu-
lated ridge not running transversely across the broadest part
asin P. denticulatus, but behind it ; whence it results that the
ridge is shorter. ‘There is a deep and broad depression in
the middle fore-part of the hinder portion of the thorax, of
which the sides are elevated, broad and piceous, the poste-
rior part has a short channel bounded on either side by
an elevated ridge. ‘The basal portion of the prothorax and
the elytra are polished and devoid of hair; in P. nauceras
the elytra are dull and hairy.

The castaneous margin round the central common square
patch on the elytra, is broad in P. plotophorus; while it is very
narrow in P. nauceras, and inthe former it is beset all round
with thickly set pale rufous hairs projecting backwards.

Abdomen elongate with a tuft of short straight black hair
on each side, near the angle, quite unlike the long threads
of loose curved hairs at the extremity of my specimen of P.
nauceras. ) )

The tibiz are broader and shorter in proportion than
in P. denticulatus, and the tarsal joints are more closely
set, and more indistinct in the basal ones than in that

species.

ar

of the Pausside, and notice of a fifth species. 465

The specimen was taken in February 1845, by Dr. J. F.
Bacon, at Moradabad in Rohilkhund, to the north of the
river Ganges. It was drowned in a pool of water.

4,—PLATYRHOPALUS INTERMEDIUS, nobis.

P. rufo-castaneus, elytris angustioribus, singulo plaga
elongata triangulari irregulari ad latus externum predito.
Antennarum clava mediocri, subrotundato-quadrato, margine
postico undulato, versus basin laté inciso, lingula acuta armato.
Capitis fronte rotundato, clypeo minimé emarginato, Tibiis
latis oblique truncatis. Long 3/10 poll.

Has.—Saharunpore.

This species unites characters of three different forms, viz.
P. angustus, P.nentidens, and P. Westwoodii. With the first
it agrees in habit, but differs from it and from the third, and
agrees with the second in having no emargination of the
clypeus. The form of the antenne is more like P. West-
woodi2, but ona smaller scale, and like that species, the hinder
margin of the clava is sinuous, a character not to be found
in the others. The hinder part of the prothorax has some
shallow transverse furrows, not very conspicuous ; the elytra
have each a single lateral patch, which is not removed so
much towards the base as in the typical specimen of P. an-
gustus, but israther in shape and situation like the lateral
patch which shares the elytra in P. Westwoodii with a basal
and a terminal spot.

This insect was captured on the 28th March 1845, at
night. It flew to a light in a small bungalow on my grounds
at Saharunpore, the capital of a district at the head of the
Doab, and was subsequently obtained by me from the
captor.

I might here add the description of a new form partaking
of the characters of Ceratoderus and Pentaplatarthrus, two

466 Four new species of the Coleopterus Family

genera belonging to Westwood’s 2nd Section of the Paus-
side, and distinguished by the curious tomentum-shaped
clava of their antenne, which consist apparently of six
joints, of which the five terminal ones are soldered together
so as to form a continuous joint. However, as two out of
the three specimens which I had the good fortune to cap-
ture, are by this time in the hands of Mr. Westwood and
the Rev. F. W. Hope, and as the former gentleman has
probably described it, I shall refrain from giving a fully de-
tailed account of the insect, which is likely to constitute the
type of a new genus in the family, forming the Asiatic re-
presentative of the African genus Pentaplatarthrus.

The trophi approximate the form to Pentaplatarthrus, the
last joint of the labial palpi being clavate and obliquely
truncated, but the labial palpi do not exceed in length the
maxillaries, as they do in Pentaplatarthrus. The two last
joints of the maxillaries are very small, and are bent down
like a hook, as in Ceratoderus. .

The thorax is formed upon the model of the first division
of the genus Paussus, being apparently bipartite, the basal
portion being also the larger, and the anterior one wider
and angulated at the sides, but provided with a small tuber-
cle on each side below the angle, and not spined as in Pen-
taplatarthrus.

The club of the antenne is narrower at its base than in
Ceratoderus, and is deficient in the tooth or lingula observa-
ble at the base of the 2nd joint in that genus ; the edges also
form an overlapping scale at the posterior junction of the
joints of the clava. The head is like that of Ceratoderus,
and the antenne are not based on a ball, as they are in
Pentaplatarthrus.

The Beetle is of a light rufous chestnut colour, with an irre-
gular black triangular patch including a chestnut spot poste-
tiorly, on either side of the elytra, and within a final one at
the suture. The elytra are rough and wrinkled, deflexed

of the Pausside, and notice of a fifth species. 467

the sides, as in Ceratoderus, and fringed with short bris-

s; the head is shagreened, and has the two round depres-

ns between the eyes at the end of a short channel from

» clypeus, and not so far back as in Ceratoderus.

[he femora and tarsi shew a connexion with Ceratoderus.
the tarsi the five joints are distinctly visible, and the basal

nt is nearly as long as the next three together.

if not already named by Mr. Westwood, I propose the

signation of Lecomatocerus for the genus, from Aswua

nentum, and xépac corner.

[ took two specimens under a brick on ite 2nd January

14, at Bhitoara on the Ganges, the port of Futtehpore,

the lower Doab. They were in company with Platyrho-

us denticornis. A third specimen, I had the good fortune
take on an ant’s nest, under a stone, at Noushehra on the
nna canal, in the district of Seharanpore, at the head of

-Doab, on the 16th January 1845.

\lready have fifty-one different species of this singular

| varied family been figured, the major part of which are

abitants of Asia, and nearly two-thirds of these of Bri-
| Continental India, yet few examples are known of each
cies, and of some but a single specimen. The best fur-
1ed European cabinets possess a very small number of
cies; any light therefore, which can be thrown on their
ints and habits, must be acceptable to Entomologists, and
apology will be required for the insertion of the following
ices of the capture of specimens by Dr. Bacon and myself.

t. Boys has given notes of some eight or ten captures in
work above quoted, which might be added to these.

\ vast number are doubtless annually destroyed during
warmer months in the vast extent of country which
Pausside inhabit, from the Himalaya to the sea, by

ing at night into the oil-lamps of the natives, which then

1 the land; lights forming a great attraction to many

cies when the moon does not shine. Many others are

3P

ee am

468 Four new species of the Coleopterus Family

lost by falling into water, where they are liable to be de-
voured by the water-beetles which swarm there.

Out of thirty-three Paussidze captured by my friends and
myself, I have noted that, out of six Platyrhopali three were
taken at lights by night. Of Paussi with a subcontinuous tho-
rax eleven were taken, ten of which flew to lamps and candles.
Of ten Paussi with a bipartite thorax only one was taken in
this manner, and not one out of six specimens of Ceratoderus
and its congeners. The preponderance of light-seeking in-
dividuals among the Platyrhopal, and their nearest rela-
tions among the true Paussz, would seem to indicate that
they are more nocturnal in their habits than the others.
Of eight taken on grass and weeds, five were Paussi with a
bipartite thorax, two were Ceratoderi, and one a Platyrho-
palus. Of three found drowned, two were Paussi of the
same division, and one of the section with subcontinuous
thorax. Of five found under bricks and stones, three were
of the Leiomatoceratcse type, and two were Platyrhopali.

Specimens taken by myself.

27th June, 1828.—Paussus, allied to P. cognatus or P.
Hearseyanus from the description in my notes. Drowning
in a rain-pool at Banda.

Ditto ditto, 1836.—Platyrhopalus denticornis, under a
piece of brick-work on decayed hay where a stack had stood.
Jounpore.

23rd January, 1844.-—Platyrhopalus denticornis, under a
brick beneath trees, among ruins, at Bhitoura near Futteh-
pore.

Ditto do. do.—Leiomatocerus — Same place, on
the prone surface of a brick.

50th April, 1844.—Paussus thoracicus, drowned in a rain-
pool at Futtehpore after a tremendous gale of wind and rain,

which levelled some large trees to windward of the spot.

of the Pausside, and notice of a fifth species. 469

16th January, 1845.—Leiomatocerus —————. Found
under a stone on an ant’s nest, in an open spot at Noushehra
below the Sewalik range, Saharunpore district.

27th August, 1845.—Paussus Hearseyanus. Came to

light in a verandah. Dehra Dhoon.

28th do. do.—Platyrhopalus denticornis, a smaller and
more highly coloured variety than the one taken at Bhi-
toura. It came to lights on the table. Dehra Dhoon.

dlst do. do.—Paussus Hearseyanus. Came to lights on
the table, at the same place.

Srd. September, 1845.—Paussus Hardwickii. Came to
lights, and settled on the wall of the room, at the same place.
The previously recorded habitats of this species were Ni-
pal and Almorah.

Taken by Dr. Bacon.

5th July, 1844.—Paussus nauceras. ‘Taken in the middle
of the day with a sweeping-net, on long grass, below Rock-
ville, Landour, above 7000 feet.

14th do. do.—Paussus pilicornis, var. Taken with a
sweeping-net in the day-time in a field near Rajpore, at the
foot of the Mussoorie range, among grass and bushes.

14th do. do.—Paussus Baconis. ‘Taken with the last.

Date not noted.—Platyrhopalus angustus, var. Taken at
Moradabad with a sweeping-net.

Date not noted.—Ceratoderus bifasciatus, var. At the
same place, on grass.

February, 1845.—Paussus ploiophorus. Atthe same place;
drowned.

It appears from this list, that species have been taken in
every month, except May, from January to September: in the
earlier months under bricks, &c. or drowned in rain-pools ;
in the rainy months by sweeping herbage in the day-time, or
at lights by night.

470 Four new species of Coleopterus Family of Pausside, &e.

It may be noticed, that of the seven species sent to Eng-
land by Capt. Boys, two were new, viz. No. 1, Paussus den-
ticulatus, and No. 6, P. Boysii. ‘The others described and
figured in the same paper were, No. 2, Platyrhopalus
angustus, var.; No. 3, Paussus Hearseyanus; Nos. 4 and 5,
P. Fichtelii; No. 7, Ceratoderus bifasciatus, and No. 8, ~
Paussus Hardwickii.

Rockville, Landour, Sept. 1845.

Postscript.

Since the above was written, I have received a commu-
nication from Mr. Westwood regarding my Leiomatocerus,
on which a memoir has been read before the Entomological
Society. Mr. Westwood was of opinion, that the insect
(which he has named Bensonis) was, as I first conjectured,
a Ceratoderus, but from the variations from the type observ-
able in the new species, stated, that he “ should either be
obliged to give a new generic name, or else to call by the
name of Ceratoderus, an insect which does not answer to
that generic name.”

Whether it may eventually be found convenient to se-
parate my species from Ceratoderus, or to unite it with bi-
fasciatus under a new generic title, the form Leiomatocerus,
which refers to the structure of the antennz, may equally
be adopted.

15th October, 1845.

47 |

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon, being descriptions
of several new species of Plants belonging to the Tribe

CyrtTanpRe&. By Georce Garpwer, F.L.S., Superin-

tendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon.
[Continued from page 352.]

In the 14th Vol. of the ‘ Linnzan Transactions,’ Dr. Jack
established Cyrtandracee as a distinct order, referring it to
the neighbourhood of Bzgnoniacee. About the same time Mr.
‘Don published an account of the same tribe of plants, under
the name of Didymocarpee, in the 7th Vol. of the ‘ Edin-
burgh Philosophical Journal.’ Lindley and De Candolle adopt
Jack’s name, following him in considering it related to Bigno-
niacee ; while Blume, in his bydragen, considers it a section
of the latter order. Mr. Brown was the first to point out
the true affinities of Cyrtandree@ in his elaborate paper on
the tribe in Horsfield’s ‘ Plantze Javanice Rariores ;’ and for
the benefit of those who do not possess that work, I extract
the following interesting observations :

‘It is somewhat remarkable, that none of these writers
should have reverted to the affinity of this new family to
Besleriacee of Richard and De Jussien, now generally
named Gesneriacee. This affinity, however, did not escape
Dr. Von Martius, who in his elaborate account of Gesneri-
aceeé, published in 1829, considers Cyrtandracee as sufli-
ciently distinct from that order in the absence of albumen,
and in having an inverted embryo: the latter character he
states on the authority of Mr. Don, who, in employing the
term ‘‘embryo invertus,” can only have intended to ex-
press its direction with respect to pericarpium; such at
least is the real structure of those genera which he referred
to his Didymocarpee, and it is certain that in the relation
of embryo to hilum, both families entirely agree.

‘¢ Dr. Von Martius also notices the difference in the order
of abortion of stamina between these two families, which is
no doubt generally true, but admits in each, of at least one

472 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

exception; Sarmienta in Gesneriacee, agreeing with Cyr-
tandrace@ in having only its two anterior or lower stamina
antheriferous; and in this latter family Atkinta or Epithe-
ma, which, as in the greater part of diandrous Gesneriacee,
has its two posterior or upper stamina perfect.

‘‘ There is, indeed, another, and that a very remarkable
distinction, noticed in the position of the lobes of the stigma,
which in Gesneriacee, according to Von Martius, are placed
right and left in relation to the parts of the flower, and con-
sequently opposite to the lateral parietal placentz; while in
Cyrtandracee the lips of the stigma,—for so it is necessary to
express the fact in this family,—are anterior and posterior, and
therefore alternate with the lateral placentz; the latter being
the ordinary relation in unilocular ovaria, where the placentz
and lobes, or rather lips, of stigma correspond in number. This
difference, however, even were it fully established, would
hardly be available here as a technical distinction, several
genera in each family having an undivided stigma; unless in
such cases the position of the confluent parts could be de-
termined by that of the two vascular cords generally observ-
able in the style, and continued into the axes of the lobes
of a regularly bifid stigma, when belonging to an ovarium
composed of two carpels. But even if this distinguishing
character should be admitted to be general, it is certainly
not without exception; and in the only cases that I have
examined in Gesnertace, where the lateral position of the
lobes of the stigma may be supposed to exist, the apparent
position arises from the extreme breadth and manifest divi-
sion of the lips, the two vascular cords of the style being
still anterior and posterior.

‘The only point of difference remaining, therefore, is
the existence of albumen in Gesneriacee@, and its absence in
Cyrtandracee. This character, however, is not absolutely
constant, there being cases in Cyrtandracee where the re-
mains of albumen are visible in the apparently ripe seed ;

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 473

and in several Gesneriace@ it exists so sparingly as to be-
come a character of very little value, especially as it is not
here connected with other more important differences.

“In describing the genus Aikinza (Epithema of Dr. Blume,)
I regarded Cyrtandracee, or Cyriandree, for the reasons
now assigned, as a tribe merely of Gesneriacee, distin-
guishable from that portion of the order with hypogynous
corolla, or Beslertee, by characters either of little import-
ance, or which required confirmation. For although, in addi-
tion to the characters referred to, Cyrtandree differ very
remarkably in geographical distribution from the rest of the
family, yet this difference is not entirely without exception,
as I have already noticed in my account of Lozotis. But
whether these groups be considered as distinct families, or as
tribes only, it will probably be admitted that in a natural
classification Cyrtandree must stand next to Besleriee ;
while, on the other hand, they appear to be very nearly
related to Bignoniacee, with which they are connected
through Incarvillea, particularly with that section of it which
in Dr. Royle’s Illustrations I have described as a subgenus,
and named Amphicome.”

With regard to the geographical distribution of the na-
tural order Gesneriacee, the tribes Gesneriee and Beslerice
are entirely confined to the tropical parts of South America
and the West Indian Islands; while Cyrtandree@ represent
them principally in the tropical parts of Asia. As yet only
two species of this tribe have been found in America, viz.
Klugia azurea, Schlect., in Mexico, and Napeanthus Brasi-
tiensis, Gardn., in the Organ Mountains of Brazil. One
species, Rhabdothamnus Scabrosus, Steud., exists in New
Zealand. Feldia Australis, Cunn., is from New Holland ;
and Ramondia pyrenaica, a European species, is referred
here by De Candolle. One species of Streptopus is from
South Africa, and the other five from Madagascar; while
several species of Cyrtandra are from the Sandwich Islands.

474 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

By far the greater part of described species, however, are
from the more Eastern parts of India, such as Nepal,
Ava, Malacca,* Sumatra, and Java. Few exist on the
Western side of the Continent of India, Dr. Wight, I believe,
having only met with three or four species. In Ceylon, the
Flora of which partakes much of the character both of that
of the Peninsula of India and of the Eastern Islands, there
exist, so far as is yet known, fourteen species, of which I
find not less than twelve to be hitherto undescribed. One of
the described species—Didymocarpus zeylanica, R. Br., I
have not yet met with; and Klugia zeylanica, DC. (Glas-
santhus zeylanica, R. Br.) is now described for the first time,
Mr. Brown having only named it in the work above referred
to. Only one species, Klugia notaniana, DC., is common
to the Peninsula and Ceylon.

JESCHYNANTHUS CEYLANICA, Gardn.

AE. foliis lanceolatis, basi acutis, apice obtuse acumina-
tis, nervis lateralibus paucis, obliquis; umbellis 2-3 floris,
pedicellis calyce subzqualibus, glabris ; calyce 5-partito gla-
bro, lobis linearibus ; corollae extus glanduloso-pubescentis,
calyce quadruplo majoris, lobis rotundatis, ciliatis, maculatis,
staminibus exsertis, filamentis puberalis, seminibus utrinque

pilo unico.

Has.—On trees in forests on the mountains of the Central
Province: not uncommon. FI. in September and October.

Descr.—A scandent, radicant, branched shrub. Branches round,
compressed a little at the nodes, glabrous. Leaves opposite, petio-
late, lanceolate, acute at the base, obtusely acuminate, somewhat
fleshy, glabrous, 24-3 inches long, by about 8 lines broad: Petioles

* Judging from the collections sent by the late lamented Mr. Griffith to Dr.
Wight, and which | lately had an opportunity of looking over in his Herbarium, an
immense number of Malacca Cyrtandree still remain to be described. These I
hope soon to see taken up by Dr. Wight.

qn

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 47

about 3 lines long. Umbels terminal, sessile, 2-3 flowered. Pedi-
cels slender, glabrous, about 4 lines long. Calyx free, deeply 5-parted,
lobes linear, obtuse, about 3 lines long. Corolla hypogynous, gamo-
petalous, infundibuliform, curved, 12-15 lines long, covered exter-
nally with short glandular hairs, of a scarlet colour. Limb somewhat
spreading, irregularly 5-cleft, lobes rounded ciliated with short gland-
bearing hairs, the two upper ones smaller than the others, all of a
greenish colour with irregular atrasanguineous stripes. Stamens 5,
four only of which bear anthers. Filaments complanate, glandularly
pubescent, the fertile ones exserted, the barren one included. An-
thers oblong, 2-celled, cohering in pairs. Ovary free, surrounded at
the base by a cyathiform crenulated disk, siliquose, attenuated at the
base, 1-celled, with two slightly protruded parietal placente, each ~
consisting of two subrevolute ovuliferous lamine. Ovules nume-
rous. Style filiform, exserted, about as long as the stamens, glabrous.
Stigma entire, dilated, concave. Capsule siliquose, cylindrical, straight,
about eight inches long, 1-celled, 2-valved, with a loculicidal dehis-
cence. Seeds numerous, attached to the broad lamellz which form
the placentz on the middle of each valve, pendulous, oblong, with a
single long white hair at each extremity. Testa brown, rugose.

Oxzs.—The species to which this one is most closely rela-
ted, is 4. Perrattetii, Alph. DC., from the Neilgherries,
where I collected it in fruit, in February 1845, along with
Dr. Wight. From a comparison of specimens, I find them
to differ in the following particulars: The Ceylon species has
the leaves broader and more acute at the base; the umbels
are rarely more than 2-flowered, while in the Neilgherry
one they vary from 3-5; the corolla of the Neilgherry plant
is glabrous, while the Ceylon one is glandularly pubescent;
the capsule of the Neilgherry species is only three inches
long, while in the other it is eight.

DIDYMOCARPUS LONGIPETIOLATA, Gardn.

D. tomentosa, caule prostrato radicante, foliis alternis,

longipetiolatis, orbiculato-ovatis, basi cordatis obtusis cre-
3 Q

(eX Sr eae eS

476 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

natis, pedunculis axillaribus folio vix equantibus 2-3-tricho-
tomis paucifloris pilosis, calycis 5-partiti lobis linearibus
obtusis deciduis.

Has.—Adam’s Peak, found by Mrs. General Walker.

Duscr.—Herbaceous. Stem prostrate, rooting, tomentose. Leaves
alternate, on long petioles, or bicularly ovate, cordate at the base,
obtuse, crenate, obliquely pennivenous, veins about 7 on each side,
tomentose on both sides, paler on the under surface, about 3 inches
long, by as many broad. Petioles tomentose, 3-35 inches long. Pe-
duncles axillary, solitary, nearly as long as the leaves, pilose, two or
three times trichotomously divided, the divisions bearing several small
linear pilose bracts at their base. Pedicels pilose, about 3 lines long.
Calyx free, persistent, deeply 5-parted, lobes linear-subulate, ob-
tuse, pilose, about 2 lines long. Corol/a hypogynous, gamo-petalous,
whitish, about 9 lines long, infundibuliform, a little constricted at the
throat, pilose externally. Limb 5-cleft, bilabiate, upper lip 2-lobed,
lobes short, rounded, reflexed, lower lp 3-lobed, the lateral lobes
broadly obovate, divaricate, the intermediate one rounded, and much
smaller. Stamens 4, the anterior pair only fertile. Filaments glabrous. —
Anthers reniform, glabrous, cohering, 1-celled. Ovary free, seated
in a very small dentate annular disk, siliquose, pubescent, 1-celled,
with two protruded parietal placentz, each bearing two subrevolute
ovuliferous margins. Style 1, filiform, glabrous, persistent. Stigma
obliquely orbicular from the abortion of the upper lip. Capsule
siliquose, glabrous, terite, crowned with the persistent style, about
13 inches long, 1-celled, 2-valved, with a loculicidal dehiscence, the
valves bearing the placentz along their middle. Seeds numerous,
oblong, pendulous. Testa brown, reticulated. 7

=

OxsER.—This plant I was at first inclined to consider the
‘Didymocarpus zeylanicus of Mr. Brown in the “ Plante
Javanice Rariores,” p. 119, but judging from the very short
character which he has there given, his plant differs from
this in two or three particulars. Thus, in it the leaves are
said to be dentate and longer than the petiole, while in this

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 477

they are crenate and shorter than the petiole; in his the
calyx is said to be persistent with the lobes acute, while in
this it is deciduous with the lobes obtuse. They must,
nevertheless, be very nearly allied to each other.

DIDYMOCARPUS HUMBOLDTIANA, Gardn.

D. tomentosa, acaulis, foliis radicalibus petiolatis ovato-
ellipticis, basi obtusis vel subcordatis, apice obtusissimis, cre-
natis supra piloso-tomentosis, subtus lanuginoso-tomentosis,
scapis folio longioribus trichotomis, bracteis oblongis, obtusis,
tomentosis, lobis calycinis villosis, linearibus, obtusis, per-
sistentibus, caps. pollicaribus siliquosis apice attenuatis.

Hazs.—On moist shady rocks above Rambodde; at an
elevation of from 4000-5000 feet above the sea. Fl. nearly
al) the year.

Drscr.— Herbaceous, stemless, tomentose. Leaves with long peti-
oles, ovate elliptical, obtuse or slightly cordate at the base, with a
very obtuse apex, crenate, pennivenous, veins about 5 on each side,
pilose-tomentose above, densely lamiginosely tomentose beneath, par-
ticularly on the veins, exclusive of the petiole from 3-3} inches long,
by from 2-24 broad. Fetioles flattened, a little winged above from
the decurrent base of the lamina, tomentose, from 2-3 inches long.
Scapes numerous, pilose-tomentose, longer than the leaves, about
three times trichotomously divided, the lower divisions subtended
by two oblong obtuse tomentose bracts about 3 lines long, those of
the upper ones smaller. Pedicels slender, pubescent, from 6-8 lines
long. Calyx free, persistent, villous, deeply 5-parted, lobes linear,
obtuse, of a dark brown colour, about 3 lines long. Corolla about
an inch long, and nearly as much broad, of a white colour with a

- slight tinge of purple, hypogynous, gamo-petalous, tubular at the

base, ventricosely campanulate above. Limb 5-cleft, bilabiate, upper
lip 2-lobed, lobes ovate, obtuse, reflexed, lower lip 3-lobed, lobes
broadly ovate, obtuse, about equal spreading. Stamens 4, the poste-
rior pair abortive, the anterior pair fertile, the filaments of which are
very much thicker than the others, and sigmoidly curved, Anthers

478 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

subreniform, 1-celled, cohering, glabrous. Ovary free, seated in a
small annular disk, elongated, somewhat conical, pubescent, 1-celled,

m a =
- a ae :
POEL ALD ns pd Rye a \

with two parietal slightly protruded placentz, each with two broad
divaricate laminz which bear the ovules. Style filiform, glabrous,

~~
—_ SS

Se Fe ee nt

persistent. Stigma bilamellate, lamellz small, obtuse. Capsule sili-
quose, pubescent, terite, crowned with the persistent style, about an
inch long, gradually tapering from below upwards, 1-celled, 2-valved,
with a loculicidal dehiscence, the valves bearing the placente along
their middle. Seeds numerous, oblong, pendulous. Testa brown,
pitted.

“F
Ve
aii
:
:
y

ORES F AGRA UST?
>

eo fee Shae
oa

OxssER.—This very pretty little plant I dedicate to the
Prince of Scientific travellers—Baron Humboldt.

DIDYMOCARPUS PRIMULAFOLIA, Gardn.

D. piloso-tomentosa, acaulis, foliis radicalibus petiolatis,
petiolis alatis, ovato-ellipticis vel suborbicularibus, basi acutis, -
apice obtusissimis, crenatis, utrinque piloso-tomentosis, scapis
racemosis vel subdichotomis, paucifloris, folio longioribus ;
bracteis parvis, pedicellis glanduloso-pilosis, lobis calycinis
pilosis, linearibus, obtusis, deciduis, caps. 9-linearibus sili-
quosis apice attenuatis.

Has.—On shady rocks in forests on the Hantane range,
near Kandy. FI. during the rains. y

Derscr.—Herbaceous, stemless, pilose-tomentose. Leaves with
long petioles, from ovate-elliptical to suborbicular, acute and decur-
rent at the base, forming a wing along the whole length of the petiole
on each side, very obtuse at the apex, regularly crenate, rugose,
alike villously tomentose on both sides, pennivenous, veins about 5 on
each side, exclusive of the petiole from 2-3 inches long, by from 14-
2 inches broad. Petioles winged, from 13-2 inches long. Scapes few,
pilose, longer than the leaves, racemose or rarely subdichotomously
divided. Pedicels slender, glandular-pilose, about 6 lines long, with
small linear obtuse bracts at their base. Calyz free, pilose, decidu-
ous, deeply 5-parted, lobes linear, obtuse, about 14 lines long.
Corolla hypogynous gamo-petalous, about 6 lines long, pubescent

rs.

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 479.

externally white, with a slight tinge of purple, infundibuliform,

ventricose above. Limb 5-cleft, bilabiate, upper lip 2-lobed,
lobes orbicular, obtuse reflexed, lower lip 3-lobed, lobes about
equal, larger than the upper ones, but of the same shape. Sia-
mens 2, with very small rudiments of a posterior pair. Filaments
short, pubescent, curved. Anthers subreniform, I-celled, adhering
face to face, glabrous. Ovary free, seated in a very shallow annular
disk, siliquose, glandular-pubescent, 1-celled, with two parietal pla-
cent. Style filiform, glabrous, persistent. Stigma obliquely subca-
pitate, depressed. Capsule siliquose, slender, pubescent, terite, crown-
ed by the persistent style, about 9 lines long, 1-celled, 2-valved,
with a loculicidal dehiscence, the valves bearing the placente along

_ their middle. Seeds numerous, elliptical, pendulous. Testa brown,

pitted.

OsseR.—This species, although nearly related to the
former, is readily distinguished by its smaller size in all its
parts, the leaves being destitute of woolly tomentum, the
more simple inflorescence, and the much smaller size of the
abortive filaments.

CHIRITA MOONII, Gardn.

C. caule suffruticoso, ramoso, ramis teretibus villoso-to-
mentosis, foliis quaternis, petiolatis, oblongo-lanceolatis, basi
acutis, apice acutis vel subacuminatis, minute, glanduloso-
dentatis, supra villoso-tomentosis infra adpressé sericéo-villo-
tomentosis, pedicellis axillaribus solitariis, petiolo duplo-
longioribus, lobis calycinis lineari-lanceolatis, longe acumina-
tis, carinatis, corolla magna extus pubescente.

Martynia lanceolata, Moon. Cat. Ceylon Plants, p. 45.

Hazs.—Four Korles, Moon. On rocks near the summit
of the Hantane range, near Kandy. FI. during the rains.

Descr.— Suffruticose, 2-3 feet high, branched. Branches round,
villously tomentose. Leaves yerticillate, quaternate, petiolate, oblong-

aA erro”:

480 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

lanceolate, acute at the base, acute or subacuminate at the apex,
minutely glandular-dentate, pennivenous, veins about 10 on each
side, and together with the midrib prominent below, villous-tomen-
tose above, covered with adpressed serecious hairs beneath, from
41.6 inches long, by 13-2 broad. Petioles 8-10 lines long. Pedicels
axillary, solitary, about twice the length of the petiole, villous-
tomentose, thickened towards the apex, with two small bracts a little
above the middle. Calyx free, deciduous, 5-parted nearly to the
base, lobes linear-lanceolate, very much acuminated, carinate, pubes-
cent externally, about an inch long. Corolla hypogynous, gamo-
petalous, tubular at the base, ventricosely campanulate above, about 3
inches long, pubescent externally. Tube with two plicatures on its
posterior inner face which close round the style, of a pale purple
colour, with a broad yellow stripe internally extending from the
bottom of the tube to the base of the middle lobe of the lower lip.
Limé 5-cleft, bilabiate, lobes of the upper lip 2, suborbicular, reflexed,
lower lip 3-lobed, lateral lobes broadly obovate, the middle one much
narrower, all of a rich purple colour. Stamens 5, the posterior very
rudimentary, the two lateral larger, villous, with their apices in-
curved, barren, the two anterior fertile, reaching about half way up
the tube of the corolla. Filaments glabrous, very much thickened, and
geniculate a little above the middle. Anthers elliptical, 1-celled,
cohering, very villous on their anterior margins. Ovary free, gla-
brous, seated in a five-lobed annular disk, siliquose, 1-celled, pla-
cente 2, parietal, formed by the introflexed margins of the carpels,
prominent, with the lamelle very muchcurved. Style filiform, per-
sistent, pubescent upwards. Stigma bilabiate, the upper lip obtuse,
abbreviated, the lower cuneate, truncate. Capsule, siliquose about 5
inches long, 1-celled, 2-valved, with a loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds
numerous, oblong, acute at both ends, pendulous, small. Testa
brown, reticulated.

CHIRITA WALKERI, Gardn.

C. caule suffruticoso, ramoso, ramis teretibus, villoso-
tomentosis, foliis ternatim verticillatis, petiolatis, oblongo-
lanceolatis, basi acutis, apice acuminatis, minuté glanduloso-
dentatis, utrinque tomentosis, pedunculis axillaribus, solitariis,

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 481

gracilis, folio brevioribus, 3-4-floris, lobis calycinis lineari-
lanceolatis, acuminatis, tomentosis, corolla extus puberula.
Has.—Ceylon, Mrs. General Walker.*

Derscr.— Suffruticose erect, branched, every where covered with
white tomentum. SBranches round, leafy. Leaves verticilate, ter-
nate, petiolate, oblong-lanceolate, acute at the base, acuminate,
minutely glandular-dentate, pennivenous, veins about 12 on each
side, 5-7 inches long, by from 20-27 lines broad. Petioles about 6
lines long. Peduncles axillary, solitary, slender, about 3 inches long,
‘about 4 flowered, bearing 2 subulate bracts at the base of the pedi-
cels. Pedicels umbellate, 6-10 lines long, bibracteate a little above
the middle. Calyx free, deciduous, deeply 5-parted, lobes linear-
lanceolate, acuminate, 8-10 lines long, valvate. Corolla hypogynous,
gamo-petalous puberulous externally, about 12 inches long, purple,
tubular at the base, ventricosely campanulate above. Limd bi-
labiate, 5-lobed, lobes rounded, obtuse, entire. Stamens 5, the
posterior one very rudimentary, the two lateral ones sterile, nearly
as long as the fertile ones, villous, the two anterior ones fertile.
Filaments about 5 lines long, thickened and geniculate about the
middle, glabrous. Anthers subreniform, 1-celled, cohering, glabrous.
Ovary free, glabrous, seated in an hypogynous cup-like annular
yellow disk, siliquose, 1-celled, with two parietal placentz formed by
the introflexed margins of the carpels. Style filiform, glandularly pu-
berulous, persistent. Stigma bilabiate, upper lip abbreviated, round-
ed, the lower cuneate, truncate. Capsule siliquose, straight, about 3
inches long, 1-celled, 2-valved, with a loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds
numerous, pendulous, oblong, acute at bothends. Testa brown,

CHIRITA COMMUNIS, Gardn.

C. Caule suffruticoso ramoso, ramis teretibus adpressé pe-
losis, foliis oppositis, petiolatis ovatis, basi rotundatis vel sub-
cordatis, apice acutis vel sub-acuminatis, integris supra ad-
pressé pilosis, pedunculis axillaribus solitariis folio sub-zqua-
_ * About ten years ago, the late General Walker and his lady made very large
botanical collections in Ceylon, the great mass of which were sent to England to

Sir William Hooker, who previous to my leaving for Ceylon, kindly allowed me
to select a set of them to take out with me.

482 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

libus, trichotomis, lobis calycinis oblongo lanceolatis, acumi-
natis, glaberrimis, corolla glaberrima.

Has.—Common in moist shady places in forests on the
mountains of the Central Province. FI. during the rains.

Descr.— Suffruticose, 1-14 feet high, densely covered with white
adpressed hairs, branched. Branches round. Leaves opposite, pe-
tiolate, ovate, rounded or subcordate, and often a little unequal at
the base, acute or subacuminate, green above and adpressly pilose,
pale and sparingly pilose beneath, pennivenous, veins about 10 on
each side, exclusive of the petiole from 33-4 inches long, and from
2-21 broad. Petioles 8-15 lines long. Peduncles axillary, solitary,
about as long as the leaves, pilose-pubescent below, glabrous up-
wards, two to three times trichotomously divided, each division
with two lanceolate, acute bracts, about 3 lines long at its base.
Pedicels about 6 lines long, glabrous. Calyx free, deciduous, some-
what inflated, 5-parted, divided nearly to the base, lobes oblong.
lanceolate, acuminate, glabrous, obscurely 3-nerved, about 6 lines
long and 24 broad, of a brownish purple colour. Corolla hypogynous,
gamo-petalous, glabrous, 1} inches long, tubular at the base, ventre-
cosely campanulate above, with two plicatures on its posterior inner
face, which close nearly round the style, of a pale purple colour, with
a broad yellow stripe internally, extending from the bottom of the
tube to the base of the middle lobe of the lower lip. Limé 5-lobed,
bilabiate, lobes rounded, obtuse, entire, the middle one of the lower
lip smaller than the others, all of a purple colour. Stamens 5, the
posterior one very rudimentary, the two lateral ones about half the
length of the fertile, villous, the two anterior ones fertile. Filaments
about 4 lines long, thickened and geniculate about the middle,
upper half with a few long villi internally. Anthers elliptical, 1-celled,
cohering, very villous on their anterior margins. Ovary free, gla-
brous, seated in an annular fleshy disk, siliquose, 1-celled, with two
parietal placente formed by the introflexed margins of the carpels.
Style filiform, persistent, pubescent towards the apex. Stigma su-
borbicularly peltate. Capsule siliquose, curved, 3-4 inches long,
1-celled, 2-valved, with a loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds numerous,
oblong, pendulous, small. Testa brown, pitted.

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 483

ISANTHERA, Nees ab Esenb. in Trans. Linn. Soc. 17.
p. 82; Endl. Gen. Plant. N. 3871; DC. Prod. 9. p. 279.

Cuar. Gren.—Calyx 5-partitus, lobis lineari-lanceolatis
subeequalibus. Corol/a hypogyna, rotato-subcampanulata :
tubo brevissimo : limbz 5-fidi, lobis ovato-ellipticis, vix aqua-
libus, calyce sublongioribus. Stamina 4, cumquinto postici,
sterili: filamenta corolle tubo inserta, ejusdem lobis alterna,
brevia, subulata, libera, demum recurvata: Anthere, sub-
globose, uniloculares, liberze, rima transversa dehiscentes.
Ovarium annulo glanduloso basi cinctum, ovoideo-conicum,
uniloculare. Stylus brevis. Stzgma obtusum. Capsula ovato-
oblonga calyce persistente vix longior, approximatione pla-
centarum falso bilocularis. Lamina lamellis placentaribus
Suffrutices
Indice: Caule erecto, vix ramoso, rufo-tomentoso, medulla

quatuor inserta, parva, elliptica, compressa.

ampla farcto, foliis alternis, penniveniis, supra viridibus et
lanugine sparse, subtus lanugioso-albicantibus, floribus ax-
illaribus, fasciculato-glameratis vel cymosis, calycibus extus
_tanatis. Corollis glabris, albis.

1. Isanthera floribunda, Gardn. Suffruticosa vix ramosa
rufo-tomentosa, foliis alternis, petiolatis, ovali-oblongis, basi
cuneatis, acuminatis, serratis, supra demum glabriusculis, pe-
dunculis axillaribus, cymosis multifloris.

Has.—Adam’s Peak, Moon. Mrs. General Walker. Han-
tane range, near Kandy. FI. in April, May and June.

Descr.—Suffruticose, 1-2 feet high. Stem rarely branched, with
large pith, leafy. Leaves alternate, petiolate, 6-10 inches long, and
2-3 broad, oval-oblong, cuneate at the base, acuminate, serrate, pen-
nivenous, veins about 12 on each side, prominent, green and a little
woolly above, at length becoming nearly glabrous, white and tomen-
tose beneath. Petioles 15 lines to 2 inches long, concave above,
convex below, dilated at the base. Cymes axillary, much shorter
than the leaves, solitary, many flowered, tomentose. Calyx free,

ok

48 1 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

persistent, covered with shining woolly tomentum, deeply 5-parted,
lobes linear-lanceolate, about equal. Corolla hypogynous, gamo-
petalous, rotate-subcampanulate, white. Tube very short : limb deeply
5-parted, lobes obovate-elliptical, obtuse, a little longer than the caly-
cine segments. Stamens 4, with the rudiment of a fifth, alternate with
the divisions of the corolla, included: filaments short free, at length
recurved : anthers subglobose, 1-celled, free, dehiscing by a trans-
verse slit. Hypogynous disk annular. Ovary free, pubescent, ovoid-
conical, 1-celled, but apparently 2-celled from the approximation of
the prominent placentz: placente 2, parietal, each with two divari-
cate laminz which are ovuliferous only at their extremities. Style
short, persistent. Stigma obtuse. Capsule ovate-oblong, scarcely
longer than the persistent. Calyx 1-celled, 2-valved, with a loculi-
cidal dehiscence, the valves bearing the placentz along their middle.
Seeds numerous, small, elliptical, pendulous, compressed. Testa
brown, reticulated.

OxsserR.—The genus Isanthera was first established by
Nees von Esenbeck in the 17th Vol. of the ‘ Linnzan Trans-
actions, and so far as I can learn—not having the volume
beside me to consult—he considered it related to Verbascum.
Endlicher in his ‘Genera Plantarum,’ places it doubtfully at
the end of Solanacee, with the observation that it ‘‘ perhaps
belongs to Cyrtandracee,” in which latter order it is placed
doubtfully by De Candolle. The plant which I have here
described I have no doubt belongs to the genus [santhera,
notwithstanding that it wants the polygamous character as-
cribed to it by Nees. Of the present plant I have examined
numerous specimens from different parts of the Island, both
in the recent and dried state, without having been able to
detect a single flower that was not hermaphrodite. This
fact leads me to suspect, that the specimens of the species
on which Nees founded the genus, were not in a good state
for examination. ‘The corolla is very fugaceous in my plant,
and is no doubt the same in his, and this may have led him
to suspect that his plant bore female flowers destitute of

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 485

corolla, as well as hermaphrodite ones. As the stamens
are inserted on the corolla, what he has taken for rudiments
of stamens in his female flowers must have been the hypogy-
nous disk. The genus unquestionably belongs to Cyrtandree,
and will range in the sub-tribe Lowoniee, along with the
following new genus. The generic character of Isanthera
which I have drawn up, is taken entirely from the Ceylon
species. In one or two instances I have met with the sterile
stamen bearing a small anther, which will account for Nees’
describing his plant as pentandrous; but that it is not always
so is evident from the fact that De Candolle, on the authori-
ty of Bentham, makes it tetrandrous.

CHAMPIONIA. Genus Novum.

Cuar. Gen.—Calyx 5-partitus, lobis lineari-subulatis,
zequalibus. Corolla hypogyna, rotata: tubo brevissimo:
limbo profunde 4-partito, lobis oblongo-lanceolatis, squa-
libus, calyce longioribus. Stamina 4, equalia; filamenta
erecta, complanata. Anthere ovato-oblonge, adnate, libere,
2-loculares, longitudinaliter dehiscentes. Glandula hypogyna
nulla. Ovarium oblongo-conicum, I-loculare, placentis 2,
parietalibus. Stylus filiformis. Stigma capitatum. Capsula ob-
longa, calyce persistente longior, 1 locularis, valvis 2, medio
placentiferis. Semina plurima, parva, nuda, ovata, compressa,
pendula. Testa reticulata.

Suffrutex Ceylanicus ;
caulibus simplictbusp superne villoso-tomentosts, foliis oppost-
tis, vix disparibus, petiolatis, oblongis, basi cuneatis, penni-
veniis, reticulatis, integerrimis, supra pilosis, demum glabri-
usculis, infra pallidis, pubescente-tomentosis, pedunculis axil-
laribus, folio-brevioribus, trichotomis, calycibus pilosis lobis-
triatis, corollis glabris, albis.

1.—Championia reticulata, Gardn.

Has.—Saffragam, Moon. Adam’s Peak. Mrs. General
Walker. Fl. May and August.

486 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

Drscr.— Suffruticose, unbranched, from 6-12 inches high. Stem
round, glabrous below, villous tomentose above. Leaves opposite,
one a little smaller than the other, petiolate, oblong, cuneate at the
base, obtuse or acute, entire pennivenous, veins about 10 on each
side, intervenium highly reticulated, shining above, and pilose, at
length becoming nearly glabrous, beneath whitish, and minutely
pubescently tomentose, margin slightly ciliated, from 6-7 inches
long, and from 15-22 lines broad. Petzoles 8-12 lines long, tomen-
tose. Peduncles axillary, solitary or in pairs, shorter than the leaves,
pilose, two or three times trichotomously divided. Pedicels slender,
4-10 lines long, glabrous, or villous particularly under the flower.
Calyx free, deeply 5-parted, lobes linear-subulate, striated, about 22
lines long, bearing externally a few long, pellucid, articulated hairs,
persistent. Corolla hypogynous, gamo-petalous, rotate, regular. Tube
very short. Limé deeply 4-parted, lobes oblong-lanceolate, obtuse,
striated, longer than the lobes of the calyx. Stamens 4, equal, inserted
on the tube of the corolla alternately with its lobes, included. <An-
thers ovate-oblong, obtuse, adnate, free, 2-celled, dehiscing longitu-
dinally. Connective broad. Hypogynous disk none. Ovary free, ob-
long-conical, pubescent, 1-celled, with two slightly protruded parie-
tal placentze. Ovules numerous. Style filiform, deciduous. Stigma
capitate. Capsule oblong, about 4 lines long, 1-celled, 2-valved, the
valves bearing the placente on their middle. Seeds many, naked,
ovate, compressed, pendulous, Testa brown, reticulated.

OsseER.—This very remarkable plant I dedicate to my ex-
cellent friend, Capt. J. G. Champion cf, the 95th Regiment,
who, during several years that he has been in Ceylon, has
devoted much attention to the indigenous vegetation of
the Island. There can be no doubt of its being a legiti-
mate denizen of Cyrtandree, but it will not associate with
the members of any hitherto described genus. Its techni-
cal characters bring it into De Candolle’s 6th sub-tribe,
Loxoniee ; and its nearest affinity is with Jsanthera, from
which it is distinguished by its opposite leaves, and the
structure of its corolla. In habit it agrees with Napeanthus,

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 487

as also with Lowonia itself, except in the less disparity of
the leaves. One of its most remarkable features is the con-
stant disagreement between the number of the divisions of
the calyx and corolla, the former being five, the latter four,
parted; and I have found this to be constant in a number
of specimens from two different parts of the island. No
flowers which I have ever examined, are so well adapted for
the procuring of spiral vessels as those of this plant, the
calycine segments being made up of one entire mass of
them. They are also abundant in the corolla, but less so than
in the calyx, and in the filaments they do not exist at all.

KLUGIA NOTONIANA, Alp. DC.

K. caulibus, racemes, pedicelisque linea laterali villosa no-
tatis; calyce 5-angulato, angulo superiore basi alté alato—
cristato, czetris leviter et equaliter alatis.

Glossanthus malabaricus, Klein in Wall. Cat. n. 6394 ;
Benth. Scroph. Ind. p. 57.

Glossanthus notoniana, R. Br. in Hors. Pl. Jav. Rar.
p. 121.

Klugia notoniana, Alph. DC. Prodr. 9. p. 276.

Has.—In moist shady places above Rambodde? at an
elevation of about 5000 feet, associated with Impatiens sub-
cordata, Arn. Fl. July and September.

Derscr.—Annual, erect, 1-1} feet high. Stems round, fleshy,
branched, villously pubescent on one side, particularly towards the
top, branched. Leaves alternate, petiolate, exstipulate, membrana-
ceous, entire or somewhat sinuate, minutely glandular-dentate,
ovate oblong, cordate and very unequal at the base, acuminate at
the apex, upper surface green, with small scattered adpressed hairs,
the under pale, glabrous, or with a few hairs on the veins, penni-
venous, veins close, and about 20 in the large side, 5-8 inches long,
by from 2-25 inches broad. Petioles 1-2 inches long, villous on
the upper surface. Racemes opposite the leaves, simple elongated,

ss

488 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

floriferous at the apex, with a broad villous line on one side. Flow-
ers secund, 20-25, blue. Pediceés villous on one side, about 2
lines long, each with a small subulate bract at its base. Calyx
free, persistent, green, about 3 lines long. Tube 5-angled, the
upper angle with a deep rounded wing-like crest on its lower half,
the others very slightly and equally winged, glabrous except the
angles which are pilose. Limb 5-cleft, lobes equal, erect, ovate, acute,
with a glandular tip, margins ciliated. Corolla hypogynous, gamo-
petalous : tube cylindrical, white, about 5 lines long, with the throat
closed, glabrous. Limb bilabiate, upper lip ovate, dentately truncate,
reflexed, about 3 lines long, deep blue, lower lip large, broadly ellip-
tical, obtuse, entire, about 15 lines long, by 11 lines broad, with two
oblong concavities at the base, of a deep blue colour, but with a yel-
low blotch at the base. Stamens 4, didynamous: fi/aments filiform,
reaching to the base of the upper lip of the corolla. Anthers all per-
fect, 2-celled, glabrous, cohering ina mass. Hypogynous gland entire,
cup-shaped, about 1 line deep, and of a whitish colour. Ovary free,
ovate, glabrous, 1-celled, with two parietal placente, each with 2
divaricate straight ovuliferous laminz. Style filiform, glabrous, per-
sistent. Stigma capitately cup-shaped. Capsule enclosed within
the calyx, somewhat obovate, l-celled, 2-valved, with a loculicidal
dehiscence, the valves bearing the placente along their middle.
Seeds numerous, oblong, pendulous: ¢esta brown, reticulated.

OsseEr. J.—As no detailed description of this species has
hitherto been published, I have thought it proper to give
one here, in order that it may be contrasted with the other
two Ceylon species, from both of which it may readily be
distinguished by the broad villous line which runs along the
upper part of the stem, the racemes, and the pedicels. My
Ceylon specimens agree in every respect with those which
I collected on the Neilgherries, along with Dr. Wight, in
February 1845. The character which M. Alphonse De
Candolle gives of the calyx is a most erroneous one, viz.
‘‘ Calyce basi superne grossé et obtusé calcarato.” What
he has taken for a spur is the winged expansion of the
lower part of the upper angle. He further states, that the

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 489

corolla in his specimen is only 6 lines long. It must be ob-
served, however, that unless very carefully dried the corolla
in all the species shrinks very much.

Osser. II.—This species was first noticed in Wallich’s
catalogue, in the year 1828,* at n. 6394, under the name of
Glossanthus malabaricus, Klein MSS., but no character of
it was published till Mr. Bentham did so, in 1835, at p. 57,
of his ‘‘ Scrophularinee Indice.” Since then Mr. Brown has
ascertained, that a Mexican plant which M. Schlechtendal
published in the “ Linnea” for 1833, under the generic
name of Kilugia, is a congener of the present species; but
in place of following the excellent law of adopting the name
under which a genus has been first described, he adheres to
that of Wallich’s catalogue in his article on Cyrtandree in
Horsfield’s ‘‘ Plante Javanice Rariores.” M. Alphonse De
Candolle in his father’s posthumous article on the same tribe,
in the 9th Vol. of the “ Prodromus,” has, on the contrary,
adopted Schlechtendal’s name; and I here follow him, as I
believe that the law of priority of description ought to be
rigidly adhered to. Had earlier attention been paid to this
golden rule, much of the confusion which has crept into the
synonymy of natural science, through the adoption of mere
manuscript and catalogue names, would have been avoided.

Osser. III.—Mr. Brown doubts whether his genus Lowotis
(Rhynchoglossum, Blume) ought to be generically distin-
guished from this. Besides the difference which he has
pointed out in the nature of the stamens, Lowotis differs
from the Indian species of Klugia, at least, in having the
racemes springing from the axills of the leaves. They are
perhaps, however, too nearly related to be kept asunder.

KLUGIA GLABRA, Gardn.
K. glaberrima, calyce 5-angulato, angulo superiore basi
alté alato-cristato, cetris exalatis.

* This is the date of the preface to the catalogue.

490 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

Has.—In moist shady places near Rambodde, associated
with Klugia Ceylanica, Alph. DC. FI. in September.

Drscr.—Annual erect, glabrous. Leaves alternate, petiolate,
ovate-oblong, sub-dimidiate, unequal at the base, acuminate, entire,
green above, pale beneath, pennivenous, veins about 20 on the large
side, 5-7 inches long, and from 23-3 broad. Racemes opposite the
leaves, glabrous, floriferous at the apex. Flowers secund, about 20,
blue. Pedicels about 2 lines long, each with a single subulate bract
at its base. Calye free, persistent, glabrous, loosely tubular, 5-
angled, the upper angle with a deep wing-like crest on its lower
half, the others wingless. Limb about equally 5-cleft, the lobes
erect, acute, with a glandular tip. Corolla hypogynous, gamo-
petalous. - Tube cylindrical, white, about 4 lines long, with the throat
closed. Limb bilabiate, the upper lip truncate, reflexed about 14
lines long, lower lip broadly elliptical, 10-12 lines long, by about 9
broad, with two elliptical concavities at the base, of a deep blue
colour, but with a blotch of yellow immediately above the concavi-
ties. Stamens 4, didynamous: filaments filiform, reaching to the
base of the upper lip of the corolla. Anthers all perfect, 2-celled,
glabrous, cohering in a mass. Hypogynous gland entire, of a cup-
shape, scarcely a line deep. Ovary free, ovate, glabrous, 1-cel-
led, with 2 parietal placente, each of two divaricate, ovuliferous la-
mine. Style filiform, glabrous, persistent. Stigma dimidiately or-
bicular. Capsule included within the calyx, ovate, 1-celled, 2-valved,
with a loculicidal dehiscence, the valves bearing the placentz along
their middle. Seeds numerous, oblong, pendulous: testa brown,
reticulated.

Osser.—This species, which is nearly related to the last,
is easily distinguished by being glabrous, in having more
membranous leaves, by only the upper angle of the calyx
being winged, by the acute, not acuminate, calycine segments, _
and by the smaller flowers. One of the capsules which I
examined was 3-valved, all of which were placentiferous.

KLUGIA CEYLANICA, Alph. DC.
K. stellato-piloso-pubescens, calyce 5-angulato, angulis
eequaliter alatis.

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 491

Glossanthus zeylanica, R. Br. in Hors. Pl. Jav. Rar.
p. 121.
Klugia zeylanica, d/ph. DC. Prodr. 9. p. 276.

Hazs.—Common in moist shady places about Kandy. FI.
during the rains.

Drscr.—Anaual, erect, 1-15 feet high, pilose-pubescent, pubes-
cence forked or stellate. Stem round, fleshy, branched. Leaves
alternate, petiolate, ovate-oblong, cordate and very unequal at the
base, acute or shortly acuminated, entire, dark green above, pale
beneath, pennivenous, veins about 12 on the large side, 4-5 inches
long, and about 23 broad: FPetioles 12-15 lines long. Racemes
opposite the leaves, floriferous at the apex. Flowers secund, from
20-25, deep blue. Pedicels about 3 lines long, each with a subulate
bract about half its length at its base. Calyx free, persistent, tubu-
lar, 5 angled, angles all equally winged, glabrous except the margins
of the wings which are pilose: Limb deeply 5-cleft, the lobes
lanceolate, acuminate, with a glandular tip, glabrous. Corolla hypo-
gynous, gamo-petalous: Tube cylindrical, about 6 lines long, with
the throat closed, white: Limé bilabiate, upper lip broadly ovate,
truncate, about 14 lines long, reflexed, white, lower lip large, entire,
orbicular, about 4 lines long, deep blue, with a yellow ring round a
broad concavity which exists at the base. Stamens 4, with the ru-
diment of a fifth, didynamous : fi/aments filiform, glabrous, reaching
to the base of the upper lip of the corolla: anthers 2-celled, glabrous,
cohering in a mass. Hypogynous gland cyathiform, crenate, yellow.
Ovary free, ovate, glabrous, l-celled, with 2 parietal placentz, the
divergent laminze of which bear the ovules. Style filiform, glabrous,
persistent. Stzgma orbicular, concave. Capsule enclosed within
the calyx, l-celled, 2-valved, with a loculicidal dehiscence, the
valves bearing the placentz along their middle. Seeds numerous,
elliptical, pendulous ; testa brown, reticulated.

OsserR. I.—This is one of the most easily characterised
of the Indian species of the genus, the rounded incurved
base of the large side of the leaf, the forked or stellate

pubescence, the equally winged angles of the calyx, and
3s

492 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon.

the long narrow much acuminated calycine lobes, readily
distinguishing it from the others.

Osser. II.—At page 121 of the ‘ Plante Javanice
Rariores,” Brown has named, but not described, a species of
this genus which he calls Glossanthus Zeylanicus ; but it is
quite impossible for me to determine whether it was this or
the former species he had in view. ‘The reason why I have
adopted his name to this one is, that it is by far the most
common species, is very abundant about Kandy, and hence
was the most likely one for him to be in possession of.

EPITHEMA CEYLANICA, Gardn.

E. tota piloso-hispida, foliis infer. oppositis vel abortu so-
litariis, petiolatis, laté ovatis, cordatis, duplicato-serrato-
dentatis, super. oppositis, sessilibus, pedunculis terminalibus
1-3 elongatis, apice spicatis, spicis densis, secundis, circinalis
basi bracteatis, bracteis cordatis, cuculatis, obtusis, dentatis.

Has.—In clefts of moist rocks in forests in the central
Province. FI. during the rains.

Descr.—Annual, erect, hispidately pilose, about 1 foot high. Stem
round, fleshy, sparingly branched. Leaves opposite, one of those of
the lower pair often abortive, the lower ones petiolate, the upper
ones sessile, ovate, cordate acutish or obtuse, doubly dentate-serrate,
pennivenous, veins about 10 on each side; lower ones exclusive of
the petiole 5-6 inches long, and from 33-5 broad: Petioles about 3
inches long ; the upper ones about 2 inches long, and about 20 lines
broad. Peduncles terminal, 1-3, from 3-5 inches long, spicate at the
apex, spike dense, secund, circinate, with a large sessile, cordate, or-
bicular, concave, denticulate bract at its base, into which the upper
end is curved. Calyx free, persistent, tubular, about 2 lines long,
deeply 5 cleft, lobes lanceolate, acute valvate. Corolla hypogynous,
gamo-petalous, infundibuliform, about 4 lines long: ¢ube white:
limb 5-cleft, bilabiate, upper lip smaller than the lower one, 2-lobed,
lobes ovate, obtuse, lower lip 3-lobed, lobes suborbicular, obtuse,
blue. Stamens 4, the two posterior fertile, the two anterior sterile :

— i

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 493

filaments filiform, the sterile and fertile united in pairs at the
base by a thin membrane: Anthers subreniform, 1-celled, cohering,
glabrous. Hypogynous disk formed of five distinct, emarginate,
yellow glands. Ovary free, ovate, oblong, obtuse, pubescent, 1-cel-
led, with two parietal placentz reaching half way up the walls, but
free and ovuliferous at their apices. Style filiform, glabrous, persis-
tent. Stigma capitate. Capsule ovate, 1-celled, with an irregular
circumcissal dehiscence. Seeds numerous, oblong, attached to the
free apices of the placentz by the long slender umbilical cords ; testa
brown, beautifully spirally striated.

Osser. I.—Although the lower leaf of this species is
generally solitary, I have met with several specimens in
which it was opposed by another smaller one. In one flower
which came under my examination, one of the barren fila-
ments was changed into a petaloid organ of the same colour
as the limb of the corolla. The walls of the capsule are very
thin and membranous, and the dehiscence takes place a
little above the middle. The placentz are truly pedicellate,
but the pedicels adhere to the parieties to about their mid-
dle, the upper part only being free and seminiferous, the
seeds being attached to it by long slender umbilical cords,
some of which are erect, others pendulous. ‘The seeds are
beautiful objects under the microscope, resembling very
much the nucules of the genus Chara, being elegantly spi-
rally striated. This species is distinguished from F. Bru-
nonis, Decaisn., which it resembles in habit, by its larger
size, sessile upper leaves, and much smaller flowers.

Osser. I].—Altogether Epithema is a very anomalous
genus of the tribe to which it belongs, having several re-
markable peculiarities of structure ; such as the circumsis-
sal dehiscence of the capsule, and the posterior, not the an-

terior stamens being the fertile ones. This latter circum-
stance forms a link by which to connect Cyrtandree to Ges-
nertacee.

494

Notes on Indian Botany. By R. Wicut, M.D., F.L.S.,
Imp. Acad. Nat. Curios. Bonn.
(Continued from page 363.)
On the Genus LASIANTHUS, Jack.

The genus Lasianthus was defined and published by Mr.
Jack in 1825, adopted by Blume in 1826, and by Sprengel in
his genera in 1830. In the same year, De Candolle published
the genus in the 4th volume of his Prodromus, under the name
of Mephitidia, assigning as his reason for suppressing Jack’s
name ‘ non Lin. nec DC.,” from which it would appear that
both Linnzus and he had each published a genus under
that name, and that at least one of them was then extant in

Botany. Being curious, while writing on the subject, to know __
y § $ ject,

something of the genus in whose favour Jack’s very appropri-
ate name had been set aside, I turned up the name in Steu-
del’s Nomenclator Botanicus, and was surprised to find no
such name emanating from DC., and that Lasianthus, Lin. had
been, by himself, appropriated to a species of Gordonia, an
older generic name for his plant. From Steudel I went to
other lists of genera given by Sprengel, Bartling, and Lindley,
but could find no “ Lasianthus, DC.,”’ neither could I find
it in any of the volumes of the Prodromus, and as a last, and
rarely failing, resource, I had recourse to Endlicher’s genera,
and there found the missing name, not however as a generic
one, but as a subgenus or section of Gordonta. And in that
capacity it seemed so little thought of by the author, (DC.)
that he had not deemed it worthy of a place in his Index to
the volume, thereby affording no clue to its existence as a
Botanical name: and, until resuscitated for the purpose of
superseding Jack’s, was almost unknown in Botany. Under
Composite the name again occurs, and is again set aside
with the remark ‘ non DC. nec Jack.”

Having thus traced the history of the name-as a Botanical
generic designation, the question, a grave one too, then
arose: Is DC., or any other Naturalist, authorized by the

Notes on Indian Botany. 495

rules of Nomenclature to set aside a well defined and already
admitted generic name, on account of its already existing as
a sectional or sub-generic name, but not, as such, admitted
into the list of genera forming the Index appended to the
volume in which it occurs?

This question was, of course, almost without hesitation,
answered in the negative. Further reflection, however, based
on the fact that De Candolle’s decision had already passed
unquestioned by all subsequent writers with whose works
I am acquainted, including G. Don, Lindley, Endlicher, and
Meisner, made me pause before finally acting on my own
opinion, and restoring Jack’s name to the science. A refer-
ence however to the history of Wallichia, as given by Mr.
Griffith in a recent number, coupled with the generally ad-
mitted propensity of mankind to follow a leader until our
own powers of reflection are called into play, by having a
question submitted in a tangible shape for our decision, in
the end determined me to do that, after the fullest consider-
ation, which my judgment from the first told me was right.
I therefore restore Jack’s name, in the firm conviction that
others, on similar consideration, will admit the propriety of
my doing so, and acknowledge its justice by doing as I have
done. This I expect on the simple and obvious principle,
that a sub-generic name can never be admitted to rank
higher than a second specific one, and may be employed in
the sub-division of 20 or more genera of the same order
without causing the slightest confusion or ambiguity. Gor-
donia ( Lasianthus, ) Wallichii, DC. would never be confound-
ed with Cleyera /Lasianthus) Japonica, or Terinstromia
(Lasianthus,) brevipes, were such sub-divisions necessary to-
wards the elucidation of the species of these genera, and still
less is Gordonia ( Lasianthus,) Wallichit, likely to be con-
founded with Lasianthus cyanocarpus, Jack. In a word, I
consider the reason given for the suppression of Jack’s name
quite inadmissible, and therefore restore it to the science.

496 Notes on Indian Botany.

Few are the honors Science has to confer on her votaries ;
the principal, indeed the only one being the perpetuation in
her annals of their names in connexion with the subjects
of their investigations, and that, when well merited should
not be lightly set aside. In the present instance,.I conceive
it has been set aside on most insufficient grounds, and there-
fore with the greatest respect and deference for the truly
great and illustrious man who first, I believe, in an unguarded
moment committed the error, (and whose memory I revere as
being one of the most eminent benefactors of the science of
Botany) as well as for the other celebrated Botanists who, by
unthinkingly following his footsteps, have confirmed, in place
of correcting his oversight—I take the liberty of thus pointed-
ly directing attention to the erroneous division, in the hope
of preventing its becoming a precedent that might lead to
the perpetration of unintentional injustice to deserving in-
dividuals, similar to that which has been unreflectingly in-
flicted on the meritorious Mr. Jack.

The generic character given by Jack is too brief for this
variable genus, but it was taken from two species only.
Blume’s, derived from the study of 16 species, is more
comprehensive, and indeed leaves but little room for im-
provement, except that he has not noticed the ovary or
its contents, nor the structure of the seed and direction of
the embryo, which are imperfections of some moment.
His character has, under the name of Mephitidia, been adopt-
ed by De Candolle, with a few unimportant verbal alterations.

In 1834, Mr. Arnot gave under Laniia a fuller, and upon.

the whole, more perfect character than either of the preced-
ing, and except that it was necessarily limited to a single
species, (Lantia venulosa, Lasianthus venulosus,) the only one
then known to us, would in all essential points have left
nothing further to be desired.

From the date of De Candolle’s Prodromus, no one seems
to have made any direct additions to the genus. Under the

;
j
f
:
y

Notes on Indian Botany. 497

ordinal character of our Prodromus two species are indicated,
which I have here taken up, and our Lantia venulosa, is a
genuine member of the genus. But beyond these I have not
met with a single notice of any species referable to the genus.
This I look upon as the more remarkable, considering how
numerous the species are, and the wide geographical range
they occupy. Java, Sumatra, Malacca, Tenasserim, Chitta-
gong, Silhet, the Indian Peninsula and Ceylon, all furnish
species to my present list, and I feel pretty certain that my
Herbarium still contains several undescribed species, which
are concealed among an extensive unarranged collection from
Assam and Mergui.

Among the species here described, I have only been able to
identify two of Blume’s, and even of these I still entertain
doubts, though both are from the Eastward. Whether I am
indebted for so many new species to their being all really un-
described, or to the brevity and consequent insufficiency of his
characters, remains to be ascertained by comparison of speci-
mens. Acting under this uncertainty, I have endeavoured to
avoid Blume’s error by giving greater compass to the defi-
nitions, at once to ensure precision in my characters, and to
lighten the labours of those who come after me, by rendering
as easy as possible the identification of my species, when the
plant under examination is one of them. This however it
must be acknowledged is not always an easy affair, so great
is the tendency in this genus to variation, especially in the
number of parts of the flower, the organ from which in
other genera the most stable characters are derived, which,
unavoidably, leads to the construction of loose definitions.
The corolla moreover in several of my specimens is wanting,
and as it generally furnishes good distinctive marks, mine
are in these cases necessarily imperfect to that extent.

In drawing up the following generic character, I have de-
parted from the usual plan—that of introducing a number
of unessential particulars into the essential character, and

498 Notes on Indian Botany.

winding up with a very brief and imperfect natural one
—and reduced my essential character within the briefest
possible limits by excluding every non-essential particular :
and have brought into the concluding natural one, every
particular which can in any way contribute to the correct
understanding of this curious genus. In this way, as a whole,
it has been extended to an unusual length, but the necessity
for detailed descriptions has thereby been diminished. I
was further induced to adopt this plan, on the supposition
that it is as yet a genus imperfectly known to Botanists,
otherwise I should have supposed that, at least, some species
would have been added to it in the course of the last fifteen
years, the time that has elapsed since the publication of the
4th volume of De Candolle’s Prodromus.

LasIANTHUS.

Jack Linn. Trans. 14. Blume Bijdr. p. 995, Spreng. Genera,

p. 94. Ruh. Mem. Soc. H. N. Par. p. 210, non Lin. nec Zuccar.
Mephitidia Reznward. in Blume. D.C. Prod. 4, 452, G. Don
Gen. Syst. Gard. 3, 548. Meisner Gen. 166, Endlicher Gen.
p. 540. .
Calyx, limb 4-7 cleft. Corolla 4-7 cleft: throat and limb
usually hairy. Stamens 4-7 inserted near the throat: fila-
ments short: anthers oblong, scarcely exserted. Ovary crowned ~
with a fleshy disk, 2-7-celled, with a single erect ovule in
each: style about the length of the corolla: stigma usually —
capitate, 2-7-lobed. Drupe globose, containing 2-7 nuts. —
Nuts usually rugose, or furrowed on the back. Seed erect:
albumen fleshy, enclosing a cylindrical erect embryo.

Shrubs or small trees. Young branches, petiols and costa
of the under surface of the leaves usually clothed with long
matted, or rigid appressed hairs. Stipules caducous, bearing ¢
a ring of hairs or filiform bristle-like scales. Leaves short, :
petioled, usually elliptic, oblong, more or less acuminated at ?

Notes on Indian Botany. 499

the apex, and tapering at the base; often hirsute on both
sides, but generally on the costa and veins. Veins promi-
nent, pinnate, running in curved lines towards the margin, the
last pair forming, with the costa, a 3-nerved termination of the
leaf; veinlets conspicuous, passing in nearly straight lines
between the costa and veins, giving a peculiar and unique
character to the venation. Bracteas often large and numerous,
copiously clothed with long matted hair, forming a thick in-
volucrum round the axillary sessile fascicles of flowers. Flow-
ers always small in all the genuine species I have seen.
Calyx limb sometimes much produced, and parted to the base
into subulate or lanceolate teeth; sometimes short and ob-
tusely lobed, rarely truncated, and furnished with short al-
most inconspicuous teeth. Corolla small, tubular, lobes of
the limb spreading, and, with the throat, generally hairy.
Drupe usually succulent, generally blue when ripe.

The hairs on all parts of the plant especially where long
and shaggy are jointed, in some species almost approaching
to moniliform. The leaves are said by Blume to exhale a
disagreeable odour. I have only observed this in one species,
L. fetens, which however seems scarcely to belong to the
genus, but which I have added at the end on the strength of
that character, and its having blue fruit.

Analytical distribution of the Species.

§ I. Leaves penninerved: veinlets connecting the primary
veins, passing transversely in nearly straight lines between
them. True Lastanrut.

1. Calyx limb more or less deeply parted ; lacinez elon-
gated, subulate or lanceolate, as long as the tube of
the corolla.

A. Flowers cymosely aggregated, subsessile, furnish-
ed with an involucrum of bracteas equalling or ex-

ceeding the flowers. BracTeoss.
JT

500 Notes on Indian Botany.

a. Exterior bracteas large, foliaci-
ous: interior, when present narrow,
lanceolate or subulate: the former
much longer than the flowers.

. L. bracteatus.

L. Jackianus.

. L. Roxburghii.

. L. Wallichii.

L. Moonianus.

. L. attenuatus.

On b wh

b. Bracteas, all of nearly equal length,
subulate or lanceolate, about the
length of the flowers.

7. L. Griffithii.
8. L. retosus.
9. L. pilosus.
10. L. ellipticus.

B. Flowers axillary, subsessile, or loosely cymose ;
bracteas minute or inconspicuous. NupiFLoRa.

a. Flowers axillary, sessile.
11. L. Blumeanus.

6. Flowers cymose: cyms compact,
few flowered, or loosely dichoto-
mous.

12. L. venulosus.
13. L. dichotomus.

2. Calyx limb cleft, divisions ovate, lanceolate, subfolia-
cious, usually short.

A. Flowers sessile, aggregated.
14. L. ciliatus.
15. L. rostratus.
16. L. pterospermus.

Notes on Indian Botany. 501

B. Flowers pedicelled, subcapitate, few.
17. L. capitulatus.

3. Calyx limb shortly cleft, divisions short, obtuse, or
triangularly dentate.

A. Leaves coriacious, venation (in dry specimens)
prominent on both sides, veinlets slender, or to
the naked eye sometimes almost inconspicuous,
except L. venosus.

18. L. acuminatus.
19. L. parvifolius.
20. L. strigosus.
21. L. Walkerianus.
22. L. venosus.

B. Leaves membranaceous, veins slightly promi-
nent, veinlets remote, very slender.
23. L. longifolius.
24. L. constrictus.
25. L. pauciflorus.
26. L.? dubius.

§ II. Leaves even, smooth, (levis) veins slender, veinlets
reticulated, not passing in straight lines between the prima-
ries, ovaries 2-celled with 1 erect ovule in each, corolla funnel-

shaped, spurious. Lasirut.
27. L. ? foetens.

Note.—Some of these subdivisions may not be found very obvious or even clearly
useful in the examination of solitary specimens, but I found them very useful when
a number of species were to be determined.

J. Lastantuus BracTiatus, (R. W.) every where ex-
cept the upper surface of the leaves, hairy: leaves linear,
lanceolate, acuminated, glabrous above, except the costa,
which with the whole under surface is clothed with brownish

502 Notes on Indian Botany.

yellow hairs : bracts numerous, exterior pair foliaceous, ovate
cordate acuminate, those within smaller; the innermost
linear subulate ; all very hairy: flowers axillary, sessile, free :
calyx about 5-parted, lacinee slender subulate: corolla—:
ovary 9-celled.

Has.—Malacca, Griffith.

Oxss.—Leaves about 8 inches long, under two inches broad,
ending in a slender tapering acumen. The most characteristic
feature of this species is the bractez, which are large and nu-

merous, completely concealing the few flowers, 3 or 4 of which
nestle in the centre.

2. LastantHus JacKiaNnus, (R. W.) shrubby: every
where clothed with long yellowish hairs, springing from en-
larged (glandular?) bases: branches terete; internodes short:
stipules triangular, short, broad at the base, glabrous within :
leaves subsessile ovate lanceolate, shortly and abruptly acu-
minate: flowers axillary subsessile, aggregated, few, (3 or
4) supported by two foliaceous lanceolate bracteas: calyx
deeply 4-cleft, divisions ovate lanceolate, hairy on both sides ;
corolla about the length of the calyx, glabrous within, lobes

cE A ee

ciliate : ovary 3-4-celled : drupes small.

Has.—Neilgheries, flowering February and March.

Oxss.—Leaves from 4 to 5 inches long by about 14 broad:
hairs long yellowish coarse jointed. The bracteas vary
from 3 to 13 inch in length, exactly lanceolate, and by their
size and form at once distinguish this from all the described
species. Being quite sessile and axillary, they at first sight
convey the idea of 3-foliate leaves with small pinne. It ap-
proaches L. cyanocarpus, Jack, but is distinguished by the
form of the bracts, lanceolate in this, cordate in the latter
species.

3. Lasiantuus Roxsureuil, (Mephitidia, W. & A. Prod.
page 390, under the order) ‘‘ shrubby hersute: leaves short

¥

Noles on Indian Botany. 003

_ petioled, lanceolar, entire, acuminate : flowers axillary, sessile,
much shorter than their numerous lanceolar bracteas: ber-
ries 5 seeded.” Triostium hersutum. Roxb. D.C.

Has.—Chittagong, flowering during the hot season.

Oxss.—My specimen of this plant is very old, and somewhat
deteriorated, so that I can scarcely add to Roxburgh’s brief
character.

It is every where hairy, that on the upper surface short
and very rough, springing from elevated glandular? points ;
below it is much longer and somewhat matted, especially
on the costa and veins: the leaves are nearly sessile, about 7
inches long, by about 2 or 24 broad acuminated : stipules lan-
ceolate obtuse: bractee numerous; exterior one foliacious
lanceolate, interior bract subulate or approaching to filiform,
covered with long coarse hair, in which the flowers seem to be
concealed. The flowers I have not attempted to examine,
believing it useless.

4, LastanrHus WALLICHII. (Mephitidia Wallichiit, W. &
A. Prod. p. 390, under the order) shrubby leaves subsessile,
oblong, acuminate, unequal at the base, coriaceous, hairy
when young, afterwards nearly glabrous: stipules linear lan-
ceolate, hispid: bracteas numerous, linear lanceolate, 3-nerved,
hispid, ciliate, about the length of the corolla: flowers
numerous axillary sessile: calyx 5-cleft, lacineze lanceolate
acuminate persistent: corolla funnel-shaped, hispid; tube
about an inch long; limb 5-cleft, divisions linear, bluntish,
hairy, shorter than the tube: ovary 5-celled, ovules erect :
stigma 5-lobed : fruit (unripe) baccate ? (abridged from Wal-
lich’s description.)

Novatilea? hispida, Wall. in Roxb. Flor. Ind. Carey’s
Edition, 2, p. 187.

Has.—Silhet, flowering hot season.

—s ad =

we = - ~ ‘ -——<—9 > - : a“ =a EES ae
RL al

es ow
=

— eee

-~-. —-—-

mores

= j Ss “4
| Tae ena SO eR

=

504 Notes on Indian Botany.

Oxss.—Leaves narrow, acute, finely acuminated, from 4 to
6 inches long, smooth above, roughish beneath : flowers white,
hispid, stamina included.

5. Lastantaus Moont, (R. W.) shrubby : ramulis lightly
compressed, hairy: leaves short petioled oval cuspidate or
shortly acuminate, coriacious, glabrous, shining above, coarsely
reticulated and hairy beneath: stipules short, obtuse, and
with the petioles and bracts thickly clothed with long coarse
hairs: bracteas numerous short; exterior ones orbicular
cuspidate, shortly acuminate ; interior bracts slender subulate :
flowers axillary numerous, umbellate on short stout peduncles :
calyx campanulate, limb 4-5-cleft hairy. Corolla —?: ovary
4-5-celled. Ceylon.

Apparently from the specimen, a stout shrub, internodes of
ramuli slightly ancepitous, flattened at the joints: leaves
about 6 inches long by about 3 broad, nearly a perfect oval ;
the thick and hairy forming a coarse network beneath.

It seems nearly allied to L. Cyanocarpa, but is readily dis-
tinguished by its numerous flowers, and somewhat umbellate
inflorescence. The suborbicular pointed bracts of this species
are very peculiar.

6. LasIANTHUS ATTENUATUS? (Jack) shrubby: hairy :
leaves ovate, or suborbate, somewhat unequal at the base,
alternated to a fine point, glabrous above, except the costa,
thinly pubescent beneath, especially on the veins: flowers
few 1-3, sessile, axillary, enclosed in an envolucrum of about
6 linear lanceolate bracts: Calyx 4-cleft, with a wide sinus
between the lamine : Corolla — : fruit —~:

Has.—Malacca, Griffith.

Oxss.—I have added a doubt to the specific name, as a close
comparison of my specimen with Jack’s description shows
some discrepancies. His plant is described as suffrutescent,
mine seems from the specimen quite a shrub: the branches in

Notes on Indian Botany. 505

his are said to be villous ; in mine they are densely hairy: the
leaves of both nearly correspond: his are said to be softly vil-
lous beneath, from 3 to 4 inches long by about one broad: the
largest leaves on my specimen, which is evidently a young
one, are 34 inches long by one broad, and the difference be-
tween softly villous and thinly pubescent, can of itself be no
importance as a specific distinction, as that may be attribut-
able, in cases like the present, to a difference of soil or season,
or even to a difference of the idea attached by the writers to
the same words. The most material discrepancy between his
description and my plant, lies in the bracteas, in his “ two
opposite lanceolate acute villous,”” in my specimen there are
about six in each axil: the flowers so far as my specimen
enables me to compare them, correspond. As the correspon-
dence between the more essential points of structure is con-
siderable, I refer my specimen to Jack’s species with consider-
able confidence, but not without doubt. When examined
under a magnifier the hairs of this species seem almost moni-
liform. In nearly all the species the hairs are more or less
articulated, in this they are peculiarly so.

7. Lasianruus Grirrirut, (R. W.) shrubby : branches,
especially at the joints, compressed, hairy when young, after-
wards glabrous: leaves large, lanceolate, acuminate, widest
part above the middle, glabrous above, pubescent, and on the
veins hairy, beneath : stipules broad, triangular, pointed :
flowers sessile, crowned, enclosed in an involucrum of nu-
merous subulate very hairy bracteas; calyx limb about seven
cleft ; divisions acute, thickly clothed with long hairs ; corol-
la 7-cleft, throat and lamine very hairy, stamens 7, sessile :
style filiform : stigma capitate, 7-lobed, ovary 7-celled.

Has.—Malacca, Griffith.

Ozs.—A large species ; leaves upwards of 12 inches long
by from 34 to 4 broad at the broadest part: about 3 above

506 Notes on Indian Botany.

the base, whence they suddenly contract and terminate in a
narrow pointed acumen. The compressed ramuli, large leaves
and stipules, and very numerous, narrow, linear pointed
coarsely hairy bracts, which form the involucrum to the
flowers, render this an easily recognized species. |

8. LastaAnTHUs RETOSUS, (R. W.) Shrubby: ramuli terete
very hairy: leaves ovate lanceolate, acuminate, short petioled
coriacious, glabrous, except the costa above; hairy below,
strongly marked with a network of veins, the reticulations
depressed above, prominent beneath: stipules small triangu-
lar: bracteas subulate hairy, about the length of the calyx,
thickly clothed with long coarse hairs: flowers numerous,
sessile: calyx 5-parted, segments subulate hairy: corolla
7-cleft: stamens 7-ovary, /-celled.

Has.—Mount Ophir, Malacca, Griffith.
Oxss.—The want of symmetry between the calyx and the

rest of the flower, if constant, will always render this an
easily recognized species : the distinctness of the reticulations

increases with the age of the leaves, owing to the interspaces

increasing faster than the veins, and becoming bullate.

9. LastantHus piLosus, (R. W.) Shrubby: branches
clothed with long black shaggy hair: stipules long, subulate
pointed : sessile semicordate or somewhat unequal sided at _
the base, acuminated, sprinkled with short hairs on both
sides, more abundantly below: hairs of the bracts and calyx
black or dark brown: bracts few, narrow lanceolate: calyx
six cleft enlarging in fruit, divisions slender subulate per-
sistent: corolla—?: ovary 6-8-celled: fruit hairy, crowned
with the long shaggy limb of the calyx.

Has.—Malacca, Griffith.

Oss.— Approaches L. inequalis, Blume, in its unequal sided
leaves, but the character ‘ bracteis lanceolatis involucratis, ”

Notes on Indian Botany. | 507

is opposed to their union ; the bracts here being unusually few,
the leaves from 4 to 7 inches long by from 1 to 2 broad, semi-
cordate, acuminated. In this the cells of the ovary are more
numerous that the divisions of the calyx. The corollaI have
not seen. The copious black shaggy hair of the branches, and
inflorescence, combined with the short very pale yellowish hairs
of the leaves, seem to supply good specific characters.

10. LastanrTHus ELLIPTICUS, (R. W.) shrubby : branches
hairy: leaves short petioled elliptic, pointed at both ends,
membranaceous, polished above, glabrous except the veins,
and a little tuft of hair on the point beneath: flowers
few, axillary sessile : stipules somewhat scariose, longer than
the petioles, hairy ; ending in a subulate point : bracteas hairy,
linear subulate, longer than the calyx: calyx limb 5-parted,
segments lanceolate, hairy: corolla hairy, 5-cleft: stamens
5: ovary, 5-celled.

Has.—Malacea, Griffith.

Oss.—The membranous but firm, and when dry, the
delicately translucent leaves of this species at once distinguish
it from all the species I have seen. In form they are elliptic,
pointed at both ends, 6 inches long by 24 broad: above
they are quite glabrous, equally so below, except the veins,
which are hairy and finely reticulated ; each leaf ends in a
fine point, tipped with a small tuft of soft hairs.

11. Lastantuus Buumianus, (R. W.) shrubby : glabrous
ramuli terete: leaves short petioled, elliptic lanceolate, acu-
minate, glabrous: stipules short, triangular pointed : flowers
aggregated, few: bracteas short, subulate hairy: calyx limb
deeply 4-cleft, divisions lanceolate acute, presistent glabrous,
corolla 4-cleft, hairy within: stamens 4-sub-sessile in the
throat of the corolla: ovary 4-celled: style equalling the
corolla, stigma hairy, drupe globose.

Has.—Courtallum.
3 U

508 Notes on Indian Botany.

Oss.—This species is most readily distinguished by its large
calyx, as compared with the rest of the flower, the lamine
of the limb are much longer than the tube, lanceolate entire,
and glabrous ; the whole flower however scarcely exceeding
the very short petiole.

12. LasiIANTHUS VENULOSUS, (santia venulosa, (W. A.)
Prod.) shrubby: glabrous, leaves coriacious, short petioled,
elliptic oblong, cuspidate or acuminate, glabrous above : veins
prominent on both sides, beneath sprinkled with hairs: cymes
axillary, short peduncled, few flowered: bracteas small,
hairy: calyx 4-5-parted, divisions subulate, as long as the tube
of the corolla: corolla 4-5-cleft, throat and lobes hairy: sta-
mens 4-5; style as long, or often longer than the corolla:
stigma 3-5-lobed ; cells of the ovary equalling the lobes of
the stigma: a single erect ovule in each.

Santia venulosa W. and A. Prod. p. 422. Mephitidia
venulosa, R. W. Icones, No. 1032.

-

Has.—Common in woods about Ootacamund, on the
Neilgheries. j

Oxzs.—A very ramous shrub: leaves from 2 to 4 inches
long by about half the breadth, of a light yellowish green
colour, sometimes acuminated, oftener cuspidate: flowers
pale yellow: drupes about the size of a pea, blue. The
inflorescence is essentially cymose, but often one-flowered,
peduncles seem to spring direct from the branch. In the
following nearly allied species the cymose structure is fully
developed.

13. Last1anTHUS DICHOTOMUS, (R.& W.) shrubby: branches
glabrous terete except at the joints, which are compressed :
leaves short petioled, elliptic, ovate, or slightly cordate at
the base, cuspidate, glabrous, except the short petiole, and
a few scattered hairs on the veins: stipules lanceolate,
about the length of the petiole, pointed : cymes axillary, soli-
tary, longish peduncled, once or twice dichotomous ; divisions

Notes on Indian Botany. 509

racemose, flowers secund: bracteas subulate, sprinkled with
bristly hairs : calyx deeply 4-cleft, divisions lanceolate acute,
frequently tipped with a tuft of bristly hairs, about the length
of the tube of the corolla, corolla funnel-shaped, 4-cleft, throat
and lacinee hairy: stamens 4 included: style exserted, stigma
4-lobed, ovary 4-celled.

Has.—Shevagherry hills, near Courtallum. These hills
attain an elevation of about 3000 feet, and botanically consi-
dered, afford about the richest station, in proportion to the
extent explored, I ever visited.

Oss.—This species is nearly allied to the preceding, but I

think quite distinct. Its loose dichotomous inflorescence,
half the length of the leaves is, so far as I have seen, confined
to this species. Leaves from 3 to 33 inches long, and from 1
to 13 broad.
- 14. Lastantuus ciLtiatus, (R. W.) shrubby: branches
terete tomentose: leaves coriacious, ovate lanceolate, acute,
glabrous above, petioles and under surface, especially the veins,
hairy, margin ciliate : stipules short, triangular, hairy on both
sides: flowers aggregated, axillary, sessile: bracteas minute
hairy : calyx 3-4-parted, divisions ovate, hairy on both sides,
as long as the tube of the corolla: corolla small, 3-5-cleft
very hairy: anthers sessile oblong: style short: stigma
3-4-lobes: ovary 3-4-celled: fruit about the size of a large
pea, nuts bullately corrugated on the back.

Has.—Western slopes of the Neilgheries below Sisparah,
flowering February and March.

Oxss.—The leaves are 6 to 8 inches long, and generally
under two broad, very coriacious, the under surface reticulated
with prominent veins, the margin bound with a dense line
of short stiff ciliz. The bullate nuts seem almost peculiar to
this species, but there is an approach to the same structure in

510 Notes on Indian Botany.

L. venulosus, which appears a nearly allied, but quite distinct,
species. This also approaches L. capitulatus, but is quite
distinct.

15. LAstAntHUS ROstRATUS, (R. W.) Shrubby: ramuli
terete, slightly compressed at the joints, very hairy: leaves
short, petioled, from elliptic oblong to linear lanceolate,
rounded or sometimes acute at the base, contracted into a
beak at the apex, glabrous above, pubescent beneath, especi-
ally the veins and petiols which are strigous: stipules small,
pointed, hairy : flowers axillary, sessile, few, (1 to 3) : bracteas
minute, inconspicuous: calyx very hairy, 4-cleft with a wide
sinus between the divisions, margins ciliated with long hairs :
corolla 4-cleft, covered with coarse articulated hairs, pubes-
cent within: anthers sub-sessile, incumbent: style much
longer than the tube: stigma 4-lobed : ovary 4-celled.

Has.—Courtallum and Shevagherry hills, flowering August
and September.

Oxss.—A large shrub: leaves 4-6 inches long by about 14
broad, rigid, coriacious, strongly veined, usually rounded, but
occasionally acute at the base. The flowers are very minute.
In my specimens the expanded corollas have all fallen off,
but the young buds show a nearly glabrous interior. The
berries seem to be about the size of small peas.

16. LaslaAnTHus PTEROSPERMUS, (R. W.) Shrubby: ramuli
much compressed, strigously hairy: stipules triangular
pointed, shorter than the petioles: leaves lanceolate, ab-
ruptly acuminated, glabrous, except on the veins: flowers
axillary, sessile, aggregated (3-5): bracts minute: calyx
sparingly hairy, deeply 5-cleft : segments short, obtuse :
ovary 5-celled : fruit globose, when dry, furrowed with inter-
mediate sharp angles, 4-5 pyrenous: nuts bisulcate, with 3
prominent wing-like projections on the back.

Has.—Malacca, Griffith.

Notes on Indian Botany. 511

Oxss—The leaves are from 6 to 8 inches long, nearly 2 broad
coriacious, prominently veined, but only slightly reticulated
beneath. The stipules are small, subulate pointed, fruit,
judging from the dry and shrivelled specimens, about the
size of a small cherry ; the sharp wing-like ridges of the nuts
present the most characteristic feature of this species.

}7. LASIANTHUS CAPITULATUS, (R. W.) Shrubby: stri-
gosely pubescent: leaves short petioled, coriacious, from ovate
elliptic acuminate, to ovate oblong lanceolate, attenuated to-
wards the apex, glabrous: stipules very small, triangular:
peduncles axillary, about the length of the petioles, few (3-4)
flowered: flowers sessile, on the apex capitulate: bracteas
small, subulate: calyx 4-5-cleft, divisions broad, ovate, ob-
tuse, seen by transmitted light 3-nerved: corolla, before ex-
pansion, hairy ovary, 4-5-celled.

Has.—Lisparah, Neilgheries.

Oxss.—This species is evidently nearly allied to L. venulosus ;
but is, I think, quite distinct. In the narrow-leaved form, the
leaves are six inches long by 13 broad; in the broad elliptic
leaved variety, they are about 5 inches long by 2% broad. -
The mature fruit I have not seen, but when far advanced the
lobes of the calyx are still persistent.

18. LasiANTHUS ACUMINATUS, (R. W.) Shrubby: ramuli
terete, pubescent : leaves coriacious shining, glabrous, except
the slightly pubescent nerves, lanceolate, acuminate at both
ends, mucronately cuspidate at the apex : stipules short subu-
late pubescent ; flowers axillary, sub-sessile, two or three toge-
ther: bracts, if present, inconspicuous: calyx hairy, 4-cleft ;
Segments triangular blunt: corolla tubular 4-cleft, glabrous,
hairy within: style equalling the tube, scarcely exserted :
stigma 3-4-cleft, ovary 3-4-celled.

Has.—Pulney, September 1836,

ie.

i A i ET RL Oc

eo cane

512 -Notes on Indian Botany.

Oxss.—The venation is the same in this asin L. parvifolius,
but in other respects it is amply distinct. In some points it
approaches ZL, lucisus, but the long attenuation of the leaves
at both ends, and their nearly entire freedom from pubes-
cence, forbids my uniting them while unacquainted with that
species, except by the brief character given by Blume, espe-
cially, taking into consideration the geographical position of
the two plants. The leaves in this are glabrous on the
margin, about 33 inches long, by from | to 14 broad, ending
in aslender mucronate acumen above, and tapering into the
petiole at the base: flowers about the length of the petiole.

19. LasiANTHUS PARVIFOLIUS, (R. W.) Shrubby: gla-
brous : leaves obovate lanceolate, obtuse, attenuated at the
base, glabrous on both sides, the very slender approximated
transverse reticulations between the larger veins, running
in parallel, nearly quite straight lines : flowers axillary, ses-
sile, two or three together: bracts minute or wanting: calyx
4-lobed, glabrous: corolla tubular 4-cleft, throat and lobes
of the limb hairy: stamens 4 on the throat of the corolla:
anthers exserted: ovary 3-4-celled : fruit, apparently, about
the size of a pea.

Has.—Courtallum, flowering August and September.

Oxss.—Leaves about 2 inches long, by about 2? broad, some-
what spatula-shaped, except for a short abrupt often cuspi-
date acumination : corolla about 4 lines long, the anthers
exserted beyond the hairs of the throat, a very characteristic
Species as regards the outline, size and venation of their

leaves.

20. Lasianruus stricosus, (R. W.) Shrubby : branches
terete, strigous: leaves petioled elliptic, sharp-pointed coria-
cious, glabrous and shining above, strigous on the costa and

ae
4

Notes on Indian Botany. 513

veins beneath: stipules short, triangular, acute: flowers axil-
lary, sessile, aggregated : bracteas wanting, or inconspicuous :
calyx, strigous campanulate, limb shortly 5-lobed ; lobes tri-
angular ciliate: corolla tubular, limb 4-5-lobed, hairy : anthers
included: stigma capitate, exserted : ovary 4-5-celled.

Has.—Ceylon.

Oss.—In its general appearance and characters this species
approaches L. rostratus ; but is, I think, most certainly dis-
tinct. The leaves are about 5 inches long by 2 broad, oblong,
elliptic, coriacious, glabrous and shining above, dull With
strigous veins below, ending in a sharp subulate point. The
flowers are slender, tubular, about 4 an inch long; the throat
hairy: the berries apparently globose, about the size of peas,
4 or 5-celled.

21. LastantrHus WavcxkeriANnus, (R. W.) Shrubby :
branches sparingly strigosely hairy or glabrous, compressed :
leaves coriacious, petioled, lanceolate, acuminate, mucronately
cuspidate ; glabrous above, the veins and margins beneath
sparingly pubescent ; when dry, somewhat revolute on the
edges: veins prominent on both sides, stipules triangular,
short, pointed: flowers axillary, sessile, aggregated, ebractio-
late: calyx campanulate; limb truncate, slightly crenately
4-toothed: corolla tubular 4-cleft; limb and throat hairy ;
stamens 4: stigma sub-exserted, capitate, 4-lobed ; ovary
3-4-celled.

Has.—Ceylon. In 1836, in company with Colonel Walker,
I gathered the specimens now described.

Oss.—The leaves, which are very coriacious with a tenden-
cy to become yellow in drying, from 3 to 4 inches long by
from | to 14 broad: the veinlets in this species show a greater
tendency to curvature, and net-like reticulation than is usual
in this genus. The flowers which are collected into dense

514 Notes on Indian Botany.

fascicles, are about 3 of an inch long, with a slender tube and
4-lobed hairy limb. In its foliage it very nearly approaches
L. venulosa, but is far removed by its inflorescence and flow-
ers: in these again it approaches L. sirigosus, but is abundant-
ly distinct in its foliage. It also approaches, in general
appearance L. parvifolius, but differs in having numerous
flowers, while that species has only one or two.

92. LAasiANTHUS vENosuS, (Blume.) Shrubby: branches

terete, coarsely strigose: leaves short petioled, ovate oblong, ©

acuminated, slightly unequal at the base, very venous; the
veins prominent, and more or less strigose on both sides :
stipules triangular, hairy within: flowers axillary, subsessile,
solitary or few: calyx limb 5-toothed or cleft, divisions
spreading, hairy : corolla —. ?

Has.—Malacca, Griffith.

Oxss.—My Specimen is imperfect as regards flowers, but I
think there can scarcely be a doubt of its being identical with
Blume’s plant, the specific character of which is taken entirely
from the leaves: * leaves short petioled, oblong acuminate,
obliquely attenuated at the base, very venous (venosissimus, )””
a most characteristic word as applied to my specimen. The
leaves vary from ovate with a rounded or subcordate base, to
elliptic with an attenuated one, are from 34 to 44 inches long,
and from 14 to nearly two broad; the veins on both sides
clothed with short, rigid, adpressed hairs.

23. LASIANTHUS LONGIFOLIUS, (R. W.) Fruticose glabrous,
branches terete: leaves large, short petioled, Janceolate acu-
minated glabrous: stipules as long as the petiols, pointed,
hairy within at the base: flowers few, axillary, sessile: calyx
truncated, minutely toothed: ovary about 7-celled ; nuts thin,
compressed, convex on the back.

Has.—Malacca, Griffith.

Pie ee ee POY R ey a eee ee ee ee ee ee

‘

Notes on Indian Bolany. 915

Oxss.—The leaves of this species exceed a foot in length, by
about 3 inches broad, glabrous on both sides, ending in a fine
pointed acumen. The limb of the calyx seems cylindrical,
truncated, but those on my specimen are not in a good state
for examination, being all past maturity. It may therefore
belong to the cleft or dentate section.

24. LastantTuHus constrictus, (R.W.) Fruticose ramulis
terete, thicker at the joints, glabrous or with a sprinkling
of hair near the joints : leaves slightly coriacious, lanceolate,
tapering at both ends, sometimes a little unequal sided,
slightly crisped on the margin; glabrous on both sides, ex-
cept a sprinkling of hairs on the veins: veins slightly promi-
nent, especially the costa, which in the dry plant forms quite
aridge : stipules minute, pointed : flowers axillary, sessile, fas-
cicled: bracts minute, hairy: calyx limb dilated, 4-lobed,
constricted at the throat: ovary 4-celled.

Has.—Mergui, Griffith.

Oss.—The constricted neck, and dilated limb of the calyx
of this species at once distinguishes it from all the others, in
other respects it is a well marked species ; the thickening of
the nodes at the origin of the leaves, the elongated form of
the leaves, which are fully 6 inches long by about 14 broad,
almost sessile, tapering to a point at both ends; all mark this
as a peculiar species. I have not seen either corolla or fruit.
The unique constriction of the neck of the. calyx at first
made me doubt its being a Lasianthus, but the venation of
the leaves, which is peculiar and characteristic in this genus,
leaves no doubt on that head.

25. Lastantuus PauciFtorus, (R. W.) Ramuli terete, —
tomentose near the extremities, below frequently covered

with a pulverulent crust: leaves subsessile, elliptic oblong,
3X

a16 Notes on Indian Botany.

attenuated at the base, slenderly acuminate at the apex, gla-

brous, above hairy, especially on the nerves beneath, stipules |

longer than the petiols, subulate pointed, caducous, leaving
a ring of bristle-like scales : flowers solitary, axillary, sessile,

‘calyx glabrous, 4-toothed ; teeth triangular obtuse.

Has.—Mergui, Griffith.

Oxss.—My specimens of this plant are most imperfect as
regards flowers, only one being left on the specimen; but as
its whole habit proclaims it a Lasianthus, I have thought best
to include it, and render the list, to that extent, nearer com-
plete. The leaves are elliptic; about 4 inches long by 14 broad,
ending in an abrupt narrow acumen.

26. LastantHus? DuBius, (R. W.) Shrubby, ramuli com-
pressed hairy, older branches glabrous: leaves petioled, obo-
vate lanceolate, attenuated towards the base, acuminate at the
apex; glabrous above, pubescent beneath, and densely hairy
on the costa and veins: stipules scariose on the margin, blunt :
inflorescence cymose, common peduncle elongated, trichoto-
mous, each branch abruptly ending in a capitate fascicle of
3-7 sessile, bractiolate flowers: calyx densely hairy; limb
tubular truncated, obscurely 5-toothed, glabrous within : co-
rolla short, limb 5-lobed, throat and lobes hairy: anthers
large, subsessile, exserted : ovary crowned with a fleshy disk
larger than itself, 2-celled with a solitary, erect, compressed,
orbicular ovule in each: style equal in length to the corolla:
stigma 2-lobed : fruit aa

Has.—Ceylon. Specimens communicated by Colonel
Thacker, and also collected by myself in April 1836.

Oxss.—This appears a Lasianthus in every thing, except the
2-celled ovary and 2-lobed stigma to which, perhaps, may

Notes on Indian Botany. 517

be added, the curious inflorescence; in the venation of the
leaves, the hairiness of the ramuli, petiols, costz, veins,
peduncles, and calyx; in the ring of hair left by the cadu-
cous stipules; in the throat and limb of the corolla, and
finally in the jointed character of the hairs; while in the
very material points of ovary, stigma, and inflorescence,
it approaches Psychotria, from which again it is separated
by its compressed orbicular ovules. Altogether, it appears a
very peculiar plant, the proper genus of which cannot be
correctly determined without fruit ; but, I believe, I am quite

safe in placing it here. The larger leaves are from 6 to 7

inches long by about 2 broad.

27. LastantHus? FatTens, (R.W.) Shrubby or subar-
boreous glabrous: leaves petioled, glabrous, even from ovate
to elliptic lanceolate, acute or sub-acuminate, attenuated
at the base, short petioled, exhaling when growing a very
fetid odour : stipules minute cuspidate; peduncles axillary,
solitary, jointed bi-bracteate at the joint, one flowered with
two minute bracteoles at the base of the calyx tube; corolla
infundibuliform, 4-cleft, tube and limb glabrous: stamens
inserted within the tube; filaments short; anthers large
oblong not exserted: style length of the corolla: stigma
subclavate, 2-lobed, blunt: ovary 2-celled; ovules, 2 erect:
fruit succulent, baccate, obovate, 2-seeded.

Has.—Neilgherries, frequent in the Avalanche woods,
generally past flower, and the fruit about half grown in
February. Shevagherry, August in flower.

Oss.—It is with considerable reluctance I place this plant
in this genus, wanting as it does, the characteristic venation
of the leaves, and having a 2-celled ovary. In most other
points, (except perhaps the baccate not drupaceous fruit,
such as the cymose tendency of the inflorescence, as indicated

= ad te

518 Botany of the Antarctic voyage of

by the double series of bracteas, the infundibuliform corolla,
erect ovlues and foetor of the plant) it accords with Serissa, ©
a spermacoceous genus, and to which this is probably
even more nearly related than to Lasianthus. When Mr.
Gardner and I first found it, we agreed, after a pretty atten-
tive examination, in placing it here, and I retain it, though
further acquaintance with the genus makes me doubt the
propriety of doing so.

The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H. M’s. Ships
‘Erebus’ and ‘ Terror, in the years 1839—1843. By
JosEPH Datton Hooker, M. D., R.N., F.L.S., Parts
1—5, London, Reeve Brotuers, 1844. Communicated
by Mr. GarDNER.

The expedition to which the author of the above work was
attached as Botanist, left England in the beginning of the
year 1839, for the purpose, as it is well known, of investiga-
ting the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism, and of pursuing
maritime geographical discovery in high southern latitudes.
Besides these leading objects, it was enjoined to the officers
that they should use every exertion to collect the different
objects of Natural History to be met with in the various
countries they were about to visit. After three distinct
cruises to the South Polar regions, from their more northern
winter quarters, the expedition reached England in the
autumn of 1843, with rich collections both in Zoology
and Botany. ‘To assist in the publication of these, the
Lords Commissioners of the Treasury granted the liberal
sum of £1000 to each department.

The number of specimens which Dr. Hooker brought
back with him is very great, and all in a beautiful state of
preservation—as we had an opportunity of witnessing shortly
after his return to England—notwithstanding the very limit-
ed accommodation and means which necessarily existed under —

H. M. Ships Erebus and Terror. 519

the circumstances in which he was placed, for preparing and
preserving them. The alacrity which he has displayed in
placing his discoveries before the public, is quite without
parallel in the annals of British voyages of discovery, not
one year having elapsed after the return of the expedition
before he had all his materials put into order, and several
numbers of the work published. Indeed, we believe, that
with the exception of our first Botanist, Mr. Brown, Dr.
Hooker is the only Botanist attached to Government voy-
ages of discovery, who has undertaken to publish the result
_ of his own labours while abroad. Nor is the ‘‘ Flora Antar-
tica”—which is to consist of twenty monthly parts, each part
containing eight plates—to be the only work he purposes
publishing in connection with the voyage; as he announces,
besides, a ‘‘ Flore Nove Zelandiz,” to be illustrated with one
hundred and forty plates, and a “ Flora Tasmanica,” which
will contain two hundred plates.

Besides the collections which the author himself accumu-
lated, these works will contain the “ still unpublished Her-
baria formed by Sir Joseph Banks, Forster, Solander, and
Menzies, all deposited in the British Museum, and placed at
the author’s disposal by Mr. Brown, as arealso the plants of
Capt. Fitzroy’s voyage, by Mr. Darwin and Professor Hens-
low.” ~ In addition to these, the rich materials contained in
the Herbarium of the author’s father, Sir William Hooker
—one of the largest, if not the largest, private one in
Europe—will enable him to make most important additions
to the extra tropical Flora of the Southern Hemisphere.

The manner in which the ‘ Flora Antartica,” is got up, is
highly creditable to all parties connected with it. It is of
royal quarto size, and beautifully printed by Reeve Brothers,
the well known Conchologists, and Natural History Lithogra-
_phers. The drawings are by Fitch, an artist who has been
many years in the employ of Sir William Hooker, the illus-
tration of whose works has given him a reputation, second to

520 Botany of the Antarctic voyage of

none in the department which he has followed. Owing to the
public being allowed the full benefit of the Admiralty grant,
the work is sold remarkably cheap—certainly a third or
fourth cheaper than it could otherwise have been offered.
Although the Botany of the Antarctic regions has but little
direct bearing on that of India, yet, by the manner in which
the author has treated his subject, there is much in the pre-
sent work that will render it not only interesting, but useful
to the Botanists of any country, but particularly to those who
study the science with reference to the Geographical distri-
bution of plants. In a very interesting summary of the voy-
age, which serves as an introduction to the work, we find
the following account of the climate of the remote regions
which the expedition visited : |

** Respecting the climate of the various regions visited by
the expedition, and especially that which prevails within the
Antarctic circle, little need here be said, except that the
vast proportion which water bears to land, tends to render
the temperature uniform throughout the year, and the further
south is the position, the more equable does the climate
seem to be. No analogy can prove more incorrect than
that which compares the similar degrees of latitude in the
North with those of the South. The most casual inspec-
tion of the map, suffices to show the immense proportion
of sea to land in the Southern Hemisphere, the mass of
the continents terminating to the north of latitude 40° S.,
America alone dwindling away to the fifty-sixth degree. The
scattered islands discovered to the south of this, are there-
fore removed from the influence of any tracts which enjoy a
better or continental climate. The power of the sun is
seldom felt, and unless in the immediate neighbourhood
of land, and accompanied by a comparatively dry land wind,
that luminary only draws up such mists and fogs as intercept
its rays. After entering the pack-ice between 55° and 65°,
the thermometer seldom, during any part of the summer day,

H. M. Ships Erebus and Terror. 521

rises 32° or falls below 20°; and while the southerly winds
bring snow, the northerly ones transport an atmosphere
laden with moisture, which becoming at once condensed,
covers the face of the ocean with white fogs of the densest
description.

** All Islands and lands to the southward of 45°, partake
more or less of this inhospitable climate, which, though emi-
nently unfavourable to a varied growth of plants, still from
its equable nature, causes a degree of luxuriance to pervade
all the vegetable kingdom, such as is never seen in climates
where the vegetable functions are suspended for a large
portion of the year. The remoteness of these islands from
any continent, together with their inaccessibility, preclude
the idea of their being tenanted, even in a single instance,
by plants that have migrated from other countries, and still
more distinctly do they forbid the possibility of man having
been an active agent in the dissemination of them. On the
contrary, the remarkable fact that some of the most pecu-
liar productions are confined to the narrowest limits, is a
strong argument in favour of a general distribution of vege-
table life over separate spots on the globe. Hence it will
appear, that islands so situated furnish the best materials
for a rigid comparison of the effects of geographical position,
_and the various meteorological phenomena on vegetation,
and for acquiring a knowledge of the great laws according
to which plants are distributed over the face of the globe.”

The parts which as yet have reached us, are devoted
to the Botany of Lord Auckland’s group and Campbell’s
Island, which lie to the south of New Zealand. From the
general view of the nature of these islands, we make the
following extracts :—

“The Flora of these islands is closely related to that of
New Zealand, and does not partake in any of those features
which characterise Australian vegetation. Most of the
plants may indeed be presumed to exist on the unexplored

522 Botany of the Antarctic voyage of

mountains, especially those of the middle and southern
Islands of New Zealand; but others are doubtless peculiar
to those higher southern latitudes which they inhabit, thus
being analogous to those few novel forms that appear only
in the most arctic parts of America. Even between the
Floras of Lord Auckland’s and Campbell’s Islands a marked
difference exists, several species growing most abundantly
in the latter which are not found at all in the former, where
also the proportion of species common to other antarctic
countries is less, and the affinity is greater with the produc-
tions of New Zealand.

“© Lord Auckland’s Group. <A view of this small and very
limited group, of about twenty miles long and eleven in its
greatest breadth, as it appears on approaching from the sea,
presents an almost equal distribution of woods, shrubs, and
pasture-land. The mountains are low and undulating, no-
where exceeding 1400 or 1500 feet, clothed for their greater
part, but scarcely to their very summits, with long grass,
and frequently covered during November and December,
though not generally with snow. ‘The climate is rainy and
very stormy, so that on the windward sides the plants are
stunted and checked, and resemble those of a higher south-
ern latitude, or of an elevation several hundred feet above
that which the same species inhabit on the sheltered parts.
The whole group of islands appears formed of volcanic
rocks, mostly of black trap, whose decomposition, especially
among the ranker vegetation of the lower grounds, produces
a deep rich soil. A myrtaceous tree (Metrosideros umbel-
Jata) forms the larger proportion of the wood near the sea,
and intermixed with it, grow an arborescent species of Dar-
cophyllum, several Coprosmas, veronicas (frutescent), and a
Panax. Under these, and particularly close to the sea-
beach, many ferns abound; conspicuous among them is a
species with caulescent or subarborescent stems half a foot
and upwards in diameter, crowned with handsome spreading

| ia

H. M. Ships Erebus and Terror. 523

tufts of fronds. Beyond the wooded region, some of the
same plants, in a dwarf state, mingled with others, compose
a shrubby broad belt, which ascends the hill to an elevation
of 800 or 900 feet, gradually opening out into grassy slopes,
and succeeded by the alpine vegetation. It is especially to-
wards the summits of these hills that the most striking
plants are found, vying in brightness of colour with the Arc-
tic Flora, and unrivalled in beauty by those of any other
Antarctic country. Such are the species of Gentian and a
veronica with flowers of the intensest blue, several magnifi-
cent Composit, a Ranunculus, a Phyllachne, and a Lili-
aceous plant, whose dense spikes of golden flowers, are
often so abundant as to attract the eye from a consider-
able distance. Here too the vegetable types of other an-
tarctic lands may be seen in the greatest number, and even
such as are analogous to the arctic productions, none of which
can be more decided than a species of Hierochle, Potentilla,
Cardamine, Juncas, Drosera, Kautago, Epilobium, several
Grasses, and Mosses belonging to the genera Andrea,
Conostomum, and Bartramia. Many of the plants in the
lower grounds are no less striking and beautiful, as an
arborescent veronica bearing a profusion of white blossoms,
a maritime Gentian, a handsome large flowered Myosotis,
the magnificent Aralia Polaris (Homb and Jacq.), two fine
kinds of Anistome, and several beautiful ferns.

““Campbell’s Island, two degrees to the southward of
Lord Auckland’s group, is smaller, far more steep and
rocky, with narrow sheltered vallies, and the broader faces
of the hills much exposed, and hence bare of any but a
grassy vegetation. Except in the bays, the coast is as iron-
bound as that of St. Helena, the rocks assuming even a
wilder and more fantastic form. Ever lashed by heavy
swells, and exposed to a succession of westerly gales, this land
affords no holding-place for such trees as skirt the beaches
of Lord Auckland’s Islands. In the narrow, sinuous bays,

3 Y

524 Botany of the Antarctic voyage of

however, the scene is quite changed, for they are often

margined by a slender belt of brushwood, with an abundant
under-growth of Ferns stretching up the steep and confined
gallies.

“The geological features of the two Islands are alike,
and the only difference in climate consists in that of Camp-
bell’s Island being still more forbidding and dreary. Fogs,
snow, squalls, and mists are the prevailing meteorological
phenomena of these regions; and though such a state of
atmosphere has a tendency to check the general mass of vege-
tation, still the constant moisture and equable temperature
thus afforded support a luxuriant herbage in the very shel-
tered vallies. In Campbell’s Island, the mountains, which
rise very abruptly to about 1300 feet, are almost bare of
vegetation, their rocky sides presenting a larger proportion
of Grasses, Mosses and Lichens, than in Lord Auckland’s
Group. Though all the handsomer plants are also found
in the larger of the latter islands, yet, by growing here at a
much lower elevation and in far greater abundance, they
form a more striking feature in the landscape, the golden-
flowered Liliaceous plant being conspicuous, from its profu-
sion, at the distance of a mile from the shore.”

The following observations occur under the head of Gen-
tiana cerina, Hook. fil. ; and will give an idea of the high cha-
racter of the general remarks scattered through the work :

“* Although Gentians are seldom white flowered as spe-
cies, this and the former are decidedly so, with red or red
purple at the base of the segments, and the veins of the
same colour; the pure blue of the European species is un-
known amongst those of these regions, or of the higher
latitudes of South America. Indeed, I think that few genera
display so full a series of colours in the flowers as this does ;
red, blue, yellow and white, are all exhibited in it, with many
of the intermediate compound tints. Yellow and white are
rare in the regions of the Gentians, but almost invariably

H. M. Ships Erebus and Terror. 525

present; the red species are nearly confined to the Andes
of South America and New Zealand. Amongst Dr. Jamie-
son’s ‘ Botanical notes on the Flora of the Andes of Peru
and Colombia,’ I find the following interesting remark :—
‘ Of sixteen species of Gentian with which I am acquainted,
one-half are red, four purple, one yellow, and one white.’
(Bot. Journal, vol. 2, p. 649.) Their inferior limit under the
line we find from the same source to be 7852 feet, and they
ascend from thence nearly to the limits of perpetual snow
en Cotopaxi; they do not in South America descend to the
level of the sea in a lower latitude than 54° or thereabouts,
where, however, there are no Alpine species, though the
snowline does not descend below 4000-3500 feet. On the
Himalaya, where the species are all blue flowered, one spe-
cies has been gathered by my friend, Mr. Edgeworth, near
Ratha Kona, on the Mana Pass, at an elevation of 16,000 feet,
near the limit of perpetual snow, and another reaches in
latitude 31° W. the altitude of 12,689 feet, according to Dr.
Royle. In Ceylon a species has been gathered at between
- 6000 and 8000 feet of elevation. One species G. prosira-
ta, H. B. K., has a most extraordinary range, both in lon-
gitude and latitude. In Southern Europe it inhabits the
Corinthian Alps, between 6000 and 9000 feet high. In Asia
it has been found on the Altai mountains about latitude 52°
W. where they attain an elevation of 15,000-16,000 feet ;
and on the east side of the Andes of South America in 35°
South: it descends to the level of the sea at Cape Negro;
in the Straits of Magalhaens in latitude 53° S. ; and at Cape
Good Hope in Behring’s Straits, latitude 683° N.

‘* The fact of the occurrence, and the great number, of
species of Gentiana inhabiting only the more elevated regions
of the temperate and tropical zones, and there reaching
the snow limit, renders it very remarkable that they should
be so proportionally scarce in the higher latitudes both of
the northern and southern hemispheres. Generally speak-

526 Chemical Physiology and Pathology.

ing, the inhabitants of these elevated and cold regions are
species of such natural orders and genera as compose the
mass of the Polar vegetation. It is so to a great extent with
certain groups of Ranunculacee, of Graminie, Caryopyllee,
Crucifere, Grielee, §c. §c., but not with Gentianee; the
proportion which the species of the transition temperate
zones bear to the other plants of those regions on the one
hand, and to the tropical species of the same genus on the
other, is in both cases remarkably small. They are entirely
unknown to the Floras of the Polar American Islands ; very
few inhabit Greenland, Iceland, or the Arctic sea-shores

in the north, or Tasmania, New Zealand, Fuegia, or the
Antarctic Islands in the south; and again in other parts of
N. Europe and America, or of Chili and Patagonia, they
are infinitely less numerous than in the Alps of Middle and
South Europe, or the Andes of the equator.”

Most sincerely do we wish the Author health and leisure
to complete the important works he has undertaken in the
same style in which they have been begun. What has
already appeared stamps him as a Botanist of very high
rank, and places him at once, and that too at an early age,
among the leading ones of the day.

Sketch of the modern views regarding Physiological and Pa-
thological Chemistry.

{The following popular account of the application of chemistry to Physiology
and Pathology is mainly a condensed translation of a paper by Dr. Kloss of Frank-
fort, with a few alterations and additions.—J. M. P.]

1. Physiological chemistry has of late years made more
rapid progress than any other science, and has exercised
an important influence on practical medicine, although many
of its supposed results require confirmation.

(a.) Principles of Chemistry in the vegetable kingdom.
(According to Liebig,) the immediate constituent of all vege-

Chemical Physiology and Pathology. 527

tables is carbon ; the great mass of vegetable matter is formed
of compounds, which contain carbon and the elements of
water: the latter either in the same condition in which they
exist in water, (woody fibre, starch, sugar and gum :) or in that
of carbon with the elements of water and a certain quantity
of oxygen, (most vegetable acids :) or in that of carbon and
hydrogen with little or no oxygen (volatile and fatty oils,
wax and resins.) The vegetable acids are constituents of
all the fluids of plants, and are generally united to in-
organic bases, metallic oxides: these last are never wanting,
and after incineration are found in the ashes. Nitrogen
which is not entirely absent in. any plant, (being present
in at least some of the fluids,) but which forms the small-
est portion of its constituents, is especially the constituent
of vegetable albumen, gum, &c. It also at times occurs in
the form of acids, of indifferent substances, and of peculiar
combinations possessing the properties of metallic oxides
(organic bases.) The development of a plant is therefore
dependent on the presence of a combination of carbon,
which presents to it carbon in an assimilable state, and one
of nitrogen, which supplies nitrogen in a like condition: it
further requires water and its elements, and also a soil
which supplies inorganic materials. The assimilation of
carbon takes place by a decomposition of the carbonic acid
of the air, of the decaying humus, or of water, by means of
which carbon enters into the constitution of the plant, and
oxygen is exhaled. This process, which probably goes on
in all parts of the vegetable, takes place only under the
influence of light, especially the light of the sun, and is inde-
pendent of a high degree of temperature. Hydrogen is taken
up, when the water is decomposed, by its oxygen being set free.
Nitrogen, without which no plant reaches its full develop-
ment, much less flowers and fructifies, is supplied to it only
in the form of ammonia, (in rain water and in manures.) The
inorganic substances, of which it used to be believed that the

i

528 Chemical Physiology and Pathology.

organism could produce them by a sort of in-dwelling power,
are taken up only from the soil. These inorganic substances
serve for the production of the vegetable acid salts, which
appear to be necessary for certain ends indispensable to the
existence of the plant. According to Liebig’s researches,
they can take each other’s places, and a plant, when it cannot
find such a base at all, or only in too small a quantity in an
assimilable state, either remains backward in its development,
or produces an organic base (such as solanine, chinine,
morphine, &c.) to take the place of the inorganic bases which
are wanting.

(b.) Principles of Chemistry in the animal kingdom. (Ac-
cording to Mulder, Liebig, Lehmann, &c.) the chief consti-
tuent of the animal body is proteine (consisting according to
Mulder of carbon 4, hydrogen 31, nitrogen 5, oxygen 12,)
which in combination with phosphorus or sulphur, or with
both at once, forms the radical of albumen, of fibrine and
of caseine. It is therefore the element of the most important
phenomena of life, in the course of which it undergoes end-
less transformations, and is at last converted into a substance,
which is excreted as being of no further use to the body.

Albumen (which consists of 10 atoms of proteine,
2 atoms of sulphur, and 1 phosphorus) is in the animal body
the commencing point of all nutrition, as well as the primitive
form of the other combinations and metamorphoses of pro-
teine. It is for the present assumed, that in the process of
digestion all the other nutritious substances which contain
proteine (fibrine, gum, caseine) both of animal and of vegetable
origin, are first converted into the most soluble combination
of proteine, before they can pass into the blood, and take a
share in the process of nutrition: and that after this, the other
combinations of proteine are formed from the blood.
Fibrine (consisting of 10 atoms proteine, 1 atom phos-
phorus and | sulphur) existing in a fluid state in the blood,
and in a coagulated one in the muscles, maintains its com-

Chemical Physiology and Pathology. 529

position only as long as it remains under the influence of vital
action, and decomposes, whenever it is removed from the
organism. Its decomposition may be delayed and almost pre-
vented by alkalies. According to Denis decomposed fibrine
may even be dissolved by them, and converted back into a
kind of fluid albumen. ‘The formation of fibrine must be re-
garded as dependent on albumen, as it is not found in the
lymphatics. . This is confirmed by the observation of Nasse,
that the quantities of the albumen and of the fibrine of the
blood are in inverse proportions to each other. The chemical
cause of the transformation of the albumen of the blood into
fibrine is commonly supposed to depend on oxygen being
taken up by respiration. On this account arterial and male
blood are richest in fibrine, as also the blood of those who take
much exercise, which causes an increased quantity of oxygen
to be taken up, and makes the organs that are richest in fibrine,
namely the muscles, increase in size ina marked degree. The
formation of fibrine may perhaps take place thus, by | atom
of the sulphur of the albumen uniting with oxygen, forming
sulphuric acid and combining with the alkali of the serum,
while the remainder of the sulphur has become fibrine
with the proteine and phosphorus, (Lehmann). Hoffman
believed, that by the addition of a little sulphuric acid to
blood, whose fibrine had been removed by beating, that he had
obtained from the albumen of the serum fibrine in the form
of a fine white membrane. In the vegetable kingdom gum is
quite analogous to animal fibrine, and occurs mixed with
_ colouring matter in the green parts of plants as a green
deposit, and in the seeds of the cerealia. —Caseine
(consisting of 10 atoms proteine and ] atom sulphur) which is
not decomposed by boiling, but which is precipitated by
acetic and lactic acids from aqueous solutions, is especially

contained in milk. For the present we must believe that by
_ digestion it is converted into albumen, before it reaches the
blood, for it has not yet been found in the absorbents. Vegeta-

530 Chemical Physiology and Pathology:

ble caseine, (Legumine) occurs principally in the seeds of the
leguminose.————--These three compounds of proteine,
albumen, fibrine and caseine, both vegetable and animal, are
by no means formed from their elements within the animal
body, but reach it ready made. Vegetables alone are in a
condition to produce elementarily proteine from their inorganic
articles of nourishment. —————Globuline, which was at
times declared to be identical with caseine, at times with
albumen, and was afterwards recognised by Mulder as a com-
pound of proteine, free from phosphorus (proteine 15 and sul-
phur 1,) occurs in the substance of the lens and in union
with hematine, and constitutes in the coats of the blood
globules, the greatest part of the firm portion of the blood.
The origin of globuline can only be from the albumen of
the blood, but of the mode in which it is produced we
—~ Besides the compounds of proteine,

know nothing.
animals also enjoy nourishment from substances free from
nitrogen, as fat, sugar, amyline, gum, pectine, &c., which
consist of carbon and the elements of water, and are pro-
bably employed in the formation of fat, (and the formation
of lactic acid according to Lehmann) in as much as they
possess all the constituents of fat in addition to a certain
quantity of oxygen, which disappears during its formation.
In grown-up people the weight of the body remains
on the whole pretty uniform when the diet is regular, al-
though not nearly the quantity of carbon that has been
taken in, can be found in the excretions. This carbon is ex-
haled as carbonic acid through the lungs and by the skin.
The formation of that acid develops animal heat. Liebig shews
by calculation, that the quantity of carbon consumed with
the articles of food, is about 37 per cent. more than what is
wanted for the production of animal heat. With active and
continued exercise, and thus increased assumption of oxygen,
more carbon is given out in the form of carbonic acid, and the
formation of fat limited, or the fat already deposited is again

i) CS

Chemical Physiclogy and Pathology. 531

brought into use for the purpose of combustion. The for-

mation of fat is thus dependent on a deficiency of oxygen,
which is absolutely essential to the disengagement of car-
bon.—In closest connection with the process of respiration
and the production of fat, stands (according to Liebig) the
secretion of bile. The bile which is loaded with carbon,
is removed only in very small quantities along with the ex-
crement, and its greater portion returns into the circulation,
becomes carbonic acid by combustion, develops heat, and is
in fine removed from the body by the process of respiration.
It may be borne in mind, that Mulder and Liebig disagree
as to the manner in which oxygen is taken up by the blood,
also that some chemists (as Kemp) deny in foto that either
bile or fat is employed in respiration. In accordance
with the foregoing views, articles of food are (by Liebig)

- divided into those which contain, and those which are free

from, nitrogen. To the first, or plastic ones as they are called,
belong all those which contain the proteine, in the form of

albumen, fibrine or caseine, and not in an already metamor-

phosed state, from which’it is no longer reducible. Liebig
names these substances which are free from nitrogen, respira-
tory-nourishing, because they supply to carbon the materials
for breathing and the production of heat. All these sub-
stances are converted in the stomach, with the aid of the
gastric juice, (consisting of pepsine and weak mineral acids) of
water, and the oxygen of the air swallowed, into a condition in
which they are fitted for passing into the blood. Pepsine, is
a body found in a peculiar state of transformation, and causes
(like yeast in fermentation) by contact with the portions of
food which are insoluble in water, a new grouping of their
elements, (perbaps to be named albuminous fermentation). A
certain quantity of pepsine can probably only dissolve a certain
quantity of food, just as so much yeast converts into alcohol
and carbonic acid only so much sugar. The mineral acids of

_the gastric juice, without which the pepsine does not act,

3

902 Chemical Physiology and Pathology.

obviously owe their origin to the culinary salt used at meals,
the soda of which plays an important part in the reduction
of food, containing fibrine and caseine along with albumen,
and in the formation of bile, which is a sort. of soap-like com-
pound. ‘This free acid plays a similar part to sulphuric acid,
which in a mixture of diastase and amyline hastens their meta-
morphosis into sugar. In truth we know nothing more re-
garding digestion, except the outward essentials to its taking
place ; the particular histories of the substances broken down
by the transformation are, for the greater part, unknown.
Liebig has, by a comparison of the final chemical results of
the transformation with the commencement of the process,
(that is, of the substances taken in and those evacuated) made
a first step towards dispelling this darkness. Urine contains
the products of the transformed structures which are richest
in nitrogen, bile of those which are richest in carbon; and
as all structures have originally been produced by the blood,
so must the elementary constituents of the bile and urine
taken together, resemble the composition of the blood, in
_ their relative proportions. But .in the transformation of
structures, no other bodies except the oxygen of the air and
water have taken part: we must therefore find again all the
constituents of blood in the constituents of urine and bile,
with the addition of a certain quantity of oxygen and of water ;
and we find that choleic acid represents the bile, uric acid
and ammonia the elements of urine. If then we abstract
from the composition of blood the constituents of urine, we
must after making allowance for the quantity of oxygen and
of water which has been added, arrive at the composition of
bile. Or vice versa, after abstracting the constituents of

bile with oxygen and water, from the constituents of the .

blood, we must arrive at urate of ammonia, or urea and car-
bonic acid. As the last products of these transforma-
tions we obtain, (because the choleic acid is reduced into
carbonic acid and the uric into carbonic acid, and ammonia)

Chemical Physiology and Pathology. 533

carbonic acid, ammonia and water, the elements of the
nourishment of plants.
the animal body are, according to the views of most authors,
introduced into the system in the articles of food, and all
authorities agree on this point, that the animal body cannot
form these constituents from the elements, or change them
into others, when introduced.

II. Pathological chemistry, in as much as life mairifenta
itself solely by an unceasing change of substance, regards
disease (2. e. a group of ‘vital phenomena, which deviate in
any degree from the normal) as a peculiar condition of the
exchange of substance, and endeavours under this idea to
fathom its causes; while nosology represents disease as a
compound of symptoms, and assumes for each one a vis a
tergo, which cannot be any further explained, such as an acid
matter, a parasite, &c.

Poison, Contagion, Miasma. Liebig expresses himself thus
on these subjects. Nutritious substances are those which
lose their properties under the influence of the vital powers,
without exerting a chemical action on the organ that operates

The inorganic constituents of

upon them. Other substances alter the direction, the force,

or the intensity of the resistance of the vital powers, in
consequence of which the function of their organs is altered.
They cause a disturbance by their mere presence, or because
they are themselves undergoing transmutations,—these are
medicines. If their tendency to unite themselves with the
constituents of the organs be stronger than the resistance
of the vital powers, they work as poisons. A very
peculiar class of substances, which may be produced by de-
composition of a particular sort, work as deadly poisons, not
from their power of forming new combinations, or because
they contain a positive poison, but from the condition in
which they are, and which they impart to the organism,
(contagions) : Liebig compares the operations of these bodies
to fermentation, and in this rests on the position laid down

534 Chemical Physiology and Pathology.

by Laplace and Berthollet. ‘‘ An atom set in motion by any
power can communicate its motion to another atom, which
is in contact with it.” The blood has no power in itself to
produce metamorphoses ; its chief characteristic is its being
ready to undergo them. Decaying and diseased substances
work in it, as yeast in a fermenting mixture. Thus, poison-
ous Sausages impart their state of decomposition to the living
organism, and the patient dries up to the condition of a
mummy. Poisons of this sort are produced in the living body
also, as in measles, the plague, syphilis, &c. These conta-
gions may retain their power for a long time without being
destroyed, if their peculiar state of decomposition be pre-
served, (as by dry weather). Some have attributed to con-
tagion a peculiar (parasitic) life, as if it were the germ of a
seed ; some have sought for its causes in the presence of
microscopic forms, but Liebig explains its operation by its
peculiar state of decomposition.
its chemical character, in as much as it forms combina-

A miasma works by

tions, or causes decompositions: it excites disease, without
reproducing itself: it does not by its peculiar nature cause a
gradual decomposition like contagion, but works directly as
@ poison.

Oxides of proteine. All the constituents of compounds

containing nitrogen, are formed from proteine: the most
important are the phosphorus and sulphur compounds of pro-
teine (albumen, fibrine, caseine). very atom of proteine,
which has once served in the production of a vital phano-

menon, is to be considered as dead, and the most easily

eliminated form, in which in men and in the carnivora the
dead proteine is excreted from the body, is that of urea. Its
formation is therefore unceasing, and its excretion from the
body constant and uninterrupted. Only oxygen and water
take part in its formation, and thus urea is an oxide or oxy-
If now we carry with us the idea,

hydrate of proteine.
that the oxygen (and water) unites with the compounds of

Chemical Physiology and Pathology. 539

proteine only in definite proportions to form new combinations,
and that there are no indefinite intermediate compounds, we

can conceive that a certain quantity of oxygen, instead of |

gradually penetrating a quantity of proteine by its normal
stages of vital manifestations and decomposition, may seize at
once on a larger quantity of it, and so raise it to the extreme
of vital activity. This excess of oxidation the chemists
attribute only to fever and to inflammation. In diseased
processes of such a nature, a greater quantity of oxygen is
consumed, than the body has to yield for the purposes of life.
This misproportion of matter to be excreted, which is only
got rid of in the form of urine, (in which it is most easily eli-

minated,) constitutes the materia peccans of disease.
In inflammation an increase in the fibrine of the blood has
been observed, and its origin has been ascribed to the albumen
of the blood, 1 atom of whose sulphur is supposed to be
converted into sulphuric acid: the inflammatory crust too is
considered to be formed of fibrine. Mulder describes it as a
hydrate of two stages of the oxidation of proteine, its binoxide
and tritoxide; (epidermose and albuminose of Bouchardat).
Thus the albumen, when it meets with the oxygen, does not
form a binoxide, but a tritoxide at once: fibrine, on the
other hand, easily assumes oxygen from the air even at the
common temperature, and can undergo either of the stages
of oxidation. The oxidation of proteine becomes only by
its excess a pathological phznomenon, for it occurs in healthy
blood also. The oxidation takes place in the lungs by means
of the oxygen which is inspired. An abnormal increase
of the oxidation of proteine can therefore only happen,
when by rapid cooling of the inspired air, a greater quantity
of oxygen than usual is introduced into the circulation, or
when through any cause the number of inspirations exceeds
the normal one, or the circulation of the blood is accelerated.
As we may consider the gelatine-yielding substances to be
more advanced stages of the oxidation of proteine, and the

}
'

536 _ Chemical Physiology and Pathology.

false membranes partly yield gelatine, and partly have the
composition of inflammatory exudations, the formation of the
plastic products of inflammations becomes in some degree
intelligible.. In inflammation the oxidation of proteine is
increased on its surface, but not in its depth, and therefore
the compounds of proteine which are consumed, quit the
body in an imperfectly excrementitious form, and are re-
cognisable especially in the urine (as great quantities of
uric or hippuric acid, oxalic or lactic acid, when the urea
diminishes in quantity) and in the perspiration. In
disease a compound of proteine quits the body either unal-

tered, or in an imperfectly excrementitious state, in larger
quantity than usual, or is at least kept beyond the influence
of the ordinary vital actions. Thus, compounds of proteine
are found in excretions, in which they do not occur under
usual circumstances (as albumen in colliquative diseases in
the urine, the perspiration, and the excrement,) or they be-
come deposited in a place, where they are uncomfortable or
dangerous to the organism, and are more or less removed from
the influence of the natural processes of transformation, (as
pus, tubercle, scrofula, careinoma, hypertrophy, &c.). The
physiologists indeed agree pretty generally with the chemists
‘on this head, that the abnormal chemical products, excretions,
and deposits, as well as the primary elements of diseased swell-
ings, exudations, and false membranes, differ from normal
ones, only in their abnormal situation ; and when in a state of
complete chemical and organic development, some such de-
posits can at times be removed by the application of substances
which hasten the transformation of matter (as culinary salt in
scrofula) and which subject the deposits afresh to the influence
of transmutation. Others obstinately resist every attempt of
this kind, and fall (like carcinoma and tubercle) into a state of
chemical destruction, that involves the harmony of the whole
Bence Jones, a disciple of Liebig, refers the
materia peccans of the diseases just named, to the abnormal

organism.

ea ee

Chemical Physiology and Pathology. 537

quantity of imperfect excrementitious forms of proteine and
its compounds, and assumes a threefold division of diatheses
into the uric acid, the oxalic acid, and the phosphoric acid.
By the uric acid diathesis he understands that con-
dition of the organism which in urine is followed (in conse-
quence of less proteine being oxidised than is wanted for the
formation of urea) by a continued and excessive deposit of
uric acid, free, or united to a base. The cause of excessive
formation of uric acid is either an absolute diminution of the
quantity of oxygen assumed by the body, or the proteine
must share the inhaled oxygen with the articles of food which
are free from nitrogen (as fat, starch, sugar, alcohol and
spirituous drinks,) which are converted into carbonic acid,

and carried off by the respiration. The devouring of much
animal food containing proteine, and of rich dishes, and the
use of spirituous drinks along with an easy mode of life with
diminished exercise, and diminished assumption of oxygen, are
assigned as the predisposing causes of the uric acid diathesis.
Its remedies are thus obvious. These views are however by
no means generally received. Out of the uric acid dia-
thesis, a secondary one, the oxalic acid, develops itself at
times. In this case, the oxidation of the substances to be ex-
creted goes a stage further, but still falls short of the normal
one. Dr. Bird considers the oxalic acid diathesis, which he

believes to be more common than is usually supposed, a variety
of azoturia, in which the kidney converts part of the urea or
of its elements into oxalic acid. In calculi we often find
concentric layers of urate of ammonia, and of oxalate of lime
alternating, which have been formed according as the patient
has varied his mode of life. As to the phosphoric acid
diathesis, Jones divides it into the true and the false: in the
first, in consequence of the general condition of the body the
urine is alkaline, and the phosphates are deposited : the false
one again depends on disease of the urinary organs themselves,

— es

538 Chemical Physiology and Pathology.

which causes decompositions of the urea and precipitation of
the earthy phosphates. In the treatment of the phosphoric
acid diathesis, vegetable acids are indicated, and the avoid-
ance of vegetable substances containing many phosphates, as
bread and potatoes.

Bile is, according to Liebig, not intended for direct excre-
tion from the body, and only a very small trace of bile and
cholesterin' is to be found in the faces; its soda is used
again in digestion, and its chief constituent, the choleic acid,
is used in the formation of the carbonic acid which is ex-
pired. The increased or diminished formation of bile has a
great many phenomena of disease associated with it. Soda,
and therefore especially the consumption of common salt, is
absolutely essential to its formation. When it is in excess,
the formation of bile is increased and accelerated, and when
that material is not supplied in sufficient quantity in the food,
(especially consisting of the Amylacez) the fat deposited in the
body must be applied in its stead. On this account, men and
animals that consume much salt, do not grow fat: for the same
reason saline waters are ordered in obstructions of the liver ;
on this account in tropical countries the eating of melons
very rich in alkalies produces bilious fever,(?) in which the
transformation of matter goes the length of dissolving the
fluids of the body. Hoffmann ascribes bilious pneumonias
to the bile that has been formed not being consumed, and
the efficacy of tartar emetic, to its evacuating the bile from
the body, after which the oxygen is able to produce the
ordinary transmutation of the proteine compounds.
In diminished formation of bile, the portion of oxygen which
formerly made carbonic acid from the bile, unites with other
matters, and more varieties of oxy-proteine are produced,
than can be made use of, (Tuberculosis, &c. are the result).
As regards scurvy and scrofula, Dr. Kloss believes,
that after a comparison of the discordant accounts on the

Chemical Physiology and Pathology. 539

subject, he has obtained this general result, that in scrofula,
salt is not present in sufficient quantity for the produc-
tion of the necessary supply of bile, while in scurvy, salt is
present in excess, and the amount of articles of diet free
from nitrogen is diminished, which again are the most power-
ful causes of scrofula. Both conditions are attended by an
increased action of oxygen on proteine. In scrofula and
tuberculosis deposits of unconsumed proteine take place—in
. Scurvy, owing to the sea-air being rich in oxygen, there is a
complete consumption, and a loss of proteine.

As regards lactic acid, to which Lehmann assigns so im-
portant a physiological action in the body, and which he
considers to be a universal solvent and agent of transportation,
as well as a material element of the organism, although it can
nowhere be found, according to Liebig, it may be assumed
from the more recent observations, that its formation is unne-
cessary'to the production of the ordinary vital phenomena,
and that it is an imperfectly excrementitious matter (formed
in the place of carbonic acid). Produced in small quantity
from vegetables in the stomach, it is consumed by the respira-
tory process, and converted into carbonic acid. Large quan-
tities of it are abnormal, and occur in the various excretions :
they produce a lactic acid diathesis, which affords the materia
peccans to scrofula, rickets, chronic eruptions, &c. We may
add, that increased formation of lactic acid, and diminished
secretion of bile accompany each other. Liebig denies the
existence of this acid in the animal fluids. Berzelius still
believes in it, and Pelouze seems to attribute to it important
functions in the animal economy.

As in plants the presence of a certain quantity of inorganic
matters is necessary (according to Liebig), so also is it in
animals. The blood especially, as the centre of nutrition,
manifests a tendency to preserve its inorganic constituents in
a medium or normal state, in as much as on the one hand, it

gets rid of all salts, &c., whenever they enter it in more than
4a

540 Chemical Physiology and Pathology.

due proportion: and as on the other hand, discomfort or
actual illness ensues, whenever the normal quantity is not
supplied. Examples of this are offered by the varying
quantities of iron contained in the blood (for instance its
deficiency in chlorosis), and by the different. quantities and
qualities of the earths of the bones, in diseases of the osseous
System. |

Remarks on Dr. BoAse’s Primary Geology. By Captain
CAMPBELL, 2]s¢ Regiment, Madras Army.

“-A Treatise on Primary Geology, being an examination both
practical and theoretical of the older formations. By Henry S.
Boasz, M.D., Secretary of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall,
&c. &c. 8vo. pp. 399. London: Loneman and Co. 1834.”

I have frequently had occasion to allude to Dr. Boase’s
work, in communicating such geological information as |]
have had opportunities of picking up, and as the book is, I
believe, but little known in India, these remarks are intended
to afford fellow-labourers in science an idea of the informa-
tion it contains, and as a just tribute for the advantages I have
derived from referring to it.

The author, after a long period of twenty years passed
in the pursuit of geological information in Cornwall, informs
us that, having remarked, “* Many facts which appeared to be
incompatible with the prevailing theory, he was induced to
publish them in the Cornish Transactions, and to attempt
their solution by another.explanation.”’

To consider the validity of his objections, it was satay that
they should be discussed at a general meeting of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science, and this work
was undertaken for the purpose of making the members in
the first place fully acquainted with his views: for, as the
author remarks,

Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology. BAL

* Truth, not victory, is the object contemplated: and if my con-
clusions have been legitimately deduced from the facts brought for-
ward, their value cannot be diminished by an exposure to the fullest

scrutiny.”

As might have been expected, the correctness of the author’s
views has been disputed by those who tell us that ‘‘ the the-
ories of primary geology have been settled long ago.”” By those
who having examined imperfectly a confined and partially ex-
posed tract of primary rocks, call their science “‘a knowledge
of the earth,”’ and by all those who cannot believe descrip-
tions to be correct, which may be at variance with their pre-
conceived ideas of natural phenomena. He has been told,

“That the granitic formation of Cornwall may not be analogous
to that of other countries : that he has greatly erred in supposing the
circumstances of this narrow peninsula to be applicable to all grani-
tic districts ; and that a more extended knowledge would lead him to
confess, with the peasant Tityrus,

‘“‘Urbem, quam dicunt Romam, Melibee, putavi
Stultus ego huic nostree similem.”’

In his 3rd and 5th Chapter, the author in copious extracts
from published descriptions, endeavours to show how far his
description of facts in Cornwall agrees with observation in
other parts of the world, and comparison can be made also
with my imperfect description of the similar formation of the
Bharramahal in South India.

In consequence of the hasty manner in which the work has
been drawn up, a want of classification, of observation and
remark is apparent. throughout, by which the perusal is
rendered fatiguing and laborious, although it is written in“a
plain and pleasing style ; but it is to be hoped that in a second
edition this objection will be removed.

Upon the neglect of the study of the primary rocks, and
the very few published minute descriptive details regarding

them, the author remarks :

542 Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology.

‘“‘The granitic formations have not been carefully studied by all
the cultivators of Geology during the last twenty years: and even
now they attract little attention, as is clearly demonstrated by the
brief and unsatisfactory manner in which they are sketched in the
recent and otherwise excellent works of De la Beche and Lyell.
Dr. Macculloch, during the earlier part of the period specified, con-
tinued to enrich this branch of the science with a vast body of facts,
to which I am indebted for numerous and most important illustra-
tions: but with this exception no Geologist of note, in this country,
has published any minute and descriptive details concerning the
primary rocks; all have been absorbed in the pursuit of the wonder-
ful and fascinating knowledge unfolded by the fossiliferous strata.”

Also:

‘In most of the lately published geological accounts of coun-
tries we look in vain for details concerning primary rocks: we some-
times indeed learn, that such and such a district consists of granite ;
but cannot collect any information concerning its composition, or
the manner in which its varieties are associated together.”

Also :

** This deficiency is attributable to two causes: first, to the indis-
position of Geologists to enter into mineralogical minutiz, which they
have hitherto considered in this country to be comparatively unim-
portant ; and secondly, to the want of such favourable opportunities for
investigation as occur in the cliffs of Cornwall.”

In remarking on the advantages of the study of the pri-
mary rocks, the author quotes De la Beche: _

“The inferior stratified rocks may not at first be so attractive as
the contemplation of the varied forms of organic life, and the proba-
ble conditions under which it may have existed ; but it will never-
theless be found equally, if not more, delightful, as the enquirer
obtains more certain results, from the investigation being conducted
through the medium of the exact sciences.” ;

Upon the effect produced by a constant reference to
theoretic system, it is remarked, that,

Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology. 543

“It prevents the student from taking practical lessons in the
book of nature, until he has completed the course of theoretical
instructions; and then it, too frequently happens, that he can only
make his observations according to the prescribed rules, and under
a particular bias, prejudicial to impartial observations.”

By theoretical Geologists, it is contended that the mineral
character of a rock is a subject of little importance, because it
does not afford the means of estimating the supposed age or
the time of its formation; but without entering at any length
upon the discussion of such views, it will be seen at once
that in a descriptive science, it is by the mineral character
alone that a rock can be identified.* In advocating the ad-
vantages of a nomenclature depending upon geological rela-
tions, Humboldt is made to remark in the English translation
of his work on the ‘ superposition of rocks,’ page 8:

“* Under the equator, as in the north of Europe, the beds of a real
transition syenite lose their hornblende without becoming another
rock.” -

Now as arock is a crystalline aggregation of several minerals,
and as its identity depends on the number, the proportion,
and the mode of aggregation of the component minerals; it
is difficult to understand how it can be asserted, that a rock
is the same, when it is avowedly different. Dr. Macculloch
has, with his usual acumen, detailed and considered ‘the
advantages and disadvantages of both the geological and
mineralogical methods, but the correctness of the following
remarks of our author will probably not be denied:

* In descriptive science we ought not to exclude any characters, and it is in this
spirit we believe that geological enquiries are now conducted. It is true that in
primary rocks we have hardly any other than mineral characters to guide us. We
may remark, however, that some of the so-called primary rocks, even some of those
we believe described by Dr. Boase in the West of England, have by the more
recent enquiries of Sedgewick and De la Beche been found not to be so. We
allude particularly to certain slates of Devonshire, in which distinct and peculiar

fossil remains are now found, although they were previously regarded, we believe,
as primary.—Ebp.

Sos

i i i ee er a

544 Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology.

“If a rock be designated according to its geological relations, its
name must be liable to change, because the principles of the science
are not as yet permanently established ; besides, on this plan, in the
examination of countries previously unexplored, too much depends
on the correct judgment of the observer: but when a rock acquires
a name from the nature of its composition, whether purely minera-
logical, or blended with organic remains, then this part of the
science becomes perfectly descriptive, like the other branches of
Natural History ; and much curious and accurate information may
then be expected from travellers who are not accomplished Geologists,
and Dr. Macculloch, although he has so strongly advocated the geo-
logical method of description, admits in his directions for conducting
geological observations, (‘ System of Geology,’ Vol. II. page 473,) that
a correct description of its mineral character is necessary, as the
varieties of this rock are highly interesting, especially under its
passages into trap.”

If then it is generally admitted, that a particular mineralo-
gical character caused by one mineral, 7. e. the superabun-
dance of hornblende, is interesting and worthy of notice,
why should not the same be allowed, and attended to, with
regard to other minerals; Dr. Boase having shewn in Corn-
wall (and the same also occur in India) that the changes in
the primary rocks are highly interesting, and afford an oppor-
tunity for the most intricate researches.

Dr. Boase thus unfolds the plan and object of his work :

‘«« In conducting the proposed enquiry, there are two objects which
demand attention: first, the description of the primary rocks both of
Cornwall and of other countries, in order to ascertain in what res-
pects they are analogous to each other; and in the next place, an
examination whether the phenomena exhibited by these rocks are
in accordance with the principles of the prevailing theory. On this
plan the following pages will be nearly equally divided between a
narration of facts and hypothetical speculations ; and the former part
will lead to such lengthened preliminary details, as to constitute an
essay on primary geology : which so far from detracting from the in-
terest of the work, may perhaps impart to it a more permanent value

:

Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology. 545

than it would otherwise possess. Indeed, without such an intro-
duction, the succeeding theoretical discussion would not be generally
understood.

« It has always been kept in view as an important object, to pre-
serve these details as free as possible from all hypotheses: but the
language of the science is, in many instances, so engrafted and
founded on theoretical speculations, that it could not be always
accomplished ; for in some cases, the published descriptions would
not admit of translation into less exceptionable language without
the risk of perverting the author’s meaning, or of incurring the impu-
tation of misrepresenting facts.

** In the arrangement of these details the following Seas has been
adopted :

** lst, A description of the various kinds of granitic rocks, and the
modes in which they are associated together.

«« 2nd. Of the primary schistose rocks, under the same relations.

‘«« 3rd. Of the structure of the primary rocks.

«“ 4th. Of the nature of the primary rocks, both granitic and
schistose, at their junction with each other.

«* 5th. Of the modes in which these rocks are intermixed and con-
nected together.

« 6th. Of the mineral and metalliferous veins by which these
rocks are traversed.”

In his 2nd Chapter, the author enters upon a minute des-
cription of the granitic rocks of Cornwall, which being in a
great measure technical, it would be difficult to make a sum-
mary interesting to the general reader.

The following definition is given of the application of the
name :

** Granite, in the common and original acceptation of the term,
denotes a rock composed of felspar, quartz, and mica. It oftentimes
contains in addition to these, some other minerals; but those just
enumerated are considered, in the following pages, as essential to true
granite ; and if either of them is wanting, the compound may then
receive a distinct denomination. These component minerals of

546 Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology.

granite, both essential and accidental, are united together by a con-
fused crystallisation, not only mutually penetrating and interfering
with each other, but sometimes the small crystals of one are com-
pletely enveloped in the large crystals of a different kind of mineral.
And it is a very common occurrence for one or even more, of these
minerals to be developed in large crystals in a granular basis of the
whole, so as to constitute a porphyritic granite. This character is
generally imparted by the felspar, and rarely by the quartz or mica.”

In his advocacy of such a hypothetical term as ‘“ True
Granite,” it may be doubted if Dr. Boase may not himself
have fallen into the error which he blames in others. For the
term is totally uninteresting, and even unintelligible, unless
with reference to theoretical assumptions. On this point Dr.
Macculloch’s remarks (System of Geology, Vol. II. page 81)
are peculiarly apposite :

‘The term granite has by some been limited to a compound of
quartz, felspar, and mica, and the word syenite, adopted for those
containing hornblende, laying the foundation of a large progeny of
errors. The distinction is as unfounded as it is pernicious. To the
first compound there is sometimes superadded hornblende, or else it
becomes a substitute for the mica, producing a granite even more
abundant than the first ; while the ternary compounds also loose one or
other of their ingredients, and become binary: all these varieties
further occurring on the same mass, and often within a very small
space. In nature, therefore, granite ranges within four essential
minerals, quartz, felspar, mica and hornblende, in different com-
binations of two, three or four. If this were merely a question of
mineralogy, the distinction, thus condemned, might be conceded
without inconvenience ; but as the nomenclature of rocks is a nomen-

clature for the purposes of geology, it is easy to see what fallacies.

may intrude from an improper use of terms: as has happened from
that of syenite, thus making a distinct geological rock of any
granite which happens to contain hornblende. Thus have the latest
been confounded with the older unstratified rocks; not only pro-
ducing inextricable confusion, but permitting trifling observers to

|

_ Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology. 547

impose on their readers by false or flimsy statements founded on

mere terms.”
To return to Dr. Boase’s description. He remarks:

“In Cornwall the granitic rocks occur at the surface, in the form
of eight insulated masses, four of which are of much greater extent
than the others; each of these masses presents some peculiarities, but
all of them contain several varieties of true granite. The most
general feature of the Cornish granite is the abundance of its fel-
spar, shorl however is the characteristic mineral of this district ;
indeed it is seldom altogether absent from these granitic rocks for
any extent, though it is often in such minute particles as to require
a magnifying glass for its detection.

«Thus we learn that the granitic masses of Cornwall are not, as
some have supposed them to be, composed of one kind of rock, uni-
form in its constitution, and uninteresting in its varieties, but as
complex in their composition as the stratified rocks; and in their
mineral transition into each other, afford us curious and instructive
subjects for investigation: on this account, the utility of mineralo-
gical distinctions is obvious; and it will be still more apparent when
we consider these granitic rocks hereafter, not only in their relations
toward each other, but also towards the crystalline schists with which

they are associated.”

In his 3rd Chapter, Dr. Boase proceeds to compare the
granitic rocks of other countries with those of Cornwall,
wherever he is able to find minute mineralogical descriptions
given in sufficient details for his purpose, and remarks :

‘** Notwithstanding the paucity of such description, yet sufficient
data may be gleaned for our purpose, which is to show, that the
granitic rocks of other countries exhibit similar variations in their
mineral composition, and similar associations as those of Cornwall.”

And at the close of the chapter,

‘In concluding these brief details concerning the granitic rocks,

- we will only observe, in addition to the remarks which have been

4B

548 Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology.

incidentally made, that a comparison of the granitic formation of
Cornwall with that of other countries shows that some compounds
that are of rare and limited occurrence in the former, are developed
elsewhere in extensive masses: as the instances of the binary com-
pounds of quartz and mica, and quartz and talc: and vice versa, the
porphyritic granites, and porcelaineous protogine, sparingly scattered
in other countries, are abundant in Cornwall, as are likewise, in
a still greater degree, the shorlaceous varieties of granite, and the
binary combinations of quartz and shorl; facts which point out to
us that all well marked compounds of distinct minerals ought to be
distinguished by appropriate names, although they may be only
known to exist in small quantities. The above specific binary com-
pounds are as much entitled to distinct names, as shorl-rock: if
they be not required in the one case, neither is it necessary in the
other ; so that the terms shorl-rock, hornblende-rock, and others,
should be expunged from the geological nomenclature, if this view be
persisted in. If the knowledge of the primary rocks be a study
worth pursuing, a mineralogical classification must be ultimately
adopted: for, accurate details concerning their transitions into each
other, and their modes of association, cannot be given on the present
system. This topic will be reverted to; but in passing we cannot
help seizing every opportunity to urge the necessity of this reforma-
tion, being firmly convinced that no measure will tend more to pro-
mote the progress of this department of the science.”

I think the correctness of the above remark will be readily
assented to by Indian Geologists, but the question whether
such minute descriptive details cannot be made interesting,
as well as useful, I must leave for the Zoologist, the Ornitho-
logist, &c. &c. to determine. For in the pursuit of these

sciences, it appears to me, that a great portion of the interest

lies in that minute, and accurate description of details by
which species and varieties are distinguished with certainty,
although they have never before been seen.

In the 4th Chapter the primary schistose rocks of Corn-
wall are described, and the author commences with the fol-
lowing preliminary remarks :—

Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology. 049

‘«‘ The primary rocks have been divided into stratified and unstra-
tified, the latter comprising the various granitic rocks, which gene-
rally occur in large insulated clusters, and have a compact and mas-
sive structure; the former denoting those non-fossiliferous rocks
which surround, and are intimately connected with the granite,
and are commonly distinguished by a slaty or schistose structure.

“It will be found, however, that this division is perfectly arbi-
trary: for both stratified and unstratified rocks are so intermixed in
their associations, that it is sometimes impossible to decide to which
of these classes a rock, under examination, belongs: in order there-
fore in some measure to avoid this confusion the primary rocks will,
in the following pages, be supposed to consist of granitic and schistose
groups; only understanding, by this division, that in the one gra-
nites, and in the other slates predominate; and it must not be for-
gotten that this is an artificial, not a natural arrangement, merely
to facilitate description.

‘The rocks which immediately surround the insulated masses and
ranges of granite, are very numerous; and although they are gene-
rally schistose, they are sometimes massive, and in their structure
very similar to the granitic. These circumstances, however, will
come under consideration hereafter ; at present our object is to obtain
a knowledge of the composition and internal appearance of the indi-
viduals of the schistose group.

“In describing the various schistose groups, that of Cornwall will
in the first place demand our attention. It may be divided into
two series, the porphyritic and the calcareous ; the former including
those rocks which occur next the granite, and contain porphyries
and other granitic rocks in the form of regular beds or elvan-courses,
and which abound in veins of tin and copper ores; the latter,
comprising those rocks which are more or less remote from the
granite, contain no elvans, but abound much more in greenstone,
especially its obscurer varieties, and in dark-coloured limestones,
sparingly metalliferous, containing no tin, but productive of lead and
antimony ; and lastly, possessing occasionally organic remains.

‘* Most of the rocks of the calcareous series appear to be referrible
to the older portion of that class which is intermediate between the
primary and the secondary, commonly known by the name of ¢ran-

550 Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology. ca

sition ; a class of Werner’s system which for many years had fallen
into disuse, but has been lately revived on account of its conve-
nience.

** The individuals of this calcareous series will not be treated of in
this place, with the exception of the magnesian rocks, serpentine,
euphotide, and talc-schist, which immediately follow the porphyritic
series.

‘«‘The rock in contact with granite in Cornwall has been usually
called argillaceous schist, or clay-slate. Dr. Berger, and after him
many other Geologists, have termed it greywacké ; but as Professor
Mohs has very justly observed, it has no resemblance to this rock ;
some have adopted the word killas, from the miners, to denote this
kind of slate, but have used it more vaguely than even it is done
provincially ; for even the miners acknowledge that some important
varieties of this rock are not true killas, but a kind of elvany killas.
The remarks of the late Rev. J. J. Conybeare are very appropriate :
—‘ The common killas,’ he observes, ‘ after much question as to its
being a variety of greywacké, which, if that term has any definite
meaning, it unquestionably is not, has been at last admitted on all
hands to be a genuine clay-slate ; but this appellation, perhaps, after
all, does not convey a much clearer notion of the real nature and
constitution of the rocks included under it, than the repudiated
greywacké.’ In fact, no term has been more misapplied than that
of clay-slate ; and its application has been general to all fine slaty
rocks, no matter to what member of the primary slates they belong,
or, indeed, whether they occur in the transition or secondary classes.
In Cornwall, for instance, there are at least a dozen kinds of rocks
that are very fissile, all of which have been indiscriminately called
clay-slate, notwithstanding they sensibly differ from each other in
their external and physical character, and are respectively associated
with distinct suites of rocks.”

In the 5th Chapter, Dr. Boase has collected a detailed
description of the primary schistose rocks of other parts of the
world, for comparison with those of Cornwall, and remarks:

‘In attempting to shew that the primary or crystalline schists of
different countries are the equivalents of those of Cornwall, it is not

4
Nie:
ie",

.
i

¢

Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology.. 951

intended to assert that they are all of the same nature, and referrible
to precisely the same geological epoch: on the contrary, it is wished
for the present to avoid all conjectures concerning the nature of
their origin, and only to express that these slates do, as in Cornwall,
bear a certain relation to the granite with which they are associated :
and consequently all slates, both foreign and Cornish, which have
the same relative connection and position with the granite, may be
regarded as parallel or equivalent rocks.”

The 6th Chapter contains an investigation of the varieties
of structure, both external and internal, which is found in the
various primary rocks, both granitic and schistose.

In the 7th Chapter,

“The relative position, and the nature of the granitic and schis-
tose rocks at their junction,”

is considered, and after shewing that an unconformable posi-
tion of the schists incumbent upon granite is common, and
they are known in many cases to abut against the granite with
the seams of the lamination: it is proved that at the junc-
tion not only is the structure of the schists and their mineral
composition much modified, but that the granite also is
changed in a similar manner ; and the author remarks,

“In short, the granite and slate of Cornwall, at their junction,
are frequently so similar, both in composition and concretionary
structure, that the detached blocks, as they lie side by side, cannot
at a little distance be distinguished from each other; the darker
colour of the slate, and its tendency, often slight, to break into
lamin, are sometimes the only differences to be detected on a closer
inspection.”

And the same remarks are shewn to be applicable to the
granitic and schistose rocks of other countries also.
Of the 8th Chapter, the purpose is thus stated :

‘“‘ Having detailed in the preceding chapter the nature and position
of the schistose rocks at their point of contact with granite, it is

;
.
|
:

552 Remarks on Dr. Boase?s Primary Geology.

now proposed to consider how these stratified and unstratified rocks
comport themselves, when more intimately intermixed in the form of
beds, dykes, veins and detached portions of various irregular shapes
and dimensions.”

After noticing the occurrence of elongated portions of gra-
nite imbedded in the schists as ‘* Elvan-courses,”’ the author
remarks :

‘« Besides these somewhat regular beds or courses of granitic rocks,
irregular masses or bunches of various dimensions also occur in the
primary slates. These are particularly abundant near the junction,
as is well illustrated on the sea-shore near the village of Mousehole,
in Cornwall; where they are seen to be connected with the slate
on all sides, sending out veins, passing into the slate by mineral gra-
dations, forming, with portions of the slate, the same concretions,
and also containing insulated pieces of slate of different sizes and
shapes. It might be contended that these bunches of granite are
merely protuberances of the subjacent granite: in some cases, even
at Mousehole, they probably are; but that they are not always 50,
is demonstrated by the workings of Dolcoath mine, where several
of these outlying masses of granite have been found to be perfectly
insulated.

‘“The granitic rocks are thus disseminated throughout the crys-
talline schists, under various circumstances, and in different forms ;
so likewise the latter rocks occur in detached portions in the granite
not only at the junction, but in the main mass, some distance there-

from,”

The author then gives minute descriptive details of the
phenomena of granite veins, and thus concludes :

‘In short, wherever granite-veins have been observed at the junc-
tion of the granitic and schistose rocks, they exhibit similar phenomena
to those of Cornwall. With very little alteration, therefore, we may,
with Mr. Carne*, sum up the evidence on this subject in the following

manner :—

* Geol, Trans. of Cornwall, vol. ii. p. 69.

| toc islet

Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology. 553

«1, The composition of the granite-veins is generally different from
that of the main body of granite, and it is very frequently of a much
smaller grain. It will, however, be found to resemble the veins,
courses, or beds which form an integrant part of the central mass.

«‘2. The slate which is contiguous to the granite-veins, is frequent-
ly much harder, more crystalline, and its texture is, in general, less
schistose than that which is more distant: and it often exhibits
mica, hornblende, or other minerals in a distinct form, the nature of
the mineral depending on the composition of the containing rocks.

«3. Some granite-veins are closely connected with the slate, both
being intimately united and inseparable; and indeed, sometimes,
as in the case of Rannoch, one of the component minerals of the
veins is crystallised, and its crystals penetrate and are contained in
the slate as well as in the vein: it often happens, however, that the
veins can be easily detached from the slate, aud have distinct walls ;
that is, an open seam or joint divides them from the latter.

‘4, Detached portions of the slate, having the appearance of frag-
ments, are frequently insulated in the granitic veins, and sometimes
indeed also occur in the main body of granite; and, vice versd, similar
portions of granite are often completely enveloped in the slate.

“5. These veins are sometimes so abundantly and intricately blend-
ed with the slate, either one or the other predominating in the mass,
that the whole is involved in apparent confusion; whilst in other
cases the slate reposes on the granite without any appearance of
dislocation or disturbance, and is traversed by well-defined granite-
veins.

‘<6. These veins have, in some cases, been traced to the main mass
of granite, with which they appear to be in complete union, and to
form one body, losing entirely their character as veins; whilst in
other instances these veins have been found to continue their course
through the granite as well as the slate.

“7, The granite-veins have no general direction or position ; they
run towards every point of the compass, and dip at every angle from
the horizon to the perpendicular.

“8, These veins are sometimes straight, and pretty regular in their
thickness; but in general they are more or less tortuous, and
gradually become smaller as they recede from the granite.

‘

Koma ee Lt

554 Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology.

‘9. It occasionally happens that where these granite-veins occur,
the slate is intersected by numerous small quartz-veins: some of
these are traversed by the former ; others, on the contrary, traverse
and heave both the granite-veins and the other quartz-veins.”’

The 9th Chapter is devoted to a minute description of the
mineral and metalliferous veins in primary rocks, and the
author thus commences it :

“ Before concluding this sketch of the primary rocks, it is re-
quisite, in order to complete their description, to make a few obser-
vations on the mineral and metalliferous veins by which these rocks
are traversed. ‘The details on this subject will be almost entirely
drawn from Cornwall, where the phenomena of veins have been
more extensively and more minutely investigated than in any other
country ; and, indeed, as far as works on this subject in our
language are concerned, Cornwall has been the principal source of
information. The metalliferous veins contained in the secondary
rocks are not unimportant, either in an economical or scientific
point of view; but to enter on their examination, at present, would
be departing from the plan of this work, and would, if they were
fully treated of, require an entire volume. Besides, it is desirable
that the subject of veins should be carefully described under distinct
heads, according as the rocks with which they are associated vary
in their nature : and when a large body of facts has, by these means,
been collected, then our generalisations may be placed on a more
permanent basis; but, at present, the facts which we possess con-
cerning veins are fully equalled, if not exceeded in number, by
speculations on their nature and origin.

The vast importance of an accurate knowledge of veins to our
commercial welfare and prosperity, is generally admitted; and
Geologists, also, have always regarded veins, not only as a curious
and interesting feature in the structure of the earth, but also as
affording valuable evidence concerning the internal movements and
convulsions which our planet has periodically experienced. Not-
withstanding, however, the high estimation in which this subject is
generally held, it is astonishing how little progress has been hither-
to made in this department of geology : every other branch of the

4
2

Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology. 555

science abounds with copious and good descriptions, which are
daily increasing in number and in importance ; whilst that of veins
scarcely possesses any plain and honest details unencumbered with
hypothesis. Indeed, the low state of our knowledge of these curious

phenomena is plainly denoted by the neglect with which they have '

been treated in the most recent and most esteemed geological publi-
cations. Thus the student looks in vain for any practical infor-
mation on this subject in the voluminous work of Lyell on the
Principles of Geology : and in the Manual of De la Beche, he must
rest contented with some short details ; indeed, the author has
apologised for the brevity with which he has treated this branch of
the science, and adds, that his notice of it ‘is solely intended to
call the attention of the student to a few interesting circumstances.’
We rather suspect that the confusion of facts and theory in the
descriptions of veins, rendered the subject unfit for the pages of
his practical work. In Macculloch’s System of Geology, also, al-
though the account of veins occupies a few more pages, yet it does
not convey an accurate notion of a vein; and is, as in every other
work, so blended with hypothesis, that the student cannot dis-
tinguish fact from conjecture.

‘This fault, both in our elementary and systematic works, is
certainly to be regretted: it is not, however, attributable to these
eminent Geologists, but to the mode in which this part of the science
has been treated; and their names are only here adduced as au-
thorities to show the truth of our observation, that the knowledge
of veins is very defective.”

And the Chapter thus concludes :

“In concluding this brief sketch of the Cornish veins, which has
been divested as much as possible from all theoretical considerations,
we would ask whether enough has not been advanced to show that
the general idea of these veins is incorrect: and when we hereafter
discuss the nature of their origin, it will be seen that our knowledge
on this subject is as unsatisfactory as the descriptive details. From
the leading facts which have been now brought together, we learn
that veins, whether large or small, possess precisely the same
characters ; they are intimately connected with the containing rock

4c

556 ‘Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology.

by mineral transitions, and vary in composition as the nature of the
rock changes; they are not straight, but are curved both in their
course and dip; their sides or walls are only distinct from the rock
when the seams or joints are developed by decomposition, and are
always partially confounded with the rock by a perfect intermixture
or transition ; they intersect each other both in length and depth,
and in the larger veins those series which run in the same direction
are generally affected by the others in a similar manner; but this
is not invariably the case: their intersections are very frequently
attended by alterations in the course of the disconnected veins, but
the amounts of these apparent movements, in an extensive series, are
very various, even in the case of a single intervening vein.”

In the 10th Chapter, the author sums up the inferences he
draws from the results of his investigation of the phenomena
of the primary formations of Cornwall, and its comparison
with the description of that of other countries: these remarks
may be abridged as follows :

Ist. That there is always a similarity of mineral composition
between the granitic rocks and the adjacent primary schists,
with which they are associated.

Qnd. That the same brecciated structure or apparent
origin from the conglomeration of fragments occurs both in
the schistose and granitic primary rocks, and if allowed to be
an evidence of derivative origin in the one case, so must it
also be allowed in the other.

3rd. That the granitic and mineral veins of Cornwall,
gradually pass into the rocks they traverse, and both present
the same appearance of heaves, slides, and similar phenomena,
commonly referred to motion, when veins of the same or of a
different class interfere with each other.

Ath. That the origin of both the schistose and granitic rocks
is the same.

5th. That parts of the schistose formation present by in-
sensible graduation a perfect granitic structure.

6th. That the primary schists are not stratified, or that the
granitic formations are as much stratified as the schistose.

=< = UU

Remarks on Dr, Boase’s Primary Geology. 557

7th. That the granitic and primary schistose formations are
only positions of the same continuous formation with a variety
of structure.

8th. That as masses of granite are found to occur insulated
and imbedded in the schistose formations, and connected with
the schists by the most intimate gradations of structure,
and mineral composition ; it is possible that all the granitic
formations, however extensive, may be merely imbedded
varieties in the schistose.

9th. That the granitic rocks in the same continuous forma-
tion are found to present every variety of mineral composi-
tion, and although a particular mineral is found to prevail
in particular localities, that mineral composition cannot be
allowed to be a guide to the age or mode of formation of the
granitic rocks.

I have shewn that Dr. Boase’s 7th Inference derives
support from an examination of the association of the granitic
and schistose rocks of Mysore, and the idea expressed in the
8th Inference has often occurred to me as a subject of specu-
lation. It is supported by the insulated appearance of the
granitic mountain masses in the Bharramahal and in most
parts of South India; also from the globular concretions
of granite of which many granitic hills are formed, but the
evidence has appeared to me to be strongest in support of
the probability of the granitic formation of Southern India
being continuous in all its vast extent.

In his 11th Chapter, the author gives a synopsis of the pre-
vailing theories regarding the nature and oirgin of the primary
rocks, which he thus concludes:

‘Having now given a general view of the prevailing theory
concerning the primary rocks, and having endeavoured to elucidate
the same by copious extracts from Lyell’s ‘ Principles of Geology,’
we proceed to point out those parts of the theory which appear to

558 Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology.

be objectionable ; and to state the order in which it is proposed to
conduct the discussion on which we are now about to enter. ?

“It is laid down, as a fundamental principle of this theory, that
the primary rocks consist of two distinct classes ; not distinguished
from each other for the sake of facilitating scientific descriptions,
but severed by well-marked characters, and by natures diametrically
opposite: the one having been formed from materials deposited and
arranged by water; the other, by the action of an internal fire, at
considerable depths below the surface. ‘These conclusions are said
to be founded on physical evidence,—on facts recorded by numerous
observers in various parts of the world: and it may therefore appear
to be an idle waste of time, an attempt of no little presumption, to
make even a show of assaulting a position so strongly fortified.
There is no intention of disputing the correctness of the facts, when
such have been sufficiently investigated and faithfully described ; but
the evidence which these afford, may be sometimes disputed: for
what is this physical evidence of which we so often hear, and to
which theorists so frequently appeal? Itis only a testimony re-
corded in hieroglyphics of an unknown character, and which may
therefore admit of divers interpretations. In our attempts to deci-
pher these characters, no solution can be admissible, unless it be
applicable to all without exception. Now, the prevailing theory
satisfactorily explains a great body of these facts, but it will be the
object of the following pages to show that there are some phenomena
which it does not appear to interpret in a clear and convincing
manner. For instance, we are taught that gneiss, and other primary
strata, which so nearly resemble the granitic rocks, especially at
their junction with each other, are merely sedimentary deposits
altered by the contact of granite in a state of fusion; and, that the
condition of secondary strata next to trap-rocks, clearly indicates that
such changes do take place under similar circumstances; but, after
making every allowance for the comparison of small things with
great, we shall strive to show that the cases compared are not
analogous; that the evidence brought forward bears witness to
changes produced by heat, but not to such changes as the primary
strata are supposed to have undergone; viz., an assimilation of
the aqueous to the igneous rocks, by the introduction of additional
elements into the composition of the former.

Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology. 559

“Lastly, the prevailing theory embraces igneous convulsions, as
one of its leading principles; by which the stratified rocks are said
to have been forced up from their original horizontal position, and
inclined at various angles, by which they have been curved and
contorted ; and by which they have also been rent and fissured
in various directions: thus affording space for the intrusion of
igneous rocks, in the forms of veins or dykes, and for the formation
of mineral and metallic veins ; and also occasioning those faults and
dislocations so common both in the stratified and unstratified rocks.
To this doctrine, also, we cannot give our assent im toto. No one
can deny, that volcanic fires have in former times occasioned, and
still continue to produce, great mechanical alterations in the struc-
ture of the solid crust of our planet; but it does not appear to
be satisfactorily demonstrated, that the inclination of the primary
strata is attributable to this cause; nor, that the phenomena of
granitic veins and dykes, and of metalliferous veins, are infallible
indications of igneous convulsions.

«These are grave and weighty points of dissent, as regards the
stability of the Plutonic theory ; and, if we can only succeed in the
first instance, in giving plausible reasons for this difference of opi-
nion, the objections ought surely to receive a candid and patient
examination: they may be satisfactorily answered, or they may,
perchance, prove knotty and stubborn opponents. In either case, it
may be requisite to make appeals to nature by additional investi-
gations: so that there is some satisfaction in thinking, that, in
whichever way this discussion may terminate, by thus digging about
and examining the ground of the radical doctrines of the science,
the field of geology, like that of the departed husbandman in Bacon’s
fable, may be rendered more fertile and productive.

“In conducting the proposed enquiry, it is intended to arrange
it under the following heads :—

** 1, Are the primary schistose rocks stratified ?

‘«‘2. Have the primary schistose rocks been elevated into’ their
present inclined positions by Plutonic agency ?

“3. Are the primary ‘schistose rocks sedimentary deposits, altered
by the contact of igneous rocks?

‘4, Do the primary rocks afford physical evidence that they have
experienced fissures, dislocations, and other mechanical movements ?

560 Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology.

«5. May not all the phenomena of the primary rocks, both stra-
tified and unstratified, be satisfactorily explained on the supposition
that these rocks are of contemporaneous origin ?”

In the 12th Chapter, the subject of ‘‘ An enquiry into the
nature of stratification”’ is entered upon, in which the various
phenomena observed in the primary rocks in various parts of
the world, are compared, and the author thus concludes it :

«We shall, therefore, conclude the chapter, with remarking,
that this view not only reconciles many of the incongruous opinions
which have been advanced on this subject by the most eminent
Geologists; but it offers us an explanation of those parallel lines
which often intersect formations, undoubtedly produced at differ-
ent times ; an occurrence that has caused no little perplexity. And
lastly, it points out, how a difference of opinion has frequently
existed on a subject so apparently simple, as whether a given rock is
or is not stratified; for the term stratum has reference not only
to the arrangement of rocks in parallel layers by deposition, but also
to the tabular forms produced by joints or seams: and since this is
only a variety of structure, common in a greater or less degree
to all rocks, it clearly shows that it cannot be made a ground of
distinction, much less the fundamental basis for a classification
of rocks. The terms stratified and unstratified are, in many respects,
synonymous with the two kinds of internal structure,—the massive
or compact, and the schistose or fissile: the former predominating
in granitic, trappean, and other rocks of this nature, commonly
called igneous; the latter being more characteristic of the primary
slates, and of the secondary and tertiary deposits, which are of
aqueous origin. We have seen, that though each kind of internal
structure respectively prevails in certain series of rocks, yet that
neither is exclusively confined thereto: and thus it has happened,
that some granitic or unstratified rocks have been pronounced to be
stratified; and some members of the stratified have been called
unstratified intrusive masses, though intimately blended with, and
perfectly enveloped in, the former. We contend, therefore, that
the various kinds of granitic and primary slates have been unneces-
sarily separated from each other ; that these slates are not stratified,

Remarks on Dr. Boase’s Primary Geology. | 560]

in the usual acceptation of the word, only differing from granite in
the mode in which their component particles are aggregated to-
gether: and, finally, that although the primary slates in structure
often resemble rocks of the fossiliferous groups, yet they are not
detrital and sedimentary rocks, as we shall attempt to show in a
succeeding chapter.”’

In the 13th Chapter, the subject considered is,

‘* Have the primary schistose rocks been elevated into their present
inclined position by Plutonic agency ?”’

The description of apparently elevated strata in various
parts of the world is reviewed, also igneous operations now
in progress—-elevation-craters—changes of level of sea and
land—the apparent protrusion of granite in a solid and fluid
state—and various other points upon which it is quite impos-
sible to give an abstract of the various important and con-
flicting evidence collected, but of the nature of which an idea
may be formed from the author’s concluding inferences.

“‘Qn the grounds detailed in this chapter, we therefore conclude
that the inclined position of strata is not an infallible criterion of
mechanical elevation; that this appearance in the primary slates
may be more justly attributed to their original structure, and in
many of the secondary strata to the same cause conjointly with
their deposition on inclined surfaces ; and, that the notion of granite
having been protruded through and tilting up the strata, either in
a fluid or solid state, does not appear to be countenanced by
reference to the known effects of igneous agency ; and, lastly, that
the situation of strata adjacent to trap-rocks, the supposed connect-
ing link between the granitic rocks, and existing volcanic products,
is of too intricate and conflicting a nature to be received as positive
evidence of such an occurrence.”

(To be continued. )

~_ os
a ergs

562

Notes on the Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan. By
Captain Tuomas Hutton, F.G.S.

The route from Ferozepore to Candahar, proceeding via
Bhawulpore and Sukkur, affords little to attract the attention
of a geologist until he arrives at the latter station; the tract
of country travelled over consisting principally of loose shift-
ing sands, heaped up by the wind around the stunted bushes

of mimosa, with occasional clearings for cultivation in the ©

jungles, which usually border the river Garah. After pass-
ing Bhawulpore however, the country improves vastly in
cultivation which is both of more frequent occurrence and
much richer than in the more Northern portion of the dis-
trict, but the soil throughout appears to be composed of
nearly the same river deposits of sz/¢ intermingled with
vegetable and calcareous matter, while in some places beds
of Kunkur underlie the silts in the same manner as in the
Gangetic Provinces. The country is mainly, if not altoge-
ther, dependent upon the river for the supply of water
necessary for irrigation, and is every where intersected by
deep canals communicating with the Garah, which during
the rainy season fills them by the rising of its waters; but at
other seasons, when the river has again shrunk within its
bed, the Persian wheel is used to raise the water for the
crops along the banks, while farther inland, it is either not
at all procurable, or is scantily supplied by wells.

During the monsoon many parts of this district are inun-
dated, more especially in the low-lying tracts below Bha-

wulpore, where I was informed it was not uncommon at that.

season to see the inhabitants paddling over the submerged
fields in small boats. Innumerable land and river shells*

* These consisted of Pupa indica, with two varieties, P. cenopicta ; P. bico-
lar ; Helix granulata (of Benson); Achatina gracilis; Paludina Bengalensis ;
P. premorsa; Planobis indicus, P. compressus; P.nanus; Melania Pyramis ;
and a species of Cyrena. At Roree I found adead specimen of Pupa pulchella,
which occurs living in the Hills around Subathoo.

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanisian. 563

were strewed over the sandy plains, even several miles from
the river, a fact which, added to the circumstance of the huts
in some parts being built on supports or stilts, bears ample
testimony to the extensive floodings which annually occur.

The whole tract of country from Ferozepore to Roree, is
strictly alluvial, iron sand being in some places plentifully
_ intermixed in the sands along the river’s edge; but at Roree
a low ridge of nummulitic limestone crosses the Indus. On
the left bank, the town of Roree stands upon this formation ;
the fort of Bukkur, in the middle of the stream, is likewise
_ built upon it, and it then extends some distance across the
country on the Sukkur side, or right bank.

The rock is chiefly of a pale sandy hue, often approaching
to white, and sometimes exhibiting a few scattered nummu-
lites, though at Sukkur it appeared to be without them.

The strata are thin and numerous, sometimes much
indurated, always compact, and alternating with layers of
flint, nodules of which are likewise frequently imbedded.
I had no opportunity of examining these strata at Roree, but
I possess some specimens of Conus, Clypeus and other shells,
which were found there imbedded in chalky strata; from
Bukkur also I possess a flint bearing on it the cast of a
Patella, which was kindly presented to me by Colonel
Stacy.

The dip of the strata in that portion which I had an
opportunity of inspecting is slight, and towards the north-
east. .

Farther research in that locality by those who may now
be occasionally stationed at Sukkur, would no doubt bring
to light many interesting fossils from this formation, which
is a member of the cretaceous system, well known in Europe
to abound in marine organic remains; but at the time when
I visited Sukkur in 1841, I had no opportunity, from want
of time and from sickness, of doing more than noting the
few facts here recorded.

4D

564 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Afghanistan.

From Sukkur to Shikarpore the formation is again entirely
alluvial, and so indeedi t continues to be up to the very base
of the range of mountains which skirts the plains of Cutchee
or Cutch Gundava. Proceeding from Shikarpore towards
Dadur, the three first marches are through thick jungles of
Mimosa and Tamarisk, with occasional clearings for cultiva-
tion. Beyond this the desert of Cutchee commences, spread-
ing in a wide and arid plain without a shrub or a blade of
grass. The soil of this desert tract is a hard arenaceous
clay, containing scales of mica, and some calcareous parti-
cles. This alluvial tract of country is bounded on two sides
by mountains forming offshoots from the great Solimaun
range. They appear, generally speaking, to be composed
of secondary rocks, some of which furnish abundance of
nummulites and other marine shells, while about forty miles
distant from the town of Bagh, is a su/phur mine which has
long been worked, and contains several large chambers, from
which, in by-gone days, the mineral was extracted. This
mine is still resorted to, and was farmed out in 1839 to
twenty men, who paid a sum of rupees 700 to the Governor
of Bhag, then a brother of Mehrab Khan, the ruler of Kilat.

The produce of the mine is native sulphur, of excellent
quality, both massive and crystallised, in octohedral prisms
of a clear amber colour. Within one of the chambers is a
spring of petroleum, which falls in drops from the roof, and
is received into a well excavated in the floor. © The adits of
this mine lead into very extensive and spacious chambers,
which have evidently been excavated by man in more pros-
perous days, although the wonder-loving Beloochis swore
they were all natural caves, of unknown extent. The cham-
bers are lighted by native lamps or chirags,* and the adits
are in some places so narrow, that the miners are obliged
to creep in on their bellies; and from this circumstance it

* Little earthen saucers of oil with a cotton wick.

r

.
7»
a

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan. 565

becomes necessary to be extremely careful that the flame
is not communicated to the walls, so as to ignite the sulphur.
There is likewise a small well of brackish water within the
mine, which however is turned fo no account. The petro-
leum is rendered useful by mixing it with the dust and
small fragments of sulphur, from which, by boiling, a coarse
dark-coloured brimstone, of inferior quality, is extracted.
The pure native sulphur is broken into pieces and boiled in
oil, from which the common yellow brimstone of commerce
is produced. Candahar is partly supplied with sulphur from
these mines and partly from Gurmsael and Bulkh ; that from
Gurmsael is reckoned inferior to the others, and sells at a
lower price. When the markets are well stocked, the best
sulphur sells at from 23 to 3 annas per seer,* and that
from Gurmsael at about one anna less. But in the winter.
season, and at other times, when it is scarce, it sells at from
7 to 8 annas per seer.} The brimstone is usually made at the
mines, and afterwards pays a duty at Candahar of 1-40th. It
constitutes an article of the Affghan Materia Medica, and is
also used for curing itch or feverish eruptions in camels, a
disease which regularly attacks them at the commencement
of the hot weather, when the old coat of hair falls of!§ A
small quantity is used by the chemists in the preparation of
sulphuric acid, but by far the greater portion is employed in
the manufacture of coarse gunpowder. Another sulphur
mine is said to exist in the direction of Seevee, among the
Murrhyes, but of it, I could gain no particulars.

Proceeding onwards from the town of Bhag towards
Dadur, the soil is still alluvial, until some miles beyond
Mahasur the road winds through hills of crumbling sands and
clays, plentifully studded with water-worn pebbles of trap,
nummulite limestones, sandstones, §c. ‘These hills have a

* Taking the rupee at two shillings, the price is from 33d, to 44d. per seer, or

about 2/bs.. Or 13d. to 23d. per lb.
t That is, from 52d. to 6d. per lb.

566 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan.

wasting appearance, and are in many places fading away
rapidly under the influence of atmospheric agents, and some
indeed have been entirely swept off, leaving nothing but a
broad base of pebbles confusedly mingled together, and
affording specimens of nearly every rock to be met with in the
neighbouring mountains. In some parts again they appear
to be imperfectly consolidated or semi-indurated, exhibiting
indications of stratification, but usually they are composed of
stiff reddish clays alternating with loose textured sand-
stones, the clays being often horizontally divided by their
layers and detached masses of foliated gypsum, of a pure
and glossy transparency.

From the situation of these crumbling hills, opposite to
the openings of the mountain glens, many would perhaps be,
led to attribute them to the agency of glaciers in former.
years, were it not that their stratification is opposed to such a
doctrine, and we have moreover no data from which to infer
the existence of acolder climate over these tracts in former
ages, than now.

My own impression is, that they belong truly to the tertiary
period, of which both the Bolan Pass and the Shawl district
possess some deposits.

It is probable that the destruction of these hills, compose
as they are of friable sandstones and beds of clay, has fur-
nished in modern times a great portion of the soil of the
desert tract of Cutchi, for the materials of that arid plain
are arenaceous Clays, containing particles of foliated gypsum.
The decay in these outlying hills is not however to be attri-
buted to any more violent agents than are now furnished by
the atmosphere; for their destruction is still going on gra-
dually and surely, and it is probable that a great portion of
the less indurated strata will eventually disappear. The
upper stratum is generally an indurated sandstone of a
brownish colour, while the underlying beds are of far greater
thickness, but are excessively yielding and friable, and not

A

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan. 567

being sufficiently hard to resist the action of rains, they are
consequently crumbled down, and their ruins spread over the
plains; the lower beds alternate with clays, and the whole
present a wasting appearance. ‘The immediate vicinity of
these hills is scattered over with rounded pebbles of lime-
stones containing nummulites and a few other marine shells.

Between this range and the main tract of mountainous
country is interposed a fertile plain on which stands the town
of Dadur. The cultivation is here well watered from the
hill streams, which are usually dammed up at no great distance
from their debouchere to prevent the waters from being
swallowed up and lost in the thirsty sands beyond, and also to
insure a sufficient supply to fill the canals and water cuts which
branch out among the cultivation. This system however,
while it insures water to a few villages in the vicinity of the
hills, effectually cuts off all supplies from the towns situated
lower down on the plains, and often reduces them to great
distress during the heats of summer.

The entrance to the Bolan Pass on this side is wide and
stony, forming a broad defile, through which runs a clear and
plentiful supply of water; the Pass being in fact nothing
more from one end to the other, than the bed or channel of
the mountain streams which drain through it. The road,
if such it can be called, is a mere bed of water-rolled stones
the whole way; while here and there are intermingled the
larger blocks, which the action of the elements on the
neighbouring and overhanging rocks has detached and
hurled down from their proper sites. The sides of the
defile rise up to a considerable height, and in many places
are exceedingly precipitous, standing like mighty walls on
either hand, and affording a narrow channel for the stream,
which winds along through its shingly bed with such a tor-
tuous course, that in some marches we crossed it no less
than sixteen times, to the great annoyance and delay of both
man and beast. The sides of this Pass at the lower or

568 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan.

Dadur end, are composed of alternating strata of sandstone,
coarse sandstone, conglomerate, and beds of semi-indurated
or friable sandstone and clay, which yield like the outlying
hills below Dadur, to the action of the weather, and crumble
down into sandy clays, which are washed away to the plains
of Cutchi by the force of the stream. ‘The matrix of the
conglomerate is also friable, and the imbedded pebbles of
sandstone, quartz, and various limestones are consequently let
loose and strewed in beds over the bottom of the defile. The
pebbles thus detached often contain marine shells and coral-
loids.

The conglomerate is the prevailing rock up to Candye,
which was our first march; from whence it extends down-
wards to Dadur, where it forms a great part of the high
undulating land around the town, and is cut into deep
ravines by the drainage from the hills.) As we approached
Candye the defile became narrower, and the sandstone con-
glomerate which in some places rose high and appeared
resting against the sides of the mountains, suddenly gave
place to a compact and pale-coloured nummulitic limestone,
which continued onwards to Keirtah, where it was found to
contain a few scattered nummulites and a species of Clypeus.
This rock is in all respects identical with that which crosses
the Indus at Sukkur. At Keirtah, the defile opens out
and forms a wide stony plain enclosed on the left by strata
of shales and clay, and on the right by nummulite lime-
stones, the beds of which appear to be of a pale buff colour
below, surmounted by other beds of deeper or yellowish
brown shade. ‘The strata on either side have the same dip —
and apparently north-east.

At Beebee Nanee, which is the third stage, the sides af
the defile again approach, and form a mere narrow passage
between rocks of nummulite limestone. From this place
onwards to Ab-i-goom, the Pass again widens, and the rocks
on either side are the same as those towards Keirtah, con-

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanisian. 569

sisting on the left of thick beds of shales and clay, and the
right of nummulite rock.

In the bed of the Pass at this place, but not in sztu, I
found several masses of indurated marly clays containing
beautifully preserved specimens of fresh-water shells; some
of these blocks were composed of yellowish sandy clay, con-
taining shells of the genera Planorbis, Melania, Paludina and
Cyrena, intimately mixed up together; and Mr. Benson, to
whom I lately submitted specimens, thinks he can recognise
some of the shells as still living in India, viz. Planorbis in-
dicus, Melania pyramis, and Melania elegans ;* other blocks
were composed of hard bluish marl, and contained fine spe-
cimens of bivalves closely allied to, if not identical with, the
genera Unic and Cyrena. A lengthened search, on my re-
turn through the Pass from Candahar in 1841, failed to dis-
cover from what locality these blocks had been torn, and I
feel inclined to believe that they must have been swept
into the Pass from some of the lateral glens, which open and
drain into it. Their occurrence however is important, as
tending to confirm an opinion which the presence of the
deep beds of conglomerate and sandstone at the lower end
of the Pass had already given rise to, namely, that they
belong to strata of the tertiary formation, and I have since
had further reason to rely on the correctness of that opinion,
from finding no difference between the sandstone of the Pass
and the fossilliferous sandstone of the Siwalik range; while
moreover I have been informed by Dr. Falconer, to whom I
showed specimens of the bivalves, that a fossil very similar
to them, and imbedded likewise in a bluish marl closely
resembling the matrix of the Bolan specimens, had been
found in the tertiary strata of the Siwalik range.

Proceeding onwards towards Sir-i- Bolan and Sir-i-Kujoor,
the shales and indurated clays of the coal formation pre-

* At Dadur I took living specimens of Melania pyramis, and in April 1839, the

_ stream at Beebee Nanee abounded with Melania elegans; but in the end of Fe-
_ bruary 1841, I could find no trace of a single shell,

570 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan.

dominate, the latter being of various colours, red, grey,
greenish and yellowish, alternating frequently with each
other. Dark blue limestones also occur, containing fossils
such as Eichint and some bivalves, one of which has the
appearance of an Isocardium? Near Sir-i-Kujoor the clays
increase in thickness, and are interstratified with bituminous
shale; but no coal occurs, except at one spot where the
strata on the left hand are nearly vertical. ‘There it forms
a thin and insignificant seam of about an inch thick, in the
centre of a wider seam of bituminous shale, and appears to
be very similar, in external characters, to the Anthracite of
South Wales. The shale here occurs between two beds of
greenish indurated clay, in the crevices of which occur nests
of white Asbestus.

Here, lying in the bed of the Pass, and immediately
in the vicinity of the shale, I found a mass of clay ironstone
of a yellow ochreous colour, bearing traces of vegetable
impressions, and found to contain a great portion of iron.
Along with this I also procured a fine large specimen of the
brown fibrous carbonate of tron, but owing to the precipi-
tous nature of the rocks, and the impossibility of making
research without imminent risk of being murdered, I was
~unable to find either of these minerals zn sztu.*

The coal, of which so much has been said by different
travellers through this Pass, is in this locality at least ab-
solutely worthless from the small quantity in which it oc-
curs; it is not improbable, however, that the seam may
strike out in the direction of Sunnee, where the sulphur
mine already alluded to is situated, and that it may there
be more abundant. Should research be directed in that

quarter, and the mineral be discovered there, it might no

doubt in such a locality be turned to good account for the
supply of the Indus steamers; and the line of country to
* I have lately had an opportunity of showing these specimens to a practised

German Geologist, Mr. Reckendorf, who agrees with me in the names assigned to
them,

| | oe bs oe

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan. 571

be travelled over from the coal, supposing it to exist, would
offer no impediment whatever to wheeled carriages ; so that
the transport of the mineral to Shikarpore and Sukkur
might be easily effected. Atall events, if a regular Steam
navigation is to be established on the Indus, it would be
worth while to ascertain by actual examination whether coal
is procurable anywhere along the secondary ranges which
bound the western side of Scinde. I made an offer of my
services for this purpose, when stationed in Affghanistan
in 1840, but met with a refusal: but the subject being of
importance, should be followed up if practicable.

In the tract lying between Ab-i-goom, and that part of the
defile called by the Army the Zigzags, deep beds of allu-
vium, composed of silt and rolled stones, imbedding boul-
ders of enormous size, occupy the wide area; these are
sometimes of considerable height, and appear to have once
occupied the whole breadth of the Pass: they are however
now divided by the streams, which descend from the
heights. These beds are horizontally disposed, and overlie
the edges of the clays, and limestones of the secondary
strata. Opposite to the vertical strata of shales which con-
tain the coal, the coarse sandstone conglomerate, which was
met with at the entrance to the Pass, again occurs, towering
up to an immense height; it is here much indurated, and
conformable to the secondary strata on which it rests: this
is quite distinct from the loose alluvial beds which occupy
the bed of the Pass, and is more ancient.

From the entrance to the ‘ Zigzags,’ so called from the
sudden and frequent tortuosity of the narrow defile, onwards
to the end of the Pass where it debouched upon the
wide plain of Dusht-i-be-dowlut, the rocks are a succession
of variously coloured clays and blue limestones, the latter
sometimes exhibiting traces of fossils. This limestone
continues beyond the Pass, and forms one side of the
Dusht-i-be-dowlut, affording imperfect specimens of Echini

4&

SS Ae a gS Li ee

572 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan.

and Gryphea. The plain is composed of a hard arenaceous
clayey soil containing calcareous matter, and at the time
when I crossed it in April 1839, was clothed with worm-
wood, and decorated with various beautiful flowers, such as
the Iris, red and yellow Tulips, pale Hyacinth, &c, It is
bounded on one side by mountains of fossilliferous limestone;
but towards the South the ranges are not continuous, being
formed of detached masses between which the eye wanders
down over an arid and desert plain, in all probability blend-
ing with the desert sands of Beloochistan. From this plain
onwards to Sir-i-ab and Quettah, the formation seems to be
the same; and at the latter place I again procured pebbles
of nummulite limestone, and a fragment of a red coloured
limestone (probably nummulite also) bearing the impression
of an Ammonite. Many of the ravines leading down from
the neighbouring heights, are strewed both with nummulite
pebbles and fragments of dark-coloured flints, both of which
appear to indicate the occurrence of the same rocks as those
‘which were met with at the lower end of the defile and at
Sukkur. }

It may now perhaps be useful to revert to the physical
appearances presented by the Pass, in order, if possible, to
arrive at some just conclusion as to the formations met with,
and the causes which have been instrumental to the more
recent deposits there observable. When I marched through
the defile in 1839, the thick beds of rounded water-worn
stones which every where covered the ground, viewed in
conjunction with numerous holes in the limestone rocks,
which in some parts form the sides of the Pass, led me to
think that several deep lakes must at some distant period
have occupied the basin-like portions of the defile at Keir-
tah, Ab-i-goom, and other places, and that the escape of
those waters had strewn the ground with the rounded peb-
bles. Subsequent wandering however in other parts of the
country, served to convince me of my error in this respect,

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan. 573

for the whole tract of country from Pisheen to beyond the
river Helmund is strewed over in the vicinity of the Hills
with pebbles similarly rounded, and the same holes and
caverns occur in the limestone rocks in places where it is
utterly impossible that any lake could have existed, and at
heights on the mountains far beyond the reach of any waters
save those of an universal inundation. That deep waters
have at some remote period been in violent agitation over
these parts, the vast accumulations of boulders and conglo-
merate sufficiently attest; but at the same time the magni-
tude of such accumulations and the conformable position
in which they lie, at once forbid the supposition that the
effects now apparent were produced by the transient pas-
sage of modern lakes and torrents.

Taking a retrospective view of what has already been
noted, the following series of rocks would appear to com-
pose the mountains intervening between the valley of Quettah
and Dadur. At the entrance to the Bolan Pass from the
Quettah side, we first come upon limestones of compact tex-
ture containing various marine fossils of the genera Echinus,
Gryphea, Isocardium (?) and others. This rock is pro-
bably equivalent to the mountain limestone of Europe, an
opinion which is strengthened as we proceed by finding
numerous alternating strata of variously coloured éndurated
clays and bituminous shale yielding traces of coal; while
near the latter, in the bed of the Pass, although not in situ,
we find detached masses of yellow ferruginous clay stones
yielding a large proportion of iron, and imbedding carbo-
nised fragments of plants: this, together with other speci-
mens of brown carbonate of iron, is a still farther proof that
the strata belong to the true coal formation. Again, at
Ab-i-goom, in the bed of the Pass but not én situ, were
found specimens of true oolite, one of which appears to be
very similar to the fine-grained oolite at Bath, while others

574 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan.

are of coarser texture, and composed of larger concretions.*
These specimens, although not found in situ, are when cou-
pled with the fore-mentioned rocks, sufficiently indicative of
the occurrence of the oolite system in the vicinity of the
defile, and the fragments obtained were no doubt brought
down through some of the lateral glens by the waters which
occasionally drain through them.

Lower down we perceive on one side of the Pass, the
alternating strata of coloured clays and shales of the coal
formation, and on the other thick beds of nummulite lime-
stone belonging to the cretaceous system, the strata on both
sides having the same north-easterly dip. Still farther
down towards Dadur, the nummulite disappears beneath
thick overlying beds of sandstone and conglomerate; the
pebbles imbedded in the latter rocks being of quartz, indu-
rated sandstone containing marine shells, and limestone con-
taining coralloids and shells.

The conglomerate now prevails down to the mouth of the
Pass, and continues to form undulating and broken ground
even to Dadur, from whence on the desert side it disappears
beneath adluvial soils. ‘The conglomerate is also found
opposite to the strata of shales near Sir-i-Bolan, where in
fact it forms one side of the Pass, and runs conformably with
the secondary strata. ‘The sandstone appears to be in all
respects identical with that of the Siwalik hills-in Upper
India; and this circumstance, coupled with the discovery of
specimens of shells of the genera Planorbis, Melania, Cy-
rena and Unis, must stamp these rocks as belonging to the
tertiary formation.

It would thus appear, that the mountains separating Cutchi
and Scinde from Affghanistan, are composed of the usual

* The specimens of rocks and minerals, herein mentioned, being probably the
only collection brought from Affghanistan, are destined for the Geological Society
of London.

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan. 575

series of rocks and formations belonging to the European
secondary and tertiary systems, from the mountain limestone (?)
through the coal measures, oolite, chalk, tertiary strata, and
diluvium.

From the conformable position of the conglomerate and
sandstones, it is evident that they must have been deposited
previous to the uprise of the secondary strata which sup-
port them ; but there are other vast accumulations of boul-
ders, and loose or unconsolidated conglomerates which oc-
cupy the beds of the Pass at Sir-i-Bolan and other parts
lower down, the occurrence of which is due to other and
more recent causes. These have all the appearance of having
been heaped together by waters, and in many places they
appear unconformably to overlie the upturned edges of the
secondary strata, that is, in a horizontal position. It may
be inferred therefore, that after the deposition of the ter-
tiary beds the uprise of the secondary rocks from beneath
the ocean in which they had been formed, caused vast waves
to rush down from the rising hills, through the glens and
valleys to which the movement gave rise, and that the dis-
placed waters carrying with them the boulders of the shat-
tered rocks, together with vast quantities of the loose
shingly beds of diluvium, gave origin to the accumulations
of horizontal conglomerates now met with in the bed of the
defile ; and these being subsequently exposed to the action
of the elements and the streams which drain through the
Pass from the surrounding heights, became furrowed out
and channelled precisely as they appear at the present day.

It may probably be farther inferred, that the elevation
of these mountains was contemporaneous with that of the
Himalayas and Siwalik ranges, for nearly the same series of
rocks is observable in both, and the tertiary and diluvial
beds of the latter rest conformably against the secondary
strata as they do in Affghanistan, while the probable identity

Ee

576 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan.

of the sandstones and fossilliferous blue marls may be con-
sidered as farther evidence in support of this suggestion.
The coal measures and oolite exist below Subathoo in the
Western Himalayas, and are found in the Bolan Pass; they
are greatly elevated and inclined in both localities; while
the tertiaries are likewise found in both countries, contain-
ing identical strata, and in both instances resting con-
formably against the secondary rocks; the prevailing dip of
the strata both in Affghanistan and in the Himalaya likewise
appears to be the same, namely, towards the East and N.
East.

It appears probable from the remarks of the late Dr.
Lord upon the phenomena exhibited in the Khyber Pass,
that the geological formations there met with are in a great
measure the same as those of the Bolan Pass; but it dees
not likewise appear that the conclusions he has drawn from
those phenomena are just or satisfactory, especially as re-
gards the occurrence of fresh-water shells in a fossil state.

‘* Unquestionable geological facts,” he observes, “‘ such as
the structure of igneous rocks poured out under strong
pressure, the presence of fossil shells, &c. lead me to the
belief that several, if not all, of these valleys were at some
former time the receptacles of a series of inland lakes,
and the nature of the shells found (principally Planorbes
and Paludine) seems to indicate that the waters of these
lakes had been fresh. In this manner three grand sheets of
water separated by the mountain deflexions before alluded
to, would appear to have occupied the entire country from
Cabul to the Indus, and their basins may now be distinguished
as the plains which afford sites to the three cities of Cabul,
Jellalabad, and Peshawur. The drainage of these basins
is most tranquilly carried on by the Cabul river, which
runs along the northern edge of each, conveying their
united waters to the Indus; but in former times, when more

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan. 577

energetic means were necessary, the mountain barriers
were burst, and the scattered fragments and rolled blocks
that now strew the Khyber Pass, bear testimony to its once
having afforded exit to a mighty rush of waters; while the
Gida Gulla (Jackal’s neck) or long defile East of the plain of
Peshawur, clearly points out the farther course of the tor-
rent towards the bed of the Indus, whence its passage to
the ocean was easy and natural. While at Jumrood, I had
an opportunity of observing a fact which strongly supports
the idea I have ventured to propose; for a well, which the
Sikhs were employed in sinking within their new fort of
Futtehgurh, and which had already proceeded to the depth
of 180 feet, had altogether passed through rolled pebbles
of slate and limestone, the constituents of the Khyber range
of hills. But the wells of Peshawur, generally twenty or
thirty feet deep, never passed through anything but mud and
clay strata. Now the fort I have mentioned is situated at
the very mouth of the Khyber Pass, and Peshawur is twelve
or fourteen miles distant, towards the other extremity of the
plain. If then this plain were once the basin of a lake into
which a stream had poured through the Khyber Pass, it is
obvious that such a stream would at its very entrance into
the lake have deposited the rolled pebbles and heavier
matter with which it was charged, while the lighter mud
- and clay would have floated on to a considerable distance ;
in other words, the former would have dropped at Jumrood,
and the latter gone on to Peshawur, and this is precisely the
fact.”*

It would appear from these remarks, that the Khyber
and Bolan Passes must exhibit very nearly the same phzeno-
mena; each is a mountain defile rising gradually in eleva-
tion towards Affghanistan; each exhibits a bed of rolled

* See Dr. Lord’s Report to Government; also Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal.

7

5738 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan.

pebbles and boulders, and again each furnishes fresh-water
fossils of the same genera, and the same indications of dilu-
vial accumulations. The configuration of the defiles ap-
pears likewise to be in a great measure the same, presenting
alternately broad basins and narrow gorges; yet for all this
I cannot agree with Dr. Lord, that the phenomena met
with are in the least indicative of the former presence of
fresh-water lakes, and assuredly the fossils enumerated and
adduced by him in support of the hypothesis, are imbedded
in strata of an age long antecedent to the time when such
fresh-water lakes are supposed to have occupied the Khy-
ber Pass. The very position of the strata militates against
such views, for they are conformable to those on which they
lie, showing that they were deposited previous to the uprise
of the secondary rocks. Now the fresh-water shells men-
tioned by Dr. Lord, are the same as those discovered by
myself in the Bolan Pass, and belong to the tertiary strata,
which being conformable to the secondary series, as already
stated, clearly proves that such shells must have been im-
bedded in those rocks previous to the uprise of the moun-
tains and to the collecting of the bodies of fresh-water which
are supposed to have existed in the basins of the Khyber
Pass; the shells alluded to are imbedded in rocks which
may have dammed up the waters, but assuredly they never
had existence in the imaginary lakes.*

That a violent rush of waters had once passed through
both defiles there can, I think, be no reason to doubt; but
it appears to me most probable, that those waters were the
waves of that ocean which must have been violently dis-
placed at the time when the secondary rocks were thrown

* If Mr. Benson is correct in assigning some of these shells to living species,
the fact would somewhat tend to prove that the climate of the tertiary period in
these regions was not very different from that of the present day, while the occur-
rence of the wonderful tropical forms so abundant in the strata of the Siwalik hills,
would at least prove that it was not colder.

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan. 579

up by some internal volcanic movement. Powerful they
must have been, or they could never have moved the vast
boulders which are visible in the bed of the Passes.

Had lakes occupied the basin-like portions of these defiles,
the deposits instead of being rolled stones and boulders,
would have consisted of earthy particles, such as silts, clays,
and mud ; whereas the presence of blocks many tons in weight,
together with the general stony character of the deposits,
proves that violent action has been employed, for none other
could have moved such masses. Wells sunk at the lower
end of the Bolan Pass, would pass through beds of rolled
pebbles like those at Jumrood, while a few miles farther
removed the silts and clays of alluvial plains would be met
with ; but these facts are by no means sufficient to authorise
the inference that lakes once existed in the bosom of the
defiles which now constitute the Khyber and Bolan Passes,
nor can the water-worn appearance of the pebbles be con-
sidered to favour the hypothesis, for such rounding must
have occurred previous to the deposition of the conglome-
rates from which the pebbles are derived, and that deposi-
tion was evidently anterior to the elevation of the secondary
rocks since they are seen to rest conformably upon them.
These secondary rocks being of marine origin, must neces-
sarily have been beneath the waves at the time when the
convulsion, which elevated them into lofty dry land, took
place, and the retreat of the displaced waters through the
glens and valleys then formed, would have been fully equal
to produce all the effects visible in these Passes, without
any necessity for calling in the after aid of fresh-water lakes,
which in the Bolan Pass at least, I feel quite certain never
had existence.

To return then from this digression. It may be briefly
stated, that the mountainous country situated between the
plains of Cutchi and Affghanistan, is composed of secondary
‘rocks, overlaid by tertiary and diluvial strata in a con-

4 F

580 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Afghanistan.

formable position, and that the secondaries appear from
inspection of the rocks in the Bolan Pass, to comprise the
usual series from the mountain limestone up to the cretace-
ous system which is represented by the nummulite lime-
stone, specimens of which I likewise received from the hills
in the neighbourhood of Kilat, and others from the Gun-
dava Pass to the southward of Dadur and Bagh.

The valley of Quettah is bounded by lofty mountains of
fossilliferous limestone, being in fact a continuation of those
at Dusht-i-be-dowlut. ‘Towards Koochlak, however, as we
proceed in the direction of Pisheen, indications of tertiary
strata are again apparent, consisting of deep beds of differ-
ently coloured clays, red and grey many times repeated. In
the vicinity of the mountains these beds rise into hills of some
height, and exhibit alternate strata of reddish clay or marl
and semi-indurated sandstones. In the marl beds are found
masses of the same foliated gypsum, which occurs in the
outlying hills beyond Dadur, which seem in fact to be iden-
tical with the beds of Pisheen. These strata of red clays
and sandstones extend over a great portion of the Pisheen
valley, and-are cut into ravines and mounds of great depth
by the winter rains and the drainage of the country. The
surface is usually undulating, but in some parts conical masses
stand up above the rest, having all the appearance of having
been ringed by the long continued action of moving waters,
and an unpractised observer could easily be persuaded to
believe that the valley had once been a lake, the successive
levels of whose subsiding waters were thus to be traced on
the mounds in question. Plausible as such an hypothesis
might at first sight appear to be, it is nevertheless quite
erroneous, for the phenomenon is caused simply by the action
of the elements upon strata of wnequal hardness ; the semi-
indurated sandstones being able to resist the influence of
atmospheric agents longer than the softer marly clays with
which they alternate ; the consequence is, that the edges of

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan. 581

the softer strata are worn away, while the sandstone projects
and gives the mounds the appearance of a water-washed
rock. These strata are sometimes nearly horizontal, but in
general they have a considerable inclination, and are con-
formable to the fossilliferous limestones of the secondary
mountains in the vicinity. In the valley of Shawl, of which
Quettah is the capital, the lime used in plastering is pre-
pared from fibrous gypsum, which occurs in detached masses
in the greyish marls, the fracture exhibiting beautiful long
fibres of a satiny lustre; ‘‘the foliated variety occurs in
large masses composed of thin lamine,” like that found in
the tertiary strata of England.*

These clays and sandstones are spread over the Pisheen
valley as far as Shahdezye, but beyond that they are lost
beneath the alluvial soils which, as we approach the hills of
the Kojeh Amram range, are thickly strewed over with loose
water-worn stones. ‘This district is by no means deficient
in the useful minerals, producing sulphurets of antimony
and copper; gypsum both foliated and fibrous; and salt
which is manufactured by washing the soil and boiling to
evaporation. Sulphate of iron is also produced in large quan-
tities from the hills of the Kakur country. From the valley
of Pisheen the route to Candahar leads across the Kojeh
Amram range, not far from Killa Abdoollah, the fort of an
Achukzye chief, by what is now usually known as the
Kojuck Pass; the ascent is steep and somewhat difficult,
and the height above 7000 feet above the sea, or 3000 feet
above the plain. The rocks here offer nothing of particular
interest, being composed of arenaceous and clay slates,
apparently belonging to the transition series; in some parts
of the range, however, granites oécur, as also a secondary
limestone of compact texture, and of a dark colour, thickly
studded with the stems of a plant, or perhaps of a zoophyte

* See Mantel’s Geology of the S. KE. of England.

582 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanisian.

somewhat resembling a Lithodendron ; the rock is most pro-
bably the mountain limestone: but as I had no opportunity
of seeing it 2m situ, I am unable to decide.

From this range of hills to beyond the river Mieivhiata at
Greeshk, the whole country may be strictly termed a vol-
canic district, abounding in almost every rock and mineral
of the trap formation. In many places are seen trap dykes
running up vertically through the limestones, while in other
parts vast black basaltic rocks appear to have carried up
the secondary strata which now cap them in a nearly hori-
zontal position. The surface of the country slopes very
perceptibly from the hills on the north of the district, to-
wards the great southern desert which bounds Affghanistan
on the south, and which is composed of a red-coloured sand,
in some places loose and shifting, in others producing the
Jowassah or camel thorn, and a few other desert plants.
Here and there are seen huge black basaltic rocks jutting
up as it were from beneath the sands, which often lie high
against the sides of these conical and isolated masses. This
desert tract is divided from the cultivable soils nearer the
mountains by a well defined line formed by the course of
the river Lora, which finds its way down from the Shaw] dis-
trict through Pisheen, and is eventually lost in the desert
sands before it can effect a junction with the more western
streams. _ ‘l’o the south of the river all is a bare arid waste
of loose red sands, with isolated cones of volcanic rocks
scattered over it; while to the right or north, the country
gradually slopes up towards the mountains, which descend
in nearly parallel ranges from the north-east. Between these
ranges are interposed valleys of several miles in breadth,
composed of sandy soils intermixed with clays, calcareous
earth, and the decomposed particles of trap, which in the
vicinity of water yields rich crops of grain and artificial
grasses: more usually however these valleys present a broken
surface of waste lands, thickly strewed over with rolled

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan. 583

stones derived by some convulsion of nature from the neigh-
bouring hills, and consisting of various porphyries, basalt,
greenstones, toadstones, and limestones, with occasionally a
few fragments of granite.

These stones are in all probability due to the agency of
retiring waters, and are almost invariably rounded as if from
long continued attrition. What makes the agency of water
the more probable, is the fact, that these scattered stones
cease altogether as we recede from the hills towards the
southward, and give place to the fine desert sands; while
- they become both more frequent, and of larger size, as we
proceed towards the rocks from which they have been de-
rived. Specimens also occur of rocks which are no where
met with in the vicinity, and must have been brought from
some distance; of those for instance lying around Candahar,
some are granites whose nearest site is in the Shah-muksood
range, about thirty miles distant, and divided from the pre-
sent position of the fragments by the river Argandab, and
a broken range of limestone mountains. Others again con-
sist of porphyries containing glassy felspar, augite, diorite,
and dolerite, but none of them are observable zn sétu.

From the Kojeh Amram range to Candahar, the hills are
narrow ridges of limestone, bearing traces in some instances
of fossil shells, but the heat which these rocks have gene-
rally undergone from the intimate association of trap rocks,
has rendered such phenomena almost illegible, the presence
of shells being now only traceable on the dark matrix, in
white and imperfect figures of crystalline carbonate of lime.
The whole of these ranges are accompanied by a low basal
or outlying ridge of basalt or greenstone running parallel
with the mountains, and associated in some instances with
porphyry and common serpentine ; iron pyrites, both cubic
and nodular, is abundantly disseminated throughout the trap.

The city of Candahar stands in a valley between two
parallel ranges of limestone hills of inconsiderable elevation ;

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ol ta

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584 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan.

these run in a direction from N. EK. to S. W., and the dip of
the strata where apparent, is easterly with a little northing.
On the west of the town, at about 23 miles distant, rises a
mass of greenstone, black and polished on the exterior sur-
face, and exhibiting the stair-like structure so common to
this class of rocks; with this is associated beautiful veins,
and dykes of white clay-stone, and common serpentine of
several shades.of green and red; thin flinty slates and red
ferruginous clays much indurated, as well as red and green
jaspers, are also disposed conformably along the base of the
dark blue limestone,* which forms the dividing range be-
tween the Candahar valley and that of the river Argandab,
which latter, farther away to the westward, is bounded by
another parallel range of mountains of considerable height,

and termed Koh-i-Shahmuksood. Both valleys are termi-

nated to the south by the desert tract of red sands, from
which they are divided by narrow rivers; the Candahar
valley being crossed by the Doree, and the Argandab valley
by the westward turn of the river of that name.

The soil of the cultivated lands around Candahar is rich
and productive, being composed of calcareous and arenace-
ous clays, and other matter derived from the decomposition
of trap rocks. The cultivation is entirely irrigated by
canals connected with the Argandab, whose waters are
brought through breaks in the limestone range. Without

this aid the city would be deprived both of cultivation and |

water, and the whole valley would become an arid waste ;
even as it is, with an abundant supply from the canals, the
central line only is under cultivation, all beyond rising gra-
dually on either side towards the mountains, and presenting
a barren tract thickly strewed with rolled pebbles of various
kinds and sizes, and such indeed are the characteristic
features of every valley in this part of Affehanistan, those

* Specimens of this rock lately shown to a practised Geologist, Mr. Reckendorf,
were pronounced by him to belong to the Muschelkalk of Germany.

ee ee ee ee ee ee ne ee

ioe LS

geese ae ED

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan. 585

tracts to which water can be artificially brought, or through
which it naturally flows, being productive, and well culti-
vated ; while all beyond the reach of irrigation, (and this is
always by far the greater portion of the valleys) remains an
arid waste.

Selenite, or sulphate of lime, is dug out of the plain on
the Ghuznee side of Candahar, and when burnt to lime
forms the finest plaster used in the buildings of the city. It
is said, that the discovery of this mineral was made in the
time of Ahmed Shah, who considered it so valuable an
acquisition, that he caused public prayers and thanksgivings
to be offered up, and celebrated the event with feasting and
charitable gifts. ‘The mineral is known to the Affghans by
the name of ‘‘ Gutch,’ and occurs about three feet below
the surface of the alluvial soil; it contains many pebbles of
trap rocks and limestone imbedded in it, which would tend
to prove it to have been an aqueous deposit, unless indeed,
which is perhaps more probable, it has arisen from the
infiltration through the soil, of water holding sulphuric acid
derived from the decomposition of pyrites and the volcanic
rocks of the district, which acid combining again with the
calcareous particles derived from the limestone ranges and
disseminated through the soils, may have formed a bed of
loosely aggregated crystals of sulphate of lime.

The range of hills dividing the valley of the Argandab
from Candahar, is composed of limestone intimately associ-
ated with volcanic rocks, a range of which runs parallel
along the base of the mountains, consisting of greenstone,
basalt, serpentine and clay-stones; while the shelving plains
around are covered with fragments of granite, syenite, green-
stone, basalt, and various porphyries: some of these have
been brought from a distance, especially the granite and
some limestones, for I found specimens of both of the latter
rocks which I only know positively to occur én situ in the
Shah-muksood range beyond the Argandab. Water appears

586 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanisian.

to be the only agent which could have brought them so far
from their natural sites, for had glaciers ever descended from
any of the ranges which bound the valleys of Affghanistan
in the sotitthern tracts of which I am speaking, they must
naturally and of necessity have followed the direction of the
valleys and the drainage of the country, instead of crossing
the district transversely; besides which the configuration of
all these valleys is such as to preclude the possibility of any
glacier crossing the country from west to east, for they one
and all present a sloping surface from either side towards
the centre, which generally more or less forms the line of
drainage towards the south, and these slopes are invariably
covered over with fragments of rocks, chiefly volcanic, and
diminishing in frequency as they recede from the ranges,
which on either side, wall in the valleys. Besides which
there are no accumulations of debris against the sides of any
of the ranges, to indicate the transverse passage of glaciers,
nor indeed is it possible that they could so have passed,
because it is only reasonable to suppose that at the time when
these southern ranges produced glaciers, the higher and
more northerly mountains with which they are connected,
were likewise covered with ice; and in such case the passage
of the northern glaciers would have been down the sloping
valleys towards the southern desert, sweeping with them or
before them, the glaciers of the district of which I am speak-
ing.
In the valley of the Argandab, the river has carved its
channel along the eastern side, leaving a very narrow strip
between it and the limestone range, dividing it from the Can-
dahar valley ; consequently the right bank is the highest
ground, and slopes up rapidly for some miles towards the
base of the Shah-muksood range, which is in some places very
lofty, and furnishes evidence of greater volcanic irruption
than any other range which I had an opportunity of examin-
ing. Vast masses of basalt and greenstone not only run

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan. 587

along its base, but extend far in among the granites and
primary limestones which constitute the mass of the forma-
tion. The granite too, varies exceedingly in texture and
composition, and seems to pass by gradation from a volcanic
product to true granite: this is particularly apparent at
Kishk-i-nakhood, on the road to Greeshk, for the mountains
there exhibit three kinds of granite, which have very much
the appearance of being stratified ; the fact is however, that
the mass constitutes truly but one bed, the lower part of
which is in contact with basalt, and has quite the appearance
of a volcanic rock; this feature fades away higher up, and
the granite assumes a different colour and texture, while the
surface portion again changes to a true granite. This triple
bed is not abruptly terminated at the points of change, nor
is there any division of it to authorize the inference of stra-
tification, but the basal structure passes gradually into the
central, and that again into the true granite. There is also
a curious dyke of granite possessing the structure of the
lower part of the mass, which not only traverses the whole
granitic bed, but runs up to the very summit of the range
through thick strata of variously coloured limestones tra-
versed in all directions by veins of crystallised carbonate of
lime, where it terminates, without overlying them. It would
seem from this circumstance as if the heat of the volcanic
rocks beneath had fused the lower portion of the granite,
and caused it to burst upwards through the superincumbent
strata, retaining the colour and texture of the heated mass
from which it had been suddenly ejected. Shortly after
our arrival at Candahar, I was despatched with an escort of
fifty Affghan horsemen, to seize some grain which was re-
ported to have been concealed in a village in the valley of
Kakraez, and although my errand proved ‘a wild goose
chase,’ it gave me an opportunity of seeing something of
the rocks which form the mountains on the western side of
the Argandab. Our route lay west of Candahar, and after
4G

:
:
:

588 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan.

crossing the river, and the cultivation which borders it, we
proceeded towards the hills across a shelving tract of waste
and stony land strewed over with fragments of trap and
granite. After traversing this plain we entered a narrow
gorge in the mountains, the width of which was only suffi-
cient to admit of one horseman at a time, and the rocks
composing the sides of the defile towered up to a consider-
able height over head. The formation at first consisted of
nearly vertical strata of parti-coloured limestones, but these
soon gave way to black and frowning masses of basalt,
whose sombre hue imparted a gloominess to the narrow
passage, which was any thing but cheering. We travelled
on through this gorge for several hours, the basalt conti-
nuing the whole way on either side, and at length we had
to climb the step-like sides of the rock, in order to reach
the summit of the defile; to perform this we were obliged
to dismount, and pull our horses up one by one over the
broken and crumbling rocks. From the summit of the Pass
we looked down into a long valley studded here and there
with paltry villages, and bounded in the distance by lofty
mountains. The name of this valley was Kakraez. The
soil consisted as usual of clay and calcareous sands, scantily
watered through the central line, which showed signs of
partial cultivation around a cluster of huts or a village, while
all beyond was a barren stony desert, rising gradually to-
wards the base of the distant mountains. The higher
ranges are composed of granite, based generally upon vol-
canic rocks; limestone is also abundant, and has evidently
undergone a change from its vicinity to the trap, being
usually of a pure white with a foliated structure and highly
crystalline. Quartz-rock also occurs, containing ores of yel-
low copper and magnetic iron, which are said to be rich,
although neither are now worked, (1840). A curious mine-
ral is likewise procured from Shah-muksood, the virtuous
properties of which are much vaunted by the Affghans. It

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan. 589

is said to ooze in thick drops from a lofty peak of limestone,
but dries into a hard earthy substance on exposure to the
air; it possesses a strong and rather unpleasant bituminous
odour; is of brown colour, and earthy texture, when dry
from exposure to the air, and is called by the Affghans
Momiaye ; it is also met with in Persia, and known there by
the same name. The mineral appears to be earthy bitumen
or maltha, and is doubtless connected with the trap forma-
tion. The Affghans, who are great lovers of the marvellous,
ascribe all sorts of virtues to this substance, and declare,
among other absurdities, that if a broken limb be well plas-
tered round with the fresh mineral, a cure will be effected
without fail in a few days.

A dolomitic limestone of a yellow colour and granular
structure, occurs in veins in the limestone rocks, and when
of a dark green shade, which is sometimes the case, is high-
ly prized, and worked into beads and cups; it is reported
that a single bead of a fine clear green, and about the size
of a large pea, has often been sold for 100 rupees; in
general the colour varies from green to yellow, with occa-
sional veins of pure white, and the stone is always in repute
among the Mahometans, who make rosaries of the beads, a
string of which usually sells from eight annas to a rupee.

It is remarkable, that from the Kojeh Amram range to
beyond the Helmund at Greeshk, there is always in every
valley a thick stratum, more or less deep seated beneath the
superficial alluvium, of a hard compact conglomerate, the
matrix of which is calcareo-arenaceous, and contains pebbles
and boulders of various sizes, from a pea to a cannon-shot,
and all rounded and water-worn. This conglomerate is
laid open by a river bed at Melmandeh, and is again seen
at Greeshk, where it forms undulating plains of great extent,
and is deeply cut through by the Helmund, whose banks
are composed of it. It is probable, that this conglomerate
and that of the Bolan Pass may date from the same period.

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590 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan.

Although in some valleys it comes to the surface and forms
undulating plains scattered with loose fragments, yet in other
places it lies deep, and is covered over by several strata of
unconsolidated sands and clays; such, for instance, is the
case between Kishk-i-nakhood and Kak-i-chowpan, and the
Karaez, or line of wells, by which at the latter place the
patch of cultivation is watered, is sunk through those sands

to some depth without exposing the conglomerate. The ~

surface here slopes down as usual from the distant hills to-
wards the river Argandab, which pursues a westerly course
across the valley, and skirts the edge of the red southern
desert. The ground is scattered over with fragments of
volcanic rocks, granites, quartz and limestones, and beneath
these is first a stratum of loose greyish sand of considerable

depth overlying a second stratum of a yellowish-coloured —

sand, and beneath this again is a stiff marly clay; the water
appears to be held in the clay, and is brought by a succes-
sion of wells connected by a subterranean channel, from the
foot of the hills down to the cultivable lands extending along
the right bank of the Argandab, at a height which is inac-
cessible to the water of the river, and which, but for this
artificial irrigation, would necessarily remain for ever waste
land. The conglomerate, although not perceptible at Kak-i-
chowpan, comes to the surface shortly after leaving it, and
with the occasional occurrence of a patch of alluvial soil,
continues to form a broken and undulating plain up to the
banks of the Helmund, from whence it stretches away again
beyond Greeshk for many miles, both to the west and south,
for it is met with as forming the solid substratum thirty
miles below the fort at the junction of the Helmund and
Argandab, where stand the ruins of the ancient town and
fortress of Killa Beest.

Captain I. Conolly, in speaking of the Helmund, remarks
that—‘‘ As soon as it has left the hills, its bed is generally
four or five miles in breadth, the water more easily pene-

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Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan. 591

trating the readily yielding sides than the bottom, converted
into a sort of pavement by the stones rolled down from the
mountains. The stream has not however of late years occu-
pied the whole breadth, though in former times, before it
had cut itself so deep a bed, it would appear to have done
so near Girishk: for example, there are ruins at opposite
sides of the river, of forts known to have been contempora-
neous, and under which the water must have flowed (for
they are built in a semicircle, without a wall on the river
face,) though there is a space of four miles between them.
The stream now hugs the left bank, above which rises in
vast mounds the sandy desert. The ancient right bank is
well marked by the high cliffs of the plain before mention-
ed, which are every where hollowed and indurated by the
action of water. The rich space between this band and the
modern channel, of which the average breadth is rather
more than two miles, is the country of Gurmsehl.”*

The ‘sort of pavement of stones,’ here alluded to as
forming the bottom of the river’s bed, is the conglomerate,
and the “ ytelding sides” are the sands and alluvial soils
which, as we travel south, are seen to overlie the conglome-
rate. ‘The cliffs forming “ the ancient right bank,” are com-
posed of the same indurated conglomerate, but that in-
duration is in no way caused by the action of the river, as
Captain Conolly’s remarks would lead one to suppose, but
is due to causes which must have been in operation before
the river Helmund commenced its existence. The plains
extending for many miles on either side of the river at
Greeshk are composed of the same rock, and it is therefore
evident that in such situations its waters could have exer-
cised no influence whatever. The river certainly has not
filled its bed for many years, and the high conglomerate
banks, between which and the modern stream a broad belt
of rich cultivation intervenes, and which forms in truth the

* Vide Journal As. Soc, Bengal, No. 103, page 712.

-

592 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Afghanistan.

valley of the Helmund, must have been cut through by the
retiring waters at the time when the neighbouring moun-
tains attained their present elevation, and the drain thus
formed has served ever since as the bed of the river, which
probably then first had origin. The river although it occa-
sionally overflows a portion of the alluvial belt in its bed,
never reaches to the old right bank; and that it exercises
little influence on its own modern left bank is proved by
the existence of the old fort alluded to by Captain Conolly.
I do not think however, that the mere absence of a wall on
the river face can furnish any evidence that the Helmund
once occupied the whole space between the two forts, for
the height and abruptness of the banks themselves furnish
a much more efficient defence than the walls above, which
are raised in most cases to guard against the attacks of rob-
ber horsemen.

Besides which we require to know how the river could
a few years since furnish a body of water four miles in
breadth, and from 30 to 40 feet deep; while at present it
seldom exceeds 8 or 9 feet in depth, even at the flooding or
spring time, when the snows are melting.*

Still stronger proof however that the river has not changed
for many years, is to be gathered from the fact that the
ancient town and fortress of Killa Beest remain uninjured
on the left bank of the Helmund at its junction with the
Argandab. The town has not been inhabited for the last
century, and is said to have been flourishing in the time of
Nousherwan: it is built wpon the conglomerate immediately
within the fork formed by the confluence of the two rivers.
Between the fortress and the Argandab there is a belt of
cultivation, while the Helmund flows immediately beneath
the walls of the fortress. Both rivers are therefore seen
to hug their left banks, and that they did so before Killa

* It is not its depth, but its force and rapidity which render it impassable at these
times.

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Afghanistan. 593

Beest was built, seems proved by the fact of its ruins still
remaining in tact upon the left bank of the Helmund to the
present day. |

The mountains up to and beyond the Helmund are com-
posed of rocks similar to those already described, the whole
district being, strictly speaking, volcanic ranges of basalt,
greenstone, serpentine, and occasional granitic peaks, sup-
porting or running parallel with limestones both primary and
secondary. This continues onwards to the neighbourhood
of Warshér, where a greywacké slate exists, but beyond that
I have no precise information, except that basaltic masses
studded with cubic iron pyrites here and there occur, as
likewise secondary limestones containing marine shells.

Having thus imperfectly noted the principal rocks which
occur along the line of country over which I had occasion
to travel, I shall now hazard a few remarks on the general
features of the country and the minerals it produces, craving
the indulgence of the geological reader, and pleading as an
excuse for the imperfections and scantiness of the informa-
tion afforded, the difficulties and danger of collecting scien-
tific data during a hurried march, at a time when every
man’s hand was against his neighbour, and when we were
considered in the light of infidel invaders, to sacrifice whom
was a sure passport to the joys of Paradise.

From the specimens and information obtained from dif-
ferent parts of the country through the kindness of various
friends, and likewise from my own observations, it would
appear that the mountains, in the southern portions of Aff-
ghanistan, from below Ghuznee, and stretching across from
Dadur in the east, to about Warshér on the west, are com-
posed of the usual series of primary and secondary rocks,
from granite upwards to the chalk formation, which is evi-
dently represented by the nummulitic limestone and other
chalky beds containing flints and marine shells. In some
localities these secondary rocks are conformably overlaid

594 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Afghanistan.

by tertiary strata containing fresh-water shells, and by
diluvial deposits ; as yet however no evidence exists of the
occurrence of the remains of mammalia in which the tertiary
strata of India have been found to be so rich.

All these formations are accompanied in some part of
their course by volcanic rocks, and from the Kojeh Amram
range to some distance beyond Greeshk, and extending
from the southern desert tracts upwards towards Ghuznee,
evidence exists, in the occurrence of vast masses of basalt
and greenstone, both in dykes and detached conical hills, of
the activity in by-gone times of violent disruptive forces.
If moreover the testimony of respectable and well informed
Affghans is to be relied on, it would appear that such forces
are not yet altogether quiescent, for an intelligent chemist
of Candahar, who had travelled much, and who professed to
be somewhat of a Savant, declared to me more than once,
in presence of others who implicitly believed him, that an
active volcano is still in existence among the Huzzarah
mountains, although, as he said, few are now (1840,) in exis-
tence who remember to have seen it in a state of irruption.
He described the mountain as being in the form of a cone
abruptly truncated at the summit, where a hollow or bowl-
shaped depression exists, from which many years ago he
had heard that flames were seen to issue, and he added, that
the sides of the mountain were strewed over ‘ with cinder-
like and slaggy-stones, similar to those produced from a fur-
nace.” These fragments may possibly be nothing more
than decomposed volcanic rocks and trap-tuff, yet the de-
scription tallies so well in all respects, even to the frag-
ments of scoriz and lava, with the appearance of a vol-
canic mountain, that were not the Affghans, according to
the testimony of their own countryman, Shah Shooja, re-
gardless of truth, I should have had no hesitation in at once
accepting the story as true. It is to be observed however,
that as my informant had no possible object to gain by

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan. 595

deceiving me, and as he could not possibly have seen any
other volcanic mountain from which to draw his description,
his information may yet be entitled to some degree of credit ;
and taking this account in conjunction with the actual
volcanic nature of the country generally, and the frequent
occurrence of earthquakes in Affghanistan, I feel disposed
to believe that such a volcano does actually exist, more
especially as the story was repeated to me on several occa-
sions without change or discrepancy, even after close cross-
questioning by myself and natives who were present.

It would appear, that the volcanic rocks extend even to the
neighbourhood of Cabul, for I received from the late Major
E. Sanders of the Engineers, specimens of Actynolite picked
up by him near Ghuznee, and from another friend I likewise
received a specimen of common massive Iron pyrites pre-
cisely similar to that which occurs so abundantly in the
trap-rocks around Candahar.* From Zemindawur again,
I received mica-slate, granite, and greenstone, the last of
which I was informed was abundant there; while from the
Huzzarah hills I obtained through the kindness of Major
Lynch of the Bombay Army, fine specimens of granite,
basalt, hornblende in quartz, lapis lazuli, lamellar magnetic
iron ore, and red oxide of iron, together with the sulphuret,
green carbonate, and red oxide of copper.

The following is an imperfect list of the useful minerals
occasionlly procurable in Candahar, and which are partly
the produce of the country, and partly imported from other

states.
IRon OREs.

1. Common wrought tron ore. Is brought from Ubbergoon,
and sold by the traders at Pirmool near Ghuznee; it is
worked and smelted at Ubbergoon, three days’ journey to

* As an instance of the false impression an unskilful observer may convey
of the mineral riches of a country, | may state that both the above specimens
were given to me as ‘‘ copper ores ;’’ while from a third party I once received a
collection labelled as ‘* copper,’’ the whole of which proved to be greenstone.

4H

596 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan.

the south of Peshawur, and is said to be of three kinds.

The first sort is called Paullee, and is wrought into bars ; it
sells from 43 to 53 annas per seer at Purmool, and in Can-
dahar from 103 to 114 annas per seer. The second sort is
termed ‘‘ Bél-ka-lohar,” or “ Ahun-i-bél,” and is turned into
spades, ploughshares, &c.; it is sold by the traders from 4
to 5 annas, and in Candahar the price is from 10 to 11 annas
per seer. The third sort is called Kyhee, and is converted

into hoes, knives, hinges, &c. ; it is said to be the worst, and - __

is distinguished as being ‘‘ sukht,” or brittle; the price at
Purmool is 24 to 3 annas, and at Candahar from 5 to 6
annas per seer. ‘The duty is 1-40th. The ore is the same,
but undergoes three smeltings, by which the three qualities
are produced. It is consumed in large quantities.

2. lron pyrites, or sulphuret of iron. Is abundantly distri-
buted throughout the trap formation of the country, but
is not in use. It occurs both massive and cubic.

3. White iron pyrites, in octohedrons. Is sometimes
brought in small quantities from Persia, but I am not aware
of its being in use for any thing.

4, Magnetic iron ore, or ‘* Gowr-sung.” Is abundant in
many parts of the country. It occurs both earthy, massive,
and lamellar. The two former are found in the Shah-
muksood range, west of Candahar; and the last is from the
Huzzarah mountains. They are not now used.

5. Fibrous red iron ore, or red hematite. Occurs dissemi-
nated in nodules among the trap-rocks at Melmandeh; it is
unknown as an ore to the Affghans.

6. Red oxide of iron. Occurs in the Huzzarah mountains,
but appears to be unknown in Candahar.

7. Yellow clay ironstone. This was found by myself in
the Bolan Pass, but is not known in Candahar; it is of a
yellowish ochery colour, and yields much iron on analysis.
The fracture is dull earthy, and traces of carbonised plants
are observable in the stone.

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan. 597

8. Carbonate of iron, or brown spar. Found also in the
Bolan Pass with the last, but not zn situ. Itis massive, and
appears to have been imbedded in the yellow clay ironstone,
or to have formed a vein through it: the specimen formed a
flat tabular mass; both were found lying near the vein of
coal.

9. Sulphate of iron. It is termed ‘* Kussees,” and is
brought from the hills of the Kakur district. It consists of
three varieties; the red, yellow, and grey. The red sul-
_ phate is scarce, and is only used by chemists in search
of the philosopher’s stone, after which both high and low
are to the full as mad as were Europeans in former days.
It sells at from 2 to 3 Co.’s Rs. per tolah. The yellow
sulphate is called Pistye, and is used for polishing and
watering blades of swords and other cutlery. It sells at 12
annas per seer; this is the true sulphate of iron, and its
yellow colour is caused oxydation on exposure to the atmos-
phere or to light: the fresh crystals are pale green; it is
probably produced by the decomposition of iron, pyrites
which is so abundant in the trap-rocks of Affghanistan.
The grey sulphate is called Miskye, and is used by curriers
to blacken leather; it sells at 6 annas per seer. There is
no duty charged upon these minerals as they are considered
as mere earths. The red variety I could not procure, and
know not therefore what it is; the grey variety I am inclined
to consider a sulphate of copper, but I could procure no
specimen of it.

10. Lron sand. Scales of iron occur in the sands of the
river Indus, not far from Roree.

| Coprer OREs.

11. Copper pyrites. Appears to be very abundantly dis-
tributed over the country; specimens of it were brought to
me in white quartz from the Kojeh Amram range, but prov-
ed exceedingly poor. A rich ore of this copper is said
to exist in the Shah-muksood range, and that it was first

598 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan.

worked in the time of Nadir Shah. Subsequently the Sir-
dars of Candahar worked the mines, and report says to
great advantage: some accounts state the profit to have been
900 per cent.! -Others 1,900 per cent., and that the ore
was sold in Candahar at the same rate as European sheet

copper imported from Bombay. ‘This may be taken as a

fair example of the exaggeration to which the Affghans are
so prone. _
All accounts agree that a profit was made, and that cop-
per money was coined and cannon cast from the metal. It
must at the same time be borne in mind, that the villagers in
the neighbourhood of the mines were compelled to work them
Jree, so that one very considerable portion of the usual
expences was thus saved, and the Sirdars could well afford
to sell the ore at a cheap, and yet with remunerating price
to themselves since it cost them little or nothing. Another
copper mine occurs at Nésh, and produces a rich yellow
copper ore; a man who resides there and is a dealer in
braziery, declared that for every outlay of 20 rupees he
would derive a profit of 20 tomauns, z. e. he would gain
clear 19 tomauns or 380 rupees upon his outlay, or a profit
of 1,900 per cent. This tallies with the accounts given me
by others of the profits derived by the Sirdars, but I do
not believe it for all that, and these accounts may serve to
show the difficulty of arriving at the truth from persons
so regardless of it as the Affghans generally are.

-*'The copper now used in Candahar and the neighbouring

districts even to Herat, comes partly from Bombay and partly |

from Persia. That from Bombay is in sheet, and comes from
Europe; it sells in Candahar at two rupees and a quarter
per seer of eighty tolahs, and is said to cost in Bombay
about + Rs. per seer. The duty at Candahar is 1-40th.
European sheet copper also finds its way to Cabul, Bokhara,
and other northern states. Although copper ores are abun-
dant in many parts of Affghanistan, and some of them

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Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan. 599

undoubtedly rich, yet I do not think they could be work-
ed to any advantage except perhaps for home consumption
in towns in the immediate vicinity of the mines; certain it
is that the metal would never equal in purity the European
article now imported, and for exportation it would never pay
the expences of working and of the long and dangerous
land-carriage likewise.

12. The blue and green carbonates of copper. Are found
in the Huzzarah mountains, and sparingly likewise in other
parts; but they do not seem to be used by the natives.

13. Red oxide of copper. Is also found in the Huzzarah
mountains.

GoLp.

14. Gold, called Pillah. Is said to be procured in small

quantities from the sands of rivers, and is brought from

Sadmoneir and Bokhara, from a river called Ammoo. The

best sells at 17 and 18 Co.’s Rs. per tolah, and the impure
at 10 Rs. per tolah. It is also said to occur imbedded in
rocks in the Huzzarah mountains, but this is just as likely
to be iron pyrites or copper ore, as both were often brought
to me as gold.

ANTIMONY.

15. Sulphuret of antimony. The mineral improperly
named ‘‘ Soorma,” by the natives both of India and Aff-
ghanistan, is a sulphuret of lead. Antimony is not used, but
occurs abundantly in some of the mountains to the north-
ward of Killa Abdoollah in Pisheen, from whence I pro-
cured specimens. It is accompanied by the oxide or white
antimony.

Leap.

16. Sulphuret of lead. A dark impure kind containing
iron is procured in abundance from Teereen; it is used by
painters and potters, and sells in the raw state at 12 annas
per Tabreez maund, or three annas per Co.’s seer. It occurs
also in the Shah-muksood and Huzzarah mountains.

600 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Afghanistan.

Pure galena, in large cubes, is found in the same locali-
ties, and usually sells in the raw state at 12 annas per seer ;
when cleared and reduced to powder it forms the so-called
‘* Soorma,” or antimony of Affghanistan and India, and sells
at from 5 to 6 rupees per seer.

Granular galena. 1s also found in Teereen. The common
lead of commerce is called ‘ Soord,” and is brought from

Teereen and the Huzzarah country ; it is made at the mines,

and the dealers sell it in Candahar at 6 to 7 annas per seer,
and in the shops it is retailed at 11 to 12 annas per seer.
The duty is 1-40th.

17. Semi-vitrified oxide of lead, or litharge, is known as
Moordasung. It is imported from Hydrabad, Tatta, Herat,
~ and Koh-i-Pir-kisree in Gurmsael. It is manufactured from
the yellow oxide of lead, and sells in Candahar at 2
rupees per seer. It is much used in the Affghan materia
medica as a cure for cuts and sores, being applied in the
form of a burnt powder; it is also used by painters. It is
also reduced to powder and mixed with lime, and applied
to the hair which it dyes black, but caution is necessary or
it may burn the hair off.

18. Argentiferous galena. Occurs in the Huzzarah hills,
from whence it is exported to the Punjab.

19. Silver, called Nookrah and Sufeid Tillah. Sells at
one Co.’s rupee for rather less than one tolah; it is extracted
from argentiferous galena, and is said likewise to occur
in veins in the Huzzarah hills.

20. Quicksilver, is called Parah and Seem-ab. It is
brought from Muscat, and is said to occur also in Gurmsael
at Pir-kisree, where it is dug out of the ground. It consti-
tutes an article of materia medica, and sells at 2 to 3 rupees
per tollah.*

* A report was spread by some of the Savans, who accompanied the Army, that
quicksilver was found in the Bolan Pass. This proved to be true, but it was the
quicksilver from a broken Barometer tube!

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanisian. 601

21. Cinnabar of commerce, called Sheengruff. Is brought
from Persia, India, and Turkey, and sells at from 3 to 5
annas per tolah, It is used as a pigment for house and book
painting ; it also forms an article of the materia medica as a
cure for wounds, and is taken internally as calomel to
induce a change of system.

22. Native sulphur, called Go-gurd. Is imported from
Bulk, Gurmsael, and from Sunnee near Bagh in Cutchi. That
from Gurmsael is the worst, and consequently sells at a less
price than the others. When the markets are well stocked
the best sulphur sells at 24 to 3 annas per seer; that from
Gurmsael at one anna less. In the winter when travelling
is impeded, and also at times when the supply is scanty, it
sells at 7 to 8 annas per seer.

It is used in the manufacture of gunpowder and sulphuric
acid, and constitutes an article of materia medica. It occurs
both massive and crystallised inthe mine at Sunnee, but the
manufactured brimstone alone reaches Candahar. The duty
is 1-40th.

23. Coal. Is found in the Bolan Pass, but apparently in
very small quantity; it may probably occur however more
abundantly in some other parts of those mountains, and in
situations where it could be turned to account. Coal is
said to occur abundantly in some parts of the Huzzarah
mountains.

24. Petroleum. Is found in the sulphur mine at Sunnee,
where it drops from the roof into a small hollow below; it is
boiled with the dust and impurities of the native sulphur,
and produces a dark-coloured brimstone.

25. Mineral pitch, or earthy bitumen. Is found in the Shah-
muksood range, where it is said to ooze in thick drops from
a lofty limestone peak. It is called Mumi-aye, and is esteemed
as highly efficacious in curing cuts and fractured limbs!

26. Salt, is distinguished by the names of “ Shireen” and
** Shore.” The Shireen, or white salt, is procured in the

602 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Afghanistan.

valley of Pisheen by washing the soil, and boiling the water
to evaporation; it sells on the spot at 30 to 32 seers per
Candahar rupee (12 annas), and in Candahar during winter
it is retailed at 10 to 12 seers, and in summer at 16 to 20
seers per Candahar rupee.

At Kishk-i-nakhood on the road to Greeshk, a salt is also
made in the same manner, and sells at 50 seers per Candahar
rupee; while in Candahar during summer the price is 20 to 22
seers per Candahar rupee, and in winter from 12 to 14 seers.
The best salt comes from Gurmsael, where it is reported to
be carried down in solution by the waters of a stream from
the hills. These saliferous waters are said to spread over
the plain, and to form an extensive swamp where the water
evaporates and the salt remains in cakes, and is broken
up like ice. It sells on the spot at 12 Rs. per camel load
of 7 to 8 maunds in weight, and in Candahar during summer
it is retailed at 12 to 16 seers per Candahar rupee, and in
winter at 8 to 10 seers. ‘The duty on the loads brought to
Candahar, is 14 annas per donkey load, and 2 annas per
camel load.

This account would lead one to believe, that the stream in
question must proceed from hills where the salt formation
occurs. Rock-salt comes from the Kohistan of Cabul, and
is sold in Candahar at 7 to 8 seers per Candahar rupee, and
is retailed by the shops at 4 to 5 seers.

The variety termed “ Shore,” is gathered from the sur-
face, and is an impure subcarbonate of soda, which in some
parts of the country is very abundant, covering large areas
like snow.

27. Saltpetre, or Shorah. Occurs at Killa Azim, not far
from Candahar on the road to Cabul, and is obtained in the
same manner as the salt of Pisheen; the earth is dug from
the plain, and well saturated with water, which is afterwards
drawn off into a vat, and then boiled to evaporation. It sells
in Candahar at 6to 7 annas per seer. The duty is the same

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan. 603

as that upon salt. It is used in the manufacture of gun-
powder, and forms also an article of the materia medica.

28. Potash, called “‘ Sudjee.” Like the salt, it is distin-
guished by the names of Shireen and Shore, or pure and
impure.

The shrubs from which it is made are called Ashkhar.
The method adopted in making it, is to dig a pit in the
ground which is filled with the plant, to which fire is ap-
plied ; the juice and ashes are received through a hole in
the bottom of the pit into a small basin or pot beneath,
where it cools and becomes potash.

The “ Shore,” or impure, sells at 12 annas per puckah
maund in the summer time; and in winter when the plants
are dried up, and the article cannot be made, its price is
doubled, or 12 annas per 20 seers. This sort is used only
in the preparation of leather, and is mixed with salt.

The ‘‘ Shireen,” or better sort, sells in summer at 1 anna
per seer, and in winter at 2 annas; it is used in making
soap, in dyeing cloths, as a flux for reducing some lead ores,
and is also mixed with colours in staining pottery. The
plants grow abundantly in the sandy plains, and the potash
is prepared on the spot, and afterwards conveyed to Canda-
har for sale, where it pays a duty of 2 annas per camel,
and 11 annas per donkey, load.

The soap-boilers are said to consume about 200 maunds
annually ; and the dyers and others take about 400 maunds
more. It is likewise used by the poorer classes as sub-
stitute for soap in washing their clothes.

29. Alum, or Phitkirrie. There are four kinds, namely
vellori, red, white, and grey. The first is brought from
Meshid, and sells at 8 annas per seer; the second is from
Bunnoo Daman in the Lahore district, and sells at 5 annas
per seer; the third is from Hindostan, and sells at 2 to
24 annas per seer; and the last is made in Zemindawur,
and being very impure, sells at one anna per seer.

41

604 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan.

It is used by dyers as a mordant, and is besides an article
of materia medica, being given to infants as an aperient.

30. Arsenic, or Hurtal. It is procured from Herat, and
sells in Candahar at 12 annas per seer. It is used by house-
painters.

31. Lapis Lazuli, or Lajgword. This mineral is brought
from Sadmoneir and Bijour, where it is said to occur in
masses and nodules imbedded in other rocks. It likewise
occurs in the Huzzarah mountains, from whence I received
a small specimen from Major Lynch. It is said to exist
near Kilat. It sells on the spot from 2 to 5 Co.’s rupees
per seer, and after it has undergone the process of cleaning,
and is made into ultramarine, it sells at 80 to 100 Co.’s
rupees per seer. It is used in house painting, and book
illuminating.

32. Sulphate of Lime, or Gutch. This is apparently due
to the action of sulphuric acid on the calcareous earth con-
tained in the alluvial soil; it is dug out of the plain, about
two miles from the Cabul gate of the city. It occurs about
three feet below the surface, and forms a thick bed beneath
the alluvium, containing pebbles of trap, clay-slates (of the
trap,) and limestone. It is burnt to lime, and used as a
plaster in the buildings of the city; it hardens almost imme-
diately, and is very tenacious and durable. Fibrous, foli-
ated and compact gypsum is found in the Shawl district and
other parts of the country, and are all used for lime.

It now only remains to notice the general features of the
country, which may be thus briefly described. In traversing
the southern portion of Affghanistan from Dadur towards
Herat, a succession of mountain ranges occur, running nearly
parallel with each other, and pursuing a direction from N.
EK. to S. W.; these, with the exception of a few peaks, are
usually of inconsiderable elevation, and present bare un-
wooded masses of a black and sombre aspect, consisting for
the most part of limestones and volcanic rocks. Between these

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan. 605

ranges are interposed ill cultivated stony plains, varying in
breadth, and shelving down from the hills on either side
towards the centre, the surface being for the most part
thickly strewed over with loose rounded stones. The direc-
tion of all these valleys is of course that of the ranges by
which they are bounded on either side, and these, running
from N. E. to S. W., cause likewise the rivers, which flow
between them, to pursue a course nearly parallel to the bar-
riers which wall them in on either bank. Many of these
rivers are lost in the sands, without effecting a junction with
each other, such as the Lora from Shawl, the Doree, and
the Turnuk, but others rising in the lofty mountains to the
northward, afford a plentiful supply of water all the year,
and eventually discharge themselves into the great Lake of
Seistan.

The direction of all the rivers is at first direct for the
sandy desert, which stretches across the southern end of
the valleys front the district of Shorawuk, through Gurm-
sael, Seistan, and across the frontier, until it becomes ap-
parently incorporated with the desert of Kirman, and the
great salt desert of Khorassan.

On reaching the desert however, instead of continuing on
their course, and diffusing vegetation in their progress, the
direction of all is suddenly changed from S. W. to about
West, by which means the desert is merely skirted by them,
and its sands being deprived of the fertilizing effects of
their waters, are left to drift before the wind in endless
barrenness.

This sudden change in their course which is common
to all the rivers, namely the Lora, Doree, Argandab, and
Helmund, evidently betokens a fall in the level of the coun-
try, which causes the streams as soon as they have freed
themselves from the restraint of the mountain ranges, to obey
the laws of nature, and turn westward down the slope, until
such as are not previously lost in the sands, either effect a

606 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan.

junction with each other, or empty themselves singly into the
great Lake of Seistan; while the very occurrence of that
lake is sufficiently indicative of a hollow, and furnishes a
reason for their change of course. This change however,
while it tends perhaps to fertilize a greater extent of land
lying immediately within the limits of Affghanistan, most
effectually consigns the sands of the south to a hopeless
state of barrenness, by depriving them of the only means
of producing vegetation to bind the loose and shifting soil.
The Lora, Doree, and Turnuk, after traversing their res-
pective districts for some miles, are all suddenly dried up in

the thirsty soil, and the only really permanent rivers of —

importance, are the Argandab and Helmund, which after
diffusing vegetation along their banks, eventually unite and
empty themselves into the Lake of Seistan.

The Argandab rising among the lofty peaks of the Gilzye
mountains to the north, at first like the other rivers, pursues
a S. W. course consequent on the direction of the mountains
which bound its valley, but after passing the southernmost
flank of these ranges, it turns away suddenly to the west,
until it effects a junction with the Helmund, immediately
below the old town and fortress of Killa Beest.

The Helmund rising among the northern highlands, also
preserves a S. W. course until it receives the waters of the
Argandab, when it also turns away to the west, but takes
again a somewhat backward N. westerly course to about the
neighbourhood of Dooshak in Seistan, when it once more
turns to the west and falls into the lake.

Beyond the Helmund I had no opportunity of travelling,
but the information kindly given me by Lieutenant C. F.
North, of the Bombay Engineers, who travelled to Herat,
and surveyed the route, tends to show that the features of the
country are nearly the same throughout. As there appear
to be more rivers laid down upon the maps than actually
exist, it may be useful to quote from that Officer’s letters.

,
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Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan. 607

‘‘ Between Girishk and the Khaush, there is not a
single stream excepting during the winter; but there are
many of what, in India, are called nullahs. I cannot say
whether the Ibrahim Jooee is a natural stream or a canal
cut from the Furrah, though I am disposed to think it the
former.* It does not join the Khaush, being lost long before
reaching the plain of Bukwa. On the upper road from
Girishk to Herat, the Ibrahim Jooee, at the place at which
it is crossed, has all the appearance of a natural nullah;
lower down its waters are drawn off over the plain, and at
Bukwa its place is scarcely known. There is no branch or
tributary of the Khaush between Dilaram and Bukwa.

* From the hills north of the plain of Bukwa, all the water-
courses tend 8S. West. Looking South and S. West from
Bukwa, the ground evidently slopes away towards the desert
of Seistan. Next comes the Furrah river, too large to be
misplaced much, but I am not aware of any other stream
between it and the Adriskund; there are plenty of nullahs,
but unfurnished with water except for a few days in winter.
The Adriskund is a decent stream, flowing from the hills
to the N. E. of the road, in a south-west direction, appa-
rently into the Subzawar river, which eventually, I believe,
joins the Furrah river, before entering the Zurrah lake.
Midway between the Adriskund and the Heri Rood, or
Herat river, or Pool-i-Malan (the latter ‘name from Elphin-
stone, is the name of a bridge over the river) 7s a high range,
South of which all the streams run S. W.; and North of it,
all water-courses trend to the Heri Rood, of the valley of
which this range is the southern boundary. The Heri Rood
runs West for some distance, and then turning N. West is
lost in the sands.”

The courses of all these streams is thus seen to be in-
fluenced by the mountainous nature of the districts which

* Its name leads me to suppose it a canal, being literally ‘‘ Ibrahim’s canal.”’

608 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan.

bound Affghanistan on all sides. Thus, descending rapidly
from the N. East, they are prevented from pursuing their
way to the South by interposition, in that direction, of the
high sandy desert sloping up to the mountains of Beloo-
chistan, which, extending from Mustoong on the East, pass
southerly till they form the Much Mountains, where they
again turn upwards N. Westerly, precisely as does the river
Helmund.

Now, as according to the late Captain Edward Conolly, a
range of mountains stretches across the western side, running
in ‘a south-west direction from probably near Ghorian to
the Surhud,’* it will at once be evident that the country
of Seistan must necessarily form a hollow basin, in con-
sequence of its being every where surrounded by rising
grounds stretching away to the distant mountains. The
fall of the country from the northward is immense, being no
less than six feet per mile between Greeshk and the ruins
of Killa Beest, a distance of about 30 miles, which will fully
account for the great rapidity of the Helmund, and for its
being impassable from the rush of its waters during the spring
months, when the snows are melting in the higher hills.

Thus the rivers all shape their course according to the
nature of the country, which being high on every side, natur-
ally turns them off towards the basin of Seistan as soon as
they are disengaged from the parallel ranges whose direc-
tion they are at first obliged to follow. The most obvious
characteristic of the whole southern portion of Affghanistan
is barrenness, arising less from the infertility of the soil, than
from the total want or partial distribution of water. Although
no doubt the cultivation might be materially extended and
improved, were security of life and property afforded by the
laws, yet the very nature of the country forbids its ever be-
coming the smiling paradise we were most of us inclined to

* Vide Journal Asiatic Society Bengal, No. 103, page 710.

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan. 609

believe it when we first started on the Campaign of 1838-9.
The mountains are not sufficiently elevated to retain the
snows beyond the spring months of the year, and as the heat
is then great,* the snow melts rapidly, filling the streams for
a few weeks only, so that the water is all expended by the
sudden thaw, before the crops are sufficiently advanced to
ripen without its aid. ‘Thus the valleys are left dry and
arid all the summer, at the very season when in more
favoured situations the crops are looking vigorous and
healthy. This causes the cultivators in the vicinity of the
hills to dam up streams, and thus preserve a body of
water for themselves, by the aid of which a rich but local
patch of cultivation is produced; at the same time this
practice is most pernicious, for while it secures water for
a few cultivators near the hills, it is prejudicial to all the
country beyond, which being deprived of even a temporary
supply of water, is doomed to barrenness all the year through.
Thus the whole country wears, generally speaking, the same
dreary desolate aspect, forming one wide waste studded here
and there with bright and smiling patches of cultivation.
Where a permanent supply of water is insured, the case
is somewhat different, although cultivation is still restricted,
from the conformation of the valleys, to a mere narrow belt
on either side of the river; for instance, about five miles
from Candahar, the river Argandab runs along a broad vale,
and as it rises among the highlands to the nothward, and
always furnishes an abundant supply of water throughout
the year, a beautiful and glowing scene presents itself on
crossing the range of hills which divides Candahar from the
valley of the Argandab. Both banks are richly cultivated
with barley, wheat, lucerne, and red clover fields, inter-
mixed with orchards of mulberry, peach, nectarine, apri-

* In May and June, hot winds prevail at Candahar, and the Thermometer in
our tents stood at 114° to 120°.

—

Se ia ee te es

at ti

610 Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affyhanistan.

cots, plumbs and cherries, pomegranates, pears, figs, and
grapes of delicious flavour and large size; melons too are
abundant, and the whole view is one of great and striking
beauty. Through the midst of this green strip rushes the
rapid river, split into numerous channels, and generally
of good breadth ; but beyond the immediate influence of the
stream the valley again becomes a barren stony plain, stretch-
ing away for miles towards a range of volcanic hills, which
bound it on the West. From the left bank of the river
numerous canals are cut, by which the water is conducted .
through breaks in the limestone range, into the valley of —
Candahar, which is thus rendered fertile, but which, as it
furnishes no water of its own, would necessarily, without this
aid, remain for ever waste land. Again on the road to Cabul,
fine crops are sometimes met with to break the dreary
monotony of the stony plains, but are generally confined to the
immediate banks of the Turnuk, whose waters are subsequent-
ly lost before they can effect a junction with the Doree.

In other parts where there are no streams at all, the
method adopted to procure water for irrigation, is to sink |
a deep well on the higher lands near the hills, until the
water stratum is reached; a second well is then sunk lower
down at a little distance from the first, and the two are con-
nected by boring a subterranean communication through
which, as the water rises into the first, it is conducted into
the second, and from it into a third, and so on until it is
carried from the base of the hills towards the lower and
distant cultivable lands, on which it debouches at the sur-
face. By this means a stream is raised, on the principle of
Artesian wells, from a deep-seated stratum, whose dip from
the hills would otherwise prevent the water from coming to
the surface, and large tracts of land, which are now rendered
exceedingly rich and fertile, would otherwise remain for ever
desolate and waste.

Notes on Geology and Mineralogy of Affghanistan. 611

If the mountains of India were of no greater elevation
than those of Affghanistan to the south of Cabul, there
would be no snows to feed the noble rivers which now ferti-
lize its broad plains, and it would consequently present an
appearance nearly as bare and sterile during the hot season
as Khorasan now does; but besides the everlasting reser-
voirs of its lofty snowy ranges, India enjoys no small advan-
tage in the occurrence of its periodical rainy season, of which
Affghanistan is totally deprived, the only rains it experiences
being those of winter, when cultivation is at a stand still.
The early melting of the snows fills every stream to over-
flowing during the spring months, but like all mountain
torrents, so rapidly does the water disappear, that it is almost
all gone before the summer has fairly set in, and from there
being no summer showers to refresh the earth, the greater
portion of the country continues arid and waste all the year
round. From these natural defects, if such we may presume
to call them where all is wisely ordered, the country can
never be rendered a rich one in an agricultural point of view,
though doubtless the expenditure of capital, if well directed,
might improve it vastly from what it now is; but unfor-
tunately for Affghanistan, security of property is wholly
unknown, and capital, alas! is about as scarce as the water
itself: consequently it is to be feared, that a long day must
elapse ere its valleys can be made to wear a different and
more desirable aspect.

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612

Correspondence.

Letter from Dr. Wieut to J. M’CiEettanp, dated Coimbatore, 10th
September 1845. Received through Dr. Watuicu, October 1845.

My pear Sir,—Your last number (22nd) reached me last night. On

looking over the extracts from my letters, regarding the preservation ©

of Griffith’s Herbarium, one passage struck me as objectionable, and
which must, most inadvertently, have dropped from my pen, in the
hurry of unpremeditated composition, and which, at the time of writing,
did not present itself to me in the same light that it now does.

On reperusal at this distance of time it immediately struck me
as objectionable, inasmuch as it appears to convey an unmerited
reflection on Dr. Wallich, which I certainly never intended. The
passage to which I allude, is in these words—‘ If sent to the garden,
it (¢.e. Griffith’s Herbarium) might chance some years hence to suffer
the fate of Roxburgh’s, which would be bad indeed.”

The fate which befell Roxburgh’s Herbarium, that of being sent to
England, and, as it were, swamped among nearly 10,000 species of
plants, and finally transferred from India to England, is what, when
writing, I considered bad ; as I have long thought that that Herbarium
ought, in a most especial manner, to have been preserved for the
Calcutta Garden, as furnishing the only really unquestionable autho-
rity for the names of many of his plants still growing there, and still
more for others which have died out and been replaced by others
supposed to be the same. But, at the same time, I do not attach
much blame to Wallich for the share he had in the transfer. His
error. in the first instance was one of judgment, which the most
sagacious and judicious of men might easily have fallen into, and is
therefore a venial one. But, I believe, from what I know of the
circumstances attending the transfer of the entire Indian Herbarium
to the Linnean Society, partly originated in circumstances not at the
time under his control.

But be that as it may, I wish you to make known to all who take
an interest in such matters, that when writing the words above quoted,
I was unconscious that I was doing Wallich an injury, and had

|
.
|

Correspondence. 615

not the most remote idea of reflecting on his conduct in the arrange-
ment. and distribution of the Indian Herbaria. On the contrary, I
consider Botany, and especially Indian Botany, as owing him a large
debt of gratitude for what he did, on that occasion, towards making
the treasures of Flora known to the scientific world, and, to no incon-
siderable extent, securing for the men who had been the means of col-
lecting them, the honor of naming the plants they had discovered.

Previous to the distribution, the claims of English Botanists to
original discovery, were daily being superseded by the very recent
labours of foreigners having greater facilities of publishing their
collections than fell to the lot of their English predecessors, while,
through the limited extent of these, the Indian Flora though rich in
English collections, still remained-very imperfectly known. Now it
is nearly as well known as that of most other countries of equal
extent, and equally removed from Europe the centre of science.

To Wallich we are, ina great measure, indebted for this extension
of our knowledge, as with him originated the idea, as well as the
working out, of the plan of distributing among European public
Herbaria, the collections of so many diligent explorers of India,
which had for so many years been accumulating, but were still un-
known to science.

One error, and that a grave one, was no doubt committed in this
great work, which was, neglecting to preserve a complete set of speci-
mens for India, among which Roxburgh’s Herbarium ought to have
had a distinct and distinguished place. But while I, as an Indian
Botanist, deeply regret this oversight, I do not think that Wallich
should be made to bear the whole blame, as circumstances not under
his control had considerable influence in bringing it about. Could
he have seen the end from the beginning, he certainly had it in his
power to have done much towards preventing the evil: but we have
no prophets among us now-a-days.

Should, what I formerly carelessly wrote, have had the effect of
producing any unpleasant feelings in the mind of Dr. Wallich, or his
friends, I trust what I have now said will be sufficient to remove

them.

614 Correspondence.

Notr.—We received the above too late for insertion in our October number,
and conceiving the occasion on which the expression complained of oceurred, to be
one on which a slight inadvertence might be excused, we thought it our duty before
publishing the explanation, to refer to Dr. Wight. Allowing the removal of all
the East Indian Herbaria from the country in 1827 to have been an oversight, as
Dr. Wight regards it to have been, what steps, have since been taken to rectify it ?

- The effect of the distribution was to take away from India the means of identify-
ing plants in the country, and to confer them on Paris, London, Berlin, Geneva,
Bale, Munich, Halle and other places. Thus leaving the Indian Botanist without
any clue whatever as to the plants distributed, and rendering him incapable of des-
cribing his own collections until he can first visit Europe. Whatever benefit the
distribution, may therefore have conferred on Indian Botany in the light in which
it is viewed by Dr. Wight, it has tied the hands of the Botanist in India.

On this point we are furnished with the fullest details by the lamented Mr.
Griffith, which enables us to write with the most perfect confidence.

In 1830 Dr. Wallich wrote thus : ‘‘ Besides the homage which has been paid
to the Company in many publications for their princely liberality in thus affording
these ample means for the diffusion of a knowledge of the Botany of the East In-
dies, a still more effectual method of testifying a sense of the general obligation
they have conferred upon the scientific world, has been adopted by a number of
celebrated Botanists, who have undertaken to publish monographs of the more ex-
tensive and interesting families, thereby powerfully contributing to the completion
of a scheme so truly worthy of the British East India Company. It is a source of
pride for me to introduce here, the names and separate labours of those who have
thus zealously come forward to advance the interests of science.”’

In the Bot. Reg. v. for 1828, v. 14 t. 1203, in an account of Conocephalus
naucleiflorous, this remark in reference to the distribution of the collections—‘“ In
short, the obligations imposed upon us by these acts of truly oriental munificence
are of such a nature, that it has become the bounden duty of all men who have the
interest of science and of civilisation at heart, totake every opportunity of express-
ing the deep sense which they cannot but feel, of measures which so redound to
the honour and glory of the Company.’’

The following is a list of the monographs promised in the Pl. As. Rar. A. D. 1830.
Those marked ! are entirely due; those marked + have been incorporated in
general works ; those printed in Capitals are the only ones that come under the

engagements, but unfortunately most have appeared in huge and inaccessible
works, *

Mist.

Mr. Arnott.—Ranunculacee ! Nympheacee! Papaveracee! Droseracee !
Acerinez ! T'amariscinee !
Mr. Bentham.—Caryophyllee! Lasrat#, Linee! Melastomacee! Memecylez

: Alangiee ! Onagrariee! Salicariee ! ScropHuLarinEas, Orobanchee-,
Cyrtandracee ! Myricez !

Profr. Besser of Crzmieniec.—Artemisia !

Mr. Adolphe Brongniart of Paris.—Celastrinee! Rhamnez!

Mr. Brown.—Anonacee ! Capparidez ! Rubiacee ! Graminezx ! Sonerila!

M. Cambesedes of Paris.—Hippocratiacee ! Sapindacex ! Ternstroemiacee. +

* The three families without marks may probably have appeared in the 8th vol, of the
Prodromus.

Correspondence. 615

Profr. Choisy of Geneva.—Guttifere! Hypericinee ! Convolvulacee-+

Profr. DeCandolle of Geneva.—Araliacex-++, Umbellifeaz, Saxifragee-+-, Cu-
noniacee-+, Capri foliacee-+-, Loranthee-+, Valerianee-+, Dipsacee-+-, Com-
posite-+-, Polemoniacez, Ebenacee+, Sapotee-+, Styracinee+, Sesamez,
Gentianezx ! Aristolochiee !

M. Alphonse DeCandolle of Geneva,—Flora Burmannica ! Campanulates ts
Bignoniacee | Myrsinee-+, Urticez !

M. Duvau of Paris.—Pedicularis ! Veronica !

Profr. Graham.—Leguminose !

Dr. Greville.— Algz ! Filices ! Geraniacez !

Mr. Haworth.—Crassulacee ! Portulacee ! Sedex !

Profr. Hooker.—Myristicee! Filices! Musci !

Profr. Adr. Jussieu of Paris.—Tiliacee ! Malpighiacee! Rutacee! Meliacex!

Profr. Kunth of Berlin.—Bombacee! Buttneriacee! Sterculiacee ! Dombey-
aceze ! Malvaceae! Eleocarpez ! Terebinthacee! Combretacex ! Verbenacex !

Mr. Lamberi.—Conifere !

Profr. Lehmann of Hasurgh. Poets) ! Boraginee! Primulacee! He-
patice !

Profr. Lindley.—Rosacee! Amentacee! Orchideex-+, Antidesmee! Auranti-
acee! Bixineae! Grossulariee! Guaiacane! MHaloragee! Jasminee!
Olacinez! Oleine! Podophyllee! Resedacee! Rhizophoree Samydez !
Santalacez! Schizandracez !

Prof. Von Martius of Munich.— Amaranthacee! Palme--, Bicuionen Aroidex !
Hydrocharidee! Scitaminz !

Profr. Meisner of Bale.—Begoniaceer ! PoLyconE#&, Thymelez !

Profr. Nees Von Esenbeck of Breslau.—AcANTHACE&, SoLaANace®, Lauri-
NE&, Piperacee !

Mr. Prescott.—Cyperacee !

Profr. Richard of Paris.—Menispermee! Myrtacee! Asphodelere Smilacee !

Profr. Roper of Bale—Euphorbiacee !

M. Seringe of Geneva.—Salix !

Profr. Schultes of Landshut.—Various miscellaneous genera !

Profr. Sprengel of Halle.—Berberidew! Crucifere! Polygalee! Ericinee !
Apocynee! Asclepiadez !

Profr. Henslow —Balsaminez ! Dilleniacee! Hippocastanee! Stylidex!

Count Caspar Von Sternberg.—Saxifragee-+-.

On this list, which exhibits such an extraordinary deficiency, comment is hardly
necessary. Among the incorporators M. DeCandolle is conspicuous ;—among the
performers of their engagements, M. Ness Von Esenbeck;—besides, this distin-
guished Botanist has published the Wightean and Roylean Cyperacee in Wight’s
Contributions, and has long finished the MSS. of the Graminez of the same col-
lections ; these we hope are not kept back by Dr. Arnott to keep the others com-
pany.

It is also to be noticed, that some monographs have been finished wholly or in
part, by parties who did not undertake to do them ; for instance, the Asclepiadez,
Guttifere and Myrtaceez, by Dr. Wight, and the Musci by Mr. Harvey and Dr,
Joseph Hooker,

Some of the recipients are dead; most will, it is to be feared, be so before their
labours are begun, resumed ? or finished ? Had we a voice in the affair, we would
recommend all the outlying materials to be called in and entrusted to M. Nees
Von Esenbeck, Mr. Bentham, M. Decaisne and Dr. Wight.

616 Correspondence.

Dr. Wallich concludes his list by these words—‘‘ On the above co-operation, ex-
hibiting an unparalleled instance of zeal and liberality in the promotion of a com-
mon cause, I can offer no comment, nor can I adequately express the gratitude
which I feel towards those who have thus generously relieved me from some of the
most difficult parts of my labour.’’! !!

Extract of a Letter from W. Lewis, Esa. Assistant Resident, Penang,
to J. M’CuLeLuanD, dated 25th October, 1845.

« Referring to your exertions for. the introduction of Indian manu-
factured Isinglass, I send by Dr. Scott of your service, an air-bladder
of a fish, I fancy of the Polynemus, brought from Rangoon. It
weighs 181 oz. and beats all I have before seen. Captain Bogle, in
the “Calcutta Journal of Natural History,” page 615, of Vol. II.
staggered me no little, in quoting the dried air-bladders at 8 oz. and
averaging them at 4 and 5 oz.; but this one I send beats all. Dr.
Royle, I see, averages the best Russian Isinglass, (vide page 16, of his
Notices) 74 lbs. for 1000 fish, which would be only 44 oz. each fish.*

“T have been doing all I can to get the merchants here to do
something in Isinglass, but I fear there is too small a field for it.
It would however surely be worth while for Officers under Government
on the different seaport stations in India, to instruct the natives
how to cure fish maws for the English market, by which they would
readily get 50 to 75 per cent. more than they do by preparing it
merely for the China market. I saw some lately from Nagore
(Coromandel coast) very large and fine, selling for 66 rupees the
pecul, or 133 lbs. avoirdupoise, say two lbs. for a rupee, which I have
no doubt would sell for three shillings in England.

“‘T bought a little of it as it was very clean, but smelt slightly ; and
requested a Broker in England to give me a particular report on it.

“The highest I have obtained for muster cured by myself here,
say 1000 lbs., was 3s. 2d. per lb. clear of duties. This did not cost
20d. per lb. including freight, insurance, &c. But the most profitable
here would be the kind procured from the Siluroid (Pimelodus Gagore,)

* The Suleah, or Polynemus sounds are sold by the score ; 10 score to the maund
of 160 lbs. which gives an average weight of 123 0z. to the sound of each fish, We
have one from Arracan, which weighs | lb. 12 0z.—Ep.

Correspondence. 617
which in England is classed as ‘‘ honey-combed :”’ it can be landed
in London for nine-pence per lb. A sample I met in 1844, above 100
lbs., sold for 2s. 8d. per 1b. Of this 2500 to 3000 lbs. can be procured
here per annum.

“T am sorry I have not kept the largest of my specimens beat out,
but some were from 28 to 31 inches, weighing 3 oz. 6 drams to 3-12
each. This specimen from Rangoon, if it had been perfectly cleaned,
would I dare say have weighed 16 oz.*

‘* The Brokers write me, that the Brewers do not wish the Isinglass
to be beat out, but prefer it as hitherto bottle-shaped, tongue-shaped,
or as a purse, but divested of all vascular membranes and smell.t

*« The Siluroid although exported by the Chinese, is not used in their
food, but forms a chief ingredient in the manufacture of a kind of
felt cap used in the more northern parts of China. It is in shape
like the sailor’s red woollen cap, used here generally by Chinese
fishermen, who are much exposed in fishing with nets.

“The large Bolah sample weighs 73 oz. Very few of these are to
be got here. It has been cured by my Chinaman very carelessly, but
is free from bad odour.

‘‘T send you some specimens prepared by me. The Broker says,
they are the finest yet sent from India.’’}

* They ought to lose very little in cleaning; what they are in danger of losing
is the purer part, this being soluble by washing, while the impurities are not
to be thus removed.—Ep.

¢ The bottle or purse-shape is incompatible with the purity of the article, as it
is necessary to open the sound in order to strip it of the inner vascular lining.
For the latest method of preparing Indian Isinglass, see the last Quarterly Report
of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce.—Ep.

{ The specimens forwarded by Mr. Lewis are all very good, and some of them
very clean and well prepared. We shall forward them to the Chamber of Com-
merce, to be placed with the other specimens there deposited, and trust his valu-

able observations may aid in directing attention to the subject.—Eb.

618

Section of two New Coal Pits near Newcastle.

We are indebted to a friend for the following two useful Memoranda that have not before
been published. The first is a Section of two new Pits that have been opened near Newcastle ;
and the second, on the Strength of Iron Rails.

Si es
Stony blue clay .. ...
Blue clay with marly
partings .... <jale
Mild light-coloured :
limestone ..

Yellow limestone with 4
Water ses.
Blue limestone ..
Yellow sand ....
White post ....
Red metal ....
Grey metal ....
Blue metal .... ae
(Coal ..
| Band ..
| Coal ..
} Band ..
| Coal ..
(Band .. weXeka

5 5
a Coal. Coal.. cites

Splint .. sees
Grey metal ....
White post ....
Grey metal .... ope
Coal and black stone ....
Grey metal .... Ere
Coal ..
Black stone
White post
Grey metal
Blue metal aA
Grey metal .... cone
Coal. ‘ Main coal’

cese 4

eeee

3 nat
7 Coal ie

eoeee @ace

From this seam the sec-
tion is continued in the
Lord Pit—being 6 fms.
deeper from the Trouble
between the pits—theLady
Pit only sunk to the Main
Coal. Depth of the Main
Coal, in Lord Pit, Dip
side of the dyke.
Black stone «...
Silt stone
Blue metal oes
Post girdles with metal

partings .
Blue metal

ouce
e@ees
se e678 @@es
eeee
ere sere

eere eevee

Gar

vo —
| SoeoocvuccnoeceH~—S co Ceooeco=wenNwmod &. ww

Go
J

ta

c= wooed

Account of Strata passed through in the Lady Pit, Wingate Grange Col-
liery, tothe shaft of the Main Coal seam ; and afterwards in the Lord Pit,
from the shaft of the Main Coat seam, to the Harvey Coal.

See tty

[SY )

et SS OS

vs

DWANWDERUURA-“An = wow

CCOnmD CO 0° oo| In.

din

o— oOo

—

_
ble

eK CEN o =

Coal ..
Grey metal
Blue metal ...-
Grey metal with baie
girdles .. sece oe
White post
Grey metal .... <nee
Dark grey post.
Blue metal ....
White post wo.
Blue metal ..-.
Dark brown post
White post
Grey metal with
girdles
Coal. ‘Low main’ ..-.
Black stone ..+- -
White post .... oes
Grey metal with post
girdles
Blue metal ....
Grey metal .... ©
White post
Grey metal with aaa
girdles
Post oe
Blue metal
White post ...--
Blue metal
Coal—‘‘ HuttonSeam”’ ..
Grey shift...
Grey metal ..«.
White post ....
Grey metal with post
girdles f
Blue metal ....
Grey metal
Dark brown post ..
Grey metal .... tas
Dark brown post ..
White post ....
Blue metal

e@evte
e@eeve

eeee

a3 80
eeoe

post é

eoee e@eece

@ees

Grey metal .... ocalee
Black metal .... ews
Coal .. ee oveliaks
Grey metal with post
girdles ..06 Sete
CODY weep s.0e asin
Stony metal, stone with ?
post girdles .. ewe §

| Coal. ‘Harvey Seam,’ .

Total depth .e-.

| WILL, ARMSTRONG.

—
on
~J

= a
a ee

| Tn.

— — ——
D—= =—-DAOUNO— © ONAN

—)
Cc —sI
toj

I

‘ Ss
OO OBRROCUMWHS = O=—WOANKNeH NOOw

polos
Sin bi

Oo
oe !

|

a

Section of two New Coal Pits near Newcastle. 619

Analysis of Tyne Coal.
Carbon. Hydro. Azote & Oxygen. Ashes.
6:18 0°08

Splint, ale ee este cove 74:82 13-9]
Main coal, ...- alate: core 84°85 2°04 8:43 1°67
Colliery coal, .. oom alee Se OD 0°24 3°42 1:39
Ditto, ib Ay eosar eee, 2°17 9-04 2-52

Experiments on the Strength of Great North of England Rails.

Expt. No, 1. No, 3. No. 5.

Inch. Inch. Inch.
10 ewt. deflection, 1-16 10 cwt. deflection, 1-8 10 cwt. deflection, 3-32
200, < 3-16 20th: ay 1-4 20... 6 1-4
30 29 29 9-32 30 9 ” 3-8 bare 30 9 y} 5-16
40 ,, - 7-16 40 ,, Ms 15-32 40 ,, aA 7-16
50: +, 5 9-16 full 50 ,, Bh 11-16 45 ,, of 15-32
SM aa ae 13-16 Si ae 15-16

Leaving a permanent set} Leaving a permanent set] Leaving no set.
of 5-16 of an inch. of 7-16 of an inch.
No. 2. No. 4.

Inch. Inch.

10 cwt. deflection, 1-8 10 cwt. deflection, 1-8 bare
0 ” ”? 1-4 20 »? 99 1-4
30 ,, 5 5-16 full|30_,, 3 0-16
a0 ,, ~ 7-16 40 ,, He 7-16
50 9 oy) 9-16 30 oe) oP) 9-16
aD) 5. Lh-le fall
Leaving a permanent set} Leaving a permanent set
of 3-16 of an inch. lof 1-16 of an inch.
*

BISHOP’S COLLEGE PRESS.

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Calculla Journ Nat Hist. PLIV

Unslratheria Ceylanica Gardw

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GENERAL INDEX.

Page.
Aborigines of Brazil : their natu-
ral history, diseases, medical
practice, and materia medica,
by Dr. Von Martius. Trans-
lated by Dr. Macpherson, 1,151,307

Bar Iron, Manufacture of, in
India, ... 34
Boase’s (Dr.) Primary Geology,
Remarks on ... 540
Boodhism and Cave Temples of
India, a Note on
Botany, Indian, Notes on.. 357, 494
Botany of the Antarctic Voyage
of H. M. ships ‘ Erebus’ and
* Terror, in the years 1839-43, 518
British Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science, Four-
teenth Meeting of ... 99, 274, 431

Campbell, Capt. J. Extract from
his Letter remarking on Lieut.
Latter’s Account of the new
French process for treating

Mineral Sulphurets, ... 47
Caterpillars, Vegetable or Bul-
rush *. 71

Chara, Mode of preparation, Ob-
servations of M. Raspail, on... 75

Coleopterous Family of the Paus-
side, Description of four new
species of ; and Notice of a fifth
species forming the type of a

new Genus, f 459
Collection of Fossils from 8.
India, Report on . 263

Diseases of Seamen in Calcutta,
in the year 1844, a few Re-
marks on 5 . 251

Electro-motive Bae oe
tion of an ay 177
Electro-culture, . 413

Flora of Ceylon, Contributions
towards a . 343, 471

Page.

Forces which produce the Or-
ganization of che a Treatise
on the ... ie Re ... 416

Gas Furnaces, on a ... 43
Genus “ Azima” of Lamarck,
Observations on the Structure
and Affinities of the ... 49
Geology and Mineralogy of Aff.
ghanistan, Notes on the ... 562
Griffith, Dr. Wm. the late—Ex-
tract from the Anniversary
Address to the Royal Asiatic
Society of Great Britain and
Ireland, May 17, 1845, . 294
Griffith, Dr. the Tate—Extract
of his Will, dated Oct. 30, 1844, 306

Helfer, Dr. the late .. 148

Iron and Carbon, on a new Com-
pound of 45

Tron Rails, on the Strength of... 619
Isinglass, on—Extract from Mr.
W. Lewis’s Letter, . 616

Liebig, Dr. Justus, in his Rela- —
tion to Vegetable Physiology, 77
Lithiasis : its endemic origin in
the Geological nature of the
soil, and its connection with
the formation of the Osseous

system, .. 408
Mineralogy of S. India.,... edo
Modern views regarding Physio-

logical and Pathological Che-

mistry, Sketch of the . 526
Neilgherry Plants—from Dr.

Wight’s 184
New Coal Pits near Newcastle,

Section of 618

Notices, Scientific and I Literary, 419

Permian System as developed in
Russia and other eae of Eu-
eles on the ... . 266

Vill General Index.

Page.

Prodromus Systematis Naturalis
Regni Vegetabilis, &c. . 303

Rational Pathology, Abstract of
labours in, since 1839, 221

Removal of a portion of the
Liver from the ees Human
subject,

Return (Annual) of Sick and
Wounded of H. M. 15th, or
King’s Hussars, from 1st April
1844 to 3lst March 1845, Ob-
servations on ... . 364

406

Page.
Sharks, the Young of ... 458
Snow, Perpetual line of, in the

Himalaya,

Wight, Dr. R.—Extract from
his Letter, dated Coimbatore
31st March 1845, regarding his
views on the subject of the late
Mr. Griffith’s papers, &e. ... 300
Wight, Dr.—Extract from his
Letter, dated Coimbatore 10th
Sept. 1845, in reference to
an error, &c. &c. 1.012

New Subscribers.

Dr. Row, Dum-Dum.
Dr. McLeod, 58th Regt. N. I.
Dr. Hutchinson, Civil Assist. Surgeon, Arrah.

Papers Recewed.

(Osneree——

Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon, by George Gard-
ner, F.L.S., Supdt. of the Royal Bot. Garden, Kandy.

Notes on Indian Botany, by Robt. Wight, M.D., F.L.S. &c.

Errata in No. 21 of Journal.

Page 37, 10th line from bottom for ‘‘ Paris” read ‘* Pure”
39, 4th line from top for ‘‘ 40/bs.” read ‘‘ 40 Rupees.”
41, 19th —— for ‘‘ Bad” read ‘‘ Bar.”
43, Last line, for *‘ dwed” read “ due.”
44, 2nd line from top for ‘‘ Reitron’s” read ‘‘ Neitron’s.”
46, 6th line, for ‘‘ on Dissolving” read ‘‘ as on Dissolving.”
—, 12th line from bottom for ‘‘ giving” read ‘* given.”
—, 4th line, for ‘10d. per” read ‘10 or.”
47, 6th line from top for ‘' £ 200” read ‘‘ 200 Rupees.”
for ‘‘ half” read ‘‘ one fifth.”
— 6th line from bottom, for ‘‘ Does” read ‘ As.”
—, 5th — for ‘‘ Become” read ‘‘ Becomes,’
—, 4th Take out the note of ‘' Interrogation,”

,

a : ne
ei , ¥ ‘
nary '
= ee <a m
’
eal &
rr.
t
E ‘ sad a
— “
\

: . Hae. ERE St ORNS
os, ° SBNOOH ID Boa Ges VS eg |

f ms he Be Sy ry Ad ms: each “Bpvtis ;
. Soe ae it CC a SE
As pret Los, = a i, ay 4 ay Ma:
2 HOST BS (bos ONP aa
PADVIRS Ode aiee ht

nat, ivi} coRandstih ea.

\

rook) vd cH . } ebiawort snosedingee:
Yoni n9bjen -totl Ip gl ori lo Jbane Cask

. Pa teaar ;
; Et es he pp all is

cz \ c % Ts
PERS Y Od : ; a iftsii i (io astowt
’
a
i

ERRATA. =

Page 459, first line of heading, for ‘ Coleopterus,’ ead ‘ Coleoptevous,’—( Reading

9°

FB)

the headings throughout in the same manner. )

460, line 12, from bottom, for ‘ uniform,’ read ‘ reniform.’

461, line 14, from bottom, for ‘inflated in the form,’ vead ‘inflated in form.’

462, line 5, from top, for ‘ centice,’ read ‘ antice.’

—-, line 2, from bottom, for ‘ Boys’ Nehor species,’ read ‘ Boys’ Mhow
species.’

463, line 1, from top, for ‘ papilioform,’ read ‘ papilliform.’

464, line 7, from bottom, for ‘ threads,’ read ‘ tufts.’

465, line 13, from top, for ‘ P. nentidens,’ ead ‘ P. acutidens.’

466, line 3, from top, for ‘clava,’ read ‘ clave.’

—-, line 2, from bottom, for ‘ within a final one,’ read ‘ within an apical
one.’

467, line 10, from top, for ‘ corner,’ read ‘ cornu.’

470, line 4, from bottom, for ‘the form Leiomatocerus,’ read ‘ the term
Leiomatocerus.’

\\

a

aa,

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~ oe

iy

i &

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|

———.

—

a