ful of hydrocyanic acid, instead of strychnia, and found the same results. He concludes, i. That these effects furnish new arguments in favour of the idea, that many poisons are absorbed. ii. That their deleterious effect would be prevented by hindering their absorption, or arresting the circulation in the part to which they are applied, and that it is in this way the cupping-glasses used by Dr. Barry act. iii. That in cases of poisoned wounds, a ligature above the wound would have the same effect as the cupping-glasses.-Med. Jour. Ivii. 84.

12. Bites of Venomous Reptiles.-M. le Dr. Record, sen., discovered, during a long residence in America, what he considers a sure mode of preventing mischief from such bites. "It is sufficient," he says, "to pour a few drops of tincture of cantharides on the wound, to cause a redness and vesication; not only is the poison rendered harmless, but the stings of the reptiles are removed with the epidermis that the blister raises."-Revue Med.; Med. Jour. lvii. 88.

13. Poison of Rattlesnakes.-M. E. Rousseau has ascertained, by experiments made with the fangs of a dead rattlesnake, that the venom of these animals preserves its injurious qualities for a long time, even in our climates, and at a very advanced part of the year. A pigeon wounded by them died in a very short period.-Bull. Phil. 1826, p. 141.

14. On Two new Kinds of Urinary Gravel.-These new varieties of calculi were observed by M. Majendie. The first occurred with a man of rank, a lover of good eating, who, being in circumstances in which he gave way to his inclinations, thought it right to eat each morning a large plateful of sorrel. After following this plan for more than a year, severe pains were felt in the loins and ureters, and shortly after a calculus was voided, six or seven lines in length, and two in width. It was hard, had an orange colour, and being analysed, was found to consist of oxalate of lime nearly pure. The oxalic acid introduced into the system by the sorrel was evidently the cause of this calculus, and an effectual remedy was found in change of diet.

The second kind of gravel was of much more uncertain origin. In this disease (as yet undescribed) the saline deposit of the urine assumed two forms, being sometimes a fine white powder, mixed with a large quantity of small hairs, varying in length from a line to an inch or more; and sometimes, on the contrary, forming white pieces, of unequal and irregular form, having no great degree of consistency, and crushing between the fingers. The fragments did not, however, separate entirely, but adhered together by means of a multitude of small hairs like those described, which, being mixed with, made a part of the mass.

Maceration separates these hairs from both varieties of the hairy gravel, as they have been named. They are then found to differ but little from ordinary hair, except in being finer, and of a grey

einder colour. They are so numerous, that the smallest fragments exhibit their extremities, and, in certain instances, the surface of the stone is visibly covered with them. The accompanying matter being analysed, was found to be phosphate of lime, united to a small quantity of phosphate of magnesia, and uric acid.

Each of these varieties has been observed by M. Majendie but once; the patient from whom the first kind came rendered an enormous quantity daily. The phosphate of lime common to both varieties is, according to M. Majendie, a result of the excessive use of animal food; as to the origin of the hairs he does not even form a conjecture. The formation of these calculi was readily prevented by prescribing an almost exclusive regimen of vegetable food and alkalis.-Bull. Univ. c. iv. 297.

15. Conquest of Peru and Mexico by the Mongols, in the Thirteenth Century.-No historical discovery that has ever occurred, is more important than that which is just now published regarding America. In this volume we are told, that the Incas of Peru and the Kings of Mexico were derived from the generals of the Grand Khan Kublai, who sent a mighty expedition to subdue Japan; but a furious storm having dispersed the ships, many of them reached America, where the troops and the elephants landed; and these statements accord entirely with the histories and traditions of the Peruvians and Mexicans. The numerous identifications given in this work leave no room to doubt the truth of these assertions; and this curious fact accounts for many circumstances in the history of those two empires, which have hitherto puzzled and perplexed all those who have written on that subject.

The lovers of zoology will be peculiarly interested in thus finding that Mastodontes were living at so recent a period, their remains being found, mixed with those of the elephant, on the spots where the battles were fought, by troops who are decidedly known by the history not to have arrived in those kingdoms till the thirteenth century.

By what appears in this volume, in addition to a former work by the same author, a new light may be thrown on the subject of the quadrupeds employed in the wars and amphitheatrical sports of the Mongols and the Romans, all of which, it is rational to suppose, are still in existence. The inference of their being extinct has arisen from inquiries on that subject having been too much confined to geological, instead of historical examination, to the latter of which these particular quadrupeds more especially belong. The curiosity thus excited will open a wide field for a considerable addition to our present stock of knowledge on the important and highly interesting pursuit of zoological studies. It appears likewise that the Romans had the means to procure tapirs from Sumatra, and the long-sought unicorn is described from two living animals sent by an African monarch to the Sultan of Mecca, in the year 1503.

249

On the Supply of Water to the Western Part of the Metropolis by the Grand Junction Water-Works Company.

We are always ready and anxious to assist in redressing any public grievance which comes within the reach of our means, and the scope of our publication, but we must be left to do so in our own way, and upon perfectly independent principles: "nullius jurare in verba," is a sentiment which we have always adhered to, and which, upon the present occasion especially, must not be lost sight of. The little pamphlet * which has given rise to this article, is naturally calculated to excite much apprehension and alarm amongst the inhabitants of no inconsiderable portion of the West-end of London. It will be our business to determine whether its vehement asseverations are founded in truth-whether they are exaggerated-whether they are "wilful misrepresentations." It has been replied to by a short manifesto, circulated by the Grand Junction Company, and containing some statements which it will also be our business to sift and examine; and lastly, we shall lay before our readers the result of our own experience, observations, and experiments, touching the several matters alluded to.

The author of The Dolphin begins, as Mrs. Glasse advises, by first catching his fish; and gives some interesting and novel anecdotes of its habits and propensities:-"It is a certain fish of the whale tribe: the ancients consecrated it to the gods. Now-a-days, its boundings and springings are looked upon as sure prognostics of an approaching storm.—It swallows greedily whatever scraps are thrown to it; and is caught by a hook baited with garbage. Its sides are dingy, and it spouts water from a hole in the centre of its head." After this, and more of the same, the author proceeds as follows:-we shall condense and abridge the rest of the work, but we quote these paragraphs as a sample of its style and tenor:

Of a widely different genus is "THE DOLPHIN" which gives

• The Dolphin; or, Grand Junction Nuisance: proving that seven thousand Families, in Westminster and its Suburbs, are supplied with Water, in a State offensive to the Sight, disgusting to the Imagination, and destructive to Health." There is such a thing as common sense!" ABERNETHY.

APRIL-JUNE, 1827.

S

birth to this little manual. Its virtues have been recorded neither by historian, philosopher, nor poet. It has never distinguished itself by any extraordinary attachment to the human race. Instead of bounding and springing, its position on the surface of the water is stationary. Instead of being fleshy, its head is ligneous. Like its namesake, it ingulphs immense portions of filth and garbage; but, so far is it from being esteemed a delicacy, that not only the Duke of Norfolk, but more than seven thousand families, at the court end of the town, have it constantly served into their houses.

Allegory apart" DOLPHIN," in the Joint-Stock vocabulary, is the word used by certain conscientious gentlemen who exclusively supply the metropolis with that pabulum of life-WATER-to designate the source or head, in the river, from whence they draw the supply of the article in which they deal. To this Dolphinto this wooden-headed, dingy-coloured, ill-shapen, insidious engine of destruction, fraught with more mischief to the inhabitants of Westminster and its suburbs than the wooden horse of the Greeks to the unfortunate citizens of Troy-to this box, more crammed with the seeds of all kinds of diseases-"macies et nova cohors febrium”— than that of Pandora, I entreat the earnest attention of every man who considers the Public Health an object of paramount regard.

That, at a moment like the present, when both the Legislature and the Government are endeavouring to unfetter the commerce of the country, by removing oppressive prohibitions and inconvenient restrictions, and thereby giving greater facility and encouragement to the skill, the capital, and the industry of the people of England-that, at such a moment, there should exist, in the very seat of that Government, a Monopoly of an element of nature, cannot but be matter of just astonishment.

There then follow some observations upon the penal laws applicable to monopolists, and of the mischief which has resulted from the well-known arrangement of the Water Companies; who, to prevent entire ruin, divided the supply of the town into districts, each limiting its service within a line agreed upon, and exchanging, with the others, the pipes beyond its boundary. "Thus," says the Dolphin, "were the customers counted out, and handed over by these jobbers in one of God's choicest blessings, from one set of monopolists to another, like so many negroes on a West-Indian estate, or so many head of cattle at a fair."

But we are principally anxious to call our readers' notice to the facts, or supposed facts, developed by the author of this pamphlet, and we shall adhere to his own arrangement of them; remarking, by the way, that the most serious and grave accu