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of scenery truthfully and beautifully, the following short passage will testify:

village become the cause of their ultimate happiness.

The combination of wit as genuine as 'It is in spring that Attica is to be seen in all M. About's with a spirit so practical as his its splendour; when the anemones, as tall as

the tulips of our gardens, mingle and vary their we very seldom meet with. Many of his brilliant colours; when the bees, descending contemporaries surpass him in the power of from Hymettus, hum among the asphodels; analysing human motives, and weaving a when the thrushes sing in the olive-trees; when romance out of the play of passion. Others the young leafage has not yet received its first surpass him again in the minuteness with coating of dust; when the grass, which disap- which they can reproduce, as in a photopears towards the end of May, springs thick graph, every lineament of a visage and every and green wherever there is a handful of earth; crease in a dress. But few can rival him in and when the large barley-stalks, interspersed the intensity of his desire to be the useful with flowers, wave in the sea-breeze. A bright

and sparkling light illumines the earth, and en- teacher of those who are attracted to his ables the imagination to picture the radiance works for amusement. His failing is to be with which the heroes are clothed in the Elysian over-violent in his denunciations of the Fields. So pure and transparent is the air, that things and persons he abominates, for, while it seems as if we could touch the far-dis- this impresses the superficial reader in his tant mountains by stretching out our hands; favour, it repels the better-informed and the and so faithfully does it transmit every sound, that the sheep-bells may be heard at the dis- less impulsive. His book on the 'Roman tance of half a league, and the scream of the Question' would have had few readers had mighty eagles lost to our view in the immensi- its tone been more measured, but it would ty of the sky.'* have made many more converts.

That he should be so lively without being It is not then the power, but the purpose, vulgar, so versatile yet so frequently sucwhich hindered him from writing a senti- cessful, may be explained by the thoroughmental description of the Landes of the ness with which he masters every topic he Gironde, in the place of Maitre Pierre, discusses. His knowledge has the stamp of which is really a treatise on agriculture. home production. When he borrows ideas There is as much poetry in the aspect of from others he re-mints and gives them forth that immense tract of country as in the much improved by the process. His mind heaths of Scotland. The point of view is a lens which colours what passes through, makes all the difference. When Mr. Bright and not a mirror which reflects what is laments that so many acres of Scottish soil placed before it. His wit is not forced, nor should remain desolate, in order that grouse is there anything recondite in his allusions. and deer might multiply; he does so be- He writes for the general public, not for the cause the commercial or material question is library of the student. The readers of his the first consideration with him. In like books can never complain of being puzzled manner M. About would convert the Landes or fatigued. Limpid as a stream flowing from an unrivalled hunting-ground into a over a bed of sand, his diction can be enjoyed blooming garden. He holds that a country by all. In order to define his wit, we must cannot flourish if men decay, the wellbeing employ the happy phrase of the writer who of the whole being more important in his said that, like the wit of Molière and Voltaire, eyes than the luxury of the few. For the "it is but common sense sharpened till it like reasons he advocates the pleasures of a shines." country over a town life. Not merely does he maintain that to live in the country is When M. About's first book was pub. better for the health, but also that if the lished he was about twenty-five years of age. richer class were more widely scattered, Ten years have elapsed since then. During wealth being thereby distributed over a the interval, he has given to the world upwider area, the country population would be wards of twenty volumes, as well as a mulraised in the social scale. Unlike his breth- titude of essays and articles which have not ern in France, he never bemoans the lot of been been reprinted. At the outset, it was those who are obliged to quit Paris; on the feared that a writer so sparkling would soon contrary, when Gerard Bonnevelle, in Mad- exhaust his resources, and sink into a medielon, is banished to Frauenbourg, he shows ocrity; that, like a pile of wood when ignited, that his lot is not unenviable, and he makes the blaze would be great, but the heat very the enforced retirement of the Count and trifling, and its duration very short. Those Countess of Mably from the best Parisian who formed these anticipations argued with society to the narrow circle of a country

* La Grèce Contemporaine, pp. 9-10.

apparent justice; experience, however, has belied their prognostics. His last productions are as brilliant as was his first; although

his writing is now more matured and fuller in flavour, yet in character it is still original and unrivalled. Where so many rich harvests have been reaped, without any deterioration in the produce, we may fairly look for other crops equally abundant and valuable.

However, as the functions of the critic differ from those of the prophet, we must refrain from forecasting the future, and from indulging in speculations which may never be realized. But of this we are certain: M. About has yet to write the book which shall immortalize his name. In nearly every branch of literature he has done something, and he has been applauded in most of the parts he has essay ed. His indisputable talents have conquered for him the admiration alike of the ignorant and the discerning; his successes have drawn upon him both the envy and animadversion of many, who, starting from the same point, have failed to reach the goal. Energies and abilities like his, must, if properly directed, serve to carry him much further than he has yet gone. Indeed, he has distinguished himself so conspicuously, that, in order to merit the reputation he has obtained, he must press onwards and reach a still higher pinnacle of excellence. By his contemporaries in France his name is held in honour, but he will not have justified the good opinions of his admirers until his name shall have become an household word throughout the world. His ambition is evidently great; his gifts are very rare. Among the thousands now struggling to merit by their works the approval of that many-headed and infallible judge called Posterity, and to whom the mere prospect of success is the sole recompense for their lives of toil, few are better qualified to compete than M. Edmond About.

ART. VIII.-1. Experiments on Septic and Antiseptic Substances, with Remarks relating to their use in the Theory of Medicine. By SIR JOHN PRINGLE. 1750. 2. Traité des moyens de désinfecter l'air, de prévenir la contagion, et d'en arrêter les progrès. Par GUYTON MORVEAU. 1805. 3. Report of the Royal Commission on Cattle Plague. 1866.

A GREEK friend showed us a few months ago a small vessel, from the tomb of an ancient Athenian, and shaped not very un

like our pots of pomade. The lid fitted on in a loose way, as is the case with our own earthenware manufacture for the toilet-table, but the material was porous. We opened it, and strange to say the odour of attar of roses was distinct. We are informed that it was so when the tomb was discovered. This narthex, as we suppose it would be called, was not shattered, or even broken, but it illustrated Moore's verses better perhaps than anything known, and brought to our minds the passion for odours and unguents that seemed to have possessed the most refined senses of the ancient world. The scents were used as a luxury, but it is extremely probable that the fashion was fostered as a means of removing the unpleasant odours arising from persons who slept in the clothes which they wore during the day, and many of whom had no convenience for washing, notwithstanding the habit of bathing among others; and this opinion is confirmed by the fact that during all epidemics, perfumes and substances with decided odours, pleasant, or not very much so, were everywhere employed as disinfectants.

We like to visit Greek houses, because we find at every visit some new preserve, some new fragrance kept in sugar, some new fruit saved from decay by drying, or by syrup. We have never in the North made the rose into a delicious dish for breakfast, but this they have done in Greece; and they still preserve the fruit of the pines, making a compound that astonishes and delights our palates, and still more so when we think that this seems handed down from the ancients. We here have never learnt to eat pine-cones, perhaps because they grow less luxuriantly with us, and do not produce kernels of a nourishing quality, as Athenæus tells was their character in old times, as now in Greece. Or are we less ingenious? When we enter Greek houses, or read that last-named author, we are inclined to think that we have lost the art of preserving, and require to be taught.

Conservation of food is a kind of disinfection; it is a prevention of infection. The art of preserving food has grown slowly with us, by the aid of many patents, some of which are successful. They aim chiefly at driving out the oxygen of the air, either by steam, or by the use of other gases which take its place. The older plans of preserving by the use of sugar is far beyond the reach of patents, and is well used in this country for many purposes, although these purposes, as we have seen, may be made very much more numerous.

The preservation of meat is not yet brought to perfection, otherwise the cattle of distant parts of the world would be

brought into our markets. Flesh becomes mode of cutting it into strips and laying it infected rapidly, and we require to invent out to dry is therefore adopted. It is mar new modes of disinfection in order to in- vellous what small changes in the atmoscrease the supply of meat in this country, phere affect the success of this plan. It is and thereby enable us to keep up that said on the La Plata, where this is somephysical strength which always was a char- times done, that if a small cloud appear on acteristic of a Briton, and which seems to the horizon, no bigger than a hand, the drybe the main cause of his energy and success. ing will not be effected before corruption It is not at all clear that in this department begins. This is not quite intelligible to us. we can have any aid from the ancients. We are able to leave them when we arrive at the preservation of animal food; and if it is some pleasure to do so, it is not with perfect satisfaction, because we are aware that we ourselves have not made such progress as to allow us to boast.

It is true the cloud is the barometer, and tells us that the moisture of the air is increasing, and we know that moisture increases putrefaction and decay, as well as vigorous growth. Our difficulty lies in understanding why such a small amount should have such a powerful effect. This,

Indeed, there is a department, namely, however, we know, that however powerful that of the preservation of the human body a disinfectant may be, its strength will be from decay, in which we find Egypt to have diminished by increasing the amount of excelled the world, and to an extent which water. must ever be one of the wonders of history. A dry climate was a great aid, but even taking that into consideration, the work was well done. They removed the parts of the body which had least tenacity and most moisture, as these are invariably found to decay most rapidly. They then washed the whole with caustic soda. This is called natron, or nitre, and we cannot expect that the exact composition should be well known to Greeks and Romans, who certainly knew little of chemistry, and could not explain to us the Egyptian arts. The nitre was dried till it was light and spongy, or until all the water of crystallization had been removed. This was carbonate of soda; when mixed with lime it became caustic; and the art of making this substance, now so lately introduced largely into commerce, seems to have been well known. The caustic condition was obtained, but it does not appear clear whether the lime used for the purpose was separated so as to produce the pure unmixed caustic soda, although we cannot doubt it, because that earth would fall of itself as soon as water was used for the solution. The embalming was continued with resins, pitch or tar, and aromaticsmore or less of the latter being used, according to the price to be paid.

It is, however, remarkable that bodies are preserved in some conditions without any adequate apparent cause. It is not clear why the bodies at the chapel near Bonn are kept from corruption. It is said that no means of preservation are used, and the only cause seems to be a constant draught of air blowing through the place. Bodies have in many cases been preserved without decay in Europe, when it has not been known that any embalming has been used. There are cases often mentioned, in which coffins have been opened and the bodies appeared as if they had never changed from the time of burial, but by a few minutes' exposure fell down into a small heap of dust. The kings of France at St. Denis are said to have undergone that rapid change. The bodies found in the earthenware coffins by Loftus, and described in his most interesting travels in Chaldea and Mesopotamia, were found also to fall into dust. There does not seem in such cases to have been any chemical action of the air at the moment of opening, but, in all probability, the slightest motion was enough to throw down the dust to which the bodies had long ago been reduced. The air gradually entering would bring out with it all the animal matter, united with oxygen in the form of carbonic acid, and the earths, phosphates, and substances not volatile would remain, not contracted into hard ash, as may occur when we burn it, but simply as they existed diffused through the structure of the flesh.

The soda was generally sold along with the lime still mixed, as we gather from Pliny, who says that it is very pungent when rendered impure with lime, and very soluble when it is pure; but we cannot suppose that the separation was never made We are still unable to explain the meanbefore it was actually used in the process ing of the vampires, as those bodies were of embalming, or sent to foreign markets. supposed to be, which were so fully preIn very warm and dry countries, preser- served as not to fall to ashes when the coffin vation of thin pieces of flesh can be made was opened. It was needful to destroy by mere exposure to the sun. The moisture them by passing a stake through them. is removed before corruption begins. The We cannot look on the whole as untrue.

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The fabulous portion seems to be confined any putrid matter may have been, and we
to the saying that such bodies rose at night trace clearly the effect of their observations
and demanded others. In connexion with on its action on absorbent substances: ves-
this, we know that many of the older places sels of iron and of wood were differently
of burial, or at least vaults and catacombs, treated. The same may be observed as to
were so badly supplied with air, that possi- the infection of walls covered with an ab-
bly the atmosphere surrounding the bodies sorbent plaster, and of clothes. We see
became after a time of itself preservative. clearly how the world must have suffered
We know that in the Catacombs of Paris before the cause could have been traced to
it gave rise to a new transformation of the these simple properties of bodies-porosity
elements, and instead of the dead decom- and power of absorbing. We see also how
posing into gas and ashes, they, from want towns must have fearfully suffered before
of suitable air, were converted into adipo- they learnt that the houses must be so far
cire, a white waxlike substance.
separate as to allow air to blow between
them. The Greeks must certainly have
made their cities and many of their streets
exceedingly handsome, but their earlier
towns, and even Athens, were too much
crowded; and so much did they fear job
bery among the sharp-eyed business men
of the city, that they dared not trust any
one with money to rebuild the place, as is
now being done in Paris, in Glasgow, and in
Edinburgh. In Constantinople, Zeno or
dered all houses to be twelve feet apart all
the way up, and the projections which
caused the houses nearly to meet above
were disallowed. This was an effort, after
a long interval of neglect. He attempted
also to go farther, and ordered that no one
should stop the view of the sea from his
neighbour. This would be well in our sea-
bathing towns, where houses are built be
fore others without pity, and not only is
the view destroyed, but the whole living of
the families who possess it, and to whom
the view paid the rent. But the laws are
of no value unless a strong and vigilant
executive attends to them. Constantino-
ple became so bad that its destruction by
fire was scarcely deemed a misfortune.

Many people think that we ought, like some of the ancients, to burn our dead. They do not consider what a terrible proposal they are making. To burn a body without producing the smell of burning flesh is a most difficult thing, and far surpasses the problem of burning our smoke, which, however trifling in difficulty and important, is still left undone. The expense of keeping up such a lake of fire as to consume all our dead would also be, in all probability, too great; let us imagine 1500 bodies roasted to ashes in London every week. We shall not enter into the details of such a large manufactory of phosphates, as we must call it, because we are unable to dwell on the horrors of the picture, and because we are unwilling to bring them before others. It is enough to say that those who propose it cannot have pictured the consequences.

In all nations the practice of burning has been found too expensive. In India it is really practised only by the rich. The poor can only afford a little wood, which burns sufficiently to satisfy the demands of their faith. In no greatly populated country can it be practised by the poor. Fuel has for all cases of this kind been too dear, and is so even with us.

When bodies are allowed time and space to mingle quietly with the earth, the products given out are by no means unpleasant; neither, in the small amounts gradually emitted, can they ever be said to be unwholesome. Nor can we blame our ancestors much for allowing their illustrious dead to be buried in their churches. It began to be an evil only when the charity of man increased, and when the respect towards humanity extended itself even to those who could not be called illustrious, and the increase of the living induced that crowding among the dead which legislation has of late almost entirely caused to

cease.

We read in the Bible of the great care taken to disinfect or, clean vessels in which

How infected by their own crowding the Romans must have been when the houses were ordered to be at least five feet apart, and not more than nine storeys high! Augus tus said they should not exceed seventy feet in height, and Trajan made the limit sixty. The laborious proofs that sewer air is un wholesome have taken Commissions and Boards of Health many years of hard labor in our time, but the whole is as clearly recognised in Justinian's Digest, in quotation from Ulpian, that it is evident that the question was then past all dispute. The world is obliged occasionally to revive its principles.

However true may be the opinion that man is always in progress, we cannot deny that he often makes, in certain places, wonderfully long steps backwards. Although Hippocrates is praised for his skill, shown in fumigating the streets by the smoke of

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fires and by perfumes, by shutting certain windows and opening others, one of our prominent men in the sixteenth century is found speaking with approval of killing 'pigeons, cats, dogs, and other hot animals, which make continually a great transpiration or evaporation of spirits which issue forth of evaporation: the pestiferous atoms which are scattered in the air, and accompany it, used to stick to the feathers, skins, or furres.'

We, as a nation, have gone backwards and forwards as the ancients did, and in a generation we have many waves of opinion, because we do not learn sound principles, or if we learn, we do not teach them, that they may be continued.

Dr. Petit, in 1732, gave clear ideas of antiseptic action. He said that as corruption came from the separation of particles, so preservation is attained by contracting them, as by dry air and astringents.

Sir John Pringle, too, in 1750, wrote Experiments on Septic and Antiseptic Substances, with Remarks relating to their Use in the Theory of Medicine. He recommended salts of various kinds, and astringent and gummy resinous parts of vegetables, and fermenting liquors.

Dr. Macbride followed him with numerous experiments. He speaks of acids being the long-prescribed agents, as antiseptics. He found that even when diluted they were powerful, that alkalis were antiseptic; that salts in general have the same quality; also gum resins, such as myrrh, asafoetida, aloes, and terra japonica; also decoctions of Virginian snake-root, pepper, ginger, saffron, contrayerva root, sage, valerian root, and rhubarb, with mint, angelica, senna, and common wormwood. Many of the common vegetables also were included as to some extent antiseptic, such as horse-radish, mustard, carrots, turnips, garlic, onions, celery, cabbage, colewort, lime.

These are, with Boyle, to be mentioned as the chief revivers of the subject in modern times. We shall not give a continued ancient history, but add remarks occasionally when they may appear of interest.

Earth as a disinfectant.-It is often said that soil or earth is the best disinfectant. It is powerful, but we must beware of it. From some soils there come the most violent poisons, called malaria, which, according to Macculloch, produces in itself a far wider mass of human misery than any other cause of disease.' We must see clearly from this that there is a limit to the purifying nature of earth, since it is from earth with organic matter in it that malaria springs. In read

In

ing Macculloch on malaria, we begin to fear the existence of the slightest moisture on the ground, although from other good authority. we hear that the same evils arise where the influence of moisture does not occur. malarious districts we learn that the evil is greatest when the soil is turned up. The soil has retained the poison in it and has not destroyed it. Still we know that the soil does absorb all kinds of impurities arising from putrefaction, and destroys them, but there are limits to its power. We must learn not to give it more to do than it can accomplish, by flooding it with matter that will become foul. Many persons, remembering the paddle of Moses, insist on the use of earth only to mix with our rejected refuse. If we think of the great extent of the soil, and the comparatively small amount of moisture it receives before a field becomes offensive, we must see that the limits of its power are easily attained.

GASES AND VAPOURS.-Oxygen.-Every substance in fine powder disinfects,-dust of all kinds, whether platinum powder, or powder of sandstone. The surface is enormously increased in such bodies, and surfaces attract the air which is confined and pressed into service, causing more active oxidation and therefore more purification. When all the oxygen is expended, this process ceases, so that the soil retains the evil, and gives it out when stirred. But let us send a volume of oxygen down, and the state changes. This operation is effected by nature when rain is poured over the soil and sinks down with its dissolved air, beginning an action so exten-. sive that by it we may say nearly all the purification of the world is performed. If, however, the rain falls and remains, it soon also becomes exhausted of its oxygen, and the purification again ceases, whilst the vapour rising takes with it some of the injurious air. More water must flow, but it cannot do so until the previous amount is removed, and thus we see the necessity of drainage. It is a constant flow of air and water purifying and making carbonic acid for the food of plants, to enable them to convert that again in part into oxygen, for animals to breathe, and food for the same to eat. Here we see the value of flowing and the evil of stagnant water, the value of drainage and of deep-soil ploughing. If this be the case, the advantage of drainage consists more in the flow than in the removal of the water. If the flow is sufficient, we have not malaria, marsh-fevers, agues, etc. If the plants are not decomposing we are also free, and thus we find that in cold, malaria is diminished or stopped, because cold prevents

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