of them, except when human sympathy supplies that assistance which they have no worldly means of obtaining. It is not sufficient, however, to make a good nurse, that she be specially trained for the purpose. The requisite knowledge may be imparted; but who, save the individual herself, can furnish that disposition which is not a less essential qualification? Moreover, our experience of the uneducated classes leads to the conclusion that, with a few rare exceptions, such a general education as tends to call forth the intelligence and to cherish the moral feelings, is an indispensable foundation for the character of a superior nurse. All who have had opportunities of watching the "Sœurs de Charité" in their self-devoted ministrations, will, we are confident, agree with us in attaching the highest value to such primary qualifications.

We are glad of any attempt to excite attention to the want under which this country certainly labours to a greater degree than most others; and we trust that the subject will not be allowed to drop. Dr. Sieveking's pamphlet contains some suggestions which are worthy of consideration; but the plan he proposes is only adapted, in our estimation, to meet one part of the difficulty,-that of providing the needful assistance for the poor, by educating for the object a portion of the inmates of workhouses. We hope to be soon again called on, by the promulgation of some more complete scheme, to draw the attention of our readers to this matter.

ART. XIV. On the Science of those Proportions by which the Human Head and Countenance, as represented in Works of Ancient Greek Art, are distinguished by those of Ordinary Nature. By D. R. HAY, F.R.S.E., Author of First Principles of Symmetrical Beauty,' &c. &c. With Twenty-five Plates.-Edinburgh, 1849. 4to, pp. 80.

THERE are few subjects as to which the public mind in this country has made more progress during the last twenty years, than it has in the love of art and in the appreciation of beauty. And with this improved cultivation of the practical, there has been a corresponding advance towards a more correct estimate of the fundamental principles which constitute the theoretical portion of æsthetics. We no longer find it doubted that the human mind has an innate sense of beauty, as it has of truth and of goodness; and the notion is rapidly gaining ground, that no system of education can be complete, which does not include, with the cultivation of the intellectual faculties and the moral sense, the development of that sense of beauty which the Creator has implanted in our minds for wise and benevolent purposes, and which may not merely be rendered capable of ministering in innumerable ways to the enjoyments of ordinary life, but is connected also with its higher aims, imparting to truth its most attractive brightness, to goodness its greatest loveliness. Nor do we now find it denied, that this sense can be improved by cultivation; or that, except in a few rare cases, its scope must be very limited, its indications very imperfect, unless it has been submitted to a regular discipline. On the contrary, in most departments of art it has come to be admitted that there are certain fundamental principles which may not be disregarded in any attempt to gratify the cultivated taste for beauty; so that, although the most rigid observance of rules cannot make an artist, no one can be a real artist who works in systematic violation of them. "By an implicit obedience to the application of these definite rules," says our author,

"genius has clothed the creations of fancy in poetic numbers, or given form and expression to the most exquisite combinations of musical sound, thereby charming the ear and entrancing the soul of the most intelligent and critical student of art, through that inherent principle in the human mind that responds in unison to every species of harmony."

Although this has long been conceded, however, with regard to poetry and music, yet it has been too much the fashion to assume that the formative arts are not amenable to any well-defined laws, whose bounds shall guide their development, or supply safe canons for the critic's guidance. There would seem nó a priori reason, however, why such should be the case-why the combinations of colour and proportion, which are pleasing to the visual sense, and through it awaken the sense of beauty in the mind, should not be reducible, to a certain extent at least, to fixed rules, just as the combinations of sound which are pleasing to the ear are found to be accordant with the rules deduced from the physical conditions under which those sounds are produced. It is probably known to most of our readers that Mr. Hay has perseveringly devoted himself to the search for these principles, and that his labours have been attended with a large measure of success,-his works on Harmony of Colouring' and the First Principles of Symmetrical Beauty' having gained for him a high reputation, and having contributed to diffuse a belief in the existence of fundamental principles in the formative arts, even if it be thought that we are as yet only at the entrance of the path which may at last conduct us to them.

In the present treatise he attempts to show that the proportions of those ideal representations of the human head and countenance, in which the ancient Greek sculptors so much excelled, that their works have become standards to all future time, are mutually connected with each other, and may be reduced to certain simple numerical and geometric relations. From the works of Plato, and from various historical data, he adduces strong grounds for the belief that some such theory had been constructed by the Greeks themselves, so that from the simple laws of numerical proportion and geometrical construction they formed a standard of perfectly symmetrical beauty, to which all their representations presented a certain conformity, however they might be modified to express the various phases of divinity or humanity. We fully agree with Mr. Hay in the correctness of the distinction between the beauty of form and the beauty of expression, and believe that no one who is not blinded by devotion to a theory could fail to perceive it. The one is purely æsthetic, and may be attained, to a certain limited extent, by observance of rules for its production; the other appeals to our emotional consciousness, and through it to the intellect. The one is independent of all association, and appeals simply to our sense of abstract harmony of form; whilst the other is intimately connected, through the associative principle, with the highest enjoyments that we can derive from intercourse with our kind The two may coexist in the highest degree, or may be blended in various proportions; but either may exist without the other. We may have the most perfect symmetrical beauty with an entire absence of expressiveness; a most charming expression without the least approach to symmetry.

We could not attempt, without the aid of diagrams, to convey an idea of Mr. Hay's views with respect to the symmetry of the human head. It must suffice to say, that his ideal head is made up by the combination of a sphere and an ellipse, having certain proportions to each other, the

former giving the outline of the cranial portion, and of the upper part of the face; whilst the latter gives the outline of the lower and anterior portion. This he illustrates by well-arranged diagrams, which show that such a combination is accordant with reality in each of the three aspects in which the skull may be viewed, namely, the front, or facial, the lateral, and the basal. And he then goes on to demonstrate how, by a variation in the angles of the triangles which constitute the foundation of his construction, an infinite variety of gradations may be produced, which correspond with the various modifications presented to us in the works of the Greeks; whilst by a further departure from the fundamental type, in the inclination of the long axis of the ellipse, the elevated character of the physiognomy is made to give place to one of greater or less degradation, in which, however, the rules for the determination of the place of the features still hold good. The triangles on which the construction of most perfect symmetry is based, are those which Plato regarded as the most perfect in nature, being the right-angled isosceles triangle, which forms the half of a square; and the right-angled scalene triangle, which forms half of an equilateral triangle. The numerical proportions between the angles of these triangles are extremely simple, and correspond exactly with those which regulate the concords in music.

All these coincidences are certainly extremely curious; and the scheme which Mr. Hay has drawn up deserves the credit of great ingenuity, if nothing more. But we are firmly persuaded that there is something more, whether it is reserved for this generation to find it out or not; and that in art, as in science, there are fundamental truths, whose sublimity is only equalled by their simplicity, and which will reveal themselves in due time to its true votaries.

ART. XV-Essay on the Use of Alcoholic Liquors in Health and Discase. By JOHN CHADWICK, M.D.-London, 1849. 12mo, pp. 124. THE author of this Essay tell us that the subject of it having been continually before his attention, in the course of his professional practice, during many years, he has come to the conclusion that a vast amount of mental and physical evil has resulted from the use of alcoholic drinks; that by a large proportion of the profession, as well as by the public, the true mode of action of these drinks on the human body is not known, not being correctly explained in any book specially devoted to the subject; and that there is no safe conduct in regard to them, except their total disuse, save in their legitimate office as medicines. In these views we heartily concur; and as Dr. Chadwick has advocated them with considerable ability and good sense, we have much pleasure in recommending his treatise to our readers.

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We may add, as an indication of the public demand for "temperance literature" of a superior class to the stuff commonly circulated, that the "Scottish Temperance League," having reprinted the article entitled Temperance and Teetotalism," from the last number of Dr. Forbes's Review (by permission of Dr. Forbes), has circulated the whole of an edition of fifteen thousand, and has lately issued a new edition of ten thousand, with the name of the author (Dr. Carpenter) attached, at the price of three halfpence.

PART THIRD.

Original Reports.

AN INQUIRY INTO THE BEARING OF THE EARLIEST CASES OF CHOLERA, WHICH OCCURRED IN LONDON DURING THE PRESENT EPIDEMIC,

ON THE STRICT THEORY OF CONTAGION.

BY EDMUND A. PARKES, M.D.,

ASSISTANT-PHYSICIAN TO UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL.

[THE following Inquiry originated in a request made to Dr. Parkes, by the General Board of Health, that he should examine into the evidence which might be derived for or against the doctrine of Contagion, by an analysis of the early cases of cholera in London. It is here published, with cases abridged, in the belief that the evidence brought forward will be acceptable to the profession, and will be found to have an important bearing on the great question at issue.]

I propose to give in this Report the chief facts which I have been able to collect, regarding the early cases of cholera in London; in order that some decision may be formed as to the mode in which these cases originated, whether from a poison emanating from the bodies of other persons labouring under the same affection, from a poison introduced in any other method, or from a poison actually generated in London itself."

It is universally and truly considered, that the inquiry into the origin of the first cases of an epidemic disease, in any locality, is a necessary preliminary to all other inquiries respecting the origin of future cases. At that period of the epidemic, the question is reduced into as simple elements as we can ever hope to find it in; and the influence of essential antecedents is less obscured than at a later date, by the presence of accidental and unnecessary circumstances.

In order that the terms which I am about to use may be correctly defined, and that it may be clearly understood in what method I am about to investigate this subject, and in what light I regard the general aspect of the great question of the nature of contagious and epidemic diseases, I shall commence with a condensed recapitulation of what I consider to be the most prominent and correct opinions at present entertained by medical men, respecting the diffusion and mode of propagation of those diseases, which are generally allowed to arise from specific and uninterchangeable poisons, and which are capable, under certain conditions, of becoming so prevalent as to be entitled to the appellation of epidemic. This recapitulation will be, in fact, a general definition; and when completed, the bearing of the subsequent argument will be at once apparent.

All the opinions of the day, however widely different they appear, may, I believe, be comprised under two separate creeds: that of the strict, and that of the modified contagious theory.

*I assume that cholera, like other epidemic and contagious diseases, must result from the action of a specific agent, rather than from any temporary combination of atmospheric influences. I believe that satisfactory reasons may be given in support of this assumption. Into these I do not wish now to enter; but as far as cholera is concerned, I may refer to the second Volume of the 'Brit. and For. Med. Chir. Review' (p. 93), in which this question is shortly discussed.

The strict contagious theory I take to be that which refers epidemic diseases to the action of specific poisons, which (it alleges) multiply themselves only during their passage through the animal body. All other reputed modes of increase this doctrine considers to be doubtful or untrue; and it looks upon the external circumstances which surround the animal frame as influencing the efficient cause or poison of the epidemic, only so far as they render the body a more or less fit recipient for its action. As it concludes that the body is the only source from which a fresh supply of the specific agent can be evolved, it deems it necessary that the person, to be infected, should come within the influence of the particles of poison (imparted by contact, diffused in the air, or adhering to clothes) which have been emitted from the breath, surface of body, or excretions of an individual already suffering from the disease, or from the corpse of one who has already died of it. Nor can it be said that this view is otherwise than philosophical; that is to say, it is rested on a foundation of undeniable truth, and its inferences are not obviously inconsistent with the premises it lays down. It sprang naturally, indeed, from a recognition of the great truths, that each epidemic disease originates from a cause which is peculiar to itself, and which is not interchangeable with the cause of another epidemic disease; that, however two or more such diseases may be temporarily combined, they are yet fundamentally distinct; that they are governed by separate laws, and display attributes which manifestly prove their non-identity. And it so happened that when this opinion first took solid root in medical literature, the epidemic diseases which were chiefly witnessed in France, England, and even in Italy, did really spring from poisons whose most potent, and apparently whose only source, was in the very bodies, whether of men or of animals, which were suffering from their effects. The poison grew at the expense of that it tainted. At least, this was eminently the case with smallpox, and with measles and scarlet fever, which were sometimes distinguished, sometimes confounded together. It was also generally presumed to be the case with the Levant plague, which then had received very little study, except in the countries in which it was comparatively an infrequent and transient visitor.

And in some of these cases the poison was actually tangible, could be procured in substance (though not in a state of absolute isolation), could be carried on the point of a lancet, and transferred from one body to another, it was not really a greater assumption than was warranted by the facts then known, to infer that the more volatile or intangible poisons, which were not inoculable, and whose existence was indeed founded only on analogical reasoning, did in reality multiply only in the same manner as did those poisons whose existence was demonstrable otherwise than by their effects on the human system alone.

During the last sixty years, however, the study of several diseases imperfectly known to the older physicians has added so many new facts to our knowledge of the several specific epidemic diseases, that the strict contagious theory has been insensibly undergoing alteration, until in the present day it bids fair to become merged in a higher generalization.

The extension of commerce and the military occupation of colonies have made us better acquainted with the several forms of fever, which in the West Indies, and on certain parts of the African coast, have an endemic and a local origin, but which also possess the power, under certain circumstances, of increasing themselves in the human body. The birthplaces of the Oriental plague, Egypt and Syria, have been traversed by the military and civil surgeons of France and England; and the progress of science and of national intercourse has enabled us to note more fully the returns, and to interpret more correctly the attendant phenomena, of that catarrhal fever, which, under the name of influenza, la grippe, &c., so frequently pursues its evanescent course over the greater portion of the world. The more accurate investigation of the present day has, particularly in the last twenty years, opened up fresh points of view, under which the several forms of fever prevalent in this country might be studied. While the different