The Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature and the Arts, July-December, 1827Various
Science
The Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature and the Arts, July-December, 1827
Various
Arts -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
England; and we do hope that it will be undertaken by some person
of sufficient industry, and of more [p108] courage than our author;
while we cannot doubt that whoever attempts it would at least find it
a profitable speculation. With these remarks we must pass over this
chapter, as we could take no statement from it which would serve any
useful purpose; though, as far as it goes, it will form a very useful
guide to travellers on the continent of Europe, or to those who, as
emigrants, are in search of a residence abroad.
The tenth chapter examines the inquiries which have been instituted
into the chemical nature of malaria, leaving the question just where
it was. In fact we, as chemists, do not believe that this science is
yet in possession of the means required for analyses of this delicate
nature; but we see no reason whatever why it should be despaired of,
when chemistry has already, within a very few years, effected things
which seemed far more impracticable and hopeless.
The eleventh and last chapter contains an enumeration of the
diseases produced by malaria, presenting a most formidable list, and
absolutely making us shudder in some of the details which relate to
the worst parts of France and Italy. The representation here given
of the average of life in these districts is particularly striking;
while of the truth of all the facts, we can speak from personal
knowledge. Our author has also noticed the effect of this poison
on animals; showing that it is the cause of the noted epidemics in
cattle, and also of the rot in sheep. If he will look into Livy, he
will find a confirmation, which he appears to have passed by when
quoting that author for epidemic seasons: this being, that in the
same years in which epidemic “pestilences” appeared among the people,
there was also a great mortality among the cattle.
We do not know what his own profession will say of his attempt,
or rather proposal, to prove that the celebrated disease of the
nerves called Tic Douleureux is the produce of malaria and a mode of
intermittent fever; nor how they will receive his proposal to arrange
Sciatica and Rheumatic pains, with many other local diseases, under
this head. But this is not our affair: and as he has promised us two
other volumes, on all the diseases which are produced by malaria,
including these, we must wait with patience; knowing at least that he
is a dealer in facts and not in hypotheses, and expecting, that even
if he should fail to establish his point, he will try to do it, as
he has been used to do in the other sciences which he has attempted,
through the road of facts and evidence. [p109]
_An Account of a new Genus of Plants called_ REEVESIA. By John
Lindley, Esq., F.L.S., &c. &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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