recounted all the most melancholy circumstances they had collected on the loss of Abderrahman, and ended every painful account with piercing outcries of "wulliah woo!" in which they were joined by the whole of the immense numbers of Moorish mourners that were present.

"The real sufferings of the nearest relations of the deceased had not a moment's respite; even that stupor which nature yields to, when nearly exhausted, was roused into anguish by every new condoler; many of whom came up to Abderrahman's widow and his eldest daughter, and locking them in their arms, screamed over them till the poor exhausted mourners sunk from their embraces to the earth, overwhelmed with these cruelly-repeated horrors." (p. 297.)

We would willingly communicate other particulars from this interesting, though miscellaneous volume, would our limits allow us to indulge our readers and ourselves. It will be perceived that in the extracts made, little is said of the habits and peculiarities of the lower orders of the Tripolese; in truth, we find very little upon that subject in the work; there is, indeed, an account of a Moorish farm, but it is far from minute. This is certainly an omission, though in proportion to the want of civilization among nations, the distinction between the manners of various classes will be diminished. In Tripoli, however, it is obvious that society is not wholly unpolished, and it was, therefore, of more importance that the difference should be pointed out. Probably, however, the author had little opportunity of satisfying herself in this respect, from the station she Occupied as sister to the British resident, and perhaps less inclination, from the difficulties that would oppose a lady on her enquiries and researches among a jealous, dirty, and unenlightened population. We shall conclude our review by a short passage on the domestic occupations of the Moorish ladies.

"The Moorish ladies are, in general, occupied in overlooking a numerous set of slaves, who make their sweetmeats and cakes, clean and grind* their wheat, spin, and, in short, are set about whatever seems necessary to be done. The ladies inspect by turns the dressing of the victuals; and for the time spent in this way, two sets of slaves are in attendance-one set perform the culinary operations, while another station themselves round their mistress, removing in

These machines are particularly simple, and may be worked by one or two persons; the quantity of corn which may be ground by them in the course of a few hours is very considerable. It is doubtless a mill of this sort to which the evangelist St. Matthew alludes, chap. xxiv. ver. 41: Two women shall be grinding at a mill, the one shall be taken, and the other left.'-Blaquiere's Letters from the Mediterranean, vol. ii. p. 45.”

stantly from her sight any thing that may annoy her, and using fans without intermission, to keep off flies or insects, while she leans on one or other of the slaves, walking about to direct and overlook what is doing.

"One of the reasons given, why even the ladies of the royal family must minutely attend to this part of their duty is, to prevent the possibility of any treachery being practised in preparing their husband's meals. The hours the Turkish or Moorish ladies have to spare for amusement, is spent in singing and dancing. Abderrahman's eldest daughter, and the pretty Greek, tied up a swing the morning after they came to live near us, which constituted a great part of the day's amusement: their black slaves and servants served for playfellows. They seemed none of them, from the first, to want spirits, except the Greek, in whose most cheerful moments there was a melancholy and care spread over her countenance, that reminded us of her losses, and of the anxious solicitude she felt that the ambassador might be convinced she had acted up to all his wishes in his absence. This painful, and sometimes dangerous diffidence of their husbands, must be the constant companion of the best female characters in this part of the world, where continual plots, the consequence of jealousy and interest, are working against them by all around them." (p. 110.)

ART. V.-Observations and Inquiries into the nature and treatment of the Yellow Fever, in Jamaica and at Cadiz; particularly in what regards its primary cause and assigned contagious powers: illustrated by Cases and Dissections, with a view to demonstrate that it appears divested of those qualities assigned to it by Mr. Pym, Sir J. Fellows, and others. In a series of Memoirs. By EDWARD DOUGHTY, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, and Surgeon to the Forces. Highley and Son, 1816, Svo. Pp. 238.

AFTER all the discussion which for a long series of years, this subject has undergone, it still remains a question, whether the disease, commonly known by the name of Yellow Fever, be propagated by contagion or not. Indeed, important as the decision must be to a commercial people, there are impediments in the way, which render it extremely difficult to form any indubitable conclusions: for, where the enquiry is concerning the operation of causes inscrutable to our senses, (as the causes of fever assuredly are), our only means of arriving at truth is, by a careful induction from an extensive series of well-observed facts; and how liable to error this mode of investigation, it is needless

to say, when we observe that, from the self-same facts, viewed through party-coloured media, the most opposite conclusions are drawn by the advocates of opposing systems. Thus, when several persons in a particular district are seized, about the same time, with a violent fever, and many, who have visited them, are observed to be soon after attacked by a similar complaint, one party, very speciously, infers that the disorder is contagious, and can be prevented from spreading only by a strict separation of the sick from the well. On the other hand, their opponents, remarking, that such of the sick as are removed to a healthy situation, communicate no disease to those who attend them there, with equal plausibility contend, that this fever is not contagious, and that its cause is to be sought in local peculiarities of the district in which it first appeared. It will be at once evident, that the difference of opinion, in such a case, is not a matter of mere speculation, of no practical importance; according to the prevalence of this or that opinion, the quarantine laws would be either rigidly enforced or altogether suspended;-the unnecessary enforcement of these laws is undoubtedly an evil of no small account to the parties who suffer under their operation, and certainly an incautious suspension of them might be productive of serious mischief to the community.

It may here be well to lay before the reader some account of the present state of opinions amongst medical men, with respect to that severe form of Yellow Fever, which within the last three-and-twenty years has attracted so large a share of attention, in consequence of its dreadful fatality in the West Indies, in the United States of America, and on the southern shores of Europe. First in order are those who, following Dr. Chisholm, believe this fever to be contagious in its origin and progress, and, from the place whence it is supposed to have been imported, distinguish it by the appellation of Bulam fever. One of the latest writers of this party is Dr. Pym, who announces his discovery that the disease affects a person but once in the course of his life. Next to these are such as, denying the fever in question to originate from contagion, or under any circumstances to become contagious, affirm that it is merely the endemic of hot countries in its most aggravated form. Among the later writers of this class, Dr. Bancroft is the most eminent; with exemplary diligence he has collected and arranged a multitude of facts to prove, and, to the complete satisfaction of numbers, has proved, that the Yellow

Fever in all its degrees has but one source, and that this source is marsh miasma. Let not any one however imagine as Mr. Doughty and others have done, that by marsh miasmata, the doctor means to express only the effluvia of actual marshes; he uses it as a general term for the purpose of designating those exhalations arising from the earth, even on high grounds, and especially in clayey soils, under the combined influence of heat and moisture, and which appear capable of producing fevers of the most fatal description. An ingenious hypothesis concerning the nature of these exhalations was advanced by Dr. Jackson, in his work on fever, and the author now before us seems disposed to concur with him in opinion. He thought that the cause of endemic fevers is fundamentally the same with the cause or principle of vegetation; since such fevers are most prevalent in situations where vegetation is luxuriant, or at least where the requisites of a luxuriant vegetation greatly abound; as in warm climates, valleys, and plains, near the coasts of the sea, near the swampy and oozy banks and mouths of rivers; in which situations, if vegetation be not luxuriant and healthy, there will be an excess of the principle of vegetation, which may be a cause of disease in animal bodies exposed to its influence. Hence may be explained the effect of seasons upon endemic fevers, which are more frequent in spring, and particularly in autumn than during the other portions of the year.

"In spring," says Dr. J., "the principle of vegetation is extricated in great quantity, while the capacities of plants are still small; an excess is consequently generated, and this excess extends its influence to a certain distance around. In summer the extrication of the principle still increases, but the capacities of plants being extended in a greater proportion, the means are more adequate, and the excess is actually less. In autumn, the growth of plants being completed, while causes still continue to produce a great extrication of the principle of vegetation, the excess abounds, and occupies a wider circle."

This opinion receives some support from an observation of the late Dr. Rush, that fevers had increased in Pennsylvania, in proportion as the country was cleared of its wood; but that they diminished, or disappeared, in proportion as the country was cultivated.

Besides the contagionists and noncontagionists, there is a third party, which holds an intermediate place. These gentlemen contend that the Yellow Fever is propagated by

a specific contagion, which, however, is incapable of acting, except in a certain impure state of the atmosphere,— an epidemic constitution of the air, as it was termed by Sydenham. Dr. Hosack, of New York, is an advocate for this doctrine, which was formerly inculcated by medical writers with respect to the Plague, and has recently been brought forward by Dr. Calvert, in an essay on that disease inserted in the sixth volume of the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions.

There yet remains to be mentioned another set, who, though they believe the yellow fever to be truly local and endemic in its origin, think it probable that in its course, by the crowding together of the sick, with the neglect of cleanliness and of ventilation, a virus may be produced which shall be capable of communicating a similar disease to all who come within the sphere of its influence. But this opinion is rather repugnant to the little knowledge which we possess of the laws of contagion in general.

It is high time, however, for us now to attend to the author of the work, which has given occasion to these few general remarks. We learn that he arrived in Jamaica in the year 1800, and remained there in an official capacity for the space of eight years, during which he had ample opportunities of observing the diseases which prevailed in that island, and of investigating their nature and effects by dissection he himself experienced an attack of fever soon after his arrival, and a second in the autumn of 1807. In 1809, he accompanied the army to Walcheren, and was a witness of the lamentable mortality which befel that wretched and ill-fated expedition. In the summer of 1810, he joined the British forces in Cadiz, where an alarming fever made its appearance early in October, similar in all respects to that of the West Indies. His zeal for anatomical inquiry meeting with some check from Sir James Fellows, the head of the medical department, he was provoked into the use of indecorous language towards that officer; a court-martial ensued, and dismissal from the service was the result: he has, however, lately been restored to his rank.

This short statement will be sufficient to show that Mr. Doughty comes before the public with some claim to respect on the score of experience; and though he has little title to the praise of authorship, we must admit that he has added something to the store of observations on a very interesting subject. The volume is divided into three parts, containing "general observations on Yellow Fever, its causes and treatment;" with a detail of the state of health among the