or more of the above staminal principles. "A diet, to be complete, must contain more or less of all the three."-(p. 477.)

sugar is most pernicious-perhaps fully as pernicious as that of pure alcohol.

"Nature has not furnished either pure sugar or pure Dr. Prout was led to take this comprehensive view starch; and these substances are always the results of of the essence of aliment by reflecting that the only artificial processes more or less elaborate, in which, as in substance actually prepared by Nature herself for many of the processes of cookery, man has been overfood, and for nothing else, is milk. In this, then, officious, and has studied the gratification of his palateIn many he thought we must expect to find a model of what rather than followed the dictates of his reason. a true alimentary substance should be a sort of dyspeptic individuals, the assimilating and preservative prototype or pattern of nutritive material; and ac- to be unable to resist the crytallisation of a portion of powers of the system are already so much weakened as cordingly the analysis of every known kind of milk their fluids. Thus in gouty invalids, how often do we discovers it to be a corpound of the three staminal see chalk-stones formed in every joint? Now, with so principles enumerated, in admixture of various pro- little control over their own fluids, how can they reasonportions. Hence, then, we fairly come to this con- ably hope to assimilate extraneous crystallisations? If, clusion, that, eat what we may, we but consume the therefore, such an invalid, on sitting down to a luxurious "saccharine, the oleaginous, and the albuminous modern banquet, composed of sugar, and oil, and albuprinciples;" and that the art of cookery, however it men, in every state and combination, except those best may impose on the palate in disguising or in varying adapted for food, would pause a moment, and ask himself them, does not long delude the archæus presiding the question, 'Is this debilitated and troublesome stomach over the digestive functions. of mine endowed with the alchemy requisite for the conversion of all these things into wholesome flesh and would thus save himself from such uneasiness. The blood?' he would probably adopt a simpler repast, and truth is, that many of the elaborate dishes of our ingenious continental neighbours are scarcely nutritious, or designed to be so. They are mere vehicles for different stimuli-different ways, in short, of gratifying that low animal propensity by which so inany are urged to the use of ardent spirits, or of various narcotics. In one respect, indeed-namely, that of reducing to a state of pulp those refractory substances which we have before mentioned the culinary processes of our neighbours are much superior to ours; but in nearly every other respect, and most of all in the general use of pure sugar and pure oil, their cookery is eminently injurious to all persons who have weak digestion. On the other hand, in this country, we do not in general pay sufficient attention to the reducing processes of the culinary art. Every thing is firm and crude; and though the mode of preparation be less captivating, the quantity of indigestible aliment is quite as great in our culinary productions as in those of France.

The contrast presented between the poetical and the philosophical description of a banquet is psychological curiosity :

"In ample space, under the broadest shade,

A table richly spread in regal mode,
With dishes piled, and meats of noblest surt
And savour: beasts of chase, or fowl of game,
In pastry built, or from the spit, or boiled,
Gris amber-steamed: all fish from sea or shore,
Freshet or purling brook, or shell, or fin,
And exquisitest name, for which was drained
Pontus and Lucrine Bay, and Afric coast.
And at a stately sideboard, by the wine
That fragrant smell diffused, in order stood
Tall stripling youths rich clad, of fairer hue
Than Ganymede or Hylas: distant more
Under the trees now tripped, now solemn stood,
Nymphs of Diana's train, and Naiades,

With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn;
And all the while harmonious airs were heard
Of chiming strings or charming pipes; and winds
Of gentlest gale Arabian odours fanned
From their soft wings, and Flora's earliest smells."*

a

Alas! this exquisite variety of sensuous impression-this quintessence of the material eliminated by poetical alchemy-is, by a process scarcely less subtle, crystallised into three staminal principles! Hear Dr. Prout

son,

"Providence has gifted man with reason; to his reatherefore, is left the choice of food and drink, and not to instinct, as among the lower animals. It thus beshun excess in quantity, and what is noxious in quality; comes his duty to apply his reason to that object; to to adhere, in short, to the simple and the natural, among which the bounty of his Maker has afforded him an ample selection, and beyond which, if he deviates, sooner or later he will suffer the penalty."-Prout, pp. 507-510.

"With regard to the nature and the choice of aliments, and the modes of their culinary preparation, it follows Nevertheless, it would be a sad blunder to supfroin the observations we have offered, that, under similar pose that variety is unwholesome; and that any, or circumstances, those articles of food which are the least all of the staminal principles, in their concentrated organised must be the most difficult to be assimilated, form, ought to be the daily food of man. So far from consequently that the assimilation of crystallised, or very this, it is proved, beyond a doubt, that nothing can pure substances, must be more difficult than the assimila. be more pernicious than highly nutritious matters tion of any others. Thus, pure sugar, pure alcohol, and compressed in a small bulk. Majendie fed dogs on pure oil, are much less easy to be assimilated than sub- broths, sugar, or gum; they at first throve, but soon stances purely amylaceous; or than that peculiar condi- perished. Dr. Paris observes, that the Kamtschation or mixture of alcohol existing in natural wines, or dales, in order to make their fish oil digestible, mix than butter. In these forms, the assimilation of the sac. it into a paste with sawdust. Dr. Stark's expericharine and the oleaginous principles is comparatively easy. Of all crystallised matters, pure sugar is perhaps ments on himself, coarse as they are, prove-if they the most easily assimilated; but every one is taught by prove any thing-how soon a diet of an unmixed experience, that much less can be eaten of articles comkind, or of a highly nutritious nature, will put an end posed of sugar than of those composed of amylaceous to "a person six feet high, twenty-eight years old," matters. In some forms of dyspepsia, the effect of pure previously in perfect health; for in the short space of seven months, he appears to have brought on a scorbutic state of blocd and ulceraton of the bowels.

* Paradise Regained, b. ii.

Holland has termed the manner of taking food, viz. Bass, striped, fresh
in duly masticating it. Beaumont saw the stomach Flounder,
close on the bole of food as each mouthful descend- Catfish,

do.

do.

do.
do.

ed, and about fifty to eighty seconds elapsed before Salmon, salted
it relaxed its hold to admit a second portion. At Oysters, fresh
least this time, then, should be given to the due Do.
breaking up of the food to fit it for infiltration by Do.
the gastric juice. Beaumont seems to despise, Beef, fresh, lean, rare
however, Dr. Paris's dictum, " that insalivation is as Do. do. dry
essential as mastication;" fortifying his dissent by Do.
facts, of which he, of course, must have had ample Do.
experience:-

Do.

steak

Do. fresh, lean Do. old, hard, salted "I have known," he says, "many persons spit freely Pork-steak and constantly, whose appetites and digestions were per- Pork, fat and lean fect. They who smoke tobacco are constantly discharg- Do. recently salted ing large quantities of saliva, and yet I am not aware Do. that dyspepsia is more common with them than with Do. others."

do.

do.

Do.

do.

Broiled
Fried

3

3 30

with mustard, &c.
with salt only

do.

do.

do.

Butter

Time re

Cheese, old, strong

Mode of Prepara-quired for

Soup, beef, vegetables, and

Digestion.

bread

The American physician draws from these details fifly-one "inferences," some of which we have anticipated, and others are not exactly suited to this place. Among the most important are these :

"That stimulating condiments are injurious to the healthy stomach.

"That the use of ardent spirits always produces disease of the stomach, if persevered in.

"That the quantity of food generally taken is more than the wants of the system require; and that such excess, if persevered in, generally produces not only functional aberration, but disease of the coats of the

stomach.

"That bulk as well as nutriment is necessary to the

articles of diet.

“That the digestibility of aliment does not depend upon the quantity of nutrient principles that it contains. "That gentle exercise facilitates the digestion of food. "That the time required for that purpose is various, depending upon the quantity and quality of the food, state of the stomach, &c.; but that the time ordinarily required for the disposal of a moderate meal of the fibrous parts of meat, with bread, &c. is from three to three and a half hours."-Observations, &c. p. 173.

vitalisation of the blood is produced, which speedily tells both on the bulk and the energy of the higher organs. This kind of exercise requires, however, judgment both as to the when and the how far it should be used, and cannot be confided to the ordinary professors of fencing and gymnastics. To one, however, M. Hamon, of Jermyn street, we make an exception. The series of safe and judicious exercises introduced by that gentleman have, we know, been of great utility to weakly children, and even to sedentary dyspeptics of all ages.

men fittest for the various stages of life; we must Our limits do not permit our discussing the regichapter" On the Medical Treatment of Old Age." specially refer the reader, however, to Dr. Holland's comment on the regulation of Dr. Caldwell's two diWe are compelled also to avoid all but the slightest visions of man-the fat and the lean. The juste milieu, it is confessed, being the most difficult of all points to hit-we fear, nay, we know, that few troubled with obesity will do any thing to disencumber themselves of the load, although we would greatly relax for their sakes Abernethy's stoical cure of "living on sixpence a day, and earning it." Of the three essentials, moderation in eating, moderation in sleepThe reader will now appreciate the third rule of ing, and vigorous exercise, rarely more than two are Dr. Holland, thus clearly and elegantly illustrated: complied with. In vain are sundry "stout gentlemen seen steaming round the parks on a summer's "There should be no sudden or urgent exertion soon morning, qualifying themselves by thus casting off after a full meal, nor immediately before it; for the same the fumes of the hesterna cæna for a repetition of general reason applies to both cases. The stomach re- the excess to-day. All that can possibly be gained quires (as does every organ) for its appropriate function by this deceptive toil is a few years respite from the a sufficient supply of nervous power, whencesoever de-ills that flesh is heir to the apoplexies, wheezing, rived, and a proportionate increase of blood in its circulation, to minister to the actions of which digestion is the result. It may be a physiological fact that these two conditions are identical, or that one involves the other. But whether so or not, it is equally certain that both the nervous power, and the blood needful to digestion, are diminished and disturbed by strong exercise immediately before or after a meal; and this, independently of the effects of mechanical agitation in the latter case, which is no doubt often concerned in disturbing the process.The proofs of these facts are furnished by constant experience, and are familiar to us amongst other animals; yet is attention not sufficiently given to them either in the habitual directions of physicians, or in the rules which men apply themselves to the management of their diet.

asthma, dropsies, and ulcerated leg; while that darling aspiration of middle-aged, middle-sized conservatives, who have turned twelve stone, of limiting the figure within the seemly lines of the majestic, must be ex cathedra pronounced chimerical.

Men who have a constitutional tendency to obesity, and are tied to a sedentary profession, should exercise stern watch over appetite and sleep. They should learn by observation and meditation what substances create bulk; and should shun all which are highly oleaginous, or saccharine, or farinaceous, but especially such as unite these three conditions. It is not easy to fatten the carnivora even in captiviHard exercise and fatigue are often understood as a sanc- nourished by oil-cake, or other mixture of farina and ty, nor even herbivorous animals, unless they are tion for immediate and ample food, without regard to the expenditure of power that has taken place, or to the direc-oil. Excess, therefore, in all farinaceous substances tion which the circulation has got towards the muscles-bread, potato, pastry of all kinds, and puddings, and capillaries of the skin. Those who are exposed to which unite the oily egg with sugar and farina, are the necessity of long and fatiguing journeys speedily learn the error of this. But experience of such kind is generally needed to teach it; nor is this always sufficient against the force of early impressions and the faulty habits of society."—Notes, &c. pp. 349–351.

to be most sedulously shunned. Beer, too, which, as to its incrassating powers, must be looked on as a liquid farina, should be banished. All rich thick soups and purées, and many other compounds, are to be excluded by those who are penetrated with the importance of the anti-obesic principles laid down. We wish we could enter more largely into the With all these omissions, enough and more will be value and use of exercise for the feeble of all ages, left in the animal and vegetable kingdom, to satisfy or could trace out the great benefits which a judicious even a luxurious palate. While we throw out these training of the muscular system has, not only on hints, we at the same time warn those who will lisgeneral health, but on the brain and nervous system. ten to them not to tamper with such an instrument It is not to the games and gambols of childhood, but of health and disease as is diet, without the sanction to gymnastics as a regimen that we allude; the ob- of some better opinion than their own. It will be ject of which is to bring out the defective portions to sufficient to state, that as obesity clings to two opa level with the symmetry of other parts. A narrow posite kinds of constitution, the weak and sluggish, chest is soon expanded, and, with the increased and the robust and plethoric, so two opposite modes play for the lungs thus acquired, a more efficient of treatment are required, and of either of these the

patient himself is no judge. We believe that many more noxious than excess in drinking.* He seems states of ill health are induced by the selection of, to lean to the opinion that the immediate symptoms and a forced adherence to, certain kinds of diet. Ev- of excess in wine are excitement of the brain, or a ery habit of the body has attached to it peculiar mal- tendency to somnolence and stupor, according as adies; and it is a question the uninitiated cannot re-in particular frames the action of the renes is or is solve, whether the tendencies they would counteract not quickened by the indulgence. He appears to on their own theories by their new regimen are in-treat as of no significance the results of all attempts deed worse than those they may superinduce. to classify different wines in a sanatory point of Fashion has interfered in many cases with the doc-view, and hints at the self-delusion of bon vivants trines as to the preservation of health, and Dr. Holland has done wisely in selecting some of these for

Of late years, for example, this fashion has directed itself against vegetable food-an erroneous prejudice in many, perhaps in the majority of cases. Allowing, what "It is the part of every wise man, once at least in life, is partly proved, that vegetable matters are carried indigested to a lower part of the alimentary canal than ani- to make trial of the effects of leaving off wine altogether, mal food, and adinitting that more flatulence is usually The point is one of interest enough in the economy of and this even without the suggestion of actual malady. produced from them, it still is the fact that a feeble diges health to call for such an experiment; and the results tion suffers no less, though it may be in different ways, can seldom be so wholly negative as to render it a fruitfrom an exclusively animal diet. Morbid products are alike evolved; and some of these affecting not only the less one. To obtain them fairly, however, the abandonalimentary canal, but disturbing other organs and funcment must be complete for a time; a measure of no risk, even where the change is greatest; and illustrating, tions through changes produced in the blood. moreover, other points of temperament and particular function, which it is important to every man to know, for the right guidance of his habits of life."

Dr. Holland has some excellent observations as to the use and abuse of wine (pp. 358, &c.). He concurs in the maxim of Celsus, so far as wine is concerned, that intemperance in eating is generally potione quam in esca."

disinclined to submit the volumes of Whewell or despotism of the papacy during that glorious age of Buckland to the supremacy of some one perhaps far art and letters. The Reformation appears either to less profoundly versed in astronomy or geology; exhaust or to blast the intellect of Germany to barthough the more minute and subtle investigations of renness, or at least to extinguish her vernacular liteRoget might lose much, both of interest and useful-rature (from Luther's bible to Lessing and Herder ness, by compression or retrenchment; yet who, on there is little more than a dull blank)—while it seems surveying the long array of volumes on this high to summon into life our Elizabethan poets and phi and solemn, yet after all simple, argument, does not losophers-our Spensers, Shakspeares, Hookers, wish that some strong and masterly hand had been Bacons. The revival of Roman Catholicism is alemployed to mould them into one great" Natural most contemporaneous, and no doubt part of the inTheology," with a separate chapter, by Mr. Bab- spiration of the splendid, though brief period of bage's liberal permission, for the ninth? So in the Spanish literature, the age of Lope, Cervantes, and literary history of these centuries, if we should gain Calderon: it produced its vivifying effects on Italy; in fulness and in authority by this division of literary but southern Germany remained lifeless and unawalabour, there is much, on the other hand, in its unity kened. Free institutions have in general fostered and coherence-in its being woven, as it were, in the noblest products of the mind: but for her more one woof, or cast in one mould, by the finest and perfect prose and her best poetry, France must yet most complicated piece of mechanism which nature, look back to the gorgeous days of the court of Louis or rather the God of Nature, has wrought in his om- XIV., to Bossuet, Pascal, Corneille, and Racine. nific bounty,-a commanding and comprehensive While the literature of some countries springs up at understanding. once to full height and stature-a Minerva from the head of Jove-in others it is slowly and progressively matured; while in some lands it seems to exhaust all its creative energies in one brilliant summer, in others it has a succession of productive seasons, and its prolific power seems to increase with the richness of its produce. One language seems destined to succeed in one branch of intellectual study: its poetical style, for instance, is perfectwhile it never, or rarely, attains to eloquent or harmonious prose: in another, the higher poetry seems to want congenial words to express its thoughts. Here letters, arts, and philosophy seem to prosper from the concentration, as it were, of the nation in number of smaller and rival cities. one large capital; there by its diffusion among a

Mr. Hallam, like Kehama, treads with firm step and secure footing at once his various paths of literature; and it is one of the most remarkable characteristics of this work, that the most elaborate, and, as we are of opinion, most successful passages, treat about writers on such various subjects, and of such different character. We would instance the view of the philosophy of Descartes, of Spinosa, and of Hobbes, and in general the progress of metaphysical inquiry; as contrasted with the unaffected originality and acuteness of some of the observations on what might be considered the exhausted merits of Shakspeare and Cervantes.

in poetry, by the example of his father Bernardo, appanage. Torquato may be considered as cradled who, however, did not much encourage the child that was so completely to eclipse his own name.

While we survey, in Mr. Hallam's pages, the literary history of a period, so long, so prolific, and so various, we cannot but yield to the temptation of assumed, that no age, no combination of political or All this is unquestionable; and it may be safely inquiring whether we can trace any primary and social circumstances, no particular state of the human simple laws of the intellectual developement of man; mind, will, of itself, call forth a great poet or a great whether there are any conditions of our religious, philosopher. True genius springs up we know not political, or social being peculiarly favourable, or from what quarter, what station, what parentage; it strikingly adverse, to letters in general, or to any is heaven's lightning, which shines from the east to particular branch of letters; under what circum- the west, yet no one knows whence it cometh or stances the imagination pours forth her richest trea-whither it goeth. In Tasso it may be considered sures, or severe reason unfolds the mysteries of the external world, and of the human mind; where (but how rare is this) in some degree an hereditary poetry is best quickened into life, or oratory endowed with the power of agitating the soul; where history registers, in undying language, the acts of men and the events of the world; where political science sheds its brightest light on human affairs, or philosophy either stoops to our practical duties, or soars to the first principles of things; or even where religion, or religious literature, exalts and purifies the heart, while it disdains not the alliance of man's highest reason. In a word, is there any uniformity or regularity in the progress of mental improvement?-or do great intellects break out casually, and, if we may so say, accidentally triumph, by the force of genius and intellectual energy, over all impediments and difficulties, and force an unprepared and uncongenial age to their acceptance, and to admiration?

At first sight, on these points, all is perplexity, confusion, and contradiction. Dante is born amid the fierce conflicts and the civil animosities of the free Italian republics; Ariosto and Tasso flourish at the courts of petty princes, or under the magnificent

It

suddenly breaks out in one of a parcel of deer-stealing youths, of undistinguished name and parentage, in a rural county in England: it seizes on Burns at his plough. Philosophy emerges from the cell of a monk-descends from the woolsack of Great Britain

visits with its subtlest, if not its soundest, spirit of inquiry, the humble dwelling of a Jew of Amsterdam-or works itself into fame and usefulness. from the cottage of a poor artisan. Yet it is remarkable how admirably timed almost every great writer appears to be; the man is born who is wanted for his age; in general, exactly the circumstances congenial to his peculiar genius conspire to develope his powers. Had Shakspeare been born before the stage had taken its form under Elizabeth, what would he have been? If Roger Bacon, or even the Marquis of Worcester, had been reserved for a later period, might they not have contributed most effectively and