getable matter ferments, and becomes gaseous; while animal substances are changed into a putrid, abominable, and acrid stimulus. (Don't bother again!) You are going to ask, 'What has all this to do with my eye?' I will tell you. Anatomy teaches us, that the skin is a continuation of the membrane which lines the stomach; and your own observation will inform you, that the delicate linings of the mouth, throat, nose, and eyes, are nothing more. Now some people acquire preposterous noses, others blotches on the face and different parts of the body, others inflammation of the eyes-all arising from irritation of the stomach. People laugh at me for talking so much about the stomach. I sometimes tell this story to forty different people of a morning, and some won't listen to me, so we quarrel, and they go and abuse me all over the town. I can't help it-they came to me for my advice, and I give it them, if they will take it. I can't do any more. Well, Sir, as to the question of diet. I must refer you to my book, (Here the professor smiled, and continued smiling as he proceeded.) There are only about a dozen pages-and you will find, beginning at page 73, all that it is necessary for you to know. I am christened' Doctor MyBook,' and satirized under that name all over England; but who would sit and listen to a long lecture of twelve pages, or remember one half of it, when it was done? So I have reduced my directions into writing, and there they are for any body to follow, if they please. 66 Having settled the question of diet, we now come to medicine. It is, or ought to be, the province of a medical man to soothe and assist Nature, not to force her. Now, the only medicine I should advise you to take, is a dose of a slight aperient medicine every morning the first thing. I won't stipulate for the dose, as that must be regulated by circumstances, but you must take some; for without it, by Gad! your stomach will never be right. People go to Harrowgate, and Buxton, and Bath, and the devil knows where, to drink the waters, and they return full of admiration at their surpassing efficacy. Now these waters contain next to nothing of purgative medicine; but they are taken readily, regularly, and in such quantities, as to produce the desired effect. You must persevere in this plan, Sir, until you experience relief, which you certainly will do. I am often asked-Well, but, Mr. Abernethy, why don't you practise what you preach?' I answer, by reminding the inquirer of the parson and the sign-post: both point the way, but neither follow its course."-And thus ended a colloquy, wherein is mingled much good sense, useful advice, and whimsicality. As a lecturer, Mr. Abernethy stands unrivalled. His countenance is that of a man of great genius; and a nose of Grecian form adds very considerably to the acute expression of his features; while his light grey eyes, always animated, seem as if they could pierce through the very depths and intricacies of science. His forehead is finely formed, and has afforded Spurzheim (to whose system of craniology Mr. Abernethy to a degree subscribes) many a luxurious feast; while the scowl of deep thought, which has cast a shade of reflection over his brow, is frequently dissipated by the smile of humour or derision. He begins his lecture in an unconstrained familiar tone of voice, gradually getting more animated and eloquent, as he advances toward the pith and marrow of his subject; and, after lopping off all the absurd and useless minutiae of the science, and after refuting all inconsistent theories, he arrives at the conclusion, leaving his auditors deeply impressed with his instruction. He is an excellent chemist; and never fails to point out the agency of this science in the operations and functions of the frame. Of John Hunter he never fails to express his admiration and delight; and repeatedly declares that he has done more for the improvement of modern surgery than any other individual whatever. We cannot better conclude this, we fear, imperfect sketch, than by quoting the following eloquent passages from his last physiological lecture before the College of Surgeons, in 1817. "I pity the man who can survey all the wonders of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, who can journey through so delightful a district, and afterwards exclaim, All is barren!' Still more do I pity those, though the sentiment is mixed with strong disapprobation of their conduct, who, after having seen much to admire, shall, when they meet with a circumstance which they do not understand, presumptuously dare to arraign the wisdom and benevolence of Nature. In the progress of science, many things, which at one time appeared absurd and productive of evil, have afterwards, upon an accession of knowledge, been found to be most wise and beneficent. I deem no apology requisite, gentlemen, for endeavouring to impress on your minds certain axioms relating to philosophy in general, when they are directly deducible from the subjects of our peculiar studies. I have constantly and carefully avoided every argument foreign to the subject; so that, if occasionally I may have appeared to sermonize, I have quoted both the chapter and verse of my text from the book of Nature. I address you, gentlemen, as students of that great book, and earnestly exhort you to study it with such sentiments as I have endeavoured to inculThe conviction that every thing tends to some immediate or essential good, is the greatest incentive to this study. It was this conviction that excited Hunter to such continual inquiry, or involved him occasionally in the depths and perplexities of intense thought; for he was never satisfied without being able to assign an adequate reason for whatever he observed in the structure and economy of animals. This conviction makes the study of Nature highly interesting; and may, indeed, be said to render labour delightful, or to mitigate the pains attendant on its toil. To those who entertain such sentiments as I have endeavoured to inculcate, every thing seems animated, beneficent, and useful; they have the happy talent of discovering even cate. Tongues in the trees, books in the running brooks, Such is Abernethy; and when death shall have buried in oblivion all the blots and shadows of his character-when another generation shall have sprung up, and known him only by the triumphant memorials, which he will bequeath to them in his works: then will they couple the names of Hunter and Abernethy together, and regard them as two of the most distinguished benefactors of their race. GRANVILLE'S ST. PETERSBURGH.* THE magnitude and power of Russia, her rapid and progressive increment, the colossal scale of her establishments, the grandeur of her views, and the predominant influence she recently exercised in deciding the fate of Europe, have rendered her the object of the most intense interest to the rest of mankind. To statesmen and politicians she is a source of speculation and solicitude; whilst to all men of intellect she presents inexhaustible subjects of inquiry and meditation. Within the last twenty-five years, Russia has been visited by the traveller of pleasure and fashion, the artist, the scholar, the philosopher, the man of science, the military and naval officer, and the practical statesman, all of whom have published their accounts of the country. It is obvious, however, from the discrepancy of opinions formed from these works, that the information they have imparted has been either too scanty or incorrect for any uniform and general conclusions. Russia progresses so rapidly, all that she contains is so imposing and so different from what we are accustomed to contemplate, and such prejudices are excited on her account, that to obtain accurate knowledge, requires not only a quick succession of observations, but that the same objects should be described at the same time by men of different interests and sentiments. If we read Clarke, Storch, Lyall, Evans, Jones, and Doctor Granville, we shall scarcely believe that we are reading of the same country; whilst several foreign authors differ from the whole of them as much as they differ from each other. The volumes before us are not free from instances of the idola specus; and it is clear that Dr. Granville, like his precursor, Captain G. M. Jones, has been put into very good humour in Russia by the condescensions of the Imperial Family, the amenity of public functionaries towards Englishmen, and the hospitality of the higher classes to strangers in general, and to our countrymen in particular. Notwithstanding this source of several views with which we cannot agree, Dr. Granville has collected a mass of information invaluable in itself, and of great relative importance, as it enables us to draw by induction safe inferences from preceding authors, whose testimony on certain points was too discordant to be reconciled, or amalgamated for useful purposes. In noticing these volumes, it is not our design to advert to the popular descriptions, the narrations of incidents, nor to the innumerable anecdotes of illustrious or eminent characters, with which the work abounds. These, with many illustrations of Russian history, and of recent events, we shall leave to the more superficially curious, and to persons whose minds require the stimulus of piquant novelty, or the sustenance of matter, which, however important, must be made amusing to become digestible. Dr. Granville's work (though he is of a different opinion) convinces us that the whole system of the Russian polity is deleterious in. its essence and in its application. It often retards or defeats its own object, and seldom reaches it but by a most circuitous and inconvenient route. It presupposes the non-existence of the evils it would suppress, and the St. Petersburgh: a Journal of Travels to and from that Capital. By A. B. Granville, M. D. F. R. S. &c. 2 vols. 8vo. existence of the good it designs to create. Its principles have long been exploded in theory, and, happily for mankind, we have now a great practical proof of their mischievous unsoundness. To apply the principles and the machinery of the Russian Government to their proposed purpose, requires omniscience, omnipresence, and a benevolence, with a disinterestedness infinite and without alloy. In North America, the momentum of their polity is a minimum of government, or of interference with individual actions. Every thing beyond a restraint upon private crime, and public aggression by foreign States, is considered an evil to be minimized. The Russians have not adopted the Marquis D'Argenson's great maxim, "Pas trop gouverner;" nor have they appreciated the sagacity of the Genoese merchants, whose request to the King proffering his patronage, was simply, "Laissez nous faire." How have the two opposite systems worked? Russia, with a happy succession of rulers, with a lavish patronage of foreign talent, with extensive conquests, and all other means and appliances to boot, has progressed, with her artificial government, much less in proportion since the reign of Peter in 1730, than America, since her emancipation from England in 1783. In this period the United States have tripled their population; in the same period, Russia has scarcely doubled her's. In Russia, there is greater splendour at Moscow, St. Petersburgh, Smolensko, and a few large towns, and amidst a certain class, whilst every thing else bespeaks privation and squalid sufferings. In America, plenty, and the comforts and decencies of life, are possessed by all, except the vicious. The aggregate of wealth may be the same. In America almost every man is a productive citizen; in Russia three per cent. of the population are unproductive consumers-soldiers, noblesse, and employés. In Russia, the great object is to guide artificially every man's mental and manual exertions, from the channels to which they would otherwise be directed by the sagacity or energy arising out of our self-love and desire of improving our condition. In one case Nature would guide us right; in the other, Art generally does the reverse. Thus, in Russia, a colony is to be formed; thousands of Poles are driven to the spot, at the wrong season-they perish of cold and hunger; a system of military colonization is adopted and fails; a theory of trade is embraced ; Odessa is factitiously and suddenly created into a great city-presently another theory is in vogue, and the city goes to decay, involving the ruin of thousands; one year does little more than correct the blunders of the preceding, and society is rather revolving than progressive. The Government is zealous in promoting education; but all collision of intellect, except on scientific subjects, is prevented, and Dr. Granville found his baggage strictly searched for foreign books. The Empress-Mother is above all eulogy; cheerful, active, and indefatigable in every good work-a splendid and regal Lady Bountiful. She personally regulates and superintends twenty-four charitable institutions; some for forcing education upon the noblesse and gentry, others for nursing natural children, others for spinning cotton, &c. These most expensive institutions retard their proposed object of civilization. They are supported by abstracting from the industry of the productive labourers, for the encouragement of the non-productive. The true principle of public charity is to provide only for those accidents that baffle ordinary calculation, such as a poor man's having deaf and dumb children, a premature death or decay of strength, &c. We may judge of the aversion which the Russians have to knowledge, when we find that the Empress receives into her institutions seven hundred and twenty of the children of the nobility; and Captain Jones tells us that when a nobleman will not educate his children, the Empress takes an opportunity at court of conveying a hint, which is sure to be obeyed. The Emperor Nicholas and his royal brother have an inexhaustible patience and industry in the performance of their public functions; but it is obvious, upon principle, that their devotion to the public good can be attended with few beneficial results to the people. Dr. Granville tells us, that "the Emperor inspects every thing (military), inquires into the minutest details, examines the regimental uniforms of the privates :— one of the additional burthens he has imposed on himself is that of looking over the reports and returns of every arrest and imprisonment that takes place in his empire, as well as of the state of the prisons, according to a formula he has himself prescribed." This evinces an unfortunate ignorance of the science of government. The Emperor is liable to be deceived in every step; the idea of any one man attending to all the arrests in a population of fifty-three millions, and to all the gaols in a country many thousand miles in extent, is preposterous. In 1826, the number of prisoners in Russia were 127,000. Some of the gaols in Russia are in a state shocking to humanity; and the description of the prisoners in the South of Russia by Capt. Jones, reflects disgrace upon the Russian Government, and upon its functionaries. In Russia, "in 1826, upwards of 2,850,000 causes had come before the different tribunals of the empire." Where laws are cheap, prompt, and equitable, litigation is not an evil; i. is a curse only when, as in England, laws involve uncertainty, a loss of time, a sacrifice of funds, oftentimes beyond the value of the justice sought, and consequently engender angry passions. Russian judges are appointed by the Emperor, and are removable at his pleasure. Every town is governed by a mayor and council, elected by the citizens for three years. This magistracy levies taxes, establishes the local police, and provides quarters and fuel for the troops. But this council, as well as the Court of Mediation, must report all proceedings to the Imperial (military) Governor of the province, who has legal rights incompatible with public liberty, and the means of assuming others, with little chance of any check. A foreigner might conceive very exalted notions of the English polity from reading Blackstone or De Lolme; but if he were brought unconsciously to England, he would see so little parity between the practice and theory of the system, that he might suppose himself in China rather than in this country. Dr. Granville mentions some legal provisions for the security of the subject in Russia; but it is obvious that they must be inoperative in a country so barbarous and corrupt, that the severity of criminal sentences can be commuted for money. "Every proprietor of land has certainly the right to punish a refractory criminal, or vicious serf, by having him flogged on the back; but he is also responsible to the crown. Excess of punishment can only take place when the proprietor's deputy, like the overseer of a plantation in the West Indies, is a passionate and ill-minded person," &c. What a |