the patient is a female, the objections to a jour- enable the natural powers of the system to ney apply with increased force."

restore the disordered functions without the aid of art, these powers will fail in a great majority of cases; and yet, not so much, perhaps, from their deficiency, as because they are impeded and thwarted by an injurious system of regimen or medical treatment. In the severer or more strongly marked cases, (even before the development of tubercles,) it will be of little avail that the invalid changes our cold and gloomy atmosphere for the soft breezes and brilliant skies of the south, unless he changes, at the same time, the habits which have induced, or aggravated, or accelerated his present disorder; and unless he, moreover, adopts measures calculated to aid the sanative powers of nature. Nay, we will assert, however great may be the advantages of a mild climate in such cases, (and we consider them as very great,) it will be much better for an invalid to remain in England under good management, than to go abroad to the best climate, under no management at all, or under bad management. Cæteris paribus, a mild climate is, in this case, great

It is not, therefore, in the hope of his patients finding something specific-some mysterious and occult virtue-in the air of a milder climate, capable of curing consumption, that our author sends them to Italy or Madeira; but it is because the climate of these countries permits the application of the means best calculated for preventing or removing those morbid actions which too often terminate in consumption. The fatal error of this country is-to wait until the lungs are obviously affected, and then to hurry the unfortunate patient at once to a mild climate; without considering, in the first place, whether the case is of such a nature as really to afford any reasonable hope of benefit from any climate; and, secondly, if a prospect of benefit really exists, which of the milder climates is best suited to the particular case. The plan recommended by the author is to watch the development of that train of symptoms, which, if left unchecked, too generally terminates in consumption; to institute then a compre- ly preferable to a cold one; but a good syshensive and combined system of treatment tem of discipline is indispensable in both. calculated to restore the disordered functions; and, as enabling some parts of this system to be carried much more effectually into operation, then to remove the invalid to the mild climate which is best suited to the peculiarities of the case. Such a climate, among other advantages, tends to produce a greater equality in the circulation, by determining the fluids to the surface and extremities; removes considerably the risk of catarrhal affections, which, in predisposed subjects, often act as exciting causes of tubercles; and-the greatest advantage of all, enables the invalid to be much more in the open air, and, consequently, to take much more exercise than he could possibly do in England during the winter. With such advantages as these, the plan of treatment calculated to restore the general health, and thereby to avert the threatened disease of the lungs, has obviously a much fairer chance of success in such a climate as Madeira, where there may be said to be a perpetual summer, than in so cold, moist, and variable a climate as that of England. We say the plan of treatment has a fairer chance of success in such a climate-not that the climate is to be considered as the sole or even principal agent in averting the impending malady, much less in curing it when it has already made good its footing. The fact is, that although a change to a mild climate may be sufficient, in some cases, to

And here, before we conclude, and lest we should be thought desirous of having it supposed that we ourselves, or the author of this work, possess some new and potent system of medication, calculated to avert the poisoned arrows of "the pest," or to stay its giant strides-we deem it necessary to state, in a very few words, the general complexion of the plan of treatment which he recommends, and in which alone we have any faith, in the case under consideration. In the first place, we utterly disclaim the possession or prescription of any specific remedy in such cases; and, in the second place, we profess to be most sparing in the use of medicines of any kind. Indeed, we are of opinion that medical science has now arrived at that stage when, in practice, it may frequently content itself by looking, rather to the pathological condition of the subject, than to the efficacy of any remedial measures. At all events, we think it will generally be found, that the most scientific and skilful physicians are the most sparing in the use of drugs. The plan we advocate in the present case, consists essentially in taking a close and comprehensive view of the whole disorder under which the system labors; and in adapting our remedies (often extremely simple) to every part that is affected. What we consider as most faulty in the prevailing system of medicine in this country is, the too great simplicity of the

less et cetera.

views of disease taken by practitioners, and hanging thermometers, barometers, and hydromethe consequent too partial and exclusive ters, and every other sort of ometer, numberless, system of therapeutics founded on them dusty, and mysterious; loadstones with weights We wish practitioners, in their study of attached to them; scales, pendulums, and an end. chronic diseases, to endeavor, like the au- bureau full of mineralogical curiosities, among Opposite to these was an old thor of the work before us, to combine the which he showed me an earth previously unknown, Hippocratic system of close and compre which he had lately discovered, and a crystal not hensive observation with the more rational yet observed by any other person, and such like views of disease brought to light by modern marvels. All these were lying in confusion conPathology; and in their practice to endea- founded, amidst pots and pans, basins, crucibles, vor to restore, at the same time, all the receivers, retorts, bottles of every sort, shape, and size, and flanked with glasses of every kind and parts that are disordered; and to restore forin. His large table, covered with tablets, manuthem by such mild and simple means as are scripts, and books, cups, funnels, and every denomcalculated rather to solicit than to force ination of vessels, baffled all description. When their natural actions. In the case now more I disturbed him, he was engaged in analyzing some immediately under consideration-the mor- specimens of minerals; but, to my taste, he was by bid state entitled by Sir James Clark Tuber- far the most extraordinary specimen of all. Fancy cular Cachexy-we find almost every part of looked as if it had not been washed any more than a little dirty old man, with blear eyes, whose face the system disordered, although some are his originally white, now dark brown, nightcap, much more so than others. There is an ir- since his spectacles were made; and the furrow regular distribution of the circulating fluids, they had worn upon his nose showed their use had of the nervous power, and of the animal been of some years' standing: and to augment his temperature; the circulating fluids are them- beauty, a huge black plaster was stuck on one selves in an unhealthy state, and most of the temple. He wore a dirty shirt crusted with snuff, a gay colored waistcoat reaching over his hips, a secretions are depraved; the organs of dibrown coat and trousers far too wide for his shrunk. gestion are particularly disordered; the skin en shanks, while a pair of immense slippers com. and all the mucous surfaces are affected; pleted the costume of this subterranean octogenaand there exist local congestions, or irrita- rian, or, I may say, Mediterranean prodigy. Detions, or inflammations of the mucous sur- spite his rough and unpromising exterior, his manfaces, viscera, and internal blood-vessels.ners were not only agreeable, but polished; and he Now, is it to be supposed for a moment, that medicines, or any system of treatment that regards only one or two links of the chain, can stand any chance of removing a disor der at once so general and so deeply rooted. The experience of all the best physicians of

very kindly showed me his collection of minerals, which is valuable and well arranged. He was a pupil of Werner's and is a man of considerable talent.-Milford's Norway.

ITS SPORTS.

BY MISS PARDOE.

the present day, and the results of our au- ON SEEING A CHILD FALL ASLEEP AMID thor's observations, recorded in the present work, and in his Treatise on Consumption, strengthen and confirm our own convictions, founded on long attention to the subject, in replying in the negative.

PROFESSOR OF MINERALOGY AT CHRIS-
TIANIA.

I found the learned gentleman in a low room about ten feet square, at the end of a dark covered way, which was entered from the street, and across which was a gate with broken hinges; the window of this apartment looked on a dirty courtyard lumbered up with tubs, an old cart, and a barrel or two of earth containing ore to be analyzed. But the room itself was even worse than its situation, and its multifarious contents more difficult to analyze than the ore. It contained in one corner a small dirty bed; and on one side was a bookcase, from the dusty top shelf of which, by mounting upon one of the three old crazy chairs, he handed a book down to me. On another side stood an antique clock, its face covered with figures and divers circles, emblematic, no doubt, of the mystic religion of Norway. On the wall were

From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.
WEARIED with pleasure! Oh, how deep
Such slumber seems to be-
Thou fairy creature! I could weep
As thus I gaze on thee:
Ay, weep and with most bitter tears,
Wrung from the spirit's core,
To think that in a few short years

Thou'lt sleep that sleep no more.

Wearied with pleasure! what a sound

To greet a world-worn ear!
Can we who tread life's giddy round,
Sleep like the cherub here?
Alas! for us joy's brightest hours
All fever as they fly,

And leave a blight-as sun-struck flowers
Of too much glory die.

Wearied with pleasure! Does the wing
Of angels fan thy brow?
Sweet child, do birds about thee sing,
And blossoms round thee blow?
Is thy calm sleep with gladness rife?
Do stars above thee shine?
Oh, I would give whole years of life
To dream such dreams as thine!

MEANS OF SECRET COMMUNICATION IN similar, that, unless previously agreed on

ANCIENT ARMIES.

BY H. CURLING, H. P. 52ND.
From United Service Journal.

THE extraordinary means by which the warriors of the olden time contrived to communicate with each other while cooped up and surrounded by their adversaries in the beleaguered city, or the tented field, will be found, on perusal of those old worm. eaten works wherein such contrivances are dilated on, well worthy of the contemplation of the curious in military matters.

It is my purpose in this paper to set forth some of the practices the "old soldier" resorted to when war (less civilized than in later days) was a war of extermination. At the same time, it was the business of life, and harness of proof "your only wear." In those days of iron men, then, it would appear that a considerable deal more inge nuity was wont to be displayed than is either customary, or at all necessary in our own times; and the means used by the ancients to communicate their intentions, necessities, and perils to their advancing or distant allies, so contrived in many instances, that if, by adverse circumstances, the messenger and his letter happened to be intercepted, the communication being artfully worded, although it failed in the immediate purpose in hand, it yet might serve the turn of misleading the foe; by which means, when so completely blocked up and surrounded by fierce and savage foes, that (unless the bird of the air could take their message in his flight, or the blind mole burrow with it through the firm-set earth), their case seemed altogether hopeless, they have yet managed, by some swift and secret intelligence, either to obtain a diver sion in their favor, or gain assistance from their friends.

|

and fully comprehended by the allies, it was almost impossible to detect the involv ed meaning of the scrawl.

Wee prosper still in our affaires and shall without hauing any further helpe endure the seige. Giving (as mentioned), in case of being intercepted, a false account of prosperous times and full granaries, where, in truth, there was nothing but "a bare-ribb'd death' in prospect; for if the letters of the second alphabet be picked out of this smiling and confident epistle, the situation of the garrison will be fully described, with military brevity sufficient to satisfy the great captain of our own times

Wee perish with hunger helpe us.

Another way of secret writing, was to express all the letters by any five of them doubled; for instance, A B C D E doubled into the following alphabet

Bd aa cb ab ae dd db aa ec ae ad For example, an alphabet having been I am be t r a y e d agreed upon among the host, ere separated On reference to the alphabet above, this and detached in a hostile country, with the will be easily and plainly made out. Certes, letters so marked, or varied, as to be under- it is an epistle to which the caution of Hamstood by themselves alone, it was frequently let need not be given-namely, "Give it an the custom of the ancients, in their extrem- understanding, and no tongue;" since I defy ity, to write that which, on being unluckily the inventors of the unknown tongues of intercepted, would, as I have before said, more modern times to syllable it forth, howalthough it failed in obtaining them the suc cors or assistance they required, at least, ever easily they might comprehend it. mislead their enemies as to their real situa

tion.

Again, three letters being transposed through three places were also used thus:

A B C D E F G H I K L M aaa aab aac baa bba bbb bbc caa cca ceb ccc aba

N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z abb abc aca acb acc bea bcb bcc bce bab cba cbb cbc

By which means, supposing the besieged to wish for the rapid advance of their friends,

upon any sudden emergency, they might ways of conveyance, were fain to send to write it thus: Constantinople by one disguised as a beggar, "ragged as Lazarus in the painted. cloth."

Two letters being transposed through five to their imprisoned friends in the food they places may be also supplied

then (in order that he might be perfectly cured), to travel into Greece, and present himself before Aristagoras, who, by shaving his head a second time, would certainly restore his vision.

When, again, it has been found impossible to communicate by land during a seige, the ancients have made the effort by water, by means of thin plates of lead fastened to the arms and thighs of expert swimmers. Lucullus is said to have communicated his approach to a beleaguered town, by sending a common soldier, disguised like some strange fish, and who, having his letters concealed in two bladders, by their help (being an expert swimmer), he managed to reach his destination.

Pigeons, and swallows even, were used in early times to carry a letter. "The bird of the air will carry the clatter, and pint stoups hae lang lugs," quotes one of Sir Walter's characters.

Arrows, also, have carried intelligence: indeed, we are told of one which, being labelled for Philip's right eye, hit the mark; by which we might, if we liked, go so far as avouch the oldness of the saying, "There you go with your eye out," but that we have no voucher for the fact. The missiles, even cast from slings, in very early times, had billets attached to them. Cleomenes, king of Lacedæmon, during the siege of Trezerne, ordered his soldiers to shoot several arrows over the walls, with notes attached, containing the words "I come that I may restore this place to liberty." Upon which, the over-credulous inhabitants, discontented withal, opened their gates, and allowed his power to enter.

In short, the highest walls, the deepest moats, rivers, and trenches, guarded by the most watchful sentinels, have been insufficient to baffle the wit of a determined foe.

"Tis not the roundure of your old-fac'd walls Can hide you from our messengers of war. No. 3. Beacons, Signals by Smoke, by Fire, and by Torches, &c.

fires if in the night-time, and by a red flag of cloth by day. "Si impeterentur ab hoste, de die, panno rubro in hastu sublato significarent, de nocte, igne."

Vegetius also affirms that it was customary when the host was divided to communicate in the day by smoke, in the night by fires.

Torches shaken betokened the approach of the enemy; held still they signified the advance of friends.

Polybius dilates upon a plan of this sort. "Let there be (he says) five columns, or tablets, drawn thus, with letters thus divided :

"That is, two lights on the right hand show the second column, and, at the same time, three at the left denote the third letter in that column, H. A single torch discovered on both sides signifies the first letter of the first column,—and so on for the remainder. There are various changes in this sort of torch-light communication; but the above is sufficient to show how the thing was managed."

The signals by smoke, in the day-tine, were not quite so distinctly made out, though the contrivances were various and ingenious. Funnels, for instance, were used for the purpose of dividing and conveying the smoke in the order it was intended to mount into the air, so as to be seen at a great distance; and doubtless many of the unregard

The practice of giving information by lighting fires in the night, and by sending up volumes of smoke by day, is of greater antiquity than the other secret inventions I have mentioned, since such practises are said to have been in use in the Trojan wars. Be that, however, as it may, they are frequently mentioned by the ancient historians. Appian, speaking of Scipio at Numantia, mentions that he divided his camp into di-ed beacons and nameless barrows which are vers companies, and gave orders to the Tribunes who commanded each party to signalize any attack that was made upon them, by

to be seen upon the blasted heaths and wolds of our sceptred isle could tell an interesting tale of fearful musters and prepared defence,