favourable or unfavourable prognostic. Some of these rules are curious. If the pulses stop before fifty pulsations have been counted, disease is at hand; when an interruption in the course of the circulation takes place after forty pulsations, the patient has not more than four years to live; when an interruption takes place after the third pulsation, three or four days are the probable term of existence; but the patient may linger on for six or seven days more, when the interruption only succeeds the fourth pulsation. Idle as these speculations may appear, it is to be feared that while the Chinese paid such minute attention to the state of the circulation, more distinguished and learned schools do not consider this powerful indication of the strength or weakness of the vital functions with sufficient care and discrimination, and perhaps a translation of the works of Ouang- chou - ho, might not be altogether useless in the present enlightened age. I have no hesitation in saying that this important investigation is sadly neglected in medical education-so much so indeed, that the different appellations given to the varied state of the pulse, are neither well defined nor generally understood. The French physician Bordeu has given much valuable information on this subject, which occupied the ancients as much as it seems to have fixed the attention of the Chinese. We find that the Indians, in the time of Alexander, accurately studied this important point. Notwithstanding the assertion of Sprengel, Hippocrates was a most attentive observer of the state of the pulse. Thus we find him giving the name of apvypos to that violent and spasmodic beating of the artery, which was not only sensible to the touch, but evident to the bystander's eye-in more than forty passages of his immortal works do we find important references to the pulse, which he also declared could enable us to detect the secret workings of the passions. Many were the ancient physicians who have minutely entered into these investigations, amongst them we may name Herophilus, Erasistratus, Zeno, Alexander Philalethes, Heraclides of Erythræ, Heraclides of Tarentum, Aristoxenes. Several of the doctrines founded on these observations were most absurd, attributing the various conditions of the circulation to the Pneuma of the heart and arteries; such were the doctrines of Asclepiades, Agathinus, Galen, and many others; and amongst the Arabians we find Thabeth Ebn Ibrahim asserting that by the state of the pulse he could ascertain what articles of food had been taken-in more modern times Baillou, Wierns, Boerhaave, Hoffmann, have sedulously applied themselves to this most essential study, and Schelhammenn asserts that the pulse never once deceived him. The effect of our passions on the circulation is much more powerful than is generally believed, and they are a more fertile source of our maladies than is commonly apprehended. We can readily conceive why the Spartan Chilo died through excess of joy whilst embracing his victorious son.* In the treatment of disease, the Chinese, so fond of classification, divide the medicinal substances they employ into heating, cooling, refreshing, and temperate; their materia medica is contained in the work called the Pen-tsaocangmou in fifty-two large volumes, with an atlas of plates; most of our medicines are known to them and prescribed; the mineral waters, with which their country abounds, are also much resorted to; and their emperor, Kang-Hi, has given an accurate account of several thermal springs. Fire is a great agent, and the moxa recommended in almost every ailment, while acupuncture is in general use both in China and Japan; bathing and champooing are also frequently recommended, but blood-letting is seldom resorted to. China has also her animal magnetizers, practising the Coug fou, a mysterious manipulation taught by the bonzes, in which the adepts produce violent convulsions. The Chinese divide their prescriptions into seven categories. 1. The great prescription. 2. The little prescription. 7. The double prescription. Each of these receipts being applied to particular cases, and the ingredients that compose them being weighed with the most scrupulous accuracy. Medicine was taught in the imperial colleges of Pekin; but in every district, a physician, who had studied six years, is appointed to instruct the candidate for the profession, who was afterwards allowed to practise, without any further studies or examination; and it is said, that, in general, the physician only receives his fee when the patient is cured. This asser In a work on the "Anatomy of the Passions," which I am about publishing, I have entered most minutely into this important sympathy. tion, however, is very doubtful, as the country abounds in quacks, who, under such restrictions as to remuneration, would scarcely earn a livelihood. Another singular, but economical practice prevails amongst them-a physician never pays a second visit to a patient unless he is sent for. Whatever may be the merits of Chinese practitioners both in medicine and surgery, or their mode of receiving remuneration, it appears that they are as much subject to animadversion as in other countries:-a missionary having observed to a Chinese, that their medical men had constantly recourse to fire in the shape of moxa, redhot iron, and burning needles; he replied, "Alas! you Europeans are carved with steel, while we are martyrized with hot iron; and I fear that in neither country will the fashion subside, since the operators do not feel the anguish they inflict, and are equally paid to torment us or to cure us!" EXPERIMENTS ON LIVING ANIMALS. HOWEVER ungrateful the discussion of this subject may be, since, in truth and justice, it must be considered with an unbiassed and unprejudiced mind, and elicit observations which may prove offensive to many, and absurd to some, it is one of such moment on the score of humanity, that I undertake the task without hesitation or reluctance. In support of the practice it has been urged, that mankind. owes the most valuable discoveries in the science of medicine and its collateral branches to the vivisection of animals; that since the brute creation was intended for the use of our species, we could not apply them to a more important and justifiable purpose, than that of endeavouring to initiate ourselves in those wonderful functions of nature, a knowledge of which would give us a clearer insight of the mysterious machinery, and thereby the better enable us to remedy their derangement when in a morbid state. It has further been maintained, that when man to indulge his capricious appetites and his various amusements, tortures every creature that can minister to his depraved fancies or his unruly pleasures-he would be more excusable, if not fully justifiable even in the eyes of the most sentient philanthropist, in submitting these creatures to smaller or greater sufferings, if mankind could be ultimately benefited by this sacrifice of feeling. What, indeed, could be our commiseration when beholding the agonies of a mangled dog or a cat, if the throes of his sufferings, and the incalculable pangs he endured, could restore a beloved child to his disconsolate parents, or a sinking father to his helpless family. Moreover, is not man, from the very nature of his social position, created to suffer more than animals, not only from the many natural diseases to which flesh is heir, but to the torturing wounds received on the field of battle-the burning fevers of distant climes-the chances of war, pestilence, and famine-all of which are aggravated by that power of judgment, that reflection and consciousness derivating from the possession of an immortal soul, which makes the future more horrible than the present, however great its miseries may be. It has also been urged, that animals in their savage state, undomesticated by the humane interference of man, inflict upon each other injuries under which they linger and die in excruciating pain; and, therefore, when we submit them to similar agonies, we only fill up the intended measure of their destined sufferings. It is painful to assert it, but all these allegations, I consider as not only unsupported by facts and experience, but grounded on speculative sophistry; for, in regard to the injuries which animals in their wild condition may inflict upon each other, they may be the result of the wise provisions of the CREATOR, with which man, however presumptuous he be, has nothing to do, and even were it in his power to check their furious and destructive propensities, it is more than likely, from what we daily witness, that he would turn them to a profitable or a pleasurable account, as most probably, the sight of a combat between a wild elephant and a rhinoceros (provided the spectators were perfectly secure), would attract a greater multitude, and draw more money, than a dog-fight or a bull-bait—a tiger-hunt, were it not attended with some personal danger which requires courage, would prove more delectable than the pursuit of a timid hare. But I now come to a much more important consideration— the benefit to mankind that has occurred or that may be derived from such experiments. And here I must give as my most decided opinion, that if any such beneficial results did arise from the inquiries, they were not commensurate with the barbarity of the experiments; nay, I shall endeavour to show, that they are frequently more likely to deceive us, by propping up fallacious and tottering theories, than to shed any valuable light on the subject of investigation. I readily admit that there does exist much analogy in the structure of man and certain animals in the higher grades of the creation; that the functions of respiration, digestion, absorption, locomotion, are to a certain extent similar, and that experiments made to ascertain the mechanism of these functions (if I may so express myself), may tend, in some measure, to teach us that which the inanimate corpse of man cannot exhibit; but, admitting to the full extent of argumentation, the analogy of these functions, I do maintain that the phenomena of life differ widely between man and animals, and the very nervous influences which we seek to discover are, in life, of a nature totally different. Were it not so, would the senses of different animals, rendered more or less acute or obtuse according to their natural pursuits and protective habits, be so materially unequal? Indeed, the laws of nature that submit every creature to the immutable will of Providence are totally unlike; and each apparatus of life in divers beings seems to be especially calculated for the identical race: what is poison to the one is an aliment to another; and the vivid light which the eyes of one creature can bear, would produce blindness in another; the same effluvia which one animal would not notice, would guide another over trackless wastes in search of friend or foe. I therefore maintain, that the mere material examination of the living organs of animals can no more tend to illustrate their vital principle, than the keenest anatomical labours can enable us to attain a knowledge of the nature of our immortal and imperishable parts. I shall enter still more minutely into this subject. In the barbarous experiments to which I allude, animals bearing the strongest resemblance to man (at least in their conformation, for Heaven, in its mercy, did not gift them with what we call mind) are usually selected amongst such as possess a heart with four cavities, and double lungs. The dogthe natural companion of man, his most faithful friend in weal and woe, the guardian of his couch and property, the protector of his infants, the only mourner o'er the pauper's grave!-dogs, are in general selected for the scientific shambles; and this for obvious reasons,-they are more easily procured, and at a cheaper rate; moreover, they are more |