perilous air, heavily laden, as it were, with who would selfishly, for the quieter and more the fragrance of living Italy mingled with exclusive gratification of their æsthetic tastes, the dank vapors of Rome's secular decay-the prefer the continued suppression of her civil scent of flowers, the smoke of incense, the and national life. On the contrary, though taint of pestilence, the hallowed dust of in- he has forborne from set political dissertanumerable graves-an intoxicating air to be tions, he freely expresses his opinion of the inhaled with precaution, since for the mind, rottenness and inevitable ruin of the Pope's as for the body, there is a Roman fever in- temporal government, as well as his contempt festing that clime. for the gross frauds and superstitions by Americans, therefore, of the educated and which the Romish Church, at least in Italy literary class, though probably less addicted and in France, is deformed. The whole tenor than the English to Latin scholarship, yet of his book about Rome, which in this reusually taking an eager interest in the his- spect we may compare to Mr. Adolphus Troltorical antiquities of the Old World, have lope's about Florence, is characterized by a done ample homage to the genius loci at cheerful, kindly sympathy with the popular Rome. Mr. Story, the artist whose fortunate life of the Italians. "Roba di Roma," which creations of the Egyptian Queen and the may be translated "Roman Matters," is a Libyan Sibyl were esteemed among the no- title not sufficiently precise for the contents blest pieces of sculpture in our Great Exhibi- of these two volumes, which might have been tion last year, gives us, in these two volumes, styled " Manners and Customs of the People the results of his long personal acquaintance at Rome." Mr. Story is indeed fully imwith Rome. He tells us that in December, pressed with the considerations to which we 1856, he returned for the third time to that have alluded, respecting the historical and "dear old city," and fixed his abode there. monumental character of Rome. In his chap"No one lives long in Rome without loving ter on the Colosseum, and many incidental it," is his confession; though it is probable digressions, he opens that vein of meditative that the same may be said of every other conjecture and inquiry about the Rome of place by those most happily gifted in their past ages, which other and more learned inconstitution and circumstances who have long vestigators have perhaps nearly worked out; resided there. Yet it is undeniable that the but his knowledge of Roman antiquities docs charms of a Roman life, unfelt at first, do not claim to be very accurate or profound. grow upon the mind after months, and even He blunders strangely, for instance, when he years, of sojourn at Rome, when curiosity has speaks of the site of the Ara Coeli as having long ago been satiated, and when every ob- been once occupied by the Temple of Venus ject of artistic or antiquarian interest has and Rome. But these are not the points on been thoroughly explored. In a city which, which he invites us chiefly to consult him, by its ecclesiastic and despotic government, is and we must not, therefore, bear too hardly jealously secluded from the general move- on the manifest defects of his erudition, ment of the world, like the "still salt pool" though his etymology of primavera as “ the of Tennyson's poem that but dimly overhears first true thing," i.e., the spring of the year, the plunging waves outside marking the on- does strike us as supremely ridiculous. It is ward tide-flow of human affairs, the over- much pleasanter to thank him for the really sensitive or the over-refined, having lost the valuable additions he has made to our acillusions, if not the faith and courage of their quaintance with the social life and domestic youth, may repose in the passive enjoyment habits of the actual Roman population. The of those pleasures which Rome can best scenes which have grown so familiar to him, afford, the pleasures of memory, of fancy, and of which he has grown so fond, in his and of taste. For the intellectual lotus-eater, thoughtful and observant rambles through the unless he will go to finish his dream in Da-by-streets and market-places of the city, or mascus, there is no spot like Rome, so long along the highways of the Campagna, are as, the Pope still reigning, and being impo- depicted in these pleasant volumes with a tent to change, Rome remains " a land where graphic power, and a hearty human sympa all things always seemed the same." We hasten to declare that Mr. Story is by no means one of those foreign residents in Rome thy, not surpassed by any author of those local sketches in Italy which have been abundantly produced of late. The cheap theatres, one of which, in the open air, is held in the ish quarter, which has, however, been freMausoleum of Divus Augustus, where clowns quently described by previous writers. In and harlequins now tumble in a pantomime, general, he has refrained from dwelling upon or brisk comedians recite a laughable farce, those features of Rome and Roman life which -the puppet-shows, the street-musicians, the others have already depicted, and especially wandering mummers, the eternal beggars, in- from descanting on topics which belong to the cluding that renowned old cripple Beppo, who domain of the fine arts. Those hackneyed claims a personal friendship with every visitor praises of the Laocoon, the Apollo Belvedere, to Rome, the coffee-houses and wine-shops, the Dying Gladiator, and the pictures of with their habitual guests, and all the appa- Raffaelle, which greet us in every book of ratus for eating and drinking in places of vul- Italian travel, are excluded here. With the gar resort, the whole physiognomy of retail Church ceremonials and observances he medtrade in such crowded markets as those of the dles no more than to discuss their influence Piazza Navona and the Pantheon,--the ro- on the morality and intelligence of the peomantic attire and simple habits of the peas- ple, leaving it to the annual flock of Protantry, whose wagons, drawn by superb white estant connoisseurs to admire or to deride, as oxen, encumber the neighborhood of the fo- they will, the ecclesiastical pomps and shows rum,-the popular festivals, half-Catholic, of an alien creed. Mr. Story, however, as an half-Pagan in their origin, which afford tu- enlightened looker-on, a Liberal and Protmultuous recreation to an ignorant, though estant of English race and culture, has small not a morose or vicious race,—the ceremonies reverence for the Papal system, either in of birth, baptism, betrothal, marriage, and Church or State, and does not fear to expose burial, which attend on the individual exist- its corruptions, though writing without any ence of the Romans,—these are Mr. Story's polemical intent. His concluding chapters, favorite themes. One of his best and fullest on saint-worship and the prevailing superstichapters is devoted to a minute account of all tions, are not the least instructive part of his the games commonly played at Rome, from book. "Roba di Roma" supplies, upon the which it is evident that in sports with a ball, whole, together with an immense variety of requiring much athletic strength and hardi- entertaining anecdotes, just that information hood, the vaunted prowess of our English which is wanted about the modern Romans cricket-players is fairly matched. Another themselves, and their ways of every-day life. chapter is occupied with the Ghetto, or Jew FREEZING TO DEATH.-I have personal knowledge of many instances of persons being frozen to death. It is astonishing in how short a time a man will freeze to death-in an hour, even in less time. I shall mention a few cases only out of many. What physiologically takes place when a man freezes to death, is nowhere accurately described that I know of. It is commonly stated that there is a great tendency to sleep, which must be resisted, else death will follow, as if sleep of itself was the dangerous thing. No doubt sleep, or an exhaustion resembling sleep, overtakes a person chilled through, and should he give way to repose and not carry on that exercise which generates caloric, would cool more and more down unto death, and then freeze. A man frozen to death cannot describe what his feelings were; but there are many persons to be met with in rigorous climates who have been on the brink of perishing in this way, and from these, by proper inquiries and my personal experience, the facts are easily ascertained. What does take place is the person is generally fatigued and hungry; commences to cool down in the limbs and surface first; the blood returning thence, diminishes the temperature of the interior blood with which it mixes, pulse after pulse. Proof. Thirty years since, when it was the fashion to bleed for accidents, the blood from à cold arm and hand escaping from the basilic vein might be found at 50 degrees or less. Who has not often experienced, when riding in a cold day, the face very cold, the parotid fluid trickling in cold gushes over his second superior molar tooth? The external blood, then, is much colder than natural. This constantly returning cold blood tends to reduce the temperature of the whole mass, cooling the interior. The pulse diminishes in volume, becomes thready, almost ceases; listlessness like sleep comes on, insensibility follows, breathing ceases-death. Then it is that the body freezes in a short time, for the interior as well as the exterior requires but a few degrees more reduction to become solidified. These facts are of frequent occurrence in cold climates, and escape notice by the ignorant mass; but intelligent and reasoning persons perceive them, and know them well.-DR. NELSON. 66 From The Spectator. THE TWO WORLDS IN THE MOON. MR. CRAMPTON, in the just published edition of his clever little work on the Lunar World, tells us an amusing story of an enthusiastic friend of his own who holds that the Heavenly Jerusalem" is preparing on the other side of the Moon-which is, indeed, the reason why she always faces about so provokingly just so as to keep the vision out of sight, like a tantalizing parent revolving on his own axis in order to keep pockets loaded with Christmas presents from the aggressive curiosity of the children till the proper moment arrives. When Mr. Crampton suggested to his friend that the Moon, so far as we see her, is very like what Dr. Whewell calls her-a big cinder wholly devoid of the conditions of earthly life and growth—the gentleman who had ascertained the site of the New Jerusalem replied triumphantly that this was exactly the strength of his case: "This side, it is true, is barren, but the Heavenly Jerusalem is on the other side, purposely concealed from us till the time comes." "" This suggestion, sanguine as it seems, so far as it merely asserts that the Moon modestly puts the worst face on the matter, in relation to our earth, is not without real scientific support. A modern German astronomer, Professor Hausen, has, or is believed to have, made a discovery which raises all kinds of speculations about this rather tantalizing satellite. He has discovered and proved, as he thinks, that this side of the Moon is nothing but a mountain range raised twenty-nine miles above the average level of the Moon's surface; or, to express the same thing more technically, that the centre of gravity of the Moon is not her geometrical centre, but twenty-nine miles on the opposite side of her geometrical centre. That is, the more solid part of the Moon would be on the far side from the earth, and all that we see of her would be a bulging hemisphere, comparatively much less dense and weighty, projecting twenty-nine miles beyond the surface which the moon ought to show to us if the density were equal throughout, and if the hemisphere on this side therefore were uniform in weight and form with the hemisphere on the other side. Professor Hausen supposes, in fact, and astronomers appear to think he has proved his case, that the Moon turns a sort of tower of crusty, broken, porous, and therefore lighter substance to the earth, so that we see only an exaggerated Alpine or Andes region projecting nearly thirty miles beyond the average level of the lunar surface. If this be true, there are all sorts of provoking consequences. As we never get a glimpse at the other side of the Moon, who keeps always facing about just so as to avoid showing us her other hemisphere, we never get a glimpse at the average level of the lunar surface. Hence all our conclusions as to the inhabitability of the Moon, derived from a knowledge that no clouds and no atmosphere of any appreciable degree exist on this side of the Moon, are untrustworthy. Twentynine miles above the average surface of the earth the rarity of even our own atmosphere would be probably so great as to render it scarcely appreciable at all, even to astronomical instruments, and quite unequal to the support of any of the vegetable or animal life of our earth. Accordingly, conjecture may take full possession of this invisible side of the Moon ;-and conjecture does, in fact, give it back the atmosphere which had been denied it, the outer margin of which is supposed so far to touch the mountain heights of this barren side, as to justify those astronomers who fancy they have seen proof of a very thin atmosphere in the refraction of stars just on the edge of the Moon, and to confirm the assertion of the astronomer Schröter, that he had discovered traces of twilight there, which could, of course, only be due to an atmosphere of some kind. Thus much may certainly be granted, that if Professor Hausen's discovery be true, the lunar atmosphere, if it exist at all, would certainly be attracted to the opposite or heavy side, and might well fail to be sensible at an elevation of twentynine miles, even though quite dense enough to support terrestrial life and vegetation at the average level of the lunar surface. It gives no proof that such an atmosphere exists, but does give very good reasons why, if there be one, we have failed to detect it with any certainty. But if this be so, and if, as a consequence, a lunar population exists, but exists on the averted side of the Moon, this is certainly a very curious and startling exception to the argument from design which has been so often reasonably pressed, and often again pressed much too far, in astronomical speculation. For what should we then have but an ar rangement which would promote life exactly | Cislunites and the Ultramontane Lunites must where the reflected light of the earth could be, and how infinitely more like ourselves the not be available at all, and render life impos- Ultramontane Lunites, who can never see the sible exactly where the light of the earth is earth, would be than their inaccessible neighbrilliantly visible? When we remember that bors, the Cislunites, who do not indulge in to the possible inhabitants of the Moon the lungs, but whose eyes enjoy the advantage of night is three hundred and twenty-eight hours that luminous spectacle. (a fortnight) long,-while the earthlight, if seen, would be fourteen times as brilliant as our moonlight, or equivalent to fourteen such moons as we see, there seems something distressingly arbitrary in an arrangement which grants all the conditions of life where there is no such lamp during the long night,—and withholds them exactly where such a substitute for sunlight exists. In the first place, bodies must be organized on a totally different principle, if lungs are to be given to the one and denied to the other; not only the lungs, but the whole circulating system would be essentially different; there could be no distinction between the arterial and venous blood without the lungs,—even if there could be any animal heat or blood at all without them. Most scientific men hold that But, perhaps, it may be said that it is en- without an atmosphere the sun's heat would tirely gratuitous to suppose an atmosphere never accumulate sufficiently to permit of any essential to the existence of rational life, and fluid or liquid form of matter. Even the gases that, therefore, there is no reason why the they suppose to be frozen on this side of the luminous cinder which we behold should not Moon,-just as at a very moderate height in be peopled by living beings organized some-our atmosphere, even under a tropical sun, what differently from ourselves. The answer the cold is intense enough to freeze mercury, is very simple. Of course, we cannot disprove the existence of rational or spiritual life anywhere in space, for so far as the Infinite and Eternal life is concerned we believe that it exists everywhere alike: but so far as we localize to any extent the life of finite and organized beings like our own, we must do so under conditions as nearly as possible resembling our own. The only reason why we pitch upon satellites, planets, or stars, at all, rather than empty space, as possible residences for beings like ourselves, is that there we have those physical conditions of rest and motion, and a confining attraction, which liken the situation very much to ours. The Moon seems a likelier place than the interlunar spaces for sentient beings only because on the Moon there would be a gravitating chain to keep them within limits, and a solid surface to walk, stand, or lie down upon. But if this gives us more reason to expect organized beings, than we should have without it, it necessarily follows that the existence of any other universal physical condition of our life, which exists or is absent on the Moon gives us so much more reason to expect or deny the existence of beings organized like ourselves there. Now if we suppose for a moment that there is a real and substantial atmosphere on the other side of the Moon, while there is no such atmosphere on this side, let us consider how fundamentally different the life of the Hence it is obvious enough, not only that the whole bodily organization must be utterly different on the possible atmospheric and nonatmospheric face of the Moon,-but all that depends thereon. Chemistry, physiology, medical and surgical science must be totally different in the opposite hemispheres. You cannot easily imagine any one common disease, or common remedy, except the knife, in the two worlds; and even steel without fire-and where all the gases are solid, combustion must be at least difficult-cannot be manufactured in earthly fashion. Where there is no air at all, the inconveniences or overcrowding must be small, because purely mechanical; epidemic diseases can scarcely exist, and both smells and sounds must be faint. Solid whispering galleries must supply (if there be ears) the place of atmospheric vibrations, and a Cislunist audience must be connected with the speaker, or rather, perhaps, sound-maker (for without the medium of air the tongue and lips would scarcely be chosen to originate the vibrations) by some solid nexus. Again, without steam or wind the Cislunists would have no great natural motive power unless the fourteen days' continuous sunshine developed some great store of heat, of which we know nothing;-and this, without the accumulating folds of the atmospheric blanket, we cannot think likely. Without air and water there could be no vegetables in our sense, and no birds or fishes,-and little or no color as lunites would have the advantage; because distinguished from light and shade. It would they would have a moon fourteen times as be a world only of photographie art, if any; big as ours during the long night; and be for it is the reflecting and refracting power much less troubled with their own weight at of the air which gives diffused tints and makes a height of twenty-nine miles above the surthe heavens blue instead of black. Of all the face of their world than their neighbors. lists of earthly occupations scarcely one would Even in Language the whole field of metaphor be possible in an airless and waterless and and symbol must be utterly different. It is plantless world, the mineralogists, geologists, clear that if they have a Colenso, the contromathematicians, and pure mechanicians, alone versy cannot turn on such a word as Inspiraexcepted. Bakers, who depend on corn; tion; and that when they die they cannot be brewers, on water and barley and hops; gro- said to expire; nor can their term for "spirit" cers, on tea, sugar, and raisins; sailors, on be derived from any word indicating the sea and wind, would clearly be even less pos- breath of life. sible than physicians and chemists. Sleep itself, if it existed, would be indistinguishable from death, as neither pulse nor breathing could exist, and a man would have to move to prove that he was alive. Drinking would be impossible, and if eating remained, it would be essentially different, while the absence of animal heat, and of storm, wind, and rain, would render houses, clothing, and all such accessories of life entirely needless. In a word, the Cislunites must be, if they exist, infinitely more different from their neighbors the Ultramontane Lunites if the latter live in an atmosphere, than the latter are from us; indeed, the only really common physical apparatus which the two could have would be eyes and muscles,-in both of which the Cis On the other hand, if there really be an atmosphere and a population on the other side of that lunar cinder, the people are probably (unless they sleep for a fortnight together, which is too beautiful to be true) very much more advanced in their astronomy than our earth, having so much longer uninterrupted periods for study of the heavens. But they must have been long embarrassed to know that they move round a centre of attraction that they can never see, nor hope to see; and must feel a certain annoyance at knowing that there would be such a splendid nocturnal lamp if they could but scale that inaccessible hemisphere of extra-atmospheric cinder at their antipodes. H. S. G. -Notes and Queries. A PROPHECY IN JEST.-The following extract | ized. It is worth notice that a war between the from a burlesque article in the New Monthly North and South was anticipated. Magazine for 1821, entitled "Specimen of a prospective Newspaper, A. D. 4796," is curi ous "The army of the Northern States (of AmerMEDICINE." In the Christian world the highica) will take the field against that of the South-er education is resolved into three Facultiesern Provinces early next spring. The principal Theology, Jurisprudence, and Medicine; of which northern force will consist of 1,490,000 picked the first conducts our mental culture with refertroops. General Congreve's new mechanical can- ence to religion; the second with reference to the non was tried last week at the siege of Georgia. State and its business; the third with reference It discharged in one hour 1120 baks, each weigh-to the material world and the properties of its ing five hundred weight. The distance of the component parts. For Medicine, in its original objects fired at was eleven miles, and so perfect and comprehensive sense, as one of the great was the engine that the whole of these balls were divisions of human culture, must be considered lodged in the space of twenty feet square." as taking in the whole of physical science."Whewell, Elements of Morality, including Polity, 1845, vol. ii. p. 321. A subsequent article in this specimen states that, "by means of a new invention, Dr. Clark crossed the Atlantic in seven days." How little did the writer anticipate that, in forty years, these to him wild fancies, would be almost real |