The American in England, The Partisan, V. 87 Valuable Catalogue, 91 View of the World, THE DRAMA, 104, 213, 309, 436, 547, 645 Visit to Constantinople, etc. 316 316 633 The Lover-Student, 130 The Duties of the Age, The Homeward Bound, 150 To Violet, 180 To a Humming Bird, 181 The Three Cutters, 208 The Laurel, 217 The Star over the Water, 246 WHITTIER, Works of Miss Edgeworth, 532 549 The Dying Wife, 261 The Sleeping Cherub, 266 Y. The Triumph of Song, 284 The Bride's Song, 295 Yale Magazine, 314 443 THE KNICKERBOCKER. VOL. VII. JANUARY, 1836. PERIODICITY OF DISEASES. No. 1. In a former communication, we gave a detailed account of certain experiments which tended to prove that all nature was not alive,' 'that all animated beings were not mere congeries of minute living bodies. By a number of well-conducted experiments, the result proved, that all the interstices of space, whether of the water, air, earth, or space- whether of inert or animated matter—were filled with animal and vegetable life: that these minute animalculæ exist in these interstices, and are attached to their surfaces, both in the larvæ and perfect state: that even the living human eye, is filled with them, their motion and Of the substances which formed presence being plainly discernible. the base of two hundred and eighty-eight experiments, honey and oil alone appeared to be exempt from the action of these minute and almost invisible class of beings.' These being facts, on the accuracy of which the strictest reliance can be placed, the natural question then occurs of the duration of life of If the following remarks can throw any these animalcules, or atoms. new light on this subject, we trust that the French savans will take the matter into their own hands, and pursue the investigation zealously. We are confident that it is within the power of science to set this ques tion at rest. All fevers, of whatever type they may be, whether endemics, epidemics, or accidental, have a definite term of action, varying but slightly from the regular period. Fevers of a peculiar class, such as are denominated chills-and-fever, return periodically. They occur generally, every third day; but when the system is weakened by repeated attacks, they appear sometimes every day, and in extreme cases, twice in the twenty-four hours. These are the simplest kinds of fever, and are more under the control of medical skill than those of a different nature. There are a variety of fevers which can take possession of the animal frame at pleasure; some few of a different character can never disturb the system but once: these are measles, whooping-cough, mumps, small-pox, and chicken-pox. The period of their influence over the human frame can be ascertained with singular exactness, owing to their character being contagious or infectious. The term of life, in man, varies according to circumstances, but the This uniformity is average among all civilized nations is the same. easily accounted for, as the organic structure throughout the whole human family is the same, and it is only among barbarous nations, where there are great extremes of climate, that man does not live out With inferior animals the his term - the threescore years and ten. case is different, as the variety is endless, and as we descend in the scale, VOL. VII. 1 |