relief. In short, the patient is now labouring under a continued fever not to be distinguished from ordinary fever. A profuse critical perspiration may come on, from the second or third day, and leave the sufferer convalescent; but, much more frequently, the quickness of pulse and heat of skin continue, the tongue becomes brown and parched, the eyes are suffused and drowsy, there is a dull flush with stupor and heaviness about the countenance, much resembling typhus, dark sordes collect about the lips and teeth, sometimes the patient is pale, squalid, and low, with the pulse and heat below natural, but with the typhous stupor, delirium supervenes, and death takes place from the fourth to the eighth day, or even later, in the very individual, too, whom the most assiduous attention had barely saved in the first or cold stage. To give a notion of the importance and danger of cholera fever, a most intelligent physician, Dr. Reimer, of the merchant hospital, informs us, that of twenty cases treated under his own eye, who fell victims to the disease, seven died in the cold stage, and thirteen in the consecutive fever.

The singular malady is only cognizable with certainty during its blue or cold period. After reaction has been established, it cannot be distinguished from an ordinary continued fever, except by the shortness and fatality of its course. The greenish or dark, and highly bilious discharges produced in the hot stage, by calomel, are not sufficiently diagnostic, and it is curious that the persons employed about these typhoid cases, when they are attacked, are never seized with ordinary fever, but with a genuine cold, blue cholera: nothing, therefore, is more certain, than that persons may come to the coast of England, apparently labouring under common feverish indisposition, who really and truly are suffering under cholera in the second stages, as

The points of difference between the present epidemic and the cholera of India, when the two diseases are closely compared, appear to us to be the following:

First, The evacuations, both upwards and downwards, seem to have been much more profuse and ungovernable in the Indian than in the present cholera, though the characters of the evacuations are precisely the same.

Secondly, Restoration to health from the cold stage, without passing through consecutive fever of any kind, was by far more frequent in India than here, nor did the consecutive fever there assume a typhoid type. "

Thirdly, The proportion, of deaths in the cold stage, compared with those in the hot, was far greater in India, according to Dr, Russell's experience, than here.

J

Fourthly, The number of medical men and hospital attendants attacked with cholera during the present epidemic, in proportion to the whole employed and to the other classes of society, has been beyond all comparison greater here than in India under similar circumstances; twenty-five medical men have been already seized, and nine have died out of two hundred and sixty-four. Four others have died at Cronstadt, out of a very small number residing in that fortress at the time the disease broke out there. Six attendants have been taken ill at a small temporary hospital behind the Aboucoff since we wrote last. It is certain, however, that in some cholera hospitals, favourably circumstanced as to size, ventilation, and space, very few of the attendants have suffered.

Of these facts we are likely to receive accurate statements in answer, to the written questions which we have submitted to the medical authorities through the government here.

Convalescence from cholera has been rapid and perfect here, as is proved

by the following fact. The minister of the interior had given orders that all convalescents, civil as well as military, at the general hospital, should be detained fourteen days. We inspected about two hundred of these détenus some days back, with Sir James Wylie, and found them in excellent health, without a single morbid sequela amongst them...aan se met an

Relapses are rare in this epidemic, nor have they been often attended with fatal results: hospital servants seem to have been most liable to them. One physician had three attacks, the second severe, in which he states that he derived great benefit from the magisterium bismuthi.

Preliminary steps advised to be taken on the first appearance of the Disease. It is of great importance that each town or village, particularly those on the coast, should be prepared with the best-arranged means to meet such a calamity as the breaking out of the disease now raging in the North of Europe, so as to prevent confusion upon the emergency of the moment, and be ready to act upon a well-considered system for preventing the spreading of infection.

With this view, the Board recommends the formation of a local Board of Health at each place, to consist of the chief magistrate, the clergyman, one or more medical gentlemen, and two or three of the principal inhabitants, who may immediately, and as occasion requires, correspond with the Board of Health în London, the medical members of the local Boards being deputed to write upon all subjects relating to any symptoms of the disease.

The best means of preventing the spreading of infection are, the immediate separation of the uninfected from the sick, by their prompt removal from the house of any infected person, or by the removal of any individual affected with the disease, if possible, to some house în a dry and aïrý situation, appropriated to the purpose; but in the event of such removal not being practicable, on account of extreme illness or otherwise, the prevention of all intercourse with the sick, even of the family of the person attacked, must be rigidly observed, unless the individuals who desire to stay shall submit to such strict rules of quaraiitine as the public safety may demand, and the local Board of Health, advising with the Board of Health in London, may consider expedient.

As success in the treatment of this disease, and preventing its spreading, hás been found greatly to depend upon early medical assistance, it is of great importance that the heads of families and others should be vigilant in guarding against concealment or delay in making known every case which may occur.

On the removal of diseased persons, the rooms they may have inhabited, and the house generally, should be thoroughly exposed to a constant current of air, and recourse had to all the well-known means of purifying houses, particularly the use of chloride of lime; and the bedding and clothing of the sick person, after removal, should be soaked in a slight solution of the chloride in water, and well washed. It is impossible that ventilation and cleanliness can be carried too far in the houses of the sick after removal; whitewashing, and a variety of means of effecting so important an object, will no doubt occur to the local Boards of Health; and a continuance of ventilation for some days as the best means of preventing contagion.

In large towns the local Board of Health should be composed of sufficient numbers to admit of sub-division into district committees, always attaching to each Committee at least one medical gentleman.

For the information of the public, and to secure a ready and instant reference to authorized persons, the names and residence of the persons composing the local Boards of Health should be placed on the Church door.

In the event of so great a calamity falling upon this country as the introduction of this disease, rules and règulations upon an extensive scale, suited to the rigid system of quarantine which such an event would demand, will be immediately circulated by the Lords of his Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, who will, upon the earliest intimation of the existence of the disease, send down a medical practitioner, who has been acquainted with the disease as it occurred in India. In the name of the Board.

HENRY HALFORD, President.

ON SUPERSTITION, BY A HINDU.

THE reader will scarcely believe that the following sentiments are from a Hindu; they appear in the Reformer of February 8th, an English paper edited by Hindus, at Calcutta :—

"The mind of man," says Hume," is subject to certain unaccountable terrors and apprehensions, proceeding either from the unhappy situation of private affairs, from ill-health, from a gloomy and melancholy disposition, or from the concurrence of all these circumstances. In such a state of mind, infinite unknown evils are dreaded from unknown agents; and where real objects of terror are wanting, the soul, active to its own prejudice, and fostering its own predominant inclination, finds imaginary ones, to whose power and malevolence it sets no limits. As these enemies are entirely invisible and unknown, the methods taken to appease them are equally unaccountable, and consist in ceremonies, observances, mortifications, sacrifices, presents, or any practice, however, absurd or frivolous, which either folly or knavery recommends to a blind and terrified credulity. Weakness, fear, melancholy, together with ignorance, are therefore the true sources of superstition. The bias, which superstition gives to the mind of man is very pernicious in its nature. It not only subjects him to many groundless fears and apprehensions, but makes him appear mean and despicable to himself, and consequently as unworthy of acting upon any noble principles. Superstition sinks man into the gross ignorance of his primitive nature, and fear and sorrow become his inseparable companions, Hence we may observe, with the same author, that it is favourable to priestly power, for superstition being ever doubtful of itself; dares not offer its own devotions to the deity, but courts the aid of other persons, who have by some means made themselves believed the favourites of the divinity.i

"It has been the misfortune of many nations to fall into some kind of superstitions or religious errors, which they call their religion, and thereby mistake true theology. They very unthinkingly give credit, against their own reason and judgment to the stories of impostors, who are nothing more than persons seeking their own pecuniary advantage at the expense of their credulous votaries. In ancient times the priests, or religion makers, being the only learned men, by such means as pretended miracles, prophecies, &c. contrived to impress upon the minds of their followers a belief of their supernatural power, in order to give weight to their words and actions. But there is no kind of superstition more dreadful and shocking to humanity than ours, which consists in worshipping idols made with our own hands, and in offering human sacrifices to them. Can any one susceptible of the least degree of feeling, speak in favour of this most absurd and cruel practice? Is it consistent with the nature of that benevolent being to accept the sacrifice of one of its creatares? therefore instead of appeasing the wrath of God, we only provoke his just resentment by such inhuman practices."

Miscellanies, Original and Select.

*ba (85 NA 21 Tot. * TH

Asiatic Society of Paris.At the anniversary meeting of this Society, an elaborate report was read by the secretary, M. E. Burnouf, detailing the proceedings of the Society during the past year, with remarks upon the state of oriental literature in Europe and the East.

Noticing slightly the impediments which retarded the progress of the works patronized by the Society, the report states that no new work had been offered, and that the council had made the utmost exertion to accelerate those which were printing under its patronage. The only work completed is the Georgian Chronicle, translated by M. Brosset from a MS. in the King's library, accompanied by the text lithographed. This chronicle commences in 1373, and ends in 1703. It is rather imperfect, and till the year 1529, the events are very succinctly related. The publication of the Chinese and Latin Dictionary of Father Basil of Glemona, the MS. of which had been prepared by M. Kurz, and was to have been lithographed by M. Jouy, was suspended, owing to the unavoidable absence of M. Kurz from France. That gentleman has suggested various improvements in the work, which are under consideration. For similar reasons, and owing to the removal which has taken place of the oriental types in the royal press, the printing of the Manchoo Dictionary and the Georgian Grammar has been suspended. ;,, - atn }

The report then proceeds to notice the papers which have appeared in the Journal of the Society, and which have “preserved its place in the first rank amongst the publications which relate to the languages, literature, und history of the people of Asia" It speaks highly of the papers by the venerable honorary president of the Society, the Baron de Sacy, Mr. H. H. Wilson, › Mr. Hodgson of Nepal, M. Brosset, and M. Klaproth, "whose indefatigable: zeal has almost alone sustained the work, which it has enriched with important dissertations, the fruit of his varied labours." The report adds: “ if, amidst these dissertations which relate chiefly to the customs and religion of the people of Eastern Asia, it is to be regretted that no greater number of pieces is found borrowed from the literatures of Arabia and Persia, it is because there is in the study of Eastern tongues epochs, in which certain nations, which had not been hitherto reckoned as within the sphere of science, become the object of special researches, and offer themselves as claiming of the public the share of notice which is due to them."

"Of all the scientific associations, which have for their object the diffusion throughout Europe of a knowledge of the civilization and languages of Asia, none has rendered more brilliant services to science than the Asiatic Society of Calcutta. The learned world has appreciated the merit of the papers contained in the sixteenth volume of the Transactions published by this illustrious body. After the vast researches of its Colebrookes and its Wilsons, it was difficult to expect that any addition could be made to the high renown of that valuable collection. But the sixteenth volume has resolved the problem, and without dwelling in detail upon its contents, no one can read, without a lively sentiment of gratitude, the papers of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Hodgson; the one on Indian sects, the other on the Buddhism of Nepal.” -↑

The report then speaks in terms of high commendation of the Committee "of Public Instruction- formed in Calcutta under the patronage of the East-India

Company, with a view, amongst other things, of circulating amongst the Hindus specimens of their own classical literature. "The press is the active agent employed by this honourable association, which, as far as we can judge of its intentions by results, has conceived that, in order to raise that degraded people to a better condition, they should be inspired with a taste for those studies in which their ancestors exulted; and India should have restored to it her nationality of science, in return for the political independence which foreign masters have so often ravished from her. In this plan, it appears to us, there is evinced a profound knowledge of the mind and the wants of Eastern people; and, especially, an impartial appreciation which our ideas and our methods must exert upon nations so different from ourselves. The sensible men who conceived and realized this project, considered that it was a misapprehension of the true character of the Hindu intellect to hope to apply immediately, to a people addicted to the speculations of mysticism, and disunited by castes and languages, the results which the spirit of enquiry has slowly obtained in Europe. They thought that if, as we are pleased to proclaim, our civilization was one day to enlighten the universe, the surest method of preparing the Hindus to receive it is to make all classes of so complicated a society participate in that knowledge which was the fruit of the meditations of their ancient sages, and of which a privileged caste has hitherto arrogated to itself the exclusive monopoly." The report speaks with approbation of the works selected for publication by the Committee, and remarks: "Particular treatises on various points of jurisprudence are intended to render familiar amongst the Hindus the knowledge of their legislation; and the publication of the axioms of the Nayaya philosophy, and of the Vedanta system, to gratify the taste of the Brahmans for speculative studies, affords reason to hope that the Committee will speedily multiply, by printing, those ancient works, such as the Védas, and the great mythological poems, which the Hindus revere as the divine basis of their civilization, and which Europe is impatient to know."

The report then refers to the services constantly rendered to oriental literature by the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, and speaks with commendation of the second part of the second volume of its Transactions; particularizing the papers of Colonel Harriot on the Gipsey Language, Mr. Davis's Poeseos Sinica Commentarii, Mr. Haughton's translation of a Cufic inscription, Colonel Briggs' biography of Ferishta, and Colonel Tod's observations on a Hindu Ring. It mentions, likewise, the activity of the Oriental Translation Fund Committee, and the works published under its patronage; as well as the continued exertions of the Bible Society to translate the Holy Scriptures into all the dialects of the East.

From the efforts of societies and bodies of men to promote the interests of oriental languages and literature, the report proceeds to those of individuals. In Hebrew, works have been published by Professor Lee in England, MM. Glaire and Carmoly in France, Professor Rosenmüller and Mr. Gramberg in Germany. In Arabic, Professor Freytag, of Bonn, has completed the first volume of his new edition of the Dictionary of Golius, and a complete treatise on Arabian metre. Mr. Roediger, of Halle, has published a new edition of the fables of Lokman. A new edition of the Baron de Sacy's admirable Arabic / Grammar is also in preparation; and a Concordance of the Koran, by M. Glaire, the fruit of several years labour, is nearly completed.

Amongst the Persian works which appeared during the past year, the report enumerates the lithographic Persian text of Ferishta, at Bombay, at the expense of the East-India Company, which is termed “a happy innovation”; and the