Chirurgical Society, in which there are many excellent observations. As we proceed, we shall find proofs founded on direct experiments, that the temperature depends on the state of the circulation, and particularly on the passage of the blood through the lungs, which to detail here, would too much anticipate some of the other parts of the subject.

Whether caloric be a substance, or as some of the first chemists of our time are inclined to believe, only a certain motion of the particles of bodies, it is of course foreign to this paper to inquire; but it appears from the foregoing observations, and will, I think, appear still more strikingly from those I shall have occasion to add, that the maintenance of animal temperature must be ranked among the results of the action of the nervous system on the blood. It is on this account that I have elsewhere said, that if caloric be regarded as a substance, its evolution in the animal body must be ranked with the secreting processes; the definition of secretion, I conceive, being the evolution of a tertium quid, in consequence of that action.

When to the functions which have now been detailed, we add, that the nerves are the means of conveying impressions to and from the sensorium, we have, I believe, enumerated the whole of the functions of the nervous system properly so called.

Although it has been very generally admitted, that the nerves of the organs of sense perform no other function but that of conveying to the more central parts of the nervous system the impressions they receive, it has been supposed that the nerves of other parts, and particularly those of the viscera, are capable of so impressing each other, that these parts sympathize independently of the more central parts of the system. This position, which, were it correct, would seem in opposition to many established laws of the nervous system, I have considered at some length in the ninety-sixth and following pages of the second edition of my Treatise on Indigestion. It appears, as far as I can judge, from the facts there adduced, that it is altogether unfounded, the nerves seeming in the latter as in the former case, only to convey impressions made on their extremities to the more central parts of the system.

FROM THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia, &c. &c. during the Years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820. By Sir Robert Ker

Porter.

This is one of the best written, and most elegant books of travels, which, for many years, has issued from the press. The countries visited are deeply instructing from numerous associations, and we have not often had travellers who have had the author's courage to explore their recesses, his ability to describe them, or his pencil to depict their most remarkable objects. He travelled too with the feeling which gratifies the reader's curiosity in regard to the most striking objects, and his descriptions are full, clear, and satisfactory. We may instance his description of the ruins of Babylon, those objects of universal sympathy, and those pictures of what time will render all cities, howeyer great or proud.

A SACRED VILLAGE IN PERSIA.

"At three o'clock in the morning of August 1st, we left the caravansary, and turned our cavalcade into a north-western direction through another narrow valley; bounded on each side by craggy mountains, which were traversed by the most opposite and varied strata I had ever seen. A stream, equally clear and inviting with those of the Kala-Gul-Aub, flowed by our path, which lay under groves of wild almond, hawthorn, and mulberry-trees, intermixed with large bushes. bearing a flower resembling lavender both in appearance and smell. Notwithstanding the vernal luxuriance of such a scene, the road itself was extremely desert and bad, being a continuation of rough, loose stones the whole way from Mayan to Iman Zada Ismael, a journey of three farsangs. This latter village is considered holy ground, and not only shows a general aspect of comfortable means, but an air of civilization seldom met with on this side of Ispahan. Every individual in the place claims his descent from Mahommed; hence they are all called Saieds, or sons of the prophet. A picturesque old caravansary nearly in ruins, and a high-domed building, are its most conspicuous objects. The hospitality of the natives seems to have rendered the former useless; and the latter, which gives its name to the village, covers the holy relics of the Iman Zada Ismael. Of his particular history nothing is now remembered, but that this is his tomb; the sanctity of which would of itself hallow the ground in its vicinity; therefore this spot has a double claim to reverence, being an abode of the living descendants of the prophet as well as of the dead.

"We were lodged in the house of one of the ten thousand branches of the great holy stock, where the most unexampled attention was shown to our convenience. A principal division of the mansion was cleared entirely of its usual inhabitants, and the vacated apartments, above and below, appropriated to the sole use of ourselves, our people, and our quadrupeds. Every sort of provision that the village afforded was at our command, and due attendance to prepare and serve it. We were surprised by finding the women of the place not only walking about in freedom, but completely unveiled, and mixing promiscuously in discourse or occupation with the male inhabitants; neither did they retreat from their various domestic employments on our near approach. Their features are regular, with dark complexions, and large fine eyes; and their figures are good, with a general appearance of cleanliness, a grace not very common amongst the lower classes in Persia. The chief cause of such humble affluence and manifest content, lies in the sacred village being exempted from tribute of any kind. Neither does it furnish the customary quota of armed men, demanded on the part of government from all less holy districts, to attend the king in his wars or annual encampments; and, in addition to these privileges, the prince-governor of Shirdz pays a yearly sum of forty tomauns towards the repair and decoration of the Iman's tomb. The village is well constructed, clean, and at every point shows a flourishing condition. A large tract of garden-ground, abundantly stocked, and a corresponding space for corn in as favourable cultivation, stretch before the walls. The whole southern face of the mountain, wherever practicable, is clothed with quantities of grapes; and every little sheltered spot rendered some way profitable by these in

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dustrious people. They have not the advantage of even a single stream to assist their labours, but are obliged to transport all the water they use, from wells; which increases the toil, and lamentably circumscribes the extent of their cultivation.”

THE PERSIAN CHARACTER. “ The variety of character amongst these people is equally interesting and extraordinary, and that variety does not exist more in certain dissimilarities distinguishing one individual from another, than in those very dissimilarities often meeting in one man. The Persian's natural disposition is amiable, with quick parts; and on these foundations, the circumstances of climate and government have formed his character. Perhaps a stronger proof could not be given of the former trait, than that we find in their history no terrible details of sanguinary popular tumults. The page is blotted in a thousand places, with massacres done by order of a single tyrant; but never a disposition for insurrection, and wide murderous revenge, in the people en

Fonder of pleasure than ambitious of the sterner prerogatives of power, they seek their chief good in the visions of a fanciful philosophy, or the fervours of a faith which kindles the imagination with the senses. The dreams of their poets, the delights of the Anderoon, the vigour of the chase; these, with services at court, whether to the Shah, or to his princely representatives over provinces, or to their delegated authorities in towns and villages, all alike form the favourite pursuits of the Persian, from the highest khan to the lowest subject in the empire.

"I have already mentioned, that the peculiar temperament of the Persian is lively, imitative, full of imagination, and of that easy nature which we in the west call “taking the world lightly ;' and that hence he is prone to seek pleasures, and to enjoy them with his whole heart. Amongst these, the gaiety of his taste renders him fond of pomp and show; but his fear of attracting suspicion to his riches, prevents him exhibiting such signs in his own person, beyond an extra superb shawl, a handsomely hilted dagger, or the peculiar beauty of his kaliouns. The utmost magnificence of his house, consists in the number of apartments, and extent of the courts; of the rose-trees and little fountains in the one, and the fine carpets and nummuds in the other. But vessels of gold or silver are never seen. The dinnertrays are of painted wood ; and those on which the sweetmeats and fruits appear, are of copper, thickly tinned over, looking like dirty plate. Neither gluttony nor epicurism is a vice of this nation. The lower classes also live principally upon bread, fruits, and water. The repasts of the higher consist of the simplest fare ; their cookery being devoid of any ingredient to stimulate the appetite. Sherbets, of different kinds, are their usual beverage ; and tea and coffee the luxuries of ceremonious meetings. In this general abstinence from what is usually styled the pleasures of the table, we find a nearer resemblance to the manly frugality of ancient Persis, or Iran, (which the admirable institutions of the first Cyrus extended from that people to the less temperate Medes,) than to the manners which prevailed even in so short a time as a century after, under the reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon.

“From the earliest times, the breeding of fine horses has been a pag

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sion in the East; and in no country more than Persia, where, indeed, a man and his horse are seen in such constant companionship, that custom has in a manner identified them with each other, and hence the most beautiful steeds are never brought in proof of any extraordinary riches; a Persian being well mounted, though the clothes on his back may not be worth half a tomaun. Their mules, too, are a stately, useful race. I have already noticed, that horse-racing is not pursued here as with us, to produce a certain prodigious swiftness in a short given time; but to exercise the limbs of the travelling or courier-horse, to go over a considerable number of miles in one day, or more, at an unusual rate, without slackening his pace, or suffering by the exertion. The fleetness of a Persian horse in the chase, is equal to that of any country; but his exquisite management in the military sports of the girid, &c. cannot be equalled on any other field. In these exercises we see something of the latent fire of the chivalric Shah Sevund, breaking forth in their descendants, and lambently playing on the point of their lances. The dexterity of the evolutions, the grace of their motions, and the knighthood gallantry of their address, unite in giving an inexpressible charm to these scenes. But it does not end there. This gaieté de cæur, and courtesy of manner, pervading every class, renders the society of the higher ranks particularly amiable; and communication with the lower, free of any rudeness. Nay, indeed, the humblest peasant, from the old man to the boy, expresses himself with a degree of civility only to be expected from education and refinement. Quick in seeing, or apprehending occasions of service, high and low seem to bend themselves gracefully to whatever task their superiors may assign; besides talent seems to contend with inclination, in accomplishing its fulfilment. In short, this pliant, polished steel of character, so different from the sturdy nature and stubborn uses of the iron sons of the north, fit the Persians to be at once a great, a happy, and a peaceable people, under a legitimate and wellordered monarchy."

ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY.

Gilpaigon is the provincial capital of a khan, who governs the small district from which it takes its name. The town itself is supposed to contain about two thousand persons. Nearly a couple of farsangs before we reached this little rural metropolis, we found the road divide itself; one branch leading to the village of Gobikaw, the regular halting-place, in the way to Hamadan, and the other to the town which we had chosen for our inenzil. Gohikaw, with two other villages of less dimensions, but promising equal refreshment, from the number of trees which mingled their gay green with the rustic dwellings, spread themselves along the base of the same line of hills which cover the town of Gilpaigon, and seemed quite in as good condition. The impression this sight, with its accompanying cultivation, made on my mind as I approached, can hardly be conceived by an European who has never wandered from happy Christendom : so beyond imagination is the difference, between the populousness and aspect of countries, which own such different governments as those of Asia and Europe. Here, in the East, with regard to population and its habitations, this vast tract of country, (once the very well-spring of emigration to all nations of the earth,) appears like the dry bed of some former great river; where

the depth, and the space, evidence the mighty flood by which it might have been filled; and a few pools of stagnant water, dotting the marshy surface, remain vestiges that such an element really did fill it. No man can enter Persia, without remembering he is about to tread a land which a long line of native princes covered with cities, and towns, and fertility; a country, which even its Grecian conquerors embellished with the noblest structures, and Roman invaders adorned with bridges, aqueducts, and castles. But of all these towns, villages, and structures, the erections of so many different ages and generations of men, few remain of any kind that are not sunk in ruin, or furrowed with decay. Where were once cities, and hamlets, and cultivated fields, are now vast solitudes; without house, or hut, or tree, or blade of grass, for many, many miles. Indeed, so frequent are these monotonous tracts, dreary to the eye, and dismal to the heart, that the glimpse of a mouldering wall, round some long-abandoned village seen from afar; or a distant view of the broken massive arches of a lonely caravansary, surrendered to the wild animals of the waste; being memorials that human footsteps once were there, are sights of welcome to the cheerless traveller, way-wearied by such unvaried scenes of desert-solitariness. Besides such really melancholy sources of the ennui which so often accompanies the European through these burning tracts, is the unchanging serenity of the sky. Day after day, nay, month after month passes, and not a film is seen on its dazzling surface; not a cloud, even light as the thinnest vapour, varies the towering summits of the mountains by its fleecy shroud, nor tinges the vale beneath with its flitting shadow. In vain we look here for those sweet concealments of nature, which at times hide her beauties in a veil; or those sublime mysteries, which give infinitude to grandeur, by the occasional darkness in which she envelops it. At no season of the year, in this southern part of Persia, can we see the storm gathering in the heavens ; nor the thirsty earth opening its bosom to receive the milder shower, pouring abundance and beauty in its bland refreshment. In fact, I have not seen a single drop of rain since the morning of my quitting Teheran; and dew seems equally interdicted. I have often thought, while panting through this waveless sea of shadeless heat, that if those of my countrymen who indulge themselves in murmurs against our cloudy, humid climate, were only to be transplanted hither for one summer-journey, they might find a parallel example to the unhappy lover of riches, who obtained the object of his passion to so grievous an extent, that whatever he touched became gold; for, wherever they go here, they would meet dryness, and cloudless, fervent sunshine."

PESTILENTIAL WINDS.

"Oct. 9.-My people were still too ill to-day to give any signs of speedy amendment; and in order to while away my anxiety in this untoward detention, I sent for the master of the khaun, to make some inquiries respecting the country and its inhabitants. He told me, that they consider October the first month of their autumn, and feel it delightfully cool in comparison with July, August, and September; for that, during forty days of the two first named summer months, the hot wind blows from the desert, and its effects are often destructive. Its title is very appropriate, being called the Samiell or Baude Semoon, the pestilential wind. It does not come in continued long currents,