revolting and unheard-of atrocities were perpetrated, too horrible to he described in these pages. Thousands of Nestorians were massacred on this expedition, many of them in cold blood. Desolation and death reigned throughout Tiyari.

The whole mountain country, with the exception of one or two valleys, fell into the hands of the Kurds. These, too, were within their reach; but, for certain reasons, they were now for a time left unmolested. Their day, however, was approaching, and it did come. It was a day of fearful vengeance.

The visit of Mr. Layard to the Nestorian country was in 1846, some time after the massacre described above. He had powerful Turkish influence in his favour, and therefore travelled in safety; although, on one occasion, he made a narrow escape with his life in the valley of Tkhoma. The scene which almost every valley presented was gloomy and desolate. The people were beginning to resume a little courage. The churches and other buildings were rising, and small patches of ground were being cultivated. Nature, however, appeared in all her beauty and grandeur, as if to hide the devastation caused by the ruthless hand of man, and to withdraw the mind from the contemplation of scenes of cruelty and bloodshed.

The following extract furnishes a description of one of the most terrible incidents that occurred during the massacre. The scene was in the neighbourhood of Lizan, a town on the river Zab; and the inhabitants had been congregated on an elevated rocky platform, which was deemed inaccessible.

6

"As we approached the wall of rock, the declivity became covered with bones, mingled with the long plaited tresses of the women, shreds of discoloured linen, and well-worn shoes. There were skulls of all ages, from the child unborn to the toothless old man. We could not avoid treading on the bones as we advanced, and rolling them with the loose stones into the valley below. This is nothing,' exclaimed my guide, who observed me gazing with wonder on these miserable heaps, they are but the remains of those who were thrown from above, or sought to escape the sword by jumping from the rock. Follow me.' He sprang upon a ledge running along the precipice that rose before us, and clambered along the face of the mountain overhanging the Zab, now scarcely visible at our feet. I followed him as well as I was able to some distance; but when the ledge became scarcely broader than my hand, and frequently disappeared for three or four feet together, I could no longer advance. The Tiyari, who had easily surmounted these difficulties, returned to assist me, but in vain. I was compelled to return, after catching a glimpse of an open recess or platform covered with human remains. When the fugitives who had escaped from Asheetha spread the news of the massacre through the valley of Lizan, the inhabitants of the villages around collected such parts of their property as they could carry, and took refuge on the platform I have just described, and on the rock above, hoping thus to escape the notice of the Kurds, or to be able to defend, against any numbers, a place almost inaccessible. Women and children, as well as men, concealed themselves in a spot which the

mountain goat could scarcely reach. Beder Khan Bey was not long in discovering their retreat; but being unable to force it, he surrounded the place with his men, and waited until they should be compelled to yield. The weather was hot and sultry; the Christians had brought but small supplies of water and provisions; after three days the first began to fail them, and they offered to capitulate. The terms proposed by Beder Khan Bey, and ratified by an oath on the Koran, were the surrender of their arms and property. The Kurds were then admitted to the platform. After they had taken the arms from their prisoners, they commenced an indiscriminate slaughter; until, weary of using their weapons, they hurled the few survivors from the rocks into the Zab below. Out of nearly one thousand souls, only one escaped!"*

On the occasion of Mr. Layard's visit to the beautiful valley of Tkhoma, all was excitement, in the prospect of an immediate attack. He had scarcely left, when the ferocious Beder Khan Bey invaded this peaceful district. In spite of the efforts of Tahyar Pasha to prevent the calamity, the Bey marched through the Tiyari mountains, levying contributions on the defenceless villagers as he passed, and threw himself with irresistible impetuosity on Tkhoma. The people, headed by their Meleks, made some resistance, but were speedily overpowered by numbers. Women and children were massacred in presence of the Bey; those who fled were overtaken and murdered; the valley was almost depopulated. After this monster of cruelty had retired from the valley, the few that had escaped began to rebuild their houses and cultivate their gardens. Beder Khan Bey had taken the vintage-Nur Ullah Bey must gather the gleaning of the grapes. Suspecting that they knew of concealed property, he fell upon them suddenly. Many died under torture, for they had no treasures to disclose; and others were more fortunate, and escaped to Persia. This lovely valley was completely wasted. It will be long ere it resume its aspect of patient activity, and longer still ere its groves are again vocal with mirth and gladness.

For the present the massacre has ceased, and the inhuman wretches that perpetrated it have been called to account. The Porte has been prevailed upon to punish Beder Khan Bey. He is now banished from Kurdistan, and lives an exile on the island of Candia. It is well that a lawless, blood-thirsty chief, has been stript of his power for mischief and for murder; but judge whether banishment to a populous and pleasant island, surrounded by his family and friends, be an adequate punishment for the man who wasted the lands, burned the villages, and desecrated the churches, of these mountain tribes; and who savagely put to the sword ten thousand of their people!

* Layard's Nineveh, vol. ii., 188, 191.

The Philosophy of the Senses: or Man in connexion with the Material World. By R. S. WYLD. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd.

WERE We inclined to be critical; or were it consistent with our present purpose to enlarge our remarks; it might be found that this portable volume gave scope and verge enough, to allow us to ply our vocation. In our present mood, however, and to serve the purpose contemplated, -which purpose is to give our readers some idea of the book, which no doubt many of them will procure for themselves, and throughly digest, —it is enough that we make a few, very few observations, and furnish a few extracts.

By refraining from criticism, it will not be understood that we approve of the entire contents of the volume; but it is only bare justice to the author to say, that,-considering the nature and variety of the subjects treated of, in a book of such reasonable dimensions, and published at such a very reasonable price,-he has done his work admirably well. He has obviously cultivated large acquaintance with both science and philosophy; and his mind has been allowed to range free over the vast field. The treatise is pervaded by a fine, genial, and withal devout, spirit. It is a good specimen of philosophy baptized into the spirit of Christianity; and the author is a favourable type of the Christian Philosopher.

It has struck our fancy to give an extract relative to each of the five senses; and in doing so, we shall follow the order observed by the author.

THE EAR.

The following extract forms the introduction to the second part of the work, in which the author treats of sound, vision &c.

"Sound is produced and propagated by the vibration of any elastic medium, whether solid, liquid, or aeriform. But as it is conveyed to our ears and becomes an object of sense solely through the air, we shall confine our attention to its production and propagation in this medium.

"Though it is pretty generally known that sound is the result of a vibration of the air, yet we believe very few have a clear apprehension of the nature of sonorous vibration. Little is it imagined that the investigation of the laws of these vibrations involves the most intricate problems of Fluxions, and that in attempting to conceive their nature, even the illustrious Newton failed. It should, however, enhance our interest in the subject to know that, difficult as it is to comprehend or to describe these vibrations, yet upon them, their form, rapidity, size, and order of succession, depends the daily exercise of the gift of speech, and the universally enjoyed luxury of music. We have no design, in these pages, of dragging the reader into depths which Newton failed to fathom. All we shall attempt in our description is to embody the leading results of investigations more laborious than we are competent to travel over, and we think this may be done, and the principles of sonorous vibration sufficiently explained, without creating fatigue to the intelligent reader. "Weconceive there exists a main difficulty even in imagining the nature

of such a vibration as that producing sound, excited by such feeble means -the tuck of a drum--the compressed breathing through a tube-yet carried through the air so far, and so clear, and with such surprising velocity as 1125 feet in the second. We wave the hand, and find how free and unresisting the air is; we move it more rapidly, scarcely do we perceive any obstruction. We feel thence a difficulty in conceiving how so yielding a medium can produce effects so various and distinctive as those characterizing sound, and how it can carry it with such velocity.

"As we walk the deserted streets, every step or cough is echoed to our ear we strike our stick upon the pavement, how sharp and hard and immediate is the reply echoed from the opposite houses! and how distinctly does it whistle as reflected from each iron rail that fences the areas! Try the echo from the side of a high wall, say 100 steps in front; shout, clap the hands, laugh, whistle-how promptly and truly is each different sound retorted! The same soft yielding air carries back alike the clear prolonged notes of the French horn and the harsh and angry notes of defiance. The poetic association of Echo following us in our wanderings, loving most to attend us amidst the picturesque of nature, by beetling crag and hanging wood, will attract one class of observers; the rapidity of the response may excite the attention of others, and will lead them to ponder upon the causes of a thing so curious. It is at first a difficult problem to apprehend how so slight an impulse upon so yielding a medium can produce the sharp and far-spread effect. It seems as if the air were almost of metallic solidity."

THE EYE.

This extract does not refer to any of the functions of vision; but to that provision of nature, whereby we manifest the deep feelings that agitate our bosoms, whether of grief or joy; for Mr. Wyld seems to forget that joy floods the eye as well as grief.

"There is only another appendage we have to describe-to wit, the lachrymal apparatus, for the purpose of moistening the eye, and washing from it any adhering particles. The lachrymal gland is a white flattened lobulated body, of the size of a small bean, lodged in a depression within the margin of the orbit, and covered externally by the orbicular muscle. The office of this gland is to secrete tears, a process which is probably constantly going on, though it is only when under the excitement of grief, or the stimulating effects of pungent odours, or of some offending substance injuring the eye, that its action becomes so increased as to fill the eye with its peculiar secretion. This secretion is poured out upon the eye through seven small orifices arranged on the fore part of the upper eyelid. When called into action by the presence of any irritating cause, these emit their secretion, which the eyelids wash over the surface of the eye, thereby carrying the offensive matter towards the inner corner to a part called the lachrymal lake, which serves as a reservoir for the superabundant moisture until time is afforded for its being drained off by the appropriate duct. At the entrance to this reservoir, above and below, there is a small prominence at the inner edge of each eyelid. If we take the trouble to examine the inner surface of these, which is easily done

by turning them back with the finger, we will discover that they have small orifices or punctures-puncta lachrymalia: these absorb the excess of fluid contained in the lachrymal lake, and convey it by two converging canals to the lachrymal sac. The lachrymal sac is a membranous bag about as large as a kidney-bean, lodged in a vertical groove in the lachrymal bone, and which narrowing itself into the lachrymal canal passes directly downwards into the chamber of the nose, which it enters on the outer side by a slit in the mucous lining."

Our readers will heartily join in the following reflections:

"Whether we consider the provisions which are made for its nourishment, growth, and preservation, as a living organ of the body, or examine its structure as an optical instrument, or whether we direct our attention to those contrivances and adaptations which are clustered round it, and which have special reference to the convenient working of it as a nice and delicate machine,—or taking into account the wonderful compactness of the organ, occupying as it does, with all its appendages, little more than an inch in diameter, we reflect on the wonderful nature of its office, throwing open to us the wide and illimitable fields of space, and bringing before our minds with mathematical fidelity the endlessly varied forms of external nature, presenting them in all their truthfulness and in all their beauty,—in every light in which we may choose to regard it, we can feel no hesitation in assigning to this little member of the body the highest place among the organs of sense. This organ, indeed, affords in its single self all that human reason can demand of proof from external nature affirmatory of the existence of that Being invisible whom an internal instinct teaches us to believe in and seek after, and in whose existence and boundless liberality towards us we ought ever to rejoice."

TOUCH.

"The roughness of the skin at the finger-ends, caused by the ridges of papillæ, has manifest advantages over a smooth surface, as fitting it for being an organ of touch. It gives just that degree of adhesion or tenacity which is most important for a critical examination of an object. The elevation of the ridges also brings each row of nerves successively over the surface of the object examined. Who can refuse to acknowledge the most manifest proof of design in this arrangement? We may here observe, that while the separate presentation of the nervous ends is a condition essential to the proper exercise of the sense of touch and sight, which senses require for the fulfilment of their office a perception of the position, shape, and surface of the objects examined, this is not the case with the organs of hearing, taste, and smell, where the transmission of a general sensation is all that is required, the perception of shape being inconsistent with the nature of these senses; we shall therefore find that the nerves of these senses are exposed, at least in the organs of hearing and smell, in a totally different way. Another remark we may make: While the passage of the ridges of papillæ at the finger-ends over the object examined is an arrangement securing the nicest exercise of the discriminating faculty of touch, it also produces and keeps up the greatest