ments, all of which are MINERAL SUBSTANCES. Thus, when examined to the bottom, it is philosophically and literally true, that God formed man of the very materials of the earth on which he walks: but jargon about "native virgin earth," as well as the vulgar acceptation of the word "dust," can only be an apology for ignorance and an invitation to sceptical ridicule. From these instances, it may appear, that an acquaintance with Natural History is not less necessary than philology and chronological order,' for the purpose of silencing sceptics and heretics, infidels and scoffers, by exposing the weakness and inconclusiveness of their objections and cavils.' pref. P. xxii. To the book of Job Dr. H. has devoted a large share of attention, and has conferred upon it copious and valuable illustration. In addition to a variety of other and weighty arguments for the high antiquity of that sacred book, he adduces one which, though not original, will be to many reader's novel, and seems to approach as closely to a decision as can be expected in such a case. It is founded on the precession of the equinoxes, and the intimations supposed to be given in Job xxxviii. 31. that no (either Pleiades or Taurus) was at that time the cardinal constellation of Spring, and (Scorpio) that of Autumn. The calculation brings out the year B. C. 2337; which is, according to Dr. H.'s scale, near 200 years prior to the birth of Abraham. For this astronomical argument he makes acknowledgements to Dr. Brinkley, Astron. Prof. Trin. Coll. Dubl.: and he has since discovered that it had been anticipated and published in 1765, by Ducoutant. The great difficulty, it appears to us, is to determine that Chimah and Chesil really were the leading constellations of those opposite seasons of the year, at the time of Job. Is it not certain that the names, and the proverbial use of them, were retained long after the particular constellations had ceased to occupy the cardinal portions of the heavens? Thus we still retain the ancient divisions of the zodiac, though the actual constellations are now a whole sign behind the places denominated from them. So likewise in the writings of Amos, who flourished more than 1500 years later than the date here assigned to Job, the two constellations are mentioned exactly in the same way of pre-eminence as in Job, ix. 9. "He that maketh Chimah and Chesil, and converteth "the shadow of death into the morning." Amos, v. 8. Cer * Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Carbon, Phosphorus, Sulphur, Iron; and the new metals of Ammonium, Sodium, Potassium, and Lime: to which must be added Caloric. tainly the expression in Job, xxxviii. 31. is more definite; but is it quite adequate to destroy the objection?-However 'the sum total of the whole evidence appears quite enough to repel the cavils of Warburton, Stock, and others, and to au'thorize Dr. H.'s conclusion. • Such a combination and coincidence of various rays of evidence, derived from widely different sources, history, sacred and profane, chronology and astronomy, and all converging to the same common focus, tend strongly to establish the time of Job's trial as rightly assigned in the year B. C. 2337; or 818 years after the deluge.' p. 59. We cannot but wish, however, that, in addition to his detail of positive evidences, he had stated and refuted the arguments of Le Clerc and Warburton in favour of the hypothesis that the book was written during the captivity. We are also surprized that Dr. H. has made so little use of the stores which the Arabic language would furnish, for the illustration of this most venerable and interesting poem. It might be expected that the learned orientalist would not neglect the locus vexatissimus, Job, xix. 23—27. He has employed much criticism upon it, and has added some confirmations to the sense, which solid evidence has long ago established, in opposition to that tribe of commentators, whose object appears too frequently to be a dechristianizing of those writings which the Redeemer of men has enjoined us diligently 10" search, because they testify of him." Our limits will not allow us to extract the illustrative reniarks; but we shall insert the translation of the passage. O that my words were now written ! "I know that my Redeemer [is] living, "And that at the last [day] "He will arise [in judgment] upon dust [mankind:] "And after my skin be mangled thus, "Yet even from my flesh, shall I see God: "Whom I shall see for me, [on my side,] "And mine eyes shall behold him not estranged; "[Though] my reins be [now] consumed within me." The word "pencil" does not appear a happy rendering of , which denotes a stylus, or pointed chissel. Dr. H.'s 'translation of the first clause in the confession seems to be less poetically expressive, and in no respect more intelligible than the literal rendering would be: "I know my Redeemer, the Living One." The other parts of the version are ably supported in the author's notes. (To be continued.) Art. XIV. Essays on the Changes of the Human Body, at its different Ages; the Diseases to which it is predisposed at each Period of Life; and the Physiological Principles of its Longevity. The whole illustrated by many Analogies in Plants and Animals. By Thomas Jameson, M. D. &c. 8vo. pp. 360. London, Longman and Co. 1811. WE took up this publication with the hope of finding it suited to popular instruction, and capable of dispelling, in some degree, the ignorance and prejudice so extensively prevalent on the important subjects of which it treats. The perusal of it, however, has not afforded us any considerable gratification,-though this may have arisen less from the defects of its execution, than from the absence of originality; and we readily admit that those to whom the subject is new may read the work with advantage. The author, indeed, tells us that he writes chiefly for professional readers, but that he has purposely avoided the phraseology peculiar to medicine, so far as to make his work intelligible to well informed general readers. In this, we think he has acted wisely; for, we conceive, medical men in general will glean but little valuable information from it, and consequently will not be likely to have it much in their hands. Indeed no reputable physician or surgeon can have passed through the common course of medical study without having become familiar with the facts and reasonings it contains. They will not, to be sure, have obtained this knowledge exactly in the same way in which it is arranged in the volume before us; but whether this will either lessen its value, or embarrass its application to the purposes of science, or the business of life, may admit of doubt. 6 The work is divided into three chapters or Essays: the. first exhibiting a view of the changes of the human body at different ages; the second an account of the predisposition to diseases in each period;' and the third, the physiological principles of longevity. These essays are preceded by a short Introductory chapter on the phænomena of life and growth. The author divides life into vegetable, sensitive, and cerebral, limiting the last to that class of animals whose impressions are transmitted to a common sensorium, the source. of ideas and thought, as is discovered in vertebral animals.' This subdivision of the phænomena of animal life, though not anatomically inaccurate, seems somewhat inconsistent with the physiological principle, that sensation is always connected with nervous structure; and may possibly lead the uninformed to infer a differeuce which will not be found to exist in nature. If sensitive differs from vegetable life by the addition of sensibility to the irritable power of living organised matter, as stated by our author, that can only happen from the addition of nervous structure. The distinction, consequently, betwixt sensitive and cerebral life can be a difference in degree only and not in kind; and their separation is at least unnecessary if not improper. On the subject of growth Dr. Jameson appears to entertain notions different from those of most physiologists, and to our apprehension not very clear. The stimulus of growth," he says, produces a quick circulation of nutritious fluid over the system intended, no doubt, for a speedy supply of arterial blood containing new matter to enlarge the size of parts.' So that according to this mode of reasoning growth is both cause and effect. He rejects, too, the opinion of Haller, that the action of the heart and large arteries have considerable influence upon this process, because of the uniformity of its laws in animals, which have no heart; but as the large arteries must perform the functions of a heart in those animals, the rejection of their influence appears to rest on very insufficient grounds; and it can hardly be doubted that these important parts of the animal economy, as well as the capillary extremities of the arterial system, are concerned in this very curious and obscure process. In filling up the subdivisions of the two first essays, Dr. Jameson has occasionally permitted his desire to make his work appear complete, supersede the exercise of severer judgement. He has introduced, for example, a chapter on the diseases to which the body is predisposed even before its birth, than which, we humbly conceive, nothing can be more ridiculous. It might be fairly questioned, indeed, whether most of the affections which he has strung together under this head, are properly morbid. They are chiefly defects of structure, and might with propriety have been entirely disregarded. We have remarked, too, some few instances of carelessness not very creditable to a physician who rests his claims to respectful attention as an author, on a forty years standing in the profession: for instance, he describes the mumps asa tumefaction of the skin and cellular membrane of the fauces,' without noticing the swelling of the parotid gland, which in fact constitutes the disease, and gives it its name in the systems of nosology. The essay on the physiological principles of longevity does not exhibit that enlarged comprehensive view of the subject which its title might lead one to expect; nor is it remarkable for placing the facts already known on the subject, in a new or striking point of view. The essay commences with a concise view of the general mortality of mankind; in which Dr. Jameson has availed himself of the tables drawn up by Dr. Price, and has, from this source, formed tables of the comparative probabilities of the duration of life at different periods, and in different situations, as well as of the comparative longevity of males and females. The conclusions obtained from the registers of mortality have perhaps received their best and most important application in the science of political arithmetic, but they are not unimportant in reference to other objects, as they enable the medical inquirer to determine the comparative mortality of remote periods, and thus to ascertain the progress of those improvements which are slowly, though certainly, taking place in society, as well from the more general diffusion of knowledge, as from juster views of the nature and cure of diseases. Thus it appears from the London bills, that its annual mortality has decreased, from 1750 to 1802, from four to three per cent, and the annual deficit has decreased during the same period from one and a half to less than four fifths per cent, and it is not improbable that a similar improvement may have taken place in other situations, though to a less extent. The most remarkable circumstance connected with extraordinary longevity, is the fact of its being frequently hereditary in particular families; and to this peculiarity of hereditary stamina,' Dr. J. has added the changes which the human machine-undergoes from the influence of external causes.'-We believe, however, that nearly all which is known on the subject might be referred to the influence of the former cause. The consideration of this subject naturally led Dr. J. to make some reference to the remarkable longevity of the antediluvian age, and we were not a little surprized to find him speaking on the subject of the deluge in such terms as the following: All that we are able to infer from patriarchal history is, that the population and fertility of the earth had so greatly increased before the flood, as to render it necessary for the existence of posterity, that mankind should be destroyed by a deluge, which so changed the face of the earth as to shorten the duration of their lives afterwards. p. 301, If this is the only inference which Dr. Jameson can draw from the plain narration of the sacred historian, the inference which his readers may be allowed to make cannot be very favourable to his understanding. Moses expressly attributes that awful catastrophe to the corruption of the human race, and the violence which reigned in the world, nor does he make any allusion whatever either to its fertility or populousness at that period, neither of which it is presumable could be very considerable,—and if they were, could have nothing to do with the event. In another instance connected with the same VOL. VIII. 2 C |