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were in almost total ignorance respecting the real nature of the circulation, or the mode in which it is performed for although, perhaps, among their writings, passages may be found apparently indicating some acquaintance with the subject; yet as they have left us no distinct account, and as their works abound with gross absurdities respecting it, our conclusions are certainly warrantable; especially when we consider, at the same time, how little anatomy was cultivated as a science among them.

The discovery of the true nature of the circulation is due to Harvey, who flourished in the 17th century; but since his time, succeeding physiologists have diligently applied their talents to the subject, (a wide field for investigation,) and have added by their labors many new facts to the discovery of their immortal predeces

sor.

Various and important are the uses which the circulation of the blood is destined to serve :-by its means the various secretions are performed, the growth of the body promoted, and its decay and losses repaired; and besides all this, it is, in some mysterious manner, connected with that inexplicable subject, the animal temperature,

We shall in the first place, then, endeavor to give a general sketch of the anatomy of the heart, the great agent of the circulation; and then explain the nature and constituent parts of the blood-the fluid of vitality.

The heart is a large hollow muscle, situated in the chest, between the lungs, and enfolded in a bag called the pericardium, the inner lining membrane of which is reflected over the surface of the heart itself. The heart is divided internally (we are speaking of man) into four cavities: the right and the left auricle, and the right and the left ventricle. Into the right auricle, two veins, called the vena cava, enter; one bringing the blood from the upper, the other from the lower parts of the body. The two veins unite at their entrance into the auricle, and at the

point of union between them a thickening is to be seen, called the turberculum Loweri. Within the auricles bundles of muscular fibres project from the sides. These, from their resemblance to the teeth of a comb, are termed musculi pectinati. The partition between the right and left auricle is called the septum auricularum.

The right auricle communicates with the right ventricle by means of an opening, denominated the ostium venosum; at the edges of which, within the ventricle, are three valves, or rather a valve divided into three parts, called the tricuspid valve, from its resemblance to the points of three spears; to the edges of this valve small muscular bundles are attached, called carne columna, by means of tendinous chords, (chordæ tendinæ.) From the right ventricle the pulmonary artery arises, at the root of which, internally, are situated the three semilunar valves, with a small white body at the edge of each, termed corpus sesamoideum. Into the left auricle the four pulmonary veins enter. The coats of this auricle are thicker than those of the right, otherwise it exhibits much the same appearances. It opens into the left ventricle, having also at the opening a valve, but divided only into two parts, called from its likeness to a mitre, valvula mitralis. The great difference which the left ventricle exhibits is the superior strength and fleshiness of its walls, indicating the vigorous action it is destined to maintain; emerging from it is seen the aorta, or main artery, with three semilunar valves internally at its root. The use of the various valves we shall explain when considering the course of the circulation.

Having thus briefly described the general anatomy of the heart, we shall next proceed to examine the properties and constituent parts of the blood itself. The blood, when drawn from the body, and suffered to remain in any vessel, quickly separates into two parts,-one a thick yellow fluid, called serum, the other a tenacious

solid mass of a dark red color, termed of nutriment, more florid if exposed crassamentum. The relative propor- to oxygen, and darker if exposed to tions of these vary exceedingly, ac- carbonic acid or hydrogen. The cocording to age, sex, temperament, loring matter has been said to contain mode of life, &c. ; yet generally speak- oxide of iron; this, however, later ing, the estimate may be made as ten chemists have disputed, and Dr. of the serum to fourteen of the cras- Wells, in his "Observations and Exsamentum. The serum contains wa- periments on the Color of Blood," after, albumine, muriate of soda, and ter much investigation, decides against potass, phosphate of soda, animal mat- the theory; indeed, his arguments, ter, &c. which are too extended to be here introduced, seem to settle the point at once, confirmed as they have been by subsequent inquirers-Berzelius, Brande, and Vauquelin. Mr. Brande has even succeeded in dying cloth with it, but he found considerable difficulty in fixing the color; the most effectual mordants he discovered were, the nitrate and oximuriate of mercury.

The crassamentum is divisible into two parts, fibrine, and the coloring particles of the blood. The component parts of fibrine are carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and azote. When the coloring matter of blood recently drawn is examined with a microscope, it is found to consist of globules of extreme minuteness, of a red color, but varying from different causes, being paler from illness and deficiency

The specific gravity of the blood is estimated at 1050, water being 1000.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM PARIS.

CHATEAU DE LAGRANGE-LAFAYETTE.

IN the country, as I told you in my last, all the better society of Paris is now buried, and Lagrange, from which I am just returned, since the end of the session, has been the Chaussée d'Antin, where all the most illustrious men in the Chambers, or in literature, have by turns rusticated. There is no want of strangers either; and, as you would expect, the Americans especially are to be seen there in multitudes. The last very conspicuous English visitor there, was Sir Francis Burdett, who has been exerting his eloquence in favor of the droit d'ainesse; from which, exclaimed his distinguished host, "Thank God! the revolution has delivered us!"

The chateau is delightfully situated. It is about thirteen leagues from Paris, and the road is through the rich plains of the ancient province of Brie. We quitted the diligence at the village of Rosoy, about half an hour's ride from the chateau, where a carriage, sent by the General, was waiting for

us.

Ruined Gothic towers, covered with ivy, which was planted there

some thirty years back by Mr. Fox, give a sort of feudal air to the castle, which mingles curiously, but not disagreeably, with the republican associations attached to the name of its owner. The chateau is surrounded by a fine park, which is stocked in a manner that would not harmonise with your English notions. Instead of slight, graceful, aristocratical deer, nothing but the tiers état of the animal creation, blebeian cows, and more plebeian sheep, are to be seen grazing within its precincts. For these last animals, the General has a great affection. He superintends their education in person, and exhibits a most philomelical zeal in improving the breed. The English friend who was with me had never seen Lafayette. He was wonderfully struck with his venerable appearance, and especially with the calm, full, and scarcely wrinkled countenance, upon which a record of the words he has spoken, and the deeds he has performed, for his country, seemed to be legibly engraven. His head, over which seven

ty-two years have passed, is lofty,-a peruque à la Titus covers it, and does not take much from its patriarchal appearance. His tall figure adds to the impression of nobility which his countenance produces upon your mind; and, in short, there is nothing about him, even to his slow and painful walk, a reminiscence of his long captivity at Olmutz, which does not at once attract and affect the heart.

The severest charge ever brought against this great man, whose name is so dear already to two of the greatest nations of the world, and will, some day or other, be pronounced with reverence in its remotest corners, relates to his conduct respecting Louis XVI. and the Royal Family on the memorable 6th of October. In a work, consisting of various interesting anecdotes, from the pen of M. Touchard La Fosse, entitled "La Revolution, l'Empire, et La Restoration," which appeared in the course of last week, there is a page upon the insurrection of Versailles, which sets this matter in so clear a light, and so completely exonerates Lafayette from blame, that I am sure you will thank me for transcribing it.

"For a long time," says M. Touchard," it has been fashionable to lay the responsibility of the events of the 6th of October upon the veteran of the American and French Revolutions. Even those who were unwilling to accuse him of direct bad faith, have intimated that he was at least sadly deficient in foresight; and he has been nicknamed, Le dormeur de Versailles. Let us see whether he merits their reproaches. M. de Lafayette came to Versailles on the 5th, at ten o'clock in the evening. He instantly placed guards without the gate; but the commanders of the body guard positively refused to admit the soldats bourgeois into the interior. The royal family itself rejected the offers of the Commander-in-chief of the National Guard, a guard which a very celebrated person stigmatised as the canaille nationale. In spite of this treatment, Lafayette neglected no

precautions which it was possible for him to adopt. He renewed his declarations of inviolable attachment to the King, and did everything to convince him of their sincerity; but the distrust of the Court continued, and it is to this cause alone, that we must attribute the events which followed, and which were arrested by that very plebeian militia, by that very Lafayette whose offers of assistance had been suspected or disdained. Meantime, a band of wretches killed some of the body-guards whom their comrades could not or would not defend. The apartment of the Queen was forced: they rushed to her bed; she escaped, half-naked, just in time to save herself from the poinards of the assailants-the Parisians rushed to their assistance-entered the house in defiance of the opposition of the persons they came to rescue, and the King and Queen were saved. I should like to know where was the negligence of the national guard ? Where any want of foresight in their chief?"

The volume from which I have borrowed this passage contains many other pages, doing equal honor to the conduct of Lafayette, under the Republic and the restored Bourbons. Indeed, of the two hundred and twenty persons, whose portraits are hung up in the gallery of M. Touchard, it would not be rash to affirm that Lafayette is the only one who has remained the same, amidst all the changes which, during the third of a century, have been passing under our eyes.

If Lafayette complies with the wishes of his friends, and writes a history of his life, how many new facts he will reveal; how many intrigues he will be able to explain ! for, to say the truth, he is the only Frenchman who lived through the Revolution without participating in its excesses; beheld the empire, and was not dazzled by its splendor; took part in the establishment of the monarchy, and never defiled himself by any of its interested conversions. These three periods of modern French history, re

pen.

quire a new, a hold, and an impartial the eyes of Frenchmen are beginning The calamitous events immedi- to be purged of the mists which false ately subsequent to the restoration have notions of glory had called up, has been scarcely touched upon. Thiers employed his all-powerful pen to enand Mignet are far too much of fa- courage the delusion by spreading talists in their histories of the Revolu- a dangerous admiration for Napotion; and Béranger, at a time when leon.

MONT BLANC.

BY L. E. L.

Heaven knows our travellers have sufficiently alloyed the beautiful, and profaned the sublime, by associating these with themselves, the common-place, and the ridiculous; but out upon them, thus to tread on the grey hairs of centuries,-on the untrodden snows of Mont Blanc.

THOU monarch of the upper air,
Thou mighty temple given
For morning's earliest of light,
And evening's last of heaven.

The vapor from the marsh, the smoke
From crowded cities sent,
Are purified before they reach
Thy loftier element.

Thy hues are not of earth, but heaven;
Only the sunset rose

Hath leave to fling a crimson dye
Upon thy stainless snows.

Now out on those adventurers
Who scaled thy breathless height,
And made thy pinnacle, Mont Blanc,
A thing for common sight.
Before that human step had left
Its sully on thy brow,

The glory of thy forehead made
A shrine to those below:
Men gazed upon thee as a star,
And turned to earth again,
With dreams like thine own
clouds,

The vague but not the vain.
No feelings are less vain than those
That bear the mind away,

Till, blent with nature's mysteries,
It half forgets its clay.

It catches loftier impulses,
And owns a nobler power;

The poet and philosopher
Are born of such an hour.

But now where may we seek a place
For any spirit's dream?

Our steps have been o'er every soil,
Our sails o'er every stream.
Those isles, the beautiful Azores,
The fortunate, the fair!

We looked for their perpetual spring
To find it was not there.

Bright El Dorado, land of gold,
We have so sought for thee,
There's not a spot in all the globe
Where such a land can be.

How pleasant were the wild beliefs
That dwelt in legends old!
Alas! to our posterity

Will no such tales be told.

We know too much, scroll after scroll
Weighs down our weary shelves;
Our only point of ignorance

floating Is centred in ourselves.

Alas! for thy past mystery,
For thine untrodden snow,

Nurse of the tempest, hadst thou none
To guard thy outraged brow?
Thy summit, once the unapproached,
Hath human presence owned;
With the first step upon thy crest,
Mont Blanc, thou wert dethroned.

THE SHAVING SHOP.

"Tis not an half hour's work

A Cupid and a fiddle, and the thing's done.-FLETCHER.

"HOLD back your head, if you please, sir, that I may get this napkin properly fastened-there now," said Toby Tims, as, securing the pin, he dipped his razor into hot water, and began working up with restless brush the lather of his soap-box.

paper there?" said I; "are you a politician, Mr. Tims ?"

Ob, just a little bit of one. I get Bell's Messenger at second hand from a neighbor, who has it from his cousin in the Borough, who, I believe, is the last reader of a club of fourteen,

"I dare say you have got a news- who take it among them; and, being

and as for the wig department, catch me for that, sir. But of all them there pictures hanging around, yon is the favorite of myself and the connessoors."

last, as I observed, sir, he has the pa- very much admired-extremely like per to himself into the bargain.-Please the Wenus de Medicine-capital nose exalt your chin, sir, and keep your head a little to one side-there, sir," added Toby, commencing his operations with the brush, and hoarifying my barbal extremity, as the facetious Thomas Hood would propably express it. 66 Now, sir-a leetle more round, if you please there, sir, there. It is a most entertaining paper, and beats all for news. In fact, it is full of everything, sir-every, everything-ac66 Capital, sir-capital. I'll tell you cidents-charity serinons-markets— a rare good story, sir, connected with boxing-Bible societies-horse-racing that picture and my own history, with -child-murders-the theatres-for- your honor's leave, sir." eign wars-Bow-street reports-electioneering and Day and Martin's blacking."

"Are you a bit of a bruiser, Mr. Tims?"

"Oh, bless your heart, sir, only a leetle-a very leetle. A turn-up with the gloves, or so, your honor.-I'm but a light weight-only a light weight -seven stone and a half, sir; but a rare bit of stuff, though I say it my self, sir-Begging your pardon. I dare say I have put some of the soap into your mouth. Now, sir, now-please let me hold your nose, sir."

"Scarcely civil, Mr. Toby," said I, "scarcely civil-Phroo! let me spit out the suds."

"I will be done in a moment, sirin half a moment. Well, sir, speaking of razors, they should be always properly tempered with hot water, a leetle dip more or less. You see now how it glides over, smooth and smack as your hand. Keep still, sir, I might have given you a nick just now.-You don't choose a leetle of the mustachy left ?"

"No, no-off with it all. trimonial news stirring in this just now, Mr. Tims ?"

"Ay, Mr. Tims," said I, " that is truly a gem-an old lover kneeling at the foot of his young sweetheart, and two fellows in buckram taking a peep at them from among the trees."

"With all my heart, Mr. Tims— you are very obliging."

"Well then, sir, take that chair, and I will get on like a house on fire; but if you please, don't put me off my clew, sir.-Concerning that picture and my courtship, the most serious epoch of my life, there is a leetle bit of a story which I would like to be a beacon to others; and if your honor is still a bachelor, and not yet stranded on the shoals of matrimony, it may be Werbum sapienti, as O'Toole the Irish schoolmaster used to observe, when in the act of applying the birch to the booby's back.

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Well, sir, having received a grammatical education, and been brought up as a peruke-maker from my earliest years-besides having seen a deal of high life, and the world in general, in carrying false curls, bandeaux, and other artificial head-gear paraphernalia, in bandboxes to boarding-schools, and so on-a desire naturally sprung up within me, being now in my twenty-first year, and worth a guinea a week of wages, to look about for what old kind Seignor Fiddle-stringo the quarter minuet-master used to recommend under the title of a cara sposa-open shop and act head frizzle in an establishment of my own.

No ma

Nothing extremely particular.Now, sir, you are fit for the King's levee, so far as my department is concerned. But you cannot go out just now, sir-see how it rains-a perfect water-spout. Just feel yourself at home, sir, for a leetle, and take a peep around you. That block, sir, has been 44 ATHENEUM, VOL. 1, 3d series.

Very good, sir-In the pursuit of this virtuous purpose, I cast a sheep's eye over the broad face of society, and at length, from a number of eligible specimens, I selected three, who, whether considered in the light of natural

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