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support its head, which nodded, and then recovered itself, and then nodded again, lower and lower every time, like that of a weary traveller slumbering in an erect position; the eyes alternately open and shut. The fourth minute brought on convulsions, and life and the fifth terminated together.'-p. 62.

In the various experiments made with this poison, both abroad and in London, Mr. Waterton draws no little consolation and relief, from observing that the living principle is destroyed so gently, that the victim appears to suffer no pain whatever. This is certainly true with regard to birds; the quadrupeds in these American forests are generally shot by the common bow and poisonous arrows, and on them the effect is apparently the same. Thus on one occasion an Indian let fly an arrow into a herd of wild hogs, which struck one on the cheek bone; he fled to the distance of 170 paces, and fell quite dead. With regard to a middle-sized dog,

In three or four minutes he began to be affected, smelt at every little thing on the ground around him, and looked wistfully at the wounded part. Soon after this he staggered, laid himself down, and never rose more. He barked once, though not as if in pain. His voice was low and weak; and in a second attempt it quite failed him. He now put his head betwixt his fore legs, and raising it slowly again, he fell over on his side. His eye immediately became fixed, and though his extremities every now and then shot convulsively, he never showed the least desire to raise up his head. His heart fluttered much from the time he laid down, and at intervals beat very strong; then stopped for a moment or two, and then beat again, and continued faintly beating several minutes, after every other part of his body seemed dead.

In a quarter of an hour after he had received the poison he was quite motionless.'-p. 20.

In the case of a Sloth, it is stated that life sunk in death without the least apparent contention, without a cry, without a struggle, and without a groan, in the space of eleven minutes. The next experiment was made on a large well-fed ox, of the weight of 900 to 1000 pounds. He was wounded in each thigh, just above the hock, and in the nostril.

The poison seemed to take effect in four minutes. Conscious as though he would fall, the ox set himself firmly on his legs, and remained quite still in the same place, till about the fourteenth minute, when he smelled the ground, and appeared as if inclined to walk. He advanced a pace or two, staggered, and fell, and remained extended on his side, with his head on the ground. His eye, a few minutes ago so bright and lively, now became fixed and dim, and though you put your hand close to it, as if to give him a blow there, he never closed his eyelid.

His legs were convulsed, and his head from time to time started involuntarily; but he never showed the least desire to raise it from the ground; he breathed hard, and emitted foam from his mouth. The

startings,

startings, or subsultus tendinum, now became gradually weaker and weaker; his hinder parts were fixed in death; and, in a minute or two more, his head and fore-legs ceased to stir.

'Nothing now remained to show that life was still within him, except that his heart faintly beat and fluttered at intervals. In five and twenty minutes from the time of his being wounded, he was quite dead.'— pp. 68, 69.

An ass, inoculated in London with the Wourali, died in twelve minutes. A bandage was tied round the leg of another, and then the poison introduced a little below it. He walked about, and ate his food as usual. After the lapse of an hour, the bandage was removed, and in ten minutes the ass was dead. Another experiment was made on an ass, which was recovered, after being to all appearance dead.

A she-ass received the wourali poison in the shoulder, and died apparently in ten minutes. An incision was then made in its windpipe, and through it the lungs were regularly inflated for two hours with a pair of bellows. Suspended animation returned. The ass held up her head, and looked around; but the inflating being discontinued, she sunk once more in apparent death. The artificial breathing was immediately recommenced, and continued without intermission for two hours more. This saved the ass from final dissolution; she rose up, and walked about; she seemed neither in agitation nor in pain. The wound, through which the poison entered, was healed without difficulty. Her constitution, however, was so severely affected, that it was long a doubt if ever she would be well again. She looked lean and sickly, for above a year, but began to mend the spring after; and by Midsummer became fat and frisky.

The kind-hearted reader will rejoice on learning that Earl Percy, pitying her misfortunes, sent her down from London to Walton Hall, near Wakefield. There she goes by the name of Wouralia. Wouralia shall be sheltered from the wintry storm; and when summer comes she shall feed in the finest pasture. No burden shall be placed upon her, and she shall end her days in peace.'-pp. 81, 82.

These results show an action of the Wourali more vigorous and speedy than in those experiments made by Mr. Brodie on rabbits and other small animals with the same kind of poison. This was owing, no doubt, to the drugs made use of having been prepared in a different manner: for we entertain no doubt of the accuracy of the experiments reported by Mr. Waterton; indeed we know that the particular one on the revived she-ass was witnessed by several gentlemen of the Royal Society and College of Surgeons. A difference in the strength of any poisonous substance is quite sufficient to explain a difference in its activity,

Here we must pause. If we were disposed to hint a fault' where there is so much to commend, it would glance at that part

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he has succeeded so far as to of a man's face, the appearance of other side, that of blooming youth,' and and eyes serene in youthful beauty, and d jaws to the features of a malicious old ape.' hoses, instead of advancing, are prejudicial to, atural history. It was the occasional practice of these, that made the late Dr. Shaw reject with hoax intended to be practised upon him, the first brought to England of that most extraordinary quadruthe bill of a duck, the Ornithorynchus Paradoxus. uld advise Mr. Waterton to omit this print and the mys

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of his Wanderings,' as unworthy of his entertaining book; and tery which he has affected to throw around it, in the next edition I would also recommend him to reduce the book itself to an size, in order to ensure for it a more extended circulation.

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octavo

ART.

III.-1. Euvres Complètes de Démosthène et d'Eschine, en Grec et en Français. Tom. X.

2. Comedies of Aristophanes. Vol. II. By Thomas Mitchell, late Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.

3. The Birds of Aristophanes. By the Rev. H. F. Cary. 1824. WE endeavoured, on a former occasion, to convince an ungrate

ful generation that, whatever evils the progress of equitable jurisdiction might have drawn with it, it saved us from one evil more tremendous than all these; the union in the same persons of the legislative and judicial functions. This union of powers it was the boast and pride of the wonder-working' Greek to see accomplished in himself; with what benefit to his own person or the state, may probably form the subject of more than one inquiry in these pages.

Reserving, then, for future consideration the labours of a Greek legislative assembly, where, as (for purposes not very obscure) our

countrymen

-Wanderings.

331

gradually weaker and

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men have been so often told, all measures were carried by 'ace holding up their hands, we shall make use of the before us for calling attention to the Greek courts of ⚫ measures were carried by holding the hand in the n. In these courts the true and essential power of ies resided:-and, whether we look to those who cial office in Athens; to the advocate who con

of her seats of justice; to the evidence aceneral construction of Athenian jurisprudence; r of these points our eyes are turned, we feel warsaying, that in discussing the ancient courts of law, our is at once upon the sorest as well as the most important part antiquity. For making good these assertions little more would be required than those remains of the old Greek drama which time has so fortunately spared to us; but as there are many excellent persons who make up for believing all that is said to them with a grave face in prose, by a corresponding incredulity as to what is advanced with a merry one in verse, we shall endeavour to draw our facts from the first work mentioned at the head of our paper, and illustrations only from the other two.

The law courts in Athens amounted to ten in number; and a stranger from the allied states, when set down in that metropolis, found his way to the Heliæa, or principal of them, merely by selecting the best-trodden streets; secure that whomsoever he met by the way, they were bound to the same goal as himself. Was it a quartet wrangling and disputing as they went? they were four witnesses on their way to give testimony, and in the mean time beating up a little quarrel among themselves to be decided by one of the standing arbitrators, of whom there were four hundred and forty + in different parts of Attica. That detachment of six requires a little more explanation. The vanguard is a slave, bearing the echinus, or sealed box of depositions previously taken; and like the urn, in which the judicial names were inclosed, or the cadiscus into which the votes were thrown, (Dem. 1302,) many a cunning trick § could it unfold, were it properly scruti

• The Athenians, as if they had not legal business enough on their hands, obliged all states in alliance to come to Athens for justice. The expense, the hardship and cruelty of this proceeding gave birth to many satirical remarks from the comic poets, but the severest strictures are those by Xenophion, De Rep. Atheniensi, cap. 1. § 16, 17, 18.

+ Sir W. Jones. Preface to Isæus, p. 64. Is not this number of arbitrators some auswer to the surprize which Sir W. expresses (p. 50.) how the Archon and six Thesmothetæ could get through so much legal business, as he knows them to have had upon their hands, besides other official duties?

Isocrates, 526. The word judicial is not here to be understood in its legal sense. § Demosth. vol. ii. p. 1119.

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of Mr. Waterton's book in which he seems to pride himself in having succeeded in effacing the features of a brute and putting those of a man in their place. The author talks thus in allusion to the quackish performance with which he has embellished the leaf opposite his title-page. What we see there may, no doubt, be taken for the head of some old Greek robber or Turkish bashaw, covered with hair, but is, we suppose, in reality, that of a monkey, with the nose stretched out, the chin brought forward, and the mouth contracted. What is there to boast of in a forced change of this kind, we would ask? Again, we are told that in his preparations of quadrupeds he has succeeded so far as to give to one side of the skin of a man's face, the appearance of eighty years, and to the other side, that of blooming youth,' and to make the forehead and eyes serene in youthful beauty, and shape the mouth and jaws to the features of a malicious old ape.' Such metamorphoses, instead of advancing, are prejudicial to, the science of natural history. It was the occasional practice of such silly tricks as these, that made the late Dr. Shaw reject with disdain, as a hoax intended to be practised upon him, the first specimen brought to England of that most extraordinary quadruped, with the bill of a duck, the Ornithorynchus Paradoxus. We would advise Mr. Waterton to omit this print and the mystery which he has affected to throw around it, in the next edition of his Wanderings,' as unworthy of his entertaining book; and we would also recommend him to reduce the book itself to an octavo size, in order to ensure for it a more extended circulation.

ART. III.-1. Euvres Complètes de Démosthène et d'Eschine, en Grec et en Français. Tom. X.

2. Comedies of Aristophanes. Vol. II. By Thomas Mitchell, late Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.

3. The Birds of Aristophanes. By the Rev. H. F. Cary. 1824. WE endeavoured, on a former occasion, to convince an ungrate

ful generation that, whatever evils the progress of equitable jurisdiction might have drawn with it, it saved us from one evil more tremendous than all these; the union in the same persons of the legislative and judicial functions. This union of powers it was the boast and pride of the wonder-working' Greek to see accomplished in himself; with what benefit to his own person or the state, may probably form the subject of more than one inquiry in these pages.

Reserving, then, for future consideration the labours of a Greek legislative assembly, where, as (for purposes not very obscure) our

countrymen

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