though less direct, advantages would be derived to the intervening country, from these new channels of intercourse.

Besides, it may be excepted that Dorjeeling will, very soon, be made a depôt for Military Invalids from the Lower Provinces, and although doubts were in the first instance entertained upon the fitness of the climate for this purpose, its salubrity is now most fully established; and as Calcutta is more than 1,000 miles from Landour, and only 371 from Dorjeeling it is to be hoped a trial may be made of it as a convalescent station, and eventually it will doubtless become a cantonment for European troops.

In the meanwhile, under the civil administration of Dr. Campbell, the Superintendent, who is also in charge of the political relations with Sikim, excellent roads are being extended around the station, and generally throughout the appended territory, and every assistance is afforded by the Government to settlers and others visiting the Sanatarium.

There is a resident Medical Officer, and an Officer in command of the local Corps of Sappers and Miners, who also acts as Executive Officer in the Department of Public Works.

These officers with their families, and several individual residents, with the numerous casual visitors occupying the two hotels and the various buildings erected at the station, now form a considerable society who are enjoying throughout the year an invigorating climate within a short distance of Calcutta, and where the average range of the thermometer is about that of England and the north of France, or a mean temperature of about 55o, with occasional falls of snow in the months of January, February, and March. The station commands the most magnificent prospect of the Snowy Range visible from any place in India, and in which appears eminently conspicuous the lofty peak of Kunchin Jinga, said to be 27,000 feet above the level of the sea; the elevation of Dorjeeling itself being 7,218 feet.

The surrounding country, in respect to natural scenery, is superior to Landour and Mussourie; and its productions, such as oaks, birches and chesnuts, are of greater variety and larger size. It has a northern aspect, which is wanting at Landour and Mussourie, and which counterbalances any supposed advantage possessed by either of those places.

The general opinion of persons who have visited Simla and Dorjeeling is in favor of the latter, as regards the natural advantages of scenery and magnificence of the forest. As to the prospect of the Snowy Range there is no variation of opinion; Dorjeeling is unrivalled in this particular: the clearances, and small settlements of the mountaineers, are much more numerous around Simla, and this gives greater variety to the scene; but the more bare and precipitious character of the Simla mountain is surpassed in grandeur and beauty by those of Dorjeeling. The atmosphere of Dorjeeling is drier than that of Landour and Mossourie; this it owes to its greater distance from the plains and the position of the loftier Sinchal which obstructs the passage of the ascending vapours of the terai, while at Mussourie, which overhangs the Deyra Dhoon, the atmosphere, during the warm season, is charged with the damp of the lowlands.

Simla, according to Dr. Webb, is often visited with a typhoid fever and epidemic sore throats of a virulent character, while at Dorjeeling such diseases have hitherto been unknown, and with the exception of small pox, the scourge of all countries and climes, it may be said to be without any disease whatever peculiar to it, and to be beneficial in the recovery from all

ailments.

* See Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta.

The comparative elevations of the Bengal Sanataria are as follow :

In conclusion; all, without exception, who have visited Dorjeeling, concur in describing it as possessing a climate superior to that of Landour or Mussourie; and thus at length is supplied the derideratum the want of which has, hitherto, been so seriously felt by the inhabitants of the metropolis of India and of the Lower Provinces, and a Sanatarium is secured to them equal to any in India, and within the reach of all, at a moderate

expense.

Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta.Vol. IX-Part I.-Calcutta, 1845.

A VALUABLE volume of a truly valuable series. Besides papers, more or less elaborate, on divers important subjects, it contains the proceedings of the regular monthly meetings of the society, held at the Asiatic Society's apartments. From the very nature of the subjects treated of, and the copious use of scientific technical terms, the work cannot be generally popular, in the ordinary sense of that word; though it does abound with particular statements of fact, which, if segregated from the surrounding mass, and somewhat divested of their technical garb, could not fail to prove generally, if not universally, interesting. To members of the medical profession, more especially in India, such a volume, recording in an authentic form the researches and experiences of so many able and acute observers, must possess a value that cannot easily be over-estimated. Indeed, apart altogether from the consideration of its being a repository of useful facts, experiments, and verified conclusions, the periodical publication of such a work is well calculated to generate the very excellence of which it is designed to become the permanent memorial. When men are habitually taught to feel that their peculiar experiences, or successful operations, or happy discoveries, whether of latent causes or of apposite remedies, are, through the medium of such an established channel, to be made available for the enlightenment, guidance, or encouragement of others, without limitation of clime or colour,-such an ever-present conviction cannot but stimulate the powers of inquiry, sharpen the faculty of observation, and beget a habit of minute accuracy in noting and recording phenomena which otherwise might be unattainable. Accordingly, when we turn to the papers of which the volume now before us is composed-whether we regard the style in which one is written, the power of condensation exhibited in a second, the erudition of a third, the dexterity of professional skill and the fertility of professional resource displayed by others,—we cannot but conclude that the

work is one which would reflect credit on any Body or Society of men, even in the most favoured abodes of science and civilization.

The authors of the larger and more elaborate papers are by Doctors Finch, Sprenger, Webb, O'Shaugnessy, Goodeve, Wise, Kirk, and Batson. If we were to notice any of these in detail, the two that would fall most legitimately within our more appropriate sphere, are the first by Dr. Finch, "On the effect of change of climate on the health of the Native Army ;" and the second, by Dr. Sprenger, on the " Arabic terms of Materia Medica." The more immediate object of the former being, "the health of the Native Army," it developes principles and establishes facts which admit of a vastly more extended application. The introduction to the latter contains some useful information respecting the principal Arabic works on Materia Medica. The author is evidently an enthusiast in oriental pursuits. He reminds of the palmy days of the Tytlers, and Prinseps, and Wilsons. Like them he appears to regard Orientalism as a mine, which needs only to be explored, to give forth treasures that may strip the laurel from the brow of modern pretensions. And if, unlike them, he succeed in realizing his gorgeous visions, sure we are that there is enough of Baconian philosophy in his profession, to treat with candour and receive with thankfulness any genuine revelations of hitherto hidden or lost knowledge which he may bring to view. In the blaze of his zeal for the wondrous and recondite verities, supposed to be buried beneath the mountain load of antiquated rubbish, he seems occasionally to lose sight of the consecutiveness of his reasoning. "I know," says he, "most of my colleagues, look down upon Arabic medicine, but I do think it would be better, to look first, into it. I am sure that there is no man in Asia, nor in Europe, neither a native nor a white man, who has a sufficiently profound knowledge of Arabic medicine, to justify him in passing any opinion at all upon it." Here is a negative universal-no exception-none whatsoever;- no man in Asia, nor in Europe, neither a native nor a white man." Here is certainty-certainty absolute;-"I am sure that there is no man. Here is ignorance-and as regards the object, ignorance total;—“ no man" possesses sufficient knowledge-not, to warrant him in passing a comprehensive, enlightened, authoritative opinion on the subject of Arabic medicine-but not sufficient knowledge, "to justify him in passing any opinion at all upon it." What! does the worthy doctor include himself too in this category of ignorance? He does, formally and expressly he does:-"I cannot, says he, "boast myself of knowing more about it than other people. Very good. But, as regards other people, they were all pronounced ignorant: hence the Doctor was led to draw the legitimate logical conclusion, that, in consequence of such ignorance, they were not "justified in passing any opinion at all on the subject." Himself he formally places in the same category as all the other ignorant people. Of course, his own logical conclusion must apply with equally valid and intensive force to himself; so that, by his own demonstration, he himself is not "justified in passing any opinion at all upon it?" But no!

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the ignorance of all others justly precludes them from passing an opinion; but the asserted or confessed ignorance of the author himself does not preclude him! Notwithstanding his own acknowledged ignorance, he feels himself quite justified in passing a very strong and decided opinion on the subject-an opinion so strong and decided that he bravely hazards the assertion, that "the present state of medical practice, is not much superior to that of former ages," among the Arabs-that "they cured as many patients, and killed less, than we do, notwithstanding our superiority in anatomy and other preparatory studies"-that "much that was in those times familiarly known and acted upon, would greatly improve our own knowledge and practice, even at the present day." When Dr. Sprenger has once succeeded in bringing to light those hitherto recondite and undiscovered stores of Arabic medical science, we shall be ready to believe in the reality of their existence, even as we are ready to believe in the real existence of the Philosopher's stone, when once its discovery is put beyond the pale of rational dubiety. Meanwhile we shall take his dogmatic assertion at what it is worth-viz. as the assertion of one who declares, that "no man in Asia nor in Europe, neither a native, nor a white man "knows enough of the subject to justify him in passing any opinion at all upon it "—and that he himself "cannot boast himself of knowing more about it than other people."

Respecting his brethren in the medical profession, Dr. Sprenger appears to us to indulge in incautious and unwarranted language. His words are, "The majority of the members of our profession are now much more defective in all literary education, than they have been at any time before." Now, our own impression is a clear and decided one-viz., that, at no previous period, did the profession possess a greater number of men endowed with high literary accomplishments. But here lurks the fallacy, and, consequently, the source of the Doctor's hallucination. Though, in words, he speaks of "all literary education, "it is palpable, from the context, that his "all" of literary education, is, to a great extent, if not almost exclusively, restricted to a learned orientalism, and more especially the crabbed philological asperities of an antiquated and obsolete Arabic lore. There was a time when the classical enthusiast in Europe could not allow any thing to be deemed worthy of the name of Literature, save that of Greece and Rome. So now, the comparatively ignorant and consummately conceited Maulavi or Pandit can allow nothing to be worthy of the name of Literature or learning, except that of Arabic or Sanskrit. That such persons, in their inflated self-complacency, could, and can still, think and speak after this fashion, is nothing strange, though it is at the expense of their credit as men of learning, judgment, and good sense. They know only one species of Literature, and that is their own; what they do know, they extol, perhaps idolize; what they do not know, they, with the usual presumption of ignorance, profess to despise, perhaps abhor. Now, the plain dictate of sound reason, in all such cases, is, to admit that to be fact which is

fact; to confess that the domain of literature is not one invariable homogeneous surface, but a richly and endlessly diversified mosaic -that it consists, not of one, but of many compartments, with their destinctive configurations and characteristic constituent elements. There is such a thing as occidental literature; there is a Greek and a Roman literature; there are also such things as English literature, German literature, French literature, Italian literature, with many more. To these let us freely and ungrudgingly add those other things, entities, or realities, known under the names of Arabic, Sanskrit, Tibetian, Chinese, Burmese, Singhalese or any other oriental literatures. All of these have their own distinguishing featurestheir own peculiar national idiosyncracies-their own distinctive merits and demerits. How far the merits or demerits of each may preponderate is not now the question. All that we plead for, is, that whatever merits may be truly alleged as belonging to any, we should, in fairness and in candour, freely concede to it the credit of possessing them. Amongst the different genera and species of literature, there may be a good, a better, and a best. But let no man who has devoted his time, talents and energies to the exclusive study of one, presume to declare that it is the only one worth studying, or venture to exalt it to a despot's throne. To Dr. Sprenger, we wish all possible success in exploring the caverns and labyrinths of Arabic literature; and would rejoice exceedingly to see him return to the light of day, laden with spoils worthy of such heroic devotedness. But, for the sake of his credit, and the success of his own cause, let him carefully abstain from a style of writing which is sure to produce a damaging reaction against both. Let him not claim for his favourite study a monopoly of excellence, which, until it is fairly seen, others will be apt to reckon as the spontaneous growth of his own fervent and fertile imagination. Let him not set up for it the yet unverified plea of possessing exclusive unrivalled prerogatives, which must be at once and disdainfully repudiated by ten thousand reclaiming voices from the wide and ever-extending. republic of letters.

The Anglo-Indian Passage; homeward and outward; or a card for the overland Traveller from Southampton to Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, &c., by David Lester Richardson, Author of Literary Leaves, &c.

THIS is quite a gem among guide-books. Having seen various favourable notices of it, we were predisposed to think well of it. But, having now perused the work itself, we feel justified in saying that it has considerably surpassed our expectations. Not that we were not prepared for a superior production from the pen of an author who has so distinguished himself in the world of letters; but that we did not expect him to lavish much of his literary powers on such a work of mere utilitarianism. The present publication, however, only