Experiments and Obfervations on Water. IT is a maxim of the divine Hippocrates, that whoever would apply with fuccefs to the study of phyfick, fhould acquaint himself with every circumftance relating to the fituation of the place wherein he practifes, the nature of the feasons, the influence of the winds, and the particular qualities of the water. The last object is by far the most important; because, as a fixed and permanent caufe, its effects will be regular, uniform and conftant. For whether the fimple element itself be used, or it be mixed with vinous liquors, or brewed into beer, it will still retain in fome meafure its peculiar properties, and if impure, will gradully produce fome morbid changes in the body. On the robuft indeed, its action may perhaps be flow, and imperceptible; but the tender and valetudinary will find themselves fooner and more fenfibly affected by it. Many of the diseases of children, it is more than probable, -owe their rife to this neceffary diluent and vehicle of their food. And if we confider that numberless chronic diforders have their foundation laid in the state of infancy and childhood, the influence of water on the health of mankind will appear to be very extensive, and deferving of our ftricteft attention and regard. It would be no difficult matter to prove, that a confiderable number of those diftempers, which from their being peculiar to certain people and places, are termed endemic, are chiefly the effects of this powerful and active caufe, Thus the inhabitants of the Alps, the Pyrenees, and of many other mountainous countries, are fubject to a monstrous external fwelling of the glands of the neck, owing, as it is univerfally acknowledged, to the peculiar properties of the water they drink. "As you advance towards Mount Cenis, fays Mr, Sharp, in his excellent Letters from Italy, you find very few exempt from these tumours, which are fo enormous, and of fo 249 loathfome an appearance, efpecially in ugly, ragged, half-ftarved old women, that the very fight of them turns the ftomach. I was curious in my examination, whether any children are born with this malady upon them: I was informed, that there is no fuch inftance; and even that the fwelling never begins to form 'till towards two years of fome ex age; amples of which I myself faw," - Nor is this diftemper peculiar to the natives of those countries; for ftrangers become affected with it, after refiding there a few years. And fuch is the influence of cuftom on the common people, that they regard this blemish as a beauty, and even ridicule those who are deftitute of it. The inhabittants of the village of Steinfeiffen, in the district of Schmiderberg are faid to have freed themselves from this malady, by abftaining from certain fountains, which were observed to produce it. In two cities of Hercynia, Wildeman, and Andreafberg, which are built upon a large bed of minerals, fcarcely a woman is to be found, who does not labour under ftrumous fwellings of the throat, occafioned, it is justly fuppofed, by the conftant use of hard, metallic, and calcareous water. The men too, in all probability, are not exempt from them; but as the female part of our fpecies have more delicate conftituti ons, and especially a much greater degree of laxity in their glandular fyftems than we have, the fame causes which but flightly affect the one fex, may prove highly injurious to the other. The people of Siberia who live near the river Kirenga, which is remarkable for its impurity, are almoft univerfally affected with fcrophulous diforders; and ftrumous fwellings are common, even amongft the cattle of that country. Hippocrates afferts that hard waters, which are unfit for boiling, dry and aftringe the belly, and that fuck as 1 but are incident to brutes, efpecially to the sheep, which feed on the eatern fide of the island, where the waters are particularly brackish. as are ftagnant and ill-fcented injure both the belly and spleen. In confirmation of this, it may be obferved, that in Minorca, where the water which the fprings and rivulets afford, is often brackish, and always hard, obftructions, indurations, and fwellings of the abdominal vifcera, together with flatulency and indigeftion, are the most common diseases to which the inhabitants are fubject. And it is remarkable that large fpleens and tumefied livers are not peculiar there to the human fpecies, Pliny mentions a fountain in Ethiopia, about which a large quantity of native cinnabar was found, which produced its deleterious effects chiefly on the brain. And Athanaus fpeaks of a fpring in Paphlagonia, to which the inhabitants of the country frequently reforted, which had an inebriating quality. Dr. Smollet's Character of the English. HE people of England are generally well fized, well fhaped, with good features, regularly difpofed, fair, fmooth skins, and florid complections. Their eyes and hair commonly vary from a jet black, to a light chefnut colour; light eyes and hair feldom occur, except among the Irish and Scots who fettle in England, and their defcendants. The defect that moft commonly appears in the perfons of the English is the decayed state of their teeth, corrupted by the fcurvy, which is endemial in this country. In other refpects, the men are the most comely, and the women the most beautiful, that any kingdom of Europe can produce. The attire worn by fashionable people of both fexes is copied, like all other articles of luxury, from the French. The gentlemen appear in flowered and plain velvets, embroidery and orrice: the ladies are arrayed in the moft coftly brocades, fattins, and filks, adorned with the fineft laces, and glittering with a profufion of diamonds. The clergyman is diftinguished by his gown and caffock, or a frock of dark grey cloth with plain linen. The phyfician may be known by his formal air, his large tye-periwig, and fword. croffing his pofte riors almoft at right angles. The fportfman affects the riding dress, confifting of a light frock with metal buttons, a laced hat and fhort bob wig, fhort jockey boots and buckskin breeches. The man of business com monly wears a plain fuit of fuperfine cloth, with excellent linen: the quaker is always overshadowed with a broad brimmed beaver uncocked, which he will not move upon any ceremony or occafion whatfoever. The tradefmén, farmers, and labourers, are decently apparelled. In a word, the people of England, from the highest to the loweft, are remarkably neat in their attire, and even the beggars are better clad, than the mendicants of any other country: nay, it must be own ed, that in point of cleanliness, the English excel all the nations in Europe. The manners of the English people vary in the different claffes of which they are compofed, according to the difference of education and inter courfe. Perfons of fashion, after having ftudied at the univerfity, commonly travel for improvement. They are magnificent in their drefs, equipage, dwelling, and manner of liv ing; generally polite, hofpitable, good-natured, and charitable: but ..not! Dr. Smollet's Character of the English. not very remarkable for their liberality to the profeffors of the polifhed arts, even to those who have exhibited proofs of excellence and ingenuity. On the reverfe of their character, we likewife obferve a difpofition to gaming, riot, and exceffive infolence of pride, and a ftrong propenfity to contemptuous ridicule, diffufed through the whole nation, from the highest peer to the loweft chimneyfweeper. Perhaps this is the general characteristic of the English people for it strikes every foreigner at his first arrival in England, and appears remarkably confpicuous in the writings of the English authors. This contempt feems to arife from a comparifon of their own affluence with the poverty of their neighbours; and, were we allowed to fix the natural criterion of the English character, we fhould call it bluntnefs; a difpofition, which when infpired by fentiment and education, produces an aftonifhing contempt of danger, and an admirable fpirit of independence. A mong the people of the middle rank, it makes its appearance in a difagreeable indifference, or more difagreeable freedoms; and, with the vulgar, it often degenerates into meer brutality. An Englishman, unrefined by travel and communication, numbers among his privileges the rights of fpeaking his fentiments on all occafions without referve, even when inconfiftent with the univerfal rules of good breeding and humanity: hence thofe fhocking reflections and reproaches, national and perfonal, which have often been productive of quarrels and homicide. An Englishman, however, is not naturally cruel, but rather mild and compaffionate; and though extremely irafcible, eafily appeased by fubmiffion. He is neither tenacious of refentment, nor addicted to revenge; but compromifes differences, and forgets injuries, eafier and fooner than the natives of fome 251 other countries could well imagine. The rich open their purfes freely to objects in diftrefs, infomuch that no people (the proportion of their numbers being confidered) contribute half as much as is collected in England for the relief of the poor; indeed, no other nation is fo able to exert its charity; nor has any other people occafion to exert it fo much for the fums fo collected are fquandered away without ceconomy, or proper regulation fo that the intention of the donors is defeated, and every corner of England fwarms with vagabonds and beggars, although three millions fterling are faid to be given annually for the maintenance of the poor. The English are naturally honeft and unfufpecting, confequently liable to impofition. This general confidence in mankind, added to a redundancy of wealth, and a mercantile difpofition, renders them very liberal of their purfes and their credit, to those who can amuse them with plaufible fchemes of turning their money to good account. The English merchants are, beyond all others, famous for their honourble dealings, as well as for their knowledge of trade and their extenfive commerce. The people, in general, are masters of the different profeffions they exercise; their workmanfhip is neatly and elegantly finished, far above any thing of the fame fort in other countries; and though they are not very remarkable for their difcoveries in the arts of handicraftsmen, they never fail to make improvements on the invention of their neighbours. The English are clear of apprehenfion, capable of intenfe application, and can purfue one point with perfeverance, undisturbed by a variety or competition of ideas. Their converfation is extremely irregular, though ufually fenfible; fometimes dull and phlegmatic; fometimes folid, inge nious, and argumentative; fome times imes fprightly, replete with wit and humour. Some variation will always be found in a people like the English, endued with fenfibility,whofe fpirits are affected by the fudden changes of an irregular climate: for the fame reasons, they will be as variable in their tempers, whimfical, capricious, and inconftant. The English have been always equally famed for courage and ingenuity. Their foldiers are fearlefs in the day of battle, and have obtained a great number of fignal victories, over the moft powerful and warlike nations on the continent; and their failors are confeffedly fuperior to all the mariners upon earth, in activity, fkill, and intrepidity. The whimfical difpofition of these iflanders appears in very ftrange fingularities; all of which, however, feem to countenance and encourage an univerfal levelling principle in favour of induftry and commerce. A nobleman of the firft quality and fortune may be feen in the character and garb of a coachman, mounted upon the box, and driving his own carriage; nay, fome of them have been known to drive the common ftage vehicle, that conveys paffengers from one place to another. The Lord Mayor of London has been mistaken for one of his own porters; and nothing is more common than to fee a man worth fifty thousand pounds, dining for a fhilling in a common cook's fhop. There is a great number of originals, whofe A fingularities break out in every oc currence of life; in their dress and addrefs, their way of living, their clubs, focieties, courtships, marri ages, wills, legacies, funerals, letters, writings and advertisements. A nobleman thinks it no difparagement to match with the loweft of the people, nor does the public revolt at the alliance, provided it be cemented with a large fum of money: perfons of the first fashion have been known to marry Jews for wealth, and proftitutes for affection, without incurring the leaft cenfure or difgrace; and indeed every man is refpected in proportion to the riches he poffeffeth, without the least respect or retrospect to birth or ftation. It is not at all unufual to fee the hufband, in his apron and fleeves, felling half a pound of dried figs below, while his wife, keeps rout above, with all the ftate of a countefs. An Englishman, in bufinefs, is lefs liable than any other to be affected by a change of fourtune. The fhopkeeper, even after he has accumulated an opulent fortune, pro- | ceeds in his calling, and continues to worship his pooreft customer with the moft obfequious addrefs. On the other hand, the merchant, who had lived in affluence, when ruined by loffes in trade, and ftripped of all by a ftatute of bankruptcy, humbles his mind to his circumftances, begins the world anew with redoubled ardour, and now bows, in his turn, to those of whom he exacted obeifance before. Explanation of the Plate entitled MIDAS, or the Surry Juftice. Gentleman in the commiffion of the peace having displayed his abilities in the following epiftle, "Send me the Ax Re Latin to a Guftis of Pease," we have thought proper to reprefent him in the character of Midas: Fenning's Spelling Book on the table is to be occafionally confulted by his worship: the mufquet, alfo on the table, alludes to the affair in St. George's Fields; the Statutes at Large lie neglected as useless lumber; and the great Patriot, looking over the Juftice's fhoulder, exclaims against his ignorance and inhumanity. The |