the membrana tympani, d, and escapes externally at c. This may be caused by diseased bone in the ear, and sometimes is the result of meddlesome and ignorant doctoring. When a person, after an attack of fever, is about to become the subject of the last-described serious malady, he feels the pain which was previously confined to the throat extending into the ear. It becomes more acute and throbbing; he becomes deaf, has all the symptoms of high fever, including, perhaps, delirium; then a discharge begins to flow from the external ear, and the acute symptoms subside.

When these symptoms first set in, leeches should be applied behind the ear, and fomentations. The patient should be purged, and those remedies, such as mercury or antimony, which appear to have the power of subduing inflammation, should be given. When the fever subsides, the discharge must be washed out with warm water and white soap twice a day, a weak tepid astringent injection poured in, and then allowed to run out again.

of blood, and dividing the swollen tissues, relieves the tension, and consequent suffering.

If a tooth be dislocated, or driven quite out of the socket, and it happens to be a healthy one, it ought to be replaced, and tied to its neighbours by a silk thread. In some persons, the enamel covering a tooth is imperfect, allowing the fluids in the mouth to exert a chemical influence upon it; the tooth so affected then becomes what is technically termed carious, and crumbles down, at last exposing the central cavity and its contained nervous pulp, which being affected by constitutional or other changes, produces toothache.

The treatment of carious teeth is either to protect the pulp with some artificial covering-as gutta-percha dissolved in chloroform-or the patient should consult a dentist, who will, if possible, put in some more permanent stuffing.

As it is absolutely necessary that the membrane of a drum, to produce sounds, should have air on both sides, the Eustachian tubes are for the purpose of allowing air to pass up from the throat to the inner surface of the membrana tympani; so it is evident that when inflammatory swelling of their lining membrane renders them impervious to air, the tympanic cavity ceases to be a drum; hence deafness from cold, or what is called 'relaxed sore throat.'

THE NOSE.

When foreign bodies are put into the nose, attempts should be made to draw them forward, either with a bent probe or a forceps, opening the latter very wide, and closing it very gently. If these attempts at removal fail, it may be pushed back into the throat. Bleeding from the nose has been treated of under the head of Hemorrhage.

Nasal polypi are generally small pear-shaped gelatinous bodies, which produce a feeling of stuffing and cold, and prevent the patient from breathing through his nostrils. They must be gently pulled away by a forceps. There are other and more serious tumours which occasionally affect the nostrils.

Fetid discharge from the nostrils or ozæna is sometimes the result of catarrh in delicate subjects. The patient has all the symptoms of a cold in the head. Inhalation of the steam of hot water, into which twenty or thirty drops of creosote have been dropped, is the most efficient remedy, combined with tonics. In scrofulous subjects, there is sometimes ulceration of the nasal mucous membrane; and this, as well as disease of the nasal bones, may be the cause of a most offensive discharge, which must be washed out with a solution of chloride of lime in warm water, injected into the nostrils by means of a large syringe.

MOUTH, TEETH, AND GUMS.

Tongue-tie is when the frænum linguæ, or bridle of the tongue, ties that organ downwards to the lower jaw. This may prevent an infant from sucking. It may be lacerated with the finger-nail, or snipped with scissors. This is an operation frequently performed, and very rarely required.

The gums of infants are sometimes inflamed over a tooth which is about to come through; a lancet should then be carried along the gum, which, by allowing a flow

Toothache may be relieved by scarification of the gum near the affected tooth, and a small piece of cottonwool dipped in mastic and tannin, a drachm of each dissolved in an ounce of water; to this a little powdered morphia may be added; or the central cavity may be touched with caustic of some kind. The victims of toothache inflict much unnecessary torture upon them&c. The saliva contains earthy matter in solution, which is sometimes deposited on the teeth, and is called tartar. It produces considerable irritation, if allowed to accumulate. To prevent this happening, care should be taken to clean the teeth well every morning and night with a tooth-brush and camphor-powder. Softening and tenderness of the gums greatly annoy some persons, who are generally suffering at the same time from disordered stomach or liver. The gums are very painful, bleed readily, and the teeth drop out. The constitutional symptoms should be attended to by purges and alteratives, the mouth daily washed out with astringent gargles; and if there is much soreness, some anodyne solution may be applied.

Gum-boil begins in the socket, or near a decayed tooth; and after giving severe pain, bursts externally. As soon as it comes near enough to the surface, it must be opened, and the tooth must be pulled.

EMERGENCIES.

Drowning, or suspended animation from immersion in water, is caused by the imperfect aëration of the blood in the lungs, not from the lungs filling with water; for so perfect is the mechanism about the upper part of the windpipe, that but a small quantity of water can find its way into the air-passages. The patient dies in the same state as one who has been hanged or exposed to the inhalation of carbonic acid gas; therefore, it is evident that the old plan of turning drowned persons upside down, or rolling them in a barrel, must be not only useless, but injurious. The period of submersion necessary to destroy life has not been exactly ascertained; but three minutes and a half are quite sufficient. However, the rule is, always to make attempts at resuscitation, and to persevere as long as the least hope remains of being successful.

When the drowned man is removed from the water, he is to all appearance dead, his face livid, lips blue, jaws firmly closed, a viscid froth issuing from the nostrils, and his body is swollen. If a house be within reach, he should be taken there at once, carried carefully with the head higher than the shoulders, and a messenger should be sent on to prepare a bed, warm bath, &c. But if the accident take place at a distance from such conveniences, he should at once be stripped and dried with the clothes of the bystanders, if nothing else is at hand; and then the 'ready method,' as it is named by its inventor, Dr Marshall Hall, should be tried thus:

Lay the patient's left arm across his chest; hold his mouth open, and pull the tongue forward. Then let one

at his shoulders and another at his legs turn him over towards his left side; when almost over on his face, roll him back again; and so on from right to left. Dr Hall has shewn that by this movement of the body the natural respiratory efforts are more efficiently imitated than by inflating the lungs with the bellows, the mouth, or by forcibly compressing the walls of the chest; and since the publication of Dr Marshall Hall's experiments on the subject, many apparently hopeless cases have been successfully treated.

When the drowned person is brought to a house, all unnecessary attendants should be requested to withdraw. He should be then placed in a warm bath; and artificial respiration, by compressing the walls of the chest, and then allowing them to expand, should be tried repeatedly and vigorously. The sheets should be stripped off a bed, and he should be laid between the blankets, with hot bottles or bricks to the soles of the feet and armpits; the whole surface of the body should be rubbed with flannel, especially over the region of the heart. The mucus should be wiped from the nose and lips; and any one present may put his mouth to that of the drowned man, press the windpipe-Adam's appleback against the gullet with one hand, and blow into the mouth; if the windpipe be not pressed back, the air will go into the stomach instead of the lungs.

All these efforts must be continued. Galvanism, if possible, should be tried, and the rubbing persevered in for hours. Dr Douglas has published a case in which the patient was submerged fourteen minutes, and shewed no signs of vitality till the efforts at revival had been continued for eight hours and a half. If these efforts are successful, there will be seen a short convulsive effort to breathe, repeated in a few minutes; then the heart begins to beat feebly, and respiration and circulation are gradually restored. A very little warm stimulant should now be given, care being taken that it does not pass into the windpipe.

The patient should now be carefully watched he may at once come to himself, or may remain semidelirious, and imagine himself still in the water. If there is much sleepiness or tendency to relapse into insensibility, he ought to be cupped at the back of the neck, to relieve the congested state of the brain.

Suffocation from Foul Air.

Carbonic acid gas, if undiluted with common air, produces spasm of the glottis or upper part of the windpipe, which closes to prevent the poison entering the lungs. It is generally found in brewers' vats and cellars. A person entering a vat sometimes drops suddenly to the ground from the effect of this gas, and, unless rapidly removed into a purer atmosphere, will undoubtedly die. He must be dragged out with grappling-irons, or some one with strength and courage may rush in and drag him out.

Remedies. Strip the body; dash cold water on the face and chest; rub hartshorn and oil over the chest; use artificial respiration. If the surface of the body be cold, apply hot bottles, &c., to the feet; try to induce vomiting by tickling the throat. If within reach of an infirmary, take him there, and further attempts may be made with electricity and the inhalation of

oxygen gas.

The air of a room may be rendered poisonous by burning charcoal in it; the slower the charcoal burns, the more carbonic acid gas is evolved, till at last any person who may be in the room becomes motionless, speechless, and insensible, dying at last in a state of stupor. Burning common coals also may generate sufficient carbonic acid gas to destroy life, if there is no chimney to the room.

Sulphuretted hydrogen is generated in drains, sewers, cesspools, &c. If breathed by itself, it at once produces unconsciousness and death. If mixed with common air, it produces vomiting and headache.

Treatment.-Removal into fresh air; artificial respiration; then stimulants, as brandy and water.

Strangulation.

The person strangled is in the same condition as the drowned man. Death, except when it has been inflicted by the professional hangmen, who generally break the neck, has resulted from the inability to receive fresh air into the lungs. The countenance is swollen and purple, the eyes staring open, the mouth frothy and open, and the tongue protruding, the hands clenched, and the tips of the fingers blue.

Strip the body, dash cold water on the face and chest; use the methods of artificial respiration as in drowning, and bleed from the arm or external jugular vein.

Choking.

Occasionally persons are choked by foreign bodies getting into the upper part of the throat, and so blocking up the aperture of the windpipe. It is astonishing what masses of food a hungry man will attempt to swallow, which, in their passage down the gullet, sometimes produce pain, which lasts some minutes, and is soonest remedied by large draughts of water. Sometimes a fish or rabbit bone scratches the lining membrane of the gullet, and leaves a distressing sensation of something sticking in the passage, the patient occasionally becoming very nervous and anxious, making violent attempts to get rid of it by swallowing bits of bread, drinking water, &c. If a surgeon be at hand, he should pass a whalebone probang, with a bit of soft sponge at its end, down the throat. In performing this operation, care must be taken not to pass it into the windpipe. Before using more severe methods, the finger ought to be passed as far as it will reach, to search for the foreign body, and hook it out.

When immediate suffocation is threatened, an opening should be made into the windpipe, which consists of an upper part or box, called the larynx; a middle long portion, formed of imperfect rings, the trachea; and the subdivisions of the latter after it has passed into the chest, one on each side, the bronchi. For foreign bodies in the upper part of the larynx, it is sufficient to make an opening into it just below the obstruction. This is called laryngotomy, and may be performed by any one with any cutting instrument. The urgency of the case does not allow time for surgical assistance to arrive; and many a man has died from want of the following simple proceeding:

Laryngotomy.-Pull the head back; run your finger from under the chin down the middle line of the neck. You will first feel the hyoid bone, then a depression, then the hard prominence of the thyroid cartilage, or Adam's apple; then the finger will sink into the space between the thyroid and circoid cartilages, which is occupied by a tense membrane, into which plunge a penknife, and insert a bit of the quill of a pen. If the bleeding is considerable, enlarge the skin-wound, and take up and tie the artery, which is a small one running across the membrane. Then send for a surgeon, who will conduct the after-treatment.

Tracheotomy is a more severe operation, which is simple to the anatomist, but would be full of hazard to the patient if attempted by the hands of an amateur.

THE SKIN.

When a papilla of the skin increases in size, and is covered by an unusual quantity of the scarf-skin, or cuticle, which is also sometimes hardened, the little tumour thus formed is called a wart. When these enlarged papillæ occur in some part of the body where they are kept constantly moistened by perspiration, their covering of scarf-skin is very thin, they are apt to bleed, and sometimes have a thin yellowish discharge.

Warts on the fingers may be snipped off, or tied with a thread round the base, or touched with caustic; they

often disappear without any surgical interference. The others should be frequently washed, and some astringent lotion applied, or be snipped off by a surgeon. Sometimes in old persons a warty growth appears on the face, which, though simple originally, may become cancerous; and the person should at once consult a surgeon.

Corns are produced by some local irritation causing an unusual growth of thick scarf-skin, and are generally found over projecting portions of bone on the toes or soles of the feet, or any part where the skin undergoes

pressure.

Wash the feet in warm water. Put some soothing plaster over the corn, or a piece of thick leather with a hole punched to correspond to the corn, and so relieve the pressure. Pare the latter frequently, and wear easy shoes.

Soft corns are small irritable growths from the true skin found between the toes, and should be touched with nitrate of silver. When a hard corn is much irritated, the skin at its base inflames, and some matter is formed, which produces intense suffering. The corn ought to be pared down to the matter, which will give instant relief.

Boils are little hard painful swellings in the true skin, which come sometimes from too good living, at others, from too low a state of health, and at some seasons are epidemic. They should be poulticed at first, when a little slough will come away in a few days; it is better, however, to have them lanced after suppuration has once set in. Alterative medicines should be given; and to prevent their recurrence, some alkali, as a teaspoonful liquor potassæ twice a day, or soda in milk, should be taken.

ANESTHESIA.

Within the last few years, a great change has taken place in operative surgery, and in the treatment of all diseases accompanied by acute pain, from the introduction into general use of anaesthetics, or substances which have the power of inducing insensibility to painful impressions without injuring the constitution.

The idea of painless operations is an old one. The writers of the Augustan age mention that before the hotiron cautery was applied, the patients were given wine, with the root of the mandragora soaked in it; and that while under the influence of this mixture, they might be cut or burned without pain. In the thirteenth century, narcotic vapours were employed to induce insensibility to surgical operations; but these humane remedies fell into disuse. In 1784, a Mr Moore in London tried the effect of pressure on the principal nerves of a limb, and in one or two instances operations were performed on limbs so treated with but little suffering; however, the pressure on the nerves was in itself so intensely painful, that it was soon given up.

After the discovery of nitrous oxide, many experiments were made; and Sir Humphry Davy suggested that it might be found serviceable in making patients insensible to the surgeon's knife. Mr Horace Wells, a dentist in America, acted upon this hint in 1844, and when under the influence of the nitrous oxide, had one of his own teeth pulled. He subsequently administered it to some of his patients, and extracted their teeth without their being conscious of the slightest pain. Wells then went to Boston to exhibit before the medical faculty; and his experiments having unfortunately failed, he was laughed out of his profession, and committed suicide in January 1844.

His pupil, Morton, who had assisted in the experiments with nitrous oxide, settled in Boston as a dentist; and in connection with Dr Jackson, endeavoured to find some means of extracting teeth without pain. They seem to have been led to try sulphuric ether, by remarking that its vapour was used as a remedy for spasmodic affections of the chest. Morton inhaled it himself on the

30th of September 1846, from a tube communicating with a flask containing the ether; and thus he is undoubtedly the discoverer of a manageable method of administering its vapour. No sooner was he awake after this first inhalation than he longed to try it on some one else, and offered five dollars to any one who would allow him to pull a tooth.

While he was anxiously waiting for a patient, Eben Frost, a nervous, frightened man, came into his surgery wanting a tooth pulled, but begged to be mesmerised, as he dreaded the pain. He was persuaded to inhale ether, became unconscious, and remained so while Mr Morton extracted a large double tooth. This case, which occurred at 19 Tremont's Row, Boston, on the 30th of September 1846, is the first in the modern era of anesthesia in surgery.

The news having arrived in England, that great surgeon, the late Mr Liston, on the 21st of December 1846, administered ether to a patient in University College Hospital, in London, and removed the toe-nail, a most painful operation. Mr Liston's example was soon followed by Mr Fergusson, in the King's College Hospital; and surgeons in all parts of the kingdom soon made trials of it.

But the reign of sulphuric ether as an anesthetic was doomed to be a short one; for, on the 4th of November 1847, Professor Simpson of Edinburgh discovered the anesthetic powers of chloroform.

This is a heavy colourless fluid, which was discovered by Soubeiran in 1831. It is obtained by distilling rectified spirit with water and chloride of lime, has a specific gravity of 1497, and boils at 140°. It has a pleasant fruity smell, and is now so well known, that further description is unnecessary.

The best way to administer chloroform is from a handkerchief; and attention should not so much be paid to the quantity administered, as to the symptoms produced. When insensibility is complete, the eyeball may be touched without winking, and the muscles are relaxed. This state should be kept up by occasional inhalations, but care must be taken not to let it be more profound, lest the patient get into a state of coma, and his life be in danger. No food should be taken for a few hours before inhaling chloroform. Non-professional persons should not, as a general rule, give chloroform to themselves or others, as, like every other remedy, it may do harm when unskilfully administered. Some persons are hysterical under its influence, but that soon passes off, and there is seldom any unpleasant sensation experienced upon waking, but generally one of wonder and thankfulness. Operations can now be performed under its influence in almost all cases where operations are themselves justifiable. Delicate patients are spared the shock and alarm of the operation; and children, instead of being, as formerly, mad with terror, now lie in a quiet sleep; and not only is the patient benefited by being spared suffering, but the operator can perform the various steps of the operation more leisurely and satisfactorily than he could during the struggles and cries of his subject, however great his nerve or experience in the use of the knife might have been.

In some few cases, intense cold may be applied to the surface of the skin through which the knife is to pass. Dr Arnott uses a mixture of pounded ice and salt,

Mesmerism has not found many advocates among medical men, for though it is certain that occasionally a person is met with who is susceptible to the influence of the mesmeric passes, still the majority of Europeans are happily too sound in mind and body to allow of mesmerism being of general use for the relief of pain; and it is scarcely desirable that persons should be brought into a state of hysterical catalepsy when they can safely and speedily be thrown into a profound sleep by the inhalation of chloroform.

HETHER inhabiting a tropical, temperate, or arctic region-existing in abject barbarism, or enjoying the highest degree of civilisation and refinement, man is essentially a clothing animal. Some kind of covering or decorative appendage he always affects, being instigated to this necessity by motives of defence, shelter, decorum, or vanity. From the simple head-dress and loin-cloth of the South-sea islander, to the elaborate costume of the gay Parisian, the ruling principle is much the same; more rational, perhaps, in the case of the savage than in that of the individual laying claim to superior enlightenment. In obeying this clothing instinct or necessity, attention is always paid, not only to the kind and quality of the covering, but to the form and manner in which any particular article of dress shall be worn. Thus originates the distinction between clothing and costume-the one having reference to the fitness of the material for the purposes of shelter or protection, the other having reference to taste or a sense of the becoming, though often marred by the absurdities of vanity and caprice.

CLOTHING.

Admitting the above distinction, and laying aside consideration of all dress or armour of a defensive kind, clothing must be regarded simply in the light of a protection from the extremes of heat and cold, so that the body may perform its functions healthfully and without obstruction. Keeping this purpose in view, and also bearing in mind the nature and action of the human skin (see No. 8), 'it is easy to deduce that clothing should be of such a nature as not to impede the necessary escape of perspirable matter, but to suffer it to pass through its texture; that it should be of such a nonconducting quality as to confine the heat generated by the blood sufficiently to preserve the activity of the nervous system; and that, by its lightness, softness, and pliancy, it should permit the free motion of the limbs.' Clothing which would subserve all these purposes, would be nearly perfect in its hygienic properties; and such an attire we could readily assume, were it not that considerations of economy, special avocations, and the like,

No. 50.

Woollen fabrics, as articles of clothing, have several advantages over other materials. They are bad conductors of heat; hence their warmth by preventing the heat of the body from escaping, and their utility in preserving the equability of its temperature, though exposed to sudden changes. From their filamentous texture and elasticity, they are light and pliable; and yet, from their peculiar property of being felted, they can be prepared to any degree of weight and thickness. They possess also the property of not being easily wetted, while they are sufficiently porous either to absorb or to permit the escape of all cutaneous exhalations. Further, when worn next the skin, their rough and uneven surface produces in every motion of the body a gentle friction, which greatly assists and promotes the functions of the minute cutaneous vessels and nerves. 'In a climate like ours, which is so variable, and usually so cold, the article of dress that is worn next the skin ought always,' says Dr Robertson of Buxton, 'to be a bad conductor of heat at all events. In general, flannel of an adjusted degree of thickness and fineness answers this intention sufficiently well, without proving to be too heating, or irritating, or relaxing. In summer-time, if the flannel which proved to be well borne in the colder seasons of the year, should be so far irritating and heating as to relax or fever the system, this may be remedied by substituting for it a thinner and finer quality of flannel; or in extreme cases of this kind, an under-garment of calico, of a proper degree of thickness, may be substituted for the flannel at that season of the year.' The use of chamois leather as the under-garment is objectionable.

But, strongly as the importance of having a bad conductor of heat next the skin should be impressed on the mind, there is a point connected with it which is almost as important. The inner garment, especially if made of flannel, ought not to be worn during night. It ought invariably to be taken off at night, and as invariably

785

resumed in the morning. In bed, it is unnecessary: it is worse than unnecessary, for it does harm: it then stimulates the skin, and produces a preternatural waste of the secretions, and corresponding debility of system -a corresponding liability to suffer from the depressing influence of cold-a corresponding incapability of resisting its influence. But, further, removing this garment during the night relieves it from the scurf, some degree of dampness, and other impurities which it must acquire during a day's wear, and so renders it fresh and more agreeable to the sensations of the wearer. Not wearing it at night renders it more effectual in protecting the surface from the cold by day, on the principle that a great-coat is not of the same service to the wearer when out of doors, if he is in the habit of wearing it in the house. It would be easy to adduce strong evidence in behalf of the value and importance of wearing flannel next the skin. 'Sir John Pringle,' says Dr Hodgkin, 'who accompanied our army into the north at the time of the Rebellion, relates that the health of the soldiers was greatly promoted by their wearing flannel waistcoats, with which they had been supplied on their march by some Society of Friends;' and Sir George Ballingall, in his lectures on military surgery, adduces the testimony of Sir James Macgrigor to the statement that in the Peninsula the best-clothed regiments were generally the most healthy; adding that, when in India, he witnessed a remarkable proof of the usefulness of flannel in checking the progress of the most aggravated form of dysentery in the second battalion of the Royals. Captain Murray told Dr Combe that 'he was so strongly impressed, from former experience, with a sense of the efficacy of the protection afforded by the constant use of flannel next the skin, that when, on his arrival in England, in December 1823, after two years' service amid the icebergs on the coast of Labrador, the ship was ordered to sail immediately for the West Indies, he ordered the purser to draw two extra flannel shirts and pairs of drawers for each man, and instituted a regular daily inspection to see that they were worn. These precautions were followed by the happiest results. He proceeded to his station with a crew of 150 men; visited almost every island in the West Indies, and many of the ports of the Gulf of Mexico; and, notwithstanding the sudden transition from extreme climates, returned to England without the loss of a single man, or having any sick on board on his arrival. It would be going too far to ascribe this excellent state of health solely to the use of flannel; but there can be little doubt that the latter was an important element in Captain Murray's success.'

There can be no doubt that flannel is by much the best article for being worn next the skin when the body has to be exposed to such a temperature, or to such a severe degree of exercise, as increases the perspiration in a material degree. The common practice among the workmen in potteries, foundries, collieries, &c., of wearing thick flannel shirts, tends much to preserve their health, under the circumstance of the profuse perspiration caused by the excessive labour they are called upon to undergo, or the extreme heat of their places of work, alternated as this must be with the much colder atmosphere out of doors, amounting, it may be, to a difference of temperature of no less than 60° or 70°. Dr Kilgour, in his Lectures on Therapeutics and Hygiène, says 'that the use of flannel was found to be beneficial in the prevention of cholera, by maintaining the equilibrium of the temperature and the functions of the skin, and thereby preventing that derangement of the bowels which is so general a consequence of cold applied to the surface.' To the preceding excellent testimony, we may add that woollen fabrics, from their ready elasticity, are less liable than any other species of clothing to interfere with the circulation of the vital fluids, or prevent the free and easy motion of the body. Cotton, though greatly inferior, ranks next to wool

But,

in non-conducting properties. From its comparative cheapness, lightness, and the facility with which it can be cleaned, it has of late years been gradually superseding the use of flannel as an underclothing. though recommending itself for these reasons, it can by no means be considered as a perfect substitute for flannel, whether used in a pure state or when mixed with a certain proportion of wool. Its ultimate fibre is altogether different; being void of that springy softness and elasticity so peculiar to wool, and incapable, moreover, of being felted to any thickness without becoming hard, heavy, and obstructive. Further, it is far from being so absorbent, is more readily wetted, and requires therefore to be more frequently changed and submitted to the laundress. Nevertheless, it is a valuable staple of dress, and is in general use both as under and exterior clothing from the tropics, of which it is a native produce, to the limits of the polar circle.

We have said that cotton is inferior in its non-conducting properties to wool-that is, all things being equal, cotton fabrics form a cooler dress than those of woollen. These remarks apply to our own climate; let us hear the opinion of the authority already quoted in reference to the requirements of tropical regions:Cotton, from its slowness as a conductor of heat, is admirably adapted for the tropics. It must be recollected that the temperature of the atmosphere, in the open air, in the hot season, exceeds that of the blood by many degrees; and even in the shade it too often equals, or rises above, the heat of the body's surface. Here, then, we have a covering which is cooler than linen; inasmuch as it conducts more slowly the excess of external heat to our bodies. But this is not the only advantage, though a great one. When a vicissitude takes place, and the atmospherical temperature sinks suddenly far below that of the body, the cotton, still faithful to its trust, abstracts more slowly the heat from our bodies, and thus preserves a more steady equilibrium there. To all these must be added the comparative facility with which it absorbs the perspiration; while linen would feel quite wet, and, during the exposure to a breeze under such circumstances, would often occasion a shiver, and be followed by dangerous consequences. That woollen and cotton should be warmer than linen in low temperatures will be readily granted; but that they should be cooler in high temperatures will probably be much doubted. If the following easy experiment be tried, the result will decide the point in question :-Let two beds be placed in the same room at Madras, we shall say when the thermometer stands at 90°, and let one be covered with a pair of blankets, the other with a pair of linen sheets, during the day. On removing both covers in the evening, the bed on which were placed the blankets will be found cool and pleasant, the other, uncomfortably warm. The reason is obvious. The linen readily transmitted the heat of the atmosphere to all parts of the subjacent bed; the woollen, on the contrary, as contrary, as a non-conductor, prevented the bed from acquiring the atmospherical range of temperature, simply by obstructing the transmission of heat from without. This experiment not only proves the position, but furnishes us with a grateful and salutary luxury, free of trouble or expense.

'From this view of the subject, flannel might be supposed superior to cotton; and indeed at certain seasons, in particular places for instance, Ceylon, Bombay, and Canton-where the mercury often takes a wider range in a very short space of time, the former is a safer covering than the latter, and is adopted by many experienced and seasoned Europeans. But in general the use of flannel in the tropics is inconvenient for three reasons:-1. It is too heavy-an insuperable objection; 2. When the temperature of the atmosphere ranges pretty steadily a little below that of the skin, the flannel is much too slow a conductor of heat from