Aun Moore is not capable indeed of living without any kind of nourishment, liquid or solid, as she asserted of herself; but that, in the opinion of those who detected this untruth, she is actually capable of subsisting on less nutriment than any other person, and requires nothing more for her support than an occasional draught of pure water.

"History of James Mitchel, a boy born blind and deaf, with an account of the operation performed for the recovery of his sight. By James Wardrop, F. R. S. Ed." 4to. p. 52. Most of our readers are, perhaps, already acquainted, in some degree, with this most interesting case of physiology and metaphysics from Mr. Dugald's Stuart's previous account, as published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions. The boy was born totally deaf, and almost totally blind; and consequently had no other senses with which to acquire a knowledge of external objects or an external world than the three senses of smell, taste, and touch. Yet with these, and especially with the first and last, he appears to have acquired a very considerable degree of accuracy with respect to the nature and qualities of objects in general: while, at the same time, notwithstanding every attention was paid to his moral education by his father, a worthy clergyman, and an elder sister, who seems to have devoted a considerable portion of her time to him, he does not appear, at the age of eighteen, to have had any idea of a being superior to himself, and consequently of any religious feeling; nor does he appear, upon the death of this most excellent father, to have evinced any kind of moral feeling. Which equally determines by an experimentum erucis the absurdity of the old Cartesian

doctrine of innate ideas and practical principles; and of the new Scottish doctrine (we refer to the theory of Common Sense) of a moral instinct underived from, and totally independent of mental reason and corporeal sensation.-We have just obs rved that the sense of smell was an organ on which he mainly depended for information. By this power he chiefly ascertained md distinguished persons. "He appearon," says Mr. Wardrop, "to know his relations and intimate frieros by smelling them very slightly, and he, at once, detected strangers. It was difficult, however, to ascertain at what distance he could distinguish people by this sense; but, from what I was able to observe, he appeared to be able to do so at a considerable distance from the object. This was particularly striking when a person entered the room, as he seemed to be aware of this before he could derive information from any other sense than that of smell.-When a stranger approached him, he eagerly began to touch some part of the body, commonly taking hold of his arm, which he held near his nose, and after two or three strong inspirations through the nostrils he appeared to form a decided opinion concerning him. If it was favourable, he shewed a disposition to become more intimate, examined more minutely his dress, and expressed, by his countenance, more or less satisfaction; but if it happened to be unfavourable, he suddenly went off to a distance, with expressions of carelessness or of disgust."-His sense of touch was resorted to in nearly an equal degree, and appears to have been carried to a very high pitch of perfection. << With respect to the other means which were employed to communicate to him information,

formation, and which he employed to communicate his desires and feelings to others, these were ingenious and simple. His sister, under whose management he chiefly was, had contrived signs addressing his organs of touch, by which she could control hum, and regulate his conduct. On the other hand he, by his ges tures, could express his wishes and desires. His sister employed various modes of holding his arm, and patting him on the head and shoulders, to express consent and different degrees of approbation. She signified time by shutting his eye-lids and putting down his head; which, done once, meant one night. He expressed his wish to go to bed by reclining his head; he distinguished me (Mr. Wardrop is celebrated as an oculist) by touching his eyes, and many workmen by imitating their different employments. When he wished for food he pointed to his mouth, or to the place where the provisions were usually kept." It must, at first sight, seem singular that he should have expressed a peculiar love for finery: but his eyes appear to have had a slight glimmering of colours, and hence gaudy hues may be reasonably supposed to have produced the greatest degree of pleasure. It was proposed by Mr. Wardrop to extract the cataract of the right eye, and the operation was attempted, but from his great resistance it did not perfectly succeed, and was, in effect, exchanged for that of couching or depression: a certain proportion of vision was hereby obtained for a short time, but unfortunately it has not proved permanent, the opake lens, instead of being absorbed, having again risen and covered the pupil. It is proposed to attempt improving his sight by a second operation of a dif

ferent kind. He is now under the patronage of Mr. Dugald Stuart, who will unquestionably pay every possible attention to his education and further acquisition of knowledge.

"An Essay on the Philosophy, Study, and Use of Natural History. By Charles Fothergill." 8vo. 8s. In the title, and still more so in the body of this work, the writer might have been more intelligible if he had been more sparing of his words; far we have too often to hunt through a wood of terms for a few concealed ideas, and not always with a sufficient remuneration for the trouble of the chase. What Mr. Fothergill means by the philosophy of Natural History as distinct from its study and use we confess ourselves at a loss to determine, for it strikes us pretty forcibly that the two last terms are included in the first, for the philosophy of Natural History necessarily embraces its study and points out its use. The author has employed the words Natural History in the most extensive sense of the term Physiology, and hence comprises under it the science of mind, or an extensive part of metaphysics, as well as that of body. The term physics, we know, has been thus employed, both among the best Greek and modern philosophers, though it is not generally thus employed in the present day; but we are not aware of any authority for giving the same extended range to the term Natural History. Such, however, being Mr. Fothergill's interpretation of the term, we have the following account of volition and necessity. "The will, or the power of volition, can scarcely be deemed a distinct faculty; if itsexistence, which is denied by the necessarians, is to be allowed at all; since it cannot act independently of

some

some other quality of the mind. Though volition, under different limitations, seems to be possessed by all animals, yet perhaps in none, not even in man, does it amount to absolute free-will; nor has it ever been clearly defined. It is quite plain that an impression must already be received on the mind, or an idea be presented to it, before any thing can be willed concerning it. This truth is sufficient to convince us that the faculty of volition, if it be one, is extremely limited. I should rather define it as the presiding, directing, regulating power of the mind, which, though not able to prevent the admission of impressions or ideas, could determine and regulate the attention towards them who received, suppressing it towards those that were (are) painful, and continuing it towards those that were (are) agreeable. I should prefer such a definition to one that could rank the power of volition equal with what we imagine to constitute free-will in its fullest extent." We are afraid there is no small portion of the palpable obscure in this illustrative explanation. First the author doubts whether the will can be, properly speaking, a distinct faculty or quality of the mind; next he asserts positively, that it is not a distinct faculty or quality, because he coincides with the necessarians that it cannot act independently of some other quality of the mind. It is then said to be possessed by all animals, yet in none of them does this will amount to free-will. But will that is not free is no will at all; for we can have no idea of willing separate from that of freedom :-the two ideas being ideas of necessary connexion. The author then begins to allow once more that the will may be a faculty of the mind,

though he still positively asserts it to be extremely limited; and having satisfactorily settled this point, he instantly proceeds to declare that this extremely limited faculty extends its control over all the functions of the mind; and this secondary quality, which cannot act independently of some other quality, is the lord paramount of every other quality, the presiding, directing, and regulating power of the sensory. What Mr. Fothergill means by the admission of ideas or impressions, we do not exactly know; but the expression evidently hints that he has imbibed a belief that ideas or i» pressions, or both (if he mean them to be regarded as distinct from each other) exist without the mind, and form a part of the external world; but whether with Aristotle he considers them as phantasms, with Epicurus as idola or species, or with Des Cartes as notional resemblances, he has given us no information whatever. The consecutive passage is to the same effect, only that it appears to be given in loose, we had almost said dissolute poetry, a sort of versi sciolti, as the Italians call it, or numeris lege solutis, as it might, perhaps, be classed by Horace. there were no presiding or regulating power over the mind, to what a a state of confusion and chaos would it be reduced! being able neither to resist the admission of ideas, por to arrange and govern them when received, it would be in a state of natural and terrible insanity:" (q. is not natural insanity a newly discovered species of mania not yet described, or even arranged by nosologists?) "myriads of ideal forms would instantly rise before the troubled soul, and whirl in maddening groups, in ten thousand strange and frightful combinations, till ali was,

*If

(would

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Mr. Fothergill, however, is more inteligible and agreeable in the specimens of the curious and diversified powers possessed by different animals, which he bas selected from preceding physiologists: a few of which we could, nevertheless, have spared, as being disproved by later observations. Nor can we avoid remarking that we have the same confusion of ideas running through the separate faculties of sensation, instinct, and intelligence, which we have had so often to notice in the labours of other physiologists. We do not so much blaine the author, however, upon this subject, because the error is common: --the distinction has, indeed, been pointed out, and the respective seats and powers of these separate facuities clearly distinguished in two series of lectures given, during the two last winters, at one of the public Institutions of this metropolis, but we are not aware of any printed book to which we can, at present, refer our readers for satisfactory information upon the subject.

"The seat of vision determined; and by the discovery of a new func

tion in the organ a foundation laid for explaining its mechanism, and the various phænomena, on principles hitherto unattempted. By Andrew Horn." 8vo. price 8s. 6d. Mr. Horn is a modest writer, who appears to have pursued a very dithi cult subject in retirement, and considerably from the resources of his own mind, with little aid from books. He however writes with no small de

gree of originality, and gives us ideas that are often worth possessing, though in some instances, a more extended knowledge of optical science as it has been elaborated of late years, would have corrected a few trivial mistakes, and rendered the whole more explicit,

The eye is a natural acromatic instrument, or camera obscura, in which the pictures of external objects are painted upon the retina, by rays introduced through the aper ture of the pupil. The pictures thus introduced, however, appear upon the retina in an inverted form, agreeably to the laws of optics, in consequence of their refraction in the different humours of the eye through which they pass before they reach the retina; and it is now therefore the common belief of optical philosophers, that all external objects are actually perceived by the mind in an order directly the reverse of that in which they exist in nature, and that it is habit alone which enables the mind to correct the deceit or erroneous representation, and to apply the idea of the upper part to that which in the picture constitutes the lower, and the idea of right to that which, in like manner, constitutes the left. There has nevertheless been much reluctance in acceding to this doctrine, and the little volume before us, which is only intended as a sketch of a larger performance

performance upon the same subject, attempts to remove the difficulty by a new, and certainly an ingenious hypothesis, which is built upon the idea that the retina itself, or interior tunic of the eye, produces an additional reflection like the polished surface of a mirror or a looking glass, and thus naturally restores the object presented to the perception of the mind to its natural arrange. ment and order. The author also supposes that the retina answers, at the same time, the purpose of a sheath to the base of the optic nerve, which it covers, in the same manner as the cuticle answers the purpose of a sheath to the true skin; and that the nervous base in the former instance, like the true skin in the latter, would without such protecting or softening involucrum, be rendered acutely painful from the approach of its natural stimuli. His opinion upon both these subjects, however, we must give in his own words. "Anatomists," says he," have shewn us that the optic nerve possesses two principal tunics that envelope its medullary substance; the exterior, derived from the dura mater, which forms, by its expansion, the sclerotic coat of the eye; and the interior, which is a continuation of the pia mater, and is expanded on entering the globe, by which it forms the choroides. The retina, or innermost coat of the eye, is supposed to be a propagation of the nervous substance. Thus the entire trunk of the optic nerve seems naturally expanded into the principal coats that compose the globe of the eye. I was induced, from a general survey of the organ, to conclude that the sole use of this transparent membrane (the retina) in the mechanism of vision, is to produce reflexion, in a manner similar to the

polished surface of a metallic reflector, or perhaps it might, with more propriety, be compared to glass, (the glass of a mirror) the choroides behind answering the purpose of the metallic coating upon the convex surface of a mirror.-The reader will now readily comprehend the manner in which I conceive vision to be accomplished. Rays from all points of such objects as are opposed to the organ pass through the pupil, and after refraction in the different humours, delineate perfect, but inverted pictures upon the retina at the bottom of the eye: these pictures are instantly reflected in their various colours and shades upon the ânterior portion of the concavity; another reflection from hence raises images of the external objects near the middle of the vitreous humour, in their natural order and position; these images make due impressions upon the opposite base of the nerve, which are transmitted by it to the brain: thus the sensation is produced and vision perfected." Mr. Horn, in the above passage, intimates that this, in his opinion, is the sole use of the retina. This however appears to be a slip of the pen: for we have already glanced at another use he finds for it, and which he thus shortly afterwards explains in his own words. "But not only so, we see that while the retina by its transparency, answers throughout its whole extent, the purpose of glass in the production of reflection, this membrane, by covering the base of the nerve, performs the same service for the organ of vision which the scarf-skin does for the immediate organ of feeling. It is well known that when the papillæ pyramidales are deprived of this covering, the least pressure or friction produces exquisite pain. Hence we