Notes for the Month. [DEC. 



of Science," is bis account of the state of the country between Chatham 

 and Brighton. He says, ;< Incredible as it may appear, between Chatham 

 and Brighton, including every town and sin git house, and Sittingbourne 

 among the rest, the ague affects the left hand of the turnpike road, or 

 northern side, and does not touch the right side, though the road itself, 

 forms the only line of separation!" We give abundant credit to Dr. 

 M'Cullocb for the activity and ardour with which he collects his facts, and 

 still more for the candour and boldness with which he often states them, 

 even when they are opposed to his own theory : and this certainly is a 

 most remarkable fact if it be perfectly well authenticated. The single 

 bouses are the points that touch us ; because they have no dense mass, 

 like the opposite side of a street, to give them even a semblance of protec- 

 tion. The hypothesis of the Doctor himself, that " a hoar frost, or a dew, 

 will sometimes be found to be most accurately limited by a definite line, 

 stopping for example at a particular hedge, and reaching to a certain alti- 

 tude upon a tree, &c." does not seem to us to help the difficulty; because 

 it is we in this case that must have hit the line, not the malaria or 

 vapour. Taking the fact to be fully ascertained, as stated, there seems to 

 be no means of avoiding one of two conclusions either that there is some 

 unknown property in a turnpike road exist where it may as witches of 

 old were held unable to cross a running stream which fog or malaria can- 

 not pass : or that, through a line of road extending twenty miles, in all 

 its numerous and irregular turnings and windings, we have happened to 

 hit by chance, all the way from beginning to end, the very line to which 

 the malaria which produces agues, from wherever it came, naturally ex- 

 tended J But we should like to have a great deal of very strong testimony 

 as to ihefact itself, before we went far into any long investigation of 

 the causes of it. 



With all our disposition to admire " improvements," and all that we 

 have said about Mr. M'Adam's road-making, we are afraid that on this 

 point we must at last succumb, and admit that the necessity of pacing 

 some of the more heavily frequented througbfares of town, is not entirely got 

 over. The state of New-Bridge street, this year, looks very ominous of a 

 return to granite. During the late wet weather, it has been from the 

 Obelisk to Chatham Place literally one continuous canal of mud. And the 

 bottom (when you got there) more broken and uneven than ever we recol- 

 lect it, even in the worst condition of the stones. For the Squares and 

 more open situations of the West, ihe plan is still admirable: but, unless some 

 of the more recently converted streets have been done clumsily, it will not 

 do for the heavy draught of the City. The new style of stone pavement 

 in Fleet-street, is very pleasant, if it answers its purpose in other respects. 

 We doubt, however, whether, especially in hilly situations, the very even 

 surface will not be impracticable for horses in winter. Between Bouverie- 

 street and Fleet-market (going towards St. Paul's) it is difficult to pull up, 

 with the weather as it is. 



New books have been abundant in the last month ; and, as usual, of 

 unequal value. Lady Morgan's novel " The O'Briens and O'Flaher- 

 tys" is a clever work, and ought to be very successful. Her ladyship's 

 " Fashionable Conversations" are the best " upon Town," the liveliest, 

 and the most like nature. Females indeed, in general, manage this de- 

 scription of writing better than the " Lords" of the (literary) creation. 

 Lady Morgan, Miss Edgeworth, and Mrs. Ferrier, all do the thing ex- 

 tremely well, the fact is, their women ate always lightly and easily thrown 



