Dr. Forsteron the Pretention of Sea- Sickness. [Maroii I, 



While I ascribe sca-sickncss to 

 motion, I am far from assenting to the 

 opinion of Mr. Woolaston, in his pa- 

 per in the " Philosophical Transac- 

 tions ;" wherein he describes its eflcpt 

 as being on the blood in the head. I 

 believe the effect is produced more 

 immediately on the stomach, and 

 rarely through the medium of the 

 brain. 



Hartwell; Dec. 11, 1822. 



For the Montldy Magazine. 



Who was APOLLONIUS of TYANA? 



JULIA DoMNA, the second wife of 

 the Koman emperor Scptimius 

 Scverus, is stated to have been the 

 danghter of a high-priest of the sun, 

 who was himself of royal descent, and 

 who presided over the temple at 

 Eniesa, in Syria. These oriental 

 sun-priests were not idolaters or poly- 

 theists, but adherents of the ancient 

 church of Persia, which taught tliat 

 God is the light, that the sun is his 

 visible glory, and that fire, or, in the 

 words of Ilippocrates, tiiat heat is a 

 percipient emanation of his vivifying 

 power, and, in fact, the soul of the 

 world. King Abgar of Edcssa, King 

 Aretas of Damascus, the dynasty 

 which reigned at Palmyra, and many 

 other Syrian princes, were of this 

 pcrsHasion ; they recognized the same 

 only God, who was worshipped at the 

 temple of Jerusalem ; and all claimed 

 to be Abrahamitcs, or descendants 

 from that great Hebrew nation, which 

 under Cyrus acquired ascendancy over 

 the Persian empire, and under Darius 

 I. established exclusively their own 

 religion in that country. 



The massacre of the idolatrous 

 priestliood, which Darius authorised, 

 in order to introduce this Jewish reli- 

 gion, is detailed in the ninth chajrter 

 of Esther, and was commemorated in 

 the temple of Jerusalem under the 

 name of the Feast of Purim. Hero- 

 dotus gives other particulars of it, 

 under the name of the Magophonia. 

 This proscription introduced the ca- 

 non of Ezra, or Zoroaster, as the 

 sacred book of the entire Persian em- 

 pire ; in all the fragments of which it 

 continued to be venerated, even after 

 the dissolution of the original connec- 

 tion with the temple of Jerusalem, 



The Syrian princes therefore were, 

 as to religion, in fact Jews, and, like 

 all other Jews, looked much into the 

 ("hristian scriptures, which,, wlicrover 

 the Jews had settled, were carried 

 about 



112 



When a boy, I was particularly lia- 

 ble to sickness from the motion of a 

 coach, and I then found the same 

 relief from holding fast by the sides 

 of it, instead of swinging forward with 

 the motion of the carriage.- For many 

 years I have acquired a hahit of sitting 

 or standing in such a manner, in a 

 moving vessel of any kind, as to move 

 entirely with it, and thus by degrees 

 lost entirely the disposition to sick- 

 ness. I have of late years crossed the 

 channel six times, in all different sorts 

 of weather, awd over very diiferently 

 agitated surfaces of the ocean, without 

 ever experiencing the sickness. In 

 1815 I crossed twice in open sailing 

 boats : the first time in a very rough 

 sea, and a breeze ; the seeoiid time in 

 a. wallowing sea, without muoh wind. 

 In 1816 I was in a storm, in a boat at 

 sea, off Tenby, in South Wales, and 

 prevented sickness by the above de- 

 scribed means. 



In 18U> I made the passage in a 

 cutter, in which all the passengers 

 except myself, and even many of the 

 sailors, were sick. The sea was ex- 

 tremely rough, with a strong wind, 

 almost a-head, and in gales. Return- 

 ing the same year, in the packet, we 

 had almost a calm, yet several persons 

 were ill. 



In the Slimmer of the present year, 

 I crossed twice from Dover to Calais 

 in steam-vessels, with the wind on the 

 beam, — the motion of these vessels 

 being very different from that of sail- 

 ing ships ; and I was one among the 

 v«ry few who were well during tiie 

 two voyages. 



Now, under all the above various 

 circumstances, of dill'erent times and 

 places, and of ditlerent sorts of seas 

 and of vessels, the chances are at 

 least ten to one that any given person 

 would be sick during some of the voy- 

 ages, unless ojjcrated on by some 

 jjowerfully counteracting cause. 



It must be admitted, too, habitual 

 abstemious diet has contributed its 

 good effects ; and I havf known many 

 persons avoid sea-sickness by taking 

 a dose of calomel and aloes the day 

 before their departure : but I believe 

 that, cctteris paribus, a large majority 

 of persons would be materiallyrelicved 

 by adopting the above mode of posi- 

 tion, — not denying, at the same time, 

 the usclul remark of your correspon- 

 dent, that certain motions might be 

 substituted with elleet, like the ou« 

 described by hitn. 



