448 
tion of the physiologists of Europe. This 
subject, passed slightly over by the old 
cultivators of the art of health, has, among 
moderns, been deemed worthy of being 
separately considered: and the most pro- 
found analyses have been attempted to 
illustrate the destination of this interesting 
class of beings, whom Providence has given 
to mankind as companions, tender, assi- 
duous and inseparable, in all the pleasures 
and tribulations of life. Fowssel was the 
first who shewed the extent and importance 
of this. subject, and its title to the con- 
sideration of the learned. His eloquent 
pages continue to be read by those who 
delight in beholding the cold aridity of 
medical science alleviated by the traits of 
a mind: sensitive and humane. Moreau de 
la Sarthe and Virey successively wrote on 
it; and their works sparkle with delicate 
and often very just observations. Dr. La- 
chaise has just published new researches 
on this important subject. 
larly attends to the Natural History of 
woman, with respect to Hygiéne; and 
taking for his guide only those facts with 
which anatomical and physiological ex- 
perience have, in our days, enriched 
science, he lays open the means of pre- 
venting those instantaneous and dangerous 
revulsions, to which the particular for- 
mation of the organs, the delicacy and 
vivacity of the vital functions, often expose 
this amiable sex. The age is past, in which 
a council of ignorant monks dared to put 
to discussion, whether women should be 
considered as appertaining to the human 
race, or only as aberrations of nature, ac- 
cording to the extravagant ideas of some 
Greek philosopher. 
the moral part of his subject with the same 
ingenuity with which he treats the phy- 
sical part: fathers of families, and the in- 
structors of young girls will derive great 
advantage from his work, calculated, above 
all, to refute unjust prepossessions, and to 
obviate vulgar prejudices, which have till 
now rendered the physical and moral edu- 
cation of the sex imperfect. 
. Chant du Sacre.—Coronation Song, by 
A. DE Lamartine.—Paris.—In London, 
Treuttel and Wiirtz, Soho Square.—To 
this beautiful specimen of Tastu’s typegra- 
phy, the reader may recur again and again ; 
and we cannot but congratulate our neigh- 
bours of France upon the advancement of 
the printer’s art among them. Of the me- 
rits of the poem itself—of the spirit of mock- 
heroie grandeur, so ably supported through- 
out, it is needless for us to speak ; public 
opinion has already. declared itself on this 
head, and we must admit that its homage 
has not been misplaced. The attention of 
those who have a taste for French litera- 
ture, and who can appreciate a spirited spe- 
cimen of modern Parisian versification, will 
not be ill-bestowed upon this little pamphlet. 
Epiives par M. Alphonse Lamartine, 
Paris, §c.—Letiers in Verse, by Mr. La- 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
He particu-. 
Dr. Lachaise treats | 
(Dee. I, 
MARTINE.— Mr. Lamartine commenced 
his literary career brilliantly. His first 
Méditations Poétiques were yery success-. 
ful. But, with regret, we are obliged 
to add, that nothing he has since written 
has justified the hopes he had inspired. 
The letters we announce to the public 
offer nothing worthy of notice, but an 
easy rhythmus, often spoiled by far-fetched 
expressions and false images, which the 
author probably considers as new ideas. - 
A more correct and sober taste would 
have warned him not to compose such 
verses as the following :— 
*? On entend la terre germer. 
We hear the earth all budding. 
_ Encore une feuille qui tombe, 
Sans que la main lait savourée. 
A leaf that falls again 
Untasted by the hand.” 
When, further on, M. Lamartine tells 
us that Horace was ambitieur d’oubli; we 
perceive that, at the moment, he has en- 
tirely lost sight of the gracious tempera- 
ment of the poet he records, and he com- 
pletely breaks through all Jaws of har- 
mony, in the ungraceful arrangement of 
the words composing the following verse :-— 
“Je doux rayon 
De la lune qui Tillumine.”* 
But as we delight to award praise when 
dictated by justice, we hasten to commend 
the fourth epistle, dedicated to M. Casimir 
Delavigne. We feel that noble emulation. 
has inspired this composition: and we 
there perceive again the poet resuming 
his flight to the height he had heretofore 
attained. 
Recherches Expérimentales sur les Pro- 
priétés et les Fonctions du Systéme Nerveux 
dans les Animaux Vertebrés. Experimental 
Researches into the Properties and Func- 
tions of the Nervous System of Vertebral 
Animals. By M. Ftourrns. Paris, 
2 vols. 8vo.—The nervous system of ani- 
mal mechanism has ever merited the at- 
tention of physiologists. The most skilful 
and intelligent who have laboured to dis- 
cover the properties of these organs, have 
concurred in the idea, that sensation and 
motion belonged to them, essentially and 
exclusively. But this double function was 
indiscriminately applied to every part of 
the neryous system, and considered as the 
sole property of their conformation. Some 
enquirers, skilled in the practice of sur- 
gery, suspected that there might be some 
error in this: but their suspicions were 
not supported by precise and conclusive 
demonstration ; and the question remained 
long.in doubt and indecision. Dr, -Flou- 
rens has undertaken to fill this void in phy- 
siology. A series of varied experiments 
upon different kinds of living animals, exe- 
cuted with persevering perspicuity, has 
* This alliterative luna,. whose luminousness ilu- 
minates, seems, almost, to defy English translation. 
shewn 
