1828.] Dr. Granville’s Travels to St. Petersburgh. 40) 
every sinning gourmaid—to explain by the same unvaried cause, “ indiges- 
tion,’ every malanna to which flesh is heir to, is absurd, even when such 
generalizations are confined to a large class of society in this country, without 
wandering abroad. One can no more find two stomachs than two noses alike. 
The whole secret lies in learning how the stomach of our patient has been 
educated, and according to that education to deal with it. This involves an 
individuality in the attention to be given to cases of ‘ stomach complaints,” 
which physicians would find too troublesome ; yet without it justice cannot be 
done to the patients. It is sheer nonsense to talk of classing human stomachs 
and civilized stomachs ; stomachs of drunkards and stomachs of abstemious 
people; stomachs of aldermen, and stomachs of Pythagoreans; stomachs of 
literary men, lawyers, physicians, and parsons, and stomachs of young colle- 
gians, sportsmen, and dandies, under one and the same denomination and rule. 
Each has had its physical education as peculiarly different from that of the 
rest, as that which the possessor has received in the nursery or at college; 
and each must be dealt with accordingly. A friend of mine, who had occasion 
to see a physician write several directions for invalids labouring under what 
are called “stomach complaints,” wondered that he did not give a printed 
circular to each, in imitation of a great authority who had always the same 
printed page to refer to, and thus save himself trouble. Had he followed such 
a plan, he would have done his patients injustice ; for, as far as my own 
experience goes, I am confident he never met with two stomachs alike!” 
We must now quit our author during the remainder of his rout to St. 
Petersburgh, and rejoin him at the gates of that most interesting of 
European capitals ; for such it is, at least to the inhabitants of all the 
others. Much of the remainder of our notice will be devoted to the 
purpose of conveying to our readers as characteristic a notion of this 
beautiful city as our own space and our author’s powers of description 
will permit. The following are some of our traveller’s impressions from 
the first view of it :— 
“The general coup dil which the “Imperial Residence” of St. Peters- 
burgh presents to the traveller, is one of the most magnificent in Europe. It 
does not, like that of Naples and Constantinople, heightened by the magic 
effect of the surrounding country, convey the idea of beautiful nature and 
picturesque situation ; neither is the impression first received on entering the 
spacious streets and extensive squares of St. Petersburgh like that which the 
capitals of London and Paris excite when first beheld, imparting at once just 
notions of the wealth, splendour, and luxury of their inhabitants. But it 
surprises more than either, from the great number and magnitude of the public 
buildings, from the bold style of architecture which pervades every part, and 
from the total absence of those dark and wretched courts and lanes, the abode 
of the lowest classes, which in other cities obtrude themselves on the notice of 
the traveller, in the midst of grandeur and stateliness of exterior. 
Tt was not without some reason that a French traveller newly arrived in 
this city, asked where the people lived? “ Partout je ne rencontre que des 
palais et d’innombrables edifices,’ he observed ; and the remark thus far was 
correct. No capital in Europe can, in this respect, be compared to St. Peters- 
burgh ; for no where else do we meet with buildings of such striking appear- 
ance, nor does any other city contain so many private houses which might rival 
the palaces of Rome. St. Petersburgh is, in fact, a city of palaces.” 
What follows, in relation to the origin and peculiar situation of Peters 
burgh, is sensible and well put :— 
“To a sovereign who felt the desire and saw the necessity of bringing his 
people more immediately into contact with the maritime nations of Europe, and 
who by the nature of political events was obliged to keep a watchful eye over its 
nearest neighbours, who were also his most inveterate enemies ; the situation of 
M.M. New Series.—Vou. VI. No. 34, 
