543 



PART III. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Application of the term Involucrum. — Sir, Sweet, in his description 

 of Davallk gibberosa, Nat. Ord. i^ilices, Fl. Austral, t. 31., has adopted the 

 term Involucrum for the membranous covering of the sori, or tufts of 

 flowers, in preference to the superfluous Indusium of modern authors. The 

 decided superiority of such an adoption, I think, does him the highest 

 honour, and deserves to be imitated by all systematists ! I — Botanicus. 

 April 1 6. 



Principle of Human Developement. — Taking the mind and the body 

 together, their united functions may be reduced to three : 1. the construct- 

 ive, or those which relate to growth ; 2. the intellectual, or those which 

 relate to mind and morals ; and 3. the reproductive, or those which have 

 reference to the continuation of the species. Now it appears to be a uni- 

 versal principle in nature, that any intension [design] of one of these three 

 functions is attended by a corresponding remission of one or both of the 

 other two; in other words, if any one of the functions is employed in ex- 

 cess, a corresponding deficiency will be found in the usual exercise of the 

 others. " In all cases there is evidently in utero a very great activity of the 

 constructive functions. This activity generally diminishes after birth in a 

 degree, which, setting disease aside, bears an evident ratio to the increasing 

 exercise of the intellectual functions. The remission, or temporary sus- 

 pension, of the intellectual functions, which occurs during sleep, is attended 

 with an evident intension of the constructive functions, by which, in the 

 time of healthy repose, the wearied or impaired organs are put into a state 

 fit for renewed action. Great precocity of intellect I have certainly seen 

 attended with a marked decrease of the constructive functions. It is com- 

 mon for young persons of either sex to acquire, about the time of puberty, 

 a sudden and extraordinary activity of the constructive functions ; and I 

 have long observed that the intellect then, except in matters that regard 

 xhe final cause of that activity, becomes uncommonly sluggish and inactive. 

 The reproductive functions succeed to the completion of the constructive, 

 and it is well known that too great exercise of them is incompatible with an 

 intense application of the mind to study. On the other hand, excessive 

 intellectual exercise is sometimes destructive of health (which depends upon 

 a due performance of the constructive functions), and also of the repro- 

 ductive powers or inclinations. Sir Isaac Newton, whose intellectual powers 

 were never perhaps exceeded, is said to have exhibited this inactivity or 

 deficiency of the reproductive." (7'. Smith, Esq., Surgeon, Kingussie, 

 Inverness-shire, in Breivstcr's Journal of Science ^or July, 1829, p. 33.) 



The Conservative Tendency of Frosperity. — In Hawkins's Elements of 

 Medical Statistics, a most original and interesting book, are collected to- 

 gether a great number of facts, which prove, beyond a doubt, that health 

 and the duration of life are promoted by occupation and prosperity, and 



