Mr. Davids rejected it for the reason assigned by the learned editor of the last edition of that work, who asserts that the term grammar is never used with reference to any science but that of language. That it is not an oriental term, we allow; but has the professor never heard of

of geography, &c. ?

grammars

We are quite astonished at the extent of reading displayed in Mr. Davids' Preliminary Discourse. He seems to have consulted the writers of every language and nation. It is beyond our limits at present to enter into a critical examination of this performance; suffice it to say, that he has furnished us with a most accurate and highly interesting history of Turkish literature. The traditions of the Mahomedans, and the notices of the Chinese historians, respecting the early state of the Turks, are very curious. Had the learned author chosen a wider field, he might have considerably amplified this part of his subject, particularly by a reference to the "Histoire des Huns." We were somewhat puzzled, at first, by his adoption of the Portuguese orthography in the expression of Chinese names; e. g. Toum, where we should write Tung.

Mr. Davids finds great fault with the application of the word Tartar, or rather Tátár, to any but the Mongols; but, however he may be justified in the rejection of so equivocal and indefinite a term, we doubt the utility of so restricting the use of a phrase, which is employed by the best historians of Russia, and indeed we may say, of Europe, to designate all the various tribes of Caucasian Turks.

To prove that the Oghuz were of the same race as the modern Turks, several etymologies of words used in ancient days are adduced. The wellknown word Kipchak, or rather Kapchak (by which a great portion of the real Tartars are known to this day), is by Mr. Davids supposed to be derived from the modern word kabúk the bark of a tree.' From this opinion we entirely dissent; for we conceive the more probable derivation is from kapmak, to seize, to lay hold of,' which in the form of a substantive would be kapchak, 'one who seizes or lays hold of any thing.'

Mr. Davids is the first who has endeavoured to lay before the English reader any account of the early Turkish, or, more properly speaking, the Ouigur tongue. But this is a language of which we fear it will be difficult to form a correct idea, without a long residence in the interior of Tartary Proper, or Bukharia, Khiva, &c. Even the late M. Rémusat, from whose writings on that subject Mr. Davids has drawn largely, seems often in error respecting the meaning of many words in the manuscripts, parts of which he attempted to translate. As a proof how imperfect was the knowledge of the dialect possessed by that celebrated scholar, we may mention, that he supposes the word táp, which so frequently occurs in pure

Tátár books, is part of the verb "to be," whereas it is nothing more than a mere expletive, meaning "just then," or "now," and is used much in the same way as the interrogative in Hindustani.

On glancing at the alphabetical table, we regret to find that the author

did not add a column containing the exemplifications of the characters, which to the student would have been of the greatest service. But this is an improvement which has been neglected by most oriental grammarians; the only instance in which we have seen it introduced is in the last edition of Sir Wm. Jones's Grammar.

With the system of orthography for expressing oriental words, used throughout the work, we are highly pleased. It is in a great measure founded upon the French alphabet, than which none is more admirably adapted for expressing the powers of the modern Osmanli.

Of all the parts of speech, the verb is in the Turkish language the most difficult of explication. Mr. Davids has, however, succeeded in simplifying it very considerably, by substituting one conjugation for the two into which it is divided by all other grammarians. The list of verbs, with the cases they govern, will be found very useful.

In his selection of illustrative examples, Mr. Davids has been peculiarly happy. They are both appropriate and elegant, and evince an intimate acquaintance with the best Turkish authors. The same may be said of his extracts at the end of the work, which are highly interesting, and faithfully translated, This part of the work is an advantage possessed by no other grammar.

The Vocabulary and the Dialogues are evidently taken from Holderman; but they are much improved.

In conclusion, we most cordially recommend the work to the notice of every lover of Turkish literature. To the scholar, the profoundness of the author's researches, and, where they fail to satisfy him, the ingenuity of his conjectures, cannot fail to make him interesting; while for the student he has laboured with exemplary patience and skill, and is entitled to rank with the ablest pioneer, in smoothing the path to the attainment of a competent knowledge of this highly interesting but too much neglected language.

One word respecting the superior style in which the work is got up. have never seen a more creditable specimen of the typographical art.

We

Miscellanies, Original and Select.

PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES.

Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta.-At a meeting of this Society, on the 7th April, Mr. Hutchinson read an essay on the proximate cause of cholera, wherein he attempts to explain the mode in which the phenomena of that disease are produced. The idea of its depending on inflammation in the intestinal canal (even were it shewn that an affection of that nature is invariably present, in the early stage of the disease, which it is not), he considers totally inadequate to account for the phenomena. Mr. H. conceives cholera to depend on a certain state of disorder of the functions of respiration, whereby the changes essential to life, effected in that process, are influenced; perhaps principally the consumption of oxygen and evolution of carbonic acid gas. This state of disorder Mr. H. considers to be the consequence of certain noxious changes, either in the electrical or gaseous constitution of the atmosphere (most probably by the former remotely, and the latter more directly), by which the delicate nervous tissue of the lungs becomes impaired in its energies, and oxygen ceases to be consumed in the quantities essential to life. The series of phenomena of the disease is explained on this principle: the blood is imperfectly arterialised, and is returned to the left side of the heart, in that state, for circulation through the body. The first organ which the heart supplies is itself; and the researches of Bichat have proved, that the circulation of blood highly charged with carbon through its coronary arteries, is destructive of its sensibility. The power of the heart is thus paralized or diminished; the force of the arterial circulation is impaired on the one hand, and the great venous trunks remain unrelieved and congested on the other. The brain and spinal cord are supplied with black blood: hence result spasms, cephalic symptoms, stupor, and stertorous breathing; but whether the cessation of certain secretions, and the increase of others, is to be ascribed more to nervous influence, or to the chemical quality of the blood, Mr. H. is at a loss to determine. The coma, which in some cases succeeds re-action in cholera, and frequently proves fatal, he is inclined to think, may in many cases be with greater reason attributed to the action of black blood on the brain, than to the effects of opium, which has been administered; and he refers to the coma succeeding the first symptoms of recovery, in suspended animation from drowning, as an apt illustration.

Mr. H. cannot concur in Mr. Brodie's opinion, that the changes in respiration are merely chemical, and that animal heat depends on the nervous system. The author states that the quantity of oxygen consumed is least where animal heat is least required; it is known to be affected by the time of the day, the season of the year, the nature of the diet, and the passions of the mind; and Mr. H. thinks it is a strong corroboration of his doctrines, that under the circumstances in which cholera is most apt to occur, the quantity of oxygen consumed is least.

He then goes on to remark the great similarity between the phenomena of fever and those of cholera, particularly between the paroxysm of intermittent fever, the collapse of the remittent, and the attack of cholera. The cholera biliosa in this country is but a species of bilious fever, and the cholera of Russia is stated to be followed by high febrile re-action of several days' duration. Mr. H. is in consequence led to conclude, that the two diseases are in essence the

same or similar; oxygen being consumed in diminished quantity during the stage of depression, and again in increased quantity during that of re-action. The idea of Dr. Southwood Smith, that the brain and spinal cord are primarily acted on in fever by the poison, Mr. H. considers to be erroneous; malaria or miasma resides in the atmosphere, and could only act on the brain and spinal cord through the medium of the respiratory organs, and intermediately of the blood.

Mr. H. considers the functions producing the changes in the blood requisite to maintain a state of health, and especially in the decarbonising process, not to be confined to the lungs, but to extend to the skin, and perhaps to the other organs of secretion, and that between the actions of these systems there is consent, or natural dependence. He observes, a sprig of vegetables gives out oxygen in sunshine, if placed in common water; but it ceases to do so, if deprived of carbonic acid by being placed in distilled water. In a similar manner, Mr. H. is inclined to think, that if the evolution of carbon by the skin, or the secreting organs, is diminished, in proportion will be the quantity of oxygen consumed by the lungs; and vice versâ, as the quantity of oxygen consumed in the lungs is diminished, so will that of carbon thrown off by the skin and organs of secretion. Thus cold, malaria, the depressing passions, irregularities in diet, &c. &c., all become exciting causes either of cholera or fever, by their effects on the respiratory organs, in the extended meaning of that expression. The following is the process which he is inclined to think takes place in recovery: oxygen begins to be consumed in increased quantity (perhaps latterly in greater than the natural); the blood becomes better arterialized; it is circulated in the muscular structure of the heart, which recovers its energy; venous congestion is relieved on the right, and the arterial circulation is strengthened on the left; heat returns to the surface, and the diseased secretions disappear, while the natural ones, which had been suspended, are restored, and the remains of undecarbonized blood are thrown off in black vitiated secretions.

Academy of Sciences, Paris.-Mr. Strauss Durckheim laid before the Academy, at its meeting on the 8th October, some curious details respecting the journey of Mr. Rüppell, of Frankfort, into Abyssinia. He set out in 1830; traversed the whole of Arabia, and in October 1831 reached Mocha, on the Red Sea, preparatory to his visit to Abyssinia. In consequence, however, of the political disorganization of that country, he was obliged to halt at Massouah, where he employed himself in prosecuting researches in natural history. His residence there for six months enabled him to explore the neighbourhood, on the African continent. He discovered the ruins of the ancient Adulis, the position of which was previously unknown. He has described a large species of antelope, which appears to be the orix of the ancients, and is known in Abyssinia by the name of beysa. He has discovered also a new species of dugong, inhabiting the Red Sea, which differs materially from the only species hitherto known. It was the skin of this animal with which the ancient Israelites were required by the law of Moses to cover the tabernacle : Mr. Rüppell has therefore given it the name of halicorus tabernaculi.

VARIETIES.

Comparative Discharge of the Indus and Ganges.-Lieutenant A. Burnes has communicated to the Bengal Government a geographical report upon the Indus, drawn up from notes and surveys made on his recent mission to Lahore,

in which he estimates the magnitude of the Indus at Tatta, a place situated equidistant from the ocean with Sikrigali on the Ganges, as four times greater than the latter river, estimating the discharge of water in the Ganges at 21,000 cubic feet, which, however, is considered below the true average. In the middle of April, he found the Indus at Tatta to have a breadth of 670 yards, and to be running with a velocity of 21⁄2 miles an hour; the soundings amount to fifteen feet. These data would give a discharge of 110,500 cubic feet per second, but which he reduces to 80,000 cubic feet per second, as a fair rate of discharge for the Indus in the month of April. He observes: "From what has been above stated, it will be seen that the Indus, in discharging the enormous volume of 80,000 cubic feet of water in a second, exceeds by four times the size of the Ganges in the dry season, and nearly equals the great American river the Mississipi. The much greater length of course in the Indus, the tortuous direction of itself and its numerous tributaries among towering and snowy mountains near its source, that must always contribute vast quantities of water, might have prepared us for this result; and it is not extraordinary, when we reflect on the wide area embraced by some of these minor rivers, and the lofty and elevated position from which they take their rise: the Sutlej, in particular, flows from the sacred lake of Manasarovara, in Tibet, 17,000 feet above the sea. The Indus traverses, too, a comparatively barren and deserted country, thinly peopled and poorly cultivated; while the Ganges expends its waters in irrigation, and blesses the inhabitants of its banks with rich and exuberant crops. The Indus, even in the season of inundation, is confined to its bed by its steeper and more consistent banks than the other river, and seldom exceeds half a mile in width; the Ganges, on the other hand, is described as an inland sea,' in some parts of its course, so that at times the one bank is scarcely visible from the other: a circumstance which must greatly increase the evaporation. The arid and sandy nature of the countries that border the Indus soon swallows up the overflowing waters, and makes the river more speedily retire to its bed. Moreover, the Ganges and its subsidiary rivers derive their supply from the southern face of the great Himalaya; while the Indus receives the torrents of either side of that massy chain, and is further swollen by the showers of Cabul, and the rains and snow of Chinese Tartary. Its waters are augmented long before the rainy season has arrived; and when we look at the distant source of the river, to what cause are we to attribute this early inundation, but to melting snow and ice?

The slope on which the Indus descends to the ocean would appear to be gentle, like that of most great rivers. The average rate of its current does not exceed 2 miles an hour, while the whole of the Punjab rivers, which we navigated on the voyage to Lahore, were found to be one full mile in excess to the Indus: we readily account for this increased velocity by their proximity to the mountains, and it will serve as a guide in estimating the fall of the great river. It is an additional proof of the greater magnitude of the Indus, that at its lowest it retains a velocity of 2 miles with a medial depth of 15 feet, moving throughout the year in one majestic body to the ocean; while the Ganges partakes more of the nature of a hill-stream, insignificant at one season and overflowing its banks at another."

Lieut. Burnes observes, regarding the effect of the tide on the two rivers, that in the Ganges, it runs considerably above Calcutta, whereas no impression of it is perceptible in the Indus 25 miles below Tatta, or about 75 miles from the sea. It would appear that the greatest mean rise of tide in the Ganges is 12 feet. He found that of the Indus to be only 9 feet at full moon, but had