honoured and illustrious a father, though it might be considered by some of the sex to be unfeminine, appeared to me a triumphant illustration of devotional attachment. She informed me that the collection was for sale, and the price demanded for it was 10,000 thalers, or about $8000 of our money.

It may be said of the lamented Sommering, that he was one of the brightest lights in anatomical and physiological science, and that his name and his writings will be transmitted to the latest posterity, as among the highest authorities, for the accuracy and fidelity of his statements and the soundness of his deductions.

In travelling through Belgium, Holland, and Germany, particularly the latter extensive country, I was struck with the general health and robustness of the population, attributable mainly to their frugal and regular habits of life, and to the general absence of all luxurious indulgences. The limited means of obtaining a livelihood compel every individual almost to a rigid economy and industry. And in Prussia the healthy moral and physical condition of the people is still better secured by the solid intellectual culture extended by the admirable system of school education and athletic exercises, to almost every individual, it may be said, of that dominion.

Nor do the titled classes generally, I think, consume so large a portion of the fruits of human labour as in some other countries. Neither is their time passed in the usual voluptuous idleness of courts, but devoted to intellectual improvement and practical attention to the wants of the people, with whose welfare they seem directly to sympathize.

It ought in justice to be stated also in honour of our Anglo-Saxon kindred, that there is more rigid cultiva

tion of the higher order, and more useful branches of mental pursuits to be met with in the courts of northern Europe, than elsewhere upon the Continent.

There is one habit common to the countries of northern Europe, which, however loathsome and annoying to some, and however severely reprobated by others, is, it may be said, almost universal. I mean the use of tobacco; which, though apparently everywhere most freely indulged in by all classes, and even by both sexes, was not, as it appeared to me, attended with those injurious results which the denunciations it has received in our own country would have led me to anticipate.

If this "good creature" and "precious weed," as it was called when first brought into vogue by Sir Walter Raleigh, were so extremely deleterious as some would have us believe, it appears to me inconceivable how we should find the most vigorous constitutions and welldeveloped forms among those very people where it is so profusely employed, chiefly in the form of smoking.

My impression with regard to the humid climate and locality of Holland, and it accords with observation there, is, that its use is more or less prophylactic or preventive of the endemial fevers of low and marshy countries. The moderate use of this weed, we are inclined to think, may, under many circumstances, be not only harmless, if not also preventive and remedial.

In France its consumption is certainly on the increase, and in England we should judge that it is getting more and more into vogue. It is not our intention to dilate upon this disputed question; but our experience leads us to the conclusion that much more censure has been cast upon our American Virginia plant than it merits. In one very fatal and distressing form of disease, to wit, Laryngeal Phthisis, and Bronchitis among pub

lic speakers, the fact is very clearly established, that the moderate habit of smoking, by the drain it accomplishes and its anodyne qualities, has been eminently useful, at least as a preventive of that peculiar malady so frequent in the northern part of the United States, especially among the clergy.

SWITZERLAND.

AFTER leaving Germany I passed up the Rhine and visited Strasbourg, the birthplace of the immortal Cuvier, that giant in every branch of science that touches upon animal organization, modern or antediluvian.

From this en route we entered Switzerland by Schaffhausen; and thence passing entirely through this wonderfully romantic and unique country, visiting nearly all its interesting towns, lakes, mountains, and other objects of importance, we finally reached Geneva.

Without entering into any particular notice of this city, so famous in history, I must be permitted, as a professional man, to caution all my countrymen who are threatened or affected with the least pulmonary disease, or predisposition to it, to avoid a residence even of a few weeks here, or in any part of Switzerland. This I do from observation during two visits to this capital. The remarkable and sudden changes of temperature to which persons are constantly exposed, during summer more particularly, by the cold winds from Mont Blanc and other mountains in the vicinity, covered with glaciers and eternal snows, subject them to perpetual danger of an aggravation of their symptoms. The humidity, also, which arises from the extensive surface of Lake Leman and its outlet, the commencement of the Rhone, make the city of Geneva more particularly, however fashionable and attractive a resort it may be for travellers, a most objectionable residence for pulmonary invalids.

The melancholy instances of such persons which

have come under my observation, have fully demonstrated this fact to my satisfaction; and this was farther confirmed by my visits to the hospital, and my conversations with one of the most intelligent physicians of that city, Dr. Lombard. In early autumn, in my last visit, I was forcibly struck with the large proportion of pulmonary affections which he showed me under his care in the hospital; and in expressing my surprise, he remarked that they always constituted also a large share of his practice among the inhabitants. I think I may venture to say that I have never met in any hospital establishment with anything like so large a proportion of affections of the lungs.

I am happy of having this opportunity of acknowledging my thanks to Dr. Lombard for his polite attentions to me, and of expressing the high esteem which I entertain for his professional abilities. He is one of the most ardent admirers of the stethescope, and one of the most skilful in the use of it that I have met with out of Paris. So confident is he of the truth of its revelations, that he assured me that he could mark, from day to day, with a pen upon the chest, the increase or diminution of the inflammation within.

We avail ourselves of the following graphic tableau of our journey through a most interesting portion of Switzerland, copied from a MS. journal kept by Mrs. Mott, who accompanied me in this part of my tour:

"One of the most memorable spots we visited in Switzerland was Goldau, which, thirty years ago, was overwhelmed by the fall of a mountain, and which buried no less than five villages, including old Goldau, and 467 persons. This awful catastrophe is still remembered by some who were eyewitnesses to the heartrending scene. As we wandered over this mountain