the very heavens. They diffufed, as they burnt, a very agreeable perfume He farther remarks, that the best agaricum grows upon the larch, and that the arquebutires of his time made ufe of it for keeping up fire, and for making matches. Thus, nature, in crowning the fummit of cold and ferruginous mountains with thofe vaft vegetable torches, has placed the match in their branches, the tinder at their foot, and the fteel at their

roots.

To the fouth, on the contrary, trees prefent, in their foliage, fans, umbrellas, parafols. The latanier carries each of its leaves plaited as a fan, attached to a long tail, and fimilar, when completely difplayed, to a radiating fun of verdure. Two of thofe trees are to be feen in the royal-garden. The leaf of the banana refembles a long and broad girdle, which, undoubtedly, procared for it the name of Adam's fig-tree. The magnitude of the leaves of feveral fpecies of trees increases in proport on as we approach the Line. That of the cocoa-tree, with double fruit, of the Sechelles Iflands, is from twelve to fifteen feet long, and from feven to eight broad. A fingle one is fufficient to cover a numerousfamily. One of these leaves is, likewife, to be feen in the Royal Cabinet of Natural Hiftory. That of the talipot of the land of Ceylon is of Dearly the fame fize.

The interefting and unfortunate Robert Knox, who has given the bett account of Ceylon which I am acquainted with, tell us, that one of the leaves of the talipot is capable of covering from fifteen to twenty perfons. When it is dry, continues he, it is at once trong

and pliant, fo that you may fold and unfold it at pleasure, being naturally plaited like a fan. In this ftate it is not bigger than a man's arm, and extremely light. The natives cut it into triangles, though it is naturally round, and each of them carries one of those fections over his head, holding the angular part before, in his hand, to open for himself a paffagethrough the bushes. The foldiers employ this leaf as a covering to their tents. He confiders it, and with good reafon, as one of the greatest bleflings of Providence, in a country burnt up by the fun, and inundated by the rains, for fix months of the year.

Nature has provided, in thofe climates, parafols for whole villages; for the fig-tree, denominated, in India, the fig-tree of the Banians, a drawing of which may be feen in Tavernier, and in feveral other travellers, grows on the very burning fand of the fea-fhore, throwing, from the extremity of its branches, a multitude of thoots, which drop to the ground, there take root, and form, around the principal trunk, a great number of covered arcades, whofe fhade is impervious to the rays of the fun.

In our temperate climates, we experience a fimilar benevolence on the part of nature. In the warm and thirfty feafons, the bes ftows upon us a variety of fruits, replenished with the most refrething juices, fuch as cherries, peaches, melons; and as winter approaches, thofe which warm and comfort by their oils, fuch as the almond and the walnut. Certain naturalifts have confidered even the ligneous thells of thefe fruits, as a prefer vative against the cold of the gloo

my

my feafon; but these are, as we have feen, the means of floating and of navigating. Nature employs others, with which we are not acquainted, for preferving the fubftances of fruits, from the impreffions of the air. For example, the preferves, through the whole winter, many fpecies of apples and pears, which have no other covering than a pellicle fo very thin, that it is impoflible to determine how fine it is.

Nature has placed other vegetables in humid and dry fituations, the qualities of which are inexplicable on the principles of our phyfics, but which admirably harmonize with the neceflities of the men who inhabit thofe places. Along the water-fide grow the plants and the trees which are the dryeft, the lighteft, and, confequently, the beft adapted for the purpofe of croffing the stream. Such are reeds, which are hollow, and ruthes which are filled with an inflammable marrow. It requires but a very moderate bundle of rushes to bear the weight of a very heavy man upon the water. On the banks of the lakes of the north are produced thofe enormous birchtrees, the bark of a fingle one of which is fufficient to form a large canoe. This bark is fimilar to leather in pliancy, and fo incorruptible by humidity, that, in Ruffia, I have feen fome of it extracted from under the earth which covered powder magazines, perfectly found, though it had lain there from the time of Peter the Great.

Account of the Kainfi, a Species of Gazelle or Antelope. From le Vailani's Second Fourney into the Interior of Africa.

THE Kainfi has received from the Dutch its name of rock-jumper (klip-fpringer), merely on account of the nimblenefs with which it bounds from rock to rock; and in fact, of all the gazelle tribe it is the moft active. It is the size of a roebuck of a year old, and has a coat of a yellowish grey; but its hair is fingular in this respect, that inftead of being round, fupple, and folid, like that of moft quadrupeds, it is flat, harfh, and fo little adherent to the fkin, that the leaft friction caufes it to fall off. Hence nothing is more easy than to ftrip the animal of hair, dead or alive; friction, or even touching the fkin, is fufficient for the purpofe. Often have I endeavoured to preferve the fur of thofe which I had killed, without being able to effect it: notwithstanding all my precautions in fkinning them, the greatest part of the hair fell off. Another par ticularity is the brittleness of the hair; which is fuch that, if a portion be taken between the fingers, and twifted with the other hand, the hairs break. This property, however, is common to feveral quadrupedswhich live among rocks.

This gazelle also differs from the other species in the form of its hoof, which is not pointed like theirs, but rounded at the extremity; and as it is its cuftom, in leaping or walking, to pinch with the point of the hoof without bearing on the heel, it leaves a print distinguishable from thofe of all the African antelopes. Its fieth is exquifite, and much in requeft, efpecially among the hunters. The panthers and leopards are equally fond of it. I have heard the Hottentots relate that thefe animals unite to hunt the kainfi; and that

whea

when the latter has taken refuge on the point of fome fteep rock, one of them will go below to wait for the prey, while the reft advance and try to force it to precipitate itself.

I do not, however, give credit to thefe pretended affociations of animals of the tyger kind.

The chace of the kainfi is very amufing. It can fcarcely, indeed, be freed by dogs, from whom it foon efcapes by its inconceivable agility, and gets out of their reach on the point of fome infulated rock; on which it remains for hours together, fafe from all purfuit, and fufpended, as it were, over the abys :-but in this pofition it feems to offer the beft mark to the ball or the arrow; and if the hunter cannot always cafily get at it after he has killed it, he may almoft conftantly thoot it. Many times have I been witness of the extreme nimblenefs of the animal: but one day I faw an inftance of it which aftonifhed me. I was hunting one, and from the nature of the place it was fuddenly fo preffed by my dogs, that it feemed to have no poflibility of escape. Before it, was an immenfe perpendicular crag, which ftopped it hort: but on this wall, which I thought vertical, was a little ledge projecting two inches at molt, which the kainfi had perceived. He leaped on it, and to my great furprife held faft. I thought at least he would foon be precipitated; and my dogs themfelves fo much expected it, that they ran below to feize him when he fhould fall. I threw ftones at him to endeavour to make him lofe his balance. All at once, as if he had divined my intention, he col

Reflections of certain effects of Heat and Cold on the living Syftem. By Thomas Beddoes, M. D. From Medical Facts and Obfervations.

I know not whether it has been obferved that the inflammations particularly thofe of the eyes, which are fo frequent in hot climates where it is the custom to fleep during the fummer in the open air, are to be referred to the fucceffion of heat to cold. Travellers, especially thofe into Egypt, have varioudly attempted to account for this phænomenon. Haffelquift imputes it to certain miafmata arifing from the almolt empty refervoirs in which the water of the Nile is preferved from inundation to inundation. This is, however, a mere hypothefis, unconfirmed by any frict analogy : nor is the fuppofed caufe in any way brought home to the effect. As little, in my opinion, can the inflammation of the eyes be afcribed to the influence of the nocturnal light of the heavens upon the eye, the eyelids, being more or lefs clofed during fleep. The caufe feems inadequate. It is common in this country to fleep in chambers not leis ftrongly illuminated (if not more fo) than in Egypt, during the night, without any inconvenience to our

fight.

3

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t

uld

e day

, if other be rendered it injured by the

fore, to me, that, within certain limits, and those not very narrow, he transition from a higher to a r temperature is attended with yer to animals in a state of ole health; and a perfon, I onceive, might fuddenly pafs from a higher to a lower temperature without inconvenience, even where the difference is fo great as to be capable of producing confiderable inflammation, if the change fhould be made with equal celerity in a contrary direction. On this, though an interefting fubje&t for obfervations on man, and experiments on animals, we want precife facts; and I ftate the principle in order to induce obfervers to compare it with the facts that fall in their way.

circumftances, fuch as unefs and fwelling of the ts expofed to cold together with the frequent occurrence of inflammatory diforders not long after expofure to cold, were calculated to milead obfervers into a belief that thefe diforders were the direct effect of cold. Yet the great difference in the ftate of a part during inflammation, and under the influence of cold, might have induced them to fufpect that fo flight an analogy might be illufive: and, after taking into the account other well-afcertained facts they ought to have concluded that the theory was falfe. Linnæus, in a paper in the Amoenitates Academicæ, expreffes his aftonishment at the impunity with which the heated Laplander rubs himself with fnow, or even rolls in the fnow, and drinks the cold fnow-water. We every day fee horses in a ftate of the most profufe perspiration freely washed with cold water, and always without injury. I have feveral times within these two years caufed horfes accustomed to be ftabled,to be turned outfor a fingle night VOL. XXXVIII.

;

In

Befides the fucceffion of heat and vice verfa, there is a third cafe well worthy of confideration; and this where part of the body is expofed to one of these powers, and the remaining part to the other as, for inftance, where a fiream of comparatively cold air flows upon part of the body of a perfon fitting in a warm room, and perhaps alfo drinking ftimulating liquors. making chemical experiments it often happens that a cold (catarrh) is taken, if the hands be much immerfed in cold water, when the laboratory is much heated; by adding warm water, to raise the temperature of that in the trough, this danger is eafily avoided. In these cafes the effect feems to be the fame as that of the fucceffion of heat to cold. In perfons whose bowels are extremely liable to be affected, it fometimes happens, as I have myself known it to happen,

D d

that