lume of no remarkable merit, written -while he was young. Prussian service: a lieutenant-general, we believe. He made prodigious efforts in the cause of America-put his head in peril, as a traitor: was, we conscientiously believe, sacrificed—(we will not qualify the phrase at all)-to Washington :-treated shamefully :In short, he died of a broken heart.It was well for America-very well, that he did not become the commander-in-chief- the leader, even for a month, of her armies. He would have been a dictator-a despot-or nothing - The famous DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE-the American MAGNA CHARTA, very nearly as it now stands, was the production of Mr J. He was one of the committee appointed by congress, for drafting it. After a consultation, they separated agreeing that each one should bring his own ideas complete, in regular form, on a certain day. They met-each with his own Declaration' ready to produce. Mr J. was called upon (as the youngest man, we believe) to read first. He submitted-his paper was immediately accepted by his associates: they would not even read those which they had brought, after hearing his read. It was adopted by congress, with a few alterations; part of which, like the improvements of Pope, in his own poetry were of a very question--Gratitude !-we know them better. able character. While Mr Jefferson was the Secretary of State, and subsequently, he produced a number of REPORTS, and PAPERS, which are distinguished by extraordinary temper, foresight, wisdom, and power. Among these, are his REPORT ON THE FISHERIES: a system, for the regulation of WEIGHTS and MEASURES: a paper, upon the ACCOUNTABILITY of PUBLIC OFFICERS: a correspondence with our cabinet, concerning the IMPRESSMENT of AMERICAN SAILORS, which, by the way, was the real cause of our late war with America. Mr Jefferson is a fine scholar a liberal thinker: and a truly great man. See our VOLS. for 1824, p. 509: 622. JOHNSON, JUDGE—an able man: has written lately the LIFE of GENERAL GREENE, one of the revolutionary officers. Greene was another Washington; the only man able to take his place, if he had fallen; or if he had been overthrown by the cabal, in Congress. General Charles Lee was a better captain-the best, we believe, in the armies of the revolution: but he was too adventurous-too bold and peremptory-too dangerous for the place of commander-in-chief. One word of him, by the way-now that he is likely to have no sort of justice done to him among the people, for whom he sacrificed himself. He was one of those, to whom the letters of Junius have been ascribed: he was a British general: an officer, in the if he had: But we see no reasonthere was none-why he should have been so cruelly sacrificed; or so bitterly slandered.-We mention this now, with more emphasis, because THE REPUBLIC is all in commotion about LA FAYETTE-pretending — shame on such impudence !-that all this uproar comes of their gratitude. But, even while we speak, the fashion is over-we have no doubt of it-we put our opinion, therefore, upon record, with a date (Jan. 1, 1825)—we say, that already the fashion is over, in America; that, already, they have done pursuing the "Father of their country," as they profanely call him, after Washington, with outcries and parade.-Gratitude!-We know them better.-They talk of gratitude, while the surviving men of the revolution are dying of want :-while General St Clair-who literally starved, in his old age, upon the precarious bounty of a "single state," is hardly cold in his grave-while the very man, with whom Burgoyne treated, before the surrender (Wilkinson), is living upon the charity of Maryland :-while Baron de Kalb, Lord Stirling, (also a traitor in the cause of America)Pulaski, (a Polish nobleman)-with a score of others, each one of whom did as much for the republican side, as La FAYETTE-and risked much more.We know the character of this people; we know that of the Marquis--But he was a boy, a mere boy, when he volunteered in the armies of America: and we say, positively, that all this uproar is not because of their gratitude, in America, for what he did, in the day of revolution (for he did but little-and, of that little, they knew nothing)—but chiefly, because he, LA FAYETTE, is a nobleman, of whom they have heard much talk lately, and all at once. It is curiosity-not gratitude. Gratitude is consistent. Curiosity is not. Gratitude is the growth of knowledge, in a case like this: Curiosity is the growth of ignorance.-A few years ago, (we have not forgotten it,) James Munroe, the President of the United States, made a tour through New England. Before he went among the Federal party, there was no language too offensive-no usage bad enough, one would have thought from their papers, for James Munroe. When he went away, "they pursued him as they did La Fayette."-Every house -every heart had been open to him -every voice followed him with flattery. Why was this?-Was it because they had been wrong?-No. Was it because they were ashamed of their behaviour; or had come to understand his plain, homely virtues? No. It was only because he, James Munroe, was President of the United States of America. These republicans are curious: they secretly revere rank, more than we do: they had never before seen a PRESIDENT. LOGAN-JAMES: a quaker: a chief justice in Pennsylvania: died about 1750:-author of several works in Latin, which have been republished in various parts of Europe: a great scholar, for the age-familiar with many languages-a good mathematician: a translator of Cicero's De Senectute, published with his notes, by Dr Franklin. His "Erperimenta Melatemata de Plantarum Generatione," was published in Latin, about 1740-in Leyden, translated afterwards, and republished, by Dr Fothergill, at London. Several of his papers may be found in the Transactions of the Royal Society. We look upon him as altogether an extraordinary man. WADD ON CORPULENCY.-WADD'S NUGE CHIRURGICE. BYRON, my dear fellow, said we to him one day, you are inclined to corpulency. Not at all, was the reply; it is entirely against my inclination, but I cannot help it. This was very well for a joke; but he could help it, and did so-for by taking, as we advised, a raisin and a glass of brandy a-day, and abstaining from all other food, solid or fluid, for the course of a month, he lost flesh vastly, and was nearly as thin as ourself when he died. At the time we spoke to him, he must have been rising eighteen or nineteen stones. We were thinking of this the other evening, when Wadd's books, of which we had never before heard, came by chance into our hands-and yet the Essay on Corpulency had reached a third edition. So true it is, that one half of mankind does not know how the other half lives; and, moreover, they are pleasant and readable books, as we shall evince by the time we get to the end of this our article. We, (i. e. not merely ourselves, but the world,) have now come to that state of refinement, or rather, we should say, of good sense, that what Dr Johnson truly called the most important operation of the day, is no longer undervalued. Dinner, with its avant-couriers, breakfast and lunch, and its running footmen, chasse café, and supper, is properly appreciated. We no longer pretend to the silly puppyism of despising what, from the earliest age to the present, and from the present until the day of the dissolution of this great Globe itself, must continue to be the most interesting topic of life. Our living literature bears the impress of this new feeling. Witness Dr Morris, Dr Kitchener, the Author of Waverley, Sir Morgan ODoherty, &c. &c. &c. Everybody, in short, of any mark or likelihood in this scribbling generation. All these Cursory remarks on Corpulence or obesity, considered as a disease, with a critical examination of ancient and modern opinions relative to its cause and cure. Third edition. By William Wadd, Esq. F. L. S. Surgeon extraordinary to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, &c. &c. &c. London, Callon, 1819. Pp. 129. 8vo. 1824. Nuga Chirurgica; or a Biographical Miscellany, Illustrative of a Collection of Professional Portraits. By W. Wadd, &c. London. Longman and Co. Pp. 276. 8vo. great men display, either by direct allusion, by receipt, maxim, advice or by indirect notice, that they are perfectly au fait at all sort of culinary arrangements. In truth, great writers of almost all ages have been characterized by this attribute. Homer, to whom, as from their fountain, other stars Repairing in their golden urns, draw light," rejoices in a banquet as in a battle, and describes the cutting up of a porker flourishing in fat, with as much gusto as he does the dissection of a Jove-nurtured hero. A collection of the moral and political sentimentsthe vua, as they are technically called, of Homer-has been made long ago-a collection equally savoury could be made of his cookery prescriptions, his ideas of managing tipple, his magniloquent and unrivalled epithets of everything connected with the social board; and we strenuously recommend some adequate hand to perform this acceptable service to Grecian literature, and to the great cause of gourmanderie at large. Having thus cited Homer, we excuse ourselves from saying anything of the minor authors,-Plato, Horace, &c. whom we had marked on the margin of our paper, to be quoted on the occasion. As then the value of feeding has been duly acknowledged, the consequences thereof must be worthy of attention-among the most prominent of which is corpulence. If we believe Wadd, this is a disease, (for such he considers it,) in a great measure peculiar to England. And why should it not? Is there any other country in the world which assumes for its national tune, OH! THE ROAST BEEFwhich delights in surrounding its monarch with officers, designated, contrary to all rules of orthography and etymology, by the jaw-stirring name of Beef-eaters-which finds matter of scorn for all its neighbours chiefly in the inferiority of their provender, looking, as behoves them, with contempt on the frog-fed Frenchman, the leek-eating Taffy, the oatmeal-swallowing Scot, the potatoe-devouring Irishman, the sourcrout German, the turnip-nibbling Swede, the garlickchewing Spaniard-and so on to the end of all the nations of Europe firmly believing all the while, that no native of these countries ever uses, or has even heard of, other food than what they think fit to assign to them which bestows the Knightly title on one joint of beef, and the Baronial on another; and, not to be bothering the public with a long induction of particulars, has preserved these attributes from the days in which Cæsar found them (barbarous, to be sure, but in the middle of their wigwams carne lacteq; viventes,) to the present hour. Without going farther, what a philosophical work, a History of the Lord Mayors of London, keeping an eye to this one peculiar and national point, could be made, if it were done by a great oesthetic genius of a comprehensive mind, capable of grasping many particulars in one grand philosophical sweep, such as Mr Coleridge! that for one fat person in France or Spain, "It has been conjectured by some, leave others to determine the fairness of there are an hundred in England. I shall such a calculation. "That we may, however, approach, or even exceed it, no one will doubt, who reflects on the expensive plans For deluging of dripping pans, introduced by the modern improvements in the art of grazing, and the condescension of some of our physicians, who have added the culinary department to the practice of physic. One learned Doctor (vid. Institutes of Health) is of opinion, that the vulgarism of Kitchen Physic is one of those oracles of Nature, that deserves much more attention than ridicule;' another asserts, that no man can be a good physician, who has not a competent knowledge of cookery,' and ornaments Culina' with a Roman stew-pan; while a third apologizes for descending from professional dignity to culinary preparations, teaching us how to make' savoury jelly,' which may rally the powers of digestion in that fastidious state of stomach frequent after long fits of the And it ought not to be omitted, gout. amongst the great events of the present era, that the combined efforts of art and nature, produced in the jubilee year 1809, the fattest ox, and the most corpulent man ever heard of in the history of the world. "It is not a little singular, that a disease which has been thought characteristic of the inhabitants of this island, should have been so little attended to. Dr Thomas Short's Discourse on Corpulency, published in 1727, with a small pamphlet by "It is supposed, that a person weighing one hundred and twenty pounds, generally contains twenty pounds of fat. The accumulation of fat, or what is commonly called corpulency, and by nosologists denominated polysarcia, is a state of body so generally met with in the inhabitants of this country, that it may exist to a certain degree without being deemed worthy of attention; but, when excessive, is not only burdensome, but becomes a disease, disposes to other diseasesand to sudden death. "The predisposition to corpulency varies in different persons. In some, it exists to such an extent, that a considerable secretion of fat will take place, notwithstanding strict attention to the habits of life, and undeviating moderation in the gratification of the appetite. Such a predisposition is often hereditary, and when accompanied, as it frequently is, with that easy state of mind, denominated good humour,' which, in the fair sex, 'Teaches charms to last, Still makes new conquests, and maintains the past.' Or when, in men, the temper is cast in that happy mould, which Mr Hume so cheerfully congratulates himself on possessing, and considers as more than equivalent to a thousand a-year; The habit of looking at everything on its favourabie side;' —on such dispositions of body and mind, corpulency must, in a certain degree, attend.”—P. 15, 16. Part of this we are perfectly certain of. A good fat face is generally a pleasant object. It is most truly said, in Peveril of the Peak, that an ill-humoured-looking fat man is so rare an object, as to create in us the disgust which attends the sight of a monster. Look at the picture of Jack Powell, the butcher of Stebbing in Essex, who died in 1754, aged 37, (Lord Byron and Raphael's age,) weighing 40 stones. What a good, thoughtless, beneficent hilarity is in his countenance! With what an air of complacent self-satisfaction he is wiping his unwigged_head-how agreeably degagée his loose vestments hang around him! You feel it would be impossible to fret that man. Not a blackberry did he care about the Pope, the Devil, or the Pretender, or about the Family Compact, or Mr Pitt, or the balance of power in Europe. We venture to say, he had a vast ignorance of the works of Jemmy Thomson, or Sammy Johnson, or Davie Hume, or the Warburtonian Controversy, or any other of the flocci-nauci-nihili-pilifications, which, in his day, were engaging literary men. But if he knew not these trifles, we lay a rump and dozen that he had a perfect knowledge of a beef-steak-that it would be hard to puzzle him in a muttonchop-that Tom Rees's own Triponions are not deeper versed in the mysteries of a belly of tripe, than he was; and that, no matter who was the best singer of bob majors within the parish of Stebbing, few would beat him in disposing of their juicy attendant, the leg of mutton and trimmings. To waddle back to Wadd. We shall skip some dozen or so of his pages at a slap, premising, that they contain cures, &c. for corpulency, one of which strikes us to be unutterably horrid. It is recommended as a remedy to devour Castile soap. What a tremendous abuse of the stomachic region! Sooner would we amplify ourselves to the dimensions of Daniel Lambert himself, than make a washing-tub of our paunch, and convert our gastric juice into suds. Vegetable diet is more palatable, though still highly objectionable; but as we intend to go at full length into that question very shortly, in a philosophical consideration of John Frank Newton's return to nature, we excuse ourselves from saying anything farther on the subject here. There is a vast, miscellaneous collection of anecdotes of corpulency at the end of Wadd's book; pleasant to read, but arranged with a complete contempt of all regularity—very much in the manner of Miss Letitia Matilda Hawkins' new attempt at a Joe Miller. What, however, can be more agreeable than to hear of ladies of four orfive-and-twenty stones; of Tunisian misses fattened for marriage; of butchers pinguifying on their own steaks; of Spanish generals feeding themselves on vinegar, until the skin hung round the body like a pelisse, thereby affording justification of what might otherwise seem a bouncer of George Colman's, in his description of Will Waddle, "Whose skin, like a lady's loose gown, hung about him" Of windows knocked out, and walls knocked in, to let out prodigious coffins; of Englishmen travelling through Saxony in quest of the picturesque, weighing 550 lb., or 39 st. 4 lb. wafted through Italian vales and Valdarmian regions on the groaning necks of twelve chairmen ; of Captain K., of the Jamaica trade, of whom the astonished negro exclaimed, "Great big man-man big as tub, massa of the son of the Bishop of diocese which, we should imagine, must be always vacant,) who, at nineteen, weighed twenty stones, and was remarkable for his wit, of which we have the following specimen "A fellow collegian, son of a dean, of a very lean and spare habit, expressing his astonishment at their difference of size, he explained the reason by the following extempore parody of the old song, There's a difference between And I'll tell you the reason why; To feed such a fat son as I." -All of which, with many other equally piquant matters, may be found in Mr Wadd's Essay on Corpulency. His Nuge Chirurgica is a series of biographical notes on a collection of Professional Portraits. Where he got the foundation of his collection, we shall let himself tell. "The following pages owe their origin to a collection of Professional Portraits, the nucleus of which was a set of prints, given to the author ten years ago, by his excellent friend, Mr Fauntleroy of Berners' Street!!!" And this volume bears the date of 1824, by the end of which year that excellent friend had fallen a victim to the laws of his country. Sic transit, &c. The notes are in general brief, but abounding, as we think medical books generally do, with curious and peculiar anecdotes. The epigram on Dr Glynn, with whom we were acquainted, (he died in 1800, aged 82, and was a Seatonian prize-poet in 1757,) is new to us. Glynn was an ugly fellow: "This morning, quite dead, Tom was found in his bed, Although he was hearty last night; But 'tis thought, having seen Dr Glynn in a dream, That the poor fellow died of the fright." As also is the conundrum on the Three Doctors, which we shall leave unanswered, to exercise the ingenuity of our readers. What's DOCTOR, and Dr, and so? writ But, on second considerations, to put them out of pain, we shall explain to them that it is, Dr LONG, Dr Short, and Dr Askew. "De Castro was one of the first members of the Corporation of Surgeons, after their separation from the barbers, in the year 1745; on which occasion Bonnel Thornton suggested Tollite Barberum' for their motto. "The barber-surgeons had a by-law, by which they levied ten pounds on any person who should dissect a body out of their hall without leave. "The separation did away this, and other impediments to the improvement of surgery in England, which previously had been chiefly cultivated in France. The barber-surgeon in those days was known by his pole, the reason of which is sought for by a querist in The British Apollo,' fol. Lond. 1708, No. 3. 'I'de know why he that selleth ale, ANSWER. In antient Rome, when men loved fighting, And wounds and scars took much delight in; Man-menders then had noble pay, Which we call surgeons to this day, 'Twas ordered, that a huge long pole, With basin deck'd, should grace the hole, To guide the wounded, who unlopt Could walk, on stumps the other hopt: But when they ended all their wars, And even grew out of love with scars, Their trade decaying; to keep swimming, They join'd the other trade of trimming, And to their poles, to publish either, Thus twisted both their trades together." |