Board, is that recently instituted by the reporter in the districts afflicted with Cholera in the north of England. The broad results of these inquiries have been communicated to the public in The Lancet and Medical Gazette of the 31st of December, 1831, in a brief letter, copies of which I have the honour to lay before the Board.

"These results were based on the examination, first, of three excellent specimens of blood drawn in the malignant Cholera; secondly, of one drawn in case of ordinary though violent diarrhoea; and, thirdly, of the dejected matters of eminently characteristic appearance. After fruitless attempts to obtain materiel for analysis in Sunderland, I repaired to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where the disinterested kindness and scientific zeal of the medical gentlemen of that town at once supplied me with abundant specimens. The first opportunity occurred in the case, an outline of which I subjoin, and which was witnessed by Dr. Macwhirter, of Newcastle; Messrs. Thackrah, Nailor, and Breary, of Leeds; Mr. Nesham, surgeon, of Newcastle; several other gentlemen, and myself."

The Doctor then proceeds to give three cases of Cholera which came under his own observation, and subjoins tables representing the comparative analysis of standard and Cholera serum.

Section the Third contains an inquiry into the extent of the Pathological and Therapeutic conclusions deducible from the preceding statements. In conclusion, the writer says

"I have now completed my statement of facts, explanations, and deductions; and I have little left me to add, further than the expression of my regret that I have been forced to draw so largely on the patience of the Body I have the honour of addressing. My object throughout being to present the Board with a review of all that has hitherto been learned of the chemical pathology of Cholera, it was impossible for me to effect greater condensation, without the omission of details essential to the correct understanding of the entire subject.

"In conclusion, I deem it my duty to solicit the attention of the Board to the urgent necessity of making further investigations of this description. At best I have but given the clue to the complete pursuit of the inquiry, and I feel satisfied that its extensive repetition would not only lead to an increased knowledge of the malady, but perhaps unravel many a mysterious problem in the functions of life and aberrations of disease. In order to contribute, in some degree, to the acquisition of the desired knowledge, I have taken the liberty of placing in the Appendix some plain and intelligible manipulatory instructions, by which, in the remotest village, any intelligent person may perform such an analysis of the blood and dejected matters as will suffice to conform or refute the statements and opinions I have now submitted to your consideration."

THE DUBLIN DRAMA.

THERE is scarcely a National Institution whose fate interests our sympathies more than the Theatre. Struggling against the adversity which is so generally participated by the people, we behold the stage maintaining its stand to the last, and, in despite of all obstacles, trusting with fortitude to the hope of better days. For thirty-two years the portals of our Senate have been closed; and during that time the gradual decay of the means for amusement on the part of the citizens has often threatened to close the doors of the Theatre also. Enterprise, however, rises superior to the discouragement of preceding failures; and we can yet enjoy that intellectual recreation, damped however by the one reflection, that perhaps the fortunes of a deserving individual are on the road to ruin, while he is endeavouring to supply entertainment to the public. It might appear like an intention to convert our dramatic article into one of political meaning, if we were to attribute the present reduced state of the Dublin Drama to the effect of the Union; and yet, in endeavouring to account for its adversity, we must admit it to be the paramount cause. The Theatre is supported by every class, according to its means. The dress circle contains the aristocratic ranks; the second tier may be set apart for the middle ranks; the pit may be filled with professors; the lower gallery the traders may aspire to; and the upper region is the exclusive inheritance of the gods. The absence of our aristocrats, left the dress-circle deserted, until the inmates of the upper tier came down to occupy it and thus every grade got a step in promotion; the second tier was appointed to the dress-circle, vice the aristocracy-deserted; and the pit was consequently promoted to the brevet rank of second tier; the middle gallery was advanced a step, vice the pit; and the upper region takes its place with increased consequence. All these promotions were not attended with advantage to the service. Those persons thus honoured, found that the support of their dignity was attended with an expense which they were unable to afford, and gradually ceased to avail themselves of their expensive privileges.

In former days the Dublin Drama flourished. In Victor's Memoirs we find, that so early as 1749, he mentions that season was most profitable, having increased in the total receipts by a sum of two thousand pounds beyond the preceding year The following year the Theatre afforded to pay Mrs. Woffington a salary of eight hundred pounds, being the second year of her engagement! In 1753 Victor and Sowdon took the Theatre from Sheridan, at a rent of five pounds for every acting night, and the sum of two thousand pounds advanced on the wardrobe, then valued at four thousand pounds. These managers engaged Barry at a salary of £800, and Miss Nossiter, his pupil, at £500, and also Mrs. Gregory at £300; and, as a proof of their subsequent success, the salary of the latter lady was increased to four and five hundred pounds during the remainder of the term! Notwithstanding these great expenses, the managers admitted that they suffered no loss, when, upon the expiration of the term, Sheridan resumed the management! Such was the state of the Dublin drama

previously to the foundation of Crow-street Theatre. In 1776 Ryder took a lease of the Theatre in Crow-street from Barry for seven years, at a yearly rent of £803. We doubt if our present manager could afford to pay a similar sum. The chief disadvantage the Theatre had to contend against in former times was the occasional riots which took place between political parties, which by their violence deterred the peaceable play-goers from constant attendance. A mode of insuring a full benefit was adopted in former days, which may serve to shew the lively interest the fashionable gentry of Dublin took in support of the Theatre. "It was the custom (says Victor) for a lady of quality to bespeak a benefit play for one of the company, and make an interest for all parts of the house, particularly by pit and gallery tickets, among her tradesmen; by which it was common to find some woman of quality making an interest for her play at the new Theatre, with the same zeal that the poor player was exerting himself at our house on the same night to support his wife and children." An anecdote is related of the disappointment of one patroness whose influence was not sufficient to fill the house :

"The great Lady of the Night goes early into the box-room to receive her company. This lady had sent out pit and gallery tickets to all her trades-people, with threatenings of the loss of her custom, if they did not dispose of them: and the concern she was under when the time was approaching for the drawing up of the curtain, at the sight of the thin pit and galleries, introduced the following entertainment:-The lady was ready to faint; and after smelling-bottles were applied, she cried out- She was ruined and undone! She would never be able to look dear Mr. B- in the face any more, after such a shocking disappointment!' At many of these repeated lamentations, the box-keeper advanced, and said, I beg your ladyship will not be so disheartened; indeed your Ladyship's pit will mend, and your Ladyship's galleries too will certainly mend, before the play begins. At which the Lady cried, Out, you nasty, flattering fellow! I tell you I'm undone! Ruined and undone! That's all! But I'll be revenged; I am resolved to pay off-no, I'll turn off- all my saucy tradesmen to-morrow morning.'

According to Victor, box saloons in the Theatres were first adopted in Dublin, but for a very different purpose, compared to their present use in London :

"The Theatres of London have only a lobby before the boxes; but those in Dublin are built with a commodious box-room, particularly that in Aungier-street, which is finely ornamented, and large enough to hold all the company that can sit in the boxes; from whence they all immediately retire at the end of the play, as to a drawing-room, where they converse with each other till they are called to their carriages."

The number and prosperity of the minor Theatres in London have greatly contributed to deprive the Dublin stage of some of its favourite performers; for actors, like butterflies, will seek the warmest spots, where applause and encouragement await them. Comparisons have been lately drawn between the strength of the present company and the corps with which the Theatre opened in 1821; but the ungracious

critic who drew it, should have remembered that many of those whose absence he complains of, have left this world, "nor left their like behind," while the dearth of rising talent, and the great demand for the supply of the London minors, have left the Dublin managers scarcely a recruit.

Regarding the Dublin stage as almost the only surviving institution of our former national consequence, we shall, in our future Numbers, devote that attention to its concerns to which the intellectual entertainment and instruction of our fellow-citizens are entitled.

IN the present times every little memorial of departed genius is valuable which either "chance or search" lays before the public. The most trivial correspondence of some eminent men who flourished in former days, has been collected, and published, and read with an interest that proves how extravagantly attentive after-ages are to the concerns of the individual, who, perhaps, from his contemporaries, may have received but a very limited share of sympathy or support. If the careless interchange of epistolary sentiment be entitled to any favour, how much more deserving of notice is that composition which either the diffidence of the author, or the discouragement of the times in which it was written, prevented him from transmuting into the enduring form of letter-press. The manuscript which is the subject of this notice, is from the pen of the late KANE O'HARA, the first and most successful writer of burlesque dramas in our language. It was written in his youth, prior to his first dramatic production, Midas, which, since the year 1764, has kept possession of the stage as the most amusing burletta ever represented. Midas was originally written for, and produced by a private theatrical company, which was spending the Christmas holidays at a hospitable country mansion where the author was one of the guests. The elegant and intellectual amusement of the Drama was then the fashion amongst the nobility and gentry of Ireland; and while in that then extended circle several gay and talented spirits were found capable of producing the effect of the histrionic art, it also boasted an author belonging to that circle too,

VOL. I. NO. II.