No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2011
Towards the conclusion of the first part of these Observations, I took occasion to notice the supposed cause or causes of the variation of colour that is found amongst the different nations of the world; and referred to the somewhat opposite opinions of several distinguished writers on this point. I shall now proceed to offer a few remarks on the influence of climate on the tempers and dispositions of men; and we believe that nothing is more evident than its effects on these, totally unconnected with intellectual qualities, in their definite sense. The English are unequal in their spirits, being alternately animated and gloomy; so we find our climate changeable, more so, I may say, than that of any other country in the world. The Romans of these days are grave, ardent, and conscientious; the inhabitants of Naples are cheerful, thoughtless, and enthusiastic, and many of them so giddy in their manner as almost to impress us with a notion that they are under the partial influence of some inebriating liquor: differences which we can in no way account for, but as they may be occasioned by the very opposite climates of the banks of the Tiber and the Bay of Naples.
page 55 note 1 Prout's Bridgewater Treatise on Chemistry, Meteorology, &c.
page 55 note 2 See an account of the climate of Naples in Clark, D. J.'s work On the Influence of Climate (p. 106)Google Scholar; also an excellent account of the same climate in a series of papers, by J. D. Forbes, Esq., in Brewster, 's Journal.Google Scholar
page 56 note 1 See Thunberg, 's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 233–234.Google Scholar
page 56 note 2 See Volney, 's Travels in Egypt and Syria, pp. 466–467.Google Scholar
page 56 note 3 See Pitta's Treatise on the Influence of Climate, p. 30, where he quotes from Chardin.
page 58 note 1 See Falconer, on Climate, p. 123.Google Scholar
page 58 note 2 See chapters vi., xx.
page 58 note 3 The Malaya Peninsula.
page 58 note 4 The means by which religion has been propagated hare varied much in different climates, says Dr. Falconer; with regard to a persecuting spirit, he supposes that it has prevailed most in warm regions. Xerxes, invading Greece, destroyed the altars and temples in both that country and in Ionia (Ephesus excepted); and the Greeks and Romans themselves, whose climate was more moderate, betrayed marks of religious intolerance.—See Falconer, on Climate, pp. 152–153.Google Scholar
page 59 note 1 See Whewell, 's Bridgewater Essay on Astronomy and General Physics, pp. 57, 58, 59, 60.Google Scholar
page 59 note 2 See Volney, 's Travels in Egypt and Syria, vol. i. p. 71.Google Scholar
page 59 note 3 Gerard, the celebrated gardener of Queen Elizabeth, informs us, in his Herbal, published in 1597, that he received the root (potato) from Virginia, and which grew, as well as it could have done, in its native country.
page 60 note 1 Tea is injured by a long sea-voyage; that sent overland to Russia is far superior to ours.
page 60 note 2 Particularly west of the city of Wechvfu.
page 60 note 3 Especially in the valley of Bu-ye.
page 60 note 4 In the Tennivelly district.
page 61 note 1 See Modern Traveller—Egypt, vol. i. p. 23.
page 61 note 2 See Whiwell, 's Astronomy and General Physics, p. 63.Google Scholar
page 61 note 3 See Robertson, 's History of the Atmosphere, vol. ii. pp. 236–237.Google Scholar
page 62 note 1 See Arcana of Science and Art, fourth year, p. 212.
page 62 note 2 See Whewell, 's Work on Astronomy and General Physics, p. 62.Google Scholar
page 62 note 3 See Register of the Arts, vol. ii. p. 142.
page 63 note 1 The sap ascends at different seasons of the year, according to the hemisphere: in this country, it rises in the months we have denominated spring, and in autumn, especially in the former.
page 64 note 1 It is the samanga of the Bráhmans of lower India; but there are varjous other Sanskrit names for it. The plant is the múnughú tamara of the Telugus; the totalvadie of the Tamils; and the wœl-nidi-kumba of the Cingalese. It is a native of Brazil as well as Ceylon.
page 64 note 2 A plant of the class and order Diadelphia decandria, and altogether singular on account of its voluntary motion (if the phrase may be used), not occasioned by any touch, like that of the Mimosa pudica, or oxalis. It is a native of Bengal, and there called bará chadali.
page 65 note 1 See Work, p. 26. (Bridgewater Essay.)
page 66 note 1 Vide Rheed. Mal. ii. 23.
page 66 note 2 The oleander of the English.
page 66 note 3 See Crawford, 's History of the Eastern Archipelago, vol. i. p. 469.Google Scholar
page 66 note 4 See Horsfield's account of this poison in the Transactions of the Batavian Society.
page 67 note 1 I take this opportunity of calling the attention of the Society to a valuable work on poisons, by Professor Christison of Edinburgh, who has, perhaps, done more for this branch of science than any other of the many who have written on it.
page 67 note 2 See Horsfield's account of the upas poison, in the seventh volume of the Transactions of the Batavian Society.
page 67 note 3 See Kin's Essay on the Physical Condition of Man, p. 226.
page 69 note 1 Hortus Medicus, by Mr. George Graves; the chemical part by Dr. Morries. Edinburgh. Black.
page 69 note 2 See Duncan, 's New Dispensatory, pp. 106–7.Google Scholar
page 70 note 1 A Catalogue of Indian Medicinal Plants and Drugs.
page 70 note 2 It has been imagined by some, that the materia medica, properly so called, has not been much attended to in India by the natives; but whatever may be the case in Upper India, where the pure original brahminical medical science may naturally be supposed to have been polluted by unenlightened Muhammedan invaders, such is not the case in Lower India, where the Musalmáns never reached; and where may be found, amongst the records of several of the pagodas, various works on the materia medica, in high Tamil and in Sanskrit, full of curious matter; for example, the Vaidya Sastra of Dhanwantari, the Púrána Sutra of Aghastya, &C. Is it not to be regretted, that hitherto our great Orientalists should have so partially exerted their ingenious research ? Why should Southern India have been so little an object of attention? There, ancient lore is yet uncontaminated.
page 71 note 1 Since writing the above, the author of this paper has had the happiness of becoming acquainted with Mr. Royle, and has seen his copious and most valuable collection of articles of the native materia medica, in use in the upper provinces of Hindustan, and in Persia. Too much praise cannot be bestowed on the zeal which has called forth so great a mass of interesting matter, and which, it is sincerely hoped, may meet with that encouragement and support which are due to such rare exertion.
page 73 note 1 See Register of Arts, vol. i. New Series, p. 304.
page 73 note 2 See Arcana of Science and Art for 1831, p. 160.
page 74 note 1 See Mrs. Somerville, 's Connexion of the Physical Sciences, p. 274.Google Scholar
page 74 note 2 Ibid. p. 277.
page 74 note 3 At a meeting of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, in July, 1834, Professor Graham called the attention of the gentlemen present to what had been done by Dr. Rolland, of Montrose, in having raised from the seed certain plants of the forest-trees indigenous to Van Diemen's land; but one only of which Dr. G. thought would prove hardy enough to be reared in this climate to any considerable size in the open air. Whether the species of wheat lately discovered by Mr. Foster, in that country (Van Diemen's land), would thrive with us, remains to be tried.
page 74 note 4 See Jameson, 's Philosophical Journal for 04 1834, p. 265.Google Scholar
page 75 note 1 See History of the Atmosphere, vol. i. p. 170.
page 75 note 2 See chapter vi. vol. i. p. 92.
page 75 note 3 Such, perhaps, as the elephants found in Italy, in the northern parts of Europe, and in Germany, which, however, it must be confessed, Cuvier. considered as a distinct species, now extinct, and which differed both from the Asiatic and African animal.
page 77 note 1 See Montgomery Martin, 's History of the British Colonies, vol. i. Asia, p. 96.Google Scholar
page 77 note 2 See Pliny's Natural History, lib. ii. cap. xxxix.
page 77 note 3 Natural History of the Atmosphere, p. 172.
page 78 note 1 See Gazette, Hannau, for 01 1834.Google Scholar
page 78 note 2 By the Hon. Horace Walpole's Letters to SirMann, Horace (vol. i. p. 260)Google Scholar, the December and January of the year 1743 in England appear to have been very similar to the same months of the years 1833-1834, and followed by an equally cold spring; so by his account (vol. ii. p. 305) there was winter weather in England in June 1749.
page 78 note 3 Edinburgh Encyclopædia, article — Navigation.
page 78 note 4 The velocity of the earth's rotation at the equator is, in round numbers, about one thousand miles an hour; at latitude 30° about eight hundred and sixty miles, that is, one hundred and forty miles slower. The average velocity of the earth's easterly motion in the space betwixt the equator and latitude 30° may be stated at nine hundred and fifty miles an hour.
page 79 note 1 See Daniel, 's Meteorological Essays, p. 106.Google Scholar
page 79 note 2 See work just quoted, p. 485.
page 80 note 1 Vide Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. ii. cap. xlviii.
page 80 note 2 See Robertson, 's History of the Atmosphere, vol. i. pp. 263, 299.Google Scholar
page 80 note 3 Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. ii. cap. v.
page 81 note 1 History of the Atmosphere, vol. i. p. 299.
page 81 note 2 See work, pp. 57–61.
page 82 note 1 On an average of ten years in Great Britain, Daniel found that the westerly winds exceed the easterly in the proportion of 225 to 140. So, on the same average, he found that the northerly winds are to the southerly, as 192 to 173. He also ascertained that northerly winds almost invariably raise the thermometer, while southerly winds as constantly depress it.—See his Meteorological Essays, &c. p. 115.Google Scholar
page 82 note 2 It would appear by an excellent paper read by Colonel Sykes, at the Literary Association, held at Edinburgh, in September 1834, that that gentleman had found, by actual observation, that the mean temperatures of many situations in India were higher than they are commonly reckoned.
page 82 note 3 See Théories des Vents, p. 40.Google Scholar There is much curious information on this subject in a work entitled Neptune Oriental, and which the author just named informs us, has proved of the greatest service to the French marine. It is by M. D'Aphes De Manne Vilette, arid was published at Brest in 1774.
page 83 note 1 See Pliny's Natural History, book ii. chap, xxxix.
page 83 note 2 Ibid.
page 83 note 3 This precise period discovered by Toaldo, Robertson thinks is indicated in the 18th book and 25th chapter of Pliny's Natural History.—See History of the Atmosphere, vol. i. p. 393.Google Scholar
page 84 note 1 See Pliny's Natural History, lib. xviii. cap. xxxv.
page 84 note 2 A prognostic acknowledged by the Jews of old, as we learn from the highest of all authorities.—See St. Matthew, chap. xvi. verse 2.
page 85 note 1 Pliny's Natural History, lib. xviii. cap. xxxv.
page 85 note 2 See Foster, 's Researches on the Atmosphere, p. 133.Google Scholar
page 85 note 3 Another Persian work of great merit and estimation in India, is called by two distinct names of 
Dastúr ul Alibbá, and 
Tibbi Ferishtah: it is composed by the historian Ferishtah, and treats of the peculiarities of climate over the face of the earth; it has been translated by D. W. Geddes
page 87 note 1 The work is entitled, “Of the Motions of the Earth and Heavenly Bodies, as explainable by Electro-magnetic Attraction and Repulsion; and on the Conceptions Growth, and Decay of Man, and Cause and Treatment of his Diseases referable to Galvanic Action.”
page 87 note 2 Sir Matthew Tierney.
page 89 note 1 See Calcutta Medical Journal.
page 90 note 1 Vide Plint, Nat. Hist. lib. x. cap. xii.
page 91 note 1 Herodotus describes two kinds of ibis in Egypt, a black and a white: it was death by law in that country to kill either.
page 91 note 2 According to Seneca this was a strong place on the Nile above the Lesser Cataract. Pliny makes it opposite to Syene.
page 91 note 3 See Coleman, 's Hindú Mythology, pp. 357–59.Google Scholar
page 91 note 4 Represented as mounted on an elephant to mark his celerity.
page 91 note 5 See Sonwerat, 's Voyages to the East Indies, &c. &c. vol. i. p. 93.Google Scholar
page 91 note 6 See Moor, 's Hindu Pantheon, p. 402. A note.Google Scholar
page 92 note 1 See Objects interesting to the British Nation, page 36.
page 92 note 2 See MrsSomerville, 's Connexion of the Physical Sciences, p. 83.Google Scholar Hipparchus was a mathematician and astronomer of Nicæa, and made many discoveries, such as the first foundation of trigonometry: it is supposed that he died one hundred and twenty-five years before Christ.
page 93 note 1 According to Larcher the most favourable height for the Nile to rise on these days is twenty-two cubits. In the time of Herodotus it was fifteen or sixteen cubits.—See Beloe, 's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 296.Google Scholar
page 93 note 2 For much valuable and curious matter on the subject of the reproduction of, vegetables and animals, I refer to Roget, 's admirable and moral essay on Animal and Vegetable Physiology, vol. ii. p. 581.Google Scholar
page 93 note 3 See a well-written paper on climate in the Farmer's Magazine, vol. ix. p. 313.
page 93 note 4 See Whewell, 's Bridgewater Essay on Astronomy and General Physics, pp. 195, 197, 199, 200.Google Scholar