and untenable theories were constantly issuing from the brains of its professors. Some thought the fluids of the human body were acids and alkalies; others explained the functions of the organs on mathematical theories; others on hydraulic principles; and other speculations on life were formed on the mechanical laws of motion. Fortunately for the advance of science, at this time appeared the learned, profound, and illustrious Boerhaave, a man destined to effect a real revolution in it. The youth of Boerhaave had been employed in the cultivation of the mathematical and physical sciences, by which his mind had gained strength and comprehensiveness, and he had acquired a habit of rigorous discussion. and patient research. Then it was, that, to earn a livelihood, he commenced his medical career. He had perused the writers of all sects, and of all ages; he had analysed, illustrated, and commented on their works; all their opinions were familiar to him, and he had modified, arranged, and combined them in that luminous order for which he was distinguished. He then gave to the world his Institutions of Medicine, and his Aphorisms; two of the most concise, and at the same time comprehensive works which science has produced, and which for variety of matter and extent of views have been compared to those of the illustrious Bacon. His defects seem to consist in a want of acute and practical discernment of disease, arising perhaps from the late period of life in which he commenced the study of medicine, and from a reliance on his chemical knowledge, which in common with others was so imperfect and erroneous. It is said that in the late period of his life he attached less importance to systems, and approached nearer to the opinions of Hippocrates. The defect of Boerhaave's system appears to consist in his regarding the solids too much as mechanical agents, without taking into account the properties which separate them from inanimate bodies; but he was a learned writer, a sagacious observer, a wise and correct practitioner; and his illustrious pupils, Gaubius and Van Swieten, at once formed their own, and sustained their master's reputation by the talents they displayed, and the high honours they acquired. Of the great Haller we are obliged to speak with a conciseness ill suited to a survey of his splendid talents, and almost boundless erudition. His patient research and acute investigation were rewarded with the establishment of the theory of irritation and sensibility, as properties attached to the nervous and muscular system. His principles were derived from experiment, and his Elements of Philosophy are considered to have introduced a new æra in medical science. For a minute account of this illustrious philosopher, we refer with pleasure to Dr. Bostock's work.* The service which Haller rendered to Physiology was performed by Cullen to the practice of Medicine, through his extensive research and patient observation. His great merit is shown in the sagacity and diligence with which he described and distinguished the phenomena of disease; he was equally cautious in theory, as decisive in practice. His general principles are deduced from materials collected by his own observations, and not on the eclectic system of Boerhaave, of connecting the different theories into one consistent whole. It is said that his Physiology and Chemistry are not correct, and that he did not distinguish between the powers of the muscles and nerves, so well described by Haller; but his pathology is respected, and the foundation of his system, formed on the Vis

* Vide p. 197, et seq.

"

Medicatrix Naturæ, or the regulating powers of life, is philosophi'cal and just. While the fame of Cullen was still in its bloom, and his school possessed some of the most illustrious and intelligent followers, there arose one among them who had sate at the feet of Gamaliel,' but who, from some accidental pique or caprice, turned against the doctrines of his master; and though originally bred as an ecclesiastic, astonished the world of science by the daring boldness of the theory he advanced, that was at once to supersede all others, and form as it were a safe and brilliant beacon to guide the practitioner in the cure of all disease. This person was the well known founder of the Brunonian system, which acquired at first, from the plausibility of its doctrines, a most astonishing popularity. The general principles (says Dr. Bostock) of the theory are few and simple. Broun assumed that the living body possesses a specific power or property called excitability; that every thing which affects the body, acts upon this power as an excitement or stimulant; that the effect of this excitement in its natural state, is to produce the healthy condition of the functions, when excessive it causes exhaustion, termed direct debility; when defective, it produces an accumulation of excitement termed indirect debility. All morbid action is conceived to depend on one or other of these states, and diseases are accordingly arranged in two great corresponding classes, of sthenic or asthenic; while the treatment is solely directed to the general means for increasing or diminishing the excitement, without any regard to specific symptoms, or any consideration but that of degree, or any measure but that of quantity.' Dr. Bostock very judiciously observes, that, however plausible and alluring such doctrines as these may be (for the ice-palaces of theories are far more brilliant and imposing than the plain and solid masonry of practice), they could not be for a moment entertained by any one who had studied the phænomena of disease, or was acquainted with the intricate and complicated relations of the functions and actions of the living system; it shared the lot therefore of all systems built on so unstable a basis. While the Elementa Medicinæ ' were still in repute, another medical theorist, of different talents and acquirements indeed, but of no inferior reputation, drew the attention of the world to his ingenious discussion on the Laws of Life. The Zoonomia, for such is the work to which we allude, of Darwin, came before the world in all the brillianey of scientific splendour, and with all the imposing grandeur of a finished and elaborate system. It showed a mind furnished with a great variety of acquirement, endued if not with powerful, yet with. talents of a superior class; inventive, ingenious, and fruitful in its resources; curious in experimental research, familiar with medical practice, and more than usually conversant with elegant and refinedliterature. ⚫ Darwin was enabled,' says Dr. Bostock, to give to his system an imposing aspect of induction and generalization. His speculations, though highly refined, profess to be founded upon facts; and his arrangement and classification, although complicated, seems consistent in all its parts. No theory which had been offered to the public, was more highly elaborated, and appeared to be more firmly supported by experience and observation, while every adventitious aid was given to it, from the cultivated taste and extensive information of the writer. Yet the Zoonomia made little im

The Vis Medicatrix of Cullen, differs from the Archæus of Van Helmont, and the Anima of Stahl, as it is supposed not to be a thing added to the body, but one power necessary to its constitution.

GENT. MAG. VOL. IV.

Ꭰ

pression on public opinion; its leading doctrines rested rather on metaphysical than on physical considerations; its fundamental positions were found to be gratuitous; and many of the illustrations, although ingenious, were conceived to be inapplicable and inconclusive. It is now seldom referred to, except as a splendid monument of fruitless labour and misapplied learning. With the name of Darwin, we must close our consideration of the very interesting subject before us. Dr. Bostock has given us an account of the state of medicine subsequent to that time, in France and other nations of Europe, to which we refer our readers. Much improvement has taken place in the method of practice, in the skilfulness of operations, and in the materials of pharmacy. Many diseases of an epidemic nature, as Cholera or Influenza, that have assumed an alarming form, and swept with frightful devastation over every part of the globe, have been examined with an anxious care that has not always been crowned with proportional success. Journals have been established for the purpose of recording and more widely circulating the interesting events of individual practice. Medical education has been supplied by the establishment of King's College and the London University, with a course of instruction complete in all its parts. Many most ingenious inventions have been formed for allaying the torments of disease, and lessening the evils which accompany a long confinement. The present treatment of the gout, compared with that which existed even thirty or forty years since, may be called the triumph of modern skill. That terrific disease the stone has lost much of its former power. The small-pox will soon be known only as one of those scourges of nature that has passed away; and with the improved cure of disease, the important subject of the preservation of health is far better understood; and not only does the authority of the medical world, but the undeniable proof of the tables of the annuity offices makes evident, that the result of the improvement of medical knowledge has been crowned with the great object which it sought to attain-the more frequent alleviation of disease, and the increased duration of human life. But there is one essential requisite, Dr. Bostock concludes his work by saying, 'without which the best means of improvement can be of no avail-a mind disposed to the reception of truth, determined to follow it, wherever it may lead the inquirer, united to a high sense of moral obligation which may induce the medical practitioner to bear in mind that his profession is a deposit placed in his hands for the benefit of mankind, and that he incurs an awful degree of moral responsibility who abuses this sacred trust, or diverts it to a base or selfish purpose.'

ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES OF NORMANDY.

MR. URBAN,

IN continuation of my former papers on the Antiquities of Normandy, I shall in this give some account of the Churches of St. Gervais at Rouen, and St. Vandrille near Caudebec; for the purpose, principally, of corroborating the opinion now so generally and, I think, truly entertained, that the distinguishing features of SaxoNorman architecture may certainly be traced to Roman prototypes.

The church of St. Gervais is situated on a gentle eminence, in the north

western suburb of Rouen, and is, with the exception of its nave, the oldest structure still existing, and one of the earliest religious foundations of which the ancient capital of the Velocassian Gauls can boast. The crypt and apsis, or east end, are its most interesting portions. The former is figured and described in Cotman's splendid work;* but the editor, without assigning to it any positive date, merely states that it was built before the eleventh cen

Vol. i. p.

Even in the grave was this ambitious prince exposed to ignominy; for in 1562, when Caen was sacked by the Protestant troops of Chastillon, the tomb of William was violated, and his bones so widely scattered, that some of them were again brought to the theatre of his grand oppression, England.

however,
tury. There is no reason,
why we should not boldly advocate,
for this reverend remain, a higher date,
and deem it really the holy workman-
ship of St. Victrix, Archbishop of
Rouen, A. D. 386, who, having re-
ceived from St. Ambrose some reliques
of the martyred St. Gervais, then
founded and personally assisted (as
he himself informs us, in his discourse
"de laude Sanctorum") in carrying
the stones for its construction on his
own proper shoulders, a method of
mortifying the flesh to which he sub-
mitted, with a view, no doubt, of add-
ing, at the same time, to the sanctity
of this his favourite endowment. Mr.
Rickman says this crypt was construct-
ed A.D. 350.

The only part, however, of the present church of St. Gervais that is attributable to the piety of St. Victrix, and probably the whole then intended to be built, is the above-named subterraneous chapel; the Christian converts of that day and country not daring to erect more lofty edifices. But by whom, and when the super. structure was raised, is not precisely known. It was granted by Duke Richard II. A. D. 1020, to Fecamp Abbey, and was afterwards attached to St. Peter's at Chartres; but in the thirteenth century it again passed to the Abbots of Fecamp, who continued to be the Priors of St. Gervais, until it eventually became itself an independent abbey.

But we must now proceed with the architectural description of our subject, from which its interesting history has, perhaps, too long detained us. Its largest portion is quite modern, in bad taste, or rather without any taste at all, being as plain and as insipid as slates and whitewash can render it. The semicircular wall of the east end is, however, nearly in its pristine state, and highly instructive as a specimen of the first transition from the Roman to the Gothic style of architecture. This wall was formerly embellished with engaged columns, which time has partly worn away, but of which the capitals remain in sufficiently intelligible preservation, and are of almost pure Roman Doric and Ionic forms. Some have the common volutes at their angles; one has, in place of these, two erected eagles with displayed wings; and another has an upright foliaged capital, somewhat in Corinthian, and somewhat in the Gothic taste. These capitals, no doubt, originally had an horizontal architrave or cornice, as the eaves of the roof are three or four feet higher than their abaci; and the intervening masonry, though much abraded, has every appearance of being coeval with the shafts and capitals; but it affords no traces of the arched forms which at a later period sprung directly from the capitals, when a more complete decadence from pure Roman had ensued than the subject now before us demonstrates.

The crypt, though less illustrative of Gothic architecture than the wall just described, may be considered an example of a primitive Christian church, and we shall therefore notice it with the particularity it merits. It is immediately beneath the eastern portion of the chancel, from which it is entered through a trap-door and down a narrow flight of eight-andtwenty steps of stone. In length it is 35 ft. by 14 in breadth, and 15 in