ESSAYS ON SCIENTIFIC AND OTHER SUBJECTS CONTRIBUTED TO THE EDINBURGH AND QUARTERLY REVIEWS. BY SIR HENRY HOLLAND, BART., M.D. F.R.S., D.C.L. OxoN., &c. &c. FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS : LONDON: LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS. 117220-B MY DEAR MILMAN, Had our mutual friend Lord Macaulay been yet alive, I should probably have sought to inscribe to him the volume I am now publishing. Will you permit me to ask you, as one of those to whom he was most warmly attached, to give it, in his stead, the sanction of your name; and to accept this Dedication as some slight memorial of our long friendship, as well as of my admiration of those various writings with which you have enriched English literature. Ever yours affectionately, H. HOLLAND. THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S. PREFACE THE Essays collected in this volume were written in great part during journeys or voyages which I have been accustomed to make in the autumn of every year;-under the conviction, justified by experience, that in no other way could I equally maintain health amid the labours of a London professional life. During the last twenty years, aided by facilities unknown before, I have repeatedly visited America, and the nearer parts of Africa and Asia; - hastily, I must admit, yet never without some good attained. Travelling frequently alone, however, and often by routes rarely followed, it would have been difficult for me to sustain the solitude of particular times and places in such journeys, without some personal occupation constantly within reach. This occupation I have found in writing the several papers now republished, or such principal portions of them as formed a framework, to be filled up on my return home. The employment so gained was as agreeable as beneficial; - perhaps not less so, from the contrast it often afforded to the scenes and objects around me, at the time when I had recourse to it. The greater number of the Essays, thus composed, |