to feel less kindly towards the author, even if he have a very strong desire to widen the circle of his practice. Drapers expose their goods-innkeepers hang out signs-lawyers compile books, and booksellers advertise, and we ourselves criticise for the same laudable object. Self-interest is the idol of the day; and if we turn the worship of it into a crime, or even an objection, in the case of Dr. Harwood, of Wellington-square, Hastings, who shall be permitted to escape?

We only regret that the Doctor has not contrived to compose his volumes on a more popular plan. As the object of it professes to extend to the curative influence of the southern coast of England generally, as well as to that of Hastings particularly, we hoped that we should have found in it a comparative estimate of the different watering places which exist between Torbay and Ramsgate. A more ample geological description of the southern coast than that with which the author has favoured us, would also have been acceptable. Nor do we think that, for a work of this kind, he has been sufficiently diffuse in his observations on sea-bathing. We are aware that several treatises have already been written and printed on that subject; but they are too scientific and technical for popular purposes, and are therefore of as little utility as if they never had courted the light. Too large a portion of this volume is, moreover, taken up with essays on the various maladies which are supposed to be curable on the southern coast, whereas we had been led to believe from the title, that the influence of the coast upon those maladies was the principal theme which the author proposed to discuss.

His general observations on the advantages derived from a seacoast residence are both just and happily expressed.

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The invigorating influence which the human constitution usually experiences from a residence on the sea coast, is generally admitted to exert itself more rapidly than any which is derived from the best directed medicines; and when we duly consider the variety of circumstances which such a residence combines, all of them so highly favourable to a state of health-as the numerous calls it induces on our bodily exertion, the influence it exerts on the due performance of our other physical functions, and the no less important soothing tranquillity which the grander objects of nature are so eminently calculated to afford to the mind; it becomes by no means surprising, that from the earliest ages, physicians should have eagerly availed themselves of so potent an auxiliary to their means of removing diseases.

The first of these sources of benefit, then, embraces every species of exercise, while those from whence the latter are derived are far more varied; though the refreshing breeze, the moving majesty of the ocean, and the impending cliffs, which seem formed by nature to repel its force, are often amply sufficient to impart, unconsciously, animation, cheerfulness, and elevation to the mind, and arouse in it new interests and energies, when oppressed by tedious and severe bodily affliction.

'As great variety however exists in the advantages which different coasts

offer to the invalid for the improvement of health, the chief of which is derived from aspect, a judicious choice of situation becomes an important consideration. It is obvious also, that in England this is rendered more especially the case, from the great diversity of climate it embraces, and the immediate influence which the latter exerts on the constitution; for in addition to that rapid change, within a few degrees of latitude, which is peculiar to the temperate zones, the climate of England is no less affected by its insular situation, the very varied nature of its geological characters, and its peculiar position in regard to the widely extended continents of Europe and of Asia on the East, and of the Atlantic Ocean on the West. These by their co-operative influence, tend to render it more diversified than perhaps that of any other kingdom with which we are acquainted; and it is to this variety in its temperature, and its soil, that we are indebted for the growth and developement of the amazing number in the species of our vegetable productions, upon so comparatively limited a surface.

"The medical peculiarities, if I may so term them, of our coasts, are also more varied in proportion than those of most other countries, having often characters no less distinct than those which distinguish the various watering-places in the more inland districts; thus, whilst some have been selected for the coolness of their summer atmosphere, others have been chosen for their sheltered situation and the mildness and equality of their temperature, and many for other combined conveniences. But the necessity for a judicious choice of situation in disease, though so imperatively demanded in England, was considered of great importance, even among the physicians of antiquity, and such as practised their art in countries far less subject to variation than ours. The opinions however which were then entertained, led them to a selection very different from that which has lately prevailed; for as it has been our practice to recommend the climate of Italy in consumptive cases, so it was the custom of Celsus, who lived in the most interesting and eventful period of the world, (the commencement of the Christian era,) and of other physicians of ancient Rome, to send from Italy to the coast of Alexandria, such patients as suffered from these diseases; because, as they state, they were there of far more rare occurrence than in Italy.

'I shall now proceed to consider some of those natural causes, which appear to impart to coast situations so especial a claim on our attention in the cure of disease; and to notice some of those circumstances, which, in this country, seem to recommend the southern as the most eligible we possess, not less from the advantage it derives, in common with all others, from the influence of the sea, than from its latitude and other peculiarities.

It was observed by Hippocrates and Aristotle, the former of whom wrote about 400, and the latter 340 years, before the Christian era,—that such islands as are contiguous to continents, have their winters more severe, while those that are removed further from the land, have winters which are warmer and milder.

Thus the fact has been long and well known, that the sea possesses an important power of equalizing the temperature of the air in its vicinity, and that to it is to be assigned, the difference found to exist between the temperature of coasts and that of the interior of extensive continents; which latter possess a far greater range of heat and cold than islands,

although the mean temperature be the same in both, and although similarly situated with regard to latitude.

Now, to account for this difference, it appears that the impressions of heat, which are imparted by the sun's rays to the surfaces of the waters, and of the earth, are disposed of very differently; that heat which is received on the surface of the land, being slowly admitted, and feebly communicated to the dense earth below, loses much of its intensity by freely imparting it to the circulating air; while on the contrary, , such rays of light and heat as fall on the surface of the ocean, without this sudden check to their progress, penetrate the bosom of the deep to a greater or a less depth, in proportion to its transparency. Thus their limits are confined to a few fathoms from the surface, and their influence becomes gradually diffused through this upper stratum of water. From hence, probably, and from that law which ordains that the cooler portions of fluid should remain at a depth proportioned to their coolness, or that of their superior specific gravity, the important result followsthat during the winter half of the year, the temperature of the surface of the sea is greater than the mean temperature of the air, tending to produce, by the well known property which heat possesses, of equally diffusing itself through contiguous bodies, that equality in the latter, which can only be expected to be experienced in this variable climate, in sheltered situations on the coast; situations which, like detached islands, consequently experience comparatively little of that powerful change from summer to winter, which is felt on wide extended continents. Thus I may remark, that on the 8th of January last, when the thermometer stood at 35° on the Hastings beach, I found it rise to 40° on being introduced into the surface-water of the sea; and on the 12th of February, the coldest day of the present year, when it stood, in the same situation, at 28° 5 on immersion, it rose to 39o.'—pp. 1-7.

Another very efficient cause for the more elevated temperature of the sea, as our author states, is the action of its currents, and the succession of its tides, by constantly mixing and combining that surface-water which has, in various latitudes, been differently affected by the solar beams.' On the southern coast particularly, this would be the case; and it is thought that the temperature of the sea in that direction is not a little influenced by the agency of a stream of warm water, which flows from the gulf of Mexico towards Europe. Dr. Franklin published a chart of this stream. whose waters were found to be from six to eleven degrees warmer than the ocean through which they flowed, their superior temperature being derived from that of the climate of the Mexican gulf, whither the waters are driven and pent up by the trade winds, which force them westerly, until they become actually more elevated, by several yards, than the waters of the Pacific ocean.' It is supposed by Professor Playfair, that the elevation of temperature which we experience during the prevalence of southwest winds, may be attributable to the presence of air, which has been heated by passing over this, and perhaps other similar currents. It would seem also that the current which issues from the

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Bay of Biscay, exercises a warming influence on our southern

waters.

From these general observations, the author proceeds, rather abruptly, to the coast of Hastings. We are not at all disposed to undervalue the great natural advantages which that favourite bathing-place possesses. We shall therefore present them to the reader, described in the fluent language which we find before us.

'The town is bounded on the north and east by some of the most elevated land in the county of Sussex, and probably the most so on the southern coast of England; the hill of Fairlight, which is about a mile and a half distant, being 541 feet in height. On the west it is screened by a continuous line of hill, rising to an elevation of from 200 to 300 feet; and on the south, the British Channel presents a wide and extensive bay, stretching from Dungeness on the east, to Beachy-head to the west. This coast abounds in undulating elevations, which, for some miles in extent, are bordered by perpendicular rocky cliffs, intersected by those numerous valleys which characterize the southern shores; and which, connected with modern theories of the deluge, have been termed valleys of denudation; being supposed to have been formed by the reflux of the waters at that period. These rocks are capable of affording much interest to the geologist, by their marked character, and relation to their neighbouring deposits. Their peculiarities are very interestingly exhibited along the shore, as they boldly and precipitously rise, in some situations, to the height of 300 feet; while their bases, washed by each returning tide, form a beach consisting of pebbles and of sand, interspersed with massive fragments which have been detached from above, It is from this formation that the chalybeate springs of Tonbridge take their origin; and although such springs have too long been disregarded in the vicinity of Hastings, there are many possessing considerable impregnations of iron, which might be rendered of great utility; so many affections existing, in which the combined action of native chalybeates, with coast advantages, seem likely to justify our most sanguine expectations, as in another place I shall endeavour to show.

'The rocks I have just mentioned, consist of a fine pulverulent sandstone, containing in their lower strata, a large quantity of iron, whence it is commonly denominated iron-sand; and although found in some situations in the interior of the kingdom, is, I believe, peculiar to this part of the southern coast. But the geological character of the Hastings coast is otherwise remarkable; as the above formation is partially begirt, in the form of a horse-shoe, by a zone of weald clay, of several miles in breadth. This is rendered apparent on the eastern side of Hastings, at about seven miles distance along the beach, from whence it proceeds to the north-west, as far as Horsham, including within its boundary Tonbridge Wells; then returning, it appears again upon the coast, at five miles to the west of the town, and may be traced almost around Bologne and its vicinity, on the opposite coast of France.

Now, by the union of these two substances, the weald-clay and the iron-sand, with beds of other clay, which occasionally intervene, as we may perceive, on the higher lands, as about Fairlight, a rich and loamy soil is produced, abounding throughout this district, and adding greatly to the healthful nature of the climate, by the facility with which any super

abundant moisture is removed from its surface. The lands in the vicinity. of Hastings being characterised by a degree of dryness, which materially favours its salubrity; for, as it is well known, the humidity of the atmosphere is in all situations materially increased by that of the land; and where the latter prevails, it is opposed to the advantages attending a coast residence in many cases of indisposition.

"Great depth of alluvial surface, by exposing to the thirsty air its abundant moisture, is alone a sufficient cause for a more constant and copious evaporation than can take place on the coast of Sussex generally; many parts of which are not more remarkable for the absorbant qualities, than the superficial nature of their soil.

"Of all the benefits, however, which the Hastings coast offers to the invalid, there is none more obvious than the choice of situation it affords, adapting it either for summer or winter residence; many of its habitations being placed at an elevation of two or three hundred feet above the level of the sea; consequently, as the temperature of all places is so materially diminished in proportion to their elevation, that in this country, one of 270 feet is allowed to be equal in the difference of its temperature to an entire degree of latitude; and as these more elevated parts of the town of Hastings are moreover visited, during the summer months, by the then prevailing breezes, descending from the surrounding altitudes, these higher parts of the town necessarily receive from them a very diminished temperature, at those periods when coolness is most grateful. While on the other hand, the numerous habitations which are placed on the immediate beach, below the cliffs, being most effectually sheltered, at all seasons, from the more piercing winds, are no less suitably adapted for a winter residence. From hence it follows, that a proper degree of caution should be exercised on the part of invalids, lest by an injudicious choice between situations so remote from each other in character, a summer or winter residence here may lose some of its most important advantages.'-pp. 15-21.

Its security from the northerly and easterly winds, the genial situation of its parade, and the natural beauty of the woodland scenery in its neighbourhood, are next pointed out, and dwelt upon with due emphasis. The salutary and invigorating qualities of its climate are also insisted upon, and highly eulogized, though not more highly than it deserves.

The delights and advantages of sea-bathing can hardly require to be proved by any arguments, particularly at this season of the year, when almost half the population of the metropolis may be found at the sea-side, practically enjoying the benefits of what Sir William Curtis cockneycally termed " a wash." We find that Dr. Harwood, contrary to the prevailing notions of the day, strongly recommends sea-water to be taken internally. The ancients considered it, from its powerful action on the liver, as an antidote for melancholic humours or black bile. They also advised it to be taken for colicky affections. Our author is decidedly of opinion that it has a powerful tendency to remove torpor and inactivity in the functions of the stomachic and digestive organs. But whatever may be thought by doctors or invalids on this subject, no doubts can be entertained of the efficacy of sea-bathing. On this