been too long allowed an inordinate share of public applause, and it is high time that this great pumpkin of words should be cut

up.

Effects of Cabbage.-A curious reason is given in Athenæus "It was an csto prove that the Egyptians were fond of wine. tablished rule with them to eat boiled cabbage before any other food, to prepare for hard drinking; many, for the same purpose, swallowed the seeds of the cabbage. It has been observed that the wine produced from those vineyards where cabbages are likewise planted, are flat and insipid."

On this subject the poet Alexis has the following passage:

You drank too much, and what the consequence?

A heavy head to-day,-this must be cured

By a strict fast; and let some friend provide

A store of well-boil'd cabbage.

Eubulus, a comic poet, who flourished in the 101st Olympiad, on the same subject:

"Wife, bring the cabbage; that, I think, will cure

This heaviness which so affects my head,

If good the proverb holds."

Anaxandrides, his cotemporary, a comic poet of Rhodes, who is also quoted by Athenæus, advises the Bacchanalian thus:"If first you bathe, then make a hearty meal Of cabbage, you will ease the heavy weight,

And dissipate the clouds that so obscure

Your aching brain."

Amphis, of Athens, offers another remedy as more efficaci

ous:

"Nothing so soon will dissipate the fumes

Of drunkenness, and clear the aching head,

As some immediate unforeseen disaster;
This drives, at once, all fancies, from the brain,
With wonderful effect, and better far

Than cabbage can produce."

Theophrastus speaks of this property in cabbage, adding, that the odour only of this plant will obstruct the growth of the vine.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

AMONG the literary works which issued from the Calcutta press last year, we find Mr. Wynch's translation of the useful Sanscrit tract on inheritance, entitled the Dyakrama Sungraha, and the publication in original of the most approved Persian lexicon now extant, namely the Boorkanikatin. Also the History of Timour, in the original Arabic, written by Ahmud Bin Moohummud of Damascus in Syria, generally known by the name of Ibno Arab Shak; collated with four MS. copies of the work, and corrected for the press by Shykh Ahmed-oobno Moohummud il Ansaregool Yumenee Yoush Shirwanee, a native of Arabia, now employed in the Arabic department of the college of fort William, Calcutta. The present edition was undertaken, as we are informed in the preface, at the recommendation of Dr. Lunisden, the Persian and Arabic professor, who found the errors in the editions of Golius and Manger, so very numerous and perplexing, that it was only by means of conjectural emendations in every page that he was able to peruse the work. Hatim Ta, EE, a romance in the Persian language, has been published for the use of the junior students in the college of fort William. "The illustrious personage, whose marvellous adventures are recorded in the following romance, was equally celebrated among mankind for his wisdom, his valour, and his liberality. The surname of Ta, EE, which he bore, was common to his tribe. He flourished before the birth of Moohummud, and his sepulchre may still be seen at a little village called Aovaredh, in Arabia.” Preface. The Kuzeedu of Ibno Zhor has been enriched with a commentary by Shykh Ahmed, the learned editor of the Kamoos, Timour, and other works. This poem is one of the most celebrated in the Arabic language, and indispensably requires to be accompanied by a commentary, without which it cannot be read by a foreigner, and scarcely perhaps, by very many of the Arabs.

We are not yet able to state whether Mr. Buckingham's Travels in Palestine, which we announced in our last, have been published. The authors who have written in illustration of this small

portion of the globe, from Benjamin of Tudela and sir John Mandeville, down to Dr. Clarke and M. Chateaubriand, may be thought to have so completely exhausted the subject, as to have left nothing new to be observed or recorded by future travellers. The itineraries of catholic devotees have furnished the most ample details respecting the sanctuaries and holy places; and the names of Phocas, Quaresmius, and Adrichomius, are associated with these early labours. The extended journies of protestant scholars, have enlarged our acquaintance with objects of more general inquiry; and the names of Maundrell, Shaw, and Pococke, stand pre-eminent among these. The profound researches both of English and French writers have laid open all the stores of learning in illustration of the ancient geography of Judea; and the works of Reland and D'Anville are monuments of erudition and sagacity, that would do honour to any country; while the labours of very recent travellers would seem to close the circle of our inquiries, by the pictures which they have given of the general state of manners, and the present aspect of the country. Yet among all those who have made the Holy Land the scene of their researches, there has not been one who did not conceive that he was able to correct and add to the labours of his predecessors; and indeed who did not really notice something of interest which had been disregarded before. It is thus that Dr. Clarke expresses his doubts and disbelief at every step, and attempts to refute, with indignation, authorities, which travellers of every age had hitherto been accustomed to venerate; and it is thus too, that Chateaubriand confesses, that after he had read some hundreds of volumes on the country he came to visit, they had given him no accurate conceptions of what he subsequently beheld for himself.

In like manner, Mr. Buckingham complains of those who preceded him; and the very particular account which he gives of his own researches must acquit him from the charge of presumption in professing to add to the general fund of human knowledge, and more particularly to our local acquaintance with the country of Judea. As the cradle of our religion, and the scene of all that is venerable in holy writ; as the birth-place of classical fable, interwoven with Phoenician history; as a theatre of the most heroic exploits, during the Jewish, the Roman, and the Saracenian wars;

as a field moistened with the best blood of our ancestors, in the wild and romantic age of the Crusades; and even now, at the present hour, as a fair and lovely portion of the earth, still favoured with the dews of heaven, and blessed with the most benignant sky; it is impossible to pass through it with indifference, and equally so not to set some value on the impressions which these objects and these recollections excite.

The American character.-The following remarks on our character are from a Calcutta journal. It may not be amiss to observe that our papers are liberally quoted in those of Calcutta, and this paragraph shows that they are not read in vain.

"We have already directed the attention of our readers to the increasing desire for theatricals that appears to pervade the United States of America, as proved by the high rates of salary that their stage managers find themselves enabled to offer for first rate performers. These scenes of amusement, together with sea-serpents, the president's tour, act of navigation, the smuggling of arms to the patriots, and the scalping of inoffensive Indians, appear to have wrought a wonderful change in the habits and ideas of the North Americans. Formerly nothing but brawling politics resounded through their cities and villages, or were re-echoed from the surrounding mountains. Sharp discussion and emphasis, rendered superlatively emphatic, engrossed all the powers of the tongue from morning to night, with scarcely any intermission at mealtimes. In New England, a democrat was regarded as a leper, while in the southern states, a federalist was almost classed as a demon. A traveller could scarcely have procured a glass of water, before he had discussed the politics of the day at length, and shown that his principles were of the right sort. Now we guess that the rabies are changed. The fury of argument is lulled at least, if not dissipated; federalists and democrats begin to shake hands together, although they maintain a distinct character; both hail such parts of the president's character with applause as corresponds with their respective habits of thinking; newspaper philippics are less abundant and more civil," &c.

EXTRACT from M. Sheffer's suppressed pamphlet "On the State of Liberty in France."

After adverting to the state of the press at Paris, and depicting, in bold and energetic language, the miserable thraldom in which it is held, M. Sheffer proceeds to consider its state in the departments.

"Let us now," says he, " consider the situation of the departmental newspapers, if so we may term those pitiful papers that

only serve for the insertion of advertisements. They all bear the stamp of the prefect's hotel. The slavery under which they languish is such, that they are generally obliged to take from the Paris papers the news of the very towns where they are printed. Nor are they allowed to insert any foreign intelligence, without having previously forwarded it to Paris for approbation. Thus the Lisle paper gives no other news from Belgium than what it extracts from the Paris journals, and the one of Strasburg draws from the same source its information concerning Germany. Political discussions are also excluded. In one word, there are no newspapers in France but what are printed at Paris. It is only in Paris that there is some degree of freedom of the press, because the prefects are more powerful in the departments, than the minister of police is in the capital."

"I must now," continues the author, in another place, "bring forward a consideration, which cannot fail of having its due weight with all patriotic Frenchmen. If the state of the departments undergoes no change, France will soon find herself greatly inferior to Germany with respect to knowledge, and all the advantages derived from it. That country contains a number of independent universities, that spread knowledge and patriotism in every direction. More works are printed in one month in Germany, than in France during a whole year. The town of Weimar alone produces more periodical publications than all those of France. In thirty other towns the public prints are sought for and read with avidity. In the manufactories, in which many hands are employed, one of the workmen generally reads aloud the patriotic journals. From thence, the great number of well-informed men that are to be found in Germany, and that number augments with such rapidity, that the governors of that country will find it impossible to preserve the actual order of things. It is almost possible to predict the very moment of its greatness and its liberty-because the expression of public feeling is not confined to the capital, and can extend its powerful influence over the whole of the German nation."

In the Monthly Review for February 1819, some notice is taken of the Airs of Palestine, a poem, by the Rev. Mr. Pierpont, of Boston. The critic declares that he is " well disposed to receive an American poet handsomely." If this article is to be considered as a specimen of good manners, according to the boasted refinement of English society, we must confess that they are little to our taste. Instead of submitting to the reader a fair analysis of the merits of this poem, the critic selects six lines to show that the poet is an egotist, and that "the muse of Baltimore," the place of publication" is yet in her infancy." From the exegi monumentum of the