and Armenians, and even among the Franks; for you may remember that Pera was not clean all the win. ter 1762. Some years it lodges in the villages upon the Bofphorus; but, during the winter, it is never of any great confequence. As to the cure of this difeafe, fome are for bleeding plentifully, as Leonardas Botallus and Doctor Dover, &c. but in this country, it is reckoned infallible death to open a vein, and therefore bleeding is never ufed: but I am of opinion that a medium between these two extremes might prove more to the purpofe; for, as it is an inflammatory difeafe, bleeding and emetics might be of ufe in the beginning, as foon as the patient is taken with the fever, especially if the fever is very hot, and attended with a delirium or any violent head-ach; but, after there begins a feparation of the morbific matter, which the strength of nature, and the agitation of the fever, drive upon the furface of the body in buboes or carbuncles, bleeding or purging must prove very prejudi cial; but gentle vomits might be of service even then, as they might drive out those cutaneous eruptions more powerfully than nature could do it without any help. The vomits likewife might prevent the retorn of the morbific matter into the blood, which frequently hap. pens, and the buboes, &c. difap. pear, and the patient infallibly dies in a fhort time. As the peftilential fever has many remiflions, I am of opinion that the use of the bark in the remiffions might be of great fervice; as it proved anno 1752, when the French ambaffador's fervant was faved at Buiuk. dere, by means of fome bark and ipecacuana, which I fent, with directions to Padre Jofeppe; and he was the only perfon that recovered, of all the gang who were then taken il in our village. The practice in the hospital is after this manner: when any perfon is fufpected, they give him a large dofe of brandy, with a drachm of Venice treacle; and afterwards they cover him very well, that he may fweat: for the first three days he eats nothing but vermicelli boiled in water, with a little lemonjuice. On the fourth day they give him rice and water; which diet they obferve Atrialy till the 15th or 20th day, when they begin to allow him very thin chickenbroth, commonly called brodo longo, and they give him from first to laft nothing but warm water to drink. They apply firft to the buboes and parotides a cataplafm of mal. lows and hog's lard, to advance maturation; and, after they are ripe and open, they dress them with bafilicon ointment. They apply caimack and fugar to the carbuncles for fome days, to cool them; and, when they begin to feparate, they apply a digeftive of Chio turpentine with the yolk of an egg. They apply nothing to the blains and petechial fpots, which appear and difappear again upon any part of the body every three or four days. All this time they give the fick no medicines, befides Venice treacle for the poor, and fome doses of bezoar for fuch as can afford to pay for it; and they never can be per. faaded to change their method; for, when you gave them Doctor James's powder, they never tried what effect it might have. this animal, fo refembling a man, there are two kind, which feem to differ only in fize: thefe are diftinctively called the Jo. leo and the Pongo; the latter of which is of a very great fize, fome. times eight feet in height, and of a strength proportionable. "This creature," fays Nierem. berg, a very intelligent traveller, Some are of opinion that fire preferves from the plague, and purges the air from whom I beg leave to differ; for I have re-has all the proportions of a man, marked here, that cooks and cooks mates, who are always near the fire, fuffer more by the plague than any other fet of people in proportion to their number. Be fides, the fire enlivens and gives energy to the poisonous effluvia ledged about them, which other wife might die and difperfe in the open air, if expofed fufficiently to it. Fire moreover opens the pores, relaxes the fibres; and, as the hot weather propagates the plague, fire fhould do the fame more or lefs; and for the fame reafon I imagine that all perfumes must be of very little fervice. The next best prefervative I take to be moderation, and a diet of fuch meats as are of eafy digeftion, of a rich balfamic quality, and capable of producing a rich and generous blood. It is likewife a except that he is larger. His eyes are funk in his head, he has long hair on each cheek, his face is with. out much covering, as are likewife his ears and his hands. HIS body is flightly covered with loft hair, and his limbs differ little from thofe of a man, except that he has not calves to his legs. Notwithstanding this he walks always upright, fleeps on the branches of trees, and builds himself an but which ferves to defend him from the injuries of the weather. He lives upon wild fruits, and never upon ficfh. He cannot speak, though poffeffed of more underftanding than other animals. When the negroes make a fire in the woods, the Orang Outang come and fit down round it to warm themselves, but at the fame time they have not understanding cuough enough to continue the fire with fresh fuel. They most frequently march in companies, and often kill the negroes, when they happen to meet them at a diftance from fucCour. They attack all animals, even the elephant himself, whom they beat with clubs, and chafe from their forefts. Thefe creatures," the hiftorian continues to obferve, "are not eafily taken alive, because of their amazing ftrength, one of them fingly being a match in mere brutal force for ten men. They are therefore tamed by taking them when very young, the female carrying her cubs as women do their children. When any of thefe animals die, the reft cover his body with leaves and the branches of trees." Such is the account that travel lers give of this extraordinary creature; and that which was feen by Mr. Buffon himfelf, was not lefs furprising. This creature always went upon two legs, and that even when he carried heavy burthens upon his fhoulders. His air was grave and melancholy, his gait flow and folemn, his natural difpofition gentle, and quite dif. ferent from that of other apes, He had neither the reflets impatience of the chimpanze, nor the mifchievous difpofition of the baboon, nor the extravagant ca. price of the monkey. One would have faid that he had been well educated, but the other apes which had received a fimilar education were by no means his equals in any respect. A fign or a word were fufficient to put the Orang Outang into action, but nothing but ftripes and whips could reduce the baboon to his good behaviour. "I have feen this animal," fays Mr. Buffon," offer his hand to gentlemen and ladies who came to fee him, and walk gravely along with them, as if making one of the company. I have feen him fit at table, unfold his napkin, and wipe his lips, make ufe of his knife and fork, pour out his drink into a glass, and chink it with those of the company, take his cup and faucer, put in fugar, pour out the tea, and ftir it in order to let it cool:-All this at the command of his mafter, and often without any bidding. He did no mitchief whatfoever, but often offered him. felf to be carefled by strangers. He was particularly fond of comfits, which every fpectator, bringing him continually, he got a deAuxion upon the lungs with a cough, of which he died. He generally eat of every thing that was prefented to him, but he preferred dried ripe fruits to all other food. He drank wine, though in fmail quantities, and readily left it for milk or tea, or any other fweet li quors. "I have feen," fays another traveller, at Java, a very extraordinary creature of the ape kind; it was a female, of a tall ftature, and walked upright upon its hinder legs. Its face was without hair, except the eye-brows, and very much refembled that of an Hottentot. Every morni: g it very regularly made its own bed, at night lay down with the head upon the boifter and covered itself with the quilt: when its head ached, it wrapped an handkerchief round it, and in this dress looked very comically." Such is the account almost univerfally given of this creature, and all agree that, upon a flight aminat.. amination, its outward form differs very little from that of man. It may not be amifs, however, to examine it more narrowly, and fee in what it refembles, and how far it differs from the human fpecies, And first, it differs from man in the shape of the nose, which is at, the forehead, which is very low, the chin, which does not point out at the bafe, the ears are too large in proportion, its eyes too close to each other, and the interval between the nose and mouth too large. These are the differences in the face of this animal. The body and limbs differ in this, that the thighs are proportionably too short, the arms too long, and thumbs too small, the palm of the hand too long and narrow, the feet made more refembling the hands than thofe of men are. Internally this creature differs in the number of the ribs; man has but twelve of a fide, the Orang Outang has thirteen. The vertebræ alfo of the neck are shorter, the bones of the pelvis more narrow, and the orbits of the eyes more deeply funk into the fkull. The bladder and gall bladder are longer and more narrow than in men, and fuch are the only differences. In other refpects, this fimilitude of conformation between this creature and man, may at once excite our aftonishment and humility. For example, the tongue is in every refpect like ours, as are all the other organs of voice, and yet this creature has not the gift of fpeech. The brain is like ours, and yet this creature cannot think. Nothing furely can be a more convincing proof that matter alone, however modified, can never produce thought or fpeech, unlefs endowed with principle fuperior to matter; I mean with a reasonable fool. In how few exterior qualities does man excel this creature? Scarce in any. Let us view the favage man of Africa, even with the advantages which he has reaped from fociety, and the Orang Outang will feem to have the advantage of figure. The head covered with ftaring hair, or curled wool, the vifage deformed by a long beard, with thick hanging eye-brows that fhade his eyes, and take away the majefty of his character. The lips thick and prominent, the nofe flatted to the face, the looks either ftupid or fierce, the body and limbs covered with hair, the skin like hardened leather, and the nails long, crooked, and fharp: this lord of nature fitting upon his haunches, covered with a cruft of ordure. Such is man in his ftate approaching favage or folitary nature; and furely in this picture, there is nothing that an Orang Outang, if he had fenfe, could envy. But he has no fenfe; this is the line that infallibly feparates him and man, the lord of the creation. Any animal endowed with underflanding, would foon like man become formida. ble in creation, and might at laft, perhaps, difpute with him the mastery of the world. However near man may be in form to the ape, yet the interval between them is immense; fince, internal. ly, man is furnished with thought, and externally with the pow. ers of giving that thought expref fion. Ans A natural biftory of the beaver; vity can be perceived with a mi from the fame. HE more remote from the feems the fagacity of animals. The beaver, in thofe diftant folitades where men have rarely paffed, exerts all the arts of architects and citizens; they build neater habitations than even the rational inhabitants of thofe countries can fhew, and obey a more regular difcipline than ever man could boaft; but as foon as man intrudes upon their fociety, their spirit of industry and wildom ceafes; they no longer exert their ufual arts, but become patient and dull, as if to fit them for a state of fervitude. To demonstrate the truth of this juft obfervation of an elegant writer, we fhall lay before our readers the following natural history of the beaver, extracted from the best authorities. The American beaver was long unknown to our most curious and inquifitive naturalifts, or at least thofe accounts that we had were fo blended with falfhood and error, as to render them altogether of doubtful authority. The memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, and afterwards Buffon, have entirely cleared up all doubt. The hair of this animal, which co. vers the whole body, except the tail, is not alike throughout; for there are two forts mixt together, which differ not only in length, but in colour and thickness. Part of it is about an inch and a half long, and as thick as the hair of a man's head, very fhining, and of 2 brown colour, inclining fomewhat to a tawny. It is of a clofe fubftance, and fo folid that no ca croscope. The shorteft is about an inch long, and is in greater plenty than fmall and foft, infomuch that it feels almost like filk. This diffe rence of the hair or fur is to be met with in feveral animals, but more particularly in the beaver, the otter, and the wild boar; which perhaps may be the more neceffary for thefe creatures, because they delight in muddy places, and the longeft hair may ferve to keep the mud from penetrating to the skin, The head, from the nose to the hind part, is five inches and a half long, and five inches broad from the prominence of the two cheekbones., The ears are like thofe of an otter, being round, and very fhort: they are covered with hair on the outside, but are almost naked within. It is commonly faid that thefe animals delight in gnawing of trees; and in reality, the teeth feem to be very proper for that purpose, especially thofe before; but they are not fharp pointed to ferve inftead of a faw, as fome have affirmed, or, at least, they are not fo in the American beaver; but they are proper to cut with, like thofe of fquirrels, porcupines, and rats. The length of thofe below is above an inch, but thofe above are not quite fo much, and they flip on the fide of each other, because they are not directly oppofite. They are half round on the outfide, and of a bright red colour, or orange. They are about a quarter of an inch in breadth next the jaw; but are fomewhat narrower at the extre mity. Befides |