find none better, he should be driven to take as his model the prior himself, who never left him at peace. He went, adds Giraldi, morning and evening, to the Borghetto, the quarter inhabited by the meanest and most ignoble people, by scoundrels and malefactors, in search of his Judas. At length he espied the very physiognomy he wanted. He portrayed it, and completed the pic

ture.

Whether this grand work of art were painted al fresco, in oil, or with some peculiar varnish, the fruit of da Vinci's chymical skill, is another disputed question, which the reader will presently see there is now no hope of satisfactorily deciding.

"The total destruction of this picture is to be imputed not so much to the gnawing tooth of all-devouring time, or to a locality unfavourable to its preservation, as to the ignorant negligence and the base malice of man, who, for ever annihilates in the hope of producing something superior. For a while the Last Supper was the object of universal admiration, the glory of Leonardo da Vinci. After a lapse of sixteen years it was still so beautiful, and in such perfect condition, that Francis I. of France, would have made any sacrifice to transport it to France.

"Armenini, who saw it in the middle of the 16th century, even then lamented its having lost half its original splendour; and the Milanese Lomazzo averred that the colours faded so rapidly, that very soon it would be possible to appreciate the merit of the drawing only from the outlines. . . . . . Not long afterwards, Cardinal Borromeo mourned over its decay; and, observing that the evil must increase, inasmuch as it proceeded from the crumbling of the mortar or plaister upon which this celebrated Last Supper was painted, he employed a good artist to copy it. The copy, when finished, was compared with the cartoons, then still at Milan, and was found to be faithful.

"Scanelli, who saw the Last Supper in 1642, says, Scarcely a trace remains of the figures; and the naked portions, as heads, hands, feet, have all but disappeared.' Ten years later, the Dominicans, seeing it in so miserable a plight, abandoned it to its fate, and even scrupled not to enlarge the refectory door by cutting off the fect of the Saviour and of one Apostle."

We must here pause to observe, that it is sheer calumny to charge these poor friars, as they are often charged, with thus mutilating the picture, whilst in its perfection. On the contrary, they seem to have been duly sensible that the painting was the pride of their monastery, and to have endeavoured honestly, if not very judiciously, to preserve it. At different times they paid considerable sums to artists who undertook to revive the colours. The first attempt is said to have been temporarily successful; the last to have consummated its ruin. Hence it was the less material, that when the First Consul occupied Milan,

"Although his orders were precise to spare this refectory, cavalry were quartered in it, who gave the picture the coup-de-grace." (They are said, emulating their forefathers, to have selected parts as marks to fire at.)

"Amoretti visited the remains of the picture, when writing Leonardo's Life. Upon entering the room, he hastened up to the picture, to look at it more closely, and saw nothing. He fell back to some distance, and then the destruction seemed less complete. He now perceived that a sort of mould, or rather a saltpetre excrescence, that covered the whole wall, in fact veiled the painting from those who stood immediately under it."

Thus it is only through the copies early made that this magnificent work can now be known; and it is some comfort to learn that of these there are at least twenty extant.

After the fall of Sforza, Leonardo was appointed by Cæsar Borgia his head architect and engineer, and fortified several castles and towns by his desire. He was recalled to Milan by Louis XII. of France, to complete the canals he had begun: but it was to the artist-courting Francis I. that he more particularly attached himself; and him, in the year 1516, he accompanied to France. There, in less than three years, he died; but not, we grieve to say, according to common report, in the arms of his royal patron. At least, Leonardo's intimate friend, Francesco de Melzi, says nothing of the kind in the letter in which he announces the event to the artist's brother, and he surely would not have omitted so flattering an incident.

We shall conclude with an anecdote relative to Leonardo da Vinci's MSS. and drawings, many of which he bequeathed to his friend and pupil. the above-named Melzi. The anecdote is related by Gian Ambrogio Mazzente, who died at an advanced age, A. D. 1635.

"It is now fifty years," writes Mazzente, " since thirteen volumes in folio and quarto, of Leonardo da Vinci's MSS., written the wrong way, fell into my hands.

I was studying law at Pisa in company with Aldo Manuzio the younger. A certain Lelio Gavardi d'Asola, since superior of St. Zeno, at Pavia, and Aldo's nearest relation, frequently honoured us with his visits. He had been tutor in the Melzi family. and had seen in the house many writings, drawings, instruments, and books of Leonardo's. . . . . . The children of Francesco Melzi, differing in taste from their book-loving father, and, through professional or public avocations, engrossed by other objects, neglected these treasures, and left them at the discretion of the first comer. Lelio Gavardi took what he pleased of them, and carried thirteen volumes to Florence, in the confident hope that the Grand Duke Francesco de Medici, who was eager for such works, would give a great price for them. . . . When Gavardi reached Florence the duke was dying, and he came disappointed to Pisa. I could not conceal my disapprobation of his conduct; he blushed; and, as I was then returning to Milan, having finished my studies at Pisa, he gave me the books, and requested that I would return them to the Melzi family.

"I performed my commission, delivering the whole to Dr. Orazio Melzi, the eldest. He was utterly amazed at my having taken so much trouble about such things, and freely gave me the books, acknowledging that there were many more writings and drawings of this great artist's in some corner of his countryhouse."

We wonder that a Mazzente did not beg for them, and wish he had. His thirteen volumes are now in the Ambrosian Library.

ART. XII.-Der Englische Schweiss. Ein ärztlicher Beitrag zur Geschichte des Fünfzehnten und Sechzehnten Jahrhunderts. Von Dr. J. F. C. Hecker. (The English Sweating Sickness. A Medical Fragment of the History of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. By Dr. Hecker.) Berlin, 1834.

THIS work is the third of a series of essays, by which the author has endeavoured to illustrate a class of diseases which are among the most awful visitations that afflict the human race. Dr. Hecker, who had long been sensible of the necessity of a truly philosophic investigation into the causes of those mighty events, was induced by the ravages of the cholera to publish the first of the series of essays on the epidemics of the middle ages-Der Schwarze Tod-The Black Death.

In the preface to that work, Dr. Hecker explains his views of an intimate connexion between convulsions of nature and the sudden and rapid propagation of pestilences. He has, it is true, some notions respecting the influence of unknown powers in heaven and earth which, however ingenious, appear to us too vague to serve for the foundation of a sound theory, though the facts which he adduces deserve the most serious attention. The Black Death is so well known to the English reader from the spirited translation of it by Dr. Babington, published soon after its appearance, that it is unnecessary to dwell on it here. The second of the series, "Die Tanzwuth," or, "The Dancing Mania,' presents to our view a less awfully destructive, but in one respect a more affecting picture of the calamities to which the human frame is liable. Here we have not the destroying angel, sweeping away hundreds of thousands with his flaming sword-it is not the arrow that flieth by day, or the pestilence that walketh in darkness. The subject of this treatise is diseases founded on mental delusion, caused by the instinct of imitation, "propagated," as the Doctor says, "on the beams of light, on the wings of thought, convulsing the mind by the excitement of the senses." We rejoice to learn that the approbation bestowed on the English version of the Black Death, has induced Dr. Babington to publish a translation of the Dancing Mania, a copy of which has just been put into our hands. To this essay Dr. Babington has prefixed a translation of an address, by Dr. Hecker, to the physicians of Germany, requesting their attention to this important subject, and endeavouring to impress on them the conviction of the absolute necessity of a more comprehensive view of this subject than has ever yet been taken. We will quote a few lines from this address.

"Amid the accumulated materials which past ages afford, the powers and the life of one individual, even with the aid of previous study, are insufficient to complete a comprehensive history of epidemics. The zealous activity of many must be exerted if we would speedily possess a work which is so much wanted, in order that we may not encounter new epidemics with culpable ignorance of analogous phenomena. How often has it appeared, on the breaking out of epidemics, as if the experience of so many centuries had been accumulated in vain! Men gazed at the phenomena with astonishment, and, even before they had a just perception of their nature, pronounced their opinions, which, as they were divided into strongly opposed parties, they defended with

all the ardour of zealots, wholly unconscious of the majesty of all-governing Nature."

The English Sweating Sickness, which is the subject of this third essay, is indeed known to us by name as a fatal and rapidly spreading disorder, which visited England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, being first introduced in the train of the victorious army of Henry VII. and damped the joy of the nation after the glorious battle of Bosworth-field. Our own chronicles give many particulars of this visitation. Five times did it afflict this country: first in 1485; secondly, in 1506, when it was of short duration; and then in 1517, 1528 and 29, and 1551. It is very extraordinary that this epidemic was confined to England, even Ireland and Scotland being exempt from it. Only once it visited Germany, namely in 1529, when Hamburg was the first place where it appeared. But its duration there was short, only twenty-two days, in which, however, 1100 persons fell victims to it. It broke out almost simultaneously in Lübeck, where its ravages were such as to remind people of those of the Black Death in 1849. Zwickau, at the foot of the Erzgebirge, fifty German miles from Hamburg, was next attacked; and at the beginning of September it appeared almost on the same day at Stettin, Danzig, Augsburg, Cologne, Strasburg, Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Marburg, Göttingen, and Hanover. Thus it was spread over the greater part of Germany, and extended also to Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. But though its ravages were dreadful, they could not be compared with those of the Black Death.

In treating of the causes which in so remarkable a manner confined the disease to England, Dr. Hecker mentions the nature of the climate of England, subject to frequent fogs, and the general intemperance of the people. The year 1485 was, besides, not only remarkable for the quantity of rain that fell, but it was the sixth of a series of such years, the last dry and hot summer having been that of 1479. But though the Sweating Sickness was confined (with one exception) to England, the continent of Europe was afflicted during the same period with various fatal contagious disorders, of which the author gives as particular an account as the recorded information on them would allow connecting them, as he goes along, with extraordinary phenomena of nature, storms, earthquakes, eruptions of Vesuvius, &c.

But, while the Sweating Sickness was confined to England, a new and destructive epidemic, the spotted (petechial) fever appeared in southern and central Europe, which first manifested itself in 1490, in Granada, where it threatened to destroy the army of Ferdinand the Catholic, and was very fatal to the Moors.

It will appear from these remarks that the work gives a great deal more than the title implies, and, even in the part which relates to England, much light is thrown on what has been hitherto imperfectly known, as it is connected with the history of epidemics in general, by the author's illustrations from the history of other contagious disorders. select the following as a specimen of his style.

We

"The events which are now about to engage our attention prove, by their

surprising development, that the fate of nations is at times guided far more by the laws of physical life than by the will of the mighty of the earth, and by all the efforts of human energy, which oppose in vain the unchained powers of Nature. These powers, inscrutable in their operation, destructive in their effects, arrest the course of events, baffle great projects, and paralyze the spirit in its boldest flights. They have often annihilated mighty armies by the sword of the destroying angel, when victory was ready to place the laurel on their brows.

"To wipe off the stain of Pavia, Francis I., in league with England, Switzerland, Rome, Genoa, and Venice, sent a fine army to Italy against his haughty rival. The imperial troops everywhere retreated before the French, and victory seemed to declare in favour only of the colours of France and the valiant Lautrec. Every thing promised a glorious issue. Naples alone, feebly garrisoned by German landsquenets and Spaniards, remained to be subdued. The siege was opened on the 5th of May, 1528, and the general pledged his honour for the reduction of this strong city, which had once been so fatal to France. It seemed an easy matter, with 30,000 warlike troops, to vanquish the Imperialists, and a small body of Englishmen appeared to have come only to participate in the celebration of the triumph. Scarcity reigned in the city, which was blockaded by Doria and his Genoese galleys: it also suffered from want of water, Lautrec having turned aside the supply from the aqueducts of Poggioreale; and the plague, which had never entirely ceased among the Germans since the plundering of Rome, began to rage among them.

"The security of the French army, however, was fatal to the excellent discipline which had been observed among them, and Nature herself soon began to be destructive to the victorious troops. In the course of seven weeks, a small band of a few thousand emaciated forms, scarcely able to bear the weight of their arms, and obey the voice of their enfeebled leaders, were all that remained of this brave host. On the 29th of August, the siege was raised, the brave Lautrec having fallen a victim to chagrin and disease. The army took their departure amid a violent storm of thunder and lightning, many were made prisoners by the Imperialists, and but few ever returned to their own country."

In conclusion, we cannot but recommend these Essays of Dr. Hecker, not only to the attention of his own profession, but to the general reader; and with respect to the Treatise immediately before us, we would again remark that the reader must not be led by the title to believe that it contains only what may be found in the writings of our own historians. It comprises a mass of information relative to other countries, collected with great industry and judgment from a variety of sources. The author, indeed, gives at the conclusion a list of the works which he has himself actually consulted, extending to thirteen pages.

ART. XIII.-Memoires sur la Guerre de l'Isle de Juva, de 1825 à 1830. Par le Major F. V. A. de Stuers. 1 vol. 4to and atlas. Leyde. THE Conquest of the island of Java by the British army in the year 1811, and the knowledge which we acquired of its importance during the time that it remained in our possession, till it was restored to the Dutch at the general peace, excited the attention of the public in an extraordinary degree; and the valuable work of Sir Stamford Raffles,