red for the scene. But no one can know what it is who has not seen it-From an eminence of the pleasant banks of the Chilka Lake (where no human bones are seen), I had a view of the lofty tower of Juggernaut far remote; and while I viewed it, its abominations came to mind. It was on the morning of the Sabbath. Ruminating long on the wide and extended empire of Moloch in the heathen world, I cherished in my thoughts the design of some 'Christian Institution,' which being fostered by Britain, my Christian country, might gradually undermine this baleful idolatry, and put out the memory of it forever." p. 142. The rites of Juggernaut are not, however, confined to this his chief temple. “He has many a tower in the province of Bengal, that fair and fertile province, which has been called the garden of nations. Close to Ishera a beautiful villa on the river's side, about eight miles from Calcutta, once the residence of governour Hastings, and within view of the present governour general's country house, there is a temple of this idle, which is often stained with human blood." Dr. Buchanan visited it in 1807. One of the victims of that year was a handsome young man, who, after dancing awhile before the idle, and singing in an enthusiastic strain, rushed suddenly to the wheels, and was crushed beneath them. While this was passing, the Missionaries from Serampore (which is only a mile and a half from the temple) were preaching to a crowd of people at no great distance, and distributing_printed papers among them. Dr. Buchanan sat down on an elevated spot, to contemplate the contrast, "the tower of blood and impurity on the one hand, and the Christian preachers on the other." "I thought on the commandment of our Saviour, Go ye, teach all nations.' I said to myself, 'How great and glorious a ministry are these humble persons now exercising in the presence of God! How is it applauded by the holy angels, who, have joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth;' and how far does it transcend the work of the warrior or stateman, in charity, utility, and lasting fame! And I could not help wishing that the representatives of the church of Christ, in my own coun. try, had been present to witness this scene that they might have seen how practicable it is to offer Christian instruction our Hindoo subjects." p. 146, 147. Dr. Buchanan then adverts to that other sanguinary rite of the Hindoo superstition, the immolation of females. Some idea may be formed of the extent of this horrid practice, from an actual enumeration which took place to the numbers sacrificed, only in certain districts, within thirty miles of Calcutta, between April and October, 1804. It amounted to 115. account is given by Dr. Buchanan of one of the sacrifices; but we omit the insertion of it, as a similar account appeared in a former number of our work, vol. for 1810, p. 484. An It is impossible to contemplate these enormities, without inquiring why no attempt has been made to repress them? Are these things understood by the court of directors, and by the proprietors of India stock, and has nothing been done even to ascertain the practicability of abolishing them? The marquis Wellesley abolished a still more criminal practice, which was considered by the Hindoos as a religious rite, namely, the sacrifice of children, by drowning them or exposing them to sharks and crocodiles. A regulation was published in August, 1802, declaring the practice to be murder punishable by death. The regulation has proved effectual, and not a murmur has been heard on the subject. Now would it not be as easy to prevent the sacrifice of women as the sacrifice of children? The aboli tion of the practice, Dr. Buchanan affirms to be practicable: the means by which it might be abolished, were pointed out by the Brahmins themselves, when a measure to that effect was under the contemplation of Lord Wellesley. Until the abolition take place therefore, or until its impracticability shall have been fully ascer tained, the author pledges himself that he "will not cease to call the attention of the English nation to this ́ subject." But we must return to the Temple of Juggernaut. Our readers will have perceived, from some incidental expressions in the course of this review, that the idolatrous worship practised there is a source of revenue to the East India Company. A regulation was passed in April, 1806, for levying a tax on pilgrims resorting thither. The tax had been proposed to the Marquis Wellesley, but his Lordship disapproved of it. It was agreed to by the succeeding government, but not without the solemn and recorded dissent of one of the members of that government, Mr. Udney. The temple of Juggernaut is thus placed under the immediate management of the British government, who defray, from the public revenue, the expenses incident to the worship of this idol. The following is a statement of a year's expense, extracted from the official accounts presented to the government. We give publicity to these opprobrious circumstances, not with a view to censure the conduct of the Court of Directors, or of the Court of Proprietors; but with the view of exciting their attention to the subject, and of leading them to investigate, in order to rectify, the evil. If, indeed, they should either refuse to inquire into the various enormities which have thus been exposed to view; or if, having ascertained their existence, and holding, as they do, the sword of justice in their hands, they should not use all the means in their power to repress such criminal acts, then would the responsibility and the guilt be theirs. Until, however, we are compelled to adopt a contrary persuasion, we shall expect the most favourable results from the known humanity and liberality of the East-India Company. It is due to them to state, that they have resisted, and been ready to punish, every attempt which has been made to carry on a slave trade within the limits L. Sterling of their jurisdiction. We entertain a confident hope that the murderous practices which have been denounced by our author, will excite a similar resistance; and that the degrading regulation which draws a revenue from the idolatrous worship of Juggernaut, will be erased from the sta tute book of our Indian empire. 4514 1259 378 839 1373 L. 8702 FROM THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. CUVIER ON FOSSIL BONES. Memoire sur les Eléphans Vivans et Fossiles. sur le grand Mastodonte, dont on trouve les Òs en divers Endroits des Deux Continens, and surtout sur les Bords de l'Ohio dans l'Amerique Septentrionale. Resumé general de l'Histoire des Ossemens Fossiles des Pachydermes, &c. Par C. Cuvier, Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. Tom. VIII. 1806. THE Jardin des Plantes at Paris was established by Lewis the Thirteenth in 1626. The patronage of the sovereigns who succeeded, direct ed by the zeal and exertion of some enlightened individuals, added a museum to the Botanic Garden; and, in spite of the opposition of the estab *This includes the wages of the courtezans kept for the service of the temple. The car, or tower, on which the idol is placed, and under the wheels of which the self-devoted victims are crushed to death. lished schools of medicine, laid the foundation of a system of public instruction, which has contributed materially to the advancement of physical knowledge. Men distinguished in every branch of natural history, have filled the chairs, or exercised the superintendence of this useful institution. It was from the Jardin des Plantes that Tourne fourt after visiting all the west of Europe, set out on the survey of the east, and returned with a rich harvest of the vegetable productions of Greece, Asia, and Egypt. It was from the same place that Buffon sent out the immortal work, which will for ever form an era in the history of human knowledge. The French revolution converted a royal into a national establishment; and, if the events which followed have put an end to this shortlived honour, they have rendered the museum of Paris the richest in the world. Among the illustrious men who fill the chairs in this Institution at the present moment, the names of Hauy, Vauquelin and Cuvier, are particularly distinguished. The last, who is professor of the anatomy of animals, and secretary for the class of physical sciences in the national Institute, adds the enlarged views and comprehensive mind of Buffon to the turn for accurate and minute observation which distinguished his coadjutor Daubenton. He is also a fine writer; and though, in this respect, hardly any one can rival Buffon, he has a manifest superiority in a matter of still greater importance; for, as Buffon, from a few facts, would often advance to theory with most unphilosophical precipitation, Cuvier. has always proceeded with the caution of the most rigorous induction; and, satisfied with deducing a few general, from a multitude of particular truths, he seems willing to defer the last step of generalization till all the phenomena have been examined. The annals of the museum began to be published in 1802, and, since VOL. VR ૨ ૧ that time, in a series of valuable Memoirs, have annually contributed to enlarge the boundaries of science. The attention of Cuvier has been much fixed on the subject of fossil bones; and he has extracted from thence, by his profound skill in comparative anatomy, much curious and precise information concerning the antient inhabitants of the globe. The three Memoirs mentioned in the title of this article (to which we have occasionally added observations from the rest), contain some of his most valuable discoveries. It is curious to observe how different an impression the same natural appearances have made on the human mind in different states of its improvement. A phenomenon which, in one age, has excited the greatest terror, has, in another, been an object of calm and deliberate observation; and the things which have at one time led to the most extravagant fiction, have at another, only served to define the boundaries of knowledge. The same comet which, from the age of Julius Cæsar, had three times spread terror and dismay through the nations of the earth, appeared a fourth time, in the age of Newton, to instruct mankind and to exemplify the universality of the laws which that great interpreter of nature had discovered. The same fossil remains, which, to St. Augustine or Kircher, seemed to prove the former existence of giants of the human species, were found, by Pallas and Cuvier, to ascertain the nature and character of certain genera and species of quadrupeds which have now entirely disappeared. From a very early period, indeed, such bones have afforded a measure of the credulity, not of the vulgar only, but of the philosophers. Theophrastus, one of the ancients who had most devoted himself to the study of nature, believed, as Pliny tells us, that bones were a sort of mineral production that originated and grew in the earth. St. Augustine says, that he found, on the sea-shore near Utica a fossil human tooth, which was a hundred times the size of the tooth of any person living. Pliny says, that, by an earthquake in Crete, a part of a mountain was opened, which discovered a skeleton sixteen cubits, or twenty four feet long, supposed to be that of Orion. At a much later period, Kircher tells us of a skeleton dug up near Rome, which, by an inscription attached to it, was known to be that of Pallas, (slain by Turnus), and was higher than the walls of the city. The same author tells us, that another skeleton was found near Pafermo, that must have belonged to a man four hundred feet high, and who therefore could be no other than one of the Cyclops, most probably Polyphemus himself. The same author has given the measures of several other colossal men, and exhibits them in an engraving adapted to a scale, and placed in order, from the common size up to that of the giant last mentioned. The belief in men of such enormous stature, no doubt arose from the appearance of bones of elephants, and other large animals found in the earth. When we consider, that the credulity and misinterpretation that are here so striking, are not the errors of the weak and illiterate, but of men of talents and learning,-the best instructed by reading, conversation, and foreign travel, of any in the ages in which they lived,-we cannot help being struck with the difference between the criterion of truth as received in those ages and in the present time. We are persuaded that the reason of this diversity, which is perhaps as remarkable as any circumstance whatever in the history of human knowledge, is to be found in the progress of natural and experimental philosophy, which, by generalizing particular facts, has given a force and extent to the conclusions from experience, * Vol. xxiv. p. 234. which they did not possess at any former period. It is a well-known fact, that, on the continent of Europe, there are few countries where bones of large animals, having an obvious affinity to those of the elephant, have not been found, buried in the earth; a circum- · stance no doubt the more wonderful, that no such animals exist now in these countries. Germany has afforded a great number of such instances. An entire skeleton of an elephant, found very deep under the surface, near Tonna, in Thuringia, and described in the Philosophical Transactions,* was the subject of much speculation. Remains of the same kind, found by Marsigli in Transylvania, are described in his history of the Danube, and supposed to be remains of elephants, which the emperor Trajan had carried with him in his expedition against the Dacians. In the beginning of the last century, the Duke of Wurtemberg, by following some indications which had accidentally presented themselves, found no less than sixty tusks of elephants, some of them ten feet long, together with many teeth of other animals quite unknown in our climates. Italy has furnished a great many instances of the same kind. In the upper vale of the Arno, the humerus of an elephant was found, with oystershells adhering to it; from which it is evident, that it must at one time have been at the bottom of the sea. The country about Verona may be considered as a great natural cabinet, in which is preserved a vast number of extraneous bodies both from the sea and the land.† Alberto Fortis has described some bones found near that place, of a very remarkable size. There was one tusk about thirty inches in circumference at the root, and from twelve to thirteen feet in length. Mem. de Fortis, vol. 11. p. 284. He says, that the only tusks of living elephants, that he has heard of, that approach near to the above dimensions, are two which belonged to the emperor Aurelian, each of them ten feet in length. It is at present reckoned a large tusk that measures from seven to eight feet in length, and ten or twelve inches in circumference. however, only on the continent, nor in the valleys of the greatest rivers, that such bones are found ;—they are found also in islands. Sir Hans Sloane had a tusk of an elephant, dug up in London, from a gravel pit twelve feet deep, at the end of Gray's-Inn-lane. He possessed also another found in a stratum of blue Such facts the union of sea-shells clay, in Northamptonshire. Cuvier with bones of this kind, were no doubt what suggested to Leibnitz the idea which he has thrown out in his Protogea, that they must have belonged to a marine animal that had something of the elephant form. The osteology, however, of these animals, and particularly of their feet, does not admit of the supposition that they were inhabitants of the sea. Though it be true, that some of the fossil bones found in Italy and in other countries, have the appearance of having been under water, yet there are others in a situation so perfectly undisturbed, that there is no room to suspect their submersion in the sea. An entire skeleton, for example, was dug up near Arezzo, in 1663, just in the state wherein the animal might be supposed to have died; and must, probably, be that of an elephant which had sunk, and been swallowed up in the marshes of that plain. The remains found, in the instances here enumerated, have either belonged entirely, or chiefly, to the elephant. In others, the bones have belonged to a variety of animals; to the rhinoceros for example; to the hyæna; to an animal like the horse; to deer, oxen, hares, and also to some of the small carnivorous quadrupeds. A general fact with regard to them is, that they are found in the alluvial and unconsolidated earth, generally in the valleys of rivers, and not far from their banks. There is accordingly hardly any of the great rivers, on the continent, where fossil bones have not been discovered. The basins of the Danube, the Rhine, the Elbe, the Oder, and Vistula, are all quoted in the memoir of Cuvier. It is not, mentions, that he has himself part of the bones of the fore foot of an elephant found at Kew, eighteen feet under the ground. Bones of the same kind have been found in the Isle of Sheppy, at the mouth of the Thames, in SalisburyPlain, and in Wales. We have to add to those instances, that grinders of the elephant, and vertebræ of the hippopotamus, have been found, together with the bones of several smaller animals, in some fields where they were digging clay for bricks, on the banks of the Thames, not far from Brentford. There seems, indeed to be at that place a very considerable repository of fossil bones. Even Iceland has contributed its share to these wonders; and the jaw of an elephant, sent from thence, is mentioned by Thomas Bartholinus as having been placed in the collection of the university of Copenhagen. A cranium and a tooth are said by Torfæus to have been brought from the same island. When we meet with such bones in an island near the polar circle, we need not be surprised to find them in the islands of the Mediterranean. What is remarkable, however, is, that they are found, not only in the greater islands, such as Sicily and Cyprus, but in the smaller, such as Santorini, and even Cerigo; in which last, as Fortis observes, an elephant would hardly find food for a single week. These places, therefore, when they were inhabited by such large animals as the elephant or the rhinoceros, must have made part of a great wooded continent, in which Iceland and Cerigo were alike included. It is, however, in Siberia, that the |