in Persia, with all the magic interest and ponderous importance that it possessed in Europe in bygone centuries. I have been repeatedly asked whether the electrical machine had no connexion with the science of converting the baser metals into gold-a theory very grateful to an Asiatic mind; and I have found it very difficult to persuade those who made the inquiry that such was not the case. One of my companions entertained Mar Yohannan,* in America, with experiments in gilding by the new electro-magnetic process. He introduced a silver watch, presented to the bishop by friends in this country, into an opaque liquid mixture; and after some time, on taking out the watch, lo, it was gold! The bishop stared a few moments, delighted and amazed, without saying a word; at length he thus gave utterance to his emotions :-' You make chémie, (the term by which the Persians denote alchemy;) 'the people in our country say the English can make chémie; before I did not believe; but it is true; you do make chémie.' He soon understood it, however, as a superinducing rather than a transmuting process."

In medicine, the system of practice is derived from the Greeks, and has descended to the Persians with very little alteration, as explained and enlarged upon in the writings of Avicenna, and others of their most learned doctors. Galen and Hippocrates, whom they call Galenous and Bocrat, are still their masters. They are wholly unacquainted with anatomy and the circulation of the blood. The Mohammedan religion will not allow of dissection, so that they are deprived of the means of acquiring knowledge through the discoveries of anatomy; and their skill in surgery is, consequently, as rude as their knowledge of medicine. They class both their diseases and remedies under four heads-hot, cold, moist, or dry; each may contain one or more of these qualities; and the great principle maintained is, that the disease must be cured by remedies of an opposite quality, If, for instance, an illness has arisen from moisture, dry remedies must be given; and hot diseases are alone to be cured by cooling medicines. Many instances of the application of this theory may be found in books of travels. In one case, mentioned by Mr. Scott Waring, a poor man was violently

cure.

affected with heart-burn; and instead of prescribing an internal medicine, the doctors heaped upon his breast a large quantity of ice and snow, which they said was an effectual Kotzebue relates a similar instance in the treatment of one of the musicians belonging to the Russian embassy. This man being a Mohammedan, had not sufficient confidence in the physician of the embassy, and desired that a Persian doctor might be called in. His disorder was an inflammatory fever. The Persian doctor appeared, and prescribed for the patient a large quantity of ice, which the poor fellow swallowed with ecstasy, and died the third day.

The representation of animate objects, and particularly of the human figure, is regarded by rigid Moslems as being forbidden by Mohammed, and in this they are no doubt correct. The Persians do not, however, so understand the prohibition, or, understanding, do not heed it. Paintings of human and animal figures abound in their houses and palaces, and are seen upon their ornamental wares. The colours of the Persian painters are very brilliant; and, when they draw portraits, they usually succeed in taking likenesses. Some of their lesser drawings, which are highly glazed and painted on wood, display much industry and care; but they are as yet unacquainted with the rules of perspective, and with those principles of just proportion which are essential to form a good painting. It is no uncommon thing in a Persian painting to see a man nearly as tall as a mountain; or, in the representations of battles, a line of guns, on which is formed a line of infantry, over whom is another of cavalry. One may also see a picture representing in one part the commencement of an action, and in another the defeat of the enemy.

Any one who has examined the representations of ancient Persian sculptures, will have seen the kings and other great personages represented in colossal proportions as compared with those around them. So with their descendants, in whose paintings strangers, whether friends or enemies, are usually represented in much smaller dimensions than the Persians. Thus, sir John Malcolm was an especial favourite with the last generation of Persians; yet, in the palace of Shiraz, where the hall of audience is adorned with representations of his reception as ambassador, they have not spared even him. The Persians are shown as tall and towering beings; while sir John stands straddling in his regimentals, a diminutive and dwarfish creature, as also all his staff.

In the higher branches of science the Persians can scarcely be said to know more than their ancestors. They have a limited knowledge of mathematics; and they study astronomy chiefly for the purpose of becoming adepts in judicial astrology, a so-called science, in which the whole nation, from the monarch to the peasant, has the most implicit faith. The system of Ptolemy, both with respect to the forms and motions of the heavenly bodies, and the shape and surface of the earth, is that in which they believe. An abstract of the Copernican system has indeed been translated, through which, aided by the instruction of Europeans connected with the embassies, some individuals have acquired a better knowledge of the subject; but it is not to be expected that long-cherished belief in such matters of a prejudiced and superstitious nation will very soon or very easily be shaken.

The same, very nearly, may be said of geography. By means of European maps and instructions, some few a very few, in the higher and most learned classes, have acquired tolerably correct notions of the relative positions