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Credit: Present state of medical knowledge in England. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![I^JdnEj CURIOUS CONSTRUCTION OF MALAY HOUSES. A Malay has a great affection for a house built upon the water, so that we often see the shallower parts of a bay covered with buildings, with only one here and there upon the land. The convenience of a natural sewer may have induced them to make such a choice, as they seem to confine themselves to places where the tide sweeps away the recrements of the inhabitants without any care or labour on their part. Situations of this kind are some- times very pleasant, but not always ; for the buildings sometimes cover a salt marsh, as on one side of Singapore, where the scenery is not enticing, nor the breezes sweet and wooing; for at low water they fan and agitate various masses of matter in a state of decomposition. The houses at Borneo stand upon the water in the usual way, and though the tide runs at the rate of three or four miles an hour, the nauseous smells that visited us while at the palace of the sultan, told tales about the state of affairs at the bottom of the river. We know from experiment, that the water in a river runs with its greatest velocity at the surface and near the middle of the stream, and its power of removing obstructions, according to a fundamental principle of hydro-dynamics, depends upon the depth ; it will not, therefore, appear strange that many impurities are lodged in the sides of the river, though the flood at mid-channel may run at the rate of four miles an hour ; especially when we remember that this power is farther modified by the inequality of the bottom. These observations are neither unne- cessary nor far-fetched, but help us to account for what at first sight appears paradoxical; for we say, “how can anything unwholesome remain in a medium of purity spread out in such a noble expanse as the river of Borneo?” The houses extend on both sides of the river about a mile and a half, in a triple, and often in a muitiple row ; so that it is not easy to guess at their number, with a hope of coming near to the truth. On the south side there are, perhaps, seven hundred and fifty buildings, which, by assigning ten individuals to each, will make the number of persons there to be seven thousand five hundred. This allowance is not too great for each building, as it is often divided into several apartments, and augmented by appendages for the accominodation of as many families. On the north side there is a row which runs in a corresponding manner, about half a mile to the eastward, to which I reckon three hundred houses and three thousand inhabitants. But here there is a large divarication of the river, which, after a little distance, branches into several beautiful courses, or xtlus, as the natives call them. Here there is alarge compilum, filled in various places with houses, wherein the people live in dense crowds, and certainly do not amount to less than five thousand. In the western continuation of the houses on the north side, we have at least five thousand more : these several sums, being added together, give twenty-two thousand five hun- dred, which is under the true number. There are a few scattered about the surrounding country, which, when added to the fore- going number, make it more than thirty thousand as the entire population of this ancient colony of Malays. If they are correct in the account they gave us of their migration, it took place about four hundred years ago, and was from Johore, on the eastern side of the Malacca peninsula. Their remoter ancestors had, perhaps, in like manner, removed from Sumatra to the main-land, in quest of room and adventures. The houses rest upon piles formed out of the straight stem of the nibong palm, which is neat-looking and elastic at first, but the water soon reduces its outer portions ; and the inner, being naturally soft and cellular, give way at once ; so that a building soon needs repair in one or more of its supports. It is the nature of palms to be hard only in a dried woody crust, as the growth takes place near the centre, and not at the circumfe- rence. They are also destitute of a proper bark, or any gummy secretion, to answer the purpose of a natural varnish : hence the work of decay commences almost immediately after they are set in the water. The necessary repairs are seldom done in time; so that a house generally resembles a quadruped standing on three legs; though the reader must not understand me as meaning to say that an edifice has only four piers, for they are numerous, not only for present security, but as something laid up for the future. A Malay, however, takes all things easy, except an insult offered to his honour; and the work of decay is allowed to go on till the whole fabric is ready to tumble upon the head of its owner. We had an example of this while staying there; for the harem, or aslana, was so near falling down, that, when the workmen went about removing some beams and rafters, the rest began to antici- pate their labours. The doctor was soon called for with great vehemence: a spar, in its descent, had ploughed a deep furrow in the pericranium of a chief man ; and I had scarcely replaced my instruments, when another was brought to me with one of a simi- lar kind in the side of his face. These occurring so closely together, put them upon some contrivances to prevent similar disasters, or I should have had a fair day’s work in dressing wounds and bruises. The walls and roof are generally formed of palm- leaves, which agrees very well with the nature of this foundation, being light and of easy construction. A platform of palm split into pieces surrounds one or two sides of the building, for the convenience of passing to the nearest dwelling, and leads down to| the water by a ladder not remarkable for the facility and comfort' with which it may be ascended. Use, however, reconciles a man| to many strange things. The thatch and walls of these dwellings] are generally old and dishevelled, which gives them a very shabby! appearance; a defect by no means obvious to the natives, as theyl commended some of them as very excellent in show and accommo-i dation. There was not that regularity in the situation and relative size of the apartments which we observe among the Chinese ; but| in general we shall be pretty near the truth, if we say that the front was occupied by tlie master and his male dependants, while the back and more retired parts were fiiled by a train of females. The former were busily employed in carpentry, boat-building, and in the making of various utensils for the use of their master’s establishment. The latter endeavoured to cheat their prison-; hours by setting their hands to different kinds of needle-work, or, gathered together in numerous clusters, were fain to steal a glance through a favouring loop-hole at the mien and costume of the stranger, of whom they had heard little and seen less. I was sent for on one occasion to see a little child, affected with one of the. cutaneous disorders so common among this people, and wasi received with much attention by a middle-aged chief, whose person and manly countenance pleased me exceedingly. He was sitting] in the centre of a large room, with a small Chinese tea-tray by his side, and looking to some of his followers, who were pursuing; their mechanic labours under his directions. In the next apart- ment were heard the movements of a swarm of females, who, in my imagination, seepied to i un upon the side of *:he wall, like so many mice, to look through a few crevices which the joiner had left near the roof. By what means they ascended I do not pretend to guess, but the impression on my mind was exactly as I have described it. As often as the chief lifted up his eyes towards the! wall, those on the other side, thinking that we could see them because they could see us, instantly began to run down in order to escape recognition. Here we had a crowd of delinquents con- demned to perpetual durance, whose only offence was that theyi had some personal comeliness, or more attractions than the rest of; their companions.— Voyage of the Himmaleh. THE LAST DAYS OF MURAT, KING OF NAPLES *. ' A WEARIED and exhausted stranger presented himself at the; door of a lonely cottage, a few miles distant from a bay which opened upon the Mediterranean, a few leagues from the harbour of Toulon. He was a man apparently of middle age ; and, though misery was stamped upon his aspect, his air was noble and his form majestic. His garments were torn and drenched with rain, his features haggard, and a dark beard of three days’ growth, | contrasting with the pallor of his complexion, added not a little to the ghastliness of his appearance. His dress was the blue cloth cap and long grey surtout usually worn by French soldiers on the march. He seemed as one worn down with watching, and fatigue, and hunger, and his enfeebled limbs could scarcely bear him to the door of the humble mansion. Yet there was resolution in his eye, and wretched as was his present plight, no one could look on him and doubt that he had moved in scenes both of ^ splendour and of high achievement, as one to whom they were \ familiar. He hesitated for a moment ere he sought entrance, but 1 it seemed that he had prepared himself for whatever fortune might befal him, for, without pausing even to listen or to look around, he raised the latch and boldly entered. An old woman was the occupant of the single room that con- stituted the interior of the cabin, the furniture of which sufficiently attested the poverty of its inhabitant. But, though poor, she was charitable. The appearance of the stranger declared his wants, and she made haste to set before him such humble food as she possessed, to heap fuel on the coals that lay smouldering on the ! hearth, and to prepare for him a rude couch of straw, covered with blankets, in one corner of the room, before which she hung » From the Gift of I£f39, 1 >1](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22474419_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
