5 MARCH 1831, Page 19

Change of Air, or the Pursuit of Health, is a

work which comes under the head of Travels ; for it mainly consists of a narrative of sthree-months' tour as far as Naples and back. Being the work of an eminent physician, who professes to have paid especial atten- tion to the subject of climate, it has naturally drawn our attention, and raised a good deal of expectation. Perhaps unavoidably, a physician, however able, can draw lit; very important conclusion from a hasty tour of three months through countries of great ex- tent and greater variety. To a physician in possession of all that had been previously urged in respect of the influence of climate on disease, even a rapid examination of Italy would, however, afford numerous suggestions of value, and put him in a condition to sift the testimony of others with greater acuteness. We accordingly find, that the remarks on climate consist chiefly in a comparison and examination of other writers, with a running commentary of his own notions on the general effects of change of scene, and the ordinary excite- ments of travel.

The work may be divided into two parts.—the medical and the touristical. The fird portion embraces numerous, hints and at.

marks, which we should recommend all invalids and their medical advisers to look at before they decide upon the dangerous expe- riment of foreign travel 'while labouring under disease. Of more general medical observation, the sections on Malaria possess the most novelty, and perhaps are the most valuable. The touristical portion of the book might have been written by a very inferior person to Dr. JAMES JOHNSON : it is amusing often, and some- times the remarks are just and the descriptions striking ; but there are no indications of a mind of a high order, or of a taste of nice cultivation. It is possible Dr. JAMES Jonxsorr might intend to convey an apology for his book in the following paragraph ; which we should not quote, were we not certain of its correctness. " The other effect of travelling is very curious, and has not been no- ticed, as far as I am acquainted, by any writer. It is this—that the ex- ercise of body taken on the road, or while wandering about seeing objects of curiosity, is not favourable to intellectual operations. • It is probable that a high range of health, indeed, is incompatible with the most vigorous exertion of the mind, and that this last both requires and induce' a standard of health somewhat below par. It would not be difficult to show that the majority of those who have left behind them imperishable monuments of their intellectual powers and exertions, were people of weak bodily health. Virgil, Horace, Voltaire, Pope, and a thousand others, might be quoted in illustration. Be this as it may, it is certain that travelling exercise, while it so much improves all the bodily func- tions, unhinges and unfits the minds, pro tempore, for the vigorous exer- cise of its higher faculties. I much doubt whether the immortal effusions of Byron were penned immediately after the impressions were made on his mind by the Rhine, the Alps, the lakes of Helvetia, the ruins of Italy and of Greece, with all their classical and historical associations. But the first excitement being over, the memory of scenes and circumstances, together with the reflections and recollections attendant thereon, furnish an ardent mind with rich materials and trains of thought that may, by gifted individuals, be converted into language, and thus conveyed to thOu4 sands." • We have no doubt of the Doctor's accuracy in the observation of the fact—viz, the dulness of the intellectual faculty in travelling; though we are not inclined to agree with him that a high state a health is inconsistent with the most felicitous exercise of the in- tellect. We differ from him as to the cause: in travelling, the animal functions are in a state of excited operation, which is, of a nature to interfere with that perfect tranquillity of spirit demanded for the happiest exercise of thought. It would seem that excite- ment of the animal man and excitement of the intellectual man can scarcely be carried on at the same time. Thoughts, like dew, are only condensed in a clear sky, and a perfectly tranquil atmosphere. The instance of BYRON is not happy,— first, because we know from his own evidence, that many' of the most glorious of his pictures of mountain scenery were actually struck off on the very scene ; and next, at these times Byaorr was not a traveller, but a wanderer at leisure among scenes about his residence. He was no hasty tourist, posting from town to town, stepping out of his carriage into a cathedral, and then to the play, sleeping in a strange bed every night, and leaving him scarcely time, what between posting and sight-seeing, to get a comfortable meal in, and taking no leisure for thought till perhaps the few drowsy moments before stepping into bed, when the brass-headed inkstand is in request, and the iron pen is en- listed in the service of registering the signs of inns and the amount of tavern-bills. BYRON, with his house on the spot, his boat, and his horses, his solitary rambles, and his daily visits to the scenes he loved, approached them in a very different temper of mind. Of this we are quite certain, that tourists, who, as it were, contract to perform a picturesque voyage, and present themselves at given times-at given places marked out by common fame and common road-books, do not, in fact, receive any of the impres- sions these scenes are calculated to produce upon the imaginations of persons differently situated. Such persons had far better end their peregrinations by a view from Richmond Hill. The question of a foreign tour or a foreign residence for an in- valid, is one of the most difficult that can be proposed to a physi- cian. Variety, novelty, the agitation of travel, the exposure to fresh air, and the exercise necessarily taken, may all produce ef- fects of the most beneficial kind: the contrast is, however, appal- ling,—discomfort from uncleanliness, from the absence of English conveniences, English warmth and protection from bad weather, uncivil treatment, neglect, difficulty of making wants known in a foreign language, and the despondency apt to seize upon persons in a bad state of health, far from their home and friends. In cases of consumption, Dr. JOHNSON'S decision seems to be, that where there is no actual consumption, or where the lungs are not materially affected, a foreign tour may be useful: when phthisis is actually commenced,—when tubercles exist and are in progress— then a Continental residence only aggravates the complaint, and hastens the fatal result. This decision scarcely removes the diffi- culty, for the Doctor himself allows it is almost impossible to dis- tinguish between these two states when their limits approach one another.