figures of men and animals formed in stucco. One of the water-tanks in the town is popularly reputed to be filled with water admitted from the Ganges every twelve years by a subterranean passage 1200 miles long ; and it conse quently forms a centre of attraction for large numbers of devotees. A considerable trade is carried on in the town and weaving is one of its chief industries. The bazaar occupies a long and wide street, and is well supplied with provisions. The city is historically interesting as the capital of the Chola race, one of the oldest Hindu dynasties of which any traces remain, and from which the whole coast of Coroniaudel, or more properly Cholamundel,
derives its name. Population about 40,000.COMBE, Andrew, M.D. (1797-1847), was born in Edinburgh, 27th October 1797. His name holds an honoured place in the roll of sanitary reformers. Instead of waiting till disease was developed, he sought its pre vention by the adoption of a careful system of hygiene. He served an apprenticeship in a surgery, and in 1817 passed at Surgeons Hall. He proceeded to Paris to complete his medical studies, and whilst there he investi gated phrenology on anatomical principles. He became convinced of the truth of the new .science, and, as he acquired much skill in the dissection of the brain, he subsequently gave additional interest to the lectures of his brother George, by his practical demonstrations of the convolutions. He returned to Edinburgh in 1819 with the intention of beginning practice ; but being attacked by the first symptoms of pulmonary disease, he was obliged to seek health in the south of France and in Italy during the two following winters. He began to practise iu 1823, and by careful adherence to the laws of health he was enabled to fulfil the duties of his profession for nine years, During that period he assisted in editing the Phrenological Journal and contributed a number of articles to it, defended phrenology before the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh,. published his Observations on Mental Derangement (1831), and prepared the greater portion of his Principles of Physiology Applied to Health. The latter work was issued in 1834, and immediately obtained extensive public favour. In 1836 he was ap pointed physician to Leopold I., king of the Belgians, and removed, to Brussels. He had only been there a few months, however, when another severe attack of haemop tysis-warned him that the climate was unsuitable, and would speedily render him unequal to the duties of his position. Scrupulously conscientious iu everything, he at once re signed. The king and Baron Stockmar persuaded him to remain a few weeks longer in the hope that he might re cover ; but they were disappointed. He continued, however, to hold the position of consulting physician to his majesty, In Edinburgh he proceeded to work with renewed energy; he published his Physiology of Digestion, and resumed practice as a consulting physician, his advice being eagerly sought by old and new patients and by his professional brethren. In 1838 he was appointed one of the physicians extraor dinary to the queen in Scotland. Two years later he com pleted his Physiological and Moral Management of Infancy, which he believed to be his best work, and it was his last. He suffered at intervals from extreme weakness, and iu. 1842 the symptoms beca me alarming. His latter years were mostly occupied in seeking at various health resorts some alleviation of his disease; he spent two winters in Madeira, and tried a voyage to the United States, but was compelled to return within a few weeks of the date of his landing at New York. He went on a visit to a nephew at Gorgie, near Edinburgh, and there he died on the 9th August 1847. His last literary effort was a paper on ship-fever, which was published in the Times after his death ; its principal suggestions have been carried out by the Act 12 and 13 Vict. c. 23. His biography, written by George Combe, was published in 1850.
21st October 1788. As the first advocate in this country of the phrenological doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim, and as the author of The Constitution of Man Considered in Relation to External Objects, he attracted much attention in Britain, on the Continent, and in America. His father was a brewer, a man of shrewd business qualities, and of a benevolent disposition, and a strict observer of Calvin- istic practices ; and his children nine daughters and eight sons were placed under a rigid system of religious in struction. In a fragment of autobiography written by Combe shortly before his death, he complains of the irk- someness of the Sunday observances and tasks imposed on his father s household. His frame was feeble ; the Sunday tasks followed weeks of severe mental labour at school, and, so far from cultivating in him a religious spirit, they rendered the church, Sunday, and the Catechism sources of weariness and terror to him. His character was earnest and thoughtful even as a child ; and feelings of despon dency thus engendered were intensified by the weakness of his constitution. His rnind became largely occupied with the current theological theories and, in time, with doubts of their truth. He attended the High School for five years, and then proceeded to the university. In 1804 he entered a lawyer s office as an apprentice, and applied him self diligently to the acquirement of the details of his pro fession. At the same time he assisted his younger brothers and sisters in their studies, and read philosophy, history, and general literature ; philosophical works, however, had most attraction for him. In 1812 he obtained his com mission as writer to the signet, and, soon after, that of notary public. His shrewdness and conscientiousness in dealing with clients speedily obtained for him a degree of practice which exceeded his expectations. Meanwhile, in private, he had vague yearnings to accomplish something which might benefit mankind. In 1815 the Edinburgh Review contained an article on Gall and Spurzheim s system of u craniology," which the reviewer denounced as " a piece of thorough quackery from beginning to end." Combe laughed like others at the absurdities of this so-called new theory of the brain, and thought that it must be finally exploded after such an exposure ; and when Dr Spurzheim delivered lectures in Edinburgh, in refutation of the state ments of his critic, Combe considered the subject un worthy of serious attention. He was, however, invited to a friend s house where he saw Spurzheim dissect the brain, and he was so far impressed by the demonstration that he attended the second course of lectures. Proceeding to investigate the subject for himself, he became satisfied, after two years of study and observation, that the fundamental principles of phrenology were true namely " that the brain is the organ of mind ; that the brain is an aggregate of several parts, each subserving a distinct mental faculty ; and that the size of the cerebral organ is, cotter is paribus, an index of power or energy of function." He had moved slowly at first ; he now pursued his investigations with en thusiasm. He compared the known characteristics of friends with their phrenological developments ; he studied anatomy ; he visited schools, prisons, and large manufac tories ; and he became more and more satisfied that he was approaching a truth which would be of great value to humanity. lie requested his brother Dr Andrew Combe who was at that time a medical student in Paris to give particular attention to the dissection of the brain, in order to be prepared to support or to condemn the new theories on anatomical principles. In 1817 his first essay on phren ology was published in the /Scots Magazine ; and a series of
papers on the same subject appeared soon aftenvards in