THE NATIONAL MAGAZINE. phenomenon, he found it to be due to the closing up of the perforation in the tympanum by a bubble of the water. the bubble remained, the drum was, so to While speak, unbroken, and the patient was able to hear; but as soon as it evaporated or broke, the membrane was again imperfect, and deafness returned. Taking the hint, he found it possible to effect temporary closure of the orifice by applying a solution of gum-acacia, and so to keep up for a time the improvement in hearing; and after this, as he relates, "I tried vulcanized India-rubber and gutta-percha, making use of the thinnest layers of them that were procurable. With both these substances I succeeded in making a rude kind of artificial membrana tympani, by cutting a portion about the size of the natural membrane, and passing through it a piece of thread, by means of which, and a fine tube, it could be passed down to its proper situation." There that is the whole secret. Cover the broken drum with a sound artificial one, and the deaf will hear as well as their neighbors! Improved by experience, the artificial drums are now made by Messrs Weiss, London, with a fine silver wire substituted for the thread, attached to one of the two small, thin silver plates, between which the disk of India-rubber or gutta-percha is held. The latter is about three-quarters of an inch diameter, "which leaves sufficient margin for the surgeon to cut out a membrane of any shape that may seem to him desirable, and to leave the silver plate, either in the center or toward the circumference, at his discretion. The silver wire is of sufficient length to admit of the membrane being introduced or withdrawn by the patient, but is not perceived externally, except upon especial observation." It is possible, by a slight change in attaching the wire, to give it an oblique direction, which in some instances is found more suitable to the ear than the other. As to the mode of inserting the new drum, we give Mr. Toynbee's own explanation. After stating that it is to be kept external to whatever remains of the natural drum, and recommending careful examination of the form of the passage, he proceeds: "The operator should then cut the artificial membrane as nearly of the size and shape of the natural one as possible, taking care at the same time to keep the margin quite smooth and regular. The patient must then be placed with the while a strong light is thrown into the head inclined to the opposite shoulder, meatus, which, if liable to discharge, should have been previously syringed. The operator will now take the artificial membrane, and having moistened it with water, pass it, by means of the silver wire, gently inward, until it has reached what he considers the natural position. This he will ascertain by the occurrence of a faint bubbling sound, caused by the escape of the slightly compressed air beyond it; he will also feel a slight obstruction offered to its further passage by the remnant of the natural membrane. Should heatbeyond this point the patient will complain tempt to pass the artificial membrane of pain, which until then had not been felt. The most certain test, however, of the artificial membrane having been properly placed, is the sensation of the patient, who discovers by the sound of his own voice, or that of the surgeon, or by ing has been suddenly much improved." the movement of his tongue, that his hear almost magical: they not only hear sounds The effect produced on some persons is close to them, but those far off. Some find no inconvenience whatever from the new drum; others can only wear it for an hour or two every day, until by use they lose the uncomfortable feeling caused at first, and then it may be retained through the whole of the day. in all cases, be removed at night. It should, however, Were this the place to give details of cases that have been cured, we might fill for these we must refer the reader, whether a page or two with interesting facts; but lay or professional, to the pamphlet which has suggested our remarks. of being able to hear or not to hear at There is something strange in the idea pleasure; and we doubt not that occasions will arise when the wearers of artificial drums will find it desirable to take them put his telescope to his blind eye. At all out. Nelson once found it convenient to events suffering will be alleviated; and who shall say whether we are to stop with ago a deaf and dumb boy was exhibited to the cure of deafness? But a few weeks the Academy of Sciences at Paris, who, by highly-skillful training, had been made not only to hear partially, but to speak so as to be understood. GLANCES INTO THE SERAGLIO-ORIENTAL MAGNIFICENCE-STATE CEREMONIES-THE LIBRARY-ART AGAINST THE KORAN-MUSEUM-THE HAREM-RELIGION AMONG THE TURKS-ST. SOPHIA-DANCING DERVISHES-THEIR DEVOUT ANTICS. LIK IKE most travelers, I found many of my golden illusions dispelled upon a close examination of Constantinople. The city which had appeared so magnificent in the radiant mist at my first view of it, was shockingly filthy in many parts. The dogs are the only scavengers, and they do their work as well as dogs can be expected to do it; but their tastes have not been educated by the example of well-cleaned cities, and they are only careful to remove that which supplies the demands of their stomachs. I could write you a chapter, perhaps a volume, upon the disgusting scenes of this strange city; but cui bono? Your readers will most certainly prefer to share the pleasure I experienced from the many objects of interest which attract the stranger's attention. The first few days of my arrival I wished to see nothing in particular. The soft air penetrated my frame with the true oriental far niente. I only wished to sit lazily in my caique, while the swift strokes of the kadjis sent me over the mirroring VOL. VI.-27 waters, amid scenes of undreamed loveliness. The Frank restlessness was soon upon me again, however, and I was driving at mosques, bazaars, cafés, kiosks, in the race for sight-seeing. The imperial seraglio is one of the first points of attraction to all travelers as they steam into the beautiful Golden Horn. It is situated upon Serai Bornou, or Seraglio Point, a promontory extending out into the sea of Marmora, and dividing it from that part of the Bosphorus which forms the port of Constantinople. It is surrounded with battlemented walls, some two or three miles in extent, inclosing gardens, terraces, kiosks, palaces, barracks, and various other dependencies; its population comprises the wives, pages, household servants, and body-guard of the sultan. It has eight gates; five of these open on the side toward the sea, and the three others toward the city-and all have been the scenes of those tragedies so frequent in Turkish history. Babi Houmayoun, or the imperial gate, is the principal entrance from Constantinople. It is an imposing structure, from which you cannot withhold your admiration; but as you gaze you discover two niches on each side, and a thrill of horror runs over you, as you remember that here were placed the bleeding heads of those who were condemned to death by the order of the monarch; and here were heaped the grim visages of the janissaries after their destruction, in 1825, by Sultan Mahmoud. This magnificent entrance is guarded by fifty capidges. It opens into a vast, but irregular shaped court, which is surrounded with buildings and ornamented with trees and fountains. At the left is the ancient church of Saint Irene, built by Constantine the Great, which has been used as a kind of arsenal, instead of being converted into a mosque, as was the fate of most of the Christian temples. It contains a very curious and valuable collection of ancient armor, and the gold and silver keys of the cities conquered by the Turks, when they were a warlike and victorious people. These trophies of conquest will never be increased-not another key will ever be added to those which now adorn the museum of St. Irene-for the hand-writing is upon the wall, and the days of the Ottoman Empire are numbered. By the side of this remnant of other times and another faith is the royal treasury, and opposite are the royal stables, where the sultan's thousand steeds are kept by a troop of grooms appropriated for the service. This square contains the residences of the commissioners, the grand treasurer, and other financial officers, and the barracks of the sultan's body-guard. The architect to his majesty, the white eunuchs, and the secretary of the chief of the black eunuchs are also lodged here. At the other extremity of the court of St. Irene stands a gate elegantly decorated with carvings and inscriptions. It looks like the entrance to a feudal castle with its battlemented walls, flanked with two towers, loop-holed and otherwise defended. This is the Bab-us-Selam, or Gate of Salutation. The lodging of the chief porter is at the right of the entrance, and on the opposite side resides the dilciz or mule; a horrible imbodiment of the sure and fatal despotism from which there was no appeal. This silent executioner met the condemned dignitaries as they came forth from the royal presence, and threw around their necks the silken cord with which they were immediately strangled. The dilciz wore a cap somewhat resembling that of a Polish lancer, and a white robe, confined with a sash ornamented with gold. The Gate of Salutation conducts you to a very elegant gallery, covered with an immense roof, which is elaborately ornamented with carvings, sculpturings, painting, and gilding. The walls are decorated with marble and Persian porcelain. Ostrich eggs and horses' tails, the latter being the ancient oriental symbols of military power, are suspended from the beams of the ceiling. This gallery opens upon a second court, much smaller than the first, which conducts through arches of cypress and plane-trees to the council-hall of the grand vizier. The walls of this saloon are of marble, and the ceiling is richly gilded; but there is nothing peculiarly oriental in its aspect. On state occasions the grand vizier is seated opposite the entrance; on each side are arranged the grand admiral, the judges of the army, and the grand master of ceremonies. The reiss-effendi, or minister of foreign affairs, remains in a small cabinet or office, where he receives the orders transmitted from the vizier. The sultan, though he sometimes takes an active part in the deliberations of the council or divan, is concealed behind a small grated window, above the position of the grand vizier. Opposite the council-hall is the kiosk, which incloses the hall of the throne. It is square and surrounded with a marble portico, and it is under this that the sultan is placed for the ceremony of bairam, or foot-kissing, which terminates the fast of Ramazan. I may perhaps attempt a description of this odd ceremony in some future letter. At present let us enter the hall of the throne by the Bab-us-Seadet, or Gate of Felicity. Steps of marble conduct you to the piazza formed by the projecting roof, which is supported by marble columns. The door-sill bears an Arabic inscription, which no one can pass over without a profound obeisance to Ottoman majesty, for the entrance is so low that it is impossible to preserve a dignified perpendicularity, unless, like the Persian embassador in the olden time, the homage is evaded by entering backward. The throne, a kind of couch or divan, occupies nearly the entire apartment. A magnificent canopy hangs over it, supported by gilded columns of the most elaborate carving, and ornamented with a profusion of amethysts, topazes, garnets, sapphires, torquoises, and emeralds THE CITY OF THE SULTAN. -all in the rough state, however; to the four angles of the canopy, golden globes, surmounted by the crescent, are attached, and from these are suspended the emblematical horse-tails, which are borne as standards in the Turkish army. They are here called tough: six tough are carried before the sultan when he reviews his troops; the grand pashas are preceded by three; those of the second rank are indicated by only two; and it is from this emblematical appendage that official dignity is estimated in Turkey-when you say he is a pasha of one, two, or three tough, or tails, his relative position is precisely defined. The light is admitted to the throne-room through colored glass, and as the sun streams in upon these dazzling carvings, and the numerous gems flash back the rays, the effect is truly oriental and magnificent. Opposite the throne is a window with a fine gilded lattice, which, under the old regime, marked the boundary of infidel access to the presence of the sultan. Foreign embassadors were obliged to content themselves with what glimpses they could catch of the turbaned head of royalty through the gilded bars, behind which they remained standing while their communications were received by some subordinate A band of follower of the prophet. eunuchs still keep guard here, though the place is never used. The This room also contains a fire-place of carved silver, which is one of the purest specimens of art I have ever seen. mantle-piece is formed by a conical-shaped dome, embellished with the most graceful and exquisite arabesques in relief. It is attributed to Benevenuto Cellini. The kiosk, containing the library, was I wish the next point of interest to me. it had been possible to have daguerreotyped the door of this building for your readers. It is of bronze, and is a perfect miracle of art. I doubt if the interior collection has anything comparable in value with it. We were shown the Arabic manuscripts, arranged in cedar book-cases, and were told that some of them were of the highest importance; but nothing excited any feelings of cupidity or envy on our part. I even looked unmoved upon the large roll of parchment which contains the genealogical tree of the sultans, with their portraits and thougra, richly ornamented, like the ancient manuscripts, with gold and colors. The pictures are said to be authentic I do not know how the Turks have been able to answer to themselves for this evasion of the laws of Mohammed. It is well known that all representations of living things were strictly forbidden, but most especially those of the human figure. Yet here, in the very palace of the sultan, were displayed the pretended pictures of these successors of the prophet! To me it seemed a striking evidence of the influence which "the Reforms" have produced, not only upon the civilization of the Turks, but also upon their religious prejudices. Another and stil! more striking instance of the violation of this article of faith is found in the Elbicei-Atika, or museum, in front of the mosque of Achmet, upon the Atmeidan. This curious collection, containing about four hundred figures in full oriental costume, transports you immediately to the past; it represents every variety of art, and armor, and position which belonged to the various grades of office; most particularly to the janissaries, whose bloody massacre has obliterated almost all vestiges of them, as if centuries Yet less had marked their destruction. than thirty years have passed since that terrible coup-d'état. The people seem perfectly unmoved by these innovations, which are silently influencing all clases of society. I have already alluded to the numerous pictures of distinguished personages which adorn the walls of the cafés of Constantinople. In one of the palace-rooms we were shown a most interesting collection, consisting of the bequest of each respective monarch to his successor. They were all articles of personal use, and I found these testamentary memorials much more characteristic of the present line of the caliphs than their pale-faced and black-bearded portraits. There were blades of unrivaled metal, covered with Arabic inscriptions, sheathed in silver scabbards, their handles glittering with gems; there were pistols We noticed but which must have exhausted invention in their ornamentation. One was a few exceptions to the warlike character of these personal relics. curious Turkish mantle-piece, ingeniously carved in honey-comb; and another of exceeding significance, was the writingdesk of Sultan Mahmoud, elegantly inlaid with gold and diamonds. On the walls of some of the apartments through which we passed were inscriptions in Arabic, beautifully executed by the hand of this Moslem reformer. Will his significant bequest to the cabinet of the sultans convince his unchangeable subjects that the power of the pen is superior to that of the sword, and that the time has come when the latter must give precedence to the former ? The court, which contains the library, incloses the palace buildings appropriated to the sultan's use. Here are also the twelve kiosks, in which the zchah-zades or princes of the imperial blood were formerly kept in perfect seclusion until the death of the reigning monarch called them to the responsibilities of the throne. These pavilions are called cafers or cages, and within their gilded bars life must have passed wearily with the unfortunate youths, who were restricted entirely to the high wall which surrounded their cage-like buildings. Their only society consisted of the pages and officers who attended them, until, in solemn procession, the chief of the black eunuchs, the chief of the emirs, the grand mufti, and the grand admiral announced that the monarch was dead, or dethroned, and that these prisons were to furnish an heir to the empire and a successor to the caliphs. The Ottoman dynasty descends in a direct male line; the present sultan has an only son and also an only brother. Upon the failure of either of these claimants to the throne, the governor of Mecca, who traces his descent in an unbroken line to the prophet, is the next in succession. The harem, or apartments of the women, are of course forbidden ground even in the absence of their fair occupants. No infidel foot ever profanes the threshold sacred to the domestic life of the Turk. As I glanced upon the latticed windows and trellised balconies of this mysterious abode I recalled all the fabulous magnificence my fancy had pictured of its interior splendors, with its marble baths, its smiling gardens, the unrivaled beauties who lounged upon their soft divans in graceful indolence, inhaling sweet perfumes, and breathing the balmy airs of this beautiful atmosphere. I must have lapsed far into this vision of the thousand and one nights when something, I know not what, recalled to my memory an inclined plane, projecting from an opening in the wall of the seraglio, directly over the waters of the Bosphorus, which was pointed out to me as we passed it on our entrance into the harbor of Constantinople. A wicked fellow-passenger whispered that from this "drop" the unfortunate, or unfaithful inmate of the harem who displeased her royal master was precipitated into the foaming tide, securely fastened in a sack, with a cat and a serpent to bear her company in the fatal plunge! I smiled involuntarily, but bitterly, to myself as I remembered the shudder which went over my frame much to the amusement of my malicious informer. It is to be hoped that this cruelty of orientalism has disappeared with the modern reforms which have incontestably swept away many relics of Turkish barbarity. The gardens of the seraglio have little regularity of design about them; but they present most picturesque views, with their luxurious trees, their sea-bounded terraces, and their sparkling fountains, while the mountains of Olympus and the cypresses of Scutari are seen in the distance. Their unrivaled position and luxurious vegetation constitute their chief beauty at present. It must be remembered also that this is only the winter residence of the sultan. The summer palace is quite a modern affair. Wonderful tales are told by the old gardeners of the seraglio respecting its marvels in the days of their fathers, when Achmet III. sat on the throne of the caliphs. Under the reign of this poet, painter, architect, and musician, the fine arts received a new impulse. He was passionately fond of flowers, and cultivated them with his own hands. His collection comprised the rarest specimens in fabulous abundance. The sea-girt walls of the seraglio were surmounted with trellises of golden wire, extending from brilliantly colored roofs, which inclosed birds, flowers, and trees from all parts of the world. Artificial heat was diffused over this immense space in winter, and it was kept fresh and luxurious by the spray from tall columns of water which fell into basins of jasper and oriental alabaster. Perfumed woods were |