*

ORIGIN OF THE WORD _BROKER_, &c.

(_For the Mirror._)

The origin of this word is contested; some derive it from the French
_broyer, "to grind_;" others from _brocader, to cavil or riggle_; others
deduce broker from a trader _broken_, and that from the Saxon _broc_,
"misfortune," which is often the true reason of a man's breaking. In
which view, a broker is a broken trader, by misfortune; and it is said
that none but such were formerly admitted to that employment. The Jews,
Armenians, and Banians are the chief brokers throughout most parts of
the Levant and the Indies. In Persia, all affairs are transacted by a
sort of brokers, whom they call "_delal_" i.e. "_great talkers_." Their
form of contract in buying and selling is remarkable, being done in the
profoundest silence, only by touching each other's fingers:--The buyer,
loosening his _pamerin_, or girdle, spreads it on his knee; and both he
and the seller, having their hands underneath, by the intercourse of the
fingers, mark the price of pounds, shillings, &c., demanded, offered,
and at length agreed on. When the seller takes the buyer's whole hand,
it denotes a thousand, and as many times as he squeezes it, as many
thousand pagods or roupees, according to the species in question
demanded; when he only takes the five fingers, it denotes five hundred;
and when only one, one hundred; taking only half a finger, to the second
joint, denotes fifty; the small end of the finger, to the first joint,
stands for ten. This _legerdemain_, or _squeezing system_, would not do
for the _latitude_ of London.

P.T.W.

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SELECT BIOGRAPHY

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DR. GALL.

(_For the Mirror._)

The loss which the scientific world has lately sustained by the death of
Dr. Gall, will be longer and more deeply felt than any which it has
experienced for some years. This celebrated philosopher and physician
was born in the year 1758, of respectable parents, at a small village in
the duchy of Baden, where he received the early part of his education.
He afterwards went to Brucksal, and then to Strasburgh, in which city he
commenced his medical studies, and became a pupil of the celebrated
Professor Hermann. From Strasburgh he removed to Vienna, where he
commenced practice, having taken the degree of M.D. In this capital,
however, he was not permitted to develope his new system of the
functions of the b