the loss they were about to sustain, de- A SKILFUL DOCTOR. A humourous story on this subject, is related in a French writer. whose mistress A lover, was dangerously ill, sought every where for a skilful physician, in whom he could place confidence, and to whose care he might confide a life so dear to him. In the course of his search, he met with a man possessed of a talisman, by the aid of which spirits might be rendered visible. The young man exchanged for this talisman half his possessions; and, having secured his treasure, ran with it to the house of a famous physician. Flocking round the door he beheld a crowd of shades, the ghosts of those persons whom the physician had killed. The same vision presented itself, more or less, at the houses of every physician of eminence in the city. length was pointed out One at tant quarter of the town, at whose door to him in a dis he only perceived two little ghosts. "Behold," exclaimed he, "with a joyful cry, the good physician of whom I have so long been in search!" The doctor, astonished, asked how he had been able to discover this? "Pardon me," said the afflicted lover, complacently," your ability and your reputation are well known to me." "My reputation! why I have been in the city but eight days, and in that time I have had but two patients." MEDICAL EDUCATION. It is certain that the knowledge of medicine is involved in many difficulties, has advanced slowly, and is far behind that of every other science. Yet the improvements which have taken place in modern times, and the substitution of experiment for theory and system, affords to future generations a happier prospect. The principle of a late interesting publica tion, the prevention of diseases by a physical education, or the diffusion of physiological knowledge, is peculiarly deserving of encouragement and praise. The arcana of this profession, like all other mysteries, has covered infinite iniquity and mischief. To those disinterested men of genius who have unveiled truth, and simplified the sciences, the world will be indebted for light and happiness. TOLAND AND BEAUSOBRE, the queen of Prussia maintained a priAt the beginning of the last century, vate chapel at Charlottenburg, where Beausobre, a learned minister among the alternately officiated in French. Protestant refugees, and his colleague, One Sunday, in October 1701, at the close of the service, her Majesty invited Beausobre, as usual, to join a conversationparty, which assembled, at dusk, in her queen rose from the card-table, and inapartment. On Beausobre's arrival, the troduced him to Mr. Toland, the celebrated Irish antichristian writer, who had been dining with the king. "Here is a stranger," said the queen to Beausobre, "who attacks the pillars of our faith, and doubts the very narratives of Scripture." comed the conversation of Toland, hintBeausobre urbanely weling, however, that he thought it a foible to assert the esprit fort; aud that rash opinions, if excusable to the courage and curiosity of youth, should, at a certain learning of maturity. It was the obvious age, grow mute before the prudence and wish both of her majesty and of the company, to promote some wrestle of intellect between two champions so wor thy of the respective causes. Toland versy. He observed, that the Protes was forward to engage in the controtants were inconsistent in not going further with their reformation; that they retained a mysticism of creed, and a catalogue of miracles, which, if the Scriptures were reduced to their historic value, no reason to trust in the gospels, save' could not be supported; that they had that the church of Rome had selected them for veneration; and that they were equally bound to trust any other legends which the same church recommended to the faithful. Beausobre replied. That creed approaching the Protestant; that the general tenor of Scripture favoured a was a strong proof of their proceeding the reverence of antiquity for the gospels from the men whose names they bore; that the truth of the facts recorded, was to be appreciated by inquiring, whether Peter, and Matthew, and John, were competent witnesses; and that the authority of the church of Rome was like that of an archivist to the deeds he edits; the documents might occasionally prove what the archivist did not infer "Yes," said Toland, "and it is so that I would use them, Of legendary writ inge ings we have a vast mass; the natural facts are usually true; the supernatural relations are, as usually, flourishes of the narrator. Why not apply this style of commentary to the gospels, rejecting the annunciation, the ascension, and the other supernatural descriptions; receiving the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the other natural facts?"-" You class the resurrection," asked Beausobre, "among the natural facts?"-" Surely so," an swered Toland; "there was nothing in the crucifixion to endanger life itself; unless."-" Eh quoi! vous ne croyez pas à la mort de Jesus Christ!" exclaimed the queen, in violent perturbation; "fi donc, Mousieur Toland, il ne faut pas nier ainsi une histoire averée." And thus royalty awarded, as usual, the palm of victoty to piety and priesthood.See this dialogue, in greater detail, in the Bibliotheque Germanique, vol. vi. VERSES, ORIGINAL POETRY. WRITTEN AT MIDNIGHT, BY THE REV. I. PROCTOR, DURING A LATE SEVERE INDISPOSITION. NIGHT's sable curtain now surrounds the sky, Sacred these hours to health-restoring sleep; Yet, 'midst this scene of solemn silence, I, Unhappy man, perpetual vigiis keep: 1 seek the god : he hears me not; he flies; And thus I pray-yet thus I pray in vain: Oh! let thy balmy slumbers seal mine eyes! Oh! grant one moment's short release from pain!" Vain my entreaties! quick he flies from woe! I trace him to yon trav'llers lonely shed, Where, stretch'd at ease, the lab'ring peasants know A sound repose, nor hard their straw-made bed. Weary and restless, sure the hours move slow, In health and ease they oft too swiftly run; The village cock, when shall I hear him crow? When shall I see the day-creating sun? Vain wishes all! still dreary midnight reigns, And now pale spectres quit th' abodes of Death; In Fancy's eye they skim along the plains, And haunt the place where they resign'd their breath: My spirits sink a prey to gloomy fear! STANZAS. AND can you, Laura, say I feign Ah! no, the blush that stains those cheeks, And fondly bids me stay. Oh! place me where no summer's breeze, But tempests howl around; That seek to press the ground. For thee, and love, I live; Without thee, pleasure turns to pain, And every other joy is vain, Save those which thou can'st give. TO AN EXOTIC. TENDER nursling of my care, Hast thou brav'd the wintry blast, Many a night-storm howling drear Now Theft and Murder stalk beneath the Many a keen morn's breath austere Fail'd to bow thy shelter'd head. Ah! a counterfeit of Spring, Soothing with deceitful breath, Hid beneath a Zephyr's wing Shafts of winter-shafts of death Phœbus lent a treach'rous ray, Luring confidence and joy; Luring only to betray, Warming only to destroy. Then thy soft dilating heart, Gave its shoots, and shed its fears, Swift the phantom hurls her dart, As in the clouds she disappears. Gentle Must still the Muse hear groans of death Deserted on the plain; See heroes fail, and many a flood Oh! Peace, thou maid of heav'nly birth, The lab'ring peasant hails thy charms, E. DUNCANNON. PATENTS LATELY ENROLLED. MR. JOHN WHITE'S, (WESTMINSTER,) for the Discovery of a certain Substance, which is capable of being converted into Statues, artificial Stone, Melting Pots, Bricks, Tiles, and every description of Pottery. THE HE nature and description of this invention, are thus set forth: Instead of potters' clay, or other argilla ceous earths, which are dug out of the ground, and used in the manufacture of bricks, tiles, &c. Mr. White takes from the bed or channel of the river Thames, or from the creeks, cavities, &c. into which that river flows, near the metropolis, and parts adjacent, within the reach of the tide, sach portions of the deposit or alluvial soil which subsides in the said river, aud the creeks, openings, docks, cavities, and places, aforesaid; and which, by various re searches and experiments, he has found to consist, for the most part, of argilla ceous earth, clay, or chalk, and sand, from the uplands, with materials of the nature of pit-coal, ashes, sand, with the remains of organized matters, and which is the substance before-mention ed. Mr. W. selects, in preference, such parts of the said deposit as upon examination he finds to be most clear of worms and aquatic animals, and most fit for the purpose of making statues, &c.; and he alters, modifies, and im proves, the same, by the addition of such proportions of natural clay and sand, or either of them, as may be needful, and as may be easily ascertained by any competent workman, by such trials, as in all such cases are needful to be made in the art of pottery and brick-making; and he places and disposes the masses so selected upon any sloping bank or stand, in order that the water may drain therefrom, and then he applies the same to the pur poses of his manufactory, as in the usual cases of trade. MR. RICHARD WILLCOX'S (LAMBETH,) for sundry Apparatus or Machinery, for the Manufacture of Felt, or Stuff Hats, &c. The invention consists of a method of holding down, or confining, the fur or wool during the operation of cutting or separating the fur from the pelt, aud a method of effectually and conveniently removing the same after it is so cut and separated. First: the skin. being held down, or confined to the sur face of the roller, on which it is advan ced to the knife, "I propose," says the patentee, "to hold or press down the for by the application of an apparatus which I call a drag, or some of the other other similar contrivances, moderately pressed on its surface; this disposed either in a position parallel with, or inclined to, the axis of the large roller, is placed edgeways, or inclined to it, may be composed of iron, of the other simple metals, of a composition of them, or of wood, and is either simple or compounded of different pieces, as the dimensions or other circumstances of the work may be found to require; and to this I add an apparatus which I call a rake, and by this I propose to remove the fur from off the pelt, after it is separated by the action of the knife; and the drag, constructed so as to accommodate itself to, and produce an uniform pressure or holding on the fur, notwithstanding its inequalities of thickness; and to produce this, I prefer and adopt an edge-bar, pressing with its edge on the fur, and composed of three distinct parts, thus: Two outer pieces form a case somewhat similar to that of a pocket-comb, and a middle piece is placed between them, and projecting edgeways below them; this I make of about one inch deep, and about one-eighth thick, and its projections below the case about ths of an inch. It is secured to it by two or more rivets, one or two inches from each end, it is filed smooth on the edge which lies in contact with the fur, and thus should be a little rounded; by this means the middle piece will, with a moderate degree of pressure, spring on its edge, and so accommodate itself to those skins which are thicker at the middle than the edges, and when of an uniform substance, will remain parallel. The materials I find best for this purpose, are steel and iron welded together; the steel part in contact with the fur. To remove the fur from the drag, I use the drag before-mentioned, and formed either on the principle of the drag, or in other cases, a piece of steel, or steel and iron placed edgeways and brought to a knife-edge, which is afterwards a little taken down by a file or fine grindstone." In applying this apparatus, the machinery to work the drag and rake may be made of any of the wellknown eccentric inotions, or cranks, wheels, &c.; and connected by any of the well-known methods of communicating motion to different shafts. The effects of this apparatus are: that at each stroke of the engine the edge of the rake comes into contact with the edge of the drag, and pressed on the skin, so as to relieve it in some degree from the weight of the drag, and as the rake recedes by the eccentric motion, draws away the fur cut off; the drag now presses on the fur, while a second stroke is made, and another portion of fur cut, while the rake is raised by its machinery, sufficiently high in its backstroke to be clear of the fur, and fall the next stroke in contact with the drag as before, and is again ready to draw away the fur about to be cut. The patentee next explains all the drawings attached to the specification, and shews the manner in which they act; and he adds: "I declare, that the description of the apparatus, and their parts, is the result of careful and practical experiment, and are what I prefer and adopt in practice; but further I de-. clare, to prevent the infringement of adopting my principles, or any parts thereof, under the disguise of a change of materials, dimensions, or propor-tions, I claim the privilege of using any or all of the metals, or their com binations; of altering my materials, dimensions, or proportions, according to the intended scale of operation. And further, I do not confine myself to any particular mode of connecting my said improvements with the engine, or of communicating motion to them, but adopting all or any of those modes with which mechanics are well acquainted; and claiming as my exclusive right all such copies, or approximations to my' principles of arrangement and construction herein set forth, as shall clash or interfere with them in any or either of those particulars." MR. BUNDY'S, (CAMDEN TOWN,) for a' new Method of Heading Pins. In describing this invention, Mr. Bun-* dy says, the frame or stock is made of metal, in which are fitted a pair of steel dies, in manner of those generally used for making screws, held together by cylinders; the dimensions may be various,' as the quality of the work requires the dies generally used are about two inches long and one inch square. In the prominent parts, and that side of each the two dies which come in con tact when in use, are made corresponding grooves, which, when pressed toge. ther, form holes, each to be the diameter of the shaft intended to have the head fixed on; these holes may be made tapering upward, or contracted at that part close under the head, where half a hemisphere a hemisphere, whose diameter being that of the size of the head required, is to be worked out; viewing the dies thus worked, and in the frame, which is the position in which they are placed while introducing the pointed shafts, each having a head loosely put on, the upper die being at liberty in the frame, the pressure of its weight will be found sufficient to hold the number of shafts, with their heads in the respective places, while they are pushed forwards with a straight motion, until the quantity of heads prevents the shafts from going any further. In this state it is necessary to turn a lever, to which is fixed a screw for the purpose of forcing the dies together, which will hold the shafts firm enough to receive a stroke from a press on the top piece, to secure and form complete the whole number of heads in the dies. The hemispheres may be finished according to fancy, as respects the ornament or figure of moulding intended for the top of the head, by sinking them accordingly. I leave a point in the centre of these cavities in the top piece, which serves when forced into the top of the shaft to widen it there, and form a rivet, and thereby secure the head firm from coming off the top of the shaft; and the dies being hard screwed together with the lever, there will be a collar formed by that pressure on the shaft under the head sufficient to prevent the liability of the head being by any ordinary means forced down the shaft. Having described the working parts and explained the process by the drawings, Mr. B. adds, that placing the whole in a fly-press, one stroke therewith on the top piece will be found sufficient to complete the whole number of heads in the dies. Hitherto it has been the practice to strike the head several times, and that on its sides, expecting to fix it on the shaft while held in a horizontal position. "But my method," says the patentee, "of effectually and securely fastening the heads on the shafts, and leaving the heads of a supe rior form, is, by placing the shafts in a perpendicular direction, and striking the heads and shafts on their tops, which I call "superior heads," and which I claim as my invention. The head wire may be made flat, either by drawing or rolling to a size, so that when spun one or more rounds, will be sufficient for a head; head-wire of a smaller than ordinary size, without flatting, is recommended, so that when spun and cut three rounds, it shall contain the quantity of metal required for the size head intended. When the heads have been fixed on the shafts by the fly-press, the screw is then to be turned back by the lever, and taking hold of the milled head, which is on the head of the small shaft, and which goes through the screw, and is fixed to the top dies by being screwed hard in the die, it may be drawn back to separate the dies sufficiently wide for the superior-headed pins, which they contain, to fail through into some place prepared to receive them.. PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. R. KNIGHT, whose interesting MR papers have frequently engaged our attention, again claims the public notice. In a former paper, he stated the result of many experiments on grafted trees, from which he inferred, that each variety can be propagated with success during a limited period only; and that the graft, or other detached part of an old tree, or old variety, can never form that which can with propriety be called a young tree. Since this, he had en. deavoured to ascertain which, among the various organs that compose a tree, first fails to execute its office, and thus tends to bring on the debility of old age, Whatever difference exists between the functions of animal and vegetable life, there is a very obvious analogy between some of the organs of plants and those of animals; and it does not appear very improbable, that the correspondent or gan in each may first fail to execute its office. Naturalists have considered the structure of plants as an inversion of that of animals, and have compared the roots to the intestines, and the leaves to the lungs of animals; and the analogy between the vegetable sap and animal blood, is close and obvious; and there is scarcely a doubt that the sap of trees circulates as far as is necessary to, or consistent with, their state of existence and |