I have certainly heard that the most effectual way of curing the tooth-ache is by cutting off the head; but I never before heard that such a complaint would cause death. Mr Hobler said, the seaman meant that his mother died in consequence of a bungling attempt to extract a tooth. The gums of the deceased had been so lacerated by the operation that a gangrene took place, and death soon followed. She had been taken to St Thomas's Hospital, where the sur. geons, probably finding that the case presented great novelty, asked and obtained leave to examine the head. The seaman said, the moment he I was told it might be of service to his fellow-creatures, he allowed the surgeons to dissect the head; but at the same time that he allowed that, he never had a notion of leaving any part of his mother in their hands, and he thought their refusal to give up the head was quite unnatural. He had had the body at home these two days, and there it should lie until he had the means of making it complete, by put ting the head in its proper place. The Lord Mayor.-They certainly are not justified in detaining the head, and should have restored it to you, after it had served their professional purposes. A gentleman in the medical line observed to his lordship, that he apprehended the professional purposes of the surgeons would not be answered until the head was in pickle. of society were paramount; and for his part, if he was going off in a disorder little known to practitioners, he would not care into how many pieces he was cut for the benefit of society. And yet, said the Lord Mayor, although that is the common talk of physicians, I never knew one of the profession who had any inclination to have his bones-dangling in an anatomyroom, or his head in a bottle. The physician observed, that there might be cases of the kind which were concealed, in consideration of the prejudices of the weaker sex. The Lord Mayor.-I don't know how we can prosecute resurrectionmen for stealing dead bodies, if such practices are allowed. A thing of this kind is more distressing to the feelings than a church-yard robbery; for our habits are such that we cannot endure the burial of a body piecemeal. Even in a field of battle we should go about and endeavour to collect the mangled limbs of a friend, before we could think of covering an atom of him with earth. At home, then, where the rights of sepulture are attended to so scrupulously, it is barbarous to mangle a body and torture the feelings of a son by keeping the head of his mother for exhibition. The physician said, that in all probalility the case was such as rendered this proceeding of the surgeons indispensable. The head, it was reported, had, by the disease, been swelled to a most enormous magnitude, and was The Lord Mayor. This is in- actually too large to be placed in the deed a very indefensible practice; be- coffin with the body. This extraor sides, it will terrify the relatives of dinary circumstance, combined with patients who die in the hospital, by the disorder which had proved fatal, giving them reason to suppose that was likely to render a constant recurwhen they are following the deceased rence to the subject necessary. The to their graves, they are following manner, then, in which it might have bodies without heads or heads without been prudent to act, was to substitute bodies. the head of another body, which would The medical man said, the interests be just as useful, at the same time that the imposition would be very excusable, and no detection could take place. The Lord Mayor declared, that the surgeons were highly reprehensible in detaining the head. It was notorious that those disturbers of the dead called resurrection-men, who were in many cases robbers of the living, were in the habit of serving the hospital with subjects; and it would now appear as if the surgeons intended to vie with them in their trade, against which the public had so great a horror. The seaman said he had often seen death in its most frightful shapes, and had given many of his companions graves in distant parts of the world, where there was not much care whether bodies were buried or not, and in fact where he was indifferent whether in case of his own death he should undergo that ceremony; but his mother was different; and he should go to the hospital, and stay there until his demand was agreed to, whatever reception he should meet with, even if they were to take it into their heads to cut off his own. The Lord Mayor said he felt convinced, that when the surgeons should consider the cruelty of persisting in the refusal, there could no longer be any hesitation. His lordship ordered Cartwright, the marshalman, to attend the seaman to St Thomas's, and inquire the cause of the conduct complained of. Upon his return, Cartwright astonished the whole office, by saying, that he heard at the hospital that the seaman's father had sold the head for a pound to the surgeons. He said, the poor son acknowledged he had been present when the bargain was made, but that he abhorred the proposal of disposing of the head at any price. In order to satisfy the Lord Mayor that a proper arrangement had been made about the head, the principal surgeon sent word that he would wait upon his lordship to-morrow morning (this day.) CURIOUS EXAMINATION OF A WITNESS BEFORE THE SCOTS JURY COURT. THE following examination took place in a question lately tried in the Jury Court between the trustees on the Queensferry passage and the town of Kirkcaldy. The witness was called on the part of the trustees, and apparently full of their interest. The counsel having heard that the man had got a present of a coat from the clerk to the trustees before coming to attend the trial, thought proper to interrogate him on that point; as by proving this, it would have the effect of completely setting aside his testimony. Q. Pray where did you get that coat? The witness (looking obliquely down to the sleeve of his coat, and from thence to the counsel) with a mixture of effrontery and confusion, exclaimed, A. Coat, coat, sir! Whare gat I that coat? Q. I wish to know where you got that coat? A. May be ye ken whare I got it? Q. No, but we wish to know from whom you got it? A. Did ye gie me that coat? coat? A. What's your business wi' that? Q. It is material that you tell the Court where you got the coat? A. 'Am no obliged to tell about ma coat? Q. Do you not recollect whether you bought that coat, or whether it was given to you? Q. I ask you, did Mr Douglas, clerk to the trustees, give you that coat? A. 'Am no bound to answer that question, but merely to tell the truth. Q. So you wont tell where you got that coat? A. I didna get the coat to do ony thing wrang for't; I didna engage to say ony thing that wasna true. The Lord Chief Commissioner, when the witness was going out of the box, called him back, and observed, "the court wish to know from you something farther about this coat. It is not believed or suspected that you got it improperly or dishonestly, or that there is any reason for your concealing it. You may have been disinclined to speak about it, thinking that there was something of insult or reproach in the questions put from the bar. You must be sensible that the bench can have no such intention; and it is for your credit, and the sake of your testimony, to disclose fairly where you got it. There may be discredit in concealing, but none in telling where you got it." Q. Where did you get the coat? A. 'Am no obliged to tell about ma coat. Q. True, you are not obliged to tell where you got it; but it is for your own credit to tell. A. I didna come here to tell about coats, but to tell about boats and pin naces. Q. If you do not tell, I must throw aside your evidence altogether. A. 'Am no gaun to say ony thing about ma coat; 'am no obliged to say ony thing about it. Witness went away, and was called back by Lord Gillies. Q. How long have you had that coat? A. I dinna ken how lang I hae had my coat. I hae plenty o' coats. I dinna mind about this coat or that coat. Q. Do you remember any thing near the time; have you had it a year, a month, or a week? Have you had it a week? A. Hoot ay, I dare say I may. Q. Have you had it a month? A. I dinna ken; I cam here to speak about boats, and no about coats. Q. Did you buy the coat? A. I didna mind what coat I bought, or what I got. The consequence was, that their lordships were forced to reject the evidence of this witness. [90] No. II. PROCEEDINGS OF PUBLIC SOCIETIES. THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. On Saturday, November 30th, the society held its annual meeting for the election of the office-bearers for the ensuing year. There were elected, PRESIDENT, Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. SECRETARIES, TREASURER, William Hyde Wollaston, M. D. William Haseldyne Pepys, Esq. Sir John Thomas Stanley, Bart. Twenty members have died since the last anniversary, and thirty-two new members have been admitted into the society. The present list of Fellows contains 649 names. Of these 44 are foreign members. On Thursday, December 5, a paper by Mr Tod was read, giving an account of some experiments made on torpedos at Rochelle. The object of the experiments was to ascertain, whether the animal possesses a volun. tary power over its electrical organs. When the fish is held by the tail, the person holding it does not receive shocks, nor are they communicated when the animal is held by the anterior part of the body. The electric shocks were given without any apparent diminution, when an incision was made round the electric organs, and even when they communicated with the rest of the animal only by the nerves. When a portion of the electric organ was cut off, the strength of the shock was diminished; but Mr Tod was not certain whether this diminution was owing to the diminution of the organ, or to the exhausted state of the fish. The nerves of the electric organs are The proceedings for the whole winter session 1816-17 are here introduced, from the analyses given in the Journals of Thomson and Brande. supplied from the medulla oblongata. When Mr Tod was cutting the electric organs, he received shocks through the scalpel. The author states a circumstance respecting the torpedo, which he has been told, he conceives, on good authority, though he never witnessed it himself. Where torpedos abound, boys are in the habit of playing the following trick to those who are not in the secret. They persuade the ignorant boy to make urine upon the torpedo. The consequence is, that an electrical shock is conveyed along the stream of urine. At the same meeting, a paper, by Mr Hatchett, was read, describing a method of destroying the musty taste in grain. Must, the author conceives, is an alteration which is produced in the amylaceous part of the grain, and in general it is confined to the surface of the corn immediately under the husk. To remove it, the corn must be put into any vessel capable of holding thrice the quantity of corn put into it. The vessel is then to be filled with boiling-hot water, and the liquid allowed to remain till it be cool. Then the light and rotten grains, which swim on the surface, may be skimmed off, and the water allowed to drain. It will be proper afterwards to pour some cold water on the grain, and stir it about in order to wash away completely the water which holds the must in solution. Grain thus treated, will be found quite free from all musty taste. In a year like the present, when so much of the corn has been injured by wet, this information must be of great importance to the country. On Thursday, December 12, a paper, by Mr Brande, on an astringent substance, from China, was read. It was given to Mr Brande for examination by Sir Joseph Banks. It consisted of vesicular bodies like nutgalls adhering to the smaller branches of a tree. Insects could be perceived in it. There is a On Thursday, December 19, a paper, by M. Dupin, was read, on the improvements lately introduced into ship-building by Mr Seppings. The author, in order to obtain materials for his projected work on Ship-Building, had been induced to visit Great Britain, and he expressed himself in the highest terms of the reception he met with from those gentlemen to whom he had occasion to apply. He stated a number of historical facts to shew that the principle upon which Mr Seppings's plan is founded had been previously known and employed in France, though afterwards abandoned. But he allows that Mr Seppings has introduced so many improvements, and has so happily got over difficulties to be overcome, as to have made his method in a great measure his own. On Thursday, January 9, 1817, part of a paper, by Sir Humphry Davy, on flame was read. The author divided his subject under four heads: 1. On the effect produced by rarefaction by means of the air-pump on the inflammation of gases. A small jet of hydrogen gas from a glass tube was extinguished when the air was rarefied six times. But when the jet was larger, it was not extinguished till the rarefaction amounted to ten times. In the second case, the point of the tube from which the gas proceeded was whitehot, and the gas continued to burn till the tube ceased to be visibly red. It immediately occurred to the author, that the cause of the extinction was not the deficiency of oxygen, but the want of sufficient heat. Hence it |