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Arms. Per pale, ermine and ermines on a chevron, charged with five lozenges, counterchanged between three fleur-de-lis or, counterchanged.

Crest. A cat a mountain, segant, guardant ppr., bezantee resting his paw upon a shield, az., charged with a mace, erect, surmounted with a regal crown, or, for Speaker of the House of Commons, within a bordure, engr., argent.

Supporters. Dexter, a stag, ermines gorged with a chain, pendant therefrom a key, all or; sinister, a stag, ermine chain and key like the dexter.

Motto. Libertas sub rege pio. "Liberty under a pious king."

THE NOBLE HOUSE OF SIDMOUTH. THE Addington family has but recently been ennobled. In place of a long line of ancestors it presents us with the shining talents of the present wearer of the title, the first Viscount Sidmouth.

His Lordship's father was Anthony Addington, of Trinity College, Oxford, M. D., an eminent physician at Reading, in Berkshire, who died in 1790.

Henry, his eldest son, now Viscount Sidmouth, was born in 1756. He was placed at Cheam, in Surrey, under the care of the Reverend Mr Gilpin, thence he went to Winchester. He pursued his studies with great assiduity and success under Dr Warton and Dr Huntingford. In 1774 he entered Brazen-nose College, Oxford, whence, being intended for the bar, he passed to the Inner Temple, where he remained till 1781, at which period he married Ursula Mary, daughter and coheir of Leonard Hammond, Esq., of Cheam, son of William Hammond, Esq., formerly

M.P. for Southwark.

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which office he resigned in the month of July. In January, 1806, he was appointed Lord Privy Seal. That office he only held till the Autumn of the same year, when he was again appointed Lord President of the Council. Subsequently the Noble Viscount became Secretary of State for the Home Department; an important office which he held during a very stormy period. The Home Secretary who discharges his duty with courage and determination in such times must always be in a certain degree unpopular. Such was the fate of Lord Sidmouth. He, however, serenely pursued "his onward course," never for a moment conceding to menace what policy and duty commanded him to withhold. Numerous attacks were made upon him during his official career, and perhaps nothing can more distinctly testify to his general integrity than the fact that the weapon on which his assailants most relied to wound his feelings, and lower him in the estimation of his countrymen,

was the reiteration of the formidable and unanswerable charge, that his father was a Doctor! His speeches in Parliament, if not distinguished by those brilliant flashes which gave others fame, were often models of purity of style, just and manly feeling, and sound argument. His lordship has for many years withdrawn from public

affairs.

He is High Steward of Westminster and Reading; Recorder of Devizes; Governor of the Charter house; and Deputy Ranger of Richmond park.

Loss of the Pegasus.- Mr Elton, the tragedian, has prematurely made his exit from life. He was on board the 'Pegasus' when she sunk, and, with about fifty others, perished. A widow and seven children remain to deplore his loss. He was treasurer and chairman of the minor theatrical fund. A subscription is to be opened for his family, and Mr Dickens is moving in the work of charity.

VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY.
July 19th, 1843.

SIR,-You did me the favour to notice a recent discovery which I made in reference to the electrical condition of the iron pipes of the metropolis. Since that notice was published, I am given to understand by two gentlemen, upon whose veracity I place implicit confidence, that Mr Bain made a verbal communication to them, some two or three months back, of a similar discovery made by himself, and therefore, although mine was made totally independent of Mr Bain, still, in justice to him, and in consequence of the above representation, I am most anxious not to withhold from him the priority in reference to the date of the discovery. Your kind insertion of the above will greatly oblige, Sir,

Your obedient servant,
GEO. H. BACHHOFFNER,

MOCK SUNS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MIRROR.

SIR,-The unusual phenomenon of mock suns was seen at Nottingham, Derby, and other places on the afternoon of the 16th of last month. The following are the particulars as I noticed them at Derby :

The morning was very fine and hot; sky clear of clouds, except a few linear cirri; barometer gradually falling at nine A.M.; it was 30.041 inches; thermometer in shade, 64°; wind's force 2, or a slight breeze from the east.

At a little past three P.M., the sun exhibited a most remarkable appearance. At 3h. 10m. wind N.E., thin linear cirri pass over head, and converge in E. and W.; few cumuli in S. I first noticed a very brilliant ring round the sun; its colour is pale silver externally; internally it is darker and golden. The radius of the ring was about 20o. A mock sun on each side touches the outer edge of this ring, and throws out rays horizontally in the opposite direction to the sun.

3h. 15m. Another ring has appeared, touching the former ring at its summit, whose radius is about 250; the colour of this ring is the same as the former, only rather fainter, particularly at the lower part. At the highest and lowest parts of the first-mentioned ring are very bright lights of an oblong form, externally of an orange red colour, and internally of a pale silver.

3h. 20m. The inner ring is still very brilliant, although the mock suns had disappeared.

3h. 25m. The inner ring is much brighter, and a mock sun has again appeared on the left side: the other did not

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3h. 33m. Mock sun again throws out rays horizontally opposite the sun.

3h, 35m. Thermometer in shade 749; barometer 30-032 inches; wind E., light breeze.

3h. 36m. The oblong lights are nearly as bright as the sun itself.

3h. 37m. An inverted rainbow has appeared, which has all the seven colours,red inmost; comoid and linear cirri pass over head, and converge in E. and W. as before; cirri rising in W.

3h. 38m. Mock sun is of a red colour. 3h. 55m. The inverted rainbow has vanished.

4h. 5m. Mock sun is very bright and red; the rings have nearly vanished, but the oblong lights are brighter than ever.

4h. 30m. The mock sun has vanished, leaving the oblong lights as bright as before: these continued until 5h. 10m., when they vanished.

8h. 16m. Sunset very red; the sky is cloudless, except a few cirro-cumuli in S.S.W.; barometer 29-025°; thermometer in shade 69o; wind N.E. by E., force, or slight breeze.

9h. Om. (P.M.) Warm evening; thermometer in shade 65°; barometer 30.03 inches; wind, a light breeze N.N.E.; cumuli rising in W.; heavy dew.

11h. Om. (P.M.) Sky overcast with cirri strati, which continued all night. Yours, &c.,

E. J. LOWE.

High Field House, Lenton, Nottinghamshire, June 29.

HUMANUS ACARUS, OR MITE OF THE HUMAN BODY. THIS insect (of which Gmelin, in his last edition of Linnæus's System, reckons eighty-two species) was recently discovered by Mr Sievier in a mummy.

It differs from the cheese mite, or from that called the Acarus Crossii, which was produced by Mr Crosse after passing a galvanic current for a period of eleven weeks upon calcined flints. The cheese mites are usually transparent; they have a small head, and sharp snout, and a mouth like a mole, with two small eyes; their legs vary in number, being six or eight; each leg has six joints, surrounded with hairs, with two claws at each extremity. The Acarus Crossii differs from the cheese mite and the meal mite by the absence of the false corselet, and of the two longest and most slender joints, which precede the tarsus or terminal joint; it also differs in having its body shorter, of a more oval form, and more bent, and in having its back covered with long and numerous hairs. It is said more nearly to resemble the Acarus dimidiatus of Herman, but to differ in wanting the short hairs which

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cover the surface of the eight limbs of the latter. The subjects of our present article, (for there are two) differ greatly from each other, as may be seen by inspecting the two drawings. The one represented by the drawing, No. 1, is about the size of a very small pin's head'; the other is scarcely visible to the naked eye. The latter greatly resembles the Acarus, found by Mr Crosse and Mr Weekes during their Electrical Experiments. Writing from memory, for we have not before us at the present moment a specimen of the latter, the resemblance is very marked. There is the same general character in the articulation and termination of the legs, and the same peculiar hairy appearances. Our readers may be aware that the engravings of the Acari Crossii which has appeared in other publications, were copies of a drawing taken from a dead specimen by Mr Turpin; but they are not perhaps aware that the irregular distribution of hair, there shown, is not in accordance with the appearance presented by the living species. In the latter there is great regularity in the distribution of the hair, which is especially the case with the creature now under consideration. It is matter of much interest to observe the universality of animal life; without attempting to be wise above measure, and accounting for things which are

at present beyond our powers, or imagining causes when the cause is hidden from our eyes; without wandering in wild mazes to discover whence these creatures come, and how they obtain entry into the human remains, were myriads of them now find their universe, it is worthy of notice that here, as elsewhere, wherever there is pabulum to sustain a microscopic world, there will a micrscopic world be found. A pinch of the mummy dust is a living mass, a little world of happy creatures,→→ for happy they are if activity and animation are any signs of happiness,generation after generation may have succeeded each other, their birth-place being the tomb in the stupendous pyramid, which no human step had trodden for ages, and where no ray of sun had entered since the mortal remains were first consigned to it; and judging from appearances the race had so multiplied as to have consumed the great mass of the embalmed body in which they exist. They have baffled all the devices of the ancient artist, and triumphed over his skill by converting into dust and rottenness that which he intended to endure for ever.

These specimens, of which correct representations are given, were taken from the inside of a human mummy. They are found most plentiful about the spine, and the larger specimen, marked No. 1, is to

be seen about the bones, while the smaller seems to be in the muscle. The larger is seen to prey upon the smaller; the specimen No. 1, is semi-transparent, and has on the back a case or incrustation; it is exceedingly swift in its motion.

The form which has been preserved some two or three thousand years must, through the instrumentality of these tiny invaders, soon be resolved into its original elements. Nature has obviously, as was lately shown in a lecture by Dr Gregory, provided for the destruction as well as the sustenance of our mortal persons. Were it otherwise had the bodies of the countless

millions, who have lived, been preserved in their original dimensions, where would the living men of the nineteenth century have found room to bestow themselves ?

ANIMAL STRUCTURE AS REGARDS

LIFE AND DEATH. In a recent number of the Mirror' the results of important inquiries on the subject of animal structure, by Mr Turner, appeared. That able and successful expounder of nature has offered many other striking observations connected with important facts. A few of these we select for the gratification of our readers.

HUMAN BONES.

Taking the human skeleton, he com

not only a most important distinction between the invertebrated and vertebrated animals in the organs of support being situated externally and internally, but there was a difference of composition.

THE NATURE OF BONES.

texture. Science proves that it is not so. Bone has been supposed to be of a solid There enters into its composition two materials; the one an animal material, was called albumen, with gelatin; the other an earthy material, composed principally of the phosphate of lime. Those materials are incorporated with most beautiful acto produce, by similar substances, an organ curacy, such as no art could effect, so as The one (the earth) is given for density; so hard, strong, cohesive, and durable. the other is added to the hard parts to prevent brittleness and easy parture. The earthy matter can be abstracted by putting the bone in muriatic or sulphuric acid, diluted with water, which renders it so soft that it can be squeezed in the hand. A Madame Supiot, whose bones, through

the effect of a disease which caused the

removal of the earthy matter, were ren-
dered so flexible that she could twist her
arms in all directions, and even tie them
together.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE BONES OF THE
YOUNG AND THE OLD.

In young persons the animal predomi

was, that the bones of children were often flexible, and, in case of accident from a fall or otherwise, would often bend, not break. This was on account of the paucity of the earthy matter in them. In old age, matters were reversed: there was, in this case, a predominance of earthy matter. In youth there existed flexibility and suppleness, because there was a preponderance of the soft over the hard textures; but

this gradually became changed until in old age the reverse of this happened, an excess of the solids over the fluids, and thus rigidity took the place of suppleness; and this was the case not merely with regard to the bones, but they found similar changes to happen in all the other textures of the body.

pared it with the rest of the animal kingnated over the earthy matter; whence it dom, which was divided into two great divisions, the invertebrated, the lowest division in the scale; and the vertebrated, or the highest division; and those divisions were not arbitrary, but founded upon most notorious facts in connexion with the organs contained in the animals included in each of them. The lowest in the invertebrated division was the sponge. The sponge which they used for domestic purposes had an organ of support; it was embedded in calcareous matter. Again, coral was earthy matter, the habitation of an animal, and an organ of support. The molluscous animals, and those inhabiting crusts, as the crab and the lobster, all of which had organs of support on the outside of their bodies. Now, the earthy matter in connexion with the sponge was dead; coral was dead; coral reefs and coral rocks, all these were the secretions from the little but interesting animals inhabiting them. What were all these composed of? Carbonate of lime. What were the bones of animals? Of the phosphate of lime principally. Why? Because the phosphate of lime is an ingredient admitting of greater cohesive affinity, a texture much stronger; and this, in connexion with the sulphate of lime, constituted the hardest material in the living body, and would last for ages in sepulchres as the memento of the dead. So that there was

ERRORS RESPECTING THE PAIN OF AMPU
TATION.

It has been popularly supposed that, in the amputation of a limb, the sawing through of the bone was the most dreadful part of the operation: this is erroneous. The most painful part to cut through is the skin, which is endowed with the most exquisite sensibility, for the purpose of protecting the subjacent parts; and Sir Charles Bell, in his able work on the hand, said, "that this exquisite sensibility of the skin gave a safeguard equal to that given by the skin of the rhinoceros."

The following is very important:

PROGRESS OF TAKING STIMULANTS.

Mr Turner shows that the action of every stimulus is in the inverse ratio of the frequency of its application. An individual, for example, takes a glass of wine, never perhaps having taken a glass of

wine before. What is the result? Headache and giddiness. Take another glass on the following day, and perhaps not so much headache as on the preceding. He goes on increasing the quantity by degrees, until a bottle, two bottles, or even three bottles, may be taken with comparative impunity.

Few of our readers perhaps are prepared for what follows. We generally supposed the consequences of hard drinking must eventually be fatal, though for a time they are not apparent. Mr Turner says, "Do not judge of the injury from the quantity taken, but from the effects; if intoxication were produced by a tablespoonful of wine, this small quantity was productive of as great an amount of mischief to the individual who took it, as three bottles would be to an individual who required that quantity in order to produce analagous effects. Instance the opium-eaters. The celebrated opium-eater, who had published a work as to his own experience in this practice, is said to have gone on from taking a few drops to taking 8,000 drops per day, which was equal to a pint of laudanum. Why, 80 or 100 drops to begin with, would pro. bably produce death.

THE MOORISH KNIGHT AND THE CHRISTIAN PRINCESS.

With Galvan in his castle proud

Will Moriana play;

And both do name the Royal game
The time to while away.

Whene'er the Moor that game doth lose,
A city's loss is his;

But when the maid,-he's overpaid
Her lily hand to kiss.

Well pleased at length that fiery Moor
Hath laid him down to sleep-
When soon, I ween, a knight is seen
Among those mountains steep.
His eyes in tears, his feet in blood,
Full sorrowful is he!

For princess high this knight doth sigh,
Fair Moriana she.

She captive by the Moors was led
The morning of St John,

As pass'd the hours while gathering flowers
That in her garden shone.
And now her eyes the princess raised,-
That knight she knows full well!
With radiance shone the tears which on
The Moor's dark visage fell.
Up starteth Galvan hastily,
Who thus to say begun :-
"Now, lady mine! what aileth thee?
Who wrong to thee hath done?

If of a Moor thou dost complain,
The rash offender dies:

If of thy damsels, noble dame!
I them will soon chastise.
And if the Christians thee do harm,
My wrath on them shall light:
My glory is in war's alarm-
My pastime is to fight.

The flinty rock my couch doth claim;
I sleep with watchful eye!"-
"Not of thy brethren I complain;
No Moor for me must die:
Nor would I that my maidens good
Through me should suffer ill,
Nor would I that the Christians' blood
Again thy hands should spill.
But of this sorrow now so deep,

The truth to thee I vouch;
For know! among these mountains steep,
I saw a knight approach.

That knight, Sir Moor, full well I ween,
My own betroth'd is like."—
To raise his hand that Moor is seen,
That princess sad to strike.

His teeth which erst so white did show,
With gushing blood are red;
And at his beck his servants go,
That lady to behead.

And from the place where she must die,
Her lover she espies;
And in her mortal agony,

With tenderness she cries:
"My death I view-a Christian true-
Till now I ne'er confess'd,
That yon fair knight, my own delight,
Doth rule within my breast."

THEGREAT BRITAIN' STEAMER. His Royal Highness Prince Albert and suite arrived at Bristol last week to witness the ceremony of launching this leviathan of the waves. Looking at the extraordinary size of the vessel and her engines, we can only exclaim, "what would our forefathers have said had such a vessel been spoken of?"-fool or madman would have been the name allotted to the projector. The burthen of the 'Great Britain,' which is entirely of iron, is 3,600 tons register. For the sake of contrast it may be well to mention that the tonnage of the 'Great Western' is 1,600 tons. The Great Britain' will carry double the quantity of the 'Great Western.' She will be propelled by engines of 1,000 horse power combined: the length from figure-head to tafferel is 322 feet, or 107 yards foot; length of keel 289 feet; extreme width 50 feet 6 inches; she has four decks, the upper deck is flush, and is 308 feet long; the second deck consists of two promenade saloons, the aft or first 110 feet 6 inches by 22 feet, and the forward or second class, 67 feet by 21 feet 9 inches. The third deck consists of the dining saloons, the grand saloon measuring 96 feet 6 inches by 30 feet, and the se

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