Before taking up the preservation of the bones or the solid parts of animals, we may mention the method for making skeletons.— They are of two kinds: natural and artificial. The former is particularly employed for the smaller animals-i. e. of the size of the fox and under. The animal is to be skinned, separating the head only, that the brain may be cleaned out. The bones are then to be cleaned of the flesh, carefully preserving the ligaments. They are then to be allowed to macerate for two or three days in lime-water. It is then to be taken out, and any flesh that may have remained on is to be cleaned away. The skeleton is then to be supported in a proper position; and, when dry, it will be found that the ligaments which fasten the bones to one another will be sufficiently strong to keep the skeleton upright. Artificial skeletons are formed in nearly the same way, except that they are to be allowed to remain longer in the water, in order that the ligaments may have time to putrify. They are then to be connected by means of wires, and set up in a proper position. In order to make natural skeletons of some of the smaller animals, we sometimes take advantage of the labours of insects. Thus mice and small birds may be placed in a small box, perforated with numerous holes, hear an ant-hill, when the ants soon clean away all the fleshy parts, leaving only the bones and connecting ligaments. They may afterwards be macerated in clean water to remove the blood, and then whitened by means of lime or alum water. In like manner the same process may be performed by the wasps, placing the subject flayed, smeared with honey or sugar, near one of their nests, when they will set to work, and clean it often in two or three hours. Preservation of the Skins of Here we are to commence with making a longitudinal incision in the belly, sufficiently large to admit of the body being taken out. The posterior extremities are to be separated at the articulation of the hip joint, and the tail disengaged at the rump. The skin may now be reversed, pulling it over the body towards the head, separating in its course the forelegs from the body at the first joint, The car and the ears at the base. case is then to be disengaged from the head at the atlas, and removed. We are then to remove carefully the flesh from the different bones that remain, and the brain is to be scooped out through the foramen magnunteral wire. We are now to commence stuffing, filling up all the vacuities with tow, and the incision is to be sowed up. The animal is now to be fixed on a board, and pressed into a suitable form and attitude. When the animal is of a larger size, a frame of wood should be constructed of the shape of the animal, and the skin cautiously stretched on it, the intervals being filled up with tow or straw. Glasgow, 10th Feb. 1825. (To be continued.) X. X. X. A NEW MODE OF FORMING ARTIFICIAL FILTERS. As the inhabitants of Paisley are at present much interested in dis covering the best mode of filtering the water of the Cart, for the pur This was fully pose of supplying the town, it may be useful to make a few observations on this subject. We do not know whether they have any prospect of obtaining a natural filter, but in case they do not obtain one, great care must be taken in the plan adopted for forming an artificial one, otherwise they may throw away a great deal of money in forming works which will be found, after a very short trial, to be of little or no use. examplified in the works at first erected both by the Glasgow and the Cranstonhill Water Companies of our city. A great deal of unnecessary, and, as it ultimately proved, unavailing labour and expense was thrown away by both these companies; and it will be well for the good people of Paisley that they take warning by previous example, and avoid adopting plans which must inevitably fail. From all which has come under our observation, and we have seen not a few artificial filters in our day, it seems as if it were almost impracticable to form an artificial filter which will continue to be useful for any length of time. However excellent they may at first appear, and however well planned they may apparently be, we have invariably found, that, after a short time, they have become all equally useless; they get dirty and choked up, and cease to purify the water as they at first did. This is certainly much to be lamented; and when we consider the absolute necessity of large quantities of pure water to supply large cities, and often the impossibility of obtaining it by means of natural filters, it becomes highly necessary to inquire whether it be not possible to construct an artificial filter, which will remain clean, or rather will clean itself from impurites, as a natural filter does. In investi gating into this matter it is best to observe the mode in which a natural filter of water from a river is formed, and as near as practicable to adopt this plan, in forming an artificial one. We find, then, that natural filters are formed by sand banks, which occupy a portion of the bed of the river and its adjoining banks. The waters of the river flow over that part of the sand which form its bed, and filter down through it; and the sand is kept constantly clean, as it is washed by the water which flows over it, and by the continual removal and renewal of the sand which is on the top, where the chief portion of the impurities gather. When we wish to use such a natural filter, wells are dug, and tunnels formed in the adjoining banks, below the level of the bed of the river, and the water flowing from the river down through the sand into these, is found freed from all impurities, while, as we have already stated, the water of the river washes the top of the filter, and keeps it constantly fit for use. The general plan of forming artificial filters, is as unlike this as possible. Large and expensive tanks are formed, these are filled with sand and stones, and the water is made to filter through them laterally; they very soon become filled with impurities from the water, and as no means is, or, indeed, can be used to keep them clean, as in the natural filter, they soon become filthy and useless. In the natural filter, the waters of the river flow over it and keep it clean: in the artificial filter, the water flows laterally, and no water enters but that which is to be purified. Now, it is quite clear that so long as we follow plans so very opposite to the one pointed out by nature, we never can expect to construct an artificial filter which can be of the slightest use for any length of time. If, however, we were constructing an artificial filter, and if the inhabitants of Paisley require to make one, we would advise them to follow our plan; we would excavate a considerable portion of the bed of the river and of its adjoining bank, on the side where we wished to sink our well; we would build our tunnels and our well in this excavation, and would then fill the whole with sand, allowing the waters of the river to flow over this artificial sand bank, to wash it and to filter through it, as it does in the natural one; we would thus have a filter which might indeed be called natural, and which would never cease to be useful. We know that the schemes of projectors are too often but little attended to, by those to whom they are addressed; but if the inhabitants of Paisley require to construct an artificial filter, we beg them to take what we say, not as the scheme of a projector, but as the advice of practical persons well acquainted with the subject. Had the Cranstonhill Water Company, when they erected their filters at the top of a hill nearly two miles from the river, made one such as we have described, in its bed and on its north bank, they would have had a constant supply of pure water, at far less expense than their works at Cranstonhill cost them, and they would not have been obliged to abandon it, as they were the works which had been so expensive. We are not ignorant that in constructing many filters, the water has been made to flow down through the sand; but in these no body of water has ever been made to flow over the top, as in the natural filter. They are thus so far the very same as the lateral filters, no water passing over them but what is to be purified, so that there is no means of cleans ing the one more than the other, except emptying the filter entirely, and removing the impurities which. it has gathered. In concluding, then, our advice in constructing filters is-never to make the water flow laterally, or upwards through the filter, but always downwards; and to have the top of the sand-bed which forms it, washed by the waters of the river. ON THE ORIGIN OF THE STOMACH SYRINGE. To the Editors of the GLASGOW MECHANICS' MAGAZINE. GENTLEMEN,-Having observed, in one of the newspapers, some discussions between Dr. Ure and Mr. Jukes, respecting the apparatus for removing poison from the stomach, I take this opportunity of mentioning that the merit of the discovery belongs to neither of these gentlemen. The plan is as old as the days of Boerhave, that celebrated physician having proposed a similar instrument. It never, however, came into general use; till, having undergone several important improvements, it was brought again into notice by M. M. Dupuytren and Renault. The instrument is thus described by the latter gentleman, in a small work by Orfila, entitled, "Secours a donner aux personnes Empoisonnees ou Asphyxiees." (1818.) "The instrument consists of an elastic gum tube, the end which is introduced into the stomach, having two slits at the sides, and closed at the point. To the other extremity there is a brass or ivory virol attached, receiving the point of a syringe, which is connected with it by means of a screw. By this means I have been enabled to inject seven or eight ounces of water into the stomach of a dog, and in a few seconds draw it back again, with the poison which the animal had been made to swallow previous to the experiment.". page 13. It is true that Mr. Jukes' instrument may be somewhat different from this; but it is only in being more complex, and therefore more apt to be deranged. As for Dr. Ure, it may be true enough that he brought some of these elastic gum tubes from Paris; but that he can have any pretensions to be considered the inventor or proposer of the instrument, is just as absurd as if a person were to purchase a steam engine, and then pompously announce that to him belonged the merit of the invention; or take up some principle, known to chemists for half a century, such as the saturating point of an acid by means of an alkali, and call this a new discovery, and the graduated glass in which the mixture was made an alkalimeter. Besides, I would wish to know in which of his classes the Doctor mentioned the proposal he alludes to. We are acquainted with several gentlemen who have attended his classes, and they only recollect that he stated that the tubes were brought over by him from Paris, and that he found them very useful in his gasometers. In concluding, I would notice an instrument intended to serve the same purpose, first proposed in a most useful little work, "On Poi In soning and other Accidents."* this case, the tube is exactly the same as that proposed by Mons. Renault, except that it is provided with a stop-cock, near the extremity where the syringe was formerly attached. Instead of it, an elastic gum bag, such as that used in the operation for Hydrocele, also provided with a stopcock, is screwed ou. In the use of this instrument, the elastic gum tube being introduced into the stomach, the bag of caoutchouc, or elastic gum, filled with tepid or cold water, is to be screwed on. The stop-cocks are now to be opened, and the contents forced into the stomach by means of pressure. When you wish to withdraw it again, you have only to allow the bag to expand, when it will suck up the injected fluid, along with more or less of the poison, in a diluted state. The stop-cocks are now to be shut, the bag unscrewed, its contents replaced by fresh water, when the same process is to be repeated. In this manner, in a few minutes, you may wash the stomach clean, whilst it would require upwards of a quarter of an hour with Mr. Jukes' apparatus. It also recommends itself for its cheapness, and in not being liable to be deranged, being always ready for use. I am, GENTLEMEN, yours, &c. C. R. Glasgow, 7th Feb. 1825. * Lumsden and Son. 12mo. 1821. BUFFON & GOLDSMITH VERSUS PHRENOLOGY. A MOST extraordinary conflict of necessary to mere animal life, we may infer from this, that many animals have scarcely any. Nature, we are sure, would not have given this in so large a volume if a smaller would have served. What then are we to infer from its magnitude? Are we not, in some degree, directed to the answer by the undisputed fact that animals are generally intelligent in proportion to the size of their brains; and that man, who surpasses them all in intelligence, has the largest brain of any animal of the same dimensions? It is reasonable, thence, to conclude, that the brain is somehow connected with the mental powers, and that its size is some indication of their perfection and vigour." This is the doctrine set forth by Phrenologists; now, contrast with which what Dr. Goldsmith, in his Treatise on Amphibious Quadrupeds, says on the subject:- "It has been often remarked, that all animals are sagacious in proportion to the size of their brain. It has, in support of this opinion, been alleged, that man, with respect to his bulk, has, of all others, the largest. In pursuance of this assumption, some erroneous speculations have been formed. But, were the size of the brain to determine the quantity of the understanding, the seal* would, of all "The conformation of whose head is round, like that of a man.' other animals, be the most sagacious; for it has, in proportion, the largest brain of any, even man him self not excepted. However, this animal is possessed of but very few advantages over other quadrupeds; and the size of its brain furnishes it with few powers that contribute to its wisdom or its preservation." In his description of the Ourang Ou tang, or Wild Man of the Woods, he farther observes: "The face of this animal is like that of a man, the forehead larger, the head round, and the brain formed in the same manner with that of man;" from a picture so like that of the human species, we are naturally led to expect a corresponding mind; but so far from this being the case, the learned Doctor tells us that this creature" wants reason:"an evident proof, as Mr. Buffon finely observes, "that no disposition of matter will give mind, and that the body, how nicely soever formed, is formed in vain, when there is not infused a soul to direct its operations." J. T. NEW AUGER. A NEW Constructed auger has been have seen several of different sizes, lately invented by Dr. Church of but the most perfect one we now Birmingham, for which he has ob- refer to,) is one inch and one-eighth tained a patent; we shall, there- in diameter. We first tried its effore, particularly describe its form fects upon a piece of dry deal four and the mode of making when the inches thick, held in the left hand specification is enrolled; but we without any other support, and turncannot avoid mentioning in this ing the auger by the right hand in place its extroardinary merits, which the way that gimblets are usually so much exceed every other kind turned, passed the auger through of auger or boring tool that we are the four inch deal in fifty seconds. acquainted with, that we should With the assistance of a bow, it was certainly not have given full credit made to penetrate through a post to a report, had not our own hands of seven inches square in twenty-one and eyes been the means of com- seconds, and in the hand of an exmunicating the facts to our senses. pert workman, there is no doubt This improved auger, (indeed we but that its progress would be much |