living owner of the leg did not direct it, he might have prevented it. Some one has written below

Here lies the Marquis of Anglesea's limb; The devil will have the remainder of him.

AMBERGRIS.

The origin of this substance is involved in complete obscurity. All that we know of it is, that it is most commonly found in lumps floating on the ocean, sometimes adhering to rocks, sometimes in the stomachs of fishbut whence does it come? by what process is it formed? Everybody knows the history of that greasy substance called Adipocire-that on digging up the bodies in the cemetery of St Innocent's at Faris, many of them were found in part converted into a substance resembling spermaceti; and that it has since been ascertained, that if the flesh of animals, instead of undergoing putrefaction in air, undergoes the slower changes which take place under water, in a running stream, it is gradually converted into this substance. It is not an improbable conjecture, that Ambergris is the flesh of dead fish which has undergone this change that it is marine adipocire. And this conjecture is corroborated by a fact which was lately stated in one of the American newspapers. A marine animal of gigantic size has lately been discovered and dug up in the neighbourhood of New Orleans, in the groove of one of whose bones was found a matter closely resembling Ambergris. This animal, which is supposed to be extinct, had been buried for an incalculable time.

During the great Plague in London, in 1665, Dr Hodges was one of the persons appointed by the College of Physicians to visit the sick. The great Sydenham quitted London to avoid the contagion, but at length returned, apparently ashamed of his cowardice. Many physicians volunteered their services on this occasion: among those was the celebrated Dr Glisson. Out of the number employed in this benevolent task, nine perished. Hodges survived, and has given the following account of the means by which he believes he preserved himself from the infection. As we shall most likely have the Plague in Eng

land-thanks to the wrong-headedness of some of our physicians, and the supineness of others-it is worth while knowing the means which he employed. "As soon as I rose in the morning early, I took the quantity of a nutmeg of the anti-pestilential electuary; then, after the dispatch of private concerns in my family, I ventured into a large room, where crowds of citizens used to be in waiting for me, and there I commonly spent two or three hours, as in an hospital, examining the several conditions and circumstances of all who came thither, some of which had ulcers yet uncured, and others to be advised under the first symptoms of seizure; all which I endeavoured to dispatch, with all possible care to their various exigencies. As soon as this crowd could be discharged, I judged it not proper to go abroad fasting, and therefore got my breakfast; after which, till dinner time, I visited the sick at their houses; whereupon, entering their houses, Í immediately had burnt some proper thing upon coals, and also kept in my mouth some lozenges all the while I was examining them. But they are in a mistake who report that physicians used on such occasions very hot things, as myrrh, zedoary, angelica, ginger, &c. for many, deceived thereby, raised inflammations upon their tonsils, and greatly endangered their lungs. I further took care not to go into the rooms of the sick when I sweated, or was short-breathed with walking, and kept my mind as composed as possible, being sufficiently warned by such who had grievously suffered by uneasiness in that respect. After some hours visiting in this manner, I returned home. Before dinner, I always drank a glass of sack to warm the stomach, refresh the spirits, and dissipate any beginning lodgement of the infection. I chose meats for my table that yielded an easie and generous nourishment, roasted before boiled, and pickles not only suitable to the meats, but the nature of the distemper (and, indeed, in this melancholy time, the city greatly abounded with variety of all good things of that nature). I seldom, likewise, rose from dinner without drinking more wine. After this, I had always many persons who came for advice; and, as soon as I could dispatch them, I again visited till eight or nine at night, and then

concluded the evening at home, by drinking to cheerfulness of my old favourite liquor, which encouraged sleep, and an easie breathing through the pores all night. But if in the daytime I found the least approaches of the infection upon me, as by giddiness, loathing at stomach, and faintness, I immediately had recourse to a glass of this wine, which easily drove these beginning disorders away by transpiration. Yet in the whole course of the infection, I found myself ill but twice, but was soon again cleared of its approaches by these means, and the help of such antidotes as I kept always by me.' In another part of his history of the Plague, he gives the following extraordinary account. Speak ing of the nurses who attended the sick, he adds, "These wretches, out of greediness to plunder the dead, would strangle their patients, and charge it to the distemper in their throats; others would secretly convey the pestilential taint from sores of the infected to those who were well. The case of a worthy citizen was very remarkable, who, being suspected dying by his nurse, was beforehand stripped by her; but recovering again, he came a second time into the world naked." (Loimologia, or an Account of the Plague in London, in 1665, by Nath. Hodges, M.D.)

circulation, long portions copied from works that are little read, or translated literally from foreign writers. Being at a dinner party one day, and sitting next an author in whose writings I had repeatedly detected this wholesale plagiarism, I mentioned the subject in general terms; and then turning to him, said, "But perhaps the wonder is not that authors should practise this mode of writing, but that I should wonder at it;" on which he looked impudently at me, and said he belie ved so. I have met with some ridiculous instances of this practice. Being led by an advertisement in the newspapers to look at a saddle-horse, and perceiving some remarkable differences between the description and the animal, I mentioned it to his owner, who coolly told me, that not being able to write an advertisement himself, he had copied one from an old newspaper which seemed something like.

When the process of hatching chickens by steam was exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, a little sixpenny pamplet, descriptive of the progressive growth of the chick in the egg was sold at the door. It professed to be the composition of Mr-What's his Name ? the inventor of the process; but the truth is, that it was extracted verbatim from the English copy of "The Exercitations on Generation, by Wm. Harvey," the discoverer of the circulation. But the best of the joke was this-after describing the ci◄ catricula, that is the little white spot near the blunt end of the yolk, where the first signs of life are seen, Harvey says, " and yet this first principle of the egg was never yet, to my knowledge, observed by any man.' (Page 82, A.D. 1653.) By an absurd blunder of the person who extracted the descriptions, this passage is preserved, so that Mr of the Egyptian Hall, claims the discovery of the use of the cicatricula. But although there may be some excuse for hack compilers and ignorant horse-jockeys, there is none for writers of first-rate genius. And yet even these will sometimes stoop to similar acts of literary dishonesty. Lord Kames produced the beautiful parable on persecution as an original composition of Franklin's. Franklin, during his lifetime, permitted it to circulate as such, and it is still inserted as his own in his collected works; yet it is stolen from the last page of Jeremy

DURING the months of February and March, in the year 18-, the coast of Kent was visited by a succession of violent storms, which caused a greater quantity of damage to the shipping and villages on the sea-shore than had been known to have occurred in the memory of man. On a certain day in the earlier part of the latter month, my duties led me to visit that quarter of my parish which lies on the other side of the last range of hills, and adjoins to the parish, or rather to the outskirts, of the town of Folkestone. The wind was out with a degree of fury, such as even I, who reside so near this tempestuous coast, have seldom witnessed. The clouds were not sailing, but rushing through the sky, in grey fleeces; a huge black mass ever and anon came up upon the blast, driving away from east to west, and sending forth a shower of hailstones, which beat in my face as I ascended the height, and compelled me more than once to cling to a piece of gorze, or fern, for support. The sheep were all cowering under the hill-top for shelter, with their backs turned towards the storm, and huddled closely together; and the shepherds either took their places beside them, or ran home to their different houses, among the glens and hollows near. It was, indeed, a day in which no one who could find a roof to cover him would have chosen to be abroad; so boisterous was the gale, and so keen and cutting were the gusts of hail and sleet which rode from time to time upon

it.

It is impossible for one whose habitation, though it be shut out from a view of the ocean, stands within the sound of its waves, when they are in wrath, not to think with peculiar anxiety, during every gale or storm, of the poor mariners who are exposed to its violence. To-day, in particular, I felt myself full of apprehension; for there was a considerable fleet of vessels at anchor in the Downs, and several large India-men had been seen at a late hour last night not far from the Point of Dungeness. They had not passed, VOL. XIX.

my man told me, during the night; indeed, the night had been too dark, and too blustering, to encourage them to lift their anchors; but the gale had increased so much towards sun-rise, and was still so heavy, that I could hardly hope that the anchors had not dragged, or, which might prove even more fatal, that the cables had not parted.

As I neared the top of the hill, the noise of the mighty element increased upon me, till its roar would have almost drowned the thunder itself, so loud and so increasing had it become. But if the sense of hearing had impressed me with feelings of awe, these feelings were increased to an indescribable degree by the spectacle which presented itself to the sense of sight. Immediately below me was the ocean, boiling and foaming far and near ; one huge caldron of troubled waters, which tossed and tumbled, as if a thousand fires were burning beneath it. The coast of France, which, on other days, may be distinctly seen, even to the glancing of a sun-beam on the windows of the houses in Calais, was now entirely hidden. I could not, indeed, send my gaze beyond mid-space between the two shores; and from that point onwards, wave followed wave, in fearful succession, till, one after another, they burst in tremendous force upon the chalky cliffs and pebbly strand of Kent. The town of Folkestone appeared devoted to utter destruction. The tide was pouring through its lower streets, sweeping all live and dead substances before it ; the few fishing vessels which had been moored in the harbour were lying high and dry, far up the side of the hill, or floating in broken fragments upon the water; whilst the inhabitants, who had with difficulty escaped, were congregated in the upper parts of the town, to watch with grief and dismay the progress of a power to which human ingenuity could oppose no obstacle. All this was awful enough; but my fears were too much alive for the brave men who were embarked in ships, to think much

S

of the state of those who suffered only from a loss of property.

I looked anxiously, first towards the Downs, and afterwards in the direction of Dungeness. From the former point the fleet had entirely disappeared. Many I saw stranded upon the shore; others had probably escaped to a more safe anchorage; and those which had endeavoured to beat out to sea, were just visible on the lower part of the Goodwins. The waves were dashing over their broken hulls, and their very masts were hidden, as every breaker, of a size somewhat larger than the rest, burst upon them. For them and for their crews there was no hope -all must perish-and all did perish before I quitted my station. In the direction of Dungeness, again, only one ship could be descried. She had succeeded, apparently, in working out before the storm had reached its height; and now having secured sea-room, was endeavouring to scud, either for the Downs or the river. Her top-gallantmasts were all struck; the only sail hoisted was the fore-top-sail, and that close-reefed; under which she made way, rapidly indeed, but not without falling every moment faster and faster to leeward. It was, in truth, manifest, that if she persisted in going on, she must run ashore several miles on this side of Deal; and of that her crew appeared to be as fully convinced as those who watched her from the land.

She was now abreast of Folkestone, with a hurricane right on shore, and herself not above a mile and a half from the breakers. Having carried a telescope in my hand, I saw by the help of it that her decks were crowded with people, some of whom held by the rigging and shrouds, others by the binnacles and bulk-heads; whilst some were lashed to the wheel, by which they vainly endeavoured to guide her. An attempt was now made to wear, but it failed. The ship reeled round, and drove towards the shore with a velocity which caused me to shut my eyes, that I might escape at least the horror of beholding her strike. But she did not strike. Two anchors were let go at once from the bow. By little short of a miracle, they held; and as if Heaven itself had desired to save her, the tempest suddenly lulled. The waves, however, ran as they had run before," mountain high;" consequently no boat could be launched

to her assistance; and there she rode, straining and pitching her bows and bulwarks under, at the mercy of a couple of cables, and a couple of crooked bits of iron.

Having stood for about half an hour to observe her, and fancying that, as she had hitherto done well, she would continue so to do, especially as I thought that I could observe a clearing up to leeward, indicative of a change of wind, I paid the visit which I set out to pay, and returned to my house. Here the rest of the morning was spent in alternate hope and fear, as the face of the heavens seemed to indicate a total cessation, or a renewal of the storm; but hope gradually gave way to alarm, and alarm grew into despair, soon after darkness began. The sun went down fiery red, like a ball of burning coal. The wind, as if hushing him to sleep, began again to renew its violence. It came, for a while, in alternate lulls and gusts; which, succeeding each other more rapidly every moment, ended at length in the same tremendous hurricane which had prevailed during the day. I could not sit quietly in my chair. "I must go," said I," to see how the Indiaman fares, and I will pray upon the beach for the poor people whom I cannot otherwise serve.' So saying, I put on my great-coat, and, seizing my hat and stick, sallied forth.

The clock struck nine as I laid my hand on the latch; and I rejoiced to find, on crossing the threshold, that it was moon-light. I looked up into the sky, and beheld the fleeces receding in the direction which they had followed in the morning; but not so thick as greatly to obscure the moon's rays; which, on the contrary, shone out clear and bright occasionally, and at all times exerted some influence. I rejoiced at this; not only because I regarded it as a good omen, but because I hoped that it might prove of essential service to the people on board; whose fears, at least, would be more tolerable than if the night had been pitchy dark; and under this impression, I pushed on with a quick pace. But my satisfaction was not of long continuance,-if, indeed, the feeling be worthy of that title,-which the mere glancing of the moon's rays had excited.

I had not yet reached the top of the hill, when the report of a gun, heard amidst the roar of the tempest, assured me that the vessel had struck. It came