HYPOCHONDRIACS.

In cases of hypochondriasm, the sense of touch is sometimes affected with singular aberrations. One believes himself made of glass or chaff; some think they have no head; others, that they are so light, that they fear the wind will blow them away: another will make oath that he distinctly feels his nose immeasurably long. Some think they perceive odors or sounds agreeable or disagreeable. M. Cabanis tells us, that he knew a man, otherwise very ingenious and rational, who felt himself alternately extended and diminished to infinity, though his other senses were sound, and his judgment correct.

SQUARING THE CIRCLE.

The Dublin Evening Mail affirms, that a boy of thirteen years of age, named James Graham, and residing at Mountcharles, in Donnegal, has demonstrated the famous problem of the quadrature of the circle.

CRY OF THE DEATH'S HEAD MOTH.

The sounds produced by insects, such as the chirping of crickets, the humming of bees, &c., are not produced as in the vertebrated animals, by the mouth, nor even by the aid of the air which is respired, but by some external apparatus designed, it would appear, for that particular purpose. One of the most singular sounds, however, produced by any insect, is that of the death's head moth, (Acherontia Atropos,) which has been variously explained. We do not find that it is mentioned by Kirby and Spence, though they take notice of the electriclike crack produced by the larva; but M. Passerini, curator of the Museum of Natural History at Florence, has lately investigated the subject anatomically, and not having before his eyes

cut away portion after portion of the poor moths, till he traced the origin of the sound to the interior of the head, in which he discovered a cavity at the passage into which muscles are placed for impelling and expelling air, the cause, as he thinks, of the sound in question. M. Dumeril has since discovered a sort of tympanum stretched over this cavity, like, as he says, to the head of a drum, (tendue comme la peau d'un tambour).

AURORA BOREALIS.

By

Though the origin of Aurora is generally ascribed to electricity in a rarified atmosphere, yet the following ingenious hypothesis from a writer in a late number of the " Philosophical Magazine," is worthy of notice :"It is generally at or near the time of the equinoxes that these lights make their appearance in our latitudes, at which time the sun's rays would be tangents to the poles of the earth, were they not disturbed by the refractive power of the atmosphere. this refraction, it is obvious that the rays will extend to a certain point beyond the pole, on the side opposite to the sun, when they must of course fall on the immense accumulation of ice within the polar circle, which will be reflected with great brilliancy towards the darkened hemisphere, undergoing in their course another refraction, which bends them still more southward; and as the atmosphere possesses the power of reflecting light, these rays will finally fall back on the earth, and will at a certain angle, and in certain limits, be visible to its inhabitants." We consider this theory to be equally rational with the wellknown theory of double refraction and reflection in the formation of the iris, or rainbow.

EFFECT OF MOUNTAINS ON THE

ATMOSPHERE.

Mountains precipitate the moisture contained in the air, not so much by attracting it to their summits, as in consequence of their rocky and grassy sides, when acted on by the sun, heat

ing large masses of air in the cold upper regions of the atmosphere, which, streaming upwards, come in contact with cold currents, moving laterally, or otherwise generate circumstances that will cause precipitation. A small increase of elevation compensates in adding to the quantity of rain for a great distance from the sea. At Geneva, the annual fall of rain is 40 inches; while at Paris, (300 miles nearer the sea,) it is only 19 inches. In England, it is found that Keswick and Kendal, situated among the mountains, have 67 or 69 inches of rain annually, while places in the level country, and on the sea coast, have only 24 inches. But, although more rain falls in mountainous than in level countries, the depth is greater at the bottom than at

the top of a mountain, and close to the surface of the ground than at a distance from it.

MOUNTAIN ECHO.

Among the glaciers above the village of Maglan are echoes which repeat the same sound a great number of times; and, when once such a sound is produced, it is propagated and repeated from rock to rock, producing a prolonged rétentissement like that of a trumpet when it is blown loud and long. ("Saussure Voyage dans les Alpes.") Lord Byron talks of such Alpine sounds leaping as if instinct with animation, when

From cliff to cliff
Leaps the live thunder.
Childe Harold.

DR. PARR'S WRITING MATERIALS. THE beau-ideal of a dandy penman would shrug his shoulders to contemplate Parr's writing apparatus and materials. In that library he could meet with no splendid writing-table, no desk of satin wood inlaid with silver and ivory, no tortoise-shell inkstand with burnished appendages: Parr contemned every thing of the sort. He never wrote upon any kind of desk; he always laid his paper flat on the table; there was no preparation. Upon a long deal table, whose site was between the windows, commonly stood a supply of ragged edged foolscap, and which Parr could convert, with the dexterity of a juggler, into the pabulum proprium penna. The mode of operation was this-when he himself was to be the scribe, this foolscap was transferred to the round table which stood in the centre of the room. He would then detach a sheet, pass it neatly and lightly between his lips, divide it, fold up each leaf double, and thus you had in a moment the sheet of foolscap transformed into something like two passa

ble sheets of pigmy letter paper, with all its roughness preserved. There was no occasion for paper-cutters, or penknives. The inkstand was en suite: it was, I think, of tin; but so battered and grim from age and service, that its original composition was doubtful. The stumps it usually contained were sacred to the Doctor's hieroglyphics; few beside could use them. A bundle of pens was mostly thrown down for any other writer's use, and a box of wafers and a waferseal, a stick of wax, and Parr's own armorial signet, were at your option.

JOHN MILTON.

Milton's opinions were the result of earnest independent thought, carried on in the depths of his own mind, without heed to the dogmas of any sect, established or recusant. And, as they were not formed from a comparison of the opinions of any sect, so neither can they be pressed into the service of any. Sever and sectarianize them, and you give them another meaning from the meaning which they

had in his mind. It is mean and paltry to say that you use his words. What signify the words? Do you really believe that the men who have strained Scripture to support cruelty and crime, and did not change a letter, but merely took away the feeling and sense of the original, are one whit better than those who thought themselves at liberty to omit and interpolate whenever it suited their convenience ?

If it is base to give a false impression of a single passage by wrenching it from its context, how much baser, if rightly considered, is it to give a false impression of a mind like Milton's, in which all the truths interpenetrate and nourish each other, and can no more be divided, without losing their efficacy and virtue, than an artery can be divided from the body, and yet continue to perform its functions. The truth is, that no sect can compel Milton into its wooden walls and mud enclosures. It is not possible that he should be holden of them. They may, if they please, fight around his body; they may tear him limb from limb; and each, having carried some portion of him into its own den, may boast that it possesses Milton; but it is false. The living spirit is not with any of them. He whose sect was the universe, cannot dwell with those whose universe is their sect. While they are endeavoring to make him repeat their Shibboleths, he is joining in the "myriad harpings and seven-fold hallelujahs around the throne of God."

THE FAMILY SUIT.

The son-in-law of a chancery barrister having succeeded to the lucrative practice of the latter, came one morning in breathless ecstasy to inform him that he had succeeded in bringing nearly to its termination, a cause which had been pending in the court of scruples for several years. Instead of obtaining the expected congratulations of the retired veteran of the law, his intelligence was received with indignation. "It was by this suit,"

exclaimed he, "that my father was enabled to provide for me, and to portion your wife, and with the exercise of common prudence it would have furnished you with the means of providing handsomely for your children and grand-children."

DANTE.

When this distinguished poet was in banishment at Verona, he had for his patron Candella Scala, the prince of that country. At his court were several strolling players, one of whom, distinguished for his ribaldry, was much caressed beyond the others. The prince, on one occasion, when this man and Dante were both present, highly extolled the former, and, turning to the poet, said, "I wonder that this foolish fellow should have found out the secret of pleasing us all, and making himself admired; while you, who are a man of great sense, are in little esteem :" to which Dante replied, "You would cease to wonder at this, if you knew how much the conformity of characters is the source of friendship."

CHINESE ALMANACS.

The company of stationers have not in China the honor of gulling the people as they have in England. The good people of the Celestial Empire are annually cheated by the authority of the Emperor himself. Besides astronomical calculations, &c., the Chinese almanacs contain the days and hours divided into lucky and unlucky, by judicial astrology: the time is marked when to let blood; nay, the lucky minute when to ask a favor of the Emperor, to honor the dead, offer sacrifice, marry, build, invite friends, and every thing relating to public or private affairs. These works are in everybody's hand, and are regarded as oracles.

LADIES' DRESSES.

In the time of Henry VIII. the gown, composed of silk or velvet, was shortened or lengthened according to the rank of the wearer. The countess was obliged, by rules of etiquette,

to have a train both behind and before, which she hung upon her arm, or fastened upon her girdle; the baroness, and all under her degree, were prohibited from assuming that badge of distinction. The matron was distinguished from the unmarried woman, by the different mode of her head attire: the hood of the former had been recently superseded by a coif or close bonnet, of which the pictures of Holbein give a representation; while the youthful and the single, with characteristic simplicity, wore the hair braided with knots of ribbon.

THE LAST VERY BAD PUNS.

This being what is called the dull season, it is uncommonly pleasant to mark the effect it has upon the human mind, in producing such abominable puns as the following

SNUFF.

Even among the rudest and poorest of the inhabitants of Scotland, and at a period when their daily meal must have been always scanty, and frequently precarious, one luxury seems to have established itself, which has unaccountably found its way into every part of the world. We mean tobacco. The inhabitants of Scotland, and especially of the Highlands, are notorious for their fondness for snuff; and many were the contrivances by which they formely reduced the tobacco into powder. Dr. Jamieson, the etymologist, defines a mill to be the vulgar name for a snuff-box, one especially of a cylindrical form, or resembling an inverted cone. "No other name," says he, "was formerly in use. The reason assigned for this designation is, that when tobacco was introduced into this country, those who wished to have snuff were wont to toast the leaves before the fire, and then bruise them with a bit of wood in the box; which was therefore called a mill, from the snuff being ground in it." This, however, is said to be not quite correct; the old snuff-machine being like a nutmeg-grater, which made snuff as often as a pinch was required.

A MOTTO.

A constant frequenter of city feasts having grown enormously fat, it was proposed to write on his back, "Widened at the expense of the Corporation of London.”

PARTY RAGE IN THE 15TH CENTURY.

Party rage ran so high in 1403, that an act of parliament was found necessary to declare "Pulling out of eyes and cutting out of tongues to be felony."

HUMAN ENJOYMENTS.

To complain that life has no joys, while there is a single creature whom we can relieve by our bounty, assist by our counsels, or enliven by our presence, is to lament the loss of that which we possess; and is just as rational as to die for thirst with the cup in our hands.