a THE HUMAN SKIN. object of Mr. Wilson's assiduous researches; the Very few of us indeed are at all aware of the latter is the immediate object of his present work, nature of the covering of our own bodies. We see entitled "A Healthy Skin,"-a work which cannot "soft smooth pliant membrane, which invests the be too highly prized. He has here methodized his whole of the external surface of the body, following own discoveries and the discoveries of other physiall its prominences;" but we know not till the re-ologists and anatomists, and gives us a practical searches of science, which have reached only a few, treatise on the means of procuring and preserving a inform us that the whole of the interior of the body, healthy skin. When we remember that to this end all its cavities and bumps, are invested with a simi- we erect and preserve dwellings and manufacture lar, or rather the same covering. The skin passes, clothing-a large proportion of the labors of the comas at the lips or eyelids, into mucous membrane, munity having that for their object, it being in imand one becomes the other, as it is wholly excluded portance second only to supplying us with food (if, from or exposed to the free action of the atmo- in the wonderful economy of nature, any one part sphere. By its surface in the interior and on the ex- can be said to be only secondary)-we conclude that terior are all the functions of nutrition and decay, of we can scarcely overrate the value of such rehealth and disease, of appetite and sensation, carried searches as those of Mr. Wilson, and the practical on. Its changing action, according to circumstan- lessons he has successfully deduced from them.ces in every climate and temperature, keeps the body | Jerrold's Shilling Magazine. at one nearly uniform heat. It is subject to many diseases. Life has been sustained by food imbibed at its exterior pores; the disease which kills and the medicine which cures may both enter the same openings. It conducts electricity, that mysterious, invisible and intangible agency by which we are surrounded, and on the diffusion of which health is dependent into or out of every part of its frame. It is at once the great enveloping and secretory organ of the whole body, and the immediate means, except as to color, by which we communicate with the external world. It can become accordingly the substitute for our least glorious, but not the least useful organs, such as the kidneys, and is the means of conveying to us nearly all that we have learned of the glorious universe. GENERAL TOM THUMB AT COURT. [The General complains that his visit to the Queen ""Tisn't his fault, poor critter," ses Barnum; "Court Circlar only puts in the paper what's handed out to him chalked on a slate. One of the Honor Maids or Waiting Lords gives it him; and he only puts it in his best English, and then sends it to the papers." And they talk of a pure, enlightened press! I Its structure is not less wonderful than its uses. wonder if our own Mornia Airthquake would belittle It is composed of two layers; one horny and insen- itself by such doings! I have heerd of printer's sible, the other highly sensitive; the latter being the devils; and for sartin they must write such bamactual and universal organ of feeling, and the other boozlin with their pointed tails. 'Tisn't at all clear varying in thickness as it covers an exposed or hid-grit, Barnum "-ses I-" to be left out for Dukes and den part, its ever-attendant guard and protection. Marquises and such critters. I could not ha' thought Each of these layers is of a different, though analo- it of Gracious Majesty." upon Gracious Majesty; dear lady, she can't help it.' Still I wasn't to be smoothed round and round like a beaver hat, and I ses-" If I'd ha' been up to that deceivin varmint, Court Circlar, you don't think I'd have flung away my hornpipe and our national melody! No: they should have sent me to the Tower first." tian Hall was able to set up his carriage for life upon a baboon's head and a salmon's tail." gous structure, and performs a different office. "Gen'ral," ses Barnum, in his soft way-and Both are continually renewed, yet each preserves he'd gammon a whole bed of spinach by only winkin for ever its own distinct properties. The sensitive at it. "Gen'ral, mustn't be too hard skin is so full of nerves and blood-vessels, of which the scarf-skin is divested, that it is scarcely possible to insert a needle in any part of the whole body without causing pain and a flow of blood. Its sur face is uneven, to increase its extent and multiply its power. Its papillæ, microscopic in size, by which the enlargement of the surface is provided for, are each composed of a hair-like vessel and a "Now, Gen'ral," ses Barnum, "don't let your minute nerve, several times bent upon themselves, dander rise, And for the weakness of the Britishers, In every part of it there are perspiratory tubes, with don't despise it, for we shall turn it into ready attendant glands, terminating on the surface in a money. If they cared for what's called genius, they pore. To give one striking example of its extraor-wouldn't suit us. I'm told that a man at the 'Gypdinary structure, we may mention that Mr. Wilson has counted 3528 of those pores in a square inch on the palm of the hand; and each tube, of which the pore is an opening, being a quarter of an inch long, it follows, that in a square inch of skin on the palm of the hand, there exists a length of tube equal to 882 inches, 73 feet. In other parts of the body, the pores are not so numerous. Taking 2800 as a fair average for each square inch of surface in a man of ordinary height, the number of pores will be 7,000,000, and the length of perspiratory tube 1,750,000 inches or nearly 28 miles." Well may Mr. "And more than that," ses Barnum, "he sold her Wilson say, that of this wonderful covering, which real comb and glass fifty times over for a swinging ignorance and brutality ever yet fetter, scourge and sum-but all private, in course-to dowagers of the brand, we are wofully ignorant, and science cannot nobility. By the way," ses Barnum-and he looked be better employed than in ascertaining its proper- on a sudden as bright as though he'd wiped his face ties, and in teaching us how it may best be preserv-with the tail of a comet-" by the way, Gen'ral, you ed. The former has been for several years the great didn't happen to be born with a caul-eh ?" "Lor!" ses I-for I was 'stonished-" as how?" Why, he put 'em both together, and called 'em a mermaid. The shillings fell in showers. There was no keeping out the people of quality. One old baronite was flung down in the mob, and broke his leg; but he warn't to be discountenanced; for the very next day he came upon crutches." "And set up his carriage upon a false mermaid?" ses I, quite bewondered. "I don't know; mother can tell you," ses I. Because, if you was, I've no doubt it would sell agin and agin to the Lords of the Admiralty. That pint must be thought of," ses Barnum, seriously. "Howsumever, if your name isn't yet in the Court Circlar, you was gilt and jewelled last night at the Palace tarnation. Look here;" whereupon Barnum took out such a heap of gold and glitter, from a drawer, I thought to myself, "I'm as fine as a new weathercock." "Let us catalogue 'em, reg'lar," ses Barnum, and he got pen and paper. "Call 'em out, and I'll write." A gold bracelet, from Gracious Majesty, with a watch a tickin still in the middle of it. flung in at the winder, no doubt by one o' the housemaids of the Palace. I was so ryled, I was goin to climb up the leg of the table, and catch hold of the thimble, and fling it into the fire, when the Governor put his hand upon me. "Gen'ral," ses he, "I guess your thoughts. Arter you were in bed last night, I thought much of that thimble. I know a little of arithmetic and morals, and they are linked tarnation close together. Well, I find that allowin one housemaid out of fifty that comes to see you gives you a silver thimble, and of course she will " "Why of course?" ses I. "If Gracious Majesty gives a watch, in course the housemaid will give a thimble. It's example in high places that makes the true vally of monarchy. Well, I calculate that every housemaid out of fifty "Barnum," ses I, "I did feel a leetle like a dog with this about my neck last night. Couldn't it be taken in for my leg, kinder Order of the Garter-presenting you with her thimble, we shall have at like?" Barnum nodded, and I went on. Four diamond shirt-studs out of Prince Albert's own busum. "Well, they re nation genteel, but a leetle small; not much bigger than big peas. Howsumever, I'll wear 'em till bigger come, and then they'll serve for counters at cards." Two large emerald brooches, from two Duchesses. "Yes; with "I tell you what I shall do," ses I. these brooches I'll give trade a lift, I'll wear 'em for buckles, and stick 'em in my shoes. And so," ses I, "like a true republican, look down upon the aristocracy." Barnum didn't speak, but grinned, as much as to say, "Gen'ral, bless you!" Three gold chains, given from the necks of three Countesses. "Two of 'em jined," ses I, "will make me a skippin rope; and the third will go round my waist to tie my dressin-gown," Five-and-twenty pearl and diamond and ruby rings, warm from the fingers of several ladies of nobility. least two thousand bushels, three hundred pecks, two quarts, of silver thimbles," "Lor!" ses I. "And what, Governor, shall we do with 'em ?"-Punch. CHARACTERS OF THE ENGLISH, SCOTCH AND IRISH.Looking, then, at the populace of the three kingdoms (or rather queendoms), it may easily be perceived that there is a considerable difference amongst them with respect to temperament. The Irish are gay, ardent, and impetuous; the Scotch are comparatively cool, steady and cautious; the English are perhaps a fair average between the two. I remember it was not inelegantly observed by a friend of mine, that an Englishman thinks and speaks; a Scotchman thinks twice before he speaks; and an Irishman speaks before he thinks. A lady present added, "A Scotchman thinks with his head: an Irishman with his heart." This allusion to impulse, operating more rapidly than deliberation, is akin to Miss Edgeworth's remark, that an Irishman may err with his head, never with his heart; the truth, however, being, that he obeys his heart, not always waiting for the dictates of his head. Some years ago there was a caricature, very graphically portraying these grades of difference in the ardor of the three nations. An Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotchman, were represented as looking through a confectioner's window at a beautiful young woman serving in the shop. "Oh!" exclaims Mr. Patrick, 'do let us be after spending a half-crown with the dear craytur, that we may look at her conveniently, and have a bit of chat with her." gant dog!" says Mr. George, "I am sure one-half the money will do quite as well. But let us go in by all Governor," ses I, "that will be very handsum; means; she's a charming girl." "Ah, wait a wee," besides, it will ryle the men, and that gives me interposed Mr. Andrew; "dinna ye ken it'll serve special satisfaction. For I could see 'em, last night, oor purpose equally weel just to ask the bonny lassie while some of the pretty critters was kissin me-not to gie us twa sixpences for a shilling, and inquire but what I could have done with half the allowance where's Mr. Thompson's hoose, and sic like? We're 1 got, for I have seen flies killed with treacle-I could no hungry, and may as weel save the siller." And see 'em a looking at me, as if they could have swal-here is the old story of the experiment made in Lonlowed me like a mint-julep. And 'specially the geniuses, as they called themselves, looked in that fashion;-and they needn't; they never give me I didn't know what to make of them; but I seed that something was wriggling in the mind of Barnum; for he sot bitin the end of his pen, like a rabbit at a cabbage-stalk. At last--his face lightin up like gas-he ses, "I tell you what, Gen'ral. Them rings-when you get more of 'em-and byand-by you'll have as many as a thousand rattlesnakes them rings may be made a great feature. We'll have 'em all linked together, and make a kinder chain of; and then, when you go agin upon the stage, you may dance a hornpipe in the fetters; and the name of every lady's ring may go into the play-bills." แ nothin." 66 Genius, my dear Gen'ral," ses Barnum, "never does. Don't expect it. It may be, that genius has seldom anything to give-but, however-it is to gifted creatures like yourself, Gen'ral, genius is always shabby. Howsumever, to proceed with the catalogue." "You extrava don by two friends, who spoke to every laborer they met between St. Giles's and Holborn Hill, until they had found one belonging to each of the three countries; and to each, but separately, they put the question, "What would you take to stand on the top of the monument all night with only your nightclothes on?" The Englishman, in a straightfor ward way, replied at once, "Five pounds;" the Scotchman cautiously asked, "What will you gie?" and the Irishman, off-hand, exclaimed, "Sure, I'd be after taking a bad cowld."-Smith's Irish Diamonds.|. RAILROAD MANIA IN GERMANY.-The mania for | of Brunswick, was granted to M. Terasse de Marthe construction of railroads which possessed England, seems, in a commensurate degree, to have taken possession of Germany, and the conduct of the Prussian Cabinet has been such as not only to advance this feeling, but to give it a changefulness that has been very detrimental to the interests of the people. The following summary statement of the financial position of the empire will afford a good idea of the difficulties that are to be met and overcome. That they will be, we have no doubt, but it will be many years before an even course of affairs will bless Germany. When it does come, however, the reward will be worth the pain of obtaining it. If we inquire the amount of capital already invested in this class of industrial undertakings, we shall find, that during the last eight years, a sum of £36,000,000 has been employed, in opening 3880 miles of railway communication. Of this sum somewhat more than that has been furnished by the several governments for the construction of State lines. The sum still needed, within a period of five years, to meet the liabilities of lines 2200 miles in extent, now in course of formation, is, in round numbers, £37,500,000. We thus arrive at a total of something less than £75,000,000 sterling, which, within a period of thirteen years, has been, or will be converted into that species of public security which we call railway stock. We must further bear in mind that of the sum of £37,500,000, onehalf is to be provided out of government funds; and, being spread over a period of five years, would leave an annual sum of about £5,000,000 sterling to be covered from the respective budgets of the different States, and a like sum to be furnished by private capitalists. seilles, an officer in the queen's household, although the public thought his production inferior to that of M. Noel, professor in the college of Louis le Grand, who obtained the first accessit; but the queen, on being informed that her officer above named had appeared as a candidate, wrote three letters to the academy in his favor, designating the piece only by the motto, without giving the author's name. The academy, fancying from this that the king himself (Louis XVIII.) was among the candidates, and that the queen was eager for his success, accorded him the prize, or at least thought they had done so; but, on opening the capsule, they were not a little astonished to find, in lieu of the august name of Leopold's brother, the name of a common officer of the queen. A fashionable authoress complimented Frederick the Great very extravagantly, saying "that he was covered with glory, was the paragon of Europe, and, in short, the greatest monarch and man on earth." The King, rather distressed at this fulsomeness, replied, "Madam, you are as handsome as an angel, witty, elegant, and agreeable; in short, you possess all the amiable qualities; but you paint." Louis XIV. was weak enough to relish flattery. He found delight in singing the most fulsome passages of songs written in his own praise. Even at the public suppers, when the band played the airs to which they were set, the monarch delighted his courtiers by humming the same passages. What sort of courtiers he had about him may be inferred from the fact that one of them, when dying, begged pardon of the King for the "ugly faces" which the acuteness of his sufferings compelled him to make. This vice of flattery and fawning sycophancy is sometimes practised even by reverend authors. Thus, in some very adulatory doggerel on our present sovereign, written by a minor canon of Windsor, we are assured that there is " none so fair, so pure as she." Although the poet Young could complain that Let us now glance at the collective population, budgets and national debts of the German States (including of course, Austria), and we shall find that the number of inhabitants is about 60,000,000; the annual State expenditure about £56,000,000 stg., and the general funded debt of Germany may be set down approximately at about 1,000,000,000 of thalers, or £150,000,000 sterling. The bare consi- and deration of these respective items is sufficient to impress us with a sense of the magnitude of a crisis like the present, in a country where the monetary relations want that elasticity that results from our banking system. But we are very far from despon dency, when we consider that the average rate of interest in Germany, on good landed security, is but four per cent, and that the returns of railway profit on all the German lines, 19 in number, up to the close of 1844, gave an average dividend of 4 1-2 per cent on the capital invested, with the gains steadily increasing. LITERARY SYCOPHANCY. "She Shall funeral cloquence her colours spread, And scatter roses on the wealthy dead? Shall authors smile on such illustrious days. And satirise with nothing-but their praise ?? yet he himself disgraced his talents, and lowered his reputation, by the mean flattery with which he stuffed his dedication to great men. This foible of his character is thus cleverly touched on by Swift: "And Young must torture his invention To flatter knaves, or lose his pension." absurd laudation upon one another. In this reckSometimes authors heap the most outrageously less and unmeasured way of praising, Jasper Mayne has no hesitation in saying of "Master Cartwright," author of some tolerable "Comedies and Poems" (1651)— "Yes, thou to nature hadst joined art and skill; Horace Walpole, in his "Letters," relates that the Abbé Giustiniani, a noble Genoese, wrote a panegyric in verse on the empress queen. In thee Ben Jonson still held Shakspeare's quill." rewarded him with a gold snuff-box set with dia- Mrs. Thrale relates that Hannah More, on being monds, and a patent of theologian. Finding the introduced to Dr. Johnson, began singing his praise trade so lucrative, he wrote another on the King of in the warmest manner, and talking of the pleasure Prussia, who sent him a horn box, telling him that and the instruction she had received from his writ he knew his vow of poverty would not let him touchings with the highest encomiums. For some time gold; and that, having no theologians, he had sent him a patent to be captain of horse in those very troops that he had commended so much in his verse! I am persuaded that the saving the gold and brilliants was not the part which pleased his majesty the least." In August, 1787, the prize of poetry, proposed by the Comte d'Artois, for an elegy on Prince Leopold he heard her with that quietness which a long use of praise had given him; she then redoubled her strokes, and, as Mr. Seward calls it, peppered still more highly, till at length he turned suddenly to her, with a stern and angry countenance, and said, Madam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth having." |