he was found to be insensible. The vessel soon after making Gibraltar, he was deposited in a hospital at that place, where he remained for some months, still insensible; and some time after he was brought from Gibraltar on board the Dolphin frigate, to a dépôt for sailors at Deptford. While he was at, Deptford, the surgeon under whose care he was, was visited by Mr. Davy, who was then an apprentice at this hospital: the surgeon said to Mr. Davy, I have a case which I think you would like to see. It is a man who has been insensible for many months; he lies on his back with very few signs of life; he breathes, indeed, has a pulse, and some motion in his fingers; but in all other respects he is apparently deprived of all powers of mind, volition, or sensation.' Mr. Davy went to see the case; and, on examining the patient, found that there was a slight depression on one part of the head. Being informed of the accident which had occasioned this depression, le recommended the man to be sent to St. Thomas's hospital. He was placed under the care of Mr. Cline; and when he was first admitted into this hospital, I saw him lying on his back, breathing without any great difficulty; his pulse regular, his arms extended, and his fingers moving to and fro to the motion of his heart; so that you could count his pulse by this motion of his fingers. If he want ed food, he had the power of mov ing his lips and tongue; and this action of his mouth was the signal to his attendants for supply. ing this want.

"Mr. Cline, on examining his head, found an obvious depression; and 13 months and a few days after the accident, he was carried

into the operating theatre, and there trephined. The depressed portion of bone was elevated from the skull. While he was lying on the table, the motion of his fingers went on during the operation, but no sooner was the portion of bone raised than it ceased. The operation was performed at one o'clock in the afternoon; and at four o'clock, as I was walking through the wards, I went up to the man's bed-side, and was surprised to see him sitting up in his bed. He had raised himself on his pillow. I asked him if he felt any pain, and he immediately put his hand to his head. In four days from that time he was able to get out of bed, and began to converse; and in a few days more was able to tell us where he came from. He recollected the circumstance of his having been pressed, and carried down to Plymouth, or Falmouth; but from that moment up to the time when the operation was performed (that is, for a period of 13 months and some days), his mind had remained in a state of perfect oblivion. He had suffered a complete death, as far as regarded his mental and almost all his bodily powers; but by removing a small portion of bone with the saw, he was at once restored to all the functions of his mind, and almost all the powers of his body."

The comparative strength of Ani mals.-The first instrument for comparing different degrees of animal strength was invented by Gra ham, and improved by Desaguiliers; but being constructed of wooden work, it was too bulky and heavy to be portable; and be sides, to make experiments on dif ferent parts of the body, several machines were necessary, each suited to the part to be tried.

At the request of Buffon and Guineau, M. Regnier was induced to direct his attention to the subject, and produced a much simpler and more convenient instrument, which has been since known by the name of "Regnier's Dynanometer." This instrument consists of a spring, 12 inches in length, composed of the best steel, well welded and tempered, and bent into the form of an ellipsis. When a person compresses this spring with his hands, or when a horse draws it out lengthwise, by pulling the two extremities, the sides of

the spring approach each other; and by an apparatus appended to it, consisting of an index and semicircular plate, the degree of approach, and consequently of effort employed, is ascertained with the greatest accuracy.

One of the most singular facts respecting man, determined by means of this instrument, is the superiority in point of strength of the civilized over the savage state, and of the Englishman over the Frenchman. The following is one of M. Regnier's tables, made up from actual trial :

STRENGTH.

With the With the Hands. Reins.

Auricular Organs.-Sir Everard Home has recently made some inquiries by way of comparison between the auricular organs of man and quadrupeds. The result of his researches seems to prove, that shrill tones, or the upper notes of an instrument, have comparatively little effect in exciting the attention of animals, whilst the full lower tones stimulate them almost to fury. Sir Everard observes, "that the effect of the high notes of the piano-forte upon the great lion in Exeter Change, only called his attention, which was considerable, though he remained silent and motionless. But no sooner were the flat, or lower notes, sounded, than he sprung up, lashed his tail, and yelled violently, and endeavoured to break loose; and became altogether so furious, as to VOL. LXV.

alarm the spectators present. This violent excitement ceased with the discontinuance of the music. The deep tones of the French horn also produced a similar effect with the lower tones of the piano-forte on the elephant, and other animals, on which the experiment was made.

Insects in Amber.-M. Schweigger, having very attentively examined the insects contained in the bits of yellow amber found off the coasts of Prussia, and which at first sight might be thought to be the same as the present insects of that country, has discovered, that they in fact often belong to the same genera, but not to the same species as those living at the present day. Among the small number of insects described and figured in the work of this author, are an unknown species of scorpion, and a spider T*

which differs from all the species living at present, in not having the head of a single piece with the thorax. Mr. Germar, professor at Halle, has given the result of a similar investigation in an Entomological Journal, where he tries to determine some species of those amber insects, the analogues of which are not found alive at the present day.

Animalcules in the Arctic Ocean. -Captain Scoresby, in his voyage to Spitzbergen, observed in the sea a colour that had " the appearance of an admixture with flowers of sulphur or mustard: whenever the ship passed through any of this peculiar water, the patch or streak was divided, and did not again unite; from which circumstance it appeared, that the colouring matter was quite superficial. Suspecting it to be of animal nature, a quantity of the yellowish-green water was procured; and, on examination by the miscroscope, was found to contain animalcules in immense numbers. The larger pro

portion of these, consisting of s transparent substance of a lemonyellow colour, and globular form, appeared to possess very little power of motion; but a part, amounting, perhaps, to a fifth of the whole, were in continual action. Some of these being seen advancing by a slightly-waving motion, at the rate of 1-180th of an inch in a second, and others spinning round with considerable celerity, gave great interest and liveliness to the examination. But the progressive motion of the most active, however distinct and rapid it might appear under a high magnifying power, was, in reality, extremely slow; for it did not exceed an inch in three minutes. At this rate, they would require 151 days to travel a nautical mile. The Condor, it is generally believed, could fly round the globe at the equator, assisted by a favourable gale, in about a week; these animalcules, in still water, could not accomplish the same distance in less than 8,935 years."

Ascent of Mount Rosa. The 25th volume of the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Turin contains an account of a journey to the top of the southern peak of Mount Rosa, a singular mountain of the Pennine Alps, forming a circus of gigantic peaks round the village of Macugnaga, and supposed to derive its name from some resemblance to an ex

panded rose. Its summit has hitherto been regarded as the most elevated point in Europe, except

that of Mont Blanc; and the observations made on this occasion by Messrs. Zumstein and Vincent, the enterprising individuals who accomplished the ascent, tend to prove its superior height even to Mont Blanc. Vincent first reconnoitred the mountain, particularly the frozen steep leading to the south-west peak. He proceeded across immense beds of snow to the summit of a lofty pyramid of ice, where, but for a heavy snow-storm beneath him, a most extensive

prospect would have presented itself. At this point he fixed a cross as a signal, and returned to his companion. On the 11th of August, 1819, the two travellers, furnished with proper philosophical instruments, as well as with cramps to their shoes, hooks, and poles shod with iron, set out attended by a hunter. They reached the region of eternal snow, and passed those miners' cabins which are esteemed the most elevated dwellings in Europe, and habitable only during two months in the year. Hence every step of their progress required the aid of their hooks and poles, and they were obliged to protect their eyes with veils and glasses. They soon found themselves on the glaciers, and saw the summit of Mont Blanc, illumined by the rays of the rising sun. For several hours they advanced across a sea of ice, assisted by the solid snow, which formed bridges from one mass of ice to another. Thus they reached the rock at which the glacier of Embours commences. Here they were 11,256 feet above the level of the sea: vegetation had nearly disappeared, only a few lichens and umbellicarias being discoverable. The ice now became

more broken up, and their passage

over masses of snow of uncertain solidity, with deep abysses beneath them, was far from enviable. A violent snow-storm now overtook them, from which they found shelter under an impending mass of ice, of threatening appearance, and which, the following day, actually fell with a horrible crash. The remainder of their journey, although short, was the most perilous, as they had to climb an almost perpendicular acclivity, by means of steps, which they cut as they proceeded, whilst a terrific gulf

yawned beneath their feet, into which the slightest trip must have precipitated them. On the summit of the south-west peak, which appeared to be 13,920 Paris feet above the level of the sea, they drank to the health of Saussure and Humboldt. By their observations made here, the highest peak of Mount Rosa appeared to be 15,600 Paris feet above the level of the sea, whereas that of Mont Blanc is only 14,793.

Russian Voyage of Discovery. The ships Wostok and Mirni, the first commanded by captain Bellinghausen, the second by captain Lazarew, sailed from Cronstadt, July 3rd, 1819, and having touched at Copenhagen, Portsmouth, and Rio de Janeiro, proceeded to the South Polar Seas. On the 24th of December, they were in the 52nd degree of latitude, and perceived land covered with snow: the following day, they approached King George's Island, the N.E. coasts of which were surveyed by Cook: they spent two days in surveying the S.W. coasts. On the 17th they passed Clerk's Rock, steering towards Sandwich Land; and, on the 22nd, discovered a new island, to which captain B. gave the name of Marquis of Traverse's I. (the Russian Minister of the Marine.) This island contained a peaked mountain, which was constantly smoking, and surrounded by volcanic substances. They ascended it; but the expedition was without naturalists, those who had engaged to accompany it not having joined at the appointed time. On the 27th, they passed the isles De La Rencontre, at the distance of 30 miles; and on the 29th, reached the island called by Cook, Sandwich Land. The great English navigator thought that

those black rocks, which rise from the bosom of an ocean enveloped in eternal fogs. The moss, the only vegetation of King George's Island, disappears entirely at Sandwich Land, which ought to be called the Southern Sandwich Islands, to distinguish them from those in the great ocean. Floating ice began to fill the sea; the Walruss, and the Penguins in great numbers, chased the fish. On the 4th of January 1820, the expedition, after reaching lat. 60° 30′, left Sandwich Land, and sailed eastward, following at first the parallel of 59°, but gradually it reached, in an oblique line, 69° 30′. In this latitude a barrier of eternal ice arrested the navigators. The Russians were more than once on the point of perishing in 'these frightful seas; the floating ice threatened to dash their vessels to pieces; and the enormous waves, disengaging them from the shock of the ice, exposed them to the danger of falling over. They suffered dreadfully from the snow and humidity, though it was the summer season in that hemisphere. Happily the most violent tempests did not occur till after the 7th of March; and, on the other hand, it was from the 3rd to the 7th of March that the masses of floating ice were the most numerous. These dates prove, that, even in those high latitudes, the approach of the equinox is accompanied, as among us, by great commotions in the air and

the water. The Aurora Australis often charmed the expedition. It appeared to come constantly from the Pole, and not from all the points of the horizon; it delighted the navigators by the variety and brilliancy of its colours, which resembled those of the rainbow. It assumed a thousand momentary forms: sometimes, like a whitish column, it arose steadily in the sky; sometimes, broken into bright rays, it seemed to traverse the region of the clouds. As early as the fifth of March, the Mirni had parted from the Wostok, to preceed in a lower latitude to Port Jackson,-avery judicious arrangement, because the twofold route of these vessels across the Polar Seas to the south of Sandwich Land, of the Island of Circumcision and Kerguelen's Land, has swept a great extent of seas hitherto unknown, and almost demonstrated that no land of any considerable extent exists there, since the two Russian vessels, taking two different routes, did not meet even with an islet. the 19th of March the Wostok steered northwards, and on the 30th anchored in Port Jackson, after a cruise of 130 days in the south Polar Seas. The Mirni joined seven days afterwards. This first campaign was remarkable: it conducted the Russian flag through a part of the ocean where captain Cook had indeed made some bold advances, and rather nearer to the Pole than those of captain Bellinghausen; but the latter, by sailing on a parallel, remained longer within the Polar circle than Cook.

On

On the 31st of October 1820, the expedition quitted Port Jackson to enter the Polar Seas a second time. On departing from