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be impressed with the most sure effect in the season of youth "by preventing bad habits, and giving to Christian ethics the earliest possession of the heart. It will be indispensible to teach mothers in the lowest station the means for preserving the health of their babies, for exerting their best feelings; and by engaging their affections and understanding in the dawn of reason to establish principles of piety, integrity, and benevolence." The term of childhood and youth passed under the parental roof is the apprenticeship of a young female to the duties of a nurse; and as children in the most exalted ranks imbibe the first impressions chiefly from hired attendants, it is the interest of the great and wealthy to take effectual measures for qualifying the poor for giving good example in the treatment of their offspring,

To be continued.

The Progress of Genius.

FROM OBSCURE AND LOW SITUATIONS, TO EMINENCE AND

CELEBRITY.

"Genius is that gift of God which learning cannot confer, which no disadvantages of birth or education can wholly obscure."

JOHN HARRISON,

THE ingenuous inventor and maker of the famous Timekeeper, was bred a carpenter.—Having a turn for wheel-work, he constructed some wooden Clocks, the accuracy of which was much admired.

In 1735 he visited London with a machine, and was sent by the board of longitude to Lisbon to try it. From that time he went on improving his invention, and received the reward of £20,000, granted by parliament.

DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON,

THE learned critic and lexicographer, and author of so many valuable miscellaneous pieces, was the son of a Bookseller at Litchfield. His father dying and leaving him in poor circum

stances,

stances, he became usher of the school of Bosworth; and on the death of his mother a considerable time afterwards, his condition was so little meliorated, that he had recourse to writing a romance, to defray the expenses of her funeral and pay her debts; yet his literary labours at last procured him such celebrity, that the king granted him a pension of £300 per annum, and honoured him with a conversation in the Royal Library The Universities of Oxford and Dublin conferred on him the degree of L.L.D. His remains were interred in Westminster Abbey, and a statue, with an appropriate inscription, has been erected to his memory in St. Paul's Cathedral.

ECONOMICAL RECEIPTS.

A cheap Blacking for Shoes.

IN three pints of small beer, put two ounces of ivory black, and one pennyworth nf brown sugar.

As soon as they boil, then boil slowly till reduced to a quart. Stir it up with a stick every time it is used; and put it on the shoe with a brush when wanted.

put a desert spoonful of sweet oil, and

Another.

IVORY black, two ounces; brown sugar, one ounce and a half; sweet oil, half a table spoonful. Mix them well, and then gradually add half a pint of small beer.

TAKE

A Black Varnish for Old Straw or Chip Hats.

AKE best black scaling-wax, half an ounce; rectified. spirit of wine, two ounces ; powder the scaling-wax, and put it with the spirit of wine, into a four ounce phial; digest them in a sand heat, or near a fire, till the wax is dissolved; lay it on warm with a fine soft hair-brush, before a fire, or in the sun. It gives a good stiffness to old straw hats, and a beautiful gloss equal to new, and resists wet.

D 3.

USEFUL INFORMATION.

ACCIDENTS FROM COLD.

To prevent the Effects of Excessive Cold.

PERSONS are in danger of being destroyed by it, when they become very drowsy, or are affected with general numbness or insensibility of the body As the cold which proves fatal generally affects the feet first, great care should be taken to keep them as warm as possible.

1. By protecting them, when you are exposed to cold, with wool, or woollen socks, within the shoes or boots or with large woollen stockings drawn over them; or, when you ride, with hay or straw wrapped round them.

2. By keeping up a brisk circulation in the blood-vessels of the feet, which will be the best preserved by avoiding tight boots or shoes, by moving the feet constantly. Or when this is impracticable, from a confined situation, and two or more persons are exposed together,

3. By placing their feet, without shoes, against each other's breasts.

If, notwithstanding these precautions, a person should be rendered sleepy or insensible by cold, he must exert himself; and move about quickly; for, if he should sleep in the cold, he will inevitably perish.

The person thus affected should be kept from the fire; for acrid applications of every kind are very injurious.

On the effects arising from exposure to Intense Cold, and the treatment necessary for recovery.

THE general mildness of our climate, the influence of fashion, and the inconvenience of very warm clothing in many avocations of civilized life, are the principal reasons why the dress worn by the inhabitants of this country, is ill suited to protect them from the effects of severe cold. Thus circumstanced as to clothing, we may reckon it fortunate, that in the great and sudden variations of temperature, for which this climate is remarkable, the cold is seldom so intense as completely to destroy life by a short exposure to it, and that the opportunities of shelter and assistance are so numerous; as to render death from this cause, rather an unfrequent occurrence.

Where

Where the circulation and breathing is suspended from exposure to cold, the same precautions are necessary; for the sudden restoration of warmth to the body in this case, occasions such a general disturbance in the vital functions when they are renewed, as to prove almost instantly fatal. Instead, then, of carrying the body to the fire, or even into a warm room, it should at first be removed to an apartment without any fire. The clothes should be immediately taken off, and the whole body be well rubbed with snow, or washed in very cold water. When this has been continued for ten or fifteen minutes, we may begin the temperature of the body slowly, by using water made gradually warmer than the first, by repeated small additions of hot water to it.

In the mean time, the lungs should be diligently inflated in one or other of the methods already described, under the article on Drowning*.

As soon as the circulation and breathing are restored, the patient should be laid between the blankets in bed, and particular care taken, not to give him any strong or hot liquors, as these will readily excite a feverish state, accompanied, perhaps, with inflammation of some internal part, which may prove fatal. Weak wine-whey, with the cold just taken off, will, in general, be a very proper drink, as it will tend to bring on a gentle perspiration, and thereby serve to prevent the danger just mentioned.

If the person, previous to his exposure to the cold, has been exhausted from want of food, a small piece of bread, sopped in the yolk of an egg beaten up with a little milk and sugar, and a tea spoonful or two of brandy, or half a glass of wine, added to it,―should be given, and occasionally repeated until the patient's strength is so far recruited, as to admit of the cravings of appetite being gratified with safety. But if (as often happens) intoxication has had a considerable share in the business, an emetic or purgative glyster, given as soon as the pulse end breathing are re-established, will often assist in restoring the senses, and recruiting the strength: the propriety of this measure, however, will depend so much upon the circumstances of the case, that we could wish it to be always referred where it can, to the judgment of a medical person.

How Frost-bitten parts ought to be treated. THOUGH man has devised artificial means of defending his body against the action of cold, or more properly, of retaining

* See VOL. I. p. 139.

retaining the inbred or vital heat, yet it often happens that, by exposure to extreme cold, the fingers, ears, toes, &c. are frozen: thus, the natural heat of those parts is reduced to the lowest point consistent with life If, in such cases, artificial heat be too suddenly applied, a mortification will ensue, and the frost-bitten parts spontaneously separate. Hence they ought to be thawed, either by rubbing them with snow, or immersing them in cold water, and afterwards applying warmth in the most careful and gradual manner; by which they will soon be restored to their usual tone and activity. Indeed (a popular writer justly observes), the great secret, or art, of restoring suspended animation, consists in nicely adjusting the natural and artificial stimuli to the exact tone of the irritable fibre.

Vulgar Error respecting the putting of Spirits into Boots or Shoes to prevent the effects of Cold.

But

THE HE custom of pouring brandy into boots or shoes, when the feet have got wet, with a view to prevent the effects of cold, is a practice which (though very common) is founded on prejudice and misconception, and often proves fatal, by bringing on inflammation and consequent obstruction in the bowels. This practice is adopted upon the supposition that, because spirits, when swallowed, excite an universal warmth and restore the circulation in the extremities, they must do the same when applied to the extremities themselves. the reverse happens. Fluids, when evaporating, produce cold; and the ligter and more spirituous the fluid, the more quickly it evaporates, and the greater is the degree of cold generated. This may be proved by a very simple experiment. If one hand be wetted with spirit and the other with water, and both are held up to dry in the air, the hand wetted with spirit will feel infinitely colder than the other; whatever danger, therefore, arises from cold or damp feet, it is generally enhanced by the practice alluded to.

To prevent Danger from Wet Clothes.

KEEP if possible in motion, and take care not to go near a fire or into any very warm place, so as to occasion a sudden heat till some time after you have been able to procure dry clothes.

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