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Aberdeen, as one of the candidates for a bursary, the possession of which was to be determined by open competition. He went through the examinations, and though incomparably the youngest of the competitors, still he was the successful candidate. He entered the Divinity Hall before he was sixteen, and received license from the Associate Presbytery of Perth and Dunfermline

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at the age of twenty-one. preached before a newly-formed congregation at Slateford, near Edinburgh, and they immediately gave him an unanimous call: he was ordained their minister at twenty-two. Dr. Dick was an able minister, and proved his zeal in the cause by indefatigable labours, and by his literary contributions.

LITERARY NOTICES.

In the Press,

The Mother's Manual; or Illustrations of Female Education." By Mrs. Trollope.

A complete Series of the Works of "The Scottish Poets,' with Biographical Notices. By Mr. Atkinson.

"A Treatise on Astronomy." By Sir John Herschel.

"Dictionary of Commerce and Commercial Navigation." Second and Improved Edition.

Longman, Rees, and Co.'s "Catalogue of Second-Hand Books for 1833."

"Elements of Musical Composition." By Crotch. A New Edition preparing in small 4to.

"A Treatise on the Construction, Preservation, and Repair of the Violin, and of all other Bow Instruments." By Otto, Musical Instrument-Maker to the Court of the Archduke of Weimar.

"Zophiel; or, The Bride of Severn." A Poem. By Maria del Occidente. Dedicated to Robert Southey, Esq., L. L. D., who has

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MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

Priority of Constitutional Principles.

-A close attention to historical details, is often rewarded by some important discoveries. The charter which granted constitutional liberty to the little Canton of Neufchâtel and Vallangin,is dated just 12 months before the date of our Magna Charta.

Advice to the Friends of the Blind. -The Master, Wardens, and Court of Assistants of the Painters' Company, whose hall is in Little Trinitylane, Doctors' Commons, have the distribution annually of nearly 70,000l., 3 per cents. in sums of 101. to poor blind persons of 60 years of age and upwards, who have been deprived of sight 3 years, and whose incomes do not exceed 107. per an num. Any respectable person who has never received parochial relief, may apply at Christ's Hospital, Newgate-street, for a petition for Mr. Hetherington's charity for the blind. They are, if approved of, allowed 101. a-year. The Cordwainer's Company distributes annually 51. each to more than 100 blind persons, male and female, who reside within 100 miles of London; when the objects of this charity have been approved of, they receive a donation for life. At the Eye Infirmary Moor-fields, applicants will be informed of other charities for the blind.

March of Paper.-At a dinner, recently held in the city of Dublin, which was given by a respectable printer, to a large number of persons who had exerted themselves for the preservation of his premises from fire on a previous occasion, the table was covered by a single sheet of

paper, the dimensions of which were-length 125 feet-breadth 5 feet.

Statue of Memnon.-The true solution of the cause of the musical sound which proceeds from this statue, has been lately discovered by an English gentleman. The learned and ingenious Mr. Wilkinson, who has resided at Thebes upwards of ten years, studying the monuments of Egypt, appears to have solved the mystery of this music. He discovered that some metallic substance had been inserted in its breast, which when struck, emitted a very melodious sound. From the attitude of the statue, a priest might easily have ascended in the night, and remained completely concealed behind the mighty arms, while he struck the breast; or, which is not improbable, there was some secret way to ascend, now blocked up; for this statue, with its companion, although now isolated, was once part of an enormous temple, the plan of which may now be traced.

Mysteries of Nature.-It is related by Mr. Mantel, the distinguished geologist, that when a new pond is formed on the heights of the South Downs, near Brighton, and receives a small supply of water from a few showers, it becomes inhabited by various fresh water plants, by shell fish, by even frogs and lizards.

This phenomenon has occurred in cases where the new pond was altogether remote from any other, and its elevation above the level of the surrounding country was from four to five hundred feet.

Ten Miles of Paper.-Paper used to be sold by the sheet, the quire, or the ream; but in the march of improvement, stationery will not remain stationary; and so it is now sold by measure. The following order was received from a pottery firm the other day: the writer, it will be observed, gives his orders with as much coolness and indifference as if they were not at all extraordinary:-"Gentlemen,-Please to send us ten miles of your best printing tissue paper in length-six miles to be thirty inches broad, and four miles twenty-two inches broad-to be wrapped on wooden rollers, according to the plan given to Mr. George Fourdrinier." The object of having the paper of such great length is, that it may be printed from engraved cylinders, in the same way as calicoes, &c.

Wall of China.-One of the most prodigious efforts of man is the Chinese wall separating the Celestial empire from Tartary. This wall is 2000 years old, and is about 1200 miles in length; its height, indeed, varies according to the circumstances of the surface; but it is no exaggeration to say that the medium height is thirty feet, and the medium breadth twenty-four feet! The foundation is laid upon enormous square stones, the superstructure is brick, and the centre is a kind of mortar, covered with flag stones. A parapet of no ordinary strength runs on each side of an embattled wall, on which are turrets placed at distances, by which signals can be communicated with the rapidity of the telegraph.

Gas Light.-Winsor's patent gas preceded, by many years, the successful introduction of gas as a source of street light. It was tried, however, first on the Carlton-house side of Pall Mall, (the Athenæum side now (and afterwards in Bishopsgate Street. But in both cases it

failed, and was hooted out of use by the voices of some of the first philosophers of that day.

Labours of the Senate.-There are now sitting, by authority of Parliament, commissions respectively to inquire into the poor laws, into the condition of the poor in Ireland, into the state of the population employed in factories, into the collection of the excise, into the state of the law, into charitable bequests, and into ecclesiastical revenues: committees to inquire into the state of corporations, into the state of agriculture, the state of trade, manufactures, and shipping; to consider the state of the woods, forests, and crown lands; extraordinary committees on several elections, and many other committes on subjects of minor importance. The military and naval expenditure is to be submitted to a committee.

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Hobbies of Philosophers. A curious book might be formed of a collection of the follies of the wise. Every body has heard of Sir Humphry Davy's fantasic costume which was worn by him when he went out to fish; but few, we believe, are aware that a similar obliquity of taste was shown by one of the most judicious and sagacious philosophers of any age, we mean Saussure. During his scientific excursions in the Alps, this celebrated inquirer always wore a full dressed scarlet coat and gold laced hat; and on one occasion, whilst sitting on Mount Bremen, the lace of his gaudy hat attracted the electric fluid from a passing cloud, an accident which might have seriously, if not fatally, injured him.

March of Newspapers.-A journal called Miszr Wekaiesi (Egyptian News) has lately been started in Alexandria; it is written in the Arabic and Turkish languages, but is confined entirely to civil and military matters. In the vignette

which adorns this paper, there is a representation of half a sun just rising from behind a pyramid, at the side of which is a flourishing young palm tree.

Possessions in Africa and on its Coast.-Those of England are the islands of Bathurst, Sierra Leone, establishments on the Gold coast, slave coast, Cape coast, islands of Fernando Po, Ascension, St. Hele.na, Tristan d'Acunbra, Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and several small islands belonging to the Madagascar Archipelago.

Iron Houses.-The new process for melting iron by raw coal and hot air blast, is producing a great change in the iron trade; and it is anticipated, by good judges, that no long period will elapse before cast iron of good quality will be

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manufactured at about 40s. to 50s. the ton. When this takes place generally, it must inevitably produce an effect which will pervade almost every condition of society. and poor will, by degrees, find themselves inclosed in iron cages; and fir joists, and slate roofs, will become things to be alluded to as betokening something venerable from antiquity.

Abbatoirs.--There are five of these establishments (public slaughter houses) in Paris. The buildings are large and erected of stone, and "contain every accommodation for the slaughtering of cattle, without any of the ill consequences which too often arise to the health of the inhabitants in the neighbourhood. The propriety of imitating the French in this very necessary establishment will be feit, when it is known that upwards of two millions of heads of oxen, sheep, calves, pigs, &c., are slaughtered every year in London, and mostly in the crowded -parts of the metropolis.

A Strange People.-In the province of Chaco lived a race called Abiponians, the most remarkable in

the world for longevity. They lived on horseback; and it is supposed that it was in this way that they gained the power of maintaining existence so long. One of this race, at the age one of hundred years, will leap on his horse, as nimbly as any youth, and sit on the animal's back for hours. All his bodily functions. teeth, and eyes, are in the best state of preservation. In this district an individual who dies at eighty is considered to be cut off untimely.

Longevity. The belief that great abstinence is favourable to long life seems to be justified by facts. The primitive Christians who retired into the deserts of Arabia and Egypt, lived in health and cheerfulness on twelve ounces of bread per day: of these Christians, we find that St. Anthony lived 105 years, James the Hermit 104, St. Epiphanius 115, Simeon the Stylite 112, and Romauld 120.

Italian Taste.-A strange rage for peculiar and ludicrous titles for their institutions has prevailed in Italy. The famous Academy of Della Crusca took its device of a sieve, as well as its title from those of a former Italian academy, called Degli Scossi-that is, the Academy of the Well Shaken. Its emblem was a sieve; and the object of such a selection was to imply that the mind requires to be shaken and well freed from chaff. There were other institutions, well known in Italy, called the Academies of Fools or Simpletons, of the Anxious, of the Confused, of the Impatient, of the Unstable, of the Drowsy, of the Sleepers, of the Awakened, of the Undeceived, of the Agitated, of the Humid, of the Inflamed, of the Insipid, of the Audacious, of the Dead, of the Fantastic, of the Thundery (Fulminales), of the Smoky, of the Ramblers, &c. The Academy Della Crusa is called, in Latin, Academia Furfuratorum, or Academy of the Bran-sifters.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW.

JULY, 1833.

ART. I.-Report of the Experiments on Animal Magnetism, made by a Committee of the Medical Section of the French Royal Academy of Sciences. Read at the Meetings of the 21st and 28th of June, 1831. Translated, and now for the first time published, with a Historical and Explanatory Introduction, and an Appendix. By J. C. COLQUHOUN, Esq. 1 vol. 8vo. Edinburgh: Cadell. 1833.

FOR the last half century the scientific circles of France have been agitated by discussions on the strange subject of animal magnetism. It was first taken up by the learned societies of that country, in consequence of the unusually bold pretensions set up by some of the early advocates of this practice, but particularly by Mesmer, whose name is handed down to posterity in association with the art.

Mesmer was a Swiss physician, who, about the middle of the last century, attracted much attention by his astrological writings. He held that the planets exercised a certain influence over the bodies of men, and that the agent in this influence was electricity. In the next work, however, which he published, he showed that his devotion had been directed towards a new object altogether, and that, instead of the stars, he now chose the magnet as his favourite subject of contemplation. It is well known that Mesmer practised magnetism to a great extent in France, and certainly he gained the reputation of having performed some wonderful cures. There was, however, about him a mystery, in which he may be said to have shrouded himself altogether from the prying eye of curiosity; and those who might have sustained his principles, were disgusted with the elaborate empiricism which so unfortunately characterised his practice. In the meantime animal magnetism throve apace in France; it became popular, and threatened to establish a system, whereby all regular medical science would be completely superseded. The profession took alarm; they united VOL. II. (1833) No. III,

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