SPECTABILIA. '
Hew To MAKE THE DEMAND EQUAL. TO THE SUPPLY.—An unprofitable consignment of spectacles lying upon a merchant's hands at Lima under the old Spanish regime, a corregidor was applied to, who gave an order that no Indian should appear at divine service unless ornamented with spectacles : the cargo was of course instantly sold at an enormous profit.
At one time, in the territories of Buenos Ayres, cattle was so plentiful and wood so scarce, that sheep used to be driven alive into the furnaces of the litnekilns, to serve for fuel. A decree of the King of Spain forbidding this barbarous practice is still preserved in the archives of Buenos Ayres.
Car-ne con cuero (meat in the skin) is a favorite dish on occasions of fes- tivity in parts of South America. It consists of a piece of meat cut out of the animal, with sufficient hide left on to wrap all round : when this is sewed together, it prevents the juices from escaping while it is roasted.
SEA-S1CRNESS ; SECRET WORTH ENOWIN9.—Sea-sickness has puzzled more grave doctors than one. Most, nay, all of them, have ransacked their brains to discover in what it consists, and what it arises from; when it is plain enough that it consists in vomiting, or in something like it, and must arise from the peculiar motion of the vessel, for nobody is sick on shipboard in a pond. Better it had been, to have applied themselves to the discovery, more empgrico, of something that would prevent so disagreeable a complaint. But this is left to old women, like some other branches of physic; and we are indebted to them for the knowledge of certain articles which are said to be infallible, such as a sheet of white paper laid on the chest, or an amulet of yellow saffron sewed up in a green bag, and applied to the pit of the stomach. On the present occasion, having neither of these at hand, I had no other re- source but to submit to fate, and much good it did inc.—Granville's St. Pe- tersburgh.
PENZANCE IVITRTLEs.---These plants thrive in the open air, and commonly attain the height of ten or twelve feet ; they may be seen trainedon the front of some of the houses in Penzance to double that height. A sufficient quan- tity of cuttings was obtained from a tree of this description, covering one of the homes, in the course of six weeks, to supply the oven with fuel for three months.—Dr. Paris's Guide to Mount's Bay and Land's End.
Dr. Gertanner, of Gottingen, has lately ventured to predict, that in the nineteenth century the transmutation of metals will be generally known and practised ! " Every chemist and every artist will make gold ; kitchen materials will be of silver, and even gold; which Neill contri- bute more than any thing else to prolong life, poisoned at present by the oxides of copper, lead, and iron, which we daily swallow with our food."
An interesting surgical operation has been performed at Coblentz, upon the Attorney-general to the King. This gentleman suffered by an increase of his tongue, which was attended with dreadful pain, and at length augmented to so great a size as to impede his breathing, and threatened speedy dissolu- tion. Upon examination, it was found that the jaw-bone was diseased in some complicated manner, and that the tongue, by a kind of ossification, had become joined to the bone. It was resolved upon by the surgeons to undertake the removal of the jaw. They ordered such a regimen for the patient as prepared him for the operation he was to undergo ; and they im- mediately practised upon dead subjects, so as to acquaint themselves with the peculiarities of that part of the jaw which they were to excise. The operation was then performed. They commenced it by extracting the, front teeth, in order that the instruments might have more easy application to the seat of the disease; and this being done, they made a cut through the fleshy part, and laid open the cheek. The jaw was then removed ; and that being done, the cheek was stitched together. The patient immediately felt relief. Ile breathed freely, and the oppression which had, as it were, dwelt upon his lungs, left him. The night succeeding the operation, he slept five hours ; and he has continued to improve so as to inspire the doctors with confidence in his ultimate recovery.
Previous page
