vitrifiable: the former, examined with a microscope, resembles
large irregular fragments of rock; but the latter appears like so
many rough diamonds. In some instances, the particles of sand seem
to be highly polished and brilliant, like an assemblage of diamonds,
rubies, and emeralds.
Charcoal is a fine object for the microscope. It is found full of
pores, regularly arranged, and passing through its whole length.
[_English Magazine._
The following melancholy letter alludes to Accum's "Treatise on
Adulterations of Food and Culinary Poisons."
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.
LETTER
_From an elderly Gentlewoman to Mr. Christopher North._
My dear Mr. North--I much fear that this is the last letter you
will ever receive from your old friend. "I'm wearin' awa, Kit!
to the land o' the leal!" and that, too, under the influence
of a complication of disorders, which have been undermining my
constitution (originally a sound and stout one) for upwards of half
a century. Look to yourself my much respected lad--and think no more
of your rheumatism. That, believe me, is a mere trifle; but think
of what you have been doing, since the peace of 1763, (in that year
were you born,) in the eating and drinking way, and tremble. I know,
my dear Kit, that you never were a gormandizer, nor a sot; neither
surely was I--but it matters not--the most abstemious of us all
have gone through fearful trials, and I have not skill in figures
to cast up the poisonous contents of my hapless stomach for nearly
threescore years. You would not know me now; I had not the slightest
suspicion of myself in the looking-glass this morning. Such a face!
so wan and wobegone! No such person drew Priam's curtains at dead of
night, or could have told him half his Troy was burned.
Well--hear me come to the point. I remember now, perfectly well,
that I have been out of sorts all my lifetime; and the causes
of my continual illness have this day been revealed to me. May
my melancholy fate be a warning to you, and all your clear
contributors, a set of men whom the world could ill spare at this
crisis. Mr. Editor--I HAVE BEEN POISONED.
You must know that I became personally acquainted a few weeks ago,
quite accidentally, with that distinguished chymist, well known in
our metropolis by the name of "Death in the Pot."[7] He volunteered
a visit to me at breakfast, last Thursday, and I accepted him. Just
as I had poured out the first cup of tea, and was extending it
graciously towards him, he looked at me, and with a low, hoarse,
husky voice, like Mr. Kean's, asked me if I were not excessively
ill? I had not had the least suspicion of being so--but there was
a terrible something in "Death in the Pot's" face which told me I
was a dead woman. I immediately got up--I mean strove to get up, to
ring the bell for a clergyman--but I fainted away. On awaking from
my swoon, I beheld "Death in the Pot" still staring with his fateful
eyes--and croaking out, half in soliloquy, half in tête-a-tête,
"There is not a life in London worth ten year's purchase." I
implored him to speak plainly, and for God's sake not to look at
me so malagrugorously--and plainly enough he did then speak to be
sure--"Mrs. TROLLOPE, YOU ARE POISONED."
[7] Frederick Accum, Operative Chymist, &c.
"Who," cried I out convulsively, "who has perpetrated the foul
deed? On whose guilty head will lie my innocent blood? Has it been
from motives of private revenge? Speak, Mr. Accum[8]--speak! Have
you any proofs of a conspiracy?" "Yes, Madam, I have proofs,
damning proofs. Your wine merchant, your brewer, your baker, your
confectioner, your grocer, aye, your very butcher, are in league
against you; and, Mrs. Trollope, YOU ARE POISONED!"--"When!--Oh!
when was the fatal dose administered? Would an emetic be of no
avail? Could you not yet administer a----" But here my voice was
choked, and nothing was audible, Mr. North, but the sighs and sobs
of your poor Trollope.
[8] Death in the Pot.
At last I became more composed--and Mr. Accum asked me what was, in
general, the first thing I did on rising from bed in the morning.
Alas! I felt that it was no time for delicacy, and I told him at
once, that it was to take off a bumper of brandy for a complaint
in my stomach. He asked to look at the bottle. I brought it forth
from the press in my own number, that tall square tower-like bottle,
Mr. North, so green to the eye and smooth to the grasp. You know
the bottle well--it belonged to my mother before me. He put it to
his nose--he poured out a driblet into a teaspoon as cautiously as
if it had been the black drop--he tasted it--and again repeated
these terrible words, "Mrs. TROLLOPE, YOU ARE POISONED. It has,"
he continued, "a peculiar disagreeable smell, like the breath of
habitual drunkards." "Oh! thought I, has it come to this! The smell
ever seemed to my unsuspecting soul most fragrant and delicious."
"Death in the Pot" then told me, that the liquid I had been
innocently drinking every morn for thirty years was not brandy at
all, but a vile distillation of British molasses over wine lees,
rectified over quick lime, and mixed with saw-dust. And this a sad,
solitary, unsuspecting spinster had been imbibing as brandy for so
many years! A gleam of comfort now shot across my brain--I told
Mr. Accum that I had, during my whole life, been in the habit of
taking a smallish glass of Hollands before going to bed, which I
fain hoped might have the effect of counteracting the bad effects
of the forgery that had been committed against me. I produced the
bottle--the white globular one you know. "Death in the Pot" tried
and tasted--and alas! instead of Hollands, pronounced it vile
British malt spirit, fined by a solution of sub-acetate of lead, and
then a solution of alum--and strengthened with grains of paradise,
Guinea pepper, capsicum, and other acrid and aromatic substances.
These are learned words--but they made a terrible impression upon
my memory. Mr. Accum is a most amiable man, I well believe--but he
is a stranger to pity. "Mrs. Trollope, YOU HAVE BEEN POISONED," was
all he would utter. Had the brandy and Hollands been genuine, there
would have been no harm--but they were _imitation_, and "YOU ARE
POISONED."
Feeling myself very faint, I asked, naturally enough for a woman in
my situation, for a glass of wine. It was brought--but Mr. Accum was
at hand to snatch the deadly draught from my lips. He tasted what
used to be called my genuine old port,
"And in the scowl of heaven his face,
Grew black as he was sipping."
"It is spoiled elder wine--rendered astringent by oak-wood,
saw-dust, and the husks of filberts--lead and arsenic, madam,
are----" but my ears tingled, and I heard no more. I confessed to
the amount of six glasses a day of this hellish liquor--pardon my
warmth--and that such had been my allowance for many years. My
thirst was now intolerable, and I beseeched a glass of beer. It
came, and "Death in the Pot" detected at once the murderous designs
of the brewer. Coculus indicus, Spanish juice, hartshorn shavings,
orange powder, copperas, opium, tobacco, nux vomica--such were the
shocking words he kept repeating to himself--and then again, "Mrs.
TROLLOPE IS POISONED."--"May I not have a single cup of tea, Mr.
Accum," I asked imploringly, and the chymist shook his head. He
then opened the tea-caddy, and emptying its contents, rubbed my
best green tea between his hard horny palms. "Sloe-leaves, and
white-thorn leaves, madam, coloured with Dutch pink, and with the
fine green bloom of verdigris! Much, in the course of your regular
life, you must have swallowed!" "Might I try the coffee?" Oh! Mr.
North, Mr. North, you know my age, and never once, during my whole
existence, have I tasted coffee. I have been deluded by pease and
beans, sand, gravel, and vegetable powder! Mr. Accum called it
sham coffee, most infamous stuff, and unfit for human food! Alas!
the day that I was born! In despair I asked for a glass of water,
and just as the sparkling beverage was about to touch my pale
quivering lips, my friend, for I must call him so in spite of every
thing, interfered, and tasting it, squirted out of his mouth, with
a most alarming countenance. "It comes out of a lead cistern--it
is a deadly poison." Here I threw myself on my knees before this
inexorable man, and cried, "Mr. Death in the Pot, is there in
heaven, on earth, or the waters under the earth, any one particle of
matter that is not impregnated with death? What means this desperate
mockery? For mercy's sake give me the very smallest piece of bread
and cheese, or I can support myself no longer. Are we, or are we
not, to have a morsel of breakfast this day?" He cut off about an
inch long piece of cheese from that identical double Gloucester that
you yourself, Mr. North, chose for me, on your last visit to London,
and declared that it had been rendered most poisonous by the anotta
used to colour it. "There is here, Mrs. Trollope, a quantity of
red lead--Have you, madam, never experienced after devouring half
a pound of this cheese, an indescribable pain in the region of the
abdomen and of the stomach, accompanied with a feeling of tension,
which occasioned much restlessness, anxiety, and repugnance to food?
Have you never felt, after a Welsh rabbit of it, a very violent
cholic?" "Yes! yes!--often, often!" I exclaimed. "And did you use
pepper and mustard?" "I did even so." "Let me see the castors." I
rose from my knees--and brought them out. He puffed out a little
pepper into the palm of his hand, and went on as usual. "This,
madam, is spurious pepper altogether--it is made up of oil cakes,
(the residue of linseed, from which the oil has been pressed,)
common clay, and, perhaps, a small portion of Cayenne pepper,
(itself probably artificial or adulterated,) to make it pungent. But
now for the mustard"--at this juncture the servant maid came in, and
I told her that I was poisoned--she set up a prodigious scream, and
Mr. Accum let fall the mustard pot on the carpet. But it is needless
for me to prolong the shocking narrative. They assisted me to get
into bed, from which I never more expect to rise. My eyes have been
opened, and I see the horrors of my situation. I now remember the
most excruciating cholic, and divers other pangs which I thought
nothing of at the time, but which must have been the effect of the
deleterious solids and liquids which I was daily introducing into
my stomach.--It appears that I have never, so much as once, either
eat or drank a real thing--that is, a thing being what it pretended
to be. Oh! the weight of lead and copper that has passed thro' my
body! Oh! too, the gravel and the sand! But is impossible to deceive
me now. This very evening some bread was brought to me--Bread! I
cried out indignantly--Take the vile deception out of my sight.
Yes, my dear Kit, it was a villanous loaf of clay and alum! But
my resolution is fixed, and I hope to die in peace. Henceforth, I
shall not allow one particle of matter to descend into my stomach!
Already I feel myself "of the earth, earthy."--Mr. Accum seldom
leaves my bedside--and yesterday brought with him several eatables
and drinkables, which he assured me he had analyzed, subjected to
the test-act, and found them to be conformists. But I have no trust
in chymistry. His quarter-loaf looked like a chip cut off the corner
of a stone block. It was a manifest _sham loaf_. After being deluded
in my Hollands, bit in my brandy, and having found my muffins a
mockery, never more shall I be thrown off my guard. I am waxing
weaker and weaker--so farewell! Bewildering indeed has been the
destiny of
SUSANNA TROLLOPE.
P.S.--I have opened my mistress' letter to add, that she died this
evening about a quarter past eight, in excruciating torments.
SALLY ROGERS.
VARIATION OF THE NEEDLE.
It is thought by some surveyors that a change has taken place in
the variation of the needle, and that the power of attraction is
returning to the east or right hand. For my own satisfaction, I have
for some years past been endeavouring to ascertain the truth of the
fact, and my observations for the last ten years past require only
20' to be added to strike the former object. It is well known that
formerly surveyors made an allowance to the west or left hand, of
one degree, for every 10 or 11 years for variation, and it now comes
short 40' of the common allowance, so that from the result of my
observations it appears evidently that the variation is not on the
return, but still increasing, but so slow and variable every year,
that it cannot be ascertained, unless by a series of experiments. To
corroborate the following observations, I would remark, that I have
lately read (I think in the Encyclopædia) of a curious gentlemen in
London, who with a nice instrument, monthly for a number of years,
made observations upon the variation, and he seldom found the needle
cut the same degree and minutes, but varying sometimes to the right,
others to the left: sometimes more, sometimes less, which shows that
the attractive power is variable.
On the 18th of July, 1810, an object on the North mountain, 3 and a
half miles off, bore
N. 61° 00' W.
8th July, 1811, the same
object bore 60 50
14th July, 1812, do. 60 50
10th July, 1813, do. 60 50
8th July, 1814, do. 61 10
12th July, 1815, do. 61 15
13th July, 1816, do. 61 15
15th July, 1817, do. 61 15
14th July, 1818, do. 61 30
15th July, 1819, do. 61 25
10th July, 1820, do. 61 20
From whatever cause the variation of the needle arises, it evidently
is affected by a something within our earth; but whether from the
motion of two attractive poles, or four, as has been maintained by
great men, or whether by a concentric globe of elementary particles
composed of electricity and refined iron, adjusted and organized
in a particular way, are all hypotheses. The phenomenon of the
dipping needle is a curiosity, and sufficient to satisfy us that
the power of attraction is about the centre of the earth, for let
a needle be truly balanced on a centre pin in our latitude, then
give it the polarity necessary, the north end will dip about fifty
degrees;--move it to the equator it will become again level;--carry
it still southward, the south end will dip.
When effects are obvious, man more curious than wise,
endeavours to search out the cause, and in some things we may
be successful,--others are beyond our knowledge, and hid in the
mysteries of Nature's God.
JOHN KING.
_Mercersburgh, (Penn.)_ } _July 18, 1820._ }
COMPARATIVE MORALITY OF DIFFERENT COUNTIES IN ENGLAND AND WALES.
The following interesting table is copied from Mr. Myers' "New
System of Geography," a work now publishing in monthly parts, and
which, from the manner of its execution, promises to supply an
important desideratum, in that branch of literature, created by the
recent political changes upon the continent of Europe.
A Table, showing the proportion which the number of persons
committed to prison in each county of England and Wales, bears
to the whole population; and thus illustrating the influence of
local circumstances on the morals of the people. The average of
the commitments is taken for thirteen years, viz. from 1805 to
1817, inclusive, and the population, as stated in the returns of
1811.
_Counties._ _One in_
Anglesea, 18,522
Bedford, 2,623
Berks, 1,618
Brecon, 3,384
Bucks, 2,562
Cambridge, 2,386
Cardigan, 13,612
Caermarthen, 7,343
Caernarvon, 9,867
Chester, 1,638
Cornwall, 5,287
Cumberland, 3,904
Denbigh, 7,077
Derby, 3,435
Devon, 1,996
Dorset, 2,292
Durham, 4,337
Essex, 1,435
Flint, 8,399
Glamorgan, 4,551
Gloucester, 1,834
Hants, 1,230
Hereford, 1,438
Herts, 1,636
Huntingdon, 1,431
Kent, 1,385
Lancaster, 1,083
Leicester, 2,161
Lincoln, 2,164
Merioneth, 13,377
Middlesex, 588
Monmouth, 2,469
Mongomery, 3,534
Norfolk, 1,809
Northamton, 2,405
Northumberland, 3,037
Nottingham, 1,694
Oxford, 2,151
Pembroke, 5,669
Radnor, 3,672
Rutland, 2,696
Salop, 2,263
Stafford, 1,938
Somerset, 1,369
Suffolk, 1,731
Surrey, 1,261
Sussex, 2,422
Warwick, 989
Westmoreland, 5,642
Wilts, 1,969
Worcester, 1,668
York, 3,002
For the whole of England, the proportion is 1 in 1,483; for Wales, 1
in 6,213; and for both England and Wales, 1 in 1,554.
FRENCH WOMEN.
From Sketches of French Manners and Customs.
The women do not, as in England, employ themselves solely in
household and nursery affairs, but they mix themselves in all
the cares of their husbands, and assist them in their trade and
business, whatever it may be.--Thus they are constantly found in the
counting houses and shops; and they know as much, and often more,
of the details of a trade, than their husbands. In Dieppe, every
variety of shop and trade had a woman assisting in it, who, from her
appearance, might generally be considered as the mistress of the
family. At a blacksmith's shop, for instance, I saw a neatly dressed
woman, with a very clean cap shoeing a horse; and, passing a second
time, I saw her filing at a vice. I expressed my astonishment to the
neighbours, but they seemed rather disposed to laugh at me, than
to join in my laugh at the woman. I learnt that she was a widow,
and thus kept up her husband's trade, to rear a large family. In
Paris, I complimented a pretty wife of an eminent bookseller for
her knowledge of the prices of paper, printing, and engraving, in
which she several times corrected errors of her husband. I remarked,
that the French ladies must have great talents thus to learn a
trade in the honey moon, which had employed their husbands during
an apprenticeship of seven years; and that I supposed she would be
equally expert at any other trade, if, on becoming a widow, she
married a husband in some other line. "Ah! Monsieur," said she, "we
endeavour to assist our spouses in every way in our power;--it is
our only pleasure; their cares are our cares, and their interests
are ours; and, if it is our calamity to become widows, and we meet
with another good husband, we do the best we can for him also."
LIFE.
When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy
dies; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate
desire forsakes me; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a
tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tombs of
the parents themselves, I feel how vain it is to grieve for those
whom we must quickly follow; when I behold rival kings lying side by
side, or the holy men who divided the world with their contests and
disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the frivolous
competitions, factions, and debates of mankind; when I read the
several dates of the tombs,--of some who died yesterday, and some
six hundred years ago, I am reminded of that day when all mankind
will be contemporaries, and make their appearance together.
ADDISON.
STATISTICS OF EUROPE.
From a French paper.
Europe contains in superfices, 153,559 square geographic miles,
of 15 to a degree, or only 1116 of the continental superfices
of the whole earth. Its population is estimated at 180 millions
and a half; which gives, one with another, 1177 inhabitants to
each square geographic mile. It should always be remembered, that
this population is very unequally divided; for if in the lowest
countries, for example, we reckon 4550 inhabitants to a square mile,
Russia contains but 447; Sweden, 362; and Norway only 118.
Europe contains 17 nations: 1st nations, speaking the dialect
derived from the Latin language, 61 millions; 2d, Teutonic nations,
54 millions; 3d, Sclavonian, 46 millions; 4th, Celts, 3,720,000;
5th, Tartars, 3,500,000; 6th, Magvans, 5,250,000; 7th, Greeks,
2,100,000; 8th, Finns, 1,800,000; 9th, Cimmerians, 1,610,000; 10th,
Basques, 630,000; 11h, Arnauts, 300,000; 12th, Maltese, 80,000;
13th, Circassians, 8,000; 14th, Samoides, 2,100; 15th, Jews,
2,660,000; 16th, Gipsies, 340,000; and 17th, Armenians, 150,000.
The Roman Catholics are in number about 100 millions; the
Protestants of different communions about 42 millions; the
schismatic Greeks, 32 millions; the Mennonists 240,000; the
Methodists 190,000; the Unitarians 50,000; the Quakers 40,000; the
Mohammedans 2,630,000; the Jews 2,600,000; and the Herrnhutters
(Moravians) 40,000.
In classing out each state according to its superfices, its
population, its ordinary revenues, and the contributive proportion
of each individual towards the public burdens, we find that they
should occupy the following order.
_Superfices._--1st, Russia; 2d, Sweden; 3d, Austria; 4th, France;
5th, Turkey; 6th, Spain; 7th, Great Britain; 8th, Prussia; 9th,
Germany; 10th, Denmark; 11th, the Two Sicilies; 12th, Portugal;
13th, Sardinia; 14th, the Netherlands; 15th, Switzerland; 16th, the
Ecclesiastical States; and 17th, Tuscany, &c.
_Population._--1st, Russia; second, France; 3d, Austria; 4th, Great
Britain; 5th, Germany; 6th, Spain; 7th, Prussia; 8th, Turkey; 9th,
the Two Sicilies; 10th, the Netherlands; 11th, Sardinia; 12th,
Portugal; 13th, Sweden; 14th, the Ecclesiastial States; 15th,
Switzerland; 16th, Denmark; 17th, Tuscany, &c.
_Revenue._--1st, Great Britain; 2d, France; 3d, Russia; 4th,
Austria; 5th, Germany; 6th, the Netherlands; 7th, Prussia; 8th,
Spain; 9th, Turkey; 10th, Portugal; 11th, the Two Sicilies; 12th,
Sardinia; 13th, Sweden; 14th, Denmark; 15th, the Ecclesiastical
States; 16th, Tuscany; and 17th, Switzerland, &c.
_Contributive Portion on each Individual towards the public
charges._---This last calculation is the most curious. It
demonstrates what each individual pays annually one with
another,--namely, in England, 52f. 5c.; in the Netherlands, 38f.
5c.; in France, 19f. 71c.; in Germany, 16f. 6c.; in Russia, 15f.
88c.; in Denmark, 14f 60c; Portugal, 13f. 85c.; in Spain, 17f. 60c;
in Sardinia, 12f. 5c; in Austria, 11f. 68c.; in the Ecclesiastical
States, 9f. 40c. in Sweden, 9f. 31c. in Tuscany, 9f. 12c; in Turkey,
9f. 4c.; in the Two Sicilies, 7f. 97c.; and in Switzerland, 5f. 47c.
This last is the weakest of all European states.
MISCELLANY.
_Mode of engraving union steel and then transferring the same to
steel or other metals._--This invention deservedly demands while
it receives the admiration of every lover of the Fine Arts; and
at the same time it presents the means of perpetuating whatever
is beautiful in the art of engraving, and will probably produce
a general refinement in the state of the public by furnishing
engravings of the most beautiful kinds, at the same cost as those of
inferior execution.
This invention promises to be of great advantage to some of our
manufacturers, particularly that of pottery, which may now be
embellished with beautiful engravings, so as to place the successful
competition of other nations at a more distant period. It may also
be applied with great advantage to _calico_ printing, by producing
entire new patterns upon the cylinders from which they are printed,
an object of great importance to our manufacturing interest. These
are among its obvious applications; but as a means of rendering
forgery _impracticable_, it claims the attention of statesmen and
the gratitude of philanthropists, who shudder at the hundreds of
victims which are now immolated to the laws by the facility with
which they may be violated.
The association of Mr. Charles Heath with the American inventors is
a fortunate circumstance, as it affords a pledge, that all which
is exquisite in art will be combined with the ingenious mechanical
inventions of Mr. Perkins, and the perseverance of Mr. Fairman;
and the means of conferring every desirable perfection on various
applications of the Siderographic process.
_Great Britain and the U. States._--(A Contrast.)--A correspondent
observes, that from an article in the last Inquirer, taken from a
London paper, it is computed that the expense of the approaching
coronation of his Britannic Majesty, George IV., will exceed eight
hundred thousand pounds sterling.
This, at $4 44 cents the pound sterling, amounts to the moderate sum
of three millions five hundred and fifty two thousand dollars, of
the currency of the United States.