easily rectified, for all that I have been contending for is, that the nature of woman was superior and more excellent than man, which is not opposed by this curse, since subjecting a more excellent to a more inferior, is, indeed, the greater punishment, but doth by no means degrade her nature. Men, by nature, it is true, have the pre-eminence over women, they have generally more reason for their conduct, and strength for their protection; but then, to balance these advantages, the women have it in their power, not only to free themselves from their rule, but to subdue their masters and without violence to throw them at

their feet. They have more gentleness to soften, and agreeableness to entertain; nay, they have more strength in their looks, than the men have in their laws; and more power by their tears, than the men by all their arguments. It is almost as natural for the young and fair to love, as it is to breathe; for who can withstand the charms of beauty? How much does our dull phlegmatic constitution owe to the purifying flames of love? it is to that most noble and divine passion, to which we may attribute all the real satisfaction of life, and without it man is unfinished and unhappy. How many thousand instances from history and observation are to be given of its wondrous power; nay, even to a degree of transmigration? How many idiots has it made wise? How many fools eloquent? How many home-bred esquires accomplished? How many cowards brave? And there is no sort of men on whom it cannot

work a change or miracle, if it be a noble and well grounded passion, whose aim is virtue, and whose end is honour. T.

Mr. Editor,

None of all the domestic insects is more generally abhorred than the spider, which, I think, is owing partly to its hideous form, and partly to the idea of its being poisonous. I cannot but confess, that I also was infected with this antipathy, and joined in the general warfare against an insect which, by its external appearance, is so little qualified to recommend itself to our sight, till of late I was unexpectedly cured of this habitual abhorrence. This cure was effected by the perusal of the account of a discovery, made some years since by Mr. Quatremere d'Isjonval, adjutant-general to the famous Pichegru, which convinced me that the insect is not so useless as we generally think, and that we rather ought to court than to loathe its society. It is generally known that the state of the atmosphere has a visible effect upon certain animals, and that, for instance, cats, dogs, frogs, hogs, &c. have a very strong presentiment of every change which is preparing in it. The above-mentioned gentleman has discovered that the spider possesses this quality in a more eminent degree than other animals, and is peculiarly fit to serve as an unerring barometer. brief statement of his observations will, I think, not be foreign to the scope of your useful and instructive miscellany, and reconcile its readers to an animal

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they have hitherto held in abhorrence, or, at least, thought to be one of the most useless in the creation of God.

The sipder, says Mr. Q. D'Isjonval, is a more unerring indicator of impending changes in the atmosphere than the best barometer. These insects have two different ways of weaving their webs, by which we can know what weather we are to have. When the weather inclines to turn rainy or windy, they make the principal threads, which are the foundation, as it were, of their whole web, very short, and rather thick ; whereas they spin them much longer, when fine and warm weather is to be expected. Thence it appears clearly, that the spiders have not only a near, but also a distant presentiment of the changes which are preparing in the air. The barometer foretels the state of the weather with certainty only for about twenty-four hours, whereas we may be sure that the weather will be fine twelve or fourteen days, when the spider makes the principal threads of its web long. It is obvious how important the consequences of this infallible indication of the state of the weather must be in many instances, particularly with regard to the operations of agriculture; for which reason it has been frequently lamented that the best barometers, hydrometers, thermometers, and eudiometers, are principally in the hands of the consumers, and very rarely in those of the planters of the harvest. How fortunate is it, therefore, that provident nature, amongst other gifts, also has bestowed upon the cultivator of the country such a cheap in

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strument, upon the sensibility and infallibility of which, with regard to the impending changes in the atmosphere, he can rely! The barometers are frequently very fallible guides, particularly when they point to settled fair; whereas the work of the spider never fails to give the most certain information. This insect, which is one of the most economical animals, does not go to work, nor expend such a great length of threads which it draws out of its body, before the most perfect equilibrium of all the constituent parts of the air indicates with certainty, that this great expenditure will not be made in vain. Let the weather be ever so bad, we may conclude with certainty, it will not last long, and soon change for settled fair, when we see the spider repair the damages which its web has received. Those who will take the trouble to watch the operations of this useful insect, will be convinced by experience, that Mr.Q.D'Isjonval deserves the thanks of his contemporaries for the communication of his important discovery, and in future shews more indulgence to this object of almost general abhorrence, than they have done hitherto.

NOYEAU-FROM THE GAZETTE OF HEALTH.

It is ever a painful duty we perform to report the sacrifice of human existence, from whatever cause derived; but when the liability to such dreadful catastrophies is connected with any of our familiar habits of life, we are bounden, from the office we have imposed on ourselves as

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conservatons of the health, not simply to the narration of facts, but to the collateral circumstances which elucidate the subject, so as to put the general reader in possession of such information, as removes the danger to which the want of knowledge of the subject necessarily subjects him. Our readers are, of course, aware, that it is a practice amongst many tradespeople to keep a bottle of liquor, either wine or spirits, behind the counter, for the purpose of regaling their customers. A shopkeeper in the country, in observing this custom, selected noyeau for the purpose, which seems to have pleased the taste of his friends so well, that several regretted it was not stronger. The complaisant tradesman, realizing the fable of the Old Man and the Ass, by wishing to oblige every body, transmitted an order to a person who manufactured his noyeau, that he would prepare him a certain quantity of double the usual strength. This was complied with, without either enquiries on one part, or explanation on the other. Shortly after the noyeau had arrived, a lady visited the shop, who being an excellent customer, the tradesman was desirous of evincing his respect, and therefore presented her with the first glass of his improved cordial. The lady drank, and in a few minutes afterwards fell on the floor, and expired! The terror of the poor man was heightened to a greater degree by the observations of the by-standers, who, remarking the coincidence of her death, and her taking the noyeau, asserted, that he must have given her poison; he assured them it was

"nothing but noyeau" she had taken, and to convince them, as he conceived, of its harmless qualities, seized the bottle, and, pouring out a glass of it, drank it in an agony of earnestness, when so rapid was the action of this potent poison, that the persons before him had not time to relapse from the attention which his conduct extorted, before they were assailed with the additional horror of witnessing the destruction of a second victim :-the poor man trembled, fell, and expired! Many of our readers doubtless know, that prussic acid is one of the most potent poisons in the vegetable kingdom; and it is to the presence of this principle in "noyeau," ratafin, black cherry water, and other similar articles, that their flavour, as well as their pernicious qualities, is owing.The kernels of cherries, peaches, and apricots, as well as sweet and

bitter almonds, contain prussic acid; the bitter almond possesses it in a great degree.— An infusion of peach leaves, and laurel and nectarine leaves, is found to be a powerful and dangerous medicine, because it contains prussic acid; in fine, it is possible, by the skill of the chemist, to obtain this acid in such a concentrated state, (from almonds, peach leaves, or any of the substances before enumerated) that a single drop falling upon or touching the skin upon any part of the body, destroys life instantaneously; the moment the poison has touched the skin the person falls dead, as though he had been killed by a stroke of lightning; but such a dangerous process is it to obtain prussic acid in this state of purity, that few, if any, will incur the dread

ful risk in preparing it; for, should the finger of the operator but touch the matter he has prepared, he dies for his temerity. We believe Mr. H. C. Jennings, a gentleman well known as one of the most ingenious and philosophical experimentors of this country, has obtained it in a state equal, or nearly so, to this strength: the stopper of the bottle only applied to the nose of a large Newfoundland dog, produced instant death to the animal! But violent and dreadful as are the effects of this poison, it is, never theless, a most valuable medicine in all those diseases in which it is desirable to depress the vital

"As to cold, it is seldom supposed to be either matter itself, or a quality; it is more commonly looked upon as a deprivation of heat, for the less the heat found in a body, the greater the cold, and vice versa. There are particular cases in which cold may be produced :-first-when some particular chemical attraction takes place, cold is produced :-second-the conversion of solids into fluids, and of fluids into vapour, produce cold, as is shewn by chemists and, third

cold may be produced by animal powers. It is not intended to relate experiments by which these may be proved; but the grand question which we most wish to determine is, with respect to heat, whether it be matter under some particular form, or only a quality? That our reasonings on this important subject may have the better effect, we must first reflect upon the various means of producing heat. There are several ways by which heat may be generated-firstby means of the sun's rays :— second-by exciting vibrations in solids:-third, by the taking place of certain chemical attractions : -fourth-by conversion of vapours into fluids, and of fluids into solids :-fifth-by animal powers :- -sixth-in volcanos. And first, if a cold body be exposed to the rays of the sun, it will be heated, &c." As I have in а former number, given copious extracts on the sun's rays heating bodies, (vide, page 65) I shall now be more confined in my quotations on this

bodies are, or the more highly they are polished, the less they are heated, because they reflect more of the rays; and when a body is perfectly white it reflects all the light, and is not heated at all.

'Bodies, in proportion as they deviate from white, destroy the more solar rays; and a perfectly black body would destroy them all; hence, bodies are more heated, cat par, as they are darker coloured by this cause of heat. "When a body is rough, as, if we make a piece of glass so, (which may have no colour) it destroys part of the rays, or, at least, suffers them to approach so near its surface before it reflects them, that they cause it to be heated.

of common preachers, declared they knew it all as well as herself. The translator has, I understand, taken very great liberties with the language, which in the original is said to have been highly figurative and idiomatical. I am, nevertheless, induced to transmit this garbled translation to your columns, for the benefit of raw servants, both in the way of counsel and direction.

"My bonny lasses," or, more literally, "my beautiful dears,” began the oracle, "I was in service forty years, in or out of place, as it might happen; and I have been in, I dare say, a hundred families, though I was turned off by bad mistresses, I cannot say how often; so guess ye, my maidens, if I have not learned a thing or two, which may be bread and meat to you when I am gone west, och hone!" Here the oracle paused, and marked the end of her exordium by wiping off with the sleeve of her grogram gown, the tear that fell, or did not fall-and then replenishing her pipe went on. But the attempt to follow her from clan to clan, from family to family, from all the streets of Inverness to the Aird, from the Aird to Stratherric, thence to Urquhart, and back again to Inverness, were vain and hopeless. One family history followed another-anecdote was heaped on anecdote. The hospitable manner in which Christmas was wont to be celebrated occupied her a whole hour, and her blessings on one family who consumed more butter, mutton, and whisky, than would in these days provision a parish, were most pathetic. To generalize a few of her observations,