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BALLOONING.

In the present age, when we have Balloons ascending weekly (wind and weather permitting), the following may not be deemed uninteresting to our Readers:

The condenser and hoop, which has been suggested by some scientific gentlemen, I conceive to be most ingenious contrivances. The condenser, however, in the hands of an ignorant aeronaut, would be attended with great danger, and I would propose, as an improvement, that a tube, reaching from the car, should be firmly fixed into the balloon, and that at the lower end a mercurial gauge should be attached, which would indicate the pressure of the elastic vapour within the balloon beyond any chance of doubt or misconception.

In order to render ballooning subservient to the purposes of science, the aeronaut ought to have with him (instead of "mere baggage"), besides the ordinary appendages, an electrometer, an expert draughtsman, and a number of vials full of water, which should be emptied at different altitudes, or perhaps, at certain indications of the electrometer, and instantly corked air-tight, in order that the air may afterwards be subjected to a chemical examination.

DAMASCUS BLADES.

It is well known that the steel of Damascus is found in a natural state, and is prepared by the Orientals in a manner peculiar to themselves. This kind of steel is distinguished from all others by its hardness, by its resistance to the file, and by its mottled surface, consisting of fine veins of an ash grey colour, whence it is termed damasked. M. Breant, after a long series of experiments, has discovered that it is a cast steel, only charged more highly with carbon than European steel, and in which, by the effect of cooling, well managed, a sort of crystallization is

effected, or rather a separation of the two distinct combinations of iron and carbon. The same experimentalist is said to have discovered a

simple and cheap means of directly converting cast and bar irons into steel. The details of the process, however, are not given.

AFRICAN OAK.

A CORRESPONDENT requests us to warn those who, in the course of their business, have occasion to work upon African oak, of the poisonous effects of splinters of it when run into the flesh.

He states, that two sawyers in his neighbourhood have died from it, and that several others have been laid up.

A chemical analysis of the wood would put an end to all doubts on. the subject, and would, perhaps, save some valuable lives. We hope to see it immediately undertaken.

HINT TO THERMOMETER

MAKERS.

PROFESSOR GRISCOM, of New York, in one of his recent lectures on chemistry, when adverting to the circumstance of the thermometer being frequently deranged, through the separation of the column of quicksilver, pointed out the following simple remedy:-Tie a string to that end of the scale opposite to the bulb, and then whirl it round the head with rapidity. The effect be ascribes to the centrifugal force produced by the rotatory motion.

SAFETY MAIL-BAG.

COLONEL LAPORTE, a French gentleman, resident in Virginia, has invented a safety mail-bag, which is highly spoken of in the American journals. It is thus described in the New York Daily Advertiser :

"It is proposed to substitute for the leathern bags now in use, a network, composed of iron rings, inclosed between two covers of deer

skin stuffed with wool, and covered outside with strong leather. A bag formed in this manner, would resist the force of almost any power which, in ordinary circumstances, could be applied to it. It is proposed to fasten the mouth with a newly-invented and very secure lock, and to attach the whole to the body of the mailcarriage, so that none but the postmaster shall be able to open or remove it. The weight of the new bags, which seemed at first an objection to them, need not exceed much more than double that of those now in use, and in the new invented

promises much greater durability than the old bags.'

OF HANGING.

THOUGH this is a very common mode of violent death, it is seldom that we hear of it as an act of homicide.

Hanging implies the suspension of a person by means of a cord or other ligature round the neck; whereby the usual circumstances of suffocation are induced, accompanied by some that are peculiar to this mode of taking away life.

These are, for the most part, a discolouration and impression upon the neck, made by the cord; lividity of the upper part of the body; distortion of countenance; swelling and projection of the eyes, while sometimes they are suffused with blood; the tongue is occasionally wounded by the convulsive motion of the jaws, and frequently thrust out of the mouth. Sometimes the cartilages of the larynx are fractured; and luxa tion occasionally occurs among the vertebræ of the neck, generally between the atlas and dentoides. This luxation chiefly takes place in heavypersons, or in those who may have fallen from a height upon the end of the rope, or where attempts have been made to hasten death by increasing the weight of the body.. These, and whatever other marks may indicate death, by hanging, there have been ample opportunities of verifying in the bodies of criminals who have undergone the sentence of the law.

THE LOVES OF A CASTLE-
BUILDER.

I KNOW not whether it was owing to nature, or to education, or to the circumstances under which I was placed, that, at one period of my life, my hours and days were all spent in a continual imaginary state of existence. Although I ate, and drank, and slept like other men, I was a being who lived altogether in a world of my own creation, and whatever I did had no connection with this earth, nor with any other. The consequence was, a wretched state of mind and body; the one sunk into lassitude and debility, and the other was unfitted for any of those studies which are so necessary on entering life. Thought and reflection were burthensome to me; thought, because it would destroy the fancies I nourished; and reflection, because I had nothing which would bear to be re

flected on. Thus I illustrated the words of the poet;

"A soul without reflection, like a pile

Without inhabitant, to ruin runs." My day-dreams were innumerable, and I propose to relate some of them, as well as I can now recollect them; -now, when time, care, experience, and necessity, have almost obliterated the remembrance, and altogether removed their effects. Behind my father's house was a garden, small, but tasteful; and, as it was almost in the centre of a large city, it was admired much more than it would have been in the midst of the country. This garden was almost my sole dwelling-place, and here, for hours, I would sit, in the sun or the shower, forgetful alike of the busy hum of mankind around me, and of the calls which so often summoned me to mingle among, and act with, them. My father was in trade, and trade of all kind was odious to me. I was now and then forced to take his station behind the counter, when business required his absence, and on his return I could give no account of his affairs. There was, sometimes, money in his till, and always some portion of his merchandize gone

(To be continued.)

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GERMAN MODE OF CURING

HAMS.

COMPOUND WINE.

AN excellent compound wine may be made of equal parts of red, white, and black currants, ripe cherries, and raspberries, well bruised and mixed with soft water, in the proportion of four pounds of fruit to one gallon of water. When strained and pressed, three pounds of moist sugar are to be added to each gallon of liquid. After standing open for three days, during which it is to be stirred frequently, it is to be put into a barrel, and left for a fortnight to work, when a ninth part of brandy is to be added, and the whole bunged down. In a few months it will be most excellent

wine.

TO MAKE SCOURING BALLS.

PORTABLE balls for removing spots from clothes may be thus prepared. Fuller's earth perfectly dried, so that it crumble into a powder, is to be moistened with the clear juice of lemons, and a small quantity of pure pearl ashes then added. Knead the whole carefully together, till it acquire the consistence of a thick elastic paste; form it into small, convenient balls, and dry them in the sun. To be used:-first moisten the spot on the clothes with water, then rub it with the ball, and let it dry in the sun; washing it subsequently with pure water will cause the spot entirely to disappear.,

DEATH BY DRINKING FROM
A FOUL GLASS,

FEW are aware what danger they run in buying fruit, sweet-meats, cakes, syllabubs, and the like at street stalls, the poor creatures who keep these being often affected with by the unwary without thinking what diseases, which may be thus caught they are about. Oranges, indeed, and fruit which you can skin, may be safe enough; but any thing that passes through the hands of stallkeepers is not safe to be eaten. The following case is one of many which could easily be collected:

Last summer, Louisa B, a pretty little girl, of the age of nine or ten years, on taking a holiday walk in the neighbourhood of "town, persuaded her mother, who accompanied her, to let her have a glass of the curds and whey, a preparation of milk which a stall-woman was sell ing to the young holiday folks. The circumstance was never thought of till some days after, when a painful sore appeared on the inside of the ing manner. lip, and quickly spread in an alarm. The medical men who were consulted were much puzzled what to think of it, as the sore had all the look of the venereal ulcer, called a chancre; but how it could have come there, they were unable to discover, and unfortunately between one doubt and delay and another, the proper remedies were not tried till it was too late.

The sore spread back to the throat, and after destroying what are called the almonds of the ears, it attacked the bones of the nose and destroyed them, the roof of the mouth began to rot away, and painful swellings arose on the forehead, which afterwards broke out into sores. In short,

after some months of dreadful agony and loathsome suffering, the poor girl died with all the horrible symptoms of confirmed venereal.

There cannot be a doubt, we think, that the infection was caught from the stall-woman's glass, which probably some low creature had just drank from the moment before. We can scarcely blame the medical men;