The new system of breaking large stones into small pieces, will not do so well in confined streets, where there is much traffick, for the frequency of opening the ground to repar pipes, would always keep the road in a state of old and new, or firm and loose. Not only that, but if not kept wet the dust would be a greater annoyance than the present rough pavement. What makes the present paved streets the most objectionable, is, that they are continually in a state of hills and holes. The pavement does not become so from wear; the stones have not wore away, for you may invariably see, in every street where there is much traffick, that about a week or two after new pavement is done, it is as uneven as almost any of the old. Now this I think, may be remedied by a more careful and judicions mode in arranging and squaring of the stones, and in fixing them down. In the first place, the present way of arranging them is, to put together little and big ones, just as may happen; one may be twelve inches in length and the next one only six. The one which stands only upon six inches of ground, will sink further in with a heavy weight that the other, which stands on twelve inches. In the second place, there is not much attention paid to the squaring of the bottom part, or bed of the stone. Now, suppose two stones to be togethof an equal size, the one quite square, or flat, at the bottom, and the other to be pointed like a wedge, would not an equal weight on the top press one further into the earth than the other? In the third place, the present way of fixing them down is, first, to loosen the ground on which they are to be fixed. If one of them should be much deeper than another, then to scrach away the loose ground, so as the top of the stone may be fixed even wita the others. If another should happen to be not so deep as the general run, more loose ground is to be added, so as to raise it up to an equal level. Then comes the rammer to beat them down firm: a slight blow sinks the the stone which has the most loose dirt under, and it takes, perhaps, three or four heavy ones to knock down the one which has little or none under it. Now, with an equal weight on these, for instance, a loaded waggon, will not the first stone which has had but a slight ramming sink much more than the other? Why, in fact, the present system of paving is nothing more than putting the ground into a hard and soft, or hills and holes, and placing stones upon it to prevent our seeing or believing that it is so. Now, the amendments in paving which I suggest, are first, to leave off ramming the stones, and to ram the ground instead on which the stones are to be placed to precisely the same form that you intend the top of the pavement to be; second, to place together all the stones which are exactly of one size; fourth, the bottom, or bed, to be perfectly flat or square; then set them on this hard-rammed ground, and you will seldom see paving in hills and holes. For example, suppose that such squared stones were placed on the top on any good hard road without at all loosening of it, would not the pavement be firmer and less likely to sink in holes than if the ground were pecked up and the stone rammed ? Recollect, the knocking of them down does not make them harder; it is only done to make the ground harder on which they stand. Surely, then, it would be more effectually done by beating it down hard before the stones are put upon it. Aug. 11, 1824. ANTI-ANIMAL SOCIETY. A new society of Christians has been formed at Manchester, one of whose tenets is to abstain entirely from vcery kind of animal food, which they consider themselves bound to do, from their particular interpretation of the command, "Thou shalt not kill." One curious thing has resulted from this carcinophobia of new Christians, which ought to be recorded. They have all found their health, strength, and intellect improved by the new regimen, which many religious persons have ascribed to the Divine fa vour as a reward for their conscientious abstemiousness, but which physiologists more rationally attribute to the curative effects of a natural diet, and the temperance it neccessarily entails in other respects.* The society is said to be rapidly increasing, and when we reflect on the blood-thirsty character of most sects of fanatics, we may rejoice that there is at least one sect whose tenets are unconnected with cruelty. They form a good antithesis to the savage acts of the infernal mode of expelling the devil, resorted to in Ireland. We have lately heard an authentic account of a young woman who sacrificed her own aged grandmother, killing her herself, as a sort of expiation: this happened near Geneva, and not long ago. THE SEA-MARK. From the German of Goethe. DARK on yon ancient turret stands "These sinews once were strong and bold, My swelling heart was up; And there was marrow in my bone, And liquor in my cup. "And half my life I chose the storm, And half in ease to dwell; And you, blithe ship, and you, blithe crew, NEW SPECIES OF ANIMAL. Mr. Marion has found in the island of Manilla, a species of reptile, of the family of the Agamoides, which has the faculty of changing colour, like the cameleon. Its head is triangular, pretty large in proportion to the body; the tail long and slender; along the back, the crest or rid is formed of soft scales, and under the throat is a goitre. The feet have toes detached, and very unequal; the scales are mostly triangular, imbricated and especially those of the tail. The iris is blackish, bordered with a little white circle about the pupil. The animal is very active, and feeds on insects. When the author first came into possession of it its colour, for 24 hours, was a delicate green, whether held in the dark, or exposed to the sun, whether kept motionless, or in a state of agitation: but next morning, on removing it from the inside of a bamboo, where it had been placed, its colour throughout had changed to carmelite; when exposed to the air, this colour gradually disappeared, and the animal resumed its green robe. On this ground, certain brown lines were soon after visible: the animal was then replaced in the bamboo, but, on drawing it out, it had acquired a blueish-green colour, and it was only in the open air that the brownish tints returned; and at length, without any variation of form or position, the brown colour gave place to a uniform green, intermingled, however, with some brownish streaks. When laid on green or red substances, no grain of colour was observed. PASTEBOARD ANATOMICAL FIGURES. Mr. Auzoux, a young physician of Paris has invented a method of studying the anatomy of the human body superior to that by any imitation with The flexibility of the wax renders it fit to represent the surface of objects; but, the interior parts, which are most wanted for inspection, cannot be surveyed by it. Of course, waxen figures are better adapted to the museum than the amphitheatre. Mr. Auzoux, with a composition re wax. * This circumstance ought to be known to the new society for preventing cruelty to animals, lately formed in London under the patronage of Mr. Buxton, and who meet regularly at Slaughter's Coffee-House. sembling pasteboard, can imitate the human frame, including all its organs, its internal and external parts, with exact fidelity. The upper parts are easily displayed, according to the rules adopted in dissection, and the interior are moveable with the like facility. The artificial structure may thus be decomposed into a thousand different pieces, and readily put together again, by means of numerical cyphers attached. The only objection to this process is, that the shades and colouring are not so well shown as on wax, but this it is thought may be surmounted. The most minute organs, the nerves, muscles, veins, all the vessels, are completely and correctly exhibited. In anatomical pathology, the effects of any malady will not only be visible on the surface, but the ravages made by it in the interior of the body and the alterations thereby effected. With the aid of variable pieces, the accoucheur may contemplate the different stages of pregnancy, &c. Comparative anatomy, veterinary medicine, and many who are not professionally obliged, and from the fetid scent, cannot attend dissections, will derive no small advantage from this invention. THE PLEASURES OF BRIGHΤΟΝ. A CIVIC SONG. HERE'S fine Mrs. Hoggins from Aldgate, And it's O! what will become of us ? This here, ma'am, is Sally, my daughter, (But he's always a playing his fun,) That the camel that bathes with two humps, Very often comes out with but one. And it's O! &c. And here is my little boy Jacky, Whose godfather gave me a hint, That by salt-water baths in a crack he Would cure his unfortunate squint. Mr. Yellowly's looking but poorly, It isn't the jaundice, I hope; Would you recommend bathing? O surely, And let him take plenty of soap. And it's O! &c. Your children torment you to jog 'em T'other day, ma'am, I thump'd and I cried, And my darling roar'd louder than me, But the beast wouldn't budge till the tide Had bedraggled me up to the knee! And it's O! &c. At Ireland's I just took a twirl in So monstrously vulgar and low! On the Downs you are like an old jacket, With donkey-cart, whiskey, and fly. Those bedaub'd on a tea-board or screen! We have pored on the sea till we're weary, We cry as we're scampering down, For it's O! what will become of us, STEAM AND RAILWAYS. A great social revolution appears to be on the eve of taking place from new application of the powers of Some years since we described in this miscellany the loco-motive steam engines of BLENKINSOP, and steam. gave a graphic representation of them. Since that time they have been used in all the great collieries to convey coals from the pits to the place of shipment. The principle is an iron railway with pinions, so cast at the same expense as plain, while the wheels of the engine are cast with teeth to work in the pinions; such wheels being cast at the same expense as plain ones. Wheels thus turned by a ten-horse power, have, like gas-fixing animals working with their feet, purchase sufficient to transport fifty tons of coal, six or eight miles per hour, and to ascend, if necessary, the 100th of the length, or seventeen yards in a mile, while they would move less weights twelve or fourteen miles per hour. The principle is obviously capable of extention; and at length a line of thirty miles in Durham having been prepared in this manner, the idea has been caught by public spirited persons in those focuses of enterprize, Liverpool and Manchester, and a similar road is planned between those towns, in which Manchester will represent the colliery of Liverpool. The Durham engineer, Mr. Stephenson, has made a survey which reduces the turnpike-road distance from thirtysix to thirty-three miles, and the canal distance from fifty to thirty-three, while the time will be reduced a full half. Such prepared roads seem therefore likely to supersede both canals and turnpike roads between places of great intercourse and definite distance; and already another is suggested from Birminghan to Liverpool! On our part, we would recommend others from London to Brighton, &c. to Holyhead, and through York to Edinburgh, with branches to Glasgow and all the great towns. Here is an opening for the advantageous employment of capital, combined with immense public advantages. Bold as is the project, it is not less so than many other applications of science which we have from time to time suggested and recorded in this miscellany, and which we have had the pleasure to live and see realized. The economy both of time and money would be so great, that all England would soon be united as one great metropolis, and its inhabitants enjoy a sort of personal national obiquity. WHO IS THE AUTHOR OF "THE BEGGAR'S PETITION"? SIR,-I regret that a variety of engagements has prevented me from sending earlier in the present month a communication, invited by one of your respectable correspondents, which is now at your service. Yon house, erected on a rising ground, With tempting aspect, drew me from my road Hard is the fare of the infirm and poor! To seek a shelter in an humbler shed. Oh take me to your hospitable dome, For the satisfaction of your friendly correspondent Investigator, I now transcribe a copy of "the Beggar's Petition," as it was originally written by the Rev. Thomas Moss, from Shaw's "History of Staffordshire," vol. ii. p. 238: a neatly executed engraving, of a decrepit old man leaning Your hands would not withhold the kind relief, upon crutches, is prefixed. Should I reveal the source of every grief, If soft humanity e'er touch'd your breast, And tears of pity could not be represt. Heaven sends misfortune,-why should we repine ? A little farm was my paternal lot, My daughter! once the comfort of my age! My tender wife! sweet soother of my care I Struck with sad anguish at the stern decree, Fell,-lingering fell, a victim to despair, And left the world to wretchedness and me. Pity the sorrows of a poor old man, Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door, Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span, Oh! give relief, and heaven will bless your store. I am not able to communicate any additional information concerning the time when this poem was written. It deserves consideration, however, that the friend of Mr. Moss, whose letter has been quoted in the first page of this volume, and who declared in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxx. p. 41, "that he had authority to state, that he wrote it about the age of twenty-three," referred the readers of that article to Mr. Moss himself, who was at that time "Minister of Trentham," for the truth and confirmation of his statement. I judge from personal recollection of him, that he was about seventy years of age at the time of his decease; and have ascertained, by a certificate copied from the register of burials, that the Rev. T. Moss was interred in the cemetery adjoining to the parish church of King's Swinford, in the county of Stafford, on the 11th of December, 1808. It is to be lamented that no memorial distinguishes the spot where he reposes, as he was not only admired as a poet, but also deservedly esteemed as a man of exemplary character, and as an acceptable preacher. MASTICATION AND DIGESTION. Discharges of blood from the lungs have lately been prevalent, and have in some instances excited more alarm on the part of the patient and his friends than has been due to the occasion. When the consumptive disposition is not strongly marked, when the hæmorrhage soon subsides, without being followed by hurried pulse or hurried respiration, and when the individual finds himself rather relieved than made worse in his feelings by the occurrence, the accident ought not to be considered, as it is too apt to be, a necessary indication of and prelude to a break-up of constitution, and a coming on of consumption. Some cases of disturbance in the stomach and bowels, not quite reaching to the height of cholera, have been clearly traced to taking meals with careless and gourmand rapidity. At this season of the year, when the stomach is morbidly alive to excitation, and the biliary secretion has more than usual susceptibility to deranged action, hurried meals, with copious draughts, ought especially to be abstained from. It is a curious fact, that while every one almost is aware that though mastication is important, very few, indeed, act up to the knowledge which in this particular even feeling imparts. But let it be recollected by the more than commonly careless in this respect, that the inconvenience which the stomach suffers, from being obliged to perform the office of mastication as well as digestion does not end with the moment. Many more die of mere indigestion than is generally imagined; and, where chronic disorganization is the result of even temperate intemperance, you may repent and call for aid as you will, but it will be found that the time for repentance and for succour is gone by. Large draughts at dinner, under the notion of the solvent property of drink, will do more harm than good. The writer does not subscribe to the position that "man is not a drinking animal (a position, by the way, which has been advocated with much ingenuity and eloquence), but he thinks, nay, he knows, that a well-masticated meal requires but little of fluid to aid its solution, and that much drink of any kind rather tends to distention than digestion. Sept. 1, 1824. CURING OF SAGE FOR THE CHINA MARKET. The Monthly Review, in reviewing Phillips' History of Vegetables, 1822, respecting Sage, states "that the 15 ATHENEUM VOL. 2. 2d series. Dutch have been long in the habit of drying sage leaves to resemble tea, for which they collect not only their own, |