Kitabı oku: «The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 10, No. 268, August 11, 1827», sayfa 6

CENTRE OF GRAVITY, IN REFERENCE TO SEA-SICKNESS

Man requiring so strictly to maintain his perpendicularity, that is, to keep the centre of gravity always over the support of his body, ascertains the required position in various ways, but chiefly by the perpendicularity or known position of things about him. Vertigo, and sickness commonly called sea-sickness, because it most frequently occurs at sea, are the consequences of depriving him of his standards of comparison, or of disturbing them.

Hence on shipboard, where the lines of the masts, windows, furniture, &c. are constantly changing, sickness, vertigo, and other affections of the same class are common to persons unaccustomed to ships. Many experience similar effects in carriages, and in swings, or on looking from a lofty precipice, where known objects being distant, and viewed under a new aspect, are not so readily recognised: also in walking on a wall or roof, in looking directly up to a roof, or to the stars in the zenith, because, then, all standards disappear: on walking into a round room, where there are no perpendicular lines of light and shade, as when the walls and roof are covered with a spotted paper without regular arrangement of spot:—on turning round, as in waltzing, or on a wheel; because the eye is not then allowed to rest on the standards, &c.

At night, or by blind people, standards belonging to the sense of touch are used; and it is because on board ship, the standards both of sight and of touch are lost, that the effect is so very remarkable.

But sea-sickness also partly depends on the irregular pressure of the bowels against the diaphragm, as their inertia or weight varies with the rising and falling of the ship.

From the nature of sea-sickness, as discovered in all these facts, it is seen why persons unaccustomed to the motion of a ship, often find relief in keeping their eyes directed to the fixed shore, where it is visible; or in lying down on their backs and shutting their eyes; or in taking such a dose of exhilarating drink as shall diminish their sensibility to all objects of external sense.

Arnott's Elements of Physics.

FINE ARTS

THE BRITISH INSTITUTION

The following gratifying report of the directors has just been made:—"The funds of the institution consist at the present time of 12,500l. 3 per cent, consols. It is hoped that these funds may be considerably increased by the exhibition of the beautiful collection of pictures now on view at the gallery, which last year attracted such general notice, and which his majesty, ever anxious to forward the purposes of the institution, has again allowed the directors to offer for the inspection of the public. The directors, finding that the two institutions which have been established for the relief of decayed artists, were not only founded upon the most humane principles, but conducted in the most beneficial manner, have applied in the course of the present year, 400l, to the purposes of those institutions; viz. 200l. to the Artists' Benevolent Fund, and 200l to the Artists' General Benevolent Institution." The report next mentions two pictures to be painted on the subjects of Lord Howe's and Lord St. Vincent's victories, by Mr. Briggs and Mr. Jones, to be placed, "as well as those which were exhibited this year in the gallery in commemoration of other naval victories, in the hall of Greenwich hospital." It also confirms the gift of Mr. Hilton's and Mr. Northcote's pictures to the new church at Pimlico, built by Mr. Hakewill, and to the chapel built by Mr. Cockerell, in the upper part of Regent-street.

ARTS AND SCIENCES

MUSICAL COMPOSITION

A very valuable musical manuscript, by Guillaume de Machault, who was valet de chambre to Phillippe-le-Bel, in 1307, has been discovered in the royal library at Paris. It contains several French and Latin anthems, ballads, &c.; and concludes with a mass, which is supposed to have been sung at the coronation of Charles V., in 1364; and which proves, at that time they were acquainted with the art of composition in four parts.

NOISY FISH

M. Cuvier lately read a short paper to the French academy on the species of fish called pogonias, in which he particularly adverted to the noise by which they make themselves heard, even under water. However difficult the explanation of this phenomenon, there can be no doubt of its existence; the evidence of it adduced by M. Cuvier being perfectly satisfactory. The silurus, a large and ravenous fish, which abounds in the Danube, gives daily proof of it.

GEOLOGY

A treatise on the great geological question, whether the continents now inhabited, have or have not been repeatedly submerged in the sea, has lately been read to the Académie des Sciences, by M. Constant Prevost. M. Prevost maintains, contrary to the generally received opinion, that there has been but one great inundation of the earth; and that the various remains of plants, animals, &c., which have given rise to the supposition of successive inundations, have been floated to the places in which they are occasionally found.

THE GATHERER

"I am but a Gatherer and disposer of other men's stuff."—Wotton.

A PUZZLE FOR THE CURIOUS

At a town in Gloucestershire the relatives as below, recently surrounded one dinner-table:—One great-grandfather, two grandfathers, one grandmother, three fathers, two mothers, four children, three grand-children, ore great-grandchild, three sisters, one brother, two husbands, two wives, one mother-in-law, one father-in-law, two brothers-in-law, three sisters-in-law, one son-in-law, two daughters-in-law, two uncles, three aunts, one nephew, two nieces, and two cousins. The whole party consisted of seven persons only.

THE ROMANCE OF WAR

A French soldier, who accompanied the armies of Russia, concealed a small treasure at the entrance of a village near Wilna, with a view of taking it with him on his return. After the defeat of Moscow he was made prisoner, and sent to Siberia, and only recovered his liberty at the end of last year. On reaching Wilna he remembered his hidden treasure, and after tracing out the spot where he had hid it, he went to take it away. What was his astonishment to find, in the place of his money, a small tin box, containing a letter addressed to him, in which a commercial house was mentioned at Nancy, where he might receive the sum buried, with interest, since the year 1812. The soldier supposed this was all a hoax; he went, however, to the house pointed out, where he received his capital, with twelve years' interest. With this sum he established a small business at Nancy, which enables him to live comfortably; but he has never been able, though he has taken some pains, to ascertain how his money was taken away and restored to him.

 
Two lovely ladies dwell at –,
And each a-churching goes;
Emma goes there to close her eyes,
And Jane to eye her clothes.
 

The death of Stanislaus, king of Poland, was occasioned in a singular manner. Being much addicted to smoking, he generally every day finished many pipes. In knocking out the ashes he set fire to his dressing-gown. As no one was near him, the flames had surrounded him, when the officer on guard, hearing his cries, ran to his assistance, and extinguished the fire. He might have survived, but a singular circumstance accompanied the accident. He had been devout during the last years of his life, and, as a penance for his sins, had worn a girdle with points on the inside; these became heated, and being pressed into his body while the flames were extinguishing, caused a number of wounds, the discharge from which, at his period of life, proved too much for his debilitated constitution.

Professor Porson was often in pecuniary difficulties. On one occasion he came with a dejected air to a friend, and said he had been walking through the streets of London all the morning, thinking how strange it was that not one of all the crowds he met should know as much about Greek tragic verse as himself, and yet that he could not turn his knowledge into a hundred pounds. In these moments he often talked of retiring forever to the wilds of America, where he formed a plan of living in solitary happiness, without a book or a friend.

One evening, at the Literary Fund Club, Mr. Incledon having sung with great effect Mr. T. Dibdin's ballad of "May we ne'er want a friend, or a bottle to give him," an elderly gentleman whispered in Mr. T. Dibdin's ear, "Ah! my dear sir, these are the true things of the old school; what a pity it is no one living is found to write such ditties now!"