On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (9)
-
%ihtatnxt
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
%Ihtatnxt
% ihtatnxt
Untitled Article
The Reports furnished by Dr . Arnott and Thomas Page , relative to the prevalence of Disease at Croydon , and to the Plan of Sewage there commenced by the Board of Health , are of the highest importance . They are very damaging to the new plan , showing as they do that much of what was expected has not fulfilled expectation ; while many unsuspected dangers have emerged . The failure , however , will doubtless call attention to these dangers , and end by producing a still more perfect system . It is quite clear the old system of sewage was a bad one ; it is not clear , however / that the new system is good enough for general adoption .
Dr . Arnott ' s Report , so admirable in its lucidity and breadth of exposition , will be read with interest and instruction even by those who do not trouble themselves with sewage questions / especially that section of it which treats of the origin and nature of Fevers and Epidemics . We seize , however , the present occasion to suggest a correction of a chemical error countenanced by Dr . Arnott , and , we believe , by all chemists , viz . —that organic compounds are less stable in composition than inorganic compounds , owing to their greater complexity . The reason alleged is unacceptable ,
plausible as it sounds , simply because the fact is not what is alleged . Some inorganic compounds—water , for example , which Dr . Arnott selects are undoubtedly more stable * less easily decomposed than organic compounds ; but all are not so . There are many binary compounds which are decomposed by simple contact of air or water , or by a slight elevation of temperature ; and who will compare the stability of such bodies with that of sugar , albumen , or urea ? This correction is due to Chari / es Robin and Verdeil , whose Traite de Chimie Anatomique we noticed not long since .
Untitled Article
There is always some valuable matter in the Journal of Psychological Medicine , and this quarter presents , among other things , a very noticeable lecturefon Habit , physiologically-considered , by Dr . J . A . Symonds , which our readers will do well to get acquainted with . The following extract will convey an idea of its contents : — " Habitual motions are those which have been transmuted from volitional to instinctive , — -which have become secondarily automatic , —which from having been compounded of will , idea , and sensation , have become merely sensational , and perhaps , even in some cases purely reflex . The ego—the consciousness , which was
the first mover , has been able to leave the transaction to its subordinate agents , while it is occupied with other actions , or with sensations and thoughts requiring its undivided attention . Of these many have been established in early life . In standing and walking we have examples of compl i cated series of muscular actions guided by the sensation of equilibrium , and becoming ultimately all but reflex , though originally prompted by the will . That the will is originally concerned we see , not only by our observation of children learning to stand or walk , but also in adults in whom the app aratus has been weakened by illness or old age , and in whom the mechanism is no longer so self-acting as not to require that mental attention to the several stages of the process , in which volitional action consists . " Speech is another of the habitual or secondarily automatic actions . In this process there is the perception of sound as connected with some object of sight ( as in the naming of a thing ) and the wish to imitate the sound . The action of the vocal muscles is preceded by sensation , idea , and volition . IJut after the habit of speaking has been acquired , it becomes purely sensational or ideagenous without intervening volition , and is allied to the instincts . " I hero take the liberty of quoting from a paper which I published many years ago : — " The articulation of every word was once , perhaps , the result of effort , a voluntary exertion of the vocal organ to imitate a sound produced by another . But now it in enough for the word to occur to the . mind , and the pronunciation follows , without any intermediate volition , merely because the idea and the action have been accustomed to the relation of antecedence and consequence . " ' Again : I may use Koine word which I not only did not intend , but which I would much rather have avoided , as it may be personally offensive to the individual with whom I am conversing . This word , in all probability , will be found to be niniilar in sound to that which was present in my mind , but which was not expressed by my voice . The word wa « the product of a certain aggregation or series of vocal movements , which followed some initial movement common to it , and to that other series vvhicn properly belonged to the idea in the mind . This we conceive to be the moaning of what is commonly called a lapsus Unguas , and is very different from a inalaproprism : the latter is a mistake of the mind , the former is a mistake of the muscles . A similar error not unfrequently occurs in writing . A perfect master of orthography may commit a mistake of this kind ; ho may write , for instance , the adverb there , though the pronoun was in his mind , merely from nn irregularity of muscular succession . The tracing of a word on paper is the result of n particular set of muscular movement ; but words of ycry different moiiningH may have very similar sets , and even initially identical , an in tho instance just mentioned ; and lunice the mistake arises . Wo have heard persons nay that a bad pen would muke them mis-spell ; in ouch a case , tho impediment ; ottered by the pen causes an irregularity in tho Hucceusion of tho movements . But it may ho nuked , how is it Unit wo Homethnes utter or write » word no I 08 H dissimilar in Bound and in Hymbolical characters , than foroign to tho subject discoursed of ? Tho causation in thin ca « o is diilerent ; tho error exists in tho wind , and urines from our being occupied with moro than one series of ideas ; in which cuHc nn accidental exchange taken pliu ; o between tho sories communicated and that which i « retained . To a portion engaged in writing when others arc "UKnig wound him , the accident \ h very likely to happen . Home word makes a C ! ^ T / i CBHion ° his TO ind HIld divortH 1 ) im II moment <«> m his previous WVi 9 \ fought j but ) 1 , ^ muscles ccmJinuo to , Wt , nud { b ^ ow tfie impulse , of tho
word in question , as of any other that passes through his mind , and germane t 6 the matter in hand . : . . . . '" From what has been said , then , it is deducible that there are motions immediately consequent on ideas , in the same manner as others consequent on sensations and emotions ; but we have not arranged the former in a separate class , because we are not aware of any evidence that ideas assume the relation of proximate causes to motions , except under the operation of the general law or principle which we have ' .-been engaged in illustrating , while sensations and . emotions , on the contrary , manifestly produce their appropriate actions , without any reference whatever either to previous association or succession . '"
Untitled Article
Among the curious scientific discoveries , a place must be given to that of Mr . Benjamin Richardson , who , by a series of experiments , establishes the fact of a well-known fungus ( by boys named Pufbatt , by pundits Lycoper don Proteus ) possessing anaesthetic properties , like ether and chloroform . He burns the fungus , and subjects animals to the inhalation of its smoke . They rapidly become insensible , and finally die , if the inhalation be continued too long . It appears that the narcotizing properties of this puflFball have long been used to stupify bees , before extracting the contents of their hive . The wider application of this knowledge to animals is due to Mr . Richardson , who read a paper on the subject before the London Medical
Society , last May , and has now republished it in the form of a pamphlet The puffball may be eaten without injury ; indeed , it is eaten in Italy j and Mr . Smith , the stationer of Long Acre , esteems it quite a delicacy , eating it every autumn as a matter of course . .
Untitled Article
Turning from Sewage and Science to Satire and Criticism , let us note the welcome appearance of two new volumes , one by Alphonse Karr , that Germanized Frenchman , whom none can read without liking ; and one by Sajnte Beuye , the best of portrait painters . Karr this time discourses on women , and we advise both men and women to read his work Les Femmes ; it sparkles with epigrams , true , half true , and not at all true ; it abounds in anecdotes and mots , and it has passages of irresistible humour , e . g ., pointing out how unlike women are to men , he says , that baldness is rather ornamental to a man , and he has heard it said , without however sharing that opinion , " How becoming spectacles are to Mr . Soand-so ; " but , he asks triumphantly , qui pent se rept 4 senter comblant les vozusc de son arnant une femme chauve et en lunettes ?
Sainte Beuve gives us another volume , the seventh , of his charming Causeries du Lundi . It is not equal to the others , but no other portraits are equal to his . We fear he has exhausted his subjects . In former volumes he chose the subjects of his causeries guided by an instinctive delight , and desirous of expressing his opinion ; now he seems to cast about for subjects that he may treat—all the difference between writing from impulse and writing to order , obeying the oestrus of an artist or the demands of a publisher ! ' /
Untitled Article
BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . The Illustrated London Architectural , Engineering , and Mechanical Drawing-Book . By E . S Burn . Ingram , Cooke , and Co Elements of Experimental and Natural Philosophy . By J . Hogg . Ingram , Cooke , and Co . Wanderings in Spain . By Theopliile Gautier . . Ingram , Cooke , and Co . The Bride of Bucklershury . By E . M . Stewart . Ingram , Cooke , and Co . Six Dramas of Calderon . Translated by E . Fitzgerald . William Pickering . Cobden and his Pamphlet considered . By A . and P . Richards . Baily Brothers The Wisdom and Genius of Shakspeare . By the Eev . Thomas Price . Adam 8 cott . Manual of Botany . By William Macgillivray , A . M ., LL . D . Adam 8 cott The Australian—Practical Hints to Intending Emigrants . By W . Crellin . Eyre and Williams . The Morning-Land ; or , A Thousand and One Days in the East . ¦ By Friedrich Bodenated . Prom the German , by R . Waddington . 2 Vols . Richard Bentley The L \ fe and Death of Silas Barnstarke . By Talbot Gwynne . Smith , Elder , and Co . Stray Leaves from Shady Places . By Mrs . M . Croaland . O . Itoutledge . The Spectator . No . I . T . Boaworth .
Untitled Article
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of ^ ra ^ ure . They do not make laws-tley interpret and try to enfoicethem . -Edmbtirgh Review .
Untitled Article
714 THE LEADER . [ Satpbday ,
Untitled Article
HAYDON'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY . IAfeof Benjamin Robert Haydon , Historical Painter . From his Autobiography and Journals . Edited and compiled by Tom Taylor , Esq . 3 vols . Longman and Co . [ SECOND ABTICXB . ] Tiie story of Haydon ' a life is a drama and a sermon in one ; a drama deepening into tragedy very early in its progress , a sermon preached from , the text of terrible experience , and one which , all who have to undergo the struggle for fame should deeply ponder on . Let us glance at the opening scenes . Tho wild ambition of youth , its merciless egotism , its sustaining energy , are painted in this extract : — " My father's apprentice ( . Tobns ) , a man of considerable talent and ingenuity , possessed a library , in whicb I used to read . Accidentally tumbling his collection over , I hit upon Reynolds ' s Discourses . I read ono . It placed bo much reliance on lionesfc industry ; it expressed so strong a conviction that all men were equal , and that application made tho difference , that I fired up at onco . I took thorn all home , and read them through before breakfast tho next morning . The thing was done . I felt my destiny fixed . The spark which had for years lain struggling to blaze , now burst out for over . " I came down to breakfast with Reynolds under my arm , and opened my fixed intentions in a stylo of such energy , that I demolished all arguments . My mothor regarding my looks , which probably were inoro like those of a maniac than of a rational being , burnt into team . My father was in a passion , and the whole house wan in an uproar , Everybody that called during the day was had up to bait mo , but I attacked thorn so florcqly that they were glad to leave uio to my own reflections . In tho evening I told my mother my resolution calmly , and left her . My friend Reynolds ( ft watch-maker ) backed me . I hunted tho shop for anatomical works , and seeing Albinus among tho books . in the catalogue of Dr . Farr ' u aalo at Plymouth hospital , but knowing it was no uso asking my father to buy it for me , I determined to bid for it , and then appeal to his mercy . I went to tho sale , and the book wan knockefl down to mo at 2 , 1 . 10 * . I returned homo , laid the caso heforo my dear mother , who cried much at this proof of resolution , but promised to got my father to conqont j \ yhon , t \\ p bppk camo Jtonw , niv finder paid , w ^ tty
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), July 23, 1853, page 714, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1996/page/18/
-