MISCELLANY.
From Johnson's Influence of Civil Life, Sedentary Habits and Intellectual Refinements, or Human Health and Happiness, &c.
Parallel of enjoyment and suffering in drink.—The water drinker glides tranquilly through life, without much exhileration or depression, and escapes many diseases to which he would otherwise be subject. The wine drinker experiences short, but vivid periods of rapture, and long intervals of gloom; he is also more subject to disease. The balance of enjoyment, then, turns decidedly in favour of the water drinker, leaving out his temporal prosperity and future anticipations; and the nearer we keep to his regimen, the happier we shall be. Here, however, as is in all other things, there is a certain latitude within the range of health and happiness which the wise man and the philosopher will occasionaly travel round, but not exceed.—The native fountain is in the centre, and from it our eccentric divergences should be narrowly watched and carefully limited.
Density, weight, &c. of the earth.—From the experiment of Maskelyne, and the calculations of Hutton, Cavendish, Laplace, &c. it appears, that considering the specific gravity of water as unity, the mean density of the earth would be according to Hutton, 4.95, or according to Cavendish, 5.48. The mean most commonly adopted is 5.4. Taking this as our ground work, we may now proceed to that most singular question of weighing the earth.
Assuming 7920 miles as the mean diameter of the earth, the number of cubic miles will be 239,979,311,961. Now each cubic mile contains 147,197,952,000 cubic feet; also every cubic foot of water weighs 1000 avoirdupoise ounces.
Hence a cubic mile of water will weigh 4,107,085,714 tons, and consequently a globe of water of equal dimensions with our earth would weigh 985,594,985,000,000,000,000 tons, and that multiplied by the calculated density 5.4, gives 5,322,212,919,540,000,000,000 tons for the weight of our earth.
Fruit.—The Poughkeepsie Herald states, that Mr. Joseph Waddle, of the town of Washington, Dutchess county, has sold, at the New York market, during the last six weeks, the produce of ten apple trees for the almost incredible sum of three hundred and sixty dollars—they were of a species called Summer Russets; the quantity fifty barrels. These apples grew on ten trees, which altogether occupy less than one quarter of an acre of ground. When the apples were first gathered last fall they filled fifty-three barrels, and on being picked over this spring, preparatory to sending them to market, they were reduced to fifty barrels.
Agricultural Anecdote.——Furius Cresinus, as mentioned by Pliny, the Roman historian, was originally a slave. Having been made a freedman, he purchased a small spot of ground, from which he obtained, through his unwearied industry, much finer crops than many of the neighbours, who had larger farms. This excited general envy, which his enemies carried to such a length as to accuse him of employing magic charms to render his own grounds fertile and to impoverish heirs. The Edile caused him to be summoned to appear and answer the charge before the people of Rome. Crecinus obeyed the mandate, accompanied by his daughter, a fresh and healthy coloured girl—charms which appeared to greater advantage from the symplicity of her dress. The accused also brought with him the tools and instruments of his profession. They were in excellent condition. His mattocks were remarkably heavy, his plough was of an enormous size, and his cattle were all sound and fat. "Behold!" said this truly dignified and indignant farmer, "behold my whole magical equipage! behold the charms which I have recourse to! There are others, indeed, which I am not capable of producing before you; I mean the sweat of my brow, and incessant toils both by day and night." This native eloquence decided the matter; he was honourably acquitted by the unanimous voice of a numerous and applauding assembly.
A mechanic in the North has invented a machine for seminaries, which, by means of steam, not only warms the room, but flogs all the boys "on a graduated scale," according to their offences.
Dr. Line.—This noted Irish physician, who died of the small pox at the age of 85, built a house in a peculiar manner, so as to have the full benefit of the circulation of the air. Every window had another opposite to it, none of which he ever suffered to be shut or glazed. The room in which he slept had four open windows, two on each side of his bed. It was remarked that, for fifty years together nobody died in his house. He carried this doctrine to such an excess, as to contend that no house could be wholesome, where a dog could not get in under the door and a bird at the window. Upon his death, his son had all the windows glazed; soon after which, several persons were buried out of the house.
The late king of England concurred a little in this practice of Dr. Line. In the rooms where he and his family resided, he never suffered a carpet to be laid; and in the chimney places allowed but a very scanty portion of fire—barely enough to aid the circulation of the air and prevent damps.
Internal Improvements.—In consequence of the facilities afforded by that part of the great canal which is completed, Plaster of Paris, or Gypsum, which abounds in the western parts of New York, is now selling at Utica at from $1.50 to $2.00 per ton, and it is supposed that any part of that great tract of country lying on the Hudson, may be supplied with it at from 4 to 5 dollars! Onondaga salt will be sold at Albany at from 31 to 37 cents per bushel; and a bushel of wheat, which formerly cost 44 cents to transport it to that city, will be brought there from the interiour, for the small sum of 5 cents. In truth, this canal when finished, will, seemingly, bring the most remote places, even the most distant points of the great lakes, into the neighbourhood of the port of New York.
The Coronation of George IV. which is to take place August, 1st, is to be conducted on the most economical scale, and is not to cost more than about $450.000!! The price of a coronation dress for a peer and peeress is estimated at about $3.600.
Marriage Promise.—In Somerset county, New Jersey, a young lady lately received the sum of 1250 dollars damages, for a breach of promise of marriage.
Mobile is becoming a place of great importance; about 10,000 bales of cotton have been shipped from this port in the present year, and 6,000 remained on hand. This shews an increase of 10,000 bales since last year; and it is calculated that at least 10,000 more will be shipped next year than in the present.
The number of letters delivered daily by the post in Paris is, on an average, 32,000; of journals, 18,000. In London, the average of letters is 133,000, and journals 26,000.
Cincinnati, June 15.—On Saturday last, in digging the well of Mr. Wright, near Harrison, in this county, near a mile from White-Water, and about 14 feet from the surface, in a bed of rounded limestone pebbles, a living frog was dug up, which in a short time, hopped away as nimbly as if he had been but a year old. There are trees contiguous, and in lower ground, more than 500 years old, which have evidently taken the places of others of equal growth; so that this frog had probably lain buried for 1000 years.
Mean temperature of the Earth.—According to Laplace, any actual diminution of the mean temperature of the earth would be detected by a diminution of the length of the day.—It appears by computation, that one degree of Fahrenheit's thermometer would make an alteration of nearly one second in the length of a day, and four or five minutes in that of a year.
Heat.—The effect of heat in expanding iron is strongly shown by a gate of that material in this town.—In the cool of the morning it shuts with a considerable spare space, (in the winter perhaps an 8th of an inch) in the middle of a hot day the joints touch, and some force is necessary to close it. The gate is about 31⁄2 feet wide.
[Boston Pal.
"Let not sleep," says Pythagoras, "fall upon thy eyes, till thou hast thrice reviewed the transactions of the past day. Where have I turned aside from rectitude? What have I been doing? What have I left undone which I ought to have done? Begin thus from the first act, and proceed; in conclusion, for the ill which thou hast done, seek repentance, and gratitude for the good."