shoulder should form; and then, slightly closing his lips, let him take rather a full respiration, breathing as much as he possibly can through the nostrils. Having taken a full inspiration, the lungs are then to be left to their own action, that is, the respiration is neither to be accelerated nor retarded. The patient should then depict to himself that he sees the breath passing from his nostrils in a continuous stream; and the very instant that he brings his mind to conceive this apart from all other ideas, consciousness and memory depart, imagination slumbers, fancy becomes dormant, thought subdued, the sentient faculties lose their susceptibility, the vital or ganglionic system assumes the sovereignty, and he no longer wakes, but sleeps. This train of phenomena is but the effect of a moment. The instant the mind is brought to the contemplation of a single sensation, the sensorium abdicates the throne, and the hypnotic faculty steeps it in oblivion.

CAUSES OF TRANCE.

Dr. Sir Henry Holland, in his Medical Notes, observes that, "as respects magnetic sleep or trance in all its alleged shapes, there is no well-authenticated fact making it needful to believe that an influence is received from without, beyond those impressions on the senses which are capable, according to the temperament and other circumstances of existing disordered as well as healthy actions, throughout every part of the nervous system, and especially in the sensorial functions."

MORNING DREAMS.

The old notion of the "Somnia vera" of approaching dayMorning dreams come true," is interpreted by the physical state of sleep being then less perfect trains of thought suggested follow more nearly the course of waking associations, and the memory retains them; while earlier and more confused dreams are wholly lost to the mind.

NATURE OF SLEEP.

It is not uncommon to hear persons attribute the sleeping of "guilty creatures" to hardness of heart, or recklessness. This is an error, referable to ignorance of the nature of sleep, and of the fact that all degrees of excitement in the parts of the brain and spinal marrow, associated with the nerves of the sensitive system, are followed by proportional exhaustion. The only limit to this law is the capability of bearing in those parts. Exhausted by mental excitement, the criminal is often awakened for his execution; and the soldier, both by mental and bodily excitement, sleeps by the roaring cannon.”—Dr. Philip.

F

The Animal Kingdom.

STRUCTURE OF MAN.

ONE of the most splendid results of Comparative Anatomy is that Man is no longer regarded as though he were distinct in his anatomy from all the rest of the animal creation; but his structure is perceived to be an exquisite modification of many other structures, the whole of which have been recognised as modifications of one and the same general pattern. Every one of the 260 bones which may be enumerated in the human skeleton can be unerringly traced in the skeletons of many hundred inferior animals; and the human anatomist of our day begins to comprehend the nature of his own structure in a way never dreamed of by his predecessors.—Samuel Warren, D.C.L.

In the Human Skeleton there are commonly enumerated 260 Bones, which present every variety of size and figure. But all these varieties may be reduced to three classes: the long and round, as the bones of the upper extremities; the broad and flat, as the bones of the skull; or the short and square, as the separate bones that compose the vertebral column. The long bones are adapted for motion, the flat for protection, and the square for motion combined with strength. Accordingly, the long bones are moulded into lengthened cylinders, and form so many levers, exquisitely constructed and combined. In the employment of the flat bones for the covering of some of the

more tender and delicate organs, as the brain and spinal cord, the form of these bones adds to their strength, as in the vaulted roof of the skull; while in the construction of the vertebral column, composed of the short and square bones, which are so adjusted as to afford a limited range of motion with a great degree of strength, so many and such opposite purposes are effected by means so simple yet so efficient, that no fabric constructed by human ingenuity approaches the perfection of this admirable piece of mechanism.

PECULIARITIES IN THE HAND.

Nothing is more remarkable, as forming a part of the prospective design to prepare an instrument fitted for the various uses of the Human Hand, than the manner in which the delicate and moving apparatus of the palm and fingers is guarded. The power with which the hand grasps, as when a sailor lays hold of the rope to raise his body in the rigging, would be too great for the texture of mere tendons, nerves, and vessels; they would be cracked were not every part that bears the pressure defended with a cushion of fat, as elastic as that which is in the foot of the horse and the camel. To add to this purely passive defence, there is a muscle which runs across the palm, and more especially supports the cushion on its inner edge; it is this muscle which, raising the edge of the palm, adapts it to lave water, forming the cup of Diogenes. In conclusion, what says Ray? "Some animals have horns, some have hoofs, some teeth, some talons, some claws, some spurs and beaks; man hath none of all these, but is weak and feeble, and sent unarmed into the world;why, a hand, with reason to use it, supplies the use of all these!" -Sir Charles Bell.

HEADS OF ENGLISHMEN.

The following is a comparative estimate of the dimensions of the Head of the inhabitants in several counties of England:

The male Head in England, at maturity, averages from 63 to 78 in. in diameter; the medium and most general size being 7 inches. The female head is smaller, varying from 6 to 7 or 7 in., the medium male size. Fixing the medium of the English head at 7 inches, there can be no difficulty in distinguishing the portions of society above from those below that

measurement.

London. The majority of the higher classes are above the medium, while amongst the lower it is very rare to find a large head.

Spitalfields Weavers have extremely small heads, 61, 63, 63 in. being the prevailing admeasurements.

Coventry.-Almost exclusively peopled by weavers: the same facts are peculiarly observed.

Hertfordshire, Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk contain a larger proportion of small heads than any part of the empire; Essex and Hertford

shire particularly. 7 inches in diameter is here, as in Spitalfields and Coventry, quite unusual. 6 and 63 are more general; and 63, the usual size for a boy of six years of age, is frequently to be met with here in the full maturity of manhood.

Kent, Surrey, and Sussex.-An increase of size of the usual average is observed; and the inland counties, in general, are nearly upon the same scale.

Devonshire and Cornwall.-The heads of full sizes.

Herefordshire.-Superior to the London average.

Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumberland, and Northumberland have more large heads, in proportion, than any part of the country.

Scotland.-The full-sized head is known to be possessed by the inhabitants; their measurement ranging between 72 and 7 even to 8 inches. This extreme size, however, is rare.

THE STEAM-ENGINE AND THE HUMAN BODY.

We find, in Dr. Neil Arnott's new work on Warmth and Ventilation, the following ingenious comparison :

James Watt, when devising his first engine, knew well that the rapid combination of the oxygen of atmospheric air with the combustible fuel in the furnace produced the heat and the force of the engine; but he did not know that in the living body there is going on, only more slowly, a similar combination of the oxygen of the air with the like combustible matter in the food, as this circulates after digestion in the form of blood through the lungs, which combination produces the warmth and force of the living animal. The chief resemblances of the two objects are exhibited strikingly in the following table of comparison, where in two adjoining columns are set forth nearly the same things and actions, with difference in the names.

Table of Comparison.

THE STEAM-ENGINE IN ACTION TAKES:

1. FUEL, viz. coal and wood, both being old or dry vegetable matter, and both combustible.

2. WATER.

3. AIR.

AND PRODUCES:

4. STEADY BOILING HEAT of 212 degrees by quick combustion.

5. SMOKE from the chimney, or air loaded with carbonic acid and vapour.

6. ASHES, part of the fuel which does not burn.

7. MOTIVE FORCE, of simple alternate push and pull in the piston, which, acting through levers, joints, bands, &c., does work of endless variety.

8. A DEFICIENCY OF FUEL, WATER, OR AIR first disturbs and then stops the motion.

9. LOCAL DAMAGE from violence in a machine is repaired by the maker.

THE ANIMAL BODY IN LIFE TAKES:

1. FOOD, viz. recent or fresh veget-
able matter and flesh, both being of
kindred composition and both com-
bustible.

2. DRINK (essentially water).
3. BREATH (Common air).

AND PRODUCES:

4. STEADY ANIMAL HEAT of 98 degrees by slow combustion.

5. FOUL BREATH from the windpipe, or air loaded with carbonic acid and vapour.

6. ANIMAL REFUSE, part of the food which does not burn.

7. MOTIVE FORCE, of simple alternate contraction and relaxation in the muscles, which, acting through the levers, joints, tendons, &c., of the limbs, does work of endless variety. 8. A DEFICIENCY OF FOOD, DRINK, OR BREATH first disturbs and then stops the motion and the life.

9. LOCAL HURT OR DISEASE in a living body is repaired or cured by the action of internal vital powers. between an inanimate machine,

Such are the surprising resemblances the device of human ingenuity executed by human hands, and the living

body itself, yea, the bodies of the men whose minds contrive and whose fingers make such machines. A prodigious difference, however, between the two is pointed out by the expression vital powers, contained in the last line of the preceding table. That difference, described in a few words, is, that while the machine has to be originally constructed, and afterwards worked and repaired and supplied with every necessary, by intelligence and forces altogether external to it, the animal body performs all the offices mentioned, and others yet more surprising, for itself, by virtue of forces or powers originally placed within it by the divine Author of Nature.

NUMBER OF ANIMALS.

Agassiz and Gould estimate the number of Vertebrated Animals at 20,000. About 1500 species of mammals are ascertained; probable number, 2000. Birds, well known, 4000 or 5000 species; probable number, 6000. Reptiles, 1500 described species; probable number, 2000. Fishes, 5000 to 6000 in the museums of Europe; probable number, 8000 or 10,000. Molluscs in collections, 8000 or 10,000. Marine shells, bivalve and univalve, in collections, 5000 or 6000; and land and fluviatile shells, 2000. Total number of molluscs probably exceed 15,000 species. Insects, in collections, probably 60,000 or 70,000 species; probable number of articulata, 100,000; species, 200,000. Add to these, 10,000 for radiata (echini, star-fishes, medusæ, and polypi), and we have about 250,000 species of living animals; and supposing the number of fossil species to equal them, we have, at a very moderate computation, half a million species.

THE ELEPHANT.

The size of the Elephant appears to have been strangely over-stated by travellers. Major Denham relates that he saw troops of elephants 16 feet high! 'We venture to say," observes the Quarterly Review, "that there is not in all Africa an elephant 11 feet high, and very few either in Ceylon or Siam, or Pegu, or Cochin China, where they are found of the largest size, that ever exceed that height." But

"Geographers in Afric maps,

With savage pictures fill their gaps;
And o'er uninhabitable downs

Place elephants, for want of towns."

Sir Walter Scott, upon seeing a very fine elephant, observed: "I was never before sensible of the dignity which largeness of size and freedom of motion give to this otherwise ugly animal." The elephant appears more sagacious than he really is, because the facial line, or the vertical height of the skull, when compared with its horizontal length, is elevated by causes which have no connection with the volume of the brain.