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supposed to have been born with that disease,-no novelty, by the way,-called cacoethes scribendi. Our good friend North, not that facetious Christopher North whose portrait looks so majestically stiff on the cover of Blackwood's Magazine, nor my lord North of cabinet notoriety in the annals of the British peerage, but that Mr. North at the South, who indites many good things, has most grossly committed himself in our humble estimation, in the production of a two-penny concern, that neither sustains the doctrines of phrenology, nor exhibits the author's talents in that position in which he can appear both brilliant and original.

GOOD'S BOOK OF NATURE, abridged from the original work:adapted to the reading of Children and Youth, with questions for the use of Schools, and illustrations from original designs. Boston, Allen and Ticknor. 224 pages.-Since our first notice of this little volume, we have given it a more thorough examination, and strongly recommend it to the notice of parents. Dr. Good, the author, was a man eminently distinguished for his vast acquirements in science, and for his ardent piety.

CASPAR HAUSER, published by Allen and Ticknor.—Since the assassination of that remarkably unfortunate and mysterious being, the credibility of the memoir has been placed beyond the possibility of doubt, and it strikes us that nothing can be more highly interesting to every class of readers. In a philosophical point of view, an unsurveyed field is laid open, and those who love to study human nature in all its various phases, will find peculiar gratification in these pages. By all means, buy Caspar Hauser.

THE HIGH-SCHOOL READER, designed for a First Class Book: consisting of Extracts in Prose and Poetry. By Rev. J. L. Blake. Allen and Ticknor. 408 pages, 8vo.--The reverend author of this work has been uncommonly successful in the compilation of valuable school-books. No better recommendation is required to any publication designed for the young, than this gentleman's

name.

AN ACCOUNT OF JANE C. RIDER, THE SPRINGFIELD SOMNAMBULIST, by L. W. Belden, M. D.-Surely, the subject of this memoir is one of the lions of the day! Nothing can be more perplexing to the physiologist, than Miss Rider's anomalous paroxysms:-reading letters through cotton-wool, beating standard old backgammon players, with her eyes shut, hoodwinked with several

folds of a handkerchief, and all the while asleep, or what is more strange, unconscious of the whole affair. In a previous number of our work, much of Dr. Belden's narrative was anticipated by a valued correspondent, but, after all, the author's account is so interesting, having been an eye-witness, that he should be read in detail by those who have felt the least desire to have a full understanding of the young lady's case. What on earth was she sent to the Worcester Insane Hospital for? We should as soon have thought of consigning the unfortunate patient to the Emperor of Morocco.

THE AMERICAN ANNUAL REGISTER.-Having examined the Register, we have been led to exclaim, How is it, that people of intelligence can suffer such a valuable collection of historical facts as are presented in the Annual Register, to lie upon the publisher's shelves? Every well organized family in the United States should possess the entire series of this exceedingly valuable publication. MEMOIRS OF MRS. GRAHAM.-We have no knowledge of the lady, and therefore shall say nothing pro nor con.

THE HEIRESS, A NOVEL.-Being turned of twenty-five, our novel-reading days are upon the wane; yet, for the sake of recalling the happy hours of boyhood, we re-read the Vicar of Wakefield, once a year, which is the only work of fiction we could conscientiously recommend.

THE INTELLECTUAL AND PRACTICAL SINGING BOOK, by Charles Dingly, designed for Teachers and Schools, 80 pages, has made its appearance just when such a treatise was most needed. With this little manual, the youngest child that can read, may learn the principles of Vocal Music. Buy it by all means.

VENTRILOQUISM EXPLAINED.-A miserable production, not worth reading.

LOWTH'S TRANSLATION OF ISAIAH.-The preliminary discourse is truly beautiful. Bishop Lowth was a man of vast acquirements and ardent piety. The volume would be an acquisition to any library.

TRAITS AND TRADITIONS OF PORTUGAL.-Read and be wise, says the proverb. Books of this class are always deeply interesting, and sometimes instructive.

THE STAFF OFFICER, OR THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE.-As we possess no military propensities—having invariably run at the sight of fire-arms, it would be folly to attempt an analysis of these two volumes.

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SAMUEL, OR FIRST RELIGIOUS LESSONS.-A tolerably clever little affair.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN GALT.-The notoriety of Galt will insure a speedy sale of the edition.

P. S. Publishers are reminded that notices of all new works are for their benefit as well as the purchaser's, but we can't say a word about them, unless the book appears directly under the eye.

SCIENTIFIC DOINGS.-No doings at all in this literary emporium, of late, with the exception of some few profound resolves, worthy of the dark ages. These are indeed millennial days for parasites and parboiled sycophants; there being neither envy in any man's heart, nor common sense in all the heads that make pretensions to it.

On Wednesday, the 5th of March, the meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History was as interesting as usual, and as many curiosities were laid on the table as have been noticed at any previous conversazione. Being debarred from copying the records of the Society, as we fondly anticipated, the summary of the transactions will be less complete hereafter; but being blessed with a tolerably good memory, no important facts can very well escape recollection.

Mr. Hillard's closing lecture before the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, was an extremely able performance.

Dr. Grigg's lecture before the Boston Lyceum, Thursday evening, March 6th, on Physical Education, was what might have been expected from a gentleman whose whole soul is devoted to that important branch of useful knowledge. The doctor's appratus is beautifully and philosophically constructed.

WHITE ELEPHANTS.-These are exceedingly rare, and therefore the more highly valued in the countries where they are produced. That this color is an anomaly, cannot be doubted: indeed, such animals are probably born with a disease of the skin, or the rete mucosum, which is the coloring matter, is not secreted. However, when a white elephant is discovered, he receives the highest degree of care and attention, and in most cases in Asia, is regarded with religious veneration by all the pagans. One of the most august and sublimely sounding titles of his Burman majesty is, Lord of the White Elephant !

SPRATS.-Clupea sprattus, supposed to be the young of the herring. By an ancient law of the city of London, regulating the seasons in which certain fish are to be brought to market, it is enacted, that the first dish of sprats brought into that city, shall be presented to the Lord Mayor, for his feast, holden on the 9th of November. After that day these fish may be freely sold, but any introduced sooner, are to be forfeited to the city. This law is observed to the present day; and a large dish of sprats uniformly graces the table of the Civic Lord, at his inaugural feast.

FOSSIL REPTILES.-Near Woodstock, Eng., in calcareous slate, the remains of the Megalosaurus, a gigantic animal, intermediate between the crocodile and monitor, have been found, forty feet in length. The Iguanodon, another monstrous lizard, supposed to be upwards of sixty feet long, has been excavated from the iron sand of Tilgate forest. These differ very essentially from any species of reptiles now in existence. There was a time, in the history of our globe, when lizards, of enormous dimensions, seem to have had the entire possession of the earth. Upon their extinction, succeeded the creation of the present races of animals.

PELICANS. These are huge birds, which reside on the borders of rivers, lakes and the sea coast. Notwithstanding they seem exclusively organized for using their feet in swimming, they occasionally perch on trees. They are gregarious, exceedingly fond of fish, and when very much harassed, lighten their bodies, in order to escape pursuit the more readily, by vomiting up their burden of food, like the common gulls. Their prey is stored up in a capacious pouch suspended to the underside of the bill, from which they have the power of transferring it into the swallow, as the process of digestion makes room below.

FACIAL ANGLE.-The crania of a negro and a Pole, as represented in Blumenbach's Decades, possess the same facial angle, yet the general character of the two skulls is most opposite, when we compare the narrow and keel-shaped Ethiopian with the broad, square form of the Lithuanian. Mr. Lawrence finds the criterion of the facial line a poor key to the intellectual rank of animals or

men.

EGYPTIAN ANIMALS.-The celebrated Mr. Lawrence, author of the Natural History of Man, says he has carefully examined the figures of animals and birds engraven on the numerous obelisks brought from Egypt to ancient Rome, and they perfectly resemble those of the present day. St. Hilaire collected numerous mummies of animals from the sepulchres and temples of Upper and Lower Egypt, such as dogs, cats, ibises, birds of prey, monkeys, crocodiles, and an ox's head, embalmed; but there was no kind of difference discoverable in these, from those now in existence. It has long since been ascertained that there is no difference between the size and general configuration of human mummies of that remote epoch, and men of the present century.

TRANSMISSION OF SOUND.-On the 4th. of June last, a succession of guns were heard at Mahabuleshwar Hills, which were fired as a salute at Bombay, on the departure of the Earl of Clare for Poonah, the preceding evening. The distance over which the sound travelled was about 100 miles, 70 of which were over land.

IMPROVEMENT IN STABLES.-A merciful man is merciful to his beast: this reminds us of what ought to be done in great livery stables, for the preservation of the health of horses. The ancients floored their stables with stone, and were therefore wholly unacquainted with a multitude of diseases now familiar to farriers. Wooden floors are exceedingly bad, from the circumstance of imbibing fluids, which, acting upon the ligneous fibres, produce a very noxious gas, as poisonous for the horse to breathe as for the grooms.

ORIGINAL STOCK OF DOMESTIC CATTLE.- Cuvier, before his death, came to the conclusion, from a minute osteological examination, that the wild ox, urus or bison of the ancients, aurochs of the Germans, formerly found throughout the greater part of temperate Europe, and still met with in the forests of Lithuania, and of the Carpathian and Caucasian chains of mountains, is not, as many naturalists suppose, the wild original of our common breeds of domestic cattle. Their characters are only found in certain fossil heads and bones; and he therefore came to the conclusion, that the progenitors of these breeds were annihilated by civilization, like the camel and dromedary.

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