THE LATE MR. ABERNETHY. "The door was thrown open with a jerk, so sudden, that I involuntarily jumped off my chair, and salaamed the little man with a very white hand and very red face, before I could muster the peculiarly doleful expression I had been practising for the last ten minutes. * When he had, as I fancied, looked clean through me with his piercing grey eyes, he sat down, and I thought it high time to follow his example, though not invited to do so. After ten minutes more of pantomime, or dumb show, and just as I began to feel alarmed, and meditated bolting, for I really thought he was mad, he opened in a short sharp bark, half growl, Well! what the devil do you want?' "Physic." "What's the matter with you?' "Can't tell; read too much, I think.' CATCHING COLD. ONE of the chief causes of colds, (that is of fevers, for colds are slight fevers,) is, the confined and impure air which most people breathe in, both at home and at places of amusement. It is not the cold air that occasions *"catching cold," but the close and contaminated air. Too much food, of any sort, first prepares the way, by clogging all the finer pores; and so prepared, a heated sitting, drawing, or dancing room, or theatre, will almost always cause this very common complaint. The writer of this paragraph is acquainted with two gentlemen, who scarcely know what it is to have a cold; and both happen to be very abstemious, though far from robust men." Quære: Is Mr. Wood more or less subject to catch cold, since he betook himself to his low diet?-Answer by Mr. Wood: He now finds himself much more healthy, and much less liable to catch cold. What few colds he now catches are so very slight that he is not sensible of them. I caused the above question to be asked Mr. Wood, and obtained the answer. It is the Mr. Wood who lives upon a pound of flour in a pudding. B. FRANKLIN."-See Franklin's Memoirs, vol. 6, where the reader will find explained why it is that impure air in close rooms will give cold; for the air in such places being full of discharged perspirable matter, it will receive no more of it. "If the air, there fore, will not take it off from the body, it must remain in the body; and perspiration is as effectually stopped, and the perspirable matter as certainly retained, as if the pores were all stopped." This will perhaps explain to many, how it is they feel so uncomfortable, and get such "dreadful colds," without before knowing how, or thinking they had been guilty of the smallest indiscretion, either in feeding, or in sitting in bad air. "Ah! drink too much, you mean. Never knew an Oxford or Cambridge man die from over-application to any thing but his stomach. What the devil did you come to me for?' "To be cured.' "Then, why didn't you go to T-11, an old favourite pupil of mine, a cleverer man than his master ?' "Because,' said I, bowing, I thought so good a disciple must have had a very good master; and—’ "There, hold your tongue;-put it out, and let me see it. That will do-put it in again-shut your mouth, and keep it shut.' "He wrote on a bit of paper about the size of a crownpiece, a prescription for my disorder, and told me to go to Paternoster Row, and buy his book of Longman and Co.; to turn to page 72, and follow his printed rules as closely as I could; but if possible to go down to the sea-side for a time, and enter into every scene of gaiety and amusement I could find. But,' said I, as to diet, I thought-' "Diet be d-d! Eat the best of every thing you fancy, only don't cram; drink as much of the best wine you can get as will exhilarate you, without making you drunk; and take plenty of open-air exercise.' And am to I lie down after dinner,' said I, and roll on the-' 66 6 Oh, oh!' cried he, 'I see you are a wag,-all fudge about the hearth-rug. Some say I chew the cud like a cow-ha! ha! ha!' and he gave me one of the most comic looks I ever beheld. I said no more about regimen or diet, but entered into conversation on other subjects, and found him one of the most agreeable and amusing men I ever met with.'—The Parish Clerk, edited by Theodore Hook: THE CHILDREN OF ENGLAND. One might fancy all the little boys one meets, were heirs apparent, For them the Tyrian murrey swimmeth,' and all the little girls countesses in embryo. They are not only clothed in purple and fine linen, Flanders lace, and oriental cashmeres, but we hear of nursery governesses, nursery footmen, the children's carriage, the children's pair of horses! Now that Turkey is brought down from her stilts, I am of opinion that the only despotism extant in Europe, is the nurseryarchy of Great Britain-with its viziers and janizaries, head nurses and apothecaries, ladies' doctors and Lilliputian warehouses.-Cecil, or the Adventures of a Coxcomb. New Books. THE COMIC ALMANACK, FOR 1842. GEORGE CRUIKSHANK! what boots it to thee to have thy Westminster Review, or to blunt thy pencil in illustrating "genius" lauded in the "ponderous-levity" pages of the the picturesque antiquities of the Tower of London or the "felon literature" of Twist, or Sheppard, or to embellish thine own Omnibus-when thou canst produce so capital Windsor Castle, or even to rattle through the year in in jest and earnest," as thine and our own dear Comic a budget of fun and humour, so fitting an "ephemeris months" nearly one hundred times, in spiritedly etched Almanack! In eight years hast thou illustrated "the plates and wood-cuts; and here thou art again, an evergreen of pleasantry and humour that must move even the gravest to laughter, and satisfy the most mirth-loving. We could write a sheet upon the genius of the plates, and the sparkling head-cuts to the months that illustrate a gay countryman's year in town: the side-cuts are likewise very grotesque and novel. Of the letter-press we pick here and there a few specimens: " April 6th.—The will of Wood of Gloucester litigated. He scraped from stocks and stones- Till he rested his bones 'neath the churchyard stones, "August 15.-The boy Jones sent to sea. Jones, you'll be toss'd at sea, as I've a notion; Guilty, he pleaded; An act that, surely, did not show his sense, While he had this defence: "Gentlemen,-any frauds by me displayed, I forged the bills, 'tis true; what then, I ask? To earn for me a scourging? For, since the days of Vulcan, I would know, How could a Smith be great, except in forging?" There is some very smart squibbery upon the scientific hobbies of the day, not forgetting the "Society for the Confusion of Useless Knowledge;" but we prefer a few Likelihoods. "Is it likely when attending a meeting of creditors, where time is asked for, that you will ever hear of less than the probability of thirty shillings in the pound? Is it likely that anybody on the Free List ("the public press excepted") can gain admittance at a theatre, when there is anything worth seeing or hearing? Is it likely that an unfavourable review of a work can appear, without the author's declaring that the writer has been actuated by private malice? Is it likely that you will find the National Gallery, or British Museum, open at the day or hour that a country consin has selected for visiting it? Is it likely that you can receive a present of game, from the country, without paying, in carriage, more than it is worth, and being expected to send a basket of fish in return? Is it likely that a friend will remember to return your umbrella until the dry weather sets in? Is it likely when you get into an omnibus at the Bank, that you will arrive at Bond-street in the time in which you could have pedestrianised the distance twice over? Is it likely that you will hear the popular preacher whose fame has attracted you five miles on a foggy November Sunday morning? Is it likely that you can remember the number of the coach in which you have left your new silk umbrella? Is it likely that a day can pass without the manager of a theatre receiving ten applications, from "particular friends," for the use of the stage-box? Is it likely for your country friends not to have seen more of the London lions than you, who have been in town all your life? Is it likely that a friend will refuse to lend you a hundred pounds, without giving you plenty of advice? Is it likely that you can take a trip to a watering-place, without ever-last-ingly running against your shoemaker, and finding your butcher there, "cutting it fat?" Is it likely that you can put on a new pair of boots, without wishing the maker of them at a pretty considerable As the affection of a child for its doll proverbially increases according to the dilapidated state of the latter, the above tables afford an interesting view of the probable existing proportion of nursery attachments at the present moment. One child in three, at the Fair, had a mouth covered with gingerbread crumbs, and five in twelve had the stomach-ache. The promenade Concert d'Eté, which lasted all day long, embraced twenty-two penny trumpets, or cornets-à-bois, nineteen musical fruits, six fiddles with packthread strings, and four drums, varying in price from sixpence to two shillings. A solo, by a very young performer, on a tin rattle filled with peas, was very much admired. A statement has also been made connected with the omni buses of the metropolis, from which it appears that, when you are waiting at the corner of any street for an omnibus, seven out of eight are going the wrong way. Ninety per cent, of the cads ask you if you will ride outside, when you hail them; and, out of thirteen passengers, three wear kid gloves, eight sport brown Berlin, and two none at all." Here are a few of the "Miseries enough for the Year:" "To find it a rapid thaw, when you have purchased a new pair of skates, and have invited a party of ladies to see your performance. Being "not at home" to an old friend, and coming down stairs, in a forgetful fit, before he has had time to leave the house. Going out to be godfather, and remembering, at the proper crisis for presentation, that you must have left "the" silver cup in some omnibus. To be interrupted while writing a bill-et-doux, by the recollection of a bill over due. Writing an appointment to a lady, and a disappointment to a tailor, and cross directing them. Paying your rent punctually, on quarter-day, to your landlord, and being distrained on, the next day, by his landlord. Abusing a person whom you have never seen, to a respectable-looking stranger, who, after apparently nodding assent, with the patience of a martyr, quietly observes that he is the man. The unpleasant anticipation of loose teeth, as you see him making up his bunch of fives." VARIETIES. Prudential Consideration.-The author of Gilbert Gurney was acquainted with a distinguished officer, whose lady having died in one of our colonies, and expressed a wish to be buried in England, was accordingly deposited in a cask of rum for the purpose of transport home, but remained in the cellar after the officer's second marriage; the detention being occasioned by his expectation that the duty on the spirit imported into England, in which the dear departed was preserved, would, in a few years, be either lowered or taken off altogether! Strange as this may seem, it is true. Assamese Tea. The report of the Assam Tea Company for the past year states, that the order of Government for making over two-thirds of the experimental gardens and means of manufacture at Jeypore and its neighbourhood, have been carried into effect; but that the exertions of Mr. Bruce, the superintendent, have been baffled by want of labourers. The Chinese sent from Singapore, quarrelled with the natives of Pubna; part were sent to gaol for misconduct, and the rest refused to proceed to Assam. Owing to this and other causes, the product shipped to England last year was only 10,212 lbs. The quantity of land fully and partially cleared amounts to about 7000 acres. The native tea land, cleared, cropped, and in actual production, amounts to 2,638 acres, capable of producing, when the trees are in full bearing, at a quarter of a pound of tea per tree, 312,000 lbs. The company have set up a saw-mill, to aid the manufacture of chests and other articles. A small steamer, to ply between Calcutta and Assam, has arrived in the country. The estimate of the prospective return of tea for the next five years, when it is supposed that the tea-lands will be in full perfection, is as follows:1841, 40,000 lbs.; 1842, 80,000 lbs.; 1843, 160,000 lbs. ; and so on, increasing 80,000 lbs. each year.Asiatic Journal. Sea-kale is now in perfection: for, unlike most other vegetables, kale is improved by forcing; and that so produced is more crisp and delicate than that of natural growth in April or May. A Christmas Turkey will be much improved by hanging for a fortnight or even three weeks, in which time the flesh will acquire the fine flavour of game. Roasted chestnuts, grated or sliced, make an excellent addition to the stuffing for turkeys or geese. Tobacco Pipes. It is a curious fact, that, although our pipes are quite different in shape and substance from the original American pipe, they seem to have been used among us almost since the very first introduction of tobacco. A Plum Pudding is hardly ever boiled enough; a fault which reminds one of a predicament in which Lord Byron once found himself in Italy. He had made up his mind to have a plum-pudding on his birthday, and busied himself a whole morning in giving minute directions to prevent the chance of a mishap; yet, after all the pains he had taken, and the anxiety he must have undergone, the pudding appeared in a tureen, and of about the consistency of soup. The Pleasures of the Table have never been incompatible with the gifts of genius, or the investigations of the understanding. "I cannot conceive," says Dr. Johnson," the folly of those, who, when at table, think of every thing but eating; for part, when I am there, I think of nothing else; and, whosoever does not trouble himself with this important affair at dinner, or supper, will do no good at any other time." my Origin of Punch.-That Punch made his appearance in the puppet-show of the Deluge, most persons know; his exclamation of "hazy weather, master Noah!" having been preserved by tradition.-The Doctor. We refer this matter to the Editors of that "righte merrie" and facete journal, "Punch." Hint to Wits.-They who cannot swim should be contented with wading in the shallows: they who can may take to the deep water; no matter how deep, so it be clear. But let no one dive in the mud. Dorking Fowls.-All fowls of the original Dorking breed have five claws, although a great many are reared there with only four: they are large and superior in flavour. The sale for the London markets is estimated at more than £8,000 per annum. Merry and Wise.-It is quite refreshing to find so grave an authority as Barrow, the divine, thus advocating the virtue of being merry and wise. "Such facetiousness," saith he, "is not unreasonable nor unlawful which ministereth harmless divertisement and delight to conversation; harmless, I say, that is, not infringing charity or justice, not disturbing peace. If jocular discourse may serve to good purposes; if irksome cares, to whet our blunted industry, to recreate our it may be apt to raise our drooping spirits, to allay our minds, being tried and cloyed with grave occupations; if it may breed alacrity, or maintain good humour among us; if it may conduce to sweeten conversation and endear society, then is it not inconvenient or unprofitable. Why should those games which excite our wit and fancies be less reasonable than those whereby our grosser parts and faculties are exercised? Yea, why are not those more reasonable, since they are performed in a manly way, and have in them a smack divert and please, but to improve and profit the mind, rousing of reason; since also that they be so managed as not only to and quickening it, yea, sometimes enlightening and instructing it by good sense conveyed in jocular expression?" Love's Catching.-Love, like the plague, is often communicated by clothing and money.-Miss Martineau. True Philosophy.-When Alderman Beckford's fine house at Fonthill, with pictures and furniture to a great value, was burnt, he coolly said: "Oh! I have an odd £50,(×)0 in a drawer; I will build it up again: it won't be above a thousand pounds a-piece difference to my thirty children." Spurzheim was lecturing on phrenology. "What is to be conceived the organ of drunkenness?" said the professor. "The barrel-organ," interrupted Bannister. Keeping Holidays.-There are many advantages in variety of conditions, one of which is boasted of by a divine, who rejoices that, between both classes, all the holidays of the church are properly kept, since the rich observe the feasts, and the poor observe the fasts.”—Sharp. Hippocrates was the first who applied himself to the study of physic as the sole business of his life. In his time, an extensive knowledge of diseases and their remedies had been attained; but it was reserved for the present era, to perfect that knowledge by the addition of a vast body of collateral evidence drawn from the stores which have subsequently been unfolded by chemistry, geology, and experimental philosophy. Such, however, were the attainments of the medical philosophers of that early period, such their diligence in observing facts, such the accuracy of their discrimination and the soundness of their reasoning, that they left but comparatively little on which the mere force of observation could improve. Indeed, they attained a boundary which it would have been scarcely possible to pass, but by the aid of those auxiliaries which other branches of science have since supplied. kitchens, with wide-arched fire-places, over them was come True Economy.-When chimneys were first introduced in monly written" Waste not, want not," which exhorted cooks to care and economy. This motto is placed over the largest mantel of the vast kitchen at Raby Castle, the magnificent seat of the Duke of Cleveland. Vols. I. and II. of the New and Pictorial Series of the LONDON SATURDAY JOURNAL, price 6s. 6d. each, handsomely bound in cloth, may be had of all Booksellers. LONDON SATURDAY JOURNAL. CONDUCTED BY JOHN TIMBS, THIRTEEN YEARS EDITOR OF "THE MIRROR," AND "LITERARY WORLD." THE MISSOURI LEVIATHAN; OR, MISSOURIUM. To call this reputed wonder of a former world one of the "Lions" of London, might subject our nomenclature to the simper of the scientific. Still, the gigantic skeleton represented upon the preceding page is, at this moment, one of the most attractive of our metropolitan sights, and will, we trust, be found to merit the attention which it is fast monopolising. The "Missouri Leviathan," as the discoverer, M. Albert Koch, terms this strange creature, was found in the year 1838, near the shores of the river La Pomme de Terre, a tributary of the Osage river, in Benton county, in the state of Missouri, lat. 40°, and long. 18°. It was discovered imbedded twenty feet beneath the surface of the earth; and M. Koch states there is every reason to believe, that the Pomme de Terre, at some former period, was a magnificent river, from one-and-a-half to three-fourths of a mile in breadth, and that its waters washed the high rocky banks on either side; and which present a great resemblance to those of the Missouri and Mississippi. It appears from the different strata, that since this huge animal existed, six or seven different changes have taken place here, by which the original bed of the Pomme de Terre was filled with as many different strata. The strata in which the Missourium was found, consisted of quicksand and a brown alluvial soil, the latter mixed with vegetable remains of a tropical or very low southern production. They comprised large quantities of cypress-burs, wood, and bark; tropical cane and swamp moss; several stumps of trees resembling logwood; the greater part of a flower of the Strelitzia class, which when destroyed was not full blown; and several stems of palmetto leaf, one possessing all the fibres perfect, or nearly so. To those not acquainted with the nature of this plant, it may be as well to observe that it is not found at present farther north than the northern parts of Louisiana. "The time when the revolution of the earth took place, during which the Missourium lost its life, was between the 15th of September and 20th of October, which is proved by the fact just mentioned of the cypress-burs being found; from which circumstance might be readily inferred, that they had been torn by force from their parent stem before they had arrived at perfection, and were involved in one common ruin with the trees which bore them; these having been torn up by the roots, and twisted and split into a thousand pieces, apparently by lightning, combined with a tremendous tempest or tornado. There was no sign or indication of any very large trees, the cypresses that were discovered being the largest that were growing here at the time. "Through this stratum ran several veins of iron ore-sufficient evidence of the antiquity of this deposite. Immediately over this was one of blue clay, three feet in thickness; the next was one of gravel from nine to eighteen inches in thickness, so hard compressed together that it resembled puddingstone; the next was a layer of light blue clay, from three to four feet in thickness: on this was another stratum of gravel, of the same thickness and appearance of the one first mentioned; this was succeeded by a layer of yellowish clay, from two to three feet in thickness; over this, a third layer of gravel, of the same appearance and thickness; and, at last, the present surface, consisting of a brownish clay, mingled | with a few pebbles, and covered with large oak, maple, and elm trees, which were, as near as M. Koch could ascertain, from eighty to a hundred years old. In the centre of the above-mentioned deposit, was a large spring which appeared to rise from the very bowels of the earth, as it was never affected by the severest rain, nor did it become lower by the longest drought. "About two hundred yards from the said deposit stands a rock, in which can be traced, in deep and furrowed lines, the former course of angry waters; yet its summit is full thirty feet above the present level of the Pomme de Terre ; and from the base down to the deposit of the bones is sixteen feet-making, from the stratum on which the bones were deposited to the edge of the rock, forty-six feet. "This gigantic skeleton measures thirty feet in length and fifteen in height; the head measures, from the tip of the nose to the spine of the neck, six feet; from one zygomatic arch to the other, four feet; from the lower edge of the upper lip to the first edge of the front tooth, twenty inches; from the front point of the lower jaw to the first edge of the front tooth, eight inches; from the edge of the upper lip, measuring along the roof of the mouth to the socket of the eye, three feet; from thence to where the atless joins the head, ten and a half inches. The whole number of teeth is eight-that is, four upper and four lower, not including the two tusks. The two upper fore teeth are four inches broad and four and a half inches in length, and are situated in the head in such a manner that they slant towards the roof of the mouth, insomuch that their outer edge is an inch and a quarter higher than their inside edge. The back teeth in the upper jaw are seven inches in length, and where they unite with the front teeth, they are like those four inches broad, and from thence run narrower back until they end almost in a point. The formation of the nose is very peculiar it consists of a bony substance interwoven with cells, and presents a broad, flat appearance; it projects thirteen inches over the lower jaw, and ends in two nostrils, which are somewhat raised on the face. This nose rests partly on the roof of the mouth, and partly on the upper lip, which latter is somewhat arched on both sides, and forms a ridge in the centre." As the right tusk was found solid in the head, and as it remained fixed in its socket during its excavation and transportation over a very rough and wilderness country, M. Koch considers the tusks to have been carried by the animal almost horizontally, bending somewhat down, and coming with their points up again; their length is ten feet, exclusive of one foot three inches which form the root, and is hidden from the eye of the observer, as it is concealed in and under the skull. The tusks are remarkably large in proportion to the size of the head, and their roots are perfectly firm and solid, so as to leave only space for the nerve. The body of these tusks has been a formation of coarse ivory, partaking somewhat of the na ture of bone-so much so, that it will again unite and become whole after an injury; which is proved by the fact of the right tusk having a large scar where it had been severely injured. As soon as the tusks leave the interior of the head, which takes place opposite the chin, they run parallel on each side of the nose, sinking down to the edge of the upper lip, until they reach the outer edge of it; from thence they make a sudden bend and run from both sides in a horizontal position, each forming somewhat of a semicircle. Measuring those tusks from the point of the one to the point of the other, following the curvature, is twenty-one feet; the distance across the head in a straight line, from point to point of the tusks, is fifteen feet. Especially remarkable on the lower jaw is a protuberance which is immediately situated over the posterior mental foramen, from whence it proceeds out of the ramus in a horizontal position; its point is somewhat bent down, inclining back; its length is two inches and three quarters; its diameter at the root is one inch and a half. M. Koch considers this protuberance peculiar to the Missourium, as he has never seen a similar one on any of the great number and variety of fossils he has disinterred or examined, or of animals of the present race, and as yet he has never heard it mentioned by other naturalists. Another peculiarity of this protuberance is, that it possesses points resembling thorns. M. Koch supposes it to have been the location of some remarkably strong muscles attached to the lower lip, that gave it the strength of a proboscis. We have not space to quote from M. Koch's descriptive pamphlet, the measurement of the different bones contained in the skeleton: "All the vertebræ are remarkably narrow, and must have |