The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 47 pages of information about The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 47 pages of information about The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction.

The depressing effects of the corroding wind of a hot Sirocco can only be conceived by those who have suffered from them; the unwonted dulness with which it overcasts even the most active mind; the deep-drawn sighs it will elicit; and if there be one melancholy feeling which presses on the heart more heavily than another, it is the ample developement which it enjoys during the prevalence of this enervating breeze.  It seldom, however, blows with force; it is rather an exhalation than a wind.  It scarcely moves the leaves around the traveller, but it sinks heavily and damply in his heart.  A stranger is at first unaware of the cause of the mental misery he endures; his temper sours as his spirits sink; every person, and every circumstance, annoys him; it affects even his dreams; sleep itself is not a refuge from querulous peevishness, and every motion is an irritating exertion.

Polar Expedition.

The government of the United States has appointed an expedition, under Capt.  Reynolds, to explore the northern coasts.  A Captain Cunningham is mentioned to have traversed the country from St. Louis in the Missouri, to St. Diego, St. Pedro, in California.

Lithography.

From an article which has appeared in a late number of the “Biblioteca Italiana,” it appears that Sermefelder was not the original discoverer of the art of Lithography, but Simon Schmidt, a professor at the Cadet Hospital at Munich.

Small Pox.

Within the last twelve months, only 503 deaths have occurred from small pox within the Bills of Mortality; whereas, in the preceding year 1299 persons are recorded as having fallen victims to that loathsome disease.—­Vaccine Institut.  Report.

China.

A valuable museum of the products of Chinese skill and industry has recently been exhibited at Rome, in which the progress made by a people of whom so little is known, and civilization and the arts, is demonstrated.  The manufacture of bronzes, porcelain, gold work, and casts in copper, has arrived in China at an approach to perfection which the most advanced European nations would find it difficult to surpass.  Some of the Chinese vases may really be compared to those of the finest time of Greece.  The sculptures and the paintings, even with reference to anatomical precision, are as highly finished as ours.—­Literary Gazette.

Recovery from Suspended Animation.

A case is reported in a recent number of the Bulletin Universel, by a French physician, M. Bourgeois, showing the importance of never abandoning all hope of success in restoring animation.  A person who had been twenty minutes under water, was treated in the usual way for the space of half an hour without success:  when a ligature being applied to the arm, above a vein that had been previously opened, ten ounces of blood were withdrawn, after which the circulation and respiration gradually returned, though accompanied by the most dreadful convulsions.  A second, and a third bleeding was had recourse to, which brought about a favourable sleep, and ultimate recovery on the ensuing day.

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The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.