VOL. 4.1 December Scenery-Climate of Nice. 241 The cow-horns set all the dogs in the performed in the open air, every noise city howling in a frightful manner. is heard. At night, all sleep on the tops The asses of the town generally begin- of their houses, their beds being spread ning to bray about the same time, are upon their terraces, without any other answered by all the asses in the neigh- covering over their heads than the vault bourhood; a thousand cocks then in- of heaven. The poor seldom have a trude their shrill voices, which, with screen to keep them from the gaze of the other subsidiary noises of persons passengers; and as we generally rode calling to each other, knocking at out on horseback at a very early hour, doors, cries of children, complete a din we perceived on the tops of the houses, very unusual to the ears of an Euro- people either still in bed, or just getting ropean. In the Summer season, as the up, and certainly no sight was ever operations of domestic life are mostly stranger." From the London Time's Telescope, for Dec. 1818. IN DECEMBER. 'Tis winter, cold and rude, Heap, heap the warming wood; The wild wind hums the sullen song to night. Haste, boy-this gloomy hour Demands relief; the cheerful tapers light. Though now my cot around Methinks 'tis summer by this festive blaze! In seemly ranks appear, And glisten to the fire's far-flashing rays. BUTT. WINTER again commences his flowers and fruit, and butterflies are The iron reign; and although he every where seen fluttering. does not rule with so ferocious an highways even, in some parts, are boraspect in this country, as in more dered with a hedge of American aloes northern regions, yet his approach is, (agave Americana.) If frost sometimes generally, sufficiently terrible to persons occurs, which only happens during the in delicate health, and too often proves coldest days, it is but slight, and is soon fatal to the anxious hopes of many a dissipated by the influence of the sun. parent. To those, who are blessed No climate possesses a more genial with the gifts of fortune, it is a con30- atmosphere, no soil a more smiling lation to know, that, like the swallow, vegetation. The blossoms of the or other migratory birds, they may orange, the vine, and the laurel-rose, change their climate at the approach of the infinite variety of flowers, plants, winter, and return with the spring. and shrubs, at all seasons of the year, lead us to exclaim— Vertumne, Pomone, et Zephyre, Many a spot in Italy, or the south of France, present to the invalid the greatest advantages, and holds out the most alluring prospects. The climate of Nice is particularly favourable to valetudinarians during the winter, Such a temperature as this, has powerwhich is, in general, remarkably mild. ful attractions for the natives of northern The spring is subject to piercing winds, regions-a sky ever clear, serene, and and the autumn is usually wet; the bespangled, during the night, with inBummer is hot, but not insupportably numerable stars, is pecunarly welcome Verdure prevails even at this to the Russian, the German, and the season; the trees are loaded with Englishman. From the time of Smol 2G ATRENUM. Vol. 4 242 Nature's Diary for December. [VOL. 4 lett, who first made known to our mur; but, if he turns his thoughts tocountrymen the mildness of this delight- wards the polar regions, and considers ful climate, it became the fashion to resort to Nice during the winter. But this hybernation was put an end to by the Revolution, and by the long and tedious wars that succeeded it. The winter fruits are olives, oranges, lemons, citrons,* dried figs, grapes, apples, pears, almonds, chesnuts, walnuts, filberds, medlars,pomegranates, azarole, and the berries of the laurel. The grapes are large and luscious. Muskmelons are very cheap, and they have water-melons from Antibes and Sar dinia. The environs of Nice are truly enchanting. The irregularity of seasons, so detrimental to vegetation in other parts of the world, is here exchanged for a progress so uniform and imperceptible, that the tenderest plant appears to feel the change, and acquire new vigour by it. Every day brings forth another flower, every month its fruits, and every year a copious harvest. The light tinges of the spring yield to the brighter hues of summer; and autumn boasts of the deep crimson and the orange. Unexposed to the bleak influence of the north, the pendent grape soon comes to full maturity; the almond and the peach already tempt the taste; the citron and the orange promise an ample recompense for the toil of the husbandman. In the language of Lady Mary Montague, it may be said: Here summer reigns with one eternal smile; Succeeding harvests bless the happy soil. Fair fertile fields, to whom indulgent heav'n Has ev'ry charm of ev'ry season giv❜n. No killing cold deforms the beauteous year, The springing flow'rs no coming winter fear; But as the parent rose decays and dies, The infant bude with brighter colours rise, And with fresh sweets the mother's scent supplies. No inconvenience is less superable by art or diligence than the inclemeney of climates: A native of England, pinched with the frost of December, may lessen his affection for his own country, by suffering his imagination to wander in the vales of Asia, and sport among woods that are always green, and streams that always mur • A thousand of either citrons or lemons may be had for a guines. the nations to whom a great portion of the year is darkness, and who are condemned to pass weeks and months amid mountains of snow, he will soon recover his tranquillity; and, while he stirs his fire, or throws his cloak about him, reflect how much he owes to Providence, that he is not placed in Greenland or Siberia.' Were we condemned to the dreary climes, and to the manner of life, of the natives of the arctic countries, we should deem it insupportable. How deplorable should we think our situations, if we saw nothing before our eyes but stupendous mountains of ice and extensive wastes of snow; if the absence of the Sun, for entire months, rendered the cold more insupportable still; if, instead of our comfortable habitations, we had no other asylum than a gloomy cavern, or a skin-covered tent; if we had no other resource for our subsistence than a perilous activity in the chase ; and if we were deprived of all the pleasures which the arts impart, and of all the sweets of society that exalt existence, and render life delightful! Let the consideration, then, of the unspeakable advantages which we enjoy in our temperate clime, and to which we are so inattentive, not only banish every repining thought, that we are not placed in still milder regions and still serener skies, but teach us to regard the Divine Being with increasing love and unceasing adoration. Englishmen must, 'with all her faults, love England still.' Most sincerely do we accord with the Danish poet : 1. Oh! no where blossoms so bright the summer rose, In vain the partial sun on other vales Pours lib'ral down a more exhaustless ray, And vermeil fruits, that blush along their dales, In Mock the pale products of our scanty day.' vain, far distant from the land we love, The world's green breast soars higher to the sky; Oh! what were heav'n itself, if lost above Were the dear memory of departed joy? Oh! what are Eloisa's bowers of cost, Matched with the bush, where, hid in berries white, Mine arms around my infant love were closed? VOL. 4.] Winter Scenery-Mosses and Lichens. What Jura's peak, to that upon whose height 243 and some shoot out in branches. All these have their different seeds, which do not require great delicacy of soil, As Winter unfolds his awful train, but take root on any thing where they vapours, and clouds, and storms,' the can grow unmolested. Those mosses contemplative observer of nature be- which rise immediately from the earth comes habituated to views of the stu- are more perfect; some of them white pendous and sublime. Verdant groves, and hollow, or fistulous; and some of variegated meadows, and radiant skies, them not much inferior to regular plants. are now succeeded by leafless woods, The more perfect sorts grow on stones, dejected wastes, and a frowning atmos- in the form of a fine pile or fur, like phere. But while the incurious and velvet, and of a glossy colour, between inattentive perceive a dreary uniformity green and black. But the first sort, in all around, the penetrating eye of which appears like scurf or crust, seems the rural student discovers many a to rise but one degree above the unvaried aspect of beauty and excellency, wrought mould or earth. An on which still invite to the most pleasing healthy tree is never without these iminvestigation. And, however paradoxi- perfect super-plants; and the more cal it may appear, he finds inexhaustible unhealthy the tree is, the better they sources of serenity and delight, in that thrive. mood of melancholy musing on scenes of desolation, which, in vulgar estimation, would rather "Deepen the murmur of the falling floods, And breathe a browner horror o'er the woods." In fine, in each vicissitude of the seasons, he still discerns the omnipotent Creator, ever bountiful to man; and, whether the gentle gales breathe propitious in spring, or resistless storms ravage the earth in winter, bis cultivat ed mind kindles with devotion, and even calls upon the inanimate world to join him in adoration. Mosses, diminutive as they seem, are no less perfect plants than those of greater magnitude, having roots, flowers, and seeds: Each Moss, Important in the plan of Him who formed That Nature's self would rue! Of the liverworts, or lichens, there are more than three hundred and sixty species, the greater number of which The various are natives of Britain. kinds of lichens are subservient to many important purposes: some are used Those dwarfs of the vegetable king- as drying drugs; in Lapland, one dom, mosses,and the liverwort (lichen,) species constitutes the sole winter subare now the only subjects for the ex- sistence of that useful animal the reinamination of the botanist. Mosses are deer; and, in Britain, the lichen islanspread over the whole globe, so that, dicus, which grows much on the mounin some situations, the soil is exclusively tains of Wales and Scotland, is used covered by them; and thus, frequently, as a medicine. In Iceland, food is bare rocks gradually become fertile. prepared from it. For this purpose, a As they grow most copiously on the dish of the lichen is prepared by chopnorthwest side of trees, it is probable ping it small, boiling it in three or four that mosses serve to protect them from successive portions of water to take off the severity of cold; but if these par- its natural bitterness, and then for an asiticial plants be suffered to increase hour or two in milk. When cold, this too abundantly, they not only tend preparation has the form of a jelly, materially to injure trees, but also to which is eaten with milk or cream, and stifle the more useful vegetables of the makes a very palatable dish. soil. Mosses are almost constantly The most minute species of this great green, and have the finest verdure in genus hold a much more important Some of the mosses spread place in the economy of nature than is others grow apparent to superficial observers. They cups; others are the first beginning of vegetation on mushrooms; stones of all kinds exposed to the air autumn. in a continued leaf; hollow above, like small round on the top, like 244 Nature's Diary for December. [VOL. 4 Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed; Sometimes like apes that mew and chatter at me, whose decomposing surfaces are the once affixed malignant qualities. The receptacle of their imperceptible seed, witches in Macbeth name its cry among and soon afford nourishment to the those of evil omen :sprouting plants, whose minute fibrous roots still farther insinuate themselves. The larger species take possession of every cavity and fissure, both of stones, and of the decaying external bark of trees. In time they all decay, and furnish a portion of vegetable mould, capable of nourishing mosses, or still larger plants. The residuum of these being still more considerable, is washed by rains into large cavities, where even And the vulgar still believe that forest trees can scatter their seeds; by hedgehogs are unlucky, and even more the penetrating power of whose roots, actively mischievous; for, that they eat great masses are dislodged from the the roots of the corn; suck the cows, most lofty rocks. Thus the vegetable causing their udders to ulcerate; and kingdom exercises dominion over the many other misdemeanors are laid to tributary fossil world, and, in its turn, to the charge of this poor little beast ; affords the same no less necessary aid who, being guilty of none of them, lives to animal existence. Nothing in nature in remote hedge-rows, copses, and the is allowed to remain stationary, idle, or bottoms of dry ditches, under leaves and useless, and the most inconsiderable fern, and feeds on beetles, worms, and agents frequently appear, in the hands flies. Sometimes, with its snout, it of Divine Providence, to be the most digs up the roots of the plantain among irresistible. the grass, and makes them a part of its food. Few birds are now heard except the sparrow. No bird more frequently The conger-eel now caught, upon the meets the eye than this, and if it does western coast, is the most disgusting not charm the ear by its voice, it amuses marine production that can meet the eye. the mind by its familiarity and crafti- The largest are two yards in length, ness. It frequents our habitations, and and proportionate in thickness; which is seldom absent from our gardens and the poor people are obliged to eat, for fields. Though its note is only a chirp, want of other victuals. Soup, it is said, in a wild state; when early reclaimed, made from this eel is very nutritive, and it may be taught to imitate the strain of delicious to the palate. A conger eel the linnet or goldfinch. Few birds are was some time since, taken in the Wash more execrated by the farmers, and at Yarmouth, by a fisherman, which none, perhaps, more unjustly. It is measured six feet in length, and twentrue, indeed, they consume a considera- ty-two inches in girth, and weighed ble quantity of grain and fruit, but then three stone seven pounds. The eel, on it should be considered that a pair of finding no way for escape, rose erect, them will destroy upwards of three and actually knocked the fisherman thousand caterpillars in a week. Nor is down before he could secure it. the utility of these birds limited to this circumstance alone: they likewise feed their young with butterflies and other insects, which, if suffered to live, would be the parents of numerous caterpillars. Those wild animals which pass the winter in a state of torpidity, have retired to their hiding places. The frog, lizard, meet, The shortest day, or winter solstice, happens on the 21st of December; and the joyful season of Christmas is now fast approaching. How many a heart is happy at this bour Flares the heaped hearth, and friends and kindred In England! brightly o'er the cheerful hall, badger and hedgehog, which burrow And the glad mother round her festive board in the earth, belong to this class. The Beholds her children, separated long hedgehog or urchin is among those in- Amid the world's wide way, assembled now; offensive animals to which superstition And at the sight, affection lightens up with smiles the age that age has long bedimmed. Whatever inconvenience may be experienced from the cold and long nights of winter, all is compensated by the cheerful blaze of the evening fire with the social circle round it, and the subsequent retreat to a comfortable bed; and those who experience this happiness cannot express their gratitude to Him who affords it to them, better than by extending the blessing to those who want it, by assisting in making their cottages comfortable, mending their windows, supplying them with firing, clothing, and bedding. Having recommended to our readers the practice of benevolence to others, and gratitude to the Divine Being for all the favours they enjoy, we must repeat, at the close of this annual volume, what cannot too often be insisted onthe Seasons' are emblematic of the human life; and that the pride of SUMMER, the riches of AUTUMN, the rigours 245 of WINTER, and the buds and flowers I have seen the green-budding spring, But despair not, for Winter's harsh storms So the stern Winter's day of our life, VARIETIES. Bite of the Adder.---DR. LESLIE, in a communication to the Medical Journal, describes a case in which ammonia was successful in preventing the effects of the bite of an adder. Travelling in the North of Eugland, he stopped to give assistance to a poor man who, having laid down on the grass to sleep, had been bitten. From experience of the beneficial effects of ammonia in India, in cases of the bites of different snakes, Dr. Leslie procured some spirits of hartshorn, and gave about a drachm of it, mixed with about half an ounce of gin and a little water. The effect was very sudden. In ten or fifteen minutes the patient's eyes became more bright, his pulse fuller and stronger, and his countenance altogether more cheerful; and by the repetition of the same dose as above stated, in about the space of an hour and a half, he appeared perfectly recovered. Another dose was left to be taken at ten o'clock at night, and in the morning he said he was quite well, except a little numbness and weakness in the arm: the third day after he returned to his work. D. C. of mechanism which is doubly curious from its own powers, and from the extraordinary difficulties in whose despite it has been ac complished. It is not easy to convey an idea of it without plates.---A wooden beam, poised by the centre, has a piece of steel attached to oue end of it, which is alternately drawn up by a piece of magnet placed above it, and down by another placed beiow it: as the end of the beam approaches the magnet, either above or below, the machine interjects a non-conducting substance, which suspends the attraction of the magnet approached, and allows the other to exert its powers. Thus the end of the beam contionally ascends and descends betwixt the two magnets, without ever coming into contact with either; the attractive power of each being suspended precisely at the moment of nearest approach. And as the magnetic attraction is a permanently operating power, there appears to be no limit to the continuance of the notion, but the endurance of the materials of the machine.---The first machine made by Mr. Speuce is very rude, Perpetual Motion.---JOHN SPENCE, an in- and fashioned by his own hands; but he genious individnal residing at Linlithgow, intends applying the principle to the motion in Scotland, has applied the magnetic power of a time-piece. We trust this ingenious man to the production of a perpetual motion. will meet the encouragement he deserves--This person was in early life apprenticed to if not as the reward of his talents and pera shoe-maker, but the natural bent of his severance, at least for the benefit of the genius for mechanics overcame every obsta- community, for it is from such sources, that cle; he got to be keeper of a steam-engine great national improvements are often do in a spinning factory at Glasgow, and after rived. Gent. Mag. Sept. 1818. two years' study in this school, retired to his MEDICAL REPORT FOR Sept 1, 1818. native place to pursue shoe-making for Those affections of the stomach and howbread; and wheels, levers, &c. for the gratifi-els which are usually incident to the autumcation of his own taste. The perpetual nal season, have this year visited us before motion was an object worthy of such a devo- their accustomed period; and the return of tee, and we find that he has invented a piece this visitation is sufficiently obvious, viz. the |