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Of this genus there are no less than seventeen species; of these the most remarkable either for their abundance, or their peculiarities, are the common hyacinth, or harebell, the bending hyacinth, late flowering, musk, and feathered hyacinth, &c. &c.

specimens. The whim seized him; he began and reflex. The nectary has three horned their express cultivation, and his brother pores at the tip of the germ; the stamen has florists admiring his productions, he was en- six filaments; and the anthers are convergabled to procure good prices for some of his ing. The perianth has the capsule roundish, bulbs. The beauty of the flower naturally three sided, three celled, and three valved; increased in the Dutchman's eyes, and he and the seeds are in pairs. The essential chacommenced a systematic cultivation, calling||racter consists principally in the corolla being his first variety Mary. Since that, indeed, the bell shaped. Haarlem florists have named nearly two thousand varieties of the double flower, and have long been in the habit of publishing annual catalogues of their produce. Had it not been for the unhappy course of events in Holland, those catalogues would now have become vo Juminous, as new varieties were always springing up, and whole acres around the town of Haarlem were solely dedicated to hyacinthine cultivation. For their care and trouble indeed, they were well repaid, as some roots have fetched from one to two thousand Alorius, equal to two hundred pounds sterling The variety which Voorhelm called Mary is now lost, and that which is supposed now to be the oldest double hyacinth was called the King of Great Britain, in compliment to King William, it being first raised about the year

1700.

The whole genus are ranked by our botanists amongst the HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA, and in the natural order of Coronarie; so that in class and order, it is the same as the lily. In generic character too, the hyacinth much resembles the latter flower, as it has no calyx; its corolla, however, is monopetallous and campanulate; but the border resembles the lily so far as to be six cleft,

That, however, which is in most frequent cultivation as a garden flower, is the oriental, which was brought to us from the Levant. In the neighbourhood of Bagdad, and also near Aleppo, it generally blows as early as February; but our less genial climate delays its appearance till the month of March, and sometimes April. It is unnecesary here to dwell upon the sweetness of its perfume, the varied tinges of blue, violet, purple, and even yellow, which are so often intermingled with its purest white; these beauties are well known, we shall not therefore longer detain our fair florists from their morning ramble, than just to hint that the juice of their roots will be found very tenacious, and extremely useful, nay superior to gum, in many ornamental works. The use of it, however, requires some caution, as Dr. Withering tells us that it is poisonous.

(To be continued.)

THE ELEPHANT.

AN instance of the vindictive spirit of the elephant occurred to some Dutch Boors, who travelled in the year 1799 to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, in search of the place where the Grosvenor Indiaman was cast away, which is remarkable, and the authenticity of which, Mr. Barrow says, cannot be called in question. This animal, after having received into his body several large musket balls, and twice fallen to the ground, crept with difficulty into a thick thorny coppice. Conceiving him to be done for, four of the Boors rode up to the thicket; when, rushing furiously from his hiding-place, he lashed his proboscis round the body of one of them who was on horseback, dragged him off to the ground, and trod him to death; then driving one of his tusks into his body, he threw him to the height of

thirty feet into the air; the other Boors dis mounted and hid themselves in the thicket. The elephant looking round and perceiving only one horse, began to follow it, but presently turning round, walked up to where the dead body was lying. At this instant the whole party renewed the attack, when, after receiving several bullets, he again escaped into the thicket." Thinking that we should now see no more of him, we began to dig a grave for our unfortunate companion, when the elephant again rushing furiously towards us, drove the whole party away, and remained triumphant over the corpse. At the distance of a hundred paces another bullet was shot into his body, after which we all fired, when, having staggers ed for some time, he fell to the ground, and was put to death by the Hottentots.

THE EFFICACY OF BATHS IN PRESERVING AND RESTORING
HEALTH AND BEAUTY.

BY A PHYSICIAN,

ESSAY ION HEALTH AND BEAUTY.

whose leaves she has not energy to divide, lays down the book, and yawns.-How interesting!!!

Aud this is the beauty whose languishing air and finely tinted cheek advance her evening claim to unrivalled admiration ; but she is without fragrance as she is without freshness. She is not the garden rose that one would pluck to wear in one's bosom; she is the insipid artificial flower not worth retain

HEALTH, like the garden rose, blows fairest in the open day, and gathers freshness from the breath of heaven, unrivalled by the penciled flower, whose gaudy tints touch but the vacant eye; unequalled by the painted cheek and larded neck-vain mockeries of beauty! The artificial flower, blooming at a distance in the rich luxuriance of colour, may attract the sight, may warm the imagination; the deluded sense may yield to the impres-ing; she wants that charm of life, that blession, and solicit the extended hand to place it in the bosom. But where is its fragrance? it is insipid, and not worth retaining.

Fair countrywomen! the meed of modesty is yours; and a dignity of manner founded on conscious virtue, unknown to the countries of the Continent: let then your beauty be the child of health, as your manners are the offspring of virtue.

sing of existence, which covers the limbs with gracefulness, and the form with beauty.

"Sensibility!" says a celebrated writer of || the present age" Sensibility! of which we hear so much.-Sensibility! the sex's glory and its shame!-To deny a difference in the susceptibility of different human beings, would be to put the thistle on a level with the sensitive plar:. But let us imagine a There is no beauty in sickness, there is no lady so alive to sounds as, on the dropping beauty in debility, there is no beauty in lan- of a hair pin from her dressing-table upon the guor. Whence then is all this distressing floor, to have a shock through her whole sensibility, this cherished apathy, of late be- frame as strong as one of us would receive come so universal in the female world?-How from the electrical discharge of a Leyden jar. interesting!!What?-The poor creature Such a lady you judge acutely sensitive; who whose early treatment and habits have ren- could judge otherwise? And now for a scale dered her helpless of herself, and useless to of comparison.-is she much more acutely Bociety? She cannot ride; the exercise would sensitive, do you conceive, than one of those kill her by fatigue. She cannot walk; the dry savages, with whose power to stand hardships ground would strike a death-damp to the we writers upon health regularly taunt or heart. She cannot eat; digestion is impos- edify the degenerate members of civilized sible. She cannot sleep; the bed of down is society? My fair readers will not be pleased rocky as the flint; but should she chance to at hearing a quality they so much pique slumber, the blue demon, whose slave she is, themselves on disparaged; and there may be spreads some terrific vision before her fancy difficulty as to the points on which the pathat wakes her with affright. Not one mo.rallel ought to run. In the sincere spirit of rement of refreshing sleep-her enemy is inexorable; he neither permits her to rest or to arise. Could she effect even the latter, the enchantment would be undermined, and his power, by a few more successful efforts, totally destroyed. But, no!-She is doomed to toss and sigh away the noon in feverish dreams, in fruitless efforts to obtain that sleep which none but the votaries of health are permitted to enjoy. Pale and cheerless she comes forth; chilled by the softest breath of heaven; agitated by the usual and expected appear-proach of an enemy, or a wild beast stirring ance of every thing around her; tortured by the ticking of her own repeater; equally unable and unwilling to take food or exercise, she extends herself on a couch; and as she turns over the pages of a new publication, No. XVIII, Vol. III.—N, S.

search, I ask then, what is the respective condition of the principal organs in the two individuals supposed? Has the lady so delicate a sense of smell that she is frequently annoyed by odours which escape the coarser organs of the healthy altogether? But the savage is uniformly represented as alive to impressions of the same kind. In hearing is

he inferior?to him distant footsteps, a rustling, which no effort can render per ceptible to the European, announces the ap

in the covert. His eye no less recognizes
footsteps where to us all would be printless. I
should be glad to know what are marks of
sensibility if these are not ?"

These savages, like healthy children, equally
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alive all over to susceptibility of impression, derive enjoymeut from their sensibility, while the helpless lady "dies of a rose in aromatic pain." Whence these opposite effects? This pleasurable susceptibility in the savage?this painful sensibility in the lady? Look to the health they respectively enjoy, and the question will be resolved. The miseries of human life are chiefly owing to a morbid sensibility, which no wealth or station can remove; and this morbid sensibilty consists in defective health. Health, whether considered as a blessing or a beauty, should be improved with our utmost care, that our boasted sensibility, hitherto the purveyor of distress, may become the source of delightful enjoy

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It matters little on whom, or on what these errors are chargeable, further than respects their remedy; but still the negligent must take shame, and the guilty feel remorse; for in the sequel of this essay shall be shewn how generally they may be shunned, and by what conduct health may be established. But when unhappily they have broken down the constitution into habitual disease, we must have recourse to other means, to be recommended in a subsequent essay, by which the constitu tion may be renovated, and the morbid sensibility destroyed.

ness, and imperfections serving to heighten the impressions of beauty; these must not be confounded with the essential quality of beauty, so as to be mistaken for beauty itself. Whatever interesting effect they may chance to have, when seen in a lovely object, they serve to heighten disgust in the contemplation of deformity; and therefore are uʊ more than circumstances which increase the bias of the mind, but do not determine it. However, as the misapprehension of his notions may have contributed very largely to transform the genuine glow of healthful beauty into sickly languishment and affective debility, by encouraging habits ruinous to the constitu||tion, I feel pleased in being able to conclude these comments with a quotation that should dissipate the illusion." I would not (says he) here be understood to say that weakness, betraying very bad health, has any share in beauty."But that we may see more distinctly what the precise ideas were, which this enlightened genius entertained of female loveliness, we will follow him in his exemplification of it, and then proceed to graver matter.

Observe," says he, "that part of a beautiful woman where she is perhaps the most beautiful, about the neck and bosom; the smoothness, the softness, the ease and insensible swell; the variety of the surface, which is never for the smallest space the same; the deceitful maze through which the unsteady eye slides giddily without knowing where to fix or whither it is carried."-Look on this picture, and say is it not the picture of health?-If you think not! figure to yourself a narrow prominent chest, beneath whose skin the blue veins may be seen to creep over the projecting ribs; and whose rised clavicles give you the idea of being there on purpose to keep steady the crazy fabric. But perhaps the delicate beauty will anxiously conceal this shadow of loveliness from the eye; and by the assistance of two gentle paddings, fire the imagination with a more enthusiastic glow than the contempla tion of beauty in reality and in substance could inspire. But still this is not the garden rose that one would pluck to wear in one's bosom-she is the insipid artificial flower not worth retaining; she wants that charm of

But how is it in any instance "the fruit of affectation arising from false notions of the amiable?" May we charge this direlection from nature on Mr. Burke's celebrated Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful? Did the rising of that brilliant star of genius paralyse the female mind? Could the fair reader not withstand the temptation of his assertions, when he tells them that they follow nature in the improvement of beauty, when they learn to lisp, to totter in their walk, to be amiably weak, and lovely in distress? Here, I suspect, is the poison which affected but a few ori-life, that blessing of existence which covers ginally; but which, by its contagions influ- the limbs with gracefulness, and the form ence, now continues to extend itself far and with beauty. wide among those who cannot be accused of having had communication with the devast. ating source.

Yet notwithstanding all this celebrated author said on the power of distress, weak

But let us inquire into the causes of this impaired constitution, whose decayed health and charms invite those miserable feelings attendant on so many of the softer sex, whose boasted sensibility, if grafted on another stock,

might bring forth the most delicious fruit. Let us direct the attention of the parent to the welfare of its offspring, the minds of the afflicted to their own restoratiou.

and in constitution can attain the age of manhood; the puny and the crooked die at an early period of life by fatigue and exposure; but of these there can be but few, seeing generally that such as the parents are, such will || the offspring be. Now in civilized life, just care enough is bestowed to raise the puny plant to a sickly maturity; but it is less attended to than the exotic shrub, it is exposed to the air by night, to the chilling winds by day; it is frost-bitten in the winter ;* in the summer it is stifled in a hot-house; its vigour is deficient, it brings forth scions puny like itself, and dies.

rent.

Here is a prolific source of morbid sensibility, and other consequences of constitutional disorder.

There is much to deplore in the state of human nature, for there is much that hitherto has been considered beyond the reach of remedy; and mankind seem content to submit without an effort, because physic in its ordinary forms proves daily ineffectual. I would not be understood to make a reflection dishonourable to medicine; it is a noble science, capable of diminishing much bodily suffering in the world; and if energetically applied, of ministering to the health of thousands threat- Thus civilization brings on evils upon soened with disease; but its ordinary forms are ciety by perpetuating disease; it should not sufficient alone, excepting in sudden and either do more or do less in savage life the acute diseases; the great work of prevention unhealthy progeny are carried off before they apd of renovation is to be done by a long and are equal to propagate their kind; but with steady management, by a strict attention to us they seem to live to no purpose; and how the constitution from infancy, that the powers ever healthy their connubial partner may be, of life may be developed so perfectly as to pre-children are born that inherit the disease as clude the possibility of constitutional dis- well as the resemblance of their unhealthy paorder. And when this has been neglected, by placing the patient in a situation where the weakened frame may be enabled gradually to effect its own restoration. To what purpose is it that your physician recognizes in his patient all the symptoms of incipient consumption; can tell that it arises from an hereditary scrophulous taint, which has not been eradi. cated; or from a gradual diminution of the vital energy, which for years has exposed his patient to repeated colds? He prescribes bleeding, blistering, foxglove, and the lichen islandicus, by turns; telling you from day to day that notwithstanding all that can be done, the case is hopeless; that the hectic paroxysm of evening will soon be preceded by another at noon; that the pulse which beats one hundred and twenty strokes in the minute, will in a little time run as high a one hundred and sixty; that the night sweats incident to the hectic fever will be succeeded by a wasting diarrhea; and that notwithstanding the cheerful hope of his patient, her pellucid eye, and crimsoned cheek, a few, a very few days must bring her to the grave. Let us repress the tear that claims to fall, and train our sensiblity to bring forth fruit less soothing to ourselves, but more so to suffering humanity; let us strike out some new ideas, or seize on those already imparted to us from others, as likely to arrest the progress of constitutional derangement in the young, or restore it where it has obtained, cut up scrophula by the roots, and destroy the food on which consumption

thrives.

In savage life none but the perfect in form

Can we bestow too much of whatever we hold most valuable, to counteract such a source of disease and misery? if required, the whole time, money, and care, bestowed on the cultivation of the mind from childhood, should bear exclusively on the cultivation of the health from infancy, or rather from birth; it is more difficult to superadd this essential to our well-being, than all the other accom. plishments of our nature collectively.

Begin the work at early dawn, at the very birth; and bear in mind that it is not a dock or a thistle, but a tender myrtle you have to rear; that by gentle inclinations you may bend the tenderest twig to any form, but that the force which would only incline the strong, inevitably destroys the weak and tender. The vital power of this infant must always be considered weak; it must not therefore suddenly be plunged into cold water, however proper such treatment may be for the robust, whose vital energies are equal to re-act upon the stock. This puny being should be washed at first in water whose temperature is the mean between its own body and the atmosphere; reducing it one degree every third day until

* A medical writer of great fame says, that the appearance of chilblains on the feet or hands of children, or others not very much exposed, may be considered indicative of interual mischief; also arising from the influence of cold, or a weak constitution. Сся

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circulation should be excited by alternate warm and cold bathing.

When able to take exercise it should be permitted freely, and left entirely to follow the bent of its own inclination; long droning walks, holding the hand of a grown person, is not useful, but highly injurious; the child. is not enlivened by pursuit; it is not warmed by exercise; its exertions should be short and spontaneous, while motives to action, and facilities of place, are all that is required of us. It should be brought up in the country. At two years old its food should consist principally of Besh meat; but water at all times, with or without the addition of milk, should be its only drink; its bowels should be kept regular, and its food, clothing, exercise, and bathing, proportioned to its acquired vigour.

it gradually be brought down to 50o of Farenheit; the transition from its cloaths to the water, and from the water to its cloaths,should be as rapid as possible. Its mother, unless the healthy parent, should not in any iustauce be its nurse; she should be chosen from among the healthy; and the child at all times should be kept as much from the unhealthy parent as possible. If born in the summer, it should sleep alone; if in the winter, with its nurse. Its cloathing should be sufficient to keep it warm, but not to stew it in its own vapour. Its chest should be better covered than its head; the head may be left bare with advantage, but not the chest without injury; yet we see the former covered and the latter exposed. Nothing wet should be allowed to remain an instant beneath its cloaths, but the part without delay made dry. It should not at any time, by a tedious process of putting on garments by no meaus suited to infancy, be suffered to chill; cbilliness damps the energies of life more than generally is apprehended; its garments should be so constructed as to be easily put on and taken off, so that the little creature may not be kept crying and trembling under a process that may seal the doom of its future life. From its hereditary weakness of constitution there will obtain for some time || disorders of the bowels, arising from a difficulty in the quality of the bile, so as to permit she milk to run into acescency, producing green stools and griping; in these circumstances a little limewater in milk, or calcined magnesia, are the only suitable remedies of their kind; the carbonetes producing in. creased uneasiness, from the disengagement of their own acid; the nurse too may eat carraway seeds, which will give the infant comfort that cannot be with safety effected in any other way; carraway seeds have the peculiar property of imparting their virtues to the nurse. It should be suckled during twelve or eighteen months, and flesh meat broths superadded as soon as practicable. It will not suffer from an early vaccination; By these and other attentions of the same but it should be kept out of the way of hoop-kind to the progeny of the unhealthy, a ing-cough, and other contagious disorders. It should never be taken out of doors but in dry warm weather, until its constitution has acquired vigour. It should not be put too early on its legs, that the system may not be forced upon strengthening the bones before the soft parts are completely formed and extended; for where the consitu-preservation of the healthy. tion is very defective some of the bones will continue soft for several years; in which case antil it can take exercise, and afterwards, the

We are now arrived at the period of life. when school education commences; continuing through a long succession of mental instruction and bodily confinement. Og this subject there is but one observation necessary. That all accomplishments and acquirements are vain to a person whose life shall be brought to a close with maturity; or whose extended existence shall be rendered, insupportable by habitul disorder in the cou-. stitution. The alternative is before us. Would we have an healthy adult otherwise unaccomplished; or a sickly, dead, and dying mortal at the age of twenty, whose tongue has been attuned to French, music, and Italian, now with out energy to speak or sing; whose fingers have been taught to run swiftly over the keys of the piano, or sweep the strings of the harp, now too feeble for their office; whose accomplishments, though brilliant as the sun, cannot burst through the gloom of her clouded faculties. The choice is clear!-Let then the common modes of education give place to those of invigorating the constitution; establish the health, and every other accomplishment may readily be superadded at a future period.

stronger race would be formed, whose offspring with common care might staud forward among the healthiest of their fellows; and thus one prolific source of disease and misery would be converted into a fountain of health.

What has been said on invigorating the weak will, with little deviation, apply to the

But it frequently happens that children of healthy parents, and themselves healthy, begin to droop at the age of puberty. The

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