The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-01-03 00:00:00

DREADFUL OCCURRENCE IN HERTFORDSHIRE.

Atlr.lL INTELLIGENCE.

NAVAL APPOINTMENTS.

THE ARMY.

OFFICIAL NOTICES.
(Cirt!ct:Lap.) War Offire, Dec. !1, IRV).

Sin-1 have the honour to signify to you the King's pleasure,
that whenever a vacancy shall own in the Genital under your
command, which in the ordinary course would be filled up by the
Governor without requiring the sanction of his 31ajesty through
the Commander-in-Chief, or otherwise, you will be pleased o ap.
prise me thereof fur his Majesty's information, stating at the same
tune the nature of the duties which are attached to the appointment.
1 have, &c. (Signed) PAL3IMISTO3I.
Governors of Garrisons.

War Office, Nov. 29. 18g.
Sot—l have to inform you that from the 23th of December
next, officers commanding on the North American and other re.
tions, and receiving command money, except in the cases provided
for by my circular of the 11th of January, DIU, will be considered
in the same light, with regard to their regimental pay and allow-
ances, as officers holding statrappointments, and will be liable to a
similar deduction on account thereof.

I have, &c. (Signed) P.' L'IERSTON.
The General Officer commanding his 3lajesty's Eames.

Gtonnt IL
Whereas it has been represented unto us, by the Colonels of
our cavalry regiments in India, that a tropical climate is ex-
tremely injurious to all manufactu-'d articles of leather and
iron, and consequently that the wear ar.d tear of saddlery, and ether
horse appointments is much greater in the East and West Indies
titan in Europe, and that the established allowance of off.retkon-
ings is wholly inadequate to meet the increased expence caused
by such extraordinary decay in those articles. And whereas it has
bean found, that this additional expense to a (..nlonel amounts on
the average to about one pound three shillings and sevenpence half-
penny per annum for each man on service in ['idle our will and
pleasure therefore is, that, besides the present allowance of
reckonings, a further annual allowance of one pound three shil-
lings and sevenpente halfpenny shall be granted to the Colo-
nels of our regiments of cavalry, serving in the East or West In-
dies, for mch non-commissioned officer, trumpeter, and private
borne upon the regimental establishment, with the exception of
the men belonging to the recruiting troops, which are stationed
in Europe.
And whereas it has also been represented unto us, that our caval-
ry regiments in the East Indies formerly received from the Hon.
East India Company a local allowance sufficient to defray the ex-
pense in question, but which allowance was discontinued from the
Ztli of June, 1815 ; we thinking it both just and expedient that
the colonels of our said regiments should be relieved from the loss
occasioned by the discontinuance of that allowance, are accordingly
pleased to direct, that the allowance before-mentioned of one pound
three shillings and sevenpence halfpenny for each man per annum
shall commence from the 25th of June, 1815, inclusive. And for
so doing, this shall be, to all persons whom it doth or may concern,
a sufficient warrant, authority, and direction. .
Given, he., this Bth day of December, 18M, in the fourth year
of our reign.
ply his Majesty's command,
(Countersigned) PALMERSTON.

DISEASES OF MUSICIANS,
AND THE EFFECTS OF PRACTISING ON THE
PIANO-FORTE, HARP, VIOLIN, FLUTE, Sm.

We shall preface this important subject by the follow-
ing extract from M. Stendhal's Life of Rossini, just pub-
lished at Paris. " Dr. Cottugno, the principal physician
at Naples, told me, at the time of the extraordinary sue.
cess of Rossini's opera Moise,' that he had more than
forty cases of brain fever, or violent convulsions, with which
young females, doatingly fond of music, were seised,
chiefly from the superb change of tone in the prayer of the
Hebrews, in the third act." We do not indeed anticipate
such catastrophes among our own colder temperaments,
even from the enchantment of Rossini, who has just im-
ported his musical talents, and his intriguing trim. eon.
character, to delight our fahhionables at the Haymarket
Opera-house. The fashionable enthusiasm for the Opera
seems to be pure hypocrisy and cant, and was well des-
cribed by poor Bloomfield :

The music was truly enchanting,
Bight glad was I when I came near It
But in fashion I found 1 was wanting,
'Twits the fashion to talk and not hear it.

We cannot anticipate much evil to the hearers from
music, so long as difficult execution is preferred to effect
and pathos ; and so long as the public taste is so ladyficd
as to applaud Sinclair for singing the sublime war song of
Bannockburn—" Scots wha ha 'e w 1 Wallace bled"—in
the same tone of prettvism and drawing-room gesture as
he would give " Love among the Hoses." But it is with
the performing we have chiefly to do: we shall prescribe
for the listeners anon.

It is established, then, on the best evidence, that prac-
tising or performing much on musical instruments, is ex-
tremely weakening and injurious to the nerves; and though
not always, it very often lays the foundation for trembling
hands, shaking palsy, incurable nervous headaches, pains,
tic douloureux, and even disordered mind and insanity.
Let those who think this exaggerated try the following

PdI'BICAI. EXPERIMENT.

Practise for an hour, if you have not lately been prac-
tising much, or for two hours if you have, on either the
flute, the harp, or the violin ; and aftvrwanls try with-
out the instrument to sing in a clear steady tone of voice,
and we venture to say, that unless your nerves are very
firmly strung, you will find your voice tremulous, out of
tune, and unmanageable ; or stretch out your arm or
hand, and you will find it shake. Recollect we do not say
this will happen with the vigorous and =bust ; but even
in them the effect will often be perceptible, and in the
weak and nervous it will often be strikingly so. This de-
monstrates, most clearly, that the effect of practising music
for hours daily is, to say the least of it, far from being
safe even to the strong, while it must be deleterious to the
weak and sickly, independent of the bad postures usually
adopted, and the encroschment made on the valuable time
for exercise in the open air.
On commencing the harp or violin we have often seen
severe nervous fevers, brought on from the effet of the
music on the nerves, and from the irritation of the tender
nerves at the extremities of the fingers. The best way to
prevent this irritation is to strengthen the skin over those
nerves by the

MIXTt•ItE FOR HART AND VIOLIN TERTORIIII.I%/1.

I)issolve four drachms of sulphate of alnmen, in four ounces of
tincture of galls. Moisten with this a quantity of oak saw-dust, or
powtkred galls, stuff the lingers of a large glove with it, and keep
it on all night for a week. This will tan the skin, and so far pre-
vent mischief. _ _