The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-21 00:00:00

pronounced a plagiarist ; the circulation was declared
to have been known to Plato ; nay more, to King Solo •
mon. The circulation through the lungs had certainly
been taught about seventy years previously by Sorve-
tus, a Spanish physician of great anatomical knowledge,
and original and active mind, who was slowly burnt to
death in 1558, the fire being made to last two hours by
means of wood, small in quantity and green, through
Calvin, for not happening to be in all his writings of
the same opinion as himself upon a point in divinity.
Calvin was honourable enough to produce private letters
in evidence of the difference of the opinions of Servetus
from his own,and fancied himself to be a Christian."
The chapter on " Respiration" is one of the
most elaborate in the volume ; Dr. Elliotson has
evidently put forth all his strength on this important
part of his subject, and indeed may be fairly said
to have exhausted it. His own opinions are,
as he more than once assures us, the result
of long practical experience, and, as w perceive by
the notes, they are fortified by the opinions of the
best medical authorities of the present, as well as
of past, ages. From the chapter on " Animal
Heat" we quote a passage illustrative of the power
of the human frame to endure the two extremes of
heat and cold :
" air Joseph Banks, Sir Charles Blagden, and Dr.
Solandcr, went subseluently into rooms heated to be-
tween 1913 des?. and 211 deg,—about the temperature
of boiling water—and remained several minutes. If
they breathed on the thermometer, it sunk several de-
grees, and every expiration felt cold to the scorched
nostrils ; the thermometer under the tongue was 98
deg., and the body felt cold to the touch, though at 98
deg. Sir C. Blagden remained eight minutes in an
apartment heated to 260 deg. The air felt hot, and
for seven minutes the breathing was natural, but
anxiety and oppression then came on ; the sensible
heat of' the body varied but little. Dr. Dobson went
into a room heated to 224 deg., and felt no oppressive
heat, though every metal about him speedily became
hot. A bitch of moderate size was subjected to a heat
of 220 deg. In ten minutes the only sign of distress
was that of holding out the tongue, and when taken out
at the end of half an hour, the temperature being at
2:36 deg., the bottom of the basket was found wetted
with saliva. The thermometer applied to her flank
was only 110 deg., i. e. 9 deg. above the natural
standard. In these rooms, eggs on a tin plate were
roasted hard in twenty minutes ; beef-steaks cooked in
thirty-three minutes ; and, if the air was impelled
upon them in a stream, they were cooked dry.in e_bmit
th:rten minutes. TiliEt and Dult!aswl el to that the
young female servaet of a baker at RCellefOLIC itlit went
habitually into ovens heated to 276 deg , and remained
without great inconvenience for twelve minutes, taking
care not to touch the oven. 'l' hese gentlemen them-
selves bore a heat of 290 deg. for nearly five minutes.
Dr. Delareche and 1)r. Berger found various warm
and cold-blooded animals support from 108 deg.. to 111
deg. for an hour and a half in heated dry air; but an
elevation of about :30 dcg. beyond this killed them all,
except a frog, in from half an hour to two hours.
They themselves experienced a sense of scalding in a
vapour-bath of 122 deg., and could not hear it more
than about ten minutes ; while M. Letnonnier could
not bear a water-bath of 130 deg. above about eight
minutes. Hence, at the very high temperature of time
surrounding medium there is more secretion by the
skin in a vapour-bath than in dry air, and more
in a water-bath than in a vapour-bath. " The
striking prerogative of man, in respect of bearing
a variety of temperatures, is evinced by his being re•
stricted to no climate, but inhabiting every part of the
earth, from Hudson's Bay, where mercury freezes, and
from Nova Zambia, to the scorching shores of Senegal."
At Sierra Leone, the mean temperature is 84 deg., and
Watt and Winterbottom frequently saw it 100 deg.,
and even 103 deg., in the shade. At Senegal, it has
been 108'1 deg., and even 1171 deg. Duriog the
sirocco, it is 112 (leg., in Sicily ; Humbolt saw it
10 deg. and 115 deg., at. Oronocco, in South America.
On the other hand, at Nova Zembla the cold is so in-
tense that, when the sun sinks below the horizon, the
polar bear is no longer seen, the white fox only enduring
the cold. Yet the Dotal), who wintered there under
Hemskerk (75 deg. N. L.), withstood the cold, if
moving about and previously in good health. When
some of our countrymen were on Churchill River, in
Hudson's Bay, lakes tea to twelve feet deep were frozen
to the bottom, and brandy froze in their rooms, though
provided with tires. They suspended in their rooms
red-hot twenty-four pounders, and kept an immense fire :
but, if theso went down. the walls and beds ware covered
with ice three inches thick. Yet in Hudson's Bay the
Canadians and Esquimaux live and hunt in the coldest
weather. Gmelin, sen., witnessed at Jeniesk. in 1735,
a cold of-20 deg., that froze mercury and killed all
the sparrows and jays- Captain Parry once observed
a temperature of .52 deg., below zero. When the air
was at —49 deg., the party used to walk on the shore.
It was usually at-32 deg. The temperature of eleven

out of sixteen foxes was from 100 deg. to 106 deg., of
four about 100 deg., and of one only 98 deg., although
the air was from —3 deg. to-32 deg. No relation was-
observable between the temperature of the body and
of the atmosphere ; it thus appearing that tba tempera-
ture is more steady under cold than heat. I may here
remark that, if an animal is drowned in hot water,
a puppy or kitten, for example, in water at 90 deg. or
120 deg., the action of its hearrirreenrerahly ceases
sooner than if it is drowned in cold water."
In his account of the "Mental Functions of the
Nervous System "—which the generality of read-

ers will probably think the most entertaining chap-
ter in the volume-:--the author exhibits a great
power of ingenious reasoning, and throws con-
siderable light upon a subject, much of which
is still, we believe, involved in mystery. His cursory
observations, also, on Phrenology are such as to
entitle them to respectful attention, though we must
honestly confess that we are among the number of
those who are inveterate sceptics on the subject.
Altogether, the volume is one of immense re-
search, and the various knowledge on all points
connected with Human Physiology contained in it,
must have been the slow and careful accumulation
of years of thought and toil.

THE FARMERS' ALMANAC AND CALENDAR

FOR 1841.
Ridgway, London.

Since the repeal of the stamp duty on Almanacs
the most remarkable change has been effected in
the quality as well as quantity of those useful pub-
lications. Almost every trade and profession now
have special almanacs for their own use, and
we are glad to see that a class, the most nu-
merous, we believe, in the community, and
perhaps, the most useful, have not been for-
gotten by the Moores of the present day.
That published by Ridgway, and edited by Messrs.
Johnson and Shaw, is an excellent work of this
description. It contains besides the usual calendar
and fairs, copious and interesting monthly notices
on agriculture, horticulture, the management of
plants and flowers, and at the end of each of these
general notices giving the etymology of the month,
the flowers in blossom, &c. &c. The following no-
tice on the present month will afford a fair specimen
of this part of the work :

GENERAL MONTHLY NOTICES—NOVEMBER.
The early Saxon inhabitants of England called this
Blott dilatant, or slaughter month, because in those
primitive days winter feed was so scarce in England
that it teas usual to kill and salt the greatest part of
their winter meat in this month they called it also
Wint Monath, or Wind Month, from the tempitu-
ous weather with which it is commonly accompanied.
Its name is derived from the Latin Norm, nine, and
Imber, a shower. It was so called in the Alban Ca-
lendar, and has preserved its name both in our island
and on the continent.

In this commonly wet and gloomy month, a few
flowers continue to open upon us ; even towards
its close, the sweet coltstoot, tussilogo frograns,
comes into flower, as do some of the verlthetnia. The
birds, however, begin to come nearer to our dwellings;
the goldfinch locates himself in our gardens ; the
Royston crow is seen nearer to towns ; the woodcocks
arrive in numbers ; the fieldfare comes over about the
1-2 th of this month.

On the 2t h of November, in 1628, was born the
illustrious English naturalist, John Ray, the son of a
blacksmith, at Black Noticy, in Essex. He is
known to the general reader as the author of a
work on the wisdom of God, as displayed in the works
of creation. The labours of this great man, in exa-
mining and making known the native plants of this coun-
try, were of the most gigantic and valuable description.
All his modest efforts tended to some good cud, and
though not immediately to the farmers' benefit, yet, in-
directly, they were attended with no mean advantage to
agriculture ; for he first cleared a hidden path, which
others have since directed to a more practical purpose.
Thus, when the late Mr. George Sinclair and others
exerted themselves in introducing what is commonly too
little attended to by the farmer, a better assortment of
the native grasses for pasture, they all ;availed them-
selves of the assistance afforded by the able works of
this great English naturalist.

ST. CLEMENT DANES CHARITY SCHOOL.
--By the recent death of Sir F. M. Ommanney this ancient
and excellent institution was left without a treasurer. On
Wednesday evening last a very numerous meeting of the
trustees took place at the school-house, when David
Boobbycr, Esq., of Stanhope-street, was unanimously
elected to fill the onerous office.
We understand that the report of the improve-
ment in the health of the Hon. Mrs. Cavendish is un-
founded. That lady continues in the most imminent danger.
We are enabled to state that the accident which
happened last Wednesday night, when the carriage of Sir
Francis Burdett was overturned by coming in contact with
a cart, between Twickenham and Ember-court, was un-
attended by
any other consequences than the fright expe-
rienced by the ladies in the carriage.