The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-25 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

MEDICAL TIMES. Vol X.
Carfrae, London, 1844.
The present part, which is the tenth of this miscel-
lany, contains an infinite variety of information
respecting medical matters, and suggests remedies for
some of those maladies—such as consumption, for
instance—which are most common among the inha-
bitants of this country. We also find in it occasional
extracts from the lectures of the ablest surgeons and
physicians of the day.

PUNCH'S POCKET-BOOK. London, 1844.
Our facetious and indefatigable friend Punch ex'
hibits to great advantage in this, his most recent, pro:
duction, and has given us a pocket-book which
abounds in all sorts of grotesque drolleries. We have
an infinite variety of sketches both in prose and verse,
and, among other diverting extravaganzas, we find an
article entitled "The Stranger's Guide to the
Great Metropolis," in which, in a spirit of the gravest
,
and most insidious irony, Punch, with that love of
practical joking peculiar to him, gives the country
visitor to London such directions, as if implicit
adhered to, cannot fail to procure him the high ana
enviable honour of a personal introduction to a police
inspector at the station-house ! In addition to its
humourous verse and prose sketches, this pocket-look
contains much useful information such as, °0
an Almanac for the year, a list of the Members o,
the two Houses of Legislature, Astronomical Notices,
and particulars respecting the Taxes, and the Transferf
Days of the Public Funds, &c. As a specimen
Punch's humourous rhymes, we quote his " Invective
against Attorneys," with the spirit of which we
dially sympathise :
Friends, neighbours, countrymen, I take
The liberty to warn ye
Against that universal scourge,
A rascally Attorney.
In ev'ry town you travel thro',
The first thing you discern is
A plate of brass, with letters large,
Some " Rogue and Co., Attorneys."
When debts and duns are plaguing one,
The thought a constant thorn is,
All others may be satisfied,
But never the Attorneys.
When lands are gone and body bare
As any babe new -born is,
The wretch may call his soul his own—
His skin is his Attorney's.
From good men's hate I'd screen the man
Whose name my bitterest scorn is;
To yield him to that deeper curse,
The friendship of Attorneys.
When dawn dispels the feverish dream,
My first prayer in the morn is,
Oh keep me from all evil things!
But still more from Attorneys.
And when, at night, I go to bed,
It always my concern is,
To finish with a bumper-toast,
" Confusion to Attorneys."
So I will lead a pious life,
That, when to die my turn is,
My soul may find a resting-place,
Where there are no Attorneys.

CORONERS' INQUESTS.
MELANCHOLY CASE.-A Coroner's inquest was held
on Thursday evening, at the Gun Tavern, Woolwi'"
before C. J. Carttar, Esq., and a respectable jurN,lld
view of the body of William Terence Maden, a eh"
aged two years and six weeks, alleged to have died fr°"",
starvation.

The jury having viewed the body expressed their sere
prise at the miserable under-ground room in which w
family resided.
Elizabeth Maden, a young Irish woman of decent
pearance, with an infant at her breast, deposed that iPsei
was the wife of William Maden, a gunner of the ItaY
Artillery, who had left on foreign service about firs
weeks since. Deceased was her child, he was two yam'
and six weeks old, and had been ill for about a nien,T
Witnesi had taken him twice to the Ordnance HeaPin
on the Ist and 18th of the present month. The niedl;
gentleman told her the child was very ill, and gave he
four powders, and told her to give him some castor tile
occasionally. He did not tell her to call again, and s g
did not go between these days, because she did O°A
think the child was so near death. Witness receive'd
2s. 6d. a week from the regimental fund, and 19. 6d. al
for
two loaves from the parish. This was all she had _
the support of herself, the infant, and the deceased
She could do no work on account of the illness of cre
ceased and the child at the breast. Out of the 4s. oh
received weekly, she paid ls. 9d. (and latterly 19. ,
for rent. Her firing cost her sd. a week, candles 1:7,
soap 3d. This left about 9d. a week for their suPVbc
which witness spent in potatoes and broad. She Ong e
say that she was in distress indeed. She applied to s 0 of
of the " quality " about the neighbourhood, but neeebe
them gave her anything. One lady referred her to t t
lady of the district, but witness could not find her !„.1/
till the child died, when the lady gave her one shilling'
and an order for some tea and coffee. The child dials.,
about half-past nine on Tuesday morning. On MOON
it had some beef tea, which Mr. Bayly kindly gave hera
It had nothing on Sundoy, except a little coffee se
bread, and during the week it had nothing but a pntat°Bc
and a little bacon occasional)y. Witness had no west °-
milk to give it, only a little tea. No person in the heel
gave her any money, but the landlady gave her sets'
bacon, and two or three times a basin of soup: The Child
feet and stomach were swollen. It often cried for feelda
Witness would have fed it very differently, if she e°n
have done so, but she could not. On Saturday night
some person, whom she did not know, sent her a shilling:
When her husband left her she had three or felli
shillings.
Sarah Ann Wilks, landlady of the house in
the last witness resides, said the family was in 113,
greatest distress. Since the father left Woolwich, to,
child had never lifted up its head. Witness had nej ,4
°
seen the mother and child have anything but
bread, potatoes, and coffee. She used to carry the chi.
in her arms wherever she went, and a kinder innt7o
witness never saw. On the day the child died, tZ*
was not a bit of fire in the raom, and witness begg
pound of meat from Mrs. Bayly for it. feral
Verdict----" That the deceased died from
causes, but accelerated from the want of proper twig' nt
ment, owing to the ignorance and inability of the Pars
to afford it."
0
Some benevolent persons in the town are anXiell4 to
obtain in
obtain subscriptions to enable the poor woman to Je,e,
her husband in Malta, and Mr. J. Watts, high constal2i•
has offered to receive subscriptions.
SUSPICIOUS DEATH ON EPPING FOREST.—Y,..t
ev-
afternoon an inquest was held before Mr. C. C. l'the
one of the coroners for the county of Essex, 0t e
King's Oak Inn, High Beech, on the remains of d'of
Harris, seventy years of age, whose body was recento
discovered hanging in the forest. There being s°ool.
suspicions of the vaguest character that he had to
died by his own hand, the jury returned a verdict tow
effect that the deceased was found dead, but by
ci
means his death had been caused there was no evide°
before them to show.

MR. JUSTICE EESKINE.—This Learned Judgl
for some time past been residing at Clifton, for tht",
establishment of his health.—Sonierset County Gaa",iiii
THE POWGATE, EDINBURGH.—For some r°,°f for
past excavations have been making near the Cowgtu,,,) t ete
the foundation of a suite of court-rooms to occorturn h
the Lords Ordinary. The buildings are to run rf-
from the present buildings constituting our courts °'
and the south wall will verge upon the spot where One%
of our readers will remember the Back-stairs aseelT4l-g.
of yore. In the space cleared by the workmen, $ has
meat of the first wall of the city (built about 1460) De
been laid bare. About the end of September+ s°the
much more recherches discoveries were made by
workmen. South from the fragment of wall, and direeva
so from the present building for the first and sect
divisions of the Court of Session—fourteen feet be
I 4
the surface of the earth—was found a range of str,,°o-
wooden coffins, lying close beside each other, and -the
taining human remains. In one, the skull containel
brain, still so far fresh as to show the vermicular °het
of surface. These coffins were straight in the sides, the
had lids rising into a ridge in the centre. A13°14 and
same time, ten or twelve yards west from that spot, to,
also beyond the line of the city wall, the workmen fcitii of
embedded in the ground, eighteen feet below the leroge
the present Cowgate, a common-shaped barrel: atl chee
size (six feet high) resting on one end, and eighteen illtoee
deep into a stratum of blue clay, with a massiire„seo 0
beside it; leading to the presumption that it haa;ng
barrel kept for the purpose of gathering rain, hake out
stone step to enable any one to get to its top, and ta",are
a supply of it contents. The staves of this bare' dor
still, for the most part, fresh and sound. Still furooe
to the west, near to the barrel, and at about the uteets
depth, was found a copper dish or basin. about eirlbtur
inches diameter, and six deep, having the rim 53ito
evasated. There can be no doubt that all these bodies
have lain for several centuries undisturbed. The
bureh•
would be a portion of those interred in St. Giles' e Tbe
yard, which was abandoned in the sixteenth century' (fits
barrel and dish must have been part of the carte siusted in
of a citizen of still earlier age. The Cowgate e ages
1470, however much earlier, and it was for sorn,t the
cold
the residence of the great. So large a copper disu
only belong to a person of some distinction. 1311., to
most curious inference from these discoveries, ise7tooe
the gradual rise ')f the level of the street in t
welve feet
of time. Some years ago a street was
below the present causeway of the Cowgate,_ seated
eastern extremity; here we find household artiseite'soient
still lower. This, however, is common in " istions
cities, in consequence of the want of police reg, too
in the middle ages. Refuse and rubbish were Is;.."ciden
ere
the street, and, not being removed, soon bectnenkt's
down, and thus raised the soil. Even PaYeulentieualli
thus lost sight of. Fresh accumulations time'
found twilled. its
taking place, the ground rose of course, stn" the neer
the bases of buildings were accommodated to
011
level.—Scotsman. --SeYe
BUY SALT MEAT IN THEnieone
butchers, from Leadenhall-market, who wertrgrin oa et::
o
on Friday and fined fur having a draught d hat a
two ounces against purchasers, each sled.
the salt' en hed
scale, being wooden, became saturated -With
ork welegkecl
brine from the quantity of salt beef andd -mayor - the
therein throughout the day. The Imronsirt
eargecieWil_tolhe,
the defendants whether the draught was
purchaser in the evening, and being siltich cireu.oit
affirmative, his Lordship said that under:ley their
stances he would advise the public " t°
meat in the morning."