The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-17 00:00:00

MAY

17, 1850.

serving in the Superb, 80, at Cork, in which ship
he was much esteemed and beloved by both officers
and crew.

Commander Fayrer, is about to fit his patent
wheel-stop on board the Dauntless, steam-frigate, at
Portsmouth. In a notice we gave some time since,
we explained that this invention is to. prevent the
men at the wheel, when steering the ship, from being
thrown over it, when the ship may be struck by a
heavy sea.
Commander Read goes out in the Avon, West
India packet, that sails to-day from Southampton, to
join the Irnaum, Commodore's ship at Jamaica.
THE CUCKOO STEAM-VESSEL SUNK.—Intelligence
was brought to Portsmouth yesterday morning that
the Birkenhead, troop-steamer, Commander Stevens,
had arrived at Jersey, from Cork, with the 26th Re-
giment on board ; and we are sorry to say that the
Cuckoo steamer, Commander Dumaresq, in conveying
a party of this regiment to the lauding-place at St.
Ililliers, in consequence of a beacon being washed
away, grazed a rock and knocked a hole in her
bottom. She ran alongside the wharf, however, and
the soldiers were landed safely, but the Cuckoo sunk
alongside. She can, it is said, be easily raised again.
The Birkenhead proceeds on to Dover before she re-
turns to Portsmouth.

PORTSMOUTH, THURSDAY.—The Ajax, 60, steam
guard-ship, Captain Quin, it is expected will sail
next week for Queenstown.

The Thetis, 40, Captain Codrington, C. 8., will be
paid off at Plymouth on her return from her present
cruise. _ _ _

Commander Forsyth's expedition (Lady Franklin's
rather) is fitting out with much dispatch, and we are
happy to state subscriptions are coming in rapidly in
furtherance of the grAnd object. Besides the general
subscription lists another has been opened by a private
firm to assist in the good work, Shaw, Maxwell, and
Co., of Salisbury-street, Strand.
WooLwicir, MAT 16.,-.-The Desperate, 8, steam-
sloop, of 400-horse power, fitted with engines by
Mandalay, Sons, and Field, was towed down the river
to Woolwich to-day from the East India Docks,
Blackwell, by the Jasper and the Advice. steam-
vessels, and is now taking ballast on board prepara-
tory to being tried down the river on. Monday week,
the 27th inst. The !)esperate is fitted.with a screw-
propeller.
The Inflexible steam-frigate bad ber steam up in
the basin to-day to try her engines, and will soon be
ready for service.
The Retribution steam-frigate is ordered to be ex-
pedited in order that: she may be ready by the Ist of
July next, as it is expected, if affairs on the continent
remain in a quiet state, that her Majesty and Prince
Albert will visit Gibraltar and Malta during the ap-
proaching season, and the Inflexible and Retribution
form two of the vessels of the royal squadron.
The Princess Alice, Dover mail steam-packet, is
having new boilers made for her at the factory at
Woolwich Dockyard, and will shortly come round to ,
hare them put on board.

LITERATURE.
THE ZOIST. No. XIII.

- - ---
The present is a very interesting number of this ex-
cellently conducted quarterly journal of cerebral phy-
siology and mesmerism. The remarkable case of
severe hysteria cured by mesmerism, written by Dr.
Guisan, of Vevey in Switzerland, and communicated
by the Hon. Caroline Courtenay Boyle, is so re-
markable in itself, and is so completely authenticated
by honourable persons, who can have no possible in-
terest in misleading, as to imperatively call upon
medical men calmly and impartially to investigate
the powers of mesmerism as a therapeutic and an
anaesthetic agent. The following observations on the
necessity of investigation by Dr. Elliotson, in a paper
" On the Superstitions of Mesmerism," appear to us
particularly worthy of attention :
" New all the phenomena of mesmerism are a part of
natural knowledge, and therefore as deserving of inves-
tigation as any other part. To doubt this in regard to
the ordinary mesmeric phenomena, shows a person to be
not a whit superior to a priest of the middle ages or a
peasant of an Italian village. Our business is only to
ascertain whether each point is true; and this is more-
over a duty, fur the subject far transcends all the sciences
of inanimate nature, and is one of the most useful arts.
Mesmeric sleep-waking, from what appears profound
coma to high activity; rigidity, lessened and heightened
sensibility; peculiar susceptibility of impressions from
♦arious inanimate objects and from living beings; mental
attractions and repulsions; the excitement of individual
cerebral organs, &a., are only such phenomena as are at
present too generally admitted for a person to deny them
without exposing himself to ridicule. Higher phenomena
are not so generally admitted, and some of them are fan-
cied to be supernatural. Cerebral sympathy of sensation,
even of information and emotion, may be admitted and
thought natural; clairvoyance, so far as it consists of an
intuitive knowledge of the course of a disease and its
remedies, in the patient himself, or even in another
person ; of knowing present objects of vision without
the eyes; nay, the power of influencing another by the
mere will, may be admitted. But the higher clairvoyance
which perceives the absent and distant, the past and the
future, is doubted, and, if believed, considered preter-
natural. If these things are true, they are of necessity
in the course of nature; and the mode of effecting them
must be a natural process. We have no miraculous
faculties, nor can anything we do bo miraculous; nor
can it or anything we do be necessarily wrong, unless it
never clan he done with good results and without mischief.
As the higher varieties of clairvoyance, if true, must be
natural facts, the whole deserve close investigation."

THE LAND WE LITE IN. Part XXXII.
In the current number of this popular periodical—
" the pictorial and literary sketch-book of the British
Empire"—we find an illustrated description of the
"Exhibitions of London." But for the extreme
cheapness, completeness, and compactness of several
hand-books to the metropolis recently published,
we should anticipate as large a circulation of the
present instalment of the Land We Live In as
it unquestionably deserves. The embellishments
accompanying the letter- press:represent: St. James's
Park near Buckingham Palace, the British Institu-
tion, the National Gallery, the Society of Arts,
Soane's Museum, and includes a variety of sketches
from the larger pictures of Barry. The literary
matter associated with these excellent engravings is
remarkable for its intelligence.