The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-07-27 00:00:00

SELECT EXTRACTS.

LONGEVITY IN PERU.—From a work published in 1836,
the following is taken :--It appears from the Mercurio
Peruano, that in Caxamanco, a Spaniard died in 1763, aged
144 years, eight months, and five days, leaving 800 persons
lineally descended from him, In the same province, not con-
taining more than 70,000 persons, they were living in 1792,
eight persons whose r.ges were 114, 117, 121, 131, 131, 135,
and 47.

ANCESTORS.—The number of ancestors a person has, is
astonishing at first sight. At first, two parents ; in the se-
cond, four, the parents of his father and mother; the third,
eight, the parents of his two grandfathers and mothers ; by
the same rate of progression, 1024 in 'the tenth, and at the
twentieth degree, or at the distance of twenty generations,
every person has above 1,000,000 ancestors, as common arith-
metic will demonstrate.

Jaws IN SPAIN.—The sack of the Jewish quarter of a
town or city is an every-day occurrence in the earl• annals
of Spain which occupation, always delectable to a mob,
whether Christia❑ or infidel, was authorised by church and
state. The gentlemen of Spain, generally in debt to the
Jews, settled their accounts—entirely on a plea of a tender
conscience, and a zeal to Advance the cause of true religion—
by breaking the banks of heretics.—Quarterly Review.
ScoTen MAnniAGEs.—ln Scotland, the faculty of mar-
riage startles the southern. I remember, when partaking of
the hospitalities of Mr. David being, at Edinburgh, that
Dr. Lee, towards eight o'clock' seemed to leave the room
abruptly, after looking at his watch. He returned within
twenty minutes. " What have you been about ?" observed
the host. "Only marrying r. couple on the third flat in the
High street," was the doctor's reply. This; with us, would
have been a special licence matter, at the cost of at least
£3o.—Dr. Dibdin's Northern Tour.

MANNA.—This is believed to be an insect secretion, and
collected from a shrub called gavan, two feet high, bearing a
resemblance to the broom. It is collected in cloths spread
beneath them at night, and in them wears the form of large
crystal drops of dew, such as are seen on plants in England
early in the morning. It is found near Mount Sinai, and re-
garded with peculiar interest in consequence of its connection
with one of the most striking events recorded in Scripture.
It falls during the heat of the day, is collected early in the
morning, and, after straining it through cloths, it is placed
in skins or gourds : a considerable quantity is consumed by
themselves, a portion is sent to Cairo, and the monks of
Mount Sinai retail it to pilgrims, who receive it with much
reverence as an incoutestible proof of the event to which it
refers. It is held as a luxury, and used for all the purposes
of honey; and, when taken in any large quantity, proves a
mild laxative.— Wellstead's Travels in Arabia.

M. Favand, a French missionary, states that, during his
late residence in China, he often eat the chrysalis of the silk
worm, and found it to be both good and wholesome. It is
much used there by persons in a delicate state of health.
Altar the cocoons are spun the chrysales are fried, in order
that the watery parts may be quite discharged ; and, on being
stripped of their covering, present a yellow appearance, like
the spawn of a carp. They are then fried with butter, grease,
or oil; hod are afterwards put into broth. When they have
boiled five or ten minutes they are crushed with a spoon,
care being taken to stir them up, so that nothing adheres to
the bottom of the vessel. The yolks of eggs beaten up, in
the proportion of three for every hundred chrysales, are then
poured over them, and the finest gold-coloured cream of the
most exquisite taste is thus obtained.
Socinianism is such an ill-disguised sort of infidelity, that
it seems scarcely deserving of half the pains employed in its
refutation. No serious Christian, we should think, could be
in any danger from a creed which not only leaves out, but
which finds no substitute for the great doctrines of Christi-
anity. It denies to us a Saviour, without proffering the in-
tercession of saints; and takes away the cross, without so
much as giving us a crucifix in its stead. It desolates the
sanctuary of its altar, of its priests, and the atouing blood—
leaves the guilty without pardon, and the dying without
'hope. It lays waste the inheritance of hint who is ap-
pointed the heir of all things—converts the church of God
into a heathen temple, and fills it with the priests of paganism.
There may, indeed, be some who lay hold of the skirts of
such a system, to take away the reproach of open or
.avowed
unbelief; but it seems impossible that any real Christian
should have any fellowship, any sympathy at all with it.—'
New Evangelical Magazine.

MISERY IN CHINA.—No literature in the world teems
with so many maxims of morality as that of China; it strives
to inculcate charity and benevolence, but we are afraid tbat
it has little influence on the practice of the people. It is not
au uncommon sight, walking through the suburbs of Can-
ton, to see wretches in the most abject state of poverty,
lying huddled together on the cold pavement, where they are
left to -die, unpitied and unrelieved by the thousands that
pass by them. Some few days ago (January 20th) six of
these miserable objects, more dead than alive, were seen in a
square lying together with three others already become
corpses, and one of t tOb poor wretches was seen to despoil
the dead of their scanty covering to shelter her from the
cold. Yet, though thousands of their countrymen beheld
their misery, not an arm was stretched forth to give relief,
not a morsel of fond was given them to prolong their miser-
able existence! Such sights are anything but uncommon in
the crowded streets of Canton.—Canton Free Press.

CALSES OF Fastua Is LONDON.—Dr. Arnott and Dr. Kay,
at the request of the Poor-law Commissioners, on the first of
May last, inspected parts in the eastern extremity of London,
about Wapping. Radcliffe-highway, the parish of Stepney,
&c., from which many patients with fever had been carried
to the hospitals. They found, as they were prepared to find,
wherever fever had orippeared, one or two of the following
causes:-1. Houses and courts or alleys without covered
drains, and with only open surface gutters,_ so ill made that,
in many eases, the fluid was stagnant: 2. Large opeh ditches
containing stagnant liquid filth. 3. Houses dirty beyond de-
scription, as if never washed or swept; and extremely crowd-
ed with inhabitants, who had no means of separation, in case
of disease arising among them. 4. Pigs kept in back yards,
with sties very filthy, and masses of half putrid food for the
pigs in receptacles around, which, in one instance, were in-
the back room of the house, with an open door to the front
room, in which was lying a man in the last stage of fever.
5. Heaps of refuse and rubbish, vegetable and animal remains.
SKETCH OF AN ARAB GlRL—Among them was one of the
most beautiful girls I ever saw, apparently about twenty years
of age. She was of a dark complexion—eves black as jet ;
the inside of her eyelids was blackened with koble; her teeth
were white a ivory, and her long hair fell down her neck and
over her shoulders behind, long enough for her to sit down
upon. She had large silver ear-rings, and a silver ring through
her under lip, gently drawing it down, and displaying her fine
teeth ; through her hair passed a silver arrow, continieg her
veil to the top of her head, which was thrown back negligently
over her shoulders; she was habited in a long blue loose shirt,
alien at her breast, her bare antis were covered with bracelets
and amulets, a string of beads wound round her neck, her feet
were hare, and two large rings were fastened round her alleles.
She walked, as all the Arab women do, with a grace and
beauty of carriage I never saw surpassed; nor in simplicity
or elegance of appearance have I ever seen a fine lady of
Europe, with her jewels and pearls, equal this plain and sim-
ple Arab girl.—alddison's Travels.
RETORT UPON MISS MA RTINFAU.—Miss Martineau, in
her last volumes, " Retrospect of Western Travel," has a
chapter upon "originals," in which she tells an anecdote of
a " village doctor" in Vermont, who was called upon to
attend her travelling companion, from whom, notwithstand-
ing her repeated enquiries, she could not extract the slight-
est information as to her friend's prospects in regard to
health. He would give her no hints by .which she could
form her plans and write to her friends, and she was never
so completely in the dark about the nature of any illness.
" 1 fancy (says she) I hear now the sharp, conceited tones
of the doctor, doggedly using his power of exasperating toy
anxiety."—The " village doctor" referred to resides at Brat-
tleboro'. He is a highly respectable physician, and in rela-
tion to the subject says,--" I am not tamely to be held up to
the derision of England and America. It is true I did not
tell her, although she almost pestered my life out to be in-
formed. I. bore it all, and equivocated and evaded, and all
from motives of delicacy, to spare the woman's feelings. If
she has been very much concerned to know, and is yet in
the dark, I will enlighten her darkness. Her friend was in
the first stages of delirium tremens!"—Whew! what will
Miss Martineau say to this? Yankee "originals" are not
original for nothing.—American paper.
POISE Jaws.—On the 24th of November, I left Catia, and
slept at the house of an Engli:ih merchant; from whence on
the following day I went to Karas-Bazar. This place is re-
markable for being the only Jewish town, without a mixture
of Christians, in the world. They are all manufacturers,
and sell their waresihrough the Crimea, and are generally
esteemed an honourable people. They are of the sect called
Karaites, and look upon all other Jews as heretical; for they
only acknowledge the text of the Old Testament, and reject
the traditions which the others consider as of equal force with
the law. This circumstance has led me to imagine, that
their name was derived from the Hebrew
"kart," to read;
whereas I am now convinced it is from the Turkish " kara,"
black; for they wear a long black dress peculiar to them-
selves, and the name of their town in Tartar or Turkish,
which are only different dialects, means "the Black Market."
They have been settled in Grim-Tartary from time im-
memorial, and assert that they settled there before the Baby-
lonish captivity: which I own myself inclined to believe, for
they not only reject the Rabbinical interpretations, but also
the Chaldee paraphrase, which was necessary alter the return
from Babylon, when the people had forgotten Hebrew.—
Remains of Lord Royston.

ACTION OP THE COMPASS ON BOARD 07 IRON STEAM
VESSEI..—In the early portion of the spring of this year, a
small iron steamer, the Voador, was despatched from this
port to Rio Janeiro. The successful issue of the voyage
made by the liiiyptienne, induced theopinion that the transit
of the Voador, across the Atlantic would be speedo, and that
the nature of the material of which she is constructed would
not affect the action of the compass. Unfortunately, how-
ever, these expectations have not been realized, as will be
seen from the following extract of a letter dated Maranham,
June s:—" Yesterday appeared off port the steamer Voader,
from your port, bound for Rio Janeiro. It appears her coin-
pass would not act truly within the tropics,' and she conse-
quently got to leeward, having been on the coast between
this and Para some 20 odd days. She comes in this even-
ing, and after refitting with fuel and provisions, intends to
start again for her destination."— Liverpool Correspondent of
the Standard.

THE IRON TRA DE.—The Shropshire and Staffordshire
Ironmasters, at their quarterly meetings last week, have
agreed to make no alt%.rations from the last quarterly quota-
tions. With respect to the prospects of the iron trade, we
have pleasure in stating that they wear a very healthy ap-
pearance. Large orders for rails, for home consumption
have latterly been given out; and the principal houses are
full of orders for other descriptions of iron. Large orders
fur rails have also arrived from America, subject to the con-
tingency of raising money upon the security of ore in the
States; and it is anticipated that, upon money matters in
America improving, large quantities of this and other des-
criptions of iron will be required in that country.--Merthyr
Guardian.