The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-02-22 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1853.

the surgeons, lawyers, clergymen, and who, boasting of
high descent and unimpeachable family trees, suffered this
shadow from the past to supply the place of the sub-
stance of the present. There could be no society while
these things continued, and so we discovered."

DECLIVITY OF RIVERS.—A very slight declivity suf-
fices to give the running motion to water. Three inches
per mile, in a smooth straight channel, gives a velocity
of about three miles an hour. The Ganges, which
gathers the waters of the Himalaya Mountains, the loftiest
in the world, is, at 1,800 miles from its mouth, only
about 800 feet above the level of the sea—about twice
the height of Sr. Paul's in London, or the height of
Arthur's Seat, in Edinburgh—and to fall these 800 feet
in its long course the water requires more than a month.
The great River Magdalena, in South America, running
for 1,000 miles between two ridges of the Andes, falls
only 500 feet in all that distance ; above the commence-
ment of the ],OOD miles, it is seen descending in rapids
and cataracts from the mountains. The gigantic Rio de
la Plata has so gentle a descent to the ocean that in Para-
guay, 150 miles from its mouth, large ships are seen
which have sailed against the current all the way by the
wind alone—that is to say, which on the beautiful inclined
plane of the stream, have been gradually lifted by the
soft wind, and even against the current, to an elevation
greater than that of our loftiest spires.—Arnott's Physics.
CURIOUS MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. The
French speak in the nose, the Germans in the throat, and
the English through the teeth. Books and paper were
formerly sold only at stalls, and the dealers therefore
came to be called stationers. A poker laid over a fire
concentrates the heat of the passing smoke, and creates a
draught through the fire. Water is called hard when from
containing too much carbonic acid it holds lime in solu-
tion. A pound of wheaten flour consists of bran 3 oz.,
starch 10 (z., gluten three quarters of an oz., and sugar
one quarter. The spring of a watch weighs 0.15 of a
grain, and a pound of steel makes 50,000. The pound of
steel costs 3d., and a single spring 2d., so that the 50,000
produce £416. Turnpikes were so called from poles or
bars swung on a staple, and turned either ways when the
dues were paid. A turnpike road by law is sixty feet wide,
and parish roads about thirty feet. Children lose weight
during the first three days after birth ; at the age of a
week they sensibly increase ; after one year they triple
their weight, then they require six years to double their
weight, and thirteen to quadruple it.
THE WAISTS OF AMERICAN LADIES.—The unna-
tural length and ridiculous smallness of their waists baf-
fles description. A waist that could be spanned is an
English metaphorical expression used in a novel, but it is
an American fact; and so alarming does it appear to an
Englishman, that my first sentiment, on viewing the phe.
nnmennn, wag one of pity for unfortunate being's whn
might possibly break off in the middle, like flowers from
the stalk, before the evening concluded. No less extra-
ordinary is the size of the ladies' arms. I saw many
which were scarce thicker than modtrate-sized walking-
sticks. Yet, strange to say, when these ladies pass the
age of forty, they frequently attain an enormous size.
The whole economy of their structure is then reversed,
their wrists and arms becoming the thickest parts of the
body. Here is a subject worthy the contemplation of the
ethnologist. How comes it to pass that the English type
—which I presume has not, in every case, been so affected
by the admixture of others as to lose its own identity—
how comes it to pass, I say, that the English type is so
strangely altered in a few generations ? I have heard
various hypotheses : amongst others, the habits of the
people—the dry climate. The effect of the latter on a
European constitution would have appeared to me suffi-
cient to account for the singular confirmation, if I had not
been persuaded by natives of the country that the small
waist is mainly owing to tight-lacing. This practice, it is
said, is persevered in to an alarming extent ; and if report
be true, it is to be feared that the effects will be felt by
future generations to a greater degree than they are at
present.—Dublin University Magazine.