The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-08-29 00:00:00

iittraturr.

P 0 E 'F It Y.

MIDNIGHT AT SEA.

(From the Illuminated Magazine for July )
Alone with God upon the boundless sea.
No spot of earth in view, no sombre cloud,
The glittering stars and gentle moon to shroud;
On rides the bark in calm tranquillity—
Quiet the autumn breeze, while in the lee
The billows part without a sign of life.
Silent the mighty ocean vast and free
Seeming to herald s me portentous strife.
Alone with God how limited the power
Of man t'e creature here to shield or save,
For tew the bounds that part the yawning grave;
Most awful thoughts at this most solemn hour.
Al ne with God ! alone to worship l lirn
Before whose throne all worldly thoughts grow dim.

HINTS FOR PEDESTRIANS, PRACTICAL

AND MEDICAL.

(From an unpublished Manuscript, by a Physician of

Liverpool.;

BY MEDICIJS.

(CONTINUED FROM OUR LAST

,62. Sleeping, or taking, as it is called, a nap, after
dinner, is a habit good or bad according to age and cir-
cumstances. Elderly people seem generally to get into
it, and to reap no great harm from it. After a hearty
meal, it interferes, like exercise, with the usual powers
of digestion, and it tends to replete the system too much,
which Boileau has pithily alluded to, describing some
Friar Tuck, thus

" Mimi d'un Meaner
Dormant d'un leger somme. attendait le diner—
La Lunesse en sa fleur brille sur son visage,
Son menton sur son sein descend b triple e age,
Et son corps ramasse dans sa course K aisseur
Fait ge i it les coussins sous sa molle epaisseur. "
We can only offer a literal translation to the reader
who may have forgotten his French :
Fortified with his broken fast,
Catching a" gentle nap." waited his dinner:
Youth in her flowery charms sparkled his face ;
His chin on his breast falls in triple-tier'd grace ;
And his body, rolled up in its fat dumpy fold,
Makes the cushions beneath his weight grumble and scold.
For young people, however, the napping propensity
ought to be undoubtedly discouraged and resisted. As
a rule, sleep ought to he wooed with an empty stomach ;
for the wasted energies of the body are recruited in one
of two ways—either by food or sleep : the conjunction
of both is a work of supererogation and error ; witness
late suppers, which are now much discarded, owing to
the fulminations of the faculty of physic against the
baneful old custom.
An authority we often take pleasure in bringing be-
fore our reader,' says :—" In tropical climates, where
a burning sun quickly exhausts the sensibility of those
actively employed, and to the extremely aged, who are
subject to a like rapid dissipation of nervous force from
the diminished rate at which it is generated, a brief
intel-val of repose may be permitted in the course of the
day —the siesta of southern countries; a practice scarcely
allowable, except in the circumstances enumerated. It
should always be adopted with caution, and only pur-
sued for the purpose of a slight refreshment ; otherwise
it readily degenerates into a habit very prejudicial to
health."
63. Those who are in the habit of " fuming the light
cigar," will feel disposed to exercise their gift, at this
period of their proceedings, as a kind of reward for
hard work, and " of course by way of helping the di-
gestion of their dinner." This supererogatory amuse-
ment has its advocates as well as its enemies, both in
and out of the medical profession. Those who do smoke
generally relish the luxury after dinner, and, if they
avoid smoking in the earlier part of the day, they can't
do themselves much harm if habituated to it ' • but they
should use the privilege in great moderation, because it
has an effect on the nervous system decidedly prejudicial
when pushed to a constant habit of excess. In the morn-
ing part of the day, when you are doing the main stroke
of your day's task, there is a real objection to be urged
against smoking, because it narcotises, that is, depresses
the system, when, in fact, you require all the " steam"
you can muster. Towards the close of the day, we have
ourselves sometimes taken a mild cigar by way of in-
dulging and promoting good humour, alone or in com-
pany : it is a very obsequious "compagnon de voyage."
However, we are bound to state that many have seri-
ously injured their health by stacking and sniffling. The
heart may be affected by the active principle of the to-
bacco, called nicotianin, to so great an extent, as to for-
bid the practice of smoking;—
" If the nicotianin be in large quantities. and the individual
unaccustomed to its use, it may paralyze the heart, and render
it totally unfit to persevere in its functions.--Such has been
Inct case where smoking has been indulged to excess. •As he
smokers,' says Deslandes, ' makes a chimney of his mouth, his
teeth become black, and fuliginous ; his breath acquires a de.
testable odor. Hence cleanliness, and the preservation of the
teeth require, that the mouth should be washed after smoking.'
—Dunglinson's Elements of Hygiene. p. 385.
Having so far smiled at the ornamental crown of the
day's labour, as an innocuous accomplishment under re-
stricted practice, we fancy we hear the gentle tap of the
snuff-box, as it has been chasing in mimic sport the
decanter round the table ; and the next who opens its
fragrant treasury will not be behindhand with some
little poetic commendatory, and, before discharging his
pinch at his own olfactory battery, quotes off by heart—
" A delicate pinch ! oh. how it tingles up
Th. titillated nose, and fills the eyes
Inc fun cdileeted pleasure bursts at last!"
We now shall beat the drum for mustering to the last
part of the day's march, when the hill-tops smile in a
glowing sunset, and the renewed song of birds pipes
gaily to the waning glories of the god of day. Across
that meadowed plain, and towards yon skirting wood,
lies a mile or two of agreeable walk. Away, then !
64. After a little progress, the grateful breeze dies
away, the oppressive heat of noon returns, and clouds
come on apace, betokening the approach of a thunder-
storm, ere half the broad meadow is traversed, and the
sheltering wood, a mile off yet, is impossible to reach.
How suddenly the fair face of heaven can change ! In
the " Recreations of Christopher North," the subjoined
description drenches us with wet in the very reading, of
" A Storm, closing a Pleasure Excursion.--Well, that
is very extraordinary.—Rain—rain—rain! All the eyes
of heaven were bright as bright might be—the sky was
blue as violets—that braided whiteness, that here and
there floated like a veil on the brow of night, was all
that recalled the memory of clouds—and as for the moon,
no faintest halo vellowed round her orb, that seemed
indeed one perfect chrysolite' ; yet, while all the
winds seemed laid asleep till morn, and beauty to have
chained all the elements into peace, overcast in a mo-
ment is the firmament—an evanishing has left it black
as mist - there is a fast, thick pattering on the woods—
yes, rain, rain, rain and ere we reach Bowness, the
party will be wet through to their skins. Nay, matters
are getting still more serious —for there was lightning—
yea lightning ! Ten seconds! and hark, very respec-
table thunder ! With all our wisdom we have not been
weather-wise, or we should have known, when we saw
it, an electrical sunset. Only look now towards the
west. There floats Noah's ark—a magnificent specta-
cle ; and now for the flood. That far-off, sullen sound
proclaims cataracts. And what means that sighing and
moaning and muttering up among the cliffs ? See—see
how the sheet lightning shows the long lake shore all
tumbling with foaming breakers. A strong wind is
there—but here there is not a breath. But the woods
acres the lake are bowing their heads to the blast. '
Windermere is in a tumult—the storm comes flying on
wings all abroad—and now we are in the very heart of
the hurricane. See, in Bowness is hurrying many a
light—for the people fear we may be on the lake ; and
faithful. Billy, depend on't, is launching his lifeboat to
go to our assistance. Well, this is an adventure. But
soft—what ails our argand lamp ? Our study is in such
darkness that we cannot see our paper—in the midst of
a thunder-storm we conclude, and retire to bed by a flash
of lightning."
Under the presumption that our friends are involved
in this comm,,n drenching and fearful calamity, we pic-
ture to ourselves their precipitation and eagerness to
escape part of the desperate wetting, which hurries
them to seek the only shelter that a solitary tree near
at hand seems to invite them to run to; where, in com-
mon with the feathered fowl and lowing cattle, they
may betake themselves in breathless haste and anxious
alarm. The forked flash and instant crash repeat their
awful visits with terrific rapidity, whilst the whole plain
around is deluged with the pouring rain! The party
must surely be young and inexperienced in the common
principles of Nature's wondrous laws, or they would
have avoided the very shelter so kindly near. A wet-
ting was all that they could commonly have experienced
by " standing out to sea" in the open meadow : on the
contrary, danger imminent and great awaits them under
the tree ; and hurry away they must, and that instantly,
ere the next flash succeeds the dazzling one just gone!
Why so ? Because the electric fluid always, if suffi-
ciently near—that is, if in what is technically called
" striking distance," will follow the best conducting
means towards the earth ; and anybody in close neigh-
bourhood or contact with such conductor, generally
shares the effects of such transmitted agency. Metallic
substances, particularly if bright, and moisture in every
shape, are amongst the first conducting powers. The
very rain itself, therefore, is a conducting medium of
the lightning most favourable because most diffused ;
yet things of a more solid and projecting form will be
rather chosen by the lightning in its course, by their
attracting it and concentrating it upon themselves :
when such is the case, the object is either frequently
damaged in itself, or wherever the conducting medium
is cut off from the ground by some other thing inter-
posed between the latter and itself, upon such the elec-
tric fluid spends its force—shattering, injuring, scorch-
ing as the case may be ; and then the object is said to
have been " struck" by the electric current. Trees,
buildings, and tall objects in general, especially when
wet, attract the lightning ; and, the less perfect their
conduction may be, the more injury they are likely to

.1 Mr. Davis, Manual of Health, p. 445.