2,478 2,775 36 370 90 1,271 96 4,707 2,165 12,375 19,12 31,496 87 570 301 2,24 2,670 4,911 126 1,147 168 3,04 3,957 6,997 2,310 2,316 52,462 62,943 653 1672 2747 2 23,732 11,739 141449161731 303,180 944 236 4,91 6.179 11,095 124 4,68 4,89% 9,574 134 6,044 6,385 12,429 490 6,321 7,034 13,355 To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, between the accessions of the disease there is no increase of deformity, but, in AMONG a crop of field-turnips at Ma- many instances, even a slight improve jor G's, of A, in the county of I, one root was found last month which had vegetated in a large wine cork. Lengthways, about the middle, the cork is split rather more than an inch, both ends being entire. A small root passes through the cleft; the large bulb grows directly above the cork; and a smaller bulb, with a long root appended, is formed on the other side: the whole weighing near five pounds. -a, On the coast of the island of J county of A, the writer has repeatedly seen periwinkle-shells containing a small creature, shaped exactly like a lobster. The natives say, that the lobster-spawn adheres to the proper inhabitant, which it consumes, as insects prey upon the fruits or leaves in which they attach themselves. Is this peculiarity known to naturalists? November 28, 1814. TH. N. R. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, deformity has in every、 ment is made in the shape. Another evidence of its being a disease is its being curable by medicine; when the disease is removed, the health greatly improves, and the bones assume their natural figure, as a joint dislocated by the gout does. I hope some day to give the public a full and scientific essay on the subject, but at present I have not had sufficient experience to justify the attempt. It is a subject which has occupied my attention. many years, and is now assuming a practical shape.* Deformity is most commonly seated in the spine and shoulder, occasioning an elevation of one hip and a depression of the other; but that formidable complaint of the hip joint which is accompanied with so much pain, and terminates in death, or incurable lameness, is also the disease of deformity affecting that joint; splay-feet are also the same disease, and both are curable. THOMAS JARROLD, M.D. Manchester, Dec. 1, 1814. PERSONAT the attention and regret To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. of parents, and reflected discredit on medical science. Scrofula, debility, personal injury, and awkward postures, have been assigned as the causes; and seabathing, mechanical support, the horizontal posture, nutritious diet, and attention to the carriage and attitude of the body, the remedies. Each of these has the reputation of occasionally succeeding, and only occasionally; the energies of the constitution, unaided, have also in some instances effected a cure; the hori. zontal posture not having been extensively tried, its character is not fully ascertained. Before an adequate remedy can be applied to personal deformity, its nature and causes must be better understood, those at present assigned are partial and insufficient. Most of the deformed persons I know are neither scrofulous or of weak constitutions, or have received an injury, or been inattentive to their deportment. It is much more probable that deformity is a disease sui generis: this opinion is enforced by the fact that deformity is hereditary; that it attacks at all ages, from the infant in the cradle to the person advanced in years, that it has its acute and chronic stages, and comes on at irregular periods, like the gout. If after the first fit deformity be just percepsible, a second fit makes it more so; but IN SIR, N my communication inserted at page 217, of your 36th volume, I endeavoured to explain the advantage of my new musical numbers, or artificial commas, for performing calculations of the magnitudes and relations of musical intervals, far more easily than could previously be done, and with every necessary degree of accuracy, by a reference, by way of comparison, to the chemical numbers of Mr. Dalton, which have happily given a like precision, and almost the same facilities to calculations, of the proportions in chemical compounds; these two distinct series of numbers, for musical and for chemical purposes, not having the most distant relations to each other, mine being logarithms, mathematically deduced from the numerical ratios, solely; and Mr. Dalton's simple numbers, expressing weights of atoms, deduced from numerous experiments, on the analysis of chemical substances; I was sorry therefore to observe, on the cover of the number of your work referred to, that, in your haste, you had entitled my paper, 66 on the correspondence of the numbers expressing chemical combinations and musical sounds;" and the same error See Anthropologia, or Dissertations on the Form and Colour of Man. occurs 1815.] Mr. J. Farey on the late Mr. Giles Hussey's Drawings. 509 occurs again in the Index, at the end of the volume. I should not have presumed to trouble your readers with the above remarks, but in consequence of having lately perused a thin quarto work, sent me by the author, F. Webb, esq. entitled, "Panhar monicon;" in which, at page 31, after quoting the first paragraph from your 217th page, he erroneously adds, as being the relation of a wonderful discovery of mine! as follows:-"Now, it is found by experiment, that the numbers which are the means of such (chemical) discovery, are those of music, or the har monic ratios, which is proved and illustrated, in a most satisfactory manner, by tables, subjoined (by Mr. F.) to the above introduction, to this very curious and even wonderful discovery"! of necessary description, for enabling artists to understand, how these correctional lines and ratios are to be applied to several different portraits, without occasion. ing them all to become exactly alike, in the proportion of their features and parts, and differing only in scale, or real magni tudes of the pictures; and this surely never could have been the object of Mr. Hussey to effect by his rules. Which rules, supposing them ascertained to have the efficacy described, towards forming a correct taste and exact execution in drawing portraits, might be judged, by others more competent than myself, worthy of the pains Mr. W. has bestowed, and even more, for simplifying and reducing his va rious scales to one numerical scale (perhaps a decimal one) and calculating tables or preparing separate lineal scales, for as many different cases as are likely to oc cur, for the use of artists. The absolute necessity for such a simplification must, I think, have occurred to Mr. W. in contemplating any use from his publication, of such various propor❤ tions or subdivisions of a unit or given line, as, 1, 1, 4, t, t, fz; †, †‚* 4, 3, 7; 4, 3, 3*; †, 4, A ; & †, k, §, 5 6 6 Had the author of the work before me, looked much further than your title to my communication, before he attempted thus mistakenly to speak of its objects, he could not have either confounded Mr. Dalton's and my numbers with each other, or spoken of either of them as harmonical ratios, in numbers, such as he altogether treats of, since my artificial commas are only logarithmic representatives of such ratios, (for avoid- II; 8, §, 15; 7*, }, foff, Z, ing multiplication and division, and sub-17; 1,5; 1o, 11*, 74, 76, 35; stituting addition and subtraction in 10 their stead;) and Mr. Dalton's numbers 13; 13; 14; 15; 18; 13, 12*, 17; have no relation to ratios of any sort, un- 22*; 32, 46; 22*; and 24; all of less when arranged on the logarithmic which fractions occur on Mr. H.'s por sliding scales, invented by Dr. Wol- trait, except the eight that are marked laston, and sold by W. Cary, in the with a *, and these, with most of the Strand. others, are found in Mr. W.'s engraved sheet; which fractions, having no less than twenty-five different denominators, require as many aliquote divisions of the unit assumed, instead of one, which might be used for each portrait. Mr. Webb, in the work before me, partaking of the generous enthusiasm with which the president of the Royal Academy, the late Mr. Barry, and many other artists, are said to have viewed the abilities, genius, and character of the deceased artist, Mr. Giles Hussey, has endeavoured to raise an elegant tribute to his memory in this work, and an engraved sheet that accompanies it; designed principally, as it should seem, to shew, that the extraordinary truth and character in Mr. Hussey's drawings, of the human head in particular, arose from his using measurements from scales, of fractional parts of the double height of the head, (as a modulus or lineal unit,) for correcting his sketches for portraits. An elegant engraved specimen of one of Mr. Hussey's sketches, with his correctional lines and fractions marked thereon, and two finished portraits, are given in the work; 1 lament however to observe therein, the want of a great deal On his sheet Plate, Mr.W. defines har mony to consist"in the union of arithmetic and geometric ratios or proportions;" now, whether the above series of numerical ratios have such a harmonic relation as is here defined, or relations any way different from what might be fancied and shown, respecting almost any ratios in small numbers, set down at random, I do not think it worth the pains of inquiring; but certainly the above are as unmusical as possible, and I cannot help expressing my disapprobation of the attempt, to represent such an incongruous set of ratios as the above, however they may be arranged, as allied to a musical scale of ratios; and, although a modern musical work, otherwise of considerable merit, has been disgraced by blunders 3 R 2 that that have admitted most of these unmusi bal combinations, of the number 7 and Jarger primes, (see the life of Mr. Hots DEN, and the article GRAVE HARMONICS, in Dr. Rees' Cyclopædia), the merest Tyro in modern harmonics, as they are taught by Dr. Robt. Smith, Mr. Maxwell, Dr. Robison, Mr. Liston, Mr. Smyth, &c. (and prace sedby all correct singers,violinists, &c.) would, in reading Mr.W.'s work, detect the numerous fanciful arithmetical Absurdities, by which near half of these numbers or fractions are attempted to be associated, by Mr H. and him, with musital ratios; which last, except in a few false and utterly discordant notes of the common trumpet, have all their terms composed of the first primes, 1, 2, 3 and B, and their multiplication only; addition or subtraction of these primes being perfectly empirical, and leading to endless absurdities. I cannot conclude without regretting that Mr. H. and Mr. W. should have attempted to affix the already ap- to speak great truths in epigrams-to propriated names and marks of practical music to many of the above ratios, utterly incapable of application in that art; how. ever useful, as mere numerical proportions, they may perhaps prove in draw ing, and in others; but wherein their usefulness cannot certainly be increased, by falsely dressing them in a musical garb. Upper Crown street; JOHN FAREY, sen. Dec. 1, 1814. negative merits of novel-reading. The chief part of them tend to improve the heart, to direct the sensibilities and sympa thies of the mind, and to create many liberal and rational reflections, to which without them their readers might have been total strangers. This is no small praise of any pursuit; yet the same and still higher purposes would be attained, if real, rather than fictitious, life were the object of study; if we enquired after man as he was, is, and ever will be, instead of satisfying ourselves with the contempla tion of him in the false colourings, distorted positions, and caricature resemblances, of the majority of novel writers. There can, however, exist no moral agent more effective than a good novel, in which Attention is rivetted by the author's fancy, Taste fascinated by his style, and Errors, Prejudices, and false Views of the hour. corrected by his powers of ridicule or ar◄ gument. To instruct as well as to amuse P.S. On leading the communication of your justly valued correspondent M. De Inc, at p. 241, I beg to remark, that what his nephew calls limestone strata, at the foot of Beachy-head cliff, seem to be situated above the chalk marl, and to have mostly hitherto been called hard chalk, or hurlock; by which last name it is known north of Dunstable; where Cornua-ammonis, of eight or nine inches diameter,appeared in the chalk, a considerable height above the Totternhoe stone and chalk mail, when the absurd and wasteful attempt was made, about 21 years ago, for improving Puddie Hill. For the Monthly Magazine. CONTINUATION of a MORNING'S WALK to KEW. exhibit the substance of sermons without sermonizing-to be wise without appearing so-to make philosophers trifle and triflers philosophize-to exhibit precept in action-and to surprise the judgment through the medium of the passions and the love of the marvellous, ought to be the purposes of those who cultivate this interesting branch of literary compo sition. Yet, unsociable as is Wandsworth, it is in that respect like all the villages round London. Gay and splendid as they ap pear to the summer visitor, nothing can be more dull and monotonous than the lives of their constant residents. Made up of the mushroom aristocracy of trade, whose rank, in its first generation, affords no palpable ground of introduction→→→ of pride, whose importance, founded on the chances of yesterday, is fed on its self-sufficiency of individuals whose consequence grows neither out of manners, intellectual endowments, superior taste, or polished connections-of inbabitants of a metropolis, among whom shyness of intercourse is necessary as a security against imposture-it is not to be wondered that most of the showy mansions in these villages are points of repulsion rather than of attraction. It must, however, be conceded, that many of these families are hospitable,. cha ritable, sociable, and anxious to be agreeable qualities which would serve as the basis of systems of more liberal intercourse, if properly directed, and if cherished in such establishments as book clubs, periodical assemblies, and evening pro menades, expedient, nor decent, nor humane, nor necessary, that the poor should be deprived of the benefits which result to the family of civilized man, from the triumphs of Art over Nature. All are bound cheerfully to concede to superiority in virtue and intellect, those advantages which are the result of virtuous and intel lectual exertions; but as common descendants of the once-equal Britons, the lowest are warranted in claiming, as mat ter of right, to be as well fed and as com fortably provided for, on performing, or on evincing a willingness to perform, the duties of their stations, as their equal ancestors among the Britons, or society at large cannot be said to have gained by our boasted civilization. To adjust these intricate relations, so that all virtue may partake in its sphere of the gifts of nature, augmented by the ingenuity of man, is the arduous, but interesting, task of wise legislation. It would not be reasonable to expect, that every case and exigency should be met and anticipated by adequate arrangements; but it is the duty of power, in whomsoever it is placed, to exert itself with unremitting anxiety, so as to approximate in the arrangements of man the provisions of nature, which are always marked by inexhaustible abundance, by appropriate benevolence, and by means commensu rate to suitable and desirable ends. 1815:] A Morning's Walk to Kew menades. Nor should it be forgotten that many of the proprietors of these mansions consider them as mere retreats from the craft and selfish jargon of the world, in which, to enjoy the contrast afforded by the simplicity of nature, they Court Solitude for its own sake during their temporary residence from evening till morning, and from Saturday till Monday. In a Village famous for its manufacto ries, which, as an effect of that visionary Policy which involved the country in twen ty years' warfare, have lost their powers of giving employment to a population whom they had drawn together, I was naturally led to inquire the condition of the helpless victims of deluded and deluding statesmen. What an affecting topic for the contemplation of Sensibility! How painful the condition of the Poor, contrasted with that of the Rich; yet how closely are they allied, and how adventitiously separated! The latter solace themselves in a fancied exemption from the miseries and ignominy which at tach to the former, though their daily experience of the caprice of fortune ought to teach them, while they have the power, that it would be wiser, to diminish the contrast by ameliorating the condition of Poverty! How glorious the spectacle afforded by the exhibition of ci vilized society, though that justly admired civilization is but a result of artifices that create the distinctions of rich and poor! What a gulph between the an. cient Britons in the social equality of their woods and caverns, and the fa voured English in their luxurious cities and magnificent palaces! Yet, alas! wealth and splendour and greatness are only such by contrast!-Wherever there are rich there must be poor-wherever there is splendor there must be misery and wherever there is greatness there must be humidity. These conditions of men in society are like the electrical power in nature, which never indicates any positive qualities without creating cor. responding negations, and which, when equally diffused, exhibits no phenomena. If then men are rich only because they have abstracted or absorbed the wealth of others, their obligations, as moral and sympathetic creatures towards those others, require no formal proof. The Jaws may allow, and the splendour of Society may require, as the condition of civilization, that the rich should main tain their ascendency; but their relative duties demand, that, whatever be the degrees in which their means of enjoyment are exalted, it is neither just, nor Under the influence of such reasoning, I made a succession of enquiries between Battersea and Wandsworth, relative to the condition of the poor. I learnt with grief that the payment of day-la bourers varies from 3s. to 2s. per day, or on an average is not more than 15s. per week; of women from 1s. 6d. to 1s. or about 7s. per week; and of children from 9d. to 6d. or 4s. per week; though, for the two last classes there is sufficient employment for only half the year. A poor man, who had a wife and three children to maintain on 149. per week, told me, that for many months he and his family had been strangers to meat, cheese, butter, or beer-that bread, potatoes, nettles, turnips, carrots, and onions, with a little salt, constituted the whole of their food-that during the winter months he was obliged to rely on the parish—that in case of sickness he and his children had no resource besides the work house-that it had pleased God to take two of his children, but it was better they should go to heaven than continue in this wicked and troublesome world. "I don't think,” said he, "the gentlefolk saves much by running down we poor so nation hard, for we |