Chapter 2

If we look to Whitehaven or Lancashire, or to any of the minor coal-fields in the west of England, we can derive little hope of their being able to supply London and the southern counties with coal, after the import of coal fails from Northumberland and Durham. We may thus anticipate a period not very remote, when all the English mines of coal and ironstone will be exhausted; and were we disposed to indulge in gloomy forebodings, like the ingenious authoress of the "Last Man," we might draw a melancholy picture of our starving and declining population, and describe some manufacturing patriarch, like the late venerable Richard Reynolds, travelling to see the last expiring English furnace, before he emigrated to distant regions.[1]

[1] The late Richard Reynolds, Esq., of Bristol, so distinguished for his unbounded benevolence, was the original proprietor of the great iron-works in Colebrook Dale, Shropshire. Owing, I believe, partly to the exhaustion of the best workable beds of coal and ironstone, and partly to the superior advantages possessed by the iron-founders in South Wales, the works at Colebrook Dale were finally relinquished, a short time before the death of Mr. Reynolds. With a natural attachment to the scenes where he had passed his early years, and to the pursuits by which he had honourably acquired his great wealth, he travelled from Bristol into Shropshire, to be present when the last of his furnaces was extinguished, in a valley where they had been continually burning for more than half a century.

Fortunately, however, we have in South Wales, adjoining the Bristol Channel, an almost exhaustless supply of coal and ironstone, which are yet nearly unwrought. It has been stated, that this coal-field extends over about twelve hundred square miles, and that there are twenty-three beds of workable coal, the total average thickness of which is ninety-five feet, and the quantity contained in each acre is 100,000 tons, or 65,000,000 tons per square mile. If from this we deduct one half for waste and for the minor extent of the upper beds, we shall have a clear supply of coal, equal to 32,000,000 tons per square mile. Now if we admit that the five million tons of coal from the Northumberland and Durham mines is equal to nearly one-third of the total consumption of coals in England, each square mile of the Welsh coal-field would yield coal for two years' consumption; and as there are from one thousand to twelve hundred square miles in this coal-field, it would supply England with fuel for two thousand years, after all our English coal-mines are worked out.

It is true, that a considerable part of the coal in South Wales is of an inferior quality, and is not at present burned for domestic use; but in proportion as coal becomes scarce, improved methods of burning it will assuredly be discovered, to prevent any sulphureous fumes from entering apartments, and also to economize the consumption of fuel in all our manufacturing processes.

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SONG.

(_For the Mirror._)

Thou hast not seen the tear-drops fill The eyes which worship thee; The deepest curse, the darkest ill, Hovers above--around me--still There are no tears for me!

Thou canst not know, why I should kneel For tears to heaven--in vain; The thousand changeless pangs we feel,-- The precious drops, perchance, might heal,-- They will not start again!

Thou canst not know what hopes will spring When I can gaze on thee, Even in the cold heart withering; Oh! thou to whom that heart must cling, Art more than tears to me!

THOMAS M---- S.

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HINTS FOR HEALTH.

["A very old and active correspondent," _Tim Tobykin_, has furnished us with the following interesting extracts from Dr. Rennie's _Treatise on Gout and Nervous Diseases_, just published. These, however, are but a portion of our correspondent's selections; and as they are written in a popular style and appear to be equally applicable to the welfare of all classes, they will doubtless be acceptable to our readers. We are not friendly to the introduction of purely professional matters into the pages of the MIRROR, but the following extracts are so far divested of technicality as to render their utility and importance obvious to every reader.]

CLIMATE, LOCALITY, AND SEASONS.

I shall first inquire, says Dr. Rennie, what are the effects of climate on healthy constitutions, as respects heat, cold, moisture, and vicissitudes; including also the diurnal and annual revolutions.

Cold applied to the body acts as a direct sedative. It diminishes the nervous sensibility, represses the activity of the circulation, detracts from the sum of the animal heat, and thereby diminishes stimulation. In the cessation of excitement and sensibility that ensues, the whole vital actions are moderated, existing irritation is soothed; and in the same manner as sleep recruits the wasted powers, so does cold restore and invigorate the nerves when overstimulated, and in fact promotes the tone and vigour of the whole body; when again a warmer atmosphere succeeds a colder, the animal heat increases in its sum, the surface of the body is re-excited, nervous sensibility returns, and a reaction of the circulation takes place; so that the blood diffuses itself in greater abundance towards the remote and superficial parts of the body, and the secretions are also promoted.

Alternations of cold and heat therefore in healthy constitutions within certain limits, are salutary; promoting, on the one hand, the vigour and tone of the body; on the other, the due activity and excitement of the various functions.

The temperature occasioned by day and night, and also those more progressive and slow alternations of heat and cold, on the large scale, attending the annual revolution of the seasons, are a natural provision admirably adapted to effect these objects as described; constituted as our bodies are, such a constant and regular succession of heat and cold is just such as the necessities of the human frame require. The alternations of day and night, of winter and summer, are far from being merely incidental and unimportant circumstances in the general adaptation of the earth to man's constitutional wants; neither do they bear reference solely to the productions of the earth for his use. They exert a continual and direct influence on his constitution, calculated to aid the vigorous and healthy performance of the various functions of the body each in its due degree and order, and they conduce mainly to the perfection and longevity of the species.

Let us therefore trace the effects of these changes on the human body.

During the winter, the prevailing cold acts as a universal sedative and tonic, soothing the nervous excitement and sensibility, allaying the activity of the circulation, moderating the functions of the skin, and diminishing the various secretions.

As the Spring opens, the sun gains daily in influence, generating a gradually increasing atmospheric warmth. The body therefore becomes subject from this heat to a reactive effect, during which the nervous sensibility and circulation are gradually re-excited, the blood is more equally diffused towards the surface and extremities of the body, and the secretion by the skin is increased.

If the cold of winter were to continue unmitigated from year to year, without the genial influence of summer, the human race, as is apparent in polar regions and upland mountainous districts, would degenerate into dwarfishness.

If the heat of summer were continually maintained the whole year round, a tendency to degeneracy of the race would be also observed, as we see in tropical latitudes. It is in the medium betwixt these extremes, where a moderate and regular winter cold is succeeded by a mild, genial summer temperature, that the species approaches most to perfection in stature, health, strength, and longevity.

In observing also the influence of day and night on the constitution, there is a sedative effect produced in the morning before the sun is up, a reactive tendency promoted towards noon under the solar influence, and again towards evening this reaction is repressed by the sedative effect of the evening cold; and this sedative effect is at its maximum at midnight. Hence those who sit up late feel unusually chilly and depressed towards midnight, partly owing to exhaustion from want of sleep, but chiefly from the total absence of solar influence in the atmospherical temperature. In regular habits this sedative effect is never thoroughly experienced; for before midnight, the constitution, enveloped in warm blankets, has experienced the reaction arising from the accumulation of heat in bed. Whence the common remark, that one hour's sleep before midnight is worth three after that hour, is actually true to a certain extent. By early retirement to rest, the sedative effect on the constitution, to an extent such as to disturb the functions, is escaped.

If we connect these two influences, the annual and diurnal successions of cold and heat, in their joint effect, we find, that about, or a little after the summer solstice, the influence of the sun being at its maximum, the nervous sensibility, heat, circulating excitement, and cutaneous secretions of the body, are also at their maximum. The temperature of the day and night differ so little, that the sedative effects of evening and morning are not sufficient to restore the frame by soothing the sensibilities, overexcited and irritable from the previous warmth. Whence the languor and irritability felt in summer, when the heat is long continued, and the nights are spent in restlessness and anxious oppression. Exhaustion and relaxation of the frame are the consequence.

As the autumnal equinox verges on, the mornings and evenings get cooler in relation to the mid-day heat; and about the equinox, the difference in the temperature of mid-day and midnight is at its maximum. We have therefore a powerful sedative effect in the morning, which braces and invigorates the body; a powerful reactive effect at mid-day, which rouses and stimulates the actions and sensibilities of the frame; and again towards evening a sedative effect, from the increasing cold reaching its maximum at midnight.

As the season passes on from the Equinox towards the winter solstice, the heat of the sun daily diminishes, and the cold gains a daily preponderance. The sedative effect on the body goes on progressively increasing, being less and less counteracted by any genial influence from the solar heat at mid-day; whence the gloom and depression so universally experienced by the nervous in November and December, which is more and more felt till the shortest day. So soon as the minimum of solar influence and maximum of sedative effect on the body has passed over, the sun gradually acquires more of meridian influence, and a daily increasing ascendancy over the prevalent cold. The human constitution at the same time is subject to a proportionate reactive disposition; which reaction is felt most at noon, and it daily becomes more and more apparent till the vernal equinox, when we have the difference betwixt the meridian and midnight temperature again at a maximum. We have daily a powerful sedative effect in the morning, a powerful meridian reaction, which again subsides into a sedative condition on the access of the evening. This daily effect on the constitution is exactly similar to that at the autumnal equinox, only it occurs under different circumstances. In autumn it is connected with departing heat and progressively increasing cold; in Spring it is connected with progressively diminishing cold and advancing heat. After the vernal equinox, the difference in the meridian and midnight temperature gradually diminishes; the daily sedative effect at morning and evening becomes less and less apparent as general atmospheric warmth prevails, till towards the summer solstice, the general effect on the constitution is stimulation and excitement by atmospheric heat.

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NOTES OF A READER.

BYRON'S "FARE THEE WELL."

On one occasion of a mediator waiting upon Lord Byron upon the subject of a reconciliation with his wife, he produced from his desk a paper on which was written "fare thee well," and said, "Now these are exactly my feelings on the subject--they were not intended to be published, but you may take them."--_Lit. G._

EARLY HOURS.

Dr. Franklin published an ingenious Essay on the advantages of early rising.--He called it "an economical project," and calculated the saving that might be made in the city of Paris, by using the sunshine instead of the candles--at no less than 4,000,000l. sterling.

SENSITIVE PLANTS.

Light exercises a very remarkable influence upon the irritability of the sensitive plant. Thus, if a sensitive plant be placed in complete darkness, by carrying it within an opaque vessel, it will entirely lose its irritability, and that in a variable time, according to a certain state of depression or elevation of the surrounding temperature.

At Brussels, the demand for labour is so great, in consequence of the number of new buildings, that tradesmen consider they confer a favour on a customer by the execution of his orders. The lower classes have become, within the last seven years, extremely dissipated, owing it is supposed to the increase in the wages of the mechanics and labourers employed in the numerous buildings erected within that period. During the Kaermess annual feast of three days, it is calculated 80,000 _litres_ (pots) are drunk each day!

Cooper, the American novelist, has just published two volumes of "Notions" of his countrymen, in the course of which he bestows on them the following surperlative epithets: "most active, quick-witted, enterprising, orderly, moral, simple, vigorous, healthful, manly, generous, just, wise, innocent, civilized, liberal, polite, enlightened, ingenious, moderate, glorious, firm, free, virtuous, intelligent, sagacious, kind, honest, independent, brave, gallant, intellectual, well-governed, elevated, dignified, pure, immaculate, extraordinary, wonderful," &c. He then calls them the "most improving," which is painting, nay coating, the lily, to "wasteful and ridiculous excess."

OSTRICHES

Impart a lively interest to a ride in the Pampas. They are sometimes seen in coveys of twenty or thirty, gliding elegantly along the undulations of the plain, at half pistol-shot from each other, like skirmishers. The young are easily domesticated, and soon become attached to those who caress them; but they are troublesome inmates; for, stalking about the house, they will, when full grown, swallow coin, shirt-pins, and every small article of metal within reach. Their usual food, in a wild state, is seeds, herbage, and insects; the flesh is a reddish brown, and if young, not of bad flavour. A great many eggs are laid in the same nest. Some accounts exonerate the ostrich from being the most stupid bird in the creation. This has been proved by the experiment of taking an egg away, or by putting one in addition. In either case she destroys the whole by smashing them with her feet. Although she does not attend to secrecy, in selecting a situation for her nest, she will forsake it if the eggs have been handled. It is also said that she rolls a few eggs thirty yards distant from the nest, and cracks the shells, which, by the time her young come forth, being filled with maggots, and covered with insects, form the first repast of her infant brood. The male bird is said to take upon himself the rearing of the young. If two cock-birds meet, each with a family, they fight for the supremacy over both; for which reason an ostrich has sometimes under his tutelage broods of different ages.--_Mem. Gen. Miller._

Dr. Kitchiner recommends a gentleman who has a mind to carry the arrangement of his clothes to a nicety, to have the shelves of his wardrobe numbered 30, 40, 50, and 60, and according to the degree of cold pointed to by his thermometer, to wear a corresponding defence against it.

Dr. Harwood fed two pointers; one he suffered to sleep after dinner, another he forced to take exercise. In the stomach of the one who had been quiet and asleep, all the food was digested; in the stomach of the other, that process was hardly begun.

SIR WALTER'S LAST.

At page 354 of our last vol., the reader will find an eloquent description of Perth, from the Wicks of Beglie, quoted from St. Valentine's Eve. This turns out to be a topographical blunder, for the "fair city" cannot be seen at all from the said Wicks, whereas the author has described it as the best point of view. As our readers have long since enjoyed the description, we shall doubtless be pardoned for thus noticing the mistake.

TELEGRAPHS.

The system of telegraphs has arrived at such perfection in the presidency of Bombay, that a communication may be made through a line of 500 miles in eight minutes.--_Weekly Rev._

One of the drawing-room critics who uphold the literature of lords and ladies, sums up the merits of fashionable novel-writing as follows:--"After all, it is something to scrutinize lords and ladies, recline on satin sofas, eat off silver dishes--whose nomenclature is the glory of _l'artiste_--though only in a book."

MAHOGANY.

The largest and finest log of mahogany ever imported into this country has been recently sold by auction at the docks in Liverpool. It was purchased for 378l., and afterwards sold for 525l., and if it open well, it is supposed to be worth 1,000l. If sawed into veneers, it is computed that the cost of labour in the process will be 750l. The weight on the king's beam is six tons thirteen hundred weight.

Dugald Stewart, the celebrated metaphysician, of whom Scotland has just reason to be proud, died a short time since at Edinburgh, at the age of seventy-five. He recently published two volumes, of which a distinguished gentleman in Edinburgh thus speaks:--"June 16. Dugald Stewart is to be buried to-morrow. A great light is gone out, or rather gone down,--for its glory will long be in the sky, though its orb be no more visible above the horizon. He corrected his last two volumes with his own hand within these three months. What philosopher, especially palsy-stricken ten years ago,--could ring in better. Glorious fellow! I hear his splendid sentences and exquisite voice sounding in mine ear at the distance of nearly thirty winters. His peculiar merit was the purity and loftiness of his moral taste. For about forty years he raised the standard of thought and feeling among successive generations of young men, to a range it would never otherwise have attained."

OLD AND NEW VAUXHALL.

Of old, a half-crown at the door, and the price of such comestibles as were devoured, were grumbled at as tax enough; but now the account stands in a fairer form, because you are charged distinctly for every item, so that you know what you are paying for, and may choose or reject, as you think fit. Thus Mr. Bull, from Aldgate, with Mrs. Bull, and only four of the younger Bulls and Cows, numbering six in all, make good their entry at the cost of 1l. 4s.--Books to tell them what they are to see and hear, the when and the how are 3s. Seats for the vaudeville (average of modest places) 9s. Ditto for the ballet 6s. Ditto for the battle 6s. Ditto for the fire-works 6s.--Total 2l. 14s.--But then they are not charged for seeing the lamps; there is no charge for walking round the walks; there is no charge for looking at the cosmoramic pictures; there is no charge for casting a glance at the orchestra; there is no charge for staring at the other people; there is no charge for bowing or talking to an acquaintance, if you meet one--all these are gratis; and if you neither eat nor drink, there is no charge for witnessing those who do mangle the long-murdered honours of the coop, and gulp down the most renovating of liquors, be they hale or stout, vite vine, red port, or rack punch.--_Lit. Gaz_.

Bruges, (celebrated as the birthplace of John Van Eyck, said to have invented the art of oil-painting), is now in a very dilapidated condition. It was formerly a place of great commerce, and the merchants of Bruges were the wealthiest in Europe. The population is reduced from 100,000 to 25,000.--_Brussels Companion_.

DISTURBING THE DEAD.

Mr. Crawfurd, in his recent Mission to _Hue_, wished to visit the mausoleum of the late king; "but," says he, "we were politely informed that the king was always reluctant to permit the visits of strangers, whose presence," he said, "might 'trouble the repose of the spirits of his ancestors.'"

Dine with a march-of-intellect man, and only observe the downcast eyes of his pale-faced, trembling wife--the knit brows of his sullen sons--the sulky sorrows of his joy-denied daughters. All that comes of your hard-hearted, hard-headed, music-painting-and-poetry-despising, utilitarian, intellectual, all-in-all educationists, who know nothing so admirable as a steam-engine, and would wish to see the whole world worked by machinery.

"FASHIONABLE" NOVELS.

Here is a specimen of the _slip-slop_ with which so many thousand reams of paper have lately been spoiled. "Tea was announced, and the ladies adjourned to the saloon; Lady Harriet and Lady Charlotte, discussing, as they went in together, the difficult question, whether it was or was not an improvement in modern arrangements to have tea _en-buffet_. One of its advantages the ladies were perfectly aware of, namely, that it afforded a _point de reunir_, for both beaux and belles, which is always so much wanted before the music begins; and calculating on this important circumstance, Lady Charlotte possessed herself of the chair which was the most accessible of the whole group. Miss Mortimer, with equal foresight, stationed herself at the fire:--"Good generalship," whispered Lady Hauteville to the duchess, as the two experienced matrons communicated together _sur les petites ruses_, which the actors fancied were unperceived, &c."

Dr. Walsh, in his _Journey from Constantinople_, describes a species of woodpecker, about the size of a thrush, of a light, blue colour, with black marks beside the bill. "It entered my room," says he, "with all the familiarity of an old friend, hopped on the table, and picked up the crumbs and flies. It had belonged to the doctor's child, just buried, and by a singular instinct, left the house of the dead, and flew into my room. Its habits were curious, and so familiar, that they were quite attractive; it climbed up the wall by any stick or cord near it, devouring flies. It sometimes began at my foot, and at one race, ran up my leg, arm, round my neck, down my other arm, and so to the table. It there tapped with its bill with a noise as loud as a hammer. This was its general habit on the wood in every part of the room; when it did so, it would look intently at the place, and dart at any fly or insect it saw running. Writers on Natural History say it makes this noise to disturb the insects concealed within, so to seize them when they appear."

At Brussels apartments are not to be procured for a shorter term than six months.

In the prison at Ghent, spirits are sold, but pens and paper cannot be obtained without a special application to the governor.

Mr. Brande, in his recent Lecture on Vegetable Chemistry, says, "Salt has been very much extolled for a manure; I believe that a great deal more has been said of it than it deserves; it certainly destroys insects, but I do not believe what has been said of its value. We are not to infer that because a manure is found to be useful on one soil in a certain climate, that it shall prove equally useful in others; experience must direct us in this particular."