221 X 



VARIETIES, 



SCIENTIFIC AND AMUSING. 



Hunters Patent Stone-planing- Ma- 

 chine may be seen at work at Mr. Braith- 

 waite's foundry, Edward's Street, Re- 

 gent's Park Basin ; where stone, slate, 

 and marble are planed on very reasonable 

 terms. This new application of the power 

 of steam, by cheapening pavement of 

 every description, cannot fail to have a 

 beneficial influence on the footways in 

 and about London ; and we hope it will, 

 at no distant period, lead to laying down 

 parallel strips of pavement along the 

 gravelled footways all over the country, 

 and more especially in the neighbourhood 

 of large towns. 



Time for Matrimony. The most pro- 

 per age for entering the holy bands of 

 matrimony has been much discussed, but 

 never settled. The reader may take it 

 for granted that I could adduce a great 

 number of reasons, both moral and phy- 

 sical, for the dogma which I am going to 

 propound, that matrimony should not be 

 contracted before the first year of the 

 Fourth Septenniad, on the part of the fe- 

 male, nor before the last year of the same 

 in the case of the male. In other words, 

 the female should be at least twenty-one 

 years of age, and the male twenty-eight 

 years. That there should be seven years 

 difference between the ages of the sexes, 

 at whatever period of life the solemn con- 

 tract is entered upon, need not be urged, 

 as it is universally admitted. There is a 

 difference of seven years, not in the ac- 

 tual duration of life, in the two sexes, 

 but in the stamina of the constitution, the 

 symmetry of the form, and the lineaments 

 of the face. In respect to early marriage, 

 as far as it concerns the softer sex, I have 

 to observe that, for every year at which 

 the hymeneal knot is tied below the age 

 of twenty-one, there will be on an average 

 three years of premature decay of the cor- 

 poreal fabric, and a considerable abbrevia- 

 tion of the usual range of human exist- 

 ence. Dr. James Johnson. 



Use of Church-steeples and towers. 

 We once asked a friend what was the use 

 of church-steeples : he promptly replied, 

 "To fill the architect's and builder's 

 pocket." What other uses they serve we 

 know not ; but certainly they do this, as 

 the following will prove. Five churches 

 in Surrey Wands worth, Bermondsey, 

 Norwood, Brixton, and Kennington, cost 

 on an average 15,700/ each, the average 



accommodation of each, including free 

 seats, being for 1820, the average ex- 

 penseof each sitting being therefore 8/. 12$. 

 per sitting. In the same number of cha- 

 pels lately erected in the same neighbour- 

 hood the average cost of each was 6500/, 

 the average accommodation of each being 

 for 1500, the average expense of each 

 sittin g being not more th an 4/. 6s. i. e. half 

 the cost of church sittings. So much for 

 Church towers ! ! ! 



Woodlands of Europe. The following 

 table, from Forsell's Satistics of Sweden, 

 exhibits the extent of the woodlands of the 

 chief countries in Europe in .relation to 

 their total areas. 



Sweden has of its entire extent, 0,91 j 



covered with wood 

 Denmark (the mainland) .... 0,02 



Danish Islands 0,12 



England 0,048 



Scotland 0,05 



France 0,09 



Prussia, in general 0,24 



Rhenish Prussia 0,30 



Hungary 0,33 



Bohemia 0,28 



Preservation of Animal Matter in Mines. 

 In opening lately a communication between 

 two mines in a district of Hungary, the 

 corpse of a mirier, apparently of about 

 twenty-three years of age, was found in a 

 situation which indicated that he had 

 perished by an accidental falling-in of a 

 roof of the mine. The corpse was in a 

 state of softness and pliability, the features 

 were fresh and undistorted, and the whole 

 body was completely preserved, as is 

 supposed from impregnation with the vi- 

 triolic water of the mine. When exposed 

 to the air the body became stiff, but the 

 features and the general air were not dis- 

 composed. The person of the deceased 

 has not ben recognised ; but an indis- 

 tinct recollection of the accident by which 

 the sufferer had been thus engulphed in 

 the bowels of the earth more than half a 

 century, has |been prolonged by tradi- 

 tion among the miners "and the country 

 people. 



Hare-Lip- A. M. Montani has in- 

 vented a new apparatus for curirvg the 

 defect termed hare-lip by internal com- 

 pression, accompanied by cautery instead 

 of cutting ; and which, if performed in 

 early infancy, will be favourably termi- 

 nated in three days with regard to the 



