166 



Spirit of Philosophical Discovert/. [March 1^ 



less unaccountably than it went: 

 altl)(>ii;;li some have asciibed the cure 

 to Oldham's having; heeii galvanized, 

 eiglit honis hefoic ho recovered his 

 speech, without any peicejitible eliect 

 at the time. 



An uhirm chcJe, ivhich also lis^hCs a 

 candle, lias been invented by Jlr. T. 

 Geokqe, of London, « hereby the more 

 certain and punctnal awakening and 

 risioK of persons who have nigiit business 

 to attend, is secured. 



To boil potatoes mealy, and not 

 cracked, it has been reeomniendcd 

 ti) assort them to a nearly uniform size, 

 for each boilinp;-; put them into an un- 

 covered pot, which they must not till, 

 and p(»nr over (hem colil water, so as 

 only to cover them. When this first 

 water is nearly ready to boil, pour it olF, 

 anil replace it with a similar quantity 

 of cold water, salted rather profusely : 

 which replaein;;; of (he water has the 

 iloublc eii'cet of removiiij; the extracted 

 juices of the raw potatoes, and to cool 

 their oulsides, whilst their inner parts 

 retain the heat acquired, so that the 

 boilini; they are then to undergo (until 

 the prongs of a fork proves them to he 

 done in the middle,) is uniform tlirouji;h- 

 oat, and the potatoes are not cracked, 

 as in a close covered pot they are apt to 

 be, by the great heat applied to their 

 outsides, whilst yet their centres are in 

 part raw. 



The Elm-harli Insect, or Hylesinus 

 destructor, has, since the spring of 1819, 

 begun to breed and increase lo an alarm- 

 ing degree, in the bark of the ornamental 

 trees in the Mall, the Bird-cage Walk, 

 and other parts of St. James's Park, and 

 lias, through neglect in the subsequent 

 summers, bo rapidly multiplied, tliat a 

 large portion of the finest trees remain- 

 ing are infected, after (he great numbers 

 which have been alreaily cut down, and, 

 we fear, so carelessly removed, as per- 

 haps to spread the evil elsewhere. In 

 the spring, the leaves have sprouted 

 forth Irom these venerated trees in all 

 the luxuriance of vegetation ; when, on 

 a sudden, they have become blasted, as 

 if by lightning : the hark has fallen from 

 their stems, and, long ere winter ap- 

 proached, the finest trees perhaps in 

 the Park have become completely dead : 

 whole rows have thus disappeared. 

 Although when the bark of tree after 

 tree had thus fallen fiff, and exposed 

 myriads of minute worm-holes, pene- 

 trating the trunk, in some of which the 

 worms were still visible; and although, 

 soon afterwards, swarms of the small 



brown beetles, which result from these 

 worms, were seen hovering abont the 

 trees; — such is the incompetency of the 

 persons entrusted with the care of this 

 fine Park, that (he cause of decortica- 

 tion was attrihiiled to malicious human 

 hands: rewanl after reward was oll'er- 

 ed, and even some innocent persons have 

 been temi)orariiy deprived of their 

 liberty, through ilie ignorant surmises 

 of those who ouglil to have known and 

 ap[ilicd the proper remedy, of culling 

 down, in the winter season, every 

 seriously-infected tree, and consigning it 

 to iiisfant fire-wood : for the beetles lay 

 their eggs in the summer in the crevices 

 of the bark, wliere in the autumn they 

 are hatched, and in their larva or worm 

 stale these penetrate into the wood of 

 the trees, on vvhicli tliey feed, secure 

 from the inclemency oi' the winter sea- 

 son, through having plugged up the 

 mouths of (heir holes with (he fine saw- 

 dust of their excrement. Towards the 

 end of winter, the worms rcdirn towaids 

 the sin face of the wood, and assume (he 

 pupa state ; and in spring the perfect 

 beetie is formed, and, by its active 

 workings in the iinier bark, it so effec- 

 tually loosens the most infected parts 

 from (he trees, as (o occasion its fall, 

 and the subsequent death of the tree, 

 as above mentioned. It has been sug- 

 gested, by some naturalist who writes 

 on this subject in the "Philosophical 

 Magazine," No. 306, to pay over the 

 stems of the remaining trees with some 

 vegetable pitch, which would resist the 

 attempts or deter the beetles from laying 

 their eggs in the hark. It is hoped that 

 proni|it and the most ellectual measures 

 will now be taken to destroy, as far as 

 possible, the race of this destructive 

 insect. Is it the same species of insect, 

 the H, destructor, which jiei I'orates, and 

 so very soon destiojs, the elm floors and 

 furnidire, which in some country-houses 

 are still too common, and by means of 

 which, lerhaps, they are uiaiidy propa- 

 gale.l ? 



Hitherto there had been only one 

 single inflection of the magnetic equator 

 observed, and found in the great ocean ; 

 the same mode of examination had not 

 been extended to the other parts of this 

 equator. This has been effected by M. 

 MoiiLET ; he has discovered another no 

 less remarkable in the Chinese sea. He 

 has also accurately fixed the course of 

 the Line, without inclination, through 

 its whole revolution about the globe, 

 w ith a precision and certainty now first 

 obtained. 



The 



