316 
“ Increase of Height at Rising.—The 
cartilages between the vertebre of the back- 
bone, twenty-four in number, yield con- 
siderably to the pressure of the body in an 
erect posture, and expand themselves dur- 
“ing the repose of the night; hence a per- 
‘son is considerably taller at his rising in the 
«morning than at night. The difference in 
some amounts to so much as one inch ; and 
‘recruits who have passed muster for sol- 
sdiers in the morning, have been rejected 
when re-measured at night, as below the 
standard.” 
~The perusal of this statement brought 
to my recollection a little incident con- 
nected with this class of phenomena, 
but more immediately pertaining to the 
powers of volition that fell under my 
own observation some years ago, when 
Iwas making a temporary sojourn at 
- Fontefract, in Yorkshire. 
A military gentleman of good ordi- 
nary stature and full proportions—but 
what one should call rather loosely put 
together—with whom I there became 
acquainted, told me one evening, while 
we were pledging the cheerful glass, 
that he had won many a bottle of wine 
from green-horns in the mess-room by 
wagering about his height. “ How 
much,” says he, “ standing up appa- 
rently erect, do you suppose i should 
measure?” “ Between five foot eight 
and nine,” was my reply, after looking 
at him very attentively. “ Look again,” 
said he, stretching himself gradually 
up to the full extent of exerted alti- 
tude, “ will you doubt that Iam more 
than five foot ten?’’ It could not be 
doubted ; and he assured me that he 
could at any time make, at his pleasure, 
full two inches. difference in his height, 
without either rising on his toes, or ap- 
pearing to stoop. A fact I now can 
easily believe; for I have since ascer- 
tained that, though rather short, and 
what may be called firmly knit, I can 
myself, though not in the most pliant 
season of elastic youth, after having care- 
fully settled myself down to the utmost 
voluntary compression in which an 
erect appearance can be preserved, vo- 
luntarily grow again, as I might say, 
more than an additional inch in a very 
few seconds, Under the energetic in- 
fluence of strong passion or enthu- 
siasm, I have no doubt that the differ- 
ence would be considerably more, either 
in myself or in the gentleman alluded 
to. It is the dull critic himself, who 
»shews the want of sense, when he 
accuses the poet of talking nonsense, 
in. describing the warrior-goddess . Mi- 
nerva, as shedding her influence over 
« 
1 
Llasticity of Stature.—Synod of Dort. 
[| Nov. Ly 
and expanding the form of the hero, or 
delineating the hero himself as “ tower- 
ing like a god.” 2, ae 
While I am upon this subject of in- 
‘cidental stature, I will mention another, 
and much more extraordinary. case, not, 
unfortunately, of voluntary, but of phy-~ 
sical contraction of the human frame ; 
a calamitous case of midwifery — the 
particulars of which were related to me 
by the medical gentleman who had 
superintended it. How distressing a 
case }t must have been wi!l be readily 
concluded, when it is stated that the 
labour-pains continued for ten days, or 
nearly a fortnight; and that, in the last ex- 
tremity or crisis, the incredible number 
of 2000 drops of laudanum were ad- 
ministered in a single dose. From this 
death-dose for twenty people under 
ordinary circumstances, she ‘survived 
and recovered; and came out of her 
bed eight or nine inches shorter than 
she went into it. She went into that 
bed, a tall and_ well-proportioned 
woman—she came out of it, a withered 
dwarf; and such thenceforward she re- 
mained. The invention of poetry has 
seldom gone beyond this 
MepicaL Faer. 
—_—=_ a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sir: 
Bt ara ait in your last morith’s 
Magazine some inquiries relative 
to those English Divines who attended 
the Synod of Dort, I beg to refer you 
to Mr. Scott’s History of that Synod, 
or rather his translation of it. Dr. 
Fuller has made honourable mention of 
Dr. Samuel Warde in his “ Worthies,” 
and quotes a character of him by Dr. - 
Goad. There is a good picture of Dr. 
Warde in Sidney College; and probably 
there are some records there of one~ 
who was so highly distinguished as a 
scholar and a divine. He never was a 
bishop : but his kinsman and pupil, Dr. 
Seth Warde, was bishop first of Exeter, 
and afterwards of Salisbury—there is a 
life of him, by Dr. Pope, in the Bod- 
leian Library. Both these eminent men 
were descendants of the ancient family 
of the Wardes of Grindale, in York- 
shire. ~ fie 
Fuller mentions several of the same 
family who were clergymen in Sussex 
and Essex, and eminent for piety, learn- 
ing and talent. a 
I shall be very glad to see some fur- 
ther account of Dr. Samuel Warde. - 
Youw’s, &c. - 9 
F.E. 
PitystoLocy 
