316 Notes of the Month on [|Sept. 



announce that it is a mere plagiarism from the well-known receipt for 

 making an alderman of London the thing that it becomes an alderman 

 to be. The original is in possession of one of the oldest ornaments of the 

 board, civic, and convivial. — " Take a citizen, and wrap him first in a fur 

 gown, stop his ears, shut up his other senses, wrap his legs in flannel, and 

 then put him in a gilt coach. Let him remain in a state of stupidity from 

 the November of one year to the November of another. The hanging 

 up may be deferred until the operation is complete. During this period, 

 let him have on an average fourteen dinners a-week, each of three 

 courses, setting within reach champaign, claret, and rose-water in a 

 pan. In this manner the subject will be made so fat, that without see- 

 ing, one could scarcely form an idea of it. But the sight should not 

 be deferred, as apoplexy is considered to be the natural result of the 

 experiment, and many worthy aldermen have found it difficult to 

 weather their twelve months. At the end of that time the hanging ope- 

 ration may commence with great comfort to themselves, and much gra- 

 tification to society/' 



The public have been lately astounded with the publication of what 

 was said to be a case of St. Vitus's dance in one of the hospitals. 



" The appearance was that of his being possessed by a demon. I am sure, if 

 the boy had been seen in ancient times, he would have been brought forward as 

 an instance of possession of a devil. He made all sorts of horrid faces ; his head 

 went about in all directions ; his mouth opened and shut as if he were trying to 

 snap at and chew the air ; he grinned and gnashed his teeth ; his arms were flung 

 about in every way : he was in the most horrid state of perpetual motion. This 

 patient was cured in about three weeks, by doses of the subcarbcnate of iron." 



On inquiry being made into the case, it was ascertained that the stu- 

 dent who had been described, had lodgings opposite to a " young noble 

 lord," not a hundred miles from Wimpole-street, who has lately exhibited 

 a " House of Commons ambition," and that he had filled up all the 

 picturesque of the statement from a morning's observation of his move- 

 ments in repeating his speech for the evening. A committee from the 

 hospital were appointed to examine the fact, and being introduced by 

 the student to a view, declared that he had failed only in the low tones 

 of his picture, and that the oddity and violence of the convulsions ex- 

 ceeded any thing that they had ever seen, except the " dancing duke's" 

 practice for a gallopade at St. James's. 



It is remarkable how few of the Irish patriots contributed a farthing 

 in the late famine. They were probably too busy in securing the " na- 

 tional glory," and thought that to men dying of hunger, speeches were 

 more necessary than bread. 



But we have mentioned this repulsive subject chiefly to shew the 

 good that can be done without speech-making, and with no other means 

 than charity and practical honesty of purpose. A statement has ap- 

 peared from one David Matthews, mentioning his proceedings on this 

 occasion. 



" Hearing of the wretched state of the poor in the west of Ireland, I went 

 among them," says he, " a few weeks ago — I opened a soup-room, wherein i 

 have been feeding 550 children daily, at the small cost of 1/. per day — I have 

 been feeding them on the spot, under my own superintendence, to avoid the thou- 

 sand impositions which these demoralized beings practise in a time of famine, — 



