236 Tame Seal. — Gooseberry Plant. 



The Committee of the Veterinary College, duly sensible of* 

 the value of Mr. Sewel's discoveries, have already voted him 

 their thanks, with a handsome augmentation of his salary, 

 and a promise of further rewards. 



LOCAL CAUSES OF CARIOUS TEETH AND ODONTALGIA. 



It has been lately remarked that caries and pain of the 

 teeth prevail locally, more or less in different districts : about 

 East Grinstead, Tunbridge Wells, Hartfield, and all that part 

 of Sussex, it is particularly common, scarcely any person above 

 30 having many sound teeth, while in other places this malady 

 is very rare. To what is this to be ascribed ? 



DOMESTICATED SEAL. 



On Friday the 1 3th of August, Mr. Peter Cooper, salmon 

 fisher, of Gavan (on the Clyde), caught a fine young seal in 

 one of his nets. He took it home with great care, and put it 

 into a large tub full of water. At first it was very backward 

 to feed, and afraid of the people who went to see it. By de- 

 grees it acquired more confidence, and is now apparently 

 reconciled to its confinement. It frequently leaves the tub to 

 frolic about in its own awkward way. It is most attached to 

 Mr. Cooper : it follows him constantly while in the house, and 

 is fond of feeding from his hand. — Edinburgh Observer. 



REMARKABLE GOOSEBERRY PLANT. 



Mr. Thomas Ayres, of Duffield, near Derby, communicated 

 to the meeting, on the 27th of August 1821, a description of 

 a remarkably large gooseberry plant growing at Duffield, and 

 of two others in the garden at Overton Hall. That at Duffield 

 is in the garden of Mr. William Bates, a market gardener; it 

 is planted on the east side of a steep hill, the substratum of the 

 soil being a hard grit stone. It is ascertained to have been 

 planted at least forty-six years ; the branches extend to 

 twelve yards in circumference, and have produced several pecks 

 of fruit annually for these last thirty years. It is usually ma- 

 nured with soap suds and the drain ings from the dung-hill. 

 The two others in the garden at Overton Hall, near Chester- 

 field, the seat of the late Sir Joseph Banks, are both nearly of 

 the same size. The younger plant is trained to a building, 

 the north and west sides of which it has entirely covered ; it 

 was planted thirty years ago. It measures fifty-three feet four 

 inches from one extremity to the other, and yields on an 

 average from four to five pecks of fruit annually. The other, 

 whose age is not ascertained, is planted against a north wall ; 

 it extends fifty-lour feet, and is now beginning to decay. The 



soil 



