330 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



The deductions which M. Villerme has drawn from these facts are of two 

 sorts : — the first, which apply to the natural history of man ; and the second, 

 to statistics and legislation. Among' the first the principal is, that persons 

 above the middle size are less liable to infirmities than those that are below 

 it. Of the second sort the following are the most striking :— 1. That the con- 

 scription presses very unequally on the different parts of the same territory. 

 In the rich districts there is a much greater number of men fit for military 

 service than in the poorer ones. Notwithstanding this, the contingents de- 

 manded from both are the same. 2. The age fixed for the recruiting ought 

 to be later in the poorer departments and in the country, than in the rich 

 departments and the towns. 3. In the poor districts the men of the requisite 

 height tor the army suffer from the smallness of their compatriots; for they 

 are less numerous to furnish the required contingent. In the department of 

 the Allier, some years back, 55 out of 100 young men were under 4 feet 10 

 inches, while in the department of the Donbs there were only 8. In the 

 first, therefore, the drawing by lot was confined to 45 individuals, in the 

 second it extended to <>2. The chances of the drawing were therefore very 

 different. 4. Hy requiring men of tall stature for the army, the effect will 

 be in the end that there will be none but little men. It would be much 

 better to admit, all capable men, and even where the capacity was equal to 

 take little men in preference It is probable that Ions ' •nniinucd wars tend 

 to degenerate the human race. The conscription lays hold of the tallest 

 men and those possessed of the most robust health, and the war sweeps them 

 off in distant countries. 



A writer in the JHbliatl/cr/iic fsfnivetselte of Geneva, commenting upon 

 these facts, observes, that the difference which M. V. attributes to the de- 

 gree of wealth, may also be accounted lor from a cause independent of 

 wealth, namely, the difference of races; in proof of which he adduces the 

 circumstance, that, in some of tin poorer departments of France, the men 

 are taller than their richer neighbours. This is the case in Tranche Comte, 

 compared with the Cote-d'Or and the Yonnc. In llritanny, the only pro- 

 vince where the aboriginal or Celtic race has remained pure, are to be found 

 the shortest men in France; and it is believed that the British portion of the 

 same race, namely, the Scotch highbinders ;b compared with the lowlanders, 

 and the Welsh as compared with the English, give "round for the same 

 remark. 



Notice of the appearance of Fi.sk and Lizards in extraordinary circum- 

 stances. By Joseph E. Muse In the course of the last summer, I ordered a 



ditch to be cat of large dimensions, on a line of my farm near Cambridge : the 

 line was a plane, ten feet above the. level of the neighbouring river, and at least 

 one mile from it, at the nearest point of the line; a portion of the ditch being 

 done, the work was interrupted by rain lor ten or twelve days; when the work 

 was resumed, on examining the performance, I discovered that the rain water 

 which had filled the ditch, thus recently cut, contained hundreds of (ish, con- 

 sisting of tvvo kinds of perch which are common in our waters, the "sun perch," 

 and the "jack perch ;" the usual size of the former is from six to twelve inches, 

 the latter varies from ten to fifteen inches long; those in the ditch were from 

 four to seven inches. By what possible means could these lisli have been tran- 

 sported so far from their native waters? There is no water communication on 

 the surface to conduct them there ; the elevation and extent of the plane in re- 

 gard to the rivers, utterly prohibit the idea ; the eggs, if placed there by a 

 water-spout, could not have suffered so rapid a transmigration : no such pheno- 

 mena had been observed, ami the adjacency of the line to the dwelling, would 

 have rendered the occurrence impossible without defii e 



A similar occurrence n few years ago, I witnessed on the same farm: in a 

 very large ditch, cut on lower lands, on a line equally unconnected with any 

 river, pond, or other surface-water, there were, under very similar circum- 

 stances, numerous perch, which afforded fine angling for my children. In a 

 diary which I keep, I have entered, that several of tin in measured as much as 

 twelve inches in length, and that the time since their arrival there, could not 

 possibly have exceeded a fortnight. 



While on the subject of mysterious nature, I will introduce, «s concisely 

 as possible, a case, where she reconciled animals of the coldest and most 



