AND OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 



39 



many places. For a considorabb 



! distance above the moath of Black River the bank 

 of the' lake is low and without rock. Thirteen years ago the bank was generally 

 sloping, with a wide bearh; now the waves b3at against a perpendicular bank, which, 

 from continual abrasion, often falls off. From one to three roods in width ave worn 

 a'.vay annually. 



Hot and Cold Springs.— In the Blue Blountains, about 37 miles from Batavia, 

 in the Island of Java, th^re is a spring of water, so hot, that few psrsons can bear 

 immersion in it; within Uttlc more than two feet of this almost boiling cauldron an- 

 other spring arises, so cold, that it almost instantly benumbs those who attempt to 

 use it. Those waters overflowing, join in a current, and supply a bath formed by 

 the natives, of such a temperature as to be delightful at all seasons of the year. 



GENERAL SCIENCE. 



Fixed Stars. Dr Brlnkley, Bishop of Cloyne, has found, by computation, that 



the star Lyra has a parallax of l.'l ; or, what is the same thing, that the radius of 

 the earth 's annual orbit would, if seen from that star, subtend an angle of 1 . ' I ; hence 

 it, follows that its distance is 20,159,665,000,000 miles, or 20 billions of miles. Sir 

 William Hcrsehel, from repeated measurements, considered the diameter of this star 

 as three-tenths of a second ; and, consequently, its diameter must be 3000 times greater 

 than that of the sun, 2,659,000,000 miles, or three-fourths of the size of the whole 

 Solar System, as circumscribed by the Georgium Sidus. It has, however, been 

 thought probable, by many eminent Astronomers, that this apparent parallax is due 

 only to the defects of the instruments employed; and we are inclined to attach much 

 importance to this opinion, especially as we find that the amount of this observable 

 parallax has always diminished with the improvements of the instruments. 



Under any circumstances, the distance of the Fi.xed Stars must be enormous. 

 Such is the amazing remoteness, even of the nearest Fixed Star, that its light 

 would take three years in traveling to the earth ; and Ught is computed to travel 

 195,072 English miles in a second. If the nearest of these Stars be at such an im- 

 mense distance from us, what must be that of the smaller Stars ? Astronomers con- 

 ceive it possible that there may ba Stars so remote, that the beams of their light may 

 not have reached us since the creation ; and others, that have been destroyed for 

 many centuries, will continue to shine in the heavens till the last ray which they 

 emitted shall have reached our earth. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



ronCUPINE MSN. 



Is the year 1731, Mr John Machin introduced to the notice of the Royal Society of 

 London a boy, about fourteen years of age, the son of a country labourer residing in 

 the neio'hbourhood of Euston Hall, in the county of Suffolk, exhibiting those singular 

 characters peculiar to that rare vai-icty of the human race commonly called Porcupine 

 Men. 



Instead of a skin, his body was enveloped in a dusky- coloured case, resembling a 

 ruf'-^ed bark or hide, with .bristles in some places. This case fitted every part of his 

 body excepting his face, the soles of the feet, and the paints of the hands. His body 

 thus presented the appearance of being partially clothed. It would have been difficult 

 to mention any other integument which resembled it exactly. Some persons consi- 

 dered it to be like one large wart, or number of warts uniting and spreading over the 

 whole body. Others thought it like the hide of the Elephant, or the skin around the 

 legs of the Rhinoceros ; while others again compared it to Seal-skin, or to the bark of a 

 tree. The bristly parts, which Wv.to chieljy near the abdomen, and on the sides of the 

 body, made a rustling noise when he moved like the quills of a Hetlgchog, and seemed 

 as if shorn within an inch of the skin. The following is a representation of a portion 

 of this extraordinary epidermis, which was probably nothing more than a prolongation 

 of the nervous papillae, grown to the size of common pack thread. These stood as close 

 together as the bristles in a brush — and seemed, like them, to be all shorn off of the 

 same length, being about half an inch above the skin, as in fig. 1. When magnified, 

 these stumps or bristles appeared of vaidous forms; some were concave, others were 

 flat on the top, and others again were of a conical form, as in fig. 2. 



This skin was callous and insensible to external injury in every part. But one very 

 remarkable circumstance attending it was, tiiat in every yeai" about autumn it usually 

 grew to the thickness of throe quarters of an inch, and was then thrust off and shed 

 by a new skin, which came up beneath the former. This rugged covering gave the 

 boy no pain or uneasiness, except after hard labour it was apt to cleave and start, so 

 as to cause slight bleeding. His face was wtdl featured and of a good complexion, if 

 not rather too ruddy, while the palms of his hands were not harder or in a worse con- 

 dition than is usual to workmen or labourers. His size was proportioned to his age 

 — his body and limbs were straight, and otherwise well shaped — and there was nothing 

 unusual either in his habits or disposition. 



His father reported that, at birth, the sMn of this boy resembled that of other 

 children, and continued so for seven or eight weeks; when, without any apparent 

 cause, and without his being even sick, it began to turn yellow, as if he had had the 

 jaundice: that it afterwards changed gradually into black, then thickened, and finally 

 appeared as we have already described. 



When this boy grew up, he gained a subsistence by exhibiting himself publicly as 

 ** the Porcupine Man," along with a son of his, also in the same condition. His 

 name was Edward Lambert, and at the age of forty years he was thus described by 



Mr Henry Baker: — " He is a good-looking, well-shaped man, of a florid countenance 

 — and, when his body and hands are covered, seems nothing different from other 

 people; biit, except his head and face, the palms of his hands, and the soles of his 

 feet, his skin was covered in the same manner as in the year 1731. Tbis covering 

 seems to me most nearly to resemble an innumerable company of warts, of a dark 

 brown colour, and a cylindrical figure rising to a like height, and growing as close 

 as possible to one another, hut so stiff and elastic, that when the hand is drawn over 

 thjm they make a rustling noise. 



" When I saw this man, in the month of September last, they were shedding off 

 in several places, and young ones of a paler brown succeeding in their room, which he 

 told me happens annually in some of the autumn or winter months ; and then ho 

 commonly is let blood, to prevent some little sickness which he else is subject to whilst 

 they are falling off. At other times he is incommoded by them no otherwise than by 

 fretting out his Hnen, which, he says, they do very quicidy; and when they come to 

 their full growth, being then in many places ncai" an inch in height, the pressure of his 

 clothes is troublesome. 



" He has had the small-pox, and been twice salivated, in hopes of getting rid of this 

 disagreeable covering ; during which disorders the warting came ofT, and his skin 

 appeared white and smooth, like that of other people; but, on his recovery, soon 

 became as it was before. His health at oth- r times has been very good during his 

 whole hfe. 



*' But the most extraordinary circumstance of this mans story, and indeed the only 

 reason of my giving you this trouble, is, that he has had six children all with the same 

 rugged covering as himself; the first appearance whereof in them, as well as in him, 

 came on in about nine weeks after his birth. Only one of them is now living, a very 

 pretty boy, and who is exactly in the same condition, which it is needless to repeat. 

 He also has had the small-pox, and during that time was fi^e from this disorder." 



The annexed wood-cut exhibits the hand of this boy in such a manner as to show the 

 palm free from those excrescences, and its other parts covered with them. 



** It appears, therefore, past all doubt,'* continues Mr Baker, *' that a race of 

 people raay be propagated by this man, having such rugged coats or coverings as him- 

 self : and, if this should ever happen, and the accidental original be forgotten, it is 

 not improbable they might be deemed a different species of mankind; a consideration 

 which would almost lead one to imagine, that if mankind were all produced from one 

 nd the same stock, the black skin of the Negroes, and many other differences of the 

 like kind, might possibly have been originally owing to some such accidental cause." 



This young man afterwards married, and had two sons in all respects resembling 

 himself, as well as their -grandfather. They went over to Germany in 1601, where 

 they exhibited themselves. Dr Bluraenbach, who saw them, says that the palms of 

 their hands and soles of their feet were of the usual appearance, but seemed to him 

 rather red. 



Dr Autenrieth (who endeavours to trace an analogy between these men and negroes, 

 and even suspects them to be of African origin), rather thinks that the soles of the 

 feet, of both brothers, are plain and flat, as we see them in children and adult negroes. 

 The skin of the remaining parts of the body was covered with corneous excrescences, 

 or pegs of greater or less size, differing in their horny consistence. The longest, 

 strongest, and hardest, were on the fore-arm and thighs; the thinnest were on some 

 parts of the abdomen. Those of the youngi^r brother were in general smaller, and in 

 several places the skin was soft, and comparable to black coarse morocco leather. 

 The largest were from four to five lines long, and of an irregular prismatic form, with 

 blunt edges; most of them seemed as if pressed flat. The thickest of them were 



