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THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



strangulated hernia, its smoke has sometimes been injected with advantage. But its 

 employment as a medicine is unfrequent, on account of its violent effects, and the 

 uncertainty of its operation, which cannot be restrained within the desired limits. 

 The use of tobacco as a narcotic luxury is now very general in most countries, 

 it being alike relished by the most civilized as by the most savage nations, and 

 by the higher ranks in the former as by the lower. At its first application, it 

 invariably produces powerful narcotic effects, such as giddiness, stupor, and vomiting, 

 and in some cases it has proved a mortal poison. But as, like other narcotics, its 

 effects gradually disappear on its being repeatedly used, although in irritable con- 

 stitutions it is apt to produce deli'terious effects ; and it has been remarked that 

 persons who take much snuff, though they seem generally to escape its narcotic power, 

 yet are often affected in the same manner as from the continued use of opium or 

 spirits, and exhibit a loss of memory, and other symptoms of a debilitated state of 

 the nervous system. Dyspepsia and pains in the stomach are also caused by excess 

 in snuf&ng, as well as in smoking or chewing tobacco. On account of its stimulating 

 property, snuff, by exciting a flow of mucus from the nose, has sometimes been use- 

 ful in relieving headaches, ophthalmias, and toothaches; but, on the other hand, a 

 ceasing from snuff is apt to give rise to those very disorders, and an inordinate use 

 of it also sometimes produces them. Snufting at first causes violent sneezing, then 

 an increased flow of mucus, then an agreeable sensation approaching to giddiness, and 

 lastly headache. Smoking and chewing give rise to a copious flow of saliva, then a 

 sensation of giddiness, followed by sickness, vomiting, and headache. These effects, 

 however, are by long use much diminished, although always liable to be induced by 

 excess. Many people seem to be unaware of the real effects of tobacco, and to sup- 

 pose that it is used merely as a custom, but it is simply on account of its narcotic 

 effect that it is employed. These effects are most powerfully produced by chewing, 

 next by smoking, and in a less degree by snuflSng, which, however, is probably 

 the most injurious way of taking tobacco, as it keeps up the excitement continuously, 

 and occasionally produces violent effeets. Few people addicted to the use of tobacco 

 are willing to actnowledge its effects. The fact is, they are ashamed to own that 

 they are little better than habitual drunkards. In all ordinary cases tobacco is much 

 more injurious than useful : it causes a great waste of saliva, passes occasionally into 

 the stomach, producing sickness and dyspepsia, stimulates the brain, and causes gid- 

 diness, confusion of thought, and impaired memory. In a certain dose it deadens 

 sensibility, and by producing a kind of vertigo or drunkenness, alleviates for a time 

 distressing care. Like wine, ale, porter, and spirits of all kinds, tobacco is pro- 

 ductive of much more evil than good ; and although its action is apparently less violent 

 than that of spirits, yet it is always deleterious. It is in fact a poison operating 

 slowly but surely on most constitutions, and tending to accelerate the fatuity to which 

 many individuals are otherwise liable in advanced age. Most persons addicted to the 

 use of tobacco are equally fond of the bottle, and the combined use of both produces 

 that most disgusting character, a sot. It is a curious fact, however, that many 

 addicted to both are just the persons who are loudest in denouncing them. 



GEOLOGY. 



Okgakic Remains ik the Coal FoR5iATio>f at Wardie, near Newhaven. — 

 Dr Paterson, in a paper read to the Wernerian Society, and published in the Edin- 

 burgh Kew Philosophical Journal, gives an interesting account of the fossil plants 

 and animals discovered in the strata of slate-^lay, bituminous shale, sandstone, and 

 clay-ironstone, exposed on the shore near Newhaven. The plants generally occur in 

 ) the form of impressions, and are referred to the following species : — Sphenopteris 

 ' ajfinis, S. crythviifolia, S. art€7nisicefoUa, S. furcata, S. ehgans, S. Hoeninghausi ; 

 Ci/clopteris obliqua^ C. jiahellata, C. trichomanoideSt C. reniformis ; undetermined 

 remains of Calumites ; Lepidodendron elegtins, L. Stenibergii, L. ramosum^ L, acu- 

 Jeatvui, L. abovatum, I., appendiculutvm^ L. selaginoides, L. hjcopodioides ; Le- 

 pidoatrobus variabilis, L. ornatus. '* It is now generally admitted," says the 

 author, " that these impressions (the Lepidostrobi) must have been made by the 

 reproductive organs of plants, similar in form to the same parts in recent ConiferfE 

 and Lycopodidcese. M. Brongniart, from their frequent connection with Lepido- 

 dendra, maintains that they belong to that class of plants, Lepidophylla, of various 

 sizes, are very common thrc.ughout the shale in this place ; and frequently attached to 

 them is a small seed-like body, which, when compared with the division of Lepido- 

 strobtis oniatusj is at once seen to be the same. From this fact, we imagine that 

 Messrs Lindley and Hutton's conjecture of Lepidophylla! being referred to some 

 species of Lepidostrobus is correct, and that they are merely the scales or bracteae 

 of this cla'is of plants. How beautiful, then, must these ancestral members of our 

 vegetation have been, when Lepidodcndra waved their luxuriant branches, crowned 

 with Lepidostrobi ; and these last being imbricated with Lepidophylla, the whole 

 bearing not a distant resemblance to some of the Coniferae of the present day !" 

 Polyporites Bowmanniiy Knorria taxina, Spharia paradoxa, Poacites cocoina, 

 Antholites Pitcairnia^, undetermined species of Bechera, and Fucoides Targionii, 

 '* sum up the list of vegetables" hitherto identified by the author. 



The fishes discovered are — Amhlypterus striatus. A, nemopterus, A. punctatus ; 

 Palaioniscus striolatus ; Eurynotus jimbriatiis ; Acunthodea snJcatus^ and a species 

 oi Pygopterus. " Coprolites or fcecal balls abound in the slate and clay- ironstone ; 

 and here, as in the different coalfields in the middle district of Scotland, contain scales 

 and teeth of fishes." 



Elevation of Beaches by Tides If the earth were a spheroid of revolution, 



covered by one uniform ocean, two great tidal waves would follow each other round 

 the globe at a distance of twelve hours. Suppose several high narrow stripes of land 

 were now to encircle the globe, passing through the opposite poles, and dividing the 

 earth's surface into several great unequal oceans, a separate tide would be raised in 

 each. When the tidal wave had reached the farthest shore in one of them, conceive 

 tlie causes that produce it to cease. Then the wave thus raised would recede to the 

 opposite shore, and continue to oscillate until destroyed by the friction of its bed. 

 But if, instead of ceasing to act, the causes which produce the tide were to reappear 

 at the opposite shore of the ocean, at the very moment when the reflected tide had 



returned to the place of its origin ; then the second tide would act in augmentation 

 of the first, and, if this continued, tides of great height might be produced for ages. 

 The result might be, that the narrow ridge dividing the adjacent oceans would be 

 broken through, and the tidal wave traverse a broader tract than in the former ocean. 

 Let us imagine the now ocean to be just so much broader than the old, that the re- 

 flected tide would return to (he origin of the tidal movement half a tide later than 

 before ; then, instead of two superimposed tides, we should have a tide arising from 

 the subtraction of one from the other. The alterations of the height of the tides on 

 shores so circumstanced might be very small, and this might again continue for ages ; 

 thus causing beaches to be raised at very different elevations, without any real altera- 

 tion in the level either of the sea or land. 



If we consider the superposition of derivative tides, similar effects might be found 

 to result ; and it deserves inquiry, whether it may not be possible to account for some 

 remarkable and well attested phenomena by such means. 



The gradual elevation, during the past century, of one portion of the Swedish 

 coast above the Baltic, is a recognised fact, and has lately been verified by 5.^' Lyell. 

 It is not probable, from the form and position of that sea, that two tides should reach 

 it distant by exactly half the interval of a tide, and thus produce a very small tide ; 

 nor is it likely that, by the gradual but slow erosion of the longer channel, one tide 

 should almost imperceptibly advance upon the other ; but it becomes an interesting 

 question to examine whether, in other places, under such peculiar circumstances, it 

 might not be possible that a series of observations of the heights of tides at two dis- 

 tinct periods might give a different position for the mean level of the sea at places so 

 situated. 



If we conceive two tides to meet at any point, one of which is twelve hours 

 later than the other, the elevation of the w^aters will arise from the joint influence of 

 both. Let us suppose, that, from the abrasion of the channel, the later tide arrives 

 each time one hundredth of a second earlier than before. After about 3150 years, 

 the high water of the eai'lier tide will coincide in point of time with the low water of 

 the later tide; and the difference of height between high and low w'ater will be equal 

 to the difference of the height of the two tides, instead of to their sum, as it was at 

 thn first epoch. 



If, in such circumstances, the two tides were nearly equal in magnitude, it might 

 happen that, on a coast so circumstanced, there would, at one time, be scarcely any 

 perceptible tide, and yet 3000 years after, the tide might rise thirty to forty feet, or 

 even higher ; and this would happen without any change of relative height m the 

 land and water during the intervening time. Possibly this view of the effects which 

 may arise, either from the wearing down of channels, or the filling up of seas 

 through which tides pasSj may be applied to explain some of the phenomena of raised 

 beaches, which are of frequent occurrence. — Babhages Bridgtwater Treatise. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



St Eljio's Fire seen in Orkney. — The following account of this phenomenon, 

 extracted from a letter by "William Traill, Esq., Kirkwall, is contained in the last 

 number of the Edinburgh New Philosophical Magazine. On Sunday the 19th Feb- 

 ruary last, in a tremendous gale, my large boat sunk, and it was late on Tuesday 

 night before we could get her up and drawn to the shore, after which we had to wait 

 till three o'clock next morning till the tide ebbed from her. She was during this 

 time attached to the shore by an iron chain, about 30 fathoms long, which did not 

 touch the water, when, to my astonishment, I beheld a sheet of blood-red flame, ex- 

 tending along the shore for about 30 fathoms broad and 100 fathoms long, commenc- 

 ing at the chain and stretching along the shore and sea in the direction of the shore, 

 which was E.S.E., the wind being N.N.W. at the time. The flame remained about 

 ten seconds, and occurred four times in about two minutes. Whilst I was wondering 

 not a little, the boatmen, who, to the number of twenty-five or thirty, were sheltering 

 themselves from the weather, came running down apparently alarmed, and asked me 

 if 1 had ever seen anything like this before. I was about to reply, when I observed 

 their eyes directed upwards, and found they were attracted by a most splendid ap- 

 pearance at the boat. The whole mast was illuminated, and from the iron spike at 

 the summit, a flame of one foot long was ponited to the N.N. W., from which a thun- 

 der-cloud was rapidly coming. The cloud approached, which was accompanied by 

 thunder and hail; the flame nicreased, and followed the course of the cloud till it was 

 immediately above, vvhen it arrived, at the length of nearly three feet, after which it 

 rapidly diminished, still pointing to the cloud, as it was borne rapidly on to S.S.E. 

 The whole lasted about four minutes, and had a most splendid appearance. 



Gedrite a New Mineral. — This mineral was discovered by Count D'Archica, 

 in the valley of Heas, near Gedre. It scratches glass readily ; is scratched by quartz ; 

 sp. o-r. 3.2t)0. It is very tenacious, and receives the mark of a hammer; colour 

 clove-brown, lustre semi-metallic. Before the blowpipe it fuses into a black enamel, 

 slightly scoriaceous. With borax it fuses into a neai-ly black glass. It approaches 

 in appearance to anthophylUte. According to Dufrenoy, it consists of silica 3S.811, 

 alumina 9.309, protoxide of iron 45.834, magnesia 4.130, lime 0.666, water 2.301, 

 answering to the formula, 5/. S^ -^ jM A'-^ -p A^. This approaches to the formula 

 of bronzite. 



New Species of Rhea. — It is stated in the Magazine of Zoology and Botany, 

 that Mr Darwin has brought home, among other zoological treasures, specimens of a 

 new species of Rhea, which appears to occupy in Patagonia the place of the formerly 

 known species, from which it is distinguished by being about a fifth less, and by having 

 the tarsi reticulated and feathered below the ancle, or what is commonly called the 

 knee-joint. 



Edinburgh: Published for the Proprietor, at the Ofiice, No. 13, Hill Street. 

 London: Smith, Elder, and Co., iiib, Cornhill. Glasgow and the West of 

 Scotland: John Smith and Son; and John Macleod. Dublin: George 

 Young. Paris: J. B. Balliere, Ruede I'Ecole de Medocine, No. 13 bis. 



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