KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



21 



nising no such trammels, gives way to un- 

 restrained gaiety of spirit ; telling us in all 

 the expressive language which music alone 

 can so happily convey, and liberty alone 

 inspire, — the thoughts of his heart, the 

 rapture of his soul. This is courtship, if 

 you please. But let us travel onward. 



In order to keep your nightingales in good 

 health, and cheerful withal, be careful to 

 provide them with fresh, clean water every 

 morning, so that they may take their bath 

 regularly. When your birds are tame, and 

 used to be waited on, you may open the door 

 at the back of their cage, and hang thereon 

 a square mahogany bath, similar to, but of 

 course a size larger, than the one we recom- 

 mended for canaries. Into this they will 

 jump ; and so thoroughly will they disguise 

 themselves by their ablutions, that recog- 

 nition would be impossible. They will spend 

 some little time in this aquatic diversion ; 

 and when tired, they will withdraw. Some 

 considerable period will then be occupied in 

 arranging their feathers, and completing 

 their toilet. This done, they will commence 

 singing merrily. 



All these little minuticE require to be 

 dwelt upon ; for unless such delicate atten- 

 tions as we have hinted at be paid to your 

 birds, and unless they see your delight 

 consists in studying their happiness, that 

 cruel demon — "jealousy," will destroy all 

 their serenity of mind. We have had so 

 many opportunities for verifying this, that 

 we speak oracularly. Nor is it to be 

 wondered at, that birds of such extraordinary 

 vocal powers should be so "touchy," — so 

 alive to every slight. Accustomed as they 

 are to rule the majesty of night, and hold the 

 feathered race spell-bound by their nocturnal 

 melody, it is no more than natural that they 

 should like to have their supremacy duly 

 acknowledged in the day-time also. 



If you hang them out of doors, let it be in 

 some snug corner, overarched by a widely- 

 spreading tree. Sheltered from observation 

 — these birds love retirement, and shun the 

 vulgar gaze — they will, towards evening, 

 treat you to some lovely music. It is, how- 

 ever, advisable to take them in-doors before 

 dusk, lest, hearing their strains taken up, 

 and repeated by their brethren in a state of 

 freedom, they should pine for liberty, grow 

 sulky, refuse their food — and die. 



The nightingale revels in a treat of ants' 

 eggs ; and is remarkably fond of elderberries. 

 We should, therefore, recommend one or two 

 of these trees being planted in your garden. 

 They grow rapidly, and bear freely. As, 

 however, they are decided enemies to all 

 other trees, and carry pestilence in their 

 wake, plant them in an out-of-the-way corner, 

 where nothing else will grow. A nightin- 

 gale is also very fond of flies. He will take 



them eagerly from between your thumb and 

 finger, and swallow them, one after the other, 

 by the dozen. And here let us give our 

 readers a caution. 



In the summer season, when flies haunt 

 us, and render our lives burdensome — this is 

 the case very frequently in our locality — it 

 is a common practice to kill them with a 

 mixture of quassia -root and sugar ; the 

 former made into a decoction with boiling 

 water, the latter being added by way of a 

 lure. The effect of the quassia is, first to 

 stupify them and then to kill them. They 

 sip it cautiously, and afterwards decamp, to 

 die more at their leisure. Now for the evil 

 of this. Your nightingales, ever on the look- 

 out to capture as many flies as they can 

 outwit, pounce on every one of these 

 inebriated victims that blindly falls within 

 their reach ; and when swallowed, the poison 

 is imbibed at one and the same time. We 

 once lost two splendid birds in this way, and 

 have never forgiven ourself for our culpable 

 folly. It will, however, be some reparation, 

 if by this warning we prevent any further 

 mischief. Now that the " Fly-papers " are 

 invented — and fatal engines of destruction 

 they are— quassia may be altogether dis- 

 pensed with ; though, let us add, the poor 

 flies undergo, when chained to these resinous 

 papers, agonies indescribable. The tortures 

 of " the Inquisition " could not by any pos- 

 sibility be greater. Cicero says — " Caven- 

 dum est, ne major poena quam culpa sit." (We 

 must take due care never to let the punish- 

 ment be too great for the offence committed.) 

 We hardly think the barbarous inventor of 

 " Fly-papers " ever studied this rhetoric. 

 With him, doubtless, " Ignorance is bliss ; " 

 and he would think it " folly to be wise," 

 under the circumstances. 



PHBENOLOGY FOE THE MILLION. 



No. XVI.— PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BRAIN. 



BY F. J. GALL, M.D. 



( Continued from page 6 .) 



As the Brain will be the subject of my 

 meditations in all the volumes of this work, I 

 leave it now, to answer a question of high impor- 

 tance — viz., Does the fetus and infant while 

 unborn, enjoy animal life, or a life purely auto- 

 matic? How ought its destruction to be judged 

 of before the tribunal of sound physiology? 

 Those who maintain that animal life is nothing 

 but a life of relation, an external life, that all our 

 moral qualities and intellectual faculties are the 

 result of impressions on the senses, must neces- 

 sarily maintain that the fetus and the newly- 

 born infant are still only automata, whose 

 destruction has no relation to an animated being. 



Prochaska says, "In the fetus and the new- 

 born infant, the muscles have the automatic 



