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KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



as favorable a state as the most vehement ad- 

 vocates for nature and simplicity could desire." 

 [We should dearly have liked to see " Joeosus " 

 when he penned this! How he must have 

 roared at his own impudence!] " It is a costume 

 in which thay can dress quickly, walk nimbly, eat 

 plentifully, stoop easily, loll gracefully, and, in 

 short, perform all the duties of life without let or 

 hindrance. The head is left to its natural size, 

 the skin to its native purity, the waist at its pro- 

 per region, the heels at their real level. The 

 dress is one calculated to bring out the natural 

 beauties of the person, and each of them has, as 

 far as we see, fair play. In former days what 

 was known of a woman's hair in the cap of 

 Henry the Eighth's time ; or of her forehead under 

 her hair in George the Third's time ; or of the 

 fall of her shoulders in a welt, or wing, in 

 Queen Elizabeth's time; or of the slenderness 

 of her throat in a gorget of Edward the First's 

 time ; or of the shape of her arm in a great 

 bishop sleeve even in our own time ? Now-a-days, 

 all these points receive full satisfaction for past 

 neglect, and a woman breaks upon us in such a 

 plenitude of charms that we hardly know 

 where to begin the catalogue ! Hair light as 

 silk in floating curls, or massive as marble in 

 shining coils. Forehead bright and smooth as 

 mother-of-pearl, and arched in matchless sym- 

 metry by its own beautiful drapery. Ear, which 

 for centuries had lain concealed, set on the side 

 of the head like a delicate shell. Throat a 

 lovely stalk, leading the eye upward to a lovelier 

 flower, and downward along a fair sloping ridge, 

 undulating in the true line of beauty to the po- 

 lished precipice of the shoulder, whence, from 

 the pendent calyx of the shortest possible sleeve, 

 hangs a lovely branch, smooth and glittering 

 like pale pink coral, slightly curved towards the 

 figure, and terminating in five taper petals, 

 pinker still, folding and unfolding ' at your own 

 sweet will.'" — What think you of this, Mr. Editor ? 

 "Joeosus" is a satirist of no common powers. 

 May his remarks be felt and acted upon !— Spes. 

 [We thank you for this; and can but regret 

 that the dress of our fair countrywomen, and 

 their " taste," should be so diametrically opposite 

 to the " lovely picture " here drawn. Let us 

 hope that we may live to see a change.] 



What is a Magnet? — Everybody, Mr. Editor, 

 should know what the principles of a magnet are, 

 and the mysteries of magnetism should be un- 

 folded to the sailor, above all men, since he is 

 the one of all others whose safety depends on its 

 phenomena. He should be told that, on electro- 

 magnetic principles, he would materially in- 

 fluence the march of the needle by wiping the 

 glass which screens it, especially with silk. It is 

 some years since a fact was told us, which may 

 be adduced in illustration : — It was that of a ship 

 which arrived in Liverpool, after having been 

 for several weeks the sport of winds and waves. 

 The mariner's compass having been washed over- 

 board in a storm, their voyage was dreary and 

 procrastinated; much caution being necessary, 

 and, despite of which, they might have been in- 

 evitably lost. Now, had the simple fact of the 

 extreme ease with which a mariner's needle 

 might be made, been known to any one on 



board, the peril might have been avoided. A 

 sewing-needle, or the blade of a penknife, being 

 held in an upright posture, and struck by a ham- 

 mer, and subsequently floated by cork in water, 

 or suspended by a thread without tension, would 

 become a magnetic needle, and point north and 

 south ; or the end of a poker held vertically, and 

 passed over its surface from one extreme to the 

 other, would impart magnetism, and this, if 

 the needle be of steel, would be of permanent 

 character. These are simple facts, that even a 

 child should be made acquainted with. — G. H. T. 



Remarks on Human Hair. — Mr. P. A Brown, 

 of Philadelphia, has communicated to the Ame- 

 rican Ethnological Society, an essay entitled 

 " The Classification of Mankind by the Hair and 

 Wool of their Heads," with an answer to Dr. 

 Pritchard's assertion that the covering of the 

 head of a negro is " hair " and not " wool." He 

 states that there are, on microscopic examination, 

 three prevailing forms of the transverse section 

 of the filament, viz., the cylindrical, the oval, and 

 eccentrically elliptical. There are also three di- 

 rections in which it pierces the epidermis, and is 

 prolonged to its apex. The straight and lank, 

 the flowing or curled, and the crisp or frizzled, 

 differ respectively as to the angle which the fila- 

 ment makes with the skin on leaving it. While the 

 cylindrical and oval pile has an oblique angle of 

 inclination, the eccentrical elliptical pierces the 

 epidermis at right angles, and lies on the dermis 

 perpendicularly. The hair of the white man is 

 oval, that of the Choctaw, and some other 

 American Indians, is cylindrical, that of the 

 negro is eccentrically elliptical, or flat. Hair, 

 according to these observations, is more complex 

 in its structure than wool. In hair, the envelop- 

 ing scales are comparatively few; in wool, they 

 are numerous. — John T. 



Greyhound cured of the Distemper. — Some time 

 since, Mr. Editor, my greyhound was seized 

 with the distemper. The discharge from the 

 nose and eyes was copious, and he suffered 

 severely. After washing him well with soft 

 soap, I put him into a warm bath, and then 

 rubbed him thoroughly dry. Subsequently, I 

 administered two ounces of castor oil, and a 

 pennyworth of sweet nitre. From that time his 

 recovery was rapid. He is now quite well. Of 

 course, for smaller dogs the doses must be less. — 

 W. M., Stockton. 



The Perforation of Nests, and Removal of 

 Eggs. — In reply to your correspondent (see page 

 11, vol. ii.), who asks, " What is it that perforates 

 the nests of birds, and afterwards removes the 

 eggs? " — I would remark, that the same thing is 

 constantly occurring here. The enemy is a large 

 brownish-red colored mouse, with a round head, 

 resembling that of an otter rather than that of a 

 mouse. The animal has rather a short but thick 

 tail. I believe it to be the same mouse that is 

 such a torment to the gardeners. I have fre- 

 quently obseiwed these creatures carrying off the 

 eggs of blackbirds and thrushes; and sometimes 

 the newly -hatched young of the smaller birds, 

 such as the hedge-sparrow, &c. These thejr 

 carry away in their mouth. There is a mouse I 



