KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



279 



soil. Late experiments have clearly shown, 

 that draining a dry piece of ground improved 

 its fertility to a degree equal, if not superior, 

 to draining a wet soil. This is most clearly 

 shown in arable land. The mole's labors are 

 generally confined to dry soils. — R. D., 

 Hempstead, April 16. 



[Our correspondent will be pleased to re- 

 cognise a Third Paper on the same sub- 

 ject, in this clay's Journal. The inquiry 

 has attracted very great attention.] 



FAITH AND HOPE. 



By Anne E- 



A Swallow in the Spring 

 Came to our granaiy, and 'neath the eaves 

 Essayed to make her nest, and there did bring 



Wet earth, and straw, and leaves. 



Day after day she toil'd 

 With patient art ; but, ere her work was crown'd, 

 Some sad mishap the tiny fabric spoil' d, 



And dash'd it to the ground. 



She found the ruin wrought : 

 Yet not cast down, forth from her place she flew, 

 And with her mate fresh earth and grasses 

 brought, 



And built her nest anew. 



But scarcely had she placed 

 The last soft feather on its ample floor, 

 When wicked hands, or chance, again laid waste, 



And wrought the ruin o'er. 



But still her heart she kept, 

 And toil'd again ; and, last night hearing calls, 

 I looked, and lo ! three little Swallows slept 



Within the earth-made walls. 



What trust is here, O Man ! 

 Hath Hope been smitten in its early dawn $ 

 Have clouds o'ercast thy purpose, trust or plan? 



Have Eaith, and struggle on! 



[ We can well imagine the motive that caused 

 our fair correspondent to send us these lines, and 

 we appreciate the delicacy of its expression. We 

 catch the idea, and hold on our way with more 

 energy of purpose than ever. We are fast 

 triumphing over the unfair difficulties cast in our 

 way, and are gaining an accession of friends 

 daily.] 



The Physiology of Drowning. 



If a small animal be immersed in water in a 

 transparent glass vessel, the phenomena of drown- 

 ing are readily observable. There is first a deep 

 expiration by which bubbles of air are expelled 

 from the lungs. There is then an effort to in- 

 spire ; but the effort is ineffectual, there being no 

 air which can be received into the lungs ; and a 

 spasm of the muscles seems to prevent the admis- 

 sion of water in any considerable quantity into 

 i e trachea. The attempts to breathe are repeated 



several times, and, after each attempt, a small 

 quantity of air is expelled from the mouth and 

 nostrils, until the air-cells of the lungs are com- 

 pletely emptied. Then the animal becomes in- 

 sensible, and convulsive action of the muscle 

 marks the instant when the brain begins to suffer 

 from the influx of the dark-colored blood. After 

 these convulsions, the animal is motionless, and 

 gives no signs of life ; but if the hand be applied 

 to the thorax, the pulsation of the heart, gra- 

 dually becoming fainter and fainter, indicates 

 that some remains of vitality still linger in the 

 system. Before the circulation ceases altogether, 

 the muscles of respiration resume their action, 

 and some ineffectual efforts are again made to 

 breathe. It is a remarkable circumstance, that 

 the diaphragm continues to exert itself nearly 

 as long as the heart itself; so that the 

 interval between the cessation of the attempts 

 to breathe and the cessation of the motion of the 

 heart, short as it is in animals that die of strangu- 

 lation, is shorter still in those that perish from 

 drowning. These phenomena follow each other 

 in rapid succession, and the whole scene is closed, 

 and the living animal is converted into a lifeless 

 corpse, in the brief space of a few minutes. I 

 have never opened the thorax of an animal in 

 which the heart was found acting in such a man- 

 ner as to maintain the circulation of the blood so 

 long as five minutes after complete submersion ; 

 and from the information which I have received 

 from some of the medical attendants at the re- 

 ceiving-houses of the Eoyal Humane Society, I 

 am led to believe, that the period is very rarely, 

 if ever, longer than this in the human subject. — 

 Sir Benjamin Brodie. 



Pressure of the Sea. 



If a piece of wood, which floats on the water, 

 be forced down to a great depth into the sea, 

 the pressure of the surrounding liquid will be so 

 severe, that a quantity of water will be forced 

 down into the pores of the wood, and so increase 

 its weight that it will no longer be capable of 

 floating or rising on the surface. Hence the 

 timbers of ships, which are foundered in a deep 

 part of the ocean, never rise again to the surface 

 like those which are sunk near the shore. A 

 diver may, with impunity, plunge to a certain 

 depth in the sea, but there is a limit beyond 

 which he could not live under the pressure to 

 which he is subject. For the same reason, it is pro- 

 bable there is a depth below which fishes cannot 

 live. They have, according to Joselin, been caught 

 at a depth at which they must have attained a 

 pressure of eighty tons to each square foot of the 

 surface of their body. 



Importation of Eggs. 



It appears from the annual returns relating to 

 trade and navigation, that in the year ending 

 the 5th January last, the number of eggs im- 

 ported was 115,526,236, being an increase on the 

 preceding year,when the number was 105,689,060. 

 In the year ending the 5th January, 1851, the 

 duty was £38,577, and in the year ending the 

 5th January last, £42,149. 



