302 



KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



new warm milk ; it has cured many — tried. 

 Or live three months on apples and apple - 

 water. Or take half a dram of Venice soap 

 twice a day. Or take brimstone and aqua 

 sulphurata. Or take a total diet of asses' 

 milk, about two quarts a day, without any 

 other food or drink. Three inveterate cancers 

 which adhered to the bones, were totally 

 cured at Paris, by anointing the ulcers with 

 infusion of leaves of plumbago in olive -oil, 

 three times a day." It is really a pity that 

 the recipes found in this most erudite volume 

 are not collected in a little manual or class- 

 book for medical students : horse- spurs will 

 form a pleasing addition to the materia medica. 

 The poetry in some of these old periodicals 

 is particularly attractive. Grammar by no 

 means appears to be a necessary element ; 

 and there is altogether an ease and off-hand- 

 ness about the metres and rhymes, which 

 convince us how nobly the great versifiers 

 of those times spurned all the shackles which 

 such obscure votaries of the Muses, as Scott, 

 Byron, Moore, and Campbell, have thought 

 it not unbecoming to wear. Casually turning 

 the leaves of the " Town and Country Maga- 

 zine," for 1801, we find this sublime stanza 

 —the first of a poem addressed by Clio to 

 the ladies of Cornwall : — 

 " Cornubia's fair lasses, 



In beauty surpasses 

 Most others, as men do agree; 



For shape and for air, 



Very few can compare, 

 And they're lovely as women can be." 



The poet's eye was doubtless rolling in such 

 " a fine frenzy," that it could not see that 

 the plural substantive lasses is made to 

 govern a singular verb, surpasses. 



CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE. 



(From our own Reporter.) 

 Previous to the final removal of the 

 Crystal. Palace from Hyde Park, and ere 

 its existence becomes a matter of history 

 only, — we think it right to give the public 

 the benefit of the " latest particulars" 

 (though a " heavy" subject) connected with 

 its fading glories. If so many thousands of 

 people have grieved because of it, let them at 

 all events not hesitate to enjoy one broad 

 laugh at its expense, before it vanishes from 

 their sight for ever. It costs nothing ! 



It is not perhaps universally known, that 

 a " Committee of Inquiry" has been long 

 sitting (with closed doors) endeavoring to 

 discover the object of the multitudinous 

 " catalogues," issued during the season of 

 the "Great Exhibition," 1851. 



Some of the Committee are of opinion, 

 that the original " intention" was to assist 

 the public in finding the various objects of 

 which they were in search. But this sugges- 

 tion has been overruled, by its being dis- 

 tinctly proved that the public were so 



thoroughly mystified, even up to the close of 

 the "Exhibition," that they never could find 

 any one particular object by the aid of the 

 whole range of " Catalogues" — numbering 

 nearly one hundred ! 



One of the Committee, a gentleman of 

 great intelligence, and evidently well versed 

 in the " whole question" (which appeared to 

 have had his unbounded attention), face- 

 tiously remarked the other day, that he 

 thought Mr. D'Israeli ought to have been on 

 the Committee, — no person now living being 

 more intimately acquainted than himself 

 with the l Curiosities of Literature.' " When 

 I say curiosities," added the bright-eyed 

 speaker, " I only echo the voice of the British 

 nation — indeed the voices of all nations ; for 

 is it not a ' curious' idea, to issue nearly one 

 hundred catalogues — each successive Cata- 

 logue being published for the direct purpose 

 of trying to 'explain' its precursor! Yet 

 such is the fact,— the undisputed fact ; for 

 neither we, nor the public, nor the printers, 

 can throw the least light upon the utility of 

 any one of the Catalogues that have been 

 hitherto published." 



This speech, which we have considerably 

 abridged (preserving only the spirit of it), 

 was listened to with breathless silence. So 

 convincing however was it, that not a reply 

 could be urged in the way of objection by any 

 of the Committee. 



A stranger however, who had crept into 

 the room unobserved, commenced making an 

 oration, to the effect that u the thing spoke 

 for itself; for the Catalogues were already 

 being extensively used for the purpose of 

 enveloping butter and cheese : also for the 

 lining of trunks and portmanteaus ; in addi- 

 tion to which [here he was commanded to 

 " sit down," but he nevertheless kept on 

 vociferating], they were sold at waste paper 

 price at all the bookstalls, and"— (here he was 

 hurried out of the room, and turned into the 

 street.) 



Our reporter who gleaned these particu- 

 lars, tells us further, that he saAv a printed 

 Circular (purporting to be issued by Messrs. 

 Clowes and Spicer) lying on the table. In 

 this it was stated, that another catalogue, 

 called " a Supplemental Catalogue," is about 

 to appear ! It is intended to " illustrate" all 

 the other Catalogues, we are told ; so that 

 some light may probably be thrown even yet 

 upon what has hitherto been so very dark as 

 to puzzle the understanding of "all nations." 



We wait patiently for this ; and shall have 

 real pleasure in assisting to clear up one 

 of the greatest mysteries of the present cen- 

 tury. The Editor of the forthcoming " Sup- 

 plement," if he succeeds in what he has un- 

 dertaken to do, will not only immortalise him- 

 self, but he will have delivered his country 

 from the ridicule of " All nations." May his 

 health be preserved for the public good ! 



