304 
MISCELLANEA. 
sat very composedly on the ground. He stopped to observe his 
motions: in a few moments the squirrel darted to the top of the 
tree beneath which he had been sitting. In an instant he was 
down with an acorn in his mouth, and. after digging a small hole, 
he stooped down and deposited the acorn; then covering it, he 
darted up the tree again. In a moment he was down again with 
another, which he buried in the same manner. This he continued 
to do as long as the observer thought proper to watch him. This 
industry of the little animal is directed to the purpose of securing 
him against want in the winter, and it is probable that his memory 
is not sufficiently retentive to enable him to remember the spot in 
which he deposited every acorn. The industrious little fellow, no 
doubt, loses a few every year: these few spring up, and are destined 
to supply the place of the parent tree. Thus is Britain, in some 
measure, indebted to the industry and bad memory of a squirrel for 
her pride, her glory, and her very existence.— Sturtevant's Lee - 
tures on Preaching , p. 29 6 , note. 
The Three Great Physicians. 
The celebrated physician, Doumoulin, being surrounded at his 
last moments by several of the most distinguished doctors of Paris, 
who vied with each other in expressions of regret at his situation, 
“ Gentlemen,” said he, suddenly, “ do not much regret me ; I leave 
behind me three great physicians.” On their pressing him to name 
them, each being sure his own name would be among the number, 
he briefly added, “ Water, Exercise, and Diet,”' to the no small 
discomfiture of his disappointed brethren. 
Valuable Uses of Horse Chestnuts. 
M. Chevaillier says that the horse-chestnut may be employed 
as a nourishing food for animals, and to fatten poultry, in a paste or 
powder, deprived of the shell and bitter principle. He thinks, more¬ 
over, that it will furnish an amilacious fecula capable either of being 
used as food, or of being converted into glucose or alcohol; a paste 
fit for cleaning the hands; a glue useful for bookbinders, weavers, 
and upholsterers; a product suited to the fabrication of pasteboard 
and writing paper; an oil well adapted for burning, and a resin 
which may be usefully employed in varnishes; a saponaceous 
water proper for bleaching linen and purifying hemp: it may also 
be employed as fuel, the ashes of which may be employed to yield 
potash, useful in certain diseases of domestic animals, &c. 
