VARIETIES. 
183 
to  hear  of  experiments  performed  in  the  wards  of  our  hospitals  by  the  aid 
of  the  sepometer,  and  with  the  breath  of  patients,  as  we  believe  that  much 
valuable  information  will  thereby  be  obtained. — Medical  Times. 
Morison  the  Hygeist. — The  following  facts  regarding  this  successful  ven- 
dor of  pills,  we  are  told  maybe  relied  upon  : — James  Morison  was  a  Scotch- 
man, and  a  gentleman  by  birth  and  education.  His  family  were  of  the 
landed  gentry  of  Aberdeenshire,  his  brother  being  "  Morison  of  Boguie," 
an  estate  worth  about  £4000  a  year,  and  some  of  finest  granite-built  man- 
sions in  Aberdeen — Morison's  Hall,  for  instance,  belonged  to  him.  In  1816, 
James  Morison,  having  sold  his  commission,  for  he  was  an  officer  in  the  ar- 
my, lived  in  No.  17  Silver  street,  Aberdeen,  a  house  belonging  to  Mr. 
Reid,  of  Lowfcer  &  Reid,  druggists.  He  obtained  the  use  of  their  pill  ma- 
chine, with  which  he  made  in  their  back  shop  as  many  pills  as  filled  two 
large  casks.  The  ingredients  of  these  pills,  however  he  may  have  modi- 
fied them  afterwards,  were  chiefly  oatmeal  and  bitter  aloes.  With  these 
two  great  "  meal  bowies  "  filled  with  pills,  he  started  for  London,  with  the 
fag-end  of  his  fortune,  advertised  them  far  and  wide,  and  ultimately 
amassed  £500,000.  Mr.  Reid  was  frequently  importuned  by  Dr.  Mohr,  a 
fellow-student  of  the  late  James  Macgreggor,  under  Dr.  French  of  Maris- 
chal  College  to  write  to  the  Times  and  expose  the  whole  matter,  but  he 
never  complied. — Athenceum.' 
Freestone  of  Extraordinary  Strength. — On  the  21st  July,  at  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution,  at  Washington,  Professor  Henry  tested  the  strength  of 
the  Albert  freestone,  which  comes  from  Mary's  Point,  New  Brunswick. 
After  adjusting  the  machine,  a  cube  of  the  russet  variety  of  this  stone 
was  first  subjected  to  the  crushing  force,  and  found  to  withstand  9,250 
pounds  to  the  inch  before  giving  way.  Two  cubes  of  the  drab  or  olive  va- 
riety were  then  tested,  each  of  which  sustained  the  like  pressure  of  9,250 
pounds  to  the  square  inch.  Professor  Henry  stated  that  this  was  the  strong- 
est freestone  in  the  world. 
Ambergris. — We  learn  from  the  Boston  Ledger  that  a  sale  of  750  lbs.  of 
ambergris  was  made  in  that  city  on  the  8th  inst.,  for  the  sum  of  $10,000, 
and  upon  which  the  purchaser  will  probably  realize  $6,000.  It  was  taken 
from  one  whale,  and  brought  home  in  a  ship  recently  arrived  at  Nantucket. 
This  substance  is  a  morbid  secretion  of  the  liver  of  the  spermaceti  whale, 
and  is  generally  used,  in  its  alcoholic  solution,  as  a  perfume.  It  is  more 
often  found  in  whales  of  a  sick  and  lean  appearance,  indicating  that  the 
ambergris  is  a  product  of  disease.  It  is  usually  found  in  lumps  of  from 
one  to  thirty  pounds  in  weight,  and  the  largest  piece  hitherto  known 
weighed  182  pounds,  and  was  bought  by  the  Dutch  East  India  Company 
of  the  King  of  Tidore.  Another  piece  from  inside  of  a  whale  near  the 
Windward  Islands  was  sold  for  £500  sterling.— New  Bedford  Mercury. 
