they are frequently seen, and as beforementioned, I such ornaments were evidently worn by men in the time of Mohammed, or else why his prohibition? As he prohibited rings of gold, they seemed careless whether they had any or not, and now such jewels are never worn by the men. 888888888 Hhegabs, or Amulets of modern Egypt. It was Among all the oriental nations, a belief in the efficacy of amulets to avert an evil or obtain a blessing, is universal; and very few persons are seen without one of some form or other. a custom among the Hebrews to wear amulets, on which were engraven or written some sentences from the law or from their sacred books. The Eastern ladies of the present day make them answer the purpose also of ornament for the head, neck, or bosom, by being enclosed in small cases of embossed gold or silver. They are often worn upon the neck or bosom, and sometimes the head, but are most commonly suspended at the right side by a silken cord, which is passed over the left shoulder. Anklets, now in common use in the East, were worn in the time of Isaiah, who denominated them "tinkling ornaments." See chap. iii. verse 18. Mr. Lane says, that anklets of solid silver are worn by the wives of the sheiks and other wealthy persons. Children wear them made of iron, and sometimes they have little bells attached to them; and it was to this kind doubtless to which the prophet alludes. The dancing girls of Cairo wear anklets of the latter description, which give a pleasing effect. CASKET FOUND AT SEA. A fisherman found on the rock of St. Malo, a closed casket, enveloped in linen. It contained a rosary, a scapulary, and a writing, in the form of a will, signed "Pere Alexis Recollet, missionary among the infidels, 1776." In this writing Pere Alexis recommends the countries which have not yet been visited by the Lord, to Louis XV. This prayer was made just before the ship, Sainte Marie, or Sainte Marine, perished. This casket has thus been tossed about the ocean for sixty-two years. From the Knickerbocker. YE winds, ye unseen currents of the air, Softly ye played a few brief hours ago; Ye bore the murmuring bee; ye tossed the hair O'er maiden cheeks, that took a fresher glow; Ye'rolled the round white cloud through depths of blue, Ye shook from faded flowers the lingering dew; Before you the catalpa's blossoms flew, Light blossoms, dropping on the grass like snow. How are ye changed! Ye take the cataract's sound; The weary fowls of heaven make wing in vain, To escape your wrath; ye seize and dash them dead; Against the earth ye drive the roaring rain; The harvest-field becomes a river's bed, Flings o'er his shivering plumes the fountain's spray Why rage ye thus ?-no strife for liberty Has made you mad; no tyrant, strong through fear, O ye wild winds! a mightier Power than yours Yet oh, when that wronged Spirit of our race, Lord of his ancient hills and fruitful plains, But may he like the spring-time come abroad, Come spouting up the unsealed springs of light; Flowers start from their dark prisons at his feet, The woods, long dumb, awake to hymnings sweet, And morn and eve, whose glimmerings almost meet, Crowd back to narrow bounds the ancient night, DENTAL SCIENCE. Apparatus for Cleansing Teeth, &c. "An Infallible Method of Preventing Diseases of the Teeth, Mouth and Gums. By SOLYMAN BROWN, A. M. Dentist, No. 17 Park Place, New York, Agent for the Patent of L. S. Parmly, Esq. at New Orleans." Various methods have been employed to preserve teeth from caries and other diseases, with more or less success, but it seems to us that the process recommended in the following essay, is quite superior to any yet tried. This essay is printed in pamphlet form and intended to accompany the apparatus represented in the above cut. As it is brief, we give the contents of the pamphlet entire. DESCRIPTION OF THE CUT.-The upper figure represents an upper set of teeth, and the lines proceeding from them, are intended to represent the floss silk used in cleaning them. The thread AA is placed in the position proper for cleaning the back and sides of a wisdom tooth; BB, of a central incisor; EE and FF illustrate the mode of cleansing all sides of a tooth at once. The figure x, exhibits the form of a Tooth Polisher, having attached to it a skein of floss silk, cut to the proper length, as represented by o. YY. Is a Tongue Scraper, bent as it should be to clean the tongue. DIRECTIONS.-Mr. L. S. Parmly's inventions for keeping the teeth, gums and mouth clean and healthy, are thus spoken of by Sir Astley Cooper, the first Surgeon of his day in England. In Parmly is a dentist of very scientific views, and letter to Dr. Bond of Brighton, he says, "Mr. of excellent practical information. You will do me a favor by examining his inventions which I am sure you will be pleased with." Sir Anthony Carlisle writes thus: "As an act of justice due to extraordinary merit, I offer this professional testimony in behalf of Mr. Parmly, Dentist. I duce decay in teeth to be a valuable accession to consider his discovery of the causes which prosurgical knowledge." Without any further evidence of the value of the doctrines and precepts of this little book, I proceed to lay before the reader a simple statement of Mr. Parmly's opinions after thirty years of constant attention to the subject, and also an account of the means which he has devised to prevent diseases of the teeth and gums. It is his opinion, founded on long experience, that not only tartar but caries of the teeth may be wholly prevented by a proper use of the following means: A tooth brush, with stiff bristles used perpen-education, which has been almost invariably neg dicularly on the CROWNS and GRINDING SURFACES,lected. with a little fine soap, to be kept dry after using. The whale-bone Tongue Scraper, preferable to POLISHER. Which any formed of other substances, which is a part of the set of instruments necessary to the perfect purity of the mouth, can also be used as an amusement by young children, after a very little in THE ARGILLACEOUS TOOTH should be kept sharp, and used whenever any dark more THE FLOSS SILK PURIFIER.-This is the raw silk before it has been twisted, which should be waxed and passed between all the teeth after meals, moving it up and down on the right and left sides of each tooth, from the gum to the extremity, until all impurities shall be thoroughly removed. By the skilful use of this article, which will be easily acquired even by children, the teeth may be kept so free from deposites of foreign matter, and the enamel so smooth as that both tartar and caries shall be wholly prevented, thus rendering the mouth less liable to disease than any other part of the system. Use the TONGUE SCRAPER every morning to remove all impurities from the upper surface and edges of the tongue, upon which foul deposites are apt to lodge. By this practice, the glands are discharged and thus the mouth purified, preventing inflammation. To be effectual, the foregoing directions should be followed from the earliest infancy of the teeth; for the appearance of a tooth through the gum is a species of birth, demanding particular attention. In those cases where the gums have been inflamed through neglect of the process of purification just described, use the TINCTURE OF MYRRH as follows:-After thoroughly removing the tartar or other concretions from beneath the edges of the gum, moisten a tooth brush slightly, and drop three or four drops of the tincture upon the brush. Rub the diseased parts faithfully three or four times a day, and the disease will disappear so long as the teeth are kept perfectly clean. Inasmuch as the preceding rules require attention to the mouth in early infancy, the mother herself should be the anxious guardian of her helpless little ones. When the child arrives at a sufficient age to be taught the use of the fingers, let the manner of employing the waxed silk be one of its earliest lessons. It is thus that the habit of purifying the teeth will become an amusement. If it require some little pains to teach the child this duty, so it does to inculcate practically any of the other duties of human life. At three years of age, when the first set of teeth become fully manifest through the gums, the child should be taught that every tooth which makes its appearance after that period, belongs to the permanent set. struction. The motives for employing these means of preventing disease, are mon method of employing dentists to remedy the 1. Great economy-in expense. In the comevils of neglect, every respectable family that regards neatness and comfort, expends considerable sums annually. On this plan, the expense will be comparatively trifling. It will indeed occupy a few minutes of every day to perform the necessary purgations of the mouth. The best method of doing this, with persons in refined society, where it is always practicable and convenient, is to use a mirror and a magnifying mouthglass in which all the impurities on the teeth may be seen at a glance. 2. The addition to the duration of human life consequent on keeping the month in a perfectly sound and healthy state, is a second motive. This prolongation of life, may seem of little account to those who are perpetually tortured toothache. But take away these direful maladies, with sore gums, nauseous tongue, and intolerable and give mankind a healthy condition of the mouth till a good old age, and they would be willing to live and be useful a hundred years. avoided by this system, is a powerful motive. 3. The vast amount of suffering that will be at the prospect of a long life, if all the protracted It would be enough to make the child tremble consisting of twenty, the second of thirty-two, horrors of losing two entire sets of teeth, the first making fifty-two in all, by dental gangrene and other diseases of the mouth resulting from a neglect of cleanliness, could be presented to the mind. If the doctrines inculcated here are true which experience has fully proved, the great mass of this suffering might be avoided by following these simple instructions. 4. The great advantage to individual health and personal appearance accruing from sound teeth, is a powerful argument in favor of this system. But our few small pages will not allow us to enlarge upon this point. 5. If we wish to be agreeable objects of either the sense of sight or smell to our intimate associates, we shall never willingly neglect the rigid system of daily purification which we so strenuously enjoin. THE ARGUMENT.-We are often asked, why the people of the United States have worse teeth than the inhabitants of the old world. Two causes will explain this. First. The teeth of every nation of the earth, have their peculiar characteristics, as truly as Children of ordinary capacity may be taught, any other feature. In Americans, all these charat this age, the importance of securing to them-acteristics are blended together, causing irreguselves perfect sets of teeth; and to use their fin- larities of arrangement which the means comgers expertly will prove a useful part of early monly used have not been adequate to remove. The services of the dentist are particularly re-putting in jeopardy the most solid structure of quired to remedy this evil, and give advice. their bodies. Secondly. I affirm negatively, in conformity Bad teeth are now so common, that not merely with the long settled opinions of Mr. L. S. Parmly, old men and women, but young men and maidens, who has investigated this subject for the last and even little children, the rich as well as the thirty years in both hemispheres, and whose the-poor, the polished as well as the unrefined, are ory and practice it is the object of this treatise to unfold: That climate is not the cause; nor a difference of longitude; nor a diversity in the common articles of diet-solid or fluid; nor any arbitrary national curse, unconnected with the habits of the people. The filthy condition in which children use their teeth and suffer them to remain night and day, during infancy and childhood, to take care of themselves, is the second cause. To keep the teeth absolutely pure and clean, with a highly polished enamel, is therefore, the only infallible remedy for the universal evil of bad teeth in civilized society. To show in what respect the teeth have been neglected; how the foul condition of the mouth is the procuring and exciting cause of dental disease; to what an alarming magnitude the calamity has grown; and to introduce in the place of the former futile methods of cure, a sovereign antidote to dental gangrene-are the special objects of this little volume. That the foul deposites of foreign matter upon and between the teeth are the causes of their ruin, is the point to be established. the suffering victims of the most destructive dental maladies, for the prevention of which these improvements are now offered particularly to the rising generation as a full guaranty against diseases of the mouth, in all climates. are That all who read will believe our testimony, we do not expect; nor that all who believe will follow our advice: but of one thing we sure; that all who practically adopt our counsel will long remember, with pleasure, the instruction of this little book. The articles described and recommended in this work are contained in a small box convenient at home or abroad. Price, including this treatise, one dollar.-Price to dealers nine dollars per dozen. SOLYMAN BROWN, Dentist, 17 Park Place. LINEN. inventors of weaving linen cloth. The Atheni THE Egyptians appear to have been the first ans, who were an Egyptian colony from Sais, folRelics of decaying food, acrid and corrosive lowed the custom of their ancestors, by applying themselves to raising flax for the same purpose. fluids, when suffered to remain undisturbed in contact with the enamel of the teeth, produce a They, therefore, continued to worship Minerva, decay of that substance; from which it follows of whom they also styled Ergatris, or the worknecessity, that keeping the surface of the enam-Woman, for her excellency in spinning and weavel well polished and clean is the proper means of preserving their structure. ing, and who is supposed to be no other than the Egyptian Isis; for the Egyptians, to remind the I shall not waste time in enumerating collate- people of the importance of their linen manufacral and less important arguments to establish the tory, exposed in their festivals an image, bearing foregoing propositions, but rest the proof wholly in its right hand the instruments round which the on the undisputed fact, that every instance of weavers rolled the warp of their cloth. This caries or decay in a tooth, is found to commencever's loom. The name of Athene, that is also image was called Minerva, from Manevro, a weaat that precise point where foreign substances have been suffered to remain long in contact with These are stubborn facts which no sophistry can gainsay; and we positively affirm, that if every part of the enamel is kept well polished and clean from infancy, it will resist all external agents to which it is exposed. In speaking of the alarming prevalency of dental disease in the United States, we do not wish to excite the useless apprehensions of any individual, even the most obscure. We only desire to arouse community to a sense of the danger which is not only at their doors but in their very mouths, given to this goddess, is the very word denoting in Egypt the flax thread used in their looms. Near this figure, which was intended to warn the inhabitants of the approach of the weaving or whose industry is supposed to have given rise to winter season, they placed another, of an insect, art, and to which they gave the name of Arachne, (from arach, to make linen cloth,) to denote its application. All these emblems, transported to Greece, were, by the genius of a people fond of the marvellous, converted into real objects, and of the poets to invent the fable of the transforma. indeed afforded ample room for the imagination tion of Arachne into a spider. Gardener's Gazette. Ir thou desire not to be too poor, desire not to be too rich; he is rich, not that possesses much, but he that covets no more; and he is poor, not that enjoys little, but he that wants too much; the contented mind wants nothing which it hath not; the covetous mind wants not only what it hath not, but likewise what it hath. SCOTCH FIRS AND OAKS. Fir and Oak Trees. OUR illustration represents the Scotch fir-tree in its natural forest growth, among oaks and other hardy trees of North Britain. In former numbers of the Magazine we have given illustrations both literary and graphic of some portions of the conifera family, such as the pine, cedar, &c., and we shall here only notice the mode of successfully cultivating firs for the purpose of procuring their resinous sap for medicinal use; or as sheltering trees for other less hardy plants upon ornamented grounds. We would remark, however, that, in regard to the generic classification of the fir, the propriety of enumerating it with the pine and cedar has been questioned. The distinction made by botanists is founded on the manner of foliation; the pines bearing their leaves in bundles, that is, issuing from a kind of sheath in pairs, or in threes, fours and fives, while the leaves of the fir are of single or solitary growth. All the species of this extensive family are raised from seeds. The cones are gathered in winter and exposed to the sun, or the gentle heat of a fire or kiln. In this manner the scales are opened, and the seeds easily taken out. The cones of the Scotch pine, the common spruce and larch, require kiln-heat; while those of the Weymouth pine, silver fir, and balm of Gilead fir, give out their seeds easily without the aid of artificial heat. So long as the cones are kept close the seeds remain uninjured, and they ought not to be opened long before the seeds are sown, otherwise germination is apt to be prevented. The seeds are sown in the months of March and April, in soft, rich soil. They ought at first to be sereened from the sun and protected from birds. They require a covering of earth, varying from one fifth of an inch to an inch and a half. For the spruce fir one inch is required; for the silver fir and balm of Gilead fir the depth of soil varies from one half to three quarters of an inch, while for the American species one fifth only is requisite. The seeds of most of them, except the stone pine and a few others, come up very soon. They are thinned and put in rows at the distance of four or five inches, and three or four in the row. After being a year in these rows, they are removed to others two feet distant from each other. After being two years in the seed-bed, and having attained the height of six or seven feet, they are finally planted out, and great care is requisite in the re |