The Sun Flower against Miasma. A long Death from Amylene. - A patient, thirtycommunication from Lieutenant Maury is pub- three years of age, was operated upon by Mr. lished in the National Intelligencer, giving the Ferguson, the London surgeon, for fistula in details of an experiment which he made last ano. Previous to the operation, amylene was season, in planting sun-flowers between the Ob- administered by Dr. Snow. Unconsciousness servatory grounds in Washington and the was produced in two minutes, and the operaPotomac, as a bulwark against miasma, from tion quickly performed, the anaesthetic being which the dwellers at the Observatory have inhaled altogether three minutes. The pulse hitherto suffered severely. The experiment ceased during the operation, but respiration was most successful, the residents of that sta- continued for at least ten minutes afterwards. tion escaping for the first time the regular fall The patient moved after the pulse ceased, and visitation of fever and ague, whilst in unpro- gave signs of rallying. These symptoms tected situations the shaking went on with its proved, however, fallacious, and he died in a usual energy Similar experiments with the few minutes. On examination, there was sun-flower culture, in France, have been at- found slight dilatation of the right ventricle of tended with like results. the heart; the lungs were emphysematous. Have practising physicians any facts at com- Dr. Snow concludes that death resulted from mand to sustain this declaration? It is very the amylene, the condition of the lungs probcurious that when DeSoto explored the interior ably tending to the fatal result. This case he found the principal and all-important crop was the 144th in which Dr. Snow had adminof the present middle Southern States, on the istered amylene, and on no other occasion was rivers, was the sun-flower. The oil was used its employment attended by the slightest ill for lamps, dressing leather, painting, dressing consequence. the hair, &c., while iminense numbers of fowls were fed on the seed. An independent queen who reigned in Tennessee presented DeSoto's army, one morning, seven hundred hens for breakfast, according to the Portuguese gentleman's narrative of the expedition.

Beer Drinking.-The greatest lager bier drinking city on the globe is, undoubtedly, the city of Munich, in Bavaria, where revolutions are caused by the slightest rise in the price of bier. On the 1st instant there were in the different vaults 28,769 Eimers (about 521,880 Superstition. The remains of a young lady gallons) of winter-brewed bier, the "genuine who died of consumption, nine years ago, at lager;" and 393,580 Eimers, (7,139,541 Euphrata, in Pennsylvania, were exhumed gallons,) a total of 7,661,421 gallons. The for a purpose so monstrous as almost to sur- quantity brewed this season exceeds that of pass belief. Since her death, her mother, the previous one by 42,739 Eimers. Twentytwo sisters and two brothers have died of three brewers have manufactured this enorthe same disease. The surviving members mous quantity of bier, which will just suffice of the family, who are "Spiritualists," became to supply the 130,000 inhabitants of Munich convinced that the winding-sheet of the corpse for 180 days.

had got into her mouth, and that by a continued
suction she had actually drawn the other five Old Age in New Hampshire. The oldest
members of the family after her; and that un-person in New Hampshire is Mrs. Allison, of
less this winding-sheet was speedily removed Nottingham, 107 years of age. She is blind,
from the mouth of the corpse, she would, in but members of the family in which she resides
like manner, cause the premature death of the are able to make her hear. She sits erect in
whole connection! Hence the exhuming of her chair, but does not walk without assistance,
the body.
and yet appears comfortable and well, and is
apparently as likely to live a number of years
as other aged persons in good health. She
speaks very distinctly, so much so that the ex-
cellence and strength of her articulation is
noticeable.

Mortality in Providence, R. I.-During the month of May there were 75 deaths in the city, being 26 more than in the month preced ing, and 4 less than in May, 1856. During five months, from January 1st to June 1st, the number of deaths has been 335, or 140 less than during the same period of last year, and 48 less than the average for the same period in a series of years. Providence Journal.

Killed by Leeches. At the village of Men- port of his opinions he produces a number of tigny la Marc, near Paris, M. Lanquie, a drug facts, of which the following is one: The gist, lately established a nursery of leeches in Rouen Railway Company of France having a marsh or pond, where he was accustomed to conceded the working of their line to English feed them by driving an old worn-out horse, engineers, the latter brought over a band of purchased at a knacker's yard, every morning English laborers, who performed one-third more into the muddy water, and allowing the leeches work daily than could be got out of the French to gorge themselves at the expense of the laborers. The latter were put on meat diet, horse's legs. His son, a boy of thirteen, used similar to that of the English workmen, and to ride the horse into the pond. A few days in a short time were able to do as much labor. ago, the boy having gone alone upon that er If the conclusion of the doctor is correct, it rand, the family were terrified by the horse becomes a matter of political as well as indicoming back without its rider; its legs were vidual economy, that the price of fresh meat bleeding profusely and covered with leeches. should be reduced low enough to allow laborers People went to the pond to look for the child, to eat animal food, otherwise the wealth of the and found him immersed there, struggling nation is in danger of being diminished onefeebly to extricate himself from the mire, and third. to defend himself from the hundreds of voracious creatures which had crawled under his Decline of Drunkenness in London. - The clothes, (for he wore neither shoes nor stock- London Economist of the 23d ult. publishes an ings,) and had fixed upon every limb of his official tabular statement of the number of perbody. He had probably been thrown off the sous arrested for drunkenness within the jurishorse's back by the restlessness of the tor- diction of the Metropolitan Police, from the mented animal. The poor boy was quite ex-year 1831 to 1855 inclusive, which shows that hausted and speechless when he got out, and died in a few hours.

the number of drunken persons taken into custody in the first year was 31,353, and that in the latter year was only 19,267, while the population of the city had increased about 50 per cent. within the period included in the return. The tables do not embrace the jurisdiction of the City Police, under the orders of the corporation.

Singular Case of Deformity.-In June last, when Prince Albert opened the new building of the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, in Oxford street, a patient was admitted with his legs doubled up under him, and his heels twisted inwards towards the ancles. He was lifted up towards his Royal Highness, and an effort How to become Lean.-A master baker, so made to move the limbs, but the contraction fat that he could not walk or lie down, was enwas too firm and rigid. The Prince appeared abled to lose forty pounds in three months, and to feel much interested in the case, and desired to diminish his abdominal equator by forty to be informed of the result of the treatment centimeters. The treatment prescribed for of the hospital. On Saturday last the medical him was-for breakfast a beefsteak or cutlets, officers were enabled to make the gratifying a cup of coffee and a small quantity of vege report that the case was a complete cure. The tables-for dinner, plenty of neat and little tightened tendons of the hips, legs, and feet else; and a bottle or a bottle and a half of had been operated upon so successfully that liquid per day. This instance is a comfortable the patient could not only stand but was walk-assurance that even twenty stone need be no ing about the wards of the hospital without the solid ground for despair. aid of a stick or crutch.

Fresh Meat Necessary to Labor. In an elaborate paper by Dr. Londe, of the Imperial Academy of Medicine, Paris, recently read before its members, he lays it down as a fun damental principle in the philosophy of diet, that the use of fresh meat daily is necessary to the health of the working classes, although he admits that persons leading a comparatively idle life may do very well on fish, poultry, and other lighter forms of nourishment. In sup

Liquor Statistics.-There are in the United States 1217 distilleries, in which 5240 persons are employed; a capital of $8,507,674 is invested. They consume yearly 11,367,761 bushels of corn, 3,787,170 bushels of barley, 2.143,927 bushels of rye, 56,240 hogsheads of molasses. They manufacture 42,461,926 gallons of ale, 41,304 gallons of whiskey and high wines, and 6,500,000 gallons of rumbeing about four gallons of liquor to every man, woman and child in the country.

..

Shaving the Beard.-Dr. Elliotson, in his Flight of Birds.-Hawks, and many other "Human Physiology," 5th ed., says: It can birds, probably fly at the rate of 150 miles an not but be a custom most insulting to nature to hour; an elder-duck, at 90 miles an hour. Sir shave off the beard, which, if kept in proper George Cayley computes the common crow to trim, as birds and beasts instinctively keep fly at nearly 25 miles an hour. Spallanzani their plumage and hair in good order, com- found the rate of the swallow at about 92 miles pletes the perfection of man's face, and the an hour; while he conjectures the rapidity of external distinction of the sexes; and, whatever the swift to be nearly three times greater. A ladies pretend to the contrary, renders him far falcon which belonged to Henry IV., of France, more attractive to women-at any rate when escaped from Fontainebleau, and in 24 hours custom has had time to lessen their seeming afterward was found at Malta, a distance of repugnance; for their preference to men with not less than 1,530 miles; a velocity nearly good whiskers is certain. Shaving was for- equal to 57 miles an hour, supposing the falcon bidden by Moses, and therefore, according to to have been unceasingly on the wing. But, Jews and Christians, by God; it was a severe as such birds never fly by night, and allowing punishment among the Indians, and an irre- the day to be at the longest, his flight was, perparable insult among the Germans. The haps, equal to 75 miles an hour. If we even Osmanli swears by his beard, and spends half restrict the migratory flight of birds to 50 his day upon it. Shaving prevails in Europe miles an hour, how easily can they perform because the kings of France set the example their most extensive migrations! Fair winds to their courtiers, who were followed by the may perhaps aid them at the rate of 30 or 40 nation, which formerly gave the ton to neigh miles an hour; nay, with three times greater boring nations, and therefore was at length fol- rapidity. lowed by all in this troublesome and unmanly fashion.

Famine in Norway.-The English papers Preparations for Medical Lectures.- Cir- give a painful picture of the suffering of the culars, pamphlets, and variously constructed inhabitants of Lapland and Finland, bordering typographical messages are coming through on the north cape of Norway. Owing to a the post-office, almost daily, with descriptive failure of the crops, the inhabitants are in a advantages to be realized by students at the state of starvation. "Hundreds are dying various institutions and schools. With the daily, and the living are compelled to subsist most praiseworthy determination to keep the as they best can, on the bark of trees, ground honor of the profession unsullied, it is quite and cooked with oats. In order to alleviate pardonable to gather large classes by adver- these sufferings, charitable committees have tising the facilities which exist for giving a been organized on the opposite coasts of the complete course of medical instruction in Gulf of Bothnia, to collect contributions in of them. kind, such as corn, flour, vegetables and spirits. As an addition to the suffering of these poor creatures, the cold is of a severity rarely experienced even in those ice-bound countries."

any

Medical Intelligence. Although the journals are commendably supplied with original matter, there is nothing of a striking character in them of late. Many of the editors are travelling, and the press not having furnished very many remarkable works thus far in the season, nothing particularly important or novel can be expected. When the weather becomes cool and invigorating, writers may be expected to manifest their literary and scientific powers to the satisfaction of the medical public.

Statistics of Consumption. - Medical statistics appear to prove that consumption, where prevalent, originates as often in summer as in winter, and the best authorities declare that it There is more consumption in the Tropical is more common in hot than in cold climates. Indies, both East and West, than in the almost

Arctic Canadas.

The number of the British troops attacked with this disease in Jamaica is annually twelve in one thousand, while in Canada it is only about six. The English government have accordingly resolved upon sending their consumptive soldiers to a cold, in preference to the warm, climate.

Mr.

A Pension Claimant. A resident of Illin- London. London is the healthiest city ois, one hundred and ten years of age, arrived in the world. It is calculated 600 people in New York, who had walked the entire dis- are drowned in the Thames every year. tance from his home in that State. The great- Mayhew calculates 169 people die daily, and est day's travel upon this tedious journey was a babe is born every five minutes. La-t year twelve miles. The old gentleman came to visit the number of children born was 86,833. In the east end of Long Island, in search of evi- the same period 56,786 persons died. Acdence of his services in the Revolutionary cording to the last reports there were 143,000 struggle by which to establish his claim vagrants admitted in one year into the casual to a pension. The reason of his walking was wards of the workhouses. It has 10,500 disthat he would not incur the risk of shorten- tinct streets, squares, circuses, crescents, tering his mortal career by riding on railroads. races, villas, rows, buildings, places, lanes, So strong was his prejudice against this mode courts, alleys, mews, yards, and rents. of conveyance, that while in the upper part of the city, and desiring to come down to the Brooklyn ferries, on his way to his destination on Long Island, he could not be induced to ride in the Second Avenue horse-power railroad cars, but walked down, crossed the ferry, and pressed on to the end of his journey.

A Venerable Man." Old Crele," of Columbia county, Wisconsin, is, according to the note of his baptism on the church records of Montreal, 130 years old, and he distinctly remembers a period of 117 years. He married at New Orleans a hundred years ago, and is now living with a grandchild upwards of 60 years old. He is still hale and hearty, and does not appear to be over seventy.

Hereditary Influences. -Speaking of the effect of intermarriage among blood relations, the Fredericksburg (Va.) News says: —

Singular Monstrosity.-A child was born at Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, in March last, thus described in a paper published there. It was the birth of a native child with four legs, and four perfectly formed feet. There were two limbs besides, neither legs nor arms, but mere stumps. The natural legs and feet were "In this country, in which we are raised located as in any perfectly formed child; the for twenty generations back, certain families other legs are placed in front of these and are of wealth and respectability have intermarried smaller, as are also the feet. Perhaps the best until there can not be found in three or four idea we can give of it, to those who have not of them a sound man or woman! One has seen it, is that it resembles a perfectly formed sore eyes, another scrofula, a third is an idiot, child, excepting the addition of two extra a fourth blind, a fifth bandy-legged, a sixth but smaller legs just in front of the natural with a head about the size of a turnip, with ones, and close above these third and fourth not one out of the number exempt from physilegs are the stumps of arms alluded to. The cal defects of some kind or other." child has natural arms and hands in their proper position. Physicians think it may live, as it appears to be in a healthy condition. The mother, a native, is quite proud of her curiosity.

Moral Statistics of Norway. From 1834 to 1850 there have been, for the whole of Norway, 20 illegitimate in every 100 births; in the district of Christiansand only, the rate was not more than 12 per 100, but in many of the agricultural districts it amounted to 67 per 100.

Witchery. Some people may possibly be lieve the following paragraph, which is going the rounds: There is a girl in Grenada, Miss., who labors under the impression that she is Silk. A new species of silk-worm exists bewitched. She wears a gold chain about her among the Yorubas in Central Africa, from neck, and if it is not watched it will twist up and which the natives spin a very fine thread. A strangle her; remove it and she strangles; single cocoon is several inches in diameter. burn a lock of her hair, no matter at what dis- This may perhaps form an important contributance from herself, and she shows signs of pain; tion to commerce and the appliances of civilishoot at the picture of the person who (she says) is the cause of her sufferings, with a lead bullet, and she is easy; present a gun with a silver bullet, and she is in spasms, but shoot the gun and she is calm again.

zation.

There is a man in Russell Co., Virginia, 115 years old, who, on his 100th birthday, made 100 rails.

MISCELLANEOUS MEMORANDA.

Royal Venesection. Elizabeth of Valois, daughter of Henry II. and Catherine de Me- dici, was the third wife of that monster in human form, Philip II. of Spain. Although really engaged to the king's son, Don Carlos," the father, having lost his second queen, concluded to take the young princess of fourteen him self. On her route from France to Spain, 1558, Yellow fever is announced at points, and besides being accompanied by an enormous re- much apprehension is expressed in regard to tinue of servants, gentlemen and ladies, of its course.

General good health throughout the United States, is the most gratifying and the most important intelligence of the day.

courtly standing, there were three chaplains, Col. Wm. R. Smith, who recently died near one physician in chief, a surgeon, and two Warrington, Virginia, was the father of twentyapothecaries! She remained a queen after two children!

her arrival eight years, and unquestionably

A woman residing in Pulaski, Va., is repredied in consequence of being bled profusely sented to have had a child every March, for for the most trifling indisposition by the Spanish sixteen successive years.

credit.

physicians. They bled her in childbirth, and Some of the journals appear to make pretty whenever she happened to be ill, till she faint-liberal drafts upon others, without giving proper ed, and then bled her again because she swooned. Dr. Sangrado, therefore, was no imaginary character, the invention of the author of Gil Blas.

Bleeding manias have returned every few years in various countries. It had its advocates in Dr. Rush's day, in America; it is resorted to universally in Turkey; and but a few years ago a physician had an immense popularity in one stratum of society, because he bled for everything. He boasted at a public meeting on one occasion that he had drawn fifty barrels of blood out of the Bostonians!

An aged soldier.-The oldest veteran in the Prussian servics, named Karnasch, was buried on the 28th ult., at Pilsnitz, a small village near Breslau. He entered the army in the reign of Frederick the Great, and was at the time of his death 112 years of age.

Population of Great Britain. The popu

lation of Scotland in 1856 was estimated at 3,033,177. It is probable the total population of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, at the present time, does not fall short of 29,000,000. The emigration to the British Colonies, from the mother country, is rapidly decreasing.

Poisoning Whiskey. - The Legislature of Ohio passed a law during the. last session week, which makes it a State Prison offence to use strychnine in making whisky.

Soda drinking, to the excess to which it is carried in warm weather, is extremely injuri

ous.

A man is living at Acton, State of Maine, at the age of 101 years, who was in the battle of Bunker Hill.

Cases of smallpox, to the disgrace of the nation, are continually breaking out in the country. Why not eradicate the disease by a simultaneous vaccination of all the people in the United States?

The Worcester Medical College graduated several females, with the degree of M. D., at the close of the term. Both sexes were in constant attendance on the lectures, throughout the course.

The Sultan of Turkey has given his decora tion of the second class (the Majidieh) to Dr. Ed. Wild of Boston, for his valuable services cassia. as Staff Surgeon under Omar Pacha, in Cir

Dr. Moses Gunn, of Detroit, professor of surgery in the University of Michigan, has bedent and Monthly Review of Medicine and come associate editor of the Medical IndepenSurgery.

A gentleman recently died at Salem, Mass., who bequeathed to the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, the McLean Asylum for the Insane at Somerville, and the Perkins Institution for the Blind, in Boston, one thousand dollars each.

The proposal to have a small lead pipe laid from the Congress and Iodine Springs from Saratoga to Boston and New York, would not be so difficult to accomplish as laying down the Atlantic telegraph line between England and America.