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body grows, is repaired, and all its secre- |
tions are produced at the expense of arte-
rial blood, with one exception; the bile is
elaborated in the liver from venous blood,
in venous ramifications.

What is arterial blood? It is blood which has been immediately subjected to the influence of atmospheric air, in the cellular structure of the lungs, in mammalia, birds, and reptiles, or of water in the gills of fishes; and it is the oxygen of the air and of the water which effects that change, or imparts those qualities, by which this vital stream is rendered fitted for the great demands of the system.

It may not here be out of place to allude to the nature of the blood, as far as chemistry has been able to throw light upon it. When this fluid is taken from the body, it quickly separates, if suffered to remain at rest, into two parts, the one part being a fluid termed serum, the other a solid mass, called crassamentum. The serum consists of water, albumen, muriate of soda, and potass, phosphate of soda, and animal matter. The crassamentum is divisible into two parts, namely, fibrine, (which is composed of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and azote,) and colouring particles. These colouring particles are globules of extreme minuteness, formerly supposed to contain oxyde of iron in their composition, a theory unsupported by the most modern experiments.

We have said that venous blood is dark, and that arterial blood is bright scarlet; now what is the operation by which this change is effected? It would appear from experiments, that in its course through the system, the arterial blood gradually loses its character as such, in supplying the demands of the vital functions; and at the same time acquires, as it is said, a certain portion of carbon; which carbon, when the blood is sent to the lungs, unites with the oxygen of the atmospheric air, taken in during inspiration, so as to form a compound called by chemists carbonic acid gas, which, with azote, the other principle of the air, is returned during expiration. The blood having thus lost the carbon, to which its dark colour was owing, now becomes of a vivid red. Such is the only change appreciable by chemistry; and various philosophers have endeavoured to ascertain the quantity of oxygen consumed by the human subject in a given space.

Allen and Pepys found it to be 26-6 cubic inches in a minute. Sir Humphrey Davy, 31-6; and Murray, 36.

Various states of the system, however,

occasion considerable differences. For instance, the quantity of oxygen consumed is increased by exercise, and, according to Peguin, in a ratio nearly four times greater than when the body is quietly at rest. Prout, however, observes, from numerous experiments, that exercise, when moderate, increases the consumption of oxygen, but that when continued so as to produce fatigue, the consumption is diminished: that the exhilarating passions appear to be attended with an increased consumption; the depressing passions, together with tea, alcohol, (spirits of wine, or liquors,) and sleep, to be attended with a diminished consumption; and that the consumption varies during the twenty-four hours of the day, being on an average greatest in the forenoon, and at its lowest ebb from eight o'clock in the evening till three o'clock in the morning.

In all diurnal animals, the season of their greatest activity is the forenoon, at which time also the consumption of oxygen is the greatest, while lassitude and fatigue come on gradually in the afternoon, when the consumption of oxygen is diminished. In nocturnal animals, the reverse most probably takes place. It would appear, also, that temperature exerts much influence in regulating the consumption of this principle, the quantity being greatest during cold, as if the system under such circumstances had a greater demand upon the sanguinary fluid, in order to the due maintenance of its vital energies. M.

SCRIPTURE EXPLANATIONS. No. XXIII.
DIVINATION BY ARROWS.

A POPULAR Superstition among the ancient Arabians, was the azlam, or divination by arrows; those used for the purpose being kept in the temple of some idol, in whose presence they were consulted. The art was thus performed: three arrows were enclosed in a vessel; on the first was inscribed, "God command me:" on the second, "God forbid me;" the third was plain. If the first was drawn out, the suppliant prosecuted his design; if the second, he deferred it for a year; if the third, he drew again, until he received an answer,not forgetting to repeat his present to the idol, or the priest, each time. No affair of importance was undertaken, be it a journey, a marriage, a battle, or a foray, without the advice of these sacred implements. Matters of dispute, such as the division of property or plunder, were settled by an appeal to them The ancient Greeks practised this

sort of divination, as did the Chaldeans; for we learn from Ezekiel xxi. 21, that the King of Babylon, in marching against Jerusalem, "stood at the parting of the way, to use divination, making his arrows bright," (or, as Jerome explains it, mixing and shaking them together,) that he might know which city first to attack.-Andrew Crichton.

INSECTS. No. XXXVI. (Character and Age, concluded.) Some insects, as flies, moths, and butterflies, and indeed the majority of these creatures, live a few days or weeks, and a comparatively small number, six, nine, twelve, or fifteen months-a period beyond which, the life of perfect insects rarely extends. Some, however, certainly enjoy a longer existence in the perfect state. Mr. Baker kept one of the darkling beetles alive under a glass upwards of three years. Rosil fed the rose beetle with fruit and moist white bread for as long a period. Esper kept our most common water beetle in water in a large white vessel, feeding it with meat, for three years and a half. Audebert is stated to have kept a spider for several years. In this respect, insects follow a law very different to that which obtains amongst vertebrate animals. In these the duration of their life is in proportion to the term of their growth; those which attain to maturity the latest, in almost every case live the longest. In insects, on the contrary, we often meet with the very reverse of this rule. Thus the larva of the great goat moth is three years, that of the cabbage butterfly not three months, in attaining maturity; yet the perfect insects live equally long. One insect, which in its first state lives four years, lives as a beetle only eight or ten days; some ephemeræ, whose larvæ have been two years in acquiring their full size, live only an hour; while the flesh fly, whose larva has attained to maturity in three or four days, will exist several weeks.

It appears that the stimulus of heat shortens the lives of insects, and consequently that colds tends to lengthen them. Thus Buffon found that, other circumstances being alike, the silk-worm moths placed in a northern, lived longer than those exposed to a southern aspect.

It is also a singular fact, that the drones of a bee-hive are at a certain period slaughtered without mercy by the workers. Their life is, indeed, of very short dura

tion; the eggs that produce drones being laid in the course of April and May, and their destruction being usually accomplished in the months of July and August. The bees then, as M. Huber observes, chase them about, and pursue them to the bottom of the hives, where they assemble in crowds. At the same time, numerous carcases of drones may be seen on the ground before the hives. Hence he conjectured, though he never could detect them engaged in this work upon the combs, that they were stung to death by the workers. To ascertain how their death was occasioned, he caused a table to be glazed, on which he placed six hives, and under this table he, being blind, employed the patient and indefatigable Burnens, who was to him instead of eyes, to watch their proceedings. On the 4th of July, this accurate observer saw the massacre going on in all the hives at the same time, and attended by the same circumstances. The table was crowded with workers, who, apparently in great rage, darted on the drones as soon as they arrived at the bottom of the hive, seizing them by their antennæ, their legs, and their wings; and killing them by violent strokes of their sting, which they generally inserted between the segments of the abdomen. The moment this fearful weapon entered their body, the poor helpless creatures expanded their wings and expired. After this, as if fearful that they were not sufficiently despatched, the bees repeated their strokes, so that they often found it difficult to extricate their stings. On the following day they were equally busy in the work of slaughter; but their fury, their own drones having perished, was chiefly vented on those which, after escaping from the neighbouring hives, had sought refuge with them. Not content with destroying those that were in the perfect state, they attacked also such male pupa as were left in their cells; and then dragging them forth, sucked the fluid from their bodies, and cast them out of the hive.

A fact, the reverse of this, is recorded by Morier, with respect to the locusts. He affirms, that when the female has done laying her eggs, she is surrounded and killed by the males. If this be admitted, two instances have been given in which, by a law of nature, the life of insects is shortened by violence. Still, in these as well as others, the fatal blow is not struck till the creature, however inconsiderable, has fully answered the purposes of its being.

PARENTAL AUTHORITY.

THE ideas of obedience ought to be early and firmly associated with ideas of security and happiness. Hence the imbecility and helplessness of infancy afford us the means of effecting one salutary purpose. Entirely dependent on the wisdom and experience of others, to guard them from the danger to which they are hourly exposed, children might be easily made to learn the advantages of obedience; and thus they infallibly would learn it if obedience were properly enforced. Were all prohibitions made absolute, and the necessity of issuing them guarded as much as possible, so that they should not often occur, it would go far towards rendering obedience natural and easy, for it would then appear a matter of necessity, and, as such, be submitted to without reluctance.

I was some years ago intimately acquainted with a respectable and happy family, where the behaviour of the children excited my admiration. One morning, on entering the drawing-room, I found the little group at high play round their fond mother, who was encouraging their sportive vivacity, which was at that time noisy enough, but which, on my entrance, she hushed with a single word. No bad humour followed. But as the spirits, which had been elevated by the preceding amusement, could not at once sink into a state of quiescence, the judicious mother did not require what she knew could not without difficulty be complied with; but, calmly addressing them, gave the choice of remaining in the room without any noise, or of going to their own apartment, where they might make what noise they pleased. The eldest and the youngest of the four preferred the former, while the two others went away to the nursery. Those who stayed, amused themselves by cutting paper in a corner, without giving any interruption to our conversation. I could not refrain from expressing my admiration at their behaviour, and begged to know by what art she had attained such a perfect government of her children's wills and actions. "By no art," returned this excellent parent, "but that of teaching them from the very cradle an implicit submission. Having never once been permitted to disobey me, they have no idea of attempting it; but you see I always give them a choice when it can be done with propriety; if it cannot, whatever I say, they know to be a law, like that of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not." The happy effects of this

discipline were soon rendered more conspicuous, during the very long illness of this amiable mother; who, when confined to her chamber, continued to regulate her family through the medium of her eldest daughter, then a child of eleven years old. Affectionate as obedient, this amiable girl not only attended her mother's sick bed with the most tender assiduity, but, acting as her mother's substitute towards her little brothers and sisters, directed their conduct and behaviour, and was obeyed with the same unmurmuring submission as if their mother had herself been present.

Was her mother so ill as to render noise particularly injurious? All was, by her care, hushed into silence. She invented plays for the little ones, which would make no disturbance, and taught them to speak in whispers. It was a sufficient reward for their forbearance to be told by her that mamma sent them a kiss, and thanked them for their goodness, and that she had been the better for it. What a foundation was here laid for the operation of benevolence!

Let us compare this with the behaviour of an indulged child, to whom the gratification of self-will had become habitual, who had never been taught to submit to aught but force, and to whom submission was consequently hateful, exciting all the painful emotions of anger, indignation, and resentment. I have known such a child make use of a parent's illness as a means of procuring the gratification of all its capricious humours; when, seeing the pains that were taken to prevent noise, it would, on the least opposition, cry out, "If you don't give it me this minute, I'll roar !" and accordingly she would roar till she had what she wanted. What are the dispositions which, in the latter case, must have naturally been inspired? To the pleasing associations attached to the gratification of self-will, the idea of inflicting pain upon others must likewise be attached. What a foundation for that cruelty which is always allied to a tyrannical disposition! Nor is this all. The exultation consequent upon thus carrying her point, must have engendered pride; and pride, by aggravating opposition into injury, brought forth anger and resentment; and from the extravagance of childish humours, this opposition must frequently occur, so that these hateful passions must soon gain the strength of habit, and a propensity to them be for ever fixed and rooted in the disposition. Let us suppose the same indulgence continued through

the early stages of youth, in the fond hope that reason will conquer passion as the child advances to maturity. Were the nature of passion, with regard to the influence it has upon the judgment, properly attended to, I believe this fond hope would soon be annihilated. On a mind under the dominion of passion, the calm suggestions of reason can have little influence, supposing the calm suggestions of reason possible in such circumstances. But it is not possible; for to a mind under the dominion of the selfish passions, that appears to be just and reasonable, which is, in reality, unjust and unreasonable in the last degree; because the ideas of just and reasonable are all, by pride, associated with the idea of the gratification of self-will.-From Miss Hamilton's Letters on Education.

If this reasoning be correct, and daily facts lamentably prove its correctness, it gives a very humbling view of human nature; and, at the same time, most forcibly urges upon parents the indispensable duty of wisely and firmly using that authority with which Providence has intrusted them, very early and steadily to counteract the risings of innate depravity, and, at the same time, to imbue the infant mind with the principles of christianity, from which alone we may reasonably expect the production of "whatsoever things are just, pure, lovely, and of good report."

THE LAW.

THERE is a law in force with respect to us, the nature of which should be well understood. The laws by which the universe is governed, must all have proceeded from its Creator and Ruler. To determine what is proper to such a government, is reserved to his supreme wisdom; and to enforce it, is the province of his supreme power. Wherever he has bestowed a capableness of serving him, there a law or rule has been imparted, more or less immediately, for its guidance. By means of his will, as thus expressed, the whole of his intelligent creatures are divided into two classes-the obedient and disobedient. The obedient dwell in heaven, and are happy; the disobedient are on earth and in the regions of darkness, and are in a state the opposite of happiness. This is the view of the Divine government which occurs throughout the scriptures; and, regarded thus generally, it commends itself to our ordinary notions of rectitude.

IN CHRIST.

GOD was in Christ reconciling the world

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unto himself, not imputing their sins unto them, 2 Cor. v. 19. Because, as God stands in relation to man according to the tenor of the covenant of works, and so out of Christ, he could not, without prejudice to his justice, be reconciled unto them, nor have any thing to do with them otherwise than in wrath and indignation; therefore, to the intent that justice and mercy might meet together, and righteousness and peace might embrace each other, and so God stand in relation to man according to the tenor of the covenant of grace, he took our nature, and became "God manifest in the flesh," that so he might speak peace to his people. Sweetly saith Luther, because the nature of God was otherwise higher than we are able to attain unto, therefore hath he humbled himself unto us, and taken our nature upon him, and so put himself into Christ: here he looketh for us, here he will receive us; and he that seeketh him here shall find him. This, saith God the Father, is my well-beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, Matt. iii. 17. We must not think that this voice came from heaven for Christ's own sake, but for our sakes, even as Christ himself saith, John xii. 30. The truth is, Christ had no need that it should be said unto him, This is my well-beloved Son; he knew that from all eternity, and that he should still so remain, though these words had not been spoken from heaven: therefore by these words God the Father, in Christ his Son, cheereth the hearts of poor sinners, and greatly delighteth them with singular comfort and heavenly sweetness, assuring them, that whosoever is married unto Christ, and so in him by faith, he is as acceptable to God the Father as Christ himself, Eph. i. 6. He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Wherefore, if you would be acceptable to God, and be his dear child, then by faith cleave unto his beloved Son Christ, so shall the love and favour of God be as deeply insinuated into you as into Christ himself; and so shall God the Father, together with his beloved Son, wholly possess you and be possessed of you; and so God and Christ and you shall become entirely one, according to Christ's prayer, John xvii. 22 ; “ that they may be one in us, as thou and I are one."-Marrow of Modern Divinity.

JOHN DAVIS, 56, Paternoster Row, London. Price d. each, or in Monthly Parts, containing Fiv Numbers in a Cover, 3d.

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AMONG the splendid animals of the antelope tribe, which inhabit the southern and central regions of Africa, one of the most beautiful and magnificent is the koodoo, (antilope strepsiceros, Pallas,) of which we here present our readers with a sketch. In the collections of Europe, this noble animal is very rarely to be met with; we allude to museum specimens; for in a living state, we believe, there is no instance on record of its having been brought to our quarter of the globe.

VOL. III.

The koodoo, as this antelope is termed by the colonists of the Cape, is equal to a horse in magnitude, the adult male being upwards of five feet high at the shoulders, Both sexes have horns, spirally twisted, and of great strength. In the male they often attain to enormous dimensions, and, wielded as they are by an animal of prodigious muscular power, must prove terrifie weapons. The neck is thick and strong, and the whole of the body is firmly and compactly built, so as to unite strength

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