with agility. The general colour is a dull brownish grey; a white abrupt line passes from above each eye over the face, and two white spots occupy the cheeks; a thin mane begins between the horns, and runs down the back; on the neck it is brown, but on the back, where it is shorter, it is white; from this white dorsal line proceed eight transverse lines of a similar colour on each side, beautifully striping the body. Under the chin a long pendent mane commences, and extends to the chest. The ears are large; the tail long, tipped with blackish brown, but white on the under surface.

ON THE HEART, AND CIRCULATION OF
THE BLOOD.-NO. V.

THE arteries of the system, as we have observed, are the tubes through which the blood is conveyed from the heart to every part of the frame; it is returned to the heart by the veins. The veins are tubes, composed, like the arteries, of three coats, but so thin and transparent that it is difficult to separate them. The commencement of these vessels is very obscure, owing to their minuteness, and the impossibility of drawing a line between the artery and vein in a network of capillaries. As they proceed, they become more and more distinct, till at length they form large tubes, capable of being singularly dilated, owing to the elasticity of their texture. One point in their construction is very curious and interesting; we allude to the valves with which they are plentifully furnished. These valves in the veins travelling up to the heart from the lower parts of the body, are so contrived as to let the blood pass freely, but prevent the columns of fluid from returning or pressing with any great force on the minuter veins and capillaries; the superincumbent weight being broken by each valve. In the veins returning from the upper parts of the body, the valves do not, indeed, support the columns of blood, a circumstance here not

In its general manners, the koodoo resembles the rest of the larger antelopes. It is found in small herds in the Karroo, but its favourite localities are glens between the hills and mountains, where both food and water are abundant, and where a tall growth of underwood affords it shelter. When surprised by the hunter, its first effort is to dash through the thicket; in doing which, it lowers its neck, and at the same time projects the head horizontally so as to lay the horns on each side of the shoulders, in order that they may assist in clearing a passage, and at the same time protect the fore-quarters from the bruises to which they would otherwise be liable. When hard pressed, the koodoo, like the oryx, makes a vigorous defence, striking desperate blows from side to side with his horns, against the dogs who keep him at bay, and sometimes even rushing upon the hunter. Indeed, at certain seasons, the male koodoo is very furious, and will not hesitate to commence the assault; in general, how-needed, but they prevent its return backever, it trusts to its speed for safety.

In its native wilds, the koodoo has other enemies besides man. It is the prey of the lion; hence it is habitually wary, while, as an additional security, its senses of hearing and smell are extremely acute; nor when attacked does it fall an unresisting victim to the tyrant of the wilderness. The koodoo is frequently alluded to by Burchell in his travels, who gives a sketch of the skull and horns. In page 313, vol. i., he states, that on one occasion his hunters, who had been out to shoot the kanna, an allied species, paid dearly for two which they had killed, "by their venturous imprudence in riding into the midst of a large herd; when the animals in their own defence turned upon them, and gored two of the horses, one of which received a deep thrust under the shoulder

wards towards the capillaries or venous radicles, as we have noticed in the veins of the lower parts.

The course of the blood, then, is effected, in the first place, by the force of the heart, aided by the contractile power of the arteries, till it arrives in the veins; where, in the second place, it appears to be propelled by several combined causes. The dilatation of the auricle, for instance, produces a vacuum, into which the blood of the vena cava naturally rushes, the space it occupied being immediately filled up, the general column rising in a relative proportion, as regularly as the vacuum is made. But the progressive motion of the blood through the smaller veins appears to be materially accelerated by muscular exertion.

We know how great a sense of weight and

listlessness is felt, after remaining for some time in one position, without exerting the action of the muscles. This feeling would seem to arise from the sluggishness of the circulation, and the accumulation of blood in the venous system at large, which requires an impetus from muscular activity, in order to its due circulation.

But it may be asked, is not the blood wasted by the various secretions which are elaborated at its expense? It is; and its stores are at the same time as regularly replenished. The nutritious particles of the food we eat, become blood, by a process which baffles the researches of the chemist, and shows us how little we know of life and organization.

thoracic duct does not, however, only receive the lacteals; for the absorbent vessels of the skin, as well as of every part of the frame, here also terminate, so that whatever they take up, or remove, goes through the above process. How wonderful, how mysterious, how little understood, are our own bodies, which are fearfully and wonderfully made! Our life, moment by moment, depends on the nice and delicate adjustment and action of a thousand minute parts or organs, of which multitudes have never even heard; the slightest flaw deranges the mechanism of the animal machine, and death ensues; yet there are men who see nothing of beauty, nothing of glory, nothing of Almighty power, in the workmanship of these vital tenements, the temple of a never-dying soul. Let us, while we contemplate the subject, bow with heartfelt adoration before our Lord and Maker.

Into the nature of animal temperature, or the laws of vital heat, (which, while it appears to be connected intimately with the circulation, is also no less so with the energy of the nerves,) we shall not attempt to enter. No theory as yet laid down is at all satisfactory; it appears to depend neither on chemical nor on mechanical principles, as some have imagined, but to be associated in some mysterious manner with the principle of vitality; a principle exhibited in the innumerable operations continually taking place in the organic frame, in those endless combinations and decompositions involving perpetual electrical changes, and that strange energetic influence of the nerves, whose true nature and mode of action are veiled in obscurity.

The office of the digestive organs is to convert food into chyle; to speak more definitely, we may state the progress as follows:-When the food is received into the stomach, it becomes mixed with the salivary and gastric fluids, and by their agency is dissolved into an uniform pulpy mass, termed chyme; this is its first change: it now passes into a portion of the alimentary canal, termed the duodenum, and there becomes mixed with the pancreatic juice and the bile, and by the action of these fluids a complete conversion is effected on that portion fitted for the purposes of the animal economy, which is termed chyle. This chyle is immediately taken up by multitudes of minute tubes which proceed from the inner surface of the alimentary canal, and are termed lacteals. If we examine these tubes in an animal recently killed, and before the vital warmth is extinguished, we shall see them (at least if the animal has been recently fed) filled with While we thus regard the structure and a milky fluid, whence their name of lac- operations of our mortal fabric, let it be to teals this fluid is the chyle. The lacteals us a theme of profit and instruction, rehaving thus absorbed this nutritive prepa-membering that the appointed time cometh, ration of the food, after communicating freely with each other, pass through certain glands, termed the mesenteric, where the chyle appears to acquire new properties. Emerging from these glands, the lacteals carry the chyle onwards till they enter at last into the thoracic duct, a vessel which passes up along the spine, and pours the chyle into the left subclavian vein, just where it becomes united to the vena cava; here it mingles with the blood. It has not, however, yet fully acquired the ultimate change : received with the venous blood by the heart, it is thence sent through the lungs and again returned to the heart, incorporated with the rest of the vital fluid, of which it now forms a part in every sense, to be sent out to nourish the system. The'

when the silver cord shall be loosed," the golden bowl broken, the pitcher broken at the fountain, the wheel broken at the cistern, the dust returning to the earth as it was, and the spirit to God who gave it." M.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES TO THE
HEART.

THE Hebrews look upon the heart as the source of wit, understanding, love, grief, and pleasure. Hence are derived many ways of speaking. An honest and good heart; that is, a heart studious of holiness, being prepared by the Spirit of God to entertain the word with due affections, dispositions, and resolutions, Luke viii. 15. We read of a broken heart, a clean heart,

HOSPITALITY OF THE ANCIENT ARABS.

an evil heart, a hardened heart, a liberal | the whale's belly ; so shall the Son of heart; a heart that does an act of kindness man be three days and three nights in the freely, voluntarily, with generosity. To heart of the earth," in the grave, Matt. xii. incline the heart to God; to beseech him 40. to change our stony hearts into hearts of flesh; to love with all one's heart, &c. To turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, Mal. iv. 6; that is, to cause them to be perfectly reconciled, and that they should be of the same mind. "Let no man's heart fail;” let no man be discouraged, 1 Sam. xvii. 32.

THE virtue of hospitality often degenerated into foolish extravagance; and there were individuals who strove to outdo each other in deeds of romantic generosity. Those who excelled in the magnificence of their bounty, were crowned with wreaths, as if they had conquered at the head of an army. The liberality of Hatim was proverbial, and has immortalized the tribe of Tai. The suppliant he never dismissed from his tent unrelieved. Often were forty camels roasted at a single feast; and, in a season of extreme scarcity, he killed the only horse he possessed, so valuable, that the Roman emperor had sent an embassy on purpose to procure it. Hatim's benevolence was hereditary; his father rejoiced when he had emptied his folds to feed the hungry, and his mother was interdicted from

To want heart, sometimes denotes to want understanding and prudence, Hos. vii. 11. " Ephraim is like a silly dove without heart; they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria." They have no judgment or understanding of the right way, to free themselves from their troubles, which is seen in their seeking to Egypt and Assyria. "O fools, and slow of heart," ignorant men,without insight and understanding, Luke xxiv. 25. "This people's heart is waxed gross ―lest they should understand with their heart," Matt. xiii. 15. Their heart is stupified, so as to be destitute of understand-giving alms for a whole year, lest her proing; they resist the light, and reject all impressions of truth. "The prophets prophesy out of their own hearts," Ezek. xiii. 2. They prophesy according to their own inclinations and affections, and what their own imaginations suggest to them, without any warrant from God.

To lay any thing to heart, is to set one's heart on any thing; that is, to remember it, to apply one's self to it, to have it at heart. "No man layeth it to heart;" no one concerns himself about it, Jer. xii. 11.

The heart dilates with joy, contracts with sadness, breaks with sorrow, it resists truth; grows fat and hardens in prosperity; God opens it, prepares and turns it as he pleases. To steal one's heart, is an expression in Gen. xxxi. 20, margin, "Jacob stole away the heart of Laban;" that is, he went away without his knowledge and consent. The heart melts under discouragement; the heart forsakes one under terror; the heart is desolate in amazement; the heart is fluctuating in doubt. To speak to the heart, means to comfort, to say pleasing and affecting things to any one.

By the heart likewise, the middle of any thing is meant Tyre is in the heart of the seas, in the midst of the seas, Ezek. xxvii. 4, margin, "We will not fear, though the mountains be carried into the heart or midst of the sea," Psalm xlvi. 2. "As Jonas was three days and three nights in

digality should reduce the family to beggary. He himself was so inconsiderate as to distribute the greater part of his flocks among a troop of needy poets on their way to the court of Hira. His beneficence was as unwearied as it was extensive. On the longest and darkest nights, he would leave his bed, if some hapless pilgrim required shelter; and, wrapt in his cloak, procure with his own hands a light from some neighbouring tent. Not satisfied with kindling his "fires on the mountains," he would send forth his dog; that, by its barking, strangers might know where to find a place of rest. memory was revered over all Arabia; and a female captive, taken in battle, regained her liberty, when she pronounced herself to be the daughter of Hatim Tai.

THE PENDULUM.-No. II.

His

THE increase or decrease of temperature has a considerable influence on the oscillations of a pendulum. A bar of metal which when cold will pass easily between two uprights, will not do so when heated redhot, for heat expands solid metallic bodies. For this reason, a pendulum which beats seconds in a low temperature, would cease to do so if taken into a hotter climate, for its length would be increased. This is a fact of great importancein horology,

upon the mercury in the vessel, and thes will remain unchanged. But the increase one corrects the other. If the rod suffers expansion, the centre of oscillation will rise; but if the mercury be duly pro portioned, its expansion will be such, that the distance of oscillation from the point of suspension will be always the same, and therefore, whatever may be the variation of temperature, the pendulum will beat seconds.

The gridiron pendulum was invented by Mr. John Harrison, and is a very ingenious and useful instrument. It is well known, that the different metals and metallic alloys, expand variably under the influence of thes same change of temperature. It is therefore evident, that bars of different metals may be so arranged as to correct each other's expansion when used in the construction of pendulums.

Let them live in separate towns; let them have a "Tadmor in the Wilderness," if they will. At a proper distance from all sober towns, let a DRUNKEN TOWN be established. Let them be a distinct community, as far as may be. I was amusing myself with imagining such a society all drunkards. I thought a goodly town was built for them, with every convenience that art could wish, walled round, as was fitting, (for drunkards are poor defenceless things) with just one sober man to lock the gate, and to keep out sober intruders. I thought they were all "settled" at last, and gone to bed as "comfortable" as they could wish, each having a good "night cap,' and I watched to see how they came on next morning. The first that rose was

as vibrating in the arc of a circle, but | themselves. there is a mathematical curve called a cycloid, and if the bob of a pendulum could be made to vibrate in it, its oscillations would all be performed in equal times, whatever the length of the arc. The cycloid is that curve which is formed by the revolution of any point on the circumference of a circle, the circle itself being made to revolve on a plane. There are some very remarkable principles which might be mentioned in reference to this curve. Of all paths not in a straight line, the cycloid is that in which a body can pass the most readily from one point to another. The right line is, of course, the shortest path between two bodies, and if a man in a balloon would throw a stone to some point on the earth in the shortest path, he would cause it to take the direction of a right line; but if he wished to throw the stone in the line of shortest descent, it must be made to move in the cycloidal curve, for it would not only reach its destination sooner, but would strike the object with greater energy. The study of the mathematics has taught man this truth," a morning," if you know what that is, of and instinct has taught the falcons to fly in the cycloidal curve; and it is in consequence of their flying in a cycloid when attacking their prey, that they possess so great a velocity, and strike with so great a force.

Ingenious mechanics have attempted, for the reasons already stated, to cause the pendulum to vibrate in this curve; but hitherto with little success; for so few of the practical difficulties have been removed, that it is not probable that this desirable object will ever be accomplished.

A COMMUNITY OF DRUNKARDS.

I HAVE heard strong objections to any interference with the habits of society; and it has been said, that it infringes upon the rights of individuals to prescribe sobriety to them, and to put them to any inconvenience, because they choose to get drunk. Much fault has been found by some, with an opinion which I have expressed, that drunkenness ought to be punished. One person told me I was "strait-laced"-what he meant is for him to say. If he means I am a bigot and a "coercion" man, I will promise to amend, and to take his side of "non-interference" upon one condition, and that is, that drunkards shall form a community for

a gentleman," of course, that had taken up his night's rest upon a dung heap,— what is called in Yorkshire a "muck midding," and a very decent dormitory for a drunkard. He went to knock up the priest of a gin temple, which was no easy matter. This done, he demanded

the best sort; but it now turned out that the lady of the house having had "a drop too much," had left the tap running, and it was all gone! And now to the cellar; but here again was bad luck, for the key was lost! Misfortunes seldom come singly; for the "gentleman" who applied for his "morning," had no sooner begun to smack his livid lips, after tasting it, than he discovered that his purse was lost. It appeared that this was to be market day; but, alas! where was the market? Butchers had been so busy "enjoying themselves," that the carcases were undressed. Drovers were detained on the road after taking

a little drop too much." The bakers had, in pursuit of "good fellowship," forgotten their bread batches. The carrier, whom the grocers had sent to the neighbouring sea-port for supplies of tea, sugar, and gin, was "at a lock," in consequence of "a little conviviality" he had indulged in. The miller, the honest miller, appeared as if some one had thrown dust in his eyes, for he had left the mill-dam gates open, and the water was gone. Crispin, the shoemaker, "to oblige his customers,' had just spent a few evenings "in a free way," till the lap-stone was mouldy, and his worthy neighbours were barefoot. The tailor and his goose had quarrelled; he had only been a few days at the sign of "the last shift," "to drive dull care away."