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friend, finding me recumbent and hopeless in the smokers' room, persuaded and helped me to go below. I unbooted and swayed into my berth, which endured me, perforce, for the next twenty-four hours. I then summoned strength to crawl on deck, because, while I remained below, my sufferings were barely less than while walking above, and my recovery hopeless.

"I shall not harrow up the souls nor the stomachs of landsmen, as yet revelling in blissful ignorance of its tortures, with any description of seasickness. They will know all in ample season; or if not, so much the better. But naked honesty requires a correction of the prevalent error that this malady is necessarily transient and easily overcome. Thousands who imagine they have been seasick on some river or lake steamboat, or during a brief sleigh-ride, are annually putting to sea with as little necessity or urgency as suffices to send them on a jaunt to Niagara or the White Mountains. They suppose they may very probably be "qualmish" for a few hours, but that (they fancy) will but heighten the general enjoy ment of the voyage. Now it is quite true that any green sea-goer may be sick for a few hours only; he may even not be sick at all. But the probability is very far from this, especially when the voyage is undertaken in any other than one of the four sunniest, blandest months of the year. Of every hundred who cross the Atlantic for the first time, I am confident that two-thirds endure more than they had done in all the five years preceding more than they would do during two months' hard labor as convicts in a State Prison. Of our two hundred, I think fifty did not see a healthy or really happy hour during the passage; while as many more were sufferers for at least half the time. The other hundred were mainly Ocean's old acquaintances, and on that account treated more kindly; but many of these had some trying hours.

Utter indifference to life and all its belongings is one of the characteristics of a genuine case of seasickness No. 1. I enjoyed some opportunities for observing this during our voyage. For instance: One evening I was standing by a sick gentleman who had dragged himself or been carried on deck and laid down on a water-proof mattress which raised him two or three inches from the floor. Suddenly a great wave broke square over the bow of the ship and rushed aft in a river through either gangway -the two uniting again beyond the purser's and doctor's offices, just where the sick man lay. Any live man would have jumped to his feet as suddenly as if a rattlesnake were whizzing in his blanket; but the sufferer never moved, and the languid coolness of eve wherewith he regarded the rushing flood which made an island of him was most ex

pressive. Happily, the wave had nearly spent its force, and was now so rapidly diffu sed that his refuge was not quite overflowed. "Of course, those who have voyaged and not suffered will pronounce my general picture grossly exaggerated; wherein they will be faithful to their own experience, as I am to mine. I write for the benefit of the uninitiated, to warn them, not against braving the ocean when they must or ought, but, against resorting to it for pastime. Voyaging cannot be enjoyment to most of them; it must be suffering. The sonorous rhymesters in praise of A Life on the Ocean Wave,' The Sea! the Sea! the Deep Blue Sea! &c., were probably never out of sight of land in a gale in their lives."

A seasick letter throughout! A very natural train of reflections for our poor friend in the white hat; but he must not be suffered to condemn thus, by his wide remark-a life upon the ocean. When the Editor of the Tribune shall have digested the Fair and the suffering Irish, and supped-as he will sup -on the claims of the languishing Hungarians; when he shall have dieted on the chicken-broth of Wiesbaden, and made himself strong with the tidiest corked bottles of crystal Pomard-let him ship on an August morning, upon a jaunty Havre Packet, and skim around the jetty, under the tow of a wheezing steamer, and leave the chalk land of France, under a swelling summer wind, that fills the canvas to the royals, and share the cabin with an exuberant Hungarian refugee, and a gossiping woman of five-andtwenty, and boom homeward at twelve knots the hour-with fresh milk at breakfast, and plenty of scarfalatti for his pipe-and, my word for it, the now seasick philosopher will regale us on his return with something like -an ode to the ocean!

You have heard something here and there—at least I think it—of the new stated science (?) of Electro-Biology. It is certainly curious enough to point a wonder even in this day of Dodges and curiosities. The affair of M. GANDON and nephew, about which I have told you something, was difficult enough to be understood; but, here we have not only a twinship of mind, but an absolute magnetic power of one mind over that of dozens of others.

I shall cut for you, from the Morning Chronicle, the last reports of what Dr. DARLING has been doing in this way; and the Morning Chronicle, as you know, is not a

paper given specially to the search after | boy, had been several times operated on; flummery, or humbug of any sort :

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that three, we think, had been once operated upon, but by Dr. Darling's colleague, Mr. Stone, at the Marylebone Literary Institution; and that one gentleman had never before been present at any seance of the sort. This latter individual manifested a medium degree of susceptibility. The highest degree was shown by the boy and one of the adults-both apparently of sanguine temperament. That of the other gentlemen appeared to be of nervous-bilious. particulars of the past experience of the patients were not stated by the doctor, but elicited by the audience. The susceptible adult had on a former occasion shown only a very modified degree of liability to the influence, but the doctor stated that his power generally increased with every series of experiments made upon the same indi

"We lately witnessed at Willis's Rooms, conducted by Dr. Darling, of Glasgow, a series of experiments in Electro-Biology,' the results of which, supposing the proceed. ings to have been perfectly bond fide-and we have no reason to doubt the fact-seems to show the possession by the experimenter of a control over the nervous and muscular system of other individuals, which we can only compare to the powers attributed to magicians and necromancers in fairy tales. Electro-Biology, as the science, or process, or whatever it may be, is vaguely and in aptly called, seems a sort of first cousin of mesmerism. There are, however, distinct points of difference. Mesmerism is said to act by sympathy between the operator and the patient. Biology, according to its be-vidual. lievers, infers the absolute power and control of one brain and nervous organization over another, without the existence of any sympathetic links whatever. Neither was there in these experiments any of the somnambulism, stupor, or dreaming, produced by mesmerism. The experimenter devoted him self to influencing and controlling the muscles and nerves of the patients, or their thinking faculties in a single department, particularly their memory of a certain fact, without producing or aiming at the production of a general abnormal mental condition. The results of the experiments made, and of the questions put, we shall detail in a few plain

sentences.

"After some introductory observations, Dr. Darling called upon any of the audience who pleased to come forward and be experimented upon. About four and twenty individuals-all, with the exception of a boy of ten or so, adults-mounted the platform, and were ranged seated in a double row facing each other. To each the experimenter gave a small zinc medal to be held in the left hand, with the eyes, and as far as possible the attention, of the individual kept fixed upon it. Strict silence and abstinence from motion were also enjoined. During the pause which ensued the doctor paced silently between his patients, feeling their foreheads with his hand. Some appeared inclined to drowsiness, others were evidently wide awake, and a few tittered audibly. At the expiration of a quarter of an hour the doctor gathered up his zinc medals, and selected five patients, including the boy, as having become impregnated with the mysterious influence-a fact which he seemed to ascertain by gazing keenly into and passing his hands over the eyes of the experimentees, The obdurate gentlemen then descended amid the audience, and the experiments commenced with the favored five. "Of these, it is proper to say that one, the

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The first efforts were made on the muscles of the eyelids. One by one, the patients were told to shut their eyes, then to open them if they could, until the experimenter allowed them. The trial seemed successful in all the cases. Each gentleman assured the audience that the muscles were for the time perfectly paralyzed. The muscles of the tongue were next tried, and three, we think, of the five rendered unable to utter a word. The others stammered out a syllable or two with great apparent difficulty. Of the five, the power of memory, as regarded the ability to recal the words Willis's Rooms' and 'London,' seemed perfectly suspended in three. The strenuous imental efforts to call up the missing ideas were ludicrously portrayed in the faces of the individuals. One gentleman said, 'Stay, stay, I have it on the tip of my tongue, but I cannot bring it out.' All of them joined in assuring the audience of the reality of the sudden and partial blank in their memories. In conducting his experiments, Dr. Darling assumed an air and attitude of rigid command, apparently summoning mind and muscle to powerful efforts of volition, making rapid and vigorous passes over the muscles to be affected, and loudly and authoritatively enouncing the orders of his will. Three out of the five were also made to stammer in speaking. Then the muscles of the arms were appealed to. Those of the boy and the sanguine-colored adult were perfectly obedient to the biologist's will, despite the efforts apparently made by the individuals to resist it, and which they declared produced muscular pain at the shoulders and elbows. The adult patient was as it were nailed to his chair by the volition of the operator-then prevented from sitting down, although every muscle quivered with the exertion; the chair was then made to feel so hot beneath him that he could not remain seated; and finally, the palate and 'he eye were affected. At the cominand

of the operator water tasted hot, cold, bitter, and like port-wine-then the patient was made to see horrible reptiles crawling in the glass, coming over the edge, and wrig: gling up his arm. The seemingly natural energy with which he brushed off the imaginary beings excited a great deal of interest. Upon recovering, he said that he knew all along that what he saw was only a delusion, but that for his life he could not resist the natural impulse to beat the insects away. Finally, this gentleman was ordered to seeand stated that he did see-a horse upon the platform. He passed his hand round the outline of the animal's form. Some curious experiments were also made upon the boy's powers of vision. He was made to mistake a halfpenny for a sovereign, and vice versa, and the latter coin being placed upon the ground, it was curious to see the impotent groping of his fingers as he vainly attempted to pick it up."

THE BOOK WORLD.

In this month of angling you will have been very apt to lay your hand upon HERBERT'S Fish and Fishing. If so, you will have found-what all the world has found it-a beautiful book; with nicely executed drawings of fishes, and some dozen or more of picturesque tail-pieces from the facile pencil of the author. HERBERT seems, by general consent, to have passed into the degree of Nestor, in the matter of American sports. This is not a new book I speak of, but a new edition of a two-year-old book; and, being such, has adjuncts of preface, pictures, and appendix, which make it even with the times.

There are rare fish-stories set down in the volume which will whet your appetite for the rod; and there are recipes for chowder, and what not, which you will study on your next yacht service upon the coast. HERBERT writes as if he loved fish-very well in the brook-better on the rod-but better still in the pan. I don't know but, like a good sportsman, he may resent this as a reproach. In that case, he should not have cooked his fish so well.

It is an augury of new and deeper attention to the amusements of the field with the American world, when the publishersMessrs. STRINGER & TOWNSEND-are justified (as we learn they abundantly are) in giving such choice appearance to a sportsman's

book.

There is another volume just in the

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Have your eyes yet fallen upon the beautiful typography, and English-looking paper of a new journal, strangely called the White Man's Journal? What it is to be is hard to make out. It speaks in strong terms of the influence and importance of Mr. BENNET, and his Herald; and commends in flowing periods Mr. FOSTER's books, and Mr. LESTER'S Illustrious Americans. It proposes to make a new era in American Journalism, and has a column or two upon Mr. LONG'S Tom Racquet and Company. It is probably not intended for an abolition paper, or for a religious one.

There is a beautiful little volume of Irish verse which it will do your heart good to read and to buy. It has been published by Mr. STRONG of Nassau-street, and is written by WM. MULCHINOCK. It is not of the ordinary riff raff sort of verse, which sickens in the publishing and dies in the reading; but it has a vitality shining in the lines which tell of a warm heart with deep and broad pulsations, and of a ready brain, tempted by discretion.

The words run out honeyedly, and carry a burden of feeling which makes you feel kindly toward the man who wrote them, and give to him a hearty thanking for a blessing.

I must not leave my talk of books without noting in addition, the appearance of a new tragedy by a Southern Lady, Miss LOUISA MCCORD. It is unfair to speak of a lady's book in the slight, gossiping way in which I reel you off my letters; but when my wit is dry, I shall do myself the pleasure of following CAIUS GRACCHUS to his exit.

The first blush of summer is quickening us here in the city to a search for what-in the way of reading-will relieve the hotness of the coming weeks; and whatever shall be hit upon that "cools us to a charm” shall be named to you by me, with a summer blessing on the head of the author.

I remain, yours, &c.,

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THE ARCHITECT OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION BUILDING.

WE this week present our readers with the Portrait of Joseph Paxton, a man whose name will hereafter stand enrolled among those whose works have done honor to their time and country. Mr. Paxton, who, as all

VOL. II.-18

his friends know, and as all the admirers of his character and genius will be glad to learn, is in the very prime and vigor of his age, and bids fair to enrich not only science but literature, with many contributions

worthy of his now great name, has acquired a reputation as wide as the civilized world, by the conception of the great idea of the "Crystal Palace," a building to which history offers no parallel, either in the past or the present. Whether we consider the noble and humanizing purposes to which that building is consecrated, the appropriateness, the elegance, the vastness, and the beauty of the design, or its simple, but most admirable novelty, we must acknowledge Mr. Paxton's high claims to the grateful appreciation of his contemporaries, and to that enduring place in the national annals which is the best reward of all true greatness in any and every department of public usefulness.

Mr. Paxton, like most other men of note, is "self-made." He owes his high position to his own intellect and industry; and can say of his own right hand, and of his own courage and perseverance, and of the assiduous cultivation of his mind and heart, that they alone raised him from the humblest rank of the honest working-men of his country, to the enviable position in which he now stands.

Mr. Paxton, whose original profession, as is well known, was, as it still is, that of a landscape gardener, was first employed in a responsible capacity by his Grace the Duke of Somerset, at Wimbledon. From that situation he passed, about twelve or thirteen years ago, as we are informed, into the service of the Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth; but that nobleman was not slow to perceive that Mr. Paxton possessed administrative faculties, and a knowledge of and skill in financial arrangement of a high order, in which capacities, we believe, he has been of essential service in the management of the Duke's estates, both in England and Ireland.

There are indeed few instances of scientific application which present so many points of interest as the circumstances by which this gentleman has earned his present fame as the architect of the Great Exhibition Building. With the name of Mr. Paxton have long been associated the glories of Chatsworth, and the sole contrivance of the vast conservatory, which the King of Saxony graphically compared to "a tropical scene with a glass sky." The house built from Mr. Paxton's design, for the flowering

of the Victoria regia, was, however, the immediate parent of the Great Exhibition Building. A design for the latter structure had already been prepared, but had failed to impress the public with its fitness for the purpose; and Mr. Paxton, apprehensive that an irreparable blunder would be committed in the intended Building, proposed to the Executive Committee another design. Certain difficulties lay in the way, but Mr. Paxton was not to be deterred; his mind was made up; "and" said the Duke of Devonshire at a public meeting held at Bakewell; "I never knew Mr. Paxton resolve to undertake what he did not fully accomplish." On the morning of the 18th of June, whilst presiding at a railway committee, he sketched upon a sheet of blotting paper his idea for the great Industrial Building. He sat up all that night, until he had worked out the design to his satisfaction; and the elevations, sections, working details, and specifications were completed in ten days. Next morning, Mr. Paxton started from Derby by railway for the metropolis; and in the same train and carriage was Mr. Robert Stephenson, the engineer-a member, moreover, of the Royal Commission, and who, at Mr. Paxton's request, examined the plans.

"Wonderful!" exclaimed the engineer"worthy of the magnificence of Chatsworth! -a thousand times better than any thing that has been brought before us! What a pity they were not prepared earlier!”

Will you lay them down before the Royal Commission?"

"I will," was the reply.

Next day the Royal Commission met; but Mr. Stephenson had not an opportunity of submitting Mr. Paxton's plans to his colleagues and Prince Albert; the office was, however, delegated to an able hand, Mr. Scott Russell, one of the secretaries of the Commission. Mr. Paxton next waited upon Prince Albert at Buckingham Palace, to explain the details. The scheme was referred to the Building Committee, who could not entertain it, as they had devised a plan. However, Mr. Paxton appealed to the public judgment in the Illustrations and pages of this Journal, and the practicability, simplicity, and beauty of the scheme instantly became popular. Thus encouraged, Mr. Paxton next procured a tender to be sent in to the Building Committee for his design. This was prepared by Messrs. Fox and Hen

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