Various

“ I for my part can speak but little for the gentleness of the Ichneumon, or the facility with which it may be tamed, having one in my own possession, which has now for a considerable period baffled all my endeavours to domesticate it, and will not even now suffer me to approach the case in which it is kept, without growling fiercely at me, and spitting in the manner of an enraged cat, springing also against the bars of its prison, and using its utmost endeavours to fly in my face. ”

“ Wine-coolers are formed on this principle: they are made of porous earth, through which the water they contain oozes very gradually, and is evaporated by the heat of the air: this cools the liquid within, and of course the decanter of wine contained in it. Now, perspiration cools the body in a similar manner. If any person looks closely at the fleshy part of his hand, he will observe that the minute ridges which lie nearly parallel to each other are covered with an innumerable number of small pores, through which the perspiration may be seen issuing when the hand is warm. ”

“ It is but natural to suppose that a conquered people should look upon themselves as inferior to their conquerors; and this rage for adopting English surnames which prevails at present, is, in the opinion of the writer, a clear proof of the prevalence of this feeling, that the Irish consider themselves inferior to the English. ”

“ Brighid is a woman’s name of pagan origin in Ireland; it has been explained fiery dart by the Irish glossographers, especially by Cormac, Archbishop of Cashel, who distinctly states in his glossary that it was the name of the Muse who was believed to preside over poetry in pagan times in Ireland. Brighid is now very common in Ireland as the name of a woman, in consequence of its being that of the most celebrated of the female saints of Ireland—the patroness of Kildare—who is well known all over Europe as the great patroness of Ireland. ”

“ It is well known also that in cold climates, where a greater quantity of animal fuel is required, the inhabitants are extremely fond of fat and oily matters, which contain more carbon than any other kind of food; yet it would hardly be imagined that so small a quantity as the eighth part of an ounce of carbon per hour would be sufficient to maintain the heat of the body at an uniform temperature of 98 degrees. ”

“ What’s the use of battering a man’s brains full of Greek and Latin pothooks, that he forgets before he doffs his last round jacket, to put on his first long-tailed blue, if ye don’t teach him the old Spartan virtue of obedience, hard living, early rising, and them sort of classics? ”

“ A person shut up in a confined place without a supply of fresh air, very soon expires: and a candle placed under a glass vessel filled with air that has been breathed, immediately goes out. In short, respiration and combustion are similar processes, and the same result is produced by both, namely, carbonic acid gas.
This gas is formed by the mixture of oxygen with carbon (charcoal) . It is absorbed very readily by water, and is perhaps best known in the form of soda water; the aërated liquid sold under that name being nothing more than water strongly impregnated with carbonic acid gas. ”

“ Cold-blooded creatures, such as fishes, breathe by means of gills, and the air, instead of coming into direct contact with their vital fluid, is absorbed from the water. In the case of reptiles, which are cold-blooded, although the air may come into direct contact with the blood, as in the respiration of the frog, yet, by the peculiar structure of his lungs, only half the blood is sent to them to be purified ”

“ When the body is heated to a certain degree, the fluid portions are all directed to the skin, and escape gradually through these pores in the form of perspiration, and the cooling power thus produced is capable of immediately removing the superabundant heat. The moment perspiration broke out on the bodies of the experimenters who ventured into the heated oven, all sense of pain was removed; and in many fatal disorders to which man is subject, the first symptom of returning health is a similar occurrence. ”

“ As the blood becomes impure in its progress, it gradually loses its power of retaining the heat it had so imbibed; and the heat therefore is distributed during the circulation of the blood, and every part receives a due supply. This change in the power of the vital fluid to absorb heat, according as it is more or less pure, is a fact that was not established in the time of Paley, or he would have been able to add another proof of design to his unequalled argument. ”

“ But it is not by such memorials, as was justly observed by the eminent prelate already referred to; it is not by such memorials as art may construct from marble or brass, or our own enduring granite, that the immortality of Curran’s fame can be achieved, it is in the great efforts of his transcendant genius we best can contemplate his deathless monument, and in that respect it may be said of him as Johnson said on a like occasion,
“A mortal born, he met a mortal’s doom,
But left, like Egypt’s kings, a lasting tomb.” ”

“ It is found that the natural heat of animals depends on the perfection of the apparatus by which respiration is performed; those animals which have a complicated respiratory organization having a high degree of bodily heat, while those which have more simple and less delicately formed organs have a temperature very little raised above the medium in which they live. ”

“ It becomes our duty to acquaint our readers that the present Number of the Irish Penny Journal, which will complete a volume, will also be the last presented to them, at least by its original projectors and prevent proprietors. Our readers will hardly deem it necessary that we should trouble them with any detail of the circumstances which have led to this determination; it will be sufficient to state, that while the success of the work has in some respects even exceeded the anticipations of its proprietors, it has disappointed them in others. ”

“ The quantity of fuel (if we may use the expression) required for generating the heat of the animal frame, is certainly less than we might anticipate. All animal and vegetable food contains a considerable portion of carbon, which of course, after being digested, becomes a part of the vital fluid, and in this way it is supplied for the process. ”

“ The English groom of an Irish gentleman once overheard some person calling “Mogue Miskellagh!” “Mogue Miskellagh!” “Mogue Miskellagh!” he thrice exclaimed, voice, eyes, and hands in their various ways expressing astonishment, “does that ’ere name belong to a Christian?”
The home of my early days was situated five miles from the nearest market-town; and as it was not always convenient to send a servant and horse for the various commodities necessary for a tolerably large family, a regular drudging market man or woman was deemed indispensable. ”

“ It is thus that the Ichneumon thins the numbers of that formidable reptile the crocodile, not by directing its attacks against that creature himself, but by insidiously searching after and destroying his embryo offspring. The Ichneumon likewise kills and devours with extreme greediness such small snakes and lizards as are common in its native country, many of which are highly dangerous, and all annoying enough to make their destruction desirable, to which the Ichneumon appears guided by a powerful instinct. ”

“ It is necessary, therefore, to have a clear idea of the process of respiration before we can understand the connection between it and animal heat.
The object of respiration is to purify the blood and render it fit for the various offices it performs in the animal economy. When the blood leaves the heart to be distributed through the body, it is of a very bright red colour, but as it proceeds in its course it gradually loses this and assumes a purple hue ”

“ This chemical change is necessary for life: the air is changed in its qualities, and the blood is also changed in its qualities. The air is changed by having one of its constituent elements (oxygen) abstracted from it: and the blood is changed by its being impregnated with this gas, and relieved of another kind called carbonic acid. If from any circumstance this process is interfered with, the individual dies of suffocation. A person may be suffocated for want of air, or for want of pure air. ”

“ With regard to the heat of the lungs, a series of experiments instituted for the purpose of ascertaining how they were kept at so moderate a degree of temperature, led to the discovery of an extraordinary change which takes place in the vital fluid after being purified, which satisfactorily explains the circumstance. The pure blood is found to have a greater capacity for heat than impure blood: it will absorb more ”

“ After escaping from the lungs, the air is found to have undergone a remarkable change; the oxygen has disappeared, and its place is supplied with an equal volume of another gas called carbonic acid; while at the same time the air is altogether altered in many of its more important qualities; it is no longer fit for the purposes of life, nor will a light burn in it. ”

“ We may add, that a common cold is the effect of the perspiration being suddenly checked, and that the health of the body depends on the minute pores we have referred to being kept open and in action.
J. S. D.
[3] Animals are divided by naturalists into two classes, cold-blooded and warm-blooded; the latter breathe by lungs, through which all the blood of the body is continually passed, and which has direct communication with the air. ”

“ First, the lungs are found to be but very little warmer than any other part of the body, although, as we have stated, the animal heat is produced in them: and, secondly, the quantity of carbon produced by respiration is very small compared with the genial heat produced by its conversion into carbonic acid. ”

“ We are assured by the best chemists, however, that the average quantity of carbonic acid generated by a person in health in twenty-four hours is about 40,000 cubic inches, and this contains only about 111⁄2 ounces of pure carbon. Rather less than half an ounce is therefore used per hour in preserving the body at its usual temperature. ”

“ This does not, however, interfere with the action of the heart, which forces the dark blood into the minute blood-vessels of the chest, as usual; the blood passes onward unchanged; it receives no oxygen, nor is its bright red colour restored. In this state it reaches the chamber of the heart, from whence it is to be distributed to the head and body; a portion of it is forced up the vessels which convey it to the brain, and the moment it reaches this organ, it produces violent convulsions, insensibility, and in a few moments death. A similar result takes place from breathing foul air. ”

“ The hair upon the feet is very short and thin, and they are nearly as naked as those of the common rat. The tail of the Ichneumon is very long, usually one-sixth longer than its body, and upon its extremity is a tuft of very long black hair. ”

“ Peace to the poor market-woman! In some lone and humble church-yard she now rests after her life of labour—in the memory of those who knew her, her only epitaph,
“Simple, faithful, honest, much-enduring Moll Miskellagh!” ANIMAL HEAT. Second Article.
In the last paper on this subject a few instances were quoted, showing the great extremes of temperature which human beings and the lower animals are capable of enduring without injury, and in many cases without inconvenience. ”

“ We propose in the present article to notice briefly the means by which it is believed living creatures are enabled to exhibit this power; and although physiologists are not unanimous in their opinions on the subject, yet the views we shall endeavour to explain are those which are held by the majority of scientific men, and which are best supported by experiment, by analogy, and by the authority of illustrious names. ”

“ Sadhbh, pronounced Soyv, is the name of several women of the old Irish races, and who are known to the writer. It is now almost invariably anglicised Sally, to which it bears no analogy.
9. Sorcha is still the name of several women in Ireland, especially in the province of Ulster; but the rising generation are beginning to object to it as being too Irish, and are determined on having it changed to Sarah or Sally. The writer is acquainted with families in whom this name is hereditary, and among whom the mother is always called Sorcha, and the daughter Sally ”

“ Spenser, while he advises that the Irish be compelled to reject their O’s and Macs, and to adopt English surnames, dissuades his own countrymen from adopting Irish ones, as some of them had done, in the following words, which the writer, being as Irish as Spenser was English, now adopts as his own:—“Is it possible that any should so farre growe out of frame, that they should in so short space, quite forget their countrey and their own names! ”

“ The contract has been made with Mr Christopher Moore, an Irish sculptor of much celebrity. The foundation is laid to granite, the structure will be marble, and the situation fronts the monument of the late Serjeant Ball.
THE MARKET-WOMAN.
BY M. C. R.
Some of the pleasantest of the many pleasant reminiscences of my childhood are associated with the recollection of a very ugly uncouth woman, with a very ugly uncouth name, “Moll Miskellagh,” our market-woman. ”