glasses of lemon-juice and water, or vinegar nostrils by a little roll of paper or a feather; or weakened by the addition of three parts water; burning matches, or volatile alkali, taking care sprinkle the body, particularly the face and breast that the vial containing this last article benot with cold vinegar; after this, rub the body with held long at the nose. The lungs should be also cloths steeped in vinegar; camphorated spirits of inflated. All these methods failing, the patient wine, or any other spirituous fluid; at the end of should be bled in the foot if the face continue two or three minutes wipe the parts which have red, the lips swollen, and the eyes as it were been wet with a warm towel, and after the in- starting from their sockets. Emetics should be terval of two or three minutes recommence the avoided, except where persons recovering are sprinkling and rubbing with cold vinegar and troubled with excessive nausea; when the patient spirits. These means must be persevered in for is restored to his senses he may be put into a some time. Irritate the soles of the feet, and warm bed in an apartment having all the windows palms of the hands, and the whole course of the open. He may then take a few spoonfuls of some back with a brush; administer a glyster consist- good wine, as sherry or Madeira; the wine may ing of one part vinegar and two parts water; af- be warmed and sugar added. It has often hapter a few minutes administer another prepared pened that five or six hours have elapsed before with two ounces of common salt and one ounce persons have been restored. of Epsom salts dissolved in water. Irritate the

We have noticed the Lyre family as the most | chord, crowth, guitar, harpsichord, lute, viol, vi common musical instruments in use among the ancients, though not the only ones. To this family, moderns have added the Eolian harp, clavi

olin, violincello, kit, and the piano forte. The Eolian harp was invented by Kircher, and its sounds, without rythm but melodious, are produ

Grecian Trigonum, mentioned in our last number. ced by a current of air passing over its strings. Hence its name. Its strings are distended over a box, with a hole in the centre.

The clavichord was formerly used by composers in their studies, but has now become almost obsolete. It was invented by Euler, the great losopher, about one hundred years ago.

The crowth is a Welsh instrument, having six strings, and nearly resembling the violincello or bass viol.

sichord, and is too well known to need a description here.

The viol was the origin of the violin, and differed from it in the fact that the sounds were produced by the strings being brought in contact with the fretwork of the neck, instead of the attrition of the hair bow. The violincello is a bassviolin, and the kit is a sharp and powerful pocket instrument of the same kind. Thus we have briefly noticed the various kinds of stringed instruments in use among the ancients and moderns, and will now proceed to a description of those whose sounds are produced by collision or pulsation.

Of instruments of this kind, the timbrel is probably the most ancient, and its use we find first mentioned in Exodus xv. 20, "And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances." Of the peculiar con phi-struction of this instrument, nothing very positive can now be known, yet from corresponding passages and descriptions by profane writers, we are led to believe that the timbrel was an instrument of the tambourine kind, and was played either with the fingers, or beaten upon by sticks. JORDEAN, in his picture of Miriam celebrating the deliverance of Israel, has represented the prophetess in the foreground, with a bowl-shaped instrument suspended from her neck by a fillet, and beaten upon by drumsticks; while in the background is seen one of her attendants with a timbrel over her head, corresponding in shape with those given below, now called tambourines.

The guitar and lute, are similar in their construction, and the manner in which they are played. The former has six strings, the latter eleven, and are played by striking the strings with the fingers, like the harp.

The harpsichord is a stringed instrument with keys, which are pressed upon in playing, after the manner of the piano forte. The latter instrument has nearly superseded the use of the harp

The tambourine (which is rarely seen among | consisting simply of the hoop and skin, of an oval us) is made by stretching a prepared skin over shape, to which weights are attached. These a hoop or frame, and they differ only in the size of the circle, their depth and their appendage of bells and ornaments. All of the above specimens are now used among the orientals and are often used by the Muezzins at sunset, in calling the people to prayers.

weights, when the instrument is whirled round in the hand, strike the sonorous skin, and produce the desired sounds. The second figure has the rappers or weights, with the addition of bells, and was probably played with the hand by pulsation, The sides of the hoop are generally handsomely The first figure represents a small tambourine, ornamented with oriental pictures. The third

figure shows the frame surrounded with bells, and is of the same kind as those in the hands of the annexed figures.

Western Asia. The drum in common use among ourselves and Europeans was probably unknown to the ancients, as nothing of the kind is seen among their paintings and monumental sculptures. But the drum is of Eastern origin, and subjoined we give a group, representing the various kinds of instruments of this class now in use in Egypt and Western Asia.

Tambourine Players. From Herculaneum.

This cut exhibits the manner in which the tambourine was played by the ancients, and JORDEAN has introduced into his picture beforementioned a figure in precisely the same attitude, and with the same shaped instrument as the one on the left of the above cut.

The cymbal is an instrument whose origin is very ancient, and on account of the extreme simplicity of its construction, was probably in use anterior to that of the tambourine. The ancient cymbals were made of sonorous brass or copper, and were of a diversity of forms. The differences consist in the size, the depth and shallowness of the bowl, the presence or absence of the rim, and The last of the four specimens of tambourines the form of the handle by which the player held before given is one of the larger kind, with bells the instrument. These various forms may be seen and rappers, and is now extensively used in in the subjoined engravings.

The kind which differed the most materially from those now in use is that of a, (in the first figure,) in which the rim is absent, and the convexity of the bowl terminates in an elevation which furnishes the player with a handle. Others were furnished with handles upon the sides, (b) and others with handles in the same position as ours, with the addition of cords or ribands to join them. These instruments were much employed in the sacred mysteries of the heathens, and particularly in the services of Cybele and Bacchus. These

services and the accompanying festivities, were
so outrageous in their moral character, that among
the thinking portion of the people, everything
connected with them bore the impress of debase-
In the Roman saturnalia, the cymbal was
ment.
also used, and in consequence of its sensual and
abased associations, its use was elsewhere almost
entirely abolished. It is said by Livy, that the
cymbals were used in these pagan services, to
drown the cries of victims to slaughter or ravish-
ment. Cymbals form a pleasing accompaniment

to the horn, trumpet and trombone, and are now moderns, is the Castagnet or Crotala. They are generally used by bands, whose wind instruments made of wood, hollowed out, with little balls or are mostly of brass. kernels within, and are snapped with the fingers to

Another instrument used by the ancient Egyp-mark time in choral dances. tians and Greeks, was the sistrum, the form of which may be best learned by the subjoined engraving.

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The dancer generally takes one in each hand, and when skilfully played, they have a pleasing effect. Ancient writers have compared this sound to that which a stork makes by the concussion of its mandibles.

The gong, the tabor or tabret, and the triangle, all belong to the class of instruments under consideration. The former has a powerful sound. It is of a circular form, made of sonorous brass, and its sounds are produced by striking it with a wooden mallet. It is used by the Chinese when they wish to make a great noise, and it is celebrated more for its loud notes than for har mony. (To be continued.)

FARMER'S DEPARTMENT.

The sistrum is composed of a frame of sonorous THE SMUT BALLS OR THE PEPPER BRAND metal, crossed by loose bars of the same. bars move freely in the holes, and when agitated the sounds are produced. The instrument in the hand of the female figure (a) was of the simplest construction; but that of (b) was more ornamental The sistrum was much used by the Egyptians in the worship of Isis, and hence they were often seen bearing the figure of a cat, as a symbol of the goddess. It was also used to give signals in war, and the Greeks employed it in marking the rythm in noted music. The Abyssinians still use it in their religious ceremonies.

These THIS disease is occasioned by the seeds of an extremely minute parasitic fungus, of the genus uredo, being absorbed by the roots of the germinating wheat grains and propelled by the rising sap, long before the wheat blossons, into the young germen or ovum, where the seeds of the fungi vegetate, and rapidly multiply, thereby preventing, not only the fecundation of the ovum, but even the development of the parts of fructification. In consequence no embryo is produced in an infected germen, which however continues to grow as long as the sound grains do, and, when the sound grains arrive at maturity, the infected ones are generally larger than, and are easily distinguished from, the sound grains, by their darker green color, and from the ova retaining the same shape and form which they had at the time when infection took place.

Another instrument, peculiar to the ancients, and used to some extent, in dancing, among

At first the fungi are of a pure white colour, and when the ear emerges from its hose the ovum is much enlarged, but still retains its original shape, and, the fungi rapidly multiplying, many have then nearly come to, maturity, assumed a darker colour, and having separated from the spawn, lie loose in the cavity of the ovum: the infected grains continue growing, and the fungi continue to multiply till the sound grains have attained their full size and maturity, when the infected grains are easily distinguished from the sound ones by being generally larger, and of a darker green colour; and if opened, they appear to be filled to excess with these dark-coloured fungi; but the grains infected with the uredo fætida very rarely burst, and these fungi are seldom found on the outside of the grain; but if the grain be bruised they readily emit their offensive smell, which is worse than that from putrid fish. When the sound grains are perfectly ripe and dry, and

assume their light brown colour, the infected | ty. To effect this, innumerable remedies have grains also change, but to a somewhat darker been recommended, and I believe applied by the brown, retaining however the same shape which farmers, but have seldom proved entirely successthe ovum had at its formation; the rudiments of ful. From my own often repeated experiments, the stigma also remaining unaltered. though on a limited scale, I am convinced that the best and surest remedy is to steep the seedwheat in properly prepared limewater, leaving it to soak at least twelve hours, and then to dry it well in the air before sowing it.

If the infected grain be cut in two, it will be found to consist solely of the outermost integument of the ovum, filled with the ripe black fungi, without any trace of the embryo or albumen. Plants of wheat infected with the Pepper Brand may be easily distinguished in the field by their size, being generally several inches higher than plants not infected, and larger in bulk; and I have found in all instances a greater number of stems produced from the same root, the ears containing more spickets, and those spickets more perfect grains, than were contained in those of sound plants, of the same seed, and growing in the same field.

Steeping and properly drying the seed-corn in the above manner, not only prevents the disease arising from the infected seed-corn, but does also effectually prevent the clean seed from being infected by the seed of the fungi, which might exist in the soil of a field on which diseased wheat had been growing before; and consequently the cleanest samples of seed-wheat should be steeped, as well as the most notoriously infected.

These facts I have ascertained by repeated experiments of strongly inoculating with the fungi seed-corn which before had been properly steeped and dried, and the result has always proved satisfactory, for the infection never took place. Correspondent of the Penny Magazine. The following cuts shew grains of wheat in

One plant, produced from seed which I had inoculated, had twenty-four complete stems and ears, some of the stems with the ears measuring above five feet, every part of the plant proportionally large, and all the ears entirely infected. Another specimen had eight stems from the same root, five of them were above six feet high, and the their sound and infected state, and the fungi ears entirely infected; the other three stems were which infects them :considerably shorter, their ears smaller, and their

grains perfectly sound.

This enlargement of the plant, however, is not to be attributed to the infection, but is undoubtedly the consequence of a luxurious vegetation, produced by a rich or moist soil, which secures and promotes the infection more than a dry or moderately rich soil.

At the time when the sound grains change their color, the fungi, being ripe, cease to multiply; they are all of a globular form, and nearly of equal size, viz. one hundred and sixty thousandth part of an inch in diameter. No less than two millions five hundred and sixty thousand individual fungi would be required to cover one square inch.

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That the seeds of the fungi of uredo fœtida are the sole cause of that destructive disease in wheat, the Pepper Brand, I think I have fully ascertained by numerous experiments of inoculating even the finest and purest samples of seed-wheat; and if that fact be admitted, it becomes evident that the prevention of it can only be effected by cleansing the seed-wheat so effectually, that every particle of the fungi and their seed be entirely removed Fig. 1, View of a perfectly sound ripe wheat grain, magnifrom the grains. But as these extremely minute fied; fig. 2, View of an infected wheat grain; fig. 3, a Front fungi, when once mixed with the seed-wheat, in- View of a transverse section of a diseased wheat grain, which sinuate themselves into the grooves at the backs the seed of the fungi had only reached after fecundation; fig. 4, and the beards at the tops of the wheat-grains, I fied five times lineally, and twenty-five times superficially; fig. View of a ripe diseased wheat grain. All of them are magnithink it almost impossible to dislodge them by 5, the sixteen-thousandth part of a square inch on the micromthe mere process of washing. I once received eter, sustaining sixteen ripe fungi of uredo foetida, magnifisome samples which had been so prepared, and ed one hundred and sixty thousand times superficially.

washed in salt water, and declared to be perfectly clean; but on my putting some of these purified grains into water, in a watch-glass, and leaving them to soak about twelve hours, on then bringing them under the microscope I found many of the fungi floating on the water. This fact convinces me that mere cleansing is no secure preventive of this disease; and that the most efficacious, and perhaps the only remedy for preventing it, is that of depriving the seeds of the fungi of their vitali

PRODUCTS OF THE DAIRY IN CHESHIRE,

BERKSHIRE COUNTY.

CHESHIRE is devoted almost exclusively to the dairy husbandry; and has been celebrated for the excellence and abundance of its produce. For the goodness of their cheese, however, I must re