NATURAL HISTORY. Esculus Hippocastanum. a, Flower, showing the seven stamens and single pistil; b the fruit. HORSE-CHESTNUT. THE generic characters of the Horse-Chesnut are calyx, bell-shaped; petals, four or five, with an ovate limb: stamens, having their filaments curved inward; capsules, rough and prickly; leafleats, nearly sessile. The five species known are hardy trees, remarkable in general for the beauty of their foliage and flowers. Of these the æsculus hippocastanum, or common horse-chestnut, is familiar to every one. The native country of this tree is yet imperfectly known. It is generally said to be indigenous in the northern parts of India, but it has not been found by the most recent travellers in those parts. It is said to have been brought to Constantinople in 1550, and to have been afterward introduced by Clusius into Austria, whence it has been spread over Europe, and has been long cultivated, and thrives well in Britain and the United States. It is clothed with dense foliage, and sends out branches to a great width. Its large cones of white flowers, spotted with red, render it very ornamental in avenues and pleasure-grounds. But it is never cultivated for the purpose of furnishing timber. The young branches are said to grow with amazing rapidity, acquiring an inch in length in the course of twenty-four hours. The fruit, dried and powdered, has been used as a medicinal snuff for the cure of headache and sore eyes. A decoction or infusion of the fruit has also been drawn up the nostrils for a similar purpose. The seeds are large and farinaceous, and have been used as food for animals. The bark is bitter and astringent, and has been used, chiefly on the Continent, as a substitute for Peruvian bark. It has been used successfully in intermittent and continued fever, as well as mortification. The bark may be given in the form of a powder, in doses of thirty or sixty grains; or in the form of extract, in doses of five or eight grains. According to the French chym ist Pelletier, it does not contain an active alkaline principle, like the Peruvian bark. Starch has been obtained in considerable quantity from the horse-chestnut. The tree also contains so much potash that it may be used in the place of soap. The horse-chestnut thrives best in rich light earth, but it will grow even in sandy or gravelly soil. A variety is cultivated with striped leaves. Esculus Ohioensis. The American horse-chestnut, or Ohio buckeye, is found abundantly on the banks of the Ohio, between Pittsburgh and Marietta. It is a tree of moderate growth, generally attaining the height of ten or twelve feet; sometimes, however, it is thirty or thirty-five feet high, with a diameter of twelve or fifteen inches. The leaves are large, being nine or ten inches long and six or eight broad. The flowers are very numerous, of a white colour, and grow in clusters. The fruit is only half the size of the common chestnut. The asculus glabra, or smooth-leaved horse-chestnut, and the aesculus pallida, or pale-flowered horse-chestnut, are also natives of North America, and are found in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. The only other species, the esculus rubicunda, or carnea, ruddy horse-chestnut, is distinguished from the rest by its beautiful scarlet flowers and is said by some to be a native of North America, but this has not been accurately ascertained. An allied genus, which has received the name of Paria, and the species of which are very common in America, where they are known under the name of buck-eye, has often been confounded with the horse-chestnut. The smoothness of the capsules, or seed vessels of the pavia, is, however, an excellent distinguishing character. and the muscles are exceedingly developed, more in society. Formerly, however, the savage pracso than perhaps in any other animal, not even ex- tice of baiting bulls publicly was very much in cepting the lion. The head is broad, his nose vogue; and it was then held as having no mean short, and the under jaw projects beyond the up- place among what were called "manly sports per, which gives him a very disagreeable and in England, though they were in truth "beastly fierce aspect. The eyes of the bull-dog are very cruelties." In the reign of Henry II. bull-baiting prominent and distant, and have a very peculiar was an amusement of the London populace. Nay, suspicious-looking leer, which, with the distension much more recently, Queen Mary entertained the of his nostrils, gives him also a contemptuous French ambassadors two successive days with an look; and from his teeth being always seen, he exhibition of this kind in the year 1559. Queen has the constant appearance of grinning while he Elizabeth, her sister, repeated it to the ambassais perfectly placid. This is the most unrelenting dors from Denmark in 1586, and what is more and ferocious of the canine tribe, and may be con- extraordinary, the former was herself among the sidered courageous beyond any other creature in spectators. Paul Hentzner, still later, describes the world; for he will attack any animal whatever the cruel diversion of the English people, to whom he his magnitude. He is scarcely capable of any the baiting of bulls, bears, and badgers was famieducation, and is fitted for nothing else but com- liar; and there is even reason to believe that the bat and ferocity. The bull-dog takes his name horse was sometimes publicly worried to death, from having been employed in former times in to glut their savage appetites for a brutal spectaassaulting the bull, and is used for that purpose cle. On all these and similar occasions, such as at the present day in those districts where this when a bull, jointly pursued by the dogs and their brutal amusement is still practised. The fury masters, was hunted down or bruised to death with which the bull-dogs attacks all other animals, with clubs, the minstrels, a miscreant crew, claimand the invincible obstinacy with which he main-ed the slaughtered animal as a perquisite. It is tains his hold, nothing can exceed. The bull-dog long since the worrying of bulls in London was makes his attack always in front; in assailing the prohibited, but the practice was widely extended; bull, he attempts to seize him by the nose, the lip, and the ring to which the bull was chained for the tongue, or the eye. If the dog succeeds in the certainty of undergoing aggravated torment, fastening, and the part is tough enough not to be is still extant in many towns and villages, where torn off by the bite, the dog will not quit his they are sometimes converted to use. It is in all hold, and cannot be shaken off by an effort of the probability, from the "bull ring" being the reguanimal, but will adhere though the other swing lar place of rendezvous for all sorts of savage him round and round in the air. When they fight sports, and not from the form of the enclosure with each other, or with other dogs, they are used on occasions, that the place where, for a equally desperate in their hold; and when they time, the bull-dogs of the human race continued once fasten they will allow themselves to be bitten the "sport," by mauling one another, first obtainever so severely by another dog, or beaten, and ed the name of the ring. These things have fortustill give vent to their anger by tightening the hold nately, however, had their day; and future ages which they got at first. There is nothing indeed will be astonished that, not many years ago, the which will loosen a stanch bull-dog, but that gen- practice of bull-baiting was defended in the Briteral means of truce to all canine hostilities, a co-ish parliament as a means of improving the spirit pious effusion of cold water. This is a curious of the people. fact in the natural history of dogs inasmuch as it shows that there is some physiological relation between the fury of dogs when excited to a very high pitch and the dreadful malady of canine madness or hydrophobia; for whether as displayed in the dog itself, or in those dreadful instances of human suffering which follow from the bite of a rabid animal, there is an indescribable horror of water, altogether independent of the difficulty of swallowing that or any other liquid. So remarkable is this that the very sight of water appears to shake the whole nervous system to pieces, and from the terrific expression of it the feeling itself must be dreadful. If a bull-dog attempts to attack or to bite any part of an animal except the head or throat, he is considered as being of inferior breed, and not wholly a murderer in his disposition, which is the character that procures him the highest estimation among that description of persons who keep bulldogs. Those dogs are not now so numerous, or held in such high estimation, as they were in former times; and we believe we may say, that the keeping of them for what is called "sport," is confined to the very lowest and least reputable characters, whatever may be their nominal rank tals are sometimes jointed like basalt, having a the celebrated emerald table in the abbey of concave surface at one extremity and a convex Reichenau, near Constance, which he found to be surface at the other. They are seldom single; a very fine green-coloured fluor spar. The celegenerally many occur together, and these cross brated sacro cattino di emeraldo orientale, preserveach other in different directions. A very fine ed at Genoa, is in reality but a mass of cellular specimen, in the collection of minerals at the glass. Many of the fine Ethiopian emeralds, British Museum, is delineated in the accompanying which were bequeathed to monasteries, appear to figure. have been sold by the monks, and colored glass The beryl was the tenth stone in the breast-substituted in their place. plate of the Jewish high-priest, whereon Zebulon This mineral was named smaragdus by the anwas engraven. When pure, it is cut into ring-cients. Pliny distinguished twelve species of the stones, seal-stones, brooches, intaglios, and neck- smaragdus; but under this title he includes, belaces, but it is not so highly valued as the jewel- sides the true emerald, also green jasper, malaler's emerald. The darkest green varieties are chite, fluor spar, turpentine, and some varieties set upon a steel-colored foil, and the pale ones of gypsum. Theophrastus also mentions the true are either placed, like the diamond, on a black emerald, which he says occurs in small quantity, ground, or upon a silvery foil. Figures are some- and very rarely he enumerates along with it antimes engraved on it. In the royal library at other mineral of a green color, which he informs Paris, there is a portrait of Julia, the daughter of us is found in masses ten feet long, and is probaTitus, engraved on a very large green-colored bly a variety of serpentine. The emerald with beryl. The largest ones are said to be in much which the hall of Ahasuerus was paved; the pilesteem among the Turks for the handles of sti- lars of emerald in the temple of Hercules, at lettoes. The beryl, which is now classed with the Tyre, mentioned by Herodotus; and the large rhomboidal-emerald, is found in its most beauti- emeralds described by Pliny as having been cut ful varieties in veins that traverse the granite into columns and statues, cannot be referred to mountain Adon-Tschalon, in Asia, from which the true emerald. Indeed the confusion that prequarter nearly all the abundant supplies of Russian vails in the descriptions of this mineral in ancient beryl are obtained. It also occurs along with authors, has led some mineralogists to believe arsenical pyrites, in a kind of serpentine rock near that the true emerald was not known till after the Nertschinsk, in the mountain Tygirek (Mountain conquest of Mexico and Peru by the Spaniards. of Snow), in the Altain range, &c. It also occurs The primitive form of the rhomboidal emerald is in Europe, and the United States of America. It an equi-angular six-sided figure, and the prismatic is found in alluvial soil, along with rock-crystal emerald has a strong double refractive power. and topaz, in the upper parts of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. In Ireland, imbedded in granite, near Lough Bay, in the county of Wicklow, and near Cranebane, in the same county. In the United States some fine specimens have been found in New Hampshire, among the Green Mountains of Vermont, and the Alleganies and the Blue Ridge of Virginia. EMERALD. THIS precious stone has long held a high place for its color and brilliancy, and there are few mineralogical cabinets that are without specimens from Peru and Brazil. The emerald and beryl have a strong resemblance to each other: thus both are green, their crystallizations differ but little and in point of fracture, hardness, and weight, they are nearly the same. Notwithstanding these agreements, they are readily distinguished from each other by the following characters. The emerald occurs only of a green color, but beryl, besides green, is also yellow and blue; the crystals of beryl are long, those of the emerald are short; the lateral planes of the beryl are streaked, those of the emerald are almost always smooth; the terminal planes of beryl are smooth; those of the emerald are rough; and beryl is rather softer than the emerald. Many of the emeralds described by the ancients appear to have been varieties of green fluor spar. Even in more modern times, green fluor spar has been preserved for emerald. Mr. Coxe examined THE following lines by Professor WARE of Cambridge, wero written last autumn, on the occasion of a festival assemblage at Exeter, New Hampshire, of between two and three hundred gentlemen, alumni of the academy in that beautiful village. The object of the festival was to do honor to their preceptor, the venerable Dr. Abbott, who was about to retire from hispost, which he had occupied for fifty years without intermission. Among the pupils present were Governor Everett, Daniel Webster, and many other distinguished men. From the highways and byways of manhood we come, The Senator comes from the hall of debate, The Parson his pulpit has left unsupplied, Oh, glad to our eyes are these dear scenes displayed, And when to the harsh scenes of life we return, "Behold, cometh on with fearful haste, The dark-winged pestilence! The mighty fall MRS. SIGOURNEY. ted by either the sword, or the "pestilence that walketh in darkness." We give below, in as brief and perspicuous a form as possible, an account of these various visitations, including that of the cholera, whose effects are still in vivid remembrance in the minds of all, We presume that every reader of the Family Magazine is also (or should be) an attentive reader of the Scriptures, and hence we will pass over SCOURGES of every character, whether bearing the chronicle of the ten plagues of Egypt, in the the features of either war, pestilence, or famine, time of Moses, and notice those which are recordmust, when viewed in a proper light relative to ed by the profane historian. From an old scrapthe population of the globe, be regarded as neces-book lying before us, we copy the following sary evils. They are evils to the immediate vic- chronological statement of the most remarkable tims, but benefits to the general mass; for, were plagues that have occurred within twenty centuit not for some wholesale process (if we may speak) by which depopulation might be effected, the earth would soon teem with superabundant millions, heirs of want and misery. It is with man as with other animals, propagation far outstrips in numbers in a given time dissolution, and A. D. 762 Great plague in England. hence, wars and pestilence are but the swifter ministers of death, and instead of a single victim, offer up whole hecatombs upon the altar of dreadful necessity. If we cast a glance over the vast page of the Past, we shall see frequent impressions of the foot of the destroying angel, where whole provinces and kingdoms have been desolaVOL IV.-68 ries past. 78 Plague in Rome, 10,000 died in one. day. 67 A great plague over all the known world. 777 Again, 34,000 died. A. D. 1247 Again. 1345 1348 Plague in Germany; 90,000 died. 1367 Great ravages by plague in London and Paris. 1379 Plague in London. 1407 Again; 30,000 died. 1477 1499 แ 1500 66 60,000 30,000 50,000 1548 แ 1594 1604 died. one fourth of the inhabitants 1611 Plague in Constantinople; 200,000 1631 Plague in London; 35,000 died. 1743 Plague at Messina. 1784 Plague at Smyrna; 20,000 died. 1791 Plague at Alexandria. 1792 Plague in Egypt; 800,000 died. neys and stages, making destruction its only business, and sparing neither island, cave, nor top of mountain, where mkanind inhabited; for it leaped over a country, returning afterward (like the cholera) it left it no cause to rejoice above its fellows. It began still at the seacoast and thence went to the island parts. In the second year of its progress it arrived at Constantinople, about the middle of the spring, where it was the fortune of Procopius then to reside. Apparitions of spirits in all shapes human, were seen by many, who thought the man they met struck them in some part of the body, and so soon as they saw the spirit they were seized with the disease. At first when they met them they repeated divine names, and fled into churches, to no purpose. Afterward they were afraid to hear their friends call them, locking themselves up in their chambers, and stopping their ears. Some dreamed they saw such sights; others that they heard a voice tell them they were enrolled among the number of those appointed to die. But most without warning became feverish suddenly; their bodies changed not color; nor were hot; the fever being so remiss till evening that neither the patient nor physician, by his pulse, could apprehend any danger. Yet to some the same day, to others the next, or many days after, arose a bubo, either in the groin, the armpit, under the ear, or in other parts. These were the general symptoms which happened alike to all the visited persons. There were others different; whether made so 1799 Plague in the kingdom of Fez, Barba-by the diversity of bodies, or by the will and ry; 247,000 died in one month. 1800 Plague in Morocco; 200 died in one The following is an account of the great plague in the time of Justinian, about the commencement of the sixth century. It is given by an old English writer, on the authority of Procopius, who was an eye-witness of the terrible account. ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT PLAGUE IN THE TIME OF JUSTINIAN pleasure of Him that sent the distemper our author cannot say. Some were seized with drowsiness and slumbering, others with a sharp distraction. The slumberers forgot all things; if they were looked to, some would eat; some that were neglected would starve to death. Those who were distracted were vexed with apparitions, crying there were men to kill them; and running keepers were pitied as much as they themselves. away: being so troublesome and unruly that their The physicians or others caught the disease h touching sick or dead bodies; many strangely continuing free, though they tended and buried infected persons, and many catching it they knew not how, and dying instantly. Many leaped into the water, though not from thirst; and some into the sea. Some without slumbering or madness, had This was a plague which almost consumed their bubo gangrened, and died with extreme mankind; of which Procopius concludes there pain; which doubtless also happened to those was no other cause than the immediate hand of who had the phrensy, though being not themGod himself. For it neither came upon one part selves, they understood it not. Some physicians of the world alone, nor in one season of the year; hereupon conceiving the venom and head of the whence subtle wits, as he saith, might make pre- disease to lie in those plague sores, found a huge tensions. It inflicted the whole world, and all carbuncle growing inward. Such whose bodies conditions of men, though of never so contrary a were spotted with black pimples, the bigness of a nature and disposition; sparing no constitution lentile, lived not a day. Many died vomiting nor age. The difference of men as to their places blood. Some that were given over by the most of dwelling, diet, complexions, inclinations, &c., eminent physicians, unexpectedly recovered; othdid no good in this disease. Some it took in sum-ers, of whose recovery they thought themselves mer, some in winter, and others in other seasons. perfectly secure, suddenly perished. No cause of It began among the Egyptians in Pelusium, and this sickness could be reached by man's reason. spread to Alexandria, with the rest of Egypt, one Some received benefit by bathing, others it hurt. way and the other to those parts of Palestine Many died for want of relief, others escaped withwhich border upon Egypt. Thence it travelled out it. In a word, no way could there be found to the utmost bounds of the world, as by set jour-of preservation, either by preventing the sickness |